So, after the… who knows how long amount of time, not much had gone on. The only things worth mentioning, really, are evolutions. Pikachu stayed the same; I'm not letting him evolve, only because that'd probably mess up the entire universe or something. Pikachu. Aren't. Meant. To. Evolve. Cubone's still a Cubone, but he's much more mature than before. Gengar's still his playful self, helping me pull off pranks on both Delia and Red. Dratini evolved into a Dragonair; wonder how much longer until she's a Dragonite… She hasn't been getting much training, neither have the others, since we haven't been traveling that often. If we were training as much as we were for the League, she'd be a Dragonite by now and it'd be so much easier traveling from town to town!
For Red, there wasn't any evolving at all since his Pokémon are all already at the final stage. Except for Eevee, however, it didn't evolve either. He did, however, give back Gyarados to Misty. I miss Gyarados…
Delia's been her normal self the entire time; always trying to embarrass Red in front of me, and me in front of Red. Come to think of it… it seems as if she's trying to get Red and I together herself. Which would be very, very strange, considering her son's only 11 and the guy she's trying to get him with is only 10. What's even stranger, to me, at least, is that she's trying to get us together while we're both male. Now, I do love Red, but it's just… his mom trying to pair us together? Now that's strange.
All in all, not much has changed over the duration I've been living with Red. That was all about to change…
"Red! Wait up!" I shout, trying to catch up. Red and I were racing our Pokémon and ourselves. Red and Poliwrath were way ahead of Pikachu and I. Since this was a friendly race, a little sabotage wouldn't hurt… I have Pikachu send out a spark towards both Red and Poliwrath, stunning them for a second.
"Philippe! What was that for?" Red shouts back.
"You never said anything about attacks!" I tease, now taking the lead.
"Well, fine!" Red has Poliwrath shoot a Water Gun towards us, knocking us both off balance.
"At least I didn't use an attack!" Seriously, we could've been hurt!
"Thunder Wave is too an attack!" Drat, he's right.
"Well, in that case, Shock Wave!" Pikachu sends out a ball of electricity towards both Red and Poliwrath, them narrowly dodging the attack.
"Poli, Hydro Pump!" This time Poliwrath stops moving altogether and aims his mouth towards us, then releases a huge torrent of water. Pikachu and I have to leap out of the way to dodge the blast. How did this turn from a race to a battle?
"Pikachu, Thunder!" Pikachu sends a huge amount of electric energy towards Poliwrath, with the water-type easily dodging it.
"Poliwrath, Rain Dance!" Red, Red, Red.
"Pikachu, Thunder again!" This time, Pikachu sends the electric energy into the sky, the Thunder being absorbed by the clouds. The clouds turn a blackish color, then sends the energy back down to Poliwrath, hitting him directly.
"Rain Dance might increase Water's power, but it also increases Thunder's accuracy! I know you know that Red, so why'd you let me win?" I've had him all figured out for a while. Since he's the Champion, of course he'd be able to beat me easily. However, he's been letting me win more often than not during our little battles.
"I did not let you win!" He shouts from across the field.
"Yes you did. You've been letting me win all this time! If it's to not kill my self-esteem, as low as it already is, it won't! You're the Champion; I know I don't have a chance against you." I explain.
"Well, you were doing well against me before the League!" He tries to argue.
"Keyword there: 'before.' You weren't as strong as you were during, and especially not after, the League when I beat you. And you were still making stupid mistakes!" So many mistakes…
"That is true… Fine! You win!" He gives in. He's been doing that often lately. Either I've gotten better at manipulating people, or he's just not wanting to argue with me anymore. Which I do a lot.
"Now that the battle's over, what do we do now?" I ask.
"I have no idea. How about-" He stops and turns around.
"Philippe, do you hear that?" He asks.
"No not at all. Why?" I have a bad feeling about this…
"I hear someone screaming from over there." He points. I start to hear the voice as well.
"Waaaaaaaaaaaahhhh!" Cries a man on a rampaging Ponyta. I guess it's that time already. Red sends out Venusaur and has him wrap the Ponyta with Vine Whip, keeping him in place. The man's thrown off of the Pokémon and comes hurtling towards us, Red and I quickly positioning ourselves to catch him. We're both knocked over.
"Owwww… Thanks…" The man says.
"No problem! Now, why do you think your Ponyta went crazy like that?" Red asks, getting up and tearing the vines from the Pokémon.
"I don't know! One minute she was fine, the next… well, you saw!" Yes, yes we did.
"Well, it's best not to worry about the past. Say, what're you doing here anyways?" Red asks.
"Oh, I don't know. By the look of his uniform and the mailbag, I'd say…" I start.
"Shut up." I win!
"Are you two from Pallet Town?" The mailman asks.
"Yeah, both of us are!" Red exclaims.
"Then, you two wouldn't happen to know a guy named 'Red,' would you? I have a letter here addressed to him." He asks.
"Well, I guess we know him…" Red starts, grinning.
"And here we go again…" I sigh.
"Because Red of Pallet Town is me!" He shouts triumphantly.
"W-what?! You're the winner of the Pokémon League Tournament?!" The man shouts incredulously.
"Yes, yes I am! So, thanks for the letter!" Red runs off.
"I'm so sorry about that. He can get a little… carried away." I apologize to the mailman before dashing off after Red.
"So, what's the letter say?" I ask when I finally catch up with him.
"It's a challenge request. I've never had one of these mailed to me… They usually come right on down to Pallet Town!" Which has been many, many times.
"Who's it from?" I ask. It's obviously as to who, but I can't let him know that I know, as with a lot of things lately.
"There's a signature here at the bottom, but I can't read it. Oh! It also has a location. Somewhere in northwest Kanto. It even has a map!" He exclaims.
"Looks sketchy if you ask me…" I caution
"Well, if it's from a challenger I can't say no! That'd be just rude." Red says.
"They're the ones being rude! If they really wanted to battle you then they should've came here themselves!" I exclaim.
"Philippe, why are you so against me meeting this person?" Red asks questioningly.
"I just don't want you putting your life in danger for no reason. You get a random letter from a random person, asking to meet you in a random location for a battle. All of that just screams trap!" I shout.
"Philippe, calm down! Nothing's going to happen!" Red tries to calm me.
"You know, I don't really have a say in this. You're going to do whatever you were planning on doing from the start. I just don't want you to be able to say I didn't try when things go wrong." I sigh.
"Philippe, you're making me feel guilty for wanting to go now." Red whines.
"So, does this mean you're not going to go?" I ask hopefully.
"Nope!"
"Delia, please talk some sense into him!" I beg her. When Red and I got back to his house, he ran straight upstairs and began packing, while I started begging Delia to not let him go.
"You know as well as I do that that's downright impossible." She says.
"But you're his mother! You have to have some authority over him!" She just laughs at this.
"Not really. In the past, I've tried to keep Red from doing dangerous stuff. It just doesn't work; he'll have to eventually learn the hard way." And it might just cost him his life in the process.
"I'm done packing!" Red calls from upstairs.
"Red, I'm going to regret this, but I'm just going to have to accept the fact that you're going." I say.
"Good thing you realized that before I left!" He grins.
"So I'm just going to have to go with you!" Both Red and Delia stare in shock.
"Philippe, you can't be serious!" Red exclaims.
"Yes, I am. If you're going to go meet this guy, then I'm just gonna have to go with you! You know as well as I do that we work better together." It's usually just me saving his life, but meh.
"Philippe, I don't think that's such a good idea…" Delia warns me.
"Why not? We'd be safer by going together." Why does she not want me going with him? My logic makes sense… kinda.
"Just, trust me on this. It'd be better if Red went to face this man on his own. I mean, it'd be odd if the Champion had someone else accompanying him to a match! All of the previous matches Red's had on his own; why would someone suddenly join him? It'd make it look like Red didn't trust people." Delia has a point…
"Fine! I won't go with him! Just… don't blame me if anything happens!"