Red sat in stunned silence. Yellow also sat in silence, though not particularly stunned.
"I told you." Bill said, turning off the monitor that he had just played the recording from the Tyranitar attack on.
"That did look like Carmine." Red finally spoke. "I guess I don't really know him that well, but I still didn't expect him to be capable of something like that."
"Although we really didn't see him do anything." Yellow added. "It ended just as the battle was starting."
"I've decided to look into these strange occurrences. I want to find out what makes these Pokémon so different than normal. Although I've probably taken enough of your time already." Bill grabbed some small pieces of paper from his desk and handed them to Red and Yellow. "Thanks for listening to my story. It's nice to actually talk about this stuff with other people. Take these, they're tickets to the S.S. Anne."
"What's that?" Yellow asked.
"It's a famous cruise ship. There's a party being held on it in a few days, leaving from the Vermilion Harbor. I was planning to go there with a friend of mine, but I'm stuck here for a while due to the damage to the lighthouse and my friend said she was busy with something."
"And what would that be?" Yellow pressed the subject.
"I don't know. Do you want the tickets or not?"
Red grabbed the tickets from Bill's hand. "We'll take them, thank you."
Daisy had to take a moment for her eyes to adjust when she finally reached the southern exit of the Underground Tunnel. The midday sunlight was far brighter than the dim lighting in the tunnel, and nearly blinded her when she stepped out of the cave.
"Well that felt like forever." She said to herself. "I can't wait until I get a Pokémon that I can use to fly around instead of walking through caves and tunnels."
Kanto Route 6 was little more than a grassy field surrounded by trees, with a large pond near the center. Daisy walked up to the pond, took her shoes and socks off and dipped her feet into the cool, refreshing water.
"Oh, that feels so good. I feel like I've been walking for ages."
She lay back on the ground and rested until she felt something nibble at her toes. With a shriek she pulled her feet out of the water, with a small, round Pokémon still clinging on with its toothless mouth.
Daisy decided she might as well put this Pokémon to use and grabbed an empty Pokéball from her bag. After successfully catching the Pokémon, she checked its information in her Pokédex.
"Poliwag, huh. Well, I suppose having a water type in my team should be good. Looks like you're kind of small for your species, but whatever."
Red and Yellow headed out after receiving the S.S. Tickets from Bill. After walking a few minutes back to Cerulean, Red suddenly stopped.
"What's wrong?" A concerned Yellow asked him.
"I just remembered that I was supposed to call Misty and let her know you're alright. Apart from the amnesia. I don't know why I keep forgetting that."
"A dramatic sense of irony?" Yellow suggested.
"We can get to Cerulean faster if we use your Abra's Teleport."
"You can Teleport?" Yellow asked in amazement as she held out Abraham's Pokéball in front of her face. "That's so cool! You've got to be the best Pokémon ever. No offence, Maggie."
Yellow called out her Psychic-type Pokémon and both she and Yellow grabbed on to its arms.
"Can you take us back to Cerulean City?" She asked Abraham, before turning to Red. "Wait, how can Abraham take us there if-" Her question was cut short as she suddenly realized they were already standing in front of the Cerulean Pokémon Center.
Red noticed the confused look on Yellow's face and explained what happened to her. "Abra have Psychic abilities that allow them to read locations from their trainers mind to teleport them there."
"Does that mean you can take me to wherever my home is?" She asked the Pokémon. Abra only shook his head in response, before nodding off back to sleep.
"What do you think that meant?" She asked.
"I don't know. Let's go call Misty."
Yellow recalled Abraham and then she and Red headed inside the Pokémon Center, where they found a puplic video phone and Red entered in the number on the back of the card Misty had given him back in Viridian. After he entered the number into the large green box, its screen lit up and Misty's face came into view.
"Hello?" The red-haired gym leader asked.
"Hi, this is Red. We met back on Route 1 a while back."
"Oh, hi Red. What's up? Is the girl alright."
"I'm fine!" Yellow said cheerily at the screen.
"She can't hear you unless you talk into this." Red told her as he handed her the telephone.
"Thank you for rescuing me." She said into the phone this time.
"It's good to see you're alright. I'm Misty."
"My name's Yellow. Maybe."
"What?" Misty looked at the girl in confusion.
"It's a long story."
Charmander, Bulbasaur and Squirtle went on their way in no direction in particular in the loose hope of finding any clues as to where Damian was.
"So why are we looking for this guy?" Squirtle asked.
"Because he's in danger and I need to rescue him." Was Charmander's answer.
"From what you've said it sounds like he just abandoned you."
"No! He wouldn't do that. I know he wouldn't." Charmander's voice faltered increasingly as he spoke. "He wouldn't abandon me."
"Fine, whatever."
As the three Pokémon continued their journey, they crossed paths with a large woman in a gaudy purple fur coat and hat.
"What do you think she's doing out here?" Squirtle wondered aloud.
"I don't really care." Answered Bulbasaur.
"She looks like a city human." Squirtle continued as the woman walked by them. "Not the kind you see in areas like this, out in the middle of nowhere."
"That is none of your business." The woman said.
All three Pokémon turned back to the woman, who suddenly went stiff. The woman slowly turned around to face them.
"Forget that you ever saw me." The woman told them nervously, and in a sudden flash of movement the woman was gone.
"What… just… happened?" Squirtle asked.
"Let's just pretend none of that just happened and move on." Advised Bulbasaur.
Ash sat at an otherwise empty table outside the Vermilion Pallet House, looking up at the sunset, with Pikachu resting on the table. Brock had decided to go to bed early, Carmine was taking one of his walks and Misty had to take a call on her PokéGear, leaving the young trainer alone with his Pokémon.
"It's a beautiful evening." Ash said to Pikachu, though really more to himself. "I wonder what the others are up to. I'm starting to miss the good old days when we were younger. When we were kids, Daisy would take charge of our little group and we'd all follow her into all kinds of mischief. Over time she mellowed out and Gary took over that position. Red and I would just kind of get stuck in the middle of their sibling rivalry sometimes" He stared back off into the sunset. "I miss Pallet Town."
"Everyone gets homesick." Misty said as she walked up to him, carrying a drink in each hand. She sat down in the seat opposite Ash and handed one of them to him.
"What's this?" Ash asked as he took the drink.
"It's a Tropius Shake. I went to get one for myself and thought I'd be nice."
Ash took a sip from the cool fruity beverage. The taste was unfamiliar to him, but he enjoyed it. "That seems unusual for you." He snidely remarked.
"Ha, ha." Misty said dryly. "I was just in a good mood. That's all."
"What was your phone call about?" Ash asked the red-head inquisitively.
"Oh, nothing you'd care about."
They both took a moment of silence to drink and watch the sun as it finished its descent down the horizon, the golden-orange light fading from view.
"So, what are your plans for tomorrow? Or should I say our plans?" Misty asked the aspiring young trainer.
"I'm going to challenge the gym here and earn my second Badge. Then probably head out to Saffron."
"Do you think about anything other than Pokémon?" Misty asked the boy with a small chuckle.
"You don't have to come with me if you don't want to." Ash told her.
"You still owe me a bike. And at the rate you're going, I wouldn't really get home any faster anyway, so I might as well enjoy the company."
Ash and Misty continued their conversation, full of quips and minor insults at each other, for several hours. They completely lost track of the time until Carmine came back and, somewhat hypocritically, berated Ash for staying up so late.