Chapter 2: Route 1
Morning came to find Bear waking up early on the floor in his old room. His mother had left it the way he had even after eight years, and he doesn't quite fit into his bed anymore. Looking at the clock on his desk, 6:30AM. "I haven't been up this early in quite a while," thought Bear. Throwing on clothes and grabbing his belt with his four Pokéballs on it, Bear quietly opens up his door and sneaks downstairs to get some breakfast. Upon reaching the kitchen, Bear sees his brother sitting at the table.
"Morning squirt...Sorry about owning your Squirtle yesterday. I thought they'd have taught you something in that fancy school you went to."
"Morning fucktard...And they did, but they forgot to mention that Rhyhorn can use electric attacks." Ethan said bitterly "Where did your Rhyhorn learn thunderbolt anyway?"
"I probably shouldn't tell you this," said Bear sitting down at the table across from his brother "But I learned this from Brock, he has a Rhydon that can use thunderbolt and thunder."
Bear watched as the dark shadow of defeat flushed his baby brother's face. "How am I supposed to beat the first gym of the Indigo League if he's got such powerful Pokémon?" squalled Ethan.
"He only uses a specific Geodude and Onix for gym battles, but, like most gym leaders, he'll accept challengers who have already defeated his gym and battle with his stronger Pokémon. By the way when is this fancy graduation of yours?"
"It's at eight, so we should probably get mom, dad, and the girls up and get ready to head out to Oak's lab."
Later at Oak's Lab, Ethan stood on the stage with eleven other trainers. Six boys and six girls all starting the journey together. One by one they each got a Pokédex, a map, and a set of ten empty Pokéballs to use on their journey. After the ceremony the parents wished their children luck and waved them off into the world.
"Alright bro lets head off towards your first gym." said Bear.
"Where do we go first?" asked Ethan.
"Let's go to Route 1 to Viridian City and see if we can't get you a couple more Pokémon along the way!" Bear said proudly. Setting off only to get about a quarter mile before something stopped the brothers.
"Not so fast!" called out a very confident voice. "I want to challenge the washed up champ to prove how strong I am!"
Turning around Bear and Ethan saw a boy with shaggy red hair, wearing an overly large backpack with his tan shorts and blue shirt.
"I usually accept all challengers, but I'm afraid I'll just wipe the floor with you and no one wants to see that." Bear exclaimed a tad irritated.
"You're just scared you'll lose to a beginner trainer. Quit being a wuss and accept my challenge!" the voice nagged again.
"Don't pay Brice any attention, he's just a know-it-all asshole who thinks he's the best there is." mumbled Ethan so only Bear could hear him.
"That's okay my Pokémon and I will put him in his place." whispered Bear.
"Alright I accept your challenge, and I'm even going to let you randomly pick a Pokéball and I will battle with that Pokémon." Bear said to Brice taking five Pokéballs off of his belt.
"I pick this one." Price said pointing to the third ball.
"Okay you asked for it... come on out Umbreon." Bear said with a grin. "And I'll be fighting your Charmander is that correct Brice?"
"Yeah that's correct, now come on out Charmander!"
In a flash of light a small orange lizard with big green eyes and an orange and yellow flame on the tip of its tail is standing ready for battle opposite the black doglike Pokémon with yellow eyes and light blue rings on its head, ears, and tail.
"I'll allow you to make the first move since you are the challenger, Brice."
"Okay then Charmander use Scratch."
As Charmander runs in to scratch Umbreon, Bear commands "Dodge and follow up with Sand Attack." As commanded Umbreon dodged to the left and kicked up dirt at Charmander, hitting it right in the face blurring its vision.
"Now while Charmander's blinded, hit it with a Shadow Ball." On command Umbreon loosed a ball of purple and black energy knocking Charmander out.
"I told you it would be a loss Brice, now go back to Oak's and get your Charmander healed. And if you wanted a decent battle you should have challenged Ethan and actually had a battle that didn't last one futile attempt to use an attack that didn't land." Bear scolded.
"I didn't want to fight your stupid Umbreon anyway I wanted to fight your Charizard, but I followed the conditions..." Brice whined before being cut off by Ethan."You wanted your Charmander to fight Blaze? Are you insane? Blaze would have literally flown circles around your Charmander while lobbing fire attacks at it."Ethan said with disbelief.
"If it's a fight you want next time I run into you drips I'll beat the both of you" Brice said with rage before stomping off.
"Now that that's over let's go find you some more Pokémon," Bear directed at Ethan.
As the brothers walked down the lightly warn path of Route 1, they pass the other graduates in heated battles with the purple mouse Rattata, Pidgey, the small brown bird Pokémon, and Spearow, another tiny brown bird Pokémon. The tall green grass rustling in the breeze with a few trees poking up here and there. Pidgey sitting too close to the path take off one by one only to land a few hundred yards away in the grass.
"How am I supposed to catch a Pokémon if they run away and I can't find them," Ethan complained.
"Just wait a little bit longer, with all the trainers coming through today they're just spooky is all." Bear said to calm his brother, "Besides I know a few secret spots where we're going to catch you a couple very special Pokémon."
As the day progressed, the brothers walked north until they were under the cover of a sparse forest at the foot of a small mountain. Upon coming to a clearing the duo stopped for a quick lunch followed by a quick training exercise with Ethan's Squirtle.
"Now that lunch is over I'm going to try to teach you something useful for future battles, "Bear said with a smirk. "Alright baby bro, I want you to take out your Pokédex and place Torrent's Pokéball on the slide out tray. As they probably taught you, this is how you look at what moves your Pokémon knows and what level it is. But, what they probably didn't tell you is that you can also see what moves your Pokémon are capable of learning. Now for a Squirtle, the next non water type move that would be easy to learn is Ice Beam. Now I'm going to introduce you to one of my newest Pokémon."
In a ray of light a blue four legged Pokémon appeared.
"This is Glaceon, Eevee's ice evolution. I call her Frost."
"Can I call time-out real quick? You're going too fast like you always do Bear."
"Sorry baby bro, you know that's my weakness. I'm always thinking faster than I can speak. So, what is it you don't understand?"
"I hate to be a bother, but why would Ice Beam be a critical move for Torrent to learn?" asked Ethan quizzically.
"As they probably taught you, type advantage is important. You're going to need it to easily capture this Pokémon I'm taking you to. Also you're going to need an advantage over trainers who chose Bulbasaur as their starter," Bear quickly explained.
The hours passed and soon it began to get dark. Teaching Torrent Ice Beam was a big task that required both the Pokémon and trainers to rest multiple times. Eventually ending up with Torrent learning the move. Setting up camp for the night went quickly with two people.
"This is a beautiful night, and camp goes faster with a full team of Pokémon and two people to set up," laughed Bear recalling his first night,"This is much better than my first night. I spent all day trying to catch a Pidgey, of course your stubborn brother wanted the biggest and strongest one. It took me a day and a half to catch one Pokémon. And it rained on top of it."
After a moment of silence Ethan spoke, "Yea, I remember that night well, you left and I had my own room at last. But I missed you even though I never wanted to admit it"
"I missed you too bud, and I think this co-op journey will make up for lost time," Bear smiled, "Now, let's eat and get some sleep, you've got a big battle tomorrow."
Early in the morning, Bear awakes to the sound of fluttering and an Ice Beam attack being launched followed by the unmistakable *ping* of a Pokéball catching a Pokémon.
"Ethan must be training early and he must have caught a Pidgey," Bear thought to himself.
Smiling, Bear rolls over and goes back to sleep. Only to be woken a short while later by an angry female voice.
"I don't want to battle a worthless punk like you I want to know where Bear is so I can defeat him," shouts the unknown female.
"No, I'm not getting passed up. You should be battling people with your own skill. Just because you were the top of the class doesn't mean Bear won't wipe the floor with you. And seriously Ivy, you expect to fight his Charizard with the Bulbasaur you chose? You are close to suicidal at this point."
Bear smiles as he realizes how grown up his brother is.
"Fine, I'll just defeat you and have Pokémon left to challenge your brother. Your little Squirtle won't stand a chance against my Ivysaur."
Bear quickly scrambles out of his tent in time to slow the battle.
"Alright now that I'm up, I'll be the referee. Ivy how may Pokémon do you have?"
"I have three," Ivy said smugly, "I bet you haven't caught anything!"
"I have two Pokémon," Ethan says a tinge of emotion in his voice.
"So do we want a one-on-one with two Pokémon, or just a one-on-one single Pokémon? Ivy as the challenger you can decide."
"I want a single Pokémon battle. Then I'm coming after you!" screams Ivy.
"Alright choose your Pokémon."
"I'm choosing Torrent," says Ethan with more reassurance in his voice.
"Alright then I'm going to destroy you quickly with Ivysaur," Ivy said even more smugly than before.
In a glow of white light a green four legged dinosaur looking creature with a pink flower on its back appears.
"Before we begin I must commend you on working with your Ivysaur to make it evolve so quickly after starting your journey."
"That's because my Ivysaur is much better than your Charizard and your brother's puny Squirtle," gloated Ivy.
"Okay, let's get this battle over with. Ethan call the coin flip in the air."
"Tails."
"Alright and it's heads, Ivy, you make the first move."
"Ivysaur use vine whip!"
As commanded Ivysaur loosed two vines from its back and launched them towards Torrent.
"Torrent dodge and then use Ice Beam aimed at Ivysaur's feet."
Torrent jumped to the right missing the vines by inches and then shoots a pale blue beam of light at Ivysaur's feet.
"Quick Ivysaur jump and dodge it."
Ivysaur uses its vines to launch itself about ten feet in the air, but the Ice Beam has accomplished what it was intended to do. A sheet of ice now cover's Ivysaur's half of the field and the strategic genius of Ethan is now shown. But to Bear it is somewhat familiar. As Ivysaur lands, it slips on the ice and cannot get a stable footing to launch attacks accurately.
"Alright Torrent, launch repeated Ice Beams at Ivysaur. And Ivy before you start running your mouth about how my Pokémon are weak and my brother's Pokémon are weak, remember I have learned so much about Pokémon training by watching him and listening to his advice." Ethan said triumphantly.
The first five Ice Beams hit dead on causing Ivysaur to faint, but this also tired out Torrent and it collapsed shortly after the battle was decided.
"You cheated somehow. How did your Squirtle learn Ice Beam?" shrieked Ivy.
"Like I said I learned it from Bear. Or rather his Glaceon taught my Squirtle. While you were out grinding your Pokémon for sheer force I was training mine with intelligence. That is how I caught my Pidgeotto. I'll gladly heal your Ivysaur so you can battle Bear now." chimed Ethan with a smirk.
"I'll pass on that, but next time we meet I'm going to defeat both of you." Ivy snarled as she stormed off.
A few minutes passed before the rush of winning his first battle left Ethan. Once the moment had passed Bear healed Torrent, and set to work tearing down their campsite.
"That made for an Interesting morning, didn't it," Bear calmly said.
"Yea it did. I didn't want to wake you, but it looks like that didn't happen," Ethan said solemnly.
"I'm proud of you, asserting yourself like that and even catching another Pokémon while your big brother slept. But for now let's get packed up and head off for the lake it should just be a couple hours more of walking."