It was a Tuesday, some time in late May. I was at the National Park, ready to enter the Bug Catching Contest and win myself a sun stone. I didn't have any pokemon that could evolve with it, nor did I really plan on catching one of them. It didn't matter, though, it was a free evolutionary stone! Even if I never used the stone, then I could sell it easily enough, or trade it for a different one.

I had all day to catch my bug, but by noon all I'd seen were small fry: caterpie, kakuna, paras, and so on. My plan was to get a scyther, then eventually evolve it into a scizor; apart from a dual weakness to fire attacks, it had no weaknesses and a lot of resistances. Better yet, scyther were strong and rare and would be sure to win me the contest, but I hadn't seen any sign of one yet, nor of a pinsir either, which would be a second choice, but I'd still take it.

My pidgeotto, however, was having the time of his life. For a start, he had only been a pidgey this morning. It was just as well he'd evolved too, the almost constant battles would have worn him down as a pidgey, but he was still rearing to go as a pidgeotto.

It was almost two in the afternoon when I saw it; the pokemon that would win me the contest. It wasn't a scyther, or a pinsir. It wasn't even a venomoth, a butterfree, or a beedrill. It was actually a metapod. Yep, just a regular, two feet tall, pointy nosed, golden-orange metapod. I'd heard stories about the regular contestants winning the majority of the contests, even with weak and common pokemon, but no one could deny that a shiny, even a shiny metapod, was the best bug out here.

All I had to do was convince my pidgeotto to only rough it up a little, instead of a lot. I expected to have to fight with him over the force he used, but I think the colour must have confused him. He flit around it, only getting close to strike it, before darting away again. Usually, he literally stood on top of them and pecked them until they died and he could eat it.

When it started wobbling on its tail, I started pulling stuff out of my pockets to find my park balls. I finally found one, in a pocket I'm sure I didn't put them in, and, grasping it in my hand, turned back to the metapod, it find it gone.

I spun around to find my pidgeotto, thinking he'd grabbed it and carried it off, but his claws were empty. I scanned the grass again, it was metapod-less. I ran to the closest bush. Empty.

I checked the nearest trees. Nothing.

My pidgeotto and I searched for about three hours for that metapod, catching a scyther along the way, but we didn't find it again. I didn't understand it, and I still don't. Metapod are really slow, and that one was injured; between the two of us it shouldn't have been able to get away, never mind hide from us.

I finished the contest with the scyther, confident that, even without the shiny metapod, I should win.

I came in third. Second place went to a kakuna, and first was given to a caterpie.

Suddenly, those rumors about the corrupt judges didn't seems so crazy.