Moon. Thinking of the famous mountain, he glanced up, looking at the tall, ominous

peak in the distance, growing ever larger as they grew closer.

Erik had called out Gusty, just to let him spread his wings. He flew around a

while, before calling a loud squawk. Running over, Erik saw a young boy, wearing

shorts and a t-shirt.

The boy was about to call out a Pokémon to battle when Erik intervened. "Hey!"

he said. "That’s my Pokémon!" Erik blushed when he realized how possessive he had

sounded.

But the boy seemed not to notice. Enlarging a Pokéball, he replied, "Then let’s

battle!" He reared back in a strange pose, then threw the Pokéball to the ground. "Eevee,

I choose you!" he called.

In a mass of red light, the Pokéball opened to reveal a canine like Pokémon. It

had a mane of white fur around its neck, with a fierce red stripe on the front. The rest of

it was brown, except for its long, furry tail that was also that fierce shade of red.

"Eevee." Dexboy said. "Its genetic code is unstable, so it could evolve in a

variety of ways. There are only a few alive. This particular Eevee is a female."

"Gusty!" Erik called. He still didn’t really know Gusty too well. "Gust attack!"

he called, reveling at the way Gusty’s name had sounded like an adjective.

"Eevee! Take Down!" the boy countered. Eevee sped up greatly, and charged

straight at Gusty. When she was close enough, she jumped fast towards Gusty. But she

never reached him, as his powerful wings created a literal gust of wind, blowing the small

animal back to the ground.

"Sand Attack!" the boy cried, and Eevee kicked up a cloud of dust.

"Blow it away with Whirlwind!" Erik said. When the dust cleared, Eevee

suddenly jumped up and knocked Gusty to the ground.

Gusty stood back up ready to fight some more, and Eevee ran back to her trainer,

awaiting his command.

"Eevee." He said, holding out his Pokéball. "Return." He said, and Eevee was

brought back inside by the thin, transparent beam.

"Why’d you do that?" Erik asked, wondering why he had just recalled his healthy

Pokémon.

"I don’t really wish to fight you anymore. It would be a great battle, but I don’t

really stand a chance." He sadly looked at the Pokéball. "I’ve tried to raise Eevee to be

stronger, but I’m just no good with Normal types. I’m best with Flying types, like your

Pidgey. I…I was wondering…Do you want to trade?

"Trade?" Erik asked, confused as to what.

"Yeah. You could probably raise Eevee much better than I could, and I would

love to have a chance to train your Pidgey. Is it a male?" he asked.

"Yes." Erik replied cautiously.

"That’s great!" the boy cried. "I have a female Pidgey, along with a few other

flying types. If they got together, maybe they could…well, you know. I would much

rather breed Pokémon than battle. So…will you trade with me? Your Pidgey for my

Eevee?"

Erik really wasn’t sure. "Matt?" he said. "Do you think I should trade?"

"Sure." Was Matt’s reply. "A lot of people do it, and it would be great to train a

rare Pokémon."

After thinking a moment, Erik decided to let Gusty decide. "Pidgey!" was his

reply, an enthusiastic "Yes!"

Erik recalled Gusty to his Pokéball and walked over to the boy. "How do you

trade?" he asked.

The boy responded by pulling out a Pokédex similar to Erik’s but blue. "First, get

your Pokédex out." As Erik did so and opened it, he said, "Do you see that small red

button on the side? If you press it, it lets a transfer plate slide out. All you have to do is

aim your Pokédex at mine, place your Pokéball on the circle there, and we hit the

Transfer button at the same time." He pointed to another small button, on the inside of

Erik’s flip-out plate.

Erik minimized Gusty’s Pokéball so that it would fit on the plate, and set it down.

After the boy had done the same, he said, "One, two three." And they both pushed the

button.

The black band on Gusty’s ball began to glow a bright shade of red, as did the ball

on the boy’s Pokédex. At the same time, both the balls glowed sparkling white and

disappeared. They reappeared a split second later, though. Erik guessed they had been

switched, but he let out Eevee just to be sure.

She popped out and jumped on him, knocking him and Tiny down, and started to

lick his face. Laughing, Erik said, "She’s like a tiny flame. Couldn’t we have just

switched the two balls by hand?"

"Maybe." The boy said. "But it has to be recorded. Otherwise, you could be

arrested because you had stolen Pokémon." A woman’s voice called. "Gotta go." He

said, leaning down to pet Eevee for the last time. "Maybe you should called her that." He

said, before he sped off and disappeared.

"What? Flame?" Erik said. He considered it a moment. "Why not?" He stood

off a waved. "Goodbye, Gusty!" he yelled. Softly, under his breath, he said something

else. "Goodbye, Wind."

Flame, Erik, Tiny, and Matt walked a few moments in silence. Soon, they came

upon the cave entrance. Flame sniffed the air, then bounded into the cave. Running

behind her, Erik noticed that she suddenly stopped and started to dig into the ground.

Erik kneeled down and started to dig as well. Soon he had uncovered a small,

thin wedge of a circle, white, with an engraved symbol. Erik immediately knew where it

went. He slipped it into it’s spot in his medallion. A bright flash of light seared it into

piece, and green metal. He was beginning to see the shape that all the engraved symbols

made, when he heard a loud screeching.

"Uh oh." Matt said. "Zubat! That flash must have upset them."

Suddenly, a large cloud of bats flew from around a corner, heading angrily and

dead center towards them.

Flame said something that Tiny translated as meaning, "’When long ago this clue

was buried, a cloud of suckers caused great hurry!’"