Chapter 3: A Poke-crisis

Okay, let's recap to where we left off: We were on a happy trip to the world-renowned festival Pokepalooza when that all went aflame and I foolishly ran towards the fire to solve the problem. Now I wish I hadn't done that.

"Mudkip, water gun!" I shouted as Mudkip let loose a stream of water, but that didn't work much.

"Try a mud-slap!" I shouted again. This time, Mudkip tries to put out the fire with fistfuls of mud, but that didn't work, either. All of a sudden, I see Marie heading towards my path.

"Marie? What are you doing here?" I asked. "It's dangerous!"

"It's dangerous for you, too," Marie replied. "C'mon, we gotta go."

"Wait. Where's Zack?"

"Zack went off to alert the firemen," Marie replied. However, when she started to run, a flaming piece of wood was about to fall onto her, until…

"Sandstorm!"

…all of a sudden, a whipped up whirlwind of sand and mud clears out the piece of wood. The second the sandstorm clears, I see a kid come in the scene.

"You guys all right?" The kid asked. "Those flames would've burned you if I didn't come in."

"Yeah, we're fine," I replied. "I just have a question for you: Did YOU make that sandstorm, and how?"

"Yep, I'm the one who caused that sandstorm," The kid said. "As for how, well…" Then, the kid looked behind, and saw a Pokemon coming along his side.

"Is that a Vibrava! That's so awesome!" Marie said. Like I said, she loves dragons, and Vibrava (which is part-dragon type) is no exception.

"Yeah, it is pretty cool," The kid said. "Anyway, my name is Henry Rais."

Rais? I thought. Could he be the Professor's kid, or what?

"I'm Marie Shir," Marie said. "And this is my friend, Derek."

"You must've trained it well to make it learn that move," I said. "I take it you were enjoying the rides, too, huh?"

"Not really," Henry said. "I was going on a chore when I noticed Marie was gonna get hurt. Now that I think about it, I need to go get that computer chip…"

"Vee! Vee!" Eevee shouted as it was looking at the big tent, which is on fire. My foolish pride told me to go put out the fire myself, but something else seemed to claim otherwise; Marie pulling on my shirt just when I was gonna start going.

"Derek, it's too dangerous," Marie said. "We can't do it."

"And then what will happen? The entire city would be burnt down?" I asked.

"Derek, you may want to help and put out the fire," Henry added. "But it's just too big of a job."

Then, I noticed a frightened Torchic dangerously close to the fire, which is a bit ironic. A piece of the flaming tent was about to fall on the little bird, just like the same thing happened to Marie a minute ago. I struggled myself to get out of Marie's grasp, and when I was let go, I went in to save the Torchic as Mudkip and Eevee followed.

"Torchiiiic!" The Torchic cried in terror. The flaming piece was inches away from Torchic, when Mudkip blew it away with a water gun, and I went to the bird's side.

"You okay, little fella?" I asked.

"Torchic!" it said, seeming delighted.

Feet across us, we saw a menacing pair of eyes in the dark bushes.

"Wh-who's there?" I asked, feeling a bit frightened about what MIGHT happen.

Just then, more evil eyes appeared in the bushes. Out of the bushes I found out it was a bunch of Pokemon: a Cyndaquil, a Combusken, a Quilava, a Houndour, and two Vulpix, all looking pretty mad.

"I-it's okay, guys. All we need to do is carefully and quietly…" and as we slowly get up, they start using an ember attack.

"RUUUUUN!"

We ran for our lives, avoiding being fried to a crisp. The bad part was that Torchic fell down and when we went back for it, they caught up to us and we had no time to run. Just as they attacked again, I heard a loud roar.

"Cuuune!" All of a sudden, rain started to pour and the ember attacks were doused before they hit us, along with all the fires. I also saw across the lake a silhouette: I couldn't figure out what it was, but it looked very majestic. I also couldn't find out the data of it on my Pokedex, simply because it ran away before I even had a chance.

Later that day, firefighters and hospital workers arrived at the site, checking the site and making sure all the people are unharmed. Also, I saw a truck come in with workers putting the attacking Pokemon in cages and into the truck.

"The way I see it," Henry explained to the three of us. "When the workers were building Pokepalooza, they trespassed on those fire Pokemon's territory, so that's probably why they set it ablaze."

"They'll probably be sent to a safe place," Zack added. Then, one of the workers came to us and looked at the Torchic, already frightened by him.

"Excuse me, but is this your Pokemon?" He asked me. "We can't afford for another wild Pokemon to cause trouble." But, as I opened my mouth to explain, Zack covered it.

"Yes, it is," Zack replied as the worker walked off. I took his hand off my mouth.

"Why'd you say it was mine?" I asked.

"Think about it, buddy; you already have Treecko and Mudkip, so having Torchic would complete your small collection," Zack said.

"Besides," Henry added. "Bright town's gym leader uses grass-type Pokemon, so it should give you an advantage."

"Well, that's a good idea." I replied. Torchic then hopped into my arms.

"I caught a Torchic!" I said.

"Torchic!" Torchic said in a cheery mood.

After we said goodbye to Henry, we all decided to spend the night at the Pokemon center (I really felt tired after all that happened that day). The next morning, we all woke up and headed to the gym, where I'll finally get my first badge.

Note: Derek and his foolish pride...well, at least he got a Torchic! As for the mysterious shadow Derek saw: maybe it's a Pokemon, maybe not. But why did it want to help out Derek, out of all people? Well, you just have to find out about that.

Also, it seems that we have met a new character: Henry Rais. The last name sounds familiar, maybe he could be related to this Professor Rais character. But why does he have to get a computer chip? Who knows.