Chapter 72: A Girl's Best Friend

It was morning in Vermillion City, and the sun was just beginning to rise over the hills. In the Cerise Laboratory, its research assistants were fast asleep. Chloe lay in bed, Yamper lying at the foot of her bed ready to protect her. Everything was quiet, until…

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

Immediately, everyone was awake and rushing to the source of the noise. There they found Professor Cerise, frantically searching his computer.

"No, no, no! This can't be happening!"

"Dad, what's wrong?"

"Someone broke in here and stole important files from my computer!"

This got everyone on edge immediately.

"What'd they steal? It wasn't anything about Dragonite Island, was it?"

"No, but over half of the data is now missing! Data about Pokemon diets, habitats, gender differences, gone!"

While the Professor ran off to call the police, the four teens tried to make sense of the situation.

"I don't get it, why would anyone steal those files?"

"My guess is they were hoping to find some big discovery dad was sitting on and sell it for money. And if they were able to do it once, odds are they'll do it again!"

"We've got to do something!"

"Let's check the security footage. Maybe that'll help us find the thief."

"Right!"

Unfortunately, the surveillance video proved to not be as helpful as they thought. While it did show the thief, the perp had been smart enough to completely conceal their face. All they could make out was that the person was short, and even that wouldn't help them solve the case.

"Well, that taught us nothing."

"Now what do we do?"

"As much as I hate to admit it, there's nothing else we really can do. We'll just have to hope Officer Jenny can catch them."

WIth no other leads to go on, the quartet went their separate ways, hoping that things would resolve themselves.

Later that night, Chloe was just getting ready for bed. Yamper was sitting at the foot of her bed, head down worriedly. Taking note of her pet's sudden change in mood, Chloe sat down next to him.

"What's wrong, boy?

"Yamp."

"Oh, you're worried that whoever broke in last night is going to do it again, aren't you?"

Yamper nodded, whimpering. Chloe gently scooped him up into her arms and hugged him.

"Don't worry buddy. Officer Jenny promised to keep an eye on the building, she'll catch them."

But Yamper still seemed upset.

"But I bet if you caught them, you'd make them regret breaking into here! You're the best guard Pokemon we have!"

Yamper smiled, and licked Chloe's face, feeling much more relieved.

"You're welcome. Now come on, let's get some rest."

Just as they were about too, however, a loud crash was heard from elsewhere in the lab.

"What was that? Come on Yamper, let's go check it out!"

"Yamp!"

The two took off towards the source of the noise, straight towards the records room. When they got there, they found their thief about to insert a thumb drive into the main computer.

"Hey you, stop!"

The thief jumped, scrambling to his feet.

"What do you think you're doing?"

"Making a quick buck. Go, Kecleon!"

While Kecleon acted as a distraction, he made his getaway. Chloe tried to give chase, but the Kecleon blocked her way.

"Fine, guess we're doing this. Go, Eev-"

"Yamp! Yamp!"

"What is it, Yamper? Do you want to battle?"

Yamper growled protectively, nodding.

"Alright then, use Spark!"

Yamper barked, charging as a glowing ball of light. Kecleo went in for a Sucker Punch, but his attack barely fazed Yamper, while Yamper's attack knocked him off his feet.

"Now use Nuzzle!"

Kecleon tried to get up, but Yamper held him down and rubbed his cheek against itt paralyzing it.

"That takes care of that, now let's track down that thief!"

"Yamper!"

Fortunately, the thief hadn't managed to get very far, only managing to make it as far as the city park before Chloe and Yamper caught up to him.

"There you are! Get him, Yamper!"

Yamper jumped, biting into the thief's leg and causing them to drop to the ground with a yelp. Before he could throw Yamper off him, Chloe was quick to grab him and haul him to his feet.

"Alright buddy, you have some explaining to do!"

"I can explain! I was just-"

"Tell it to Officer Jenny!"

When she reached the lab, she found Ash, Lillie, Goh, Professor Cerise, and Officer Jenny waiting for her, eyes wide with amazement.

"You did it, Chloe!"
"Way to go!"

"That's my girl!"

Officer Jenny approached, ready to rip off the thief's ski mask.

"Now let's see who's really behind the mask!"

When Professor Cerise saw who was underneath the mask, he was very surprised, though this quickly changed to anger.

"Gizmo Bit?"

"You know this kid, dad?"

"Kid? I'm 23! I'm just short for my age."

"Unfortunately, yes. I hired him to do systems surveillance, but he kept trying to push me to pay for more expensive anti-theft software that he had created. He's a genius, but the software was too amateur, so I declined. He wouldn't take no for an answer, so I had to fire him. But stealing from me? I never thought you'd stoop that low."

"I was only stealing to prove my point! I would've given them back once I proved to you how good my software was! And I would've gotten away with it too, if it wasn't for your meddling daughter and her stupid mutt!"

Yamper growled, making Gizmo flinch. Professor Cerise, just wanting this mess to be over with, felt merciful.

"Just hand over everything you stole and I won't press charges."

Gizmo grumbled, but compiled before being taken away, allowing everyone to breathe a sigh of relief.

"Seriously Chlo, that was amazing!"

"Thanks, but Yamper's the one who deserves the credit. He's the reason I even managed to stop him."

"Nonsense! You're the one who took charge. You and Yamper make a pretty good team."

Chloe thought for a minute, looking down at Yamper's eager face. Then, she made a decision, bending down and looking Yamper right in the eyes.

"Yamper, would you like to join my team?"

Yamper barked affirmatively, giving Chloe a big lick, making her smile.

"Alright then, welcome abroad!"

Taking out an empty Pokeball, she lightly tapped Yamper on the forehead, the puppy allowing himself to be absorbed before the ball clicked. The minute the capture was successful, Yamper burst out of his Pokeball and jumped into Chloe's arms. Chloe smiled, and held him close.

"You and I will make a great team, Yamper."

"Yamp!"