Smile

Chapter 4 (Edited)

Autumn called Jake on the Pokemon center's phone, wondering if he wanted to head to the Oreburgh gym with her. She was still bothered by the night's strand of events. The terrible smoke still filled her eyes with tears. 

 A few minutes later, Autumn and Jake wandered down a path. 

"You know, your gonna need more than a Luxio to defeat the gym." Jake reasoned.

"You know, your gonna need more than a Piplup to defeat the gym." Autumn retorted.

They both smiled. "Let's go catch some more then!" Jake exclaimed, racing ahead. 

"Hey, wait up!" Autumn called, hurrying after him.

Autumn suddenly stopped. There was something rustling in the bushes. Autumn crept up behind and looked.

She pulled out her Pokedex and pointed it at the Pokemon. "Buneary, the rabbit Pokemon. When it senses danger, it perks up its ears. On cold nights, it sleeps with its head tucked in its fur."

"Awwww, it looks so down," Autumn cooed softly.

The Buneary was arguing with another Buneary. The one it was arguing with had darker fur. They both seemed too mad to notice Autumn.

"Buneary bun-eary!!" The one with darker fur said sadly, its ears drooping.

"Bun-bun! Buneary!" the other one said angrily. It stalked off into the distance.

Autumn suddenly realized the sad one had pink fur! Autumn remembered watching her favorite Pokemon trainer on TV in a Pokemon contest having a pink-furred Buneary. She won every time. 

"Hey, are you coming or not?" Jake called.

The pink Buneary scampered off.

"Nooo!" Autumn sighed. "I saw a pink Buneary!"

"You mean a shiny? Those are sooooo rare! Autumn, where is it? Did you catch it?" Jake grinned.

"No, you scared it off!" Autumn cried. "Now I'll never get one..."

"Pokemon trainers don't give up so easily. Come on, I'll help you." Jake helped her up and they both looked around.

"Where would it hide...." Autumn wondered aloud. Her eyes bounded from tree to tree, bush to bush.

Suddenly, Luxio jumped up and pulled on Autumn's black skirt. "Luxio, lu-xio!"

"I think Luxio found something," Autumn said. They crept up to the tree Luxio had pointed to. They looked up.

The shiny Buneary was sitting down next to another bigger Buneary. The shiny looked worried. "BunEARY!!" The bigger one shouted and hit the shiny with its ears. The shiny fell out of the tree. "Bun-bun!!!!!!" it cried out.

Autumn jumped up and caught it just in time. She landed hard in the dirt.

Autumn stood up,  putting the Buneary down. "I wonder what's wrong with it. Maybe Luxio could talk to it." 

"No," Jake objected. "Piplup should! He's the size of Buneary, so he wouldn't scare her off with that giant of yours!"

Autumn rolled her eyes but let Piplup waddle up to the Buneary. The shiny stood up, its ears still droopy. 

"Pip-pip?"

"Bun-eary, buneary buneary."

"Piplup pip!" 

Their conversation continued for a while before Piplup turned to Jake. After another series of chirps, Jake nodded his understanding. 

"Buneary was just hanging out with her friend, Pikachu when some guy with dark skin and a leather jacket shows up and takes him! So Buneary told everyone, but they thought she was lying. None of them trust her since she's different anyway, but now they all hate her too." Jake explained.

Autumn pulled a sweet Pokepuff out of her bag and handed it to Buneary. "You understood all of that?"

"I'm gifted." Jake proclaimed. Autumn pushed him playfully. 

"This can't be. You say he was dark skinned?" Autumn asked.

Jake nodded. 

"Spencer! Spencer can't be evil too, can he?" Autumn worriedly said to herself. "But Rose was coming to the Sinnoh region. Maybe she was going to meet him here so they could continue to capture electric pokemon..."

"What are you talking about?" Jake questioned, looking at her like she was crazy. 

Autumn told him everything, including her dream.

"Whoa," Jake said when she was done. "I've heard something about this. A rumor that there was an evil team of bad guys that were going to capture all the electric Pokemon in the Sinnoh region and maybe even everywhere, to power a device that could destroy the whole region!"

Buneary spoke to Piplup before Piplup spoke to Jake. "Buneary says that if we know so much we should stop them." 

"Buneary is right! We need to fight to save the innocent people of this region! Imagine all those Pokemon losing their habitats out there, with us being able to save them!" Autumn said, a plan beginning to form in her mind. 

"No way. Way too dangerous." Jake said, putting his foot down.

"It may be dangerous, but it's even more adventurous!" Autumn said. "Please please please."

Jake's eyes lit up. "Okay, but if I die, it's your fault."

Autumn looked a Luxio. "You ready for this?"

Luxio roared, putting his paw on her leg. Autumn smiled. 

Autumn pulled out a Pokeball and placed it on Buneary. It wobbled once, twice, three times!

Buneary burst out of the Pokeball and jumped up to Autumn. "Buneary! Buneary!"

"We should have a team name," Jake suggested. 

"Yeah! How about...Team Smile!" Autumn said.

"Sounds a little girly," Jake commented.

"Oh come on, you know you love it," Autumn said. "Team Smile on three," 

Everyone put their hand (Or paw) in the middle. "One, two, three, Team Smile!"