Chapter 21 – Cycling Road

After waking up and taking a shower, I headed west, outside of Celadon. I needed to get to Fuchsia, fast.

As I exited, I saw a building in my path. Entering, I was told some depressing news.

"I'm sorry, sir, but you can't proceed without a bike." the person there said.

"What?!" I exclaimed. "But I need to get to Fuchsia!"

"Well, I'd love to help you out, sir, but we don't permit passage to anyone without a bike. I'm sorry." the man said.

"Grinder?"

I turned around. Standing there was none other than Dawn.

"Oh, Dawn, hi!" I said. I noticed the bike she was on. "Your timing couldn't have been better!" I then walked up to her, and began whispering in her ear. "I need a fast way to get to Fuchsia. Can I double up on your bike?"

"Sure." she replied. She then turned to the person standing at the desk. "He's with me, sir."

"That's fine." the man said. "Proceed." He then lifted the gate to let us through.

We then headed down Cycling Road towards Fuchsia. It saved me a lot of time to go through this route, even though I knew that I wouldn't be able to take this route again on the return trip, as this was a one-way route due to the slope.

"So, Dawn, how'd you do in your Gym battle?" I asked.

"I barely won..." she replied. "My Weepinbell just barely came above her Victreebel. The thing is, she was impressed with my victory, so she gave me a Leaf Stone to evolve Weepinbell."

"So, your Weepinbell is now a Victreebel?" I asked.

"Not yet." she replied. "For now, I'm keeping it as a Weepinbell."

"I see." I said. I then looked ahead. "What's going on here?"

Up ahead of us, there was a crowd of rather big-looking guys gathered around something...or someone. There was a lot of commotion.


"I don't like the look of this..." Dawn said. "Let's be sure nothing bad is going on."

As we arrived at the scene, we stopped our bikes. Apparently, the thugs we'd seen were ganging up on someone.

"Give us your badges, kid." I heard one of them say.

"What's going on here?" I asked.

A couple of the bikers turned around.

"Great, more kids to take badges from." one of the bikers said. He tried grabbing me, but Dawn stopped him.

"Weepinbell, use Vine Whip!" she said, quickly releasing the Pokemon from its Poke Ball. Before the thug could grab my arm, Weepinbell wrapped its vine around his arm to stop him. I backed off of him before he tried anything else.

"Seems these kids actually want to fight back!" one of the bikers said. The rest chuckled, arming their Poke Balls.

"Go, Granite and Haunter!" I said, releasing the Pokemon from their Poke Balls.

"Go, Wartortle!" she said, releasing the Pokemon from its Poke Ball.

Behind us, I could hear the person the bikers were terrorizing. "Seadra, Dugtrio, I choose you!"

"Dammit!" the biker said as they all released their Pokemon. I saw a Machoke, a Primeape, a Beedrill, a Muk, a Weezing, and a Hypno.

"Let's go, everyone!" I yelled.

For confusion's sake, I'm not going to explain each battle. We kicked their asses.

"Grr..." the bikers growled as they returned their Pokemon to their Poke Balls. "We'll be back, just you wait!" They then jumped on their bikes, speeding off towards Celadon.

"Are you OK?" I asked the trainer.

"!!" He looked at me for a minute, staring at me strangely.



"What?" I asked. "Do I have something on my face?"

He then shook his head. "No, it's nothing." He then stood up. "I'm Aaron. Thank you for rescuing me." He extended his hand, smiling.

"I'm Grinder, nice to meet you." I said, extending my hand to shake his. However, as I did, I felt that his hand was slipping slightly. Something was definitely up with this kid.

"So, thanks for saving me." he said. "I'm actually going home to Fuchsia..."

"We're headed there as well." I said. "Would you like to come with us?"

"Cool." he said, straightening his bike and getting on it. We then returned our Pokemon to their Poke Balls as we departed towards Fuchsia.

As we were heading down the trail, I decided to bring up Aaron's strange behaviour to Dawn.

"You're saying this kid's been acting weird towards you?" she asked.

"Yeah..." I said. "It's like...he thinks we've met before or something..."

"He didn't act that way towards me..." she said. "Perhaps something IS up with this kid."

"I hope not..." I said. "I don't want to make any more enemies."

"Oh well, after we bring him home, he won't be a problem." she said.

We eventually arrived in Fuchsia after what seemed like hours. However, Aaron arrived first, as he didn't need to stop as much as we did. He didn't even say good-bye, but regardless, something told me that I wanted nothing to do with that kid...

"So, Dawn, what will you do?" I asked her.

"I want to go to the Safari Zone before I challenge Koga, the Gym Leader." she said.

"Well, I'll challenge Koga first, then." I said. Besides, I hadn't seen Koga in almost seven years. His daughter Janine and I were like brother and sister.

So, I headed towards the Gym, eager to see, challenge, and defeat Koga...