Heyllo folks! I managed to get a chapter out for you before Tuesday (for most of my readers anyway, it's 3 AM on a Tuesday for me) came around. Had some nice cake and beer at my sister's birthday so it took a bit to get myself going again.
For those of you that are wondering, we'll deal with the Viridian Forest in this and the next chapter, and then it's on to Brock and the Gym challenge (I hope if a chapter doesn't get away from me again).
Enjoy!
A Forest Filled With Trouble
Mark woke up in a strange dark place, a second later he felt the presence curled up against his side and remembered that he started his journey yesterday.
Giving the dark tent a quick scan, he saw the standing form of Kraven with his wings folded behind him dozing away while leaning on the opening.
It allowed a small sliver of pre-dawn light to cut across the inside and land on the sleeping form of Ivy, making his face form a soft smile for several seconds.
After considering his options, Mark decided to slip away from the tent and get his body's needs taken care of while letting his hard-working Pokemon have some extra rest.
He managed to extricate himself from Ivy without waking her and crawl past Kraven while dragging his Bag without even a twitch from their supposed guardian.
Once outside, he fished out a roll of toilet paper from the Bag and started towards the tree line.
A few steps into his journey, he heard a muffled, "Bulbasaur?" from his back and turned around just in time to see Ivy's concerned face poke out of the tent.
He waved at her to reassure her and whispered, "I have to visit the little boy's bush, go back to sleep."
Instead of listening to him, Ivy blinked while her sleepy mind processed her trainer's meaning and then followed after him.
Mark raised a surprised brow at her before he asked, "You need to go too?" and received a nod in return.
Giving his starter a shrug he added, "Fine, but stay at least two bushes away from me. That's the rule," and continued on his path.
A long time ago, even before his memories returned, Mark received the answer to the age-old question of 'Does an Ursaring shit in the woods?' As it turns out, yes it does, and so do most of the other Pokemon species. Only ones who feed on pure energy like his dad's Magneton don't. Even then, they don't have to go more than once or twice a week because of how well they process their food into energy, especially if it's food made with quality ingredients and not the generic Mart stuff.
Once they finished their business, the duo returned to the campsite and Mark turned to Ivy to say, "Go wake Kraven up while I get our breakfasts ready," upon receiving a nod of confirmation, he added, "And don't take any crap from him until he's fully awake."
With that, he went over to his bag and took out his toiletries and a bottle of clean water to wash his hands and teeth before he started taking out food for the Pokemon and himself. All the while, he ignored the sounds of muffled curses of, "Free!" coming through the tent's opening.
After they finished eating, Mark gave the Pokemon some time to digest their food while he went and took the camp down so they could move on once they finished up with their morning training.
With everything safely back in his Bag, he turned to Kraven and ordered, "Go get Ivy a sparring partner, please."
Receiving a nod in return and seeing the Butterfree fly off, Mark turned to an expectant Ivy and explained "He's gonna use Rage Powder to bait a Pokemon into following him here so you can battle it. I want to see what you learned from yesterday so I won't give you any instructions during the first battle."
The Bulbasaur took to the idea of having a sparring match well and gave the boy a confident, "Saur," in response.
A few minutes later, Kraven flew out of the forest while staying low to the ground and with a red-eyed Rattata sprinting after him accompanied by the white glow of Quick Attack leaving a faint trail behind it.
Seeing the waiting pair, Kraven needed no instructions to fly up high and leave the enraged mouse without a target.
Giving the command of, "Go," Mark crossed his arms and watched what his starter would do when left to her own instincts. He trained Kraven so much that he rarely needed to give the Butterfree any direct orders unless he needed something specific done and hoped to do so for all of his other Pokemon.
To his surprise, Ivy alerted the confused Rattata with a challenging, "Bulbasaur!" before she shot her Vine Whip towards the now ready Pokemon.
She didn't get punished for that due to the mouse's inexperience and managed to snag him in her vines, but instead of slamming the trapped rodent around the place, she dragged him towards herself while obviously preparing Toxic.
While she did that, the Rattata had enough time to shoot out two Growls at her unmoving figure and started to utilize its energy in some kind of half-Tackle to fight off the constricting vines.
Ivy managed to hit it with Toxic before it freed itself, but then she let it go and started backing away while shooting Growls of her own, to which the Rattata responded in kind.
From then on, Mark watched a miserable slap-fight where both Pokemon's strength got Growled down to nothing so they did practically no damage to each other while the Rattata tried to close in with Ivy with Quick Attack or Tackle and she ran away from it and used her vines to slap it away if it managed to make contact.
By the time the Toxic finished its work and the Rattata lay unmoving on the ground, and a scuffed Ivy stood proud and victorious over its body, Mark had both hands covering his face while he fought off both the urge to laugh and to cry.
After taking a deep breath, he lowered his hands and gave his now confused-looking Bulbasaur a crooked smile as he neared her and said, "Ivy, why did you use the tactics we used on the Staryu yesterday on this Rattata?"
When he received a confused, "Bulbasaur?" he sighed and bent down to pick up the rodent by the tail. Without preamble, he swung it once and threw it deep into the forest. 'I'm not gonna waste a Pecha Berry on some vermin, it should be glad I let it live after that showing. If it survives its Poisoning and weakness for the next couple of days then it's meant for something greater, if not… oh well,' Mark thought on the inside, but outside he answered Ivy's concerned look with, "We don't need it for food so there's no reason to keep it."
He knew that she wanted more than that since he doubted that they showed young Pokemon in the breeding place how they made their food if they even used Pokemon for it at all and not only plant matter since they probably dealt with only Grass-types. However, he wanted to get all of his Pokemon used to the world of kill or be killed while keeping the importance of family and belonging to the group so he had to start somewhere.
Dismissing his thoughts, he looked up at the fluttering Kraven and shouted, "Go get us another one," before he looked down at Ivy and explained, "When I said to show me what you learned I meant your moves and how you used them without instructions, not to copy our previous battle. You had that mouse in your grasp from the start and could have finished it off with a few slams to the ground instead of dragging it on so much and getting a couple of injuries in the process."
By the time he finished, Ivy tried to make herself look as small as possible while she kept her gaze glued to the ground.
With a sigh, Mark squatted down and raised her head to lock eyes with him before he said, "I'm not mad at you, Ivy. There's no way you could have become an expert fighter after only one battle. That's why we'll train and battle so much in the future. I only wanted to see you give it your best shot. And, while you did copy our previous tactic, you did it to the best of your abilities so how could I be angry at that?"
When he saw the words and feelings he sent her did the trick of cheering her up, he continued, "I'll give you commands in the next battle and you'll see for yourself how every opponent needs a different tactic to beat. Every day we'll have a couple of spars like these in the morning to see how you're improving. Then, for the rest of the day, we'll train in the morning and on the road when you're not too tired and maybe have additional battles if we come across the proper opponents for you. Do you agree to that?"
Ivy didn't hesitate to give him an enthusiastic, "Saur!" and throw herself at him with another stinky lick across his face.
'I guess I deserved that,' Mark thought as he patted Ivy a few times and stood up after he heard the bushes near them rumbling.
"Get ready," he said and the Bulbasaur jumped to his command with gusto while he secretly wiped his face with the back of his sleeve.
Ivy turned around towards the noise and prepared her vines to strike by hovering them near her body like green snakes as she waited for her opponent.
This time, Kraven burst out of the tree canopy with three red-eyed Spearow on his tail.
Immediately, Mark shouted over the squawking of the birds, "Throw one to Ivy without hurting it and take care of the other two!"
A moment later, Kraven's eyes glowed blue and an identical glow enveloped the Spearow furthest from him before it shot down towards the ground. Just before it crashed into the dirt, the Pokemon froze in mid-air and got released from the Psychic energy making it fall the rest of the short way down without harm.
"Get its attention with a Growl," Mark instructed because he didn't want this lesson he planned to give Ivy to start with a cheap shot, otherwise he'd command her to use her vines.
When the shockwave of Growl passed the bird, its head snapped towards ivy and it let out a shriek of challenge before lifting off the ground towards its opponent.
Seeing the light-blue glowing beak of the oncoming Pokemon, Mark ordered, "Slap its left wing with your vines," and watched as Ivy's Vine Whip shot out like a bullet before smacking into the Spearow's right wing.
'We'll have to work on which side is which,' he thought with a chuckle and watched the now unbalanced bird spiral out of control and crash-land to the side of Ivy.
Not wanting to lose the opportunity, he commanded, "Plant a Leech Seed in it."
While the Spearow tried to get itself together after its forced landing, Ivy concentrated for a moment and, finally, managed to shot out a brown seed out of her bulb as she yelled, "Bulbasaur!"
Mark smiled at the accomplishment and even more when the seed landed into the back of the rising bird. He knew that Ivy had almost managed to figure out the move yesterday, so he thought a bit of pressure from a fight or two would give her that last push she needed.
The Spearow, on the other hand, didn't look too happy when the seed sprouted thin vines filled with small leaves and tiny thorns which proceeded to entangle its entire body and glow red from the energy it forcefully extracted from the bird.
They stood there for several seconds watching the Pokemon struggle against the vines while they drained it of energy before Mark realized that the Spearow didn't have enough strength to move with the restrictions of the thin vines and the Growl that hit it previously. He knew from studying the move that Pokemon usually had little problem moving with a Leech Seed implanted into them, and some even managed to remove it with the proper move or enough force, but this was a first for him.
Giving up on anything too fancy, Mark let out a quiet sigh and said, "Finish it off with Tackle."
Ivy didn't share his disappointment at her opponent's misfortune as she gave a challenging shout of, "Bulbasaur!" and charged the immobile bird to end its suffering.
When the Bulbasaur slammed into the Spearow she punted the wrapped up bird a couple of meters away, ending its final desperate struggles and knocking it out.
Mark shook his head with a rueful smile as he watched the vines of the seed retract back into it and said, "Great job, Ivy! Go eat that seed and get your energy back; we still have some training to do."
In this world, Leech Seed didn't recover a part of the energy of the Pokemon who launched it each turn, but it did drain a small part of it continuously and stored it for later. Once the fight ended and the seed got removed, a Pokemon could eat it and absorb the energy it drained from its target.
While Ivy happily claimed her spoils, Mark looked to the other battlefield and saw Kraven fluttering above the corpses of the other two birds. A small tilt of the head towards the last Spearow was all it took for Kraven's eyes to glow blue and for Mark to hear a protesting, "Saur!" from its direction.
When he looked at the startled Bulbasaur, Mark saw her gaze switching between Kraven, the dead prey beneath him, and her own now dead opponent.
Not wanting for things to turn awkward, Mark walked over to his starter and explained, "Don't worry, girl. Kraven only helped us out by ending the bird quickly. We'll have a nice lunch today."
Seeing the still uncertain look on Ivy's face, he added, "No need to fret, I know it will take you some time to get used to eating what you defeat," then he got a mischievous look in his eye as he asked, "Do you know what that fine food you've been eating so far has been?"
When he received a shake of the head in reply, he continued his explanation, "Those are Oddish, Gloom, Bellsprout, and Weepinbell mixed with some berries and spices for a better taste. Kraven and I hunted them over the year to get all the food you'd need for a while ready for our journey. They've just been dehydrated for better keeping. If a Pokemon wants to be strong in the wild it has to battle a lot and eat others who have a similar type to it to build up its energy stores faster. Do you understand now?"
Comprehension shone in Ivy's red eyes as she finally processed his reasoning and nodded her head. For a Pokemon, even a sheltered one like her, eating and killing others wouldn't present much of a problem if explained right. Only the quick and brutal way Kraven did it made her unsure of things for a moment.
Mark gave her a pleased smile and a few scratches behind her ear as he added, "Don't worry; we won't make you eat these Spearow. Even if it weren't a little early for that, their Flying-type meat wouldn't sit well with your stomach."
A small look of relief crossed Ivy's face at that news, allowing her to relax into the lovely feeling completely for a long minute.
When he finished placating the small quadruped, Mark stood up and said to Kraven, "Good work, buddy. Come here for a bit."
While the Butterfree moved over, Mark looked down at Ivy and added, "We're gonna do a little experiment now, there's no need to be concerned since it won't hurt you at all."
Once he received a nod, he turned to the hovering Kraven and ordered, "Hit her with a full blast of Stun Spore, Sleep Powder, Poison Powder, and Rage Powder while I gather and store our lunch."
Upon receiving a confirming, "Free-free," Mark turned to his job and let the Pokemon to theirs.
He gathered the dead Spearow and stored them in the food pocket of his Bag for the moment. Their bodies would keep for a few hours, but he had to clean and roast them soon or they'd be ruined.
In preparation for his work on the lunch, he pulled out a knife that looked like a short-sword in his young hands and attached it to the belt on his right hip.
Tom bought him the hunting knife as a gift for his journey when Mark asked his father to take him to Viridian to buy one. They kept it a secret from Sarah so that she wouldn't throw a fit over having her baby handling a large weapon while on his own in the wilds so he kept it in the Bag until now. He'd have to store it again when he neared civilization, but he felt safer with it on his hip than without it.
When he finished his preparations, Mark turned towards his Pokemon only to see an annoyed Kraven fluttering around a gold, green, purple, and red Bulbasaur who gave her trainer a wide smile before she sneezed and shook off the powders off herself as best as she could.
'Oh well, guess we can't use that plan. But it's good to have a confirmation of her immunity to the moves even though they failed previously on Pokemon of the same typing,' he thought and shot a knowing smirk to Kraven because he knew how annoyed the Butterfree would get when one of his moves failed.
Ever since the Tangela capture, Mark experimented with which moves worked on Pokemon who are supposed to have immunity to them in the games. He found out that the only reason they managed to keep Tangela sedated was because Kraven first beat it unconscious and then when it didn't have any of its Grass-type energy to block his powders, he managed to put it to sleep. In fact, if its energy didn't keep regenerating and fighting off the massive amount of Sleep Powder they used, it would have overdosed and died on the way to Oak's lab.
"Good work, you two!" Mark praised to put a small balm on Kraven's wound and boost Ivy's confidence, before he continued, "Buddy, why don't you go and find us a place with water along our path where I can prepare lunch while Ivy and I do some training?"
Kraven seemed happy to have something to do which he knew he could accomplish and shot off into the distance over the forest without another word, leaving Mark and Ivy in his dust.
A moment later, Mark clapped his hands together and asked, "OK, how about we start?"
When he received an enthusiastic nod and a "Saur!" from Ivy, he said, "First, a few laps around the clearing to get the blood pumping, shall we?"
With that, he set off to the edge of the clearing and started running. Ever since he and Kraven began hunting Pokemon around Pallet, Mark did some kind of exercise to stay in enough shape to keep up with the long walks he had to do almost every day so he didn't mind warming up with his starter.
Ivy stared at him for a moment, before a challenging look appeared on her face and she joined him with an excited shout of, "Bulbasaur!"
"Left," he said and Ivy's vines launched off towards a tree on her left and started to drag her there while she helped them along by running at full speed.
"…three, two, one, you made it, nice work! Again," Mark ordered once Ivy managed to reach the tree before he counted down to zero from five. If she didn't make it, or she missed the tree or the correct side, he'd throw a small pebble at her. It wouldn't really hurt her, just annoy her and remind her of her failure.
If he missed, she got one free shot at him with her vines. So far, he had her beat seven to two in the punishment game. All the throwing practice paid off even when he didn't do it as much as he should have. Still, the punishments showed their purpose in increasing Ivy's concentration and fighting spirit, and her will to hurt him. The second Vine Whip smack hurt a lot more than the first one.
When she got back to her starting position, Mark waited for a moment to build up tension, then he saw a flying figure going straight towards him and paused before giving the start sign of, "GO!" and turning towards his incoming Butterfree while counting down once again.
At the victorious, "Bulbasaur!" he said, "Good job, girl! That's all for now, come here and rest a bit."
It took Kraven a lot longer to scout out a water source than Mark expected it would, so he knew the Butterfree had come across something he thought needed investigating. Which the Pokemon confirmed when he – instead of hovering like usual – landed and flapped his wings twice in a sign the two of them developed for times like these.
'Humans,' this one signaled, making Mark's brow furrow in thought for a couple of seconds, 'The route we took shouldn't have anything of note on it except for allowing faster access to Viridian Forest. Then again, it is the beginning of the season for the Indigo League so some enterprising trainer might have come here to catch a new Pokemon. It'd be pretty lame of me to hide away from some trainers on my path when I mean to stand over them all.'
Having made his decision Mark asked, "How many?" and received two flaps in return making him question, "And how many Pokemon?" only to get one flap as an answer.
He thought it strange since people usually didn't go to the wilds without at least one Pokemon for protection per person, but he figured they might have them inside Pokeballs so didn't think much about it as he asked, "Is it strong?"
When Kraven answered with a shake of the head he finished the questioning with, "And they're on our way to the water?"
The nod finalized his decision before he turned to Ivy and said, "I'm gonna return you to your Pokeball to rest just in case. Be ready for anything when I release you."
When he received the Bulbasaur's serious nod, Mark withdrew her and got ready to go. After one last glance to the abandoned campsite to check if he forgot anything, he turned to Kraven and ordered, "Lead the way."
An hour of walking, and a ten-minute careful approach later, Mark crouched in the bushes slack-jawed and stared at the people in front of him with wide eyes.
'Is this good luck or bad?' he thought for a long moment during which he monitored the trio attempt to unstick the remains of their vessel from the tree it got entangled in.
'Fuck it, I'll take what I can get,' he decided, and a second later added, 'Plus, I can't miss my shot at her when it's thrown at me.'
With that, he rose to his full height of 1.48 meters, squared his shoulders, and stepped out of the foliage.
Seeing his trainer's decision, Kraven flew down to hover over Mark and joined him in staring at the fumbling trio.
Even then, the boy and his Butterfree went unnoticed for long enough for Mark to get a hilarious idea. A smirk appeared on his face as he raised his voice enough to make sure he got heard and exclaimed, "Looks like we found some trouble for ourselves, Kraven!"
The Pokemon in question had no idea what his partner meant, but he decided to play along and added his loud, "Free! Free!" to the mix.
The white-clad trio froze for a second before their heads snapped over their shoulders and the human duo asked, "Did you say trouble?" while the Meowth questioned, "What did you call me?" with a scandalized face as he pointed his clawed finger towards the Butterfree.
Mark played along and gave them a serious nod while he answered with, "Indeed, trouble."
The trio spasmed like they got struck by an Electric attack at the word and turned fully towards the boy with shining eyes.
The red-headed young woman with the eccentric gelled hairdo pointed a finger at him while looking up at the sky and announced, "Those who look for it should also prepare for trouble!"
The periwinkle-haired young man produced a rose from somewhere and raised it into the air before pointing it at Mark and joined in with, "Indeed and they should make it double!"
The redhead lowered her gaze to meet his and formed a fist out of the arm that pointed at him as she said, "To protect the world from devastation!"
The young man with shoulder-length hair brought the rose to his nose and started his part of, "To unite all…"
However, Mark interrupted their motto with, "All right, I only wanted to hear the first part. Paralyzing Blast, Kraven. Don't kill them."
The trio stared at him in shock as the Butterfree flashed up into the air while he released golden powder from his wings. A second later, he used his mastery over his Flying energy and used a Gust to pick all of the dropped Stun Spore and shot it in a blast of air towards the frozen Team Rocket.
None of them stood a chance against the force of the golden concentrated air and found themselves picked up and slammed into the tree behind them. Adding insult to injury, the remains of their Meowth air-balloon fell over them.
Mark let out a sigh at the sight and pulled out his knife from its Tauros leather scabbard. He signaled Kraven to stay on the alert and got to cutting the canvas.
Half a minute and a dozen slashes later, he had the trio freed from their prison, but they still looked out of it while faint golden sparks of Paralysis shot off from their skin from time to time.
Ever since Kraven learned all of his possible level-up moves, and having no access to TMs or wanting to spend money on expensive move tutors, Mark and his Butterfree spent their training time on figuring out new ways the Pokemon could use his old moves.
So far they had a decent arsenal of nifty moves like the Paralyzing Blast which combined the stunning effect of Stun Spore and the force of Kraven's mastered Gust to deliver a terrifying blow that would Paralyze his opponents.
Mark shook off his pride and studied the effect the move had on humans other than himself, 'They seem out of it, but it could be from either hitting the tree or Kraven's attack. Otherwise, it looks like it works perfectly so far,' he concluded and squatted down to scan the sleeping beauties.
'Meowth looks like any other Meowth to me, the standing on two feet looked a bit strange but I can get used to it,' he concluded and turned his gaze to the knocked-out man, 'James has that pretty boy vibe going for him. Wasn't he all over the place in the show? I'm pretty sure he's gay or on that spectrum. Whatever, none of my business anyway,' Mark decided and finally turned to the real sleeping beauty, 'Wow, she looks like a model. A bit too much makeup for my taste and that hair is ridiculous, but she can fight for the spot of the most beautiful woman I've seen in this world easily.'
After staring at Jessie's sharp features long enough to consider it creepy himself, Mark gathered his hormones back into their thick-walled compound and started kicking the downed people lightly to wake them up.
It didn't take long for Team Rocket to stir and soon Mark had three sets of eyes staring at him and his hovering Butterfree in fear.
He gave them his best hard glare and declared, "Listen up, I know you're from Team Rocket, I know you steal Pokemon for a living, and I know what you did in Viridian last night."
When he saw no denials he felt happy that at least things in Viridian went according to plan so he leaned in closer to them while holding his hunting knife for them to see and continued, "I don't care about any of that. What I do care about is my Pokemon and my things. If I find out you even thought about trying to steal them, I'll make you very familiar with this knife," he let the silence linger for a moment before he asked, "Am I understood?"
He received three quick and twitchy nods due to the Paralysis but he felt satisfied with the response so he took a step back and sheathed his knife.
A smile replaced his serious expression as he said, "Great, now for introductions. I'm Mark, and that one hovering above me menacingly is Kraven. Who are you?"
The trio exchanged glances before the redhead locked her blue eyes with his and answered with, "I-I'm Je-Jessie."
Mark gave her a nod and switched his gaze over to the man's green-eyed one who managed to stammer out a "Ja-Ja-James."
Lastly, he looked over to the cat's slitted eyes and got a "Meowth," in return. Mark allowed his smile to drop and asked, "Is that a name or are you trying to feign not knowing human language now?"
The Pokemon looked left and right in panic for a second before his face dropped and he admitted, "Bo-Both."
Mark nodded his head at the honesty before he turned it to Jessie when she asked, "Wh-What do y-you wa-want?"
Instead of answering, Mark reached into his Berry Pouch – making the trio flinch at the movement – and withdrew three Cheri Berries. He gave them an amused snort at the flinch and threw each of them a Berry while saying, "First, these will remove your Paralysis and stop that annoying speech impediment. I hope you'll forgive me for the rough treatment, but I had to make sure you meant no harm to me or my Pokemon."
The tree of them exchanged another glance before Meowth gathered up his courage and popped the Berry into his mouth. Several seconds later, the golden sparks disappeared from his skin and he let out a contented sigh. Seeing this, the other two followed suit and soon had their own status effect removed.
Mark's satisfied clap made them flinch once more, but he ignored it and said, "To answer your earlier question, I want to have lunch. Before I ran into you three I was heading towards a source of water my Butterfree found so I could make something to eat for us."
He gave the disbelieving trio a quick smile and asked, "Do you want to join us? We have more than enough."
This time, James took it upon himself to answer with, "You attack us without even letting us finish our motto and expect us…" he didn't get further because all three of their stomachs growled loud enough for him to hear.
'Hah, the Berry must have opened up their appetite,' Mark thought while on the outside he gave James a pointed look.
Instead of the man, Meowth jumped in to say, "We'll be happy to share your food." When the humans gave him a dirty look he shot them a confused look and asked, "What? We would."
Jessie sighed at the Pokemon's greediness before she asked, "You won't try to harm us again?"
Mark found himself giving her his best smile and saying, "I could never harm a beautiful woman like you," completely choosing to forget what he did just a few minutes prior.
Team Rocked seemed flabbergasted by his response, but they rolled with it and decided to take his hand when he offered it to help them get up to their feet.
Half an hour later, Mark and Team Rocket reached the small stream that Kraven found. The boy led from the front and held a handful of rocks in his arms to use as the border of his fire pit, while Team Rocket trailed him at a distance with their arms filled with various dried wood they picked up along the way.
When he dropped the rocks, Mark pressed the button on the sole Pokeball on his belt and let it detach from there before he released an alert-looking Ivy.
Seeing her scan the area for threats and prepare herself for battle against the oncoming unfortunate trio, Mark smirked and said, "Relax, girl, they're going to have lunch with us. No need to be hostile, but still, keep an eye on them since they like to steal Pokemon."
Chuckling at the synchronized trip Team Rocket did at his proclamation; Mark bent over and started arranging the rocks in a circle. He didn't bother with hiding Ivy's gender since he couldn't think of a way to hide it from Meowth, and even then he doubted the trio really understood her value.
When they dropped the wood next to him, Team Rocket stepped back and gave him space to work while they huddled together and whispered something. Mark could only shake his head at them not noticing Kraven hovering above them and listening to everything.
'No matter, he'll take care of them if they try something shady. I better get this fire started,' he thought and pulled out a lighter from his Bag after he arranged small bits of wood into a tower with some dry leaves under them to start the fire.
Once he got it started and threw a few logs in, Mark turned to the huddled group and called out, "Hey, you three, come over here."
After taking a second to think it over, they moved carefully, but they listened and came closer.
"James, can you look after the fire and add logs to it when you think they can be added while Jessie and I go and prepare our lunch?" Mark asked after they neared enough for him not to have to shout.
Before anyone could answer, Meowth jumped in with, "What about me?"
Mark gave him a warning look for a long second and said, "I guess you can go and play with my Bulbasaur, Ivy," seeing that the Pokemon understood his message, he turned to his expectant starter and instructed, "Show Meowth what we worked on this morning."
Once he got an excited, "Bulba!" and the two Pokemon moved to the side, he looked back at the duo of humans and asked, "So, you guys helping or what?"
James answered with a shrug and a, "I can look after the fire," then he turned to the redhead at his side and asked, "You?"
After staring at Mark's innocent face for a long moment, Jessie sighed and said, "Fine, I guess I can help."
"Great!" Mark exclaimed and grabbed his Bag, before turning to move downstream a little and added, "Let's go," over his shoulder.
Once they moved a dozen meters downstream, Mark dragged out the three dead Spearow from his Bag and turned to dunk them into the stream. He disliked the smell of wet feathers, but he didn't want the light wind to blow them all over the place and didn't feel like heating the water for a proper scalding.
When he felt satisfied, he straightened up and turned to look at Jessie, only to find her standing much further away than before and staring at the dead birds in his hands. She didn't even notice that he pulled them out of a side-pocket in which the three birds shouldn't fit from the shock of seeing them.
He cocked his head to the side in question and asked, "What's wrong?" with his most innocent-sounding voice.
Jessie stared at him in horrified wonder for long enough for him to consider dropping the act and just doing the deed himself, but she rallied herself before he could and asked in turn, "Did you kill those Spearow?"
Mark felt his brows want to rise and let it happen as he answered, "Yeah, Kraven and Ivy hunted them down this morning. They'll be a little gamy because they're wild, but they're still fresh, and with a few spices added should be pretty good to eat. I just need you to help me pluck them and then I can do the butchery myself."
When he saw a flash of disgust on her face, Mark blinked and asked, "Don't tell me you Team Rocket guys are afraid of getting your hands dirty?"
This seemed to break her out of her stupor as she gathered what will she still had into a huff and took a few steps forward while saying, "I'm not afraid. It's just; I've never had to deal with something so… fresh. We usually get our food from the Mart."
Mark responded with a, "Oh," and a shrug before he dropped one bird to the grass next to him and squatted down to start plucking the others.
From the corner of his eye, he could see Jessie swallow and look down at her gloved hands. After a moment of consideration on whether she should take them off, she decided to keep them on and joined him next to the stream.
To distract her from the gruesome work of pulling out feathers from the dead bird, Mark asked, "So, what's a young and pretty girl like you doing in Team Rocket? I'm sure there were better options out there for you."
An unladylike snort answered his question before Jessie added, "Yeah right, I'm almost eighteen, kid. And trust me, there were no other options left."
Mark could hear the sadness hidden behind the bravado and decided to not mention it in favor of saying, "Well, I'll be eleven in a month, but I have an old soul which wouldn't mind getting to know you better," he sealed that statement by turning his head and winking at the startled redhead.
This time, he received a full laugh which he soon joined. After that, they spent the rest of the time chatting about small things and stayed away from any heavy topics before Mark started to clean the giblets from the plucked Spearow and cut them up into pieces and Jessie had to return to the fire so she didn't barf on him.
Once he finished, he rejoined everyone around the fire with a plastic bowl filled with cleaned and seasoned Spearow parts, ready for the grill which he took out of the top pocket of his Bag.
This time, both Team Rocket members noticed, but a soft warning of, "Remember what I said about stealing from me," had them reconsidering their greed.
Soon enough, the wood burned down into red-hot coals so Mark placed the grill over them and started his impromptu Spearow barbeque.
At that point, an exhausted and beaten up Meowth and a happy Ivy rejoined the group. No one asked what happened, feeling it best to leave the praise Mark gave his Bulbasaur as the only comment.
In the middle of his grilling, Mark looked to the huddled and slightly drooling group around the fire and asked, "Do you guys have any other Pokemon? They should get something to eat too."
The humans exchanged looks, and James answered, "We do, but I don't think we have enough for everyone. I mean, I don't mind sharing with them, but it is your food."
Mark waved the issue away as he explained, "It doesn't matter. I have some extra Pokemon food with me they can have. What type are they?"
The two decided to answer him by releasing the toxic-looking dopey purple ball which announced itself with a "Koffing!" and a purple snake with a yellow collar and rattle that added an "Ekansss!" to the noise.
Instead of the frightened reaction they expected, Mark gave the two Pokemon a simple nod and said, "Poison-type, good. I have a lot of Grass-Poison food they can share with Ivy while the rest of us have ourselves some fresh meat."
Mark put his words into practice and started preparing the food for the three mentioned Pokemon while the last of the meat sizzled on the grill.
When he got them settled, he took out a stack of paper plates from his Bag and shared them around with the rest of the waiting group while he prepared one to the side for Kraven and explained, "Sorry but I don't have any utensils since I didn't want to make a too permanent mess on my journey so you'll have to use your fingers."
Once everyone had their plates and bowls filled with food, Mark announced, "Dig in!" and tore into his own grilled Spearow leg.
Their side of the stream was soon filled with appreciating moans of pleasure as the starved people and Pokemon fell onto their food.
To his surprise, both the humans and Pokemon from Team Rocket had tears in their eyes as they gobbled everything before them and praised his cooking skill.
Soon enough, everyone finished with their meal and Mark went to place the grill in the stream to wash away the worst of the Spearow grease while the rest relaxed around the still-warm coals with a full belly.
When he returned, he sat down on a rock and asked casually, "So, I heard you guys blew up the Pokemon Center in Viridian while trying to steal a Pikachu. Any truth to that?"
Meowth had a wronged look on his greasy face as he complained, "We didn't do that, it was that blasted Pikachu! The only thing we did was try to steal it. The police always try to frame us for…"
Jessie and James nodded their heads in support of their partner for a few seconds before they realized they admitted to a crime to a stranger and jumped on Meowth to shut his mouth up.
Out of everyone sitting there, no one expected Kraven to speak up with a "Free-free!" while shooting a disdainful look at the trio.
The human members of Team Rocket stopped moving at that due to their persistent fear of the Butterfree, but Meowth lost it in the haze of aggravation and pointed his finger at Kraven while saying, "You don't know what you're talking about. This wasn't some ordinary sparkling rat, this Pikachu had enough power to bring the entire building down," then he turned to Mark and added, "Your Butterfree has a really dirty mouth."
Mark blinked in surprise to that, then he thought about all the times he let loose of all his frustrations while on hunts with Kraven and nodded his head while murmuring, "That sounds about right."
Shaking that off, he refocused on the topic at hand and asked, "So are you going to try and catch this super Pikachu, or are you just going to quit?"
This time Jessie answered with an arrogant, "Of course we're going to capture it. We're Team Rocket, we get any Pokemon we set our eyes on," at Mark's dark look she added sheepishly, "Unless they belong to our friends who fed us a great meal."
Mark released an internal sigh of relief at not screwing the timeline too much, but on the outside, he gave out an uncaring shrug and said, "Well I wish you luck in that endeavor," then he got a speculative look in his eyes as he asked, "By the way, I heard that you guys have something to do with the Game Corner in Celadon and am planning to visit it when I get to the city. Is there any way other than asking directly that I can come into contact with the people running the show there? I really don't want to go through the whole gambling and coin show just to get a few neat items I need from them."
Even before he finished his explanation James had his head nodding and he answered with, "Sure, all you need to do is show an R to the girls at the exchange and they'll put you in touch with someone from the back."
Mark couldn't hold back his grin even with Meowth bitching to the humans that they let out much worse secrets than he had. When he saw the concerned faces of the duo, he placated them, "Don't worry, guys. I know someone from Team Rocket in Viridian so I'm pretty knowledgeable about your organization, I just didn't have the exact info I needed," which seemed to mollify them.
'God, lying with the truth is so easy. Even Meowth seems unconcerned now,' Mark thought to himself as he continued to engage in small talk with the trio for another hour while their Pokemon engaged in a light after-meal training exercise.
When the sun started its slow descent into the west, Mark finished cleaning up the place and storing his things before he turned to the waiting Team Rocket.
They had relaxed a lot more over the time they spent together and had revealed to him that they decided to go to the outskirts of Viridian City to pick up the trail of the powerful Pikachu.
As the trio tried to say their goodbyes, Mark told them to wait and then fished out a pen and a piece of paper on which he wrote the number of his Pokegear and handed it to Jessie while saying, "If you ever need someone to talk to, or want to get some food, give me a call."
They had noticed all the expensive items Mark had on-hand over the time they spent with him, but they didn't dare think about trying to take them after the numerous warning looks and the outright power and ruthlessness both Kraven and his trainer displayed.
It somewhat reminded them of their Boss, just in a smaller and more relaxed package.
Jessie stared at the piece of paper for a long moment, before she sighed and stored it in her clothes as she said, "Sure thing, Mark."
James and Meowth gave them a few strange looks, but everything else proceeded normally and soon they said their goodbyes to each other.
Team Rocket headed back towards Viridian and Mark started on Kraven's scouted out route into the depths of the Viridian Forest.
'I still have a couple of years to grow so they can go and play with Ash and the gang for now. There will be a use for all of them later,' Mark thought after he couldn't see the group of people he once considered losers from a kid's show anymore.
Now, he thought of them as people who had their own dreams and desires but couldn't find a way to get them so they clung to an organization that promised them something better.
'Well, at least I got my suspicions of the Game Corner confirmed which makes it a must-visit place once I reach Celadon,' he decided as a smile spread over his face and he concluded, 'It was good to get to meet them in exchange for changing my timeframe a little bit.'
With that, he checked his watch and decided he had at least a couple more hours of trekking through the wilderness before he'd get to rest.
Soooo, what do you think?
I know I had a few questions about hygiene during the travels when I watched the show so I wanted to address them now instead of having to put something in the middle of the story later. Some people might not like it, but I thought it warranted a mention and I don't foresee taking note of it in the future.
Any ideas about the spars and training? I had the idea of Kraven luring Pokemon with Rage Powder for a long time now and couldn't wait any longer to use it. Just wait to see what I do with it and other luring moves later.
So, how many of you even imagined that he'd meet Team Rocket this soon? I saw the opportunity of them crossing paths during their crash after Viridian and just had to take it. The Team Rocket trio is one of the unsung heroes of Pokemon in my opinion. They saved the world just as many times as Ash had in their own way, but everyone only hates on them due to how annoying the writers make them since they can use them as a cheap antagonist for the heroes.
There's some question on the age of Jessie and James, going from 15 to 25, so I decided on almost 18 and left it at that. Also, why not have Mark try to hook up with Jessie when he sees a chance? Also also, she still has her red hair from the beginning of the show. Not sure if I'll change it to magenta later on or just keep it as is.
Did I gross anyone out with my descriptions of working on the dead Spearow? I've done all of this in my real life with chicken so I decided to give you a small look into the joys of preparations for a barbeque.
Does anyone have an idea what he wants with the Celadon Game Corner? I mean, I do, but I want to know what you think he'll try to do there. Team Rocket will have its role to play in this story and I can't wait to get to it (no, he won't join them).
Cya!