[5] The Daughter of Nurse Joy: Battle Frontier

The Berry Thieves

After leaving where the Battle Pyramid was, the gang were on the way to the Indigo Plateau for the grand festival. May was excited and didn't stop looking at her five Kanto ribbons.

"I wonder what this grand festival is going to be like." May pondered.

"One thing for sure it will be tough to earn the title top coordinator just like the Hoenn Grand Festival was." Cora confirmed.

"Yeah because there will be tough competitors for you and Cora to go against with May." Max added.

May was still excited about entering the grand festival and Cora couldn't wait either.

"Stop!"

Suddenly the gang heard shouting from behind. A man shouted at a bunch of Aipoms who were carrying berries in their arms.

The man was yelling, "Stop thieves!"

Just then the Aipoms ran over to the gang, one took Alain's scarf, and one took May's ribbon case.

"Hey that's my scarf!" Alain shouted.

"You give my ribbons back!" May demanded.

Before they could do anything, Aipoms quickly got away from them, much to their disappointment.

May fell to her knees, "No way, my ribbons." She held her cheeks.

"Don't worry, we'll get them back." Max assured her.

The man ran up to the gang, "Are you all okay?"

"Yeah, kinda." Alain admitted, grimly.

"What on earth are the Aipoms doing?" Cora asked.

"Come with me to my place and I will explain." said the man.

====

The man's name was Taylor and he was a berry farmer who grew berries to make Pokéblocks to sell, and he had a very big orchard. But all of his berry trees had no berries. Taylor explained that the Aipoms would often come and get some of his berries only when they were hungry. But now the Aipoms had taken all of the berries off the berry trees and Mankeys, Vigoroths and Slakings were doing it too.

"Why are they doing this?" Brock asked.

"Well, it's like this." Taylor began. He explained one foggy night a traveler was lost on the mountain roads, and there he saw a shadow of what looked like a giant monster behind a giant wooden fence and gate. "He ran away and found me and told me all about his encounter."

The gang was surprised by that story.

But Cora knew that Team Rocket was behind this incident. The idiotic trio had built a huge Slaking to make all the Pokémon gather berries so that they can make Pokéblocks to sell at the Indigo Plateau. Not to mention that Jessie will try and use May's ribbons to enter in the Grand Festival.

"Do you think that monster has something to do with the Pokémon around here taking all your berries?" Brock asked.

"I do not know, I'm afraid." Taylor replied.

"We should check this out," Cora decided, "if there's a giant monster about it will mean trouble."

"Yeah, and I want my ribbons back!" May declared.

"By the way, Alain, where did you get that scarf from? It seemed important to you." Max asked.

Alain rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, "Cora got it for me actually." He admitted, looking away.

Ash, Brock, May and Max blinked.

"Cora gave it to me for my ninth birthday. I was always fascinated with my Charizard's Mega Evolved form. She got it for me because it reminded her of the flames that are on Charizard's mouth." Alain explained.