Catching the Jigglypuff Thief

by Alex Polan

  This book is not authorized or sponsored by The Pokémon Company International, Nintendo of America, Inc., Nintendo/Creatures Inc., Niantic, Inc., or any other person or entity owning or controlling rights in the Pokémon or Pokémon GO characters, name, trademarks, or copyrights.

  Copyright © 2016 by Hollan Publishing, Inc.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without the express written consent of the publisher, except in the case of brief excerpts in critical reviews and articles. All inquiries should be addressed to Sky Pony Press, 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018.

  First Edition

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are from the author’s imagination, and used fictitiously.

  Sky Pony Press books may be purchased in bulk at special discounts for sales promotion, corporate gifts, fund-raising, or educational purposes. Special editions can also be created to specifications. For details, contact the Special Sales Department, Sky Pony Press, 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018 or info@skyhorsepublishing.com.

  Sky Pony® is a registered trademark of Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.®, a Delaware corporation.

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  10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

  Special thanks to Erin L. Falligant.

  Cover illustration by Jarrett Williams

  Cover colors by Jeremy Lawson

  Cover design by Brian Peterson

  Print ISBN: 978-1-5107-2157-9

  Ebook ISBN: 978-1-5107-2161-6

  Printed in Canada

  CHAPTER 1

  “Ooh, look, they planted flowers at the entrance to the park!” gushed Mom. “See the flower garden, Ethan?”

  “Sure, I see it.” What Ethan wished he could see was the Pokémon that had popped up on his phone just a second ago. Where’d it go? Had he passed it already?

  “Here,” whispered his younger sister, Devin. She used her finger to spin the map on his screen and then tapped on the yellow Pokémon. A Pidgey appeared, hovering just over a daisy in the flower garden.

  Ethan sighed. He wished it were something more powerful, like a Pidgeotto. But no such luck! He flung a Poké Ball and easily captured the birdlike Pokémon.

  “Oh, it’s a Pidgey!” announced Dad—late to the scene, as usual.

  “What’s that, dear?” asked Mom.

  Dad glanced up from his phone and cleared his throat. “I said it’s so pretty. The flower garden, I mean.” He sometimes pretended he wasn’t all that into Pokémon GO, but Ethan knew better.

  As Devin squatted to center the Pidgey on her phone screen, Ethan said, “Don’t you have, like, seventeen of those already?”

  She tucked a strand of red hair behind her ear and nodded. “Yup, I have a whole flock of them. And now”—she swiped her Poké Ball—“I have one more. Gotcha!”

  “Why don’t you trade some to Professor Willow for candy?” asked Ethan. “Or evolve some of them to make them more powerful?”

  Devin scrunched up her freckled nose. “Trade my Pidgeys? No way. They’re too cute. Look!”

  She showed Ethan a photo she’d taken of the Pidgey. The Pokémon was perched right on the toe of Mom’s sneaker.

  “Ha! That’s a good one,” he said. Devin also had photos of Pokémon sitting on people’s shoulders and in the palms of their hands. Sometimes his sister didn’t even catch the Pokémon. She was too busy taking pictures of them!

  Mom caught sight of the photo, too, and she shook her foot as if the Pokémon were really there.

  As Devin hurried on ahead, admiring her newest Pidgey, Ethan pulled his mother aside. “It’s time to get Devin a real pet, don’t you think?” he asked.

  The truth was, Ethan wanted a pet even more than his animal-loving sister did. He’d been pushing for a dog for, like, two years. But the way things are going this summer, we’ll probably end up with a pet pigeon, he thought with a sigh.

  Mom ignored the pet question, as usual. “Let’s keep moving, sweetie,” she said, jogging in place. “I’ve got an egg to hatch. Just another half kilometer to go!”

  Mom never actually caught Pokémon, no matter how many times Ethan tried to teach her how. She preferred to hatch her own—for the exercise, because she didn’t get much of that in her job as a realtor. Her motto was: “You play the game your way, I’ll play mine.”

  Some eggs hatched after a short walk. Others took longer. So Mom had been leading family walks around their Newville neighborhood every night, ever since they’d discovered Pokémon GO. “Next stop, the Little Library!” she announced.

  The Little Library looked like a birdhouse, a wooden box on a stand where people left books they’d read for other people to take home to read. But when Ethan looked at it, all he saw was the bright blue PokéStop on his phone. He spun the Photo Disc to see which items would pop up tonight.

  One Poké Ball, then two, and then three appeared in little bubbles. And the last item was a yellow, diamond-shaped item. “Yes! A Revive!” he cheered, tapping the bubbles to collect his items.

  “Really?” said Devin. “How’d you get that?” She stared at her phone, as if waiting for the Revive to appear.

  “I’m a Level-Five Trainer now, remember?” said Ethan. He’d just leveled up that afternoon, but already, Level Five seemed pretty sweet. He couldn’t wait to join a Team Mystic gym and start training his Pokémon!

  Mom opened up the door to the Little Library to check out the books. It was a rule of hers—they had to look every night to see which books were new. But Ethan noticed she was spinning her Photo Disc at the same time.

  “Ooh, an egg!” she announced. “Now I just need another incubator …”

  As Devin skipped up the sidewalk to her friend Gianna’s house, Ethan glanced hopefully at the front door. Gianna’s older brother, Carlo, was the neighborhood Pokémon GO expert. He was only fourteen—four years older than Ethan—but he had already reached Level Twelve. And he was the Gym Leader at Dottie’s Doughnuts, the Team Mystic gym on Main Street.

  He’s probably at the doughnut shop right now, training his Pokémon, thought Ethan. But he secretly hoped Carlo would step out that door and go Pokémon hunting with them. At Level Twelve, he was always spotting rare Pokémon that no one else could see, and Ethan liked to tag along—at least, when Carlo would let him.

  When the front door jiggled, Ethan held his breath. Carlo?

  Nope. Gianna popped out instead, her dark curls bouncing around her head. She pulled on her lucky cap, which made her look like a giant bug because it had two springy antennae on top. She said it helped her find Bug-type Pokémon—her favorite. But Ethan wasn’t so sure about that.

  “Can I hunt for Pokémon with you guys?” she asked, not waiting for an answer.

  “Sure, Gia!” said Devin. She bent over her phone, logging out of it. Gianna’s parents wouldn’t buy her a phone till she turned ten—a year from now—but Devin always seemed happy to share hers.

  As Gianna punched in her user name, Ethan glanced at the screen. “Your Trainer name is ‘Giadude99’?”

  “Yeah. Get it?” asked Gianna. “It’s like Geodude, but with ‘Gia’ instead.”

  Devin laughed. “Oh, I get it. Your avatar is pretty cute, too.”

  When the phone vibrated in Gianna’s hand, Devin peeked at the screen—and then shrunk back. “Ick, an ugly Rattata. You don’t have to catch him, Gia. Just run! Tap the button at the top.”

  “Why wouldn’t you catch a Rattata?” asked Ethan. “I thought you wanted to catch th
em all!”

  “Because I don’t like Rattata. If I don’t like ugly ratlike Pokémon, I don’t have to catch them,” Devin said matter-of-factly. “And if I like my flock of Pidgey, I don’t have to trade them.”

  Ethan ignored that last part. “So if a super-powerful Rattata with the world’s highest Combat Power crossed your screen, you wouldn’t even try to catch it?” he asked.

  Devin shrugged. “You play your way, I’ll play mine.”

  Wow. Ethan couldn’t believe she had just used Mom’s line on him! But before he could protest, he saw Gianna using her finger to spin the Poké Ball on the screen. It started to sparkle. Then she flung it at the Rattata—and hit it dead center.

  The ball bounced off its forehead with a plink! and sucked the Pokémon right up.

  “Bam! You got it on the first shot!” said Ethan. “With a curveball, even. Did Carlo teach you that?”

  Gianna shook her head. “He doesn’t even let me play with him.”

  I know the feeling, thought Ethan. He caught the Rattata, too, with a normal shot—except it took him three tries. Then he shot one last look at Carlo’s front door and walked on.

  At the next PokéStop, which was a trailhead sign for the Pheasant Ranch Nature Preserve, Ethan collected a few more items. This time, he was given six Poké Balls instead of the usual three or four. Level Five was really paying off!

  But as he scanned his phone for Pokémon, he got the creepy feeling that someone was following him down the sidewalk. One glance over his shoulder told him who it was: Brayden. Ethan would recognize that white-blonde head of hair anywhere.

  When Brayden saw Ethan looking, he dropped down beside his golden retriever puppy, fiddling with the dog’s collar.

  Ethan sped up, zooming past Devin and Gianna. “Why are you going so fast?” asked Devin. “Do you see something?” She studied her screen.

  “Brayden the Great is following me,” he whispered.

  “Wait, aren’t you and Brayden friends?” asked Gianna.

  “We were, before he stole my Poké Ball hat and totally denied it.”

  “Your new black baseball cap?” asked Devin.

  “Yeah, that one. Then he stole my idea for the perfect dog name!”

  Gianna looked back at Brayden’s puppy. “What’s her name?”

  “Lickitung, after the Pokémon. Licks, for short,” said Ethan. “That was my name for a dog, if we ever get one.”

  “I would have named the dog Twinkie,” said Devin with a grin. “She’s golden on the outside, but pure sweetness on the inside!”

  Gianna laughed, but Ethan just kept talking—he couldn’t seem to stop. “Brayden gets his mom to buy him lucky Pokémon eggs, incense, and lures so he can get more experience. Whatever happened to earning experience points?”

  “Wow,” said Devin. “You’re really down on Brayden.”

  “Well, he bragged about getting to Level Five before me. And he joined Team Valor, of course—they’re all about being the best. So if he’s the best, why is he following me? He probably wants to see which Pokémon I catch so that he can catch them, too.”

  Devin cocked her head. “Wait, isn’t that kind of what you do with Carlo?”

  Ethan sighed. Sometimes his sister just didn’t get it. “Why don’t you go capture another Pidgey or something?” he grumbled.

  She shrugged. “Okay, maybe I will.”

  As she walked away with Gianna, Ethan looked back at Brayden, who was bold enough to be wearing the Poké Ball cap right then. MY cap, thought Ethan. As his eyes trailed down to the puppy, his heart ached. Some kids get whatever they want. The rest of us have to work so hard for it!

  He sighed and kept walking. He had Pokémon to catch and experience points to earn.

  Suddenly, Mom squealed from up ahead. “I hatched my egg!”

  “Which Pokémon did you get?” Devin cried, running to join her. “Let me see!”

  “Looks like a … Jiggle Puff.”

  “You mean a Jigglypuff?” asked Devin. “My favorite!”

  Ethan shook his head. It seemed like every new Pokémon was Devin’s favorite. But Jigglypuff was a rare one. Devin had somehow caught the pink Pokémon last weekend, when she and Dad were sitting outside Dottie’s Doughnuts.

  “Yes, I guess it is a Jigglypuff,” said Mom. “Now I’d better hurry and get another egg in the incubator.”

  She fiddled with her phone and then took off walking again—even faster this time.

  Ethan hurried after her, mostly to get away from Brayden. But Dad stayed behind, wandering along the tree line of the nature preserve. “Tell your mother I’ll catch up,” he called. “I spy a Caterpie …”

  “Moving grass!” Devin announced, sprinting toward a field up ahead as she tapped her phone screen. “It looks like an Ivysaur—or maybe even a Venusaur. It’s just a couple of footsteps away!”

  Ethan and Gianna followed on her heels. Devin was pretty good at rustling up Pokémon. Plus, she was the only one who used the app’s tracking feature to tell what sorts of Pokémon were in the area.

  As they ran, Ethan crossed his fingers, hoping it really was a Venusaur. He wondered what else they might find in the field. A Victreebel? Ooh, or how about a Scyther? His heart raced with the possibilities.

  That’s when he heard a howl from behind, and the sound of branches breaking.

  Ethan whirled around. “Dad?”

  The sidewalk was completely empty.

  CHAPTER 2

  Ethan sprinted toward the place where he had last seen Dad. Just through the row of trees lining the edge of the nature preserve, he stopped short. A steep ravine stretched down below.

  “Dad?”

  There he was at the very bottom, brushing off his shorts. “I’m alright!” he called up with a sheepish laugh. “Nothing to see down here, folks!”

  Ethan breathed a sigh of relief. If Dad was joking, he must be okay.

  Mom wasn’t so sure. She stepped carefully down the side of the ravine, and then helped Dad climb back up. He was missing a sandal, and his shirt was torn.

  When Ethan saw a trickle of blood running down Dad’s knee, his chest tightened. So he did what Dad would do—he cracked a joke. “I hope you at least caught a Caterpie while you were down there,” he said.

  Mom shot Ethan a look, but Dad just laughed. “Afraid not,” he said. When he tried to check his phone, Mom yanked it right out of his hand.

  “I think that’s enough Pokémon hunting for one night,” she said. “Good thing we’re close to home.” She magically produced a tissue from some sleeve or pocket and started dabbing at Dad’s bloody knee.

  They were a block away from the bus stop, which was also a PokéStop. Every night when they reached it, Dad would declare, “Well, I guess the bus stops here!” That was when Ethan and Devin would start begging for more time to hunt Pokémon on their own.

  Or to train my Pokémon, Ethan thought excitedly. He’d been waiting to reach Level Five for two weeks now. He didn’t want to wait even one more day before heading to a Team Mystic gym. Was there time to go to Dottie’s Doughnuts tonight?

  When he asked Mom, she said what she always said to him and Devin: “Stay together. And be home in half an hour.” Then she added a new warning: “Watch where you’re going, too. Learn from your father’s mistakes!”

  Dad started limping, as if to drive home the point. As he followed Mom down the sidewalk, he looked a little lost—maybe because he didn’t have his phone to look at. But he’ll be a whole lot safer that way, thought Ethan.

  “Ready to go to the doughnut shop?” he asked Devin.

  She said yes, like he knew she would. Devin wasn’t a Level-Five Trainer yet, but she had a wicked sweet tooth. She never turned down the chance to go to Dottie’s—especially in the evening, when Dottie gave out day-old doughnuts for free.

  “Can I come, too?” Gianna asked hopefully. “Carlo is probably there. And there might be a Butterfree fluttering outside the shop. He said he saw one last nigh
t!”

  The three of them set off for Dottie’s Doughnuts. It was a perfect summer night, and Pokémon were everywhere.

  Devin let Gianna catch a Spearow on her phone. She made it look so easy!

  “Excellent throw!” the screen read, and Gianna was awarded a hundred extra experience points for her shot.

  “How do you do that?” asked Ethan.

  She shrugged. “Practice, I guess.”

  As they neared the library, Devin and Ethan put their phones away. The library was a Team Mystic gym, just like the doughnut shop. But Ethan had heard that the librarian, Mrs. Applegate, shooed away any kids who tried to play there. She believed in books, not video games or apps.

  There was Mrs. Applegate now! Ethan ducked his head and gave a little wave as she stepped out to sweep the front walk. Then he followed Devin and Gianna across the street to the doughnut shop.

  Just as Gianna had suspected, Carlo was sitting on the wooden bench out front. He had on gaming gloves, and his dark hair was angled down to a perfect point above his upturned jacket collar.

  I’ll never be that cool, thought Ethan. Not in a million years.

  He walked by slowly, hoping Carlo would look up. When he finally did, Ethan waved, but Carlo seemed to be looking at a Pokémon on his phone instead.

  Ethan quickly stopped waving and ran his hand over his sandy-brown hair instead. Then he approached the PokéStop across from the bench. It was a bike rack shaped like a long metal caterpillar. Ethan spun the Photo Disc and collected a few Poké Balls.

  When a purple spray bottle of Potion popped up, too, he almost squealed. But he held himself together, knowing Carlo was right behind him. He tapped on the bubbles to collect his items and then headed inside.

  Devin and Gianna went straight to the counter, where Dottie greeted them with a tray of doughnuts. “I was hoping to have company tonight!” she said warmly, her gold earrings jingling against her cocoa-brown skin. “I’ve had more day-old doughnuts than I know what to do with, ever since Ivan’s Ice Cream opened up across town. Help yourselves.”

  Normally, Ethan would have grabbed a doughnut. But tonight, he had bigger plans. He slid into a booth and tapped on the tall blue gym on his screen. Finally, he could interact with the gym instead of having Professor Willow tell him he wasn’t experienced enough!