Well, what do we have here? I've actually gotten off my lazy butt and wrote a story. I didn't think I had the creativity to do such a thing. I guess I was wrong...

Anyway, this has been divided into three parts. The second chapter will be posted at a later date. Until that point, please enjoy part one.

Disclaimer: Pokémon is owned by Game Freak and Nintendo. The only thing I own in the fanfiction is the idea.

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It was a rather beautiful day in Mauville City. The sun was shining. The Taillow were chirping…

And in his rather small berry kiosk, Evan was bored out of his mind.

It was like this nearly every day. The only ones who ever bothered to even check his selection were the occasional trainers. Needless to say, his business was at a low. He usually ended up giving his berries to various wild Pokémon at the end of the day. Today seemed as if it was just another day of limited business.

Then, as if to just break the day's monotony, a lone Pikachu walked up to the kiosk, eyeing the berries hungrily. With a small smile, Evan reached over and handed the small creature a Pecha. The Pikachu looked at him warily, but took the berry after a few seconds and began to eat it slowly. Evan's smile grew as he watched the small rodent eat.

However, his smile quickly changed to a frown. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a second Pikachu hurriedly stuffing berries into a small sack.

"Just what do you think you're doing?" Evan asked in a gruff tone.

The rodent in question froze at the sound of his voice. It slowly lifted its head until its eyes met Evan's icy glare.

"I suggest you put those back where you found them," Evan warned.

Instead of following the human's suggestion, the Pikachu closed the sack it was holding, placed the end in its mouth and began to flee. Evan ran around to the front of his kiosk to chase the creature. It was then that he noticed the other Pikachu take off in a hurry, with more berries in its possession. Evan had been tricked!

The human looked about ready to rip his hair out. He turned to the kiosk and called out to his employee.

"Bruce! Get out here! We have thieves!"

The teenager simply looked up from checking the inventory. In a sarcastic tone, he responded, "Oh no, not thieves! How will we ever be able to satisfy all of our numerous customers with thieves on the loose? Whatever shall we do boss?"

Evan gave Bruce a look that could dry up Sootopolis itself. "Get your slacker butt out here and help me catch them! Do it and I may just give you a raise."

Bruce's eyes lit up. When in doubt, you could always bribe the boy with cash. "Yes, sir!" he shouted, complete with a salute.

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Sprinting as fast as his paws could take him, Thunderfoot began making his way through Mauville. His brother told him that the meeting point would be Route 117, which was west of the city. There was just one problem with the instructions.

Thunderfoot had no idea which way was 'west'.

Mentally cursing his lack of directional knowledge, he suddenly remembered an important piece of information his brother gave him: the casino was in the west part of the city. Frantically, Thunderfoot began searching for any buildings that resembled the casino he had seen in a photo a short time ago.

"Oy, you little thief! Get back here!"

Thunderfoot whipped his head around, getting a good look at the gangly teenage human giving chase after him. It seemed that the teenager was slowly gaining on the rodent. Mentally cursing once again, Thunderfoot turned his head back around to focus on running…just in time to see the large crowd of humans he was about to run into.

The Pikachu managed to weave his way around various sets of legs before finally allowing himself to slow his momentum enough to get a look at what the crowd was for. He looked up to see a large building, adorned with many different light fixtures. This must be the casino that signaled the way out of this annoying city.

"There you are, you little furball!"

Startled, Thunderfoot quickly turned around to see the human pushing his way through the crowd. He began to sprint in the opposite direction, making his way out of the crowd in little time due to his size. However, the human teenager soon followed after him, constantly shouting at the electrical rodent.

Nevertheless, Thunderfoot was almost to his destination. Route 117 was within his reach. Only one obstacle remained in his way: a single human, wearing red hooded clothing. Thunderfoot smirked. There was one advantage he had over his pursuer; he was the best jumper he knew of. In mid-sprint, Thunderfoot crouched down, and then went airborne with a mighty leap. With the power in that leap, he'd normally be able to leap the human with ease.

However, he forgot to factor in the bag he still held in his mouth. The rodent, instead of clearing the red-clad human, crashed into its head, knocking both to the ground.

Dazed, Thunderfoot slowly made his way to his paws, getting a good look at the human he crashed into. From the looks of it, it was a male, with short back hair and scruffy-looking facial hair. Thunderfoot then looked down and the human's clothing, noticing a peculiar M-like symbol on the red shirt. He stared at it, noticing it looked almost like two mountains next to each other, with a cave in the center. How strange…

"I have you now, rodent!"

Oh, right. He was supposed to be running.

Thunderfoot took off into another sprint, accidentally stepping on the human's nose as he ran away towards the forest that bordered the route. He failed to notice the red-clad human awaken from the pain of having his nose stepped on.

Said human glared at the escaping Pikachu, taking good note of its escape route. He got to his feet, turning his head to see the now out-of-breath teenager. Smirking, the human started his chase where the teenager left off, pursuing the Pikachu into the forest.

No one, not even a Pokémon, disrespects a member of Team Magma.