Chapter 4
"What are you doing here?" Lyra demanded.
"I'm a trainer now, so you can't stop me from going where I want to."
"I wasn't trying to stop you!" she explained. "I guess I was just surprised to see the jerk who pushed me into the mud standing here with one of Professor Elm's Pokemon. How did you get it anyway?"
"You could say I'm good at persuasion."
"Think you can persuade me to let you by without a Pokemon battle?"
"You think you can take me on?"
"Think you can handle getting beat by a girl?"
"In your dreams."
"Than my dreams are becoming real. Ace, go!" The small fire Pokemon popped out of its Poke' Ball, a determined look on its face.
"Pathetic. You ready to see how lame a trainer can be?" he asked looking down at the Blue Pokemon. It nodded, it's face curling into a smirk. "Then let's go! Totodile! Water Gun!" A blast of cold water shot out of its mouth.
"Dodge and use smokescreen!" Ace slithered away as fast as a snake and sent a small ball flying in the direction of its opponent. But instead of sending out a thick layer of smoke, it rolled next to Totodile's feet. It picked it up and threw it at Ace; this time, it exploded leaving Lyra and Ace as good as blind.
"Totodile!" she heard him call. "Use Water Gun!"
"Ace, jump out of the smoke and use Ember!" Ace tried to do as told, but tripped. He struggled to get up but he was to slow and Totdile's powerful blast hit him directly.
The smoke cleared away revealing Ace panting deeply, unable to get up. "You can do it, Ace!" Lyra called to her weak Pokemon. "Get up and use Ember!" Ace fell over and didn't move. "Ace!" She ran over to her Pokemon and picked him up in her arms.
"See, Totodile? What a wimp."
"Who are you, anyway?"
"Me? I'm Silver and I'm going to be the best Pokemon Trainer of all time! Just you wait!" And he ran off, sending his Totodile back into its Poke' Ball on his way.
"I'm sorry, Ace. I should have been a better trainer," she said, bitterly. She just wanted to crawl up in her old bed and forget about everything that had happened that day.
And then it hit her like a speeding bullet.
The message. Professor Elm had seemed horrified by whatever had happened. She wasn't hopeless. Professor Elm was relying on her to do something important! She could give up now! She shot up, keeping Ace in her arms, and ran faster than she'd ever run in her life.
Before long, the sun had begun to set behind the small town of New Bark Town. She raced into Professor Elm's lab only to find a police man talking with him.
"I have a theory that the culprit will return to the scene of the crime," the man was saying. He turned and looked at Lyra. "So you must be the culprit!"
"Lyra, is that true?" asked Professor Elm with a look on his face that made Lyra know he didn't want that to be true. But before she could say anything, the door swung open and Ethan stormed in.
"I don't know who you are," he spat at the police man. "But that girl is innocent. What kind of person are you to just go and blame people? Really?"
"He's part of the police…" Lyra answered.
"Really? I'm sorry, sir. I didn't know. But one thing's for sure! Lyra isn't guilty! It was that red haired guy who was staring into the building all the time. I bet he was scheming!"
"So that's how he got Totodile!" realized Lyra. "I could have stopped him, too…"
"Do you know who did this?" asked the man.
Lyra nodded. "I saw him over by Cherrygrove City." She wasn't going to tell them how she attempted to battle but lost.
"Do you know his name?"
"Silver," she declared, her eyes blazing with anger.
"All right then. I'll make sure we look for a red haired individual named Silver. Will do the best we can to catch him." He nodded at Professor Elm, and was on his way.
"See what I mean? That person stole my Totodile from me. You have Cyndaquil, and Marie has Chikorita. I'm going to have to go searching for another trio. Thank you for coming over. Ace looks a little weak, though. Were you battling?" Lyra let out a groan. Professor Elm laughed. "You can go heal Ace over there, and then get some sleep."
"No, I need to show her something," said Ethan. He grabbed her arm and dragged her out onto Route 29. "If you're going to be a good Pokemon trainer, you need to know about catching Pokemon. Come over here and watch."
The sun was rising over the peaks of distant trees when Lyra awoke. This was probably the last time she'd be back here in a long time. She jumped out of bed, poked Ace awake, and ran one else was in the house as she ran out the front door, Ace at her heels.
She dashed out onto Route 29, hoping to find the perfect Pokemon for her team. The tall grass around her parted to reveal a Pidgey poking at the ground. "Now's are chance. Ace, Ember," she whispered. The small Pokemon did as told, but left the Pidgey knocked out on the ground. "Maybe next time you should use a little less power.
Even though the first attempt failed, the grass was teaming with Pokemon. A Sentret dashed around the ground. "You can do it, Ace. Tackle." Ace dashed out of their hiding place and rammed into the brown Pokemon. "Now I just need to use one of the Poke' Balls Ethan gave me." She chucked a red and white ball into the Sentret's stomach and watched it wiggle around on the ground. Finally, it stopped. The Sentret was her's!
She sent out her new Pokemon. "I'm going to call you…" She had no idea what to name it. She watched it scout around the grass for something to eat. "That's it! Your name is now Scout. So, Scout, how about some training? You to, Ace." Both Pokemon nodded. "Then let's get started!"
By the time their training was done, both Ace and Scout were knocking out every wild Pokemon in one hit. The trainers on Routes 29, 30, and 31 didn't stand much of a chance either. She was on the verge of being an amazing Pokemon Trainer. Then, she entered Violet City, a buzzing city with, apparently, an incredibly strong Gym Leader.
When she took her first steps in, a woman ran up to her. "What lovely Pokemon," she admired. "Oh, and the Cyndaquil is about to evolve."
"Really?"
"Yes. Are you planning on beating Falkner?" Lyra nodded. "Then you can quick train your pokemon at the Sprout Tower over there, or on Route 32 south of here. Good luck."
"Well, she was nice. Okay, Ace. Today, you're going to evolve!" She want south of Violet City and into the tall grass. One after another, Ace took down wild Pokemon as if they were small twig beneath his feet. Not long after that, a wild Mareep leapt up into the air as Ace shot a small ball of fire at it, making it fall to the ground. Then, a light began to surround Ace as it grew brighter. Soon it covered all the Cyndaquil until, it disappeared. In the place of the small Pokemon was a long bodied Pokemon, somewhat similar to Cyndaquil.
She pulled out her Poke' Dex. So you're a Quilava, are you? That's so cool! You actually evolved!"
Ace showed his gratitude by knocking his trainer over, a wide smile across his face.
"I think it's time to take on the Gym Leader, don't you?" The pokemon nodded. "Then let's do this!" And the trainer and Pokemon headed for Violet City.
