Ash's Story (Part 4: Kanto and Unova)

Chapter 6

En route to the Battle Arena, we stopped at a particularly popular Kanto bakery at May's request. Although we have to wait for a long line... which is not great for us. Suddenly, an Arcanine comes bounding down the road directly towards the gathered crowd. The Arcanine leaps over everyone and continues running into the distance.

May watches the Pokemon with amaze and says, "I want to catch it..."

"Arcanine!" We turn around and we notice Drew and Flygon. "It's Drew!" I gasp.

"Flygon! Flamethrower!" Drew commands, though Arcanine evades and responds back with a Heat Wave attack. Arcanine sprints into Extreme Speed to get away, much to Drew's annoyance.

"It got away!" Drew says with anger.

"I didn't know you're in Kanto too, Drew..." May says.

"Real winner can't resist competition, though that makes me wonder why you're here." Drew says.

"Can't you try to be polite?" May says with annoyance.

I say, "I guess you're like May and I, entering the Kanto Grand Festival, too?"

"Well, more accurately, I'm going to win it." Drew says. "Although having you in the Contest makes things really fire up. After all, you did win the Hoenn Grand Festival."

"And I also intend to win this as well." I say. "So how many ribbons do you have?"

"Check it out." Drew shows her Ribbon Case, and he already gets one ribbon. May groans, "Damn it... I still haven't won one of those while you and Ash already have one!"

"Well of course you haven't. I'm on my way to catch that Arcanine now so I can continue winning my way through Kanto." Drew says.

"For your information, I'm going to catch that Arcanine!" May says back.

"I'd love to see you try, but I hate to see you fully humiliated." "I'm going to show you!"

Then after Drew leaves, Emerald says, "I have to admit that Flygon is something else."

"Who cares! I'm going to show him something else and capturing that Arcanine will be the best way to start!"

Serena says, "So what's the deal with that guy?"

"He's Drew, he's a rival of ours in the Contest Circuit. May loses to him in the Hoenn Grand Festival while I win against him." I say.

"Eh..." Serena nods.

Not long after, we find the Arcanine as it is picking Pecha Berries and storing them for later. Arcanine starts to leave, so May sends out Blaziken to get it. Blaziken starts to catch up, but Arcanine uses Extreme Speed to flee.

"I guess we should've expected that." I say.

"But how are we going to catch that Arcanine when we can't even catch up to it?"

"We'll have to think another way and that means we need to get some information." Reisa says.

We come to an old woodsman's house. The man admits that a young boy and his Flygon were also curious about the Arcanine, and he also shares his first-hand information on the elusive Arcanine with the group.

"The Arcanine never came down from the mountains, but lately I've seen it almost every day." He takes out the map and says, "Take a look at this map and this forest. And right here is the Pecha Trees they know about, and the over here is a spring where it goes to drink."

"So how are we going to get it?" Serena asks.

"The spring is close to here and we know that it needs water." Reisa says.