"Sandshrew!" Kai's Sandshrew roared, feeling a burst of energy filling it up as it got pumped.
"Enough of this, Houndour use ember!" The thief yelled, commanding his Pokemon to attack.
Kai watched the Houndour open its mouth and blasted a small ball of fire toward Sandshrew, coming up with a plan on how to counter it.
"Sandshrew counter it with rollout!" Kai shouted, remember that rollout was one of Sandshrews signature moves.
Sandshrew did as Kai asked, quickly curling up into a ball as it caused the ember to bounce off of its hard shell before slamming into Houndour, knocking it back.
"Darn it, hurry up and use bite Houndour!" The redhead shouted, growing annoyed.
"Don't let up Sandshrew, hit it with another rollout!" Kai yelled, watching as his Sandshrew rolled across the ground skidding before changing direction back towards the Houndour.
The Houndour jumped forwards at Sandshrew, doing its best to try to bite it, but due to the thick shell of armor on its back, and the speed at which it was rolling, the Houndour was simply knocked back by another hit, hurting it badly.
"No way... Houndour you weakling, stop playing around and use smog!" The redhead suddenly yelled, getting mad that his Pokemon couldn't hit Sandshrew.
Lyra watched from the sidelines, impressed at how Kai was handling the battle considering that this was his first one.
"Oh no, Kai look out for that smog attack!" She suddenly yelled, knowing it was bad news.
"Sandshrew roll away from the attack!" Kai shouted, watching as his Pokemon did just that.
However, the burn on Sandshrew kicked in and knocked it out of its rollout attack due to the pain, forcing it to uncurl and drop to the ground.
"Oh no, Sandshrew!" Kai yelled.
"It's over!" The thief yelled, watching as the smog cloud was about to cover the Sandshrew.
Oh crap, what should I do? Kai thought, trying to think of what he could do next to get out of this.
"That's it! Sandshrew, use dig!" Kai yelled, not sure if it would work.
"Shrew!" The Sandshrew yelled, understanding Kai before it quickly burrowed underground, avoiding the smog cloud.
"We got him." The redhead said, not being able to see from his angle that Sandshrew had burrowed underground, confident of his victory.
"Now Sandshrew!" Kai yelled, giving the command for it to come up and attack.
"Wait, what!" The thief yelled, not realizing that he had been able to avoid the smog cloud, watching in horror as Kai's Sandshrew suddenly slammed into his Houndour from underground, smashing it through the air before it crashed into the ground by his feet.
"No... This amateur defeated me..."
"You did it, Kai!" Lyra yelled jumping up and down in joy at his victory.
"He really pulled it off!" The other trainer also shouted, still watching next to Lyra.
"We did it Sandshrew!" Kai yelled, running over to his Pokemon.
Sandshrew remained standing as it turned to look at Kai, forming what looked to be a smile on its little face before nodding toward him.
Kai quickly turned his attention back to the thief, knowing he still had to get the Pokemon that he had stolen back.
"Now, hand over the stolen Pokemon!" Kai said.
The thief snarled as he withdrew his Houndour with its Pokeball not even saying a word to it before putting it away.
"Whatever." He then said, tossing another Pokeball back towards the other trainer there, returning the Pokemon he had stolen off of him.
"My Pokemon, you really got it back." He said, catching his Pokeball and holding it close to his body.
"Now the Pokemon you stole from the professor," Kai said, extending his hand for him to throw it to him.
The thief snarled as he slowly pulled out the Pokeball, knowing that he wouldn't be able to escape as long as Sandshrew was still standing.
"Shrew..." The Sandshrew said, watching him carefully as it was ready to act.
"To think me, Silver would lose to someone like you." The boy said, revealing his name to the others.
So that's his name, Silver... Just like in the game. Kai thought, watching as he reached into his pocket and took the Pokeball he had stolen from the professor out in his hand.
However, just before he was about to throw the Pokeball over to Kai, Sandshrew suddenly took a turn for the worst, finally succumbing to its burn wound, dropping onto the ground in pain as it gave a cry.
"Oh no, Sandshrew!" Kai yelled turning his attention to his Pokemon.
"Oh no, quickly Kai return Sandshrew back to its Pokeball!" Lyra yelled, seeing how badly the burn was affecting it.
Silver watched what was happening and saw his chance.
"Now's my chance!" He yelled, quickly turning on his heels and running away.
"W-wait!" Kai yelled, watching as he ran off.
"Kai, leave him, we have to get Sandshrew to a Pokemon center!" Lyra shouted, snapping him out of it.
"Y-yeah..." Kai said, quickly pulling out Sandshrews Pokeball.
"Return, Sandshrew," Kai said, turning around to try and see if he could see Silver, however, he was long gone now.
"He got away..." Kai said, feeling as if he had failed.
"It can't be helped, Kai. We were lucky to have come out of that battle in one piece." Lyra said.
"T-thank you both, so much." The other trainer then said, getting both Kai and Lyra's attention.
"Don't mention it," Kai said, happy that he was able to at least save one Pokemon.
"Come on, Kai, we had better get back to the Pokemon center and call the professor to tell him what happened," Lyra said, looking at her own Pokeball with her Marill in it.
"Don't worry Marill, soon you will be all better."
Kai did the same, looking at Sandshrews Pokeball.
"You did a great job, little guy. I promise I will get you healed up and back to full health as soon as I can." Kai said, looking back up to the direction that Silver had run off in.
And the next time we see that guy, he's going to pay...
With that, both Kai and Lyra soon found themselves back at the Pokemon Center in Newbark town. It was located in the center of town, being hard to miss due to its large iconic red roof.
"Hello, and welcome to the Pokemon Centre." Nurse Joy said with a smile.
"Please, we need you to heal our Pokemon," Lyra asked, placing her Pokeball onto the counter, with Kai following suit.
"Oh my, what happened?" She asked, running the computer and seeing that they were both in bad shape.
"It's kind of a long story..." Lyra said, feeling bad that her Marill had gotten hurt because of her.
"Nevermind that now, we need to heal these Pokemon at once." Nurse Joy said, quickly jumping into action.
Kai also felt bad for his Sandshrew but was also taking in the site of everything going on around him, still not being able to believe that all of this was real.
"Hello... Earth to Kai?" Lyra said, finally getting his attention.
"Oh, sorry Lyra, I kind of Zoned out there for a moment," Kai said.
"It's alright... I was just saying that while we wait for our Pokemon to be healed, we should give Professor Elm a call to let him know what happened."
Kai agreed with her, even if they didn't manage to retrieve the stolen Pokemon, they were still able to get some information.
"Hey, why don't you try calling him on the Pokegear he gave you?" Lyra then suggested.
"Not a bad idea," Kai said, taking the pokegear from his pocket and pressing the button on the side to find the contacts page.
"There it is," Kai said as he found the professor's number, being the only one he had before he pressed the call button.
Ring...Ring...Ring...Ring...
"Hello, can you hear me, who is this?" Professor Elm said answering the phone.
"Hi professor, it's me and Kai!" Lyra said.
"Oh my, yes how are you both, have you any luck in tracking down the thief yet?" Professor Elm asked.
"As a matter of fact, we did professor," Lyra said solemnly.
"In that case, I need you to get back to my lab at once, the police are still here looking for evidence and want to talk to you both." The professor said, causing both Kai and Lyra to look at each other before looking back at the pokegear.
"We will do, professor. Just as soon as our Pokemon are healed." Lyra said, getting a concerned reaction from the professor.
"In that case don't rush, just make sure your Pokemon are taken care of first." The professor then said, getting a nod from both Kai and Lyra.
"Oh, I have to go, see you both soon!" The professor then said, with both of them hearing crashing in the background before he hung up the phone.
Lyra looked at Kai as he put away his pokegear, taking a seat on one of the benches for a moment.
"Man, what a day." She said, breathing a sigh of relief now that she had finally sat down to rest.
Kai had to agree, doing the same as he sat next to her.
"Still, you sure held your own in that battle, Kai. I can't believe you have never battled before." Lyra said.
Kai chuckled a little.
"Well, must have been beginner's luck."
"And the way you jumped in to save your Sandshrew from that Houndour was very brave," Lyra added, flashing him a smile as she kicked her legs back and forth.
"Yeah... That guy sure was a pain." Kai said, remembering the battle and the pain that he still felt in his back from getting slammed against that tree.
"I'm going to become stronger together with my Pokemon," Kai said, feeling a sense of purpose after experiencing that battle.
After all, it was something he had always fantasized about as a child while growing up playing Pokemon.
Lyra looked at him and didn't say anything, seeing that the look on his face said it all.
"Well, in that case, I take it you will be signing up for the gym challenges?" Lyra asked.
"Yeah, I'm going to get all 8 badges and become a Pokemon champion!" Kai yelled, punching the air with his fist.
Lyra laughed to herself, admiring his determination.
"Don't you mean all 16?" She then asked, with a questioning look on her face.
"What do you mean?" Kai asked.
"Don't tell me you didn't know?" Lyra asked again.
"Well, allow me to explain." She then said wagging her finger.
"Since both the Johto region and the Kanto region are next door and share the same Pokemon league, they decided to combine the gym challenges together, meaning you will need all eight badges from both regions before you can enter the league," Lyra explained.
"No way... So I need to travel to Kanto too." Kai said as he thought about it.
"Well, you certainly have a long journey ahead of you then," Lyra said with a smile.
"In fact, while we are here we could sign you up today." Lyra suddenly said, having the idea pop into her head.
"I can sign up here?" Kai asked.
"Yeah, you can sign up for the gym challenges at any Pokemon center and register to become an official Pokemon trainer. I think it costs around 500Pk dollars" Lyra said, thinking about it for a moment.
Kai had forgotten that this world also ran on money, just as the real one did. He also realized that he didn't have any, never mind any idea on how to earn it.
"Ahhh... Well, about that." Kai said, rubbing the back of his head with a sheepish look on his face.
"I'm broke." Kai then said, causing a sweat drop to form on Lyra's forehead.
"Oh..." She said before laughing a little.
Kai felt embarrassed that he didn't have any money, not sure what to do about it as his head dropped.
"You really don't have a clue do you?" Lyra then said, seeming to be joking with him as she jumped to her feet.
"I'm amazed you made it all the way here from Goldenrod City." She then said, definitely teasing him this time.
"Alright, alright, I get it," Kai said, crossing his arms.
"Ah, don't be like that, Kai. I was only teasing you." Lyra said, sticking her tongue out at him with a wink of her eye.
"Besides, I have an idea." She then said, getting his attention again.
Suddenly the buzzer that signaled when the operating room was done with, getting both of their attention.
A moment after Nurse Joy walked out heading over to the two of them.
"Nurse Joy, how are Marill and Sandshrew? Lyra asked, running over to her.
"Both of your Pokemon are just fine." She said with a bright smile.
"That's good news," Kai said, nodding his head in thanks to her.
"Of course, here you both are." She then said, handing them back their Pokeballs.
"Be sure to come back any time you need your Pokemon healing."
"We will, thank you," Lyra said, pulling her Pokeball close to her.
"Come on Kai, let's get to the professor's lab so we can tell him what happened." Lyra then said, turning her attention toward him.
"Yeah, let's go," Kai said, following her out of the Pokemon center.
Two walked through town and soon arrived back at the lab, seeing how it was only a ten-minute walk from the Pokemon center.
"Hey look the police are still here," Lyra said pointing to one of the squad cars.
Kai nodded as he took a look at it, seeing that it said police on the side as most did.
Lyra could also see that the front door to the lab was open and so both of them walked in, heading to the main room where they could hear voices coming from.
"Professor we are back," Lyra announced, seeing that he was talking to one of the police officers at the moment.
Kai could also see that neither of them was Officer Jenny, feeling a little disappointed about it.
"Who is this?" One of the officers asked looking at them both.
"The thief always returns to the scene of the crime!" He then said, looking at Kai with his hand on his handcuffs.
"Wow, hold it I didn't do anything!" Kai said, jumping onto his back foot.
"Wait officer, they are both with me." The professor said, causing the copper to relax a little.
"I see... My mistake then." He said, acting as if nothing had happened.
"Please, both of you tell us what happened." The professor then asked, wanting to hear the details.
"Well, professor we found the thief and tried to force him to return the stolen Pokemon... But he was too strong and managed to escape." Lyra said, lowering her head a little.
"Did you get any other details?" The policeman asked, flipping his notepad open.
"Yeah, his name is Silver. He has red hair and is around the same age as we are." Kai then said, giving him all the details.
The policeman quickly jotted the information down before shutting his notepad.
"I will go and report this to HQ right away. Farewell, for now, professor." He said, quickly turning on his heels and running off, leaving the others standing there a little confused.
What a weirdo... Kai thought, getting snapped out of his thoughts by the professor.
"How is your Sandshrew doing Kai, I do hope neither of you got hurt," Elm asked.
"Sandshrew is doing great, professor. In fact, we were able to defeat that jerk until Sandshrew got hurt thanks to a burn." Kai said, getting a questioning look from the professor.
"You beat him you say?" Elm asked as he readjusted his glasses.
"That's right professor, Kai did amazing!" Lyra said, backing his story up.
"Impressive..." The professor said, seeming to become deep in thought.
"Tell you what Kai, I have a request, if I may be so bold." The professor suddenly said.
"I have a favor to ask you if it's not too much trouble."
"Not at all, what is it, professor?" Kai asked.
"You see, I was supposed to meet a friend of mine who was going to deliver a package to me just a little further than Cherrygrove City. However, because of all of this with the stolen Pokemon, I won't have the time anymore." Professor Elm said.
"I was wondering if perhaps you would pick it up and bring it back to me. Of course, I will pay you for your trouble." The professor asked.
Kai didn't have to think about it for too long before he gave his answer.
"You can count on me, professor," Kai said, accepting his request.
"Great news! That way I will be able to continue with my research without issue!" The professor said merrily.
"Wow... That's great Kai!" Lyra said.
Kai nodded before looking back at the professor.
"So, when do I start?"
Alright going to end this chapter here.
Just a quick one for everyone, how would you feel about bringing Pokemon from other generations in, even though it is the Johto region I feel that they have all mixed by now.
Let me know in the comments!
