The Legend of Ricochet

I'm not so much angry as I am annoyed, I thought. It's like Arceus is using my life as a joke and the punch line is 'and then Ricochet was alone.'

Part of me wanted to believe that Aza had teleported himself and Lin away from me as a joke. Heck, I don't even know where Derf went. I hoped Aza teleported him with Lin and that they wound up at the same place. Still, I couldn't help but worry for those two. "What if Lin and Aza's minds shattered?" my conscious thought. "What if they teleported themselves into a den of dangerous Pokémon? What if they are separated? What if Aza is in the middle of an eating contest?"

My stomach growled.

"Good point," I said, "I'm sure they're fine. I've got to look after myself until Lin inevitably finds me."

"But could they be in danger?" my conscious rebutted. "Shouldn't I be thinking up desperate rescue plans or beating myself up over my weaknesses?"

"Later," I said. "I am in a bad situation here. Who knows whether or not I'll even survive this day all alone."

My stomach hummed in agreement.

I looked over to Vermillion City. "Look, it's at least a half mile away!"

"Well, I should survive in order to worry more, I suppose."

"That's what I'm talking about."

"I still think we should wait at least three more minutes before we leave." My conscious said. "That way if we ever tell people this story later it will look as if we tried to do something before just giving up."

Surprisingly my stomach growled out a very distinct, "Make it two."

"Sounds fair." Both I and conscious said, too afraid to argue with a talking stomach.

After a minute and a half of very angst ridden thoughts, all three of me decided to head to town. "I'm sure the last thirty seconds wouldn't have mattered."

Aside from some threatening looking bushes, the road to Vermilion wasn't too bad. I noticed, though, this road seemed a bit slanted to the left. Nothing big. It's just one of those things you'd think people would fix. It couldn't be too hard to correct a road slant. Not that I'm qualified to make that kind of judgment. I've only been walking all my life.

It wasn't until I arrived in Vermillion that the trouble started. How do I get food? On the farm it had been easy enough. The door opened and you just walked through. The outside world had way more rules. Food was hidden in glass boxes that only metal hearts could open.

Now, let's think about this rationally. I thought. Food is in boxes. Thus, I need to first, find a place with lots of boxes.

This was easier done than said. After a few minutes I managed to find some boxes. They were in the first place I looked, which, to be honest, was the last place I was expecting to find them. I saw a bunch of humans moving the boxes to a truck in front of a house. Most of these humans seemed larger than most but still struggled with the large boxes.

Why don't they just get machokes to do that for them? I thought. I'm in the right spot though. Let's think this through.

Lin opens the food boxes by giving her love to it. It stands to reason that if I love the box, then I'll get the food. No, wait... Ha! How silly of me. The boxes must only accept human love. That's why Pokémon can't get it themselves. I just need to find a human that loves boxes!

I studied the humans loading the boxes. None of them seemed particularly happy to be holding boxes. Then I spotted a smaller figure in front of the house. It was a little girl playing with empty boxes. She was wearing a little grass stained dress and was about Lin's height. This probably meant she was at least half Lin's age.

Little kids like fluffy, right? I thought. And she certainly has no problem with boxes. OK, here I go!

I trotted over to the kid. "Eevee!" I barked.

The little girl spotted me, and then let out a small shriek. At first I thought that I'd made a serious mistake, but then she said, "Mr. Fluff's come for a tea party!"

"Err, sure," I said. "As long as party is some kind of food and tea is a type of social gathering in which food is served."

"I'll be right back," the kid said, and then took off into the house. After a few moments, which I spent sticking my head in the boxes to make sure the little girl wasn't holding out on me, she returned and set a plate of cookies on the box I had just checked. "Here you go!"

"I can't believe this worked!" I said, and then started to chow down.

While I did so, I could sense the kid moving around some more boxes. The cookies were OK. They were a little sticky and salty, but I could live with bland for the moment. Besides, this could just be the beginning. I wonder if there's seconds!

Around that time I noticed that another Pokémon had joined me. I was about to introduce myself when I froze. The new comer was only slightly bigger than me and had my color fur. There was a crescent moon shaped marking on his forehead. He had four paws, all of them pointing out in front of his body. His body looked stiff, his eyes lifeless.

I glanced around at the other guests. The dead eyes of several strange Pokémon stared straight ahead. I recognized a few. A clefairy, with his hands outstretched as if futilely trying to push an enemy away from him. Another was an eevee wearing a pink bonnet. Her eyes weren't the only cold thing about her. Her face was malformed, just wrong looking. It lacked personality, it had no soul.

Holy crap! I thought. A tea party must be a gathering of the undead!

Powerful arms wrapped around my neck. "We're so glad you could join us Fluffy!" The daemon spawn said. I felt her tighten a rope around my neck. "You're going to stay forever and ever!"

"AHHH!" I screamed. The girl got startled and jumped back from me. I used the chance to take off into the growing darkness. I ran until I couldn't run anymore. Panting I looked back. The little hell bringer, her posy of large men, and army of undead Pokémon were still staring at me from a block away. I screamed again and ran another block before collapsing near an abandoned building near the edge of the city.

After resting a moment, I felt a slight pressure around my neck. The rope! I spotted a pool on the nearby property. I trotted over to witness my reflection. In the fading light, I could just make out a green bonnet.

"Why does Lin spend nights in Pokémon centers?" I pondered as I headed out into the wilderness. "We've been training here for months. I'm sure I can handle any threats. There's no need to go back to a city full of witches. Unless this stupid bonnet gets in my way!"

I was convinced that this accessory was cursed. No amount of rolling would remove it. I couldn't even paw it off. The abomination kept its death grip on me even when I tried to ask that oddish to... err... it wouldn't come off is the point I'm really trying to make here.

"No problem at all," I said. "It's not like every time I've tried to spend a night in the wilderness has ended in disaster. I'll just curl up off to the side of this road and-"

It immediately started to rain.

"You know, Arceus, sometimes I wonder!" I said.

I darted to the side of the road. I hadn't reached the grassy fields outside Vermillion yet. I was glad though. Rocky ledges of stone surrounded this area and kept most of the rain off. Unfortunately, eevees aren't water resistant. In only a few moments I was saturated.

I've got to find better shelter. Maybe I should stand under a tree? Or... a cave!

The cave was hard to spot on a stormy night. I didn't even see it until I almost completely wandered into it. I hesitated to enter. It's not like my last two caves were very safe. It was dark in there, too.

It's OK Ricochet. I thought. You can do this. It's just super-duper pitch black dark in there. Just imagen that there's a terrible storm Pokémon that will destroy me if I sleep in the rain. See? Isn't that more terrifying than the dark? Even if it is really, really dark in there.

In the end, I opted for brief comfort over possible danger. I made a little head way into the cave, and started to curl up for a good night sleep. Then I realized that the rain would eventually seep into the cave and make the floor damp. I decided to travel into the cave a little deeper. Further into the cave, I curled up and slept the night away.

A word of advice about sleeping in caves: always make sure you know which way you came from. When I woke up I had no idea where the entrance was. I had been too preoccupied with the darkness, I had overlooked the twists of the cave. It had left me completely lost.

I figured that the only thing to do was use Lin's method of navigation. This was to lose myself even more and eventually hope everything would work out. I randomly picked a tunnel and kept walking until I came to a large cavern. Hundreds of tunnels split off of this place in all sizes. Some were too small for an eevee, others could fit at least fifty eevees, but only one had light at the end of it.

"Ha!" I said, "the fantastic Ricochet does it again!"

I walked into the lighted tunnel. After a few moments, I discovered the source of the light.

"A fire?" I said, "well this is a big disappoint- wait. Why is there a fire in cave?"

It was two fires to be exact. They were on separate sides of the cavern, not against the walls, and seemingly springing up from the ground. When I got a little closer, I saw that the fires were coming from a pile of little glowing round rocks. That's when I notice a figure, about my size, in between the fires. It was some sort of flying Pokémon if the feathers were any indication. It had a flat bill and was carrying a leek.

"Hey stranger!" I said. "Can you help me out?"

"That depends what you want to get out of?" he said. "You have already found your way out of the last passage."

"Err... right. I'm sorry, I should have been more specific. My name is Ricochet."

"I am Dux," he said proudly. Then, after a little thought, added, "The Mighty."

"What type of Pokémon are you?" I said.

"In this life, I am called farfetch'd."

"Oh, uhm… what were you before?" I said.

"I don't remember," Dux said, "but I know I wore a red cloak."

"OK. That's fair," I think someone's been in this cave too long. Maybe it's all the smoke from the fire. "Can you help me find the exit to this cave? I've been wandering for like, five minutes and haven't found it yet."

"There are no exits, only entrances," The farfetch'd said.

"That sounds... wrong. Look, can you help me or not?"

The mysterious Pokémon pointed his leek to the left of me. In the fire light, I could see an off shooting tunnel. "That tunnel will guide you back to where you came from."

"Thanks," I said. Then I muttered, "Weirdo. Seriously, the first Pokémon I meet, and he's completely-"

"Wait!" The all-crazy-one tossed his leek over to me. "It's dangerous to go alone, take this!"

"Not to sound like an annoying psychic type, but I'm pretty sure you've mixed up your definition of 'alone'. Still, who am I to turn down a free breakfast?" I gobbled up the leek only to have my stomach immediately eject it from my body. The leek flew right back at Dux and hit him square in the face. "Arg! That was disgusting!"

"You dare?" Dux looked indignant. "I'll show what happens to people who reject my gifts!"

He started to flap his wings hard. I thought he was using some sort of gust attack at first, but then I saw that he was aiming at the fire rocks. He hit them with enough force to blow them right at me. I dodged them at first, but the crazed farfetch'd kept whipping them at me.

"That's so unfair!" I said as I scrambled to the tunnel Dux had pointed to earlier. "I'm so holding this against all leeks from now on!"

I followed Dux's advise, despite my better instincts, and traveled down the tunnel for a good three minutes. I was surprised to feel a gentle breeze on my fur, and I could see a faint light ahead. If that's another Pokémon with cryptic ramblings, I'll shove a leek down its throat. Instead of a bunch of fire rocks, I found the exit.

"This isn't Vermillion," I said. I emerged into a large field covered by rolling hills. There wasn't a city in sight. "Stupid Dux. He sent me to the wrong exit! Or entrance. Whatever. Now what?"

I decided to climb up to the top of the tallest hill I could see to get a better vantage point. Once I got up there, I spotted a taller hill and made my way over to that one. From that height I, finally, spotted a city in the distance. Since I didn't see the ocean, I knew that it couldn't be Vermillion.

"This is the last time I take directions from small leek carrying birds that live in fire rock caves."

This was the largest city I'd ever been in. The buildings seemed to tower above me more than usual. Humans bustled by me, crowding every side walk. I was grateful for not being noticed because experience has taught me that a wild human wouldn't hesitate to permanently cement a hat on me. At the same time, being noticed brought benefits. I had to dodge hundreds of kicks from inattentive human feet.

My gosh, this is worse than Lin's training.

I spotted a break in the crowd and gracefully dove out. After I picked myself off the ground, I noticed a secluded street with a solitary building at the end. I couldn't see why people were avoiding this place, it looked peaceful. Unlike the rest of this city, this building was surrounded by a garden. As I walked closer, I could smell many different flowers and strange scents.

Wow! I thought. What a beautiful place.

I noticed a human walk up to the door to the building at the center of the garden. The door slid open, and gentle laughter rang through the air as the human entered. From what I could see, as the door was open, the inside was more of a garden than the outside. It was an explosion of bright colors against a background of green.

What is this? I walked right up to the building. The doors slid open, revealing a small female human. She frowned at first but after a moment she lowered her eyes down to a normal level. We stared at each other.

"Oh! Sayre! You're back! Erika will be so pleased," the woman exclaimed. "We were all so worried about you. The girls and I have been searching the gym all day."

"Sire?" I said. "No, my names- gym?!" My head jumped up to the large sign above the door that clearly read, 'Gym'. "How did I miss that?"

"Here, let's get that bonnet off your head." The gym trainer said.

"That's OK, I guess," I said.

"Then you can get back to Erika's experiments," the woman said as she reached down for me.

"Experiments?" I jumped back from the human. "Yeah, that's my cue to leave."

I ditched the human and darted into the garden. The shrubs and other plants should hide me from her. Heaven knows I couldn't beat her on open ground. I heard calling behind me. It seemed like this Sayre was a popular eevee. I didn't envy his job though. I've never heard of an experiment that didn't end in complete disaster. I'm not speaking of my experiments. Mine are always brilliant.

Crunching and snapping branches tipped me off to approaching humans. I've got to find a place to hide until they leave. I noticed a small bush covering a dark portion of the building. If I could squeeze myself between the building and the bush, they'll never find me.

Once I tried to put that plan into action, I ran into a few problems. First, I drew a ton of notice crawling over to the spot. Second, despite being green, the bonnet wasn't designed for stealth missions. Third, the bush was way too small to cover two eevees.

"Find your own spot!" another eevee hissed as I started to force myself between the bush and the wall.

"Let me guess. Sayre?" I asked. "You've got a lot of people looking for you."

"No, you've got a lot of people looking for you!" The eevee, who, I realized was a girl, said. "I was just fine until you got here."

"Noted," I said. The sound of crunching bushes got closer. "I don't suppose your escape attempt has a plan B?"

"I think I have something up my sleeve," she said.

Just as I was going to point out that eevee's don't have sleeves, Sayre put herself between the house and me. Then the little jerk started to push me out of the bushes yelling, "I'm over here, come and get me!"

"You rattata!" I snapped. I tried to hold on to the bush, but I couldn't get around Sayre's leverage. "I'll get you for this!"

"There you are!" human hands seized my fur. "Come here, Sayre!"

As I was yanked into the air, my headgear snagged a branch of the bush, ripping away the plant and revealing a very surprised Sayre.

"What?" One of our captors said as another human snatch up Sayre. "There are two of them?"

"This one must belong to someone else." The lady holding me said. Then to prove it she shook me around. "It's too heavy to be Sayre."

"I'm not fat!" I said. "I'm just big boned!"

"No! Let me go!" Sayre whined. I spotted her struggling against her captors grasp. "Mire has the berry of power! If I don't stop him we're all doomed!"

"Wow, what a drama queen," I muttered. "She's blowing this way out of proportion."

"Sayre, you had me worried!" the chief girl said. She was just as small as Lin, with shorter hair, and a gentle voice. She was holding Sayre close to her chest, kind of like the way Lin does to me sometimes. "You mustn't leave the gym. It's dangerous out there."

"Uhrg," Sayre grumbled. "You just don't get it, Erika. I'm trying to help you."

"Promise me you won't leave," Erika said. "Please, Sayre. I've already lost too many Pokémon recently. I couldn't bare it if we lost you too."

"Ok, I won't leave today," Sayre said. "On second thought, perhaps just this next hour."

"Thank you," Erika said. She turned to me. "As for you, my friend, where did you come from?"

"He just wondered in off the streets," one of Erika's attendants said. "He must belong to someone. Eevee's just don't wander around in the wild with bonnets."

"Are you lost, little friend?" Erika said.

"Make up your mind, am tiny or heavy?!" I said.

"Sounds like someone's sensitive," Sayre said.

"Don't worry," Erika said. "We'll put a bulletin in the police station so that everyone you're here. I'm sure your trainer will find you within a few days. You're welcome to stay here in the meantime."

"Oh! Well, thanks." Wow. This is shaping up to be my most relaxed adventure ever. All I've got to do is chill out here a few days? I mean, sure, the company is annoying, but that's true back with my team anyway. "OK, you've got a deal."

"Fatima," Erika said, "make sure these two get proper food and show them to their rooms."

The human, Fatima, curtsied to Erika then motioned for us eevee's to follow. As we walked through the garden gym, Sayre kept shooting me dirty looks.

"OK, out with it," I said. "How mad can you really be? I'm sure you can escape again."

"Every moment of delay bring those I care for closer to danger!" Sayre hissed. "You've cost me expensive moments. Why couldn't you have shown up thirty seconds later? I would have escaped."

"Gezz," I said, "and I thought the little tea girl was crazy."

"Are you talking about your trainer?" Sayre asked. "Did you run away from her?"

"I didn't run away from my trainer," I said, only half listening to her. "She was a witch who enslaved Pokémon, and turned them into her undead servants ― after putting stupid hats on them."

"What?" Sayre asked, aghast. "Were you going to be her latest addition?"

"Huh? No, I was the first Pokémon she ever..." I startled myself back to attention. Sayre was looking at me with eyes full of surprise and horror slackening her jaw. "No, I'm not undead!"

"How did you avoid such a cruel fate?"

I realized that somewhere there had been a miscommunication. I was about to correct it but... "Well you have to go back to the beginning. See, this all started back when I stopped a criminal organization from taking over the world."

"And then my sidekick vanished, leaving me alone in the cave of absolute evil." I finished.

"Incredible," Sayre said. "Then you found your way here?"

"After speaking with an insane Pokémon that lived in the middle of magical fire." I add, feeling only a bit strange that the last part was a hundred percent true. The rest of my legendary story was, as I'll be the first to admit, a little exaggerated.

"Are you not worried for your faithful companion, Aza?"

OK, so it was more than a little exaggerated.

"We made a promise to meet up in this city should anything happen to us," I adlibbed.

"You two must care for each other very much," Sayre said.

"I see him like a younger brother." Honestly, most of my story was out right false.

"Then you must be the one!" she squeaked in excitement.

"Yes. I am. I... wait! What?"

"You are the hero I prayed for!"

Hm... That sounds OK. I thought. Heroes get free perks right?

"Yes!" I said.

"Then you'll help me with my quest!" Sayre said.

Dang it! I thought. A quest? I only get free perks after I do something. OK, calm down. How bad can it be? If she is like me then... no, that's a bad example. If she is like any other eevee, the stakes can't be that high.

"Yeah, sure," I said, "I'm down with that."

"Excellent." Sayre said. "Now Mire only has one of the mystical berries. If we get the other two before him then we should be able to stop his plans! Where do you think we should begin?"

"Err... what would you suggest?"

"Well I'm sure I don't have to tell you that we'll need to sneak out first."

"Naturally."

"The only real choice is whether we visit the lake, the caves or-"

"Lake!" I had no intention of trying to lead this crazy eevee through any caves. "We can do caves after."

"OK, then," Sayre said, "to the realm of the wise golducks we go."

If she keeps making up words, this is going to be a long journey.

Sneaking out of the gym was super easy. They didn't eevee proof anything. It's like the builders never even planned that two eevee's would try to break out. I was also happy that my first challenge of this quest played to my strong side. The only real challenge was Sayre who sucked at sneaking. She almost blew the whole operation during an unfortunate oddish incident.

After we broke out, it was only a songs length from the lake. No really, a song. Sayre sings. Sayre sings very long songs with zero lyrics. It's a series of 'oohhs' and the occasional 'aahhh.' If I had to be honest, it was actually kind of nice for the first ten minutes. It was the thirty minutes after which soured me to the whole melody. I never thought I'd be so happy to get to a body of water.

The lake outside of Celadon was large. Not just eevee large either. It was human side large. Probably small for a larger Pokémon like an onix though. Maybe like a medium sized lake. Yeah, that sounds right. It was definitely a medium sized lake. Well, medium when compared with lakes I've seen. Which isn't very many now that I'm thinking about it. I guess it really could have been any kind of size of lake. Maybe if I could get a list of all lakes in Kanto, then I could give an accurate description of the size of this lake. Well, unless I was describing it to people in different regions, in which case...

So we showed up at a lake. It was just getting to the afternoon when we arrived so it was hot and unfortunately bright. Here I learned that 'realm' was a ridiculously fancy word for 'place' and 'golduck' meant idiot.

"Shut off the light!"

"Turn down the volume!"

"Stop moving!"

"What am I seeing here?" I asked.

The entire lake was surrounded by fat yellow Pokémon. At first I thought I had stumbled into a picachu fat camp. After I realized that I wasn't going to be electrocuted to death, I started to notice other not-a-picachu signs. The Pokémon were covered in feathers and had a flat bill like a certain leek Pokémon I know. They didn't look scary, despite being yellow which is apparently the most dangerous color in the world. No claws or horns to speak of. Instead, they flapped a mouth that looked like two long pieces of card board to make sounds. And oh, did they make lots of sounds.

"I can't even think!"

"Ow! Ow!"

"Why won't any of you shut up?"

"These are ominous times indeed," Sayre said. It could have been the angle of the sun, but I thought I saw a tear in her eye.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Can you not hear their prophecies?" Sayre said. "There are painful times ahead."

Suddenly I didn't feel that clever for tricking Sayre. All of these golducks were grabbing at their heads and screeching in pain which, as I have learned over many years of study, meant that they had headaches. "Ahead, huh? There's a pun around here somewhere." I muttered.

"The wise golducks have access to the Enigma berries, one of the three mystical berries," Sayre said. "When we get one we will be Mire's equals. Shall we commence?"

"We shall."

I gently guided Sayre through the maze of suffering golducks, towards the lake's edge. The dangers here consisted mostly of tripping, which I narrowly avoided due to my previously mentioned long honed walking skills.

"Well, I've got to admit, these golducks aren't so bad," I said. "Lin should catch one. It'd teach her and Aza how lucky they are to have me around."

"Oh, those aren't golducks," Sayre said off hand. "They're the lower evolutions."

I had about point five seconds to register that before the water erupted in front of me revealing a shimmery blue Pokémon. I couldn't tell if it was a bird or some sort of fish. Instead of wings it had razor like fins. The fins had claws, which I felt were overkill. It's a good thing my survival instinct kicked in.

Stand perfectly still Ricochet. I thought. As soon as it goes for Sayre-

"Oh, wise one!" Sayre practically shouted. "We come seeking they wisd-!"

"That's a golduck?!" I shouted. "It's not even gold! What were those yellow Pokémon back there?"

"Those were psyducks," Sayre explained.

"Psy? They have psychic powers?"

"Not much, but golducks have very strong psychic abilities."

"So, golducks are psychic Pokémon?"

"No, of course not. Now, you're being rude." Sayre turned back to the non-psychic, psychic, not gold, golduck. "Please, we seek they wisdom!"

"Well, could you seek a bit quieter?" The golduck hissed. "Some of us are sleeping off a headache. We haven't had any peace and quiet with all these load mouths complaining day and night." He glanced at me. "Are you wearing a bonnet?"

"You're saying this isn't normal?" I asked.

"Well, I guess it wouldn't be out of place on a cunning elvish hero from- oh, the psyducks? No, they're always complaining. They're just not usually this loud about it." The golduck said.

"What ails them?" cried Sayre.

"Ah! Not so loud," the golduck cringed. "Some jerk came through here a while back, and ever since then, the psyducks haven't been able to get to their medication."

"You mean the mystical berries of wisdom!" Sayre gasped. "We are in desperate need of them!"

"Yeah, sure," The golduck said. "Hey, I don't suppose you guys could check that out for me? In return I'll let you have some of the berries."

"You can't check it out?" I asked.

The golduck looked at me strangely. "You expect me to solve my own problem, bonnet boy?"

I checked out the golducks claws again. "Nope. I'm good. OK, let's see what this is about. Come on Sayre."

As we left the lake, Sayre said suspiciously. "This has to be Mire's doing. I just know it!"

"Who?" I asked.

"The evil you've been called to fight!"

"Err..."

"You do know what we're up against, don't you?"

I thought fast. "You'll need to refresh me. I fight evil villains so often I get them mixed up."

That seemed to satisfy her. "Oh, well Mire is a strange Pokémon from the Orre region. His trainer released him and some other exotic Pokémon into this area. He has dark magical powers."

One step at a time Ricochet. "Define magic."

"He can hit you without even moving, he has strange command over monstrous Pokémon, and he possesses the mystical berry of Lansat!"

I don't know about the berry, but the rest sounds like psychic power to me. "Why do we have to stop him again?"

Unfortunately, before Sayre could answer me, we discovered why the psyducks hadn't been getting to their medication. In between all the bushes was a tentacle Pokémon. It was large. It was ugly. It was... a large plant. Now, I'm no dummy. I've learned to look at every blade of grass as a potential enemy, but this thing wasn't even trying to look harmless.

"Ahh!" Sayre reared back in disgust. "It's the dreaded Cradily!"

The plant Pokémon hybrid didn't waste any time. It lashed out at where we were standing. "Move it!" I shouted as I pushed Sayre out of the way. The vine whip sailed past us.

"You saved me!" Sayre stammered as she pushed herself back up.

And just made myself a target. I thought, as a vine whipped out at me. "Hey, got any info on this thing?"

"It's a grass-rock type!"

Oh, that's just great. I knew I wasn't good against rock types unless I used iron tail. I also knew I wasn't allowed to use iron tail in an official battle.

Wait, this isn't an official battle! Which means I don't have to play by human rules!

With a new sense of courage, I bolted towards my foe. Said courage was quickly extinguished by a heavy slap to the side of my face. I briefly became a flying Pokémon and glided a few yards before making a crash landing.

Oh, man, this thing is strong. I thought. I'm never going to get close to it at this rate.

"What else do you got?" I shouted at Sayre as I kept my distance from tentacle filled doom. "Don't you belong to a grass type gym? This should be right up your alley!"

"Uhm..." Sayre said. "Cradily can't easily be moved!"

"Really?" I said. "That's best you've got?"

"They have suction cups for feet." She explained. "Once they get down on something they will not easily be moved.

So, what are you sitting on? I shot a glance at the base of my foe and paid for it with another crack to my shoulder. It sat squarely on a bolder. If only Lin was here. She'd have a clever plan about what to do. The only idea I have is to hit the bolder. A short while later, I figure out that was exactly what I needed to do.

"What moves do you know?" I called over too Sayre.

"I know the blissful attack of light and love-"

"Short and simple!" I said as I dodged another tentacle I could feel my endurance fading.

"Helping hand, return, sand attack and growl." Sayre said curtly.

"Growl! Use growl!"

Sayre leapt courageously into the fray and let out a furious, "Eevee!"

I'm sure it was as effective as a sand-attack verses a keen-eye. Still, it distracted the cradily long enough for me to bolt through the bushes and smash the side of the boulder with my iron tail. Just as I had hoped, the bolder gave way. The cradily started rolling away from us and into the lake.

"Ha!" I said. "Hard to move huh? My tail and I say otherwise!"

As the rock moved away, I noticed a hole in the ground where the rock use to lie. I peeked down into it to discover a large cavern. In the center was a group of Pokémon sitting on the ground around a short table with a lamp on it. They were growlieths and they seemed to be playing some sort of card game with-

"Dux?"

The farfech'd looked up at me.

I looked down at him.

…

"Ssshhh." He said with a feather to his bill. "It's a secret to everyone."

I slowly backed away from the hole and into the bushes.

"Yes! Your tail was amazing." Sayre said working her way through the bushes. "You swung it like a sword and vanquished your enemies!"

"Err... sure." I said. "I didn't really beat him though. I just got lucky. There's no way that would solve my problem in a real fight. He was way stronger than me."

"Don't lessen your victory, hero!" Sayre said. "You were very wise to attack as you did. Wisdom isn't about who's stronger or smarter. It's about how you use what you have."

"Yeah," I said. "I guess I was wise."

Sayre looked over the bushes the cradily was guarding. "At last, the berry of Enigma. Now we're tied with Mire."

"Sweet, where too next?"

I totally forgot about the caves.

Lin once told me that the diglett caves ran under all of Kanto. Strangely enough, it never occurred to me to ask what a diglett was. Sayre informed me that they were ground types that lived in the ground. Not the most informative description. She lives in a gym devoted to grass types, so I guess that limits her experience. "I hate to break this to you," I said, "but I don't think berries grow in caves."

"You are correct my friend." I could tell she was pleased with our win over the cadily from the way she held her tail and ears high. "We are here to ask the powerful digletts about the nature of the Lansat berry."

"Oh, right." I tried to remember back. "The one this Mire dude has? It's just a berry. How bad could it be?"

"The mystical berries are the strongest in existence! Their power cannot be found in any poke mart or ordinary bush, and Mire has already secured one of them." Remembering this Sayre's spirits dropped along with her tail.

"So, what does that berry do?" I looked down at the bulge in her right cheek.

Sayre had offered the Enigma berry to me, but, heck, I'm not putting just any random berry in my mouth.

"It has the ability to restore ones stamina when they are struck by a super effective attack."

"How do you know?"

"I over hear things."

Vague... I thought. "Why can't we get our own Lansat berry?"

"I don't know where he got the berry from." Sayre said. "He was just going on about how much power the mystical berries give him. He said the lansat berry is his favorite. The digletts will know more about it though. They travel all over Kanto."

"So tell me more about this Mire guy," I said. "Why do you hate him so much?"

"How can one not hate the essence of pure evil?"

"... By being evil?" I asked. "No, wait! By being a zombie!"

"No, that was rhetorical," Sayre said, shuddering. "I mean, well... he's just a bad Pokémon."

"Did he steal your food? Step on your tail? Insult your fur?"

"No, none of that," Sayre sighed. "He just showed up a couple weeks ago with his league of evil. Erika took him in. They are all abandoned Pokémon."

"Abandoned? That's what you meant by 'released.' You're telling me that he doesn't have a trainer anymore?" This idea bugged me. "His trainer just left without him on purpose?"

"Yes, along with the cradily and two other Pokémon," Sayre said. "I suppose Mire's trainer didn't want them anymore."

"So, he left them?" I said. "That's… well… that's just... there's got to be some sort of rule against that."

"No, there isn't," Sayre said. "If a human doesn't want a Pokémon anymore they just release them into the wild."

"It sounds to me like Mire has a right to be angry."

"Perhaps, but he doesn't have a right to take that anger out on other Pokémon or my trainer." Sayre said.

"Your trainer?" I asked.

"Erika."

The gym leader. Should have seen that one coming. I've got to pay more attention. "What's this got to do with Erika? And how do you know he's planning something anyway."

"I'm not sure, but you saw what his friend was doing to the psyducks."

"Good point." I said.

"Besides, Mire must be the one behind my father's disappearance."

"Your father?" I said. "This is the first I've heard about-"

"Halt!"

"Halt!"

"Halt!"

The words echoed through the cave. I scanned the area and only saw small rocks and boulders. Blasts, they could be anywhere. Who would have thought it would be so easy to hide in a cave. "Hello? Any one there?" I asked.

"Freeze! Don't move! Cease!" came the response.

"Gee, I think you've covered every possible variation of different but similar meaning words," I muttered.

"Synonym." The voices said in unison.

"I don't think that means the same thing."

"No, synonym means the words are the same."

"I'm pretty sure synonym does not mean the same thing as-."

"STOP!"

"Oh yeah, I forgot about that one. Wait, where are you guys?" I couldn't see a single sign of life. "Why don't you come out here where I can see you?" I then remembered my last experience in a cave. "Unless you don't want to of course. I'll understand."

"Please, oh, great movers of mountains!" Sayre started up. "We mean you no harm. We merely seek an audience with your powerful people to discuss a great evil that has come upon this world."

"The world maybe a bit of a stretch, Sayre," I whispered.

"A great evil that has come upon this general vicinity," Sayre amended.

"Is she for real?" The voice whispered.

"How should I know? You never can reason with those captured ones." another whisperer said. "Besides, that one's wearing a bonnet. He must be hard core."

"What should we do?"

"Just ask them what they want to talk to us about."

"We just want to ask about the Lansat berry," I said.

"Crap, they can hear us!" One whisperer yelped.

"Shh! Just whisper quieter," said the second whisper, who clearly didn't understand how well sound traveled in caves.

Sayre cleared her throat. "You know," she whispered to me, "It's impolite to eavesdrop."

"We weren't eavesdropping," one of the other voices replied. "You were eavesdropping."

Sayre looked at me furiously. "See what you've made me do?" she softly hissed.

"We haven't made you do anything either!" The voices said.

"That's enough!" I said. "Look, just come over here, whoever you are. We don't want to fight. We just want to ask some questions."

After hearing a quick whisper fight, two Pokémon emerged into view. They looked like little balls of dirt with big black eyes and a pink nose. Or was that a mouth?

"So, uh, digletts," I guessed, "impressive cave you have here." Geez, these guys are smaller than me.

"If I may say so," Sayre said, "your works here are more than impressive; they reveal you to be beings of great power."

The digletts, all six inches of them, looked of each other, than back at me.

"Look, can you help us or not." I said.

"Yeah, sure," the digletts said.

"Marvelous," Sayre said, "And if you need anything, we will be happy to provide any assistance we can."

"Well," said the digletts, looking towards each other. "We were just going to give you what you wanted...".

"But if you're offering..." said one.

"There is a strange Pokémon running around our caves. He's caused all sorts of cave-ins and is hurting a lot of innocent digletts."

"That's horrible!" Sayre cried "But don't worry. We have a hero of prophesy among us!"

I was experiencing whiplash from the speed at which I was being ropped into another Pokémon's problem, so I didn't quite catch that last part. "Hero of what? Hey, listen now-"

"He's quite a humble warrior, but I assure you he is more than up to the task of vanquishing this abomination."

"Vanquishing may be too hard of a term," said one of the digletts. "We just want him gone."

"Deal!" I leapt at the offer before Sayre could get me into any more trouble.

"So, the Lansat berry increases your chance of getting a critical hit?" I said. "I guess that's why you keep calling it the berry of power. So this Pokémon causing the digletts all these problems, what's the chance of it being one of Mires friends?"

"Very likely," Sayre said.

"Yeah, I figured. What do these guys look like again?"

"One is the cradily we met early earlier. The second fiend is an eight legged poisonous bug. The third, a Pokémon named Bastiodon-"

"Is a huge spiked yellow dude." I interrupted.

"Oh, yes. How did- oh." Sayre said as she spotted the Pokémon in question barreling down the tunnel towards us.

"Run!" I shouted back.

Sayre and I bolted down the tunnel, the Bastiodon hot on our tails. Unfortunately ― and I do believe I've said this before ― I'm not that fast. In a matter of seconds, Sayre was out of sight and the bulldozer was right behind me. I noticed other tunnels branching off of mine, but without a guide I had no way of knowing which would lead me to safety. I started praying that I wouldn't be seeing a light at the end of the tunnel any time soon. As soon as I did, I saw a light at the end of the tunnel.

Please Arces, let that no be you! I pushed myself just a little harder. If I can just make it!

I was feeling the hot breath of the spiked friend when I busted into a clearing. I threw myself to the side and felt the Bastiodon pass me. After traveling to the other side of the cavern, he stopped and started to shake his head. The sudden change of scenery must have disoriented him, but I knew that wouldn't last too long.

I took a moment to check my surroundings. I was in a large cavern filled with small boulders. There was no sign of Sayer, so she must have split off down a different tunnel. The only other thing I could see was-

"Dux?"

"The gowleiths want you to pay them for the door repair charge." The farfech'd said.

The bastiodon roared.

Crap, he heard us. I thought. I started to run towards Dux.

As I got near, Dux held out his leek to me. "Master using it," He began.

I plucked the leek out of his wing and threw it at the incoming bastiodon. It wasn't very effective…

Ok Ricochet, think. If that Cradily was too strong for you than this guy is, too. You don't have to beat him though, just get him to leave.

"Easier thought than done, brain!" I said. "Any other suggestions?"

Well, just look around dummy.

Rocks. That's what I had to work with. Lots and lots of rocks. Wait! Some of those rocks have eyes! Geodudes. Ok, now how do I turn this into my advantage?

The Bastiodon kept charging towards Dux and I. As he did, he stepped on one of the geodudes. The geodudes responded by exploding. The bastiodon staggered, stopping a few yards away from us.

"Holy crap!" I shouted. "I didn't know they could do that! Wait, did he just kill that geodude?"

"Hmm." said Dux. "It looks like bastiodons dislike smoke."

"I'm pretty sure it was the explosion and not the smoke."

The bastiodon recovered and started charging again. I needed to act now.

"Hey, plate face!" I shouted as I ran up to the nearest geodude. I hardened my tail fur and wacked the geodude with all I had. It sailed over to the bastiodon and exploded on impact.

Wow, I can't believe I hit him. I know he's a big target but still...

At the impact, the bastiodon jerked but didn't stop. I leapt to another geodude and batted it into my impending death. The geodude bounced off the horned plate of the Pokémon. The bastiodon roared, but he didn't even slow down. I only had a few moments left. On instinct, I ran up to a duo of geodude, and batted one towards the bastiodon. Then, with only the barest scraps of a plan, I quickly batted the next at the bastiodon.

The first exploded against the steel plate causing the bastiodon to open his mouth to roar. The second went in that mouth and down his throat. He came to an abrupt stop mere feet from me, and started looking very uncomfortable. There was a large rumbling aside of his belly and then smoke came out of his mouth. The bastiodon gave a weak cough, the toppled over.

"I did it?" I said.

"You did it!" Sayre's voice came. I looked around and spotted her entering the cavern from an adjoining tunnel. "That was brilliant. I've never seen such a raw display of power. You took on a monstrously large Pokémon all on your own."

That reminds me… I looked around for Dux, but he was nowhere to be found. The only other Pokémon here was the bastiodon. "This bastiodon is not... I mean, you don't think he is..."

"Nah, he's just out cold." a diglett popped out of the ground below us. "Nice going with the geodudes by the way."

"Well, I'm just keeping up my end of the bargain." I said.

"Yeah. I thought you were going to die for sure." The diglett said. "But now that this guy is unconscious, we'll shuffle him out off the caves."

"We?" I said.

The ground around the bastiodon exploded as hundreds of digletts emerged from the ground. They surrounded the bastiodon and started carrying the bastiodon away.

"What! There are hundreds of you?" I growled. "Why couldn't all of you take on one Pokémon?"

"Well," Sayre said. "We did offer."

"I don't believe I'm here," I said. "This has to be a dream"

"I assure you." Sayre confirmed. "This is no dream."

"I'm back home," I said.

The Celadon city eevee farm hadn't changed much over time. The playground was just where I left it. Over the fields. I could still see the door to the feeding room. The aroma of dinner drifting from it brought back memories of simpler times.

"So," Sayre said, "you came from here as well?" She had snuck me in when the dinner bell started ringing. Evidently, the humans used the distraction to enter directly into the playground from the outside. If I had known that while I lived here, I would have caused so much more trouble.

"Yeah, but I never heard of you." I said. "When were you here?"

"I've must have been in the group ahead of you." Sayre said. "Let's wait here till dark. We should blend in with the other eevees."

"Then we sneak into the ventilation shafts and into the kitchen. Are you sure the jaboca berry is in there?"

"Yes."

"And you're sure you don't know what it does?"

"Yes." Sayre said. "But once we have it, there is no way Mire will be able to stand up to us."

"Well, I guess things could be worse," I said as I spotted two eevees walking up to us.

"Hey," one called out. "You're not supposed to be here."

"Yeah," said his partner, "you guys are supposed to be on the other side of the farm. Go back!"

"Excuse me?" I said. "Are you confusing me for one of those weird eevees from the other side? I'll have you know I was raised right here. This is my home!"

"Oh, yeah," said the first eevee. "Then how come do I not know you?"

"Because I left a long time ago," I said. "My name's Ricochet."

Both of the eevees' jaws dropped.

"That's more like it," I said. "I used to rule this place."

"We... we know," said eevee number one. The second eevee just took off towards the larger groups of eevees. "You were the food champion!"

"You know it," I said. "I'm sure Bullet told you all about me. We were quite the team."

"Who?" the eevee said.

I didn't get a chance to respond. The larger part of the eevees had surrounded Sayre and me. All of them were shouting questions at the same time. I heard a lot of 'food' and 'Ricochet', both of which are some of my favorite words. I was feeling pretty good by the time a new, bossy looking eevee came up into the little circle orbiting me.

"How do we know that you're Ricochet?" This eevee seemed to be the new head honcho around the farm. "Any weirdo can say that. The legends also never mentioned a green bonnet."

"You've never heard of me wearing a green bonnet? Are there legends of me with blue or a red bonnet?" I said. "Listen, just ask Bullet."

"I don't know who that is." said the leader.

"Oh, she's quiet, but she's cool," I said. Then I called out her name a few times. I got no response. The other eevees started mumbling. "Oh, I guess she's gone." Weird. I never thought that anyone else would leave. Seems kind of silly in hindsight. "What about Zip. Feral? Really? Is no one still here?" All I got was silence.

There gone. I looked over my home. The playground, the doors to the kitchen, the house where we all slept... it all seemed so much emptier. It was familiar but... It's not home. I realized. Somehow, with out all the people I care about... It's not home.

"Don't worry Ricochet," Sayre said. "I felt the same the first time I came back too. Everyone leaves here eventually."

"Sayre," said the leader, "is this guy who he says he is?"

Sayre looked over at me. I don't know how I looked at that moment, but she choose to leave me alone. "Yes, I do believe he is. Ricochet here is helping me fight an evil Pokémon. He's already vanquished two of the monsters sent by the wicked Mire. There is no doubt he is every bit the hero he should be."

"Monsters?" Several eevees mattered. One screamed the word, but was quickly hushed.

"Wait," Said the head eevee. "Are you looking for a monster here?"

"Yes," Sayre said.

"Huh?" I said, "I thought we were looking for a berry."

"Yes," Sayre said. "It also stands to reason-"

"Yeah, yeah," I interrupted, "The eight legged guy's here, just like the cave and the lake. What a twist."

"Now that you mentioned it…" The head eevee started. "There have been weird sightings around the farm lately. Others tell of a presence spying on them from the ventilation shafts."

I groaned on the inside. Which means that I've got to fight this thing where I can't move? Visions of the rattata I fought on the very same battleground came to my mind. I can't do that again.

"We will vanquish this foe for you!" Sayre said.

"Sayre, what did we just learn about that word," I said.

"Right. Sorry. We will beat that thing up!" Sayre said.

"If you don't mind my asking," Sayre said as we walked together into the sleeping room for the night. "How did you get that bonnet?"

"Gift from an admirer." I lied. "You know what's been bugging me though? Why an eevee would be in a grass type gym."

"Erika is very open minded about the Pokémon she uses," Sayre said. "Besides, we eevee's are genetically unstable. I think she's trying to find a way to make me evolve into a grass type."

"Ah. The experiments that girl was referring to," I remembered. "Your father and you are just being exposed to different stones?"

Sayre got quiet.

"Oh. Right. Mire did something too him." I said, as we entered the sleeping room. It was exactly the same as I remembered. At least something here is. "Sorry about your father. Maybe we'll find him. Or at least beat Mire into telling us what he did to him."

Sayre nodded and motioned towards the vent in the room. We headed over to the same shaft I had snuck in and out of. The other eevees gave us room, not wanting to call too much attention to our trespassing. I guess humans could observe eevees at all times on the farm. Must be new or I'd have gotten in way more trouble.

Sayre started whacking on the vent.

"You know," I said, "I never heard how you know about this trick. When I was here, I had to wait until everyone was sleeping to keep this quite."

"I may not have been the most well behaved eevee." Sayre said with just a hint of amusement in her voice. "I used ventilation shafts to explore the other side of the farm."

"You visited those weirdoes? On purpose?" I said. "I ran into one called Jade. The dude was a total jerk."

"Oh, they are not all like that, I assure you. Why, the ones I met were all lovely. Ah, there we go." Sayre moved the vent off to the side. "Are we ready to go?"

"Uhm..." I looked down of the black hole in the wall. This was so much easier when it was just a plan. Now... "Uhm, I can't think of a reason not to."

Sayre looked at me funny. I guess that's not the words a hero says.

"Lead the way," I said.

I followed behind Sayre in silence for a few moments. When she finally spoke I banged my head on the top of the shaft. Let me tell you, the sound of skull meeting metal carries. I suddenly found it very difficult to breathe.

"I said are you OK?" Sayre whispered. When I didn't answer her voice got more urgent. "Ricochet!"

The vent began to shake.

"Ricochet!" I saw Sayre's slight frame twist around in the shaft. "Is that the ario..."

I couldn't see her face as her voice trailed off. I tried to make myself breathe easier, so I could reassure her that the shaking wasn't anything to worry about. I just couldn't bring myself to do it. Did I ever tell you how hard it was to breathe in a tight dark space like this?

"Ricochet," Sayre said, "are you ok?"

After struggling for a bit I said, "Yeah, yeah! I was just thinking you know that maybe I should stay with the other eevees. To protect them. Just in case..."

Sayre was quiet for a while. In the ever constricting darkness still could not read her expression, "Ricochet, it's OK if you're-"

"Yep, I should go. Got to go. You've got this right? I'm sure you do. I'll just back myself out of the vent." I started to push myself backwards. It couldn't have been long, but I finally heard Sayre moving away into the pitch black.

She'll be OK. I thought. It's only fair after all. I got the last two, she should get the next. In a few moments the warm light of the farm started filling the ventilation shaft. She'll be fine. Why should I have to do all the work anyway? It's her trainer that's in danger, not mine. I shouldn't have to deal with any of this. It's not my respon-

Sayre's scream echoed through the tomb-like-passage just as I was leaving. Sayre! I strained to hear more, but the only sound was the mutterings of the eevees behind me. I... Sayre, I... Oh, man.

I looked at the light around me and the darkness ahead. I took a deep breath and barreled into the darkness.

I didn't do too much exploring during my time at the eevee farm once I found the kitchen. I couldn't think of another reason to keep that up. And then, after meeting that rattata, I never went back in at all. When I raced after Sayre, the kitchen was the only place I could think to go. I hope it's where they keep the berries. I mean, where else would you keep food right?

When I came to the kitchen entrance, the vent was askew. I burst through as quickly as possible and stopped to catch my breath.

"Sayre wasn't lying," An alien voice called out from the shadows. The way his voice echoed every which way, I couldn't tell where it was coming from. Mockingly it said, "My hero will come from me. He'll save me. You won't get away with this."

It laughed.

"Of course, I asked why her hero wasn't here to stop me from taking her."

"Where is she?" I kept trying to locate the voice. This wasn't the vents anymore. This was my kitchen. I knew this place better than anyone. "I swear, if you hurt her…"

"Oh, goody, more clichés. Next you're going to demand that I reveal myself and face justice." The voice said. "I wouldn't worry if I were you. I'm taking you back there soon anyway. Let me just wrap this up."

That sounds just like a bad pun someone would make the moment before they attack!

I blindly threw myself forward only to hear a wet sound drop behind me. When I glanced back I could make out a familiar sight on the ground. Silk? From a bug? I was difficult to see in the kitchen, but I looked up to find the source of the webbing. The Pokémon hanging from the ceiling was black and red with pinchers and a horn on its head. It was also three times my size. Its eight legs quivered as it opened its mouth to attack.

I didn't stick around to get hit by its silky webbing. I dodged out of the way and took cover around a corner. OK Ricochet, think! I don't have to beat him. All I have to do is get rid of him. I kept moving, not bothering to look up. The bug above me continued trying to web me up, but seemed to have problems hitting me. Jeez. How do I beat this thing? The last time something like this happened... Jade! Of course!

I jumped up onto the counter. This must have surprised Mire's crony because he tried to pull himself further up his webbing to get out of my reach. Not going for you dummy. I ignored my enemy and jumped straight into the kitchen pots and pans, knocking them on the ground. I didn't stop there. Anything on the counters I threw onto the ground.

"What are you-" The stripped fiend began. He got his answer really fast. Light flooded the room as humans burst into the kitchen. I don't know if they saw me. They were probably distracted by the three foot Pokémon hanging from the ceiling. As I quickly entered the vents, I heard shouting from humans that sounded as though the bug wasn't going to be making it back to Mire in a while.

After a short moment I shot out of the vents and into a crowed of eevees. I couldn't make out what they were all saying but the general emotion seemed to be "What's going on?!"

The head eevee got everyone under control as I caught my breath. When everyone was calm he asked me, "Where is Sayre?"

I didn't respond at first. Where is she? With Mire. He probably got the Jaboca berry, too. And I have no idea where they could be. I began to say, "I DON'T –" but stopped as a new idea struck me. The bug told me that he was taking me back, and Sayre said Mire had plan for Erika. That would mean...

It was still dark when I reached Celadon City gym. It loomed over me, door ajar and black within. Yeah, I think this is the right place.

"If this Mire can command the minds of three giants, then he must be really strong," I muttered. "Too strong for me."

I pictured what Sayre would think when I found her. Would she be angry? Disgusted? Or would she already be- I shook my head clear of the images. It was time to focus. I straightened my bonnet and entered the gym.

I had received a brief tour during the small amount of time I was here with Sayre. It wasn't difficult to find my way around and even less difficult to guess where Mire was.

The battle arena for Celadon City was, well, grassy. In fact, it didn't look like an arena at all. If I didn't know better, I'd mistake it for a garden. There was no mistaking the scene before me though. Erika lay unconscious, surrounded by what I could only guess were her equally unconscious Pokémon. Sayre was still awake, just covered in webbing. She was glaring at the only other Pokémon in the arena.

He was a little over three feet tall and covered in black and purple fur. While his pink swirled tail wasn't what I would call intimidating, he was thick. Not fat, but thick. When he turned to greet me, I saw he had two stones on his head and one more on his belly.

"Well, well, well," Mire said. "At last we meet. Sayre said you would defeat my friend. Me, I thought you lacked the courage."

"What do you want?" I demanded "What could you possibly gain from all this?"

"Control." Mire answered. "I plan to replace Erika as gym leader here. All the while, I'll collect more Pokémon on my side, the ones mistreated by their trainers until we are strong enough to take over the world!"

Wow. I guess Sayre was right. "That's insane. You think humans would let you take over a gym?"

"Oh, they won't know it's me. See, my species had a neat ability."

"Yeah? And what's that?"

"We can control people and Pokémon minds by dong a little dance."

"... OK, it's gone." I said.

"What's gone?" Mire said.

"All of the fear." I said. "I mean seriously, a little dance? That just destroyed all of the intimidation you set up."

"Think what you want, fool," Mire said, "but humans and Pokémon alike will succumb to the Grumpig dance craze!"

"I'm going to regret asking this, but I'm just too curious." I made a show of clearing my throat. "What are you talking about?"

"I plan on turning this gym… into an actual gym!" Mire followed this up with maniacal laughter.

"You monster!" Sayre exclaimed.

"Am I missing something here?" I said.

"A gym meant for humans to exercise," Mire continued. "They'll all come here from all over town to shave off a few pounds by following me in a dance. Little do they know that I'll be inserting commands into their sub consciousness. They'll tell all their friends. They'll buy all my merchandise. I'll be come a hit! Finally, they'll put me on TV where my dance can reach millions! By the time anyone bothers to look up what my species is capable of, I'll be unstoppable!"

"That sounds… frighteningly plausible," I decided. "Good thing I'm going to stop you right now."

Mire screamed and thrust himself in the air. I had to leap out of the way to keep myself from being crushed by his falling body. OK, I'm intimidated again!

"Sayre!" I said "I think I need those berries! Tell me you still have yours!"

"Good luck getting to her." Mire said, planting himself in-between Sayre and I. "I'll crush you before you even get close."

"Not if I have anything to say about it!" Came a familiar voice from above us.

"Dux?" I said. Sure enough, the farfetch'd was perched on an open window seal. I was even more surprised by what came after.

"Dux!" Mire growled.

"Father!" Sayre shouted with joy.

With a flick of his wing, Dux tossed his leek towards Sayre. It cut through the webbing and released her. Then he fluttered down and landed in front of Mire.

"Your plan will come to not!" Dux said. "I have returned to put an end to your evil machinations!"

"I should have dropped you into the middle of the lake." Mire said.

The two Pokémon faced off. I used the distraction to get over to Sayre.

"I see where you get your quirks from," I said as I helped her out of the remaining web. "Tell me you have the Enigma berry."

She spit a berry up, but it wasn't the Enigma berry. "This is the Jaboca berry. I got it right before that ariados got me. And, yes, I still retain the Enigma berry." She looked at the leek by us. "We have to get this to my father. Without it-"

"AAHH!" Dux screamed. Mire threw him across the gym. When the flying type hit the ground, he twitched around a bit and then fell still.

"Hm." Mire said. "Not so tough without your leek are you?"

"Father! No!"

"Sayre, focus." I said as a picked up the berry. "We can still do this. You ready to take this guy down?"

Sayre looked at me, then looked at Mire, and growled.

"I'll take that as a 'yes'. Let's go!"

Mire came at as again. Fortunately both Sayre and I knew how to kick dirt into people's faces. He crashed between us, knocking Sayre off her feet.

Time to get offensive. I thought. "I've got him, Sayre."

I smashed Mire with my iron tail. Sayre got to her feet but didn't get off an attack. I don't know what attack she was planning, but when she got close, Mire thrust his arms at her in a chopping motion.

"Sayre," I shouted at the flying body. It crashed by the side of the arena and didn't move. I didn't know what to do. I couldn't turn my back on Mire to see if she was OK. I decided I had to keep on fighting.

I continued to smack Mire with my iron tail. Every once in a while I managed to throw sand into his face. Mire continued his frustrated attacks for a time. Then he bellowed "Enough."

Mire started to dance.

I couldn't help but snort. Really? That's got to be the least scary- 'Scary' was as far as I got because I felt an invisible force invade my mind. Uh oh. I tried to move, tried to keep fighting, but it felt as though someone was standing on my tail

"Disable." Mire crunched down on something in his mouth. "I thought I would need this berry to beat Erika," He said. "Turns out that all her Pokémon had a weakness to physic though. I guess I'll just have to use it on you."

The Lansat berry! That will make his attacks more powerful!

"But I'm not done yet." Mire said after he finished chewing. "Check this out!" He proceeded to regurgitate the berry and re-eat it. "By doing this recycle trick, I can double the power this berry gives me!"

"That's... so... gross..." I struggled to say.

Mire thudded his way towards me, keeping in time with his dance. I couldn't do anything but wait for the hit to come. It came all right, but not from Mire. Sayre appeared beside him, crashing into him. With the stop of Mire's dance, I found my body under my control.

"Did you forget that the Enigma berry restores its chewer when struck by a super effective attack?" She said. "Now choke on my return attack!"

Sayre started to glow. "This is a technique you could never master. All of the love for my trainer is put into this. Now, be vanquished!" Sayre slammed into Mire, causing him to double over. But not faint. Howling with rage, Mire launched himself at Sayre.

What could I do? I quickly pushed Sayre out of the way. Mire's attack thudded against me. I was electrocuted to near death once. If I had to compare, this would be a close second. My body felt like it was caving in on me. As I felt Mire's body begin to rebound off me, I did the last thing I could. I bit into the Jaboca berry. As I did so, a part of that pain left me. It ran right back to Mire.

"Ahhh!" Mire screamed. With my last conscious breath, I watched Mire tumble and fall to the ground.

Waking up in the Pokémon center never gets old. I thought as woke up to the after taste of chancey egg. Maybe I should have been concerned that an attitude altering Pokémon like a chancy was out there. As always I felt too good to care.

"Oh, good," A nurse said, "Your trainer will be so pleased."

Lin? Lin's here!

Sure enough, in the waiting room, sat my lost trainer.

"Lin! You found me!" I said leaping into her arms.

"Technically, it was my idea to check the lost Pokémon listings," Aza said from his pokeball.

"Thank you so much for finding me, Lin!" I said loudly.

"Figures," Aza said.

"Ricochet," Lin said, "you have a bonnet."

"I know. And it won't come off!" I wailed.

"And the berry did the rest," I finished.

"That's... impressive," Aza said. He and I were together with Sayre and Dux. Lin and Erika were talking a ways away from us. "For a berry, anyway."

"You shouldn't treat your lord's accomplishment so lightly," Sayre said.

"My what?" Aza said raising an eyebrow.

"Anyway, I'm glad you two are OK. What happened to Mire?" I asked.

"As soon as Erika woke up, we were able to capture the unconscious Mire. He's now being sent to a place where people can help him," Sayre said.

"You have my eternal gratitude," Dux said. "Thank you so much for rescuing my daughter."

"Yeah, about that," I said.

"Yes?" Sayre looked at me with very innocent eyes.

"Uhm, never mind."

"You know what I don't get," Aza said. "I thought this was a grass gym. What is a flying type doing here?"

Dux held up his leek as if to say, 'Duh.'

"That doesn't count!" Aza said.

"No, I couldn't just take it," Lin's harsh voice interrupted.

"I lost to that grumpig and your Pokémon beat it without your help." Erika said. "I think it's a lost cause anyway. You have a psychic type Pokémon. Please, just take the badge."

"Is Erika offering us a badge without a fight?" I said.

"It appears so," Aza said.

"And Lin's refusing it because..."

"She wants to fight for it." Aza said. Both he and Dux started walking towards the trainers. "I'll go talk the crazy out of her."

Alone with Sayre, I hesitated to speak. "Listen, Sayre, about what happened at the farm."

"You look better without a bonnet," Sayre said.

"Huh? Well yeah but-"

"It's ok Ricochet. You came for me didn't you?" She said.

"Let me finish." I said. "I'm not really a hero. I'm afraid all of the time. I'm afraid of the dark. I'm afraid of tight spaces. I have no idea what I'll evolve into. I'm worried sick about my old friends from the farm. I think everyone secretly believes I'm overweight. I don't know if I'll like any other Pokémon Lin adds to our team. I'm certain that-"

"Ricochet," Sayre interrupted, "True courage isn't about not being afraid. It's about doing what's right in spite of fear."

"Well…" I said. Then I gave Sayre a hug. "Thank you, Sayre. You know, you're not too bad of a hero yourself."

Aza came over to me, followed by Lin and Erika.

"I've talked her down," Aza said. "We could use a break."

"That's one special eevee you have there," Erika said. "He'll be a legend around here."

"The legend of Ricochet?" Aza said. "Sounds stupid, so it's perfect for him."

"Shut up, squire."