A day after Aaron had joined their little group, the three of them were on their way to Orebaugh City. The outskirts of the town were on the horizon meaning that they were close to the town soon.
"Alright, just one more day and we will be in Orebaugh City! You guys want to make camp right now?" Dahlia asked as she set down her stuff.
Aaron agreed as Cynthia was about to do the same when she felt something wet hit her face.
"What the…" Cynthia said as she saw something disappearing into the nearby pond.
Aaron and Dahlia were making camp as Dahlia soon Cynthia just staring around instead of helping out like she usually does.
"Hey is something wrong?" Dahlia asked as she went up to her.
"Hey, did you guys see something from out of the pond?" Cynthia asked as she took stuff from out of her bag.
Aaron and Dahlia soon said no as they were setting up when uddenly they felt two gobs of mud hit them in the face.
"Who did that?" Dahlia asked as she wiped the mud off as she stared at Cynthia who stared back wondering what they were talking about.
Aaron soon saw some bubbling coming out of the water, and soon got his traveling companions' attention… as a West Sea Shellos soon made her presence known and giggled a bit as she came up to them.
"Hey, I know you. Your that Shellos we met earlier." Cynthia said coming up to her.
Shellos nodded as she waved back to Dahlia and looked curious at Aaron.
"Wait, when you said that you were trying to catch a Pokemon yesterday when I met you… were you talking about Shellos?" Aaron said to Cynthia.
"Yeah, since it is a Water-type I thought that it would help me in the Orebaugh Gym since that is a Rock-type gym."
Soon Shellos was pulling on Cynthia's sleeves as she indicated she wanted the three trainers to follow her.
"Well we can table that discussion later, it seems like Shellos wants us to follow her." Dahlia said.
Soon the three trainers soon followed Shellos as they followed her across the coast of the pond.
When they got to the pond, they realized why Shellos wanted them to follow her.
They soon saw a West Sea Gastrodon, and presumably Shellos' parent stuck in a net and unable to move. Shellos soon swam over to Gastrodon and looked rather worried for him.
"So that is a Gastrodon…" Cynthia said as she let out her Pokedex and scanned the Gastrodon.
"Gastrodon, the Sea Slug Pokemon. A Water and Ground-type and the evolved form of Shellos. It appears on beaches where the waters are shallow. Once it catches prey, it will slowly melt them with its mucus before slurping them up."
Dahlia soon went over to the net and tried tugging on them but they refused to budge and like they were made of steel.
"Who would do something like this?" Dahlia asked as suddenly Aaron soon had them hide in a nearby bush. Soon two incredibly burly men walked up to the tied up Gastrodon and smirked cruelly at him.
"So you sure that it isn't going to escape?" One of the men who was wearing a green hat said to his partner.
"Positive, West Sea Gastrodons are extremely pricy especially because they are so rare in this part of Sinnoh. This one should fetch us a lot of money on the black market." His partner said to him.
Gastrodon soon growled at them as the two of them went to check on their supplies. Aaron, Dahlia and Cynthia soon came out disgusted at the two men at what they did.
"Poachers… always a nasty bunch of people." Aaron said with a disgusted look on his face.
Cynthia soon looked at Gastrodon and soon said she had a plan.
"Really what is it?" Dahlia asked.
"Ok, so first Aaron goes into Orebaugh City and informs Officer Jenny about the poachers that we found here, meanwhile Dahlia you work on freeing Gastrodon… and I will confront the poachers myself." Cynthia said to her friends.
Both of them looked shocked, not expecting Cynthia to undertake the most difficult part herself but seeing her determined face, they knew that they wouldn't be able to convince her otherwise. They soon agreed to her plan with Aaron heading into Orebaugh City to get Officer Jenny and Dahlia soon went to free Gastrodon.
Cynthia soon sent out Gible and Budew and soon told them about the situation as they agreed to help. However before they left, Shellos soon came to them and said she wanted to help them as well.
"You sure?" Cynthia asked not wanting to put the young Water-type through much danger.
But Shellos also gave a determined nodded forcing Cynthia to smile a bit.
"Ok then, let's go!" Cynthia said as the four of them soon went off to confront the poachers.
Soon Cynthia saw where the poachers were setting up and soon quietly ordered Gible to use Dragon Breath to wreck the poachers' supplies.
Gible nodded as she let out a dragonic energy blast that soon blasted the supplies and caused a huge explosion catching the poachers off guard.
"Ok! Who is there!?" One of the poachers yelled as he took out a Pokeball as did his partner.
Cynthia and her Pokemon soon made herself known as she stared down the poachers.
"Hmph, it is just a little girl. And to think we thought the police had found us. Ok Golbat, use Air Cutter." The poacher with the green hat said.
Said Golbat soon released itself and fired several Air Cutters at Cynthia and her Pokemon.
"Gible once again use Dragon Breath and Budew use Poison Sting." Cynthia ordered.
Gible and Budew released their respective attacks as the Air Cutter was obliterated making the Green Hat Poacher growl in frustration. Soon his partner released a Houndour that was ordered to use Flamethrower on Budew which managed to hit for super effective damage.
Cynthia looked worried as Gible ran over to her teammate but completely forgot about Golbat, who hit her with a powerful Tackle.
"Gible! Budew!" Cynthia said as she ran over to her downed Pokemon.
"I'll admit this girlie, you are brave. But you should have known better than to pick a fight with us." The Green Hat Poacher said with a wicked smile on his face.
Soon the both ordered Air Cutter and Flamethrower at the two downed Pokemon as Cynthia yelled for them to dodge. Suddenly, a surprise Water Gun not only countered but overpowered both attacks and hit both Golbat and Houndour.
"Huh?" Cynthia asked as she looked behind her and saw Shellos coming up next to her with a determined look on her face.
"You wanna fight with me Shellos?" Cynthia asked her.
Shellos nodded as she faced down the two poacher's Pokemon.
"Alright use Water Gun once again Shellos!" Cynthia ordered.
Shellos nodded as she let out a blast of water as it hit both Houndour and Golbat once again.
"Damn it! That annoying Shellos came back to haunt us!" The straight-laced Poacher said in frustration.
Soon however before the battle could continue, a Growlithe soon made it's way to the battlefield as Cynthia recognized the Pokemon.
"A Growlithe… does that mean?" Cynthia asked as she suddenly saw officers upon officers surround the two poachers.
"Cynthia!" An unknown voice said to her.
Cynthia looked over her shoulder and saw Dahlia, Aaron and Officer Jenny running up to her. Gastrodon, who had been freed was also slugging away next to them as he went over to Shellos and nuzzled her a bit.
"Alright you two are under arrest." Officer Jenny said as the two poachers were arrested for their crimes.
Soon later in the evening, Cynthia, Dahlia and Aaron were saying their goodbyes to Shellos and Gastrodon. Officer Jenny had taken the two poachers back to Orebaugh City and told them that they would be welcomed in the city at any time.
"Ok, now you two stay out of trouble you hear!?" Cynthia said to them.
Gastrodon nodded as Shellos looked sad. Gastrodon seeing this soon pushed Shellos a bit and communicated that it was fine with her leaving and joining Cynthia.
Shellos happy to have gotten this permission soon went up to Cynthia and nuzzled her hand.
"Hey Shellos… you wanna come with me?" Cynthia asked.
Shellos nodded yes as Gastrodon indicated that he was fine with it.
Cynthia soon smiled as she brought out a Pokeball and soon tapped it onto Shellos. The ball wobbled a bit in her hands before locking in as a capture.
"Alright, I caught a Shellos!" Cynthia said.
Dahlia and Aaron congratulated her on her new capture as Cynthia soon told Gastrodon that she would take good care of Shellos.
Soon all three of them left, saying their final goodbyes to Gastrodon as they headed into Orebaugh City as their journeys continued.