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Laura set out early from Petalburg, Mudkip and Zigzagoon by her side, hoping to get to Rustboro by the end of the day. If the gym in Petalburg was closed for renovations, she had no reason to linger there. Before long she reached the outskirts of Petalburg Woods. There was a sign just outside the entrance, and she stopped to glance over it.
Welcome to
Petalburg Woods!
Warning: Poison-type Pokémon are common in this area. Please be cautious.
Trainers are strongly advised to carry Antidote while traveling through the woods.
Laura shuddered. She didn’t have any antidote.
“We’ll be okay,” she said, looking at each of her Pokémon in turn, “If we don’t fight any poison Pokémon, we can’t get poisoned, right?”
Mudkip and Zigzagoon didn’t seem convinced, but they nodded to her anyway.
Although it was a regular sunny day, the atmosphere in the forest seemed dark and mysterious. Sun filtered through the leaves and left bright patches on the ground, but the trees grew so densely that light did not travel far. Some sort of path had been cleared from the regular foot traffic through the forest, but there wasn’t much of one. The clearings between trees were still full of tall grass, and, undoubtably, Pokémon. Laura wanted to make it to the other side as soon as possible, so she ran from as many fights as she could.
After a half hour of stumbling her way through the forest, sounds of distress reached Laura’s ears. It sounded like someone was in trouble.
“Now give me that box!”
“No! Leave me alone!”
The second voice belonged to a boy her age; the first, an older man.
He probably isn’t even a trainer! I’d better go help!
Laura turned the corner to find the scene: a young boy with silver hair stood defiantly in front of a tall man in a strange red and black outfit. Neither had Pokémon out, but Laura could sense that a battle was imminent; the man in red had a Pokéball in hand. It seemed the boy was holding a package wrapped in paper.
“What’s going on here?” asked Laura, striding straight into the conflict. Mudkip and Zigzagoon followed nervously behind.
“Nothing that concerns you!” said the man in red, “This kiddo and I are just having a little business transaction.”
“No one is having any business transaction,” said the boy, “This package is not yours, and it is very important. Go find someone else to bother.”
“Well, it’s because it’s important that I need it, see?” the man in red was getting impatient, “Now hand it over, or I’ll have my Pokémon do the talking.”
“No way,” said Laura, “Leave him alone!”
“What, you’re going to protect him?” said the man in red, “What are you, his girlfriend?”
“I’ve never seen him in my life,” said Laura, “But if he’s in trouble, I can’t just stand there!”
“Hah!” said the man in red, “No one who crosses Team Magma gets any mercy, not even a kid! Come on and battle me!”
“You’re on!”
“Poochyena, take this!”
“Mudkip, it’s you!”
Mudkip leaped onto the field as the man in red tossed the Pokéball in his hand. The doglike Pokémon appeared in a flash of light.
“Mudkip, mud slap!”
“Poochyena, tackle!”
Mudkip spat mud at Poochyena, hitting it in the face. Though it was a weak attack, the Pokémon struggled to get the mud out of its eyes. It tried to fight back, but missed.
“Dammit! I said tackle!”
“Mudkip, now use water gun!”
This time Mudkip spat water at Poochyena, rinsing the mud from its eyes–but the attack took the blinded Pokémon by surprise, and it was knocked out.
“You gotta be kidding me!” the man recalled his Pokémon and stepped back, “You’ve got some nerve meddling with Team Magma.”
“Team Magma? I’ve never heard of you,” said the boy, looking at Laura, “Have you?”
“Nope,” Laura replied with a shrug.
“What? Why you–come on and battle me again!” said the man, “Or, that’s what I wanna say, but I’m out of Pokémon. You guys might be off the hook for today, but mark my words… next time we meet, I’ll teach you guys just what Team Magma’s all about!”
With that, the stranger tore off into the forest and out of sight. For a few minutes, the two were quiet. The boy turned to Laura, his expression kinder than it had been facing the Team Magma crony.
“Thank you for helping me,” he said, “I appreciate you stepping in, but I have my own Pokémon. I was only planning to use it if things had gotten really bad. Honestly, I didn’t think he would actually try to fight.”
“Oh…” said Laura, slightly embarrassed.
“My name is Steven,” said the boy, “You?”
“Laura. I’m from Littleroot.”
“I see. I’m from Rustboro myself,” said Steven. He talked with a maturity that belied his short stature and young face, “The gym leader in Petalburg had something for my father, so he asked me to come get it.”
“You know the Petalburg gym leader?”
“Tony? Oh, yes. He works with Devon Corporation occasionally. He’s a friend of my father’s.”
“Devon Corporation?”
“Hm? You don’t know?” Steven looked a little surprised, but continued, “It’s a company that makes useful items for trainers. This package is supposedly part of one of their new projects.”
“Is that why that Team Magma guy was after it?”
“I don’t know,” said Steven, “I don’t know if he even knew what was inside. Still… I don’t like the sound of this ‘Team Magma’. If he’s part of a team of some sort, there must be more of them.”
“Do you think they all dress so weirdly?” said Laura.
“I hope not,” said Steven, “In any case, let’s get out of here before he comes back.”
Laura and Steven walked together through the rest of the forest, making light conversation and avoiding fights with wild Pokémon and trainers. As they reached the exit, Steven turned to her once again.
“Thank you again for helping me,” he said, “I think I can make it from here. Oh! I should give you this as my thanks.”
Steven took something from his pocket and handed it to her. It looked like a small spray bottle filled with a gold-yellow liquid.
“It’s an antidote–a special spray-on one that Devon invented,” he explained, “If your Pokémon get poisoned, you can use this to cure them. Just apply directly to the wound and they’ll be good as new. I don’t plan on heading back into the forest, so I don’t need this anymore.”
“T-thanks,” Laura put the antidote carefully into her fannypack, “I don’t know if I’m going back in today, but I’ll keep this handy if I do.”
“Good,” said Steven, “Trainers generally hang out on this part of the route, so be careful. I’m going to go on ahead now–I hope we meet again somewhere, Laura.”
“Me too. See ya, Steven!”
And Steven was off, toting the package under one arm as he went. Laura watched him go for a while, trying to decide what to do: should she head straight for Rustboro, or hang back and train her Pokémon more?
“Well, we might get stopped by other trainers on the way to Rustboro,” said Laura, talking more to Mudkip than anyone, “So let’s head for Rustboro and train at the same time!”
“Mud!”
As she battled her way to Rustboro, though, Laura couldn’t shake a nagging question from her mind.
Who or what was Team Magma–and would they show up again?