Chapter 1: On the Road to Viridian City
With Percy following close behind him, Jon headed north out of Pallet Town. As he walked north, he found his mind wandering back to a memory he thought had been buried forever.
"Come on! What's the reason you guys don't want me to be a trainer? Everybody else gets their first Pokemon at my age!" Jon had complained.
His mom had only sighed in response, knowing that her son would find it difficult to handle the full truth. "Jon, the thing is… well, you have a disease that makes it extremely challenging to be a trainer."
"A disease?" Jon had asked. "I'm not sick. I feel perfectly normal. My last several checkups went fine and everything!"
"People in your condition go through a lot of emotional pain on journeys. Many of them can't handle it, and are forced to turn back," his dad had said. "Your condition will only make things worse for you."
"That's why we want you to wait," his mom had added. "We don't want you to get hurt."
"All right…" Jon had said, turning and walking upstairs to his room, his countenance one of extreme dejection.
Not long after Jon stepped into the tall grass on Route 1, Percy was tackled from behind by a small purple form, snapping the trainer out of his thoughts. Turning around, Jon noticed that a wild Rattata had jumped him and his Pokémon. This little creature was no match for a few Tackles from Percy however, and it easily went down.
After exiting the small patch of grass in which he had encountered the Rattata, Jon met up with a worker from a Pokémon Mart who offered him a Potion. Thinking the man for his kind offer, Jon took the item. Considering that I used my other one in the match with Blue, this could come in handy. Jon and Percy headed farther towards Viridian, taking down every wild Pokémon in their path. As they entered the city, Jon was surprised to see his Pokémon open its mouth and release a stream of bubbles over the surrounding buildings.
"Awesome, Percy! You just learned Bubble!" "SQUIRTLE!" His Pokémon yelled in reply, proud of its new skill.
After the discovery surrounding Percy's new ability, Jon headed for the Pokémon Mart, where he was greeted by the store clerk as soon as he came in.
"Do you happen to know Prof. Oak?" The clerk asked.
"Yes sir, I'm actually his lab assistant," Jon answered.
"Well," the clerk replied, "he ordered an item that had to be specially made, and requested that it be delivered here. Would you mind delivering it to him for me? I don't have time to do it myself since I have everything in the store to manage."
"No problem," Jon said, confident that he was up to finishing the task.
Before heading back to Pallet Town with the Professor's delivery, Jon made sure that his Pokémon was ready for the journey back to the Professor's lab. Rather than take the long road through the grass, he chose to jump over the various ledges on the route and reached the professor's lab safely. After commenting on how attached Percy had become to Jon, the professor asked about the item he had ordered, and Jon handed it over. It turned out that this item was a special type of Poke Ball. I wonder if, by any chance, that delivery had something to do with Kurt, the well-known Poke Ball craftsman of the Johto Region.
Before Jon could pursue this line of thought any further, Blue raced into the lab. "You wanted me for something, Gramps?" he asked breathlessly.
"Oh yes," the professor said. "Take a look at that desk over there." The professor pointed towards a small desk on which two red handheld electronic devices were sitting.
"These," the professor said, "are known as Pokedexes. I invented them as electronic encyclopedias that would record information on any Pokémon that a trainer saw or caught. The Pokedex records more data on caught Pokémon than seen Pokémon however. And speaking of catching Pokémon…."
The professor handed Jon and Blue five small red and white capsules. "These," he said, "are your Poke Balls. You can use them to catch Pokémon."
"But we need to make sure that we have our own Pokémon weaken whatever Pokémon we're fighting first," Blue interjected.
"And there are other issues besides that," Jon added. "According to Kanto law, we're only allowed to catch one Pokémon per area, supposedly in order to prevent the extinction of certain species. Though I don't exactly see why that's that much of a problem."
"Well, get going, you two," the professor admonished. "I've waited for years to see the Pokedex project begun, since it took me so long to invent them."
"No problem, Gramps," Blue replied confidently. "The easiest way to get this journey started off will be to pick up a map from my sister. She's something of an amateur cartographer, you know. Race you back to my house, Jon!"
To his surprise, when Jon reached Blue's house, there was only one map sitting on Blue's dining room table, which Daisy let him take with no issues whatsoever. After acquiring the map, Jon headed back out onto Route 1, ready to expand his collection of Pokémon. However, before he could step out into the tall grass, the professor stopped him.
"Jon, take this as well before you go." The old man handed Jon a small device that looked like a Bluetooth earpiece. "This is known as a Translation Bud. It was invented by a group of scientists in Sinnoh about a year ago. After being tested and used to great effect by a trio of trainers in Sinnoh, it was released for public use. As its name implies, it is supposed to translate the language of Pokémon into human languages so the trainers of those Pokémon can understand and communicate with them better."
"Thanks for the gift," Jon replied.
"You're welcome," the professor said. "Now go on and get started on filling that Pokedex!" Jon indicated that he would, then raced off once again towards Route 1.