Pokemon: Adaptium and Blaston Story(Pokemon/FusionFall RP Crossover)

Hello there! Welcome to the world of Pokemon! My name is Utonium. People call me a Pokemon Professor. This world is inhabited by creatures called Pokemon. For some people, they're pets, others use them for fights. As for myself... I study them as a profession. Now, a new Pokemon legend is about to unfold. A world with dreams and adventures with these wonderful creatures awaits! Let's go!

Just a reminder: Please direct any comments/suggestions/criticisms/questions/etc to the Adaptium and Blaston discussion thread that should be somewhere else in the Gallery. I'd prefer this thread to be clear of any posts aside from the story. Thank you for your understanding, and for choosing to read my story.  

Prologue: New Game

Alice stood in front of Professor Utonium's lab in Pallet Town and knocked on the door. It had taken a lot of convincing from her aunt and uncle, but she finally decided that she wanted to get a Pokemon of her own. She wasn't really the type that craved adventure, but she liked the idea of having a friendly creature to talk to, even if the only thing it said back was its own name. She couldn't shake the feeling of nervousness that she was having, however.

Once she got inside, she would have to choose which of the Pokemon she'd like, which was easier said than done. What if the one she chose didn't like her? Or there were none she liked? Having a Pokemon would be a lot of responsibility, as her aunt, who also happened to be a Gym Leader, had taught her. Before Alice could decide that she had changed her mind, one of the Professor's assistants answered the door.

“Hello. How may I help you?” the assistant asked.

“Uh...” Alice took a moment to respond due to still being deep in thought. “I'm here to see Professor Utonium for a Pokemon.”

“Oh! You must be Alice. Please, come on in.” the assistant opened the door wider to let the girl in.

“Thanks.” Alice replied politely, before walking inside. The lab seemed simple, with a couple bookcases and a few desks, one of which had a few Poke Balls on it.

“Good to see you, Alice!” Said a voice coming from a man sitting at another desk, apparently fixing an odd-looking device. “Thank you for letting her in, Trina.”

“Not a problem, Professor.” Trina then exited out a back door to what looked like a massive backyard, and Alice turned her attention to Utonium.

“How are your aunt and uncle?” The Professor asked as he stood up.

“They're doing well.” the girl said simply.

“I'll have to apologize to Muriel and Eustace. It's been a while since I've had the time to visit.” Professor Utonium had been part of the reason that Muriel and Eustace had adopted her as parental figures in the first place, being the one who found her abandoned, and as such the Utonium and Bagge families were quite close. “Also, on an unrelated note, I'll have to apologize to you. I have another person coming to receive a Pokemon today, and it would be simpler if I have both of you pick yours at the same time. Sorry to make you wait after your long trip here.”

“No. That's great... er... I mean fine... It's just fine.” Alice smiled. She was secretly happy that she'd have more time to choose, if only to delay a potentially life changing decision.

“Where is he... He was supposed to get here a few minutes ago...” Utonium wondered. “Oh, why am I worrying? Holden's probably on his way here right now even as I speak.”

“Holden. Wake up!” Holden heard a voice in his sleep. “...Huh?”

“It's time for you to get up.” Even half-asleep, he recognized the voice. “Come on, Bubbles... Just tell me when it's about twenty or so minutes until I have to leave.” The boy almost fell back asleep.

“I already tried that, and then I tried it ten minutes before you had to leave, then five, then-”

Holden almost instantly sat up. “What time is it?” he asked, afraid of the answer.

“10:30. Sorry. I tried waking you up, but you didn't even respond.”

Holden jumped out of bed and ran straight to his dresser. “I'm late! I knew I shouldn't have stayed up late for that Pokemon tournament...” Holden went into a panic.

Bubbles went back down into the kitchen where Blossom was finishing up some pancakes and Buttercup was sitting at the table, looking like she didn't want to be up this early.

“Is he up?” Blossom asked Bubbles.

“Yeah. I guess the reason he was having problems getting up was because of some tournament on TV last night.”

“It was totally worth it to see that Machamp Seismic Toss that Golem, though...” The sisters dressed in red and blue gave their sister dressed in green disapproving looks. “What? I didn't think it would make him that hard to wake up... Sheesh.”

Holden came down the stairs a few moments later. “I'm going to have to skip a shower and breakfast, but hopefully the Professor won't be too mad.”

“Don't worry, Holden, he's not usually one to get mad at people for...” Blossom started to say before turning to her adopted brother and seeing the clothes he was wearing.

“...What? Is there something wrong with these?” the boy asked. Blossom and Bubbles couldn't help but giggle and Buttercup burst out laughing.

After Buttercup managed to stop laughing, she gave Holden some advice. “First of all, take off the hat.” Holden did so. “And the corny jacket.” He did that as well. “And the fingerless gloves. This isn't 1997, Holden.”

After he had taken off the gloves, Bubbles spoke. “That's better. Now go out there and get your Pokemon.” she said enthusiastically.

“I'll stop by later today to say goodbye.” Holden said as he walked out the door. “Have a good day!”

“You too!” the sisters said almost simultaneously. Blossom then turned her attention to her sisters and put the now finished pancakes on the table. “Okay. After breakfast, we go straight into training!” “Oh boy!” Bubbles said happily. “Oh boy...” Buttercup said in a much less happy and more sarcastic tone.

Holden ran fairly quickly from his home in Viridian City toward Pallet Town. Luckily for him, it was quicker and easier to get between the two places the way he was going. He didn't run into any problems most of the way, other than nearly tripping while jumping off one of the ledges in his path. However, he had to run through tall grass in the last stretch of the way there, which led to him hearing a noise...

“Pidgey!” said a nearby Pokemon who Holden nearly stepped on.

“Wha...?!? Sorry! I didn't mean to-” He was interrupted mid-sentence when the bird Pokemon Tackled him. “Ow! Wait, I don't have any Pokemon to battle you with!” he insisted, hoping the Pidgey would understand.

“Pidgey!” it responded, in a way that said 'I don't care! You nearly stepped on me!'

Before the bird could make another move, another Pokemon was heard. “Rai...chu!!!” Followed by a lightning bolt that headed straight for Pidgey.

The Pidgey went down in an instant, fainting and falling to the ground. Holden looked back to where he was heading to see Utonium, Alice, and the former's Raichu standing there.

“Excellent work, Raichu. That Thunder Shock of yours seems to get stronger every day.”

“Rai!” the electric mouse thanked his trainer for the compliment before he called him back into his Poke Ball.


“Sorry I'm late.” Holden apologized. “I overslept, and-”

“Don't worry about it, Holden.” Utonium insisted. “Today's going to be the day that changes your life, even if you got a late start.” The Professor chuckled, before getting back to the situation. “You remember Alice, don't you?”

It took the boy a few moments, but he remembered her. “Oh, right. Muriel's niece? Good to see you again.” Holden smiled and Alice smiled back.

“Same to you.” They then both returned their attention to Utonium.

“Well, the sooner we get back to the lab, the sooner you both get your Pokemon.”

“There are over 700 Pokemon in the world that we know of.” the Professor said as they made it back to the lab. “Less than 20 years ago, we only knew about 150, and at the rate new creatures are being discovered, it's likely that the number will go up even further.” Utonium continued talking as he took out his keyring and looked for the one that opened the door. “My mentor Oak wanted to put together a sort of dictionary with all of the Pokemon in the world contained within it. A difficult, if not impossible task. Still, he tried his best to achieve that goal until the day that he...” He sighed, and was silent for a few moments. Even a few years after Oak's death, the Professor couldn't help but miss his old mentor and friend.

“But what am I doing dwelling in the past?” Utonium tried to cheer himself up. “Your futures are about to begin.” He opened the door to the lab, and the trio headed toward the back to the desk with three Poke Balls on it. “I don't think I need to explain what these devices are to you two, given you both live with Gym Leaders.” He gestured toward the three devices that each contained a Pokemon inside. “Each of the three Pokemon here are different, and have unique traits and personalities, and your choice will likely impact the rest of your training lives. I won't blame you if you take a while to-”

“I'll take this one.” Holden said as he lifted up one of the Poke Balls.

Utonium was a bit surprised at his speed, but still explained to him who was inside it. “That's Bulbasaur, a Grass and Poison type Pokemon. Are you sure you want him?” he asked in a tone that indicated that it was a good choice, but he felt he should ask nonetheless.

“That works.” One of the Pokemon Holden wanted to obtain at some point was a Chikorita, so a Bulbasaur would probably help him prepare.

“Your turn, Alice” Utonium told the girl. “Take as much time as you need.”

Alice stepped toward the desk and looked at the two Pokemon containers that remained. She stood there for several moments, trying to decide. She finally reached down and grabbed the Poke Ball that she felt slightly better about.

“That's Charmander, a Fire type Pokemon. Are you sure you want him?” the Professor said in the same tone he did to Holden, though it made Alice nervous.

“I... I'm not sure.” Utonium mentally kicked himself for phrasing the question the way he did.

“He's a great choice, I just thought I'd make sure.”

Alice thought for another moment. “Yeah. I'll take him.”

“Excellent. You're both now officially Pokemon Trainers! Congratulations!” Utonium said enthusiastically.

Holden and Alice both smiled. “Hey, Alice. We should have a Pokemon Battle!” Holden suggested.

Alice seemed unsure. “...Right now? But I've never done one before.”

“That's alright. Neither have I.” The boy admitted. “But we'll both have to have our first battle eventually, right? Better sooner than later.” The girl still seemed reluctant, and Holden felt like she'd be forcing her into it. “We don't have to if you don't want to. I just thought it'd be good practice.”

After a bit of hesitating, Alice changed her mind. “Okay. Let's do it.”

Holden, Alice, and Utonium stepped into the backyard of the lab which, to the former two's surprise, had to have at least a hundred or so Pokemon roaming around. “I know. I still wonder how he managed to catch some of those too.” the Professor commented. “I'm sure they won't mind watching a quick battle. It's been a while since they've seen any action.” Some of the Pokemon took notice of the trio and moved in closer to them.

“Uh... Hi.” Alice said to the creatures with a smile.

“I didn't know you had this many Pokemon...” Holden told Utonium who just shrugged and chuckled a bit.

“Well, several of them are mine, but most of them were Oak's.”

A couple minutes later, Holden and Alice stood on opposite sides of a Poke Ball-like symbol that had been drawn into the grass for decoration, but now served as a sort of arena. A few dozen of the Pokemon had gathered to watch the new trainers battle. The two then got their Poke Balls ready.

“Go, Bulbasaur!” Holden said in a fairly cheesy and overly loud way, causing Alice and Utonium to laugh a little. Holden shrugged. “It sounded better in my mind.” He then tossed Bulbasaur's Poke Ball a few feet in front of him, and the Pokemon popped out, as it should have.

“Bulbasaur!” The Grass creature said as it was released from the device.

Alice then threw her Poke Ball, and Charmander came out with his own cry. “Charmander!” The two Pokemon stared each other down with expressions that tried to look threatening, but ended up looking adorable in a way.

“You can have the first move, Alice.” Holden insisted.

“Okay... How do I do this?” Alice asked, not quite knowing what she was doing.

“Well...” Holden thought for a moment. He had never really had to explain the concept of battling to anyone before. “To start, you should try to have your Pokemon attack mine.”

“Okay... How do I have him attack?”

Before Holden could answer, Charmander seemingly answered instead. “Char!” The Fire Pokemon charged at Bulbasaur and used Scratch on him. Bulbasaur took a few steps backward from the attack, but quickly counter attacked with Tackle, which knocked Charmander onto his back, though he quickly got back up. The two then stared at each other some more, this time waiting for their trainers to command them.

“Bulbasaur, use Growl!” “Bulb!” the plant Pokemon said in a confirming tone, before unleashing a fairly intimidating Growl, which didn't cause any damage but left the lizard Pokemon a bit nervous.

“Charmander... um... use... kick?” Alice guessed, not knowing the names of any potential attacks the Pokemon may have had. Charmander seemed confused at first, but got a determined expression on his face and ran over to Bulbasaur, before kicking him and launching him backwards.

“Huh...? I didn't know that was an actual Pokemon move...” Holden was confused.

“Actually, a normal kick isn't technically a 'move', but it's good to improvise.” Utonium said.

Bulbasaur managed to do a flip in midair and landed on his feet. “Try headbutting him!” Holden suggested, and Bulbasaur did as his trainer said, hitting Charmander, who fell to the ground, but got back up a few seconds later. Both Pokemon already seemed exhausted, but before Holden or Alice could make another move, the Professor decided to intervene.

“Alright you four, I think that's enough for now.” Alice and both Pokemon all made a sigh of relief, though Holden seemed a bit disappointed.

“Oh well. We'll have another battle at some point.” the boy suggested.

“Sounds good...” the girl said in a tone that didn't sound quite as eager as the words themselves. They both returned their Pokemon to their Poke Balls for the moment.

“You two both did great for your first battle.” Utonium stated, proud of the two. “And you'll both only get better when you bond with your Pokemon and meet more on your journeys. You probably don't want me to keep you here for much longer, but at least let me heal your Pokemon.” Holden and Alice both nodded and went back inside the lab with the Professor.

After their Pokemon were healed, Holden and Alice exited out the front door to the lab with Utonium following them. “Alright, Holden. I'd recommend that you head through Viridian City first, so that you can say goodbye to your sisters, and... Well, there really is no other way for you to go.” the Professor gave him relatively obvious advice.

“Alright.” Holden said.

“Oh, and if I'm not back by the time you've left...” Utonium stood still for a moment, getting a sad look on his face before hugging Holden. “Take care of yourself, okay? It was hard seeing your sisters go on this journey, and it's just as hard seeing my godson go too, even if I know you'll be fine.” After several seconds, Utonium finally decided to let him go. “Sorry about that.”

“It's fine. I'll miss you too.” Holden smiled, before walking away from the lab. He took one last look back and waved, before continuing on.

The Professor suddenly remembered that Alice was still there and returned his attention to her, wiping away a tear that had managed to find its way under his eye. “So, what do you plan on doing, Alice?”

“I'm not sure, actually. I was thinking I'd just head back home.” Alice admitted.

“Well, you came here on a bus that isn't going to coming back for a few more days...” the Professor realized, before getting an idea. “Holden's probably going to be heading to Lavender Town at some point. You could travel with him for a bit.”

Alice thought about the idea for a moment, realizing that there really wasn't much else she could do. She walked away from the lab and tried to increase her pace so she could catch up to Holden.

Chapter One: Here and Back Again


Holden and Alice had been walking for a while and were about halfway through Route 1. So far, the walk had been very uneventful. There was nobody else walking down the path, and even though they walked through a bit of tall grass, no Pokemon had appeared to challenge them. As if that wasn't uneventful enough, the two trainers hadn't said a word to each other since Alice asked to join Holden, making the trip to Viridian City not just boring, but awkward as well.

Holden and Alice had only met each other twice before, the first time when Muriel had went to visit the Professor with Alice and Holden just happened to be at the lab that day, and the second time on a random Christmas. Not to mention both of those occasions were years ago. To say the two trainers were acquaintances would be a bit of an overstatement. They were practically strangers, but if they were going to travel around Kanto without this aura of awkward silence, one of them would have to say something eventually.

“So...” Holden finally spoke, breaking the silence. “Uh... Wonderful weather we're having, right?” He mentally facepalmed for coming up with the most overused conversation starter ever.

“Yeah.” Alice agreed, though didn't say anything else, making the situation seem worse than before.

Holden didn't say anything else either, and neither of them said another word until they reached Viridian City. They didn't have a need to heal their Pokemon since they hadn't encountered anything on the way there, so they passed the Pokemon Center and were about to pass the Poke Mart when they heard a voice nearby.

“Why do you back sass Rolf, employee Plank? Answer when your boss speaks to you!” The two turned toward the Poke Mart owner, who was scolding a... piece of wood? “Do you wish to have your compensation or not?” Holden and Alice walked toward the seemingly crazy son of a shepherd, who noticed them.

“Oh. Hello Boy-Holden and Total-Stranger-Girl! My apologies for you having to see Rolf go Primeape droppings on his employee.”

“It's... fine.” Holden said, still trying to process Rolf's style of speech. “Uh... He's one of your employees?” He was understandably skeptical.

“Temporarily.” Rolf explained. “Johnny the wood boy called in sick this morning, but he sent Plank in to duck for cover in his place. However, this wooden board will not follow any of my commands!” The final sentence was said as Rolf made his tone higher and turned his head toward Plank, who simply stayed in place silently.

“So... He brought 'Plank' here?” Alice asked, as confused as Holden was.

“No. Plank came here on his own... Apparently so he could slack off here all da-” Rolf was about to rant some more, when he looked over and saw that Plank had somehow vanished. “THERE IS ONLY SO MUCH ROOM IN THIS WORLD FOR SLACKERS, YOU LAZY PIECE OF WOOD!” the son of a shepherd shouted loudly, attracting some unnerved looks from several people nearby.

After a few seconds of silence, Holden spoke again. “Do you have anyone else to help you?”

“No. Just Rolf. Rolf could call in his family to help him, but Rolf doesn't think that his kin of lookalikes would be able to get here today. Luckily, this son of a shepherd can manage the shop on his own, but there is a delivery that was supposed to be made to Utonium the Pokemon Professor today... And Rolf cannot be in two places at once, despite the rumors.”

After thinking for a moment, Holden decided to help. “I could take him the package for you, if you want.”

“Are you certain? You just came back from the Pallet Town, did you not?” Rolf seemed hesitant to ask a customer for help.

“Yeah, but I wouldn't mind going back one more time.” Holden wasn't too enthusiastic about walking to Pallet Town and back for the second time that day, but Rolf seemed like he needed the help.

“At least let me compensate you for your efforts, Boy-Holden.” Rolf decided that he didn't have much of a choice. It was either let the boy help or tarnish his policy of always delivering on time. “I will give you Johnny the wood boy's pay for the day.” Holden was about to protest, before the son of a shepherd insisted “Worry not. I will compensate him as well, provided he decides to show me his head tomorrow...” he said in a tone that seemed to imply some doubts of that possibility.

“Okay.” Holden gave in, deciding he might need some extra money anyway. Rolf handed Holden a medium-sized package, which probably wouldn't be too much trouble to carry. Holden and Alice then began to walk away, when the former realized that the latter was still following him. “You don't have to come with me.” Holden said. “You could go stay with my sisters until I get back, if you want.”

“No, it's fine. I don't mind.” Alice responded. The sisters were probably busy anyway, and besides, she would have rather had to deal with one person she barely knew than three. So the two began the walk back to Pallet Town.

The walk didn't manage to be any less awkward than the first time, with neither trainer saying a word for a while. They jumped down most of the ledges on the way, though at one point Holden's foot got caught on a random rock and he fell onto the ground below.

“Are you alright?” Alice asked, understandably concerned as she jumped down after the boy.

“Yeah...” Holden was glad that he managed to hold the package in front of him rather than accidentally crush it on his way down. It seemed to be unharmed. “I hope the Professor didn't order anything too expensive.” he decided to try and make a joke since he wasn't severely injured.

Alice smiled, glad that Holden wasn't too hurt, and held out a hand to help him up, which he accepted. “Just watch where you step next time.”

The rest of the walk was uneventful, since, once again, no Pokemon were in the tall grass the duo walked through. Eventually, they were back in Pallet Town, and they headed to Utonium's lab. They knocked on the door, and shortly afterward, the Professor answered.

“What are you two doing here? I would have thought you would be in Viridian Forest by now.” Utonium asked, clearly surprised to see them back so soon.

“We thought we'd bring this package from the Poke Mart to you, since Rolfs only employee had to take the day off.” Holden explained.

“Oh. Well, thank you. It's unfortunate you had to do that for him, but actually, there was something I was going to try and contact you both about that would be a lot simpler to discuss in person.” the Professor remembered. As Holden was about to ask him what he meant by that, a voice was heard in the Lab.

“Gee, Professor! You sure do have a lot of Pokemon back there!” Johnny said as he appeared behind Utonium with Plank. He saw Holden and Alice. “Hey there! What's that Plank?” he apparently heard his friend say something. After a few seconds, Johnny got a worried look on his face, before he realized Holden and Alice seemingly peeved at him, as well as a mildly familiar package the former was carrying. “Um... I've gotta run, Prof! I just remembered me and Plank were gonna go get haircuts today. See ya!”He quickly ran out the front door and away from the lab.

“What do you think that was about...?” The Professor wondered, oblivious to the fact that Johnny was the employee Holden had referred to earlier.

Holden considered saying something, but Alice spoke up before he did. “You said there was something you wanted to talk about?”

“Oh, right! Please come inside.” Holden and Alice went with Utonium to the back of the lab, where they had first picked their starter Pokemon. “As I mentioned last time you two were here, there are an astounding amount of Pokemon that have been discovered, and likely many more that we don't know about yet. There was a device that was made to try to count all of them and describe them in a sort of digital encyclopedia. Many Pokemon Professors have worked on it over the years, but Oak was the original creator.” The Professor proceeded to pick up a device from a desk, which Alice recognized as the same one he was working on earlier that day.

“Isn't that a Pokedex?” Alice identified the device.

“Yes. It'll automatically record various data on any Pokemon you'll find. Of course, it can give you data on creatures that have already been discovered, but its main purpose is to categorize new ones that you may find on your travels.” Utonium explained.

“Will we discover any new Pokemon?” Holden asked as he set down the package.

“That I can't say. Just about every corner of Kanto has been explored, so one would assume that we've discovered all that are in this region, but there's a chance there could be more, like the ones that have been recently discovered in other regions. In any case, I'm going to give one of these to each of you.”Utonium handed two Pokedexes, one red and the other blue, to them. Holden took the red one, while Alice took the blue one.

“What was in the package, by the way?” Holden asked the Professor.

“Oh. It's actually a few dozen Poke Balls.” Utonium opened the box, revealing the red and white orbs. “I suppose I don't really need this many... I'll give you each a few, just in case either of you find a Pokemon you think would be worth catching.” He took out ten, and give both trainers five Poke Balls. “By the way, speaking of Pokemon, how are yours' doing?” Utonium asked the two trainers.

“I'm... not sure, actually. I haven't taken Bulbasaur out of his Poke Ball since our battle.” Holden said, while Alice nodded to indicate that Charmander hadn't been let out since then either.

Uronium sighed. “You aren't going to bond with your Pokemon very well if they're cooped up all day.”

“Sorry. I guess we didn't think about that.” Holden apologized.

“Don't worry. It's a common mistake for trainers to make at first.” the Professor admitted. “Just make sure you spend more time with them from now on.”

“Maybe we can start right now.” Alice smiled as she took Charmander's Poke Ball out. Utonium nodded, indicating it was a good idea, before the girl released her Pokemon from its container.

“Charmander!” the Fire Pokemon said its name out loud, before looking around and wondering why his trainer had summoned him. There didn't seem to be any Pokemon to fight, and the girl seemed fine. She was even smiling.

“Hi, Charmander. I'm Alice, your Pokemon trainer. I guess you might have already known that...” the girl introduced herself.

“Charmander.” her Pokemon pointed to himself, presumably introducing himself as well. They stared at each other for a few moments, Alice not knowing what else to say, and Charmander clearing his throat.

Holden then let out Bulbasaur, who was similarly confused as to why he was let out of his Poke Ball. “Hey, Bulbasaur. I'm Holden. I'll be your trainer. If there's anything you need, just say something. Well, I guess I won't be able to understand you, but-”

“Char!” Holden was interrupted by Charmander tackling Bulbasaur to the ground.

“Bulba?!?” Bulbasaur tried to fight back by flipping over and putting Charmander on his back.

“Charmander, stop!” Alice tried to get her Pokemon under control, but neither trainer was able to stop the two creatures from engulfing themselves in a dust cloud. Panicking, both trainers quickly took out their Poke Balls and red lights appeared from them, glowing over their Pokemon before returning them to their respective devices.

“...Well...” Utonium said. “Bonding with your Pokemon might not be so difficult, but getting Bulbasaur and Charmander to bond enough to not fight each other on sight might be a bigger problem.” the Professor laughed awkwardly while Holden and Alice worriedly looked at each other.

“They'll get used to each other, I'm sure.” Holden said in a tone that indicated he wasn't so sure he was right.

“In the meantime, maybe we should keep them away from each other...” Alice suggested.

Holden nodded in agreement, before turning to Utonium. “We should probably head back to Viridian City.”

“Alright. Maybe you two ought to see if you can catch some Pokemon on the way?” the Professor suggested. “In any case, I hope you two enjoy your journey, and don't run into any more problems.”

“We won't. Don't worry, we'll be fine.” Holden insisted as he and Alice walked back out the front door and away from Pallet Town once again.

Utonium sighed. “I hope so...” He knew that Holden and Alice were stronger than they looked, but he couldn't help but feel worried. He tried to convince himself that it was just the fact that his godson was growing up, and while he was proud of him for doing so, he would obviously miss him. But he couldn't help but be bothered by memories that he felt were coming back to haunt him...

Chapter Two: When in Doubt, Ad Lib


“Did you hear that?” Alice asked as she and Holden were walking through the tall grass just outside of Pallet Town.

“Hear what?” Holden asked, apparently oblivious to the noise that the girl heard, until the noise came back again, but louder. “...That?” the boy asked, and Alice nodded in response. “Sounds like a Pokemon.” Holden reached for Bulbasaur's Poke Ball. “You don't mind if I catch it, do you?”

“No. It's all yours.” Alice answered, and Holden got ready to call out his Pokemon.

“Okay. Maybe it'll be good practice for you to watch a battle against a wild Pokemon.” The boy took a few steps closer to the noise, which was accompanied by the grass in its vicinity moving a bit. “Remember, you should always be aware of your surroundings.”

“Pidgey!” said the voice of a different Pokemon who seemed to appear out of nowhere and latched itself onto Holden's head.

“What the-?!?” Holden lost any stealth he may have had as he took several steps backward and tried to get the bird Pokemon off his head. “Hey! Get off!” He ended up stepping back over a rock and falling backwards, still trying to get Pidgey off him.

Alice ran after him, trying to figure out what to do. “Do you need any help?” she asked, not sure if she could help even if he needed it.

“No... I've got him. You get the other Pokemon, and I'll take this one!” Holden managed to say as he struggled to fight off the bird.

“Um... Okay.” Alice said nervously, not sure if she had the ability to fight off a Pokemon, but not having much of a choice.

Holden finally managed to get Pidgey off and noticed that he recognized him. “Wait... You're that same Pidgey that attacked me earlier!” Pidgey nodded. “Pidgey!” it responded, as if to taunt the Pokemon trainer. The boy threw his Poke Ball, letting Bulbasaur out. “Bulbasaur!” it said as it came out. Pidgey shifted his focus from Holden to Bulbasaur, and the two Pokemon got into fighting stances.

“Bulbasaur, use Tackle!” The Grass Pokemon obeyed his trainer's command and charged at the bird Pokemon, knocking it back a few feet. Pidgey countered by flying into the air a foot or two above the ground and using his wings to create a gust that sent some of the topsoil straight into Bulbasaur's eyes. “Are you alright?” Holden asked as Bulbasaur took a few steps back and tried to shake the sand out of his eyes. Pidgey took this opportunity to deliver a Tackle of his own, sending the plant Pokemon back further.

Meanwhile, Alice took out Charmander's Poke Ball, preparing herself to summon him while trying to find the source of the movement in the grass. She quickly spotted a purple tail moving along with the Pokemon that it belonged too. The girl threw the Poke Ball and out came the Fire Pokemon.

“Charmander. I need you to fight off that Pokemon, okay?” Alice tried her best to command him.

“Char!” Charmander was eager to prove himself, and quickly dashed forward, accidentally crashing straight into the wild Pokemon, who happened to be a Rattata. After falling backwards and being dazed for a moment, the lizard Pokemon quickly returned to his feet, as did the confused-looking Rattata.

“Charmander, try-” Alice was interrupted by Rattata using Quick Attack to slam into Charmander, who managed to keep his footing. Alice finished her sentence. “Try scratching him!” The Fire Pokemon used his claws to swipe at the rat Pokemon, who recoiled in pain, but quickly recovered and charged at Charmander with a Tackle.

“Charmander, dodge the attack!” Alice's Pokemon wasn't sure if 'dodge' was an actual attack, but it sounded like a good idea, so he did so, jumping to the right and causing Rattata to grind to a halt in confusion. “Good! Now... uh... punch him!”

The girl was obviously ad libbing, though Charmander seemed to be enjoying this strategy. He tapped on Rattata's shoulder, causing the rat Pokemon to look in his direction, before winding up for a punch. “Charman...DER!” The Fire Pokemon unleashed a punch that sent the Normal Pokemon flying backwards.

Bulbasaur seemed to be having some problems, due to his type disadvantage against Pidgey, but Holden noticed that Alice's battle was going very well for her, thanks to her strategy. “It's good to improvise.” Holden echoed the words of his godfather from earlier. Pidgey, thinking he had Bulbasaur right where he wanted him, charged straight for the Grass Pokemon. “Bulbasaur, turn around and kick him with your back legs!”

Bulbasaur obeyed his trainer and turned around. Pidgey heard Holden's words, but was flying forward too fast, and was unable to stop himself from being kicked very hard by the plant Pokemon, and hitting the ground just as hard.

Thinking quickly, Holden pulled out a Poke Ball and tossed it at Pidgey. “Poke Ball! Go!” he shouted in a somewhat cheesy fashion. The device landed on the bird Pokemon and pulled it inside as it was built to.

“Oh, right.” Alice pulled out a Poke Ball of her own and threw it at Rattata, who had metaphorical stars flying above his head.

After several seconds of the Pokemon trying to break free, causing the devices to shake a bit, they finally became motionless, signifying that the creatures were now theirs to train.

Holden picked up Pidgey's Poke Ball and held it up in the air. “Yeah! I caught a Pidgey!” He looked over to find Alice and Bulbasaur struggling to contain laughter, while Charmander was much less subtle and outright fell backwards onto the ground while laughing. Holden made a mental note to himself to vocalize his victories in different, less Anime-sounding ways in the future.

Alice picked up Rattata's Poke Ball, before looking at Charmander. “You did a great job.” She praised her Pokemon, who proudly fist pumped in celebration.

“You did great too, Bulbasaur.” Holden said, with Bulbasaur nodding and saying “Bulba!” in a 'thank you' tone.

“That wasn't too bad.” Alice noted. “I thought Pokemon battling would be a lot harder, but it's actually pretty fun.”

“Yeah. And that was just your first battle. Imagine what you'll accomplish when you get farther on your journey.” Holden sounded fairly calm, though he couldn't help but show a hint of excitement and happiness that his dream of being a Pokemon trainer was becoming a reality. Holden lifted his hand to give Alice a high-five.

It took Alice a moment to figure out what he was doing. “Um... Oh!” The two young trainers high-fived, before they returned to the situation at hand. “We should head back to Viridian City.”

“Yeah, let's-” Holden was interrupted by the sound of Charmander growling in his direction. “Is something wrong, Cha-” The boy was interrupted again by an Ember flying out of Charmander's mouth and heading straight for him.

“Charmander! What are you-?!?” Alice managed to say, before she too was interrupted by Bulbasaur angrily tackling the lizard Pokemon. Holden was hit on the shoulder by the flame, but fortunately, his shirt's sleeve protected him from being burned. Unfortunately, it set that part of his shirt on fire. Holden and Alice both panicked, and the latter managed to quickly pull a water battle out of her backpack and poured its contents onto the flames, which luckily extinguished the fire.

Bulbasaur and Charmander were still fighting, but Holden and Alice quickly returned them to their respective Poke Balls before they were able to do any serious harm to each other.

“Sorry... I...” Alice started to say.

“Don't be. Getting water dumped on me is better than getting third-degree burns any day.” Holden tried to make light of the situation, not wanting Alice to know that he was actually a bit shaken up.

Alice sighed and looked away from Holden at nothing in particular. “I'm not sure I can do this. If I can't control Charmander...”

“Hey, come on.” Holden tried to make her feel better. “You and Charmander did a great job in a battle just now. He just... needs to learn a little self-control.”

“But can I teach him? I mean, what if he hurts someone? I wouldn't forgive myself if...” Alice didn't finish the sentence, trying not to think about what could happen if she didn't train him well enough.

Holden wasn't sure if anything he could say would help the situation, so tried to change the subject to something more pleasant. “You know, my sisters haven't seen you in years. I'm sure they'd like a visit, and I doubt they'd mind if we stayed for dinner.”

Alice thought about it for a moment. “Well... Okay. I am getting kind of hungry anyway.” Holden and Alice both smiled and began to head to Viridian City. A few seconds later, Alice suddenly had a question pop up in her mind, which she decided to ask. “So, that fireball Charmander shot at you from his mouth... How did he do that?”

Chapter Three: Tour of the City


“I think I understand...” Alice said after a long explanation from Holden that lasted about half the way to Viridian City. “So... Grass beats Water, Water beats Fire, and Fire beats Grass.” Holden nodded to indicate she was right so far. “Fighting beats Dark, Dark beats Psychic, and Psychic beats Fighting. Normal can't hurt Ghost, and Ghost can't hurt Normal. Grass, Fire, and Water are all weak against Dragon. And...” The girl thought for a moment, trying to remember the last thing Holden had mentioned. “Dark doesn't affect Psychic?”

“Close.” Holden corrected her. “It's the other way around with that last one, but everything else you got right. You're learning fast.”

“Well, my mom taught me a bit, but that was when I was younger, and I don't remember a lot of it. I remember part of a mildly annoying type song, though.”

“Oh, no...” Holden said half-jokingly with a laugh. “The Type Song? I've had that stuck in my head for years.”

“Weird that I can remember the tune of the song, but not many of the actual words...” Alice noted, before noticing that they were now walking on solid concrete. “Looks like we're here.” she said as they walked into Viridian City. The duo headed to the Poke Mart to inform Rolf that the package had made it to its destination.

“Thank you both for your efforts. Rolf owes you both a large amount of watches! Unfortunately, all he can give you is Johnny the Wood Boy's payment, or rather, the payment that would have been his IF HE HAD SHOWN UP TODAY!” Rolf started to shout in a random direction, seemingly expecting Johnny to hear him. “In any case, here you go.” The son of a shepherd handed Holden and Alice about $100 each, which wasn't much (Inflation is a big problem in the Pokemon world) but it'd probably buy them a meal or two later on. “Have a nice day, and don't hesitate to buy supplies from Rolf if you need them.”

“Thanks. We'll be back if we need anything.” Holden said as he and Alice walked away. They headed to the Pokemon Center next, due to the earlier fight likely hurting their starters, as well as their newly caught Pokemon.

“I've only been in one of these a couple times.” Alice commented. “Pokemon Centers are like hospitals for Pokemon, right?”

“Yeah. The nurse is... interesting.” Holden mentioned. Alice was about to ask what he meant by that, when they entered.

“Why in Arceus' name would you wait until all of your Pokemon have fainted before bringing them here, you idiot?!?” said the voice of the nurse at the counter.

“It's not like I did it on purpose. I was on my way back when a bunch of Spearow attacked.” explained the girl who had arrived a short time before Holden and Alice.

“Yeah... Creative. It feels like you're here almost every day, you know that?” the nurse complained

“Hey, you should be happy I'm here so often. I'm like your number one customer.” the girl countered.

“Why should I be happy about Pokemon getting injured because their trainer is too reckless to know when to use a potion?” The nurse's Chansey was busy inspecting a machine that had the girl's Pokemon in it, but couldn't help but listen in on the conversation.

“Because you get compensated for every Pokemon you have to treat, don't you?” The argument continued while Holden, Alice, and a few other random trainers just stood there awkwardly, not sure what to do. After a few more exchanges, the girl's Pokemon were healed.

“Thank you. Your Pokemon have been healed. We hope to see you again.” Nurse Kyra managed to force herself to say.

Roxie took her Pokemon back. “Thank you, too...” she said, before adding an additional word under her breath.

“I heard that!” Kyra said angrily. Holden and Alice weren't close enough to hear what Roxie may have said, but it must have been a... colorful word for her to react like that. Roxie stormed out of the building while Kyra grumbled to herself.

Holden stepped up to the counter with Alice behind him. “...Uh... Hi.” the former said, a little worried she'd snap at him too.

“Don't worry. I only bite idiots.” Kyra said a bit sarcastically. “May I see your Pokemon?” Holden took out the two devices that were holding his Pokemon and put them on the counter. She handed them to her Chansey, who happily put the Poke Balls inside the machine from earlier, which created a screen that showed Holden's Pokemon. “Hmm... I'm guessing you're a new trainer?” she asked.

“Yeah... How did you know?” Holden was curious.

“Well, Utonium generally has Bulbasaurs as one of his options for new trainers, and Pidgeys are very common from Pallet Town to here... Hey, aren't you his son, or something?” Kyra noticed that the boy looked a bit familiar.

“Well... I'm his godson. Kind of the same thing, I guess, if you look at it a certain way.” Holden explained. A few seconds went by without anything being said, before a jingle was heard.

“Looks like your Pokemon are healed. Glad to see at least someone knows not to wait until the last minute to get their Pokemon here...” Kyra stopped herself from complaining about Roxie some more, and handed the Poke Balls back to Holden. “Have a nice day.”

“Thanks. You too.” Holden said as he took a few steps back and let Alice step up to the counter.

Alice wordlessly put the capsules containing her Pokemon on the counter, which, like the Pokemon before them, were put into the machine.

Kyra saw the girl's Pokemon on the screen, and made the same observation with Alice that she made with Holden. “New trainer?”

Alice nodded, looking at the machine a bit nervously. “...What does that do?”

“Oh. It's a machine that heals the Pokemon inside it. Don't worry, it's harmless.” Kyra insisted. A few moments later, the machine made a positive-sounding noise. The nurse handed the Poke Balls back to Alice. “Have a nice day.” Kyra said.

“Thanks.” Alice walked away from the counter and she and Holden headed out of the Pokemon Center.

“We should head to my house. My sisters are probably still working, but they won't mind us being there.” Holden suggested. Alice nodded to indicate she'd follow him. After a bit more walking, the duo arrived at Viridian's Pokemon Gym, and headed to the back of the building, which was where the 'home' part of the gym was. They entered that area of the building.

Buttercup was in the front room, not doing anything of interest and looking bored before she saw Holden and Alice walk in. “Hey, Holden. We thought you decided to leave without saying goodbye.”

“It hasn't been that long, has it?” Holden asked.

“It's almost like 3 P.M, bro. When did you get a girlfriend, by the way?” The second half of Buttercup's sentence was just to bother her brother.

Holden was about to ask how it was so late already, when he facepalmed at the rest of what Buttercup said. “...She's not my girlfriend. This is only like the third time I've met her...” His sister chuckled a bit, causing the boy to clarify further. “...And the only time I've actually spent more than a few minutes with her. Don't you remember Alice?”

Buttercup stood up and looked at Alice, who just waved awkwardly. “Hmm... Oh! You're Muriel's kid, aren't you?” Alice nodded, before Buttercup continued. “Haven't seen you since... uh... Christmas a year or two ago right?”

“It was actually four or five years ago, I think.” Alice corrected her.

“Meh. Christmases all seem the same after you get older.” Buttercup said.

A few awkward seconds passed, before Alice decided to continue the conversation. “I'm a Pokemon trainer now.”

“I figured. You have a couple of Poke Balls on your belt.” Buttercup noted.

“Oh... Right...” Alice mentally kicked herself for not realizing how obvious it was.

After a few more awkward seconds, Holden tried to break the silence. “So... Where are Blossom and Bubbles?”

“Still in the Gym, waiting for challengers. I gave up like two hours ago, but they wanted to make sure. It's a shame we haven't had any challengers get to us for months...” Buttercup sighed. Sometimes she hated that she and her sisters were the eighth and final gym on the circuit, since that meant a lot of potential challengers gave up before they could get to their gym. “But hey. At least we'll have two new challengers to fight sometime soon, right?”

“You bet!” Holden answered.

“Uh... Probably.” Alice answered a bit less enthusiastically.

“What do you mean, 'probably'?” Buttercup was confused.

“Well... I wasn't really planning on fighting Gym leaders.” Alice admitted.

“Come on! It's fun. You get to travel the region, beat big name trainers, get special offers at Poke Marts, and do a bunch of other cool stuff.” Buttercup explained. “Why wouldn't you want to do it?”

“Well...” Alice was about to explain, before Blossom and Bubbles walked into the room.

“Holden! You're home!” Bubbles immediately ran up to Holden and hugged him a bit too hard, nearly crushing him in the process.

“I'm happy to see you too... but could you please hug a bit softer?” Holden managed to say, causing Bubbles to release her grip on him a bit.

Blossom smiled and waved at her brother, before she looked over and saw Alice. “...Alice?”

“Oh. Uh... Hi.” Alice responded, not expecting the sister in red to remember her so easily.

“Nice to see you again. How have you been?” Blossom asked.

“Good, I guess.” Alice couldn't think of much else to say.

“Which starter Pokemon did you get?” Blossom asked another question.

“Charmander... How did you know I chose a starter Pokemon?” Alice didn't know Blossom knew about her getting a Pokemon.

“Oh... I...” Blossom seemed caught off-guard, but managed to continue. “...The Professor told me about it earlier.”

“Okay...” Alice wasn't sure what made her so nervous about a simple answer, but figured she was probably misinterpreting her tone. After all, she herself paused in the middle of her sentences often.

“Anyone up for pizza? Holden's buying.” Buttercup insisted in a joking manner.

“Well, since you insist on naming volunteers, maybe you can pay for it?” Bubbles finally let go of Holden and stuck her tongue out at her sister in green.

“Or, we can have Red pay for it, what with her being the Gym leader and all.” Buttercup suggested.

“Or all three of us can pitch in, considering pizza does sound pretty good.” said Blossom.

“I wouldn't mind helping pay. I have a bit of extra money.” Holden said, remembering the money he got from Rolf.

“I can pay too.” Alice offered.

“Don't be silly.” Blossom insisted. “Holden, you probably have better things to spend that money on, and Alice, same to you, plus you're a guest.”

A few minutes later, Blossom was ordering pizza on a phone, while the others were sitting in the living room watching some kind of cartoon with two Pichu siblings on it, which prompted Holden to remember he had Pokemon of his own. “Oh! I haven't shown you guys Bulbasaur or Pidgey yet.”

“That's right! How are they? Are they adorable?” Bubbles asked.

“Why ask when he can just show us?” Buttercup noted.

Holden took the Poke Balls off his belt and summoned both of his companions, who stood on the ground looking around. “Here they are. This is Bulbasaur, and that's-”

“Pidgey!” The boy was interrupted by the bird Pokemon flying straight for his head and repeatedly pecking him.

“Ow! Hey, I'm your new trainer, remember?!?” Holden was confused at his new Pokemon's behavior.

“Bulba!” Bulbasaur seemingly yelled at Pidgey, who stopped attacking his trainer and looked at the Grass Pokemon.

“Pidgey.” the Flying Pokemon responded.

“Bulba, Bulbasaur!” the Grass Pokemon said some kind of comeback.

The two Pokemon continued shouting at each other using their unique speech, before the plant creature said something that caused the bird's jaw to nearly drop to the floor. “Bulbasaur!”

“...Pidgey?” the bird Pokemon asked.

“Bul-Ba-Saur.” the plant emphasized its gibberish. There was a bit of an awkward silence, with the humans unaware of what exactly Bulbasaur may have said to cause such a shocked expression to appear on Pidgey's face.

“Uh... Alice. Maybe you should let Charmander and Rattata out?” Holden suggested.

“Are you sure?” Alice asked, a bit worried.

“Don't worry. It's not like he'll burn the house down.” Holden tried to reassure her, but immediately regretted his choice of words. “I mean... he won't... er... flood the house.”

Alice sighed and took the Poke Balls off her belt, and started to take a few steps away. She tried to put some distance between where Charmander would be summoned and where Bulbasaur currently was.

“Everything alright?” Bubbles asked, a bit concerned.

“...Yeah. This is just in case...” Alice didn't finish her sentence, but summoned both her Pokemon. “Hi guys.”

“Rattata.” The purple rat Pokemon seemed pretty happy for having just been captured by a total stranger.

“Sorry about... you know, catching you. I'll try to be a good trainer.” Alice apologized and assured the Pokemon.

“Ratta!” Rattata seemed enthusiastic.

“Great! Now, Charmander...” The girl started to say, before panicking as she realized Charmander wasn't next to Rattata anymore. Instead, the Pokemon seemed to be taking a few steps toward Bulbasaur and the others. “Charmander, stop right there!”

Charmander stopped in his tracks and looked back at his trainer, confused as to why she might be yelling at him. “Char?”

“I'm sorry for yelling...” She calmed her voice down. “But you can't keep attacking Bulbasaur, or anyone else. I mean... Of course you'll still fight some other Pokemon, but...” Alice sighed, trying to think of a better way to explain. “Only attack Pokemon I tell you to from now on, alright?”

“Charmander.” the Pokemon responded in a positive tone.

“Alright.” Alice got on her knees and put her hand within reach for a high five, which Charmander gladly returned.

“Pizza's going to be here in about a half an hour.” Blossom said as she walked into the room, inadvertently ruining a moment. “Did I miss anything?”

Chapter Four: Pokemon Trainer Trainer


A few minutes passed with a bit of conversation, though most of it was between Holden and his sisters. Alice was focused on Charmander, who had listened to her earlier and was now sitting quietly next to Rattata. Bulbasaur was sitting a few feet away, while Pidgey was perched on top of a bookcase, still apparently shaken by whatever Bulbasaur had said to him before. She took a closer look at the shelves on the aforementioned bookcase and noticed that nearly all of them were about Pokemon, which was unsurprising, given that Blossom was a Gym leader.

“You can read one, if you want.” Blossom offered, noticing that Alice seemed curious about the books.

“Are you sure?” Alice asked, not sure if it was polite to read someone's books less than twenty minutes after getting invited inside their house.

“Of course. It would be nice if someone besides me actually read them.” the Gym leader insisted, turning her head to her siblings during the last half of her sentence.

“In my defense, I don't need to read books when I already know everything important about Pokemon.” Buttercup said confidently.

“Really? What's the dual-type of Voltorb's second evolution?” the sister in red asked.

Buttercup thought for a moment. “Uh... Electric-Steel, obviously!” She said with a grin.

“I thought Voltorb only had one evolution...” Bubbles said, confused.

“It does.” Blossom said.

“...That's not fair. That was a trick question!” the sister in green complained.

“But it was an important question.” Blossom added.

“What's important about knowing the evolved form of a Pokemon I don't even have?” Buttercup asked in an irritated tone.

Blossom and Buttercup started arguing about the subject, while Holden and Bubbles sat there awkwardly and Alice was focused on the book she had picked off the bookshelf and didn't seem to notice.

“...Um... Holden, maybe this is a good time to give you that gift I got you.” Bubbles remembered.

“Yeah.” Holden agreed, before realizing he didn't know what she was talking about. “Wait, you got me a gift?”

“It's up in my room. Let's go up and get it while those two finish their argument.” Bubbles said excitedly, before heading out of the living room with Holden following her.

Bulbasaur looked over at Charmander, who was now apparently talking to Rattata about something. The plant Pokemon walked over to the lizard Pokemon, who was surprised to see him get so close.

“...Char.” Charmander said awkwardly, not really sure what to say.

“Bulba. Bulbasaur.” Bulbasaur responded.

“Char?” Charmander asked.

“Bulb.” Bulbasaur said with a smile, before reaching one of his front legs out for a handshake.

Charmander hesitated for a moment, before accepting the handshake with a smile of his own.

Once Holden and Bubbles reached the room, the latter started looking through one of the drawers in her dresser, before she pulled out an orange watch. “I thought it would be nice to know what time it is when you're out there traveling.

“It looks great. Thanks, Bubbles.” Holden said as the sister in blue handed him the watch. He knew that his Pokedex already had the ability to tell time, but wasn't about to turn down a gift from Bubbles. Besides, it was the thought that counted.

Bubbles suddenly wrapped her arms around Holden in a hug.“Just promise me that you'll take care of yourself. I wouldn't want anything to happen to you.”

“Come on, Bubbles. You know nothing bad's going to happen to me. Nothing bad ever happened to you, Blossom, or Buttercup when you went on your journeys, right?” Holden tried to reassure her.

After a moment of silence, Bubbles continued. “You're right. I shouldn't be worried. Maybe that's not even it, maybe it's just because I'll miss you.”

“I'll miss you too.” Holden said, before the doorbell rang.

“...Well, that killed the moment...” Bubbles commented.

Meanwhile, back in the living room, Buttercup went to answer the door and found the pizza delivery guy waiting on her doorstep. “That'll be, uh...” he started to say, before double checking the receipt. “a hundred and three dollars and sixty-four cents.”

“Alright.” Buttercup said, before handing him a hundred dollars. “Hey, Red! I need four more dollars.” she told Blossom.

“You mean more like twenty dollars?” Blossom asked as she walked to the front door. After Buttercup gave a confused look, she elaborated. “Taxes, remember? Not to mention the tip.” After the money was given to the pizza delivery guy, Blossom grabbed the pizzas and walked back inside.

“Have a nice day, Gym leader and... uh... assistant.” the delivery guy said.

“Yeah. You too, what's your face.” Buttercup seemed annoyed at being called an assistant.

“My name's Chris, actually.” he responded.

“Whatever.” Buttercup shut the door and walked inside, ready to eat, while Chris went back to his Dragonite that had brought him there and flew off.

Alice was still reading the book, but put it back on the bookshelf when she saw that the pizza had arrived. Holden and Bubbles returned downstairs and met everyone else in the kitchen. Bulbasaur, Charmander, and Rattata went in as well, though Pidgey remained at his perch.

Alice was at first surprised by the amount of pizza that had been ordered. “Ten pizzas for five people?”

“Well, the Professor will be home tonight, and the Pokemon are going to have some too.” Blossom noted.

“...Is that safe?” Alice was confused.

“Of course!” Buttercup said, though Alice wasn't entirely convinced.

“Pokemon can eat 'human' food just fine, though it's best not to give them too much.” the sister in red explained. “Speaking of which...” Blossom took a Poke Ball off her belt and threw it in the air, causing one of her Pokemon to pop out.

“Hitmonchan!” the Fighting Pokemon said excitedly as he appeared.

Alice jumped, not expecting a Pokemon that tall to appear, but quickly got over the surprise. “After being around Charmander and Rattata a while, I forgot Pokemon could be that tall.”

“If you think that's tall, you should see Lee.” Buttercup said, before throwing a Poke Ball of her own and summoning her Hitmonlee.

“Don't forget Hitmontop!” Bubbles said, summoning her Pokemon as well.

After the Fighting trio were out, the sisters summoned the rest of their Pokemon, which included Blossom's Blaziken and Cloyster, Bubbles' Greninja and Ursaring, and Buttercup's Chesnaught and Machamp.

“This isn't even all our Pokemon. These are just the ones we have with us right now.” Buttercup boasted. The Pokemon noticed the smell of pizza, and Hitmonchan grabbed one of the boxes. He set it on one side of the table and opened it, and they were all about to dig in, when Alice noticed something that bothered her.

“...How does he eat?” she pointed at Hitmonlee.

“Hitmonlee.” the Pokemon said, as if the answer was obvious. Buttercup was about to explain, when the doorbell rang again.

“I wonder who that is...” Blossom said sarcastically, though Alice didn't understand why. The sister in red walked to the front door and opened it, unsurprised when she found out who it was.

“Hey, neighbor.” Roxie said, holding a large bottle of soda in each hand as Blossom answered the door. “Just thought I'd drop by. It's been a while since I've visited.”

“Are you sure there isn't another reason you decided to visit? Like the fact that a pizza delivery Pokemon flew by here a minute ago?” Blossom asked, knowing the real reason Roxie was there.

“You're smart, Blossom. That's why I like you.” Roxie said as she walked into the house. “At least I brought soda this time.”

“At least I bought an extra pizza this time...” Blossom muttered to herself as she shut the door after Roxie was in the kitchen.

Roxie set the soda bottles on a counter, then turned her attention to the people in the room. “Hey Bubbles, Buttercup, Holden... Alice?” She was surprised to see her there.

“Hi Roxie.” Alice waved with a smile while opening one of the pizza boxes.

“Wait, you two know each other?” Holden was confused, since he knew Roxie fairly well and wasn't aware that she even knew Alice existed.

“Yeah. She comes to Lavender Town every now and again.” Alice explained.

“We're second cousins, too. Muriel's my grandma.” Roxie continued the explanation as she grabbed one of the boxes. “So, what brings you here?” she returned her attention to Alice, in addition to opening the box.

“I got my starter Pokemon earlier today from Professor Utonium.” Alice said.

“You didn't tell me you were planning on becoming a Pokemon trainer. Congrats! I could be like your teacher, or something. A fun teacher, of course. I have all the Gym badges, and several Pokemon, and I have a brother who also has all of the Gym badges and teaches classes in Saffron. You couldn't find a better source of information if you tried.” Roxie insisted as she started eating a piece of pizza.

“Well, I am trying to learn as much as I can. What can you tell me?” Alice asked.

Chapter Five: A Short Diversion

Alice stood in front of a cave. She didn't know how or why she was there, but she felt a sense of fear. She didn't quite understand why she was afraid of the cave, but maybe it wasn't the cave itself. Maybe it was what was inside. Then she surprised herself by walking closer. She couldn't stop herself from moving, as if she was being forcibly pulled in to the cave. Before she made it inside, she heard a voice. “Don't be scared.”

Alice sat straight up, alarmed by the voice, but quickly realized that she wasn't standing in front of a dark cave, she was laying on the couch at the Utoniums' home. At her feet were Charmander and Rattata, who were both fast asleep, though Rattata seemed to be drooling a bit. It was just a bizarre nightmare. It was still fairly dark, but Alice didn't know exactly what time it was. She carefully sat up, trying not to wake her Pokemon.

“Char...mander.” the Fire Pokemon said in his sleep, turning onto his side but otherwise not reacting to Alice moving.

Alice took her Pokedex out of her bag and turned it on. The clock built into it told her that it was a little after five in the morning. She figured that there wasn't much of a point in going back to sleep when there was almost daylight, but at the same time she didn't want to wake up anyone else. She realized that she had hardly used her Pokedex, and it wasn't likely to wake anyone up, so she decided to test out the most obvious function: The Pokemon database.

However, once she opened the application, she found it was empty. She remembered that she hadn't actually put any of her Pokemon in the database yet, so she decided she might as well start now. She pointed the Pokedex's scanner at Charmander, and pressed a button. “Charmander. The lizard Poke-” The girl quickly turned off the device due to how surprisingly loud the voice was, but her two Pokemon didn't seem to hear it, so she breathed a sigh of relief. She then turned it back on, this time turning the sound off, and tried again. A few minutes later, Alice was surprised to hear footsteps coming down the stairs, and the source of the noise seemed to be surprised to see her.

“Alice? Why are you up so early?” Blossom asked.

“I... couldn't sleep.” Alice responded, feeling the nightmare wasn't important enough to mention. “Why are you up?”

“This is my usual wake-up time. You never know how early a challenger will show up... Assuming one ever comes.” Blossom explained. Alice nodded, not sure what else to add to the conversation, before the Gym leader spoke a bit more. “When were you and Holden supposed to meet Roxie?”

“We didn't set an exact time. We'll head over in a few hours, probably.” The night before, Roxie had mentioned that she had to head to Pewter City the next day. Coincidentally, that was where Holden and Alice were heading next, so they decided that it would be fun to travel together, if only for a few hours.

“So, have you decided if you're going to try going through the Gym circuit yet?” Blossom asked.

“I'm not sure... It seems like it'd be hard, and I don't think I'm that good of a trainer.” Alice said.

“You've only been a Pokemon trainer for one day. It'll get easier as time goes on. I mean, I never thought I'd be a Gym leader. You never know how things will work out.” Blossom insisted.

“Really? Didn't you inherit the Gym?” Alice was confused.

“Well... It's a long story. Let's just say my predecessor was highly controversial, and... ended up in a mess that led to him resigning.” Blossom explained cryptically. “But, he won't be hurting anyone ever again.”

“...Hurting anyone?” Alice was confused about her wording.

“...Uh... Yeah. He wasn't exactly the pinnacle of Pokemon trainers... But that doesn't matter now. Do you have any plans until Holden wakes up?” Blossom changed the subject.

“Aside from looking up Pokemon information online, not really.” Alice admitted.

“Well, if your Pokemon will wake up this early, you're welcome to train with me for a while.”

A few hours later, Holden woke up and walked downstairs with Bulbasaur following, and Pidgey in his Poke Ball. He noticed that Alice wasn't on the couch, but didn't think much of it and went to the kitchen to see if there was any leftover pizza in the fridge. Shortly afterward, Bubbles came downstairs as well and also checked, but noticed there was none left.

“Here. You can have one of the last two pieces, if you want.” Holden insisted, sitting at the dining table with Bulbasaur, who was just finishing off what was formerly the third-last piece of pizza.

“Thanks.” Bubbles said, before taking the piece and both of them sat at the table silently eating for several moments and Bulbasaur stretched his legs.

Holden noticed that his sister looked like she had something on her mind. “Bubbles, is everything alright?”

“Actually, there's something I have to-” Bubbles was interrupted by Blossom and Alice walking in through the back door with Hitmonchan and Charmander following them.

I don't know how you do it. You wake up early every morning and train for two hours nonstop?” Alice seemed a bit exhausted.

“No. I usually train for three or four hours.” Blossom explained, not looking tired at all, as if she had just woken up. “But you did very well, and so did your Pokemon. I wouldn't have expected Charmander to be able to run that fast.”

“Char.” Charmander thanked her for the compliment in an exhausted tone.

“Hitmonchan.” Blossom's Pokemon nudged the Fire Pokemon while saying his name in a 'not bad, kid' tone.

“You trained with Blossom?” Holden asked Alice.

“Yeah. It was difficult, but I guess that means it was good, right?” Alice said in a tone that indicated it was a tough session.

“I'm impressed. Most people who try to train with Blossom die within the first hour.” Buttercup said as she came in from the living room.

“Hilarious.” Blossom said sarcastically, though she didn't seem too annoyed by the remark.”I'm impressed that you're out of your bed without someone having to push you off of it.”

“I figured I should give Holden a proper goodbye, since the squirt would probably miss me too much otherwise.” Buttercup said half-jokingly.

“It's too bad the Professor couldn't see you one last time, but I guess it couldn't be helped.” Bubbles added. Utonium hadn't returned home the night before, though as disappointed as they were, it wasn't surprising to them either.

“I'm ready to go if you are.” Alice told Holden.

“Are you sure? Blossom's training sessions tend to make people sore for a while.” Holden mentioned.

“I've noticed... But I can walk fine, and we want to get to Pewter City sooner rather than later, right?” Alice said.

“Well, I guess I'm ready too then.” Holden said as he stood up, before Bubbles wrapped him in a hug.

“Make sure you wear that watch all the time. Only take it off when you absolutely have to, okay?” Bubbles requested as she let go of him after a few moments.

“Don't worry. I'll act like this watch is permanently attached to my wrist.” Holden promised.

Blossom then walked up to Holden. “Remember everything the Professor and I have taught you. Do your best, but don't feel like you have to be the best. It'll put too much pressure on you.” She then hugged her brother for a few moments.

Next, Buttercup spoke. “Take care of yourself, squirt.” She then turned her attention to Alice. “And you, take care of him too. Feed him, put him to bed, change his diapers...” Alice laughed a bit, and Holden couldn't help but laugh a bit too.

“Even when I'm about to leave for a while, you have to joke at my expense, don't you?” Holden asked jokingly.

“Yeah. It's what I do.” Buttercup said with a smile, before, much to Holden's surprise, giving him a hug. “I'll be here, waiting patiently to have my Pokemon beat the snot out of yours.”

“Don't expect me to go down too easy.” Holden said as the hug ended. After a few minutes of making sure they had all their necessary supplies, he and Alice walked out the door, but not before the former said a couple last sentences. “I'll miss you guys.” the boy said with a smile, before adding “Be ready for a fight when I get back.”

After a short and uneventful walk, the duo made it to Roxie's house. Before they reached the door, however, someone stepped out, looking ready to leave and surprised to see two people in front of the house.

“Oh. Hi Holden. Hi Alice. Didn't expect to see you guys on my doorstep.” Austin said as he saw them.

“We're here to get Roxie. We were planning on going with her to Pewter City.” Holden explained.

“You're waking her up before noon? Brave.” Austin said in a deadpan tone. “If you do manage to wake her up, tell her to be home before midnight this time.”

“Alright...” Holden said in a bit of a confused tone, before Austin noticed something different about him.

“Hey. Glad to see you finally got your starter Pokemon.” Austin told Holden, before turning to Alice. “I didn't know you were planning on becoming a trainer. Congrats to both of you.” He walked past them toward the road, before turning back to face them. “I don't mean to sound like a solicitor here, but I don't get many chances to advertise, so... If either of you end up in Saffron, I teach a class there at the Pokemon Academy. I could put in a good word for you if you decide you want to take a few classes.”

“Thanks. I'll think about it.” Holden said. He didn't think he needed to take any classes, but he didn't want to sound impolite by refusing. Besides, it was probably best to keep his options open.

“I should probably go now. My class starts in a couple hours, and I like to get there early.” Austin mentioned.

“You said it was in Saffron, right? How are you going to get there in time?” Alice was a bit confused.

“Don't worry. I have a friend.” Before Alice could ask what he meant by that, Austin took a Poke Ball of his belt and summoned the creature inside, a Ledian. The teacher then hopped onto his Pokemon, who flew off with the trainer.

After being stunned for a moment, Alice managed to ask Holden a question. “Can Pidgey do that?”

“Not yet, but hopefully some day. And Charmander will too.” Holden explained.

“...What?” Alice was genuinely surprised.

“I'll explain it to you later, but for now, we should probably find Roxie.” Holden suggested.

In her room, Roxie was fast asleep. There was a discarded pizza box on the floor next to her bed, since she had taken an extra pizza home with her the night before. It was fairly peaceful... until she heard knocking at her bedroom door. She let out an annoyed sigh as she opened her eyes, not expecting or wanting to be awake this early. Unfortunately, the knocking continued, and she had no choice but to open the door. “Who died?” Roxie asked in a clearly irritated tone.

“Nobody...” Holden answered.

“Is there some kind of emergency? Is the house on fire?” Roxie asked.

“...Sorry. It's just that we thought you might want to get to Pewter City as soon as possible, and...” Holden tried to explain, before being interrupted.

“Okay. First rule of traveling with me: If you ever wake me up before noon, you die.” Roxie said. “Come back when the little hand on the clock is pointing straight up.”

“But that's a couple hours-” Holden started to say.

“Not my problem. I'm not the one who woke up too early.” Roxie said, she then noticed Alice. “Hey Alice.” she greeted her in a mildly less irritated tone. The door then shut. After an awkward silence, the duo walked back out of the house.

“So... I guess we need to find something to occupy us for a while.” Holden finally said.

Alice had an idea. “You know that function on the Pokedex that lets you put Pokemon data onto it?” About five minutes later, Holden and Alice had scanned all their Pokemon, including each others', and put their data into the devices. “That didn't take very long... Do you have any ideas?”

“Actually, we could head west and pay a visit to the Victory Road gate.” Holden suggested, before realizing Alice may not have known what he was talking about. “It's the entrance to Victory Road, and at the end of that is where trainers who have proven themselves fight the Elite Four.”

“I guess there isn't much else we can do.” Alice said. “How much time will it take?”

“To get there and back, almost a couple hours, so almost as much time as we need.” Holden answered.

“We should probably start walking then.” Alice suggested, before the duo began to head to their destination. It didn't take very long for them to reach Route 22, which would take them to the front gate of Victory Road. The first half or so of the walk was uneventful, to the point where they were wondering if it would have been better to just stay at Roxie's house, but they eventually found something, or rather, someone, that was interesting. A man wearing a straw hat and white robe was sitting by a nearby pond fishing. Holden and Alice were about to walk past when he spoke to them.

“Are you walking to Victory Road?” the man asked.

“Sort of. We don't have all the Gym badges yet... Or any, for that matter.” Holden explained. “But we were going to visit the gate, for the heck of it.”

“It does have a nice view of the area, especially this time of day.” the fishing man noted out loud. “Mind if I join you?”

“Um... Sure.” Holden answered, not quite sure why a stranger would want to travel with them.

After some more walking, they were near the gates, when the stranger asked a question. “Why did you decide to become Pokemon trainers?”

Holden was again confused by the stranger, but tried to answer anyway. “Well, there are a few reasons, but I guess the main reason would be that my family has had a lot of Pokemon trainers in it.”

“Is your family famous?” the man asked curiously.

“You could say that.” Holden said, not feeling the need to give specifics.

“So, you want to become as famous as them, then?” the stranger continued.

“No, actually. I've never really liked attention all that much, let alone being the center of it.” Holden answered. “I'm really no more special than a lot of other trainers, so there would be no reason for me to be famous.”

“And you?” the stranger asked Alice.

“Oh. I'm not very special either. I just started yesterday, and to be honest, I'm not very good.” Alice explained.

“I don't think you're giving yourself enough credit, Alice.” Holden insisted. “I've been studying Pokemon for years, and you hardly know anything about them, but we ended up in a tie during our first battle.”

“Yeah, because the Professor stopped us in the middle.” Alice added. “Not to mention I had a type advantage.”

“But you didn't actually use any Fire attacks, so that didn't make much of a difference.” the boy noted.

“Holden, I'm fine knowing that I'm not experienced. You don't have to argue with me about it.” the girl said.

“I'm not arguing, I'm-” Holden was about to say, before being interrupted by the stranger in the straw hat.

“Clearly this conversation isn't getting either of you very far.” the stranger noted. “Perhaps a battle would help? After all, this is a debate about skills in battle.”

“Probably not.” Alice was doubtful. “All Holden would have to do is lose on purpose, and he could try to prove his point.”

“What if I promise not to lose on purpose? That way, you'll know that if I lose, then you're a lot better than you say you are.” Holden suggested.

“How do I know you won't just do it anyway?” Alice asked.

“I'm not one to try to break promises.” Holden stated.

Alice thought for a moment and finally decided. “Alright, but I don't think this will change anything.”

Chapter Six: A Short Diversion: Part Two

Holden, Alice, and their new acquaintance made it to the gate of Victory Road, where they planned on having their battle. They stood across from each other at a distance about equivalent to how far away they'd be standing in an 'official' arena, while the stranger stood off to the side, acting as a sort of referee.

“The rules of this match will be standard. All of your Pokemon will be used in this battle.” The stranger with the straw hat explained. “However, there will be one additional rule. I will not decide when your Pokemon are unfit to continue. You yourselves must decide when that time comes.”

“Sounds fine to me.” Holden accepted the terms. He was a bit confused, though. The way the stranger had convinced him and Alice to battle, in addition to his extra rule, almost made it seem as though he was testing them. But what would he have to gain by doing that? The boy decided that he'd wonder about that later. After all, there may not have been much of a reason aside from easy entertainment in watching a Pokemon battle. “Don't hold back, alright Alice?” Holden said.

“As long as you don't either.” Alice said. Even if Holden didn't even try at all, and Alice did her absolute best, she had a feeling that he'd win anyway, but didn't say her thoughts out loud, knowing that it would probably lead to more arguing. Alice took Rattata's Poke Ball off her belt and threw it into the air, as the Pokemon appeared with a determined look on his face.

Holden then sent out Pidgey, who looked back at Holden for a few moments, making the boy wonder if he should have been prepared to be attacked again, but the bird sighed and turned his attention back to Rattata. Holden breathed a sigh of relief. Being attacked by his own Pokemon every time he sent him out would have probably gotten old quickly.

After a few seconds of silence, Holden spoke. “Your move first, if you want.” he offered, trying to give her at least a slight advantage.

Alice accepted the offer. “Rattata, try Tackle!” she gave her command, which her Pokemon obeyed, charging toward Pidgey.

“Pidgey, Sand Attack!” Pidgey flapped his wings quickly, causing some of the topsoil on the ground to fly into Rattata's eyes, before the bird flew out of the way of the now temporarily blind rodent and dodged his attack. “Now, counterattack with a Tackle of your own! Pidgey flew behind Rattata and then headed for his target.

“Rattata, use Tail Whip!” Rattata was still trying to get the sand out of his eyes, so he was confused at his trainer's command, but fulfilled it anyway. Just before Pidgey hit him, his tail managed to knock the bird back a few feet, interrupting his attack. “You okay?” Alice asked in concern. After rubbing his eyes for a second or two, he finally managed to clear his eyes of the dirt and gave an affirmative nod to his trainer. “Alright. Follow up with a Quick Attack!” Before Pidgey could prepare to dodge, the rat Pokemon dashed at high speed to the bird Pokemon, and knocked him to the ground.

Pidgey seemed shaken up by the attacks, causing Holden to wonder if he should call him back, but decided he had a little bit of fight left in him. To his knowledge, Tackle and Sand Attack were the only moves Pidgey knew at the moment, but that didn't mean he couldn't ad-lib. “Pidgey, grab Rattata with your talons and throw him!” Pidgey was confused for a moment or two, but decided to give it a try.

“Rattata, try to get out of the way!” Rattata tried to do as he was told, but was only able to run a few feet before being caught. Pidgey then spun his body around a few times, before tossing him away. He managed to get back up, but just barely.

Both Pokemon seemed incredibly tired from the battle, and their trainers took notice. “Great work. I think you've done just about all you can, Pidgey.” Holden praised his Pokemon, before calling him back into his Poke Ball.

“Yeah. You did great too, Rattata. Time for a break.” Alice said, before returning her Pokemon to his device as well, before speaking to Holden. “Well, that's another draw, I guess.”

“We aren't done yet.” Holden noted. “Good job so far, by the way.” he commented, before taking out his other Poke Ball.

“You too.” Alice said, before, almost simultaneously, the two summoned their starter Pokemon. After a few seconds of calm silence, Holden made the first move.

“Bulbasaur, Tackle!” Bulbasaur charged toward Charmander, but the latter managed to dodge out of the way.

“Charmander, try Scratching him!” Charmander swiped at Bulbasaur with his claws, but in a role-reversal of the last attack, the latter dodged.

“Leech Seed!” Bulbasaur stood on his front legs and aimed his namesake on his back at Charmander, before an odd-looking seed was ejected from the bulb and hit Charmander's forehead. However, nothing else seemed to happen, leaving the lizard Pokemon and his trainer looking a bit confused. Holden noticed, and explained. “Early on, most Pokemon will learn an extra move, and that's Bulbasaur's. Basically, it lets him absorb Charmander's energy and add it to his own.”

“That sounds bad... For me, at least.” Alice said as she thought about what extra move Charmander may have learned by now, if any. Then she remembered the incident the day before when Charmander had spat fire at Holden. “Charmander, use Fireball... or Flame Blast... or... You know what I mean, right?” her Pokemon nodded in response, before using Ember and spitting a fireball at Bulbasaur, who was caught off guard and was hurt significantly by the attack.

Suddenly, the seed on Charmander's head began to glow, causing him to have an odd sensation, before a bright light shot out and hit Bulbasaur. However, rather than hurt him, it seemed to help him recover slightly. Charmander, on the other hand, looked slightly weaker. “Bulbasaur, try another Tackle!” the Grass Pokemon charged at the Fire Pokemon again, this time managing to make contact, causing the latter to be knocked back a few feet.

“Charmander!” Alice called to her Pokemon, who barely managed to stand back up. Charmander then shot another Ember out of his mouth, which Bulbasaur dodged, though the fire grazed him, which made him flinch in pain.

The seed on Charmander's forehead glowed again, causing the Fire Pokemon to fall to his knees as his energy was transferred to his opponent. Holden was almost as concerned about Charmander as Alice was, and was beginning to think that he really should have went easier on her. He was wondering if there was a way to disable Leech Seed, when a red light engulfed Charmander, sending him back to his Poke Ball. After returning her Pokemon, Alice wordlessly put the device back on her belt.

Holden returned Bulbasaur to his Poke Ball as well. Despite having won, he wasn't particularly happy about the victory. “I'm sorry, Alice. I should have...”

“You don't have anything to be sorry about. Neither of us were supposed to hold back, and neither of us did.” Alice insisted. She was surprised that despite fully expecting to lose, she still felt a little disappointed. “I guess this means I was right, at least.”

“Not exactly.” the man in the straw hat came into the conversation. “This battle was to determine whether or not you were skilled in battle, was it not?”

“Yeah, and I lost. Doesn't that make me unskilled? At least, compared to Holden?” Alice asked, not sure what the man meant.

“Not at all. Losing to someone else usually means that they are more skilled than you, not that you yourself lack skill. You may have lost, but that doesn't mean that you and your Pokemon can't become stronger.” the stranger explained.

“But the battle was also to decide how skilled I was in comparison to Holden, wasn't it? You said it yourself. Holden's more skilled than me.” Alice insisted.

“And yet, despite just becoming a Pokemon trainer a day ago, you're already showing a lot of potential, as does he.” the man began to direct his speech toward Holden as well. “The battle you two just had was the best I've seen from new trainers in a long time. Of course, I'm not saying that you could both walk into Victory Road right now and defeat the Elite Four, but with hard work and training, it's not outside the realm of possibility that you could give them a run for their money.”

Holden was wondering exactly why the stranger seemed to be interested in them challenging the Elite Four., not to mention why he had just tested their skills. “Who are you?” the boy asked.

“Forgive me, but perhaps it is best that I keep my identity-” the man was explaining, before being interrupted by a voice coming from the Victory Road entrance.

“Hey, Jack! What are you doing out here? Dex wanted you to be back like ten minutes ago.” a boy wearing a white t-shirt with a black stripe in the middle who had an odd-looking watch on his wrist walked toward them.

Holden was surprised to see Ben Tennyson, one of the Elite Four, standing in front of him, but was even more surprised by the implication of what he had just said.

“...Right. I suppose that lessens the mystery of who I am.” Jack said, knowing that it was pretty much impossible to keep his identity secret any longer. He removed the straw hat from his head, making it clear who he was.

“...Well, nice to meet you.” Holden was trying to figure out how he was unable to recognize Jack before. He had never seen him wearing a straw hat before on TV or in the books he had read, but it seemed fairly obvious now. He wasn't the only person in the world to wear a white robe, but still...

“I apologize for the deception, but people tend to act a bit unusual when they know who I am. It's hard to test someone's battle capabilities if they're focused on me and not the battle.” Jack explained.

Ben was confused about what they were talking about. “I'm guessing I missed something important to understand whatever the heck is going on here. But seriously, Jack, Dexter wanted to talk to you about something and if you aren't there ASAP I think he'll short-circuit.”

“Is there something wrong? Dexter is usually more patient when it comes to his meetings.” Jack noted.

“Apparently, we've got a big problem. I asked what it was, but then I was told not to be 'stooopid'.” For the last word of the sentence, Ben used his fingers as quotation marks while poorly mimicking Dexter's accent. “Given that he only says that when he's cheesed off, I suggest we start walking now.”

“Well then, we should get going.” Jack said, before turning back to Holden and Alice. “Perhaps I shall meet you two again. If so, I look forward to it. Farewell.” he then began to walk toward Victory Road.

“Uh, yeah. See you two later... I guess.” Ben said, feeling like he should say goodbye, but unaware of why Jack was meeting with them in the first place, let alone why they'd ever meet again.

After they were gone, Holden turned his attention to Alice. “So... that was interesting.” he noted.

“Yeah. It was.” Alice agreed, before adding something else. “Who were they, again? They seemed familiar, but I couldn't quite figure out why.”

Holden was surprised that she didn't know who they were, but remembered that the only Pokemon League members she was likely to know were Holden's sisters and Muriel. “Well, Ben is a member of the Elite Four, and Jack is the current Pokemon Champion of Kanto.” he explained.

“...No, really.” Alice commented, not believing Holden at first, but shortly after noticing that he appeared to be completely serious.


Some time later, Roxie heard someone knocking at her door again. “...Please be before noon so I can rip his head off again and go back to sleep...” Roxie pleaded to nobody in particular. She opened her eyes and looked at her alarm clock to discover '12:05' on it. She sighed in annoyance, knowing she had no choice but to wake up. “Okay, okay! I'll be out in a minute.” Holden and Alice waited for about ten minutes before Roxie finally came out of her room.” So, how have your mornings been?” she asked as she walked into her living room, where her friends were waiting.

“Not bad.” Alice replied. “We walked up to Victory Road, had a Pokemon battle, healed our Pokemon at the Pokemon Center, then came back here.”

“Oh, neat. Did you guys meet the Champion?” Roxie asked jokingly, unaware of the fact that it had actually happened.

“Uh...” Holden started to say, but as he thought about what had happened more, he realized that it sounded incredibly unlikely, and Roxie probably wouldn't believe them. “Never mind. Are you ready to head for Pewter?”

“Not quite. I haven't had breakfast yet. I'll pay if I get to choose where we eat.” Roxie offered.

“Actually, it's past noon, so it'd be more like lunch now.” Alice noted, silently wondering to herself how Roxie could be hungry after all the pizza she had eaten the night before.

“That works too.” Roxie said. “We'd better hurry if we want to get through Viridian Forest before it gets dark.”


A short time later, the trio was at a Burger Frenzy. “So, Alice, Has anything interesting happened since the last time I was in Lavender?” Roxie asked after she was bored of the silence.

“Not really.” Alice answered very simply.

“Really? Something must happened to make you go from not caring one way or the other about Pokemon to battling against Gym leaders. What changed your mind?” Roxie was curious.

Holden looked surprised at the revelation, but didn't think it was his business to ask about it. However, Alice noticed the look on his face and thought she should explain to both him and Roxie. “Well, my aunt and uncle have been saying I should for a while...”

“So you did it for them?” Roxie asked.

“Not exactly... “ Alice began to explain. “To be honest, my plan was to get a starter Pokemon from Professor Utonium and then head home. I didn't want to be a Pokemon trainer, but I guess that's what's happened, since I now have two Pokemon.”

“Why would you want a Pokemon if you didn't want to be a trainer?” Holden asked.

“To have a friend, I guess.” Alice said, before elaborating. “I mean, I like Courage, but he's my aunt's Pokemon, and Roxie, I only see you once every couple months. I'm not saying you guys aren't good enough, but I thought it would be nice to have a companion.”

“I'd say that's a good reason.” Holden said. “There's nothing wrong with wanting a friend.”

Alice nodded, glad that he understood. “Why did you decide to be a Pokemon trainer, Holden?”

Holden shrugged. “Like I said earlier, my family is full of Pokemon trainers, so they were a factor, but I also thought it would be a fun thing to devote my life to. There really wasn't any one moment that made me really want to do it, and there's really no one reason.” he explained.

“And that's why I don't talk to you much. You're boring.” Roxie said in a deadpan tone. “You don't even have an interesting reason for getting a hobby.”

Holden wasn't offended, figuring she was joking, but thought he'd try a comeback. “And what was your reason for becoming a Pokemon trainer?”

“It's a nice distraction from...” Roxie stopped midway through her sentence for a moment, before continuing. “...Life. Life is stupid, so it's best to distract myself from it.” She seemed a bit irritated, but continued. “Does that answer your question?”

“...Yeah. Sorry, I didn't mean to-” Holden started to say, before being interrupted.

“It's fine. Drop it. Let's talk about something else.” Roxie snapped. A couple seconds later, she sighed and tried to apologize. “Look, I'm sorry. Let's just eat.”


Holden wasn't sure what he had done to make Roxie react like that, but decided to follow her advice and drop the subject. The rest of the meal was silent, and the trio eventually put all of their leftovers into a bag for them or their Pokemon to eat later. There was then an equally silent walk to the entrance to Viridian Forest. Once there, Holden decided to speak again. “Is everyone ready?”

“Would we have walked all the way out here if we weren't?” Roxie asked, but sounded much less irritated then earlier, having calmed down. They entered the building that connected Viridian City to the forest, and Roxie spoke again. “Just be careful. The path isn't really dangerous, but I'd rather not have to run back to the Pokemon Center if either of you black out.”

“...Black out?!?” Alice was unnerved by what the phrase sounded like.

“It's just an expression. It means that all of your Pokemon faint. You won't actually lose consciousness.” Holden assured her.

“Probably.” Roxie added as a joke, before continuing. “You'll be fine. Just be careful around the tall grass and be ready if any trainers in there want a fight.”

Chapter Seven: Beware the Viridian Forest's Trainers


“I'm thinking of a number between one and a hundred. What is it?” Roxie randomly asked her friends a few minutes after they had entered the forest.

Holden thought for a moment, before saying the first number he thought of. “Sixty-four?”

“No.” Roxie responded.

“Three?” Alice guessed.

“Nope.” was Roxie's answer.

“Twenty-five?” was Holden's next guess.

“Nada.” Roxie replied.

“Six?” Alice asked.

“...Okay, never mind. This is boring.” Roxie said, figuring it could take several minutes before they would finally guess the right number. “The answer was a hundred, by the way.” she added.

“We could play I Spy.” Holden suggested.

“In the middle of a forest where we're surrounded by nothing but trees?” Roxie pointed out.

“...Fair point.” Holden admitted.

“We could just talk.” Alice suggested.

“Okay. What did you want to talk about?” Roxie asked.

“Oh... Um...” Alice thought for a moment, but she couldn't think of any particularly interesting conversation topics. What followed was silence, save for the usual background noises you'd expect to hear in a forest, such as the wind blowing, bug Pokemon scurrying across the ground, bird Pokemon chirping their names... (Well, the usual background noises you'd expect to hear in a forest in the Pokemon world, at least.) There were also various noises of movement coming from the tall grass on the side of the path.

“Let me know if you guys want to catch any of those Pokemon, by the way.” Roxie commented. “We should try to get to Pewter before dark, but it wouldn't hurt for you two to catch more Pokemon.”

“I'll let you know.” Holden agreed. “You keep an eye out too, okay Alice?”

“Alright. What about you, Roxie?” Alice asked as the trio began to walk closer to the trees.

“Depends on if I see one I like. I already have enough to fill my roster.” Roxie explained. “If I see anything interesting, I'll catch it, but...” Something caught her eye as she looked toward one of the trees. She noticed that there was a hole in it, and she couldn't help but feel that someone was watching them. Roxie was about to look inside when a plank of wood with a face drawn on it popped up and caused the girl to react without thinking and hit the piece of wood with the back of her hand, causing it to fly out of the tree and land a few feet away.

“Plank!” Johnny called out as he showed his face and tried to climb out of the space in the tree with a dozen or so acorns in his arms. Given that he needed to use those arms to climb out, most of the acorns fell onto the ground as he managed to exit his previous hiding spot. “What was that for? Do ya have something against pieces of wood?” he asked angrily as he went to pick up his 'friend'.

“No, but I have something against people who hide in trees and try to scare people with pieces of wood.” Roxie said in an irritated tone.

“I don't know what you're talking about. That doesn't describe Plank at all!” Johnny countered, unaware that it was him who Roxie was referring to. “Besides, yours and his eyes met, and you know what that means.” he said.

“...What does it mean?” Alice asked, not sure what he was talking about. Holden was about to explain, before Johnny explained for him.

“Pokemon battle time!” Johnny said excitedly as he hopped into the air.

“...You expect me to battle against a board that you probably ripped off a fence and painted a face on?” Roxie asked skeptically.

“Of course not, and you won't be battling against Plank either. He's not a Pokemon trainer... yet. But I am!” Johnny said happily as he took a Poke Ball off his belt.

“Well, that's a step up.” Roxie said sarcastically. “Fair warning though. I'm probably going to demolish you in about a minute. Last chance to back down.”

“Go, Caterpie!” Johnny shouted as he summoned his bug Pokemon, feeling confident about his chances.

“Alright. I warned you.” Roxie commented, before taking one of the Poke Balls off her belt and tossing it into the air, before one of her Pokemon came out of it.

“Slowbro.” the Pokemon said in a tone that almost made him sound bored.

“Whoa, cool! It's a Slowbro, buddy!” Johnny told his inanimate frind. “Alright, Caterpie. Let's get him!”

“Water Gun.” Roxie gave her command. Slowbro immediately shot a burst of water out of his mouth, which hit Caterpie, sending the bug flying into a nearby tree.

After the water stopped, Caterpie fell to the ground, having fainted. “Caterpie! ...Shoot. That was my only Pokemon...” Johnny returned him to his Poke Ball and sighed. “Well, catch you on the flip side! I need to get to the Pokemon Center.” Johnny said as he ran deeper into the forest.

“Other way, baldy!” Roxie called out to the boy.

“Oh, right. Thanks!” Johnny shouted as he ran back, this time going the right way.

“...Wait. Is it over already?” Alice was confused at the abrupt end to the battle.

“Yeah. That's what happens when you try to fight other trainers with only a Caterpie.” Roxie said. “Sorry I called you out for nothing, Slowbro.” she apologized half-jokingly.

“Slowbro.” the lazy Pokemon said in almost exactly the same bored tone he used before as Roxie called him back into his pocket-sized home.

“We should keep moving.” Holden suggested, before commenting to nobody in particular. “I hope he wasn't skipping work again...” The trio continued to walk down the path, and it wasn't long before they encountered a couple more trainers.

“Look, Sarah! Some other trainers are passing by.” Jimmy pointed out to his friend, who was sitting on on a red and white checker blanket next to him “Maybe they're up for joining our picnic?”

“I think we have enough guests already, Jimmy.” Sarah complained. “Mr. Yum-Yum has been hogging that teapot for at least five minutes, now.” she said as she pointed to the rabbit doll, who didn't respond, seeing as he was an inanimate object.

“Are you two trainers?” Holden asked, wondering how two kids could have gotten this far into the forest otherwise.

“Yup. And as I'm sure you know, it's an unwritten rule that trainers who see each other must battle. Bring it on, buddy!” Jimmy said as he got into a wimpy-looking boxing pose.

“...But you two are little kids, we can't-” Alice started to say, before being interrupted.

“What's that supposed to mean, sister?” Sarah asked in an irritated tone. “You think that just because you're older than us that you're better than us, too?”

Roxie didn't take kindly to her friend being talked to in that tone. “Didn't your parents ever tell you to watch your tone when talking to people who have friends that could rip out your tongue and stick it up your-”

“Roxie!” Alice stopped her before she could finish her potentially unfamily-friendly sentence.

“...I was going to say nose.” Roxie finished.

“Egad! What a potty mouth!” Jimmy said in horror, causing Roxie to roll her eyes.

Holden decided to try and calm everyone down. “You two wanted a battle, right? How about a double battle?” he suggested.

“Double battle?” Alice asked. She thought about it for a moment, and she figured it out for herself. “Is it a battle for two trainers team up to fight against two others?”

Holden nodded. “The two of us against the two of them.” he said as he pointed to Sarah and Jimmy. “Is that alright?”

“I could just mop the floor with both of them myself, but I think it'd be more entertaining to watch you guys do it.” Roxie said with a smile.

“And what makes you think they'll beat us, blondie?” Sarah asked.

“Make another comment like that, and your tongue goes up your nose, as promised, you little-” Roxie was interrupted by a disapproving look from Alice. “...buddy.”

“Ledyba, come on out!” Jimmy said as he threw a Poke Ball into the air.

“You too, Wurmple!” Sarah summoned her Pokemon as well.

Holden noticed that both of their opponents' Pokemon were Bug-type. “Looks like I should use Pidgey, since he'll have a type advantage against them.”

“And I should use Charmander for the same reason, right?” Alice asked.

“Exactly.” Holden nodded with a smile as he took Pidgey's Poke Ball off his belt. “Let's do this.” A couple seconds after he said it, he realized it came off much cheesier than he had intended. “...Sorry about that.”

Alice wasn't too bothered by what he had said. “There are worse cliches that you could have used.” The duo threw their devices into the air and Charmander and Pidgey were summoned from them. The first thing Charmander did when he was summoned was look at Pidgey and get into a fighting stance, ready to fight. “W-Wait, Charmander!”

The lizard Pokemon looked at his trainer in confusion, before he noticed that he was a little close to Pidgey to be fighting him. He then looked to Sarah and Jimmy's Pokemon, who were standing at a more reasonable distance, and put two and two together. “...Char. Charmander.” he apologized to Pidgey, rubbing the back of his head before turning around and getting into the same fighting stance, this time facing his actual opponents.

Pidgey rolled his eyes, before turning his attention to Ledyba and Wurmple. The bird Pokemon found that they looked surprisingly appetizing. It had been a few hours since he'd eaten, and Bug Pokemon did have a nice flavor to them...

Holden noticed that his Pokemon seemed oddly fixated on the bugs, but didn't think much of it and prepared for battle. “Is everyone ready?” he asked.

“Of course we're ready!” Sarah said impatiently.

“Prepare to get creamed like a pie!” Jimmy said confidently.

“I'm ready.” Alice said in a much calmer tone than her opponents.

The four trainers made their commands almost simultaneously, but Holden was a second or so faster than the others. “Pidgey, use Tackle!” The bird Pokemon jumped and flapped its wings so that it was hovering about a foot over the ground, before he flew forward, aiming to Tackle Ledyba.

“Charmander, try Ember!” Alice gave her Pokemon a command, which the lizard Pokemon obeyed as he spat a small fireball out of his mouth, aiming at Wurmple.

“Ledyba, give 'em a taste of Supersonic!” Jimmy said, before Ledyba emitted an unnerving screech that managed to create a soundwave which engulfed Pidgey, causing him to stop flying and crash straight into the ground just before he could attack.

“Wurmple, Poison Sting!” Sarah exclaimed. Wurmple obeyed and shot a sharp, stinger-like object at Charmander, which caused him to take a step back. However, the aforementioned Fire Pokemon's earlier attack hit the worm dead on, causing it a lot of damage, enough that it seemed like it was very close to fainting.

Alice was surprised that the battle had gotten so chaotic already, and was worried about the attack that had hit Charmander. “Charmander, are you okay?” Alice asked. Charmander suddenly looked a bit weaker than he had just a moment before, thanks to the Wurmple's Poison Sting.

“He's been poisoned.” Holden said with concern, but he was also concerned about his own Pokemon. “Pidgey, can you hear me?” His fears were confirmed when Pidgey returned to his feet, but looked off-balance and seemed about ready to fall back down again. “This isn't good. Charmander's poisoned and Pidgey's confused.”

“Should we call them back and have our other Pokemon take over?” Alice asked.

“Normally, that would be a good idea.” Holden explained. “But switching out Pokemon would cost us both a move, and chances are that they'd use the same attacks and Bulbasaur and Rattata would end up in the same predicament Pidgey and Charmander are now.” He thought to himself for a moment, before getting an idea. “Wurmple is already close to fainting, but Charmander's Ember could do a lot of damage to Ledyba. I'll see if Pidgey can attack the former if you can have Charmander attack the latter.”

“Sounds good to me.” Alice said, hoping that her Pokemon wasn't in much pain from his current condition.

Meanwhile, Sarah and Jimmy were having their own conversation about strategy. “It looks like they aren't switching out, Jimmy.” the former observed. “The bird shouldn't be a problem right now, but we have to take out the Charmander or our Pokemon will be roasted.”

“Never has a metaphor been so literal...” Jimmy said. “Let's keep that from happening. We'll both go after him together!”

After both sides had their strategies formed, they proceeded to attack each other again. This time, Jimmy was quickest to the draw. “Ledyba, Tackle Charmander!” The ladybug charged at the lizard and tackled him, sending him to the ground.

“Wurmple, String Shot!” Sarah commanded, before the worm shot some string at Charmander, encasing him in the rope-like substance and pinning his arms to his sides.

“Charmander, use Ember on Ledyba!” Alice said in a panic. She could tell that her Pokemon was close to fainting, but he managed to spit out a fireball that hit Ledyba dead on.

“No! Ledyba!” Jimmy shouted a bit melodramatically as his Pokemon fell to the ground with spirals in her eyes, indicating that the ladybug had fainted.

Holden seized the opportunity and gave a command to Pidgey. “Pidgey, Tackle Wurmple!” The bird hopped into the air and proceeded to perform the move, but ended up 'tackling' the ground instead, which would have looked pretty comical to anyone but Holden and Alice. “Pidgey! Come on, you can fight it!” the boy tried to encourage his Pokemon.

“I won't give him the chance!” Sarah said. “Wurmple, shoot a Poison Sting Pidgey's way!” Wurmple did as he was told and shot a stinger at Pidgey, who seemed helpless to do anything about it.

Pidgey cringed, even in his state of confusion expecting to get hit by the attack, but didn't feel any pain accompanying it. He looked in the direction he would have been hit from, and noticed Charmander standing in his way.

“Charmander...” the lizard Pokemon said to the bird, before collapsing from a combination of the attack and the poison condition he already had.

“Charmander! Can you get up?!?” Alice ran over to Charmander's side before Holden could stop her. He was definitely still alive, and had just fainted, but it was still jarring to see him like that.

“Wurmple!” Wurmple was annoyed that Alice had interrupted the battle, but he turned his attention back to Pidgey and immediately wished he hadn't.

Pidgey had gotten over his confusion, and was now giving Wurmple a death glare that would probably make a Duskull afraid. A droplet of sweat appeared behind the latter's head as the former continued staring in anger.

“Um...” Even Sarah was a little unnerved by the look in Pidgey's eyes. “Wurmple, try-” She was interrupted by Pidgey flying straight for Wurmple and grabbing him with both talons, before flying up into the air and carrying the worm up so high into the sky that they both disappeared from view as a bright star-like flash briefly appeared in the sky.

Jimmy and Sarah stood there with their jaws figuratively on the ground, too stunned to react.

Holden was unnerved, but himself was now a little confused. “...Strange. I don't think Pidgey knows Fly yet...” he managed to say after a short bit of stunned silence.

Roxie on the other hand was impressed. “Hey, Holden. If he comes back, I'll trade one of the Pokemon I have in storage for him. Your pick.”

Holden was about to respond when the star reappeared and Pidgey came after it with Wurmple, who was now shouting its own name repeatedly in fear, in tow. Just when it looked like they were going to crash into the ground at full speed, the bird Pokemon stopped and hovered just above the ground.

“...Wurmple?” the Bug Pokemon asked, wondering if it was over.

“Pidgey.” the Flying Pokemon answered, before quickly slamming his prey into the ground, causing him to faint. Pidgey then calmly flew over to Charmander to see how he was doing.

“Well...” Sarah started to say as she and Jimmy returned their Pokemon to their Poke Balls. “This was fun, but we have to go.” The girl then started quickly walking away.

Jimmy looked back at Pidgey who returned his gaze and caused the boy to freak out. “Don't hurt me!” he shouted, before grabbing his stuffed animals and running away in Sarah's direction, leaving the picnic blanket behind.

Holden, Alice, and Roxie were all silent for a few moments as Alice returned Charmander to his Poke Ball. “...He's going to be okay, right?” she asked.

“Yeah.” Roxie answered. “This type of thing happens a lot, especially to new trainers. You'll get used to it.” she tried to cheer Alice up.

Holden then spoke. “I'm sorry, Alice. I know that he looked bad, but Charmander's going to be alright. We just need to-”

Holden was interrupted by Alice. “I don't think I can do this...” she was silent for another moment, before continuing. “Maybe I should just head home. If I can't keep Charmander safe, how...?”

“Alice, you've only been a Pokemon trainer for a day and a half.” Holden started to explain. “It'll get easier, you just have to keep trying. Right, Roxie?”

Roxie thought for a moment. “Alice, if you really don't want to do this, I'll be heading to Lavender Town after we stop in Pewter City. I can take you home.”

Holden was surprised. “Wait, but...” he started to say before Roxie put her hand up, indicating she wasn't finished talking.

“It's up to you, but for what it's worth, I think you can do it.” Roxie said. “I've known you long enough to figure out that you don't give yourself enough credit for a lot of things, and this is one of them.”

“I might be able to improve my skills and get better at battles, but that's not the only reason.” Alice said sadly. “Seeing Charmander like that... Seeing him in pain, exhausted enough to faint, I... I don't want to see him like that, especially if I push him to battle and he doesn't want to.”

“Maybe you should ask him what he wants?” Holden suggested. “Pokemon usually don't speak our language, but they understand us.” he explained. Alice was silent, so Holden spoke again. “I won't force you into it though.”

“And if you change your mind later, that would be fine.” Roxie continued. “Then you can start traveling and fighting and all that. I can even travel with you if you want.”

Alice wasn't sure what she wanted to do. She could make a case to herself for both continuing to travel with Holden and heading back to Lavender with Roxie, but she knew that either way she wouldn't be happy unless she knew her Pokemon were happy. After a bit of thought, Alice responded. “Once we get Charmander healed, I'll ask him and Rattata for advice and have them help me decide.”

“Sounds good. Speaking of which, we should keep walking toward Pewter.” Holden suggested, and the trio kept walking through the forest.

As they were walking, Roxie spoke. “By the way Holden, I was serious about my offer earlier. What do you want for the Pidgey?”

Chapter Eight: Arrival at Pewter


“I'm sorry, Roxie.” Holden apologized. “I don't want to trade him. I think he's finally starting to warm up to me.” The trio had made it to Pewter City, and were now in the city's Pokemon Center, but Roxie had been fairly persistent on trying to trade for Pidgey.

“Ooh! Here's a cool one. Spinarak.” Roxie was looking through the Pokemon she had in storage on a PC, choosing to ignore what Holden had just said. “She isn't very high level, but with some hard work, you'd have a very useful Pokemon. You know one of the moves she can learn is Spider Web, which is very useful for preventing wild Pokemon from escaping so that it's easier to catch them.”

“Thanks... But really, I can't trade Pidgey. I'm just too attached to him.” Holden denied the trade request again.

“Okay, fine. I tried.” Roxie finally gave up. “But if you change your mind, let me know.”

Nearby, Pidgey was bragging to Bulbasaur about the battle he had participated in earlier. “Pidgey, Pidgey Pidge Pidgey... Pidgey!” the bird Pokemon explained.

“Bulbasaur?” The grass Pokemon found the story a little hard to believe.

“Pidgey? Pidgey!” the bird insisted everything he had said was true, before the look on Bulbasaur's face made him admit that there were only two Bug Pokemon that he had fought, not six. “Pidgey... Pidge.”

Meanwhile, Alice was at the counter talking to the local Nurse Xyrespace. “So, if I were to have given Charmander an Antidote, he would have been cured?”

“Yeah. A lot of idiots tend to forget that they can do that...” Nurse Kyra said, before realizing that it sounded like she had insulted Alice. “...Not that you're an idiot. I mean, you didn't know, so it isn't your fault. Now that you do know, though, you'll probably want to head to the Poke Mart and stock up on those and other status effect curing items.”

“Sounds like a good idea.” Alice replied, before the device behind Nurse Xyrespace played a short, happy-sounding tune, indicating that Charmander was now fully healed. “Thanks. I'll be more careful next time.”

“No problem.” Xyrespace said, before taking Charmander's Poke Ball out of the machine and handing it to Alice. “We hope to see you again.”

Alice nodded, before grabbing the Poke Ball and walking to the PC that Holden and Roxie were still by. “Well, guess I should ask my question now...” Alice took Rattata's device off her belt and summoned both of her Pokemon.

“Rattata.” Rattata gave a friendly wave to Alice with one of his front paws as he appeared.

“Hi, Rattata.” Alice smiled and waved back. She then became more serious as she turned her attention to Charmander. “I'm sorry about earlier... I wish I could have done something to help you.”

“Charmander.” the Fire Pokemon said in a 'don't worry about it' tone with a smile. “Charmander.”

“I'll try to protect you better in the future... Which reminds me, I have to ask you both a question.” Alice said. Charmander and Rattata were both ready to answer the question. “That battle earlier made me realize that if I'm going to be a Pokemon Trainer, it might involve you getting hurt a lot. I don't think it would be fair if I was putting you in pain that you didn't want to be in, so...” she asked the question “Would you rather we keep traveling, and keep battling, or go back to my home in Lavender Town, where it'd be safer?”

“Charmander.” Charmander answered happily.

Rattata wasn't quite as quick to decide, and asked a question. “Rattata?”

Alice suddenly realized there was a problem with her idea. It wouldn't do much good to get the opinions of her Pokemon if she couldn't understand them. “Hmm... Can Pokemon write on paper?” she asked Holden and Roxie.

“...Uh...” Holden wasn't quite sure how to respond. “I don't think so... I've never heard of any that can.” he replied. “I guess if there was a Pokemon that was super intelligent, and you were to train it to write...”

“Yeah... I think that Pokemon will be able to be taught to write around the same time that they rebel, take over the world, and make all humans their slaves.” Roxie said sarcastically. “Alice, you know your Pokemon pretty well, right?” she asked, now serious.

“Well... I think so. I mean, I've only known them since yesterday...” Alice replied, unsure if she really did know them very well.

“It takes some time, but eventually you'll know them well enough that you can get an idea of what they're thinking just by looking at them.” Roxie explained. “They're smart. They may not be able to speak like we do, or... write on paper, but they're a lot like humans in a way. They've got their own personalities, likes and dislikes, eating habits, you get the idea.”

Alice understood what Roxie was saying, but wasn't sure how that would help her at that moment. “But how's that going to help me understand Charmander and Rattata right now?”

“Maybe it doesn't... But think about it. You may not entirely understand your Pokemon yet, but wouldn't you like to at some point?” Roxie asked. “Do you think you're going to get a good understanding of them just by sitting at home all day?”

“Maybe...” Alice said. “I mean, they wouldn't be in nearly as much danger as they would be traveling around, and we could find other, safer things to do. Wouldn't that be better for them?”

“Charmander.” Charmander put himself back in the conversation.

“...What do you mean?” Alice asked.

“Charmander Char.” the Pokemon pointed at Alice while saying his name this time.

“I don't understand you... How...” Alice realized that Charmander was pointing at her. “You're saying something about me, right?”

“Charman.” Charmander said in a 'sort of' tone. “Charmander Char.” he said with a smile.

“Are you complimenting me?” the girl asked.

“Charmander.” the Fire Pokemon said as he shook his head.

“...Insulting me?” Alice asked, a little concerned.

“Char?!? Charmander!” Charmander looked shocked and shook his head more nervously than before. He then walked closer to Alice and tapped his finger on her leg as he emphasized his words. “Char-man-der... Char.”

Alice thought for a moment. “You're telling me what you think I should do, right?”

“Char.” Charmander nodded. “Charmander Char.” he said as he tapped her leg again.

Alice was a little confused. “Maybe you should go tap Holden or Roxie? That would make your choice a lot clearer.” Instead, Charmander simply tapped Alice again, causing her to facepalm. “What are you saying? That I should decide?”

“Char.” Charmander nodded happily. “Charmander Char.”

“...You think it should be my choice?” Alice finally understood what Charmander was saying. “Aren't you worried that what I decide won't be what you want to do?”

“Charman.” the Fire Pokemon shook his head. “Charmander.”

Alice was surprised that Charmander would trust her that much after only being with her for a day, but it was definitely a positive surprise. “Well then...Thanks, Charmander.” Alice smiled, and Charmander smiled back.

“Rattata?” Rattata asked, having been silent during Alice and Charmander's discussion.

“...Oh, right. Sorry Rattata, what did you want to say earlier?” Alice asked her other Pokemon.

“Rattata.” the rat Pokemon said as he pointed at his stomach, then his mouth. “Rattata.”

Alice didn't need to understand Rattata to know he was hungry. “That's right, it's been a while since you guys have eaten, hasn't it?” She remembered the leftovers from when she and her friends were eating earlier and found them in her bag. She then turned her attention to Holden and Roxie. “It's okay for them to eat this, right?”

“Not really.” Roxie said. “Then again, it's not really okay for humans to eat it either. It won't clog their arteries any more than it clogs ours.” Alice seemed a little hesitant to give her Pokemon the food after hearing that, but Roxie continued. “Just give it to them. You can deal with the consequences thirty years from now.”


Several minutes of unhealthy eating later, the trio put their Pokemon back in their Poke Balls and were walking around Pewter City. “You know, Pewter City is home to one of the best Pokemon museums in the world.” Holden said.

“What kind of things does it have in it?” Alice asked.

“Pokemon things.” Holden explained. “Like, they have some fossils that a lot of scientists say were once Pokemon, and some of them can even be revived.”

“...No, really.” Alice didn't believe him.

“Really.” Holden said. “I hear that a bunch of fossils were just found in Kalos, and the museum managed to get a hold of some. I'm not sure if they're ones that can be revived, though.”

“So, people dig up the fossils, and then they clean them off and they somehow revive the rocks that are thousands of years old into Pokemon?” Even though Alice figured Holden wasn't the type of person to try and trick her for the fun of it, she still wasn't convinced of what he was saying.

“No, it's a bit more complicated then that...” Holden wasn't sure how to explain the process. “Roxie, you can back me up, right?” Roxie didn't answer. She seemed mentally preoccupied with something else. “...Roxie?”

“Huh?” Roxie hadn't really been paying attention to the conversation. “Oh, I... I agree, Alice... With whatever you said...”

Alice was concerned. “Everything okay, Roxie?”

“Yeah, I'm just focusing on finding where I'm looking for is all.” Roxie seemed like her mind was somewhere else, but Holden and Alice decided not to pester her about it. After a little more walking, they had made it to Roxie's destination. “I'll only be a few minutes.” she said, before walking into a flower shop as the others waited outside.

Holden was confused about why Roxie would have taken them to a flower shop. “Wait... Why are we here?”

“Pewter City also has one of the best flower shops in Kanto.” Alice said. “Roxie usually stops here before she heads to Lavender Town.” She suddenly sounded a little sad.

Holden wasn't sure what was going on, and was concerned that Alice had now had a sudden change in mood. “I don't understand. Is everything okay? What happened?”

Alice didn't respond at first, which only made Holden even more concerned, but eventually she said “I'm sorry... It's not my place to say.”

After a few minutes, Roxie came back out as promised, now holding a nice-looking bouquet of flowers. Holden was deciding whether or not it was his place to ask about the flowers, before Roxie decided for him. “I know what you're going to ask.” she said. “Guess I might as well tell you...” There was silence for a few moments, before Roxie continued. “I've secretly been dating your godfather.”

Holden was now even more confused. “...What?”

“He wanted me to keep it a secret, but we're madly in love.” Roxie said sarcastically. “We've been in a relationship for years now. Oh, and I think I'm your biological mother too.”

Holden knew that Roxie wasn't serious at all, but he also knew that she wasn't going to tell him the truth, and it would only make things worse to press for more information. “...Well, I'll be sure not to tell him I know this, Mom.” he said with a smile. “And I hope he appreciates the flowers.”

“I hope so too.” Roxie replied. After a few second of quiet, she continued. “In any case, I think it's about time I head for Lavender.” She turned to face Alice. “Made a decision yet?”

“Yeah, I think I have...” Alice said. “I'm going to stick with Holden for a while. Charmander said he would be okay with whatever decision I made... I just hope I'm making the right one now.”

“I think you are.” Holden said. “Besides, it'll be nice to have someone to talk to until I figure out how to talk to Bulbasaur and Pidgey.”

“Well, I'll be on my way then.” Roxie said. “You two take care of yourselves and your Pokemon. We should try to travel together longer next time, and I want to battle both of you next time we meet up too!” She started to walk away, before turning back to look at Holden and Alice again. “Oh. And Holden, if you try making a move on Alice, I'll beat you up and you'll wake up in a ditch... If you wake up at all. Bye!”

“What?!? I wouldn't...” Roxie was already out of earshot before Holden could finish. He sighed and facepalmed to himself. “I'm not sure I'll ever completely understand her...”

“That was just her way of saying she trusts you.” Alice said. “If she really thought you'd do that, she wouldn't have let me stay with you.”

“Actually, if she thought I would do that, I probably wouldn't be alive long enough for you stay with me.” Holden speculated. “Anyway, we should probably head for the gym.”

Chapter Nine: Wership Jim Leder Eddy


“So, he was a Gym Leader and a Pokemon Breeder?” Alice asked.

“Yeah.” Holden replied. On the way to the gym, Holden and Alice had ended up on the conversation topic of Pewter City's former Gym Leader.“I heard that for a while he and his family owned the gym, but there was a restructure in the league some time ago that made them give it to somebody else. Brock is still a big name in the breeding world, though.”

“Actually, I think I saw a show on TV once where he was a guest.” Alice remembered. “He was distracted by the host and ended up flirting with her the entire time...”

“Yeah, that sounds like Brock.” Holden said. “The replacement Gym Leader they got ended up becoming one of the Elite Four a short time ago, so they had to find a replacement for him too. I honestly don't remember who the Gym Leader is now... I guess we'll find out when we get there.”

A minute or two later, the duo was surprised by what they saw. “Uh... Are you sure this is the right place, Holden?” Alice asked upon seeing the gym. The building itself seemed to be in mostly decent shape, but various cardboard decorations littered the front of it. Some of them were crudely drawn images of what could be seen as well known bug Pokemon if one looked at them a certain way, while others seemed to be meant to form a fence based on the way they surrounded the area. One piece of cardboard that was on the side of the road had 'words' (If you could call them that.) written on it. “Wership... Jim Leder... Eddy?” Alice read in a confused tone.

“The map says this is the right place...” Holden looked at his map again, which said that the gym was right in front of them. “Maybe it changed locations and this map is outdated?”

Before anything else could be said, a voice was heard over some sort of intercom. “Welcome, one and all to Ed's Gym! Home of the world famous Gym Leader Eddy! That's right, ladies and gents, THE Gym Leader Eddy! The most skilled, most powerful, most attractive Pokemon Trainer on the face of the planet!”

Holden and Alice stared at each other in confusion, before the former managed to say “Well, I did hear that the Kanto Pokemon League was looking into adding in new features to make the gyms seem more complex like the ones other regions have now...”

“I don't think this is what they had in mind...” Alice commented. “If I didn't know any better, I'd say this was some kind of scam.”

“Maybe we should look around the city one more time just to make sure...” Holden suggested.

“What on Earth is going on here?!?” asked someone in an annoyed tone. The person who asked the question walked up next to Holden and Alice and stared at the 'gym' that was in front of them.

“That's what we were wondering too.” Alice answered. “Do you know if this is the actual gym?”

“Unfortunately, yes...” the boy replied as he adjusted his hat. “When I told him he could make minor adjustments that's exactly what I meant. Minor! Not a total redesign, and a ridiculous one at that!”

“Wait a minute, are you...” Holden asked as he realized he recognized the stranger.

“Yes, Edd at your service, though most people just call be Double D.” he explained. “I'm really sorry about this. I swear, the gym was in much better condition when I left it...”

“It's fine. I mean, it's not... too bad, and it's not like it's your fault anyway, it's whoever is in charge of the gym now that did this.” Holden said.

“Yes, but I put Eddy in charge of the gym. I should have known that he'd try and pull something like this. It's the ice cream truck scam all over again... Though at least there isn't an angry mob this time...” Edd said as he facepalmed. “Anyway, are you here to challenge him?”

“Yes.” Alice replied. “Well, Holden is, I'm not.”

“Are you sure?” Holden asked. “I think you'd have a really good chance at beating this guy, especially if he puts as much effort into battling as he does his decorating...”

“Well, when I said I was going to travel with you, I just meant I was going to do that, not try and beat the Gym Leaders. I think the Pokemon League is a little over my head.” Alice responded.

“Well, alright. But there's still time to change your mind.” Holden said. “Let me know if you do.”

“In any case, I'd best tell Eddy he has guests. I hope the inside of the gym is better than the outside.” Edd metaphorically crossed his fingers.

“I think he already knows we're here. Someone's voice came in on a speaker earlier.” Alice said.

“...And of course, he hasn't said anything since he found out that I was here... I'll be back out once he's allowed you in.” Edd walked into the gym, a few moments later, he shouted “Good lord! Cobwebs? Really, Eddy?!?” from inside loud enough that Holden and Alice could hear him.

After a few moments, Alice spoke again. “Do you really think I'd have a chance?” she asked.

“Yeah. It looks like we're dealing with a rookie Gym Leader here, so-” Holden started to say, before being interrupted.

“No, I mean if I were to try and challenge all the Gym Leaders, do you think I'd have a chance at beating some of them?” Alice rephrased her question.

“Actually, I think you'd have a chance at beating all of them, maybe even challenging the Elite Four. Are you saying that you changed your mind?” Holden asked, wondering what would have changed her mind so quickly.

“I'm not sure...” Alice explained. “I was just thinking about what we were talking about earlier. I want to understand Charmander and Rattata better, and any other Pokemon I might catch later on. Traveling and battling are the best ways to get to know your Pokemon better, right? Challenging Gym Leaders might be one way I can do both. I just don't want to end up in another situation like in Viridian Forest, where I'm in over my head and can't help my Pokemon...”

“Alice...” Holden managed to find what he hoped were the right words to say. “It doesn't matter how much you train or how strong your Pokemon will get. There's always going to be the chance that they could get hurt. What matters is that you and your Pokemon are able and willing to get back up and keep fighting.”

“But is it right to ask them to fight, and put them in danger when we aren't in any?” Alice interjected.

“The Pokemon Trainer can end up in a lot of danger themselves.” Holden explained. “Sometimes, Pokemon battles aren't just for fun. There are some people in this world that are willing to do anything, including hurt other people and Pokemon, to accomplish their goals. Sometimes, asking your Pokemon to battle can keep you or others from getting hurt, or worse...” The boy was starting to depress himself, and was worried he was doing the same to Alice, so he tried to make the topic more pleasant. “Besides, even when battling is just for fun, the Pokemon usually enjoy it too.”

“Really?” Alice asked. “I mean, when a battle is going well for them, I could see why, but what about when they're getting hurt?”

“It's kind of like how humans sometimes put themselves in situations where they could get hurt for fun, like sports. I doubt anyone plays football or hockey expecting to play without getting hurt a few times.” Holden replied. “The fun part for most of them is the competition, sort of like it is for the trainers.”

“But Pokemon never get seriously injured, even in the worst cases? Like ending up with broken bones or something like that?” Alice asked.

“Pokemon are very durable. It's rare that they ever sustain any lasting injuries, especially with the medicine and technology that Pokemon Centers have.” Holden explained.

“Well, in the Pokemon Center, Charmander did seem like he had recovered pretty well. He wasn't in any pain and looked as good as new.” Alice noted. “So, it wouldn't be possible for them to... Well, in a really bad case... I mean, if something...” She realized that there wasn't really a delicate way to put what she wanted to ask, so she put it bluntly. “Can Pokemon be killed in battle?”

Holden was caught a little off guard by the question, but answered it. “...Well, generally, Pokemon battles aren't dangerous enough to cause that to happen to the Pokemon.” But he added “There have been some cases, freak accidents mostly, where it's happened before.”

“'Mostly' freak accidents?” Alice had to ask.

Holden sighed, but felt like he should explain, even if it was a little gruesome. “You know how I said before that there are some people who would do anything to accomplish their goals?” he asked.

“Oh...” Alice replied, able to connect the dots without Holden explaining any further. “How many of these people are there?”

Holden was starting to worry that this talk was actually lessening the chances of Alice challenging the gym, and was trying to figure out what he should say before they heard a voice behind them.

“Hey, you two!” said a muscular man with sunglasses whose voice make him sound like some kind of music star. “I don't suppose you're planning on challenging that gym, are you?”

“Maybe... Um, who are you?” Alice asked, wondering where the man had come from.

“The name's Bravo... Johnny Bravo!” Johnny made several poses in quick succession before continuing. “I'm here to give you two some killer tips on how to take that Gym Leader to the cleaners... If you guys are planning on doing that, anyway.”

Holden wasn't sure what to say. “...Well, I am, but-” He was unable to finish his sentence.

“Great! Don't underestimate Bug Pokemon. They may look easy to beat, but they're crafty and have all sorts of nasty tricks up their sleeves, sort of like the Gym Leader himself. Eddy may be a newbie at the whole Gym Leader thing, but he was put in charge by Edd for a reason.”

“Why?” Alice asked, curious to know the reason.

“He... Well, he... Uh...” Bravo realized that he had no idea why Eddy was made the Gym Leader. He stood there scratching his head for a few moments, causing an awkward silence.

“Because he was supposed to be temporary.” Edd explained as he walked out of the gym. “We expected that someone else would step in and take over after a month or two, but there haven't been any qualified applicants yet.”

“How did you know what we were talking about?” Holden asked. Edd hadn't come out of the gym early enough to catch the full details of their conversation.

“Eddy had microphones placed out here.” Edd pointed at several devices with cords scattered around the ground that looked vaguely like microphones, albeit with yellow cotton balls attached to them. “They're surprisingly functional.”

“I was wondering what those were...” Holden said, hoping that he and Alice hadn't said anything that would have insulted Eddy. He just had one question “What are the cotton balls for?”

“I haven't the slightest idea.” Edd replied with a shrug. “By the way, Eddy's ready for you now. Shall we head inside?”