Author's note: Hey! Hope you all enjoyed the first episode. I know this next one is a little short, i'm trying to increase the length of the chapters as I go.
Episode 2: Bulbasaur vs. Eevee!
To get to Viridian City, trainers need to pass through Route 1. On the whole, it wasn't too bad. Just fields that seemingly go for miles with little groups of trees scattering the landscape. For Niko, it really was a nice sight. Fay and JJ seemed to enjoy it too when they all sat down for lunch a couple of hours after leaving Pallet Town.
"Say JJ, you plan on taking on the gyms in Kanto, too?" Fay asked in between bites of his sandwich. JJ looked up at him with the kind of look that said "of course I am, why wouldn't I?"
"Yes Fay, of course I plan on battling the gym leaders."
"Ok ok, was just curious is all. Since we're travelling together it's important to know these things, right?" JJ replied with a nod. Fay turned to me. "You are too, Niko. Right?" he nodded.
"Indeed, I would like to catch some Pokémon before I battle the Pewter gym, though." It then crossed Niko's mind that he didn't know what kind of Pokémon he wanted to catch. Ideally, a trainer wants types of Pokémon that can trump the gym leader's type. But he didn't know what type Brock uses. Come to think of it, he don't know much about the Pokémon that he already has.
Niko picked Bulbasaur's Pokeball from his pocket, pressed the middle button to enlarge it, and tossed it on the ground to release the seed Pokémon. Bulbasaur looked at him quizzically, as if it hardly knew who its trainer was. Which is kind of true, actually.
"Alright Bulbasaur, you're my very first Pokémon, and I want to get to know more about you, since we'll be on this journey for a very long time."
"Bulb-aaaa!" Bulbasaur said in response. Niko wasn't quite sure what it was trying to communicate to him. He then picked off a piece of the nutrition bar that he was eating and put out his hand towards Bulbasaur.
"Here Bulbasaur, want some?" Bulbasaur looked at the bar for a moment, trying to see if it could recognize the food first. Once it realized that it, in fact, could not, it decided to walk over and try it. When Bulbasaur got to Niko's hand, it sniffed it, and then the nutrition bar. After a moment of further surveying it, Bulbasaur eventually grabbed the piece out of his palm and smiled as it munched on the bar. "Haha! I'm glad you like it, Bulbasaur!"
Fay and JJ followed suit with their respective Pokémon. Charmander immediately took a liking to Fay, grabbing his sandwich right out of his hands and chewing on it happily. Eevee, on the other hand, was very nervous around JJ. He tried giving a potato chip to his Pokémon, but the little Eevee looked unsure about it. JJ eventually placed his bag of chips on the ground in front of Eevee, and then laid on his back in the grass, looking up at the clear blue sky.
"What's up JJ?" Niko asked after feeding another piece of my nutrition bar to Bulbasaur.
"Oh nothing much, just thinking."
"Thinking about what?" Fay asked, putting the plastic bag that held his sandwich back into his pack.
"Nothing much." Fay and Niko both looked at each other, a little confused.
"You're not…thinking about anything…?"
"Yeah, nothing much." JJ then sat up on his shoulder and looked over at his travelling companion. "Say Niko…wanna battle?"
He thought about this for a moment. He hasn't ever battled anyone before. It would be an exciting experience, and obviously something he'd have to get used to if he ever wanted to be the Indigo League champion.
"Yeah JJ, I accept your challenge!" Niko got up and looked at Bulbasaur. "You ready to battle?" Bulbasaur's face changed into one of determination. He was clearly ready as well.
JJ, Niko, and their Pokémon ran down to the bottom of the hill they were sitting on and stood about 10 yards away from one another, with their Pokémon right in front of them. Fay and Charmander refereed the match.
"Alright Bulbasaur, let's go! Go and use tackle on Eevee!" Niko proclaimed. Bulbasaur then tried to run as fast as he could towards Eevee, but it wasn't fast enough, because Eevee was able to get out of the way quickly.
"Good job Eevee, now let's use tackle in return!" JJ yelled out. But Eevee didn't move. Instead it just looked up at JJ, and then at Bulbasaur, and once again at JJ. "Eevee, what are you doing? You have to attack Bulbasaur! That's how we win!" While he was trying to coach Eevee, Niko took advantage of the situation and commanded Bulbasaur to use tackle again. This time it hit, and Eevee fell back a couple of feet, right in front of JJ. Eevee didn't get up immediately, and when it did, it ran off, away from JJ and everyone.
"Oh, Eevee…come back!" JJ yelled, getting up and following Eevee in the direction of a group of nearby trees. Niko looked over at Fay and went over to the trees as well. They then saw JJ trying to comfort Eevee, but the little foxlike Pokémon wasn't having any of it. It was clear to everyone that Eevee did not like battling, but JJ didn't really seem to understand why. Eventually, JJ put Eevee back in its Pokeball and stood back up in front of the rest of the group.
"I'll just have to work on this, I don't know uh know what's up with Eevee. I want it to like battling, or at least to be okay with it."
"Well, you shouldn't try to push it to want to battle as hard as you are. You just yelled out commands without trying to make a connection with Eevee" explained Fay. Niko nodded in agreement. Even though, in retrospect, Niko was also guilty of just blindly yelling out commands, he figured this worked because Bulbasaur was eager to fight. Eevee wasn't. How they would get Eevee to have that fighting spirit that would deliver gym badges to JJ, none of them were entirely sure.
They were starting to walk back to the hill when Fay broke into a sprint towards his backpack, which he just left behind. Niko looked over at the hill more closely, and saw that a little ball of fur with legs and arms was rummaging through Fay's backpack. He then broke into a run to follow Fay and the hairy thief.
By the time they got there, the creature had already run off. Fay was looking through his backpack to see what was stolen, and JJ and Niko looked over the nearby landscape to see where it could have gone.
"Do you see anything Niko?"
"Nothing, JJ. Whatever that thing was, it's apparently long gone."
"What the hell was that?" JJ asked, looking over at Fay.
"I don't freakin' know JJ!" Fay shouted back. "Whatever it was, it took the food I had premade for dinner. Little asshole." Fay then closed his backpack. "Whatever. Let's just keep going to Viridian City. We can stock up on supplies there. Maybe we might see that creature on the way. And if we do, I'm fighting it."
"Yeah, good idea. We aren't too far from Viridian City. We probably have another mile or so to go." Niko responded, looking at the map of western Kanto that he brought with him from home. "And if we see that…thing, we will be sure to get back at it for stealing your food." Fay nodded in response, and the three of them headed down the hill and on to Viridian City.
