Welcome to the 5th chapter of The Journey of Dale Gaines. In this chapter dale and Nate start their journey towards Islandhaven but before they are able to get out of town, have to confront thieves. I hope you enjoy the chapter.
The Journey of Dale Gaines
Chapter 5-The Convenience Store Inconvenience
"You've got everything you need correct?" My Aunt Jessica asks me for the third time.
"Of course I do." I chuckle. Aunt Jessica did have a way of wanting to make sure everyone left her house ok.
"Good, good. I would hate knowing that you left here unprepared for the road ahead."
We are standing next to her fence gate. Nate had to go home to pack for the journey and we are going to meet up with each other two streets down. Then we are heading to Islandhaven for a request from my cousin Hermione. The town is three towns away which wasn't awful but it would be some days before we reach it.
"I do have to go though if I want to meet up with Nate on time." I say.
"Ok." She pulls me into a hug which I hug back. "Be safe and if I need you for anything else I'll be sure to call you up. Have fun." She says, waving as I walk down the road.
I start my relaxing walk down to where Nate and I plan on meeting up. Trapinch is returned to its pokeball since not only did it battle just a little bit ago but it's walked a lot the previous day so I thought it would be happy with a rest now. I look up into the air and see a group of Wingull flying along. I wonder if they were heading towards Islandhaven like I am.
I soon arrive at a street corner where Nate and I agreed to meet at. I am only waiting a few minutes when I see Nate walking down the other street towards me. "Hey" He says when he arrives where I am.
"Do you have everything you need?" I notice he's carrying a backpack and a knapsack on his side.
He nods at me. "I do, but I need to stop off at a store on the way out of town to pick up something else that I remembered on my way here. It won't take long since it's on the way out of town."
"Well then let's get going." I say and we both start walking towards the west end of town.
Islandhaven is not only three towns away from Westwend Town but also northwest of it. It is situated on the coast and is well known for also having four separate islands as a part of its area that the town provides trips to. My cousin Hermione owned a resort in town and so I am surprised that she called me for a training regimen. I have no idea what it's about or why she needs it.
Soon we are at a busy street that has plenty of shops on either side of it with a lot of activity by people walking around. I notice a little girl with an Igglybuff eating food while sitting on a bench. Across the street I see a young woman wrapping a ribbon around the body of a Mothim, who looks overjoyed at the newest fashion statement its receiving.
"It should be just down there." Nate says pointing down the road. "A few buildings down." Suddenly I hear yelling.
We look to a store right in front of us and see a group of three people, two men and a woman running out of a store.
"Thieves! Stop them!" a man yells, right behind them.
"Wait, hang on." I say as the three people come towards us.
"Out of the way!" a man with blond hair yells at us. Suddenly the three stop short, looking confused then angry.
"It's you, the kid from the woods." The woman states with a scowl.
"The one that made fools of us." The man with the beard says.
"Wait, you are those three from the woods. The Stone Road Group." I say to the three. Their faces contort into a rage.
"That's Stone Street Gang, you idiot." The man with the beard says angrily.
"Didn't anyone teach you to listen to others?" The man with the sunglasses asked. Nate turns to me, looking extremely confused.
"Are these friends of yours Dale?" He asks. Before I can even answer the woman pops in.
"Friends. Friends!" She screams. "This brat cost us a whole day of watching with his stupid beginners' luck. How can a starter trainer beat three accomplished trainers with just two pokemon?" What was with this woman?
"I don't think it was beginners' luck umm whoever you are." I say as I realize I have no clue who these people are.
"The name is Roxanne." She waves to the guy in the sunglasses. "This is Bruno." Then she waves to the other man. "And that is Chris." Before she can say anything else the man who yelled at them before appears between the two ofus.
"I don't know who any of you are but the three of you are going to return the products you stole from me or I will call the police." I suddenly notice that Chris, the man with the beard, is carrying a duffel bag. Apparently that bag isn't for them to have. Before I can say anything Roxanne looks even madder than before.
"You will do no such thing." She enlarges a pokeball in her hand and throws it in the air. "Sewaddle, go." The pokeball opens up and out comes the familiar looking Sewing pokemon.
"Give us some backup Hoppip." Bruno says as he throws his pokeball in the air and out comes his Cottonweed pokemon. The man backs away from the two opponents that have suddenly appear. I take a step forward and push the man behind me.
"I'll take care of this. We still have a score to settle." I enlarge a pokeball and throw it and out comes Inkay. "Ready, Inkay?" It nods at me. Before I can issue a command Nate steps next to me and opens a pokeball of his own and a Hoothoot appears.
"I hope you don't mind but it's better to make this a fair fight and all." I smile knowing that its good to have some backup.
"Chris, make sure you are ready to run. This won't take long at all." Roxanne says with a smile on her face. Soon enough a crowd has gathered around us to watch the event that is happening. I notice that the woman with the Mothim is among them. "Sewaddle, String Shot." Roxanne commands. Sewaddle spits out a long web from its mouth. Hoothoot manages to fly away from it but it loops itself around Inkay. The strand pulls tightly against Inkay.
"Inkay!" I yell. Inkay struggles against the binding but its unable to get itself free.
"Hoppip, Bullet Seed on Inkay." Bruno commands. Hoppip spits out green seeds from its mouth towards Inkay, who still could move around enough to break free from the String Shot attack.
"Hoothoot, help out Inkay." Nate says from beside me. I look up and see Hoothoot flying down. Its talons grab Inkay and it bites the string, breaking it and flies away before the attack can hit Inkay.
"Sewaddle, Razor Leaf now." I can tell Roxanne is getting more frustrated the longer we are able to evade their attacks.
"Inkay, Psycho Cut." Inkay releases a purple energy cut towards the two opponents.
"Hoppip, dodge it." Hoppip is able to use the wind to evade the attack but the energy cut hits Sewaddle and flings it backwards into its trainer.
Hoothoot at this point lowers itself and Inkay back to the ground. I notice that Sewaddle took a lot from the Psycho Cut attack. It's looking extremely tired and slightly annoyed. I look and notice that Chris, the guy with the bag full of stolen products, is standing to the side but looking ready to run if anyone gets even close to him. I look over at Nate and notice that he sees the same thing as me. He looks at me and we both nod, understanding what must be done.
"Inkay, use Psycho Cut. Try and hit both at the same time." I command. Inkay releases it's purple energy slash and it heads towards both Sewaddle and Hoppip.
"Dodge it." Both Roxanne and Bruno yell to their pokemon. They both are able to easily avoid the attack.
"Now Hoothoot. Grab that bag." Nate commands. All three members of the gang look stunned. The attack Inkay had released made it so that both Sewaddle and Hoppip could only dodge effectively to one side of the area. The other side was now open for Hoothoot to rush towards Chris and grab the bag, which it did. Chris struggles as much as he can but the owl pokemon pecks him a few times until he releases it. Hoothoot flies the bag and drops it at the storeowner's feet, who picks it up looking relieved.
"That's no fair!" Roxanne screams at me. She is a hotheaded one, isn't she?
"How did you even do that?" Chris yells, stepping forward well rubbing his arm where Hoothoot pecked him.
"It wasn't difficult at all. I realized that the only thing keeping you in this battle was the fact that you were defending your stolen loot." I state to the gang. "When I noticed that Nate seemed to understand what I was looking at as well as he was I hoped that he would take the chance to grab the bag when the opening presented itself." I chuckled to myself. "Sometimes defeating a pokemon isn't the only way to win a battle."
"Exactly. You three are trapped now." Nate mentions and I look around noticing the crowd is slowly converging on the gang.
"Not for long. Hoppip, Bullet Seed." Bruno commands. Hoppip suddenly launches a large quanity of green energy seeds in the air. I look up and see the seeds start to fall back to the ground. They hit the ground and set off tiny explosions releasing dust and dirt into the air, blinding all of us.
After a bit the air clears and the Stone Street Gang are gone. Everyone sounds shocked and I hear quite a few "Where did they go". Soon enough the crowd disperses and the storeowner comes up to Nate and I.
"Thank you very much for your bravery. I am so glad you confronted them. They stole at least 75 dollars worth of food and products and it wouldn't have been good to lose all that."
"It's no problem at all. I've run into them before and we had some unresolved issues to deal with." I respond as Hoothoot rests on Nate's shoulder and Inkay floats next to me.
"Still thank you again. It means a lot to know there are trainers like you out there." The man quickly turns around and goes back into his store. Nate looks happy and turns to me.
"For our first tag battle, we did pretty well."
"I agree. I think we need to get back on to the journey. We still have a ways to go before we get to Islandhaven." With that we set off towards Islandhaven.
"I don't believe it. How did that kid do this to us all over again?" Roxanne says nearly yelling at her two partners. They are lying in a bush just outside of town after having to bid a hasty retreat from the two kids.
"Good news is that he's never actually beaten us in a battle, just used his skills to end the fight." Chris says.
"Shut up Chris." Bruno replies huffily. "You were the one that lost our bag. If you held on a bit tighter we would have been fine." Chris looks flabbergasted at his partner.
"I seem to remember that those kids tricked us by moving your pokemon towards one side and then that owl was able to grab the bag. I was never in the battle I was just on the side."
"You two shut up." Roxanne whispers quietly. When her two partner look at her she points out of the bush.
The other two look and see two kids walking along the path that leads out of town. The two same exact kids they ran into that day. The same two kids that humiliated them.
"Let's follow them. I want payback now." Roxanne says darkly. With that the gang now knew what they wanted.
Thank you for reading the newest chapter. As someone guessed before, yes The Stone Street Gang are pretty much the Team Rocket of this series but there are some big differences.
-The Stone Street Gang are more individually based and have personalities of their own.
-Their motives are more based on annoying people or stealing for their own gain.
-They don't have a boss they look to and thus no one tells them what to do.
Please review and tell me what you thought of this chapter and I'll see you in the next chapter.