The Viterals

Chapter 14: Team Rocket

"My dad, he builds balls, Lyres. If I can get it to him, he may be able to figure out how it works."

"Do you want the necklace or not?"

Ursaring grunted, moved on all of its limbs to stand beside Lyres. Makua's gaze followed. The three Eevee mewed and cried for their mother's milk. Yumin could hear nothing but his own heartbeat.

He couldn't take Lyres now with the team he had. He wondered if the reserve system had affected Lyres as well—if he had lost all of his Pokémon too. Yumin doubted it. And being wrong about it—making the move to fight Lyres here and now could leave him in the most compromising situation of his life.

"Fine. Whatever. On three."

Lyres held the necklace out.

He was sneaky. Yumin didn't trust him.

"One," Yumin began.

"Two," Lyres said.

"Three," they said together, and the exchange happened. Yumin released the heavy Clamp Ball from his grasp and accepted Bambi's necklace. He turned, put it inside one of his pouches in his pack.

Lyres studied the ball hungrily. He rolled it around in his hands.

The tension in that space flitted away like Butterfree, and Makua spoke.

"These babies are going to need their mother. They need milk."

"This place grows milk-melons," Lyres said, still gazing at the Clamp Ball as though it was a priceless gem. "If we find them we can help the babies." Lyres scooped one up, held it close to him. "Come on. Let's find the others."

The forest grew quiet. Distantly, Chatots chirped, Forretress fussed, Beedrill buzzed. This place was strange, and Yumin knew it had changed recently. He recalled what he had seen at the Academy, and breathed deeply. He recalled what happened to his uncle just weeks ago. He wondered of his fate. He wondered of his own parents' fates. He wondered what the Viterals were doing now, who they were targeting. Was it just his family or others too?

They gathered their things. Yumin scooped up the Eevee he had taken the night before. It was a twin—a twin of the Eevee that Zakana took. Yumin's Eevee—or rather the Eevee that came from Bambi's Eevee, which was now an Umbreon, had a relaxed personality. It hung its neck over Yumin's forearm lazily, caught the beams of the sun as they shone through the treetops above. Makua scooped up the other one and followed Yumin and Lyres.

"Bambi will be glad you got her necklace back," Makua said. "She was very worried about it." He spoke with adult inflections, but his voice was senselessly boyish.

"How is she doing at the Academy?"

Makua said nothing, and when Yumin looked over at his wandering gaze he could tell he was thinking about how to respond in a diplomatic way. "She's great at battling."

"You don't have to lie about it, you know?" Yumin said. "I've known her my whole life. I know Bambi. She's not passing the tests, is she?"

"She would be if she just spent more time studying," Makua said, his voice frustrated. "I can't talk her out of it. Still, even with her low scores, she's still fifth in our grade."

Yumin grinned. At least she had picked up the battling side of things, like the rest of his family. He wondered if she was studying at all because in just six months, she had made amazing strides. Her starter, Chikorita had turned into a Bayleef in that time. It wasn't impossible, but her second Pokémon, Eevee, had already turned into an Umbreon and that always took some time. He wondered about where his father had gotten it. Eevee were becoming increasingly rare and sought after, and here, Bambi possessed 5 brand spanking new ones. He thought about the stolen one, remembered the shrill cry of pain.