The Tison region is a terrible place to live. It's cold almost all year round with constant snow and rain. It's home to the largest, grossest swampland in the world and there's next to no escape from Tison. Mountains and Sinnoh's strict immigration policy block the border to the north and an inconvenient, immovable line of trees blocks the border to the south. The swamps cross with the Hoenn Ocean on the west, and the east is blocked by rocky beaches and the endless Big Ocean with dangerously fast currents, dangerous sea pokémon, and no land as far as the eye can see.
-The Official Guidebook of the Tison Pokémon League section 2b: how to use potions
Kyle wanted to go back to sleep, but he couldn't; not today. He didn't want to become a trainer. However, it was Kyle who had excitedly signed up for the pokémon Journey Program during his final year of school, it was him who agreed to take extra classes including berry botany, pokémon training and care, and an aggravating and cheaply-made summer course called "How to battle: online". All to prepare himself for a three-month long journey around the region: the gross, swampy Tison region. But he didn't want to go, not anymore. Learning material in class was different from travelling around the region and battling strangers. Kyle knew that now, but he needed to go on the journey to get credit for his courses, so he had no choice. If he wanted any hope of going to Sinnoh University after high school, then he had to do this.
At least I only need to get one badge Kyle thought. He grumbled as he got up and walked down the stairs to meet his mom for breakfast. Once downstairs, he looked in awe at the table. In the middle stood the tallest stack of pancakes Kyle had ever seen. Nearly reaching the ceiling, and his mother was still baking more.
"Good Morning Kyle. Today's the day!" Kyle's mom said.
"You don't usually cook." Said Kyle fearfully. "I know our house is falling apart, but do you really think a pancake support beam will keep it intact?"
"I don't know. You're the physics wiz, you tell me."
maybe Kyle thought, suddenly a herdier jumped on the table.
"No, Corn! Bad! Those aren't for you!" Kyle's mother shoved Corn off the table. The stack of flapjacks would have certainly toppled in the struggle had the top not been supported by the ceiling as it tipped.
"Mom, the stack is touching the ceiling, that's disgusting."
"Well take one from the bottom then."
Kyle looked at the bottom of the stack and noticed the ultra-thin pancakes being squished down by the weight of the dozens above them. It would be impossible to take one from the bottom, and the tower would certainly fall in the process.
"This is a safety hazard. Why are you making so many pancakes?"
Kyle's mom stood on a chair and attempted to wedge another two pancakes between the stack and the ceiling as she responded. "Today – uh – is my chance to – uh – join the Pancake Society and they – uh –need a sample of my cooking!" Kyle's mom began to lose her grip on the spatula, "ugh." A pancake fell to the floor and Corn quickly bit into it. Kyle's mom picked it up and put it into Corn's food bowl. "Well, whatever. I think that's enough anyway. Dig in!"
Kyle, who was extremely hungry, attempted to use his spoon to create a crevice in the pancake tower. "This is stupid."
His mom, struggling to do the same thing, ignored him. "So, today's the big day! Are you excited?"
"You know I'm not."
"Well I sure am! I know you're going to have a great time!" Kyle highly doubted this, despite his mom's constant insistence that it was true.
"You just want me gone so you have more time for playing Overcatch with your other mom friends." He took a bite.
Kyle's mom shrugged "I'm not complaining. This summer, there's nothing to distract us. You know their kids are going on pokémon journeys too. We're finally ready to train up and win the Overcatch league once and for all." Kyle rolled his eyes.
He continued spooning off sections of the tower until he was full. Then he packed his bag, put on his orange sweatshirt, petted Corn and hugged his mom goodbye.
"Remember to call me once you get to the next town!" Cried Kyle's mom.
"I will" said Kyle gloomily. There was a pause.
"Don't worry Kyle. It's only three months. It'll be over before you know it. But if you love it, feel free to keep travelling for the whole year."
"That's not going to happen. See you in three months mom." And with that, Kyle was off to the pokémon lab to get his first and hopefully only pokémon.
Kyle made his way toward the lab. He had never been inside the lab, but he knew where it was. It stood on a hill on the south side of town bordering Robertson forest. His friend Aude's dad was the professor in town, but she'd always get embarrassed whenever he came up, so he'd never met him either. All Kyle knew was that the pokémon living area behind the lab had a fence that stretched across the entire southern border of town. More like a wall than a fence really. It was made of plastic and over 15 feet tall. Also, it was beige, the whole thing. Beige. Basically, if you looked South from any point in Robertson City, you'd see a hill leading up to the beige horizon of nothingness. Since the wall was installed, all new buildings have been built facing north.
Kyle had just arrived at the foot of the hill admiring the lab and the ugly beige wall on each side of it when he heard something behind him.
"Hey Kyler!" Kyle's friend Bob was running up to catch up with him.
"Oh, hey Bob." Kyle said gloomily. Bob was the first person Kyle met when he moved to Robertson city 10 years ago and they've been good friends ever since. Bob had brown hair and still hadn't lost the chubbiness he had as a baby. He could still run surprisingly fast. In fact, he had already caught up with Kyle up the hill and saw his expression.
"Why the long face Kyle? Today is a great day!"
"You know I don't want to do this."
"Yeah, I do, and I don't get it." Said Bob, "We get to travel the world together, meeting new friends and exploring with our pokémon partners. How is that not the most exciting thing ever!?"
"Sounds allergenic!" said Kyle in a mock excited voice, "I don't want to spend three months living outdoors. I'm gonna fricking die. Where exactly is there to explore in the Tison region anyway?"
"Well…" Bob had to think about that, "There's where I'm going first, Galagoo Lake. Doesn't it sound fun to go swimming with your new pokémon?"
"Not if you choose charmander it doesn't."
Bob sighed.
Bob and Kyle climbed up the rest of the hill and found themselves face to face with a large futuristic door.
"Guess we'll finally get to meet Aude's dad, huh Kyler? I wonder why she didn't want us to meet him." Bob pulled the handle on the door.
They walked in and found themselves in a lobby. In the center stood a very spacey looking man wearing a lab coat who was staring straight up at the ceiling. He wore only socks, no shoes and smelled terrible. His long bright blond hair was crazy and maybe even a little dirty? Regardless, he did not look like a pokémon professor.
"Are you… Aude's dad?" asked Kyle.
It was a few seconds of silent confusion until the professor finally noticed Kyle and Bob.
"Ah! Hello there, my fellow compatriots!" said the man, "I am Professor Pineapple of the Robertson City pokémon lab, but you may just call me Professor! To whomst do I have the honor of speaking with today?"
"Um" Bob accidentally said, indicating that he would be the first to answer, "I'm Bob… Bob Robertson." The professor ran his finger across his clipboard, which Kyle realized was upside down.
"Ah yes, here you are, right on the list… Right here." Said the professor sounding very unsure of himself, "You may go on through that door to the outside."
Bob and Kyle exchanged worried looks before Bob went ahead. Kyle looked skeptically at the professor.
"And to whomst do I have the honor of speaking with now?"
"Whomst is not a word. Are you really the professor?" Just then, a joltik climbed up onto the man's shoulder and started squeaking very noisily.
"Oh, whatever is the matter Chicken?" the joltik climbed down the man's arm and onto the clipboard facing the clip and squeaked even louder. Then, the man turned the clipboard over slowly.
"Ah!" said the man delighted, "Alright then, I didn't catch your name."
"I'm Kyle. Kyle-"
"Kyle Stots, yes?" Said the professor who had already found his name on the list.
"Yeah that's me."
"Good, just go out the door at the back." Kyle followed Professor Pineapple's instructions to the door which led outside.
He couldn't believe his eyes. Just outside that door was the pokémon living area, and it was beautiful. Grass and flowers covered everything, and ponds reflected the forest in the distance. Pokémon were everywhere. Just at a glance, Kyle saw a bulbasaur playing leapfrog with a turtwig, a piplup being lifted high up into the air by a popplio shooting it with a jet of water, two chimchar hanging from the branches of very tall trees, a rowlet flying a wary Squirtle high into the air and countless more.
"Over here Kyler!" Kyle looked to his right and saw many of his classmates chatting including Bob along with a boy and a girl. "We were just talking about which pokémon we'll chose as a starter."
Kyle remembered these two. The girl was a history nerd named Lily who drove her classes insane by constantly chiming in with loosely related Tison history trivia in the middle of lectures. Her hair was bright red and made her hard to look at for long periods of time. The boy was named Mike. Mike was smart but also cocky beyond belief. In the pokémon trainer courses, he would taunt the other students by saying things like, "I'll never lose a single battle" and "You should all drop this class right now because you don't stand a chance against me." In Kyle's humble opinion, they were both unbearable.
"As I was saying, litten is clearly the best choice." Said Mike, "The Tison region is home to very few fire type pokémon, so having one as a starter is just smart."
"I was just saying that I want to choose Bulbasaur to honor the discoverer of the Tison region, Thomas Robertson." Responded Lily, "It's not about having the best choice strategically."
"Yeah, you would say that, history girl." Said Mike, "this isn't a matter of history! Thomas Robertson is long dead! And so is his Bulbasaur. You need to focus more on how you can win in battles; not that you will against me."
Lily huffed. "His Bulbasaur had a name and it was Leaf. They're both national heroes, so you'd better show some respect."
"Whatever, who cares about Leaf anyway?" Said Mike.
"Who cares?" Lily's eye twitched aggressively.
"eh-heh-heh-heh" Bob Laughed awkwardly.
This was a familiar sight. These two were always competing against each other in their classes, always taking full advantage of the other's tiniest mistake. They both got honored with medals after getting perfect scores on the pokémon Journey Program final. Kyle only missed one question due to misreading "oren berry" as "oran berry", but he wasn't mad: really.
God damnit. I'm so stupid.
"Well, I just want a pokémon to make friends with." Interrupted Bob.
"You won't get anywhere with that strategy." Mike crossed his arms, "We aren't here to make friends, we're here to battle and train for the pokémon league one year from now. All for a chance to become Tison's new champion. Not that it matters since I'm going to win... Oh hello oran boy." Mike smirked at Kyle. Kyle did all he could to suppress the urge to strangle him.
The Professor came out from the building and stepped on top of one of the picnic tables, making his shoeless feet visible to everybody.
"Salutations everyone! Shall we commence the capture of your premiere pokémon?"
The crowd just looked at Professor Pineapple in silence. "Uhhh, what?" Bob tilted his head. The professor hesitated.
"Ugh. Okay fine. I'll just talk normally. You guys are no fun." Said the professor.
"You could talk normally this whole time? Why were you doing that?" asked Lily.
"I just thought it would be funny. But clearly, you guys don't get it. Who would have guessed that Aude's friends were so lame?"
"You're the lame one around here." Said Mike. "I'm cool." He whispered. Kyle rolled his eyes.
"Whatever. Let's get you guys your starter pokémon. Here's the deal. Each of you should grab one of those bags on that picnic table over there. They each have some pokéballs and other things for trainers in them. It's about lunch time, so when the pokémon come over to get some food, go ahead and catch the one you want."
Everyone migrated to the picnic table with bags on it. Kyle picked one up; it was very heavy. Kyle dug through the bag and It was immediately obvious what was making it so heavy. Inside was a curled-up map of the Tison region, a badge case, a couple small potions and pokéballs, a sheet of stickers symbolizing each pokémon type, and an enormous, ornate, hard-back, brand-new copy of The official Guidebook of the Tison pokémon League by Tim Tables.
This book is infamous in Tison. Every year a new version is made, printed, and distributed to every trainer in the region. It has information on lots of stuff like the different places in Tison, how to use potions and pokéballs, training tips and so much more. It's just difficult to read however since all the information seems to be stretched out as much as possible. Not to mention that the entire book is triple-spaced. No one really knows why the Tison government wastes money on this every year, or doesn't at least hire a better writer, but it has become a tradition for trainers to throw the book away as soon as they get it.
"Wow!" Bob pulled the large book out of the bag and dropped it on the table making the entire thing shake. "It's even bigger than I imagined! Let's throw them away together guys!"
"There's a trashcan over here." Lily dropped the book into the trashcan which made a loud THUMP when it broke straight through the trash bag and hit the bottom of the can. Bob, Mike, and the other classmates followed suit creating a pile of books in the trashcan.
"Come on Kyle it's tradition!" said Bob.
"No. I've said it once and I'll say it again, this is the stupidest tradition ever. It's a huge waste."
"You won't be saying that when you're lugging 20 pounds of paper all across Tison." Said Bob.
"He's right you know." Said Mike. "This book only slows you down. I should know. I got a perfect on the exam."
Kyle's eye twitched a bit. How the hell did that make any sense?
Kyle took out a pokéball and put the contents of the bag into his orange backpack. Then he turned his attention to a machoke carrying a huge crate with the professor following behind them. The machoke set the crate down to the right of a line of 8 industrial-sized food bowls. The professor pulled out a crowbar and, holding it upside down, tried his best to open the crate with the wrong end. The professor's joltik was squeaking like crazy. The machoke looked embarrassed. It took the crowbar and used the correct end to open the crate with ease.
"Ah, thank you Nacho. Come hither children!" Everyone came over. 9 large bags of pokémon food had fallen out of the crate. There was one with an emblem of bulbasaur, charmander, squirtle, turtwig, chimchar, piplup, rowlet, litten, and popplio; the starters being offered this year in Tison.
"I'll feed the pokémon one bowl at a time. They won't stay too long, so make up your mind and don't delay in picking one up." The professor said, "You won't get another easy chance until dinner, and I'm sure none of you want to be here that long."
"Damn right." Mike said.
The professor took a pocketknife from his lab coat pocket and started opening the bulbasaur bag. Meanwhile, the trainers started observing the pokémon that were already at the food bowls waiting for their lunch.
"Maybe this chimchar is for me. He seems friendly." The chimchar's flame grew slightly as Bob scratched its head. "Which pokémon are you gonna get Kyle?"
"I don't know. I guess I'll come with you to Galagoo and fight the water gym for my course requirement, so a grass-type would make the most sense." Kyle went to the Bulbasaur food bowl where many bulbasaur had gathered and were eating their food. Lily was there too. She was, for some reason, picking up the bulbasaur from their meal one-by-one and staring directly into their eyes, deep into their souls. Some struggled to escape her grasp, but others just let her hold them. "Um. Lily, what are you doing?" he asked reluctantly.
"I'm trying to find out which one of these bulbasaur has the spirit of adventure that Thomas Robertson's bulbasaur had." Said Lily as she put down the bulbasaur she was holding to pick up another.
"Uh-huh."
"Yup this is the one." Said Lily unexpectedly, "I'm going to name you Vine." The bulbasaur started singing excitedly about its new name.
Just then, a litten from the farthest bowl bolted with impressive speed towards the bulbasaur bowl. It jumped into and over the other pokémon's bowls expertly. From two bowls over, the litten made a final leap for the food, but before it could reach the bulbasaur bowl, Nacho's lightning quick reflexes kicked in. The machoke karate chopped the litten in mid-air. It fainted.
"That poor litten! It didn't deserve that." Said Bob.
The professor rolled his eyes. "That litten tries to steal the bulbasaur's food every single meal. That's why we have Nacho here. Nothing gets past Nacho… well, almost nothing."
"What persistence!" Mike scooped up the fainted litten. "If this litten kept trying despite failing so many times, then it must have a will of iron."
"I don't know, I think that litten might just be stupid." Kyle whispered to Bob.
"This will be my starter." Mike went to the picnic table and began tending to the fainted litten.
The professor slowly filled up the food bowls and pokémon came bounding up the hill for lunch. Two turtwig were jumping over each other, using various moves to get ahead of the other. The other pokémon were similarly playful. Kyle thought these pokémon were all so energetic. They were expecting to get chosen by a trainer who would travel the region and go on an adventure. Not one who was just going to sit around all Summer in Galagoo. Kyle didn't know what to do. He didn't want to force any pokémon into that.
"Hey Kyle, the popplio are all over here! Check it out." Said Bob. Kyle followed Bob down the hill away from the entrance to a large lake full of popplio. Next to the lake was a ninth food bowl. "I guess this is where they were put since they can't walk very well."
The popplio seemed to be playing a game of tag. The popplio who was "it" was putting every other popplio it could catch into a bubble. Those who got tagged floated up to the water's surface. "They look so carefree. Kind of like you Bob." Bob smiled when suddenly, a muffled Splash sound came from somewhere nearby. they looked around for the source before hearing someone yell from back at the entrance.
"MAAAACHHHOKE!" yelled a deep voice. Kyle and Bob ran back. Everyone was staring at Nacho who was punching the ground in frustration.
"Oh, Nacho. I'm sorry" said the professor patting Nacho on the back, "looks like it got away again."
"What's this all about?" asked Bob.
"Apparently a bunch of food was stolen or something." Said one of Kyle's classmates.
The professor nodded. "Every day at lunchtime when I feed the pokémon, one of the food bags goes missing. I don't know how the thief does it. Even Nacho hasn't been able to catch the thief. I'm just hoping one of you kids will take the thief as your starter by accident, but that's unlikely. It's really putting Nacho in a bad mood. It's also costing me a ton of money in extra food."
Kyle thought for a moment about his situation. He didn't even want a starter anyway. If he was going to be forced to get one, he might as well be helping someone else in the process. "What if I found this food thief and took it off your hands for you?" Kyle asked.
"Why, I'd give you ₽100,000 on the spot!" A few of the trainers gasped. Everyone was looking at the professor with wide eyes now.
"Woah!" said Kyle in surprise, "Th-that seems like a lot of money."
"Oh, nonsense. It's far less than it would cost me to continue buying an extra bag of food for the pokémon each day for a year."
Kyle was astonished. With that kind of money, he could pay for rent in Galagoo for the whole summer. Before, he figured that he'd have to get a part-time job to pay, but with the professor's money he could avoid working altogether. All he had to do was figure out which pokémon was stealing the food.
"Alright professor. I'll do it. I'll find out which pokémon's been stealing the food and catch them. Just tell me everything you know."
The professor crossed his arms and went quiet for a while. Everyone could sense that he was going to give an in-depth description of the case, and everyone wanted that money, so they were all listening very closely.
"Come on. I'll show you the scene of the crime." Said the professor, who led the kids unnecessarily five feet over to the food bowls.
"It all started a couple weeks ago. Every day at lunchtime, and occasionally breakfast and dinner too, one of the food bags mysteriously disappears." The professor pointed at the bags to the right of the bowls. "I always have Nacho on lookout, but he hasn't even caught a glimpse of the thief. It's like one of the bags just disappears. I'm afraid I don't have much more information beyond that."
Kyle bent down to look more closely at where the bags were placed in a pile. They were placed almost exactly where a ninth food bowl would have been. Below the pile of remaining bags in the ground was something made of wood.
"Hey professor. What's this thing?" asked Kyle.
"Oh, that's a trapdoor."
"You have a trapdoor next to the food bowls? That's obviously how the thief is getting the food. Where does it lead?" asked Mike.
"Yes, as you know, this is the first time we are offering Alolan starters here in Tison, so multiple adjustments to this pokémon area had to be made. Specifically, the popplio required the most accommodations. Popplio have trouble moving on land, you see, so their food bowl is over by that pond." The professor pointed downhill to the popplio pond Kyle and Bob were just at.
"I had actually wanted them all to eat together. My plan was to dig an underground passage between the pond and the food bowls so that the popplio could swim into the same feeding area as the others. I even got a trainer with a sandile to come over and dig the hole."
"Why didn't that work?" asked Lily.
"Well, you see, it dug all the way to the pond, but I didn't realize that the pond is at a lower elevation than the food bowls. So, the water does not reach the ground up here, making it impossible for the popplio to swim to get level with the other food bowls. I'd say it's about a 10-foot drop to the water below the trapdoor."
"Oh, so it's impossible for any pokémon to use the trapdoor since no pokémon could get past the 10-foot gap." Said Lily.
"But wait." countered Mike, "What if the thief is just throwing the food into the trapdoor and then collecting it later? Seems stupidly easy."
"An interesting idea to be sure Michael, but certainly impossible." Said the professor smugly, "Go ahead and try to open the trapdoor."
Through closer inspection, the students found that the trapdoor had no handle or hinge of any kind. It didn't look like it could open at all.
"It must open inwards." Stated Mike. He started jumping on the trapdoor to try to bust it open, but to no avail. "Bob, you try jumping on this."
"Why me?"
"Don't be stupid Bob just do it." Said Mike.
Bob took his large figure over to the wooden square and jumped with all his might onto the square of wood in the ground, but the trapdoor gave no sign of opening.
Mike looked baffled now. "I don't get it. How is this thing supposed to open? It hasn't got a handle or anything."
Kyle was puzzled, but then his jaw dropped, "Oh my god. You installed it upside down didn't you." Said Kyle.
"Why, yes I did." The professor seemed to be enjoying himself now, "you should've heard the ruckus Chicken was making while I put it in. I should really listen to her more often."
Yes, you should! Thought Kyle.
"So, what? Does the door just not open?" asked Bob.
"Theoretically it could." Said the professor, "But there is a latch on the other side keeping it locked. It can only be opened from the inside."
"That's one hell of a latch if it can take the full force of Bob's jump and not even budge." Said Mike.
"Thank you, I made it myself." Said the professor. "But it doesn't matter because there's no way that it could be used to steal the food. All I know for sure is that this all started well after the Alolan pokémon arrived and after the tunnel was completed. Today, it appears the turtwig bag has been robbed."
The turtwig around the bowl looked famished. They stared at the kids and the professor with puppy-dog eyes, begging for food. But a couple started walking away from the bowl back into the forest.
"Aw, I hope they don't starve." Said Lily while holding Vine who had yet to eat and was desperately trying to escape her grasp to join the other bulbasaur at their food bowl.
"Oh, don't worry. I'm well prepared." Said the professor, "I have plenty of extra food back in the lab, they'll get their fill, but I'd rather this not continue."
"Don't worry professor, I'll find out which pokémon did this." Said Kyle.
"I hope you do. Remember, to earn the money, you need to catch the thief and explain to me exactly how it was done so I can stop this from happening once and for all. Now, I really must get back to feeding the pokémon." The professor picked up the piplup bag and his knife, nearly by the blade before he realigned his hand to pick it up by the handle.
"What a waste of time. I'm out of here." Mike said as he left, but little did he know that no one cared.
"Hey Kyle! I'll help you solve the mystery if we could split the money." Said Bob.
"Sure thing, I'd welcome some help." Kyle smiled, somewhat excited to try and solve a mystery. "Let's start by getting a better look at the crime scene." Said Kyle.
Investigation:
Kyle and Bob looked at the crime scene. There really wasn't much to see. Just an empty bowl and a few turtwig waiting for the professor to get back around to feeding them.
"How did the thief get away with an entire bag of food so fast?" asked Kyle. "Nacho was on guard the whole time. He would have caught them for sure."
"I guess they were just really fast then." Bob shrugged. "Litten is the fastest starter, so maybe it was a litten."
"Maybe…" said Kyle. Kyle thought back to the litten that got karate chopped by Nacho mid-air when trying to steal some food. Maybe another litten was faster than that one, but surely Nacho would have caught it too. "Let's look at that trapdoor next."
The trapdoor was very uninteresting. Bob tried picking up one of the remaining food bags.
"Oh geez! This is heavy. There's no way a pokémon could run with this." Bob dropped the bag.
Kyle grunted and bent down to look closely at the trap door again. The professor said that the trapdoor couldn't be involved, but Kyle couldn't keep his mind off it. He touched the wooden trapdoor. It was very damp, like it had just been sprayed with water. "Why is it so wet?"
"Oh yeah, I noticed that when I jumped on it." Said Bob. "I don't know. I guess a water pokémon must've used a water move on it. Maybe the thief is a water type! Why would they use a water move on the trapdoor though?"
Kyle thought of why this might have been the case. "Maybe the door will open if you get it wet? No. That doesn't make sense."
Investigation End
Kyle and Bob sat on the ground next to the hungry turtwig to discuss what they knew.
Bob petted one of the turtwig. It looked at Bob's hand longingly debating whether to try eating it. "That investigation was kind of worthless. I don't think we're going to be able to figure this out."
Kyle frowned. He wasn't feeling too hopeful either. "Well, let's just try to think through this and maybe we'll get somewhere." Bob nodded. "The trapdoor just seems so perfect. If a pokémon used it, the bag would have been out of sight before Nacho could react."
Bob scratched his head. "I know, but the trapdoor route is just straight-up impossible. It only opens from the inside, and there's nowhere to stand under it; just a 10-foot drop to some water."
"Hmm." Kyle rubbed his chin. "Let's just take this one step at a time; assuming that the trapdoor was used. The trapdoor could only be opened and closed from the inside. Since the trapdoor was locked before the professor brought out the food and after the food went missing, the thief must have both come from and exited through the trapdoor."
"Okay. But now we're stuck. No pokémon could have gotten up the 10-foot gap!"
"Wait, let's keep going. This had to be a pokémon that could have swum under the lake. That knocks out all the non-water type starters."
Bob rolled his eyes. "Alright, that just leaves squirtle, piplup, and popplio. So, which of these do you propose flew straight up 10 feet?"
"yeah…" Kyle thought hard. How could a water pokémon raise itself up 10 feet? Was that even possible. Maybe Bob was right; it was ridiculous.
Kyle got distracted looking at all the pokémon. All the bowls were full now and most were headed back downhill into the forest. He saw a couple chimchar come up to their food bowl, fill their hands with food and run back into the forest, as well as a bulbasaur using its vines to scoop its food into its bulb. Further away, he saw a few of the popplio going into the forest while dragging some food under their flippers. But one of the popplio tried squirting their food forward with water gun, resulting in the food flying everywhere. This seemed especially strange to Kyle before he realized...
"The wet trapdoor." Said Kyle. "The only starter that could have caused it was popplio. Because popplio is the only one that already knows a water move."
Kyle looked at Bob who seemed unimpressed. Then his face lit up. "Dude! It could be rowlet! There's no way Nacho could catch a rowlet!"
"But surely Nacho and the professor would have seen them flying away. And it doesn't explain why the trapdoor was wet."
"Face it Kyle, the trapdoor is impossible. None of the starters alone could have scaled the 10 feet to the- OW!" The turtwig finally decided to try biting Bob. He didn't taste as good as it had hoped. Bob started gnashing his teeth. "The point is, the trapdoor being wet is probably totally unrelated to the case."
Kyle ignored Bob. For some reason, he felt like it was possible. Like something he'd seen earlier confirmed that it could be done. He tried to imagine how the trapdoor would get wet. Popplio was at the bottom of the tunnel, floating on the water. It shot up a water gun to the top, but this wouldn't get the top of the trapdoor wet, only the bottom. But Kyle remembered that the trapdoor opened inward. If popplio used water gun straight upwards when the door was opened, the top would get wet.
"a popplio could have opened that latch with its water gun." Said Kyle.
"That seems far-fetched though. How could it have gotten the door locked again? And wasn't it pitch black in there? The popplio wouldn't have been able to see the latch in the first place."
Kyle grunted. Bob made some good points. He didn't think about how dark it must've been under the trapdoor. Stealing the food blind would have been much harder. Maybe if he solved one of the problems, he could find a solution to the others. "So, popplio needed a way of knowing where the latch was. If it had that, it could have opened the door."
"Well yeah, but how could it have known where the latch was? It couldn't see, and there was no way for it to feel for the latch from the bottom. And it still couldn't have closed it."
Kyle was so close he could feel it. The popplio needed a way to feel the top of the hole, like if the end of its water gun could feel its surroundings like a hand. How could that be possible? Suddenly Kyle gasped.
"What if the popplio shot another pokémon upwards? Then the pokémon being shot up could have opened and closed the door!" Said Kyle.
"… Could it really have done that? Popplio are pretty small." Said Bob.
"I saw it happen earlier! A piplup was shot up into the air by a popplio in the popplio pond. It was easily 10 feet. In fact, I bet those two were the thieves!"
"Dude! That way, the piplup could have opened the latch, taken the bag, and closed the latch again all without being spotted!"
"I know!"
Bob jumped up. "That explains everything! Nice work Kyle. I didn't think we'd actually be able to solve it. Now we have to catch those pokémon though. Where do you think they went?"
"I don't know." Kyle and Bob then noticed the last charmander at its bowl filling its hands with food and heading back towards the forest.
"I wonder why all the pokémon are doing that." Said Bob. "I bet it's related to the case somehow."
Kyle nodded. "Probably. Let's follow the pokémon and maybe we'll find the thieves."
As they walked towards the trees, they noticed more and more pokémon carrying food with them back into the forest. Even some popplio were attempting to carry their blue pellets with them as they struggled to move. When the pokémon noticed Kyle and Bob, they would try to disguise what they were doing and hide behind trees or bushes.
"Seems like they don't want us to see what they're doing." Said Bob.
Kyle and Bob ventured further into the forest for a while, careful not to let any more pokémon see them. Eventually, they found where all the pokémon were going and hid behind a very thick tree. In a clearing, tons of pokémon were holding different colored pellets of food. Most were in groups of two, trading their food. A Bulbasaur with dark green pellets traded for a charmander's orange pellets. A piplup and litten traded, so did a Squirtle and rowlet. But most pokémon were in a long line leading to the end of the clearing. At the end of this line was the full bag of turtwig food behind a piplup and popplio trading the food with the pokémon in line. They were keeping the food they received in an older looking bag with a logo of a pokémon face that was too worn out to decipher. A rowlet was currently in front of the line
"*How much will this get me?*" the rowlet gave 5 pellets of light green food to the piplup who immediately threw it in the rainbow pile of food inside the older bag.
"*About this much.*" the piplup took nearly 20 turtwig pellets out and gave it to the rowlet who flew away happily while dropping most of it.
The popplio looked at the rainbow pile of food in the old bag "*You've gotta stop giving everyone so much Pippy. At this rate we won't even end up with a quarter of a bag.*"
"*You know a bag is supposed to feed ten, right Poppy? A quarter of a bag will be more than enough.*"
Poppy rolled her eyes. "*Yeah, for you maybe. I'm hungry!*" Poppy dug her head into the bag and grabbed whatever she could with her mouth.
"*Hey guys! You know I'm here right!?*" An annoyed chimchar was at the front of the line waiting for them to stop talking.
Pippy sighed. "*I did actually. I don't care what you have to say; we're not giving you any food.*"
"*Oh, come on! That's not fair Pippy! This'll be the last time we ever see each other. A trainer's already picked me out! I'll be leaving later today. Won't you miss me?*"
"*No way, really? Thank Arceus! You'll finally leave!*"
Chimchar's head dropped. "*All this because you lost a fight? You're a sore loser.*"
Pippy tried to say something but got choked up. She despised battling ever since that day. "*Go away chimchar.*" said Poppy.
"*Aw. At least give me just a little bit for all this food.*" Chimchar threw his orange pellets into the rainbow bag and lunged for the turtwig bag. After grabbing and eating some green pellets Poppy water gunned him sending him a few feet away.
"*Worth it!*" chimchar ran away from the clearing, soaking wet, with the rest of his green pellets in his hands.
"*Nice one Poppy*" chuckled Pippy. "*I wish I could use a water move like that.*"
"*Well, you know you can only learn new moves through battling.*" said Poppy.
Pippy sighed.
"This looks like some sort of black market for pokémon food." Whispered Bob. "That's kind of crazy!"
Kyle pointed to the piplup and popplio at the front of the line. "I called it. A piplup and a popplio. I guess we should each catch one. Which one do you want?"
"No; you should get to pick first. You did most of the work of solving the mystery after all."
"Ugh. Bob, you know I don't care."
Suddenly, the chimchar ran directly behind the tree into Kyle's feet. "Chim char!" it yelled in surprise while rubbing its head. Unfortunately, this caught the attention of the rest of the pokémon in the clearing. All the pokémon in the clearing froze before scattering all around deeper into the forest.
After regaining his senses, Kyle found that most of the pokémon were gone, but the piplup and popplio still struggling with the bag of rainbow pellets.
"I'll take piplup!" yelled Kyle. The two of them each pulled out a pokéball from their pockets and started running towards the thieves.
The piplup took the food bag and started running to the left while the popplio took a right leaving the turtwig bag behind. Bob and Kyle split up. The piplup was not very fast and Kyle was gaining on it. Thinking fast, the piplup purposefully spilled most of the food out behind it which subsequently tripped Kyle. With dirt on his face, he got back up and kept running and was nearly about to catch up again, until the piplup turned slightly to the left and jumped with the bag into a large circular pond.
Piplup swam to the middle of the pond and Kyle stood at the edge staring daggers at her. This left Kyle and piplup in an odd position. Kyle was certainly a faster runner while piplup was the faster swimmer. If Kyle entered the pond, the piplup could get away and if the piplup left the pond, Kyle would catch her. Kyle didn't want to risk throwing his pokéball into the pond and missing, so neither of them moved.
Kyle considered his options. He could give up right now, or he could wait the piplup out. Reluctantly, he took a seat on the wet dirt below him at the edge of the pond. Water soaked into his shorts and mud stained his legs, but he'd decided; that money was his. Kyle wasn't going to move until that piplup moved.
Pippy, with the bag of food, floated around the middle of the pond occasionally taking glances at Kyle to see if he was still there. She figured he'd give up soon. At the worst she'd have to wait for Poppy to come over and shoo him away with a water gun; it wouldn't be too long. In the meantime, Pippy looked Kyle straight in the eyes and tauntingly took a huge bite of the food. Kyle's stomach growled slightly.
An hour passed and neither one had moved. The sun was directly above the pond causing an obnoxious glare in both their eyes. But Kyle's resolve had not weakened at all; he was going to catch that piplup no matter what. He wished he had some company though. And some food. Meanwhile Pippy floated around the middle of the pond along with the empty food bag. She had eaten it all and it was not filling. Most of it was lost when she used it to trip Kyle earlier. Where is Poppy? she thought. She couldn't have gotten caught, could she? To distract herself from that disturbing thought, she looked at Kyle who gave no sign of moving. It angered her that he'd effectively taken her well-earned lunch away, but also scared her to think that his resolve really might not waver. That he would catch her, taking her away from Poppy and force her to battle constantly. That was the last thing Pippy wanted. She couldn't let that happen.
As time went on, the sun slowly hid behind the tallest trees of the forest causing a pleasant shade. Although, Kyle was having trouble staying awake because of it. Nothing eventful happened. The day seemed to drag on forever. Kyle opened his copy of The Official Guidebook of the Tison pokémon League to pass the time, but quickly grew bored of it. The writing was so redundant and unnecessary; it made him even more sleepy. He wished he'd thrown it away like his friends had.
The forest was completely silent until a pleasant breeze flew through the clearing. Kyle closed his eyes not realizing that he was drifting off, but then a sharp pain spread through his leg waking him back up again. It was a turtwig nibbling him affectionately, but painfully. It looked at him with wide open eyes and a big smile while letting Kyle pet it. Kyle's and turtwig's eyes met. In the turtwig's eyes, Kyle saw the same glimmer that his friends had. The glimmer of adventure. Turtwig wanted to go on an adventure with him, but that wasn't going to happen.
Kyle sighed. "You want to go on an adventure don't you." Pippy's head popped out of the water. "Trust me, you don't want to be my partner. I don't even want to go on this stupid journey. Everything in Tison has already been discovered anyway, not to mention that the whole region is just a cold swampy mess." The turtwig ran off. "I just want to stay home with my friends. Like all the summers before this."
Pippy considered what she'd just seen. She had assumed that all trainers were entirely focused on training and battling. But this one was different. He wasn't interested in battling at all! Being stuck in the forest all the time had become boring a while ago; maybe this was her ticket out.
But I can't leave! Thought Pippy I can't abandon Poppy! However, the more she thought about it, the more likely it seemed that Poppy had been captured by the other kid. She would have come to save her by now if she were free.
Pippy's eyes watered at the thought of never seeing her friend again. Right about now Poppy would tell her to be less emotional. Without Poppy here, she didn't have any reason to stay in the lab. But she couldn't know for sure that Poppy had gotten captured. Either way, if she left, she would probably never see her again. Was she willing to take that risk? After lots of thought, Pippy made the biggest decision of her life. With tears in her eyes she waved and chirped to Kyle then swam to the pond's edge.
"Finally giving up now?" asked Kyle. Pippy got out of the pond and stood perfectly still next to Kyle, looking down at the ground. Kyle saw tears rolling down the piplup's face and didn't quite know what to think of them. He was confused by the sudden change of heart but was more excited for the money than any explanation. He took out the pokéball from his pocket and pushed the button to the top of her forehead. She was starting to get worried. Was this the right choice? What if she misjudged Kyle? Would the others at the lab miss her? And most of all, would she ever see Poppy again? She felt very lost, but her fate was sealed when she felt herself being sucked inside the pokéball.
Kyle walked out of the forest triumphantly. With the pokéball in his hand, he felt that this summer wasn't going to be as bad as he'd thought. With ₽50,000, he would be able to pay for rent in Galagoo the rest of the summer. During that time, he'd beat the water gym to meet the program requirement and spend the rest of his time swimming in the lake, eating at expensive restaurants, and anything else he wanted.
It was late now. The sun was below the trees and evening colors washed over the sky. Kyle arrived back at the lab and no pokémon or people were anywhere to be seen. He wondered if Bob caught the popplio. He continued inside the lab; once inside, he found the professor speaking to a girl with long dirty blonde hair wearing a yellow t-shirt and a chimchar on her shoulder. It was Kyle's friend and the professor's daughter, Aude.
"Oh, hi Aude." Said Kyle.
"Sup?" said Aude.
"Kyle! You're back at last." Said the professor.
"Yup! And I caught the thief!" Kyle held up the pokéball.
"You caught the thief!?" Said Aude, "That's awesome Kyle! Dad's been worrying about that for weeks."
"Wow." said the professor with his mouth in a perfect circle.
Kyle explained how the piplup and popplio worked together to steal the food. "…and to keep this from happening again, all you have to do is move where you put the food bags away from the trapdoor."
"Yes, your friend told me a similar story." The Professor pulled a fat wallet out of his lab coat pocket upside down. "I already gave your friend Bob ₽50,000 for catching the popplio, so here is your half, in cash."
Chicken had preemptively climbed up to his shoulder and was squeaking loudly, but it was too late. The professor opened the wallet and all the money fell to his shoeless feet. Kyle saw tons of ₽1,000 bills, a few ₽5,000 bills and even a ₽10,000 bill, which he did not even know existed.
"Ugh. What the heck dad?"
"Sorry."
Kyle, Aude and her new chimchar helped picked up the money and returned it to the oversized wallet while the professor counted out five ₽10,000 bills. Kyle worried that no place would take them. Once they were done, Kyle and Aude got ready to leave.
"Thank you for helping me Kyle." Said the professor, handing him the money. "Oh, and Aude, call me once you get to Galagoo!"
"I'll!" Said Aude as quickly as possible before she forcibly closed the door behind them.
Aude and Kyle walked together down the hill that led Kyle to the lab.
"So …" started Kyle. "Your dad's an… interesting guy."
Aude sighed. She clenched her fists. "The ONE day I tell him to put on shoes and he still doesn't do it!"
"Yeah, that's… pretty weird, and not to mention the whole thing with putting things upside-down."
Aude looked even angrier and her cheeks turned red for a moment before relaxing her entire body. "but it doesn't matter! I'm going on an adventure now. There's no need to worry about him." Kyle nodded, realizing she didn't want to talk about her dad anymore. "Anyway, this is Cameron. He's my starter." Cameron smiled at Kyle from Aude's shoulder. "Have you named that piplup yet?"
"No, I guess I should get on that. I don't want to just call it piplup." Kyle yawned. "Man, I'm exhausted though."
"Hmm, you know it's getting dark. Let's stay in the Robertson pokémon center tonight 'kay?"
"Yeah, let's do that." Kyle rubbed his eyes.
The two of them continued until they got to the fork in the road at the north edge of Robertson City. The path to the left led to Treedon, and the forward path went to Galagoo. In between the paths was the Robertson City pokémon center.
The pair walked into the pokémon center and each booked a room in the hotel on the upper floors. Kyle was exhausted, but also starving so he ordered some room service with one of his ₽10,000 bills, and to his delight, they split it for him.
He got a magikarp platter with the hopes of sharing it with his new pokémon. He took out his piplup's ball and let her out.
"There's no need to steal food anymore." Said Kyle gesturing towards the plate of fish on the bed. Pippy looked at the food with skepticism. It was much different than the pellets she'd eaten at the lab her whole life. She forced herself to try a bite anyway and found that it was delicious. They ate ravenously together.
After a few bites, Kyle quickly fell asleep. Some things still worried Pippy, like how life without Poppy and if Kyle would really treat her well. But as Pippy ate the delicious fish and felt the soft blanket and the comfy bed beneath her, she couldn't help but feel like she'd made the right choice.