Squirrely Sparks: Chapter 2
A Fiery Witch Hunt

It took a couple of hours and a few cut wires, but at last the joyful music of the orchestrion had returned to the atmosphere of The Wonder Room, eliciting cheers and applause from the patrons who had missed the sound of music dancing in their ears. Such praise made the Pachirisu with the light blue, sleeveless vest decorated with a pair of light yellow lightning bolt emblems by the neckline grin as he bowed gracefully, the satisfaction of a job well done filling his heart with glee.

As much as he was rather infamous around Tabira for his flirty nature towards females, Patch had garnered a more positive reputation as a skilled electrician working for the Wonder Room, Tabira’s most iconic bar known for its placement underneath the roots of Great Tree and its electrifying nighttime atmosphere. While the job usually kept him from his casanova antics, the good pay and the staff he worked with there were enough to make it all worth the hard work he had to do.

“Nice work Patch, and just in time for the show to start!”

Such were the words of a cool Heliolisk by the name of Rocco, the Wonder Room’s famous lounge singer and a ‘mon that Patch viewed with great envy. From his charismatic personality all the way to the wonderful voice that carried throughout the bar, there were so many ways he was able to wow audiences and earn all those dreamy stares from practically every female ‘mon who attended his performances, all traits that Patch wanted so badly in his life so that he may achieve his goal in life to become a ‘mon that would make girls swoon upon sight of him.

“I wonder if Eth is still on her shift,” he murmured to himself, “I bet she’s goings nuts over him performing right now.”

“I finished my shift an hour ago, didn’t you notice?” a female voice said in the Pachirisu’s ear, “At least you managed to get Rocco ready to go.”

The Pachirisu turned to his left to find a female Emolga standing next to him, her aqua colored midriff halter and its lightning bolt pattern made her one of the most recognizable individuals in Tabira. Like Patch, she worked part-time at the Wonder Room as a waitress, but she was thankfully lacking in the desire to seek out love and was contempt with living a quiet life; at least, that would’ve been the case if she didn’t have a worried look on her face.

“What’s up Eth? Somethin’ bothering you?” Patch asked the female Emolga.

“It’s terrible, Minnie has gone missing!” she replied.

“Minnie? You mean that little Minccino girl that has trouble walking and has that gorgeous looking Cinccino for a mom?” Patch exclaimed, getting knocked to the ground by Ethlyn the moment he finished his sentence.

“How can you think of her that way in a time like this?!” Ethlyn reprimanded, “You’re lucky you’re still allowed to come over to their house after that stunt you pulled when we took Minnie back home that other day!” She paused to take a deep breath and allow Patch to get back up, “Anyway, from what I’ve learned, she was out helping her mother inspect their home when she went to get some water, and by the time she came back, she was already gone.”

“Any other clues you might know? Preferably not the hard hitting ones,” Patch asked.

“The only other thing I got was that she called the Trackers to investigate and they found green Woobat fur where she was last seen. They think this might be a work of a witch named Morgan and they’re calling on local Pokémon to lend a hand.”

“A witch?” the Pachirisu grinned in his usual goofy manner “I wonder if it’s one of those cute Braixen ones. They put the fox in ‘foxy lady’ after all!”

“Patch, get serious already! Witches are very dangerous, and this one is no exception! She’s rumored to have kidnapped a couple of other kids named Handle and Griddle as well!”

“Handle? Hawndle? HAANdle?” Patch pondered, baffled by the pronunciation of one of the twin’s names.

Ethlyn slammed her left paw into her own forehead, pondering if this display was some sort of stall tactic or if he really was being this dumb. Unable to take her friend’s buffoonery, she sighed and grabbed hold of the collar of Patch’s vest, dragging him out the entrance of the Wonder Room and away from the sanctity of Tabira…



A long walk down the road north of Tabira that lead to the northeast and through the misty Everspring Road was all it took for Patch and Ethlyn to reach the outskirts of their dark destination: The Darkhowl Woods. Somewhere in the mess of tightly clustered trees that further obscured the fading sunlight was their missing friend, Minnie, and the Woobat that was responsible for not for her disappearance, but also of Handle and Griddle as well. Needless to say the two had little time to dwindle, not only racing so that the children would be found safe, but to get out before it became too dark to navigate out.

With a deep, collective sigh, the two electric squirrels took their first steps into the foreboding forest, with Ethlyn clambering up to the treetops to search from the treetops while Patch scouted out the area from ground level, each carefully observing their surroundings for any sign of danger or the missing children.

“Hey Eth, did anyone else say anything about what this witch, like maybe what she’s capable of?” Patch asked.

“From what Lydia and Resin said, Morgan is supposed to have a potion that makes anyone it’s used on very flammable,” the Emolga replied without losing focus on the task at hand, “if that Woobat who kidnapped Minnie is her apprentice, she might have some potions on hand too.”

The rustling of the nearby bushes alerted the two squirrels, drawing their attention in anticipation of whatever was coming out. Rather than let whatever lurked in the bushes get the first move, Patch held his right paw over the grassy ground beneath his feet, summoning a long vine from the ground that he lightly pulled to create a whip of sorts. The Pachirisu smirked as he readied his Grass Knot whip, ready to stop what he sensed was an ambush, and with a flick of his wrist, the whip snapped towards the bush, its loud crack answered by an equally loud shriek.

“Gotcha!” shouted Patch as he tugged on his Grass Knot whip, certain that he had gotten the Woobat kidnapper in his grasp. As he pulled his catch out from the bushes, however, it turned out not to be a green Woobat, but an Eevee with a pink-tipped tuft of hair on her forehead and lack of the species’ usual cream collar save for a few spots on her front.

At first, Patch realized that he had made a terrible mistake in attacking an innocent Pokémon thinking it was one of the culprits in the kidnapping case, but upon realizing that this Eevee was rather cute looking female, especially with the constantly drooping right ear she had, his thoughts began to transform his eventual apology into a way to potentially score a date. Before he could act on his instincts, however, the usual slam to the back of his head by Ethlyn made its timely arrival as she reprimanded the Pachirisu for what he had done.

“You’ll have to forgive my friend for what he had done, he must’ve thought you were that Woobat we’re looking for,” Ethlyn sighed as she bowed her head in apology.

“You’re looking for a Woobat too?” the Eevee replied as she stood back up, pulling off the knot of grass tied to her hind legs, “That must mean you’re looking for that witch that took those poor children too…”

“Yeah, that Woobat also kidnapped a friend of ours. You wouldn’t have happened to seen a little Minccino with a walking stick wandering around here, have ya?” Patch asked.

“Sorry, I haven’t even seen a Minccino period,” the Eevee sighed, “I bet if we knew where to look for that Woobat, maybe we can use her to find where she took the children to.”

The Eevee’s left ear suddenly began to twitch as she finished her sentence, signaling to the squirrel duo with her right front paw to take cover behind the bush she had been pulled out from. Before either of them could ask the Eevee the reason why they needed to hide, a green Woobat with a pink bow fluttered into their sights, none other than the Woobat they were told to look out for.

Realizing this was their chance to capture their prime suspect, Patch readied his Grass Knot whip once more, his confident grin returning to his face after his earlier mishap, and as she passed directly in front of the trio’s hiding spot, he leapt out of the bushes and swung his Grass Knot whip, ensnaring the Woobat’s left wing before she realized what had happened. The Woobat began to struggle to break free of the Grass Knot, slowly dragging the Pachirisu as he dug his feet into the ground, holding her just enough for Ethlyn to deliver a hard slap to the Woobat’s nose, knocking loose a pair of glass vials from her bow that were quickly captured by Patch as the Woobat fell down into the clutches of their Eevee ally.

“Please let me go, I’m not related to any witches or anything like that!” the Woobat shrieked, “I’d never lead children away from the safety of their villages to be used by—“

“Forget it you flying fur ball, we know you’re in league with a hot witch,” Patch snarked, his “hot witch” comment drawing odd stares from the trio of females, “Why else would you have these vials that say ‘drink me’ if they weren’t secret potions? So, mind if I have a little drink?”

Before Ethlyn or the Eevee could open their mouths in protest, Patch popped the cork off of the green-colored potion and chugged down the small dose it contained, leaving a small drop of the potion left before placing the cork back on the vial.

The Pachirisu loudly gulped as his eyes shot open, a strange sensation overwhelming his body as he stared at the glass vial he held in his paw, pondering if he had drunk some sort of poison instead of a potion as he had theorized. He then noticed his vest was starting to shrink on him and the world around him looking as if a large bird Pokémon had grabbed him and lifted into the air, until he suddenly stopped a foot or two over the treetops and his vest tore into two pieces.

To the surprise of everyone below him, Patch had grown to an enormous size, towering over the treetops as he looked at himself in awe, his usual silly grin appearing on his face upon realizing what had happened to him.

“P-Patch, that was reckless of you!” Ethlyn shouted with a flustered look on her face, “Who drinks a strange liquid out of a vial without knowing what it does?!”

“Like a witch would lie to their apprentice about the potions they give them,” Patch casually said as he lowered his head down at the trio of Pokémon gathered by his feet, “So, Woobat, you mind telling us where your mentor lives? If you’re not in the mood to tell us, I might decide on having some Woobat wings for a snack.”

“Oh come on, it’s not that hard,” the Woobat replied with a mix of nervousness and sarcasm, “Y-you’re so big you can practically see it!”

Taking the Woobat captive’s advice, Patch scanned the horizon above the trees in search of anything suspicious, and it didn’t take long before the faint light of will-o-wisps dancing in the air caught his eye, drawing his attention towards a small clearing only a couple of miles away from where they stood, where a tree with an odd, twisted design rested.

“For someone in hiding, she doesn’t do a good job in concealing her location from the air,” he noted, “Of course, nobody ever expects a giant Pachirisu walking around now, do they?”

With the location of Morgan’s hideaway discovered, the Eevee announced to the squirrely duo that she would take the Woobat back to Tabira to be taken into custody, warning them to be careful of whatever tricks the witch had in store before leaving, but not before Patch asked for the Eevee’s name, to which she introduced herself as Emily and announced that the two of them were welcome to watch her and her sister, Tess, perform at the tavern in town.

Having said their goodbyes, Patch and Ethlyn turned their attention towards the clearing and began their advance, hoping it was not too late to save the children from the witch’s sinister clutches…



It was just too good to be true, and yet she was gullible enough to fall for it anyway. From her cage high a few feet above the ground where her walking stick rested, the Minccino named Minnie sat and cried as she came to terms with the fact that she had been tricked by that seemingly nice Woobat into coming into the Darkhowl Forest to enjoy some very sweet treats in a cabin hidden deep inside the wood, even getting a sample of her shrinking potion in order to ride on the bat’s fur so that they could get there faster. Little did she suspect, however, that the Woobat named Molly was actually a witch’s apprentice and had lured her to become her prisoner, trapping her so that her fur could be used in concocting devious potions of all kinds.

She was not alone in this predicament, however, for in a similar cage to her left were a Plusle and Minun that were relatively the same age as her, struggling to get out of their imprisonment as they continued to rock their cage back and forth.

“Let us go hexe, none of us belong in a cage,” the Plusle spoke with a peculiar accent.

“Ja, ja, ve’re not good for being used for ingredients,” the Minun concurred in almost the exact same tone.

“Be quiet, all of you! I can’t focus on making this potion with all this yelling and bawling,” the Vulpix witch named Morgan shouted at her captives, turning back to read out of her book as she stirred the cauldron, “Ah, but the little Minccino is in luck! I’ll need a few strands of her fur for this next part.”

Without any warning, the ground suddenly began to shake beneath the Vulpix witch’s feet, the cages swinging helplessly with each tremor that oddly seemed to stop as quickly as it came, only to start again in exactly the same length of time it took to stop. Noticing this inconsistence, the witch marched towards the door out of her house, pausing to let the tremors pass each time it came, opening the door to discover a most baffling sight that only had one logical explanation.

“Great galloping Gourgeist, that Pachirisu is huge!” the witch exclaimed as the squirrel in question slowly stepped towards her abode, “Molly must’ve messed up big time for this to happen! No matter, he won’t get his paws on those children while I’m around!”



Life as a giant among ‘mons was proving to be a thrill for Patch, for he found much pleasure menacingly stomping towards the presumed home of the witch Morgan, snapping the snares that activated an array of various traps that proved useless against his size and blowing out the will-o-wisps like candles. It was only a matter of time before Morgan would show her face, and the thrill of seeing a sexy-looking witch appearing before his eyes made him grin with anticipation.

“Hey, what do you think you’re doing trampling around like that?!” an old voice screeched, “Get away from my house at once, you overgrown electric rodent!”

Patch looked down at his feet in response to the shouting, drawing his attention to an old and scraggly standing at the front door, glaring at the gargantuan Pachirisu with a quartet of potions held close to her chest by her right arm while shaking her left paw.

“Bleh, this is the hot witch I was looking for?” Patch loudly exclaimed, “She’s nothing more than an old hag!”

“Old hag?! For your information, I was quite the looker when I was young!” the Vulpix snapped, “You should respect your elders, especially ones that know how to use magic!”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever you say,” Patch sighed, “Look, just hand over the kids and we can all go about our merry ways, sound good?”

The Vulpix witch quickly replied to Patch’s demands by throwing her arrangement of vials at the giant Pachirisu, each shattering against his fur and leaving a strange liquid substance on the fur to his left side. The Pachirisu laughed at the Vulpix’s attack, convinced that she had far more bark than bite due to her use of potions. Morgan’s face became a wide, sinister smile as she realized that her target was distracted, and with a flick of her wrist, an orange-yellow ball of fire materialized and rocketed towards the Pachirisu, igniting the electric squirrel in a spectacular burst of flames.

“How do you like that?” Morgan cackled as she watched Patch run laps around her house screaming for water, “this potion is a little specialty of mine, it makes even Water-types combustible to Fire-type attacks, so you’ll end up nice and toasty! Now while you’re busy cooking, I’ll just go back to what I was doing before my brew starts burning.”

The Vulpix witch gasped upon turning back towards the interior of her house, finding that the cages had been opened and the children kept prisoner inside them nowhere to be found, the only evidence of their escape being the set of keys laying on the ground, a vial of shrinking potion missing from a nearby rack, and the open window next to the cages.

Storming out of the house, she quickly tracked down the missing children as they stood next to the now normally sized Pachirisu as the last of the embers on his body flickered out, alongside an Emolga that was almost certainly the one who sprung the children from their imprisonment.

“So, you managed to sneak in behind my back while that Pachirisu was doing a little fire dance,” Morgan snarled, “Give those children back at once, I have much more things I still have to use them for!”

“Ach, your mother rides a vacuum cleaner!” Handle and Griddle shouted.

“I won’t let you hurt these children anymore!” Ethlyn said, shielding Minnie as she hid behind her back, “Your witchcraft ends here!”

“I beg to differ, but I’m not going to waste my energy dealing with you all,” Morgan huffed, retreating back towards the front door of her home, “You can have those children back for now, but the next time we meet, I’ll use you and your squirrely pal for my next big brew, and I promise it’ll be more grueling than what I did to those kids!”

With a slam of her door and a loud cackle, the tree suddenly began to produce a blinding light that forced Ethlyn and the children to shield their eyes. By the time the light dissipated, there was not a single trace left of Morgan or her house to be found, leaving the group baffled for a moment as to where she relocated.

“Mr. Reeses, are you alright?” Minnie asked meekly, still shaken up from her experience as she nudged the Pachirisu on a spot that wasn’t burned.

“I’ll be fine, kiddo, I’ve been through worse things,” Patch said with a grin, his fur singed but not to the point of threatening his life, “though if I’m honest, I’m not looking forward to all the Rawst Berries I’m going to have to ingest to deal with these burns.”

“We’re just glad that all of you are safe,” Ethlyn sighed happily, “Just do me a favor from now on Minnie, don’t ever go with a stranger like that again, understood?”

“I know, but I gave in when that Woobat said I could have lots of candy,” the Minccino lamented, “and I admit that it was fun riding on her fur when I drank that shrinking potion… I promise that I’ll never worry you, mother, or Patch like this ever again.”

“Ja, ja, we promise too,” the twins said as they bowed their heads.

“Well, mission accomplished,” Patch said as he slowly rose to his feet, grimacing as he moved the burnt parts of his body, “Let’s say we head back to Tabira and get some R & R. We probably won’t get there before even dawn, but there’s nothing wrong with a nice, long stroll after all that, right?

“Mr. Reeses, you can walk with me using my cane if you want,” Minnie said as she offered her walking cane, “I want to help you just like you and Mrs. Monica helped me, and I think it’s so nice seeing you do something besides flirting with females…”

Patch smiled as he slowly grabbed hold of Minnie’s cane, glancing for a moment to see Ethlyn smile at the gesture, and together they slowly began their first steps out from the depths of the Darkhowl Woods, undaunted by the dark night that was rapidly approaching…