Tom caught up to Peter panting. "I'm not… very athletic… you know," he said between heavy breaths.

"Here we are!" said Peter, ignoring Tom. "Pewter City!" It was a lot like Viridian City – both of them were about the same size and more suburban than urban. The scenery was different, though – rugged mountains surrounded the city on most sides. Peter continued, "I've been here plenty of times, so I know it well enough. Follow me to the Pokémon Center – we both need to get our Pokémon healed."

"And get dinner," said Tom, looking at the slowly darkening sky above.

The two boys walked to the Pokémon Center, got their Pokémon healed, and then released their Pokémon before they ate at the cafeteria. Naturally, Peter was babbling the whole time – about Pewter City and Brock and Goldenrod City and his Turtwig and his Geodude and battle strategies and who even cares what else. "Eventually we should go see the Museum of Science," he said at one point, "…but first thing's first – we need to meet Brock! I don't think either of us is ready to face him yet, but I should at least say hello. Plus, we can train in there. There's always people training in Gyms – well, Brock's Gym isn't as popular as the other ones, but every time I go there it has at least a trainer or two in it. Anyways, we should head to Brock's gym as soon as we're done eating."

And so, after they finished eating and had put away all of their Pokémon, Peter led Tom a few blocks down to Pewter Gym. It looked like any other building from the outside, but one step inside revealed that its design was not so ordinary. One huge room took up most of the building. Its floors and walls were made of rock, and the floor was partly covered by sand and boulders scattered about. Five trainers were present, two of whom were battling, two more of whom were training independently, and one of whom was simply sitting against the wall with his Sandshrew. At the far side of the room stood a young man with dark hair, dark skin, and a serious look on his face. When he noticed Tom and Peter, however, his faced shone with delight. "Peter!" he said. "It's been a while! How have you been? Oh, you brought a friend?"

"I've been great!" said Peter. "I'm a licensed trainer now! I've been training that Geodude you gave me a while back, and also a Turtwig that Professor Elm gave me. And this is Tom. He's from Pallet Town. He just started training today but he's already pretty good! He might even be able to defeat you!"

"Is that so?" said Brock, a hint of seriousness returning to him. "Hello, Tom. I'm Brock, the leader of this Gym. I specialize in rock-type Pokémon. But you probably already knew that."

"Hi, Brock," said Tom. "Nice to meet you. Peter's exaggerating, though. I still have a while to go before I'm ready to face a Gym Leader."

"Hmm…" Brock said. He stared at Tom's face; Tom kept shifting his eyes away, not sure what to make of it. "Pallet Town, huh?" Brock finally said. "You look a lot like someone I used to know from there. But then, it could just be the hat."

Tom instinctively put his hand on his hat. "Oh, this?" he said, remembering what it looked like. "You're talking about Red?"

"That's right," said Brock. "We got pretty close when we were younger. It's been years since we've talked, though… I wonder what became of him…." Brock trailed off and stared into space for a few seconds. When he shook himself back, he turned to Peter and said, "Sorry about that. Anyways, I haven't even gotten caught up with you yet. How's the family?"

"They're all doing fine," said Peter. "Opal's a trainer now too. She's decided to stay in Johto, though."

"That's too bad," said Brock. "We could use some more trainers in here. Pewter City has a horrible shortage of them – I can only count on Larry over there to come here regularly." He pointed his thumb at the boy with the Sandshrew. "You two are free to challenge him, if you'd like. He's always up for a battle."

"Come on, Tom!" said Peter. "Show Brock what you've got!"

Tom, to his relief, didn't have to be the first to act – Larry seemed to have heard their conversation, since he then stood up, his Sandshrew hopping off of his lap. He withdrew a Diglett, which had apparently been training behind a boulder, into its Pokéball. Larry then took a few steps towards the three of them and looked up at Tom. "You're Tom?" he asked.

"That's me," said Tom, who walked towards the young boy. "Are you ready?"

"I am," said Larry. "Is one-on-one okay with you?"

"It sure is," said Tom. "Go, Charlie!" A flash of light later, Charlie was out of his Pokéball.

As usual, the battle began as soon as both Pokémon had entered the battlefield. "Sandshrew, Scratch!" said Larry.

"Dodge it and use Ember!" said Tom. As the Sandshrew ran towards Charlie, Charlie skid away from the attack and got behind his opponent. Charlie then spat small flames at the Sandshrew.

"Defense Curl!" shouted Larry. The Sandshrew curled up into a ball just as the flames hit it.

"Now run up to him and use Scratch when he emerges!" said Tom. Charlie sped over to the Sandshrew.

"Scratch it as fast as you can!" said Larry. As soon as the Sandshrew hopped out of its Defense Curl, however, Charlie dealt a powerful Scratch to its soft underbelly. The Sandshrew did the same thing to Charlie.

"Get away and use Ember!" said Tom.

"Chase it and use Scratch!" Larry ordered.

Charlie ran, and the Sandshrew chased him. Charlie was faster, though, and soon found himself in front of a stone wall. He then turned around and spat more flames at his opponent. The Sandshrew took the Ember head-on as it ran closer to Charlie, and then, right when the Sandshrew had gotten close enough to attack, it fell down, unable to take any more.

"Sandshrew, return!" said Larry. The Sandshrew was beamed back into its Pokéball. "Good match," Larry said after he gave Tom money for winning. "I'm not sure there was any way I could have beaten your Charmander. Well, maybe if I hadn't used Defense Curl. That was probably a mistake on my part. I have to go get Sandshrew healed now. See ya." He left the Gym without another word.

"That was cool!" said Peter as Larry walked out the door.

"It was indeed impressive," said Brock. "I hope you have more than a Charmander to face me with, though. You probably already know about the advantage rock-types have against fire-types."

Brock didn't realize how ironic that statement was, though Tom undoubtedly did. Tom had a bug-type (Buddy), which was weak against rock-types; a fire-type (Charlie), which was also weak against rock-types; a flying-type (Pippa), which, once again, was weak against rock-types; and that only left Ralph, an electric-type, which may not have been weak to rock-type moves, but rock-type Pokémon (especially in Kanto) are usually ground-type as well, and ground-types are completely immune to electric attacks. Tom had a lot of work to do.

"You two can train here for a little while, if you want," said Brock. "That's what Gyms are for, after all."

"Right," said Peter. "Come on, Tom; take all of your Pokémon out."

Tom released Pippa, Buddy, and Ralph from their Pokéballs. Peter released Geodude and Turtwig as well.

They trained for two straight hours. Tom was very lucky to train Pokémon for the first time in the presence of Brock, because Tom himself had little idea of how to go about it. Sure, he knew the basic ideas – making them run laps, practice moves on the boulders, avoid each other's attacks, etc. – but on all of the details he and Peter both were uncertain and inexperienced. Brock intervened at several points, helping them with things like training for evasion without causing too much damage from attacks the Pokémon failed to avoid and knowing which training exercise to direct and when. He also gave more general training advice on occasion. In one instance, Tom thought that he might be pushing his Pokémon too far; Brock had to remind him how much tougher they are than they look, and Tom's Pokémon themselves then made noises to indicate that they were still up for more. Overall, it was the perfect experience for Tom and Peter to get the hang of the non-battling side of training early on, allowing them to get more out of it later and not have to learn by trial and error.

Tom was very tired by the time the gym closed, as I could feel from his slowed-down pulse. As soon as he and Peter said their goodbyes to Brock, the two of them headed straight to the Pokémon Center. There, they showed their Trainer Cards to a woman behind a desk, and she gave them the key to a room with two beds and one bathroom. They went up the stairs and through the halls, passing, on their way there, specialized rooms for certain types of Pokémon – one that was just a large tank for water-types, one that was frozen over for ice-types, etc. None of Tom and Peter's Pokémon needed that kind of special care, though, especially considering how small they all were, so the boys elected to just let their Pokémon sleep in their room with them. Once in the room, Tom and Peter took out all of their Pokémon, who greeted their trainers and then found spots on the floor to lie down on.

"What a day, huh?" Peter said as he threw himself on one of the beds.

"No kidding," said Tom, who was about to brush his teeth. He'd left his home, gotten his first three Pokémon, and made his first friend all in one day – if anything, he was much more qualified to remark on what a big day it'd been than Peter was.

The next day was mostly spent Pokémon training. Tom did this with Peter in Pewter Gym in the morning, but decided to go to Route 2 after lunch to train there alone for the afternoon. It was basically the same routine they had learned to go through the previous evening, but this time with more intensity and seriousness.

Buddy was, by far, the hardest Pokémon for Tom to train – as should be obvious, considering the whole being in a cocoon thing. Tom did what he could with Buddy, making him practice using Harden and defending against the attacks of others, but there was only so much one could do with a Metapod. Clearly, Tom had to get him to evolve into a Butterfree before he could be of any use in battle. Charlie and Pippa, meanwhile, were both the easiest to train. For Charlie, this was probably because he had a constant urge to dispel a lot of energy – even when he wasn't training, he couldn't keep himself in one place for more than half a second. I suppose he had no qualms with using this restlessness in a directed, productive way. Pippa, on the other hand, was more concerned about what Tom wanted. After every exercise, she went back over to him, eager for praise, and usually receiving it. Then there was Ralph. It's not that Tom's Pikachu was disobedient or weak, as he was neither. But he was aloof. He didn't interact with the other Pokémon, or even with Tom, beyond what he was told to do. He did everything he was told, sure, but something about it was unmotivated and routine. Tom noticed, and he realized he would have to work on this before facing the second Gym Leader, Misty, against whom Ralph would be essential.

They trained at Route 2 all afternoon, occasionally battling against the wild Pokémon there (mostly Pidgey and Rattata). Afterwards, Tom went to the Pokémon Center, healed his Pokémon, and met up with Peter at the cafeteria for dinner. The two talked about their various experiences throughout the day while their Pokémon chowed down in the area reserved for them. They also finalized their plans to go to the museum that evening. So it was that after eating, the two of them packed up their Pokémon and headed off to Pewter Museum.

The first floor of the Pewter Museum of Science was filled with the skeletons of many species of extinct Pokémon, as well as holograms and screens on the walls showing what the Pokémon had looked like when they were alive. Tom and Peter shifted from a Kabutops skeleton to an Aerodactyl skeleton to a Rampardos skeleton, all of them behind glass, videos being shown on the walls between them. The Rampardos skeleton had a moving hologram of a Rampardos in front of it; an audio recording was saying, "…All Pokémon have a primary type, while some Pokémon have a secondary type as well. For reasons scientists are still unsure of, the primary type of nearly all known 'fossil' Pokémon is rock…." The boys moved on to a much smaller skeleton in the middle of the room. This one had a plaque on the glass with some writing on it:

MEW

This rare psychic-type Pokémon is found in the forests of South America of Pocket. Studies have revealed that it contains the DNA of every species of Pokémon discovered so far. How this is possible is still a mystery to scientists, as there is no other evidence to suggest that Pokémon all have a common ancestor. It is generally accepted, however, that Mew was the very first Pokémon; whether other Pokémon evolved from it over time or not is still the subject of heavy debate.

Peter walked over to a nearby Omnastar skeleton, and Tom followed. "Brock has one of these, you know," said Peter, looking at the skeleton. "A Kabutops, too. I know they're extinct and all, but they found some fossils at Mt. Moon and used those to revive them. Don't worry though, I don't mean he's going to use them on us. He saves them for battles against more experienced trainers. Come on, let's go upstairs – that's where all the space stuff is."

The second floor of the museum was filled with models of various spacecraft used throughout the ages. In front of the stairs was a model of a Space Shuttle – one of the very first spacecraft built by man, used nearly 3,000 years ago when Luna, Earth's moon, was the only extra-terrestrial body humans had ever visited. In the middle of the room was a large hologram of the Pokésystem. Tom noticed some rocks on a wall; he walked over to the rocks and read what was written on the wall next to them:

MOON STONES

Chunks of the moon, Clef, are commonly known as "Moon Stones", and are often ejected upon the collision of a meteor with Clef – a fairly common event, given the abundance of meteors in the Pokésystem. It is believed that some Pokémon living on Clef come to Pocket on the larger chunks of this type. Moon Stones have some unique properties; the most well-known of these is their role in the evolution of many Pokémon with origins on Clef.

"Wow, now you're looking at rocks," I mused. "And also learning stuff you could have used me to look up for free. This was definitely worth 50 yen each, wouldn't you agree?"

"Please don't speak unless you're spoken to," sighed Tom.

"We should get going back, though," said Peter. "We've seen all there is to see here."

Tom awoke bright and early the next morning; he thought he might have a chance of facing Brock that day, and wanted to get in as much training as possible. The rising sun filled the sky with yellow and orange, and to the south, Viridian Forest looked as dark as ever. Tom yawned, not used to being awake this early. That wasn't important to him, though: he was determined to train Buddy as long as it took for him to evolve. To win against Brock, he was going to need Butterfree's Confusion, a psychic-type move which, unlike electric, fire, normal, and flying moves, was not weak against rock- or ground-type opponents. Tom took all of his Pokémon out of their balls, and the training began.

As Tom made Charlie and Pippa run (or fly, in Pippa's case) laps and practice their moves, he brought Buddy and Ralph into the tall grass to search for wild Pokémon. Those were not hard to find, as Tom soon found out – that morning, the place was teeming with small, purple, buck-toothed Rattata. To get Buddy some battle experience, Tom pit him against the wild Pokémon, even though all he could do was defend himself by using Harden; Tom would then let Ralph come in and defeat the opponent. This routine was used on four consecutive Rattata before a wild Mankey appeared – a white, round-bodied, pig-snouted Pokémon. The Mankey looked at Buddy; Buddy looked back. "Ooh Ooh!" the wild Pokémon taunted. "Ahh Ahh!"

"You've suffered a lot of damage, Buddy," said Tom, reaching into one of his pockets. "I think you should go back into your Pokéball before this Mankey attacks…."

Suddenly, Buddy turned entirely white. A rip in his cocoon appeared, and a ray of light shone out of it. That ray of light then started to assume a winged shape, and soon, to the amazement of both Tom and the Mankey, Buddy had evolved from a Metapod to a Butterfree. An empty cocoon shell lay beneath him.

"Way to go, Buddy!" Tom cheered. After celebrating, he looked at my screen for information on Buddy's new form. "Okay, time to test out your new body. Use Confusion on that Mankey!"

The air between Buddy and the Mankey became oddly distorted. A pulse seemed to quickly flow through the distorted space from Buddy to the Mankey. A purple glow then developed around the Mankey. The glow quickly disappeared, and the Mankey fell down. It had fainted. All of this happened within about a second and a half.

"That was incredible!" said Tom. "One hit and it was down! We just need to get you used to being a Butterfree, and we'll be able to face Brock in no time!"

And getting Buddy used to being a Butterfree is exactly what Tom focused on from that point on. While he continued to assign tasks to his other three Pokémon, he concentrated most heavily on training Buddy, who defeated several Rattata. This went on for the rest of the morning until Tom packed up to go to lunch. When he met up with Peter in the Pokémon Center cafeteria, Tom told him that he planned to go face Brock right after lunch. Peter was excited about this, which was predictable in that he was always excited about everything. So, as soon as they finished eating, it was off to Pewter Gym.

"Hello again," said Brock when Tom and Peter arrived at the gym. This time, the place was much less active – in fact, besides Brock and the two boys, Larry was the only one there.

"Hi, Brock," said Tom. "I'm ready to battle you now."

"Very well," said Brock. He then yelled, "All trainers outside of the battle area! A Gym Challenge is about to commence!"

Tom saw Larry and his Sandshrew emerge from behind a boulder and walk over to the wall, where they sat down. Peter said a hasty "good luck!" and ran over to sit down next do Larry.

"Kind of a pointless procedure when I'm just talking to one or two guys, but I like to be professional about battles," said Brock. "Are you ready?"

"I am," said Tom. He grabbed a Pokéball from his pocket.

"Good. The battle will begin as soon as both trainers have sent forth their first Pokémon. Because this is a Gym Leader battle, you can use as many Pokémon as you'd like. I will be using two Pokémon. Now… begin!"

"Go, Charlie!" said Tom. Charlie appeared in front of him.

"Come on out, Geodude!" said Brock as a Geodude emerged from its Pokéball.

"Use Smokescreen!" said Tom. Charlie blew a cloud of black smoke, which made its way from his mouth to Brock's Geodude.

"There's no dodging it – just use Tackle!" said Brock.

"Get out of the way and use Growl!" said Tom.

The Geodude flung itself through the black smoke; it looked like it was struggling to keep its eyes open. Charlie didn't need to dodge the Tackle – the Geodude missed, and his Tackle ended right next to Charlie. Charlie then let out an earsplitting Growl that appeared to distort the air around him for a fraction of a second; Geodude's attacks would now be weaker.

"Great, now use Ember!" said Tom.

"Defense Curl!" Brock shouted.

Charlie spat out tiny flames at the Geodude, who curled its arms around itself. As the flames hit the Geodude, Brock yelled, "Use Rock Throw when it's done!"

The flames stopped. The Geodude, still struggling to see, held up one of its two arms, and a decent-sized rock grew into its hand out of thin air.

"Get behind a boulder!" Tom ordered. Charlie turned and ran to a boulder; he positioned himself so that the boulder was between him and the Geodude. "Now, use Ember again!"

Charlie's head peaked out from behind the boulder; before he could attack, however, the Geodude threw its rock and hit Charlie right in the face. Charlie rolled backwards. A small amount of blood dripped from his mouth to the floor – the first time any of Tom's Pokémon had shed blood while under his command. Tom grimaced. Pokémon, even the weakest ones, have very tough hides, and rarely shed blood unless they're badly hurt. As Charlie stood up, however, the flame on his tale grew larger than ever, and a subtle fiery essense surrounded him; his Blaze had taken effect.

"Try another Rock Throw!" said Brock.

"Dodge it and use Ember!" said Tom.

Charlie ran forwards as the Geodude conjured another rock; it threw the rock at Charlie, who rolled sideways to dodge it. Charlie then stopped running and spat more flames at the Geodude. "Dodge it!" Brock ordered, but it was too late – the flames hit his Geodude, leaving black scorch marks.

"Ember again!" said Tom.

"Take it and use Rock Throw!" said Brock.

Charlie spat yet more flames at the Geodude, who conjured yet another rock and threw it at Charlie. Both attacks hit their targets. The Geodude was smoking where the flames had hit it; Charlie, having been knocked down by the rock, did not get back up.

"Charlie, return!" said Tom. In a flash of light, Charlie was back in his Pokéball. "Alright, Pippa, it's your turn!"

Pippa appeared in front of Tom. "Use Sand-Attack!" said Tom.

"Get out of the way!" said Brock.

Pippa flapped her wings to blow the sand on the ground at the Geodude, but the Geodude grabbed the ground with one of its hands and thrust itself sideways to avoid the attack. "Now, use Rock Throw!" said Brock.

"Gust!" said Tom.

Another rock appeared in the Geodude's hand. Pippa flapped her wings, causing a mighty wind to blow towards the Geodude. It blew the rock out of the Geodude's hand; then sent the Geodude flying backwards. The Geodude hit the ground with a thump, tried to lift its arm, and then dropped its arm again.

"Geodude, come back!" said Brock. Geodude turned into light and returned to his Pokéball. "Onix, it's your turn!"

A long, colossal creature made of strung-together boulders was beamed out of Brock's Pokéball. Its head almost reached the high ceiling.

"Okay, Pippa, start with Sand-Attack!" said Tom, his voice slightly stuttering with awe at the sight of Brock's Onix.

"Out of the way, and use Rock Slide!" said Brock.

Pippa flapped her wings to blow a mass of sand at the Onix's head; the Onix slid out of the attack's range. It then roared and spat out a series of small boulders, most of which hit Pippa, who then struggled to get back up. Tom clenched his teeth in fear, but Pippa did finally get on her feet, ready to continue fighting – but just barely. "Try another Sand-Attack!" Tom yelled.

"Out of the way, then use Rock Throw!" said Brock.

Pippa flapped her wings harder than ever, blowing sand in the Onix's direction. The Onix slid out of the way again, but this time, Pippa was ready; she blew more sand to the space where the Onix was about to run to, and got sand right in the gigantic creature's face. The Onix roared and thrashed its head from left to right. It started erratically spitting rocks from its mouth in every direction; unfortunately for Tom, one of them hit Pippa right in the chest. She closed her eyes, and the light on her Pokéball made it clear that she had fainted. "Come back!" he said, and withdrew his Pidgey back into her Pokéball. "Go, Buddy!"

In a flash of light, Tom's Butterfree appeared in front of him. "Use Confusion!" said Tom.

"Rock Slide!" said Brock.

The Onix, who still had sand in its eyes, spat rocks; meanwhile, the space between Buddy and the Onix became distorted, apparently forming a tunnel between them, and a pulse seemed to flow through that tunnel from Buddy to his opponent. The rocks hit the ground, missing Buddy completely; the Onix glowed purple for half a second, and then let out a roar of pain.

"Excellent!" said Tom. "Use Confusion again! And mind the rocks!"

"Rock Slide! Again!" said Brock.

Once again, a near-invisible tunnel appeared between the Onix and Buddy; once again, the Onix spat out rocks; once again, a pulse zipped through the tunnel towards the Onix; and once again, Onix glowed purple for a second while the rocks landed… only this time, they piled right on top of Buddy. Tom gasped.

Tom was distraught. Buddy was both a bug-type and a flying-type Pokémon, which meant he had a double weakness to rock-type moves. While Tom did have one last Pokémon, Ralph only knew an electric-type attack, which was useless against the partly ground-type Onix. Just as Tom had started half-heartedly reaching for a Pokéball, however, one of the rocks that had fallen on Buddy moved.

Buddy pushed the rock away and took to the air. He was bleeding all over; white flakes fell from his wings; he had to flap his wings faster than usual to stay up; his face was screwed up in pain. "Buddy, that's enough!" said Tom, who seemed panicked by the ugly sight. "Don't get yourself killed!"

Buddy let out an angry, high-pitched shriek. Before Tom knew it, another space-distortion tunnel had appeared between Buddy and the Onix; another pulse had zoomed through it, and the Onix had glowed purple again. The Onix let out a moan and fell.

"Onix!" said Brock; his Onix let out another moan and then closed its eyes. "Come back!" said Brock, and the Onix became pure light and re-entered its Pokéball.

"Wow!" said Tom, awestruck. "Way to go, Buddy!" He ran over to his injured Butterfree, grabbed his arms, and started twirling him around in a circle. "Sorry I didn't believe you could do it for a second there. Who knew you had that kind of determination in you?"

"That was a good battle," said Brock, who had walked over to Tom. "A very good battle. You have a kind of natural talent for training Pokémon that I rarely see. It's no wonder you reminded me of Red." He again stared off into space for a few seconds. When he looked back at Tom, he said, "Here, this is for winning." He handed Tom the Boulder Badge. "Oh, and take this," he said. He handed Tom a shiny, silver disk. "It's a T.M. – a Technical Machine. T.M. 80, to be specific. T.M.s can be used to teach Pokémon new moves, if the particular Pokémon is compatible with the particular T.M. This one teaches Rock Slide. Use it wisely."

"Thanks," said Tom. "Thanks for everything!"

Peter ran up to them. "Tom, that was great! I can't believe it – I mean, I knew you could do it, so I do believe it, but it's unbelievable, I mean, oh forget it."

"It's okay, Peter," said Tom. "I know what you mean. So, when will you be facing Brock?"

"I don't know," said Peter, "I still have a bit of training to do before I'm ready. Tell you what – you go on ahead to the next Gym without me. I'll catch up to you soon enough. Then – if you want to, I mean – you can go to Johto with me! We'll take the Magnet Train from Saffron to Goldenrod. So, what do you say? It's okay if you want to stay in Kanto, I'd understand…."

"Peter, that would be great!" Tom said enthusiastically. "I'd love to go to Johto with you! Are you sure you want me to go on ahead to Cerulean City, though?"

"Oh, don't worry about that," said Peter, looking relieved. "I'll catch up to you in no time. You go. I have to stay in Pewter City and train for a while."

"Okay," said Tom. "Goodbye, then. Thanks again, Brock."

"No problem," Brock said. "Good luck with your training." Tom returned Buddy to his Pokéball and started to walk away. He passed Larry, who indifferently said, "Good battle."

"Thanks," said Tom. Smiling, he left the Gym to head west to Route 3.