The Viterals

Chapter 14: Team Rocket

Yumin searched his bag for the papers. A tangle of clothes, separate pouches full or berries, medicines, TMs, HMs, and maps swam around inside. He tilted the bag to get a better look. They weren't there. He imagined they weren't there, but maybe Zakana had slipped them back inside. Though then that would require insight and forward thinking.

Zakana still had them. That is, if he wasn't dead in the mud somewhere.

"Look, kid," Lyres said. "Its just an Ursaring. It's not going to do anything to you. Unless I tell it to."

Yumin spun around to see Lyres' grin and the boy's fearful expression.

Makua was his name. He sat on the ground near the three baby Eevee, trembling as he watched Lyres' tracker sniff the earth.

Yumin remembered Makua from the time he had visited Bambi on Pokémon Day. He had run up to Bambi to give her something . . . her . . .

Yumin remembered something else.

"Hey, Lyres."

"What?"

"You still have my sister's necklace. Give it back."

"You got no manners, you know that, Yumin." Lyres turned and sneered. "Where would you be without my Ursaring? You would never have been led so close to Bambi."

Secretly, Yumin thought: you wouldn't have led those creepy masked guys to us. That's where we'd be—together.

And the pain of not being with Bambi set in. He began to worry about the papers, about Zakana.

"You never even said thank you. It's a simple word you know."

Fighting his better instincts, Yumin said the words.

"That wasn't so hard now was it?"

"Can I have it back now? It doesn't belong to you."

Lyres' hand dove into his pocket and he revealed a blue necklace.

Yumin walked up to retrieve it.

"Not so fast." Lyres put the necklace behind his back, out of sight. "My services come at a price."

"Whatever, Lyres. Just give it back."

"I'm not kidding. I have something you want, and you have something I want."

The sneer had changed into something else entirely, a malicious grin that would not take no for an answer. Yumin remembered he and Lyres' last job together, knew that this boy would not budge. Again, he worried about his line-up versus Lyres'. If he had prepared, and knew what he would be up against, he would have pulled his Pokémon out of the reserve systems before the hack. He would have his six most devastating Pokémon and certainly not the line-up he had now.

And he knew, that as long as Lyres was with him, he was going to make things difficult.

"I saw you snatch it from the forest floor like it was a grenade waiting to blow."

"Of course I'd grab it. You know what this technology means."

"I'll give you Bambi's necklace as soon as you give me the Clamp Ball," he said.

At this, Makua tore his terrified gaze away from the Ursaring. "What's a Clamp Ball?"

"It's the thing that stole one of Bambi's Eevee away from her," Yumin said.

And he needed it. He needed to bring it to his father to get his expert opinion on the thing. If he was going to save his family, save his uncle, he needed some Intel to fight the Viterals with. He knew next to nothing and they—they knew how to make balls like this. They were like Master Balls that could catch anything at all—even Pokémon that belonged to other trainers. The implications were chilling.