2. A Catastro-Pi!

                                    

                                          

Axel kind of hoped that his journey to Kalos was smooth sailing— only that this was clearly not the case. It hasn't even been 30 minutes ever since he was dropped off, and he was already in trouble. 
"Are you alright?" A purple haired girl (?) wearing a ranger uniform asked him as he stumbled to a stop.
"Ah—" Axel started. Whatever the creature was, it disappeared into the alleyways, and Axel had completely lost track of it. He panted heavily, "yeah!"
"Glad to hear," she grinned, "That thing sure's giving everyone the slip, huh? I've been trying to subdue it but just no luck at all."
Axel took a quick glance at his phone, clicking his tongue nervously. I don't have much time, but... I don't want to abandon my cap just like that either. He clenched his fists. The cap was something important to him— something that he didn't want to lose. 
"I'm getting it back," He said, fully determined.
"Wanna team up then?" She suggested, "what's your name!" 
"Axel. You?" 
"Bugsy's the name! Nice to meetcha!" She ran up to him and held out her palm at him, "high five!"
Axel tipped his head sideways cluelessly, looking at his palm and mimicked what she was doing, holding it up. He laughed awkwardly, "uh. High five?" 
He looked at her in confusion as she slapped her hand against his. 
Axel crouched down and examined the footprints carefully, getting his brain into action. A Pokémon that's pretty small and runs on 4 feet with tiny oval footprints. I thought I saw a glimpse of yellow and black as well. 
With that size...
"It's a Pichu," Axel deduced, standing up confidently, "there are a lot of hiding places available for small Pokémon like Pichu in a city like this, but if I were it, I'd probably have my base set up in an alleyway—" he stopped, "ah— I— sorry, I got carried away."
"No, no," she waved her hand submissively, "go on, go on. Would a geographic spread of the reported thefts help?" She asked, pulling up a physical copy of the Vermillion City map. 
"That's perfect!" He nodded. He was going to search through every alleyway, so having a narrowed down area to search would really have helped. 
Looking through the labels on the map, Axel realized that they were all concentrated around a certain area. "Can you take me there?" He asked, circling it with his finger. 
Bugsy edged closer to him, "oh? Near the Pokémon gym?"
"Gym?" Axel looked at her in confusion. 
"A place where you have a Pokemon battle with the gym leader—an exceptionally strong trainer who specialises in training Pokemon of a certain type— don't you know?" She pointed out in surprise. 
"Oh," he looked away, "w... well anyways, I think it might be hiding around here. We can set a trap to lure it out— what do you think?"
Bugsy placed her hand to her chin thoughtfully, "hm, that'll work— but how?"
"With this," Axel took out a wooden box from his backpack and opened it, revealing a harmonica made of smooth, polished wood. It had shades of hazel with tints of lighter browns. Looking closely, there was an Articuno, a Moltres, and a Zapdos carved onto the surface. It was strangely mesmerising, with the three legendary pokemon flying around a pillar of light in a spiral. They were shaped like whiffs of smoke, not very detailed, but looked as if they would fly out any moment.
"That's amazing!" Bugsy's eyes widened, "did you make it?" 
"No way," Axel laughed, shaking his head, "It was hidden in the dirt when I found it years back. Sure brings back memories."