A Berry-Picking Situation

Tyson stretched and yawned widely as the group continued their journey towards Petalburg City. As far as he was concerned, it was way too early to be awake let alone moving. The sky was light but the sun hadn't made it over the trees. They were shadowed by the forest and embraced by the thin morning mist. Mari led the way with her PokéNav and Hilary was walking beside her, gushing about how Surskit could already do a number of attacks, some of which sounded quite powerful and sophisticated. Max was pestering Kai for some training tips but Kai was tight-lipped and annoyed since Togepi was still asleep and he didn't want Max to wake her. Daichi was just as sleepy as Tyson. Ray already had Treecko out and his little green Pokémon was keeping up with the group but jumping through the tree branches, honing his agility. Tyson considered that perhaps he should do the same for Torchic.

A blue flash caught his eye and he looked into the forest where he'd seen it. It was hard to spot in the dim light and tree branches but he managed to recognise a familiar blue and red Pokémon. Tyson pointed at it and exclaimed: "It's that thing! Guys! It's the Porygon 3 we're looking for!"

"It's Porygon Z," Mari corrected him as the party turned around. They mostly just looked confused and surprised by the announcement.

"Whatever! It's right there!"

The group followed the direction he pointing to a grove of trees that looked out of place with the rest of the forest. It seemed to stand slightly apart from the rest of the trees. The Porygon Z rifled through the twigs and leaves of one particular tree. It found what it was looking for and pulled out a large, yellow, juicy-looking berry with its beak wrapped around it like a vacuum tube.

"Oh wow!" Mari gasped, getting out her Pokédex to film it. "Never seen Porygon Z eat before."

"Do you seriously need to look it up now?" Hilary asked.

"No, just want to take a video."

"The Pokédex can do that?"

"Yeah."

The Porygon Z passed the entire berry through its beak, after which it seemed to disappear for the Pokémon had no neck and there were no sudden bulges in its head. Ray commanded Treecko to try grabbing the Porygon Z but it teleported in a flash of blue and Treecko ended up crashing to the ground. Mari laughed as Ray rushed to Treecko's aid. Tyson smacked himself in the face.

"That…" Mari gasped, trying to catch her breath between laughs, "… was so funny! The internet will love it!"

"Do not put that on the internet!" Ray snapped pointing a warning finger at her. He picked up Treecko but his Pokémon squirmed until he was put back on his feet. He massaged his shoulders, more surprised by the fall than injured.

"Wow, that was the fastest fail I have ever seen amongst this particular group of people," Tyson stated wryly.

"Leave Treecko alone! He did his best," Ray retorted. At that point, Treecko tried to stretch the ache out of his limbs and winced as some electric pain shot down his back and arms. Ray crouched down to talk to him: "Hey, take it easy. You should rest for now."

"We're in luck, though," Mari added, pocketing her Pokédex. "Seems like we've stumbled across just the thing Treecko needs."

She made the short trek through the trees to the little grove and gestured for everyone else to follow. The grove within the forest was almost like a little garden. The earth was soft and loamy. The trees in the grove were shorter than those around them, some even having strangely coloured leaves from orange to blue to pink. Mari reached into the branches of the cone-shaped tree the Porygon Z had been searching through and plucked another bulbous berry.

"It's called a Sitrus berry," she informed them. "They're good for helping Pokémon heal, just like Oran berries but I've heard that most Pokémon tend to prefer Sitrus."

She handed the berry to Treecko. He took it, wincing at the pain of lifting his arm, and bit into it.

"There're a bunch of different kinds here too," Max said, plucking a big red berry that looked like a spiked tomato from a blue-leafed tree. "Is it okay for humans to eat these as well as Pokémon?"

"Don't see why not," Mari said with a shrug. "Been eating them frequently throughout my travels and nothing ever happened to me." She picked a small, red berry from a tree with dark green leaves and popped it in her mouth.

Max grinned upon hearing that and took a big bite out of the berry he was holding. The berry was as juicy and fleshy as he expected but the taste was so eye-wateringly spicy that he thought he might as well have just set his mouth and throat on fire. There was a round of laughter as he started to cough and gag at the intense flavour.

"Even though I like the spicy ones, Tamato berry's a bit much," Mari giggled. She picked a couple more of the smaller red ones and handed them to him. "Here, try the Cheri."

"Actually, I'd prefer the not spicy ones," Max said, fanning his mouth to relieve the burning sensation. He eyed the berry in his hand distastefully. "Who would even want to eat a berry like this?"

"Some Pokémon like super spicy food," Mari answered, taking out a Pokéball and releasing Mawi. "Mawi'll eat the rest if you don't want it."

Max handed the berry over, watching Mawile sceptically. Mawi's eyes lit up upon seeing one of her favourite foods and snatched it quickly. She chomped it down happily with no ill-effects.

"Why are there so many?" Hilary wondered. "It sort of looks like someone's garden."

"It's a trainer garden," Kai said, standing beside and old Oran tree near the middle of the grove. The whole group looked at him bemusedly.

"How… how do you know that?" Tyson asked disbelievingly.

"It says so," Kai answered, pointing at a wooden sign nailed to the Oran tree that had the words 'Trainer Garden: please plant a berry!' written in black paint. "What's a trainer garden?"

"Ah! This one's so hidden, though," Mari said. "Trainers plant berries in places and then other trainers plant berries nearby and a trainer garden starts. It's considered to be a kind thing to do for other trainers since berries are super useful in a lot of ways. Maybe…" she pulled out her Pokédex again and flicked through the apps. "It's true! Part of the 'dex update was a Berrydex – an encyclopaedia for berries. It'll have all of the tags for each berry and everything."

"Wow," Max responded. "What can't the Pokédex tell us?"

Daichi eyed the trees sceptically. He got the feeling that there was something about this grove that didn't quite fit with the explanation but he couldn't work out what. The trees and branches were all messily growing wherever they could get the most benefit but travelling trainers wouldn't have time to trim them anyway. It appeared that the grove had been here for a long time yet Mari evidently hadn't known about it. Perhaps she was just out of the loop on this one. Daichi folded his arms and huffed at the baffling mystery. The humming croak that was beginning to murmur through the air wasn't helping him think on this.

"Taking care of these gardens is one of the responsibilities of a trainer," Mari continued to explain, "so while we're here we should do some gardening."

"Is that a rule of being League affiliated?" Hilary asked.

"No, just… dunno, manners," Mari replied. "A traditional unspoken rule that trainers should look out for each other by doing things like this."

"That's so sweet," Hilary gushed. "I wish people in our world were so conscious of each other." She picked her newest Pokéball from her bag. "In that case, I'll do my bit. Surskit, water the garden with Water Sport."

Surskit appeared on the soft earth and sprayed the grove with water. Daichi glanced around the garden and realised that there wasn't really any gardening to do. The grove was oddly devoid of weeds and none of the berries had parasites. It was starting to occur to him that it was strange for a shared resource to be so hidden from the main path. That odd croak was still chorusing.

"What's that strange sound?" Ray wondered, looking around for a source and frowning when he couldn't discern one. "Is it… some kind of frog?"

"What's 'frog'?" Mari asked.

"Are you seriously telling me you don't know what a frog is?" Tyson deadpanned.

"Says someone who had to look up Zigzagoon in a Pokédex!"

The grass and bushes around them rustled. Several little creatures with lily pads on their heads and big yellow lips shuffled out of the undergrowth on their six stubby legs. Each creature carried two handfuls of water in their leaf. They all stopped and stared at the group confusedly. Hilary and the bladers returned the expression. Of all the kinds of creatures they imagined to see, this was not one. Nevertheless, Daichi got his starry-eyed look again.

"Hey, those are Pokémon too, right?" he said.

Kai had already looked it up in the Pokédex and before anyone could respond the machine chimed in: "Lotad, the water weed Pokémon. They live in ponds and lakes with clean water, where they float on the surface. It has been known to ferry small Pokémon across water by carrying them on its leaf. It grows weak if its broad leaf dies."

"There's so many of them," Hilary noted, voice wavering a little. "Fifteen? Twenty? This could mean trouble."

"Don't think so," Mari assured her. "Lotad are famous for being super docile. They won't seriously hurt us unless one of us does something stupid."

Just as she said that, Daichi let out a loud, violent cry and threw a Pokéball at one of the Lotads. The creature was swallowed in a flash and the Pokéball shook vigorously. The rest of the Lotads turned their bewildered eyes to the ball. It took mere seconds for the caught Lotad to free itself. The Pokéball rolled away harmlessly while Hilary, Mari and the bladers all slowly turned to incredulously glare at Daichi. The escaped Lotad blinked. Then it suddenly let out a scream of alarm that prompted all of the others to start screaming. The group flinched.

"Daichi, you're such an idiot!" Tyson yelled.

"Are you trying to make them attack us?" Hilary snapped.

"All I'm trying to do is catch one," Daichi retorted before he was suddenly blasted into a tree by a wall of combined Water Guns.

Treecko jumped out in front of his trainer to defend if need be but the Lotads instead lived up to Mari's assertion and continued on their way. They waddled past the group of trainers and up to a berry tree. There were no more than three to a tree as they tipped forward and poured their water onto ground beneath the trunks.

"They really are docile," Ray commented. "Are they… watering?"

Soaked and sore from hitting that tree, Daichi shook water out of his hair and got to his feet. "Aha! So they're the ones responsible!"

"Responsible for what?" Tyson asked, mostly just to humour him.

"They've been looking after this garden. That's why it's so cared-for even though it's been hidden from the path." Upon noticing a small weed on its way back to the forest, one of the Lotads plucked it from the ground and chomped down on the invading green sapling. Daichi pointed at it and stared at his friends expectantly. "You see?"

"Oooh, makes sense," Mari murmured. "Odd that this trainer garden was able to stay so large since there aren't many trainers passing through this route but the Lotad have been keeping things ticking. Wonder why."

"That's actually pretty great," Max said.

Ray nodded. "For a wild animal to be smart enough to actually manage its own garden – I've never heard of such a thing."

Daichi pouted. "Come on! Don't tell me that nobody wants to try catching one."

"There's about twenty of them," Max pointed out, "and it's usually not a good idea to make wild creatures mad."

"I make wild animals mad all the time and I fight them because I'm not a coward!" Daichi argued. He retrieved his rejected Pokéball and then stomped up to the one that had escaped from it just as it finished watering a green tree. He knew which one because unlike the others that had a smooth rim around their leaves, this one's leaf had a nick at the front. "Listen here, Lotad. I'm going to capture you today so get ready." He released Geodude. "Use Tackle!"

Geodude charged and Lotad charged right back. It smacked into Geodude head on so abruptly that he flinched. Lotad doused him with Water Gun and he followed his trainer's previous example by being thrown into a tree trunk. Geodude slumped to the ground looking worse for wear. Daichi's jaw dropped.

"He went down so fast! How?!"

Mari sighed. "Geodude has a double disadvantage to water-types, you should know that by now."

"Geodude, can you get up?" Daichi asked. Geodude wiped some of the water away from his face and got off the ground.

"Oh, come on! If you keep being so stubborn Geodude will faint!"

He certainly looked like he was on the verge of collapsing. However, he felt a pat on his head and looked down. A Sitrus berry had been dropped from the branches. He looked up to find Treecko standing on a branch above him, holding another berry at the ready. The grass-type gave him a thumbs-up and Geodude nodded back, picking up the berry and eating it whole.

"So cheating…" Mari muttered, watching the battle with a disgruntled expression.

"What's the harm?" Ray chuckled. "Since we're surrounded by berries it would do good to make use of them."

Daichi shouted commands for Geodude to use Tackle and Lotad went flying into a tree. Its companions all watched with their mouths agape like they were awestruck. Lotad used Water Gun again and Geodude was down a second time. Thankfully, Treecko was nearby with the berry drop and dropped another berry on his head. Daichi growled in frustration.

"This'll go on forever at this rate! No more messing around; Geodude, let's do our big attack." Geodude voiced his agreement. The rest of the group perked up with confusion but it quickly dawned on Mari what 'big attack' probably meant and her eyes went wide.

"No, no! Don't do that while we're all here!" she exclaimed.

"MAGNITUDE!"

Geodue scoffed a berry and raised a fist, glowing with power, which he struck into the earth. The group could see the ground ripple and crack as the power wave moved outward, tipping the trees and causing a rumble in the earth that knocked everyone in the vicinity to the ground. There was a chorus of shrieks and flapping wings from Taillows evacuating the trees. The berry trees shook violently, causing many of the berries to fall from the branches.

In the aftermath, all of the trees in the berry grove stood skewed or had been tipped over. No one and nothing aside from Geodude had been able to maintain footing. All of the Lotad were stunned by the sudden powerful shockwave, none more so than the one that Daichi was specifically trying to catch. The Lotads stumbled shakily to their feet and looked around. All of their precious berry trees… the garden was in shambles! They all fixed their eyes on Daichi and Geodude, croaking angrily. Their cheeks puffed up in preparation for a round of Water Gun. Daichi and Geodude both cringed and exchanged a panicked glance. However, before the Lotads could let loose on them…

"Water Pulse!"

A sonic wave blasted them from behind. They tumbled over the Lotad Daichi had engaged in battle and all three of them slammed into a tree with enough force to set it upright again. Daichi pried his eyelids open (he hadn't realised he'd squeezed them shut). The world was foggy and there seemed to be at least three of everything, including Hilary standing up with her arms akimbo and her Surskit out in front of her.

"Damnit, Daichi! What kind of freaking moron are you?!" she shouted.

"I-I," Daichi stammered. He snapped to attention when she started stomping up to him. "S-sorry…"

Hilary lifted Daichi off the ground by the back of his shirt was about to rip into him when a sudden gasp of: "Eek! The garden!" made them both turn. Mari frantically looked around the trainer garden with her hands on her head and a look of panicked dismay. The other bladers also surveyed the damaged with concern.

"We should probably clean this up," Tyson said.

"How?!" Mari cried. "How long do you think it would have taken for this garden to grow? Told you before that gardens like this are a trainer's responsibility. We're supposed to look after them and add to them but look at this! Destroyed!" She fell to her knees and tried to stay composed but there was obviously a tide of emotion inside that was waiting to explode. Nobody was sure if it was going to be rage or despair.

"Hey, calm down," Ray interjected. "If we act quickly then maybe we can salvage the garden. Some of us can pick up berries and the rest can replant trees."

The Lotads had already gotten started, walking around the garden and picking up berries with their huge leaves. Hilary glared at Daichi and hung his head apologetically. Mari sat up and took a deep breath, exhaling slowly while mentally counting backwards from ten.

"Okay… Ray, you're right." She stood up and brushed the dirt off her knees as best she could. "Let's fix this garden."

"I'll help too," Hilary said, dropping Daichi carelessly and running back to the group to plan how they would go about replanting the garden.

Daichi stood up and glared at Hilary's back with a pout. Then he turned to his check on his Geodude. He was passed out on the ground, right next to an equally unconscious Lotad. Seeing that his was the opportunity he'd been waiting for, Daichi threw his empty Pokéball and this time it only shuddered briefly before it immediately locked. Daichi picked up his Pokéball and lifted it in the air with a loud whoop.

"I caught a Lotad!" he exclaimed. "I bet you're jealous now, Tyson! I've got more Pokémon than you."

"I'm green with envy," Tyson deadpanned, rolling his eyes. "Now get over here and help us fix this mess you made."

It took hours and it was noon by the time the group had finished replanting trees. Some of the trees wouldn't stand up perfectly straight again and the ground was now soft and churned up but it at least held some semblance of what it once was. The berries had all been picked up and now every Lotad from the group was heavily weighted with a berry pile. Everyone was covered in sweat and dirt but couldn't help but think that this was well worth it.

"I think we did a pretty good job," Tyson commented.

Mari sighed. "Just relieved that we managed to fix it."

Tyson looked at her curiously. "These 'trainer responsibilities' are really important to you, huh?"

"Course they are! Always take them seriously because being a trainer isn't meant to be just fun. You have to take care of things otherwise it's no fun for anyone else. Plus, I personally think that it's good practice to have respect for all Pokémon, not just the ones you have."

"That's a really nice way to look at the world," Max said thoughtfully. "I wonder what the Lotads are going to do with all of those berries."

The Lotads all looked at each other and then did something that nobody expected. They went up to the trainers and dumped all of their berries right at their feet. The trainers gawked at them as members of the group were already starting to waddle away.

"W-why would they just do that?" Hilary muttered. She looked to her Pokédex for some explanation:

"Lotad is capable of photosynthesising its own food and requires little extra nutrition."

"That… okay, sounds fair."

"What are we going to do with all of these berries?" Ray wondered aloud. "We can't possibly use all of them before they start to spoil."

"Let's plant them," Kai suggested. It was a quiet suggestion but Kai's voice had a forceful quality that made it hard to not listen to.

"You want to plant some?" Mari asked.

Kai nodded. "Even with our efforts, there's a chance that some of these trees' roots were too badly damaged by Magnitude to survive. So we replace them by planting some berries."

"And what if they did survive?" Max asked.

"Then we fulfilled part of our responsibility as trainers and added to the garden."

Mari smiled gratefully. "I'm glad that you're already starting to understand."

Daichi released his new Lotad at the edge of the garden. It turned to him and blinked questioningly. Daichi crouched down and regarded it guiltily. "I thought about what Mari said just then," he told it, "about respecting Pokémon that aren't yours and I just wanted to say sorry. I ruined your garden and I guess that all of those other guys are your friends. So, if you want to stay with them, that's okay… I suppose."

He looked away. Lotad's bottom eyelids lifted in amusement at its new trainer. It could tell; Daichi didn't really want to release it after the ordeal of catching it and as far as it was concerned, he did earn it. Its group was already leaving. It bounded over to some of the last to leave. They turned around to face it curiously, wondering why it was coming back. It nuzzled its closest friends fondly and then waddled back to Daichi, who stared at it in astonishment.

"You came back…" he said slowly, trying to process that. "Even after I beat you up and took you away from your friends?"

If Lotad could have shrugged it would have. Humans usually didn't understand and some other Pokémon didn't either. The Lotads had known for a long time that this garden was significant to trainers and here they met all sorts of trainers and their Pokémon. Trainers' Pokémon always had fabulous stories to tell about faraway places – forests with different trees, places with no trees and other types of Pokémon that they could never dream of meeting if they stayed in one place. However, trainers' Pokémon were special in that they so often achieved a feat that was rare in the wild: evolution. All the Lotads had fanciful hopes of one day going on an adventure with a trainer but this particular Lotad truly dreamed of it. It all began when a trainer passed by and released a large Pokémon that explained how it used to be a little Lotad but grew stronger and stronger next to its trainer. Ever since, Lotad had been caring for the trainer garden, waiting for a day when it would be worthy of a trainer.

"Wow! You're really want to stay?" Daichi gushed, picking up his Lotad proudly. "Then I really did catch another Pokémon! Alright! You see this, guys?" Daichi hollered to the others, pointing to his Lotad. "I have more Pokémon than all of you! Except Mari… and except Kai… but I have more Pokémon than everyone other than Kai and Mari."

"First of all, you don't have more than me," Hilary retorted. "And secondly, help us plant these berries!"

"Fine, I will. But how come none of you tried to catch a Lotad? There were plenty of them, we could have all got one."

"Well, I would have liked one…" Max said, trailing off evasively.

"To me it just looked kind of…" Ray started.

"Lame," Tyson finished bluntly.

A/N: It's a week later and now there is a new chapter, as I promised a week ago. This chapter is also called "Daichi is so dumb that I now have bruises on my forehead". And having a huge supply of berries at your disposal during a Pokémon battle is totally cheating, Mari is not wrong.

In other news, I want OCs! I have plans that require a few OCs but between my studies, other fanfiction and everything else in this story, I haven't got the imaginative capacity to sit back and think of some, so I'm willing to crowd-source. I devised a little "sheet" of sorts for you to fill in if you're interested in sending me an OC to use in this story.

OC Submission Form

Required Information

Appearance:

- Hair/eye/skin colour

- Clothing (includes the bag)

- Height and build (only in general/relative terms. You can be specific if you want but specific information is not likely to be used in the context of the story.)

Biographical info:

- Age

- Gender

- Name

- Birthplace/hometown (must be within the canon Pokémon world, doesn't have to be in Hoenn)

- Family

- Friends

- History and achievements (mention any goals and what the character has accomplished to further said goals here. It's okay to be a newbie who has literally done nothing.)

Occupation: (co-ordinator, competitive battler, shop assistant, teacher, etc.)

Trainer class: (see Bulbapedia for more info on trainer classes. In the case of a competitive battler, PKMN Trainer is an acceptable trainer class).

Optional Information

Personality traits: is there anything about their character that really sticks out?

Interesting quotes: are there any words or phrases that they like to use a lot or are more likely to use?

Battle style: What's their preferred method of fighting/training? Do they like to play defensively or are they a sweeper who spends time setting up? Or do they just attack, attack and attack? If they're the kind of trainer who has a type preference, mention it here.

So that's pretty much all I need from you to submit an OC for the story. I'd prefer if you sent this information via PM but I understand if you don't have an account or can't access your account then you can send it in a review. I trust you guys to to be reasonable when filling in the form. I can't really say exactly what I'm using the OCs for (especially because I haven't got any yet) but it's nothing defaming to their character, mostly recurring supporting roles.

But before you get too carried away with that, I'd also like you review this chapter! :)