Chapter 6: Rivalry

"I was actually never really that disappointed whenever Red beat me," Green admitted. "If it was anyone else then I would have been, but because Red had it so much tougher than all of us, I was always just proud whenever he won. He really did so much more than what we all expected,"

"Hey, Red!" Green had spotted him from across the pathway and made his way over. "It's been a while since I've seen you, how's it going?"

'Pretty good,' He answered. For some reason, he was really relieved to see Green. He thought it was because everywhere he was travelling was so new and unknown to him that it was nice to see someone from where he came from. It gave him a sense of familiarity and even reassured him that everything was okay. Even though it was Green, and he was annoying and cocky and was always that little bit better than him. It wasn't fair! Why couldn't he succeed at something himself rather than always being outdone by his friend? That was a sore spot for him. So of course Green was already in Cerulean, always one step ahead. 'And you?'

'So good!' He exclaimed. 'I've been catching so many pokemon! I think I already have about fourty entries in my pokedex!' See? That's exactly what Red was talking about. 'So, your eyes are almost better,' He commented, peering down underneath Red's hat.

'...Yeah,' Must he bring it up? Now that the relief of seeing Green had passed, Red found himself becoming increasingly annoyed by the guy and unable to put up with his antics. 'I know it was stupid of me to get in a fight, so you don't need to bring it up, okay?'

'Okay, fine," He huffed, crossing his arms over his chest. 'But you know, I do wonder what would have happened if I hadn't come along to break it up,'

That was the last straw for Red, he couldn't deal with his arrogance right now, he was not in the mood at all. 'I'm going, Green,' He said. 'You're being too full of yourself and it's hard to deal with, so I'm just going to be on my way, and so are you,' He turned his back on his friend and began to walk off.

"Come on, Red!" He insisted. "I'm sorry for being rude!" This re-caught his attention and he turned around once again. "Can we at least battle?" He nodded and sent Pikachu off his shoulder and onto the ground. Green pulled a pokeball out his bag and released his Eevee.

"Good job!" Green laughed, attempting to cover his embarrassment of losing. "My rival needs to keep me sharp if I'm going to be a good trainer!" Red couldn't believe it, he'd beaten Green! What was he saying about always being second best? Well, now he was the best out of them at the one thing that he really wanted to be the best at. The satisfaction he felt was indescribable. Unless it was a fluke, of course. "Well, I have to be going to the next gym! Smell you later!" Red watched him walk down the path and back into Cerulean City, feeling relief that he'd finally left.

He continued walking up the pathway, feeling the cool sea breeze ruffle his hair. Though he'd loved travelling so far and had been fascinated with the places he visited, he had really missed the ocean, so it was really nice to finally be near it again. Red had observed over the years that if you live near the water, then you can't be away from it too long, otherwise you'll miss it because it becomes a large part of your life. He knew it wasn't just him that felt this way, but everyone in Pallet Town and anyone else who lived near it. He loved big cities though, they were so much more fun and interesting than little towns like Pallet. So Cerulean City had made a big impression on him, it was a city and it was right near the ocean.

Even though it had the highest crime rate in Kanto.

That didn't bother him.

He liked danger, it was exciting.

"Hey, you," He looked away from the ocean towards the voice. It came from a young boy, probably around his age. He believed the class for them was 'Youngster', he supposed he'd probably be classified as that too, but they didn't tend to travel a lot unlike him. "We're the Nugget Bridge Trainers, and we'd like to challenge you! If you beat all five of us, you win a prize!" He glanced around and noticed there were four others, as well as an older guy who had a suspiciously familiar black hat on. He nodded and Pikachu jumped onto the ground again, just as it had not even twenty minutes ago. "Rattata, go!" He released the purple rat and it hissed angrily at Pikachu, who seemed to laugh in its own way, as if saying "Check out this guy,".

'Just hit each one with a Thunderbolt,' Red said. He and Pikachu had formed a bond over the past month of so they'd been travelling and as such, the little mouse almost always knew what to do in situations like these. It was very handy. And that's how every battle along the pathway progressed, right up until he got to the guy with familiar hat. He didn't want to toot his own horn or anything, but for some reason he was better than these people at battling. He didn't know why, he faced so much more difficulty than everyone else. But it was nice to be good at something, he'd never particularly excelled at anything else before.

"Congratulations, you beat our five contestant trainers!" The older guy said. "As promised, you win a fabulous prize!" He held out his hands and in them was a shiny stone. Red picked it up, wary of what it was and why he was being given it. "It's a nugget, and it's legitimately for you," He continued, sensing his hesitation. "Also, would you like to join Team Rocket?" Oh, so that's where he'd seen the hat before, on those people in Mount Moon.

But like hell he was going to join Team Rocket. They disgusted him.

"In case you haven't heard of us, we're a group dedicated to the...manipulation of the world using pokemon," He explained, his face seemed to be glowing with pride as he explained his organisation. It was because of this Red lost faith in humans for quite a while. "So, you want in?" Red shook his head frantically. "Are you sure?" More shaking. "Come on, join us!" Still no. "Fine then, I'll make you an offer you can't refuse!" He pulled a pokeball off his belt and released an Ekans.

'Pikachu, you can do it!' Red would have been worried about the wellbeing of his pokemon after those six battles, one of them being Green, but they were easy enough that Pikachu wasn't really hurt at all and was ready enough for another battle. 'Use a Thundershock, and if that doesn't do it, then follow up with a Slam!'

"Ekans, use Poison Sting!" And well, let's just say that this battle was basically the same as the other five before him before him. He recalled his pokemon angrily and grunted in annoyance. "With your ability, you could become a top leader in Team Rocket," This really angered Red. He despised Team Rocket with a passion after he'd heard that guy abusing his Raticate in Mount Moon. He found it horrible what they did and did not want to have any association whatsoever with such an evil organisation. So to answer, he just glared the the guy and stormed off into the distance.

Red peered in through the open door of the house on top of the ledge north of Cerulean. He had been told by several people in town to visit Bill, who apparently was the guy who invented the pokemon storage system, something that many trainers across the region used extensively. So the least he could do was go visit him, even though communication would probably be a little difficult. He was guessing this was his house, as it was the only one along the coast here. There were also lots of electronics on the inside, which seemed fitting for someone who invented something for the computer. Deciding that it was probably the right place, he stepped inside.

He had taken no more than two steps, when a strange looking creature ran up to him. He leant down and petted its head, which was more of a shell. It was weird and cold. Pikachu was reacting weirdly towards the pokemon, staring at it in confusion and occasionally circling it.

"Hi, I'm a pokemon!" The creature said, making Red jump. He had not been expecting it to talk, and that scared him out of his wits. It laughed when it saw his reaction. "No, I'm not. I'm Bill and I'm a true blue Pokemaniac! Hey, what's with that skeptical look?" He hadn't even realised he'd been pulling a face and he frowned once it was brought to his attention. "I'm not joshing you!" Bill insisted. "I screwed up an experiment and got combined with a pokemon, and I need help getting back to normal. So can you help?" Red nodded, still confused about what was happening. "When I'm in the teleporter over there," He motioned towards a fancy looking metal tube. "Go to my computer and run the Cell Separation System. Just click run, it does its own thing after that,"

Red found the program on the computer and pressed run. It was easy enough, but he still found the task daunting because if there was one thing that Red couldn't do, it was technology. He was basically illiterate when it came to that sort of thing. He'd tried to learn how to use the computer, but he could never get the hang of it properly - Green had given him so much crap about that. He wasn't dumb in any other way, he could read and write at an advanced level and could perform maths adequately, but he just could not do technology.

There was a whooshing noise and then Red found another guy standing inside the other tube on the opposite side of the computer. He stepped out and stood in front of Red. "Thanks, bud!" He grinned. "I owe you one," Red responded with how he usually responded in situations like this - by staring up with his wide eyes at whoever was addressing him. "You're mute, aren't you?" He was taken aback by this, not once had anyone he'd just met guessed that he didn't talk. He was glad Bill had though, it saved a lot of time with explaining.

He nodded and then pointed to a piece of paper on the desk. If he couldn't talk to people through sign language, then writing would suffice. Bill nodded and handed him a pen which he'd had in his pocket. 'Yeah, I'm mute,' He wrote. 'How did you know?'

"It's in your eyes," Bill explained. "They have a lot more depth to them than most people have because unconsciously you'd be trying to communicate with them because you can't speak,"

'How do you know that?' He was impressed with his knowledge, because even he didn't know that about his eyes. He touched them self consciously, half because Bill could read them, and half because they were still partially blackened.

"Because I'm a nerd," He chuckled. "And I'll admit that because I know I am. Hey, also, why didn't you just use the computer to type what you wanted to say? It's probably a bit easier,"

Now it was Red's turn to chuckle, but his was silent. 'I'm not very good at computers,' He felt stupid saying this to the guy who invented the whole Pokemon Storage System - he was probably the smartest person with computers in all of Kanto. He felt small and insignificant.

"That's okay," Bill said. "A lot of people are, but like I said, I'm a nerd,"

It fell silent for a moment while Red tried to think of something to relieve the awkwardness. 'You met Green, I'm guessing?'

"Oh yes," He replied. "He's a...nice guy,"

'You're lying,'

"Not lying exactly," He began slowly. "He was nice enough, but he seemed to love himself a little,"

'Very much so,' Red nodded with gusto. He was still annoyed at his friend for earlier. 'We're both from Pallet Town,'

"I see," Bill said. "Well, I don't want to sound rude, but you're the nicer one of the two,"

'Thank you!' You don't understand how nice it was for him not be overlooked for once.

"You're welcome," He laughed. "Oh! I need to give you something to repay you for helping me out earlier," He fished about in his pockets and when he found nothing there, he cleared away some of the mess on his desk and ended up presenting Red with a ticket of somesort. "This is for the luxury cruise liner S.S Anne that docks in Vermilion City, all of its passengers are trainers, so I think it would be right up your alley," Red took the ticket out of Bill's hands. The edges of it were shiny and it seemed really posh. "They invited me to the party they have, but I can't stand fancy do's. You should go instead of me, that was someone is getting good use out of it,"

'Thanks, once again,' He nodded and left Bill's place. He supposed he was on his way to Vermilion City then (which he didn't mind, that was right by the ocean!), but first was the Cerulean Gym.

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