Sigh.

This is where the story really began. This was one of the reasons why I was at a stone tunnel in the first place.

Back at town, most of the residents including the professor were surrounding my house. Jake drags me to the professor, whose face goes from solemn to relieved. "Ah, Nadia. I'm glad you're safe."

This was unnerving. Did something happen to my parents in this world? They were the only ones in the house at that time...

"Nadia. This is hard for me to say, but...your parents have been abducted from the house shortly after you left. Although not much is known yet, I have reason to suspect a group called Team Eclipse."

I assume Team Eclipse is the evil team of this region...Does that mean those people at Route 1 were Eclipse grunts?

"Team Eclipse is an organization that have a rather unique perspective on the relationships between people and Pokemon, according to my studies." Cypress explains. "They believe that people and Pokemon are not in harmony with each other, so they have rather interesting ways to solve it. Right now, they are very dangerous for you, so stay out of their way." He ponders for a moment. "I don't know what they want with your parents, but it might have something to do with their archaeology skills. They are familiar with the legends of Roria, I believe, so Eclipse might be closer to their goals than we expected."

I look at Scorbunny, who looks like she's figuring out what Cypress wants.

"Now tell me," I look at the man again, "have your parents said anything about their work today?"

I only told him about the brick. Something about this guy doesn't sit right, though.

"Ah, I see. Anyway, it's not safe here, so I'm sending you to stay with my friend in Cheshma Town. Until we find your parents, it is best if you go live under her roof for the time being. You can't miss it, it has a blue roof." Cypress instructed.

"Um...sure?" I reply. Cypress nods.

"In that case, I hope you stay safe and out of trouble, Nadia." He walks off.

I stare at that general direction but Scorbunny nudges me, shaking me out of my stupor.

"We should go to Cheshma Town," I say. Scorbunny furrows her brows.

We waved goodbye to the town's residents and continued on our previous path to Cheshma Town.

The town was small, with a couple of houses and a woman in a plaid shirt waiting at the entrance. She had dark pink hair and magenta eyes.

She noticed me walking through the gate and walked over. "Hello, you're Nadia, right?" I look at her and slowly nodded.

"I'm Linda, Cypress' friend. He told me about you, by the way. Told me to keep an eye on you until they figure out what happened to your parents. Follow me."

Linda walks to a house that was close to the entrance and enters it. I do the same. However, when I enter, Linda makes no move to lock the door and windows. Suspicious...Scorbunny thinks so too, because she visibly stiffens.

"So..." Linda starts as she walks over to me. "your parents got kidnapped, huh...that's awful."

"Yeah, I know..." Kidnapped parents are better than dead parents, I guess, at least to an extent.

"Did they give you anything to remember them?" She asked. I hold out my bronze brick.

"This is the only thing-"

"It looks nice...can you let me see it for a second?" I blinked, but didn't let go.

Linda stared at the glistening brick greedily. There's something wrong. "It's so old...but so valuable...ah...hahah..." She giggles a little before snatching the whole damn thing from my hands before I could retract them. "Thanks!" She yells and makes a mad dash for the door.

Scorbunny had crazy reflexes though, and kicked Linda's feet before she could run. She drops the brick and I try to snatch it, but Linda gets back on her feet and grabs it before I could. She tries running for the door again, but this time I was prepared and grabbed her waist to stop her from running. A scuffle had erupted before I realized Linda was gone with the brick, and the door was left wide open.

I tried to find where she went, but no traces of her remain. Then I saw Jake round a corner, sipping coffee.

"Jake, you're too young to drink coffee." I deadpan at him when he was within earshot. He scowls.

"Don't tell me what to do..." The boy replies. He then lowers his coffee drink. "By the way, who was that woman that ran into the forest?"

Jake saw her run into a forest? "She ran into the forest?" I echo, confused.

"Gale Forest, right over there." Jake pointed at the direction he came from.

"Oh, thanks. She stole my necklace so I have to chase her down." I explained nonchalantly, but Jake reels at this.

"She stole your necklace?! That's the last thing you had from your parents!" ...Yeah.

"She ran into the forest, right?" I repeated. Jake nodded.

"I'll take you there, although I'll wait at the entrance in case she runs out." Jake leads me to the entrance to the forest he talked about. The sign on the gate said "Gale Forest".

"Good luck." Jake says to me, and I nod back.

The grass made crunching noises as I ran across the field. Caterpies and Weedles and occasional Ledyba traverse the area.

As I go deeper into the forest and took a left turn, I nearly stepped on a Pikachu, but I thankfully stopped. Pikachu had a few bruises here and there, and they looked like bird pecks.

I look at my phone and search up the Pokemon that live in the forest. Save for Ledyba, the only other flying Pokemon is Hoothoot. Not sure what Pikachu did to anger a Hoothoot, but apparently the bird only comes out at night so he's been out there for an entire night...

Scorbunny jumps down to check on the wild Pikachu. He freaked and curled further in on himself. Scorbunny reassures the Electric-type, most likely saying everything will be fine. Pikachu visibly relaxes.

"Is everything alright?" I took the time to crouch down. Pikachu tries to stand up and leave, but he fails. I look at the very mascot of the entire franchise.

"You know, you don't need to be so stubborn. Everyone has a point where they're weakest. We just need to be stronger so it doesn't happen again." I hold out my arms. "I'm only going to put you in my bag unzipped. Then we'll go to the Pokemon Center and get you healed."

Pikachu hesitates, but decides that it's better than limping all the way. He raises a paw to my hand and I grab and heave him up. I set down my bag and place Pikachu in it. "Now, I have to do something real quick first, so just sit tight."

In the distance, I could already see a speck of pink hair. I smirk. "Hang on, you guys." Scorbunny jumps into my arms and I see Pikachu grabbing onto my bag. I shoulder the bag evenly and run towards the speck.

Linda was staring at the wall impatiently, like she was waiting for a bulldozer to tear it down. I still don't know why to this day, but I decided to run into her as an act of surprise. She was startled alright.

"OI, LINDA! WHERE'S MY BRICK?!" I yell as I crash into her aggressively. Scorbunny was visibly cheering.

"AUGH, FOR ARCEUS' SAKE-" Linda screams as she crashes into the wall unceremoniously. She falls to the ground, dropping the necklace. I make a motion to grab it, but Linda recovers and takes it before I could.

"Not today, punk." Linda smirks, even though she met face-to-face with a stone wall just a second earlier.

"Give it back." I ordered, pointing at her. Linda just laughs and stands up, wobbling a little.

"You're not getting the brick back. After all, now it belongs to..." She throws off her plaid shirt, revealing the same uniform of the grunts back on Route 1. "TEAM ECLIPSE!"

I wasn't going to give her the satisfaction of being surprised at her reveal. An awkward silence passes until Linda laughs again. "That's right, idiot, I'm part of the organization that kidnapped your parents."

"Regardless, 'punk' and 'idiot' are two different things. Who are you describing as an idiot, you or your boss?" I know the boss isn't here, but the words just kinda happened.

"Punk, I don't need a lecture on English, k, hon? Just accept defeat and go right back to where you came from." Linda retorted.

"Nah, bro." I roll my eyes. "I did NOT just suffer through the forest just to leave it. Heck nah, this is your doomsday and I'm getting what I want back."

Linda looks exceptionally confused at my slang. I set down my bag and motion to Scorbunny for battle. The Fire-type jumps into action.

My opponent stares at Scorbunny and smirks. "What's this? Giving up your Pokemon as compensation?"

I facepalm. "I'm initiating a battle, you incompetent-"

"Whatever, you're going down anyway." Linda cuts me off and sends out Poochyena.

I command Scorbunny to start off with Ember. Poochyena uses Tackle, and runs straight into the Ember and comes out crashing into Scorbunny.

"Use Tackle!"

"How are you going to do that when Scorbunny-"

Scorbunny defied all expectations at that point. She tossed Poochyena when she managed to grab it. She then jumped and landed on Poochyena's body. That's technically not a Tackle but it definitely did damage.

"Use Howl and then Tackle again!" Linda commanded and Poochyena jumps at Scorbunny again.

"Use Ember!" I yell, and Scorbunny sends flames at the Dark-type again. The embers connect and Poochyena's health goes to red.

Poochyena tackles Scorbunny before I could yell to dodge, and Scorbunny's health goes down to yellow. Scorbunny uses Ember at close-range and Poochyena faints.

"Ugh. What a waste." Linda grumbles as she returns her Pokemon. As I was yelling about how she should be ashamed about saying that with Scorbunny emulating my emotions, she sends out a Pancham.

"Do you still want to continue or should I switch?" I ask Scorbunny after I calmed down. She grins back up at me, nodding and warming up to fight.

"Alright." I shrug. "Scorbunny, use Ember again!"

"Pancham, dodge the Ember and use Arm Thrust!"

Pancham dodges the flames and puts force into its arm, bringing it up and punching Scorbunny over and over again. Scorbunny takes 5 hits before using Tackle as per my command.

"Return! You're too beat-up to continue!"

Scorbunny reluctantly limps over to my bag and plops down. Pikachu peeks over in the bag and looks at Scorbunny.

"Rookidee! Come out!"

Rookidee pops out of his Pokeball and looms over Pancham.

"Use Peck, then Power Trip!"

"Use Tackle!"

Pancham jumps up and tries to hit Rookidee, but the Flying-type uses a super effective move on the former, which causes Pancham to fall to the ground again. Rookidee swoops down, forcing all of his power into the attack and causes debris to fly about when Power Trip connects. The power was too much and Pancham faints quickly.

"...That was fast." I deadpan.

Linda, however, was not as happy. "Ugh, I got beaten by a kid?!"

"Not just any kid," I correct, "You just got beat by a kid with plot armor."

This, once again, causes confusion. "I don't care for whatever other language you're spouting over there. Anyway, fine. You win. This'll be bad for the boss."

She tosses the brick over. I catch it and before I could say anything, she disappeared.

After that encounter, I never saw Linda again. I wonder if she got fired or something.