Chasing Butterfree Read online

  This book is not authorized or sponsored by The Pokémon Company International, Nintendo of America, Inc., Nintendo/Creatures Inc., Niantic, Inc., or any other person or entity owning or controlling rights in the Pokémon or Pokémon GO characters, name, trademarks, or copyrights.

  Copyright © 2016 by Hollan Publishing, Inc.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without the express written consent of the publisher, except in the case of brief excerpts in critical reviews and articles. All inquiries should be addressed to Sky Pony Press, 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018.

  First Edition

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are from the author’s imagination, and used fictitiously.

  Sky Pony Press books may be purchased in bulk at special discounts for sales promotion, corporate gifts, fund-raising, or educational purposes. Special editions can also be created to specifications. For details, contact the Special Sales Department, Sky Pony Press, 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018 or [email protected].

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  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

  Special thanks to Erin L. Falligant.

  Cover illustration by Jarrett Williams

  Cover colors by Jeremy Lawson

  Cover design by Brian Peterson

  Print ISBN: 978-1-5107-2204-0

  Ebook ISBN: 978-1-5107-2206-4

  Printed in Canada

  CHAPTER 1

  PokéStop!” shouted Ethan, spinning the Photo Disc on his phone. It showed a photo of the stone lion at the entrance to the Jamestown Zoo.

  “What did you get?” asked Carlo, tossing the hair out of his eyes as he checked his own phone.

  “Um, three Poké Balls and … an egg. Ooh, it’s a five-kilometer egg.” Ethan happily placed the egg in an incubator.

  “Wait up!” shouted Ethan’s younger sister, Devin. “Did you find a Pokémon already?”

  “Nah, just a PokéStop,” said Ethan. “But we’ll start seeing Pokémon soon, I’m sure. I’ve heard there are Abra and Mankey here at the zoo—all kinds of rare Pokémon. Plus a ton of PokéStops!”

  “Don’t forget the Butterfree!” shouted Gianna, Carlo’s younger sister. As she ran toward them, the bug antennae on her green cap bobbled up and down.

  “You look like a Butterfree in that hat.” Devin giggled.

  “More like a Caterpie,” said Carlo, playfully pushing the cap down over Gianna’s eyes.

  “Hey!” she shouted. “No touching. That’s my lucky Pokémon-hunting cap.”

  “Butterfree? Caterpie? Whatever happened to butterflies and caterpillars?” asked the woman walking behind them. Her hair was as dark and curly as Gianna’s.

  “Sorry, Mom,” said Gianna, straightening the cap on her head. “That’s Pokémon language. Can I borrow your phone to play Pokémon GO?”

  Her mother sighed. “For a little while,” she said, fishing her phone from her tote bag. “But make sure you kids keep your eyes open for real animals, too, here at the zoo. Especially butterflies.”

  “Yes, Mrs. Walker,” said Ethan. “And thanks for bringing us here,” he added.

  He hadn’t been to the zoo in ages. It was an hour’s drive from Newville, where he and his friends lived. But the zoo was hosting a new butterfly exhibit, and Gianna loved bugs. Maybe it was because her mom was an entomologist—a fancy name for a bug scientist.

  So because Gia and her mom love bugs, we all get to go to the zoo, thought Ethan. How lucky can a Pokémon GO player be?

  “Don’t feed the animals,” Carlo read off the sign near the zoo entrance. “Do Razz Berries count?” He showed Ethan the Razz Berries he’d collected at the PokéStop.

  Ethan laughed out loud. “Probably not.” As he stepped through the iron gates, he was surprised to see “Pokémon GO” written on a sign on an information booth.

  Gianna spotted it, too. “Look, Mom,” she said, racing toward the booth. “The zoo wants us to play Pokémon GO. It’s a scavenger hunt!”

  “Awesome!” said Devin. “How does it work?”

  A woman wearing an orange polo shirt with a Jamestown Zoo badge waved them over. “Just find the team stickers,” she said. “Yellow for Team Instinct, red for Team Valor, and blue for—”

  “Team Mystic!” Ethan said, grinning. “We know. That’s us.”

  He and his friends had all joined Team Mystic as soon as they reached Level Five. They defended their own gym, too, at Dottie’s Doughnuts in Newville.

  “Good,” said the zoo guide, smiling. “So you already have a head start. The stickers are given out at three stations hidden throughout the zoo. Bring the stickers back here, and you’ll get a free gift from the gift shop.” She pointed toward the red-brick building right behind her booth.

  “Can we do it?” Gianna asked her mom.

  Mrs. Walker hesitated—until the zoo guide added, “It’s educational. The kids will learn something about animals at each station.”

  A smile spread across Mrs. Walker’s face. She shrugged. “Well, if it’s educational, how can I say no?”

  “I wonder what the prize will be,” said Devin, stepping toward the gift shop and pressing her freckled face against the window.

  Ethan looked, too. His eyes went straight to the stuffed animals. “A stuffed boa constrictor, maybe? That purple one looks like Ekans.”

  “I’d take the ladybug umbrella,” said Gianna. “Or one of those geodes. Aren’t those the rocks that you crack open? You never know what you’re going to find inside.”

  “Like my Pokémon Egg,” said Ethan, checking his phone.

  “Maybe you’ll find a Geodude in your geode,” Gianna joked. “Get it?”

  “Nah, think bigger,” said Carlo. “You can get a Geodude from a two-kilometer egg. Maybe you’ll get a Magnemite or a Grimer in the five-kilometer one.”

  Devin scrunched up her nose. “Yeah, who would want a Geodude when you could have a sticky, stinky purple blob of a Pokémon like Grimer?” she said sarcastically.

  Carlo stepped backward, and then suddenly groaned.

  “What’s wrong?” asked Mrs. Walker.

  “I think I might have just stepped on Grimer.” As he lifted his foot, a string of bubble gum stretched from his shoe down to the blacktop.

  As Ethan watched Carlo scrape the gum off his shoe, he checked the bottoms of his own shoes and then wiped his hands on his shorts. They suddenly felt sticky.

  “Hey, let’s take a photo!” said Devin, pointing toward the gift shop photo booth. “It looks like you can even wear animal masks.”

  Three kids were stepping out of the booth and tossing masks back into a bucket beside the booth.

  “I’ll take the ostrich mask,” said Devin, reaching into the bucket. She handed the panda bear to Ethan.

  “There’s another ostrich,” said Gianna, digging the mask out of the bucket. “We can be twins!”

  When she and Devin stood side by side with their masks on, Ethan chuckled. “Actually, you look like a two-headed Doduo. Except one of your heads has bug antennae.”

  Gianna snorted and pulled off her bug cap. “Is that better?”

  “Much,” he said.

  They piled into the booth and waited for the camera to count down.

  Five, four, three …

  “Wait for me!” Carlo slid into the booth wearing an orangutan mask. He sat down on his sister’s lap just as the flash went off in the booth
.

  “Get off!” she shouted. “You covered me up!”

  But when Ethan reached for the photo that slid out of the slot on the side of the booth, he could see all four heads. “We’re all here,” he announced. “A panda, a Doduo, and an orangutan—with perfect hair.”

  Gianna playfully punched her brother in the shoulder. “Carlo never has a hair out of place,” she teased.

  “Are we ready?” asked Mrs. Walker, who was waiting outside.

  “Yes!” said Ethan. “What should we see first?”

  Then he noticed that Gianna and Devin were already running toward the petting zoo.

  “I think I’m a little old for that,” said Carlo. “They probably don’t even let fourteen-year-olds inside.”

  “Me, too,” said Ethan. He was only ten, but he’d rather hang with Carlo than get lumped in with their younger sisters.

  Then he caught sight of the baby goats, bouncing around just like puppies. And Ethan loved puppies. He suddenly couldn’t wait to feed a goat.

  The goats stood up on their hind legs on the other side of the gate, stepping all over each other to nibble food out of kids’ hands. Some were tan, others reddish brown, and the smallest ones black and white.

  Those are the ones I’ll feed, he decided.

  As Mrs. Walker poured food pellets out of a cup into Devin’s hand, Ethan reached for some, too, hoping Carlo wouldn’t notice. Then he squatted down and stuck his hand out right in front of a black-and-white goat. “Hurry!” he whispered. “Eat quickly, before your big brothers eat it all.”

  “Pokémon alert!” shouted Carlo, holding up his phone. “It’s Eevee.”

  Ethan pulled out his own phone, but he couldn't figure out what to do with the pellets in his other hand. He tried to catch Eevee one-handed, but his Poké Balls kept shooting off into the corners of the screen.

  “Is that Eevee?” asked Gianna. “Oh, it’s even cuter than a baby goat.”

  Pretty soon, all four kids were trying to catch Eevee while four hungry goats nosed at them, wondering where all the pellets had gone.

  Ethan’s Poké Ball finally hit its mark, and Eevee got sucked into a Poké Ball. “Yes! Gotcha.” As the stars floated up from the ball, he glanced up to see how his friends were doing.

  “Whoa, Gia,” he said. “Don’t look now, but …”

  Of course, she looked—and saw what Ethan saw.

  Gianna was staring right into the eyes of a goat. Only this was no baby goat.

  This one had horns.

  And it had her lucky Pokémon-catching cap in its mouth!

  “Get it back!” she hollered to Ethan. “Get my cap. Quick!”

  Ethan lunged for the cap. He caught the brim with his fingertips, but the goat tugged back.

  What do I do? wondered Ethan. If the goat were a Pokémon, he’d fling a Poké Ball at it. But the goat was too big for a Poké Ball. Way too big.

  And it wasn’t about to give up its new prize.

  CHAPTER 2

  “As Ethan tightened his grip on the bug cap, the goat did, too. It chomped down harder, bending back one of the antennae.

  “Stop!” Gianna shrieked, pressing her hands to her head. “You’re going to ruin it!”

  So Ethan stopped tugging. Think, he told himself. What does the goat want even more than that cap?

  Then he remembered the food pellets in his left hand. He quickly held them out toward the goat, palm up.

  When a couple of baby goats came running, Ethan raised his hand higher, right under the big goat’s chin. The animal’s nose twitched, and it finally lowered its head—and dropped the cap.

  As the goat hungrily gobbled up the pellets, Ethan saw that Gianna had scrambled under the fence to get her cap.

  “No, Gia!” her mother hollered. “Get back here!”

  Ethan breathed a sigh of relief when Gianna crawled back out of the pen, her cap in hand.

  “Thanks,” she whispered to him as she brushed the cap off. “Blech. Goat germs.”

  “But is it okay?” asked Devin, dropping to her knees beside Gianna.

  “I think so.” Gianna pulled the cap down over her dark curls. “How does it look?”

  It looked mostly okay. Ethan saw that one of the antennae was slightly bent. Devin seemed to notice it, too. She cocked her head, as if that would somehow straighten the antenna out. But Ethan was glad when she didn’t say anything about it. She just smiled and gave Gianna a thumbs-up.

  Gianna blew out a breath of relief. Then she turned to face the goat. “You’re very rude,” she said, shaking her finger. “Some goats have no manners.”

  “Some kids don’t either,” said Mrs. Walker, raising an eyebrow. “Kids who play Pokémon GO when they’re supposed to be feeding goats.”

  “But, Mom!” Gianna protested. “It’s my lucky cap. I caught Beedrill when I was wearing this cap. I won my first gym battle when I was wearing this cap. I don’t know what I’d do without it.”

  “I know, I know,” said her mother. “So let’s get out of the range of that hungry goat.”

  As they left the petting zoo, Ethan gave the black-and-white baby goat one last glance. “Sorry, buddy,” he said. “You kind of got robbed in the pellet department.”

  Then he hurried to catch up with Carlo, who was standing in front of a directory map.

  “It’s a PokéStop,” explained Carlo, pointing at the map.

  Ethan pulled out his phone, but as he swiped the Photo Disc, nothing happened. Then a pink message showed up. Your bag is full.

  He groaned. “I have to dump some items.”

  Carlo looked over his shoulder at his list of items. “Maybe discard a few Potions and Revives,” he said. “You probably won’t be doing many gym battles today, but you’re going to want to keep your Poké Balls and Razz Berries for capturing more Pokémon.”

  “Right,” said Ethan. Carlo was the best Pokémon GO player in the group—a Level-Thirteen Trainer, last time Ethan had checked. So when Carlo gave a tip, Ethan usually listened. He quickly discarded a bunch of Potions and Revives.

  “Hey!” shouted Devin. She was standing in the doorway to a green building labeled Rainforest Center. “Gia’s lucky cap struck again. We just found our first scavenger hunt station, and it’s Team Mystic!” She waved the boys toward the entrance.

  Sure enough, Gia and her mom were standing inside by a table with a blue Team Mystic sign on it. As Ethan followed Carlo toward the station, he stole glances at the animals inside the glass cases lining the walls.

  On one side of the room, huge snakes wound around tree branches and coiled at the bottom of their cages. On the other side, macaws squawked from their perches and flapped their colorful wings.

  “C’mon, kids. Gather round,” said the zoo guide standing by the scavenger hunt table. “My name is Blanche, the leader of Team Mystic.”

  Ethan met Carlo’s eye and grinned. Blanche was the Team Mystic leader who appeared in the Pokémon GO game when a trainer reached Level Five. Ethan was pretty sure this woman wasn’t really named Blanche, but it was fun to think that she might be.

  “Who can tell me what Team Mystic studies?” she asked. “Are we all about strength and power, intuition, or evolution?”

  “Evolution!” shouted Devin, taking the word right out of Ethan’s mouth.

  “That’s right,” said Blanche. “Very good. And did you know that the rainforest is a hot spot for evolution?”

  As she talked on about the number of different animal species in the rainforest, Ethan felt his phone vibrate. He glanced down and quickly caught a Poliwag perched on the edge of the table. Score!

  “Ethan, pay attention to Blanche,” his sister said, nudging his arm.

  “I am,” he mumbled. “I’m all about evolution. In fact, I’m evolving Poliwag into a Poliwhirl right now.”

  “Really?” Devin leaned closer so that she could see the blue, froglike Pokémon bursting out of the spinning white ball of light. “Cool.”

  When Poliwhirl did
a little dance and bubbles came out of its backside, both Ethan and Devin cracked up.

  Blanche gave them a stern glance and then said, “Well, are we ready for our Team Mystic stickers?”

  The blue stickers showed the outline of Articuno, the legendary bird Pokémon. Ethan stuck his to his T-shirt, just as Devin and Gianna had. But Carlo slapped his to his forehead—until Mrs. Walker made him take it off.

  After taking one loop around the glass cages to look at the birds and boa constrictors, Ethan followed the rest of the group out of the Rainforest Center. He didn’t have to ask where they were going next. Mrs. Walker was practically running toward the Butterfly House.

  Devin laughed. “The Butterfly House is like a petting zoo for your mom, isn’t it?”

  Gianna nodded. “Except there’s no petting involved. You can’t touch the butterflies—you’ll damage the scales on their wings.”

  Ethan barely heard her. He had just noticed that someone had set a lure at the PokéStop outside the Butterfly House. Pink petals fell all around the blue icon on his phone screen.

  When he spun the blue disc, he was surprised to see another five-kilometer egg pop up. “It’s my lucky day!” he said, placing the egg in his second incubator.

  “Well, it’s not mine,” Devin grumbled. “It says my bag is full. No fair!”

  “That happened to me when we got here,” he told her. “Just get rid of some stuff.” But he knew she wouldn’t listen. Devin couldn’t get rid of anything. He’d had a hard time convincing her to trade in some Pidgey for Pidgey Candy once, too.

  “That’s okay,” she said, sliding her phone into her pocket. “I’ll just enjoy the butterflies.”

  “Attagirl,” said Mrs. Walker, who was standing at the entrance to the Butterfly House. “Come on, kids!”

  Ethan waited for Carlo. “Did you see the lure?” he asked.

  “Yeah,” said Carlo, “and I'm hot on the trail of a Venomoth. This place is packed with Pokémon!” He pumped his fist as the Venomoth on his screen was swallowed up by a Great Ball.

  By the time Ethan made it through the first set of glass doors into the Butterfly House, he had already caught a Bellsprout and a Kakuna.

  “Don’t let any butterflies escape,” the exhibit guide was saying. “Make sure one set of doors is closed before you open the other.”