After a tear-filled goodbye, White had finally left the Striaton gym to set out for the next town over. Following her battle at the gym, White had spent the rest of her evening partying with her mother, and friends, new and old.

She had gained so much at her 3 weeks in the small city: a newfound confidence in herself and her skills, several new friends, many great memories, and, for some reason, adoring fans. Many people in the southern Unova region were suddenly very interested in her travels after having the event broadcast on the news. Two news stations, and a few radio stations had requested interviews from White a few days after the party. She was entirely too embarrassed to do interviews so she had the gym leaders decline the offers. She spent a week after the event trying to lay low in hopes that some other new shiny bit of news would distract people from her.

Now she was about an hour and a half walk outside of Striaton. White watched many people drive by in cars or ride by on bicycles. She couldn't help but feel a little jealous of the people on bikes. Perhaps she would be able to get one once she hit a larger city. After winning her first gym badge, White began to plan out her trip with a bit more caution. The further away she was from home, the more nervous she became. Would her mother be all right without her? Would the boys at the gym ever get their act together? Would Bianca be able to stay sane as she continued to stay with Professor Fennel in Striaton? Would Cheren learn anything useful from the trainer school in order to defeat the gym leader in Nacrene? White's mind was pleasantly filled with her own thoughts as she walked the dirt road to a new location. She pulled up the map on her xtransciever to view her travels.

"After Nacrene is the Pinwheel forest, the Skyarrow bridge, and then we will be in Castelia City," White recited aloud. Chili told her that there were many battling competitions in Castelia. White's plan was to take a break from traveling in Castelia city and hopefully earn enough money in the competitions to buy a bike and some nicer items. It would definitely come in handy the further north she traveled. White would have to muscle through caves and go longer distances without the help of a pokemon center to get to certain cities. She heard it even snowed in northern Unova. White's eyes worriedly flicked down to her belt where Snivy was safely clicked in.

"I really need to find some more buddies to go around Unova with," White muttered. Cheren had already caught multiple pokemon for Profesor Juniper and had 4 pokemon in his party: Tepig, Pansage, Purrloin, and Pidove. Even Bianca had Oshawatt, Lilipup, and Munna. White touched Snivy's pokeball. Were pokemon unhappy about being caught inside of pokeballs? Snivy didn't really seem to mind it, but N assured her that pokeballs were tools of oppressors. Her uneasiness was the reason that she had chosen not to catch any pokemon that she had random battles with.

"I don't want to force a pokemon to be on the team. If only I could meet a wild pokemon that would want join up with us out of its own free will," she sighed deeply, "never gonna happen, though. I'm going to have to catch some pokemon sooner or later."

After a several more minutes of walking and fantasizing about speeding around on a bike, White noticed a car pulling out of a parking lot in a clearing. When she reached the clearing, she was surprised to find a gravel parking lot, a tiny building, and a playground. White decided that she was curious as to what the small cottage-like building was for. As White walked up and onto the porch she noticed that there was a wire fence protecting an expansive garden behind the building where several pokemon were being kept. There was also another wire fence around the playground, and many young children were running around and playing with one another. A smile played across White's lips as she watched some little girls jumping rope. A little boy stood up on top of the slide and declared himself a pokemon master while some other children were arguing over the swing-set. What would it be like to have a little brother or sister? White had always wondered this. She didn't have any brothers or sisters but she did have Bianca and Cheren. They grown up together practically like siblings.

White hadn't noticed that she was standing at the door of the building with her hand on the door-handle watching the children messing around. She heard some voices from behind the door, and some stomping. Before White could react to pull away, the door swung open and swept her off of her feet and on to her butt.

"Owwwow…" she said behind grit teeth as she laid on the wooden porch leading into the building.

"I am so so sorry! Ohmigosh!" a girl's voice said. White peered at a girl in an apron that looked not much older than her.

"Let me help you up," she said while offering White a hand. White took it gratefully, stood up, and dusted off her vest. She winced at the new pain on her behind but she tried her best to forget about it and put on an air of indifference.

"I'm a nursery aide here. My name is Autumn. Geez, you took a nasty fall. Are you okay?" the girl asked.

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine. My name is White. So…this is a day care center?" White asked.

"Sure is! For children and pokemon!" Autumn said cheerily.

"For both?" White said while tilting her head to the side. She reached around to her belt and felt that Snivy was still attached after her fall. Before White could breath a sigh of relief, Autumn shrieked.

"You're a pokemon trainer!?" she asked White quickly.

"Y-yes?"

"You've gotta help me!" Autumn begged, "Something terrible is happening!"

White found it interesting that someone who just hit her with a door would ask her for a favor, but she wasn't the kind of person to snub someone who was in trouble.

"First, you're going to need to calm down," White said while putting a hand on Autumn's shoulder, "Well, what's going on? Maybe I can help."

"There have been these two wild pokemon pilfering snacks from the kid's lunch boxes for the past few weeks! I had a source tell me that they were spotted by the Wellspring cave earlier today. I need to go and teach them a lesson!" the aide huffed. White began to fiddle with some of her wavy hair as she thought about the situation.

"Well that doesn't make sense," White said after a moment of silence.

"Uhhh….why not?" Autumn said, confused.

"Well, you said this is a daycare center for pokemon as well, right? Why would they steal human food and not pokemon food, I wonder. It doesn't make sense."

Autumn seemed to be at a loss for words as White pulled out her xtransciever. She pulled up the map that she was looking at earlier and magnified it to view a more detailed layout of the area.

"The map says that Wellspring cave is a few minutes away from here…North," White sighed, "I need to be going west, but there's no helping it. This is a weird situation so I want to go with you. I've been told that pokemon never do things like this unless there is a reason."

"Wahhh! White! You're such a kind trainer! Thank you so much!" Autumn blubbered.

"Let's just get going," White said with a sideways smile. Autumn reminded her of Bianca a little bit. The two girls began to jog to the Wellspring Cave.

()

"We're pretty close to the entrance," White said after checking her xtransciever.

"Ok! Well then, it's time for me to show you my secret weapon!" Autumn said with a devious twinkle in her eyes.

Autumn took a pokeball out of her apron pocket. She pressed the middle button and out erupted a cute dog-like pokemon. The pokemon barked up at the girls.

"This is the day-care center's guard dog- Harry the herdier."

"Harry, huh. What was Harry doing while the food was being stolen from the kids?" White asked Autumn. Autumn giggled.

"He's a pretty lazy dog that sleeps all of the time, but I can definitely get him to track the scent of those two troublemakers. This time the pokemon stole an entire lunch box. I have a hat from the kid who had his lunchbox stolen. Harry should be able to find the scent from that alone."

Sure enough, with just a couple sniffs of the hat, Harry was able to track the scent. White and Autumn ran behind him. Harry stopped in front of a tall bush and growled. White stepped forward and pushed back some of the brush. She was immediately sent back by a small electric shock that came from the bush, and, for the second time that day, White found herself knocked on her butt.

"OWWWowowow aww man," White moaned as her attacker came out from its hiding place. Another pokemon shot out of the bush. The mint puffball made a chattery noise that sounded like laughter as it flapped its wings above the two girls. The other pokemon was small and black with white markings. It began to charge up electricity around itself and stomp its hooves haughtily.

"It's those two! Those are the pokemon that have been terrorizing us!" Autumn squeaked after helping White up again. White opened her pokedex to reveal information about the two pokemon that were about to attack them. The little electric type with the attitude was a blitzle and the happy go lucky pokemon flittering above them was a woobat.

"So it looks like they want to battle." White removed Snivy's pokeball from her belt. White spotted a lunch box and a few other trinkets from the rustled bush that the pokemon had been hiding in. White frowned. What were these two pokemon up to? Under normal circumstances she would not have pictured an electric type like a blitzle to hang out with a flying type like a woobat, either.

"Autumn, do you know what types of attacks Harry can use?" White asked her partner.

"I-I've never been in a pokemon battle! I wouldn't know!" She said worriedly.

"You're about to find out, I guess!" White said as she threw Snivy's pokeball out on the battlefield.

/chapter 17 end/

Hey! I'm back! Sorry for lack of updates, but I want to give a big thank you to those of you that are sticking with me! I will finish this story!

And I know that I said N would be in this chapter, but I decided to move some plot points around. He should be popping up again around chapter 20 or 21.