Born to be a Winner

by Darth Severus

The First Catch

Spike woke up as the dewdrops fell on his face. For once he'd had a nice, peaceful sleep without an earthquake waking him up. As he packed his stuff, he saw that Smolder had been cooking breakfast on a campfire. She looked up to Spike and said, "You're just in time, I just finished the pancakes."

Spike sat down next to the fire and ate some pancakes that Smolder gave him. He was shocked at how they seemed to melt in his mouth, "I never knew you were this good of a cook Smolder."

Smolder smiled, "Yeah, my mom used to be the head chef at the Shania Beachside Resort and Spa. She taught me everything I know about cooking, even how to make Pokémon food."

Spike smiled, "You learn something new every day I guess."

As the two of them finished their breakfast, Spike and Smolder packed up their stuff and started heading towards Dramos Town. They still had a ways to go to get out of the Shade Forest. Suddenly, their Pokédex started beeping, it was the scouting feature, alerting them when wild Pokémon were nearby. Spike looked at Smolder and said, "You want to look for some wild Pokémon?"

Smolder smiled, "Of course, we can't be true trainers with only one Pokémon." before heading off into the forest to look for Pokémon.

As Spike looked through the shrubs and trees, he heard a screech from the nearby river and ran over to see a Totodile being harassed by a Mandibuzz. The Totodile looked scared for its life, and Spike wasn't going to stand there and let it continue. He sent out his Charmander and commanded, "Charmander, Shadow Ball!" His Charmander formed a ball of darkness in front of its mouth and fired it at the Mandibuzz.

The Mandibuzz was already angry, and the Shadow Ball made it even angrier. It swooped towards Spike's Charmander, only to be caught off guard by an Ice Fang from the Totodile it was harassing. Spike reached into his bag and pulled out a Poké Ball. He knew this wouldn't end well if he didn't catch this Mandibuzz, but it was a longshot. He got ready to throw it and said, "Go, Poké Ball!" before throwing it at the Mandibuzz, and it got sucked in.

The Poké Ball shook, before the Mandibuzz broke out, but something strange happened, Spike could have sworn he heard someone snapping their fingers, and the Mandibuzz was sucked into the Poké Ball again and it clicked shut. Spike sighed in relief, but as he picked up the Poké Ball, he wondered, "I've never seen a Pokémon get sucked back in after escaping a Poké Ball... Oh, right!" before running over to the Totodile who was still scared, and snapped at Spike.

Spike held out his hand, with an Oran Berry, "Don't worry, I won't hurt you." The Totodile walked up and took the Oran Berry and ate it. Spike smiled, "You seem full of energy now. Would you like to join my team?" Totodile nodded, and as Spike pulled out a Poké Ball, it jumped and clicked the button on it, letting itself get sucked in.

As Spike picked up his second new Pokémon, he heard a voice, "Not bad, for a child." behind him was a person dressed in a black robe with a white hood and red collar. "Now, if you don't mind, I'll be taking that Mandibuzz off your hands. Such a Pokémon is too powerful for the likes of you."

Spike growled, "Who the hell are you? I caught this Mandibuzz fair and square!"

The person in the robe sighed, "Seems we have to do this the-" before he could reach for his Poké Balls, an Arcanine tackled him to the ground, growling.

A police officer ran over to the Arcanine and said, "Good catch! You're one of those cultists! You're under arrest!"

Spike was surprised to hear this person was a cultist, but looking closer at what he wore, it made sense, he must have been a member of the Cult of Darkrai. He said to the officer, "Thanks for saving me officer."

The officer tipped his hat, "No problem kid. I'll take care of this scum myself, you should get going." before calling in for a squad car to his location.

Spike went back to where he and Smolder split up, and Smolder smiled, "Check this out, I caught a Combee! What did you catch?" before letting out her Combee, who snuggled up to her. "She's such a cutie isn't she?"

Spike nodded, saying, "I caught a Mandibuzz and a Totodile." He let out his new Pokémon, the Mandibuzz turned away from both trainers, while Totodile jumped up and down happily.

Smolder's eyes widened as she saw Spike had caught a Mandibuzz, "How'd you catch that!?"

Spike rubbed the back of his neck laughing, "Dumb luck, this Totodile was being bullied, so I decided to help, and I ended up catching the Mandibuzz. Doesn't look like she likes me though."

Smolder nodded, "I've heard it takes a while for Mandibuzz to bond with their trainers, but you sure are lucky!"

As they returned their Pokémon to their Poké Balls, they continued heading to Dramos Town. As they exited the forest, they saw police and Pokémon Rangers near the forest's outskirts. Spike told Ember, "They must be looking for cultists, a Darkrai cultist tried to take away Mandibuzz when I caught her and Totodile."

Smolder shivered, "Those cultists give me the creeps, I'm glad I didn't run into any in there."

Spike shrugged, "I can't say I disagree, I had a bad feeling until a cop's Arcanine pounced on the cultist. Come on, we should just stay out of their way and let them do their jobs. We're ten year old's, it's not our job to stop crime."

Smolder nodded, "Yeah, you're right, Dramos Town isn't much further, let's go."

And with that, Spike has captured two new Pokémon, and had an encounter with a cultist from the Cult of Darkrai. The cultists' goals are unknown, but everyone knows they're bad news. Will Spike and Smolder be able to avoid getting involved with cults, or will they find themselves in the middle of the fire?

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