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CHAPTER XIII

STEALING FROM A GYM LEADER

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“You need it?”

The dark-haired man cocked his head slightly. “That’s a funny way to speak about someone’s pokémon…” His keen eyes bore into mine and I blinked fast several times. He held a Super Ball which now contained our target Ursaring.

I frowned uncomfortably, working up a nervous sweat. “It’s your Ursaring?”

The man eyed me for a couple of silent moments and replied, “No. I’m only retrieving it for a friend.” He shifted on the spot and clasped the reigns of his Dodrio.

“Why is it you need it?”

“Ah- …” I wanted to speak but I was totally stumped. How is it that none of us had seen a situation like this happening? If our target belonged to a trainer, then how the hell were we supposed to take it?!

The man, seeing my hesitation, sighed and pocketed the Super Ball.

“That’s not a normal pokémon.” I took a step closer, avoiding eye-contact with his Dodrio.

“I noticed,” the man replied. “My friend is worried sick. He thinks his beloved Ursaring’s finally gone nuts with a rare sort of mad-bear disease… I’ll be taking it to a Pokémon Center first.”

The words kept getting stuck in my throat, and I looked back at Charli, still atop the tree and hugging it tightly. I realized Drowzee’s psychic aura no longer enveloped him, so I strode quickly towards him, glancing back at the Ace Trainer with an uncomfortable clump in my chest.

“I suggest you clear out,” the man said as he dusted off Dodrio’s saddle. “I’m sure you are capable trainers, but unless you have something more than a Drowzee and the little Natu up there, you shouldn’t be inside an Onix’s territory.”

I gave him a quick, thoughtful glance before looking up at Charli holding on to the tree. “Drowzee, can you help him down?”

Drowzee whined softly before sending his psychic-type aura over to Charli.

“It’s alright, just jump off,” I told my friend after seeing his outline begin to glow.

“Are you sure?!”

I smiled, despite the troubling thoughts in my head. “Yeah, I am! Just do it!”

He didn’t, but carefully climbed his way down, making a cry of surprise at how easy it was with the temporary lightness. Natu gave him a few mocking chirps as she fluttered all the way down on her tiny wings.

Dodrio’s trainer watched, bemused.

“Let him keep it,” Charli whispered once he was down. “It’s not like we can take it by force anyway…”

I looked him in the eye anxiously, then pulled out the mission cellphone from my fanny-pack. By the time I dialed the professor’s number, the man with our target was already walking away, leading his Dodrio by the reigns. I kept my eye locked onto them as they left.

I spoke in a low voice as soon as Professor Cid picked up. “Professor, a target was captured by someone.”

“Who?”

“A trainer. He has a high-level pokémon.” I saw no reason to mention the technicalities of who Ursaring actually belonged to. All Professor Cid needed to know was that the target pokémon belonged to someone and that battling for it was not an option. There was a long pause.

“Professor?” I said.

“Listen closely,” he responded. “There were forty-four targets in total, and forty-four victims affected by the coma…”

“Right…?”

“Do you see what I’m getting at here?”

I tasted my mouth. “What?”

“Tomas, was it? I think you should start seeing our targets as the very villagers themselves. You are out there to bring them back. I cannot be sure until I have a specimen to work with, and maybe we won’t need to capture all of them… but that is a big maybe, and for now, we must go about it without making any risky assumptions. Think that among the forty-four targets, there is one that corresponds to your grandmother…”

I froze in place and frowned until my brows began to ache. That was too crazy. Grandma - a pokémon?

“So what are we supposed to do? There is no way we can take him on, he has a level 60 Dodrio!”

The professor clicked his tongue. “A bloody ace trainer… What did he look like? Does he seem reasonable?”

“He’s leaving, Professor… He said he was going to take it to a Pokémon Center.”

“Where?”

We did not know, and the professor did not like it.

“What of the other targets that gathered?”

I looked around quickly, the quiet of the woods pervading. Even the trembling had ended, and the Onix was likely deep below the ground, too dangerous to follow. There was no sign of Noctowl either, and the other two were unknowns.

“There is no sign of them, Professor.”

Professor Cid sounded skeptical. “Are you certain? I suggest you give your partners the command. As for the Ursaring, so long as you’re fine with leaving a villager behind, then I suppose you can let him go…”

Charli was glancing around, holding a custom ball in his hand. Ursaring’s captor was disappearing into the woods.

“Professor! What can we possibly do?”

“Follow him, take his number… or offer to buy it! Yes! Tell him you can pay as much as 10,000 dollars.”

At that suggestion, my feet began moving after Dodrio and the trainer. Charli pulled in and walked beside me with Natu on his shoulder.

“And if he says no?”

“Put him to sleep! Drowzee could do it in a moment.”

I was shell-shocked, and like the time I heard him laugh after I described our dangerous encounter in Arbok’s forest, there was a pang in my gut that something wasn’t sitting right.

“You want us to attack a man?” I said, and Charli glanced sideways at me with the most puzzled frown.

Professor Cid scoffed. “Attack? Hardly an attack, chap! Don’t be dramatic… He is leaving with his pokémon, yes, but for all we know, he could be leaving with your own grandmother too. Think about it…” There was a loud whirring noise which sounded like the professor using his coffee machine.

“This is not a normal case, and I want you to know that you have my full backing to employ any means you see fit to capture the targets! You will not be facing the law, do you understand?”

“B- … But this is theft, Professor…”

“What?” Charli hissed quietly. He nudged me and shook his head. “There is no way, dude…”

“Who has stolen what?” the professor replied. “Are you stealing a pokémon, or is he stealing a person?” He sounded irritated.

We hanged up and I wasted no time in breaking into a fast walk.

“Let’s go.”

“We’re stealing it?” Charli was in disbelief, looking reluctant as he kept up alongside me.

I glanced at him, troubled. “We're going buy it.”

...

“There is simply no way I can do that.” The keen-eyed man had stopped and waited for us to catch up once it became obvious that we were following him. He had declined to sell the Ursaring for any amount and declined again when Charli asked to rent it for collecting honey.

“I’m not sure where you two are from, but they don’t do those kinds of things here… I can’t let you buy or borrow a pokémon that isn’t mine. Plus, no one is that desperate for honey, so why don’t you just tell me what you really want Ursaring for?”

We couldn’t tell him. He wouldn’t believe it anyway.

“Are you still going to the pokémon Center?” I said. “We’re kind of lost, and we could really use one too.”

The man sighed, and he looked somewhat relieved to hear the end of that conversation.

“You can tag along for now, but you’ll have to go the last several miles on your own.”

I blinked, not quite understanding. “Why?”

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

The man spared us a look as his Dodrio plodded along beside him. “Cause I’ll be flying.”

After some five minutes, I slowed down slightly, and Charli and Drowzee slowed with me. We let the trainer pull a way a good several paces and I studied the pair as they walked. Having Drowzee hypnotize the man was too risky with Dodrio outside its ball. I feared Drowzee and Natu would get knocked out in an instant in a battle against it, even if they attacked together. Hypnotizing Dodrio first didn’t seem like a good idea either, one, because I wasn’t even sure it would work, and two, because the trainer might have had another one on him, and then we’d really be screwed.

I began rummaging through my bag as I walked, hoping the man’s ears weren’t as keen as his eyes. I commented on what snacks our pokémon should eat, then, in the most casual manner, I whispered to Charli as I rummaged some more, “We’ll get to the Center and find a way to take it.”

Pokémon Centers normally had depository rooms where they kept pokéballed pokémon until they were picked up by their trainers. If we had any chance of taking it, that would be it.

“What was that all about?” the man asked, turning his head.

I tensed up. “Hm?”

“I noticed the gathering before we attacked. It’s not every day you see a Noctowl and a Paras getting along… The Onix and Omastar too, I’ve rarely seen together. Add Ursaring to that and you’ve got yourself a real circus. They all looked strange too, especially the Onix.”

He looked at Drowzee briefly before turning back ahead. “Are you shiny hunting?”

“Shiny hunting?” I replied.

“Like your Drowzee there, he’s a shiny isn’t he? … Unless you’ve just dyed him.”

“A shiny?” Charli said.

“A pokémon that looks different from its own species. Usually the color. They get special, shiny medals in most contests simply by participating, that’s why they’re called shiny.”

I looked back half-expecting to see the Noctowl, but they were really all gone. Paras I’d seen a few, but an Omastar, despite the name ringing a bell, I could not picture it. I’d have to check the pokédex later on. At least now, we knew the identities of all five targets. I wanted to check the Tracking Tool, as the professor had suggested, but we couldn’t just let this man walk away with our target. We’d come track the others later. Getting Ursaring was our priority right now.

“Where are you from? Your pokémon is super strong,” Charli commented with admiration.

The haori-wearing man gave him a glance and smiled. “We’ve done our fair share of training, and Dodrio especially, he always likes a good battle. I’m actually from Johto, but I decided to take a long break from work some time ago. Kanto’s got wonderful skies. The cold doesn’t seem to bite so hard up there as it does back home.”

He began to remind me of Rogers, the Pidgeot trainer back in Clattermore. They both seemed to have an air of authority. This man was likely someone who a Pidgeot would let on its back.

“Is it scary though?” Charli asked, and the man shook his head.

“It is by far the best feeling in the world. Ever since I was a child, I had the dream of soaring through the sky, and I’ve done nothing but that for more than fifteen years.”

Charli picked up the pace, googly eyed, almost coming up beside him. “It’s been my dream too! That’s why I picked Natu here. When she evolves, I want to float right up there with the clouds.”

The man chuckled and grinned at Charli, nodding happily and the tension I felt decreased.

“Xatu is a lofty flyer, but they’re not particularly large so I’ve never actually flown with one before. I know some people can ride them if they link with them psychically, but it’s safer to fly with birds who rely fully on the power of their wings.”

“Wh-” Charli began to ask, but one of Dodrio’s heads turned to him and let out a low, hollow squawk. Natu squawked right back, causing the other two heads to turn as well.

“Easy, easy …” the man said, patting Dodrio firmly. He glanced sideways at the slightly taken aback Charli. “The little fellow has got quite the attitude.”

“Tell me about it!” Charli affirmed. “I don’t think she realizes how much stronger your pokémon is.”

“No, she must do, but not all pokémon cower when the odds are against them. Some natures are made for battle, and it looks like you have a real fighter here, if you train her well.”

I thought back to Rogers’s lecture in the park. He had talked about Prime types, something that had piqued my interest. I wondered what this man would say about that. I patted Drowzee on the head as he toddled behind me and then pulled in closer, next to Charli.

“What about Prime types?” I said. “Have you heard of them?”

The man glanced at me and soon nodded. “Of course. Are you taking gym challenge?”

“No!” I said immediately. “Someone told me they don’t teach about it at school, and I’d never heard about it before.”

“It is common knowledge among pokémon trainers. And really, its plain common sense, isn’t it?”

Charli snickered. “Only when you actually think about for a moment.”

“Right. It’s not crucially important until high-level battles though, where the slightest advantage can decide the match.”

Drowzee and Natu were both psychic-types, and so were all our colleagues’ hunting partners besides Myke’s Poliwhirl.

“Where would a psychic-type be strongest then?” I said.

The man gently fastened his hand on the reigns and looked up in thought as we walked. “They are ridiculous, if you ask me. They’ve got a few weaknesses but few pokémon can match a well-trained psychic-type. They can reach as far as the eye can see - some even further… And not just that, but its quite hard to catch them by surprise.

“They are capable of emulating most of the other types; float and glide through the air …” he said, nodding at us. “Like the way you got Drowzee to help you off the tree. They can create false flames, electricity, and even moisture. This makes them able to learn an unfairly huge number of moves…”

I quietly considered his words, and Charli asked, “Then why isn’t everyone just training psychic-types?”

“There’s a catch,” the man replied. “A psychic-type is strongest in environments that are spiritually clean, and those are not so easy to come by, so it’s far from being a Prime type. Not just that, but once a bond is made with a psychic-type, much of its ability will directly correlate with its trainer. In a sense, if the trainer is lacking in spirit, their psychic pokémon will suffer most for it. Much more so than with other types.

“Since most people are average, so are most psychic pokémon. It’s quite interesting actually, and if I wasn’t so in love with flying-types, I might have been a psychic-type trainer.” He sighed.

It made me stare at Drowzee, walking behind us a few paces back. He was either oblivious to what we were saying or didn’t care. Human things, he probably thought.

Had I already bonded with him? It kinda felt like I had. In the few battles we’d been in, he gave me the impression that he was stronger than he appeared, unexpectedly so. Did that mean that I was too? …

Nah, it was all him, I was sure. He had protected me and saved my life all of his own strength. I was just here to throw pokéballs and keep him fed as he did his job. I grinned at him at the thought.

...

We walked with the ace trainer for another hour and some, finally clearing the woods and coming to an open but bushy field with a faraway path cutting across it in the distance. He let go of Dodrio’s reigns and walked a few paces out, pointing faraway.

“You see the path, right? Follow it and it will take you straight to Viridian City. They’ve got a nice, big Pokémon Center there. If you walk fast, we might see each other there…”

“You’re flying now?” Charli said brightly.

“I am.”

I felt nervous and looked at Drowzee. When he takes off, we’ll have to take off right after him. Now, with our partners’ psychic-run enhancement, we could probably clear a mile in a few minutes. For Gran and Kakuna Village’s sake, we’d definitely catch him in Viridian. The Ursaring, I meant.

“Let’s see…” The man went into Dodrio’s saddlebag and pulled out two pokéballs. He pointed one at Dodrio and said, “Good work, big guy. Rest up.” Dodrio’s body began to glow red and, in a few moments, it flowed back into its ball. The reigns and saddle fell to the ground with a thud. The man minimized Dodrio’s ball and put it back inside the saddlebag.

A moment of surreal clarity came over me as I watched the ace arrange his belongings, folding the saddle and winding the reigns around it.

My mouth suddenly felt dry when I realized that the only reason for us to play along had been put inside a pokéball.

Dodrio was gone.

The man was alone.

My eyes widened and I turned to Charli slowly. He was watching the man with a smile, Natu close-eyed atop his head. Don’t tell me he doesn’t see it!

I shot Drowzee a look, and spotted him sitting on his bottom, his ears flattened and glancing around placidly. The walk was getting to him, but he didn’t seem all that tired. I approached him and pet his head, leaning in close.

“Drowzee…” I looked him in the eye before continuing, and whispered in his ear. “Can you use Hypnosis?”

His ears perked up and he cocked his head at me. His long snout worked its way to my face, and I pulled away, smiling. Drowzee’s eyes were locked on mine, and I thought I saw a slight glow in them. I quickly placed a hand over them. “Not me, Drowzee… the man…”

I felt my heart leap when Drowzee’s eyes shifted to the scene behind me. He could actually understand what I was saying. “Yes,” I said quickly and affirmingly. I then stood and turned back to the man, who by now was hoisting the tied-up saddle and saddlebag and putting it on his back. His other pokéball was in his hand, and any moment from now, he would release his next ace-level flying pokémon and it we’d lose our chance.

“Drowzee…”

Charli looked at me, still smiling, totally unaware of what I was about to do. The man heaved up to adjust his saddle backpack, and then glanced at me with an eye, his blueish, dark hair covering the other.

“Hypnosis!”

The air vibrated with Drowzee’s loud purr. The hairs in the back of my neck stood up, and as Drowzee spread his arms, the man’s expression changed. His mouth opened and I felt a painful pang of guilt when I saw the look of betrayal on his face.

He had no time to release his flying-type, Drowzee’s hypnotizing ring-waves buffeted him from close-range, and the man’s expression became furious for a moment. A moment that terrified me.

The next second, his legs gave out and he collapsed to the ground, completely knocked out.

I took in a big breath and immediately sighed.

“What the hell …” Charli muttered, and he stared at me with a witless smile. I went straight to the man and gestured at Charli urgently.

“Have you gone mad with power?” he said with amused disbelief.

I looked at him sharply. “The professor told me to! Help me look for the Super Ball!”

“Oh man,” he said worriedly as he joined me. “The professor’s telling us to rob someone?! I thought it was a joke!”

I was quite flustered by the thought that I had just properly screwed this guy’s day. He had a friend waiting for this pokémon… but we had a person whose life might be on the line. The professor’s reasoning was the only thing that made me feel ok.

“We’re not robbing anyone, Charli, we’re helping the professor save lives. We’ll return the pokémon once the villagers start waking up…”

“I sure damn hope so!”

“Weren’t you the one talking about stealing Natu from the professor?!”

He looked at me dead faced. “Me?! I never said that!”

“Look for the damn ball!”

Natu gave us a loud squawk for waking her up and flapped her tiny wings furiously atop Charli’s head, buffeting his hair all over his face.

Charli roared as he dug into the saddlebag, and soon, he yanked the minimized Super Ball. A little booklet flapped out with it, landing on my laps. I picked it up and card fell out of it. It was a whiteish, pale color of green, and it shone almost like metal.

I’m not sure why, but I found myself picking it up and reading its face:

G.L.A

FALKNER HAYATO

- read the title. There was a photo on the card of the man, along with other details such as his region of origin and date of birth.

I held it out to Charli, who was busy pocketing Ursaring’s Super Ball. “Does the name ring any bells?”

Falkner… Falkner… The name had sounded familiar.

When Charli looked at the card, his eyebrows shot up. “GLA… Dude! That’s the Gym Leader’s Association!”

We stared at the incapacitated man on the ground in growing silence, and Charli shot me a look.

“This guy’s a gym leader!”