Welcome to Camp Pikachu

by Alex Polan

  Stella put her hand on her hip and stared. “Let me see that,” she said, reaching for the card with her other hand.

  Sam gave it to her, but instead of looking at it, she immediately slid it into her back pocket. “Thanks for the gift,” she said. “It’s all mine now. See ya later, loser.”

  She turned away with a smirk on her face and pranced out the door.

  “Wow, what a bully,” said Logan, watching Stella go.

  But Marco couldn’t take his eyes off Sam’s face. It looked red and blotchy, kind of like Maddy’s right before she cried. Was he going to cry again?

  As Sam got up to leave, Marco blurted out, “Sam, wait a sec. I have to ask you something.” He hadn’t even thought it through. The words had just sprung from his lips.

  Sam stared suspiciously at Marco, as if he were ready to duck another Mud Ball—or to throw one.

  Marco racked his brain trying to figure out what to say. Finally, he asked in his friendliest voice, “So, what card did Stella take?”

  Sam muttered something under his breath.

  “What was that?” asked Marco.

  “It was my Magnezone-EX,” said Sam.

  “Oh, wow,” said Nisha.

  “Full-art version,” Sam continued. “Ultra rare.”

  Even Logan was paying attention now. “That’s a good card.”

  “And it was holofoil,” Sam added sadly.

  “Huh?” asked Maddy.

  “That means it was shiny,” whispered Nisha.

  Marco whistled under his breath. Now he knew why Sam was so upset. Maddy seemed to sense it, too. She crossed the room until she was standing right in front of Sam. Then she smiled and tilted her head—first to one side and then to the other.

  Is she trying to bond with him like she did with her Pokémon? Marco wondered. Is she going to give him her kissy face next? He snickered a little.

  Sam couldn’t figure out Maddy’s game either. “What are you doing?” he asked, leaning back.

  She blinked at him slowly, still smiling.

  When Sam looked like he was about to say something mean, Maddy pulled a cookie out of the front pouch of her sweatshirt. “Want my Lava Cookie?” she asked quickly.

  “Hey, I thought that was for me!” Logan piped up.

  Maddy glanced at Logan and shrugged. “You snooze, you lose, mister,” she said before turning back to Sam with her best smile.

  Sam reached for the cookie. “Thanks,” he said, taking a bite and spraying crumbs onto the floor. As he walked away, he seemed to have forgotten all about his full-art, ultra-rare Magnezone-EX trading card with holofoil.

  “What was that all about?” Nisha asked Maddy.

  “I think she was bonding with him,” explained Marco.

  Maddy grinned and nodded. “I was trying to help him Mega Evolve.”

  Logan snorted. “He’s not a Pokémon, Maddy. Bullies can’t change their type.”

  Maddy turned to face him. “You’re just mad because he ate your cookie,” she said, putting her hands on her hips.

  As the two of them squabbled about Lava Cookies and Mega Evolution, Marco watched Sam leave the Media Center. Can a bully change? Marco wondered. And is Sam even a bully? A few minutes ago, it looked like Stella was the one bullying him.

  “Well, even if Sam could evolve, he’d need a Mega Stone,” said Nisha. “Charizard needs the Charizardite Mega Stone. Sam would need a Samuelite Mega Stone. And I’m pretty sure we aren’t going to find any Samuelites here at Camp Pikachu.” She giggled, cracking up over her own joke.

  Maddy was confused. “We might be able to find a Samuelite,” she said. “We could at least look!”

  Logan shook his head in disbelief. “Maddy, she was kidding. There’s no such thing as a Samuelite Mega Stone.”

  As Maddy stuck out her tongue at Logan, Marco put his hand in his pocket. The stone was still there with bits of dry mud clinging to it. He almost pulled it out and made his own joke. But the memory of Sam’s bleeding forehead was too fresh. Marco shook his head and stuffed the “Samuelite” back down.

  CHAPTER TEN

  Marco crouched low in the grass with Pikachu at his side. Would they hear the noise again? He held his breath and strained his ears.

  There it was! The faint yipping sound came from Marco’s left—no, from straight ahead. It seemed to bounce off the bushes and trees surrounding the grassy field.

  “Pi-ka-chuuuu,” said his Pokémon friend in a quiet, cautious voice.

  But when Marco turned to reassure him, it wasn’t Pikachu squatting in the grass. It wasn’t a friend at all.

  It was a Mightyena.

  Marco couldn’t look away from its red, glowing eyes. As a deep growl rose from the fierce Pokémon’s throat, Marco froze.

  He couldn’t run. He couldn’t fight. There wasn’t time.

  Instead, he dared to make the tiniest move. He tilted his face to the right.

  The Mightyena stopped growling just for a moment. Slowly, he cocked his head to the right to mirror Marco’s.

  Then Marco slowly—very slowly—cocked his head to the left.

  When the Mightyena did the same thing, Marco smiled.

  But instead of smiling back at him, the Mightyena bared his teeth and growled. He snapped at the air just in front of Marco’s nose.

  Marco tried to stay perfectly still, a bead of sweat trickling down the side of his face. His nose suddenly itched—badly—but he couldn’t scratch it. If he raised his arm, the Mightyena would attack!

  Now the itch felt stronger than ever. He couldn’t stand it any more. As he raised his hand oh-so-slowly to scratch his nose, the Mightyena growled, flattened his back, and sprang forward… .

  “Ay-yah!” screamed Marco, bolting upright. His videogame dropped to the rug.

  He was lying on the couch in the Media Center, where he must have dozed off. And someone was laughing hysterically beside him.

  Logan.

  “Gotcha!” said Logan, reaching out to tickle Marco’s nose again with his fingertip.

  Marco swatted at Logan’s hand. “Not funny!” he told his friend. “I thought you were a Mightyena about to eat my face off.” He took a deep breath and rubbed his eyes.

  Suddenly, Maddy raced into the room. She looked like she had just come face-to-face with a Mightyena, herself. “He’s gone!” she cried, fat tears rolling down her cheeks.

  “Who?” Marco and Logan asked at the same time.

  “Ded … enne!” Maddy stammered. “Someone took him!”

  “Maybe he just chewed his way out of the box,” said Nisha as they hurried through the woods.

  “No!” said Maddy angrily. “I told you—the whole box is gone. Somebody took my mouse.”

  When she started sprinting again, Marco grabbed his waist and tried to squeeze out his side ache. Maddy could actually run pretty fast when she was upset.

  “Did you … bring him to your cabin … and just forget you did?” asked Logan, who was nearly out of breath, too.

  Maddy gave him the stink-eye over her shoulder and kept running.

  Sure enough, when they reached the tree house, Dedenne and his shoebox were gone. Maddy collapsed in a heap on the floor and started to whimper.

  “Who’s going to f-feed him?” she said, her voice quivering. “Who will t-take care of him?”

  “I think the real question is who took him,” said Marco. He locked eyes with Logan and Nisha. “Team Fennekin?”

  Logan nodded slowly. “Who else?” he asked.

  “But Sam and Stella were at the Media Center with us today,” said Marco. “When would they have come here?”

  Nisha chewed her fingernail. “They left before we did. And there was lots of time before lunch, too.”

  “Wait, what’s this?” asked Maddy in a tiny voice. She picked something up from the floor, held it between her fingertips, and stared at it.

  Nisha bent over to see. “It looks like a chocolate crumb,” she said. “Is that from one of your chocolate Pok
é Puffs?”

  Maddy shrugged. Then she did something unexpected. She popped the crumb into her mouth and ate it.

  “Gross!” said Nisha. “That floor is dirty.”

  Maddy ignored her. But after she swallowed the crumb, her face darkened. “Lava Cookie,” she said in a low voice. “Definitely a Lava Cookie.”

  “So it was Sam!” said Logan, his eyes blazing. “Sam took Dedenne.”

  “Even after Maddy shared her cookie with him.” Nisha shook her head. “I guess bullies don’t change after all.”

  Marco felt anger and something else—disappointment—swell in his chest. Sam is a bully after all. I guess I was wrong about him.

  When Logan announced that they should track down Sam right away and get the mouse back, Marco was all in.

  “I’m going, too,” said Maddy. “Dedenne needs me. He won’t be scared if he sees me.”

  “Count me in,” Nisha added.

  “Should we do Rock, Fire, Grass to see who goes?” asked Logan.

  Marco shook his head. “We don’t need to. This time, we should all stick together.” He threw out his hand in the center of their circle, palm down. His friends quickly piled their hands on top.

  “Team Treecko,” he said firmly.

  “Team Treecko,” Logan and Nisha echoed.

  “Team Treecko,” added Maddy. She wiped her face and smiled.

  “Does it look like anyone is there?” Marco whispered through the brush. He had led his team to the rocky Team Fennekin fortress.

  Logan was standing on his tiptoes peeking through the window—a small hole in the rocks. He lowered himself to the ground and shook his head. “It’s empty. C’mon.” Marco followed Logan around the rocks toward the narrow entrance. He heard Nisha and Maddy stepping out of the bushes behind him.

  The inside of the cave was dark and chilly. As Marco’s eyes adjusted, he could see a few shapes: A bucket of water balloons filled for tomorrow’s game. The orange Team Fennekin flag, rolled and ready to hang out front. Was there a shoebox, too? He couldn’t tell.

  “Nice,” said Nisha, stepping inside. “This is almost as cool as our tree house.”

  “Is he in here?” asked Maddy. The only thing on her mind was finding her mouse.

  “I don’t see him,” said Marco.

  Maddy started searching every nook and cranny.

  Logan, meanwhile, was looking out the window—the same window he had just been peering into from the other side. “Get down!” he whispered suddenly. “Someone’s coming!”

  Uh-oh, thought Marco. The first person he pictured was the giant Team Fennekin kid, the one who had pelted him with water bombs. Just being back at this secret base gave Marco the willies.

  Logan didn’t waste a second, though. As footsteps crunched in the gravel out front, he reached for a water bomb. Splat! The shadowy figure in the doorway went down.

  “Hey!” someone hollered.

  Sam! thought Marco, instantly recognizing the voice. Were the other Team Fennekin kids behind him?

  Sam sat up and wiped his face.

  “Are you alone?” Logan asked sharply.

  “Yes! I mean, no,” said Sam, his eyes wild. “My team is going to be here any minute. You guys better get out of there, or else—”

  Is he lying? Marco wondered. He sure looked scared.

  “Where’s my mouse?” Maddy demanded. She got right in Sam’s face, her hands on her hips.

  “Your what?” asked Sam, ducking as if she were about to hit him.

  “You know what I’m talking about,” said Maddy, sounding fierce. “Give him back.”

  “I don’t know anything about your dumb mouse!” said Sam. But he wouldn’t look at her. He seemed suddenly afraid of the seven-and-a-half-year-old girl.

  “You were there. We know you were!” said Logan. “You went to our tree house. We saw the cookie crumbs inside.”

  Sam’s face went pale. Then he started talking really fast. “I was … I mean, I did go to your tree house. But I only climbed up and looked around—for, like, a second. I didn’t take anything. Honest, I didn’t!”

  “Right,” said Logan. “Keep talking, liar.”

  Marco tried to keep his voice steady. “So, why did you go there, then? Why did you go to our secret base?”

  Sam bit his lip as if he were trying to keep his mouth shut.

  “See?” said Logan. “You’re nothing but a liar. Liar, liar, pants on fire.”

  “I was trying to do something nice,” Sam finally blurted out. “But I guess that was a big mistake.”

  Logan snorted. “Nice? Yeah, right.”

  Nisha narrowed her eyes like she didn’t believe Sam either.

  But Marco wasn’t so sure. Something about Sam’s expression said that he was telling the truth.

  Maddy must have thought so, too. As Sam stared glumly down at the ground, she cocked her head. She studied his face, as if she were playing the Making Faces game all over again. Then she uncrossed her arms and slumped back against the rock wall.

  “Sam didn’t take my mouse,” she announced.

  “How do you know?” asked Logan. “Prove it, Sam. What was this ‘nice’ thing you did?”

  Sam groaned and pulled a wet, soggy paper towel out of his pocket. “I just went to clean something up,” he said. The paper towel was covered in colorful chalk.

  Maddy stared at the towel, her forehead wrinkled in confusion. Logan snorted again. But Marco knew exactly what Sam had just done.

  “You cleaned the Team Treecko picture off the tree?” he asked.

  Sam nodded slowly.

  “Really?” said Nisha.

  Sam shrugged. “Well, I tried to wash it off. Mostly it just smeared the colors around.”

  Logan wasn’t backing down. “Why’d you draw that picture in the first place?” he asked.

  “I didn’t!” said Sam firmly.

  And, again, Marco believed him. He had seen Sam at Team Fennekin’s secret base yesterday. He couldn’t have been the artist.

  “Did Stella do it?” Marco asked.

  Sam stayed quiet as if he didn’t want to rat out his sister. But he didn’t deny it, either.

  “Did Stella take my mouse, too?” Maddy asked, towering over Sam again.

  “I don’t know!” he said. “I told you—I never saw your mouse. But if she took it, she probably brought it back to her cabin. That’s what she did with my Magnezone-EX Pokémon card.”

  Everyone fell silent. Getting a mouse out of Stella’s locked cabin would be hard—just as hard as capturing the flag from Team Fennekin’s secret base. Maybe even harder.

  “We need a plan,” said Marco. Instantly, all eyes turned toward him—even Sam’s.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  “We should knock on Stella’s door and then bomb her and that other Team Fennekin girl with Mud Balls,” Logan suggested.

  Sam shot Logan a hurt look. Marco could still see the bruise on Sam’s forehead even in the dark of the cave.

  “No more Mud Balls,” said Marco firmly. No walnuts. No more people getting hurt. “This time we should fight fire with …”

  “Fire?” asked Nisha, trying to guess.

  “No,” said Marco. “We’ll fight Fire with … Fairy.” He smiled at Maddy. “I think we’re going to need more Poké Puffs.”

  Maddy’s eyes brightened.

  “Yeah!” said Logan. “You could lure Stella and that other girl away from their cabin just like you did during capture the flag. And then the rest of us can go inside and rescue Dedenne.”

  Maddy smiled wide.

  “But wait, how will we know when Stella will be in her cabin?” asked Nisha.

  “I could tell you,” said Sam in a small voice.

  “No, thanks,” said Logan harshly. “We don’t need your help.”

  “Well, we might need his help,” Marco argued.

  Sam nodded. “I could give you a signal or something,” he said. “Like after dinner.”

  “That would give us time t
o prepare,” said Nisha.

  “And bake,” said Maddy.

  But Logan pushed back. “I don’t trust Sam,” he said, as if Sam weren’t sitting there beside him. “I think he’s going to tell Team Fennekin all about our plan. Why wouldn’t he?”

  “Because,” said Marco. The answer had just come to him. “Sam is going to help us. If he does, we might be able to help him get his Magnezone-EX Pokémon card back.”

  “Really?” said Sam, sitting up straight.

  Marco shrugged. “Maybe,” he said. “We can try. If it’s in Stella’s room, we might be able to find it.”

  Sam looked pretty happy about that.

  Logan didn’t look thrilled with the plan, but he stopped arguing. “Fine,” he said, crossing his arms at his chest. “Sam can help.”

  Sam’s knock came much later than Marco had expected. He and Logan were sitting in their cabin at dusk when Sam poked his head in. Nisha and Maddy were right behind him.

  “She’s there,” said Sam. “Stella’s in her cabin. You should go right now!”

  “Finally!” said Logan, pushing away from the wall. “It’s almost dark out.”

  “That’s why I packed the Head Lights,” said Nisha proudly.

  “The head lice?” said Sam, wrinkling his nose.

  “No!” said Nisha in disgust. “I said Head Lights.” She reached into her navy blue shoulder bag and pulled out her latest invention: baseball caps with tiny flashlights strapped to the brims. She put one on her head and handed two more to Logan and Marco.

  Marco put his on and flipped the switch a couple of times, which made light dance across the cabin wall.

  Logan slapped his hands over his eyes.

  “Stop—it’s too bright!” wailed Logan. “I’m blind! I’m blind!” He peeked at Marco from between his fingers and started laughing.

  “You’re in a good mood all of a sudden,” said Marco. He was glad that Logan wasn’t crabby anymore about including Sam.

  “That’s because I’m about to go off on a secret mission,” said Logan. He reached for the camouflage Balloon Vest hanging on the back of his desk chair.

  “Are there Mud Balls in there?” asked Maddy.

  Logan shook his head. “Just my Poké Flute.” He slid his hand into the vest and pulled out the yellow flute he’d bought at the Poké Mart yesterday.