Chapter Three: Giovanni's Proposal
When I first arrived in Viridian City the first thing I noticed was its Gym and couldn't wait to challenge it but I knew after all this battling I needed to heal my Gastly and relax some after all the battling we had done on the way so our first stop was the Viridian City Pokémon Center. I met Nurse Joy and she seemed like a nice woman and asked that I hand over Gastly to her to recover while I get some rest and could call home. I handed her Gastly and she led me over to the lounge area where they had some food and drinks supplied thankfully because I was hungry. I ate up quick and then decided to make a phone call home, my mom Sabrina answered the phone and asked which Pokémon I chose as a starter. I told her my starter chose me and it wasn't one of the traditional choices. She was very curious at this point so I told her I got a Gastly and explained to her how it all happened. She was so excited to hear it all but could tell she really missed me just like I missed her because for a 10-year-old to be away from his mother for what I knew was a long road to come was rough to handle but I knew it was going to be worth it in the end. Nurse Joy came in and politely interrupted and said my Gastly was good to go so I said my goodbyes to my mom and got my Gastly and left.
I was almost in a run to the Viridian City Gym to challenge for my first Gym Badge. When I entered, I could see a guy sitting in the other side in a throne like chair with a Persian by his side slowly being pet. As I walked to him he looked up and acknowledged me saying "I am the Gym Leader of the Viridian City Gym my name is Giovanni, I assume you have come here to challenge me for my Earth Badge", I then said yes, I have and he then said "very well we will do a 1v1 battle, if you are ready take your place at the other side of the stadium now". I walked to the other side of the stadium and I could see and feel the evil radiating from within him when I turned around and faced back towards him.
I threw my Poke Ball and Gastly came out of it ready to go, I had a grin on my face knowing that my Gastly was immune or barely even affected by most other types of Pokémon. As I looked back up to Giovanni though I noticed that he also had that same grin and he said to me (it's not very often that I see someone able to raise and control a ghost type Pokémon, at your age I am very impressed". Then before I could even respond I heard Giovanni snap his fingers and a shutter door off to the side of the arena started rising. Out stepped a Pokémon that I had never seen before covered in a metal armor, it was very tall and had a very long tail. I knew I was looking at something very rare but what I didn't know so I pulled out my Poke Dex to try and figure out what it was, but the Poke Dex told me "Pokémon origin unknown no data provided". I just figured oh well already came this far we at least have to try, and without another seconds notice I tried to get the first jump on this strange and mysterious new Pokémon. I told Gastly to use Lick but as he was going in for it this new Pokémon shot a black energy ball that I had never seen before that my Gastly was barely able to dodge, and the energy ball collided with the wall behind us sending pieces of stone everywhere. I now knew by seeing the power of this blast that I wasn't going to be able to win this straight up and needed to do some improvising, so I told Gastly to knock out the lights in the arena and Gastly hit the lights with a Night Shade and in an instant, it was pitch black in the arena. Then it happened I could see in the dark again, the dream like haze was here and I could see that this unknown Pokémon and Giovanni was just unmoving not knowing what to do in this instant. I told Gastly now is our only chance and said hit that Pokémon with Lick now since it can't see where we are coming from he is on our field now.
That was what I had thought at least and my Gastly was blasted dead center with one of them strange energy balls before we even knew what had happened. When the smoke cleared, I could see Gastly laying on the ground and I took off running to him crying, scared about how bad my Pokémon was hurt. Giovanni ordered this strange Pokémon to return to its chambers and it done so without hesitation. Giovanni slowly got up the backup lights coming on in the process and started walking toward me as I was holding Gastly in my arms feeling terrible about how bad I had just got him hurt.
Giovanni then spoke and said "Usually I would just take your Pokémon by force from you after your defeat, but the the intelligence to break the lights and a trainer as young as you that can control a ghost type Pokémon I want to take under my wing and together our every dream will come true". I started thinking about this hard and questioningly as I barely knew this man but felt so drawn to him, then Giovanni spoke again saying "with my guidance this moment will become but a memory and one day you will be champion, I am the leader of an organization called Team Rocket and even though I usually wouldn't make this public knowledge, I can see that you belong in our family". Then he motioned up to a control tower of some sorts in the Gym and out walked a guy dressed in a pair of black pants and a black shirt with a red-letter R on them holding what seemed to be another uniform of the same type neatly folded. So here I was feeling totally defeated on my knees sobbing, a 10-year-old child holding his beloved first Pokémon who was badly hurt with Giovanni standing over me and I look up at him not ever wanting to experience this type of defeat again and I said "I accept".