Chapter 1: A New Challenger


"You'll never keep me down!" A triumphant voice rang out, a sack tied to their back as they vaulted across the town. Rooftop by rooftop they ran, their pursuer keeping pace not far behind. "You won't get away with this, thief!" They cried out, the Kecleon running after the Torchic who dared to steal from their store, of all places! "That's my hard earned merchandise ye be stealin'! I worked hard for that dungeon loot!"

"Well" The Torchic responded, "I'm working hard for it now, so I guess its mine, thanks!". Thinking on instinct, they began to run backwards, launching an intentionally weak, but wide-casting Ember attack at the ground in front of Kecleon. The attack was a non-issue for Kecleon, nor the intentional dust cloud that had been created as a diversionary tactic, an attempt to blind Kecleon within the tightly packed alleyway.

Unfortunately for our Torchic, they miscalculated. They realized as such when the Kecleon jumped right through the Ember, and the dust cloud that followed it. "What?! They aren't supposed to have keen eyes, that totally worked last time, just my luck. Stupid, stupid!" He grumbled, that failed tactic costing him precious ground.

Fortunately for our Torchic, although perhaps not depending on if you'd ask him, the Kecleon made the foolish mistake of using its recognizable tounge in a grabbing motion, intending to yank the unsuspecting Torchic by the head to the ground in one fell swoop!

The Kecleon did strike their target, although not in the intended area. When Kecleon's tongue was shot out, it had attached itself to the sack that Torchic was carrying, yanking the Torchic back as intended, but tearing the sack from the Torchic's back entirely, pulling it right into the now gaping mouth of the surprised Kecleon!

"Hrrk-!" The Kecleon gasped, stopping to try and desperately remove the burlap from their throat before the contents of it risked falling down his gullet! The Torchic quickly recovered, not being able to help themselves from laughing at the Kecleon and his predicament.

"Hah, look at you, biting off more than you can chew!" He taunted, sticking his tongue out at the struggling Kecleon. "Well, that's what happens when you try to stop the legendary outlaw, Torch the Blazing! Torch the Quick-Footed, Torch the-"

"Torch the dead you little-!" Kecleon replied, tearing the sack from it's mouth, spilling the contents, thankfully onto the rooftop above and not into Kecleon's gullet.

Not so thankfully, however, Torch had happened to steal, amongst several other items, a blast seed. Both individuals stared in slow motion, both knowing what exactly had been teared out of Kecleon's mouth and what it would do.

"Uh oh-" Torch muttered. KABOOM! The seed went off. A natural grenade, the force of which, normally safely contained within mystery dungeons, had just detonated atop the rooftop of the building. The flash of the explosion briefly stunning the Kecleon, whos keen eyes could not save them from the bright blast.

"Woooaaahhhh-!" Torch yelled, their light-weight body being easily propelled into the air and out of the city. An unintentional getaway to be certain, but a succesful getaway it certainly was.

Kecleon recovered their vision, just in time to realize that both A, Torch the Thief had gotten away, and B, there was a very upset Ursaring couple who were now looking up through the newly created hole in their roof. "What the heck?!" The larger Ursaring yelled, "You bastard, you're gonna pay for thi- HEY!" Kecleon went invisible, both out of natural instinct, and to avoid spending any of their hard earned Poke' on someone else.


Treeko hummed to themselves, taking great satisfaction in the tea that had just finished brewing. The teapot bellowed aloud, attempting to urge the relaxed Treeko to hurry up. Treeko took the teapot off of the fireplace, pouring its contents into two clay cups. Curiously enough, Treeko could swear he still could hear the teapot going off, yet this was clearly not the case. Even after bringing their drinks to a nearby table and sitting down, the noise was still present. "Hmm, how curious" Treeko thought aloud. "He should have been here by now, he'll be late for te-"

CRASH! The roof of Treeko's quiet, comforting home being smashed through as a small, orange, ball of feathers landed in the chair adjacent to Treeko; who for his sake, was far less alarmed than one might suspect.

"Oh, you're just in time for tea." Treeko casually replied, sipping their tea as they watched the Torchic groan in pain from across the table. When the two first met, Treeko would be a little more concerned. But now? This is just Tuesday. "Go ahead and finish what you didn't spill on my table, then fix the hole you left in my house; maybe after we can discuss why you decided to go steal from the Kecleon brothers even after I told you that it was going to end badly." Treeko stated rather matter-of-factly.

Torch recovered from their fall, standing up and shaking their feathers, scattering dust all over the place. This, unlike the previous event, did get a reaction from Treeko, even if the slightest twitch in their eye. "Yeah, yeah alright Treeko." Torch replied, "But you're gonna forget all about that hole in your roof when I tell you that I got it."

"Got what, a concussion?" Treeko asked, rolling their eyes. "Fortunately for you, this tea has Oran leaves in it, might help."

"No, no, not that!" Torchic excitedly replied, rolling their tongue to the back of their throat, which admittedly looked quite strange as they attempted to get a small item they had attached to the roof of their mouth. Finally, they plucked a small bronze key from their mouth. "I got a key, a genuine dungeon key, we can finally open that book you've had!"

Now this did get Treeko's attention. He had that book since he had hatched, a relic from a far off continent, although due to the lock on it, he had never been able to read the contents within; the only book in his collection that he hadn't been able to read top to bottom several times, which had irked him greatly.

"Well, what're we waiting for? Let's get it open!" Treeko replied with gusto, Torch's enthusiasm infectious.


Author's Notes:

The first chapter, and hopefully the first of many. This chapter, alongside the prolog, are likely much shorter than what will become the average for chapter length, so don't expect this short length for long. As for the chapter itself, I elected to skip the standard introduction you'd see in stories like these. Sorry, no personality quiz, no cliche "Woah, I'm a Pokémon?" scene. We're already getting straight to the point. This is going to be a long story, so I don't have time for us to go through the equivalent of Tiny Woods or Beach Cave. Let's get to the good parts, shall we? Questions will be answered in time. Stay tuned to see if we'll be able to get Treeko's book opened, I'm sure he's just as excited!