A few pointers needed for an Orange Islands fic =)

Heh, my first post in most forums is usually something to do with fanfiction I'm working on.

So firstly, I'll explain my fanfic briefly, and the shortcomings in my plan:

It's set in the Orange Islands - you didn't guess from the title, I know xD - and I decided to use the character Melody from Pokémon 2000, because she's one of my favourite characters. I tend to use minor canon characters as there's not too much character design for me to do, but there's still room for expansion. I'm sort of going with a semi-opposed idea that she's starting out when she's far older than normal trainers (she's just leaving school/college, so she's 17/18), but she does get her first Pokémon under unusual circumstances and it is part of the plot to move her off the island. She's persuaded by one of the central characters, who's in on this plan, to try out the gym challenge. Melody takes it as something to do in her "gap year" as she's unsure what she wants to do, having left school/college/I'll figure out which I'm going to refer to it by.

There's a plot by a large crime organisation involving a certain legendary. I won't expand too much on that. It's not Team Rocket. But you can probably guess the legendary. I'm working on their reasons and their methods =)

There's a bit of romantic interest that involves an OC. It sort of happened in my mind and seemed a good idea at that time xD I'm sorry, I know it's normally horrific when you send OCs in with the canon characters. I'd like to see if I can make it work, otherwise I'll rewrite it, removing most of the romance. I think Melody's just going to have this sort of "woo, vaguely attractive slightly older man who gave me my first Pokémon!" attachment to him. Whether or not it develops much past that will depend on how much I like it.

The last thing, that my friend and I randomly threw in, is Melody's personal couple of useless Rockets thrown in for comic relief (they've ideally been sent there to keep an eye on this other organisation). What's special about them is their Pokémon: they're also doing a bit of testing for Team Rocket. The idea is that they're making "Delta species" or "Holon" Pokémon - the ones with odd types and moves. This is due to my friend's fascination with the respective trading cards. I thought the best way they'd go about this is "hacking" TMs in order to teach them to the Pokémon...partly because I like technology but mostly because I couldn't think of any other way to do it other than some form of genetic engineering, which would probably take too long. I dunno, it's only going to be an interesting bit of side-story.

I'd need some people to tell me some things about the Orange Islands arc, such as where trainers register (i.e. what island) and some other things, because it's really hard to research! Ideally I'd be watching the episodes again =< so...anyone with any knowledge would be helpful, or at least someone to point me in the right direction to ask those questions - I'm not sure whether to ask them in this forum or the TV Show and Movies forum.

Well, I just poured my ideas in there. Any thoughts and/or suggestions for anything would be great if you have the time =) and if I've put anything in the wrong place, do tell me and I'll remove it and post it in the appropriate forum ^^'

Question; seeing as it's taking part in the Orange Islands, do you have a list of the miniture islands within Orange Islands or are you making fictional islands instead?

Ahh, I'm using the islands that are canonically there. I guess I might be inclined to invent one or two if I can't find one suitable for certain plot points as I go along =)

You could probably go find the old copies of the Scholastic Pokémon books; there was a 3 part series one that was later turned into the anime. The titles were: Journey to the Orange Islands, Secret of the Pink Pokémon, and The Four-Star Challenge!

Reading them might raise some great ideas on what scenery to add in descriptions or attitudes character's had and when.

Thanks, I think I'll check that out =D I found some available on Amazon Marketplace so I'll probably be getting those soon! All I've really got to go by otherwise is a video of Pokémon 2000 and whatever I can find by Googling =<

Also check the Serebii Orange Islands episode guide, which summarizes every episode that took place during that arc. It'll probably have the most info and it's free, too!.