Chapter 7

"Use Sand Tomb Sandshrew!"

"Sand!" Sandshrew eyes began to glow a deep yellow, causing the earth beneath Ekans to shift and turn into sand, trapping the unsuspecting snake off guard as the lower half of its body got sucked in, it wriggled around helplessly with a violent hiss while leering at Ryan and Sandshrew "Heh, now Pokéball go!" Ryan tossed the red and white ball at the purple snake and watched as it sucked the creature in and dropped to the ground wobbling, a few seconds later it dinged in conformation and Ryan smirked before picking up the ball "And Ekans makes four. Not bad if I say so myself. . . thanks a lot Sandshrew, return!" Ryan recalled the Pokémon and then began making his way back towards the Pokémon Center situated in Route 3, right before the entrance of Mt. Moon with Nina following right behind. "Ryan, why are you catching all these Pokémon?" She held up a hand and began to count on her fingers "first it was that female Nidoran, then Spearow, the Sandshrew and now this Ekans, why catch them all if your just gonna send them to Professor Oak?"

"Because Nina, I'm a trainer and catching Pokémon is what I'm supposed to do! Plus it's always good to have different types in reserve, you never know when you might need to switch up your team a little to throw off your opponents." He recited it as though he were a teacher explaining to a student about a troubling problem they couldn't solve. "I guess. . . that makes sense" she muttered tilting her head slightly in confusion, with Chewy mimicking her "Pikachu?"

"I mean look at our battle with Forrest, aside from Bulbasaur, none of my other Pokémon stood much of a chance against his Steelix, but luckily we won the battle in the end, but next time I'll be ready for any gym leader and their Pokémon! My next goal is to catch a water type, once we get past Mt. Moon, cause the guide book says the routes around Cerulean City have ponds and stuff right?" Nina nodded, realizing where this was going "and you're gonna go catch you a water type when we get there?" She asked and he grinned "you got it!" The duo then entered the Pokémon Center, having caught the Ekans in an area nearby so the walk wasn't long.

Ryan headed straight towards the front desk and handed over Sandshrew's Pokéball "Hey Nurse Joy, if it's not too much trouble, could you heal Sandshrew for me as well?" The pink haired woman nodded and Ryan thanked her with a smile before heading over towards the Pokémon Transporter unit, placing his recently captured Ekans' Pokéball in the slot before setting its coordinates to Professor Oak, he and Nina watched as the ball materialized out of thin air, disappearing into the machine heading straight for the old man's laboratory. This was the third Pokémon he had sent to the Professor within the span of an hour, having caught Spearow and Nidoran earlier back to back, Ekans however was more of a challenging find, the snake Pokémon was very good at hiding and it consumed a lot of time looking for the poison type.

"So when are we going to head into Mt. Moon?"

"Probably sometime this late afternoon, if we go near nightfall, we'll probably run into less people and more tired and sleeping Pokémon, making my next captures all the more easier." The boy said rubbing his hands together greedily at the thought of capturing new Pokémon "Don't catch too many now, or else you won't be able to train with them all." Nina warned, but the boy just waved her off "don't worry, I'm not gonna catch everything I see, I promise. But what about you Nina? We've gotten this far and all you have is Chewy, aren't you gonna catch some more Pokémon?"

After a moment of silence, Nina spoke up "of course I'm gonna catch some more Pokémon! I just haven't seen any that I wanna catch yet. Not every person is going to catch every Pokémon they see." She argued and he responded with a light sigh "alright, alright, no need to bite my head off. I was just making a suggestion." Scowling lightly, Nina roughly grabbed the boys arm "h-hey, what are you doing?" He asked, stumbling forward as Nina forcefully dragged him outside of the Center "It doesn't matter, just come on." She grumbled once they made it to a grassy area only a few meters away from the PokéCenter. Scanning the area with narrowed eyes, Nina released Ryan's arm and began shuffling through the grass, looking for something. Ryan stood off to the side smirking slightly "you're looking for a Pokémon aren't you?"

"Hush!" She hissed and Ryan's smirk just grew as he stood off to the side, watching her dig through the grass for something, there was a light rustle to her left and a pink balloon shaped Pokémon with large blue eyes appeared "Jigglypuff." Ryan quickly pulled out his Pokédex to scan it "Jigglypuff, the Balloon Pokémon. When Jigglypuff's big eyes begin to quiver, everyone becomes sleepy as it sings a lullaby."

"Wow! That Jigglypuff is so cute! I wanna catch it!" Nina pointed to the pink puffball "Hey you Jigglypuff, I want you. Come with me now!" Jigglypuff blinked oddly at Nina before shaking its head no "Jig-gly" Nina growled "no! What do you mean no!" Jigglypuff just smirked haughtily at Nina before sticking its tongue out and blowing a raspberry at her "Jiggly. Jigglypuuuufff!" Entirely unsure of what the Balloon Pokémon said, Nina scowled at the pink Pokémon, she had a feeling it was insulting her and it was really a shame that Sawyer was still in the Pokémon Center with the rest of Ryan's Pokémon, so she couldn't translate for the girl. Glancing at Chewy briefly before looking back at the taunting Jigglypuff, Nina decided to attack. "Alright Chewy, use ThunderShock!"

The Pikachu leapt off the girl's shoulder and fired a lightning bolt at the Balloon Pokémon, which gracefully dodged, bouncing out of the way of the attack "Jiggly!" Once Jigglypuff landed, it sprang into action, moving in close and bashing Chewy across the face with a pound attack, its small pink fist encased in white, Chewy was send flying from the force of the attack, but righted himself in mid air and fired off another ThunderShock, which missed again as Jigglypuff used its light weight to its advantage and bounced out of the way again, leaping into the air "Jiggly…" Jigglypuff took a deep breath and then released it in a loud echoing yell "Puff!" Multiple transparent rings that were outlined in blue appeared after the echoing shout, aimed right at Chewy "counter with ThunderShock!" Chewy nodded and fired another bolt of lightning, which hit the rings, destroying them and causing a plume of smoke to appear in the air "Now where'd Jigglypuff go?" Both Nina and Chewy scanned the ground, looking left and right for the Balloon Pokémon, Chewy grit his teeth in frustration "Pika..."

"Nina, above you!" Following Ryan's pointing finger Nina saw the smoke cloud above them shift slightly and out came Jigglypuff, it was plummeting quickly towards Chewy with its small hand cocked back and glowing white, readying itself for another Pound attack. "Jiggly-Puff!" Before Nina could even tell Chewy to counter with DoubleSlap, the damage was already done, Jigglypuffs fist had slammed into Chewy's torso and sent the mouse flying backwards once wore with a strangled 'Pika' Chewy hit the ground on its back with a soft thud, its eyes swirling in defeat "Piika" Chewy groaned and Jigglypuff snickered tauntingly at Chewy before disappearing in the nearby bushes "Oh no! Chewy!"

Nina ran over to the dazed mouse and picked him up in her arms "you did a great job Chewy, now just rest." Eyes having returned to normal, Chewy nodded slightly and just made himself comfortable in Nina's arms, while Ryan fell into step beside her as they headed back towards the Pokémon Center "don't say a word." Nina grunted upon catching Ryan's shifty grin from the corner of her eye. "What?" He asked with a wide grin "I wasn't going to say anything." Nina just scoffed and headed to a nearby table, deciding to order some lunch for them, while Ryan went to go get his Pokémon back from Nurse Joy.

Finding a good easy target was going to be hard in such an empty place like this. He scoffed into his burger, perhaps he should have stayed in Pewter City's Center for a little while longer. No, they would have been onto him too soon, word tends to spread around quickly when things go wrong and that wouldn't have been much fun, he needed some new suckers ASAP. The only problem is that this Pokémon Center was so dry during this time of day, it was afternoon and he had hardly seen many trainers, let alone people enter the Center for a rest, save for that one wacked out guy who kept murmuring about Team Rocket ambushing people in Mt Moon and that one old man who kept trying to sell him Magikarp. Kenji sighed as he drummed his gloved fingers on the table boredly and scanned the Center once more, there had to be somebody interesting around that he could have fun with.

"I already warned you Ryan, I don't want to hear it!"

"I haven't absolutely a clue what you're talking about"

"Don't play dumb! I know you wanna say something about my failure to catch that Jigglypuff! Its written all over your smirking face!"

Bingo. Targets sighted.

He eyed them from across the Center, blue eyes shining mischievously as he took a large bite from his sandwich. They just got settled in, eating their lunch, the boy releasing his Pokémon from their capsules, which he just retrieved from Nurse Joy, while the girl had come back to the table with a large tray of food meant to share, whilst in the middle of eating, the two trainers began to argue over something, he watched as the orange haired girl flushed angrily at some taunting comment the boy muttered and she flung a fry at him, which he responded to with a loud laugh, their Pokémon mostly ignored them, but watched the exchange with amused eyes. Once his laughter died down, the boy gave the girl a thoughtful expression and asked her something, she shrugged and then pulled out what looked to be a guidebook and then pointed to an object on the page, the boy nodded his head excitedly and then began to scarf down his food in a hurried fashion, while the girl warned him that he might choke if he kept that up, but he didn't heed her warning and continued, so it wasn't surprising when she gave him a flat stare as he vainly tried to swallow the mound of food lodge in his throat.

She just passed him a cup of water with a sigh and then shook her head before addressing the Pokémon, they all cooed in satisfaction at the meal, but he was a bit amazed when the boy's Rattata spoke, and not Pokémon speak, but actual human speak! Without telepathic abilities! That wasn't something you see every day, but it sure was fascinating. It would indeed make an interesting addition on his team no doubt. He watched as the boy recalled all his Pokémon, a Bulbasaur, Beedrill and Sandshrew, save for the talking Rattata which hopped onto his shoulder, while the girl's Pikachu mimicked its actions. Finishing up the last bit of his burger, he balled up the wrapper and tossed it in a nearby trash bin, he then glanced towards his partner and held out his arm for the Pokémon that had just got finished eating its meal as well "ready to go meet the newest member to our team?" Climbing up onto his own shoulder to make itself comfortable, his partner in crime nodded and grinned naughtily "Treeko. Tree."

x-X-x

"Okay, I think we're all set." Ryan stated as he shrugged on his bag and Nina stuffed her guidebook back into her own bag and then dumped their empty food tray in the trash and placing said tray in the compartment where it would be attended to by one of the Nurses. Glancing at Ryan, the two shared a look before heading towards the entrance of the Pokémon Center "So, how long is it gonna take us to get through this place?" Sawyer had asked upon the duo's arrival at the base of Mt Moon, they were standing nearby the entrance, gazing up at the large and seemingly endless cave. "Well, if we don't get lost. . . I don't think it would take long, we could probably hit Cerulean by the evening, but I'm just guessing here."

"Well, we won't get far by just standing here, let's go!"

"Yeah!"

Nodding at Ryan and Sawyer's enthusiasm, Nina took a step forward, to follow after the boy, whom was about to enter the mouth of the cave, but she had bumped into an unknown force and stumbled backwards, about to fall back ungracefully onto her behind. Had it not been for the fingerless gloved hand shooting out and saving her from her embarrassing trip, the mysterious person hauled her to her feet effortlessly and kindly asked if she were okay "I'm fine, thank you." Glancing up at her savior, Nina smiled slightly as green eyes met glittering blue, the young man that stood before her had messy platinum blonde hair and a cheerful smirk was etched on his lips. She noted that he was wearing a grey t-shirt, with a long sleeved white one underneath, with blue jeans and black boots to complete the ensemble.

"It's not a problem. I mean, it's not every day I have such cute girls falling head over heels for me." Nina coughed slightly and turned her head to cover up her embarrassment and the light blush that suddenly decided to paint her face. In response, the boy just chuckled and held out his hands to shake "I'm Kenji." Politely, Nina smiled and shook his hand "I'm—" Before she even had the chance to introduce herself, Ryan had come back, upon realizing Nina wasn't following and spotted her speaking with this blonde haired strange "Oi, Nina are you coming or what?" Put off by his rudeness, the smile Nina wore slipped off her face and she scowled in Ryan's direction, while he glanced at the boy she was shaking hands with "who's this?"

"Don't be rude!" She muttered and Ryan made a face briefly at her before looking back at the guy, who was holding his hand out "Kenji. It's nice to meet you." He gave them both a disarming smile "I couldn't help but notice you guys earlier in the Pokémon Center and I was wondering are you a Pokémon Trainer?" Blinking in confusion, Ryan slowly shook Kenji's hand and nodded "Uh yeah, I'm a Pokémon Trainer; I'm Ryan Summers from Pallet Town." He then motioned to Sawyer on his shoulder who nodded "This is Sawyer." Kenji gazed thoughtfully at the Rattata and his grin widened, Sawyer inwardly felt a twinge of uneasiness about this grin, but Ryan seemed oblivious "how cute, is she your starter Pokémon?" Ryan shook his head again and pulled out another Pokéball "nope, this is my starter." Ryan tossed down Bulbasaur's Pokéball and the Pokémon appeared in an instant, crying out slightly as its shape materialized Kenji squatted down and gently pet Bulbasaur on the head, the Seed Pokémon smiled at the attention. "Cool, a Bulbasaur. I chose the grass starter from my home region too." At the mention of his home region, Nina glanced curiously at him "Home Region? So, that means you aren't from Kanto then?"

"Exactamundo."

"So which region did you come from?"

"That's a secret." He winked at the orange haired girl and then stuffed his hands into his pants pockets "buuut, I might tell you, if you guys play a little game with me."

"A game?"

Kenji nodded and then pulled his hands from his pockets, revealing a deck of cards "A simple card game, how's that sound?" Not giving the duo a chance to reply, he quickly began shuffling the deck, moving his hands about in mystifying motions as the cards flew from one hand to the other, his large grin still fixed on his face "the name of this game is keep your eyes on the prize." His grin turned devious when he stated the word prize and stared pointedly at Sawyer and this only fueled the mouse's slight uneasiness as he continued to shuffle the deck of cards until they couldn't be shuffled anymore, the two humans completely unaware of the trouble that was about to unfold. Fanning out all 52 cards, he motioned for Nina to pick one and she dutifully plucked from the middle, gazing intently at the card with Ryan "Now I want you to memorize what's on that card alright and place it back in the deck. Good, good. Now then, I'm gonna show you guys a little trick I learned." Shuffling the deck one last time, he held up four cards that he plucked at random and fanned them out so the face was down, leaving the gang to stare at the dull blue backs of the cards "Now, out of these four cards, one of these will be the one you picked."

"But how can you be so sure? How will you know that it's the right one I picked?" Nina sounded skeptical as she glanced at Kenji, who just returned her skeptic stare with another wink and a smile "It wouldn't be much of a trick if I told you, now pay close attention to the cards in my hands, because if you blink you might miss it." Eyes widening curiously, the duo and their Pokémon leaned in closer as Kenji waved his hands over the four cards and then flipped them over, but instead of revealing four numbers, they revealed four letters. It was silent and the duo shared a confused look before one of them spoke up.

"Boom? Boom what?" Ryan murmured aloud while Nina blinked and looked up at the mischievously grinning Kenji "Why, this boom of course." He snapped his fingers and all of a sudden a large green ball of something came shooting from nowhere and landed right beside them, creating that loud Boom he was talking about, it also kicked up a large could of dust and this caused the two to shield their eyes from the sudden surprise attack "What the he—ack was that" Nina coughed as she tumbled out the cloud of smoke "Pikachu" Chewy mumbled from his perch on her shoulder and she briefly heard Ryan and the Pokémon coughing loudly as well before they all tumbled out of the smoke cloud, an annoyed scowl etched on his face "why the nerve of that guy, that was a dirty trick!"

"Bulba. Bulbasaur." The Seed Pokémon chimed, before going into another light coughing fit "He must be a prankster or something" Nina murmured rubbing her chin thoughtfully before sighing "but I wonder what that attack was and where did it come from. . ." She glanced around the area and mentally noted that it probably came from one of the nearby trees, or maybe the guy had a Pokémon hidden about, she whirled back around to ask Ryan if he noticed anything but the words died in her throat and she gasped at the boy, pointing towards his shoulder, which was bare and lacking a distinct purple talking mouse "R-Ryan, your shoulder!" Ryan raised one of his eye brows and glanced at his shoulder "Yeah, it's bare, what about it. . ." He paused briefly and his eyes widened in realization at what was obviously missing "T-that thief! He took Sawyer!"

"But, where could he have went?"

"Well, wherever he is, he couldn't have gotten far."

"Bulba-Bulbasaur!"

"Pi-Pikachu!"

Both respective trainers of the two Pokémon glanced in their direction and noticed Chewy and Bulbasaur staring down at a pair of tracks in the dirt below them, they looked like shoe prints and they looked fresh, they were leading into the large mouth of Mt Moon. Obviously the thief had fled into the cave after attacking them and grabbing Sawyer, Ryan growled and then took a step forward towards the cave, motioning for Nina and the Pokémon to follow "c'mon guys, we've got a thief to track down."

Meanwhile inside the deep tunnels of Mt Moon, a blonde haired boy could be seen running with something distinctly green hanging off his shoulder, both were grinning widely, while held tightly in his hands was something familiar and purple and currently unconscious. The duo however was completely unaware of the curious dark eyes that followed them.

Alright, I've obviously got my boy, but now I'm looking for the female rival. If interested, then please go back to the previous chapter and fill out the template.
I hope I did alright with Kenji and you like him Jun.