Chapter 7: To Catch a Thief

The day continued to pass as a young lady ran was ran through the streets of Pewter city as fast as her feet could take her.

"We sure left Red in the dust, huh jigglypuff?" She huffed as she decided to stop and wait for him to catch up "I wonder where he is?"

No sooner did she ask that before jigglypuff tapped her on the head and pointed behind her "There he is!"

In the distance, she spotted her companion running as fast as he could towards her.

"I think we should have some fun with this!" She playfully thought to herself.

As Red approached her, Leaf tipped her hat over her eyes and raised her fist to her mouth like she was talking into a microphone "And here he is ladies and gentlemen, the champion of the Kanto region!"

Red was panting so hard he could barely form words to respond "Ex….EX champion! How…many...times… do I have to…. say it?" He tried to blurt out.

Leaf smirked as she motioned her imaginary microphone in front of Reds face "So….Mr. Ex-Champion, how does it feel to be out run by a girl in a skirt?"

Red sharply narrowed his eyes "Oh! She just HAD to go there!" He thought as he pushed her imaginary mike out of the way and yelled "I HAVE NO COMMENT!"

Leaf gave him a disappointed look as she waved her finger in front of his face "You're too slow Red, I think you need more exercise!"

Red frowned "I'm sorry, I don't have as much experience running from other people as you do!" He retorted.

The two intensely stared one another down until they couldn't hold their serious expressions anymore and started laughing.

"Wow, you look so weird when you're serious Leaf!" Red chuckled

"Oh yeah? Well you look even weirder!" She shot back.

As they finally calmed themselves down, Leaf looked towards the horizon "So, what now Red?"

Red looked up as well "If possible…I'd like for us to get to first and then we can relax."

However, before they could move an inch, Red and Leaf suddenly heard a voice call out to them "RED! LEAF! HOLD UP!"

They turned around to see Brock running up to them.

"Hey Brock, did you miss us already?" Leaf teased as Brock tried to catch his breath.

Brock chuckled "Actually Leaf, there was something I wanted to give you before you left" He stated as he reached into his pocket.

Red sighed "Brock I swear if it's your phone number…" He thought to himself, but to his surprise, Brock pulled out a shiny grey stone and presented it to Leaf.

"What's this?" Leaf asked.

Red observed the stone as well "I believe that's a moonstone, right Brock?"

Brock nodded "You and your jigglypuff make a pretty good team Leaf, I was wondering if you'd ever consider taking it to the next level and evolving it?"

Leaf looked down at the stone as she pondered "If I use this stone, jigglypuff and I would stand a better chance against the other gyms, but still…."

After a few moments of pondering, Leaf shook her head "I'm sorry Brock, but I'm going to have to decline your offer." She stated as she looked down at her partner "Jigglypuff and I have been together for so long, it wouldn't be the same if it evolved…"

Brock smiled "That's alright, reminds me of a friend who thought the same thing a long time ago!" He noted, glancing over at Red "You can keep the stone, many are usually found outside Mt. Moon anyway."

Leaf thanked Brock as he handed her the stone and bid them farewell "Take care guys!" He called out as he ran back to the gym.

Red and Leaf both waved back "I'll talk to you soon Brock!" Red called out and then turned to Leaf who was still looking at the stone "So…what do you want to do with the moonstone?"

Leaf held the stone up to the light like a jeweller and smiled "Lets hold on to it, I'm sure with the right person it would fetch a high price!"

Red rubbed his temple "How'd I figure you'd want to sell it?" He muttered as they resumed their journey.

As they kept walking, Leaf couldn't help but notice that Red had the biggest smile on his face "Hey! What are you smiling about?" She asked out of curiosity.

"Oh….I'm just proud of the decision you made that's all! It's not easy to say no to an evolution stone." Red stated as he looked over at his partner on his shoulder "I had to make that decision once as well…"

Leaf was taken aback, she never once questioned why Red had a pikachu instead of a raichu "And why did you say no?"

Red shrugged "I guess….I just like a challenge!" He noted as Mt. Moon came into view.


As they reached the mountain, Red decided it would be a good time to sit down and finally show Leaf how to use her PokeNav.

"See, this button brings up the map and this one brings up the phone…."

Leaf reached over "….and what does this button d-AHH" She screamed as music suddenly started blaring from the device and Red scrambled to turn it off.

"That's….the…..radio….." He sighed and Leaf grasped her head in defeat.

"Augh! There's so much to remember! Why don't we just use yours?!"

Red sighed "Because….if we ever get spilt up, you can call me and I can find you, yeesh!"

He then reached into his bag and pulled out a square device with some CDs and showed them to Leaf "This is called a technical machine or TM, it teaches pokemon moves that are on these CDs"

"Hmm…." Leaf pondered as she curiously sifted through Reds CDs "So I could teach jigglypuff any move on these CDs?"

"Not ANY move…." Red stated as he looked through his bag and handed Leaf a list "See, here are all the moves jigglypuff can learn with the TM!"

Red watched as Leaf looked over the list and suddenly punched him in the arm "Oww! What was that for?!" He winced.

Leaf pointed to a spot on the list "I could have taught jigglypuff brick break the entire time!" She glared at Red "That would have made the gym battle a hell of a lot easier!"

Red looked away "I…was planning to show you the TM machine….if you had lost…." He stuttered and Leaf stood up

"Did you seriously not think I could win that fight!"

Red stood up as well "Well you sure as hell didn't think so!" He shot back at her "I wanted you to try a vanilla battle without using the technical machine and…well you surprised us all!"

Leaf sighed as she looked down at the ground; she really couldn't argue with that "Well…I guess I can forgive you for that…." She admitted.

Red continued to lecture Leaf about the PokeNav until he noticed that the sun was starting to set behind "It's getting late" He stated and reached into his bag.

"Are you getting the tent?" Leaf asked as Red rummaged through his bag.

"TENT? Heck No!" Red replied as he pulled out a pokeball and summoned charizard "I've had enough of tents over the years, we're not far from home so charizard can just fly us!"

"Sounds good to me!" Leaf said, but as she was walking over to charizard, she felt as if something was moving on her head "What the?" Leaf felt the top of her head to find that nothing was there "Where'd my hat go?"

Suddenly, out of the bushes leap a small pink clefairy that donned Leafs hat "Fairy!" it squeaked happily and ran away.

Leaf gritted her teeth as she watched the small pokemon run away "Hey! Come back here with my hat you thief!"

Red looked up, wondering what all the commotion was about, to see Leaf chasing the little moon pokemon "Hey! I paid good money for that hat!" He stated as he began pursuing as well.

Leaf was steadily gaining on the pokemon, when suddenly it came to a screeching halt in front of her and leapt away revealing a steep slope "Woah!" She yelled and managed to stop just inches from the edge "Phew! That was close!"

But her relief was short lived as Red, pikachu and jigglypuff all bumped into her from behind and four rolled down the slope tumbling onto the ground below.


Leaf rubbed her head in pain and looked up to see that Red had fallen on top of her, causing them both to blush.

"Uh…so is this what you meant by using aggression to get what you want?" Leaf giggled and Reds face grew even more flush.

"OH SHUT UP LEAF!" He yelled clearly embarrassed.

"Fairy!"

Red looked up to see the clefairy dancing a few feet in front of him "There it is!" He said as he got up and made a b-line towards the dancing pokemon.

"Red wait!" Leaf called out "It's right in front of a-"

As soon as Red got close to it, clefairy jumped over him revealing a cliff on the other side and Red barely managed to stop in time.

"WOAH!" He screamed trying to keep his balance.

"Hang on Red! I'm coming!" Leaf shouted as she got up and ran towards him. She managed to grab onto him but lost her balance and the two slipped off the edge.

"OH-NO!" they screamed and closed their eyes as they plummeted to the bottom.

"To think it would end because of a stupid clefairy!" Red thought to himself as he readied himself to feel the impact of hitting the ground.

Surprisingly that never happened and as they opened their eyes, Red and Leaf noticed they weren't falling anymore and were instead on the back of Reds faithful fire dragon "Ch…charizard!" Red yelled in surprise.

Charizard roared as it brought Red and Leaf back to the cliff where pikachu and jigglypuff were standing. The two were panting ferociously as their pokemon tried to comfort them

"Red…you ok?" Leaf panted as she tried to catch her breath.

Red breathed heavily as well "Yeah…..thanks charizard" He said as he petted the fire dragon.

They then heard what sounded like laughing coming from above and as they looked up, they saw clefairy on the ledge above them laughing.

"CLEFAIRY!" Red yelled "Clefairy if I catch you! I swear you'll be a rug!" He stated as he turned to the others "Come guys! Lets get it!"

Leaf grabbed his shoulder "Wait Red don't act rash! Clefairy clearly wants us to follow it!" She noted as she crossed her arms "This pokemon really is a thief through and through!"

Red grabbed her shoulders and shook her "Well what are we gonna do Leaf? You're a thief! Use some of those thief instincts!"

Leaf nudged him playfully "Oh….I thought you didn't want me to be a thief anymore…"

"Oh-no…you're not going to make me…."

She then proceeded to stretch out and look at her nails "But maybe if you asked me nicely…"

Red shut his eyes and sighed in defeat "I can't believe I'm actually going to say this…here goes….." He thought as he cleared his throat "Oh…Great Shadow Thief: Leaf Green!" He gritted his teeth as he forced the words out "How do you propose we deal with this rouge pokemon?!"

Leaf patted his shoulder "I thought you'd never ask!" She playfully stated and then turned away all mysterious like "Let me ask you something Red…. what do you think a thief fears more than anything?"

Red scratched his head "I don't know….a small bounty?" He replied, unsure as to what she was getting at.

Leaf shook her head "Someone with a plan! In every theft I've committed, I've used the element of surprise to my advantage." She explained to him "See, when people are surprised they act rashly and in doing so, they make stupid decisions and that makes it easy to take advantage of them"

Red narrowed his eyes "Was that a shot at me Leaf?!" He thought as he recalled what just happened between him and clefairy.

"But when someone has a plan, everyone your up against is organized!" Leaf continued to explain "What makes that scary is the fact that you may think the people you're up against are making stupid decisions, when in all actuality, they luring you into a trap!"

"Meaning…."

Leaf looked up to where Clefairy was dancing "If we're going to catch it, that's what we need to do; lure it into a trap!"

Red nodded "Okay…so what's the plan?" Red asked and Leaf closed her eyes and raised her hand in front of his face.

"Give me a minute, I've always been the thief before, this is my first time being the thieved!" She stated as she tapped her head in thought. She then suddenly snapped her fingers as an idea popped in "I've got it!"

Red confusingly looked around, surprised by her outburst "What's up?"

"We're going to corner it! But to do that we're going to need more bodies, the 5 of us aren't enough!"

Red flashed her a cocky grin "Got ya covered!" He said with confidence as he reached into his bag and pulled out 4 more pokeballs "Alright everyone out!" He yelled out as he threw the balls in the air "Blastoise, venasaur, snorlax, lapras, I need you all!"

Red turned to his companions "Everyone! This is Leaf; I want you to give her your full attention!"

Leaf looked around at the team she had just assembled and smiled "Alright everyone huddle up!" She motioned for everyone to get closer "Huddle up! We're going to make a plan!"

The next few minutes were spent listening to Leaf explain how they were going to corner clefairy and they watched as she pointed out specific positions for them to be in.

"…..I'll lure it to this spot, give the signal and we'll strike!" She stated as she looked around at all the pokemon "Everyone clear!"

Red nodded and all the pokemon roared in approval.

"Alright, everyone hands, claws, vines, fins in the middle!" Leaf excitedly ordered "LETS DO THIS! 1-2-3 BREAK!"

All the pokemon scattered and Leaf turned to Red who was getting on charizard "Remember! On my mark Red!"

Red nodded "Right!" He acknowledged and took off to the sky.

"Alright! Time to scout!" Leaf thought as she began to scale the mountain range.


After a few minutes of walking she came across the clefairy playing with her hat by a small stream.

"There you are!" Leaf thought as their eyes met and she cautiously made her way towards it.

"Hello there, my names Leaf!" She greeted as she inched closer to the tiny moon pokemon.

The clefairy blinked at her a few times "….fairy?"

"You sure like to steal things huh? I can relate." Leaf said as she narrowed her eyes "But! Unfortunately for you, what you stole is a gift that's very special to me, so I suggest you give it back!"

Not wanting to give up its spoils, clefairy reached into the stream and threw a rock a Leaf that grazed her face "FAIRY!" It yelled and ran away.

"OH I see how it is!" She angrily thought to herself as she began to pursue it "So much for the nice approach!"

Clefairy attempted to escape by scaling large parts of the mountain but Leafs previous experience in performing death-defying escapes allowed her to easily keep up with it.

"I've got to try to lead it to the area we agreed on!" Leaf thought as she continued to pursue the pink pokemon.

After a few minutes of chasing, Leaf finally cornered clefairy against a giant cliff side that it couldn't scale.

"Are you ready to surrender?!" She asked as she took a step forward "There's nowhere for you to run!"

Now in a panic, clefairy ran under Leafs legs trying to escape "Red! Now!" She yelled out, it was time to put her plan into action.

Without warning charizard crashed down in front of clefairy and Red jumped off "Are we going somewhere?" He asked the frightened pokemon.

Clefairy looked around in fear for an escape route, but every time it tried to run away it was stopped by one of Reds pokemon who emerged from that area. It even attempted to swim across a nearby lake, but was stopped by Reds Lapras who was lying in wait. In the end, clefairy could do nothing but back up towards the cliff side until it bumped into Leafs leg.

As it did, Leaf quickly snatched her hat back "I believe this is mine!" She proudly stated as she walked over to Reds side.

"Your plan worked perfectly Leaf!" Red said with an impressed look on his face.

Leaf tipped her hat "You should have known it would take a former thief to catch another!" She noted as the other pokemon joined them.

Clefairy was terrified, it had nowhere to run, its back was against the cliff and in front of it were 7 angry pokemon and 2 humans.

"So what do you want to do with it Red?" Leaf asked as she turned to him.

Red turned to his companion with an evil look in his eye "Have you ever had Clefairy a la Flame before?"

Leaf eyes darted from side to side "Uhh…no, but it sounds….foreign to me."

Red returned his focus to clefairy "Me neither! But we're about to find out what it's like!" He yelled out and pointed at clefairy "CHARIZARD! BUR-"

Before he could give the order, Leaf hesitated and grabbed Reds shoulder "Wait Red! Don't you think this is bit overkill?"

Red looked at her with shock "What are you talking about Leaf? It nearly killed us! It deserves to be punished!"

"But Red…" Leaf looked over to see clefairy trying it's best to cover its eyes with its stubby hands "Look at it, it looks so scared…."

Red raised an eyebrow "…and it should be! Now's not the time to think it's cute!"

Leaf sighed "You know….now that I look at it….it kinda reminds me of…me…." She said as she looked down at the frightened pokemon "There were so many times in the past that I was backed into a corner with nowhere to run and all I could think to myself was is this the end?"

Red looked over to her "What are you trying to say Leaf?"

She knelt down to clefairys level "You're the first individual to ever successful steal something from me; you're truly a pokemon after my own heart!"

Clefairy backed up slightly as Leaf extended her hand "But a thief's life only leads to trouble… believe me, I know personally. That's why my partner and I have been trying hard to reform!" She explained as she gave the pink pokemon a warm smile "So would you consider joining my team of reformies?"

Clefaries face lit up and its eyes sparkled as it leapt into Leafs arms "FAIRY!"

Leaf smiled "I think that's a yes!"

Red gave her a confused look "Team? What team? You don't have a team!"

"But, before you join my team, I have one rule, you have to prove yourself first!" Leaf declared as she put clefairy down "Think of it as an initiation."

Clefairy nodded and Leaf looked to her partner "Alright jigglypuff, are you ready for action?!"

Jigglypuff jumped out in front and got into a fighting position. "Jiggly!"

Red decided to return all his pokemon except charizard and pikachu leapt on his shoulder "A battle between the two round, pink pokemon of the region huh?" He noted as he turned to his yellow partner "Should be interesting….."


Leaf narrowed her gaze as she called her first command "Alright jigglypuff! Attack it head on and use pound!"

Jigglypuff dashed forward, fist at the ready and clefairy decided to retaliate by doing the same, causing both pokemons fists to collide.

Before Leaf could make another command Clefairy took the opportunity to slide underneath jigglypuff and pound it in the face.

Red winced "Ooh! That had to hurt!"

"It's fast!" Leaf thought as jigglypuff attempted to retaliate, but Clefairy continued to dodge it "I need to find a way to slow it down…." She pondered as she looked around and spotted an area with a bunch of smaller rocks.

"Jigglypuff, lure it over there!" She commanded and jigglypuff continued to pursue Clefairy till it forced the pokemon to the area Leaf was talking about.

"Jigglypuff try pounding it again!"

Jigglypuff did as Leaf commanded and as Clefairy attempted to dodge, it lost it's footing on the rocks and fell over. Jigglypuff finally scored an attack and the resulting impact launched Clefairy straight into a rock, causing it to stagger.

"Ok jigglypuff, sing!"

Clefairy couldn't escape the soothing melody of its counterpart and within seconds it was asleep on the ground.

With her opportunity in sight, Leaf quickly grabbed one of the pokeballs Red gave to her.

"It's now or never!" She thought as she tossed the ball at the sleeping pokemon and after a few twitches the ball snapped shut.

Leaf walked over, picked the ball up and whispered "Let's try to reform together okay?"

Red walked over with 2 potions in hand and handed one to Leaf "Congratulations! I knew you could do it!"

Leaf looked down at her newly caught pokemon "I wasn't planning on getting a new partner….but I'm glad I did!"

She let her new pokemon out of its ball and Red tossed her a potion "That's for jigglypuff, I'll heal clefairy!"

Leaf knelt down to her partners level and started to spray the potion on it "That's two victories in one day jigglypuff! You'd better stop while you're ahead!" She stated and jigglypuff blushed at Leafs comment.

Red meanwhile, also knelt down and started healing clefairy "Hey, sorry about almost burning you to a crisp today, I let my anger get the better of me…." He admitted as he continued to spray down clefairy with the potion.

"Fairy!" It called as tried to reach for his hat.

"Hey!" Red swatted its hand down "No more of that!" He demanded.

The two finished healing the pokemon and Red looked to the sky "I think we've lingered here long enough, it's time to go home" He said as he mounted on the back of charizard.

Leaf nodded as she jumped on charizard as well.

Before taking off, Red sighed and narrowed his eyes "Just to let you know Leaf…..it's probably going to be awhile before I can set up your next gym battle….."

"Why's that?" Leaf wondered as Red began to stutter.

"Umm…I'll tell you later okay!" He said, trying to dodge the question "Let's go charizard!"

Charizard roared as they rose into the sky and took off towards Pallet, a new friend in tow.