"If there is one thing that I can pass on to you, just one thing that will get you through anything, it's that as a Pokémon Trainer, every little thing that you do is connected, and all of your actions have reactions, and every choice you make—from the very first choice—will lead you down a path to your destiny.
And if there is a second piece of advice, I could give you, it is that trouble always seems to find you when you're on a Pokémon Journey, whether you intend to go look for it, or not.
Oh, and one more thing: if you EVER get dragged into a situation with a member of some so-called "evil organization" turn around right away. Otherwise, you're going to probably spend the rest of your journey thinking that because you got involved the first time, it's your duty to put an end to all their actions.
Not to mention they are vengeful people and will peg you as an enemy from the start."
The group sat around the table silently, not willing to speak to each other after the incident earlier this morning.
Sam and Jeremy's Starly were let out to eat with the other Pokémon when they woke up, but instead of eating peacefully, both Starly started to show off to each other, and fight over who was better. They almost had a full-on battle over the food just minutes before being broken apart.
"I did some reading," said Niya finally—she had never been one for formalities—as she closed her book. "This behaviour is normal between Starly bred in the wild, in captivity too."
"How is acting like a bunch of self-righteous roosters normal?" asked Alyssandra. "It sounds stupid to me."
"Well, it's actually very similar to roosters," explained Niya. "See, male Starly are very competitive, and they live in a hierarchical society. Male Starly compete for territory, hunting and food rights and for mates. Leadership is usually competed for in a similar manner. So, you see, it's only natural for these two Starly to compete against each other for everything. We need to find ways to work around it, as we can't change it."
"That's going to be fun," groaned Sam. "I'm going to be pulling our two Starly apart for the rest of this journey, aren't I?"
"Probably," said Niya as she bit into some toast. "But on the plus side, if yours wins, you'll know it's the better Starly."
Jeremy scoffed. "We all know my Starly is the better Starly. He almost won this morning, there's no way Sam's Starly could beat him."
Sam looked over at Jeremy. "Now hold on there. My Starly is much tamer, and more cooperative in a battle than yours. I didn't even have to force him to come with me. And his feathers are nicer!"
"Oh please," argued Jeremy. "Your Starly couldn't even hold his own against a scruffy little Glameow let alone my Starly."
"Oh yeah?" challenged Sam
"Hell yeah!"
The two turned back to their breakfasts and refused to look or talk to each other for the rest of the meal.
"It seems that male Starly aren't the only Pokémon that like to compete over everything," joked Alyssandra.
"I know," Niya said. "Men, whether they're Pokémon or people, are all the same."
The girls laughed, but neither of the boys found it funny, and instead stood—glaring at each other from across the table—and walked off in separate directions.
"Ugh," groaned Alyssandra. "They're going to be like this until Oreburgh, I know it."
"Do you deal with this on a daily basis?" asked Niy. She finished off her toast casually.
Alyssandra shook her head. "Well, not all the time. They've being rather well behaved lately, but it seems that this whole Starly thing has them acting like children again."
"So, what do you plan to do?" asked Niya. "If I may suggest, a large stick usually works wonders."
Alyssandra held back a laugh. "No, I think I'll just talk to them this time."
"I'll take Sam, you take Jeremy," said Niya as she stood up.
"Why do you get Sam?" Alyssandra asked curiously.
"Because Sam and I have this…special connection," said Niya as Alyssandra and her walked towards the door of the Pokémon Centre.
"It's because he's stubborn as a brick wall and you're blunt and to the point, isn't it?" asked Alyssandra.
Niya smiled. "That, and I'd love to just deflate his ego."
"Well don't deflate it too much, I do like him with that ego," said Alyssandra "It gives him confidence."
The two girls shot off down opposite ends of the streets, looking to catch up with their friends.
After almost twenty minutes of searching, Niya finally found Sam sitting outside of a café, a warm coffee on the table, and a newspaper in his hands. Niya approached Sam instantly not taking a second to think about a plan of approach.
"Well, hello there, sir," she said jokingly. "May I sit with you?"
Sam lowered the newspaper and just stared blankly at her, to which Niya replied with an over exaggerated look of surprise and shock, and a small gasped.
"My goodness, it's Sam," she said with an exaggerated tone. "Whoever would've guessed. The way you sat there I would've thought you were thirty years older."
"Oh please, spare my intelligence," he said as he returned to his newspaper. "You're not shocked at all."
Niya sat down across from Sam, with her legs crossed one over the other,
"Actually, I am," she said. "I'm shocked you're not secretly an old man."
"Did you come here to insult me, or did you lose a coin toss with Lyss?" asked Sam in a saline tone.
Niya smiled as a waiter came by and brought her a coffee. "Man, I love this instant service thing." She sipped her coffee. "But no, I volunteered to come here if you must know."
"Why?" asked Sam. "To tease me?"
"No, not only for that," she said. "I also came to talk some sense into you. Seriously, this is some good service and good coffee."
"Fuck, your attention span is shorter than mine," said Sam as he put his newspaper down and took a drink from his cup. "But since you're here to talk, then talk."
"Right," said Niya as she placed her cup down. "Look, I don't see why you and Jeremy are the ones fighting. It's your Starly that are supposed to be competing, not you two."
"He insulted my Pokémon," stated Sam.
"So? What does that have to do with you?" asked Niya. "Let him fight with your Pokémon then."
"It's not just that he insulted my Pokémon," said Sam. "It's the principle of the thing. By mocking my Pokémon, he was mocking how I raise them and if there's anyone that knows about raising Pokémon in this group it's me. It's in my blood, and I've spent summers learning to care for Pokémon on the ranch."
"I see. Interesting," said Niya ineffectually. "Well, you definitely have a right to be mad, but I suppose Jeremy does as well."
"Oh yeah, and why's that?" asked Sam as another coffee was brought to him.
"Hell, if I know," said Niya as she finished off her coffee and wiped the foam from her mouth. "You'll have to ask him that yourself."
"Then how can you say he has a reason?" asked Sam.
"Because." stated Niya. "Everyone has a reason for doing what they do. Nothing happens without a reason. If he is mad, he has a reason, even if we don't know what it is."
"Well, it's probably a bad reason," said Sam.
"And even if it is, it's still a reason," said Niya sternly. "And you still owe it to him to listen. Understand?"
Sam sighed. "All right fine. I'll do it. But only if he comes to me first."
Niya changed the subject completely. "May I ask something?"
Sam nodded.
"Why did you come here of all places?"
Sam paused for a moment, debating on whether he should tell Niya the truth. This was something he had never shared with anyone, not even Alyssandra or Jeremy. But he supposed that after all these years.
"Promise to keep it a secret?" asked Sam.
Niya nodded in agreement.
"All right well, I heard stories from my grandmother and the rest of my family that this café was where my grandparents met. They were twenty, and a few months later they got married."
"Things were definitely different in those days," said Niya whimsically. This had been the only time in a decade that Sam had seen her like this. She had noticed Sam's response to her sudden whimsical attitude and added, "Hey, I'm a sucker for a good romance. You can call me a hopeless romantic all you want."
Sam continued. "You know, just a few months before my grandfather passed away just after they reached their fiftieth anniversary. That was almost seven years ago…but that's not the only reason I came here. I also came here because this place also happens to be where my parents met. My mother met my father here when she was eighteen, coming here with her parents on a visit to the city for vacation."
Niya paused for a moment, realizing the somewhat pained tone coming into Sam's voice. "You never knew your parents, did you?"
Sam shook his head. "No. My mother died in childbirth with me, and from what I was told my father left before I was born. No one knows where he is, or if he's still alive. We don't speak about it, so I don't really bother asking questions. Anyway, I came here because when I was a kid, I vowed that one day when I came to this city I would sit down in this café and meet the woman of my dreams."
Niya smiled softly at Sam, and gently patted his arm. "Well, my friend, the girl you want is in another castle."
"No not you!" responded Sam quickly. "No, no, no, no! I was hoping—well, I was hoping it would be someone else."
"You were hoping that you would come here with Lyss, huh?" asked Niya. The waiter had just brought her a second coffee. She watched the surprised remark on Sam's face like a Glameow watched a Rattata. "Oh please, everyone knows."
"Yeah, Jeremy's mother said that once. I don't know why I've never asked her."
"Because you're a coward when it comes to women, and a lion against everything else," said Niya simply. "But that's all right. It's kind of cute actually, and I'm sure once Lyss finds out she'll think so too."
"You have just this awesome way of making people feel better about themselves, you know?" said Sam sarcastically. He placed a few bills on the table and he and Niya left the café to begin their walk back to the Pokémon Centre.
Sam placed his hands in his pockets and after a few metres continued his train of thought. "Besides, it's not like I could ask her out anyway. She likes some other guy back in Twinleaf."
Niya's brow furrowed. "Huh. She's never mentioned that to me, I'll have to ask her later. Regardless though, you need to keep fighting for her, if you want her that bad, keep fighting! If anything, this anger you have towards Jeremy right now should be redirected towards the asshole trying to take your woman."
"How do you know he's an asshole?" asked Sam.
"Because he's not you. Let's just say I've done my years of hopeful wishing," answered Niya. "And I know you'll be good to her."
"Well, thank you," said Sam.
The sudden sound of trashcans hitting pavement rattled the two from their conversation. The screams of a loud and angry crowd erupted across the nearby plaza. Sam and Niya turned to their left and witnessed a mob hammering away at the doors of some tall building with broadcasting towers on top.
"Hey, that's the Pokétch Company building!" pointed out Niya. "Why the crowd though?"
Sam shrugged.
The two approached the crowd and walked up to some of the stragglers at the back of the group.
"What's going on here?" asked Sam.
One of the men in the crowd, with long scraggy hair and a big walrus moustache responded. "Our Pokétch are malfunctioning!"
"Well, that's hardly a reason to riot in the streets," stated Niya.
"It's the type of malfunction that has us this angry," said the man. "We all checked our PCs this morning and found out that they've been emptied! All our Pokémon, gone! We want our Pokémon back and we want an explanation!"
The man then turned around and returned to rioting with the crowd as it began to throw itself against the doors once more.
"It's times like this that I'm lucky my Pokémon are either with Professor Rowan or at my family ranch," said Sam.
"I keep my Pokémon in my party or with my aunt, Fantina. I know that when they're with her they're always kept in contest shape even if I'm not using them."
"Hey, you guys!" shouted Alyssandra as her and Jeremy dashed towards the two of them. "What's going on here?"
Niya and Sam explained.
"So, what are we going to do?" asked Alyssandra.
"What can we do?" Sam retorted quickly.
"Lyss is right," said Niya. "Something doesn't seem right about this. This seems completely out of character from this local tech company. They've done nothing but help support Jubilife and Sinnoh for the past few years."
"Who knows, but we're about to find out; look!" said Sam as he pointed towards the street corner. "It's Officer Jenny and Looker."
The group ran over to the authorities.
"Officer Jenny, Looker," said Jeremy. "Nice to see you again."
"Oh, it's you two!" exclaimed Officer Jenny. "I'm glad that you're here."
"Why?" asked Niya. "What could these two possibly offer you guys?"
Sam shot Niya a look.
"Do you remember what I told you about Team Galactic the other day?" asked Officer Jenny. "Well, this is one of their operations that has affected the city."
"What do you mean officer?" asked Alyssandra. "How could they have caused this?"
"We're not sure," answered Looker, the first time Sam had ever heard him speak—his voice was deep and commanded authority. "But we know this has Team Galactic written all over it. It would appear that grunt from yesterday had a hand in this too."
"How is that possible?" asked Sam. "What are they doing?"
"They're stealing Pokémon from people's PCs using the Pokétch PC application. They've taken over the Pokétch Company Building and are abusing their technology for their own selfish gains," explained Looker. "They've got all of the workers and the company president locked up in there as hostages, and they've completely barred all entrances from the outside."
"What do you want us to do?" asked Jeremy.
"Infiltrate the building somehow," said Looker. "They'll be expecting the police to come busting down the door, but they won't be expecting kids. They'll think you guys some trainers who fancy yourselves heroes. They won't take you seriously, won't fight as hard. That's when we'll come in after you and surprise them. It's how we took down Team Rocket with the help of that trainer, Red."
"We can do that," said Sam. "I have an idea how to get in, come on!"
The group took off towards the back alleyway behind the building. They scanned the area for cameras and saw one sitting above the backdoor.
"We'll need to take out the camera before we can break in," explained Sam. "Once we do, we'll only have a few minutes before someone comes to check on us. I'm going to use Starly to cut the camera, and I'll break the hinges with my Prinplup and Chimchar."
Sam stood off to the side, just out of sight of the camera and released his Pokémon. "Go, Starly. Use Wing Attack and destroy that camera!"
Starly made quick work of the camera. The wires sparked and the useless hunk of metal machinery hit the ground.
"Now's our chance!" said Sam. "Prinplup, Chimchar, we're going to take down that door! Chimchar use Ember to heat up the hinges, then Prinplup, I want you to use your Bubble Beam to cool the hinges off immediately. Repeat until I say so."
Sam's Pokémon did as he commanded as the rapid heating and cooling of the hinges occurred, the hinges began to grow brittle and fall apart.
"All right, that should do it," said Sam. "I'll take it from here you two!"
Sam charged towards the door, his shoulder lowered toward it, and he rammed right into it. The door wobbled, but didn't break, so Sam repeated this action, until finally, the door broke down. Sam stood up, and everyone filed into the doublewide hallway, their Pokémon released as well.
"Let's split up," said Sam decisively. "One pair of us will go left, the other goes right."
"Who's going with whom?" asked Alyssandra.
"I'm not going with him," hissed Jeremy."
Sam and Jeremy turned away from each other, while both of their Starly were glaring hard at one another.
"Well, if we're going to split up, we'll at least swap partners," said Niya. "I'll go with Jeremy. Lyss, you go with Sam."
"And maybe I can succeed where you failed," whispered Alyssandra as the two girls passed each other.
Niya and Jeremy disappeared down the hallway to the left, while Sam and Alyssandra went right.
It was as dark as night, and only the sparsely spaced emergency lights lit the way.
"They must've turned the power off," said Alyssandra.
"Well, something like stealing thousands of people's Pokémon simultaneously would take a lot of power," stated Sam. "They probably redirected the power to whatever machine they're using to steal the Pokémon, so they could do more at once."
Alyssandra nodded. "Let's go find out where they're doing this."
Sam and Alyssandra continued down the hallway, turning right, and left until they reached an impasse.
"We have one hallway to the left, and one straight ahead," said Sam. "I hate to say it, but we need to split up again."
"What, why?" asked Alyssandra.
"Because we'll get more searching done that way. If anything happens just make a loud commotion or something, and I'll come running. Hopefully I'll be able to hear you," explained Sam. "And if it really comes to a fight, you have your Pokémon."
"All right, fine," groaned Alyssandra. "If that's what you want."
Sam continued down the hallway to the left. The walk was silent, except for the sound of his and his Pokémon's footsteps, until a banging sound starting to ring through the hall.
Sam paused, as did his Pokémon, all of them silently looking for the source of the noise. Sam followed the banging noises until it took him to what looked like a storeroom closet.
"It's coming from in here," said Sam as he pressed his ear against the door.
Sam slowly turned the handle and as he did, the door burst open, and a large man in a blue suit burst from closet. He was all tied up, and a gag was in his mouth. He grunted from behind the gag and struggled against his bonds.
"Hold on, I'll get you out," whispered Sam.
Sam untied the gag and released the ropes that bound the man's hands and body, then took him back into the closet and closed the door.
"Just in case they come for us," whispered Sam. "Who are you?"
"I'm the President of the Pokétch Company," said the man as he scratched his beard. "Mr. Rockford is my name. Thank you for saving me by the way."
"Don't mention it," said Sam. "My friends and I are here trying to stop Team Galactic, I'm Sam."
The two of them shook hands.
"Nice to meet you, Sam," said Mr. Rockford. "Have you found them yet?"
"No, I haven't, but we're still looking," replied Sam. "Can I ask what you're doing in here?"
"It's a long story," replied the president. "You see, Team Galactic burst in here this morning, they threatened to attack us with their Pokémon, and to blow up the entire building if they didn't get what they wanted."
"What did they want?" asked Sam as he sat down on a nearby box.
"They wanted us to hack into peoples' PCs and steal their Pokémon, using our Pokétch PC application. But, you see, we don't have the authorization to do that, so I told them. I was afraid of something like this happening, so I purposely made it so that we could only deposit Pokémon in our user's PCs, and not withdraw. Well, suffice it to say they weren't happy when we told them that."
"They locked us all up in different parts of the building and brought their own computer technicians into our server room. They started to hack the computers themselves and rewrite entire parts of the code. They finally managed to break the safety measures we put on the app this morning and rolled out a new update that no one suspected could be malicious. They've been stealing Pokémon ever since. I've been trying to break free, but they caught me, and tied me up and then threw me in here."
"I see," said Sam. "Do you know how to work the computers and reverse the process?"
The president nodded. "Of course, we may have a large office building, but we're only a small family run business," he replied. "I wrote the code for the program myself"
"Perfect," said Sam. "We need to stop them; do you have any Pokémon on you?"
"Not on me," he said. "They stole my Luxray, and my other Pokémon are hidden away in my office."
"All right, I'll do the fighting then, stay close to me," said Sam as he and Mr. Rockford exited the closet and scanned the hallway. "Do you know which way the server room is from here?"
"I do. Come I'll show you," he said continuing down the hallway.
Sam followed Mr. Rockford. The building was like a maze, and Sam knew that if he missed even one turn, he would get lost.
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity of walking, they reached the server room. Sam and the president stopped in the doorway, ducking behind a nearby machine as to not be seen.
"We have almost seven hundred Pokémon stolen from people just in this city alone," said one of the grunts sitting at the computer.
"Good, I'll inform the boss of this. He'll be happy to know the operation is a success," replied a tall, thin man with blue hair that curved into a half moon shape like two horns. "We'll prepare to leave soon. I'll have the Pokémon loaded onto the trucks out back, don't leave anything behind, destroy the machines when you're done."
"Yes sir!" replied the grunts, and the man left the room.
"All right, now's our chance to strike," said Sam to Mr. Rockford. "Looker and Officer Jenny are probably outside stopping the trucks right now. If we capture these grunts, we can stop the operation completely."
Sam returned his Prinplup and Chimchar to their Poké Balls but kept his Starly out to battle. He prepared to jump out from behind the machine. But Sam stopped, when he saw Niya and Alyssandra being dragged into the room, with their hands tied behind their backs, and Galactic grunts on their side of them.
"They have Lyss and Niya," hissed Sam to himself.
Sam looked back at the president, then at his friends, before returning his attention to the president.
"You need to escape," said Sam. "Run outside through the backdoor, and go find Officer Jenny and Looker. Tell them to come now."
"What about you?" asked Mr. Rockford.
"I'll be okay," said Sam. "I'll hold these guys off, now hurry, before they catch you!"
Mr. Rockford did as he was told and ran off down the hallway towards the back entrance.
Sam turned back to the situation at hand just in time to see Jeremy dash into the room and tackle the two grunts that were guarding Niya and Alyssandra. As the three of them hit the ground, one of the grunts fell unconscious, and Sam took the chance to jump out from behind the machine.
"Now, Starly, use Wing Attack to cut their bindings!" shouted Sam.
His friends were quickly freed by Starly's attack.
Jeremy and the girls dashed over beside Sam in the confusion, and Jeremy—who also had his Starly out—looked over at Sam.
"Not bad," he said with a small smile. "But let's see if you can best my Starly's skill in this battle."
The two grunts stood up—those at the computers didn't leave their assigned posts—and both released a Golbat to combat the two Starly.
Both Golbats were ordered to use Poison Sting.
"Starly, dodge!" said Jeremy.
"You, too Starly!" shouted Sam.
Both Starly were too slow however, and they took the Poison Sting straight on.
"Starly!" shouted Sam and Jeremy in unison.
The two friends looked to each other.
"Starly, swing to the left and use Wing Attack on Golbat!" commanded Jeremy.
"I can do better than that," jeered Sam. "Starly, use our manoeuvre that we practiced before!"
While Jeremy's Starly attacked Golbat, Sam's Starly ducked low to the floor, flying at top speed. As he neared one of the Golbat, it prepared its Wing Attack, then flew underneath it, and pulled up quickly, attacking it from below.
Sam and Jeremy's Starly flew back to their Trainers after their attacks landed, but Team Galactic wasn't going to give up so easily.
"Now, both of you Golbat, use Confuse Ray, then follow it up with Swift!" shouted the grunts.
"Dodge, Starly!" cried the two boys in unison.
"Starly, spin around Golbat really fast and prepare a Wing Attack!" shouted Jeremy.
"You too Starly! Do it in the opposite direction!" said Sam.
The two Starly instantly shot top speed into the air near the ceiling, circling around the two Golbat quickly, their wings glowing, ready to attack.
"Faster, Starly!" cried Sam.
"You too, Starly!" shouted Jeremy.
Both Starly tried to speed up, each trying to outdo the other. Suddenly, both Starly started to glow, and their entire bodies shone white as they spun around the confused Golbat.
As the light finally broke from their bodies both Pokémon emerged as Staravia.
Alyssandra was awed. "They competed against each other so vigorously that they evolved together. Maybe now their little feud will end."
"Actually, according to the book I read before, it's supposed to get worse now that they've evolved," explained Niya.
Alyssandra groaned. "Great."
"Now, Staravia, Wing Attack!" shouted Sam and Jeremy together.
Both Pokémon dashed towards their targets, and as they struck their mark, the Golbat collapsed unconscious.
"No!" cried the Galactic Grunts.
Suddenly, the grunts were grabbed from behind, as several police officers, led by Officer Jenny and Looker poured into the room.
"Nicely done, all of you," said Looker with a quick salute. "I can't begin to thank you enough for what you did."
"Looker is right," said Officer Jenny. "You did the city a great service."
"It was nothing," replied Sam. He and Jeremy returned their Pokémon to their Poké Balls. "Are the stolen Pokémon, okay? I heard one of their superiors talk about loading them onto a truck."
"Yes, thankfully we managed to stop the truck and apprehend the drivers before they got away," said Looker. "If you hadn't sent Mr. Rockford to find us when you did, they would've escaped."
"I don't know how we can repay you," said Officer Jenny. "This is twice in two days that you've helped us out like this."
"It's really nothing," said Jeremy, blushing. "We're just happy to help."
Looker and Jenny saluted the teens once more before returning to the crime scene at hand. Evidence would need gathering, Team Galactic grunts needed arresting and processing and Sam, and his friends would only get in the way.
They were quickly—though kindly—escorted from the crime scene as to not further contaminate the evidence and were sent on their way.
Before departing from the plaza square—from which the crowd had dispersed not too long ago—Sam had something to do.
He turned to Jeremy and extended his hand slowly. "Look, I'm sorry what happened earlier. I was completely out of line. You raised your Starly pretty well—it even evolved already."
Jeremy took Sam's hand. "Same to you. I shouldn't have doubted your skills at raising Pokémon. It's just, I felt a bit jealous, because you have all this experience at raising Pokémon, and everyone's always going about how you're following in your grandfather's footsteps, and your destined to become a great trainer—"
"It's all right, I understand," said Sam, and the two drew in for a hug.
"Well, at least you two learned to settle your fighting calmly and quietly," said Alyssandra. "I was concerned it would've come to blows."
"Well, even if it did, I would've won," joked Sam.
The group began to walk towards the market where they were now well past late to pick-up their order of food..
"And who says I wouldn't have won?" asked Jeremy. "I'm strong too you know."
"I know," said Sam. "But most of the other times I've won."
"But that doesn't mean you'll win now!" argued Jeremy.
"Oh yeah?!"
"Hell yeah!"
Alyssandra groaned. "I guess I spoke too soon."
"Well, the book did say the competition was going to get worse now that they evolved," said Niya. "But it never did specify to whom it was referring."
"Well, Niya," said Alyssandra, choosing to ignore Sam and Jeremy fighting up ahead. "Did I tell you that I got a Mime Jr. while I was exploring the place?"
"Really?!" asked Niya. "How'd you manage that?"
"One of the researchers gave it to me for rescuing them," said Alyssandra. "She said she would be happier if she knew that Mime Jr. was safe with me—plus she didn't have much time anymore to care for it."
"Doesn't Mime Jr. know Double Slap?" asked Niya.
Alyssandra nodded in response. "Why?" she asked.
"Maybe we could use it to knock some sense into the boys," laughed Niya.
