Rocky loved his new trainer.
He couldn't remember his name – it was an unusual name – so he just called him New Trainer. New Trainer was lots of fun. They wandered all throughout Violet City, and New Trainer promised that soon they would leave for other cities too. Rocky had never been to any other cities – he'd spent all his life in Union Cave until he was captured by Old Trainer and brought to Violet City. So the idea of new cities excited him.
"Oooonix!" Rocky roared happily. New Trainer looked up at him warily. He thought that New Trainer might've found Rocky's size intimidating. Rocky wondered if it would help if he licked New Trainer's face. He decided it wouldn't.
"You should like where we're going," New Trainer said. "We're going to visit your former trainer one last time."
"Nix?" Rocky was happy to visit Old Trainer, but he wasn't sure what this meant. Did New Trainer not like him? Had he been a bad Pokémon?
New Trainer seemed to have seen the worry on Rocky's gigantic face. "I'm not trading you back," he said quickly. "I'd have to be insane to want to go back on this trade. But I just want to be sure your former trainer is happy with my Bellsprout. Chimer had some serious problems, and I want to be sure your ex-trainer can deal with her."
"Oooonix," Rocky rumbled. He was pleased he wasn't being traded away again. He'd already gotten all excited about exploring the big open world.
"Besides, it should be nice for you to see your former trainer one last time," New Trainer said. "Come on, let's go."
Rocky followed New Trainer down the street to his old house. He had to move carefully, to keep from whacking anybody with his large tail. They hadn't gone far when a woman in a pretty green dress walked up to New Trainer. Her outfit was unlike anything Rocky had ever seen before.
"Me oh my…" The woman examined the two Pokémon eggs, which were visible through an open flap in New Trainer's backpack. "That egg must be…!"
"Do you know what Pokémon is inside?" New Trainer asked. "I got it from Mr. Pokémon, and Professor Elm ran some tests on it. Neither of them knew what it was."
The strange woman stepped closer. "I see. So it was handed from Mr. Pokémon to Professor Elm, then from Professor Elm to you. Now I get it…"
"That egg is truly an important egg." The woman smiled at New Trainer. "Please take care of it for me. Is that understood?"
"Uh… sure, absolutely," Rocky's trainer said. "I don't suppose you could tell me what species it is? I'm only asking because I'm curious…"
The woman ignored him. "I am counting on you." She turned around and walked away.
New Trainer sighed when she was gone, and he turned to Rocky. "Was that egg hers? Was she talking about the egg I broke, or the egg that I found in the mud? Or did she mean Primo's egg? This is all getting confusing." He sighed. "Oh well. We'll deal with this later. For now I'm just going to take you to your former owner and make sure he's doing alright with Chimer."
They continued to walk throught he streets of Violet City, and they soon found themselves at the small two-story house that had once been Rocky's home. New Trainer walked up to the door and knocked quietly. Soon Old Trainer opened the door.
"Kamon!" Old Trainer looked surprised. "What are you doing here? And look at that, you brought Rocky with you!"
"OOOOONIX!" Rocky roared happily in greeting. His old trainer laughed at that.
"I'm leaving Violet City today," New Trainer/Kamon said. "I got the Zephyr Badge from Violet City, and Rocky was a big help with that. I thought you might want to see him one last time before I left."
"Well I appreciate that." Old Trainer patted Rocky's massive head.
"Actually, there's something else," Kamon said. "I wanted to be sure things were going well with Chimer. I know she can be a real handful. I just wanted to make sure you were still happy with the trade."
"She has been a challenge," Old Trainer admitted. "But we'll cure that rebellious attitude of hers; it just takes time. Would you like to see her?"
"Ah… well…" Kamon stammered. "I don't know, I really do have to be going…"
"Her Pokéball's right inside," Old Trainer said. "Stay here and I'll go get her."
Rocky and Kamon had little choice but to stand outside and wait for Old Trainer to return with Chimer. Kamon hung his head as though he couldn't wait to leave. Rocky had only met Chimer very briefly during the trade, but he didn't see what Kamon was so upset about.
Old Trainer returned with a large Pokéball. He pressed the circular button in the middle and Chimer appeared in a flash of light.
She looked around and saw Rocky first. To be fair, he was sort of hard to miss. Then she looked past him and saw her former trainer.
"YOU!" Chimer cried. "You traitorous piece of garbage! I'm going to choke the life out of you-"
"Chimer!" Old Trainer cried angrily. "If you don't settle down right now, you'll spend the next six weeks on garbage detail!"
Rocky remembered garbage detail as a particularly unpleasant chore. Chimer didn't seem to like it any more than he did, and she calmed down quickly. Kamon continued to speak with Old Trainer to verify that he was still happy with the trade. Chimer made her way over to Rocky, muttering darkly about what she'd do to Kamon and her new trainer if given half the chance. Then she looked the large rock type up and down.
"So," she finally said. "You're my replacement."
"Yep!" Rocky nodded. "And you're my replacement too! Because we were traded!"
"Right," Chimer smirked. "Why don't we see which of our trainers got the better deal?"
Rocky was confused. He had no idea what the tiny Bellsprout was getting at.
"We'll fight each other," Chimer explained. "I'll take you out in one hit, and Kamon will kick himself for giving up a great Pokémon like me."
Rocky didn't fully understand what was going on, but he didn't think Kamon regretted giving up Chimer very much. From what he could see, his trainer didn't even like her.
"So come on then!" Chimer released a vine and swung it around her head menacingly. "What are you waiting for? Let's do this!"
Kamon turned to his Onix, and eyed Chimer's work with her vines. "Okay Rocky, we've said our goodbyes. It's time to go now."
Rocky turned around to face his trainer, and his tail swung through the air. It walloped Chimer with the force of a small car, and the Bellsprout went flying through the air. She landed in the shrubs outside Old Trainer's house.
"I'm glad Chimer's working out for you." Kamon shook Old Trainer's hand. "Thanks again for the trade."
"Do you want to say goodbye to your Bellsprout?" Old Trainer asked. "She… hmmm, where did she go?"
"It doesn't matter," Kamon said. "Tell her I said goodbye." Chimer was hidden in the bushes, knocked out cold. Rocky tried to look small and inconspicuous, and failed spectacularly at it.
With that, Rocky followed his trainer south beyond Violet City. They walked down a sunny path through a small forest, making their way down Route 32. Kamon promised Rocky that eventually they would come to a large lake where they could learn to fish. Rocky didn't like the idea of that, and he was pleased when they didn't find the lake that day.
Around sunset, Kamon stopped to make camp beside a group of ancient birch trees. Violet City's skyline was barely visible in the distance. Kamon set up camp and released his two other Pokémon. Theo cried out happily upon being released, and Walnut wagged his tail. Then the two Pokémon got to work preparing the campsite. Theo started a campfire, and Walnut gathered sticks for it. Rocky wasn't sure what to do, and Kamon was too busy picking out dinner to give him an assignment. So he followed Walnut out into the forest, where the Sentret was collecting piles of sticks.
"Hi there!" Rocky said. "We haven't had a chance to get to know each other yet. My name's Rocky!"
"Nice to meet you," Walnut said. "Do you mind giving me a hand gathering firewood here?"
Rocky was happy to help out a member of his new team, especially one that looked like a gigantic cuddly fur ball. He searched the forest floor for sticks that were the right size for their fire. But all he found was a boulder larger than Walnut.
"Does this help?" Rocky asked Walnut. When the Sentret shook his tiny head, Rocky was disappointed. Rather than toss the rock away, Rocky simply swallowed the boulder. He was a rock type, so eating smaller rocks was just part of his diet. This rock tasted minty.
Walnut now looked at Rocky with a mixture of confusion and fascination. "What did you just do?"
"Oh that?" Rocky asked. "Rock Pokémon eat all kinds of smaller rocks. We can eat jewels too, but those are really hard to come by. I ate a ruby once and my tongue practically melted. Rock Pokémon have really strong digestive systems, so we can pretty much eat whatever we want."
"That is the coolest thing I've ever seen," Walnut said. And just like that, Rocky had made his first friend on Kamon's team. The two Pokémon gathered the firewood, and returned to the campsite.
After the group had dinner, Kamon allowed them all to sleep outside of their Pokéballs for the night. Rocky curled up in a patch of grass. The air smelled cleaner outside of Violet City, and the stars were brighter without the city's air pollution. He was excited to find out where they would go tomorrow. That was the best part of a Pokémon journey; all the amazing places you could explore.
Rocky stayed up looking at the stars long after Kamon, Theo and Walnut had gone to sleep. After a few hours, his gaze was broken by a faint rustling in the bushes. Rocky looked over at the line of trees on the edge of their campsite. Something was moving out there.
Was it a wild Pokémon? Rocky stood up and quietly made his way towards the rustling grass. Kamon would be excited if Rocky defeated a wild Pokémon all by himself. Maybe Rocky would keep the wild Pokémon from eating all their food, and he'd be a hero!
Rocky looked into the tall grass, and found himself face to face with the wild Pokémon that had been watching them. He was disappointed with what he found.
It was a Rattata.
"Hello!" Rocky said. "You're a dirty little guy, aren't you? You're all covered in mud."
"I've been tracking your trainer down for three weeks!" Rattata growled. "I've waded through mud that was ten feet deep, a passing trainer stepped on me, and I was attacked by an extremely violent Ledyba!"
"Well that's too bad!" Rocky smiled sympathetically. "Are you hungry, little guy?"
"Yeah!" Rattata cried. "Hungry for revenge!" He pointed over at Kamon. "That stupid Cyndaquil trainer is going down!"
Rocky looked confused. "You mean Kamon? He doesn't train a Cyndaquil anymore. He did, but it evolved. It's a Quilava now. It's sleeping right over there."
Rattata paled when he saw the large fire type sleeping at its owner's feet. "And… you're one of this trainer's Pokémon too?"
"Yep!" Rocky grinned happily. "Why do you ask?"
Rattata shook his head. "It doesn't matter! I'll take you all down if I have to! I've come too far to give up now. Your trainer is going to regret ever getting in my way!"
Rocky cocked his head sideways. "What does that mean?"
"It means I'm going to go attack your trainer and there's nothing you can do about it," Rattata growled. He began to walk towards Kamon. "It's finally time for my revenge. After countless defeats and humiliation, I'm finally going to-"
Rocky sat on him.
He didn't know what else to do. He was afraid a big battle would wake up his teammates, plus he felt kind of bad for the small purple rat. He didn't want to hurt it if he could avoid it. It looked like it had been through a lot.
So Rocky curled up and went to sleep right on the spot, ignoring Rattata's muffled protests. Though the tiny Rattata-shaped lump was uncomfortable to sleep on, Rocky was still able to get a good night's rest without squishing Rattata too badly. Kamon woke up the next morning and recalled Rocky to his Pokéball. Kamon never noticed the dazed Rattata lying in the dirt.
Rocky stared at the world through his Pokéball as Kamon continued to walk south. He was going off on an adventure. And everything was going to be just great.