Chapter 3: Rocket

A/N: So…. My sincerest apologies for being this off track with the chapter…. This [School] Year has been inexplicably busy for me and I simply haven't been able to focus, and when I got the plot under control, I barely had time to write. I have to say that I'm going to not write in first person, I tried it and it turned out horribly… So I'm going to stick to my tested and tried style of writing, and I hope you all enjoy this story. I have one other thing to say which is that I'll try to reply to those reviews by people with proper accounts. Because Guest Reviews, well they tend to take up to days [a friend once posted one and told me the next day] to appear on the story. Not that I mind them in the least. I really would love reviews as a whole. Any reviews from this day onwards [5th of June 2016], I will do my best to remember to reply to. Side note…. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE READ THE PROLOGUE OF MY NEW STORY WAYFARER! The amount of views it's garnered since I released it back in April I think is depressing. It explains how Black was put into a coma. The story will start from the moment he wakes up, and as the summary dictates, finds himself once more a wayfarer. In any case, holidays now, so I can write peacefully without getting grilled for why I'm sitting in front of my computer instead of studying. And so begins the next chapter of Red – The Road to Champion.


Four Days after the encounter in the forest…

Red stepped out of the thicket, utterly sick of the forestry at this point, feeling with his hands to see if he would crash into anything. He raised his leg to avoid an overgrown root, going to low and tripping, crashing face first into the ground. He swore loudly, startling a nearby Caterpie as he rose. Grumbling to himself he picked at his belt, reaching for the pokeball that contained Hurycayn and releasing the Charmeleon in front of him, damning the fire hazard. He had had enough. His torch had died two days ago, and he wanted to be able to see.

He could hear the voice again vaguely, able to make out a request for the time.

"It's around 3:30 p.m. Hurycayn if that's you nod." Red stared at the orange lizard, or proto dragon, discerning a nod in the light of its tail. "Please don't try and direct me again. I checked the Pokedex entry on you. Until you're a Charizard, you constantly smell smoke in your nostrils from uncontrollable exhaust fumes. Or whenever you breathe. Either way really, for now guidance isn't really your forte."

Hurycayn feigned a growl, swatting his leg playfully and walking along with him as he forged his own way through the woods, using the hunting knife he had gotten with his survival kit to clear branches, keeping an eye on Hurycayn's tail.

A few hours later he pressed through the final gap in the trees and burst into a clearing lit with the evening sun. Opposite him was a rest house, which marked the exit or entrance of Viridian Forest. Red had never before been so glad to see the symbol of the Pokemon Rangers, engraved in the stone walls above the door.

He stumbled into the establishment, his Charmeleon behind him as he made his way to a vending machine, subconsciously on the lookout in case anyone tried to pull anything on him. Trust was a hard forged item, and broke more easily than glass. He slipped a large coin into the machine, pulling out a bottle of water and a soda, drinking the latter and handing the former to Charmeleon, who clawed open the bottle and drained half of it immediately. Red took the remainder from him, emptying it into his own water bottle and tossing the plastic one in a recycling bin. He walked out of the building through the massive double doors on the other side of the room, emerging onto a paved stone brick path tinted orange by the evening sun.

He took a deep breath, the air fresh and crisp, before walking on. For another hour he continued on down the winding path before he reached what seemed to be a landmark of sorts. He was standing between a log cabin and a large statue made of stone, a carving of a massive draconic Pokemon Red didn't recognize. It was very furry, to discern from the statue. But the most striking feature was that it had three heads, one in the center, eyes and all, and a small one at the end of each arm, fur covering the eyes, mouths agape. It hide was flecked with a second color, which one Red was clueless about since the entire statue was grey stone. It seemed as though the artist had managed to capture the creature mid flights, about to snap up its prey.

His eyes flitted to the bottom of the statue, finding no pedestal or engraving anywhere on it. The only thing he could see on it was a large symbol, a shield with a sword stowed behind it and an illegible letter on it. Red shifted uncomfortably, getting bad vibes from the statue and moved away, gesturing for Hurycayn to follow.

All of a sudden he found himself being pulled down to the ground by an invisible weight, until he was flat against it, able to see shadows forming around him as an all-encompassing presence pressed onto his mind, two emotions emanating from it in waves. First an insatiable hunger, both literally, and a thirst for blood. And secondly rage without any semblance of sanity. Red couldn't tell what was happening but he could feel a chill in his bones, something draining all the energy from them. He tried to cry out for help, only to release a weak guttural cry that he realized was barely audible. Then finally he felt the pressure relent and lost consciousness.


Red woke up to see the sun shining through a window in the log cabin he had noticed earlier, a small blanket over him and an old man sitting opposite him. His skin was deeply tanned, if not dark naturally, and his grey eyes were as cold and hard as the stone of the streets. His beard was snow white and was cut short, barely covering his chin. He had a fedora pulled over a bald head and sat next to a closed great ball.

"Who are you, where am I and what happened?" Red asked, shifting into a sitting position as he set aside the blanket, seeing Hurycayn conscious and sitting buy a crackling hearth.

"I am Ingrid. Yes my name is actually Ingrid before you ask." The old man grimaced, as though in pain from an old wound. "You're in the log cabin opposite the statue. As for what happened, that'll take a while longer. Have a cup of cocoa and listen."

He slid a steaming white cup across the table in front of him to Red, sipped from his own and shifted in his chair.

"It begins with a bit of a tale really. Listen quietly. I'm not going to repeat myself here. In the olden days, before technology allowed mining to be conducted on a mass scale and Pokemon trainers were uncommon, Pewter was the biggest Military Force in Kanto. I say the biggest mind you, not the most powerful. They're infantry was feared across the land. But they never laid siege to anyone unless absolutely necessary. What they were really famous for were their defenses. As you'll continue on to Pewter if you're going there, because you don't look like you're from around here, you'll see. The city was built in a natural hard plain between the stone hills. Overtime, the city transformed that ring of hills into a wall, plateaus on the inside ranging in height. The gym is visible over the walls, and the ground near the walls is much higher, but the roads are sunken and the buildings high. Defense. No one has ever knocked down Pewter's gates, let alone taken the city." Red sipped the cocoa slowly, trying to avoid singing his tongue.

"But there was one man who nearly destroyed the city six hundred years ago. The only reason he was not recorded in history is because he was chased out of the city and where the gym leader slew him. He destroyed most of the city, and set the remainder on fire. All with one Pokemon. The one out there… We don't know what it is, and if anyone in the city does know it'll be the gym leader."

"Why do you have a monument of the Pokemon that did that outside the city?" Red asked, interrupting without thinking.

"It's not a monument. That's the actual thing. No one could slay it. But the gym leader in a flurry managed to seal it in stone. It's still alive to this day. What you felt was its energy, pressing you down to absorb into its shadowy existence and use as energy. It's always there trying to break free. I froze it over again. That'll maim it for another few months maybe. I live here by my own will to keep it at bay. The name of this monster was Hurricane, as its master beckoned it." What you felt was its energy, pressing you down to absorb into its shadowy existence and use as energy. It's always there trying to break free. I froze it over again. That'll maim it for another few months maybe. I live here by my own will to keep it at bay. The name of this monster was Hurricane, as its master beckoned it." What you felt was its energy, pressing you down to absorb into its shadowy existence and use as energy. It's always there trying to break free. I froze it over again. That'll maim it for another few months maybe. I live here by my own will to keep it at bay. The name of this monster was Hurricane, as its master beckoned it." The old man finished, Red noticing his own Charmeleon visibly cringe.

"Why did that siege let's call it, occur?" Red asked, confused as to why one man, powerful though he was, would try and raze a city to the ground.

"Simply because he could. Records say the same man met with the gym leader and demanded the city be turned over to him, and upon Byron's refusal, he left, and returned a week later with his beast." The man shrugged, taking Red's now empty mug.

"Thank you for the tale, saving my life and the cocoa, but if you don't mind, I'll be on my way." Red stood up stiffly, Hurycayn hurrying to hi side. It worried him who this man was whose Pokemon could hold such a creature at bay and had tasked himself with living in seclusion to guard it.

"Oh one more thing kid… Your Charmeleon wants to cast off his name." This time Red could see a sparkle in his eyes. His own wide, he nodded uncertainly and stepped out of the house quickly, scooping up Hurycayn and breaking into a sprint.

He ran until he felt he was safe, for about twenty minutes, panting heavily by the end of it. Finally, he sat down, letting go of Hurycayn and sitting down.

"Was that man actually able to see what you were feeling? And I can understand why you'd want to cast aside that name now." Red laughed sheepishly, still worried about who the man was.

Hurycayn nodded twice, staring at him with a wistful look in his eyes.

"I guess then from this day forward, you're Charmeleon, and Charizard when you evolve. Let's get back on the move. It's around ten thirty right now." Charmeleon nodded happily as Red continued on, following him.

Soon Red could see what Ingrid, if that really was his name, had been talking about. The city was ringed with a wall around twenty meters high with sections of the hills previously surrounding the city protruding from it like buttresses. The walls themselves were the craftsmanship of master stone masons, each stone brick carved perfectly, the turrets shaped well to provide both a good vantage point for archers, with alcoves designed to shield them should they be attacked. He could see the city gates down the road and twenty minutes later he was only twenty meters from them. He picked up a loose brick lying in a pile of broken ones near one of the foothills of the hills, examining it. The wall seemed to be made up of bricks which interlocked and even if they hadn't been cemented together, couldn't have been torn apart save by a fighting Pokemon. With the reinforcements he could see and the thickness of the walls it was evident why Pewter was never taken. Standing in front of a massive barred iron gate were twenty guards, guiding people into lines at the two windows in the wall, where people were getting their passports stamped and were being let into or in some cases out of the city.

He walked up, recalling Charmeleon and pulling out his own papers. A six and a half foot tall guard wearing full combat armor and carrying a lance about seven feet long guided him into line to be checked, patting him down and inspecting the contents of his bag before passing him onto the immigration officer. The man behind the window seemed soulless and looked to be working in a mechanical pattern, but that wasn't the case. His eyes were sharp and alert, matching every detail on all his papers and checking all the signs to make sure they were legitimate in seconds in a practiced order before stamping the documents and waving Red in.

Inside it didn't seem like the fortress it looked like from the outside. He walked down a low slope to the main roads, which were sunken below the rim, as was most of the city, all the streets perfectly paved and kempt, and people walking around and chatting with each other, playing with their Pokemon. The buildings were low and flat, increasing in overall height towards the northwest quarter of the city. Save one building with a bright red tiled roof. Red headed straight to what was evidently the Pokemon center only to find himself in a building so shockingly different from Viridian City's Pokemon center he wouldn't have believed it was one unless he had read the sign outside and seen the red roof, the only one of its kind in the city.

The floor was polished marble, white flecked with veins of gold, and the roof high arched slightly towards the center, which was a massive skylight. Pillars of chiseled white marble supported it, flecked with silvery dots and particles. The walls on each side were somewhat rough black slate, sanded to some extent, with water streaming down their surfaces from cavities in the roof down to rimmed cavities in the floors, undoubtedly carrying the water back up to the top. The central hall he was in was decorated with couches arranged in enclosures in the corners, the path through the center open and sectioned desks for the public telephones on either side of the nurses' counter at the back. The nurses' counter was just as grand as the rest of the building, the same marble as the floor with three quarters of the same pillars ringing the corners, and dull grey slate covering their tops.

He made his way to the counter, all the while examining the building and the massive doors and corridors leading off from the room.

"Surprised at the design? This used to be the mass house used by the senate to entertain guests. As a result, it's massive, lavish, and also connected to the bath houses." The nurse behind the counter smiled, gesturing towards a set of massive granite doors operated mechanically by two bellhops on duty. "Now what can I do you for today?"

She was a young woman of about twenty one with long brown hair and sparkling gold eyes, pale skin and a smile that eased any weary traveler's nerves. Red simply examined her mechanically, noting the name tag that read Cindy before speaking.

"I'd like a room for the night please, one person." He asked, pulling out his trainer ID and handing it to her. She scanned the card, typing away rapidly, before handing it back to Red along with a key and a warm smile.

"Mr. Lawson, you're in room three six one. Single room. Feel free to explore the Pokemon center except for rooms that say employees only." She informed him, waiting in case he had anything else to say.

"Yeah, can you check up these three?" He unclipped his pokeballs from his belt, handing them over to her and walking off with the key as she nodded, heading for his room to collapse on his bed for a while.

The room was lavish. She hadn't been wrong. The place was massive. Every corner revealed more corridors, the walls the same rough slate with glowing water. Red touched the water along one wall, and it was water, cold and clear. He found his way to his room after a good ten minutes of getting lost in the corridors, a lavish room with white walls decorated with gold vines and paintings. It wasn't particularly big, but nor was it small. There was a single twin bed in the room, with two couches and a coffee table by a TV. The door to the attached bathroom was in the corridor entrance to the room, and the bathroom itself was small and designed to be pretty. Its floor was faux patterned wood paneling and the theme was black and brown. The floor and all other surfaces made of the fake wood were a rich, dark reddish brown and the countertops and the bathtub were made of black marble, not to mention the floor of the shower.

Red set his pack down, immediately aware of the reprieve from the pressure on his shoulders, resting only for a moment before heading out of the room to get lost in the maze of corridors once more. He stepped out of the door, looking first to the right, where he had come from originally, seeing a point where three corridors and massive staircase met. He knew he would have to go down two floors anyway so he made a beeline for the staircase, going down immediately and going downstairs to see that he had been stupid to get lost. The corridor in front of him literally opened into the lobby.

He sighed, walking down it, tracing a line through the water with one hand. The lobby wasn't particularly full, and the nurses weren't that busy either. He walked to the counter and handed over his ID card, getting it back a minute later with his three pokeballs and a report on each of his Pokemon.

He walked over to the couch, scanning the reports to find all three fine, each dinged up a bit from their stay in the forest, Charmeleon more so from their recent encounter, but nothing a few minutes of healing serum couldn't fix. He picked at his belt, latching all three of them onto his belt and pulling out his phone. Now that he finally had reception it was probably best to call his mother. He keyed in the number from memory, waiting as the phone rang on the other end. Once, twice, thrice…. Six times… then his mother picked up the phone from the other end.

"Oh good morning Red honey! Sorry I was just baking a cake to mail you!" With his mother he could never tell whether or not she was joking, her nature was just that way.

"Um… I think it would be stale by the time it got to me. And besides, I'm never in one place for more than a few days. And the messenger would have to get through Viridian Forest. That place is a nightmare to navigate!" Red shuddered, wording his reply so that if she was actually going to send him a cake, he didn't mess up and make her mad.

"Don't be silly! I'm not going to mail you a cake! The neighbors are coming over for tea today so I thought I'd bake one. How are you? How bad was the forest?" she asked, her tone immediately becoming worried.

"I'm fine. The forest wasn't bad in itself. Nothing Charmeleon couldn't burn or that the others couldn't handle, but it's just a nightmare to navigate unless you're marking trees. And with the amount of marks on the trees marking them in a way that's noticeable has become a challenge of its own." Red sighed, recalling how he had wound up in the same clearing seven times before he had managed to get going in the right direction. "In any case, I'm in Pewter City now, how long for I don't know. I'll take on the gym, rest for half a day, train a bit and head off. I want to keep to a tight schedule."

"Seriously Red take a break sometime!" his mother laughed down the line. "Call me some other time soon honey!"

And with that she cut the call. Red slipped the phone back into his pocket, smiling as he walked out the doors of the Pokemon center and into the city's streets. He walked down the paved sidewalks aimlessly, passing by a few gardens raised a foot or two above the road and stopping to smell the flowers. He could see the soldiers on the wall from where he was standing, rifles glimmering in the sun, ready to make it rain lead.

He wandered around the city, passing by dozens of statues, wondering if each was like the one outside, trapping some threat in it. Nonetheless he continued on until he reached a more open part of the city set in a plaza amidst multiple gardens. A farmer's market had been set up in the area and people were milling around, looking at flowers or odd stalls and buying produce and homemade products that those few farmers who were well paid to grow crops on the little fertile land in Pewter were offering. Jars of homemade honey and fresh loaves of bread lines the racks behind the stalls, aged cider and other things like candy apples amongst the mix.

All of a sudden dozens of mothers did their best to clamp their hands over their children's ears as a symphony of colorful oaths were spat into the air by several angry farmers, some of them chasing something through the crowds, whatever it was knocking people over.

Red got in line as the ruckus died down, waiting his turn and buying a candy apple and a two bottles of cider. Charmeleon had in his early stages drank a bit of cider one night in the garden and they had later discovered that it made him very flatulent, but at the upper end, which released fire. Glittering golden and green fire, probably because of the apples used to brew the cider.

He bit into the candy apple, watching carefully as a man in a white suit with bluish green hair brushed back in a sleek way walked up to one of the grumbling farmers and began to talk to him, men wearing black work suits, most likely his subordinates, standing around him. This man looked like an executive at a bank or a major law firm or something. It piqued Red's interest as to what he was doing handing a business card to the farmers.

Red walked closer quietly through the crowds, wanting to hear what they were saying. He managed to get as close as the next stall and catch some of their conversation.

"You've been plagues by this pest before and you'll be plagued by it again and many others as well. They'll harm your businesses. We're willing to get rid of them for you, forever, for a price. Just call us along whenever one comes up." The man in the white suit was saying, and Red could tell that the farmers were murmuring amongst themselves. Then the oldest one spoke up.

"Y'all folks got a good service, but we don't have the spare money to expand our farms like we needed to, hell forget profit, we're going into losses with this thrice damned pest! None of us have any money to spare! We have mouths to feed, bellies to fill at home! Besides, what could a bank manager like you want with a pest like that?" he grumbled, shooting him a piercing glare.

"I am not a bank manager good sir. My business is none of your concern. Rest assured it is nothing illegal. Whilst I managed the finance department of my corporation, I do need Pokemon of all sorts to provide for the rest of the corporation. You say you cannot spare the money at the moment. Very well. My boss is very eager for each and every Pokemon we can get our hands on, so I'll leave you our card." The man in the white suit pulled a business card out of his pocket again and handed it to the farmer, who took it and simply held it there in the air, watching the man walk off with his underlings.

Red decided then that he should ask what the whole mess was about and stepped forward.

"Sir… I'm a trainer passing by through here, and I wanted to know what Pokemon was causing you trouble, if you could tell me." Red greeted the man, extending a hand. The farmer chewed on the edge of his pipe, eying his pokeballs before swallowing and replying.

"The name's Tyson. These here are some of my fellow farmers. We till this land as have our families for generations before us. Recently, there's a little pest that's been stealing whenever we set up our market, damaging stalls, stealing products and ruining produce. We went into losses two months ago, and nothing we've tried to catch this little rodent works. It's too damn fast. It's a little yellow rodent, red stripes on the back of its pelt, red spots on its cheeks, always sparking with electricity." He said gruffly, shaking Red's hand.

"Red."

"Well. Hope you're satisfied kid, because a story's all we can give folks now without that little electric mouse spoiling it." He snorted, leaning back and lighting his pipe. Seeing Red's inquisitive look, he continued on. "Every evening once the sun's setting over the walls, we gather round the plaza and tell stories around a bonfire. Tales of great deeds by our ancestors, of sieges to Pewter, of being trapped in the mines. Occasionally wayfarers come and tell theirs, stories of great battles and journeys across Indigo. That's around four today if you want to come." he intoned, holding the man's card to the lit pipe and watching as it caught fire, dropping it to the stone floor and watching it burn to a crisp.

"Run along now kiddo." Red nodded, heading off towards the market, his mind racing automatically. He pulled out his phone, absent mindedly keying the description Tyson had given him into the Pokemon database, or Pokedex Professor Oak had built into it. A few minutes passed as it ran the checks slowly. Finally, as he was sitting down on a bench, drinking a bottle of cider, did the results pop up.

Pikachu, the electric rodent. Standing at one foot and three point seven inches, Pikachu is very fast on its feet and nigh impossible to chase in a forest on foot. These Pokemon tend to be playful and stay away from humans for the most part. Those in cities tend to swipe food from open stalls to survive out of their natural habitats. Touching a hostile Pikachu can often result in an electric shock if not paralysis.

Red almost laughed. Of course. To ordinary citizens this thing would be a problem. A pest. Well, he could help them out and help himself out as well. He checked his watch, seeing that it was one already and started off back to the Pokemon Center to eat lunch in the cafeteria. He hoped their food would be as good as their décor, but it was a long shot.

He arrived in the center's massive hall, following the directions to one of two cafeterias and walked over to the buffet counter. Examining it, he took two bowls, filling the first with Macaroni and Cheese, and the second with chicken noodle broth. He took them back to an empty table, sitting down and digging in as if he hadn't eaten in days. To be fair, he had been rationing. He emptied both bowls quickly, releasing his Pokemon to wander around to the Pokemon serving stations whilst he refilled his bowls, draining them once more as his Pokemon ate, finally stopping and washing it all down with the second cider he had bought. Sitting in the cafeteria with Trapinch Riolu and Charmeleon was calming. Simply to be with his friends relaxing was working wonders on the nervous tension that Red had been subconsciously garnering after the incident outside the forest. For some reason the mark on the dragon's flank had left him uneasy.

'Not hungry anymore… good meal.' Red caught snatches of speech, the voice that had been collectively identified as Trapinch's the first time it had spoken up. He looked over at the bug like Pokemon which looked like it was sitting back if something sitting on all its limbs could sit back. He still didn't understand why he could catch snatches of speech from his Pokemon. The only one he could hear and understand clearly was Riolu, the reason he knew, being the aura Pokémon's aura. He leaned forward and scratched the blue Pokémon's head, the little canine like cub radiating happiness. Its fur was back to blue, the red coloring that it had originally taken on proving thus far to be a temporary effect of a Pokemon with not much external contact touching another life force.

'Friend-Trainer Red….. What awaits us today?" The little cub spoke excitedly, full of energy and able to run around all day without breaking a sweat.

"Not much. I want to add a new member to our family; one who by my reckoning is misunderstood. A Pikachu whose had to scavenge for food and steal from farmers. It'll take a bit out of you guys though; from what I hear, this thing's fast." Red opened his phone again, pulling out the picture of Pikachu and laying it down in front of his Pokemon.

'Any plan?' Came the voice from Charmeleon. Red was fairly sure there were words before that but they were indistinct and soft to him, inaudible.

"I honestly don't know. I think maybe luring it in with food is a good strategy though." Red shrugged, anticipating the evening to come. "Let's go see what else there is in this place. It's huge! Stay close though."

Red stood up, brushing himself off and stacking all the dishes on a tray which he promptly places on stack of other trays on a recycling bin. He walked out, his three Pokemon at his heels as he made his way through the center to the entertainment room first. It was a massive room with solid oak doors on the outside, soundproofed from the inside. There were all sorts of games around the room; snooker tables, one cards table, an indoor basketball hoop with half a court built around it, a few arcade games for younger kids like air hockey and racing simulators, and then to the other side of the room, a play area for Pokemon.

He walked over to the far end of the room, checking his Pokemon in by handing in their pokeballs so they could be recalled immediately when he was leaving. The last he saw of them was Riolu jumping onto a climbing net. He walked back across the room to a snooker table, finding four trainers roughly his age standing around it, or in the case of one of the girls, sitting on the edge. One was a boy of around sixteen, with thick black hair held back under a black cap with red stripes, sparkling green eyes and a white jumper that stood out in the colored lighting of the room. His cue was behind his neck, held fast by his arms wrapped behind them. The girl sitting on the edge of the table was the nurse from earlier, the eldest person here, Cindy. The second girl was a small one by figure, barely reaching five four, with brown hair done up in a braid and glittering blue eyes. The last person at the table tossed a disc across the table to the boy with the cue and walked away before Red could get a good look at his face. The only thing he saw was the back of his neck and his spiky brown hair.

"Here to bet or here for a friendly shot or two?" the boy grinned, tipping his hat in the direction of the girl with the brown hair, who departed as well.

"I'd rather not bet if it's all the same to you." Red replied, keeping his head low.

"If we're not betting, how about something I can actually loose at." He grinned again, gesturing at the two racing simulators behind them.

"I meant I'm not here to play. I came to ask a question about the Pichu under you hat." Red remarked, drawing a squeal from the boy's hat, whence from a little, thinner, cuter, smaller version of Pikachu emerged.

The boy's stance stiffened immediately, his eyes guarded.

"I'm trying to catch a Pikachu for myself, one that's behaving like a pest to some local farmers. Can you tell me what might attract them to me?" He asked, noting how the boy's face betrayed clear relief, before he composed himself.

"Probably the smell of food that an electric type eats. Honestly this little guy is always hungry so anything works with him. You might want to ask a nurse what they eat in the wild. Other than that… A large point charge. Or other electric types." He replied, his grin forming again as he whipped the poker cue out from behind his arms, flexible as it seemed.

"That for you would probably be any berry you could find in Viridian Forest or any other forest existing in similar conditions. That's the only place you'll find any Pikachu in Kanto apart from maybe around a power plant, where they would scavenge, and they live off of the forest." Cindy explained, leaning towards him and staring into his eyes intently.

"Thank you." Red turned on his heels and made for the back of the room, collecting his Pokemon from the play area and making his way back out.

He checked his watch, wondering what the time was to find that it was already three fifteen in the afternoon and he would probably have to move fast. He nearly swore. He might not make it before the crowd's gathered, and that would mean another day wasted. He moved out through the automatic doors, breaking free from the mass of trainers he was in the middle of and breaking into a sprint as he ran the distance from the Pokemon Center to the market, making it by three thirty five.

By the time he reached, the lines were longer than ever, everyone buying food to eat while people told their stories around the bonfire. Walking around to the old man he had met earlier, Tyson, he spoke up.

"Excuse me, but I'd like to purchase a bottle of the most thoroughly aged cider you have and a few fresh berries if you have them, anything that might grow in Viridian Forest." He stated, pulling out the coins as the man eyed him suspiciously before accepting the coins with a nod and handing him the a slightly dusty bottle, and a little wooden basket of oran berries.

His plan for the most part was to give everybody a pre-story show. He would give Charmeleon the cider and make his fire golden and green. Why he felt like being flashy even he didn't fully understand, but he knew he wanted to do that. He released his three Pokemon, looking around in case he could see the little Pikachu hiding anywhere.

"Hmmm….. Okay, Charmeleon, drink up." Red began, handing the fire type the bottle, noting that the farmer was staring at him in disbelief. "Riolu, help me look for a Pikachu around here subtly. Once we spot it, I'm going to need you to keep track of it. Trapinch, settle in until we know which direction we're chasing it out of." He nodded at the orange ground type as it crawled off to the rough dirt by the sides of the plaza, drawing pointed fingers and shouts of delight from children all over.

"Once you're done Charmeleon, take one of these berries out and heat the very slowly until your flames change color. I want to give them a show. Then I'll tell you what to do." He continued on as Riolu resolutely scanned the area, carefully examining each bush for even the slightest twitch. Behind them shopkeepers had started to close up their stalls and clear out the area, a few younger ones, hauling firewood out of a cart behind them.

Red stared at Charmeleon, whose flames were slowly lightening in color, from a bright fiery red to a dim yellow, to a sparkly golden. Then slowly, green streaks the color of oak leaves started to form in the stream of flames, eventually taking up a good part of the fire.

"Now crush the berries a little bit, get a bit of juice out of them and heat that until the smell spreads all around. Make it evaporate." He instructed the fire type as Riolu tugged on his leg.

There, sitting in a bush, peeking out for a moment and scanning the crowds of people for fallen food was a Pikachu. It was too busy scanning the crowds to pay attention to the one boy standing in the center of the plaza on his own. At this point the farmers were hauling stones out to the center of the plaza and making a rough ring which they were filling with wood.

"Now or never…." He murmured, turning to see Trapinch positioning itself, having caught sight of the electric mouse. "Charmeleon, toss them into the air!"

The blue berries soaked in their own juice went flying into the air and the little yellow Pokemon flew out of the bushes to steal them, having caught them scent of its favorite food. No wonder it was raiding the stalls, they were the only place it might get them.

Charmeleon spat out a glittering green and gold fireball next to Pikachu, causing it veer of course as the embers crashed to the ground, the colorful lights reflecting off what Red realized was bronzed stone, designed to twinkle in the firelight. He watched as Riolu flew out from behind it, landing at its side and taking up a fighting stance. Red noticed something else plummeting down from the sky and snatched the Oran berries out of the air, already scheming again to avoid a battle.

Trapinch had come from one side and Charmeleon had completed the triangulation of the electric mouse. It standing on all fours in between his Pokemon, the red pouches on its cheeks sparking with electricity as it prepared itself to battle.

Red reached forward slowly, snapping his arms back as a weak tendril of electricity hit him, mildly jolting him. He tried again, this time reaching out with the Oran berries, confusing the Pikachu. It cocked its head to one side and one of its long normally perky ears fell to one side and touched the ground in a classic 'What are you doing?' gesture.

He knelt down and held out the berries to the hesitant creature, waiting as it finally took one and nibbled off the corner, deciding he wasn't so bad. It came and claimed the others as his Pokemon relaxed, sitting down around them.

"Hey little guy? Do you want to come with me?" Red whispered softly, reaching out carefully to scratch it behind one ear, drawing his hand back as sparks flew once more.

Pikachu cocked its head again, confused once more, black eyes staring straight at him.

"These are my friends." He explained, gesturing towards his Pokemon. "Charmeleon, Riolu and Trapinch. I'm a Pokemon trainer. I travel with my friends. You'll always have food with me."

Pikachu made a shrug like gesture, still staring at him.

"I promise I'll take care of you. You'll get stronger with me." Red spoke softly. That seemed to seal the deal. It came up to him and rubbed its fur against his hand, letting loose a few weak sparks that went straight to the ground. Red could see a few marks on its back from the few times farmers had managed to reach it.

"I'm going to catch you in a pokeball now." Red stated as he took an empty pokeball from his belt and touched it to the little electric type's nose. It didn't really try and resist. Smiling, he recalled his other Pokemon, leaving only Charmeleon out.

"Everyone gather around the bonfire!" Tyson called out, giving Red an appreciative nod before walking up to him. "Could you light it with those fancy flames? It'll keep people happy and maybe we can make up for some lost business afterwards then."

Red nodded absent mindedly as he scratched Charmeleon's head, who promptly proceeded to light the bonfire. He had an itching feeling that there was someone behind him, and he was right once more. He turned around to see a man a bit taller than him with short spiky brown hair and tanned skin. His eyes were narrow, and looked like they were half closed, but his body language contradicted them. His crossed arms were muscular and the shirt on his chest slightly strained. A Pokemon that looked like a small boulder with two arms and hands floated next to him.

"You're an interesting trainer kid. I was about to deal with that Pikachu myself. The name's Brock. Feel free to stop by the gym and challenge me while you're here." He nodded in his general direction, sitting down by the fire and recalling his Pokemon as he seemed to drift away into thought.

Soon enough many people had gathered around the bonfire, all the people whom had been milling around earlier and the farmers as well. A few people looked very out of place, one or two businessmen, including the man from earlier that afternoon with the white suit. It was unsettling seeing him sitting there ever so quietly.

Everyone hushed down, a few awed whispers of 'gym leader' running through the crowd as the man whom had introduced himself as Brock took a place right by the fire, facing the crowd. Everyone went dead silent as he began to speak.

"Most of you know me for my position in this city. For those who don't my name is Brock, and I am the gym leader of Pewter City. Today, I'm here to recite a tale to you all that you may have heard before, from different perspectives. The one man siege of Pewter."

The crowd broke into hushed whispers at the mention of the ancient tale of Pewter.

"From the point of view of the gym leader…. My ancestor Byron. It's a tale that's been passed down in my family for generations. For him it began in the heart of Mount Moon." Brock took a deep breath, readying himself to speak for a while.

"About six hundred years ago was the one siege which Pewter would have fallen to, had things gone even a little differently. One man came to Byron and demanded that the city be turned over to him to create his dynasty. Many say this encounter took place in the town hall, or in the gym. But it took place in mount moon."

"Byron had gone there to look into the prospects of sending mining teams into the mountain itself, rather than having it mined from the outside, where the cold and the winds would hinder the process greatly, not to mention that actual task of exposing the material before mining it. He was in the heart of Mount Moon examining a deposit of gold at the time when the tyrant arrived. This man had been deferred to Mount Moon by the Senate, where the gym leader was, and had found his way to the chamber where Byron was with the gold."

"This man spoke to Byron, proclaiming himself as a man named Giovanni, with forces the city could not imagine at his beck and call, right here in the mountain even. Byron laughed and replied that an armed force would not have been permitted to pass through the city walls, and that the Cerulean entrance to the mountain was caved in. Giovanni replied that he did not have any man with him. Then Byron asked how he had an insurmountable force with him, expecting the answer. And it was Pokemon. Byron asked how many. Giovanni replied that he had but two Pokemon with him, sending Byron into peals of laughter."

"When Giovanni demanded that the city be handed over to him to create his domain and give him a base from which he could assert his force over Kanto. Once more Byron laughed in his face. This time however, Giovanni released one of his Pokemon. It was a massive Rhydon, six and half feet tall, horn sharp enough to bore straight through the gold behind Byron as it charged him. Giovanni set this monster to collapse the cave around Byron, trapping him in and departed. Byron knew that Pewter would be besieged, and called out his only Pokemon, a Steelix twenty six feet long. With the aid of his Steelix, he burrowed out of the mountain, creating a small entrance in the northern side which we still use. He found Giovanni to have recalled the Rhydon and was in the process of laying waste to the city with a three headed dragon, its fur midnight black, and its hide deep blue where exposed. Each head was vicious and bloodthirsty, snapping up anything it could reach and burning everything its flames would touch."

"The tales go on to say that Byron alone chased the creature and its master out of the city where he trapped the creature in stone. This is a grave error by the transmitter. Pewter would have fallen had not a dragon rider from Indigo been flying by, and helped Byron before he was maimed. This is why Pewter, which could have seized the Viridian Forest and lived on its own after, did not do so, and joined a unified Indigo years later. Together these two beat down Giovanni and his dragon, Byron chasing it out of the city and through methods lost even to our clan, trapped it in stone, killing it. That is how Pewter survived, and came to be a part of Indigo." Brock finished, pushing a stray lock of hair out of his eye.

"If I may gym leader, there is a part of that story that is wrong, which not even Byron himself could have realized when he told the tale." Everyone turned in shock to see a man who had stood up in the front row of the crowd. It was the man in the white suit with the green-blue hair.

"What no one ever understood was that Byron did not kill the dragon. Giovanni's subordinates appeared after it had been clapped in stone and managed to preserve it somehow, so that it still lived in the statue to this very day." He spoke, fixing Brock's gaze to him.

"Lives to this day you mean, in any case, even if what you say is true, which I can accept." Brock worded his reply carefully, reaching for his belt immediately.

"Lived I say, for it does no more. For you see, my subordinates have freed it from its prison." He smirked, raising a hand in perfect time as a blood curling roar sounded from far off. Then a second one. Then a third, far louder than the previous ones.

Red looked up apprehensively to see the same creature the statue had frozen in time soaring over the city as bullet seamed to vanish in its vicinity. It let out another roar, visibly from the main head as it swooped down on the city, letting loose a stream of black and blue flames.

Red instinctively recalled Charmeleon in the frenzy as all hell broke loose, the world in mass hysteria. He sprinted for cover that wasn't flammable. His eyes widened in horror as the flames started to touch people, screams ringing out in mass hysteria as mothers took their children and ran. He saw the dragon rise to the sky as he sprinted, finding cover beneath a stone bench.

He stayed curled beneath it, for how long, he could not tell, until the roaring stops, the only sound being the crackling of the flames around him. Slowly and carefully he crawled out, seeing what had happened. The area around him was burning, the dragon having settled on the wall by a tall, well-built man in a black suit wearing a mask. Nothing else was discernable about him. By his side was the man in the white suit, and in line behind them over fifty men in the uniforms of their subordinates. Then his voice rang out across the city, demeaning and commanding at the same time. Red saw Brock standing on the head of a massive steel snake about twenty five feet long, its head wide and flat, its jaws capable of grinding anything down to dust, and its body sectioned.

"Ave! Citizens of Pewter! Bear witness today! I have freed my ancestor's Pokemon, and today you have felt but a shred of our power. Today begins our reign on Indigo! You would do well to forget not our name." He spoke, his voice ringing out across the city.

"We, are Rocket."