A Poke Doll Bandit

[Shana]

"A Poke Doll Bandit"

Pokemon Aiming For: Magby
Length: 14,341 (without spaces)[/CENTER]

The scream from two houses down caused all the nearby citizens to rush to the scene. Grown-ups and other children were crowded around the door of the Livingston house within minutes when the little Livingston girl came running out in tears.

“Someone stole my Clefairy doll!”

The adults gasped and began to talk amongst themselves while most of the town’s girls went over to comfort the little girl. The child’s Machoke stepped up behind her, picked her up, and carried her back inside to her tea party; the girls followed. The boys, on the other hand, gathered around one particular camper boy who was standing on a stump.

“It’s time to take action! We’re the boys who know nature best, aren’t we? We’ve camped in these woods for many days and nights learning about Pokemon and nature! There’s not a single hiding spot that we don’t know! Our town has had enough of this doll thief! I say we go find him ourselves!”

The adults, who were informing the police of this new crime, looked warily at the camper. As the younger boys cheered, an old man hobbled up and tapped the camper on the shoulder with his cane. The boy turned around.

“Yes, sir?”

“Young man, this is a crime for the police to handle. I recognize you have your father’s spunk for solving cases on your own, but you are not your father. You are a boy. You cannot wander around the woods like a hooligan looking for a thief. If one of you boys found the culprit, you could possibly be kidnapped, or—“

“I don’t think that’s the case,” a voice behind him interrupted.

The older man turned to look at the child who had interrupted, but instead, he found two children: the Meyer boy (who had spoken) and the Garron girl. The Meyer boy stood his ground beneath the gray, experienced eyes of the elder man.

“What makes you think he won’t kidnap the first kid who finds him?”

“If he wanted to kidnap the children, why would he steal their dolls instead of them?”

The old man smiled.

“He could lure them.”

“True, sir, but he would need to lead a trail to his hideout for the child to follow. He has only shown interest in dolls.”

“And why would he want to take the dolls? Ransom?”

“No, sir, he would’ve notified someone.”

“Then what is his motive for stealing the dolls?”

“Perhaps he just like dolls,” the boy shrugged.

At this point, the old man eyed the boy very carefully. Again, the boy stood firm beneath that gaze until the old man laughed and patted the boy on the shoulder.

“You will make a fine detective, young Meyer.”

“Thank you, sir.”

The old man’s gaze turned to the girl beside the Meyer boy. Floe Island had indeed brought up some very angelic kids who were all very close in the community: normal parents, normal children, and a normal life--except for this one. There was something about the Garron girl that just screamed “oddball”. It wasn’t the weird blue dress and belt she always wore, the messy black hair, or even her different colored eyes of sapphire blue and brilliant green. There was just something that made Faythe Garron stand out so much that it seemed she never truly belonged anywhere. This caused the elder to only like her more: she, like the Meyer boy, was not dimwitted, spoiled, or arrogant. She was creative, sweet, and the only little girl (in his opinion) on Floe Island to actually receive the nickname “angel”.

“How’s your doll collection, Miss Garron?”

“One of my dolls was stolen, too, Mr. Goodfield. Silas and I were on our way to the store to buy a new one.”

“I’m sorry to hear that. I hope the police catch the culprit soon.”

“Me, too.”

The old man nodded with a smile tipped his hat.

“Have a good day, children. Boy,” he addressed the camper, “don’t you start trouble, hear?”

Mr. Goodfield didn’t see the glare the camper threw at his back because before the boy could do so, the elder turned and hobbled away with his cane. The camper, however, did not heed his words; the boys snuck off towards the woods while Faythe and Silas watched.

“They won’t find anything,” Silas pointed out.

“Why not?”

“I don’t think a thief would hide in the woods. The dolls would get wet if it rained and it rains a lot here. He’d need some place sheltered. I’ve spent less time in the woods than they have, but I know that there aren’t any sheltered places unless you take a tent.”

“Oh! I see. I hope you’re right, Silas, I would hate if my Mime Jr. doll got rained on.”

“I feel the same way about my Mankey doll.”

As they continued walking, Faythe looked up at Silas curiously.

“You have a Mankey doll?”

Silas’s cheeks turned pink and he focused his gaze straight ahead.

“I-I thought it was cool,” he admitted.

“Awww! I didn’t know you liked dolls, Silas! That’s the second thing we have in common!”

“Really? What’s the first thing?”

Despite his blush, his amber eyes looked down at his smaller companion.

“We both like Ralts,” she jerked her thumb over her shoulder.

The pair stopped and looked behind them to see their Pokemon struggling to catch up. Both of their Ralts were standing around throwing rocks at the trees as they glided along. Unfortunately, a rock had hit a Spearow and the two Pokemon were quickly caught up in the middle of several Peck attacks while running for their life towards the trainers. Faythe and Silas braved the vicious attacks, picked up their Pokemon, and ran along the picket fences towards the doll store. The flock of Spearows chased them all the way to the automatic doors. A broom, waved around by the store owner, stopped their attack and sent them on their way. Faythe, Silas, and the two Ralts heaved a sigh of relief in unison.

“Rough day?” the owner smiled.

“Very rough,” Silas replied.

“I’ve heard the Livingston girl got her Clefairy doll stolen.”

“Yes, sir,” Faythe answered, “everyone has had a doll stolen.”

“Which one was stolen from you, Faythe?”

“My Mime Jr. doll…”

Ralts looked up sympathetically at his trainer. He remembered he had been sleeping with her Munchlax doll, but something woke him up. He had seen something orange hop out of the window with her Mime Jr. doll, but it had been too dark to see what it was. For all he knew, the color was truthfully purple. The night did some strange things to the world. Since that night, which had been two nights ago, Faythe had seemed somewhat upset, but she worked very hard to earn the money to buy a new one. The creature was set down, along with his Ralts friend, on the floor.

“What about you, Silas? Did you have a doll stolen?”

“Sure did. My Mankey doll was taken sometime during the night. I’ve moved all my dolls away from the windows and set up a trap. No thief will be able to get through to my collection.”

“He set up traps in my room, too! All you have to do to get past it is to move my Pichu doll to the right and push the button! It’ll deactivate right away!”

“Faythe, I don’t think it’s a good idea to talk about how to deactivate it,” Silas mumbled.

“Why not? There’s only you, me, our Pokemon, and Mr. Goff in the store and I really don’t think that he would be stealing everyone’s dolls. He owns the store!”

“I’m not saying he’s the culprit, but what if someone overhears and--?”

“Oh, don’t be silly,” Faythe smiled as she wandered over to a doll stand, “no one is around to listen.”

She absent-mindedly picked up a Magby doll while she was talking to Silas, but both he and Mr. Goff frowned. The girl blinked before her gaze followed theirs to the doll. The Magby was not a doll. Instead, it was a live Pokemon that blinked up at her. She blinked back.

“AAHH!”

“MAAG!”

The baby Pokemon jumped out of her arms and ran out of the store down the street. Faythe, Silas, and Mr. Goff only frowned after him.

“I wonder why it was pretending it was a doll,” Faythe blinked.

“Who knows?” Silas shook his head, turned towards a doll rack, and raised an eyebrow. “Probably for the same reason your Ralts is snuggled up to a Snubbull.”

Faythe looked at the doll rack and sighed. Ralts was curled up next to the ugly Snubbull doll asleep.

(-o-)(-o-)

Later that night, the curtains in the window of Faythe’s bedroom lifted up with the gentle breeze that flowed through. The child was sound asleep, snuggled up with her prized Togepi doll; Ralts was napping on the big Snorlax doll, hugging the new Snubbull plush that his trainer had bought him. Unknown to the dreamers, a small figure draped in a dark, silk cape appeared in the window. It’s beady, black eyes scanned over the dolls in the corner before it hopped down from the window sill into the room. The carpet kept its feet from making any noises as the figure crept up to the Pichu doll. It reached a claw out to shove it aside, but a leaf struck its hand away. The figure snapped its attention to the side; Ralts was awake!

The thief quickly dove behind the Pichu doll for cover as a couple more Magical Leaves shot towards him; the Pichu doll took the hit. The thief jerked the Pichu doll up and ran for the window. Ralts cried out, gliding after him, but it let out a loud squeal as the trap activated and captured him. The thief snickered over its shoulder from the window sill and, with the Pichu doll tucked under its arm, hopped out of sight. Faythe woke up only seconds later.

“Ralts! Oh no, what happened?”

She climbed out of bed and knelt before the trapped Pokemon, her hands working at the strings that bound him.

“Raaaallts,” he sniffled.

Faythe caught her Pokemon the second he was freed and hugged him.

“Did you see the culprit?”

The Ralts nodded.

“Show me,” she smiled.

(-o-)(-o-)

Over the next couple of days, Faythe and Ralts completed enough errands for the townsfolk to be able to buy a new doll. Faythe was reputed among the islanders to be a collector of many dolls and costumes; she worked hard to earn the money for them, too. By the time she was done that Thursday afternoon, the shop was near closing time. With Ralts on her shoulder, the child ran as fast as she could to the store. The store manager was bustling out just about the time she got there.

“Please don’t close yet!”

“Ah, it’s you, Faythe! Did you just finish?”

“Yes, sir, can I please buy a doll? Ralts and I already know which one we want.”

“Of course, of course!”

Mr. Goff reopened the door and shuffled inside with the small pair following suit. He slipped behind the counter and pulled out a tab to write everything on. Faythe wandered towards the shelf where the doll sat.

“I’m sorry I got here so late, Mr. Goff.”

“It’s all right, Faythe. I’m tired, but I’m always willing to reward those that work hard when I can,” he smiled. “Have any more of your dolls been stolen?”

“Yes, but Ralts sort of saw the culprit. He was about his size with—ah!”

The Magby doll she had just touched jumped from the shelf and hopped down. It was the same Magby from the other day, but there was something about him that seemed familiar to Ralts. For only a moment, the pair glared at each other before Magby snatched up the Magby doll beside him and took off out of the store. Mr. Goff, outraged, ran just outside the door and stopped. His weight would never allow him to run too far.

“You little thief,” he screamed, “if you ever come back in my store again, you’ll work your butt off until you pay for every doll!”

When he came back in, Faythe was standing at the counter with the Magby doll she had selected. Mr. Goff was muttering under his breath angrily.

“Every doll?”

“Yeah, ever since you found him in the store that day, that little trouble-maker has been hiding with the Magby dolls. When people pick him up, though, he takes off with another doll…”

Mr. Goff wrote down the transaction on the tab after Faythe left with her new doll. The man sighed and ran his stubby fingers through his graying hairs before looking out the window at the sunset.

(-o-)(-o-)

“So, a Magby is the doll thief?”

Silas sank into his chair in front of his desk as he held the phone closer to his ear. Ralts was in the back bouncing a large Pokeball beach ball up and down.

“That’s right,” he heard her say from the other end, “it’s been stealing straight from Mr. Goff’s store. Have you had any other problems since the Mankey doll?”

“No, but Magby’s size and weight would be a great explanation for why my trap hasn’t caught him. He hasn’t snatched any more of my dolls because the trap stopped him, but it hasn’t caught him…yet. I’m sure it will pull through.”

Faythe was snuggled on her large Snorlax doll while she sewed up the side of the smaller Togepi doll. It had undergone a mysterious slashing the night before, but no dolls had been stolen.

“What are we going to do, Silas? Our traps are only working to protect our dolls, but we can’t protect all of the ones in Mr. Goff’s store.”

“I don’t know, Faythe, but we could always put a tracking device on the dolls. That way, if he takes one—“

“That’s a great idea, Silas, but…how will you know which one he chooses next?”

Silas paused to consider this before he finally let out an exhausted sigh. He was just about to answer when Ralts accidentally tossed the ball up too high. It hit him in the face, and ricocheted to the nightstand and knocked the lamp off. From Faythe’s end of the phone, she heard the crash.

“Silas, what was that? Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, don’t worry. Ralts just knocked over the lamp. I have to go. See you tomorrow?”

“Yeah, okay. See you tomorrow.”

“Bye.”

“Bye.”

The phone clicked. Once she hung up, Faythe leaned back against Snorlax with a sigh. Ralts was snuggled up asleep with the Snubbull doll again and, as his trainer watched her Poliwhirl clock, she gradually nodded off to sleep, too.

(-o-)(-o-)

A loud cry from Ralts woke her up what seemed like only five minutes later. She sat up and looked around with blurry eyes; it was morning already. Another cry snapped her to her senses: Magby was halfway out her window trying to escape with Faythe’s beloved Togepi doll, but Ralts had his arms wrapped tight around one of the Magby’s legs in an attempt to delay its escape. The trap had been set off by the thief and the siren for it was echoing loudly throughout the entire house.

“Ralts!” Faythe cried.

She scrambled up from the Snorlax doll just in time to see her mother burst in to her room.

“Faythe, what is that god awful alarm?”

Shana Garron's green eyes jerked from her daughter to the window. Her daughter had told her that the thief was a Magby, so Shana wasn’t surprised to see it; what she was surprised to see was that the little scoundrel was in her house stealing her daughter’s favorite doll!

“You little twerp, bring that doll back!”

The older woman took a step further into Faythe’s room, but Faythe quickly got to her feet and held her mother back.

“Ralts and I can handle this!”

“Then do it before he gets away,” Shana frantically looked from her daughter to the Magby.

Faythe whirled on the spot and adjusted her Milotic hat that her mom had made for her.

“Ralts, Hypnosis!”

A few lilac hypnotic waves were cast from Ralts towards the Magby who put up a great fight before he fell asleep. Ralts and Faythe only had enough time to pull the Magby back in to her room, close the window, and remove the Togepi doll from him. Shana turned off the ever-annoying siren which had now attracted a curious crowd on the street below. As the Magby started to wake up, the older woman slipped out of her daughter’s room to start up crowd control and made sure to shut the door behind her. The Magby hopped to his feet, threw off the black cape, and prepared for his battle.

“Ralts, try Double Team!”

“Ralts!”

The little Pokemon concentrated and divided himself into four different figures. The Magby looked between each one, but as they moved to attack, he let out a large smokescreen that covered the room. Faythe coughed. There was very little air which gave her no choice but to open the window before they all suffocated. She blindly made her way across the room and opened the window. When the smoke started to clear out, she found Magby using Faint Attack on all of the Ralts in the room and the real Ralts using Magical Leaf to try and counter Magby.

Ralts’s Magical Leaf missed, however, and he was finally knocked backwards on to the Snubbull doll by the Faint Attack. Magby brought his head back momentarily; he was charging himself up for a powerful Fire-type attack using the sunlight from Faythe’s window. The little girl acted quickly and grabbed the black cape, throwing it over the curtain rod to shield the sunlight from Magby. Unfortunately, it was too late. Magby shot out a Flamethrower directly at Ralts. It engulfed her Pokemon in flames, but the dolls were protected by something. When the flames died away, it was obvious that Ralts was protected also. He was concentrating hard, but calmly.

“C-Calm Mind,” she smiled. This battle was one of her first, but she knew it wasn’t over yet. “Ralts, use Future Sight!”

Ralts bowed his head in concentration: there was a psychic image projected in the room of a powerful, white jet of light striking Magby in midair and knocking him out. Enraged at this image, Magby clenched his claws into a fist and began his own concentration.

“Quick, use Confusion!”

Her Ralts took advantage of what time he had and charged up a small beam that was fired from between his small “hands” at the Magby. The little creature had to use Faint Attack to dodge it, but he reappeared just above Ralts with a menacing glare. His fist stretched back to deliver a very dangerous Fire Punch that promised to end this battle. However, he was struck with that beam of light and knocked into the nightstand.

Faythe quickly ran to her Pack that was prepared for the journey she would take any day now, removed a Luxury Ball, and tossed it at the Magby. He was transformed to a white jet of light and absorbed by the ball. Both trainer and Pokemon waited in anticipation as the ball wiggled…