CHAPTER 10

“So what do we know about this Magikarp Kid?” asked Carlo. His voice suddenly sounded gruff, like a real detective interrogating a witness.

“Um, we know he really, really loves Magikarp,” said Devin.

“Or at least that he catches a lot of them,” said Gianna. “So maybe he lives around here.”

Ethan thought about that for a while. He scanned the perimeter of the lake, looking for houses. But the park was pretty far out of town. The only houses he could see where the little cottages past the bridge—the ones that people from out of town rented for summer vacations.

“What else?” he asked. “Is the kid a phantom? Because we’ve never seen him battling at the gym, and yet he always manages to win it back. When does he come here? The middle of the night?”

Carlo was still staring toward the bridge. “Maybe we’re looking right at him and we don’t even know it,” he said.

Ethan followed his gaze straight to that tan kid, the one who was always fishing off the bridge.

“You think that’s Magikarp Kid?” he asked.

Carlo shrugged. “He’s always there, and he likes to fish—at least, he pretends to.”

“It’d be pretty hard to play Pokémon GO with a fishing rod in your hand,” Gianna pointed out.

“Yeah,” said Ethan. Sometimes it’s hard to battle even when you’re not holding a fishing rod, he thought, remembering how his phone had almost slipped out of his sweaty palms during the last one.

“I say we go check it out,” said Gianna, and she wasted no time. She hopped right up and brushed off her shorts. “Can I borrow your phone, Carlo?” As soon as he handed it to her, she straightened out her bug cap and marched toward the bridge.

“What’s she going to do? Just go ask him if he’s the kid getting all the maps?” asked Ethan, shading his eyes against the sun. Sometimes he thought Gianna was the bravest kid on Team Mystic.

Carlo shrugged. “With Gianna, who knows?” he said. “But she might need some back up.”

“I’ll go,” said Ethan, before he’d really thought his plan through.

As he walked toward the bridge, he felt his stomach flip-flop. What’s Gia going to do? he wondered again as he watched her lean against the rail near the boy.

She didn’t talk to him right away. She pulled out her phone as if she were taking photos of the water below.

Ethan stopped at the end of the bridge a few feet away. He pulled out his own phone and pretended to play Pokémon GO. Then he heard the boy ask, “Is that Pokémon GO you’re playing?”

But he wasn’t asking Ethan. He was asking Gianna.

“Yes!” she answered brightly. “Do you play, too?”

Good! thought Ethan. She’s getting somewhere already. He angled his phone and his body so that he could see Gianna’s face.

“Who’s your favorite Pokémon?” Gianna asked the boy. “I’m a fan of Bug types, obviously.” She tilted her head back and forth until her antennae wiggled.

The teenager shrugged. “I don’t really play,” he said. “I like that sneezy one, though. What’s his name, again? Achoo something?”

Gianna’s smile froze on her face. “Pikachu? Yeah, he’s cute. Well, nice talking to you. Gotta go.” She turned and abruptly walked off the bridge, right past Ethan.

He had to sprint just to catch up with her.

“That’s not our guy,” she said, her teeth gritted and her body facing forward so that the kid wouldn’t know they were talking about him.

“He’s definitely not the Magikarp Kid,” agreed Ethan. “I mean, who doesn’t know Pikachu’s name? Mom could even come up with that one—no problem.”

As they neared the rocks, Devin looked up expectantly. Ethan shook his head at her. “It wasn’t him.”

She sunk back down to the ground in disappointment, and Mystic gave her a sloppy kiss on the chin.

“Let me have my phone back,” Carlo said to Gianna.

She handed it to him, and he immediately pulled something up. “So we don’t know who Magikarp Kid is,” he said. “But what about this girl? Do we know who Sandstorm could be?”

He had pulled up the image of the other Defender of the Badfish Creek Bridge. Sandstorm was a trainer with brown hair pulled back into a ponytail. But Ethan could barely see her, he was so distracted by the giant Kingler that had wiped out his entire team of Pokémon in the last battle.

“Have we seen any girls with brown ponytails?” Carlo asked Gianna. “How about at the beach? Maybe Sandstorm is someone who really likes sand.”

Gianna nodded. “I see where you’re going with this, but … I just don’t remember. I was too excited about all the Pokémon on the beach!”

But Carlo’s question had sparked a memory in Ethan’s mind.

“Wait,” he said. “I think Devin and I met a girl named Sandy here. No, not a girl—a dog. We met a dog named Sandy. At the dog beach!”

“Oh, yeah,” said Devin. “The first day we came here.”

Carlo laughed. “So you think this Trainer is a dog?” he asked. “That would be a first.”

“No,” said Ethan, shaking his head. “But Sandy’s owner was a girl—a girl with a long ponytail. So maybe Sandstorm is—”

“Sandy’s owner!” Gianna interrupted.

“Yes!” said Devin, jumping up. “Go, Team Mystic!”

At the sound of her name, Mystic started barking.

“Follow me,” said Ethan, jogging toward the dog swim area. “We’re going back to the beach—the one where dogs are allowed. And where I hope we’ll find a dog named Sandy!”

The dog beach was empty. Totally and completely empty.

Ethan sank down onto the end of the pier in disappointment.

Mystic seemed pretty bummed, too. She whined and ran up and down the pier, as if looking for her tennis ball-toting friends.

“Hold her tight,” Ethan warned Devin. “Don’t let her throw herself off the end of the pier in despair.”

“I’m trying!” said Devin. “She’s so strong, though. She really wants to play. We should have brought her tennis ball.”

Ethan patted his pocket. “Wait, we did bring her tennis ball,” he said, fishing it out. Mystic immediately sprang to attention.

“You’re not going to throw it in the water, are you?” asked Gianna.

“Of course not,” said Ethan. “I’d throw it onshore, but we probably shouldn’t take Mystic’s leash off. Mom would kill us.”

“True,” said Devin.

So he rolled the ball on the ground toward Mystic, which seemed like the best compromise.

When the ball rolled straight toward her, Gianna clapped. “Excellent throw!” she joked. “A hundred extra points for you.”

Devin wrestled it out of the puppy’s mouth and tossed it back to Ethan.

His next throw rolled too far to the right—way too far. “Curveball!” Carlo called, chasing the ball down and then throwing it back.

Pretty soon, Devin was rating Ethan’s throws, too. “That one was only ‘nice,’” she said. “Actually, I’m lying. It wasn’t nice at all. I think you can do better.”

In between throws, Mystic dropped her front paws to the ground and barked. She was loving this! But she wasn’t loving giving up the ball when it was time to throw it again.

“Here, give her Razz Berries—er, biscuit pieces,” said Ethan, taking the Magikarp biscuit out of his pocket. There wasn’t much left. He hoped Dottie would decide to bake more.

After Ethan’s next throw, Devin broke off a piece of the biscuit, and Mystic gladly dropped her tennis ball to gobble it up.

That’s when it happened. A brown blur tore in front of Devin and scooped up the tennis ball.

A yellow blur chased after it.

And then Mystic took off, too, disappearing into the trees.