One shorter chapter until they meet again.

Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon or its characters.

Chapter 37: Hunting the Hunters down

Dawn arrived in Sandgem Town soon, teleporting to Twinleaf Town as soon as possible. Johanna was surprised but also relieved to see her daughter at the entrance. Although Dawn left a message for Zoey and Kenny, who told her what happened, she was still very worried.

"Dawn!" She gave her a big hug. "I was so worried. You have to tell me everything."

"I guess it's no use pretending that everything's alright?" Dawn said with a weak smile. She couldn't fool her own mother and if there was anyone who could understand her, it was Johanna.

So Dawn told her everything. Everything about the grand festival. Everything about the league. Everything about Ash. A few long explanations and big hugs later, Dawn's mother spoke up again.

"My poor girl. I will speak to Ash. I'm sure he didn't really mean it." Dawn tried to stop her.

"No, Mom. I don't want to be a bother. I don't want to get in the way of his dreams," she said sadly.

"And so you just give up on him? That's not like you at all! I'll talk to him and if he doesn't feel bad about the things he said, he isn't the right one for you anyway. By the way, where is your ribbon cup?" she asked. "I have saved a nice place for it."

"Didn't they tell you? I destroyed it." Johanna was shocked.

"You destroyed it? Such a shame …" She had been hoping to place it next to her own. "Well, we can't change it now. I better make dinner now. You must be hungry."

Dawn kept mostly to herself for the next two days. Since Ash was on a ship right now, Johanna didn't manage to talk to him. One day, Zoey and Kenny were standing in front of her house. They gave her the remains of the ribbon cup before she led them into her daughter's room.

"What are you doing here?" Dawn asked.

"Bringing you the rest of your ribbon cup. And asking you what the hell you were thinking," Zoey answered.

"You should understand how much he means to me. So I can't stand the fact that I just stood in his way all the time. And if I just continue like that he'll hate me even more," she told them.

"But can't stay like this either. Several days have passed and you're still depressed. You have two choices. You either talk to him and finally make up again or you find something else to do. But you can't just stay here for the rest of your life." Dawn thought about it for a while.

"Come on. Smile again," Kenny said. "I even brought you a little present." He showed her a yellow and brown egg. "Take this. I'm sure you'll like it."

"I don't want it. Are you trying to gain my love with presents now?" Dawn asked.

"No, I just want to cheer you up a bit. Don't you even want to know what kind of egg it is?" He seemed a bit offended.

"I'm sorry. It's just that you usually go away when I need help. But I still can't accept it," she replied. "Maybe you're right. Maybe I should look for something else to do. There are so many things that need to be done. I just need a bit more time to think about it."

They proceeded to talk about their plans. Zoey wanted to compete in contests in Kanto whereas Kenny wanted to the same in Johto. Despite his pleadings she didn't accept the egg, which he revealed to be an abra egg. A bit later they left again but not without promising to visit her again. Johanna was glad that Dawn had good friends and was pleased with the changes she saw in Kenny's behavior. But there was still something missing.

The same day, while she was shopping, Dawn saw something interesting on TV. Something about the poachers.

"There have been even more reports of trainers getting attacked by a notorious pokémon hunter near Eterna Forest. So far, thirteen trainers have been robbed. We have one of the victims right here." Dawn's eyes widened. It was Leona. "Tell us, what happened?"

"Well, I wanted to catch another grass type for my team." It was hard for her to speak. "People warned me that there was a dangerous poacher in the forest but I thought that I could handle it. I was wrong. He ambushed me, distracting me with lots of golbat and haunter. There were simply too many of them. I tried to fight him but he just shot me with a strange cannon. When I woke up in the hospital, the doctors told me that I had been turned to stone. My pokémon were also gone, including my starter. I … I don't even want to think about the things that poacher does with them."

"I'm sorry to hear. Do you have anything else to say?" the interviewer asked.

"Don't underestimate those criminals. Don't think that you can beat them alone. Because you can't. They use dirty methods. I hope the police will take care of them and return the pokémon to their trainers," she replied.

"We all hope they do. We also have one of the Eterna City police officers who is in charge of hunting down the poachers, officer Derril." The face of him appeared on a screen next to the interviewer. "Officer, when are you going to catch the pokémon hunter and end the threat?"

"We can assure you, that we're trying our best but our numbers are low due to the Sinnoh Grand Festival and league needing special attention. But as soon as those events are over, we can turn our attention back to the local matters. Then it won't take long until we arrest the criminals." He continued to talk but Dawn stopped listening.

Yeah, right, she thought. They won't do anything unless someone presents them with the poachers directly. But … maybe I could do it? I have Lucario to sense danger and Espeon to teleport us to safety. Mom won't like it. But I mean, someone has to help her, right? And nobody else wants to try. Yes, that's a good idea. I will make him pay for everything he did to Leona! She will be reunited with her pokémon soon!

She quickly wrote a note for her mother and called out Espeon to teleport her to Eterna City, from where she would enter the forest.

About one hour later, Johanna returned. She paled when she read the note Dawn left behind. It said that she wanted to hunt down a poacher that stole Leona's pokémon. Of course, she immediately called the police in Eterna City so that they could stop her daughter but they couldn't find her. So she assumed that Dawn had already entered the forest. A bit later Johanna received another call but it wasn't the police who called. It was Ash.

"Hello, Johanna," he greeted her a bit nervously. He didn't know what Dawn told her mother about the things he said. "Is Dawn at home?"

"Ash, you better hurry and come here. Dawn is trying to hunt down a poacher on her own. And I don't know whether she'll stop at that. You have to stop her," she told him.

"What? Is she crazy?" he yelled. "Oh, sorry. I'm just worried about her. Aren't you mad at me because of the lies I said about her?"

"Oh, don't think I'm not mad. Your words caused her a lot of pain. But her safety is more important now. And I fear that you're the only one who can persuade her to stop it. We will talk about your mistakes later." He nodded. At least he would get a chance to explain.

"But it will still take days until the ship arrives in Sinnoh. And how am I supposed to find her? She can teleport around the whole region and I can't." Johanna got an idea.

"Leave it to me. I think there is someone who can help you," she told him. "I have to call her now."

"No problem. We'll see each other again soon. Bye," he said.

"Bye, Ash." They hung up.

Hopefully he would get there soon.

Dawn had changed her pokémon before entering the forest. Apart from Piplup, Espeon and Lucarion she also took Metagross and Scizor, who were more motivated than any other pokémon to fight the pokémon hunters, and Gengar, who had a connection to the ghost types in the forest. The only pokémon she didn't call out at the beginning was Metagross since it was very heavy and would be too loud. After nothing happened for nearly an hour, Lucario suddenly signaled them to stop. He pointed at a nearby tree, which had something dark next to it. It turned out to be a hand, probably a haunter's but the interesting thing about it was a small device floating inside, which somehow changed its aura. They could only guess that it was a scout who was hiding in the tree.

"Can you destroy it?" Dawn asked Lucario, who nodded.

He shot an aura sphere at the hand, destroying the device without hurting the ghost type. Gengar called the confused Haunter after it left the tree. Although it didn't have any useful information, it agreed to help them against the poacher and his slaves. Dawn quickly realized that she would be completely lost without Lucario as most of the ghost types hiding in the trees were much harder to see but their aura revealed them to him. Not all of them joined her but too many of them wouldn't be good either.

They found a camp soon after and it was a horrible sight. Many petrified pokémon were standing there with heavy metal chests, which probably contained even more stolen pokéballs. But there was no poacher or pokémon guarding it. There was no doubt that he didn't expect anyone to get past his scouts. While Gengar was looking for him, Dawn's other pokémon got rid of the rest of the scouts in the surrounding area.

Then they set up an ambush. It took about half an hour until he finally returned to his camp, accompanied by a group of golbat, who were carrying three more petrified pokémon. He didn't seem to notice the absence of his scouts.

"Gravity!" Dawn whispered to Metagross, who was hiding next to her in a bush.

The gravity increased enormously all of sudden. The golbat fell to the ground instantly but the petrified pokémon were saved by Espeon's psychic move. An aura sphere destroyed the poacher's cannon.

"What the …" He was cut off by Scizor, who knocked him to the ground before he could reach his pokéball or other equipment, holding his pincers near his throat in a threatening manner. Piplup and Gengar defeated the rest of the golbat, destroying the devices that controlled them. It was almost too easy.

Slowly she walked over to him with her pokémon surrounding him now.

"Where are Leona's pokémon?" she asked.

"Do I look like I know the name of every single person I rob?" he retorted.

"Fine! The police will find it out eventually." She took out her mobile phone and proceeded to call the Eterna City police.

"No! Don't do it! I'm sure we can come to an agreement. You want money? Or how about pokémon? I have a lot in this camp. Why don't you take one or two of them and forget about all of this?" he begged her.

"Forget it! I will end your career as a miserable thief here and now," she told him coldly.

"Alright! Do it! But this isn't over! I have powerful friends, who won't be happy about this! They will get me out of prison and then you'll pay for this!" he threatened her.

"I'm going to take that risk," she replied, unimpressed.

So she called the police despite his threats. It took them quite a lot of time but in the end they found the camp thanks to Espeon's signal beam. Before they could thank her, she left the camp with teleport as she didn't really want to talk to them at that moment. She reappeared near Eterna City.

That was easier than expected. Actually, that guy was a real weakling. Without his equipment he probably wouldn't have been able to defeat even one of those trainers. Leona should get her pokémon back soon. She thought about it a bit longer. Maybe I should defeat the others as well? There are many more trainers whose pokémon have been stolen and the police certainly won't be able to help them. But I can! I can help those people and gain a new purpose. Alright, let's look for them!

So she started to hunt the pokémon hunters down, one after another. Most of them didn't even get to use one pokémon but a few days later she noticed that one of them looked much better prepared than the others. In fact, it looked like he was trying to ambush her but Lucario didn't fail her. Instead, he got ambushed himself, when he went to find out why the scouts haven't returned. With her pokemons' help she always stayed one step ahead of the poachers.

The next day, Ash finally arrived at Sandgem Town, where he met Zoey at the harbor.

"You are the one Johanna was talking about?" He received a slap to the cheek. "Hey, what was that for?"

"That was for everything you said. Do you have any idea how hurt she is? She even destroyed her own ribbon cup! What were you thinking?" she asked.

"Well, I wasn't really thinking at that time," he answered truthfully. "And I came here to apologize."

"And are you finally going to admit that you love her?" This caught him off guard.

"How did you …? But yes, I think I do," he admitted.

"Promise me that you'll tell her!" she demanded.

"Fine! I was going to do it anyway. I think it's the only way to show her that I didn't mean those things I said. So where is she right now?" Zoey just shrugged.

"I have no idea. That's why we should talk to Johanna first. Gallade, come on out! Take us to Twinleaf Town!" Before Ash could protest, he was already taken to Dawn's hometown. What he saw there nearly gave him a heart attack, though.

Dawn's house was gone, instead there was just a smoking ruin with her and Johanna's possessions lying around the whole area. Actually, it looked like a bomb blew it up.

"No!" he screamed. He started to search for clues what happened, ignoring the crowd that had gathered in front of the ruins. He found remains of ribbons, ribbon cups and, most importantly, the hat he gave her as a birthday present. It was scorched badly. "Oh no. Please be alive …" he mumbled, tears forming in his eyes.

"Ash," Zoey said to him. She was just as pale as he was.

"Please tell me she's alive!" he yelled, grabbing her shoulders and shaking her.

"Calm down! I talked to the police. It appears that nobody was in the house when the bomb blew up." Words couldn't describe how relieved he was. So Dawn and Johanna were safe. He slowly sank to the ground.

"Thank god. I … I don't know what would have happened if they were dead," he told her. "Especially if it had been my fault or …"

"Stop it!" she shouted. "We have to find out what where they are. No time for that nonsense."

Suddenly they heard a voice in their heads. Someone spoke to them telepathically.

"Listen to me! I know where you can find the woman you know as Johanna. I'm a metang working for Looker from the international police. Please follow my instructions to meet him." They looked at each other.

"Did you also just hear that voice?" Ash asked. Zoey nodded. "Do you think we can trust it?"

"Looker used the same method to meet us the first time. I think we should try it," she replied.

A few seconds later it described a way into the forest where they soon found the metang along with an abra.

"Abra will teleport you to Looker's location," the voice told them.

They decided to trust it and let the psychic type teleport them to this location, which turned out to be a small house in Veilstone City. Metang showed them the way and soon they found Looker and Johanna inside one of the rooms.

"Ash, Zoey!" she shouted and hugged them. "I'm so glad you're here. You have to do something. There's something wrong with Dawn. She's hunting down every single poacher she can find."

"What? One is already enough," Ash exclaimed. "We have to do something."

"That won't be easy." Looker spoke up for the first time. "It's good to see you again but the situation is grave. Dawn's actions have drawn the attention of the leaders of the Galactic Hunters. They decided to get revenge so they tried to kill her family. Fortunately, they are very predictable so we took Johanna to safety. It didn't stop them from destroying her house, though."

"If they tried to kill Johanna, they will try to kill Dawn too!" Ash shouted.

"No doubt about that. The interesting thing is that she is acting unusually professional. She often changes her location, which makes her quite unpredictable. Unfortunately, she always leaves before the police can talk to her," Looker told them.

"We have to find her." Ash was extremely worried. "She's probably out there and needs our help."

"Finally!" The poacher sank into the seat in his camp next to Lake Verity.

He has just battled three trainers at the same time and won even though he lost a few of his pokémon slaves. But now it was time for a long rest. Suddenly, a pachirisu approached him.

"Get lost, little bugger," he yelled.

He didn't notice that a gyarados rose from the lake behind him. It shot a hyper beam at the pokémon guarding him, who were also attacked by an ice beam out of nowhere. The pachirisu used thunderbolt on his stone cannon, destroying it instantly. His pokéballs were moved out of his reach with psychic and caught by a buneary. Then a lucario knocked him to the ground, holding its bone rush staff right in front of his face. Finally, a blue haired girl approached him, a cold expression on her face.

"Your career is over. I have already called the police. They'll be here soon. Espeon, guide them!" The sun pokémon shot a signal beam into the sky.

"You're that brat! You know we will catch you one day?" he asked but she just shrugged.

"Maybe. But not today," she just answered.

Shortly before the police arrived, she recalled most of her pokémon and teleported to a random pokémon center. She changed her pokémon after each poacher so that all of them would have something to do. The only ones she always had with her were Piplup, Espeon and Lucario for obvious reasons.

Just when Looker was about to ask them to do something for him, another call interrupted him.

"It looks like she defeated another one," he told Ash, Zoey and Johanna after ending it.

"Why don't you have members of the police wait at all the pokémon centers?" Zoey asked. "She has to go there sooner or earlier."

"I'm afraid we just don't have the numbers to do that," he replied.

But that wasn't everything. One of the highest ranking members actually wanted Dawn to continue. That way, he would get credit for capturing the criminals and he could use Dawn as a bait. Once some higher ranking members of the Galactic Hunters tried to eliminate her, he would arrest them. But first, he had to find a way to follow her, which was difficult due to the teleports. Looker didn't agree with his methods but there was nothing offcial he could do and it made him nervous. He could send Ash and Zoey to look for Dawn, though.

"Listen, there is an area with an unusual high number of pokémon hunters. It's likely that she will attack them soon. You have to find her! I have a very bad feeling that something bad is going to happen." He showed them an area west of Pastoria City. "Abra will take you there."

"Alright, let's go immediately." Ash and Zoey went next to the pokémon. "If you're right, it's too dangerous to wait any longer."

"Be careful. We don't know whether she is there or whether you'll just meet poachers," he warned them.

"Please convince my girl to stop this," Johanna begged them.

"Don't worry. I promise you'll have her back soon," Ash said before Abra took them to their destination.

"Good luck, you two," Looker mumbled. "Now to contact Cynthia."

Hawk was looking at recently stolen pokémon near Snowpoint City. There were a lot of starters as well as many common ones like starly or bidoof. He wondered why they even bothered capturing those but at least they would be good cannon fodder in the war against Team Rocket. He was about to finish when he got a call from the boss himself.

"Yes, sir?" he asked.

"There is a high chance that the girl will appear west of Pastoria City next. I'm sure you'll have fun hunting her down. Viper is already on his way along with J and a couple of grunts," he told the commander. "The other idiots are already gone. They won't stand in your way."

"I understand. But why are we going after her now? I thought you said that she wasn't important?" Hawk pointed out although he was looking forward to it.

"I don't care about the idiots that got arrested if you mean that. But I'm worried about our reputation. Our customers and enemies are laughing about us because a little brat causes so much trouble. I want her dead as soon as possible. And failure is not an option. Two commanders should do the job just fine," the boss said. "And if they don't, they don't deserve to be commanders anymore. Do you understand?"

"Yes, sir!" He gulped.

"Very good. I trust that it won't be a problem for you. Don't disappoint me." He ended the call.

Hawk immediately called out Xatu, who teleported him to the area, where he soon met Viper and the others. They decided to split up with Viper going alone and the other accompanying Hawk. He hoped that Viper would get defeated, maybe even killed. Then Hawk would restore his organization's honour. Viper, on the other hand hoped to finish the task on his own to maybe receive some extra reward. Either way, Dawn was in big trouble as she really was in the area. The question was: Who would find her first? Ash, Zoey, Hawk or Viper?