Yeah, that's right; I'm doing two chapters today. I just have a lot of time on my hands, and I want to get my ideas down on the page.

Anyway, this is Chapter Three, in which Red explores Viridian City. Hopefully it'll be a fun read.

No, this is not the chapter in which Red catches his second Pokemon. Sorry! That will be next chapter. Also, this will be the first of a few of what I call 'compilation chapters,' because it'll include three locations, Viridian City and the two old ones. But 'll spending much more time in Viridian City.

Anyway, enough with my incessant blabbing! You want to read! (Hopefully, anyway...)

(-o-)

POKEMON FIRERED AND LEAFGREEN
QUEST

Chapter Three

To be completely honest with you, Viridian City was slightly underwhelming. First, I visited the Pokemon Center to heal up my tired Charmander, then decided to speak to the patrons inside.

"Hey, kid! Have ya heard? There's some weirdo gang causing trouble up at Mt. Moon or sumthin'..."

"Go away! I'm on the phone!"

"My Rattata is in the top percentage of Rattata!" (Yeah, right).

So that was kind of weird.

I decided I needed a change of scenery and made my way out of the Pokemon Center, and saw an overweight boy putting seeds in his mouth and then spitting them into a lake right in front of him. Curious and a little creeped out, I approached the kid.

"Hi," he said shortly, before cramming another seed in his mouth.

"Uh... I don't mean to be intrusive, but what are you doing?"

"Using Bullet Seed!" as he said this, his face lit up. "What'd you expect, huh?"

"Um, not that, I suppose," I replied, before turning to walk away.

"Wait!" said the boy. When I turned to look at him, he was holding out a disc-like thing outstretched in his grubby hand. "Take this. Ya look like a Pokemon Trainer."

"Thanks." I told him, taking the disc-thing. It was a TM, and it had the number '09' etched on its surface. It was Bullet Seed.

(A/N: I know you don't get TM09 from the chubby kid in Pokemon FRLG, but just go with it, okay? I just want to introduce TM's to this fanfic.)

I moved on, and suddenly heard an angry yell. I moved towards the origin of the sound, and saw an old man lying face-down in the road. Standing by his side was a young girl, who was trying to coax the man into getting up. She was having no luck. I was unperturbed at first, but when I tried to step over the man, the girl tried to give me a warning too late. The man's hand darted out from underneath him like a pale snake and latched around my ankle. I bit back a scream.

"I'm sorry," the girl said as she pried the man's fingers from around my ankle. "He hasn't had his coffee yet, and he gets really grumpy."

'You don't say,' I thought, but I just nodded to the girl and moved off hurriedly, spurred by shock.

I found my way to the entrance to the route west of Viridian City, which was the location of Blue's challenge to me. However, I felt urged to explore the rest of the City before moving on to that route.

I moved around the city a little bit, which had suburb-style houses and a Poke Mart, where you can stock up on vital Pokemon trainer supplies. As soon as I stepped into said Poke Mart, the clerk said, "Are you from Pallet Town?" like he rehearsed it to every stranger who walked in the door.

"As a matter of fact, I am," would've been the good response, but I just said, "Yeah." The clerk nodded, his face splitting into a smile, which looked alien on the guy's face, since it was practically frozen in boredom. He eagerly reached under the counter he stood behind and grabbed something there, then put it up on the counter.

"This is for Professor Oak," he explained. I looked at the package. It was brown and ordinary, like a PPS (Pokemon Postal Service) package or something. It looked stuffed to the brim with something or other, and I suddenly wondered what the old Prof ordered online. I shook the thought out of my head and took the package, then left the store.

I was dreading back through Route One, but hey- I was doing something for Oak, right? It was worthwhile.

I stepped back into that route with the rats and birds, and I sucked in my breath to bolster myself. That's when I saw the ledges.

The ledges were pretty small, but if you followed them, then... I would be able to get back home without fighting a single Pokemon.

However, when I stepped up to the ledge, I had second thoughts. What if one collapsed or something and dumped me into an underground cave, Safari Zone Jones style? But then I got over that absurd thought and started hopping.

In no time at all, I was back in front of Oak's lab. I knocked on the door. As if he'd been expecting it, Oak opened the door immediately and beamed when he saw me.

"Red! Come in, come in," he said. I followed him in, and saw the Bulbasaur neither me nor Blue chose. It was eating some food with its vines, but stopped when it saw me. I waved to the little turquoise dinosaur.

"What is it you need, Red?" asked Oak, snapping me out of my infatuation with the cute grass type.

"Oh—right. I was told to give you this?" I said, handing over the package.

"Aha! My package! 25 standard-issue Poke Balls. Brilliant," Oak said, taking the package. "You wouldn't happen to be in need of any, would you?" he inquired of me. I shook my head.

"I see. Well, anyway, Red. I wanted to ask you something."

"Shoot," I said.

"Will you take a Pokedex and fill it with the Pokemon of Kanto for me?" Oak asked, holding out a red device to me.

"A what-now?" I said, honestly confused. What was a Pokedex?
"Well, the Pokedex is an electronic wonder, if I do say so myself. I designed it. When you meet a Pokemon, the Pokemon's information will show on the screen—but only the data I've collected. I need you to catch Pokemon. The Pokedex will collect more data if you do. It's very useful in battle, as well as a fun task. Are you up to it?"

"I think so, yeah," I said, hesitantly taking the device. As my thumb touched the top, a blue pulse went over the whole thing. The Pokedex opened on spring-loaded hinges, and asked me, in a distinctly electronic male voice, "What is your name?"

I said, "Red."

"Thank you—Red." The last part was repeated back at me, in my own voice. A hum was taken on by the Pokedex, and it turned on to an image of Bulbasaur, who was sitting right in front of the gizmo's scanner. A section for information said,

"A strange seed was planted on its back at birth. The plant sprouts and grows with this POKéMON." -From Pokemon Red.

"Whoa," I breathed.

"Quite incredible, no?" said Oak. "Now try it on your Charmander."

"From the time it is born, a flame burns at the tip of its tail. Its life would end if the flame were to go out." -From Pokemon FireRed.

"Pretty amazing," I agreed. I put the Pokedex in the frontal slot of my backpack.

"Don't you have a Gym challenge to continue?" asked Oak, his eyes twinkling.

"Yeah," I said, grinning.

(-o-)

After another adventure and a half through Route One, I was finally back in Viridian City. The old man had apparently had his coffee and had moved, so I was able to explore past that part of the city. I checked out the Pokemon Gym last. There wasn't much to look at; the lights were off in the building and the flowers out front had obviously not been tended to lately. A single man with a tweed jacket and a hat was standing outside the Gym, staring inside. He seemed sad, so I let him be and moved away.

As I walked, I straightened my hat, pulled my gloves on a little tighter, adjusted my vest, and shifted my one Poke Ball to the right side of my belt, since right is my dominant side.

I was ready to take on Blue again.

(-o-)

Alright then! Guess we get to see Red catch a new Pokemon in the next chapter, and Red and Blue throwing down! Now then, on to the random stuff...

POKEDEX ENTRIES: I'm really not sure where I'm going to go with those. Obviously, I don't own Pokemon, so I don't own the entries, thus I don't want to throw them around too much. On the other hand, it's letting you know what Red's reading, but I can always just summarize it. I don't really know; tell me if you prefer the entries be omitted or not.

THE POKE BELT: This is kind of a random idea that I utilized in the manga that I created, wrote and drew myself. The idea is that the belts that trainers wear are special in that they give off a pulse specific to Poke Balls, so that it's kind of like a magnet effect: Unless pulled off with conviction, the Poke Balls won't come off. The original idea was the Poke Balls just snapped in, but this is a world of digitally transmitting magical creatures to a PC storage box. So, yeah. I'm a little lenient with the 'futuristic tech' idea.

Anyway, sorry for the short chap, you guys! But next chapter won't be so boring, so look forward to that, okay?

-Shinigami out.