Chapter 13

A Thief in the Night

-Griffin-

"So you were possessed?" Liam asked.

"Yeah, that's what Zoey said at least. And you caught a Cubone?"

"Yep."

"Nice."

We were in our room just lounging around. The festival was going to start soon and we decided to kill time. Our door cracked open. I sat up on my bed to see who it was.

"Hey," Zoey said, "you guys alright?"

"Never better!" Liam swan dived into his bed.

"I'm good." I smiled.

"Well, I'm going to meet up Kristoff. I don't want to be rude and ditch him after he invited me."

"We'll see you there." I said.

"Okay, see ya guys."

She closed the door.

"You guys seemed to be on good terms again." Liam smirked.

"Yeah."

We talked a little bit longer then we headed down to the festival. It was pretty awesome. There were dancers, costumes, cool booths with games, the food was amazing, and there was supposed to be a firework show at the end. Liam made good company and we were having a fun time but I wish Zoey was with us.

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-Zoey-

He's a major player.

Griffin's words echoed in my head. Was Kristoff really like that? Has he changed? It just didn't seem right. He was nice enough to me.

I had been looking for Kristoff this entire time. He was supposed to perform in awhile and I wanted to talk to him. I navigated the sea of strangers until I got to the backstage of, well, the stage.

People were busily getting ready. I spotted Kristoff sitting on a couch. I smiled slightly and started to wave, but I saw the other girl. She had long blond hair and chocolate eyes. Kristoff put his arm around her and they started to kiss.

I shook my head and sighed. Griffin was right.

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-Griffin-

"Hey, Zoey!" I called to my friend as she exited the backstage.

Her brown hair whipped around as she turned towards me. She looked disappointed, maybe even sad. I approached her.

"What's the matter?" I stared into her pale blue eyes.

"You were right." She looked at the ground.

"What?"

"You were right about Kristoff. He's making out with a girl as we speak."

"That- I'm gonna beat the crap out of him again!" I stomped towards the backstage.

Zoey darted in front of me.

"No. He's not worth it."

"He needs to pay for what he-"

I felt her arms pull me into a quick hug. My eyes snapped open in surprise. I hugged her back. She felt warm and I didn't want to let go. She pulled away.

"I'm fine," she said,"I'm over him."

We exchanged smiles.

"Let's go find Liam." I said.

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We stood among the many that came to hear Kristoff's crapy music.

"I think my ears are gonna bleed!" Zoey cringed. "Just kill me now!"

"What I've put together from this, is that he's singing about getting piss drunk and going to kill his ex and her new uppity boyfriend." I announced.

"Zoey, you definitely dodged a bullet!" Liam sipped his soda.

We all laughed. We didn't actually want to see Kristoff perform but we were having a great time making fun of his original songs.

The song ended and the Gym Leader dramatically grabbed the microphone.

"As you all know, I'm not just a musician. I'm also a Gym Leader. You got to see me in action with my guitar, so how about you see me in action with my Pokemon!"

The crowd went wild. I glanced at Zoey and she rolled her eyes. I grinned.

Kristoff scanned the crowd until his eyes landed on me. He pointed his finger at me.

"How about you, kid?" He smirked.

"Kick his butt!" Liam patted me on the back.

"Make sure he never walks again!" Zoey added.

I jumped onto the stage and unclipped Nuz's Pokeball.

"Get ready to rock, Dusclops!" The Gym Leader flicked the Pokeball in the air.

A dark gray oval bodied Pokemon appeared. The Pokemon had one huge crimson eye. It's legs were stubby and its hands were a lighter shade of gray, as was the strange flowing hair it had on the top of its head and its shoulders.

Everyone in the crowd started cheering for Kristoff. No surprise.

"Nuz, your up!" I threw Nuz's Pokeball in the air.

The Pokeball snapped open and the Grass/Dark Type materialized.

"Dusclops, Shadow Punch!"

Dusclops fist became cloaked in shadows. Dusclops threw a punch at Nuz at top speed. Nuz was hit in the stomach. He recovered with a graceful backflip.

"Nuz, Extrasensory." I ordered.

Nuz clasped his hands together. He faintly glowed with a pink energy. His eyes shot up and a jet of bright pink nailed Dusclops. Dusclops fell to the ground in defeat.

The crowd went silent. Then, Liam and Zoey started clapping shouting words of encouragement. Kristoff couldn't believe it. He blinked rapidly at his fainted Pokemon. He shakily returned it.

"How about round two?" Kristoff regained his cockiness.

"Sure. Nuz, return." His Pokeball absorbed him in a red light.

I put his Pokeball back on belt and unclipped Hex's.

"Go, Hex!"

I haven't battled with Hex on my journey at all.

"Lampent, lets rock and roll!" He threw out a Pokeball.

I rolled my eyes. Just stop with the music puns. Your not being funny. Your just being stupid.

The Ghost-Type resembled a black lantern with a purple flame burning fiercely. It had two slender arms and it hovered in midair.

Hex got in a battle stance and growled.

"Lampent, Flamethrower!"

Lampent put its narrow arms together and shot a stream of fire at Hex.

"Dodge!" I called out.

Hex sidestepped but was grazed badly by the flames.

"Lampent, Shadow Ball!"

Lampent hurled a shadowy blob at my Pokemon.

"Hit it back with Psycho Cut!"

Hex's horn illuminated with a pink light. Hex jerked its head at the Shadow Ball. The horn slammed the attack right back at the Ghost-Type.

Lampent floated out of the way.

"Attack Lampent with Psycho Cut and Night Slash! And don't stop!"

Hex lunged at Lampent and slashed repeatedly with the attacks. Hex's horn almost resembled a strobe light as it flashed the different colors for the attacks.

"Lampent, f-fight back! Get out of there!"

Lampent just kept getting nailed by Hex's horn. The Absol finally finished up with a Night Slash. The Ghost-Type collapsed to the ground.

Kristoff just stared at me, his Pokemon, and the crowd. Repeatedly and all in that order.

I returned my Pokemon.

"That's how we do it in Pallet Town." I said to Kristoff.

"I-I just let you win. D-d-didn't want to embarrass you in front of everybody here. Come by my gym and we'll have a real match. With my real team!"

I immediately slugged him across the face.

"That's for playing Zoey. And for being asshole to me and everybody else you've come in contact with." I bent over him as he moaned on the ground.

I pumped my fist in the air and everyone went wild. I jumped into the crowd and started to crowd surface. Dozens of people cheered as they lifted me above their heads.

Kristoff stood up and looked at me. I flipped him the double bird and the sea of people carried me further from the stage.

I was thrown into the arms of my friends. They sat me down.

"That was awesome!" I laughed hysterically.

"You bet it was! You totally dominated him!" Liam exclaimed. "Nuz was all like 'Extrasensory, son!' And Hex was 'like Psycho to go with that Cut?' 'How about I add a little bit of Night to that Slash?' "

"Yeah, that was pretty sick!" Zoey patted my shoulder.

"Anyways," Liam said,"I'm gonna go to the bathroom. Don't go to far."

He darted to restroom that was a couple of yards away.

"I'll go get us some cotton candy." Zoey smiled.

"That's okay you don't need-" I started.

"Your right. I don't need to. I want to, so just shut up and wait for me."

"O-okay."

Zoey walked off to one of the many stands. I glanced at one the booths. It was one of those games where you have to knock down some bottles with a ball. The prizes were Pikachu plushies, each one was about the size of an actual Pikachu. My mind went exactly to Zoey.

I walked up to the man running it.

"How much to play?" I asked.

"Five dollars."

I threw a five dollar bill on the counter. The man handed me a baseball that was painted to look like a Pokeball.

"You just gotta hit down a stack of three." The man pointed at the bottles.

I threw the 'Pokeball' at the bottles. I took down two of them but one remained standing.

"Five more to play." The man grinned.

I slammed another five dollar bill on the counter. He handed me another ball. I aimed between the two bottom bottles. I hurled the ball and it collided with the bottles. All of them came crashing down. I smiled triumphantly.

The man pulled one of the plushies off of the shelves and gave it to me. I took my prize and turned around. Zoey had just bought the cotton candy. I hid her gift behind my back.

"Here you go." Zoey handed me my cotton candy and bit into her own.

"Thanks." I still had the Pikachu behind my back.

Zoey looked over my shoulder and saw the stand with the plushies.

"Those look adorable!"

"I'm glad you think so." I revealed her present.

She was stunned.

"I-I-Is that for me?" She asked.

"Yep!" I chuckled.

She immediately grabbed her plushy and started hugging it. I laughed and started eating my cotton candy.

"It's so cuddly!!!!!" She squealed.

She planted a kiss on my cheek. "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you, so much!"

"No problem. Just thought you'd like it." I was as red as a Charmeleon in summer.

I devoured my cotton candy as we started to walk back to where we parted with Liam. A hand grabbed my arm. It belonged to Liam.

"Photo booth. Now." He zipped off while dragging me and Zoey.

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I looked at my photo reel. One picture was of us with our hoods up and acting all cool. The next one was of us making stupid faces. The third image was of Zoey and Liam pretending to be zombies and they were eating me. The fourth one was us with finger guns, acting like secret agents. In the next image, Liam was close up to the camera, sticking his tongue out and making rock and roll symbols with his hands. In the corner, you could see Zoey trying to smother me with her Pikachu. The last one, and my favorite one, was us smiling with our arms around each other. Just having a fun time.

I snapped out of my daydream. We were sitting one of the many benches. Liam was about to say something when a voice called out.

"Griffin! Griffin Black!" An old voice shouted.

Mr. Fuji was hobbling towards us.

"What's the matter?" I questioned.

"A thief with a Bisharp stole my Mega Ring! I tried stoppin' em! Please help me! They're leaving by the west exit. You can catch them now if ya hurried. Please help me!"

I looked at my friends.

"A man with a Bisharp. That's sounds like the thief I took down in the school!" Zoey stood up.

"Let's go!" I nodded to my friends.

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Author note: Yay! Finally got this chapter done. I don't know what took me so long. So yeah, lots of filler but I liked it. The battle was short but that was supposed to show how bad of a battler Kristoff is. Track started so I'm gonna be busy but I finished this chapter on Spring Break so I should be able to have a chapter or two typed up by the end of it. Also, thank you guys for 4k reads on The Protectors!!!! It means so much to me seeing as my goal for the end of the book was 1k reads. Hopefully, we can be just as good and maybe even better on this book. Thank you guys for everything! You are the most incredible people in the world!

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