by Alex Polan
“Hey!” said Marco. “That sounds like ‘Treecko, Treecko!’”
Logan grinned and pointed to Marco. “You, sir, win the prize!”
“No fair! I can’t whistle!” Maddy protested.
“That’s okay,” said Nisha. “You’ll be with me, so I’ll whistle for you.”
Maddy didn’t seem so sure about that. She glanced hopefully at Logan. “Or … Logan and I could be partners?”
Logan pretended not to hear. He was gone in a flash, already jogging down the trail. “Let’s go, Marco,” he called over his shoulder.
“Wait! Don’t forget the hidden item,” said Nisha. She showed Marco the box in the corner of the map. “If you find any mushrooms—real ones—take a picture. We can get an extra point.”
Marco nodded and then raced after Logan, hoping to see his lime-green T-shirt just up ahead. He rounded a bend, and then another, breathing hard.
The crowd of kids had thinned out now, and he heard nothing but bird whistles, rustling leaves, and his own footsteps on the dirt trail. Where’s Logan? he thought with alarm.
Then he found him—nearly tripped over him, actually.
Logan was crouched down behind a log. He pressed his finger to his lips.
So Marco squatted too, and followed Logan’s gaze. A few yards away, Team Fennekin stood in front of a wooden sign. A red and white Poké Ball dangled from the post.
Bulbasaur! Marco realized.
Stella pulled out her camera while the brunette girl, Claire, studied the map. Sam stood on tiptoe, trying to see the dinosaur-like Pokémon on the wooden sign. But his huge teammate—the other boy in orange—blocked his view.
“Move over, Max!” Sam whined. “I can’t see!” With his spiky red hair and freckles, he looked nothing like his sister, Stella. He’s nicer than her, too, Marco thought. At least, sometimes.
“Don’t be such a baby, Sam,” Stella scolded. “You move out of the way so we can be the first team to get a picture.”
“Not gonna happen,” Marco heard Logan whisper, right before he shot out from behind the log and raced toward the sign. He waved one arm like a crazy person, hollering while he ran. Marco caught sight of the red camera in Logan’s other hand.
Stella shrieked and stepped backward, giving Logan a clear shot at the signpost.
“Say Treecko!” he said, raising the camera and snapping a shot. Then, without missing a beat, he spun around and raced back toward Marco. Except now Stella and the big kid named Max were hot on his heels. “Run!” Logan shouted as he sprinted past.
Marco didn’t have to be told twice. Stella could run—really run. She pointed her finger at Logan, sharp as a Beedrill’s stinger.
And Max was just behind her, his bulging eyes fixed on Marco.
So Marco did the only thing he could think of. He turned and ran for his life.
CHAPTER THREE
Marco pushed through the bushes, feeling the slap and sting of a branch scraping against his cheek. He was sucking in gulps of air now, but he didn’t stop. The crunch of brush behind him said that someone was still on his tail. Was it super-fast Stella? Or Max, who could squish him like a bug?
Don’t look, Marco told himself. Keep running!
He took a few more steps, slipping in the muddy earth—until something grabbed him from behind.
Marco strained to break free, but someone was gripping his shirt. His feet spun in the mud. One more yank from behind pulled him tumbling backward into the bushes.
“Hey!” Marco whirled around to face the enemy head-on. But it wasn’t Team Fennekin looming over him. It was Logan, grinning like a geek.
“Stop running!” said Logan, laughing. “She’s gone already. We made it.” He pumped the camera in the air like a trophy.
“Really?” said Marco, trying to catch his breath. “You couldn’t have just told me that?” He wiped the mud off the back of his shorts.
Logan suddenly hopped onto a rock, whistling into the air like a lonely bird. Treecko, Treecko.
Oh! He’s signaling the girls, Marco realized. He cocked his head, listening for a response in the silent woods.
Nothing.
Logan tried again, louder this time. Treecko, Treecko.
Marco held his breath and strained his ears. The faintest birdcall bounced back to them. “There!” he whispered. “Did you hear it?”
Logan nodded and began jogging toward the sound, jutting off onto a narrow trail that led deeper into the woods. Every few feet, he’d whistle again. Treecko, Treecko! Treecko, Treecko!
The responses got louder, too. And then there they were! Nisha and Maddy appeared on the trail ahead.
“Did you find Bulbasaur?” called Nisha.
“Yes!” said Logan. “We got a great picture.” He turned to Marco for a high-five.
“But I wanted to see Bulbasaur, too!” Maddy protested.
Logan handed her the camera. “Here, hold Dex. You can see Bulbasaur on there.”
As she studied the photo of the green, dinosaur-like Pokémon, Maddy giggled. “You got that big Fennekin kid in this picture, too,” she said. “He looks funny!”
“Let me see.” Marco reached for the camera and chuckled. Max’s surprised face was round and red, his mouth wide open—wide enough for a Beautifly to flutter into. He looked a lot less scary now than he had just a few minutes ago.
“We should get extra points for that,” joked Logan.
“We should,” said Marco, grinning. “But we probably won’t.” He checked his stopwatch. “Only forty-two minutes left—we have to keep hunting. Did you find Bunnelby?”
“Yes!” sang Maddy. “He was at our secret base. But we have to go back and get a picture. C’mon!” She started half running, half skipping back up the trail.
Every team had a secret base in the woods, but Marco thought Team Treecko had the coolest one—a tree house with a ladder and a deck. A few minutes later, it came into view: as tall and strong as the Fortree City tree houses in the Pokémon video game.
The boards of the tree house were a deep chocolate brown. As Marco started to climb the ladder, the wooden rungs felt warm and welcoming in the mid-morning sun.
“It’s not up there,” Maddy called from beneath the tree house. “It’s down here!”
Marco scrambled down as quickly as he could. A wooden sign stuck out of the earth just below the tree house. Sure enough, a rabbit-like Pokémon with enormous ears stared out from a poster tacked to the sign.
“Do you want to do the honors?” asked Logan, handing Maddy the camera.
“Yes!” She jumped in the air, looking like a rabbit herself. After snapping the picture, she stared at the screen. “I wish I had a pet rabbit,” she said wistfully.
Nisha swatted at a mosquito. “But you already have a pet mouse!” she said as she pulled the Repel spray out of her backpack.
“I know,” said Maddy. “But Dedenne needs a friend! I think he’s lonely, especially when I’m out here orienting.”
“Orienteering,” Nisha corrected her. “And the sooner we find those last two Pokémon, the sooner you can get back to little Dedenne.”
“We need to find two Pokémon and a mushroom,” said Maddy, correcting Nisha right back.
“Right.” Nisha quickly pulled out her map, and they all huddled around her. “I think we should find Charmander next.”
As Marco followed Nisha’s finger across the map, his heart sank. The orange Pokémon with the flaming tail was hidden near a cluster of what looked like black rocks.
“That’s right by Team Fennekin’s secret base!” said Logan. “That’s their cave!” He glanced excitedly at Marco, as if hoping for a prize for figuring it out.
But Marco had beaten him to the punch. And all he could think was, What if Team Fennekin is waiting for us there? He had outrun Stella and Max once today. He wasn’t sure he could do it again.
“Race you to the cave!” said Logan, barreling past.
As Nisha and Maddy hurried after Logan, Marco si
ghed. He kicked at a stone in the path and then checked his stopwatch. Only twenty-nine minutes left! He dropped the timer and jogged after his team. What else could he do?
“Slow down! The cave’s right there,” said Marco, recognizing the rocks outside the secret fort. He spoke in a hushed voice, in case Team Fennekin was actually inside.
Every time he came near this cave, it gave him the willies. Maybe it was because last week, he’d been bombed with water balloons here during a team challenge. Marco shivered, remembering the chill of his soaking wet clothes as he ran away in defeat.
Logan, on the other hand, looked like he could hardly wait to get inside. “Should we see if Charmander is in there?” he whispered.
Marco nodded. “Go ahead,” he said, his voice cracking.
“Wait, should we play Rock, Fire, Grass to see who goes in?” asked Nisha. Rock, Fire, Grass was the Pokémon version of Rock, Paper, Scissors. Team Treecko had made it up just last week.
“No, Logan can go if he really wants to,” said Marco brightly, as if offering Logan the chance of a lifetime.
And Logan took him right up on it. He snuck toward the cave, ducking below the “window”—a hole in the rocky wall. He tiptoed toward the entrance and peered around the rocks into the darkness.
But as he braced himself against the rocks, he suddenly jerked his hand away. As he dove toward the ground with a shriek, a winged creature fluttered and swooped over his head.
CHAPTER FOUR
Logan rolled over, his mouth hanging open and his eyes wide.
“Did it bite you?” asked Maddy, rushing to his side.
Marco tried to run to Logan, too, but his legs were frozen. Did I just send my friend into a cave to get attacked by a bat?
He was relieved when Logan suddenly burst out laughing. He never lets anything get to him for long, thought Marco, wishing he could laugh off his fears as easily.
As Maddy sat beside Logan, patting his leg, his laughter turned into hiccups. He rolled to his knees and held up a hand. “I’m g-good,” he said to Maddy. “R-really. I mean except for these annoying h-hiccups.”
“Okay,” said Maddy sweetly. But instead of getting off the ground, she leaned forward and peered into the cave. “Hey… .” she whispered. “Look what I found!”
Everyone craned their necks to see inside the cave. As Marco’s eyes adjusted, he spotted it, too. Charmander grinned at them from a wooden signpost.
“Good job spotting that, Maddy!” said Nisha.
“Hey, what about me?” joked Logan. “Didn’t I do a good job wiping out right in front of Charmander?”
Marco patted Logan’s back. “Yeah, good job, buddy.” But he felt another twinge of guilt. If not for me, you wouldn’t have wiped out in the first place. Or nearly gotten bitten by a bat!
As Logan snapped a picture of Charmander, Nisha and Maddy studied the map, looking for the last Pokémon.
“Fletchling is by the lake,” Nisha announced. “This way. C’mon!”
Marco hurried after them, trying to shake off his guilt and focus on the competition. We have a good chance of winning this thing, he thought—especially when Logan nearly tripped over the “hidden item” growing on a tree stump near the path.
“Mushrooms!” said Maddy. “Oh, you look just like little Shroomish.” She talked to the mushrooms as if they were tiny pets she could take home with her.
“You’d better hope they’re not Shroomish,” said Nisha. “They release toxic spores when they’re scared, and I’m pretty sure that when Logan nearly trampled them, it gave them a good scare.”
“That scared me,” said Logan. “I think I released some toxic spores, too. Everybody run!”
Nobody ran, but everybody laughed. After getting a picture of the “Shroomish,” they hurried on down the path.
Marco glanced upside down at the stopwatch dangling from his neck. “Eleven minutes!” he announced. “We have to hurry!”
“It’s not far now!” called Nisha, who was in the lead. “It’s by the zip line!”
Her words jolted Marco like an electric shock. As the trees thinned out, he could see it. The wooden zip line tower loomed at the water’s edge—a tall platform with a zigzagging staircase that led up, up, up.
As Marco searched for the top, his stomach dropped and he stopped running.
“Are you coming?” Nisha called to him. But he couldn’t speak. It felt like he had a lump in his throat the size of a Shroomish.
Think of something funny! he told himself. Make a joke, like Logan would.
But he couldn’t think either—his mind went blank.
“Let’s go!” shouted Logan, racing toward the stairs. “I’ll bet Fletchling is hidden at the top!” But a hanging sign at the base of the stairs stopped him in his tracks.
“Aw, man,” he called back to his friends. “We’re not supposed to climb on it yet.”
Marco felt a wave of relief, but Logan wouldn’t stop talking about the zip line. “It’ll feel like flying on Latios, the dragon Pokémon in the video game,” he said excitedly. “Soaring faster than a jet plane over the water. I can’t wait!”
“Me neither,” agreed Nisha. “It’s probably the coolest thing we’ve done here at Camp Pikachu. I wish I’d invented it!” She quickly studied the ropes and pulleys stretching toward the little island.
At least my teammates are excited about it, Marco told himself. So if I’m a big baby and chicken out, there’ll be someone from Team Treecko to cross over.
That thought made him feel slightly better, but he still couldn’t look at the zip line. He looked past it, above it, and around it, finally zeroing in on his stopwatch. “We have to go,” he said, lifting the timer so others could see. “Only six minutes left. Fletchling isn’t here. The sign must be farther down by the pier!”
His teammates followed him, like they always did. But as he ran, he felt less sure of himself with every step. He hadn’t even looked at the map. Where exactly was he going?
Just keep running, he told himself. The farther away from the zip line, the better.
But as Marco and his friends searched the tall grass near the lakeshore, time ticked away—faster than quicksand. Five minutes. Three minutes. One minute. Every time he checked the stopwatch, they were getting nearer and nearer to… .
Thweet! Professor Birch’s whistle cut through the air.
“Game over,” said Nisha sadly. “At least this part of it.”
“Fletchling must be here somewhere, though,” said Marco, still searching. “Keep looking!”
“Yeah, don’t stop!” shouted Logan, who was crouched down inspecting a hollowed-out log.
Then Marco heard a cheer erupt from behind him. Yes! “Who found it?” he asked, whirling around to see if it was Nisha or Maddy.
But the cheer hadn’t come from one of the girls. It hadn’t come from Team Treecko at all.
A cluster of kids in bright yellow tees were racing away from the zip line toward Team Treecko. They found Fletchling! thought Marco. He was sure of it. They found Fletchling right where my teammates were looking—before I told them the Pokémon wasn’t there.
As Team Torchic passed by, triumphant smiles on their faces, Marco caught Logan’s eye.
“Let’s go!” mouthed Logan. He raced back toward the zip line.
“But the whistle blew!” Maddy protested.
Marco ignored her—and shrugged Nisha’s hand off his arm. He had to get back to the zip line to find Fletchling, before it was too late.
As they neared the wooden tower, Marco scanned it for any sign of the red bird-like Pokémon. “There!” he shouted to Logan. “Is that a Poké Ball?” Something dangled just below the bottom platform of the tower.
But before he could check it out, another thweet! cut through the air. And Officer Jenny stepped from the woods, blocking Marco’s path. She was the sternest counselor at camp. And when she saw which direction the boys were running in, her eyes narrowed.
“Time’s up,” she sai
d firmly, holding her hand like a stop sign. “You know the rules, boys. If you keep searching after the whistle, you lose points instead of gaining them.”
Marco’s legs wobbled like wet noodles beneath him. I blew it with Fletchling, he thought, fighting back hot tears. Did I just get my team in trouble, too?
CHAPTER FIVE
As Marco walked toward the Dining Hall, he held his breath. He couldn’t even bring himself to glance at Logan, who trudged along beside him. Officer Jenny walked a few feet behind, not saying a word.
The stony silence was almost unbearable. Is she going to punish us? wondered Marco. I wish she’d just do it already!
But she didn’t. When they reached the entrance to the Dining Hall, Officer Jenny put a hand on each boy’s shoulder and leaned over to say just five words. “Don’t let that happen again.”
“Yes, ma’am,” whispered Marco. But as soon as she was gone, he exhaled loudly, dropping onto the bench of a picnic table.
“That was a close one,” said Logan, his face pale.
“Too close,” said Marco. “We almost lost points. I don’t even think I can eat now.”
“Me, neither,” said Nisha. “Besides, there’s no time—I have to go make that second pair of Night Goggles. See you at the lake!” She was gone in a flash, before Marco could even apologize.
But Maddy was still there. “I told you guys about the whistle,” she said, her hands on her hips.
“I know,” said Marco sadly. “I’m sorry—we should have listened to you.”
When Logan finally apologized, too, Maddy perked back up. “It’s pizza day! Let’s get in line.”
Marco shook his head. “I’m not hungry. I’ll just meet you at the lake.” What he really wanted to do was go back to his cabin and crawl under the covers. But in half an hour, we have to start orienteering all over again, he reminded himself. Ready or not.
Maddy sat on the side of the pier, swinging her legs above the water. “I get seasick,” she said again. “I can’t help it. So I’m just going to stay here.”
Logan groaned. “You couldn’t have told us about this seasickness stuff earlier?” he asked, buckling his life vest. “Maybe Nurse Joy could have given you some medicine or something.”