Shadow studied itself in the mirror as Crystal lay on her unmade bed listening to the radio.              “And in other news, there have been reports of a fight at the docks in Vermillion City, all the way in Kanto! Police say that the unidentified victim fled, and threw a locket at his attacker.”             Then the Umbreon barked for attention. Crystal petted it to satisfy it. She thought about traveling again and looked at the Torchic plushie on her windowsill. It reminded her of the day when she got her Torchic and rescued both Professor Birch, who was being chased around by two crazed Poocheyenas, and Brendan, who had knocked himself out. (Read Gone with the Breeze for further details.)               Anyways, the Professor said that she could keep the Torchic, whom she named Fireball. Brendan soon became her rival (though he really isn’t much of one), and their first battle ended in defeat. Since then, she traveled around Hoenn, meeting lots of lame people with lame battling skills. Then she defeated the lame Elite Four and went to the awesome Kanto. (Again, all modesty.) Then she got tired of Rhia duking it out with Gary and returned to Hoenn, where it was a bit more peaceful.               Her thoughts were quite RUDELY interrupted by the RUDE doorbell. Shadow decided to have none of this rudeness and sped down the stairs and unlocked the door.               Brendan stood in the doorway and was shocked to see Shadow. Shadow growled menacingly and advanced.              “Nice.....Umbreon.....” Brendan laughed nervously.               It bit him in the leg.              “Gah!”              Crystal hurried down to see Brendan running around with an Umbreon attached to his leg.              “Shadow! Stop that!” she ordered.             Shadow looked at her as if saying, do I have to? But it let go. Brendan clutched his leg painfully, reached into his backpack and pulled out a Mudkip doll.             “I...uh, was cleaning out my house, and, uh, wondered if you want this....” he stammered, blushing furiously.              “It’s so cute!” she grinned.             She placed it next to Torchic.              “And, uh....do you wanna battle?”             “Sure!”             Of course he lost. Then he cried. In fact, his sorrow was so plentiful that he actually died.             Okay, in reality, he consoled his Pokemon and went off with Crystal to a Pokemon Center to heal their Pokemon (duh). Then they met Wally, and said hi.              “I beat the Elite Four!” Wally grinned.             Both Brendan and Crystal thought, It’s about time! But they both congratulated him, as they were both polite. Then Crystal got impatient and told them to hurry up or die.