CHAPTER 3: In Which There Is A Battle Of The Pokemon Variety

They made good time. Neither of them wanted to dwell on their failure at the daycare center, so they walked swiftly down the road in companionable silence, admiring the scenery. Adventurine was an old, small town in the Vathos region, full of old-fashioned houses and neatly trimmed trees lining the streets. It was the kind of town where everything was in its proper place. Now that they'd left the outskirts of town behind them, the landscape was changing, becoming more wild, and Gwen loved it.

There was a small forested area they had to pass through on the way to Galenaville, and Adrian stopped before they made it all the way through. He'd stopped in a bright clearing, with a burbling creek in one corner. Sunlight streamed through the canopy high above them, creating shifting patterns on the long grass. It was, Gwen thought, the most beautiful place she'd ever been.

"This seems like a nice place," Adrian said. "Wanna have lunch here?"

"Definitely," Gwen agreed. "I think mum packed a picnic blanket, so we won't even have to get all dew-y."

As it turned out, there was a picnic blanket in Gwen's backpack, so they laid out the supplies they'd brought for lunch before sitting on the blanket. They released Ralts and Rufflet so they could have some snacks, a drink, and stretch their legs. Adrian and Gwen gossiped and told jokes while their pokemon romped around the field.

Halfway through lunch, a Pichu ran into the clearing, gave the two of them a startled look, and then kept running.

"What the?" Gwen wondered aloud.

A boy, wearing tan shorts and a green t-shirt under a brown vest, ran into the clearing, breathing heavily.

"Did you see my pokemon?" he called to Gwen and Adrian. "Where'd it go?"

"It went-" Adrian began, but was cut off by Gwen.

"Why was it running away from you?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

The boy scowled. "Who cares?" he said, stomping his foot. "It's mine, I want it back!"

"Wait, how old are you?" asked Adrian. "Are you even old enough for a pokemon?"

"It's mine," he yowled. "It's mine, it's mine, it's mine!"

"Definitely not old enough," Gwen said to Adrian in an undertone, standing up. "Kid," she continued. "When did you get your pokemon?"

"This morning! Some old guy sold it to me."

Gwen gave Adrian a significant look.

"Look," Adrian said, also standing. "I'm sorry, but that Pichu was stolen. We're going to have to return it to its rightful owner."

"No!" yelled the kid, his face going red. "It's mine now! You can't take it away!"

"Well, we can," Gwen said. "Like he said, it's stolen. You can't keep it."

The kid pulled a pokeball off his belt and glared at them. "I'll fight you," he said. "And when I win, you have to help me get my Pichu back!"

Gwen sighed. "When we win," she said. "You'll let us return Pichu to its owners."

"We're doing that either way, though, right?" Adrian whispered to her.

"Of course!" she replied. "What kind of heroes would leave a stolen Pichu with this kid?"

Adrian laughed, then clicked his fingers. Rufflet flew down from one of the trees to land on his shoulder. Gwen motioned to Ralts, who crept over, before holding on to her leggings.

"You want to battle?" Adrian asked. "Kid, we'll give you a battle."

"Two on one's not fair!" the kid whined. "I get to use two pokemon, okay?"

"This kid has three pokemon?" Gwen asked Adrian, incredulous.

The kid pulled another pokeball from his belt, and threw both into the air, releasing an Illumise and a Volbeat.

"Aw," Gwen said, forgetting about the battle for a moment to admire the glossy, brightly coloured carapaces. "Cute!"

"Gwen," Adrian said, discreetly elbowing her.

"Oh, right!" she said. "Ralts! Let's do this" Ralts reluctantly let go of her leggings, waddling towards the two bug pokemon. "Double team!"

In an instant, there were two Ralts on the field.

"Who cares?" the kid yelled. "Illy, Volly – tackle both of them!"

"Uh-oh," Gwen murmured, as the two bugs, with a visible show of effort, lifted off from the ground, heading towards the Ralts and his copy. "Ralts, get out of there!"

Both Ralts struggled through the long grass, trying to get away. Gwen could see that they weren't going to escape, though, and felt her heart sink. She hated to see her pokemon get hurt, especially when he already wasn't a huge fan of battling.

"Rufflet," Adrian said, shrugging his shoulder to encourage him to fly. "Leer! Get them both, okay?"

Rufflet flew past the two bugs, giving them both a harsh look that had them startle back for an instant. As soon as he was past them, they went back to the tackle, hitting their targets. The illusory Ralts flicked and vanished as soon as it was touched by Volbeat, but the real Ralts went flying when Illumise crashed into it, landing on the grass with a cry.

"Adrian," Gwen scolded, turning to her friend. "You couldn't have attacked? Now Ralts is hurt!"

"Maybe you should have attacked," he said with a frown. "Double team? What was that going to do?"

As they bickered, Ralts climbed to his feet, and Volbeat and Illumise returned to their trainer.

"Ralts," Gwen called out, ignoring Adrian. "Are you ok?"

He turned and gave her a scared little smile. It looked like he was fine, but he didn't want to be there. Gwen sighed. She loved Ralts, she did, but he was such a tiny little coward. Would he really be a good hero partner?

"Alright," she said, giving him an encouraging thumbs up. "You did good! Now we're gonna try the B plan, okay?"

"B Plan?" the kid called to her. "What's that?"

"If I told you," she grinned back, "what would be the point of having a code name?"

He scowled at her. "Volly, Illy, tackle them! We can win this!"

Adrian nudged Gwen again. "Plan B it is," he said. "Rufflet, you know what to do!"

In the Hero Academy, they'd had a lot of practice battles with their intended partners, both single and double. In single battles, Ralts and Gwen had usually been alright; Ralts was pretty strong, and knew some great attacks. Their usual strategy of Double Team and Confusion had taken down most of their opponents at least once. But in double battles...Gwen panicked, Ralts panicked, and it had been hard to work out strategies that could work with a partner.

Adrian had also been pretty much useless at double battles, so they practiced together a lot: it's what had really cemented their friendship in those first awkward post-Zoe days, when Gwen had discovered that all of her friends had actually been Zoe's friends. Adrian and Gwen had practiced and practiced, and although they had never really become anything special, they'd nailed down a couple of solid strategies that Rufflet and Ralts could pull off pretty well.

Plan B was Gwen's favourite.

Rufflet took to the sky, flying as fast as Ruffletly possible. He sped around the clearing in patterns, drawing everyone's attention. While Illumise, Volbeat, and their trainer were distracted, Ralts crept into position near Volbeat.

"Okay, Rufflet!" Adrian called, seeing Ralts was ready. "Go!"

The kid had no idea what was coming, and his face was red with frustration. "Volly, tackle that Ralts!" he cried.

When Volbeat turned towards Ralts, Ruffled dropped out of the sky, speeding towards him. Just before Volbeat could hit him, Ralts teleported away, closer to Illumise.

Now the trainer was distracted by Rufflet's imminent attack, not seeing the danger his Illumise was in. She noticed, however, and desperately tried to take to the air to escape the attack she knew was coming. But it was too late.

Ralts, who had been preparing this attack the whole time, opened his mouth and attacked Illumise with Confusion, dropping her in one hit.

The kid had no idea what to do, and in that moment of hesitation, Rufflet struck Volbeat with his beak, knocking him out.

The battle was over.

With a mutinous expression on his face, the kid returned Volbeat and Illumise to their pokeballs.

"Now," Gwen said, motioning to Ralts to come closer so she could check him over. "You're going to keep your word, right?"

The kid mumbled something indistinct, kicking a rock at his feet.

"Right?" she repeated, a hard edge to her voice.

"Right," the kid agreed, scowling at the rock. "Fine. You can have Pichu back, but I think you're just being meanies!" With that, the kid turned and ran off back into the forest.

There was a moment of stunned silence, then Gwen and Adrian burst into laughter.

"Are you kidding me?" Gwen gasped. "Meanies?"

Once they'd finally calmed down, and made sure their pokemon were all right, it was time to find Pichu. They shoved their picnic things back into their backpacks, and headed off in the direction it had run: back towards Adventurine.

"Pichu," Gwen called as they walked. "Pichu! Where are you, cutie?"

"We'll take you back home," Adrian added. "Pichu! Where'd you go?"

They walked and walked until their feet and throats were sore, but they couldn't see any sign of the tiny, stolen pokemon. Then finally, as they were almost out of the forest, they heard a tiny sqeak.

"Pichu?" Adrian called. "Was that you?"

The squeak came again, and they hurried towards it.

It was, indeed Pichu, lying on the ground. When they took a closer look, they realised that one of its legs was twisted, and probably injured. It had clearly been going home, then maybe tripped or been attacked. Either way, it was lucky that they'd found it. It needed a doctor, fast.

Gwen gathered up the tiny pokemon in her arms, and Adrian patted its head, trying to sooth it.

"We're going to take you home," he said. "Don't worry, little dude. You're almost home."

With a relieved squeak, the Pichu closed its eyes and went to sleep.

"Poor thing," Gwen said softly, as they began to walk towards Adventurine. "It must have been so exhausted!"

When they left the forest, they finally had reception on their Pokegears again, so Adrian made a quick call to the Adventurine Pokecenter, letting them know there was a patient on its way. Then he called the local police, to let them know one of the stolen baby pokemon had been found, and was injured.

Before they'd walked much further, police officers riding Arcanines sped towards them, stopping just before they wan into Gwen and Adrian.

One of the officers slid down from his Arcanine.

"You're the two heroes who found the Pichu?" he asked, and they nodded. "We didn't want you to have to walk the whole way," he said. "So we can pick up the Pichu and take it back, or you can come with us."

Adrian and Gwen looked at each other. On one hand, it would be great to see the Pichu back to full health. But on the other hand, they'd lose the whole day if they went all the way back to Adventurine. They needed to keep going.

"Um, thanks for the offer," Gwen said after moment, handing the Pichu to the officer. "But I think we'll keep going. We're heading towards Galenaville for our next emblem, you see."

The officer nodded, passing the Pichu to another officer seated on an Arcanine. "I understand," he said. "If you'd like, we could take you there. It'd be a lot faster on an Arcanine, and we'd like to show our appreciation."

"Wow," said Adrian. "Thank you, that would be great!"

In a matter of minutes, Gwen and Adrian had been boosted onto the backs of two of the enormous Arcanine, holding tight to the officers in front of them. With a single fluid motion, they took off, speeding through the forest. Unlike Gwen and Adrian before, the Arcanine actually followed the path that had been laid down for travelers. It was a less fun way to travel through the forest, they'd decided earlier, but it made sense for the Arcanine to follow it. There was no way the huge pokemon could have ducked under vines and slipped past branches.

As they ran, the officer in front of Gwen made conversation.

"We hadn't found anything useful at the crime scene," she told Gwen. "So it's great that you two were able to recover a pokemon!"

"It was a total fluke," Gwen admitted with a blush. "It ran past us, and we just followed it. I'm sure you guys will find the rest!"

"The chief isn't so sure about that," the officer said. "I'm sure they teach you this kind of thing at the academy, but large amounts of stolen pokemon are hard to recover, especially when they're being sold. Plus, he's obviously not staying in the area. You guys getting this one back actually gave the chief an idea," she continued. "There are a bunch of you graduates traveling this way, right?"

"A couple, yeah."

"He's getting in contact with the rest, letting them know about the robbery. He wants you all to keep your eyes peeled for the pokemon, see if you can get back as many as possible."

"We'll definitely keep a look-out," Gwen promised. "I can't bear the thought of all those poor baby pokemon out there, away from home!"

The officer laughed. "I know how you feel!" she agreed. "So that's great to hear. If you find any, just go to the closest police station and let them know. They'll make sure the pokemon get back here."

Within what felt like mere minutes, they shot out of the forest. This part of Vathos was all farmland, and the paddocks stretched to the horizon, crops waving gently in the breeze. A few grazing Miltank looked up in alarm as the Arcanine thundered past.

Soon enough they were at the Galenaville gate. The officers helped Adrian and Gwen dismount, laughing at the jellied mess their legs had become.

"How do you do this every day?" Adrian demanded.

"You get used to it," Gwen's officer promised with a grin. "See you guys later!" she continued, mounting her Arcanine. "Remember what I said: keep looking for those baby pokemon!"

Gwen saluted as the pokemon crouched, and then took off, back towards the forest.

"Look out for baby pokemon?" Adrian asked Gwen, as they staggered towards the gate.

"Your officer didn't tell you?" she asked. "They want us – and the rest of the recruits – to keep our eyes out for more of the stolen baby pokemon."

"That makes sense," Adrian said. "But uh, no, we were talking about other things." Bafflingly, he flushed.

"What other things?" Gwen demanded, but he just went redder and refused to answer. She punched him in the shoulder, then grabbed his arm so he wouldn't fall over. Supporting each other, they made it to the gate.

Gwen took one long final look at the farmland stretched out behind them. This was it. She was finally going to meet him again.

"Come on, Slowpoke!" Adrian called from inside the gate.

After one last look, Gwen turned and entered Galenaville.