While Blake and the others are having fun in the wave pool, Kitty's in peril! She lost her precious necklace that Julia gave her! What's she going to do? She has to find it! Hopefully it's not underwater, that would be hard to find. There's another issue as well, what if it got stolen? Kitty and Julia will need to rely on their skills as trainers to find the necklace! Where could it have gone, I wonder?
KedharS: Yeah, I don't think it would end up for the best. But any plan is at least worth giving a shot, don't you think? Even the worst-laid ones.
Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings
Chapter 1063
Kitty looked around frantically. She was in a horrible panic. Julia had bought that necklace for her, and hadn't even worn it for an hour before she lost it!
"Oh no! Where is it!?" Kitty wailed, fumbling at her neck like she could somehow find it there. She wasn't thinking clearly, but that's what Julia was for. She was staring into the water with a watchful eye, trying to see it at the bottom of the river. But the girls were in constant motion and neither one knew when the necklace had gone missing, so in a way, this was a futile gesture as well.
She realized that pretty quickly.
"We aren't going to find it like this," she snapped, turning to Kitty. "We need to track it down somehow."
Kitty was already starting to cry. "*hic* H-How?" She asked, looking up at Julia through her tears. "We're never going to find it in all this…"
Julia wasn't going to accept that. She got off her inner tube and paddled over to Kitty. "Lik hell we aren't!" She said, pulling Kitty's inner tube to the side of the long river. "Come on, let's get back to the lockers."
Kitty nodded, not sure what Julia was alluding to, but she trusted her friend. In her experience, leaving things to Julia worked out for her.
The girls backtracked to their lockers while Julia explained her plan to Kitty.
"Roden isn't very good at tracking," she admitted. "But Wolfie is, and Blaze is, too."
She took her two canine pokemon from her locker, and sent them out, explaining the situation to them while Kitty watched from the sidelines, beaming in admiration.
Wow… Julia really is amazing, she thought, feeling a tinge of respect and jealousy. She wished she could be this competent. Then she realized that this was where her problems always started. She wasn't helping. She was just counting on Julia and her skills to solve her problems, and that wouldn't be okay. She needed to help herself!
"Larosa can help too," Kitty said, sending out her own Growlithe. "And Meomo is good at finding lost things."
She looked hopefully at Julia, and sighed with relief when she saw Julia's approving smile and nod. Relying on their pokemon, the two girls headed back towards the river entrance, hoping that they could track Kitty's necklace down.
"Pooch!" Wolfie's head whipped around and she growled.
"Yes!" Julia said. "She's found the scent! Come on, Kitty, let's go!" She ran after her Poochyena, with Kitty and the other pokemon giving chase.
Kitty was confused. Wolfie was heading AWAY from the river. But she was sure she'd had it on her when she got into the inner tube. What had happened? She was getting a strange feeling, and as they continued to run, the feeling only grew more intense.
"Poochyena!" Wolfie growled, pulling to a stop in front of one of the water slides. She looked around for where the necklace could be. Then her head snapped up and she began to bark.
"What is it, girl?" Julia asked, following her pokemon's line of sight. Then she gasped at what she saw. "Kitty! There it is! That's it, isn't it?"
The water slide they were staring at was a large monstrous thing made out of metal, the Relicanth Rocker. And past the line, nestled in the girders that supported the slide, just barely visible if you weren't looking for it, was a pile of garbage. And in the center of that pile was Kitty's necklace! It was pushed down with the other shiny objects, forming a tiny nest, and for a second Julia wondered if a bird pokemon had snatched the necklace up.
But that wasn't the pokemon who climbed down, necklace in its mouth.
"Skitty!" The small pokemon growled.
"It's a Skitty!" Kitty gasped. She hadn't expected to see the small pokemon here at the water park, let alone stealing necklaces from park guests!
"Skitty do like shiny objects," Julia mused. "She must have spotted your necklace on the ground, and picked it up."
Kitty frowned. That sounded reasonable, but that wasn't the case.
"She didn't find it," Kitty sniffed. "She stole it! I had it around my neck when I got on the inner tube. So even if it fell off, it would have fallen into the water, so to get it back, that Skitty would have to be soaking wet! But she isn't! So she must have taken it with the move covet, it's the only thing that makes sense!"
Julia couldn't argue with Kitty's reasoning there. "Fair enough," she agreed. "So what do you want to do about it?"
She was all set to give the order to Wolfie and Blaze, or send out Roden and REALLY make this Skitty pay for stealing.
But Kitty wasn't so sure. There was another reason she was certain that Skitty had stolen her necklace, and that was because she could feel a connection to th other pokemon. Without even trying, she could sense that Skitty had been enjoying herself, going around stealing shiny and precious objects from trainers and park guests.
"Why?" She asked, approaching the Skitty. Then, to her surprise, Skitty did the unexpected. She walked over to Kitty and dropped the necklace right at her feet.
"Uh… what?" Julia asked, staring dumbly. "She just… gave it back to you?"
"I guess so," Kitty said, picking up the necklace and running her finger against the jagged edge. She didn't even need to check to know it was hers. She turned to Kitty. "Now, Kitty, why would you do something like that?" She asked.
Skitty stared up at her through her slitted eyes and purred. Then she hopped up, batting at Kitty with her tail, snatching the necklace from her again. With a giggle, she turned and dashed the other way, disappearing into the crowd before Kitty could blink.
"N-No!" She gasped, stunned. "Come on, Julia! We have to go after her!" She cried, turning to her pokemon. "Larisa! Meomo! Track her down!"
"Growl!" Larisa nodded, sniffing at the ground to track the Skitty's scent. Meomo wans't far behind, running after the escaping pokemon, with Julia's pokemon coming to help her.
Kitty and Julia ran through the crowd, which partd in surprise whenever they approached. While pokemon and their trainers were hardly a rare sight, but nobody was expecting them to come running around through the water park,
The Skitty was fast, and quickly eluded her pursuers. But Kitty had a weapon of her own to track the pokemon, more potent than any of her pokemon's noses.
That weapon was her harmonia. Because wherever Skitty escaped to, Kitty could follow the sensations of her harmonia, like a Psychic type pokemon dowsing. She pulled to a stop in the middle of the square, looking around frantically. She knew that Skitty had to be here somewhere.
"There!" She cried, pointing at the clock tower in the middle of the plaza. Perched atop the tower was Skitty, curled up in a ball, dangling the necklace over the edge.
"Skit!" Skitty chirped, her expression brightening.
Julia scowled. "I don't get it," she said, turning to Kitty. "What's that pokemon want? Why's she putting us through all this?" She could understand wild pokemon stealing things, but not those pokemon giving the things back, and then taking them again. It didn't make sense to her.
"It's a game to her," Kitty realized. "She gave me my necklace back because she wanted to steal it from me again. I'd guess this is how she plays."
"Fun," Julia sighed, rubbing her forehead. "Whatever, I guess we need to defeat her if you want to get your necklace back."
Kitty shook her head. "I don't want to beat her," she replied, reaching for the pokeball belt she'd retrieved from her locker. "I'm going to catch her."
That caught Julia off-guard. Kitty had spent all day yesterday looking for pokemon in the routes around Lavaridge Town, and hadn't wanted to catch anything. But now she wanted this Skitty? Sure, the pokemon was adorable, and it was a feline pokemon, like Kitty loved. Heck, it was the perfect fit for her, with only one issue.
"You realize she's a thief, right? You really want a thief pokemon on your team?" Julia asked. She didn't have an issue with it personally, as a fan of the Dark type, but she expected the sweet and generous Kitty to have some issues with that. Apparently not.
"Ruka is a trickster," Kitty shrugged. "But it doesn't matter. I'm catching her." She'd looked all day yesterday, and never felt a pokemon connection this strong. Yes, this Skitty was the pokemon for her, she was sure of it. "Now, we just have to bring her down!"
Kitty wound back her hand and flung the pokeball with all the strength she could muster. The ball barely got halfway up the clock tower before falling back to earth and bopping her in the face.
Julia resisted the urge to giggle.
"Kitty, that's-"
"Quiet!" Kitty snapped. Fine, pokemon were the way to go! "Meomo, get her!"
"Persian," Meomo purred. He scaled the clock tower easily with his claws, leaping up to stare down the Skitty, who lazily turned to greet him.
"…Skitty?" The Skitty whimpered, batting her eyelashes. A tiny heart zigzagged towards Meomo, hitting him directly. The Persian's heart skipped a beat and his face heated up, hearts appearing in his eyes. He turned away from Skitty in embarrassment.
"…Whelp, your Persian fell for her attract," Julia said dryly. "So what's your next strategy?"
Kitty scowled, her face heating up. "Whatever!" She grumbled. "It doesn't matter! Return, Meomo!" She shouted, calling her pokemon back. She still had Larosa. And unlike Meomo, Larosa wasn't going to fall for that Skitty's feminine wiles!"
"Growl!" Larosa snarled up at Skitty. But unfortunately, that was all she could do. Larosa may have been past and packed some power, but unlike Meomo, she couldn't climb the tower. So she could just growl impotently up at the Skitty, lowering her attack but not doing much else.
"…Got a plan C, then?" Julia asked. If Kitty wasn't her friend, she'd be bursting out laughing at the other girl's frantic struggle.
Kitty's eye twitched. She was feeling the mockery coming off the Skitty, and it was starting to piss her off. "Return," she said, calling Larosa back to her pokeball as well. Marisa, get her!"
Marisa was basically her last shot, since Pearl could barely even move. No way could the little Clamperl get all the way up there. But Marisa was the best of both worlds, capable of climbing the tower as easily as Meomo, and immune to attract.
"Sylveon," Marisa murmured, sensing what Kitty wanted immediately. She dashed forward and extended her ribbon-like feelers, wrapping them around the latches of the tower to help her climb. A few seconds later and she leapt onto the ledge, staring Skitty down.
What Kitty felt from the wild pokemon was a surprise. She wasn't scared, or even intimidated. She was having fun!
Well, Kitty could have fun, too. "Marisa, baby-doll eyes!"
"Sylveon!" Marisa batted her eyelashes, and it was Skitty's turn to be disarmed. Startled, the pokemon felt her heart skip a beat, and her joy soared even more. It was exactly what Kitty was counting on. Now she just needed to bring her down somehow.
"Draining kiss!" Marisa dashed forward and planted a kiss on Skitty's cheek, stunning the little pokemon with the display of affection.
"Skitty?!" Skitty cried in disbelief, stumbling back… and to Kitty and Julia's horror, falling right over the edge.
"Shit!" Julia cursed. She hadn't expected this to take such a dark turn.
But Kitty was prepared. "Marisa!" She cried.
"Sylveon!" Marisa flashed pink, and a barrier of light appeared beneath Skitty, forming a platform to catch her before she fell all the way to the ground. Skitty was startled and looked around in confusion, not expecting to be saved.
Kitty walked forward, picking her necklace up. Skitty had dropped it in the confusion. She raised her head, staring up at the flustered pokemon.
She smiled.
"And that's that," Kitty said, putting her necklace back on. Marisa leapt down from the clock tower, landing on the light screen and grabbing Skitty with her feelers. After getting Skitty wrapped up nice and tight, she slowly lowered the light screen to the ground.
"Now, Skitty, that wasn't nice," Kitty said, putting her hands on her hips. "You shouldn't take things that don't belong to you, even if you're just trying to have fun, understand?"
Julia resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Kitty was being rather naïve, in her opinion, and didn't sound all that convincing.
But apparently, Kitty knew the situation better than she did, because Skitty looked genuinely apologetic. She nodded her head and sighed. "Skitty…"
Marisa let her go, and she didn't run away this time. Kitty walked up to the pokemon, who eyed her warily. But Kitty didn't make any aggressive moves. She was used to dealing with pokemon, and with her harmonia, her gentle nature was being conveyed to the Skitty directly.
"It's okay," Kitty grinned, petting the cat pokemon. "I'm not upset. I actually had a lot of fun too, playing tag with you.
"Skitty?!" Skitty gasped, surprised.
"Fun, huh?" Julia mumbled under her breath.
Kitty turned to her friend. "She's a good pokemon, really. The reason why she took all the stuff was because she wanted to play with people. She's been staying here for a few months now, and was amazed at how much fun everyone was having. But as a cat pokemon, she can't exactly have much fun in the water. But she still wanted to have fun with everybody. So she thought that if she could take stuff from people, then they would chase after her and play tag."
It made sense, but Julia still didn't think it was a nice thing to do. Kitty turned back to Skitty, smiling. "You're a good pokemon deep down, right? And you won't steal anything again?"
"…Skitty…" Skitty's eyes were hard to see normally, and she looked even shiftier now. Julia didn't trust her for an instant and neither did Kitty.
"Well, then do you want to come with me?" Kitty asked. "If you do, we can play all sorts of games together, okay? You can have lots of fun, I promise. But no more stealing. So what do you think? It's a good deal, right?"
"Skitty?!" Skitty gasped in surprise, not expecting an offer like that.
Julia sighed, smiling in spite of herself. Kitty was just that nice of a girl.
"Skitty!" Skitty nodded rapidly, her face lighting up. Kitty smiled back. She unclipped an empty pokeball from her waist and pressed it against Skitty's forehead, capturing her in a flash. She sent out the pokemon immediately.
"Welcome to the team," Kitty beamed. "Now then, we need to think of a name for you… hmm…" She tapped her chin thoughtfully. "Oh! I know! You're really tricky, so what about naming you Trixie? Pretty cool, huh?"
"Skitty," Skitty, now named Trixie, nodded.
"Congratulations," Julia said, walking over to her friend and patting her on the shoulder. "You caught a new pokemon after all!" With all the hard work they'd put in yesterday, it was a relief to cross that off the list.
"Well… we're not done juuust yet," Kitty sighed, recalling Marisa to her pokeball. She left out Trixie, though.
"What do you mean?" Julia asked, confused. "Shouldn't we be meeting up with the others for lunch soon?"
Kitty shook her head. "Trixie took a bunch of stuff from a bunch of people, trying to get them to play with her. And all that stuff is just sitting on that water slide."
Julia didn't like where this was going. "So wait, you're saying-"
"We need to give all that stuff back," Kitty said adamantly. "Let's go get it and turn it in to the lost and found!"
Ah. She was.
Julia couldn't argue. Kitty's sweetness was just a part of who she was. Well, if her best friend wanted to do the right thing and take responsibility for her new pokemon's prior mischievousness, who was she to say otherwise?
"Okay, sure, let's go," Julia agreed. She recalled her pokemon to their pokeballs, and the two girls followed Trixie to wherever else she had stored the rest of the goods.
It was quite a sight, walking into the lost and found with all that rubbish. The attendant was, frankly, shocked.
"So all the things people have been reporting as missing over the last few months, that was all the work of this Skitty?" He said, adjusting his glasses in surprise. He couldn't believe that such a cute and harmless-looking pokemon was responsible for the biggest crime wave that the water park had ever seen.
"Yes. But she's very sorry, and she won't do it again," Kitty promised, looking to Trixie, who nodded apologetically. "I've caught her, so she'll be out of your hair. In the meantime, we thought it was best to return everything to you."
"W-Well, yes, we're quite thankful," the man said, taking the stuff. Julia could tell at a glance that he was bullshitting them. This was just more work for him. But she wasn't going to let that ruin her friend's good mood.
"Well, happy to help," Julia smiled. "But we've got to go meet up with our friends, isn't that right, Kitty?" She asked, looking at her friend. Kitty nodded.
"Okay," Kitty said, picking up Trixie. She smiled at the little Skitty. "I can't wait for you to meet all my friends, Trixie! They'll really like you!"
"Skitty!" Trixie purred, rubbing her large tail against Kitty's cheek. The cat lover grinned, and Julia couldn't help but smile as well.
There was just something about the two of them that looked good together. Julia thought a Skitty was the perfect fit for her friend.
So a trip to the water park has resulted in a new pokemon for Kitty! What good luck! I think Skitty is the perfect fit for a cute girl like Kitty. Hopefully, she won't do anything crazy and use a team of all Skitties just spamming assist all day to try and beat the pokemon league… that's something only a lunatic would attempt.