At the Digidestined camp at the north end of Petalburg Woods, four of the five children were waking up to start a new morning. The fifth member of their team had gone on a nice walk the night before and hadn't returned to his sleeping bag.
Ryo sat up and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. When he looked across the camp and saw the empty sleeping bag, he frowned. "Josh?" he asked no one in particular.
Kyle was the next to waken, yawning and stretching before sitting up. "Another good day ahead," he said, psyching himself up.
"Do you have any idea where Josh might have gone?" Ryo asked while turning to Kyle.
Kyle looked at the empty sleeping bag and noticed a couple of other things scattered around it. Namely, Josh's backpack and several key pieces of clothing, like his belt and his shoes. Kyle turned back and told Ryo, "I wouldn't worry about him suddenly deciding to leave us. Just look over there. He didn't take everything with him when he went… wherever he went."
"I wouldn't even say that he took most of his stuff with him," Casey tossed in, sounding quiet. "He'll be back."
"That's not what I'm worried about," Ryo said. He began to stand up and said, "I'm much more concerned about why he isn't there in the first place."
Caryl yawned and stretched as she woke up. "That was a kapai sleep. It's been some time since I went out camping."
Ryo smiled gently. "Good morning. Glad you slept well."
Getting back to the topic at hand, Casey suggested, "Maybe he just wandered off somewhere."
"Where would he wander off to?" Ryo asked.
Casey shrugged her shoulders. "Beats me."
Kyle then lit a fire to cook some breakfast. The level of immediate concern about Josh fell.
Digicross Advanced Alpha Chapter 4: "Steel Wings and Soft Berries"
After his little adventure the previous night, Josh had fallen asleep against the side of a building about fifteen minutes away from camp. He was woken up by the sun as it began to rise. He yawned and slowly opened his eyes. For a few moments, he was incredibly groggy. However, that feeling would subside when he realized one very important fact. This isn't my bed.
Josh hurriedly climbed to his feet and looked around trying to figure out where he actually was. Where am I? How did I get here? Off to his immediate left was a lake. Behind him was the building he'd slept on. A sign on the building clearly read: 'Pretty Petal Flower Shop: Come in for Hoenn's best flowers and berries!'
He then shook out any remaining cobwebs he had from waking up. How far away is camp? I couldn't have wandered that far, could I?
The next question to enter his mind was far more depressing and far more alarming. What if they just left without you? Josh looked around, wondering where that thought came from. They don't really care about you or where you go. You wandered out here without them, so who's to say that they won't wander off without you?
This question had an almost immediate reaction upon Josh's already frazzled state. It caused an intense burst of nervous energy which he now needed to get out of his system. The outlet for that anxiousness this time was to pace back and forth in front of the shop. What if they really did leave? Would they leave me behind like so much trash? Where could they be? Like a record continually playing the same section of a song, these questions looped again and again.
After a few minutes of this pacing, the door to the shop opened. From inside, a young woman appeared and turned to the young man pacing outside. "Can I help you?"
Josh turned quickly toward the woman and said rapidly, "Yes. Have you seen…" He went on to describe the people who had been traveling with him yesterday.
She listened to his descriptions carefully, all the while trying to remember anyone who looked at all like his descriptions. After he finally stopped talking, she shook her head. "No, I can't say I've seen anyone who looks like any of those people."
This response caused Josh to pace faster, almost wearing a path into the grass beneath his feet. She asked, "Do you have any idea where they were headed?"
"Toward Rustboro City. Where is it from here?"
She pointed in a direction away from her shop to the northeast. "It's off in that direction." This new bit of information did nothing to calm Josh down. Instead, she had another suggestion. "How about you come inside and have a bit of tea? I don't think I can send you on in good conscience while you're like that."
Josh's anxious energy was nearing a boiling point and he knew it. "I want to accept the offer, but what if they come by? What if they don't?" Josh said, pacing. This made the young woman worry about him more. Before his energy could reach critical mass, he turned around and said, "I think I will accept your offer." She seemed relieved as she brought Josh inside.
Back at camp, everyone was eating Kyle's breakfast offerings and they were pretty good. As they ate, thoughts turned back to the one person who wasn't sitting here, enjoying it. "You don't think those poachers came back, do you?" Casey suggested.
"I'd like to think that we could hear a giant tank or, at worst, one of those bags being set off," Kyle answered before taking another bite.
"I can't imagine him roaming off on his own. Not after what happened yesterday," Ryo mentioned.
"Maybe he thinks trouble just follows him everywhere he goes," Casey observed.
Kyle looked over and asked, "Do you really believe that to be true?"
"Of course not!" she argued. "Look at what happened to us back in Oldale! And you couldn't possibly argue that he had anything to do with it!"
"That's true," Ryo nodded. "I don't think you could attribute anything that happened yesterday to him."
Caryl, who had been remarkably silent, chose now to throw in her own cockamamie theory. "What if he was sleepwalking?"
"I would have thought Gail would know that already," Ryo rebuffed.
"So?" she asked back. "Even if she did, she had no reason to tell anyone else about it."
Ryo was about to open his mouth again, but he realized that was a valid point. "Where do you think he is?"
Before Caryl could answer, Kyle stepped in. "Probably north of the forest. Think about it; out there, he would have no sense of direction or sense of how far he would have wandered off."
"... What that bloke said," Caryl said, confirming this. She then caught herself and shouted, "I'm turning into a Kiwi!"
Everyone groaned. Kyle turned to Ryo, "Is this going to happen every time?"
"I'm afraid so..." Ryo responded before breathing out an exasperated sigh.
At the Flower Shop, Josh sat at a small table. Surrounding him were numerous flowers and various pouches containing a variety of berries from around the region. The young woman who had talked with him before served him some tea. "It's Cheri Berry Tea. It helps to relieve tension."
Josh's jitters had gotten a little worse. It was almost to the point of shaking the table. "T-T-Thank you," he answered. He took a nervous sip and then put the cup down again. A minimal amount spilled onto his jeans from all the nervous shaking, causing him to yelp lightly.
After making sure he was okay, the young woman asked, "Do you know your name?" She feared that he might be suffering from some form of amnesia.
He nodded quickly and said, "M-My name is Josh, ma'am."
"Please don't call me ma'am," she suggested, giving him a gentle smile. "Just call me Marianne. I run the Pretty Petal Flower Shop."
"Thanks again M-Marianne," Josh said before he took another sip of the tea.
"So… you don't know where you are… you don't know how you got here… and you don't know where the people you were traveling with yesterday got to. Am I understanding all of that correctly?" she asked.
"Yeah… I started off, I thought… in Petalburg Woods," he said, still shivering as he put the cup down.
"Well, that's not too far from here. The north entrance is about 15 minutes away from here," Marianne responded.
"Really?" Josh sounded very surprised. "We're that close to the forest?"
"Yeah."
"Good… I'll have to head back in that direction and hope my stuff hasn't gotten stolen…" He sounded slightly more clear-headed now.
Marianne then saw one opportunity ahead of her. "Hey, do you think you could do me a favor?"
Josh took a nervous sip of his tea, his twitching growing a bit calmer. "What?"
Marianne saw that he was still shaken and shook her head. "Finish your tea first and then we'll talk." Josh agreed to this and used this time to try and calm his frayed nerves down.
About twenty minutes later, the rest of the Digidestined team had emerged from the Woods. They had cleaned up breakfast and gathered all of Josh's things. Ryo had the 'honor' of lugging two packs around, as they couldn't just leave that stuff where they camped out.
Soon after emerging, they came to a fork in the road at the edge of a lake. In front of them was a sign pointing in both directions. "1 km west: Pretty Petal Flower Shop; 2 km east: Bridge to Rustboro City"
"Ooh! A flower shop! Let's head in that direction!" Caryl suggested.
"You just want to go that way because you want a bouquet of flowers," Ryo accused.
Caryl did nothing to deny this claim. Her only answer was, "So?"
The team stood there while Ryo and Caryl stared at each other for a few seconds. Eventually, Kyle broke up the silence and gave a better reason to head in that direction first. "The sign said nothing about a path to Rustboro City in that direction. So, if he did go that way, we'd never find him taking the main path."
Not surprisingly, Caryl latched onto that logic in a heartbeat. "What he said!"
Casey decided to poke a little fun at Kyle as they began walking toward the Flower Shop. "You and Caryl really are thinking alike today, aren't you?"
"More like she's agreeing with everything I'm saying," Kyle corrected.
Ten minutes later, at the Flower Shop, Josh's shaking had finally ceased. He had drank three cups of the tea before he finally calmed all the way down. One could argue that the knowledge of his position also calmed his mind.
Marianne made a suggestion at this point. "Maybe you should take some extra bags with you… in case this happens again."
"That sounds like a very good idea," Josh said with a smile. "When I come back later to ask about what favor you want me to do for you, I can buy some from you then."
Marianne brightened and asked, "Would you like for me to tell you what I would ask of you to do? It'll only take a couple of minutes and then you can go searching all you want."
Josh blinked and then nodded. "Sure, what's up?"
"Well, my crops keep on disappearing, night after night…" she began.
She was about to go further, but she was interrupted by a voice from outside. "Are you telling that story again?" Both turned to see a young man standing there. He was much younger than both of them. "You're just being paranoid, Marianne."
"Oh stop, Rick," she said, scoffing. "They are disappearing and I would like to find out why they are before I lose enough of my crops to start threatening my business."
Josh blinked and asked, "Do you two know each other?"
"He hangs outside my shop most days," Marianne said. "So, we have gotten to know each other fairly well."
Rick stepped inside and smiled in Josh's direction. "It's good to meet you. I might not look like it, but I'm actually an accomplished Move Tutor."
"Aren't you a little… young?" Josh asked, tilting his head.
"That's what everyone says," Rick said with a smirk. "And then they learn one of my moves. They're perfect for people taking on the League Challenge in nearby Rustboro City."
Josh's face looked a little bit more excited. "You can do that?"
He nodded his head and then had a hard look at Josh. "You're a… Treecko trainer, right?"
"How could you know that?" Josh asked, looking confused.
"You have the look of a trainer who would train an excellent Treecko," Rick said confidently.
You don't want to admit that you just guessed… Marianne thought to herself.
As Josh came around the counter toward the front of the store, Rick reached into his pocket and pulled out a CD. "Take this. It's a Technical Machine for a move called Bullet Seed. Treecko should be able to make good use of it when you go up against Roxanne."
"Thank you, Rick," Josh said calmly as he took the machine and pocketed it; he'd have to use it on Blade later on. He then turned his attention back to Marianne. "So, as you were saying before?"
"Ah, right. I always seem to start the day with fewer berries than when I end it. I think someone's stealing my berries," she said. Her voice sounded more distraught toward the end.
"And I say that there really isn't that much interest in stealing berries in the first place," Rick added. "Why would someone want to steal something they could simply find in nature around here?"
"You simply don't realize just how valuable Berries can be for anyone calling themselves a Pokémon Trainer," Marianne retorted. "Not only can they be used in combat, they can be used as ingredients in a wide variety of foods and they can even be used to enhance a Pokémon's inner beauty or cuteness!"
This argument was the first thing that the rest of the Digidestined team heard as they approached the Flower Shop. "Sounds like you and I sometimes," Casey noted, looking toward Kyle.
More like you and anyone you meet… Kyle thought to himself.
They decided to approach with caution, lest they get swept up in the argument themselves.
"You're far too obsessed with these Berries, Marianne. I understand that they are your business and everything, but… dang it! This obsession is costing you sleep and causing your work to suffer during the day," Rick shouted back.
"People all over Hoenn are counting on me. And while I have a cache which I can draw from during emergencies, I'm running out fast. If I don't do something now, those supplies are going to dry up," she argued back.
Josh watched the two of them go back and forth on the topic for a couple of minutes. Slowly, the volume kept rising as the conversation continued. Eventually, Josh decided to throw his two cents into the mix. "It doesn't matter to me if it is a fool's errand," he started at a tone louder than the bickersons, "I'm going to stay here tonight and help her. She helped me, so it's my turn to do the same."
Marianne patted Josh on the back from behind the counter, "Thank you so much!"
Rick put his hands up in defense and said, "Hey, man. If you want to help her, I won't try to stop you. Just try not to get obsessed like she has."
"I'm only staying one night. I don't think I will have time to get obsessed," Josh observed. "For now, I really do have to get going. I need to see if I can find my stuff or, better still, the people I was traveling with."
For the second time in the very short time he had been in Hoenn, his train of thought was interrupted by the arrival of other Digidestined. "That won't be necessary," a voice came from behind Josh and Rick.
Josh whipped around and saw a sight that would have meant little just hours before: the rest of his traveling party. His face beamed at the sight. "Hi, guys!"
"What did you go and sign us up for?" Casey asked, sounding exasperated.
"I didn't sign you up for anything," Josh clarified. "I signed myself up for something."
"If we're going to stay together as a party, then we're sticking around to help," Ryo interjected.
"All right," Josh said with a small smile. "We're starting here tonight. This young lady has a problem with someone making off with her berries, and I volunteered to try and do something about it."
"We can talk about all of that later, but first..." Ryo took off and dropped Josh's backpack on the ground. "Take your stuff back, please..."
Josh sweatdropped and picked up his pack with a sheepish grin on his face. "Thanks."
Caryl, meanwhile, was looking around the store, amazed by the sheer selection of flowers on offer. "You must have flowers from all over Hoenn in here," she remarked.
"I try," Marianne said with a smile.
Once she said this, Ryo walked in and looked around himself. Seeing how excited she had been, he knew that he would be buying her some flowers before they left.
"You know, Caryl is not the only one who likes flowers..." Casey said in Kyle's general direction.
Kyle stared at her for a minute. "Yeah, right..."
"... What is that supposed to mean?!" She argued back.
It was at this moment that Josh was pleased about one thing. Thank goodness that I missed out on having a girlfriend... He then chose to head to the restroom to put on what gear he needed to from his pack.
As Josh came back out, Rick walked up to him and asked, "Do you want to come outside and test out your new move?"
Josh nodded in response and walked into the nearby field. Kyle, curious about this, followed behind.
Ten minutes later, Josh had consumed his TM, using it on Blade to teach him Bullet Seed. Kyle walked up to the two of them and asked, "Do you teach all kinds of moves?"
Rick turned around and said, "While Bullet Seed is my only TM, I do teach other moves. Concerned about the Gym Leader?"
"According to the guidebook, Roxanne is a Rock-type Gym Leader," Kyle noted.
Rick nodded. "That is quite true. For Josh, he shouldn't have issues, especially since his Treecko now knows Bullet Seed. Do you have a Mudkip?"
"No, that would be the loudmouth, Casey," he said, grumbling toward the end.
"Then you have Torchic," Rick concluded. "That's a tough act. But, if you have other Pokémon, I might be able to help them overcome that particular shortcoming."
"I have Noble, a Pikachu..."
"Perhaps they would like to learn Iron Tail," the tutor answered.
Kyle thought about it briefly before shaking his head. "Nah... I would rather use Noble when she has the greatest possible advantage."
Rick nodded. "Understandable. Anyone else?"
"Well, I do have a Taillow..."
"Perfect. I could teach it Steel Wing. It might be a bit more of a double-edged sword, but it could surprise the Gym Leader." Rick said, smirking as he presented the scenario to Kyle
He liked what he heard. "Perfect. Let's do it."
Josh walked into the orchard to get a lay of the land. Blade walked in front of him, looking for a perfect place to test out his new Bullet Seed.
Unbeknownst to both of them, one of the poachers from yesterday was laying in wait in one of the bushes. That's the kid the boss bagged up. Not that it really matters. He's not what I'm after here. I just have to wait a little while longer.
"Blade, let's try a little target practice before we head in for the night," Josh said.
"Treecko!" Blade said in agreement.
Josh scanned the bushes along the west side of the orchard. After doing so for a few moments, he pointed at one bush. "Blade, hit that one with Bullet Seed!"
Blade crouched down and then fired several salvos of seeds directly into the bush. Oddly enough, the bush Josh had chosen randomly contained the poacher. And Blade's attack caused it to explode, sending the poacher flying into the air.
Josh blinked and watched as the poacher went into the air. "Holy crap, Blade... " As he stared, he asked, "Wasn't that one of those poachers?"
Up in the air, the poacher was covered in soot and flying upward. "Boss, I'm afraid I won't be able to capture our target."
"What happened?"
"Let's say… now I know how those three morons from Kanto feel when they go blasting off." The poacher flew onward, drawing out of sight quickly.
Back on the ground, Josh turned his attention to his Pokémon. "You really don't know your own strength, do you?"
Last time, Blade looked slightly embarrassed by the show of strength. That didn't happen this time. Instead, he looked prideful. "Treecko!"
Back out on the plain, Taillow took to the skies. Kyle was below and watching. Rick had released his own bird, a Wingull. For the last twenty minutes, Rick had been instructing Taillow on how to charge his wings with energy to turn them temporarily to Steel. Wingull had been the one to demonstrate the technique throughout this process.
Taillow was getting close. He was able to charge up his wings just fine, but couldn't quite hold it through the dive into an enemy. "Take it one step at a time!" Kyle shouted up to Taillow.
"Make sure you've got your form completely set before you even attempt to attack," Rick advised.
It took a few more attempts for Taillow to learn exactly how long he needed to charge before dive bombing to hit the training dummy made of rock. The first time it hit successfully, a slice was made into the stone.
"Nice job!" Rick praised. "Now, see if you can't make the process faster!"
By now, Josh had returned from the orchard with Blade and both watched the training process continue. Taillow practiced over and over again. Each time, he became a little bit faster. Rick stressed, "Every second counts! Especially when you're up against Pokémon you would be weak to!"
Josh turned to Kyle and asked, "So, the training is going well?"
He nodded and smiled. "Yeah. Taillow is catching on rather quick."
"All he needs to do now is learn how to compress the process of using Steel Wing. He won't be able to take ten seconds charging up when an opponent is preparing to throw rocks at him," Rick said.
That point couldn't really be argued, so the training went on. What Taillow would need to learn is how to charge and dodge at the same time. To help with that, Rick commanded Wingull to start trying to blast Taillow out of the sky with Water Gun.
Any time Taillow stopped to charge up, he would end up getting wet. So, he had to learn how to dodge and charge at the same time. This lesson would end up taking several hours more. Kyle would need to borrow some Potions to finish the job. But, it would pay off when Taillow learned how to use Steel Wing without needing to stop in mid-air.
"Excellent work!" Kyle said, praising his newest team member.
"Taillow!" he crowed back.
Kyle had wondered how he would fit into the team, and it appeared that he now had his answer.
After a small celebration and some Pokémon treats for both Blade and Taillow, the two of them went back inside after saying good-bye to Rick for now.
Casey and Caryl had been busy perusing the wares of the shop for hours now. Between the aromatherapy pods, the flower arrangements and the candies, the Flower Shop certainly knew how to maximize the uses for the berries it utilized.
Ryo, meanwhile, was still looking for that perfect bouquet to give to Caryl. It simultaneously annoyed her and pleased her that he was taking this decision so seriously. It annoyed her because he was taking forever to do anything. It pleased her because it showed her how much thought he was putting into something like this.
When the two boys reentered the shop, Casey turned toward them. "So, how did it go?"
"We're both ready for Rustboro Gym," Josh said confidently.
"I certainly hope so," Casey replied. "But before that, we have to deal with whatever it is that's stealing this shop's berries."
"Agreed," Josh said.
Even as the sun set and Josh prepared himself for a stakeout, Ryo still hadn't made any real decision about what sort of flowers to give Caryl.
What Josh didn't quite anticipate was that he would be joined in his stakeout by Kyle and Ryo. "You know… you didn't have to come out here. You could have been sleeping like Casey and Caryl are," Josh pointed out.
"You're right," Ryo said. "We didn't have to do this. But, we wanted to help out any way we could."
Kyle then tossed in an extra helpful tidbit. "I should be able to hear when something approaches sooner than any of you can."
"Well, I appreciate it, guys." Josh said before looking back out toward the orchard.
While they waited for… whatever it was to appear, Ryo had one good question for his wayward companion. "What exactly happened last night? Why did you leave?"
"I have no clue," he replied. "I went to sleep in Petalburg Woods and woke up sitting alongside that building."
"So, you're a sleepwalker?" Kyle asked.
Josh shrugged his shoulders. "I guess."
Ryo immediately followed up with, "What do you mean 'I guess'?"
"It's actually the first time I've ever done that," Josh confessed.
This caught both of them off-guard. "Wait, what? You mean that you haven't been doing this all your life?" Ryo inquired.
"No," Josh responded. "Last night was the first time that I can remember going to sleep one place and waking up in another. That's why I panicked like I did. I honestly thought that you might just leave me behind."
Ryo stared at him for a few moments. First the wireless communications not working. Now this? What in the world is going on?
He wouldn't get time to ponder this further. Kyle poked both of them and said quietly, "I hear something. Get ready." Both of them nodded and reached for their Poké Balls. They would be ready at a moment's notice to act.
What they saw come out of the bush twenty seconds later was not quite what they were expecting: two Pokémon. One was a Ralts, like the kind Josh had assisted Wally in obtaining earlier in his journey. No way, it couldn't possibly be… His first depressing thought was. That thought had to be quickly put out of mind.
The other was a Pokémon who looked incredibly out of place around here. It was a small walking cactus-like Pokémon. Josh pulled out his Pokédex almost instinctually. "Cacnea, the cactus Pokémon. The more arid and harsh the environment, the more pretty and fragrant a flower it grows. This Pokémon battles by wildly swinging its thick, spiked arms."
"What is a Pokémon like this doing wandering around here?" Kyle whispered.
Ryo noticed one other oddity about the situation. "Why is that Pokémon leading Ralts around?"
Cacnea looked up into one of the trees in the orchard and fired off a number of Pin Missiles. From above, several berries dropped down. Both Ralts and Cacnea took a couple of berries to eat.
That certainly solves the mystery of where the missing berries have gone. Josh thought to himself.
All three of them reached for a Poké Ball. From the bushes, they popped out and threw out Poochyena, Charmeleon and Taillow.
Cacnea was spooked by the sudden appearance of three Pokémon trainers. He reacted very violently to them and began firing off thorns in their direction.
His aim wasn't the best, though. While he did hit the Pokémon and the humans occasionally, most flew into air. One in particular shattered the window facing the orchard on the building. A light went on moments later.
"Poochyena, don't let them get away!" Josh commanded as he pulled a thorn out of his arm.
The small puppy circled around to the back of these two Pokémon. Ralts ran toward the building. Kyle was about to send Taillow after it, but he was distracted by another barrage of spikes from Cacnea. "Hit it now with Tackle!" He yelled.
Taillow shot forward, dodging a few more thorns on the way in. He hit Cacnea, forcing it to roll backwards.
"Poochyena, follow up with another Tackle!" Josh turned to Ryo and looked at him. Ryo looked at him and nodded.
"Charmeleon, move into position!"
"Right!" He moved to where he thought Poochyena would send Cacnea. Thanks to their experience, he got right in line for where he needed to be.
Poochyena sent Cacnea rolling just as he took a thorn to the knee. Josh had to restrain himself from going and trying to heal him right now.
"Take after Casey and batter up!" Ryo said. Charmeleon reared his tail back and then let loose, spinning several times. Cacnea couldn't stop itself from rolling before it hit the tail. It went flying right out of the proverbial park.
Charmeleon kept spinning for several moments before finally stopping. He was also quite dizzy, eyes spinning. "Great home run!" Ryo praised.
"Urgh..." the lizard grumbled. "Praise me after the world stops spinning..." He fell over on the ground.
Josh pulled some thorns out of Poochyena. "You okay, buddy?" He barked in response.
Then, an ear-shattering shriek broke the silence which followed the end of combat. Ryo shot to his feet. "Caryl!" He knew right away who had shrieked and ran inside, leaving Charmeleon to recover.
When he got to the room where they all were sleeping, he found Caryl and Casey both awake and a Poké Ball sitting on the floor. "What happened here?"
Caryl hugged Ryo and told him, "This bloke was climbing all over me... and I just threw the nearest thing I had at it..."
Ryo looked at the Poké Ball and asked, "Was it a Pokémon?"
"I guess," Caryl replied, still shaking.
Did that Ralts come in here? Ryo wondered. Josh could have told him that Ralts are naturally attracted by those with positive attitudes.
After spending the next half-hour calming everyone down and healing their wounds, they all went to sleep.
Cinnabar Island was the place both Josh and Ryo called home. Of course, they didn't live there alone. Josh had his family there and Ryo had his own closest relative living there as well: his aunt, Prima.
That name was an alias she used when not competing in the Indigo Champion's League. She was Lorelei of the Elite Four. But, that fact didn't stop Ryo from calling her Aunt Prima.
Today, Prima received a piece of mail postmarked from Petalburg City. She recognized Ryo's handwriting right away. "I didn't expect him to send something so soon."
She pulled the letter out of its envelope and began to read it. 'Dear Aunt Prima, I hope this letter finds you well. I already have some news to report to you.
First of all, the theory that Izzy presented before I left for Hoenn turns out to hold some water. When the ferry was a couple hours away from Hoenn, the Digivice I carry shut down and has not turned back on since. Because of this, I fear that his other theory has more than passing merit. If a pure digital being came here, it is likely they would fade away within mere hours. Fortunately, as expected, Charmeleon gets on just fine around here. Since he was born here, he's used to being cut off from Digital Energy.
While I have not found the cause yet, I have found what I believe to be an indirect result of this lack of contact with the Digital plane. All communication here in Hoenn, whether it be television, Internet or video phone, is all done by cable. They don't do anything via wireless communication. Whether this is a true cause and effect is something I will need to research further.
I won't have to do it alone. Just a few hours into my trip here, I met Kyle Evanick and Casey again. They both came to start new Pokémon journeys here. Don't worry; neither one of them had their Digimon with them. The same can also be said for someone else I was surprised to find here in Hoenn: Josh.
He hasn't really told anyone why he came to Hoenn, but suffice it to say that I'll be traveling with him, as well as with Kyle and Casey. Please make sure to let Gail know that I am with her son. I know that she would want to know about that.
When I find out more information, I will let you know about it. Although, the only way I can really send communication is via these letters due to the whole lack of communication across the sea thing. In the meantime, stay well. Love, Ryo.'
Prima read it over a couple of times before she got on the phone. "Hello, Samuel?"
"Ah, Prima. What can I do for you this morning?"
"I received a letter from Ryo, and I know that a certain part-time assistant of yours will be very interested in reading it."
"He's already found some information that he can use?"
"It's not much, but it's at least preliminary information that Izzy might be able to use to form further hypotheses."
"All right. Bring it here as soon as you can and I'll pass it onto to him as soon as possible."
"Thank you. I'll be by later, as I need to go speak with Gail first."
She hung up and walked over to Josh's house to speak with Gail.
Around 11 am, the Digidestined finally began to wake up inside the Pretty Petal Flower Shop. The previous night's events were odd, to say the least. Caryl had managed to catch a Ralts without even trying because he ran toward her after Cacnea went ballistic. Cacnea was sent flying far away, and the Berry problem had finally been solved.
In gratitude for this service, Marianne gifted Josh with three things. For one, a box of tea bags to use in the future, should the panic strike again one day. For another, he received a pouch full of common but useful berries. Finally, he received a bouquet of flowers. "You really didn't have to do all of this…"
"Of course I did!" Marianne said with a smile. "You saved my business from that ravenous Cacnea and that horrible Ralts."
"Ralts isn't horrible," Caryl defended. "He was scared and alone."
Josh turned to Ryo and asked, "Would you kindly take these flowers?"
Ryo looked surprised for a brief moment, but he got the idea soon after. He took the bouquet from Josh and then gave them to their real recipient: Caryl. She buried her head in the bouquet and then grinned. "This is kapai! Thanks a lot!" Her sense of gratitude overwhelmed any sense of shame over the use of another piece of Kiwi slang.
"Take care of yourselves, you hear?" Marianne said as she began to wave. The Digidestined waved back and left the store behind. Caryl kept her head close to the flowers so that she could enjoy the smell for as long as possible.
Outside, they had one more person to see, Rick. He looked surprised after hearing from Marianne about how her problems had been solved. "I'm… sorry for the way I acted in there yesterday. I thought all of Marianne's problems were in her head. I-I should have known better."
"You more than made up for that when you helped Josh and I," Kyle remarked. "You did what you do best, and that's bringing out the best in trainers."
Rick blushed and laughed sheepishly. "Thanks."
"Take care!" Kyle shouted as they walked onward toward Rustboro City.
While the events at the Pretty Petal Flower Shop might have come to an end, that wasn't to say that the day was out of surprises. No surprises occurred during their four-hour-long trip to the big city. The team talked with one another, Casey started the occasional argument with the others and in general life was normal.
But, just outside the city was a poster. On it was a picture of a flamboyantly dressed person with some playing cards around them as well as the following text, "Come see the incredible Harry David Angel! For one night only, tonight in the Rustboro Theater!"
"That's interesting," Kyle said. "You wouldn't think there would be much demand for human magicians in this world, what with all the amazing stuff Pokémon can do."
"You'd be surprised," Ryo replied. "Because they do tend to be rarer sights, they tend to attract more people."
"They're usually quite lame back home," Josh observed. "I can't claim to know anything about what they would be like on this world."
"Should we go see the show tonight?" Ryo inquired. "It's almost 4 PM already, so it might be too late to take on the Gym today."
"Why not?" Kyle asked. "What's the worst that could possibly happen?"
Josh replied, "The magician could cut Casey in half and then forget to put her back together."
"Not. Funny." Casey glared lightly at Josh.
After checking in at the Pokémon Center and grabbing a bite to eat, the Digidestined made their way to the theater to watch the show. Tickets were relatively expensive, at 1,000 Pokémon Dollars a pop.
For Josh, Kyle and Caryl, none of this was anything they wouldn't have seen on television back home. The stage was lit up by numerous bright lights which had some choreography depending on the trick.
Most of the typical tricks in the magician's arsenal was here. Transforming Pokémon into other Pokémon, making things disappear, the aforementioned sawing someone in half and escape tricks. Some of these were impressive to watch, especially the one where the performer teleported an item into the audience with the assistance of a single Pokémon.
About an hour into the show, Harry sought two volunteers from the audience for his next trick. And while there were many who wanted to volunteer, a particular sight caught his eye. Casey hadn't watched many of his tricks before now. Based entirely on the comment made outside, she had spent the majority of the show glaring at Josh. Josh, being Josh, ignored her and watched the show in peace, except those times when he winced due to her kicking him under the table.
In his mind, these two were perfect for this next trick. "I'd like to call to the stage the purple-haired girl and the boy she has been staring at the entire show."
Casey was immediately shaken from her mood due to the surprise. "Me?" She asked, her voice expressing that surprise.
"Yes," he said. "You and the boy." Josh looked at Casey before both got up and went on stage. The audience applauded as they walked up.
Once they got on stage, Harry instructed, "Stand next to each other." After some shuffling due to not being anywhere close to on the same page, they eventually settled with Josh standing on Casey's right side.
Harry presented a cloth, as he had done through most of the show. "Watch carefully. I'm about to bring these two together."
Good luck with that, Ryo and Kyle thought simultaneously. However, the magician had a different idea of 'together'. The cloth passed over the hands closest to each other.
Casey yelped as she suddenly felt something clamp onto her right wrist. Josh's head shot to the cloth. When the cloth was pulled away, they were both mystified as their wrists had been locked inside what looked like a bracelet. Neither one was connected to the other, creating even more confusion.
"Behold!" Harry said, "Even these two can be brought together by something like this!" The audience, seeing the same thing that Josh and Casey saw, didn't laugh at the joke. It made no sense right now.
Casey did not find a single thing about this funny. "What kind of trick is this?!" She shouted, causing Josh to wince. "You lock these bracelets around our wrists for what reason, exactly?"
Still oblivious to the situation, Harry said, "Come now, isn't it obvious?"
Now officially sick of the trick, Casey began to walk in Harry's general direction. "You take-"
Her train of thought went no further as the bracelets suddenly came to life. Between them, a 'chain' of pure energy emerged and Casey was thrown backwards toward the stationary Josh. She slid into Josh's leg after she fell on stage. Worse than this was the fact that both of them were shocked as if they had been hit by Noble. Their hair frizzed up and they had a bit of soot on their faces.
Once the sound of the shock hit Harry's ears, he turned to see what he had wrought. In a few short moments, the once positive veneer was replaced by one of great anxiousness. "Uh, wait a second here."
The audience, now positively entranced by the newly created spectacle, oohed and ahhed. Everything the performer had done up until now had been eclipsed in an instant by these 'magic cuffs'.
"Dang it!" Casey yelled. "I'm not just going to stand here and take this abuse!" She then pointed out into the audience with her free hand at Kyle. "This is all your fault."
Then, she did something no one was expecting, least of all Josh. "Come on, you!" She then began marching out of the theater. Josh was largely being dragged out of there, protesting that she should stop.
The theater sat in stunned silence from the outburst. Ryo, Kyle and Caryl soon got up and went after them. As they left, Harry made one remark, "Guess they wanted to stay together so bad that they didn't even let me finish the trick!" The audience laughed.
Outside, Casey was looking at her bracelet from all angles she could manage. "Is there even a keyhole?"
Josh groaned and facepalmed with his free hand. "I'm sure there was a trick to getting out of these... a trick he would have performed if you hadn't marched off the stage!"
"Shut up!" She shot back. "He just wanted to 'bring us together'. We have no guarantee that he would have released us!"
"Except for the fact that it's... you know, a show!"
"Just pull!" Josh and Casey pulled against the laser chain binding them. Beyond the five inches they were able to get from one another, the chain had no additional give.
"This is all your fault!" Casey yelled as they continued pulling.
"How is this possibly my fault?! You're the one who kept giving me a death glare and caught his attention!" Josh argued.
"If you hadn't made that comment, I wouldn't have glared at you!"
"Yeah, right..." Josh rolled his eyes and they kept pulling.
Ryo, Kyle and Caryl watched as their methodology changed from using brute force to having their Pokémon use brute force on the beam. To the surprise of no one, none of this actually worked.
Casey growled. "Looks like we're not getting this off tonight."
"And whose fault is that?" Kyle chided. "It's as Josh said. If you hadn't marched off the stage, I'm sure he would have let you two go. Now, you have a piece of his equipment. We don't really have the money to waste on another set of tickets to go back in and he leaves town tonight."
"I could always just withdraw money from the bank and we could go back in," Ryo pointed out.
Josh shook his head. "I'd rather you didn't break the bank on account of her stupidity."
As much as Casey would have loved to smack Josh for that comment, she knew now who to blame for this happening to her. She rounded on Kyle and claimed, "This is your fault. You're the one who insisted that we had to go to a show tonight."
This sparked another argument between Kyle and Casey. Ryo groaned and shook his head. Caryl had an entirely different reaction. Maybe I should see if I can find something like that for Ryo and I.
After another minute, Ryo got forceful with both of them, getting in between them and pushing them apart. "This isn't helping anything. Let's go to the Pokémon Center, get some rest, and try again tomorrow."
"Fine by me," Josh said. "The fewer waking hours I have to be in this position, the better."
"I guess we can agree on one thing!" Casey shouted.
As they walked back to the Pokémon Center, Kyle did manage to find a silver lining in this. "Look at the bright side, Josh— no more sleepwalking."
Josh thought about it and chuckled. "I guess that's true. It would be kind of hard to sleepwalk with someone attached to my arm."
Casey didn't say anything to this. She couldn't say anything. She was only imagining waking up one night being dragged along the ground. Never mind the fact that she wasn't a heavy enough sleeper for this to ever occur.
"No more waking up in strange places, which is a definite plus," Josh concluded.
After arriving at the Pokémon Center, they checked into the back room and a new 'discussion' ensued, mostly about how much Casey and Josh wanted to be apart from one another. Though they both agreed on not wanting to be bound together, they argued over who wanted away from the other more.
About forty minutes after they arrived and in the midst of this argument, the Digidestined got an unexpected guest; Harry David Angel. He still wore the same flamboyant garb he wore on stage, but his facade no longer matched. "I'm so sorry about this," he said, bowing his head. "I must have grabbed the wrong ones backstage; they look so much alike."
"Then get us out!" Casey demanded.
"I'm afraid it won't be that simple," he explained. "Those are far from ordinary cuffs you're wearing right now. I picked them up sometime ago as a novelty. I had no idea they worked, though."
Josh groaned and facepalmed. "What are these cuffs, then?"
"According to the documentation which came with them, they're called the Cursed Cuffs of the Estranged Lovers."
That sounds like the worst episode of Legends of the Hidden Temple ever… Kyle thought to himself.
The word 'cursed' filled Casey with dread. "We're not going to die, are we?" she asked, her voice betraying the fright in her heart.
"No, no," Harry quickly assured them both. "It's not that kind of curse." Casey breathed an audible sigh of relief.
"It's the kind where you end up wearing an item and can never take it off again, right?" Kyle asked. His mind had wandered to an anime he'd seen where a character had been cursed to wear a necklace, hence the question.
"Precisely," Harry said. "I received a book with the cuffs. it had this long-winded story about how it was created 1,000 years ago by some mystic shaman to resolve the differences between two lovers by force. My guess is that it was an arranged marriage and-"
"We don't really care about that," Josh interrupted. "Can we get out of these things now?"
"In short? No." Both Josh and Casey groaned.
"What are they going to have to do to get out?" Ryo asked.
"The first thing they will have to do is stop arguing with each other. So long as they do that, they won't be getting any further away from one another," Harry explained.
"These things can tell?" Caryl asked, looking at the devices.
"Yes. They apparently can detect heightened emotions, both from arguments and from other kinds of battle. It will react and snap them back to this length. It will also sense when the 'lovers' would rather split up and force them to remain together."
Kyle and Caryl couldn't help but snicker at that term being used to describe those two. "The beam will eventually disappear. Wander too far away from one another, and you're in for a painful shock. As you stop arguing, you'll find that you will have some distance you can put between each other."
By now, Casey and Josh were each looking at the floor, about to have a Psyduck-level headache. "What do we need to do to get free?" Casey asked, sounding like she was about to strangle Harry for putting her in this mess.
Sensing this hostility, Harry wisely kept his distance from the two trainers as he dropped a bombshell on them both. "You will need to find peace with one another and not bicker for at least seven consecutive days before you will even be eligible for release."
Ryo and Kyle thought the same thing. They'll be stuck together for life…
"Hopefully, we'll meet again when you have done so. My show must go on, and I'm due in Fallarbor in three days time." Harry got up and began to walk out. "Take care of yourselves... and try not to kill each other."
The only thing which kept Casey from going after Harry and beaning him upside the head was the fact that she was stuck to Josh, who was currently sitting down.
Ryo and Kyle waved to the magician as he left. Josh stared at the cursed restraints, wondering what deity he had pissed off so badly to deserve this fate. "Maybe you two will actually become lovers," Caryl teased, poking at Josh's right side.
"Me, fall in love with her?"
"Me, fall in love with him?!"
"Fat chance!" The ending exclamation was yelled by both at the same time. When they realized they had done this, they stared at each other for a single moment before they huffed and looked away from one another.
The rest of the trip to the Pokémon Center was spent in silence.
Next chapter: Team Magma returns! This time, they want to steal from Hoenn's largest corporation. But, the Digidestined stand in their way. Also, Gym Time!