Itchy fingers, these things.

"Oh, these came out great!"

Citrine pulled out a set of freshly developed photographs from the package-- clean, neat images of berries and trees-- and admired each one.

She was never the best photographer-- but seeing them come into physical form was rather touching to witness. They were decent, at least.

She sat down by the meadow with her Pokemon, flipping through each picture carefully.

"Let's see... this one's from Route 112, this one's from the forests of Verdanturf--" she flipped through her notebook while she was at it, identifying each berry and where she took the picture from, marking down each spot with a pencil.

"This one-- huh?" 

She found a picture of a berry that looked familiar to her-- yet, she had never seen it before. It was black, shaped like a sunflower seed with a white bulb before it-- vaguely it resembled an exclamation mark-- yet, grown too naturally on the surface of the berry was a white question mark.

She didn't remember this berry being in the Berry Encyclopedia Quartz wrote. She didn't remember taking a picture of this berry either.

"Was there a mixup with someone else's photograph, I wonder..."

Then it hit her.

"Wait a minute, I know this berry!" she realized-- "from the past-- on Bulbapedia--"

The world flickered.

"...huh?"

Suddenly, she stopped. The world went black for half a second, was there a breeze? Something just swooped past us really fast just now and-- "Holy crap all the pictures are gone!"

Even her Pokemon had failed to notice a presence, but in less than an instant, the pictures scattered all over the ground before her had just vanished without a trace.

Lombre went nuts, screeching like she'd just witnessed a horror movie scenario, sobbing in fear and-- Whismur was scrambling about, yelling at every innocent Pokemon or rock or tree nearby and probably accusing them of something-- meanwhile, Wurmple was grumbling in Lombre's direction like he was reprimanding that scaredy cat.

Citrine herself was no better. 

"Did someone steal it? That thing's fast-- or maybe it was the wind-- but then I'd have seen it flying away... oh no, all my effort up till now--"

"What's wrong?" someone spoke up to her, "you missing something, perhaps?"

Her snapped toward the voice-- and found an older man standing there with a bike. 

"Yes!" she responded abruptly, the stress taking her more than the anxiety was, "all the photos I've just developed-- in an instant, they..."

To Citrine's utmost horror, the man guffawed, laughing.

Citrine did a double take-- was this something to laugh about?

"Sorry, sorry--" he seemed to realize that was rather tactless-- "the Zubat's been notorious round these parts, so I suspect that's what got you."

Citrine paused, "...Zubat?"

"Yep, Zubat!" the bike man grinned, "they see shiny stuff, they take 'em! stole tons of my bells and bike chains, those things ain't cheap I tell ya, I heard some lady's got her jewellery snatched right off too. Maybe fresh picture shone in the light so they nabbed them right out of ye'r hands, too!"

Citrine stood there, jaws just dropped-- "this... is funny."

"Of course not!" Bike man exclaimed dramatically, "but no one's 'round to take care of the issue, y'see. Just gotta laugh it off or cry it all gone!"

Citrine sulked-- so this man was telling him to give up all those. 

"Wait," she perked up, "what about the Gym Leader, Mr Wattson?"

Surely, there was someone around that could deal with something as pesky as Zubat in the area. It was appalling to think the Gym Leader could stand by and watch all this just happen--

"Watt-boy's busy dealing with a rogue Donphan on the South Exit," bike man was firm and understanding, "so we all agreed to not tell 'im about it yet!"

Citrine just sank deep underground at that. 

She now understands how caring citizens may backfire. Oh she was not going to stand for this. LIke hell she was gonna let a whole month-ish of work go down the drain for some blind Zubat and overwhelming laid-back senior citizens!

"That's it-- Whismy, Wurmy, Lotty!" she commanded, and her three Pokemon stood at attention. She was serious, a determined glint in her eyes as she scowled-- "pack your things, we're going Zubat hunting!"

"Oh, you'll deal with it for us? That's a great help, oh, want me to tell Watt-boy about that and-- wait, where you goin', girlie?"

If Wattson's still dealing with Donphan, Citrine realized as she stomped through her irritation, going in the direction the weird man pointed out Zubat caves, that means Sapphire isn't here yet. 

The main girl-- Sapphire Birch-- in a while she would reach Mauville, and get caught in a Donphan trap by mistake, and eventually also help to sort out some land-hunting issues for the Gym Leader, Wattson.

If the story is happening, she felt the wind ripple strong through her hair, calling for an incoming storm. That means eventually the Groudon and Kyogre issue will get in the way of my journey.

She clenched her fingers, still angered by the loss of those important pictures.

I better hurry and get as much as I can done before then.