DPA: Rivals

Chapter 10: The Curious Incident Of The Poliwag In The Night Time Part 5

"I believe I've locked onto Poliwag's location," Vince said. "Oddly enough, I'm also detecting three other heat signatures."

"Explain," Cameron replied.

"There seems to be another Pokémon trainer, along with two Pokémon that aren't even native to the Kanto region."

"Where are they?" Max asked.

"27.34 yards north."

The group began to run towards Poliwag's location, Vince leading, followed by Max and Skye, Daryon and Cameron near the back.

"This random trainer won't be able to catch Poliwag, will he?" Daryon asked Cameron as they ran through the forest.

"No, Poliwag's Pokéball should be registered within Skye's Pokédex, and as a result, Poliwag's data would be locked into the system under Skye's OT Number."

"OT Number?"

"Original Trainer Number."

"Got it."

A few minutes later, the group reached a clearing, in which stood Poliwag, along with an unknown trainer and two Pokémon Daryon had never seen before.

"Poliwag!" Max shouted, bolting towards the small Water type. Poliwag, seeing Max, waddled as fast as it could towards the boy, letting out a happy "blub" of joy. Max scooped up Poliwag in his arms, spinning around, tears streaming down his face. "I was so scared!"

"Blub blub!" Poliwag exclaimed.

The unnamed trainer slowly clumped over towards Max.

"Is this your Poliwag?" He asked.

"Yeah! Thanks for watching him until we found him!" Max exclaimed, blissfully unaware of the stranger's tone of voice. "What's your name."

"Logan," he replied. "And no problem. It's the least I could do. Poliwag clearly needed a decent trainer to watch it, seeing as it's been under the care of a five year old scrub."

Silence. The group turned their attention to Logan, as the air became tense.

"I'm seven, not five," Max sniffled, holding back tears. "And what do you mean? I love Poliwag!"

"It doesn't matter! You obviously have no clue how to take care of Pokémon, or Poliwag wouldn't have been lost in the forest for one of a hundred or more terrible things could've happened! There are reasons why infants aren't allowed to have Pokémon , and you are a perfect example of that! You're irresponsible, immature, and don't deserve to have a Pokémon!"

Max ambled over to Skye, clearly devastated by Logan's words. Skye knelt down to Max's level holding him in a tight hug, while glaring at Logan with the fury of a thousand Primeape. As for Daryon...feeling the heat run down his neck, angry at a trainer who was so full of himself that he'd insult a child.

Daryon lunged at Logan, ready to punch his new enemy square in the jaw. Fortunately Cameron, knowing his friend almost too well, grabbed him by the shoulders, holding him back. However, the quieter of the two friends couldn't stop the angry tirade that spewed forth from Daryon's lips.

"Who the heck do you think you are?!" Daryon raged. "What kind of self-righteous, pathetic piece of Trubbish thinks they have any right to treat a little kid like that? I should smack that attitude right out of your smug little face. You're lucky you have Pokémon outside of their Pokéballs right now."

Logan's Scorbunny was in a defensive pose, ready to defend his trainer. Oshawott, who had been relaxing in the comfort of Logan's upper jacket pocket, had buried itself in Logan's shirt, wanting nothing to do with the escalating conflict. Pikachu stood crouched on the ground, back arched, teeth bared. Dratini had tightened its grip around Skye's arm, ready to spring into action. And Mudkip slept peacefully in Cameron's backpack, completely unaware of everything that was going on around it.