Hey friends. New chapter again! And you can probably count on another within the next day as well (I might even post it tonight)! I don't really have anything to do this weekend, so I'll be able to write a lot today and possibly post another chapter! :) Enjoy!

This chapter was updated to fix the misspelling of "Rattata" on Thursday, September 17th, 2015.

Chapter 4

As kids, Red and I would play hide-and-seek pretty often. Back then there weren't smartphones or anything to keep us distracted. There were videogames and stuff, but five-year-olds weren't all that involved in the gaming community.

One day we were playing hide-and-seek. I always ended up hiding first because Red wasn't as…well-spoken as I was.

"Okay, count to fifty and then come find me.", I said, "And you better tell me when you're done counting for once!"

"…", Red was silent, as usual.

"Okay, I'm gonna go hide.", I began again, "Remember to tell me when you're coming."

I ran off to go hide. I knew that Red would never tell me when he was coming, but I still tried. I ran around to the back of my house where I saw two bushes that I could hide in. There was a good crawl-spot in them for me to hide unseen in them.

It only took me about fifteen seconds to find my spot, so I ended up waiting for a pretty long time. I ended up counting to about forty so that I would have a good idea of when Red would start looking.

I counted to about thirty-five when Red suddenly showed up and caught me immediately.

"You cheated!", I shouted, "There's no way you counted to fifty!"

"…", Red had no response. I knew it would be useless to fight with Red over this.

"Fine.", I admitted, "You won fair and square. Now it's your turn to hide. You have fifty seconds! Go!"

Red walked, not ran, walked off to find a hiding spot.

"Forty-eight, forty-nine, fifty!", I had finished counting, "Ready or not, here I come!"

I walked around to the front of my house to see that Red was still walking around trying to find a spot.

"Red!", I snapped, "You were supposed to find a spot to hide!"

"…", silence.

"Fine, I'll let you hide again.", I said, "But you better find a spot this time!"

I stood against the outside wall of my house and started to count again. This time I didn't yell that I was coming because I wanted to give Red a piece of his own medicine.

I have no idea how long I searched for Red, but it had to have been at least a half-hour. It was getting dark and it seemed to be a hopeless effort.

I went inside my house and told Daisy and Gramps that I couldn't find Red anywhere. Gramps went with me to go search for him and Daisy went over to Red's house to tell his mom and ask if Red was inside their house.

After hours of searching, we all had to give up. Red's mom looked very worried and said that she was gonna go home and call the police. I was angry that we were gonna give up just like that.

"No!", I shouted, "I'm not giving up on finding him!"

I then ran off to go find Red on my own. Gramps tried to run after me, but Daisy stopped him and assured him that I would be fine.

I searched everywhere in town before I noticed something new. Back behind my house was an area among the trees that had a wider opening than usual. I walked into it and noticed that someone had formed a small path. I walked for a few moments before I came to a clearing and saw a boy sitting there.

"Red!", I shouted, "We've been looking everywhere for you! A normal person would usually come home when they realized that it's getting dark!"

In the end, I learned something new about Red. I may always be quicker than Red, but he'll always have a way better strategy than me. I guess it's true that slow and steady always wins the race, as cliché as it sounds.

I arrived back in Viridian City and went directly to the Pokémon Center to heal my team up. I also went to the PC by the counter to withdraw my Rattata.

"I guess I need to get all the help I can get right now.", I thought, "Maybe I can find some use in this rat."

In the PC I discovered that I could check my email and that I had one message from Gramps. I opened it.

"Green,", it said, "I have received an important package that Red retrieved for me from the Pokémart in Viridian City. Please come back to my lab so that I can give you something important. I hope you haven't gone too far off yet!"

"Are you kidding me?", I thought, "I need to keep going so that I can stay ahead of that moron."

I made my way back through Route 1 to Pallet Town and went to Gramps's lab. Inside I found that Gramps was waiting for me.

"Yo, Gramps!", I called, "Let's get this over with so that I can hit the road!"

"Green,", he replied, "We need to wait until Red arrives with the package first."

"What?", I was surprised, "I thought you already had the package!"

"Well, if I would have told you that it wasn't here yet, you would have continued towards Pewter City without this important device.", he said.

"Ugh.", I groaned, "But we're gonna be waiting here for days before Red shows up."

"You need to have more faith in the boy.", Gramps lectured, "He'll be here in no time; just be patient."

We waited for maybe ten minutes, which felt like ten years to me, before Red finally showed up with a package in his hands.

"Finally!", I groaned, "Now let's get this over with so that I can get going already!"

"Patience, Green.", Gramps said for the millionth time.

"This package contains two very important devices that I would like the two of you to use.", Gramps began, "I neglected to tell you earlier that I have another task for you to perform on your journey.", Gramps took two red devices out of the box, "These are Pokédexes. I am giving the two of you the task of finding every Pokémon in the Kanto region and recording their info into these Pokédexes. I would do it myself, but I can't at my old age."

Gramps then handed us our Pokédexes, "Go out now and find as many Pokémon that you can. You can always come back and show me your progress!"

"As if I'll ever come back to Pallet Town while I'm busy becoming a Pokémon master.", I thought.

I then looked at Red. I didn't really have much to say to him, so I just said, "Smell ya later.", and left the lab.

I left Pallet Town immediately and made my way through Route 1 quickly. It was probably the fifth time I had walked through Route 1 in one day, so I was getting a little bit antsy about it.

I walked through Viridian City and noticed that the old dude who was blocking the way to the northern part of town wasn't there anymore.

"Finally!", I thought, "Now I can go to the Pokémon gym in this town!"

I made my way over to the Pokémon gym in the northern part of town. I walked up to the door and noticed that there was a note posted.

It read, "Gym temporarily closed. Please come again at another time."

"Damn it!", I cursed. I was so ready to finally get my first gym badge.

"Well, I know that there's a Pokémon gym in Pewter City…", I thought, "So I guess I'll just have to go to that one instead."

I left town through the exit in the north that led to Route 2. It was another route that was just as basic as Route 1, if not more basic. There were still no trainers and just a couple of spots with tall grass. The only Pokémon to be found were, yet again, Pidgeys and Rattatas.

As I walked north through that route, I noticed two odd-looking trees that were blocking another path through the route. I would've investigated the path further, but there was no way around the trees.

At the end of the small path there was a big opening in the trees. I walked through to find myself in a small, dim forest.

I walked forward and found a sign directly ahead of me. It said "Viridian Forest".

"Hm, a forest.", I thought, "This would be a great place to find some bug Pokémon."

I began searching through the tall grass to the left of the sign that I was standing in front of. I took several steps before I was jumped by a Caterpie.

"Go Pidgey!", I yelled as I sent my Pidgey out, "Go ahead and use tackle!"

My Pidgey was clearly faster than the Caterpie and hit it with a tackle before it even got a chance to think.

The foe Caterpie sent a stringshot at my Pokémon, which did nothing but slightly slow us down.

I could see that the one attack I landed was enough to significantly weaken the Caterpie, so I went ahead and threw a Pokéball and caught it on my first try.

I left the Caterpie at the top position of my team so that it could train a good bit and catch up with the rest of my team.

I spent some more time in the tall grass to train my newly-caught Caterpie a little bit. I ended up catching a Weedle, which I would send to the PC later. I also encountered a Metapod, but I already knew that Caterpie would evolve into a Metapod, so I just battled it for the experience.

The battle took forever because the foe Metapod kept on using harden, so its defense was ridiculously high to the point that I thought Caterpie was actually getting hurt by using tackle on the Metapod's hardened shell.

Finally, my Caterpie landed a critical hit on the Metapod, causing it to collapse to the ground.

Before I got a chance to praise my Pokémon and heal it up it started to glow.

"Wha-?", I thought, "Is Caterpie…evolving?"

The glow around Caterpie grew brighter and brighter until I couldn't see his figure anymore, just a bright light. Eventually the light subsided and the Pokémon before me was no longer a Caterpie, but a Metapod.

"Well that was quick.", I said out loud. I then healed Metapod up and began to actually trek through the Viridian Forest.

As I entered the depths of the forest, I noticed that there were some bug catchers scattered around. I decided to put my Pidgey at the front of my team 'cause I figured that a flying-type Pokémon would be more effective than the others.

The first trainer I encountered sent out a Weedle, which I took down in almost immediately, and then a Caterpie, same story.

I continued through the forest encountering a few more bug catchers who sent out similar, weak teams. I rotated my Pokémon around so that they could all get an even amount of experience, but I didn't use my Metapod.

After seeing how weak and defenseless bug-type Pokémon can be, I decided that I didn't want to have one on my team anymore. I was gonna deposit my Metapod into the PC when I got to the next town.

Viridian Forest turned out to be a pretty boring and quiet place, but it was also pretty large. I hadn't taken a break all day and I desperately needed one, so I found a nearby tree and decided to sit against it and take a short break.

I was yet again lost in my thoughts within a couple minutes. I began to think about what Gramps had been telling me about all day about being patient. I was always ahead of Red, but by the time he caught up, he was always just too strong for me to handle.

"No.", I thought, "I just need to train my Pokémon harder. Red isn't gonna beat me just because he's a slowpoke."

I then started to think about one of the things that Daisy told me earlier that day. She told me that Red was a good kid and was just trying to be my friend.

"My…friend…", I thought. Something just didn't seem satisfying about Red being my friend. I didn't know why I felt that way, however. Maybe I just didn't want to be his friend at all.

I reasoned that I was dissatisfied with calling Red my friend because I was so caught up in my dream of being a Pokémon master that I didn't want a friend. I needed a rival to keep me on my toes, but I hadn't realized that having a rival was gonna be so challenging.

I was interrupted from my thoughts when I felt a crawling sensation on my leg. I opened my eyes and looked down to see a Weedle crawling up my legs.

I screamed and then jumped up and ran away. I noticed that the exit to Viridian Forest was nearby, so I ran out of the forest and into the sunlight of the northern portion of Route 2.

At the entrance to Route 2 I was standing with my hands on my knees, hunched over, completely exhausted from running.

"Okay.", I thought, "I'm definitely not training a Weedle ever."

I looked up and noticed that the portion of Route 2 that I arrived in was just as basic as the first portion, if not more basic. I walked forward and entered the next city on the map, Pewter City.

Thanks for reading! Follow/favorite for more! :) -Jack