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I guess it started when Justine found that statuette of a Psyrene at the back of her dad's junk shop. Justine's dad was really into anything out of the ordinary so I had expected him to put something like that in the most prominent position he could find for it, instead of just hiding it away and letting it gather dust.
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By the way, my name is Hilary West. I'm fifteen and I live with my parents, kid sister Sarah and pet Bayleef Sophie in an apartment in Fuchsia City. Appearence wise, I'm a redhead - my hair is collar-length - and I've got deep blue eyes. They say redheads are supposed to be quick-tempered, but I don't think I'm like that; in fact, I'm so good-natured that, a few years ago, my parents spoke of sending me to Celadon City to train at Erika's Gym. But that fell through because a couple of Team Rocket members caused a fire during an attempted raid - it was all over the papers, but I don't think they ever caught the people responsible.
Anyway, by the time Erika's Gym was ready to start accepting new applicants again, I'd changed my mind about being a Pokemon trainer. After all, training Pokemon isn't the be all and end all of life and I reasoned that there were plenty of ways I could raise Pokemon and not devote my life to making them battle - that was when Mom took a trip over to Johto and brought me back a present.
That present was a Chikorita that had been abandoned in a cardboard box outside a Pokemon Centre because her trainer couldn't be bothered to raise her. Mom gave her to me on my thirteenth birthday and I named her Sophie, thinking it suited her. I never thought of Sophie as anything but a pet, but, barely a week after I acquired her, we got into a battle with a couple of yobs who'd been causing trouble in the neighbourhood by shouting and playing loud music - usually late at night.
On this particular night, I finally decided enough was enough and went to confront the troublemakers with Sophie trotting faithfully at my heels. The ring-leader - what I remember most about him is that he wore this leather jacket with the words "Gengar Rox" emblazoned on the back - thought it was a huge joke being threatened by a girl and a Chikorita. But we soon made him think when Sophie's Double Team and Poison Powder Attacks put paid to the Hitmonchan he tried to use to "teach us a lesson".
As he called Hitmonchan back, I lifted Sophie above my head. "Well, Sophie, looks like we won our first battle," I told her. Then, right before my eyes, she began to evolve into a Bayleef - it turned out that she must have had a lot of experience battling in Johto before her trainer, for whatever reason decided to give her up.
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But that's enough about me - it's time to get on with the story.
I was lying on my bed one afternoon, reading through a pile of magazines when the phone started ringing. "Ring ring ring . . . Ring ring ring . . . phonecall . . . phonecall" repeated over and over until I - I've got an extension in my room - got up, went over to the phone and pressed the Answer button. Justine, wearing a black top and with her hair - a slightly lighter shade of red than mine - in its usual pony-tail appeared on the screen, holding a strange object.
It was a bronze statuette, maybe twelve inches high, and it appeared to be some kind of Pokemon. But WHAT kind it was I couldn't tell - all I could guess from the creature's long flowing fish-tail was that it was some kind of Water Type. It had a vaguely humanoid torso, large eyes and what seemed to be a head of very long hair.
"What - what is that?" I asked Justine, unable to help wondering how she could have come by such an unusual artefact. Her dad, being in the antiques business, had relics of many Legendary Pokemon - including a figure of Mew which he'd found in an ancient temple somewhere in the world. But I'd never seen a Pokemon like this in my life.
"Dad had it stored behind the shop for some reason, Justine explained. "As for what it is, I looked it up and I THINK it's a Psyrene."
"A Psyrene?"
"Mermaid Pokemon," Justine said. "They've only just been discovered - there'ssupposed to be a colony on Cinnabar Island - but this looks hundreds of years old . . ." She stared at the statuette for several minutes as if trying to figure out what it meant. Then she turned it over to reveal something written on the bottom - or at least I ASSUME it was writing because it was in some unfamiliar script I'd never even seen in text books.
"Want me to come and try to figure that out?" I asked.
"Sure," Justine replied. "And I'll invite the rest of the gang as well - Jodie'll want to see this."
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The rest of the gang comprises my cousin, Jodie Sutton, and two girls from my apartment building. Jodie's a year younger than me, with brown hair and eyes, and she cares deeply about all Pokemon - her favourite is a Meowth she's raised from kittenhood, but she's got a Xatu and a Mareep as well.
Then there's the twins, Milly and Michaela Hutchins, who've both got long blonde hair. But it's easy to tell them apart because Milly's got green eyes and Michaela's eyes are blue - and they have very different tastes in Pokemon. A while back, they each caught an Eevee and had them evolve into different forms. Milly turned her Eevee into a Flareon because she's got this thing about Fire Pokemon - she even chose a Charmander as her starter when she was training for the Indigo League a couple of years back. Michaela, on the other hand, is nuts about Electric Pokemon so it was inevitable that her Eevee would become a Jolteon.
Anyway, we met up in this den we've got behind Justine's dad's shop and took a good look at the statuette. It was ancient, we gathered that much, but we were still no nearer to working out where it had come from.
"Maybe it's from another planet," Michaela suggested and got a frown from the rest of us.
"Michaela, you and your aliens," Milly said with a sigh. "I thought you'd outgrown that years ago."
"Just 'cos I don't TALK about aliens doesn't mean I don't still BELIEVE!" Michaela shot back. Except it wasn't Michaela who spoke - it was some weird creature that looked like Michaela but had a Raichu's ears.
We struggled to hold back our laughter. "Michaela!" I whispered, pointing as a long tail emerged from Michaela's trousers.
"What -what is it?" she asked, alarmed by the intensity in my voice. She rummaged in her handbag for the vanity mirror she always carried - and dropped it the second she saw herself.
She now looked like a very passable Raichu, albeit a human-sized one - and the Psyrene statuette appeared to be ALIVE. It was glowing in all the colours of the rainbow and, as Justine ran to pick it up, she suddenly sprouted what looked like the gossamer wings of a Butterfree and flew over instead.
"What's happening?" asked Jodie, puzzled to find herself wearing a nurse's apron over her magenta dress. She was not the only one as, instead of the shorts I'd been wearing when I arrived, I now appeared to be wearing a party skirt made out of alternating green and yellow panels. Touching my head, I felt two large flowers in my hair - and I hadn't worn anything like that since I was seven.
"I don't know," said Milly as nine cream-coloured tails emerged from her body. "But we seem to be turning into Pokemon . . ."
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The idea of turning into Pokemon - in my case, it appeared to be a Bellossom - soon faded into insignificence when a sudden gust of wind swept us off our feet and sent us spiralling through the air. I don't know how long it lasted, but, when it finally subsided, we found ourselves in a cave, facing a being like the one represented by Justine's statuette.
The difference was that this was a living Psyrene, albeit an ancient one, her fins lacking the delicate beauty we would later learn was typical of her kind and the little hair she still had completely white. Her skin was a rich aquamarine colour and she wore what looked like a heavily jewelled crown.
"Welcome," she said in a voice that what surprisingly powerful for one so old. We stared at each other, knowing that talking Pokemon were an extreme rarity - I'd heard of a talking Meowth which hung round with Team Rocket, but that was about it. "I am so glad to have found you," the old Psyrene went on. "Hilary, Justine, Milly, Michaela and Jodie - you five must fulfil the Prophecy lest the Age of Twilight bring doom on all."
"The Age of Twilight - what's that?" I asked, suddenly finding it quite normal that I should be standing goodness only knew where with a talking Pokemon.
Psyrene pointed to the statuette which Justine still held in her hands - we had reverted to our human forms as soon as we entered the cave. "It was written long ago that five human females would be brought to our kind to save us from extinction," she murmured at last.
"But what's happening to put your kind in danger?" asked Jodie, who, as usual, seemed distraught at the idea that something terrible could be affecting the Psyrene.
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Bit by bit, Psyrene told us the whole story.
She was the Queen of her tribe and they had dwelt happily for many centuries, establishing a civilisation which rivalled that of the humans. But then a terrible disaster struck and all her fellow Psyrene and the Po-psydron - these were male equivelents of the Psyrene - had vanished in a single night. She didn't know where they had gone or even if they were still alive and had spent many hours since in consultation with what she called her Oracle Pool, a small stretch of water which was, for reasons none of us could figure out, golden.
It had shown that the only way to find the Psyrene and Po-psydron was to send five humans on a quest for something called the Orb of Twilight. Only if the True Five retrieved it would the Psyrene and Po-psydron be restored to the tribe and the Age of Twilight be averted.
"But I still don't understand," Milly cut in. "What IS this "Age of Twilight" and why do we have to stop it from happening?"
Psyrene looked at her sadly. "Young one," she said. "All will be revealed in time, but I will tell you that - should it come to pass - child will turn against parent and Pokemon against trainer. Then, the sky will turn red and darkness will descend upon the land . . . We Psyrene and Po-psydron are the Guardians of Twilight - the world will be doomed if our kind ever become extinct."
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The question I was longing to ask was WHY we had suddenly turned into Pokemon. It turned out that the statuette had given us the ability to morph into the Pokemon Type we favoured over all others and which reflected our true selves. Looking at ourselves, it made sense.
I had a Grass Type Pokemon and I'd always been described as graceful - so I'd become a Bellossom.
Justine's Pokemon was a Ledian, a Bug Type, and she had the skill and beauty of a Butterfree.
Milly liked Fire Types and was, by far, the cleverest of us - "a cunning vixen" was a phrase which described her well - so her Pokemon form would be a Ninetales.
Michaela's love of Electric Types and her own outgoing personality meant she had been given the ability to transform into a Raichu.
And Jodie - Jodie cared deeply about all Pokemon and her Meowth was a Normal Type which meant she could now transform into a Chansey.
"I gave you these powers because you will face many dangers on your quest," Psyrene explained. "And the Prophecy states that only one who is neither human nor Pokemon will be able to bring the Orb of Twilight back unharmed. Any humans who steal it out of greed will find that it crumbles to dust in untrue hands."
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Psyrene handed us a map and a compass shaped like a Shellder. "This will guide you on your journey," she explained, before adding that our first port of call would be a place called Neptune Island.
Neptune Island - I'd never heard of it, but Psyrene told us it was located far to the East, across strange, uncharted seas. She presented us with what looked like an ordinary sailing boat, but was actually powered by forces I can't begin to describe. The best I can say is that it felt as though it was magic.
We decided we had to give our boat a name. "How about naming it after a Water Pokemon?" Jodie suggested.
"Squirtle?" Milly said promptly, saying the first Water Type she thought of.
But we all shook our heads.
"No - that's not right," I told her. "It's gotta be . . . Hey! How about Corsola?"
We all nodded - so Corsola it was. We had a little naming ceremony where Justine threw an empty Coke bottle against the hull and announced:
"I name this boat the Corsola! May fate protect her and all who sail in her!"
When that was done, we climbed on board and took a look round. One of the first things we found was an old mariners chart with the words "HERE BE DRAGON TYPES" written on it in fancy copperplate writing.
"Wow!" Jodie exclaimed as her Meowth climbed up alongside her - we had all had our Pokemon with us when we were transported to Psyrene's palace. "This must have been left by the original crew . . . I wonder what happened to them."
But my mind was on finding the Orb of Twilight and saving the Psyrene and Po-psydron.
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