The first thing Red noticed when he arrived at his hotel room was the massive mess that had been made. Cupboards were left wide open, plastic bags were strewn across the floor, the carpets were speckled with dirt and grime, and trash cans were knocked over.

He really hoped he wouldn’t have to clean that up. He had just received a hefty sum for winning his gym battle, and was in a good mood for the first time in a while. He didn’t want to waste any time doing maid service.

The second thing he noticed was Ritchie, who was slumped on a couch with an uncharacteristic frown on his face.

“Uh… what happened?” he asked, inching towards him uncertainly.

Ritchie sighed, turning to face him. “I got scammed. I only have a few hundred poké left.”

“Ritchie,” Red groaned, putting his face in his hands. He should’ve known better than to expect a peaceful afternoon. Something just had to happen.

“Didn’t we address this weeks ago?” he snapped. “You’re way too gullible! I just got back from my gym battle- which I won, by the way- and now, instead of resting for the rest of the day like I had hoped, I’m going to have to go around town looking for this person who ran off with your money.”

“Y-you don’t have to do that, you know…”

“Not really, but I’ll feel like a dried out Stunfisk if I don’t.”

“And this is any different from the other times when you’ve not wanted to help people out because…?”

“Because, believe it or not, I’m in a helping mood right now.”

“Really?” Ritchie asked, looking at Red suspiciously.

“Okay, fine,” he admitted, “It’s because you’re- kind of, mind you- my friend. Or at least a good acquaintance.”

“Aww-”

“Don’t. Now, where’s Phoenix?” Red asked, looking around the room in case he had missed her.

“She’s out looking for the person who scammed me. I don’t remember much about her, though, so it’s kinda difficult.”

“Well then,” Red said, sighing, “what do you remember?”

“Uhh… she was tall, she had brown hair, a black dress… and I found her at the Cerulean Market. It’s a half-mile or so south of here, I think? I bought this stupid piece of junk,” at this, Ritchie picked up a large green seed from his lap, “tried to use it when I got back, but it turned out to be useless.”

“What if you were just using it wrong?”

“I wasn’t!” Ritchie shouted, glaring at him. “She called it a miracle seed- it’s supposed to glow and power up the moves of grass type pokémon when you use it! I used it exactly as she said, and nothing happened.”

He held it up for Red to see, and he realized Ritchie was right- upon closer inspection, the ‘miracle seed’ was a regular old apricorn seed with a coating of glossy green paint. To be fair, it was a pretty convincing fake, but you could still tell something was wrong if you looked at it for too long.

“All right…” he breathed. “Guess we’re doing this. I’m off to the Cerulean Market, since that’s the best lead we have- you owe me one, though.”

Finding the street vendor who had scammed Ritchie was much easier said than done, and while Red had expected there to be some trouble, he hadn’t quite expected it to be as much of a hassle as it was. After a time, he began to sorely regret offering to help out; after all, Ritchie wasn’t exactly entitled to his money back when he had made a fair enough transaction. On the other hand, however, he hadn’t really been lying to him. As much as he wanted to let him sort things out on his own, the idea made him feel oddly uncomfortable.

Cerulean Market was like a maze; people were everywhere, standing behind small wooden stands, carefully laid rugs, and carts stocked to the brim with various goods. The abundance and variety to be found was overwhelming, and more than a little distracting- it was like looking for a needle in a haystack.

After a half-hour of searching, he finally decided to turn in the towel. He had scoured at least two thirds of the market streets, and had seen neither hide nor hair of the vendor he was looking for- or Phoenix, surprisingly, given she was supposedly looking in the same place as him. He slowly moved out of the market, trying to escape the throng of people by sticking to smaller side streets. This granted him a little respite, though the clamor of the nearby crowds was ever-present in the background. Soon enough, however, he was able to escape the hustle and bustle of the market, reaching the outer streets where much fewer vendors were situated- the ones who were there staying out of the way, keeping close to buildings in order to stave off the cold winter chill.

As he rounded a corner, something caught his attention- a tall, young woman with long brown hair was seated behind a blanket covered in trinkets and knick-knacks of all sorts. She wore a black sleeveless dress, white gloves, and high heels, and was proudly touting her wares to anyone who came by. The sight immediately gave Red pause, as the girl almost exactly matched the description Ritchie had given him.

“Come one, come all… to my Incredible Discount Items Store! We’ve got everything here- from charcoal to assault vests!”

He narrowed his eyes in suspicion, trying to edge close enough to see what was going on in detail, while still keeping far enough away that he wouldn’t attract the girl’s attention. If this was the same person who had scammed Ritchie, then most of her ‘items’ weren’t likely to be the real deal, and he could tell that was the case. It felt like there was something missing from them, though it was hard to place his finger on what, and they didn’t come off as genuine to him.

Unfortunately, despite his best efforts, the girl eventually caught sight of him, and waved him over cheerily.

“Hey there!” she called out. “Are you a pokémon trainer?”

“Uh, yeah…” Red said, trailing off nervously as he walked closer. He needed to think of something to do, quickly, or the situation was bound to get very awkward, very fast.

“What brings you to this lil’ corner of Cerulean Market?” she asked, cocking her head curiously. “Looking for anything in particular?”

“No, no…” he murmured, “I’m just browsing.”

“Well then, how about I give you some recommendations? This item over here, the choice scarf, is a crowd favorite. It raises a pokémon’s speed, though it also tends to make it focused on using attack-oriented moves. High risk, high reward- perfect for a skilled battler to make use of! You look like you must have a badge or two under your belt.”

“Yeah, I have a couple,” Red said slowly, looking around at the nearby shoppers- he wanted there to be witnesses in case something bad happened.

“Come on, lemme see em,” the vendor chirped; though Red noticed an odd eagerness in her voice.

“Uh, okay…” he said, unzipping his jacket and showing her the two badges pinned to the inside.

“Boulder and Cascade… interesting. Say, you wouldn’t happen to have a friend wearing a blue and yellow hat and a green jumpsuit, would you? Light brown hair, about your age?”

Red narrowed his eyes in suspicion. “Yeah… Why do you ask?”

“Oh, no reason…” she drawled, reaching for the corner of her blanket.

Then, in an instant, she was gone, zipping down the street lightning-fast with her blanket held together like a bundle at her side. Shocked, Red stood still for a moment, his mind racing as he tried to process what had just happened. Soon, however, he was running after her, taking long leaps and bounds down the narrow street- a difficult task with his ten-year-old physique.

“Hey!” he shouted, gasping for breath as he forced his way through the crowd. “Get back here!”

“Sorry!” the vendor yelled over her shoulder, as she ducked under a hovering Geodude. “But I don’t do refunds!”

“You don’t need to run away like that, though,” Red grumbled. Then he realized that he had slowed down to catch his breath, and angrily pushed forward again, his feet flying across the cobbled stones underneath him- this was no time to slow down. Unfortunately, his mad dash had already begun to take its toll on him, and he was quickly growing exhausted. And despite all his efforts, the street vendor was still managing to hold an ever-expanding lead on him- soon she was a good thirty feet ahead.

“You know, as much as I’m enjoying this,” she called out to him, “I really do have places to be. So, if you don’t mind, I’m going to take my leave!”

She winked at Red, and pulled a pokéball out of… somewhere. He wasn’t able to see where it came from, at his angle, and he didn’t see any pockets on her dress. As she pressed the release button, a rotund, pink pokémon with a tuft of hair on its head emerged from the ball, frantically scrambling to keep pace as it took in the situation. It gave her a slight glare, mumbling something in an annoyed tone.

“Sorry, Jigglypuff…” the vendor apologized. “I probably should have given you a warning.”

The pokémon sighed, but looked back up at her patiently.

“Come on, then! It’s time for evasive maneuver fourteen!”

Jigglypuff nodded, and began rapidly inhaling the air around it, expanding in size with each breath. Soon it was up to the woman’s shoulders- and even taller than Red- and it jumped up into the air with a little chirp.

“What?” Red asked, watching in confusion as the vendor grabbed onto the foot of the now-airborne Jigglypuff, which was beginning to float upwards like a balloon. He didn’t quite understand how it was able to both maintain an upwards trajectory and hold her underneath it at the same time, but that was beside the point- He still needed to catch her before she… wait…

It was at this point that the events of the past five minutes began to sink in, and he had the painful realization that he had been going on a wild goose chase- even if he caught up to the woman, what was he going to do? Knock her out and take Ritchie’s money back? Fat chance of him being able to pull that off, and there was no guarantee she even had the cash on her anymore- she could have easily dropped it off in a secure location by now. And even if he was able to get the money, he would then be the one stealing, not her- that money was obtained by mostly legal means, if ethically questionable ones.

In short, he had neglected simple logic in the heat of the moment, and he was very annoyed with himself for doing so. It wasn’t his money, anyway. He felt bad for Ritchie, but when considering all the variables, he realized that it just wasn’t worth it anymore.

But then… Why did he still feel bad?

“You know what, though?” the vendor called down to him, waving to get his attention. He turned around slowly, still annoyed at the whole situation- and not really in the mood for whatever taunting he was bound to receive.

“As a thanks for your time,” the girl shouted, tossing down a stack of green papers. “Here’s a quarter- the rest will come later!”

“Wh-what?” he sputtered.

“It’s money, silly! Go on, take it!”

‘I-I don’t… why? And what does she mean, later?’ he thought, catching the bills as they fell down to him. He stood there for a moment, then shook his head and turned back around.

‘I don’t have the energy to figure that out right now. It’s probably not important, anyway.’

Hey! Looks like you dropped something, huh?

“Dropped it, my foot,” Red grumbled, crumpling the paper as his grip tightened.

If you want your badges back, meet me outside the Cerulean Casino at nine o’clock tomorrow morning. Don’t bring any of your friends with you, or you’ll never see those things again, alright? Hope to see you there~

Ciao for now, Green

“Red, are you sure you should do this?” Ritchie asked, looking at him with concern. “You can always get new badges, you know.”

“This was your fault, Ritchie!” Red snapped. “You were the one who told her exactly what me and Phoenix looked like!”

“She seemed nice enough… and she was very polite...”

“Arceus help me,” he groaned, rubbing his temples. “Does the concept of ‘stranger danger’ not register with you?”

“To be fair,” Phoenix said, munching on a bag of Diglett Chips, “she’s good at what she does. Managed to make off with your badges without you ever noticing. Badges that were pinned to the inside of your jacket, at that.”

“You can’t just talk to the league?” Ritchie asked. “I’m sure they could give you replacements.”

“Nope,” Red responded. “Already checked. They tried it one year, but a bunch of people started lying to get duplicates and sold them for really high prices- which left a lot of trainers broke, and trying to get into the league tournaments with badges they didn’t earn.”

“Skill issue,” Phoenix muttered under her breath, smirking.

“Anyways, I’m gonna go,” Red decided. “I don’t think she would go to all this trouble just to kill me, or kidnap me, or something- even if there was any reason for her to do so in the first place, it would have been stupid to send me a letter that I could easily show someone else. And I’m not sure I’ll be able to make the 2002 Indigo League Tournament if I have to get two more badges.”

“I suppose you’re right,” Ritchie admitted. “But if you do get in trouble, I won’t be much help, and Phoenix has to leave tomorrow morning, right?”

“Yeah…” Phoenix said, looking down at her now-empty bag of chips. “I’ve got people at home who need me. More than you do, if I’m being honest.”

“It’ll be nice to get out of here, anyway,” she added. “I’m not used to the winter chill.”

“It’s settled, then. Ritchie, Phoenix… I’ll let you know how things go. Hopefully this doesn’t snowball into some sort of massive problem that I inadvertently get involved in. I’ve had enough of that kind of thing already…”