…
Rosie closed her mouth and backed up behind the rack of flower pots.
"On second thought..may-maybe we should wait for mom." Rosie was trembling.
"Rosie. What was that noise?" Gardenia tried to peer into the woods, but the seven o'clock darkness had already sunken in, making impossible to see.
"I don't know. And honestly? I'd rather not know."
"Hmm. Well Team Aqua has been heading some pretty suspicious activity." Gardenia looked at her sister.
Unlike Rosie, Gardenia was full of curiosity and boldness.
"So what are you proposing we do?" Stella turned her sliver gaze onto her friend. Stella had seen a lot of things, and ominous noises in the forest would not stop her from investigating.
"Let's go check it out!" Gardenia pulled a coat from the coat hanger and handed it to Stella. "The woods get pretty cold out at night, best to take this."
"No! Where do you think you're going?! I'm locking up the shop and if that means we can't have any customers so be it!" Rosie said, jumping in front of the sliding doors.
"We'll take leafeon" Gardenia proposed. Leafeon didn't seem too thrilled. She had been pleasantly sleeping on the warm countertop, and was definitely not ready for any sort of adventure.
"Well. NO. I don't want to be left alone here." Rosie bit her lip.
"You have your treecko. And you have roselia and wingull." Gardenia wanted to get the discussion quickly over with.
"Fine." Rosie side-stepped from the moving doors.
"Let's head out!" Gardenia extended her hand and pointer finger towards the door. She took a confident step in direction of the exit only to collide with a person running at full throttle.
"Ow!" Gardenia and the man were both on the floor, holding their heads.
"Seems like they headbutted! Are you okay sir?" Stella asked the man who was wearing a brown trench coat and a grey felt hat.
"No! My briefcase with my top secret Devon Corp goods! It has been stolen!" and with that the man tried to bolt out the door, but was stopped by leafeon and Rosie.
"What? Who stole your briefcase? Let us help you. It's dangerous out there." Rosie grabbed the man's arm and sat him on a small stool.
He explained that he had gotten his briefcase stolen by three members of team Aqua. He had been carrying goods from Dewford Island that he was supposed to take to Rustboro. He explained that Steven Stone himself had given him the briefcase.
"And we've got to catch them now!" the man said frantically, eyeing the shop's exit.
"This does sound urgent" Stella tried to sound calm, but flashed an urgent look to her friend to tell her that this may just be extremely important.
Gardenia seemed to get the point as she came up immediately with a plan.
"Rosie. Stay here and guard in case robbers come by. Stella, this man, and I will go after team Aqua."
This time, Rosie did not argue. She let the trio through the sliding doors and locked up behind them.
…
The trio had combed the Petalburg woods for ten minutes in vain.
"Maybe they're already at Rustboro?" Stella suggested. She had heard of team Aqua before, they frequently visited Mossdeep and stirred lots of trouble.
"No, I don't think so. They were after my briefcase and they were trying to stop me from going there." Paul answered her.
"Let's go back to the shop and get some tea" Gardenia suggested.
The three of them trekked back from the depth of the dark woods until they reached the main road.
"It's them!" Paul shouted. Indeed, three men were conversing on the side of the main road.
"It's the wimp." One of them said.
"Ha and he brought his little girlfriends." The second one taunted.
"Give us back the briefcase!" Stella wanted to get this over with. She wanted to keep things clean and simple, so as to keep her famous name out of it.
"Or what?" One of them chuckled and approached the trio. It was the third member.
"I'll challenge you. Right here." Gardenia tilted her head back to make it seem like she was confident.
…
In a matter of seconds, the Team Aqua grunt and the young high school student were getting in position to battle.
"Poochyena!" the grunt called his pokemon.
"Go! Nidoran!" Gardenia unclipped her pokeball.
Although the autumn air was cold, the tension of the battle was starting to heat things up.
"Poochyena use tackle!" The grunt instructed to his little black and grey pokemon.
"Nidoran dodge it and use poison sting!" Gardenia's green eyes were calm and focused.
Nidoran skillfully dodged the tackle, and countered with a vicious poison sting.
The poochyena was hit quite dead center on the flank. It stumbled backwards, but refused to give up. Poison was starting to course its veins, but the poochyena showed its bravest face.
"Keep it up, buddy! Use bite!" The grunt pointed straight at nidoran.
"Nidoran! Counter with double kick!" Gardenia had not lost her focus.
The audience held their breaths as both pokemon charged towards each other. The air stood still as these two shadows in the darkness went at each other.
The impact was powerful. Although it was too hard to see in the dark of the night, it was quite clear both pokemon had been badly hurt. Poochyena tried to make one last stand, but with the poison taking its toll, the pokemon was stayed grounded. Nidoran picked himself up and waited for further instructions, trying not to show any signs of having been badly injured.
Suddenly, before any side could be declared the winner, shroomish came out of his pokeball.
"Shroomish no!" Gardenia frantically tried to call back her shroomish. Shroomish had a habit of being over-protective and rowdy. He would always defend Gardenia and his best friends, nidoran and hoppip. Not only did he love protecting, but he loved getting into fights and causing trouble. This time was no exception.
"Poochyena, return." The grunt returned his injured pokemon just in time before shroomish had a chance to headbutt it.
Gardenia sank to her knees in desperation.
"Hey punk. You may have won this one, but you certainly have no control over your pokemon. You can't be considered a true trainer until you show that you can properly raise 'em." The grunt approached Gardenia.
Before she had any time to respond, shroomish charged the grunt and head-butted him from behind.
"Ow! Dammit! See?!" If it hadn't been night, Gardenia would have been able to see the grunt's condescending glare.
"Return shroomish." Gardenia finally got him back in his pokeball.
…
"Here's your briefcase wimp." One of the team Aqua members handed Paul his briefcase.
"Thanks." Paul answered flatly.
"What was that all about? Why were they after the Devon Corp briefcase?" Stella asked.
"I don't know…" Gardenia wasn't thinking about that right now. The grunt's words were still swimming through her head. They stung her, knowing that she wants to become a pokemon breeder, yet she had no control over her own pokemon. Her lack of skills was apparent, and it made it seem like the battle had been won out of luck.
"Paul come back to the shop, it will be safe to get to Rustboro tomorrow morning." Gardenia told Paul. They always had an extra room for weary travelers who emerged from the Petalburg woods.
"Can I stay too? I'll call my grandparents." Stella said, dropping her bracelet on the ground.
"Sure." Paul and Gardenia made their way towards the little shop while Stella stayed behind to pick up her bracelet that she had lost somewhere in the dark.
"Where could it be?" Stella thought to herself as she pulled out her pocket flash light.
She suddenly heard rustling in the woods behind her.
"Wh-wh-who's there?" She shined her flashlight towards the woods, trembling. Suddenly she wasn't trembling anymore. She squinted hard and thought she saw spikey blue hair and an orange t-shirt running through the Petalburg woods, towards Petalburg. That combination oddly reminded Stella of Brawley.
What could Brawley possibly be doing here?
Stella couldn't be sure. She stared wide-eyed for a moment and then ran towards the little shop with the image burned in her memory.