Ethan was kneading a fresh batch of dough for his upcoming experiment. When it came to cooking, Ethan knew that he wasn’t a chef. His meals were often basic; A salad, a fruit salad, a berry salad, rice and veggies… He needed to start making some real dishes, and there was no better time to start than when you had company!

  It’d been two hours since he’d left Emily near her tent with Sunkern, and he was expecting them to pop by anytime now to join him for dinner. Today, he was aiming to make a pizza! Well, many pizzas for all his pokemon, but to make a pizza, one needed cheese—an ingredient he did not have.

  This is where Smeargle’s ever helpful Teleport came into play.

  “Smeargle, you ready?” Ethan shouted from the kitchen as he finished kneading his dough, covering it with a towel.

  “Smear-Smeargle!” The shouted reply was followed by several soft and light footsteps, then the sight of his friend as he peaked around the corner with a thumbs up.

  Ethan wiped his hands down with a damp rag as he spoke carefully to his friend. “Remember, if they don’t want to sell to you, you go straight to Joyce at the Pokemon Center and ask for her help, okay?”

  Now, with dry and clean hands, Ethan handed over his trainer ID card—the card that functioned as his debit card, as well as proof of his existence. Smeargle grasped one end, but Ethan didn’t let go immediately. “Do not lose this. This is very important, okay?”

  “Smear.” Smeargle nodded with sincerity, and Ethan finally let go of his end.

  “And do not buy random stuff. I’ve seen your shopping carts online.” Ethan squinted, earning a sheepish smile in return.

  “Now, be careful—”

  The sound of his front door opening cut off his heartfelt warning. Entering through the door was Munchlax, who first peaked his head inside to make sure he wasn’t going to get in trouble for his earlier mishap. Seeing that Ethan wasn’t mad, Munchlax fully opened the door and led a very nervous Emily inside. In her arms, a now awake and bleary-eyed Sunkern gazed about in curiosity.

  Emily took only a few steps inside, barely entering his home before her eyes caught on a few of his pokemon hanging out around the kitchen table and living room. Chatot was watching videos on his laptop while both Teddiursa and their mom were hanging out in the living room. Skiddo had been moved onto the kitchen table itself, still dozing off without a care in the world.

  The damn goat slept more than a Snorlax.

  Ethan caught the exact moment Sunkern’s eyes landed on Ursaring. The little seedling pokemon’s eyes widened and the little sprout on the top of its head began to shake out of fear. “Sunkern.” Ethan’s stern, yet calm voice caused the little pokemon to look his way. “She’s not going to hurt you.”

  “Now,” Ethan turned back to Smeargle. “As I was saying, be careful. If you feel unsafe for any reason, you teleport right back home. Okay?”

  Smeargle nodded as he hugged his tail to his chest. “Great, my bag is on my bed. Take it with you.”

  As Smeargle jogged through his small home to collect Ethan’s Silph Co bag, Ethan finally spoke to his guest. “Feel free to take a seat Emily. Dinner is still a way off sadly. Smeargle is going to fetch some ingredients from Eterna City.”

  “Actually… Can I just go with him? You said he could teleport us…?” Emily asked.

  Ethan stilled, caught off guard. He’d just helped her set-up her tent for her stay not that long ago. “But, your tent? Dinner?”

  “I—We changed our mind. We’d just like to go….” She looked dejected and apologetic, but sincere all the same.

  It looked like he was eating his pizza with the usuals tonight.

  “Okay.” Ethan said before yelling out. “Smeargle, you have passengers!”

  “Smear-Smear!”

  —----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  Ethan paced through his home, eyes darting to his phone every so often to check the time as his pokemon sat around and watched him with varying amounts of worry. “It’s been too long. Surely he should have been back by now?”

  It’d been two hours since Smeargle teleported to Eterna City to pick up some ingredients and to drop Emily off, and he hadn’t returned. It was approaching seven o’clock, much later than their usual dinner times and Smeargle would have known that he was late. His painter pokemon was a spender, and maybe a hoarder when it came to his stuff, but he wasn’t one to make people wait on him or get into trouble. Something had to be wrong.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  With a few simple taps, Ethan called Joyce—something he didn’t really want to do, as he knew she was aware of his current issues with Jocelyn and that she was also maybe a part of the blame.

  “Ethan?” Joyce barely got his name out before Ethan word-vomited. “I sent Smeargle into the city for some shopping and to drop off a visitor. It’s been two hours, and he hasn’t returned. I told him to go to you if he had any trouble, did he stop by?”

  “No? Smeargle hasn’t come to the Pokemon Center, but isn’t that a good thing? He would come over if he was having issues. Maybe he’s just taking longer than expected? It’s only been two hours. Isn’t it a little too soon to be worrying?”

  Ethan understood the sound logic. It hadn’t been that long in the grand scheme of things and maybe Smeargle was exploring a bit or having trouble finding stores… but he knew something was wrong. “No… No, Something is wrong. I know it. I don’t know how, but I know. Can you help? Ask around or something?”

  “I’ll see what I can do, Ethan. Just calm down. I’m sure everything is okay.” Joyce tried to reassure him, but the foreign, terrible feeling worming its way through his heart only worsened.

  Ethan immediately hung up the phone and dialed Looker as he began gathering his things. Before Looker could even say a word, Ethan got to the chase. “I need you to send over a teleporter to my ranch to take me to Eterna City, right now.”

  Much to his relief, Looker didn’t even hesitate. “An Alakazam will be there within a minute. What's happening?”

  “I sent Smeargle to Eterna City to pick up groceries two hours ago, and he never came back. Something is wrong, there’s a feeling in my chest and I don’t know what it is. It’s—I—I don’t know how I know, but something bad is happening.” Ethan explained as five of his pokemon immediately lined up in the kitchen, waiting to be recalled into their pokeballs for the emergency trip. He didn’t even speak a word to them, yet they knew that this was serious.

  Chatot, Pachirisu, Munchlax, Tinkatink, and Ursaring were willing and waiting, grim faced and determined—all joviality lost. Ethan recalled them as he opened his pokeball safe to his final item for the trip. Ethan swiftly loaded the item before tucking it behind his back and onto his waist—a very unsafe practice, but he didn’t have time to sort out something better.

  Immediately afterward, he opened his front door to wait for the incoming Alakazam, only to find Meowth standing in front of his home with Jessie and James, wearing an awful grimace. “What the heck is goin’ on?” Meowth asked, confused and alarmed all the same.

  Ethan hopped down his stairs with haste as he ran a hand over his pokeballs. “Smeargle is in trouble. You guys wanna come along as backup?”

  They all shared a look, a silent conversation passing in less than a second. Jessie was the one who spoke first. “Call it, Meowth.” She put the decision into Meowth’s hands.

  Meowth rubbed the golden plate on his forehead like it was a wrinkle, grimace still in place. “This seems like a bad one…”

  Two sudden bursts of light happened at once, the first was an Alakazam who immediately turned to Ethan. The second was the bursting of a pokeball on Jessie’s waist, revealing Wobbuffet in all his glory. Wobbuffet saluted and screamed his battle cry. “Woooooob! Wooobbuffet!”

  “Come.” The wizened voice of Alakazam commanded as the pokemon reached outwards with one of its spoons.

  Soon enough, Ethan, Meowth, Jessies, James, and Wobbuffet were touching the Alakazam, and in the blink of an expert Teleport, they were in front of a massive building which appeared to be very busy even at this time of night. Flowers, vines, and several giant symbols of three chipped green squares were coating the building, climbing or adorning its walls like a status symbol.

  The small crowd gathered around the entrance who were exiting or entering the building parted like a wave as a familiar face full of frustration stormed their way outside. With her orange poncho firmly on her shoulders, Gardenia made her way towards them. Her eyes flicked to Jessie and James with obvious recognition, but she had apparently made the choice to let their past deeds slide just this once.

  Gardenia’s stormy countenance faded rather quickly as her head swiveled back and forth, scanning the crowd.

  It didn’t take a genius to guess the reason. The crowd that settled before what Ethan now determined to be the Eterna City Gym, signified by the large green badge symbol plastered all over the building, was only half human. Trainers hoping to challenge the gym alongside their pokemon partners stood about, and the pokemon—every single one of them had their eyes locked onto Ethan.

  Trainers young and old looked to their partners in question, growing concerned at the sharp change in demeanor.

  “You have some nerve coming here. Calling L? Wow. What a creative way to make your problem my problem.” Gardenia’s scathing remark rolled right off Ethan’s shoulders. He didn’t care for her opinion at this moment.

  “Are you going to help me or not? I assume that’s why I am here and not at the Pokemon Center or police station.” Ethan asked, earning a scoff in return.

  “Finding a missing pokemon isn’t really in my wheelhouse. That’s more her thing.” Gardenia thrust a thumb over her shoulder, pointing at an all too unwanted face. With her teal hair, blue uniform, amber eyes, and psychic purple cat at her feet, Jennifer Jenny stood at the ready near the entrance to the gym alongside Larry, her Espurr.

  And just like that, Ethan could forgive the woman if she could help him. Ethan strolled right past Gardenia and up to the Officer Jenny who had infiltrated his ranch. He wasn’t much taller than her, but he still could look down on her. After a tense second of silence, Ethan spoke. “You help me find my Smeargle and I will tell you everything you ever wanted to know.”

  Jennifer’s eyes narrowed a smidge before darting over his shoulder to stare at the silent onlooking crowd. They swerved right back to bore into his own. “I’m obligated to help without that, but it’s a deal.”

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