xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Rarest Level Ranch, 7:12 a.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
In front of the Rarest Level Ranch was a pair of police cars and a motorcycle with a few officers standing guard outside. Sitting on the front steps of the home was Keats, holding an ice pack against the back of his head, a cast on the hand that was stomped on and with a bandage over his nose.
The front door to the house opened as out came Marie, Adam and a woman in a police uniform with light blue hair and a nametag that read "Officer Jenny" as they begun to speak to each other on the porch.
"Based on the words of your brother, it appears they were specifically looking for Pokéballs." Officer Jenny said as she looked at a notepad as Marie looked over at her brother with a concerned expression. "Do you know if they took anything else before we arrived? Aside from the six Pokéballs and the rocks?" She continued.
"As far as we can tell, nothing else was taken." Adam said to the officer.
"And you both were out at the time and Keaton was the only one home?" Officer Jenny questioned.
"Correct..." Marie said as she turned her attention back to Officer Jenny.
"I already got the names of all the Pokémon that were inside the balls. We'll get to work as soon as possible to find these Pokémon, Mr. and Mrs. Dibiase." Officer Jenny said as she walked away down the front steps and past Keats to another officer. "Put out a search for six suspicious individuals in the area. They have an Abra that can use "Teleport" and are highly organized." She said as she got on the motorcycle and the other cops getting in the cars, driving away and leaving behind the Dibiases at the ranch.
Standing in silence, Marie turned her attention back to Keats as she continued to look at her younger brother as Adam rubbed the back of his bald head as he took a deep breath.
"I'm... I'm going to go clean up..." Adam said as he walked back inside with Marie nodding in response before walking over and sitting next to her brother on the steps.
"...You alright?" Marie said as she looked at Keats, a blank stare in his eyes as he looked at the ground.
Keats only remained silent as he continued to hold the ice pack against his skull.
"It's not your fault, you were outnumbered, and they didn't take any of the Pokémon that belonged to any of the clients." Marie said as Keats took off the ice pack from his skull and looked at his sister.
"...They took your Pokémon..." Keats said with a bothered expression.
"...I know but-" Marie said before Keats cut her off.
'"But" nothing! I lost your Pokémon! Some dumb thieves broke in, made all of us look like idiots and then took your championship team!" Keats exclaimed in frustration as he stood up, clutching at his injured hand. "And I'm just supposed to be convinced that this isn't my fault?!" He said angrily.
"Will you please not shout... The other Pokémon in the back can hear you screaming all the way from here..." Marie said with a stern expression on her face as Keats bit his lip.
"So, what are we gonna do?" Keats asked in a less loud tone.
"What we are gonna do is wait..." Marie said as she stood up.
"...You can't be serious... We should be out there looking for your-" Keats said before Marie raised her hand to get him to stop talking.
"Officer Jenny and the police have been given everything we can possibly give, the only thing we can do is wait..." Marie said as she turned around and walked back inside as Keats followed after her into the living room area.
"Are you serious?! Your Pokémon are out there in the hands of some thieves right now, possibly being sold off on some illegal black market on the web or something and the only thing you suggest we do is to sit on our hands?!" Keats said enraged at his sisters seemingly uncaring attitude as Adam walked into the room holding a Clefairy in his arms.
"Yeah, because we can't do anything since we don't know what the thieves even look like." Marie said with a bothered tone as she looked at her frustrated brother.
"Yeah well, one of them mentioned something about "Pokémon Battle Clubs!" That's more than nothing!" Keats explained.
'"Battle Club?" You mean like the Don George Battle Clubs?" Adam said, catching Keats and Marie's attention. "I know about those places; they are out of the Unova region." He said as Keats pointed at Adam.
"See!" Keats said. "Let's go to Unova and find the Pokémon!" He continued.
"Based entirely on a random comment by only one thief out of six?" Marie said as she logistically broke down what he said.
"Why do you sound like you don't care about your Pokémon?!" Keats screamed as the loud noise he made startled the Clefairy in Adams arms.
"Cleeee... Cleeffaaaiii!" The Clefairy muttered with watery eyes before beginning to cry loudly.
"Hey! Hey! Shhhhushhuhh... It's okay..." Adam said as he tried to rock and shush the Clefairy back to a calmer state. "Can both of you stop arguing?!" He said loudly to stop Keats and Marie from fighting.
"Fine! If you won't do something about this, I will..." Keats said with an annoyed tone as he walked out the back door of the house to the backyard, leaving Marie and Adam alone.
"...He makes one point though..." Adam said as Marie looked at him, still rocking the Clefairy back and forth. "Why aren't you as concerned about your Pokémon as he is?" He questioned as Marie sighed.
"...Because I'm not able to do anything about it... I have to work here and take care of other people's Pokémon, it's not a job I can just turn off to hunt down some guys who stole my Pokémon." Marie explained.
"Yeah, but think about it, he mentioned the Don George Battle Clubs in Unova. The police in Johto have no jurisdiction with going to another region to catch thieves if they aren't here." Adam explained.
"It's only been a day... I'm doubtful they've even left Ecruteak by this point, even with an Abra using "Teleport."' Marie said as she scratched her head.
"Probably wasn't smart to mark on that shelf that those were your Pokémon specifically." Adam said as Marie glared at him. "Just saying..." He said as he put down the Clefairy from before as it scampered away. "So, what you going to do about Keats?" Adam asked.
"...Like he said, I'll let him sit on his hands..." Marie said as she walked away to another part of the house.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Three Weeks Later, 12:45 p.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"Have a nice day." Marie said with a smile as a man walked away with a Cyndaquil in his hands out the front door.
"Hey." Adam said as he walked over to her. "Were you supposed to give the Sunkerns some water, or should I?" He questioned as Marie looked outside.
"You do the Sunkerns, I got to check on "you-know-who."' Marie said as she put her hands behind her head.
"How's he been doing since you checked on him three days ago?" Adam asked.
"He's getting even more eccentric..." Marie said as she shook her head as she walked out the house to the backyard and towards the trailer her brother lives out of.
Reaching Keats rundown shack, she knocked on the door and noticed the door was unlocked, opening slightly. Confused, Marie pushed the door open and looked inside to find the small trailer was littered with papers and sticky notes, half eaten food and unwashed clothes.
"Ugh! It smells worse than a Grimer in here!" Marie thought as she held her nose as she walked in and saw Keats sitting in a chair with a laptop on a small coffee table in front of him. "Keats? What's... Uhhh... What's going on?" She asked as she looked at Keats.
Turning his head towards his sister, Keats' face was dirty and his eyes-stained red with a bizarre smirk on his face.
"Don't touch anything in here! I'm close to a breakthrough! Hahaha!" Keats said wildly as he turned his head back to the computer.
"What kind of "breakthrough?"' Marie said with concern as she looked at him.
"I think I found proof about the secret society of Magcargo! Those jerks who stole your Pokémon aren't real people, they were Magcargo! Those fools! Hahahaha! Being Rock and Fire types at the same time was their big downfall! Hahahaha!" Keats said like a psychopath as Marie looked at her brother going insane.
"Okay, the screws are getting even looser, time to put a stop to this." Marie thought as she turned around and walked out of Keats trailer. Walking over to the nearby pond that had tons of Water type Pokémon, Marie took a Wooper out of the pond and came back to Keats trailer.
"Now if I can find the recipe for corn malasada! There will be no more boundaries in this world! Ahahaha!" Keats rambled insanely as Marie put down the Wooper nearby from rambling brother.
"Wooper, use "Water Gun."' Marie said as the Wooper shot a torrent of water from its mouth at Keats.
"Ahhhh!" Keats exclaimed as the torrent of water shot him out of his chair and knocked him over onto the floor. "Blah! Agh! What was that for?!" He said as his eyes were back to normal, and his face was cleaner from the water spraying him.
"Good, you've stopped acting like a conspiracy theorist. Wooper, you can go back to the pond." Marie said as she waved for the Wooper to go back to playing in the water as it waddled away.
"So-sorry, I was looking into finding your Pokémon and I found some... Amazing things online..." Keats said as he embarrassingly rubbed the back of his head.
"Sounds more like gibberish to me..." Marie thought with annoyance. "So, what did you find?" She asked as Keats got back up over to his laptop.
"Okay so aside from the conspiracy forums, I looked around for anything related to the Don George Battle Club online." Keats said as he brought up webpages on the laptop to show Marie.
"I used to stop by there when I went through Unova for training against other trainers. Once had a battle with their champion at the time, Alder. Nearly beat him at this "Junior Cup" tournament they do, prize was a special exhibition with him." Marie said.
"Some little girl named Iris is apparently the champion now, big Dragon type fan apparently. Anyway, I looked around and apparently the Don George family love to be secretive about anything in regard to registered trainers that compete in the club unless you're registered for competition." Keats explained.
"So, in other words... You found nothing." Marie said as Keats shook his head.
"I wouldn't say that. The clubs won't disclose any information about people competing in the club unless you're a member wanting to look for a combatant to specifically challenge. So, there's our lead, we go to the Battle Club then you or Adam sign up and we can hunt down one of your Pokémon!" Keats explained as he stood up as Marie raised an eyebrow.
"Good plan... Except for one thing." Marie said with her arms folded. "How are you expecting me or Adam to leave Ecruteak and our home in the middle of our jobs to go hunting down Pokémon thieves entirely on a hunch?" She asked as Keats bit his lip.
"...It's a good hunch..." Keats said in a whiny tone.
"Look, I'm happy you think you found something but me and Adam both got work to do taking care of other people's Pokémon and I can't exactly find time to go roaming around Unova Battle Clubs..." Marie said as she turned around and walked out of Keats's trailer with an annoyed Keats following her.
"Come on! This is the closest anybody has had in weeks finding a lead to your missing Pokémon!" Keats said as he walked behind his sister. "If they have your Pokémon in another region, the police here in town can't do anything about it." He said as Marie opened the backdoor.
"He's not wrong... Officer Jenny hasn't got back to us with anything." Marie thought, mentally agreeing with her brother as they both walked inside the house.
"What's up?" Adam said as he overheard what they said as he sat on the couch.
"Keats has an idea of where to start looking for my Pokémon but it would involve us having to drop everything we're doing right now and go to Unova to hassle Don George." Marie explained as Keats looked at his sister with frustration.
"Sounds like fun but I certainly can't go." Adam said as Marie looked at her brother.
"Told you so..." Marie said as Keats rolled his eyes.
"Come on! This is the one lead we've had in close to a month since her team got stolen and whatever else they took! It's better than nothing!" Keats exclaimed as Adam looked at Marie as she locked eyes with her husband.
"I'm sorry Keats, we can't go..." Adam said in an apologetic tone as Keats put his hands up and begun to scratch at his head in anger.
"Oh, for the love of- fine!" Keats said as he walked out of the house to the backyard. "If I'm the only one caring around here, then I'll go to Unova and find these jerks myself!" He exclaimed angrily as his shouting startled the Pokémon in the outside yard as he walked back to his trailer.
"...He feels guilty." Adam said as he looked at his wife as she just watched her brother stomp back to his small home on the property.
"I know..." Marie said with a quiet tone.
"Truth be told, he's acting a lot more driven than he has ever been before. It's almost admirable." Adam said as he scratched his neck.
"...I know..." Marie said with a tone of growing annoyance.
"I haven't actually fought in a battle in years and if you went, it'd be like you were starting from scratch. Now if Keats went, that would be a sight to see... Twenty-three years old and never even had a starter to-" Adam said as he rubbed his chin before Marie spoke up.
"Shut up Adam!" Marie said with anger in her voice.
"Okay! Jeez..." Adam said defensively. "What are you so angered about?" He questioned as she walked over to her husband and sat down next to him.
"Because these past few weeks, I've been forced to pretend that everything's okay when my Pokémon are in the hands of some random jerks and my brother with no history of being a trainer wants to be the one to chase them down." Marie said as Adam looked at her.
"Well, he's an adult and he's planning to head to another region to try and find your Pokémon that he feels was his fault for losing. What'cha gonna do?" Adam asked as Marie looked at the backyard from the couch before standing up from the couch, walking over to the hallway and into one of the backrooms. "And I think the Magnemites in her brain are using "Thunderbolt."' He thought as he watched his wife with a raised eyebrow.
"...He's gonna need a Pokémon... And a Pokédex..." Marie said as she walked back into the room with a Pokéball in her hand. "But figuring out how to raise it is going to be his problem..." She said as she looked outside at all the Pokémon in the yard.
"...Want me to contact Prof. Elm for a regular model Pokédex or dip into the savings and get him a "special one?"' Adam said as he stood up as Marie walked over to the backyard.
"Get him a "special one..." He's going to need all the help he can get." Marie said as she opened the backdoor. "Husky jerk is going to owe me big time for this..." She thought with aggravation as she walked into the past the Pokémon playing in the yard to the trees past the ranch's fencing.
Any kind of lead is a positive and even though it may seem like a wild Yungoos chase, Keats believes he can track down one of the thieves who has taken possession of one of his sister's former championship winning team. With no ability to assist him, Marie and Adam watch as Keats prepares to go to the Unova region and search for clues within the Don George Battle Club circuit. Preparing a Pokéball and a "special" Pokédex for him, Marie is planning to get him a Pokémon to use, despite having no prior history of taking care of a Pokémon. What will be this Pokémon? What will Keats do the moment he arrives in Unova? Are the thieves actually there? Find out next time on "Wannabe!"
To Be Continued...
