Chapter One: The Road to Viridian City
Yellow looked up at the slowly darkening sky with worry. He had spent most of the morning walking along Route One, a pretty path lined on either side with fields of flowers and small clusters of trees which spanned the distance between Pallet Town and Viridian City. The tree-lined path offered only the barest shade from the hot summer sun, but the sun had disappeared behind grey storm clouds not long ago, and the rest of the sky seemed to be quickly following. Suddenly the lack of ambient noise which Yellow had attributed to it being a lazy Sunday afternoon made him nervous. Usually a travelling pokémon could count on the locals for company: those who preferred the wild life, living in rugged trees and holes in the ground, or else fellow travelers, sticking to well-worn paths rather than navigating the wild. But the route was quiet and not a pokémon was in sight. Nearly everyone seemed to be hunkered down in anticipation for the oncoming storm. The darkening sky made the tree-lined path more eerie than cheery and Yellow adjusted the satchel on his shoulder, quickening his pace along the dusty path. It would only be a matter of minutes until rain started pouring on Yellow's head. If he wanted to avoid a potential disaster, he would have to find shelter, and fast. Those clouds looked capable of producing lightning as well as torrential downpours. That was never a good combination, especially for a lone pikachu like himself.
Yellow cursed to himself as he ran along the worn-out path to Viridian City. He didn't know how much further he had until he reached the city. This was the furthest he had ever been from Pallet Town, despite Viridian City only being a half a day's journey.
Why did I agree to this errand again? Oh right. I'm too afraid to say 'no' to anyone.
Finally, Viridian City appeared over the horizon, bright and noisy. Yellow hardly had time to appreciate the immensity of the city before he felt the first drops of rain. Recalling his instructions to find the PokéMart located near the southern entrance to the city, Yellow looked around for some sort of sign to point him in the right direction. Luckily the streets were well marked and empty of pokémon and he quickly found the blue-roofed building, praying that the lightning would hold off until he made it inside.
The large automatic door slid shut behind him just as the first flash of lightning lit up the sky.
The store looked eerily empty. Except for the cashier and Yellow himself, there was nobody in the brightly lit store. It seemed that, like on Route One, everyone in the city was trying to avoid the storm. Summer storms were known to be intense but short, so most pokémon usually found somewhere sheltered to wait out storms rather than risk injury by going outside. The cashier, a young hitmonlee not much older than Yellow, looked up from his video game and quickly hid it under the counter. The music was still audible, and he seemed to be thoroughly embarrassed. Yellow gave a sympathetic smile. Then he remembered why he had run into the store.
"Err...I was sent here by the Professor. Professor Oak that is...I'm not sure if you know him, but..."
"Oh!" The hitmonlee's eyes widened. "I've been expecting you! The Professor ordered a new product the other day and it got delivered here by mistake. I didn't know he was sending a pikachu, all he said was that one of his assistants was coming today to pick it up. I guess that's you, right?"
Yellow nodded, and hoped that his embarrassment wasn't showing. He wasn't really Professor Oak's assistant. In fact, he hardly knew him. But Yellow wasn't about to say no to the most well-known pokémon researcher in all of Kanto, and Oak told him that he would be given a reward for picking up the package. The hitmonlee left the register and went to the back of the shop, calling out behind him, "I'll just be a few minutes, the inventory room is a mess, why don't you look around a little?" Yellow took his advice and meandered up and down the aisles, the jingly music of the video game fading in and out of hearing as he walked back and forth. PokeMarts were the largest chain of convenience stores in Kanto, so they had a little bit of everything, which made browsing really interesting. Yellow's hometown of Pallet was void of any chain stores like this, and Yellow was excited to see what all the hype was about. There seemed to be a new brand of battle stimulants on sale, boasting that they would boost your abilities in battle for up to one hour after ingesting them. And there was a large bin full of cheaply made pokédolls, mostly clefairys for some reason. There were a few fishing rods in the back corner that they looked like they had never been touched, which wasn't surprising since Viridian City wasn't exactly on the coast. After a few minutes of browsing Yellow heard the hitmonlee's heavy steps and he made his way back to the counter.
"Here you go," the cashier said, as he handed a medium sized cardboard box down to Yellow. Yellow thanked the hitmonlee and exited the shop. As he left he saw the cashier pull his video game out from under the counter. It was still raining, but the lightning had let up enough that Yellow felt he was safe to run across the street to the pokémon center. He didn't want to get whatever was in the box wet, so after putting it in his bag he sprinted as fast as he could to the pokémon center door. The lobby was overcrowded, probably due to the many pokémon seeking refuge from the storm. Thinking it would be wise to stay for the night rather than walking home in the dark or getting the mysterious contents of the box wet, Yellow squeezed his way to the reception desk and asked for a room. The chansey at the counter gave him a sad look.
"I'm sorry, but there are just no single rooms left. If you'd like, you can share with another someone who needs one, but you'll have to ask around. We only have a few double rooms left, so you'll have to hurry."
Yellow nodded and set off to find a roommate. He hoped that someone would approach him first. He'd never been to a large pokémon center and wasn't sure about the etiquette in this kind of situation.
How am I supposed to ask someone to room with me? Do I just go up and ask if they want to sleep with me?
He asked a butterfree, psyduck, sandshrew, oddish and pinser (he was getting quite desperate at that point) before finally, someone agreed to room with him for the night. It was a burly and aggressive looking mankey, and Yellow was a little hesitant at first, but as he talked to the mankey, he realized that she was actually quite nice, and was in fact looking for a roommate herself. Together, they went back up to the reception desk and got a room key from the tired chansey. As they walked to their room, the mankey introduced herself as Judy, and told Yellow that she had come to Viridian city from her home town of Cerulean to challenge the Viridian City gym leader. But when she got to Viridian, the gym was closed.
"You want to challenge Giovani?" Yellow asked, stunned. "Only the strongest pokémon even consider challenging him! He's like...unbeatable!"
Judy gave Yellow an amused look. "First of all, he's not 'unbeatable'. Nobody is unbeatable, not even Lance. Second, I need only need one more badge before the end of the year if I want to take the elite four challenge, and his is the one I need. And third of all, who says I'm not strong? Just because I'm young and I'm not evolved doesn't mean I can't fight!" Judy had clearly had many arguments about her abilities in the past because her amusement quickly turned to irritation as she continued her rant.
Yellow raised his paws in surrender. "Whoa. I never said anything about your age having anything to do with my doubt. I've just never heard of a mankey trying to challenge the strongest gym leader in the league. Even the other gym leaders seem to avoid him!"
Judy raised an eyebrow but smiled. "Would you like to battle me? Then maybe you can see just how strong I am."
Yellow's stomach jolted.
"Err...I'm not sure..."
"What are you, a scared little caterpie?" Judy laughed playfully.
"It's just that, I've never really...well, I haven't really..."
Judy stopped laughing and a serious look flashed across her face. "Are you trying to tell me that you've never battled before?"
"...yeah..."
Judy looked like she didn't know what to say to that. To a fighting pokémon, saying that you didn't battle was like saying you didn't drink water. Both were an essential part of existence. Seeing the look she was giving him, Yellow quickly tried to explain himself.
"It's my mom. She is so protective of me. She didn't even really want me to come to Viridian city on an errand for Professor Oak, and I only live in Pallet town! There aren't a whole lot of pokémon in my town who are into battling either, so if I really wanted to fight I'd have to go in the woods and battle the locals."
Judy nodded in understanding but gave Yellow a look that he took as pity. "Well, if I'm going to battle Giovani tomorrow, I'm going to need a lot of sleep, good night Yellow."
Pleased that he didn't have to explain himself any further, and pleased that Judy believed his reasons, he said goodnight and turned off the light on the way to his bed.
When Yellow woke up the next morning Judy was already gone, though she had thoughtfully left a note on the door.
'Yellow: Thank you for letting me room with you last night, I don't know what I would have done if I hadn't found a room. I'm sorry I left without saying goodbye, but Nurse Joy told me that Giovani would only be accepting one challenger per day, and I wanted to be that one. I hope our paths cross again someday, and if not, good luck with all you do in your life! Don't worry about last night, I didn't mean to upset you, I was just surprised a pikachu like you wouldn't be into battling. You knew so much about Giovani that I though you must be challenging the gym leaders too. You were even doing an errand for Professor Oak! He's a legend in the battling scene! Well, I'd better start to wrap it up, so bye!
Love, Judy, your new friend.
p.s. If you ever change your mind, I'd still love to have a battle with you! I live in Cerulean City, and our Nurse Joy can point you in the right direction if you can't find me. Even if you don't want to battle, you can still drop by anytime! My mom bakes a great apple pie!'
Yellow was touched by the letter. He didn't have any friends at home, his shy personality and submissiveness didn't attract many friends in a town such as Pallet, where despite what he told Judy, nearly every child tried to compete in the league. He often got made fun of, and his supposed lack of enthusiasm about battling led to many awful nicknames, "Wimpychu" and "Mellow Yellow" among the worst.
After carefully folding Judy's note and putting it in his bag, Yellow checked out at the desk and started walking back to Pallet Town. He had a long walk ahead of him if he wanted to make it to Pallet Town before lunch.
NOTES: (I know there's a lot, but most of it is important)
Wow. It's been a while since I touched this fic. I've been thinking about this fic for years and even had the first chapter posted on here (six!) years ago but stalled after that first chapter. I got inspired again when Pokémon GO came out and have been waiting to finish an outline before reposting it. Now that that outline is finished, Chapter 2, and the rest of the fic, won't be far behind! The outline, (fifteen-page and counting) plots up to the very end of this fic with a pretty strong idea of the story's main plot threads, so even if it takes a while between updates (three jobs and grad school will do that to you), this fic does have an intended conclusion already figured out, and I do intend on finishing it. This story will be LENGTHY AS HECK (an estimated 63 chapters give or take!) so buckle up for a long ride.
The story will roughly follow the plot of the original games (and weaves it together with some elements from the anime and the manga). Look out for lots of references and throwbacks to obscure pokémon lore and theories! Let me know your favorite bits of random pokémon trivia in the comments! If I don't already have a plan for it, I may just slip it in somewhere! If you've consumed pokémon media of all types, you should be able to pick up on some small throwaway details that others might not, including the direction of some plot points, so keep an eye out!
There will be some key differences to separate this from pokémon fics, especially those in the Original Trainer/Pokémon Journey genre, which this basically is. Some will be obvious (like all the characters being pokémon instead of humans!) but others, I hope, will introduce an element of adventure and mystery, despite everyone probably being able to guess how things will turn out in the end:)
This fic is only going to contain the original 151, not because I am a Pokémon Purist (Gen 2 is my personal favorite), but because adding more than that would have made this fic even more unwieldy than it already is. Just enjoy all the nostalgia and don't get too hung up on the details. (I do have an in-universe reason for why there's only Kanto natives, but it will only be hinted at in the background, not play a part in the main plot.)
I'd love your feedback, especially because I feel like this is very tell-y right now, instead of show-y, and it's a little shorter than I'd like it to be, but I felt like this was a good stopping point/introduction.
Next time on WALiaPW: Yellow returns home and is told what his reward is, and his mom is a helicopter parent.