"Kid you best give over that Stantler now!"
"No there no way"
"Look we helped you train it, it will be better with us anyway"
"No!"
"Right well looks like we will have to get violent"
"TT!"
"What the hell!"
"And then the little hooded thing blasted him away into to a dumpster, I managed to sprint away then and get here" The young girl explains to the officer in the foyer of the centre
"Ma'am we have managed to apprehend the criminal however the vigilante made another escape, it blasted away using Hydro Pump again" adds the accompanying officer
I can hear the officers and the girl talking over the incident while I sit feeding Starmie, I stir over speaking to them about that Bruce guy who I have now encountered twice. Starmie finishes it food just as the girl and officer walk away and I gain confidence and walk up to the female officer
"Um excuse me?" I say quietly walking up to her
She turns and looks to me with a smile
"Hello young man how may I help?"
"Um well, I've encounter a guy twice now who is selling on Ballbuy, it hasn't been here in Lavender but I thought I would mention it"
"That fine young man, how many days ago was it and have you reported it before?"
"The first time was about 5 weeks ago in the Underground Path and I reported it to my mentor Ryan. Then again a few days ago in Vermillion but my Grandma was with me and she reported it to the Vermillion police"
"I see and did you get his name, was it by chance Bruce?" She questions scribbling on her notepad
"Yes! How did you know?"
"We had lots of reports of him, thank you for reporting this but he been spotted in Fuschia yesterday so this won't be him" She says as the young girl and officer return
"Ma'am, the young ladies parents can't come and accompany her as they're out of country in Galar and we cannot move her ourselves back to Celadon"
"Cut backs again" She says with a sigh
"Young lady, you may need to stay here at the centre till we can move you"
"But I've got a contest to compete in Celadon tomorrow! Please I'll be okay!" She says in protest
"I'm sorry but we don't want you getting into any trouble without supervision" She replies
"I'll take her" I say piping up
The officer turns and looks to me
"You're a bit young to be a supervisor" She says concernedly
"Yeah but I've got my Pokemon and they're strong" I say pointing towards Starmie who now joined me
She taps her cheek thinking
"Well okay but if you get into any trouble you call both your mentors okay?"
I nod and the girl jumps up and down. The officers take a few moments taking my details before returning back to the station. I introduce myself to the girl.
"I'm Hailey!" She says with a big smile
"Dustin, its nice to meet you"
"Wow your Starmie is so pretty!" She says crouching down
Starmie gem gleams on and off almost like its blushing
"Oh yeah, its a shiny one I got lucky finding it"
"Wow so cool"
"So when did you start?" I question
"About 3 months ago you?"
"2 months, how are you finding it?"
"Okay, it tough sleeping rough sometimes but with my Pokemon its okay, My mentor is Callum and he is really helpful"
"Callum! As in the champion Callum" I shout as some of the other trainers turn to look at the commotion
"Uh yeah" She says with a light shocked laugh
"Sorry, he's like my hero I won't lie"
"Who is your mentor?"
"Ryan"
"What! He's amazing!" She shouts back
"He is really good, super supportive" I say looking to my phone
"Okay the coach from Saffron leaves at 6pm so we've got about 4 hours to get there, we should set off"
She nods and grabs her purse, I return Starmie and we set off.
Lavender Town is quite lively nowadays, the Pokemon Tower that used to sit to the north of the city is replaced now with the radio tower with the cemetery being moved more toward Rock Tunnel. The radio tower had brought a new wave of musicians to the city making it the music capital of the Kanto region. The street are lined with music store with artists all up in the windows like Roxie and Piers. There also posters of big streamers like Iono up as well as some other streamers.
"Oh can we pop in here?" Hailey asks pointing towards a make up shop
"Uh sure, I'll wait outside" I say to her
She nods and rushes in to it, I lean my back up against the shop exterior, the streets are busy with people all zooming up and down, in the buzz I spot across and alleyway. There a big dumpster that seems to be shaking slightly, I take concern and worry that maybe a Pokemon has gotten stuck inside it. I jog up and lift open the lid, in the dumpster sits a Squirtle. It looks up to me concerned before flinching in pain
"Hey are you okay?" I question
"Squr…." It stammer wincing in pain
I lean in and pull it up out of the dumpster and set it on the floor, it flops to it bottom in complete exhaustion. I pull out a handful of Oran Berries
"Here eat you look famished"
It takes it and devours it in second as I spray it with a Super Potion to heal it scratches
"Hey I didn't know you had a Squirtle?"
I look up to see Hailey accompanied with bag of make up
"Oh hey, uh I don't I just found this one in the dumpster, it looks pretty banged up" I say as it devours another handful of berries
"Poor thing, does it have a trainer?" She questions scanning it with her phone
It beeps to indicate it is wild
"Wow super strong" She says showing me it date
It shows as Lv 38 on a regional level so the same as my Starmie. It show no previosu owner so it self trained too
"Wow" I say under my breath turning to Squirtle whose now led out on it shell almost asleep with satisfaction.
"You should catch it! It be great on your gym challenge"
I look up to her then back to the water type
"Hey Squirtle, how did you get so strong?" I question it
It pops up looking proudly before jumping into the dumpster, it then quickly re-emerges in a dark black cloak and green mask
"Hey! You're the one that sent that robber guy flying when he tried to take Stantler!"
"TT!" It shouts proudly
"So your the vigilante Pokemon the officers have been talking about" I say with a laugh patting its head
"HELP!"
We both turn up the street and a small girl stand screaming while a guy sprints down towards us
"HE'S GOT MY PHANPY!"
"TT!" Squirtle shouts as it runs and slams a Skull Bash into the midriff of the man, he spill the girls ball onto the floor I quickly stoop and grab it
"Hailey go and get an officer!" I shout
She nods and speeds off back toward the centre
"Kid don't get in the way, gives us that ball back and no one gets hurt" he says sending out his Golduck which roars
"Ivysaur I choose you"
Ivysaur lands hard on the street floor
"Razor Leaf"
She fires off a plumage of leaves
"Send it back with Psychic"
The leaves are reversed and Ivysaur grits to take the hit but Squirtle jumps in the away taking the super effective hit, it stands firm allowing its cloak to get cut up
"Are you okay?" I shout to Squirtle
"TT!" I roars back hititing Golduck with Hydro Pump pushing the water type back
"Grab it with Vine Whip"
Ivysaur sends out it vines and grabs Golduck by the leg and trip it before slamming it into the ground
Squirtle then jumps and uses Skull Bash to slam down on it causing it to be knocked out.
"Fucking stupid rat" He says before booting Squirtle in the chest
"Hey!" I say quickly grabbing the water type from the ground as he returns his stricken Golduck
"POLICE STOP!"
He turns and I look to see two male officers chasing up the street towards us
"Shit!" The man shouts before bursting down the alley, he's quickly pursued by the officiers as Hailey the little girl and the female officier then arrive to me
"Mister did you get Phanpy back?" She splutters through tears
I crouch down and pass her the ball back, she send the small elephant out before flopping onto it blubbering uncontrollably
"Oh I'm so glad you are okay!"
"Thank you" She says before pushing her way into a hug on me
"Youre welcome dont sweat it, plus TT here helped" I say with a laugh as I point to Squirtle
"Thank you too" She say as she jumps on Squirtle, as she does the cloak tears and rips exposing Squirtle
"So your the vigilante!" The female officer shouts
It looks around sheepishly before flopping its back in exhaustion
We wait patiently for the little girls parents to arrive, they do and take the blubbering girl away. I hold Squirtle in my arms who is all tuckered out to stand.
"We should have guessed it would be you" The female officer says shaking her head at Squirtle
"Sorry I don't understand" I ask
"This Squirtle has tried out to be a member of the Police force multiple times however it doesn't have a trainer partner"
"Squirt!" I cries back in objection
Shes sighs
"It was friends with a young man who lived in the town, he passed away though and his dream was to be a police officer"
"So Squirtle wants to honour its friend" Hailey says as Squirtle looks down sadly
"Then you should let it!" I say abruptly
"Excuse me?" She says a little shocked
"If its dream is to be part of the force and make its friends dream come true you should do it, plus its super strong, it took that psychic charge Razor Leaf without any issue! Please take it as a partner"
She sighs again
"I wish we could really but we are only allowed to let in Pokemon trained at the centralised centre in Saffron and to train there it has to have a partner already we can't just let it in"
"Fine" I say setting Squirtle down
"Come with me Squirtle"
"Squirt!" I cries taken aback
"You're strong and I want to get stronger. While I might not be able to help you make your friends full dream come true but I'm sure he would be happy to see you with someone getting stronger"
It looks to me welling up a little in the eye before jumping into my chest
"Squr Squr!" It says crying rubbing it head into my chest
It breathes in deep before jumping back, it looks to me and nods
I take a Pokeball from my pocket and hold it up, Squirtle taps its head against it, it falls into my hands and shakes three times confirming the capture
"Phew I cannot say I'm glad, now we don't need to send so much of the force around trying to find this vigilante" The officer says with a smile
"Congrats Dustin!" Hailey says jumping up and down
"Thanks Hailey but we're going to struggle to get to the Celadon bus"
"Don't panic, I'll take you. As a reward for helping us catch the vigilante" She says beckoning us to follow
She leads us to the station, she grabs the keys to one of the cars from the desk and we both hop in the back. Hailey and the officer talk no stop on the journey, I chime in a few times with answer to question before returning to looking out the window. I always hated car journey, always preferred walking or train, Dad had passed away driving in the wet back from the hospital visiting Mom once so it had always been a sore point. Squirtle sits soundly sleeping in my lap, I stroke its shell every so often and it coos in it sleep happily. I know had three water types on the team but I wasn't too worried as they all fulfilled different roles, I sued to the journey to plan, in Celadon there a huge department store that sell Tms the plan would be to get Poliwhirl some Physical tms as now I had two special water type attackers so it would add diversity. I think to myself if I can get myself some evolution stones then I would have a fully evolved team with some levels on Squirtle. I swell with happiness, maybe if I get my training right I can do really well at the junior competition. I spend sometime watching videos of Erika latest matches, she uses 3 Pokemon, Tangela, Victreebel and Vileplume. I decide that in my battle I will use, Ivysaur, Vulpix and Starmie as they seem the best to match up. Eventually we pull up in Celadon City, the officer had called a head and booked us both a room at the centre. She drops us off and wishes us good luck on our journeys before pulling off back towards Lavender.
"Well thank you for at least offering to be my chaperone" Hailey says with a giggle
"Yeah, that five minute trip to the make up store you were very protected" I respond with a laugh
"Here's my number" She says handing me a slip of paper
"Are you sure?"
"Of course, I wanna know how you get on plus I'll expect you to keep an eye out on my contest journey too" She says with a smile
"OOO! I wanna check out the department store, I'll see you soon Dustin good luck!" She says before speeding off
I wave and watch her disappear into the crowds. I smile to myself, on my journey I only had really met Louise so meeting another person on their journey was great
"Never gotten a girl number before" I say under my breath
Ivysaur (Lv31) Female
Attacks
Sludge Bomb
Razor Leaf
Vine Whip
Poison Powder
Vulpix (Lv29) Female
Attacks
Fire Spin
Dig
Quick Attack
Ember
Poliwhirl (Lv35) Male
Attacks
Ice Beam
Mud Shot
Waterfall
Brick Break
Starmie (Lv38) Genderless
Flash Cannon
Psychic
Surf
Thunderbolt
Squirtle (Lv38) Male
Hydro Pump
Skull Bash
Rapid Spin