The Berry Scandal
Mark and I walked south on Route 32 for a few hours, with Shinx in my arms. We walked in silence, just to enjoy the peacefulness around us. The Pidgeys were chirping, Bellsprouts communicated to each other, and a Nidorino tried to attract a Nidorina’s attention with a mating call. Eventually nightfall made us set up camp for the night. Charmander and I gathered firewood from fallen trees, in which Charmander used Metal Claw to cut them into burnable pieces. Once Charmander started the campfire, Mark and I prepared dinner, which was sausage and rice, which we cooked over the fire. The rice was a little dry, but the sausage was spectacular over the fire, mainly because I cooked them. My Aunt Cassie taught me all about cooking over a fire, so I had experience in this field.
Once dinner was cleaned up by Eevee’s Bouncy Bubble and Mark’s scrubbing of the mess kits, we enjoyed the heat of the campfire. Just Mark, me, and our Pokemon sat together, which we took all of them out of their Pokeballs. I’m guessing it was around midnight before we went to bed. I sat with Shinx and Eevee to make sure the fire went out before we left it unattended. As the fire burned out, the bushes began to rustle. We stared at it curiously. Then a Riolu and a Mudkip emerged from the bushes.
Both Pokemon stared curiously at us, until Shinx ran over to them and introduced himself. Riolu was shy at first, but Mudkip was happy to meet a new friend. Shinx, who no longer felt pain in his paw, hopped around them happily, and Mudkip followed Shinx’s lead, with Eevee joining in. Riolu just watched them play.
I looked at our campfire and noticed that the fire was out and all that was left were embers. “Eevee,” I called. “Can you put out the fire?”
Instead, Mudkip came over and dowsed them remains with a Water Gun. “Thanks buddy,” I said to Mudkip. It nudged up against me, and I decided to pet the Pokemon. Its skin was wet and slippery. But Mudkip loved it.
I yawned loudly. “Well, I’m off to bed. Come on Shinx. You too Eevee.” Shinx and Eevee hopped into the tent. As I was about to enter myself, Mudkip and Riolu looked at me with adorable, large eyes, as if begging to let them stay with me. Riolu shivered. I sighed. “Alright fine,” I said to them. “You can stay with us tonight.” Both Pokemon cheered and hopped into the tent with us.
The inside of the tent was very crowded. Five Pokemon and myself slept side by side, constantly touching each other due to little amount of space. We had to be careful of Charmander’s tail, because we didn’t want to burn the tent down. I fell asleep after about a few minutes.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I awoke to the Pidgeys chirping in the trees above us. I sat up. All my Pokemon were missing. I quickly got up and frantically stepped outside the tent. There I noticed Shinx, Eevee, Charmander, Riolu, and Mudkip all running around outside. I also noticed that they had taken a Pokeball from me and were playing catch with it. All 5 Pokemon looked up at me, and at that instant the Pokeball encapsulated Eevee because she wasn’t paying any attention to it and it had bounced off her head. I picked it up and released her from the ball. She put her head down, lowering her ears, thinking she had done something wrong. The other Pokemon did the same.
“You guys didn’t do anything wrong,” I told them. I sat on the grass. I picked up the Pokeball and tossed it into the air, trying to initiate a new game. Instead they all charged at me. “Oh no,” I said and I laid down to protect my face from them. They all tackled me and began to hug and cuddle me affectionately. I began to laugh as Shinx and Eevee licked my face.
Eventually we all laid on the grass together, including Mudkip and Riolu. I sat up once more. “Riolu. Mudkip. How would you like to join me on my journey? My friend Mark and I are traveling the Johto region collecting gym badges. How does that sound?”
They leaped up in excitement. Mudkip tried to do a backflip but landed on his back instead. I scooped him up and brushed him off.
At last the other tent unzipped and Mark emerged from it. He looked around, then noticed me with a bunch of Pokemon. “Good morning Dimrill,” he said cheerfully. “Where did the other Pokemon come from?”
“They were wild, but I apparently tamed them and now they are going to accompany us on our journey,” I responded. “How does that sound?”
Mark gave me a thumbs-up. “Sounds good to me,” he said. So we began to break down camp, with the help of my new Pokemon. After about a half an hour or so, Mark and I picked up our bags and were about to set off when I remembered something.
I turned to Riolu and Mudkip. “The law in Johto is that only one Pokemon can be out of its Pokeball per trainer, so you both will have to go inside one of mine. Is that okay?” I asked them. Both Pokemon leaped up in excitement, so I pulled out two Pokeballs and encapsulated them into their own Pokeballs. I stood up and turned to Mark. “Now I’m ready,” I said.
We walked south for about an hour or so until we came upon a giant cement post rising about 50 feet out of the ground. It was supporting the trans-regional monorail, traveling from Goldenrod City in Johto to Saffron City in Kanto. It was built about 20 years ago. But enough about the monorail.
We stared up at it in amazement. “Wouldn’t it be cool to ride that someday?” I asked Mark.
“Yeah,” he responded. The moment was great. Both of us stared at the tracks in wonder, but we were interrupted by some Pokemon about 20 feet from us running away from something in fear. I approached them.
“Hold on everyone!” I tried to get their attention. “What’s wrong?” They ignored me and ran away. I addressed Mark. “Let’s see what scared them,” I said to him.
So the two of us backtracked the Pokemons’ path to a grove of Sitrus Berries. Amongst them were 3 people in black jumpsuits. Team Moon was back. And they were stealing all the berries for themselves.
So let me explain something real quick. The “common courtesy” of berries is this: when you find a tree with Pokemon berries, you should only take about 2 and leave the rest for others to find. It also gives the trees a chance to regrow the berries you picked. It’s also a source of food for wild Pokemon. So we couldn’t just let them take all of the berries. So Mark and I approached them.
“You know,” I said. “You should really only take a few and leave the rest for others.” The three people jumped and turned around. There were 3 women, two with blond hair and one with short ginger hair.
“You know you should really mind your own business,” the ginger one remarked. “We’re not bothering you, and you need not to bother us.”
I sighed. “Let me guess. You’re taking all the berries so you can sell them for a full profit because all you guys want is money. Am I right?”
The ginger one responded, “And what are you going to do about it? Battle us, knowing that you’ll lose?”
I released my Pokemon. Shinx leaped off my shoulder, and from the Pokeballs came Charmander, Eevee, Mudkip, and Riolu. Mark sent out his Pokemon - Butterfree, Zubat (who sparkled when he emerged from the ball), and Mareep.
Team Moon surprised me with their own powerful Pokemon - Arcanine, Mightyena, Dusclops, Rhyhorn, Muk, Hariyama, and Magneton. I honestly didn’t know if we stood a chance against these Pokemon. But just as the battle was about to begin, a Pidgeotto flew into the battle, carrying a Bulbasaur and an Alolan Vulpix. Everyone was startled by this appearance, as Pokemon of these types usually didn’t team up unless they were with a trainer. Right on cue, a Ponyta rode by and stopped by our side. Riding it was a girl, around my age, with a short brown braid down her right shoulder, wearing a purple sweater and blue jeans. She wore a necklace with a weird symbol on it and had a rainbow background. She got off the Ponyta and turned to Mark and I.
“Well,” she said. “Aren’t we gonna take down these people?”
I realized I had been staring the whole time. I shook it off and said, “Let’s do it.”
The Pokemon from both sides charged at each other. Once they clashed, fighting had gone on all around us. Vulpix and Bulbasaur flanked Rhyhorn, blasting it with leaves and ice. Charmander took on Magneton. Eevee attacked Hariyama and, being light and quick, avoided its attacks. Shinx and Riolu worked together to take down Mightyena. Butterfree and Zubat attacked Muk. Pidgeotto used its Normal-type advantage against Dusclops, making sure it didn’t hit any of its new friends. Mareep and Mudkip took on Arcanine.
Vulpix and Bulbasaur defeated the Rhyhorn easily. After being hit from both sides, Rhyhorn didn’t know who to attack first, and eventually the attacks caused it to faint.
Charmander had a little trouble taking on Magneton. Despite being a type disadvantage, Magneton put up a good fight. Charmander used Flamethrower directly at Magneton, who backed up out of range and shot a Spark attack, which knocked Charmander back. Charmander redeemed himself by shooting Ember after Ember at Magneton, and eventually Magneton couldn’t take the heat and passed out.
Eevee used it’s signature moves to defeat Hariyama. First she set up with a Baddy Bad, which dealt a little damage and boosted her defense. Then after dodging an Arm Thrust, she blasted Hariyama with a Glitzy Glow and finished it off with a new move, Sparkly Swirl. A swirl if pink energy rose up above Eevee, growing in size. After a battle cry, Eevee blasted Hariyama, knocking it out.
Shinx and Riolu learned teamwork very quickly. Riolu couldn’t get close to Mightyena to do any damage without being hurt, so Shinx charged up a Spark attack, shot it at Riolu, and Riolu Countered the Spark and shot it at Mightyena with double power, knocking out Mightyena.
I wasn’t watching the attacks on Muk and Dusclops, but Mareep and Mudkip’s battle was nice and quick. Mareep started the fight off with a Thunder Wave, paralyzing Arcanine. Mudkip blasted Arcanine in the face with water. Arcanine countered with a Heat Wave, which nearly knocked out Mareep. Mudkip used Mud-Slap, lowering Arcanine’s accuracy to protect Mareep from another hit Once Mudkip and Mareep combined their elemental attacks, Arcanine at last fainted from damage.
Team Moon was flabbergasted. “How the heck did we lose to weaklings like you?” the blond one on the right said.
We returned our Pokemon to their Pokeballs (except Shinx). “Let this end, now,” the girl said to the grunts.
The ginger woman growled, and the three ladies pushed their way past us and were gone.
The girl with the braid turned to us and held out her hand. “Hi, I’m Jenny. Nice to meet you,” she said cheerfully. I shook her hand. “And your name is ... “
“Oh,” I said. “I’m Dimrill. And this is Mark. We’re traveling Johto collecting badges. How about you?”
“I was visiting my Uncle Ralph here in Route 32. I’m heading back home to Azalea Town. Where are you headed?”
Mark answered,” We’re heading there too. Mind if we tag along?”
“Sure. I could always use some company,” she responded. So the three of us headed south on Route 32 for about 20 minutes until we reached the Pokemon Center just outside the entrance to Union Cave. We went up to the main desk, surrendered our Pokemon, and, after their health was restored, we approached the entrance to Union Cave.
“Are you boys ready for Union Cave?” Jenny asked us. “It’s the only way to Azalea Town. Besides by sea of course.”
I looked at Shinx, who was sitting on my shoulder. “Are you ready buddy?”
“Shiiiiiinx!” he cried, confirming his excitement for a new adventure. Jenny pet Shinx’s head with her hand.
The three of us stepped into the cave together.
Mark and I walked south on Route 32 for a few hours, with Shinx in my arms. We walked in silence, just to enjoy the peacefulness around us. The Pidgeys were chirping, Bellsprouts communicated to each other, and a Nidorino tried to attract a Nidorina’s attention with a mating call. Eventually nightfall made us set up camp for the night. Charmander and I gathered firewood from fallen trees, in which Charmander used Metal Claw to cut them into burnable pieces. Once Charmander started the campfire, Mark and I prepared dinner, which was sausage and rice, which we cooked over the fire. The rice was a little dry, but the sausage was spectacular over the fire, mainly because I cooked them. My Aunt Cassie taught me all about cooking over a fire, so I had experience in this field.
Once dinner was cleaned up by Eevee’s Bouncy Bubble and Mark’s scrubbing of the mess kits, we enjoyed the heat of the campfire. Just Mark, me, and our Pokemon sat together, which we took all of them out of their Pokeballs. I’m guessing it was around midnight before we went to bed. I sat with Shinx and Eevee to make sure the fire went out before we left it unattended. As the fire burned out, the bushes began to rustle. We stared at it curiously. Then a Riolu and a Mudkip emerged from the bushes.
Both Pokemon stared curiously at us, until Shinx ran over to them and introduced himself. Riolu was shy at first, but Mudkip was happy to meet a new friend. Shinx, who no longer felt pain in his paw, hopped around them happily, and Mudkip followed Shinx’s lead, with Eevee joining in. Riolu just watched them play.
I looked at our campfire and noticed that the fire was out and all that was left were embers. “Eevee,” I called. “Can you put out the fire?”
Instead, Mudkip came over and dowsed them remains with a Water Gun. “Thanks buddy,” I said to Mudkip. It nudged up against me, and I decided to pet the Pokemon. Its skin was wet and slippery. But Mudkip loved it.
I yawned loudly. “Well, I’m off to bed. Come on Shinx. You too Eevee.” Shinx and Eevee hopped into the tent. As I was about to enter myself, Mudkip and Riolu looked at me with adorable, large eyes, as if begging to let them stay with me. Riolu shivered. I sighed. “Alright fine,” I said to them. “You can stay with us tonight.” Both Pokemon cheered and hopped into the tent with us.
The inside of the tent was very crowded. Five Pokemon and myself slept side by side, constantly touching each other due to little amount of space. We had to be careful of Charmander’s tail, because we didn’t want to burn the tent down. I fell asleep after about a few minutes.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I awoke to the Pidgeys chirping in the trees above us. I sat up. All my Pokemon were missing. I quickly got up and frantically stepped outside the tent. There I noticed Shinx, Eevee, Charmander, Riolu, and Mudkip all running around outside. I also noticed that they had taken a Pokeball from me and were playing catch with it. All 5 Pokemon looked up at me, and at that instant the Pokeball encapsulated Eevee because she wasn’t paying any attention to it and it had bounced off her head. I picked it up and released her from the ball. She put her head down, lowering her ears, thinking she had done something wrong. The other Pokemon did the same.
“You guys didn’t do anything wrong,” I told them. I sat on the grass. I picked up the Pokeball and tossed it into the air, trying to initiate a new game. Instead they all charged at me. “Oh no,” I said and I laid down to protect my face from them. They all tackled me and began to hug and cuddle me affectionately. I began to laugh as Shinx and Eevee licked my face.
Eventually we all laid on the grass together, including Mudkip and Riolu. I sat up once more. “Riolu. Mudkip. How would you like to join me on my journey? My friend Mark and I are traveling the Johto region collecting gym badges. How does that sound?”
They leaped up in excitement. Mudkip tried to do a backflip but landed on his back instead. I scooped him up and brushed him off.
At last the other tent unzipped and Mark emerged from it. He looked around, then noticed me with a bunch of Pokemon. “Good morning Dimrill,” he said cheerfully. “Where did the other Pokemon come from?”
“They were wild, but I apparently tamed them and now they are going to accompany us on our journey,” I responded. “How does that sound?”
Mark gave me a thumbs-up. “Sounds good to me,” he said. So we began to break down camp, with the help of my new Pokemon. After about a half an hour or so, Mark and I picked up our bags and were about to set off when I remembered something.
I turned to Riolu and Mudkip. “The law in Johto is that only one Pokemon can be out of its Pokeball per trainer, so you both will have to go inside one of mine. Is that okay?” I asked them. Both Pokemon leaped up in excitement, so I pulled out two Pokeballs and encapsulated them into their own Pokeballs. I stood up and turned to Mark. “Now I’m ready,” I said.
We walked south for about an hour or so until we came upon a giant cement post rising about 50 feet out of the ground. It was supporting the trans-regional monorail, traveling from Goldenrod City in Johto to Saffron City in Kanto. It was built about 20 years ago. But enough about the monorail.
We stared up at it in amazement. “Wouldn’t it be cool to ride that someday?” I asked Mark.
“Yeah,” he responded. The moment was great. Both of us stared at the tracks in wonder, but we were interrupted by some Pokemon about 20 feet from us running away from something in fear. I approached them.
“Hold on everyone!” I tried to get their attention. “What’s wrong?” They ignored me and ran away. I addressed Mark. “Let’s see what scared them,” I said to him.
So the two of us backtracked the Pokemons’ path to a grove of Sitrus Berries. Amongst them were 3 people in black jumpsuits. Team Moon was back. And they were stealing all the berries for themselves.
So let me explain something real quick. The “common courtesy” of berries is this: when you find a tree with Pokemon berries, you should only take about 2 and leave the rest for others to find. It also gives the trees a chance to regrow the berries you picked. It’s also a source of food for wild Pokemon. So we couldn’t just let them take all of the berries. So Mark and I approached them.
“You know,” I said. “You should really only take a few and leave the rest for others.” The three people jumped and turned around. There were 3 women, two with blond hair and one with short ginger hair.
“You know you should really mind your own business,” the ginger one remarked. “We’re not bothering you, and you need not to bother us.”
I sighed. “Let me guess. You’re taking all the berries so you can sell them for a full profit because all you guys want is money. Am I right?”
The ginger one responded, “And what are you going to do about it? Battle us, knowing that you’ll lose?”
I released my Pokemon. Shinx leaped off my shoulder, and from the Pokeballs came Charmander, Eevee, Mudkip, and Riolu. Mark sent out his Pokemon - Butterfree, Zubat (who sparkled when he emerged from the ball), and Mareep.
Team Moon surprised me with their own powerful Pokemon - Arcanine, Mightyena, Dusclops, Rhyhorn, Muk, Hariyama, and Magneton. I honestly didn’t know if we stood a chance against these Pokemon. But just as the battle was about to begin, a Pidgeotto flew into the battle, carrying a Bulbasaur and an Alolan Vulpix. Everyone was startled by this appearance, as Pokemon of these types usually didn’t team up unless they were with a trainer. Right on cue, a Ponyta rode by and stopped by our side. Riding it was a girl, around my age, with a short brown braid down her right shoulder, wearing a purple sweater and blue jeans. She wore a necklace with a weird symbol on it and had a rainbow background. She got off the Ponyta and turned to Mark and I.
“Well,” she said. “Aren’t we gonna take down these people?”
I realized I had been staring the whole time. I shook it off and said, “Let’s do it.”
The Pokemon from both sides charged at each other. Once they clashed, fighting had gone on all around us. Vulpix and Bulbasaur flanked Rhyhorn, blasting it with leaves and ice. Charmander took on Magneton. Eevee attacked Hariyama and, being light and quick, avoided its attacks. Shinx and Riolu worked together to take down Mightyena. Butterfree and Zubat attacked Muk. Pidgeotto used its Normal-type advantage against Dusclops, making sure it didn’t hit any of its new friends. Mareep and Mudkip took on Arcanine.
Vulpix and Bulbasaur defeated the Rhyhorn easily. After being hit from both sides, Rhyhorn didn’t know who to attack first, and eventually the attacks caused it to faint.
Charmander had a little trouble taking on Magneton. Despite being a type disadvantage, Magneton put up a good fight. Charmander used Flamethrower directly at Magneton, who backed up out of range and shot a Spark attack, which knocked Charmander back. Charmander redeemed himself by shooting Ember after Ember at Magneton, and eventually Magneton couldn’t take the heat and passed out.
Eevee used it’s signature moves to defeat Hariyama. First she set up with a Baddy Bad, which dealt a little damage and boosted her defense. Then after dodging an Arm Thrust, she blasted Hariyama with a Glitzy Glow and finished it off with a new move, Sparkly Swirl. A swirl if pink energy rose up above Eevee, growing in size. After a battle cry, Eevee blasted Hariyama, knocking it out.
Shinx and Riolu learned teamwork very quickly. Riolu couldn’t get close to Mightyena to do any damage without being hurt, so Shinx charged up a Spark attack, shot it at Riolu, and Riolu Countered the Spark and shot it at Mightyena with double power, knocking out Mightyena.
I wasn’t watching the attacks on Muk and Dusclops, but Mareep and Mudkip’s battle was nice and quick. Mareep started the fight off with a Thunder Wave, paralyzing Arcanine. Mudkip blasted Arcanine in the face with water. Arcanine countered with a Heat Wave, which nearly knocked out Mareep. Mudkip used Mud-Slap, lowering Arcanine’s accuracy to protect Mareep from another hit Once Mudkip and Mareep combined their elemental attacks, Arcanine at last fainted from damage.
Team Moon was flabbergasted. “How the heck did we lose to weaklings like you?” the blond one on the right said.
We returned our Pokemon to their Pokeballs (except Shinx). “Let this end, now,” the girl said to the grunts.
The ginger woman growled, and the three ladies pushed their way past us and were gone.
The girl with the braid turned to us and held out her hand. “Hi, I’m Jenny. Nice to meet you,” she said cheerfully. I shook her hand. “And your name is ... “
“Oh,” I said. “I’m Dimrill. And this is Mark. We’re traveling Johto collecting badges. How about you?”
“I was visiting my Uncle Ralph here in Route 32. I’m heading back home to Azalea Town. Where are you headed?”
Mark answered,” We’re heading there too. Mind if we tag along?”
“Sure. I could always use some company,” she responded. So the three of us headed south on Route 32 for about 20 minutes until we reached the Pokemon Center just outside the entrance to Union Cave. We went up to the main desk, surrendered our Pokemon, and, after their health was restored, we approached the entrance to Union Cave.
“Are you boys ready for Union Cave?” Jenny asked us. “It’s the only way to Azalea Town. Besides by sea of course.”
I looked at Shinx, who was sitting on my shoulder. “Are you ready buddy?”
“Shiiiiiinx!” he cried, confirming his excitement for a new adventure. Jenny pet Shinx’s head with her hand.
The three of us stepped into the cave together.