Myra woke up early with her alarm, she looked around and saw everyone was still asleep, and it was still dark out. She wanted to get going early to beat the crowd to the gym. She packed her bag and headed over to the pokècenter to pick up Ponyta and Della's Sandshrew. As much as she wanted to look around Viridian, she had looked at the map last night before falling asleep, and knew that they would be back here later in their journey, and she was hoping for a lot more time to explore the small town then. Growing up in Pallet Town, she had never stepped foot in any other town, the same was for any other young trainer. Other than the town they grew up in, young trainers couldn't explore any other town. Even in their training at school, they never saw a map of another region, and they only learned the pokèmon of their region. Pokèmon from regions were kept secret from others. Myra was going to fight hard to get to the other regions and see all the pokèmon.
Della woke up slowly to Myra's prodding.
"Why do we have to get up so early?" Della asked.
"Because we have to get through the forest to get to the first gym!" Exclaimed Myra.
Eventually Della got up and packed her bag. They said their goodbyes to the group they camped with, and headed up the road to Viridian Forest to Pewter City. While walking up the road, she looked ahead at the towering forest. It was huge! Even with the strong and quick Ponyta at her side, she was anxious about what lay ahead in the forest. Even now she thought she could hear a strange sound coming from the middle (she may also just be hearing things). She looked over to ask what Della thought, and noticed Della was standing a little ways away down a small path looking down at something. Myra wondering if she dropped something, and was a little annoyed that Della was holding her back from reaching Pewter City. She walked around the corner and saw an egg laying on the ground! Della was still a ways down the path, and Myra didn't know what to do. The egg looked like ebony, it was pure black. Myra reached down to touch it, and it was as smooth as silk. She didn't know what to do with it. Quickly she picked it up and held it out to Ponyta to sniff. Ponyta tossed her head and snorted, then she reached her head out and nuzzled the egg. Myra decided to put the egg in her pack until she could figure out what to do with it. Just as she was closing her pack, Della came over, "Look at what I found!" She exclaimed. Myra looked, and saw that Della had found an old wrinkled piece of paper. It was yellowed with age, and had several smudges across the top of it. She turned it over, and the front showed an aged drawing of Professor Oak, and at his side was a Charizard, Venusaur, and Blastoise. Above his head was a small Mew with a Moltres, Zapdos, and Articuno flying in circles around it. Professor Oak seemed to be pointing at something ahead of them. The art was amazing, the Moltres seemed to be made of flames, Articuno really shimmered in the light, and Zapdos was throwing sparks from it's wings. The Mew was mysterious, like it was not really there, faded into the back as the birds circled.
"What do you think it means?" Della asked.
"I'm not sure," Myra said, "it looks like it was made for a reason though. We should hold onto it and ask the gym leaders if they know what it was made for."
Della put the scroll into her pack, and they set off toward Viridian Forest once again.
About five hours later, Roger woke up, rubbing his eyes. The sun was brightly shining down on him. He looked around, and saw he was alone, everyone else had already taken off towards Pewter City and they gym there. He packed his bag and walked over to the pokècenter to collect his pokèmon. Pidgey seemed to be in a great mood, and was wide awake. Roger decided to check out the town for the day. He looked around the small town and saw mostly the same thing as in the city he grew up in, Celadon City. The pokècenter, with its red roof and glass doors, was almost identical to the one he knew growing up. The pokèmart was the same style, but with a bright blue roof. There were also some small houses, and a gym that was not opened until a trainer came with seven badges. The gym looked beat down, and the doors rusted. Recent trainers had not gotten far enough to gain entrance, rumors around town were that the gym leader had gone on a journey for a couple months, so even if a worthy trainer came, they would have to stay in town and train until the leader came back. Roger didn't know who the leader was, most leaders kept their identities secret until a challenger could make it to their gym and battle them, and those who challenged them usually kept quiet about it to others who asked. He had asked his father once, because he had helped repair some gyms, but his father refused to tell him, saying if he made it to the gym one day he would find out. Across the path from the gym, there seemed to be a small path. Pidgey flew down and looked back at Roger, he didn't see much down the path, but headed down anyway. He saw some other footprints in the ground, trainers from earlier had already been down the now beaten path. He got to the end and climbed up on a pretty large rock. Pidgey flew up and landed beside him, and he tossed some pieces of his sandwich to Pidgey as he ate his lunch up there. From the rock he could see across most of the town, as he looked to the right, he saw the path from Pallet Town they had taken the day before, and to his left he saw Viridian Forest. He looked behind and saw the path to the Elite Four, he knew he couldn't go far down that path. Other than the old gym, everything in the town looked new, and he even saw some kids coming out ot play. He jumped down from the rock and Pidgey flew down to his shoulder. The two took off toward the forest as Roger started telling Pidgey his plan for beating the Pewter City Gym.
Myra was getting tired of the forest, all around her she could hear chattering Caterpie and Weedle, the egg was heavy in her pack, and even Ponyta was walking with a bored look on her face. Della and Sandshrew were dragging their feet about 20 yards back. Myra made sure to stop anytime a corner came up so Della wouldn't get lost. They had come across another trainer in the beginning of the forest looking for a Pikachu, and Myra thought it might be fun to have a relative of Ash Ketchum's Pikachu, legend has it that his Pikachu started a family, and that the female preferred to stay deep in the forest with her young. Also in the forest were more Pidgey and Spearow, as well as the occasional Kakuna or Metapod on a tree. Recently there have been sightings of Squirtle, Charmander, and Bulbasaur in the woods, where trainers had released them into the wild after realizing they didn't have what it takes to be a pokèmon trainer. This was the place the aides came to from Pallet Town to get a stock of starter pokèmon to tame for the new trainers every four years. Myra loved the history behind her home town, and that is why it was such a big deal to young trainers. Deep in the forest she had already walked down many dead ends, and in an hour she was lost. The twisting turns had her confused, but so far no wild pokèmon had jumped out. They were probably not awake yet. It was getting to be lunch time, so Myra stopped to eat a sandwich. Della caught up about halfway through the sandwich, and pulled out her own. Sandshrew fell face first into a deep nap. Ponyta laid down and nibbled grass as she rested her legs. The noise in the forest increased, the wild pokèmon were starting to wake up, and the smell of food was leading them closer to the girls. Myra took her last bite of her sandwich as a Rattata jumped out into the path. Ponyta and Myra jumped to their feet.
"Ponyta, ember!"
Ponyta blew flames from her mouth right at the wild Rattata, but it jumped out of the way and only a small flame hit it. The Rattata went in for a bite, but Ponyta reared out of the way, dodging the attack. The next burst of flames from Ponyta's mouth engulfed the Rattata completely and it fainted. Myra reached out and patted Ponyta on the neck. "Good girl!"
The group was invigorated by the battle and marched on in the forest, still with no idea how they were going to get out.
Roger was completely lost, he wanted to send Pidgey ahead to see if there were dead ends, but it kept getting attacked by wild pokèmon when he did that. He didn't have any berries with him, and Pidgey was getting beaten down from the many attacks. Roger wasn't sure they'd be able to beat a Caterpie if one showed up. Pidgey was taking a nap on his shoulder as he walked on in the forest. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a couple of people down a path. A guy was holding out a weird looking metal device, and a girl was following close behind him. He saw they had some pokèmon with them, but they were too far off for him to tell. He thought maybe the guy had a way out of the forest, so he turned their direction and started following the odd couple pretty far behind so they wouldn't start a battle with his exhausted Pidgey.
Myra started hearing a weird clicking sound behind them, but every time she turned around to look, the sound stopped. She had a weird feeling they were being followed, so she slowed down to Della's pace and whispered her suspicions. Della agreed to speed up, and they both took turns looking back down the trail. All of a sudden they were surrounded by a dark smokey haze. Myra couldn't see anything, she heard a nervous whinny a little to her left, and she walked toward the sound, hoping to run into Ponyta before something happened. Before she could take two steps, she saw flames shooting back and forth, and then someone grabbed her from behind! Myra screamed and turned, and Della's hand went over her mouth.
"Shhhh!" Della whispered.
Myra's heart was beating so loudly they might be found anyway. She reached for her backpack for a flashlight and realized it was gone! And the egg was in there along with all the berries her father had sent! She started panicking, grabbed Della's arm, and took off running towards the flames. The smog cleared and she saw Ponyta biting and charging a Vulpix. Standing behind the little pokèmon was a girl holding Myra's backpack, and a guy holding an odd metal gadget. Ponyta was trying to get at the backpack, but there was ice on the ground, making it hard for her to move without slipping. Myra saw the source of the odd ice standing behind the couple; a Seel was spraying water on the ground, and then blowing cold air over it, causing it to freeze. Myra turned to Della.
"Can Sandshrew dig some sand on the ice to make it less slippery? I can sneak around behind them and get my backpack!"
"Alright!"
Myra ran into the deep woods, getting caught on thorns and branches as she ran. A tear sprung up on her jeans, and some blood started running down her leg. But she needed to get her pack back, it had everything she needed for her journey! She could hear Ponyta running on the ice, and hoped she wouldn't slip and fall. She slipped through the last few trees and saw the couple right ahead of her, not paying any attention. Ahead of them, Vulpix looked like it was tiring, but Ponyta looked just as exhausted from balancing on the slippery surface. Now she just had to wait for Seel to leave it's trainer's side so she could slip in. Just then Vulpix fell down and fainted, so Seel went into battle and Myra dashed out and grabbed her bag. The girl was taken by surprise and fell over from the force of Myra's push. Myra kept running right into battle and onto the ice. Even though there was a layer of dirt on the ice from Sandshrew, it was still very slippery and Myra went down, landing on her side protecting the egg in her backpack. Ponyta galloped over and protectively stood over her. The boy with the metal gadget was coming closer, something on top of it was whirling in circles and making noises. As it got closer, it whirled faster. It was an egg detector! They were after her egg! She got to her feet quickly but it was too late, they were surrounded! The girl was on one side, and the boy was on the other, there was no where to go. Della was on the other side of the ice, watching with fear, Sandshrew was panting heavily beside her. Myra slipped a loop from her backpack over Ponyta's head. "Run Ponyta!"
Ponyta took off into the forest. The egg was safe now, but Myra was still surrounded. The two looked furious now that they egg was out of reach, but they couldn't do much with it gone. Myra stood there shaking as the two grabbed their pokèmon and ran back into the deep woods. She could hear the gadget clicking as they went after the egg, Myra hoped Ponyta had run far enough that they wouldn't find her or the egg.
The city! Roger could see it now, it was like a bright candle compared to the dark forest he had been in for hours. Pidgey was in bad shape, they had come across a few more wild pokèmon, and Pidgey had just barely fought them off. It was stronger, but very tired and couldn't do much more than a weak whimper. He took off running toward the pokèmon center, carrying Pidgey in his arms. As he was entering town he noticed the Ponyta from earlier, but its trainer was out of sight. It was peculiar because the Ponyta had a backpack around its neck, and was pacing nervously. He decided he would check it out after he took care of Pidgey.
The town was pretty quiet. Most trainers were probably still in the forest and would be camping there for the night. The ones that were in town were eying the gym, which was closed for the evening. Roger was sure that early in the morning a line would be forming to go against the leader in town. The pokècenter was right up ahead. He ran past the doors and realized the town was so quiet because everyone was in here! There were battered pokèmon everywhere, and even equally battered trainers. The forest must have been rough on everyone. There was a digital sign up. "WAIT TIME: 45 MINUTES" Roger sighed and got in line, his arms aching from carrying Pidgey.
Myra had never been so excited to see light! They were finally out of the forest! Della was panting heavily beside her as they picked up their pace toward town. They were both bathed in sweat, and even Sandshrew was getting tired of bounding behind them. Myra heard a shrill whinny and get slammed in the chest as Ponyta happily galloped over to them. She was so happy Ponyta was safe with the egg, but noticed the pokèmon looked completely worn. Her mane and tail flames were just barely flickering in the dim light, and her eyes were drooping. Myra pulled off the backpack and led her to the pokècenter. The center was nearly empty late in the evening, so it didn't take long to drop off their exhausted pokèmon. When the two girls set up their tent for the night, Myra showed Della the egg, and they took turns holding it and wondering what could be inside. Then they took out the drawing Della had found. It was peculiar, and there was something about it that stayed on Myra's mind. Throughout the night she had wild dreams of a Mew in trouble, and a young Professor Oak trying desperately to save it. And then a flash of light.
