Red had awoken to the sound of cars driving down the Route 1 road. His escape for Pallet was much easier than he thought. The Pallet-Route 1 checkpoint was only manned by one army official and one officer allowing him to slip past under the cover of night.

Red knew that he couldn't travel on the main road. What little identification he had gave him away as a traitor, and even if he could escape, bounty hunters would be trailing close behind. The entire journey would not be too long. The old capital was only 3 miles north of Pallet, around a half days walk through the wilderness.

Red could see some birds flying through the trees, fluttering away from him whenever he got too close. The field mice were scurrying along, trying to avoid the fate of their fallen brothers. 1

Half a mile away from Viridian, Red found a young man wandering about. He stopped and shared a sandwich with Red and told him a little about himself. His name was mark, the son of an accountant at First Kanto Banking. He explained how his father home-schooled Mark to make sure he could be an accountant like his father which caused his family to come under random surveillance from the office of the premier.

"That's why I enjoy coming out here." Mark explained. "The east is just rocks, the west is militarized, the north is scary, but the south is so much nicer." Mark took a bite out of his sandwich and handed the other one to Red. He was grateful for the meal as it meant he didn't need to try and catch a bird or mouse to eat before going into Viridian.

After around a half an hour, Mark went on his way south. He had warned Red about the checkpoint for Viridian and the way around it, as well as letting him know where the Celedon Market is located in Viridian. 2

Once in Viridian, Red was in awe of how much bigger Viridian was than Pallet. The town was alive. Businesses had people moving in and out with customers, the highways jammed with cars, the sidewalks full of bikes and people moving along. Then suddenly it all came to a halt when a small army came out from the big mansion towards the north of town. A man with spiky red in the middle of them all. Even without the show of force protecting him, the man in the middle was exerting power with every step he graciously took. He disappeared behind a large building with a star and First Kanto written across it. A limo emerged with 10 protector cars surrounding speeding off to the west.

Red found the market, exactly where Mark said it would be, on the east side of town. Red had wandered around the loading area, looking for the old man's contact. After twenty minutes of looking, Red walked inside. He held out the envelope that was given to him and walked around the store. No customers took note of him as he walked through. He noticed an employee looking at him strange but didn't think much of it. 3

Finally an employee walked up and asked him, "Can I help you with anything?"

Red turned to him, his envelope in his right hand by his side, almost got the words out. He barely had time to see his name tag.

"I'll help him Jim. Go on, get." The employee who gave a weird look before, had rushed over and shoved aside his co-worker. "What you need is in the back, lets go get it." The employee quickly pushed Red towards the back of the store. He grabbed the envelope in Red's hand and was out the back of the store before turning around to scold him. "What the hell do you think your doing? Are you trying to blow my cover?"

Red was in shock at how quickly the man turned from nice to anger. "The old man just said that his contact would be working here." 4

"God damn him, why does he do this to me every time with newbies. He is terrible with the introduction material." The man must have been talking to himself, as red didn't know how to respond. The man sighed and turned back to him. "Ok here is how you find members from now on. Flash out your hands and make this sign." He moved his hands together, all fingers touching their corresponding fingers. Then the middle and ring finger went down and connected below. "Just make this hand signal anywhere in public. And then when you are approached, you say your code name and they will reply with Kanto, or whatever region your in at the time. Now take this back to the old man. Tell him rice ball needs a change in scenery."

Red was guided back to the path back to the route one trail and was given a parcel to come back. He was quickly sent on his way before rice ball got back into the city and disappeared. The sun was setting and soon it would be dark. Red did not want to be close to either town in fear of being captured. He got back into the open fields, waited for the sun to set, and ran off into the night. 5