Riolu lay in the back of the van, its half-open eyes turned to the doors. A Sneasel sat against them, watching it.
Up front, the drivers were conversing with a woman with gray hair and a mean look to her. One of the men spoke. "Mission accomplished, ma'am."
Pokemon Hunter J leaned forward. "You have the Riolu, then?"
The man nodded. "The teenagers we threatened managed to get it away from its trainer long enough to get it to us. The trainer nearly caught us, but we used a smokescreen to get away."
"Good. I'll be waiting at these coordinates. Have the Riolu ready to be frozen as soon as you arrive."
The men nodded. "Yes, ma'am."
Riolu heard the exchange. It didn't like the sound of the word "Frozen."
That night, the three men sat in the front seat, sleeping. The Sneasel was sleeping as well, leaning against one of the doors. Riolu looked up, noticing that they had left the sunroof open. It smiled, then jumped onto the backseat and out the sunroof, landing quietly on the roof. It then jumped off the van, and ran into the woods.
It was raining now. Hunter stood under a tree in the rain, staring out at it and waiting for it to stop. He glared up at the sky as if he could make the rain stop by staring.
Eventually, he heard something coming down the road. Walking out to the side of it, he saw a blue-haired young woman riding a motorcycle. She was dressed as a Pokémon Ranger, so Hunter waved to get her attention.
She stopped, staring at him. "Why are you out here in the rain?"
"One of my Pokémon was stolen. I'm trying to find him."
She patted the soaking sidecar seat. "Well, you can't look in the rain. Come on, get in."
Hunter obliged and they drove into the driveway of a small wood cabin in the middle of the forest.
As they sat around a fire listening to the rain pounding on the window, Hunter told the Ranger, who introduced herself as Solana, his plight. He didn't know where Riolu was, he had no idea if he had escaped or not or was already in the hands of a Pokémon Hunter or some other scumbag threat to society and decency.
Solana listened attentively, then walked into the kitchen. Hunter followed her discreetly and got to the door just in time to hear her say "Will do. Solana out."
He was back in his chair before she could set a foot in the room. She sat down again. "Well, you might as well stay here, until the rain stops."
Hunter nodded. "There's no other alternative. But if I have one lead, or if I find out you've been keeping something, I'm leaving. No discussion."
She only nodded.
That night, Hunter lay in the guest bedroom, practically itching to throw the covers off and go tearing off into the still-pouring rain to continue looking for Riolu. He tossed and turned, reliving Lucario's death over and over again in his mind. Every time, it ended with Lucario suddenly waking up and saying, I trusted you. You failed me. You FAILED!
Hunter woke the next morning, and throughout the day was groggy, irritable, and inattentive.
Yeah, he's not taking this well...anyways, Ralyena Starrling, you guessed right! And to those of you that are still trying to guess, now you know! (Except for you, Autumnchronicles. Bet you've never seen any J episodes...