Chapter Four
“New Bark’s Newest… Theft!?”

The sun was now directly over the traveling duo’s heads as they walked. There was a dirt path under their feet, and there were patches of tall grass, knee-high ledges, and trees surrounding the pathway they walked. It was a peaceful scene, with the gentle breeze, the rustle of the tall grass, Ethan’s shouts at Cyon… Wait, what?

“Cyon, come on! You can’t be quiet forever!”

He kept pace with her, trying to get a response out of the amber-eyed Trainer. Cyon simply brushed off Ethan’s continual nagging as she walked, refusing to acknowledge his repeated attempts to make her respond. She didn’t even look towards him as she walked. 

Ethan threw his hands up, exasperated at Cyon’s attitude. “Cyon, think about it! Do I look like a floating blue cat to you?”

Cyon stopped. Ethan had fallen behind her and was unable to read her expression. She inhaled, as if she was about to say something, then went silent. Wait… Was she cracking up?

Ethan was bewildered by this sudden development. “What? Did I say something funny? It’s a real question!”

Cyon was trying to stay angry, but couldn’t. The mixture of emotions was making it impossible to speak clearly, and anything she could say sounded ridiculous with the unique tone this clash of emotions created. It was reminiscent of a young child who wants to stay angry but is trying not to laugh at a joke on the TV.

Despite not knowing what Cyon was laughing at, Ethan started to laugh too. This shut down any hopes of her retaining her silent treatment, though it would have sufficed if it was just her laughing alone.

After a good amount of time spent laughing, she gave Ethan a playful nudge. “Yeah! You do look like a floating blue cat!” There was humor in her tone, and all signs of the cold shoulder she had been giving just a few minutes ago had completely vanished. “You know that question was an invitation for that reply!”

Ethan smiled, wiping a tear of laughter from his eye. “Of course you’d respond with that!” 

The two started to joke with each other, giving each other nudges and the like as they did. It was already as if nothing had happened in the first place. 

After a bit longer of this, Cyon, still with a giant grin, offered, “Hey, wanna see something?” 

Ethan had the same huge grin. “Yeah! What is it?”

Cyon excitedly said, “Watch this!” And then seemed to disappear into thin air. 

Ethan looked around. “Huh. I want to try!” 

All he got was silence for a response. He started to walk around, hoping to bump heads with Cyon. But, there was still no sign of her. 

Ethan knew exactly how to get her out of hiding. He quickly checked his Pokégear, which read 12:37, before stating rather loudly, “Well, looks like I’m heading to get food then! Man, Cyon would totally want some sweets. Looks like they are all mine!”

He was just about to feign walking off before 96 pounds of midget landed on top of him, knocking him to the ground. “Oof!”

He looked up to see what had fallen on top of him. Unsurprisingly, there was Cyon, who was laughing at how the trick had gone over. He started to laugh too, but this laughter was quickly interrupted by the sounds of both Trainer’s Pokégears ringing. 

Cyon quickly stood up and pressed the button to answer the call, seeing that it was from the Professor. She could hear crashing and glass breaking through the strange static noise and audio cuts. The Professor tried to speak to the two, but all that came through was panicked snippets of his voice. ”-job..! ...ack! Quick-!”

The transmission then ended. Cyon looked at the reception on her Pokégear, only to find that it was almost perfect. Her voice changed to a serious tone. “We’ve gotta get back, and quick.”

Ethan nodded, and the two zoomed off towards the laboratory, taking a much faster route than the one they had taken before, as they weren’t going on the ‘shortcut’ route Ethan had thought he found on the map just the previous day. 

The world around her seemed to shift into a blur. She felt the wind against her face, whipping her long hair behind her. She leapt over bushes and ledges, refusing to let small roadblocks hinder her rush. Alpha was an orange and black blur beside her, and the two were in perfect step once again, as if they did this daily.

I hope we can be fast enough. If it’s Team Rocket, the Professor might be in even worse trouble. She grimaced as an image of people uniformed in black smiling as they ravaged buildings, attacked innocents, and kidnapped innocent Pokémon flashed through her mind. I can’t think about that now. I just have to focus on getting the-

Her thought train was interrupted as she slammed into someone who pushed her backward onto the dirt path below. She quickly jumped to her feet and glared at the person who had stood in her way. “Hey! Watch it!” She snapped.

The person was a red-haired male with sharp silver eyes. He seemed to radiate a rude, snippy aura. He glared back and countered, “Watch where YOU’RE going, weakling!”

Cyon’s glare seemed to sharpen even more. If looks could kill, she’d have caused an extinction by now. “Weakling? Are you sure about that, or do you want to test it?” She cracked her knuckles, not breaking her glare.

The male just rolled his eyes and turned around, starting to walk off. “You aren’t worth my time,” was his remark. 

Cyon grabbed him by the collar, making a soft growling noise at the back of her throat. “No. You’re not going without a fight,” she snarled. 

She felt a Murkrow’s talon grip the arm she was using to hold the male. The grip was extremely tight and quite painful, but she didn’t let it stop her. The male simply said, “Let go of me.” 

Cyon didn’t flinch. “No. You won’t insult me and just stroll off like that.”

The male sighed and swatted her hand away. “If you insist.” 

Alpha bounded up beside Cyon, snarling. The Murkrow squawked and attempted to peck Alpha on the head, but he was too quick, having already ducked out of the way. Alpha quickly used Flamethrower, but it only singed the tip of the Murkrow’s wing as it flew out of range and launched Air Slashes at Alpha. 

The two trainers dodged the Pokémon’s attacks as they flew past, keeping pace with the battle. One Air Slash nearly sliced Cyon’s shoulder as she dodged around. 

Alpha dodged the Air Slashes, continuing to fire Flamethrowers at the Murkrow. The Murkrow swooped downwards, about to go for a Fury Attack, seeing as Air Slash wasn’t working. Just as it was about to hit Alpha on the head, Alpha dodged and chomped down on the Murkrow’s body with Thunder Fang. The Murkrow let out a screech as Alpha threw it into the air and finished with a Flame Charge.

The male narrowed his eyes as he returned the Murkrow. “Whatever. Next time we meet, you won’t be so lucky.” He shoved his hands into his pockets and walked off.

Cyon grinned, her heart soaring at the victory. Alpha bounded up beside her, panting. As she knelt down to pet her Growlithe, she heard Ethan call to her: “You guys did pretty great! Come on! Let’s hurry back to the Lab!” 

. . . 

The two arrived at the lab, out of breath and exhausted from the dash they had taken. There were police cars around the lab with their lights flashing. One officer was talking to a disheveled-looking Professor Aspin. 

“So… All you saw were red eyes?” The officer asked.

The Professor nodded. “Yes. And the voice was definitely male. All I saw was black, and those blood-red eyes...”

Cyon and Ethan just waited, listening in to the questioning and gleaning details about the culprit and their actions. The culprit had broken down the door, and a tornado-like force seemed to destroy everything around. The culprit had said something about using the Pokémon as a weapon before seemingly vanishing in a flash of light.

Cyon had to plug her nose as she inched closer to the scene. She had always had a very acute sense of smell, and the scents here were overwhelming. 

After the officers left, the Professor started talking to himself as he re-entered the lab. “I’m going to lose my job… I can’t believe I let Cyndaquil get stolen….” He muttered as he closed the door. 

Cyon was the first of the two to speak. "From what I've gathered, I think that a little search for this thief is in order."

Ethan thought for a moment before saying, “Hey, that guy we fought had red eyes, and his Murkrow is black! Maybe he stole it!”

Cyon shook her head. "Maybe. But, If it was him, he woulda seen more red because of the hair, and that guy’s eyes were silver anyway. But, I could be..." She trailed off and yawned. All of the scents hit her: Spilled chemicals, the police officers and the scent of gasoline were all present, but the only scents that interested her were a sour, acrid stench she recognized all too well as Team Rocket’s, but, even more, a strange, almost indescribable variation of Ethan’s scent. 

Cyon stopped herself from showing any reaction to the scents, saying, “Whew… Sorry ‘bout that, I guess I’m tired from all that running.”

Ethan smiled at her. “Eh! It’s probably fine. If we hurry, we could try and make it to Violet by tomorrow morning!”

Cyon nodded. “Yeah, we should head that way.”

And with that, the two trainers set out towards Violet City once more.