| abstract
| - Brendan and May left the gym to find that the night sky was slowly settling in on the city. Due to the city's olden look, there was a beautiful contrast with the cityscape and the stars in the sky. Living in the polluted Goldenrod City as a child, a starry sky was something Brendan had never seen before. "This is amazing," Brendan mumbled as he looked up at the sky in awe. "I've never seen anything like it." "It's really something, isn't it?" May asked. "Trust me, you haven't even seen the best of Hoenn." "Oh, I hope I haven't," Brendan nodded in agreement before looking back to his companion. "Anyways, where is the Devon Corporation from here?" "It's the tallest building in the city," May answered and pointed to an industrial-looking building which towered above all the others. "It really doesn't look like it fits in with the rest of the city, but I guess that only makes our journey easier." The pair walked through the city's lit up streets and alleys in the direction of the Devon Corporation. Due to its hulking size over the rest of the buildings, it was really hard to lose sight of in the night sky. Additionally, the city's grid design made it easy to calculate the twists and turns. As a result, they were able to make it in no time. Before they could even open the doors, however, it appeared as if there was some sort of commotion going on. A small crowd of people gathered at the entrance as several Officer Jennys prevented entrance. "What's going on here?" Brendan asked and approached the Jennys. "There has been a break-in," one of the Jennys answered. "They're saying that Team Aqua broke in, but the perpetrator could be hiding anywhere in the building." Just then, the doors burst open wildly. "Get out of the way!" A familiar voice cried out and rushed out of the building. Brendan and May could see that it was the same Team Aqua Grunt they shooed away in Petalburg Woods. "No, give me back the goods!" The Devon researcher who Brendan and May had helped earlier came running out of the Devon Corporation in pursuit of the Grunt. He found the two and jogged over to them. "I'm terribly sorry to bother you again but this Team Aqua fool managed to steal our goods!" "Don't worry about that," Brendan reassured the researcher and looked to the Officer Jennys. "We'll get them back. We know how to deal with Team Aqua." "And we'll teach him a lesson that he'll never forget," May added. "We've already beat him once and we can do it again!" "Then I'm entrusting this mission to you," another Jenny said. "Don't mess this one up." "Oh, thank you so much!" The researcher smiled and looked to the two teenagers. "The Devon Goods are far too valuable to get in the wrong hands." Brendan and May nodded in unison and turned to chase down the Team Aqua Grunt. It seemed that he ran out of the northeast exit of the city and they followed him down there. They weren't exactly sure where they were going but they were sure that they would eventually corner him. Since activity was minimal, things were pretty calm in Team Aqua's seashore hideout. Most Grunts were either busy training their Pokémon or were going through action plans set up by their leader, Archie. If anything, it seemed to be just a usual business day for Team Aqua. Archie sat on his "throne" in his hideout pondering his next action to turn Hoenn into his own water paradise. In order for him to make his dreams a reality, he would have to stomp Team Magma in their tracks. Since they viewed a world of land as ideal, Archie would have to take them out of his way in order to pioneer his own vision. Archie was startled when he heard a knock on his door. "Come in!" He shouted from his seat. One of his admins, a female with black hair and blue highlights, a cropped blue shirt, and baggy blue pants walked in. Archie stood up and walked over to her. "Shelly, what brings you here?" He asked her. "Leader Archie, it appears that we had snagged the Devon Goods," she told him. "Good, that should bring us one step closer to our goal," Archie thought out loud. "However, we seem to have a little problem," Shelly added. "What are you talking about?" "Notice how I said we had snagged the Devon Goods. You see, the same Grunt who stole the goods was also stopped dead in his tracks earlier by two pesky little teenagers," Shelly told him. "This same Grunt is reporting that these two teenagers are chasing him down, and given his terrible track record, I doubt he'll be able to finish the job successfully." "Those brats!" Archie spat out and slammed his fist on his desk. "He informed me that the two have fantastic potential as trainers. I recommend that we keep an eye out on them. They may pose a great threat to us in the future." "I do not like the sound of this." Archie scratched his chin and thought for a minute. "Keep them on our alert list. We must make sure that they do not bother us again." "I will do as you ask, Leader," Shelly nodded and walked out of Archie's room. Archie breathed deeply and continued to think at his desk. If these two trainers were as threatening as Shelly said warned him they were, then Archie himself would have to do something about it. He sighed and put his head down in thought. The one thing he hated the most was people getting in his way, and he would stop at nothing to eliminate them. Brendan and May managed to chase the Team Aqua Grunt all the way down through the forested Hoenn Route 116 up until they reached a large stone mountain. Since the route was filled with hills and trees, they were sure that he was able to get away from them in the wilderness. Hopelessly, they both sat against a tree in front of the mountain. "We're never going to find him," May groaned. "We can't just give up like that," Brendan shook his head. "He can't be hiding forever." Just then, a pecular pink Pokémon with big yellow ears plodded over to the group. Without making noise, it began to tug at Brendan's shirt with its little paws. Confusedly, Brendan retracted from the Pokémon and pulled out his PokéDex. "What even is this thing.?" Brendan asked and waited for his PokéDex to scan the Pokémon. "Whismur, the Whisper Pokémon," his PokéDex started. "Whismur is very timid. If it starts to cry loudly, it becomes startled by its own crying and cries even harder. When it finally stops crying, the Pokémon goes to sleep, all tired out." "Whismur..." Brendan muttered to himself as the Pokémon began to tug at him again. It quickly let Brendan go and pointed to the mountain. "It looks like it's trying to tell you something," May observed. "I think we should follow it." "Looks like it," Brendan agreed. The two of them got up from their spot and followed Whismur around the mountain. After a little bit of walking, Whismur led the pair to a small entrance into the mountain. Next to the entrance was an old man crying loudly. "Peecko! Peecko!" The man kept repeating. "Peecko, where are you!?" "Wait a minute... that's Mr. Briney, Hoenn's most famous sailor!" May exclaimed and ran over to the man. "What's wrong?" "An evil man dressed in blue took my beloved Wingull, Peecko, from me and ran into that cave!" Mr. Briney bawled. "That must have been what Whismur was telling us..." Brendan muttered to himself. "And that must also be the same Team Aqua person that took the Devon Goods. Don't worry, Mr. Briney, we'll get your Peecko back for you!" Brendan, May, and Whismur ran into the foggy cave entrance and managed to make out a figure in the distance. Between the fog in the cave and its grayish-brown interior, it was hard for the two of them to see what exactly the figure was. As they approached closer, they could tell that it was the Team Aqua Grunt. "There he is!" May cried and chased him down. "You two again!" The Grunt growled and stepped back. "That must be Mr. Briney's Wingull!" Brendan exclaimed as he saw the caged bird on the floor. "Let it free!" "Never!" The Team Aqua Grunt pulled out a PokéBall from his belt and threw it forward. "You may have beaten my Poochyena, but try stopping Lombre!" The green lily pad Pokémon appeared from its trainer's PokéBall in front of Brendan and May. It looked at the two trainers before crying out loudly. "I choose you Grov-" Brendan reached for Grovyle's PokéBall on his belt before he noticed Whismur taking a step forward. "Whismur, you want to fight?" Whismur nodded and hopped in front of Lombre menacingly. The two Pokémon stared each other down before waiting for their trainers' orders. "Whismur likes to cry, right?" Brendan asked himself. "That must mean you can use Uproar!" Whismur nodded and let out an earsplitting cry. Brendan, May, and the Grunt covered their ears as Whismur's Uproar attack filled the entire cave with a powerful wall of noise. It was so powerful that Peecko even trembled in her cage. Lombre slammed its own head to the ground to shake Whismur's noise away. "Lombre, get back up and use Hydro Pump!" "Whismur, don't let it attack you by protecting yourself with another Uproar!" Lombre fired a large beam of water out of its mouth and straight at Whismur. Whismur, however, opened its mouth and let out another powerful Uproar attack and used the sheer volume to rip the Hydro Pump to shreds. By the time the attack reached Whismur, it was nothing but mist. "No!" The Grunt growled. "Lombre, use Zen Headbutt!" Lombre flung itself headfirst into Whismur and knocked the Pokémon backwards. However, Whismur was fully fired up from its Uproar attack and almost took no damage. "Whismur, see if you can use a Pound attack!" Brendan commanded and pointed forward. Whismur hopped forward and whacked Lombre hard with both of its ears. Lombre flinched back and fell to its knees. "Whismur, finish the job with one more Uproar!" Using all of the power it had left, Whismur opened its mouth wide and fired another Uproar at Lombre. Lombre couldn't take the headache from the attack and collapsed to the floor. The Grunt growled and called it back to its Pokémon. "Damn it!" The Grunt shouted. "I was so close!" "That's how we do it!" Brendan exclaimed and pumped his fist. "Take the damned Devon Goods, I didn't need it anyway," the Grunt said and threw the goods at Brendan. He freed Peecko before running off. "Well, that's over with," Brendan sighed and held tightly onto the Devon Goods. He looked down to Whismur and held out an empty PokéBall. "Do you want to join my team?" Whismur nodded softly and Brendan tossed his PokéBall at it. Whismur was sucked into its void as the PokéBall fell to the ground and started to shake. Eventually it clicked and sealed Whismur's capture. Brendan picked up Whismur's PokéBall and strapped it to his belt. "Should we head out?" May asked and picked Peecko up. She turned around and started to walk out of the cave. "Wait for me!" Brendan exclaimed and followed her out. The two of them walked outside the cave with Peecko in May's arms as they found Mr. Briney. Once he saw his Pokémon, he instantly stopped crying and stood up to take it from May's hands. "Thank you two so much," Mr. Briney smiled and rubbed Peecko's head softly. "If you two ever need a ride across Hoenn's seas, I would be more than happy to be your sailor. I live just outside Petalburg if you'd like to drop by anytime." "Thank you for the offer Mr. Briney," Brendan nodded. "And it was no problem!" "It really wasn't!" May agreed. "It's our pleasure!" With that, Mr. Briney started to walk off in the distance with Peecko on his shoulder. As he left their field of vision, the Devon researcher from earlier started to appear at the end of the horizon. He walked over to the two and noticed the Devon Goods in Brendan's hands. "You two got our goods back!" He exclaimed as he reached them. "After you two didn't come back, I thought I'd track this fool myself, but I am once again in your debt! Please come back with me, I'm sure our president would like to have a word with you." The Devon researcher led Brendan and May to the top floor of the Devon Corporation. In the sole room was an executive desk with an old man sitting at it. He motioned for the two of them to approach them. "Ah, you must be our company's two young saviors!" He beamed and shook their hands. "If not for you two, then we would have lost a valuable part of our deal with Captain Stern. Thank you two very much." "It's no problem," May nodded. "What are your names again?" "I'm Brendan and this is May," Brendan introduced themselves. "I am Mr. Stone and as you can see I run the Devon Corporation," he started. "We were once a hole-in-the-wall company that has now risen to running pretty much a lot of things in the Hoenn Region." "Wow, that's crazy," Brendan replied. "Anyways, without boring you two to death, I would like to ask a favor of you. I have a son named Steven who is doing some research in Dewford Town," Mr. Stone said and pulled out an envelope from a drawer. "I have a letter here for him that I would like for you to deliver. I know a group of traveling trainers cannot pass up a challenge at the Dewford Gym so all I ask of you is a minor detour." "Yeah, I don't see why not," Brendan nodded and took the letter from Mr. Stone's hands. "We'll make sure this gets to him." "Before you leave, I have something for you two," he told them and pulled two phone-like devices out of his drawer. "These are PokéNav Pluses, they are a necessity for trainers traveling across the Hoenn Region. I will give them to you two free of charge for your help." "Thank you," Brendan said and took the blue PokéNav Plus. "Thank you, Mr. Stone," May said as well and took the pink PokéNav Plus. "Now, I don't want to hold you two up," Mr. Stone sighed and stood up. He shook their hands and pointed them to the door. "Thank you for all your help and get on with your adventure!"
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