"Charmander, use scratch!"
In Kanto's Route 1, a familiar scene was playing out to the local Pokémon.
A young trainer, complete with a Pokéball themed backpack and a ridiculous cap, was eagerly jumping about while yelling out commands to his equally-eager Pokémon.
The Charmander let out a yell that was perhaps meant to be threatening yet came out adorable. The lizard rushed its opponent. Its opponent, a Rattata, froze, slightly overwhelmed by the shouts, before hurriedly moving aside so that the fire type's claws only scraped his back. He responded with a quick tackle to the Charmander's side only to receive a much more damaging ember in his face. As the Rattata recoiled from the flames, the trainer called out for a scratch which, unlike the last one, successfully connected. The Rattata squeaked in pain but still fought back. He tried a quick attack which didn't do much and all it took was one more ember to knock him from the fight.
"Yeah! You did it Charmander!" The trainer shouted.
The Charmander let out a happy "Charmander!" which, unbeknownst to the trainer, meant "I did!"
Laughing, the two continued along the first route of their adventure.
The Rattata was left where he had fallen. After a few minutes, he began to stir and let out a weak moan. For a moment, he seemed disorientated. However, his encounter with the trainer soon came rushing back to him and the purple rat gasped and shot upright. A few seconds of panic was followed by him visibly relaxing upon realising he had been left alone. His ears relaxed and his breathing slowed, but he still appeared shaken.
He cautiously set off, his white paws hardly making a sound as they darted over the vibrant grass. Once he had reached the shade of the trees, the Rattata slowed down and began to sniff the air. Soon he came to a hole tucked in the roots of one of the trees and slipped inside where he curled up. The Rattata noticed he was shaking slightly and took in a deep breath. He let it out slowly. This seemed to work, before long he drifted into a light sleep.
"COLBY!"
A sudden shrill voice from outside the burrow caused the Rattata to jolt awake. Jumping to all fours, his coarse fur bristling, he turned to the entrance.
"Who ... Who's that?" He called. While he had intended the challenge to sound intimidating, his young voice combined with his nerves made the question come out as more of a squeak.
"It's me! You know, Meilikki? Your friend? Pidgey?"
"Oh." The Rattata responded. Slowly, he stepped forward and poked his head out to the sight of a small brown bird. She was hopping between two clawed talons.
"Hey, Meili." He said. His voice had gone from frightened to just tired. The day was starting to get to him.
Despite this, Meilikki did not lose any of her enthusiasm.
"What you doing here? It's getting late!" She asked, taking a step back to allow Colby to exit his small burrow.
"I didn't want to go home just yet." He said dejectedly.
"Why? And why do you sound upset?"
Cobly took a look around. While the answer wasn't exactly a secret, he still didn't want to be overheard. He found that the area was more or less empty but he still leaned in before he answered.
"I met a trainer." he whispered. The flying type's eyes went wide at this revelation as she fluttered into the air briefly in excitement.
"Really? Wow!" She exclaimed "Did you battle them?" Seeing Colby's nod, she gasped and asked, "Did you win?"
At this, Colby's ears went flat against his head and he looked to the ground.
"No." He told her in a meek voice.
"Oh." The Pidgey seemed to pick up on her friend's mood as her voice became much more subdued.
"Um, are you ok?" She asked, sounding rather awkward – as if she felt this question was coming too late.
"He had this weird orange Pokémon that nearly set me on fire!" The Rattata told her. "It was really strong and I fainted."
Meilikki looked shocked.
"It nearly set you on fire? Wow, trained Pokémon are so strange!"
Colby could only give an upset nod which prompted her to calm down again.
"It's really cool that you battled them, though." She told him, trying to be supportive.
"But I lost! I'm never going to be strong like you."
"I'm not stronger than you!" Said Meilikki, surprised. "I've only ever beaten one other Pokémon."
"But I never have." Colby insisted. The Rattata took his tail in a forepaw and began to fiddle with the end. "I never even do much damage."
Colby had been so busy lamenting his loss that he was startled when he felt something soft wrap around him. Looking towards Meilikki, he found the bird standing next to him with a wing wrapped around his back – the closest she could come to giving him a hug. Colby froze in place. He could feel his face growing hot under his fur and clutched his tail slightly harder. Soon he relaxed in his friend's warm feathers and found himself returning the hug.
After a few seconds, Meilikki removed her wing and Colby stepped back, embarrassed but no longer so subdued from his battle.
"Thanks." He told her with a slight smile.
"No problem." His friend responded. If she could have, she would have beamed. Any sense of discomfort, like Colby, was impossible to see.
The next few moments passed in silence. Meilikki seemed to want Colby to speak next and Colby just needed to get his thoughts together. After some time, the Rattata looked at his friend.
"Do you think either one of us will get taken along by a trainer?" He asked tentatively.
The Pidgey took a second to think before replying.
"If we keep trying then we must at some point, right?" She said, sounding uncharacteristically uncertain before rallying. "We don't need them to get strong, though! We can train ourselves and become really strong! You'll be a big Raticate and I'll be a scary and powerful Pidgeot! All those trainers will be sorry they never brought us along."
"Why don't we just do that anyway?" Colby asked.
"We can do both!" Meilikki declared. "We will train and try to get a trainer to take us. Maybe we could even travel like they do."
Colby appeared lost in thought.
"Travel." he repeated, staring up into the sky as he pondered what that would be like. Would they meet new Pokémon? Would they be dangerous? What food would they find?
He noticed the sky then, which was growing darker as the sun sank below the trees.
"Oh, no!" he exclaimed. "I should be getting back now."
Meilikki also looked up and gasped.
"Me too! My parents are going to be so mad."
"Bye, Meili! And thanks!" Colby yelled to the Pidgey as she took to the skies.
"Bye Colby." she responded before she soared out of sight.
As the two young Pokémon hurried home, they thought about what they had decided upon. It wouldn't affect them much in the short term but that conversation had set off a series of events that would eventually lead to a challenge that no wild Pokémon had ever even attempted. If this was a good thing, however, remained to be seen.