Previously, in Pokémon: The Lost Child, Piplup and Treecko had to hide out in a tree to get away from a storm that was being caused due to a battle between Thundurus and Landorus. Piplup and Treecko were attacked while hiding from a rampaging Elekid, and while Treecko wanted to abandon it, Piplup stayed to help and was rewarded with a place to sleep. Treecko had now seen that being nicer had its rewards, and he was starting to have some doubts.
"That sleep felt so good," Piplup said.
"I'm glad you enjoyed it, but we can't stay here for long, though," Treecko said.
"What exactly is the reason?" Piplup asked.
"Well, we need to get stronger, and we can't get stronger if we just sit around," Treecko said.
"I guess that makes sense. Where are we going to go, though we don't exactly have any direction?"
"I will admit I don't have any idea where to go right now, but something tells me that the path will show us the way."
"You do technically know more than I do about this world, so I will take your word on it."
Piplup and Treecko started wandering aimlessly, wondering exactly what they were going to do. There were barely any other Pokémon around for them to fight. Treecko was starting to get a bit hungry though, so he climbed up to a tree to grab a berry, but as soon as he cut it down, a Patrat attacked him and stole the berry.
"You're stepping on our turf, and you don't deserve to have this berry," the Patrat leader said. Treecko looked up to see it was not just one, but an entire gang of Patrat's. The Patrats quickly fled, not wanting to risk a fight.
"That is the second time that has happened," Piplup said.
"Arceus, damn it," Treecko said.
"Who is Arceus," Piplup asked.
"I don't know it is just something some Pokémon say," Treecko thought about what had happened for a bit and came to a new conclusion "This, this is perfect."
"What is perfect?" Piplup asked.
"We now have some opponents to battle, and not only opponents to battle, but ones that now have food that we can get back."
"Are you sure we want to take on an entire gang on our own?" Piplup asked.
"If we don't take chances, we are never going to get strong. Besides, they aren't exactly the strongest. I was just caught off guard. Imagine if we caught them off guard," Treecko said.
"Why don't we just try talking to them, maybe we could get the berry back that way," Piplup said.
"Listen Piplup, these kinds of gangs won't listen to reason if you try this they will just beat you up."
"Could we maybe at least give it a chance? You never know until you try?" Piplup said.
"If you want to try talking to them, I guess I can't stop you, but I have given my warning on why I think that is a bad idea."
Piplup didn't take Treecko's warning though, and wanted to go and talk to the gang anyway. The two tracked the gang down. They were arguing over how exactly they were going to split the berry. Piplup was going to walk up to them and ask for it back. Treecko still knew that this would go badly, though he stayed close by to help if/when needed.
"Hey," Piplup yelled at Patrat's gang.
"What do you want, Piplup? Whatever it is, we can tell you that we don't care at all, " the Patrat leader said.
"Give me the berry that you stole from my friend Treecko. That isn't nice," Piplup said.
"This kid thinks he can just demand it back, so why don't we beat him up?" one of the Patrats suggested.
"I think that would be a great idea for someone so helpless, so naive, and so weak," the Patrat leader said.
Treecko now knew that it wasn't going to end well, so he used his leaves to distract the gang long enough for him to jump in and rescue Piplup.
"You should have listened to me when I said it was a bad idea,"
"I could have talked them out of it. You didn't need to save me," Piplup said.
"Those guys were out for blood. You wouldn't have been able to talk them out of it no matter how hard you tried."
"I don't understand," Piplup said.
"Look, you don't get it. This isn't a nice world. Pokémon are aggressive in battle and will do anything to survive. Being nice may help you sometimes, but it won't save you in these situations. Now watch as I deal with these Patrat's properly."
Treecko jumped behind the gang, pounding two of them quickly. The rest of the group noticed this quickly and started trying to tackle Treecko. Treecko, however, dodged out of the way of all of them by jumping on trees carefully. He was also strategically using his Mega Drain on the Patrats, one at a time, taking them all out slowly but surely.
Eventually, it came down to just Treecko and the leader of the Patrat gang, who is the strongest and thus able to withstand it for the longest.
"I will admit you are quite strong, but my gang was weak, so you won't be able to beat me," the Patrat leader said.
"Oh, I bet everything that I will still beat you easily." Treecko was right, he beat the Patrat leader with little effort, and he has now won against every Patrat and has gotten even stronger.
"Wow," Piplup said.
"Yeah, I know I knocked the floor out of that gang."
"Can I do that?" Piplup asked.
"Well, we need to find someone else to fight. A lot of Pokémon are looking for a battle, so it shouldn't be too hard," Treecko said.
"I heard that you wanted a battle. Well, I can give you a battle," a Bidoof said.
"Well, that is some fortunate timing, Piplup. You need to accept this battle," Treecko said.
"But what if I lose," Piplup said.
"Losing is how you will learn to get stronger."
Piplup took the advice and went into battle against Bidoof. Piplup first pounded it, which did hurt Bidoof quite a bit, but Bidoof responded by hardening its defences. Piplup tried to attack again, but it wasn't hurting nearly as much, and Bidoof tackled him. Piplup tried the pound trick again, but Bidoof kept taking barely any damage from it and continued attacking. After a few minutes of this, Piplup was knocked out, with Bidoof walking away having just won the fight.
"I guess I didn't do the best job," Piplup said.
"No you did not. First of all, when it raised its defences you should have switched over to your bubble attack, which hits specially," Treecko said.
"I did not know that."
"It's pretty clear that you still have a lot to learn. Battling isn't exactly your strongest feature, let's say," Treecko said.
"I can't say I disagree with you on that."
"Why don't you try practicing against me? I know that you are weak to me, but I will try and go easy," Treecko said.
"Sure, I can work with that idea." Piplup and Treecko found an open, empty part of the field and were going to use it to practice battling.
"Alright, try and attack me." Piplup attacks Treecko with his pound attack, but Treecko sees it coming very easily and dodges out of the way with no effort.
"You can't be so predictable, Piplup. You need to mix things up to make sure your opponents can't dodge it." Piplup tries to pound Treecko again, but this time he fakes him out and then catches him off guard with a bubble.
"I will admit that is quite impressive," Treecko said.
"Thanks," Piplup said awkwardly.
"Now let's focus on dodging." Treecko, right after saying that, attacked Piplup.
"How was I supposed to see that coming?" Piplup said.
"That is the point; you can't see every attack coming. You need to be prepared and react. Let's give that another try." Treecko walked back up to Piplup and waited a bit before attacking. Piplup knew he was going to be attacked eventually and was ready for it. Eventually, Treecko did attack, but Piplup saw it coming, and he was able to dodge out of the way and counterattack with his pound.
"That is how you do it Piplup," Treecko said.
For the next few hours, the two would continue practicing on each other, getting stronger and stronger as they kept going. Piplup was starting to feel him getting much better at battling and, although he knew that Treecko was going easy on him, he was getting more confident that he could beat an opponent.
Meanwhile, back with the gang of Patrat's.
"How did we all manage to lose to a single Treecko? You guys are all useless," one of the Patrat's said.
"Don't shift the blame off yourself, you are just as responsible for our loss," another Patrat said.
"Everyone calm down. I will admit it was a bit humiliating, but we will have our retribution." While the Patrat leader was talking, he was starting to evolve. The rest of the Patrat's noticed this, but the leader himself didn't notice.