Heyllo folks! I had a lot of fun with this one and I hope you'll like it. It is quite large too so it should be fine.

This chapter ends the Viridian Forest part of the story and in the next one, we have both the battle for the first badge and the first 100k word barrier. Yey?

Anyway, enjoy!

Blades at Dawn

"Almost heaven, West Virginia

Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah River

Life is old there, older than the trees

Younger than the mountains, growin' like a breeze

Country roads, take me home"

*Ring!*

"To the place I belong"

*Ring!*

Mark stopped his playing and looked down at his Pokegear in surprise. He ignored the few noises of protest coming from his left and looked up at his two Pokemon who stopped their training also.

Ivy had no problem with learning Poison Powder from Kraven since she had experience with Toxic, but she still struggled with Sleep Powder.

He waved at them to continue and turned to look towards where the protests came from. There, on the ridge of a small hill, stood various common Grass and Bug-type Pokemon, giving him sad eyes.

*Ring!*

In the last hour, he'd decided to end his day's trek early at a large hilly meadow Kraven found and practice playing his guitar while singing songs in English so he wouldn't forget to use both. Sometime later, the local Pokemon started to gather and listen to his playing from a distance.

"Sorry, guys, that's all for now," he told them and set the guitar aside, once again ignoring their protests.

*Ring!*

Following the fourth ring, Mark answered the unknown number and asked, "Hello, who is this?"

*grktzttzztt* the other side squealed at him, making him flinch back from the device on his wrist. With his brows furrowed, he stood up from his camp chair and started walking towards the nearby hill, making the few Pokemon still waiting there scatter in response.

"Give me a second, I'll try to find a better signal," he said into the Pokegear and got another burst of static in response.

'Come on, why isn't he picking up? It's stuck to his wrist, isn't it?' Amy thought and checked the number on the phone's display once again.

As if to answer her unspoken question, the phone gave the noise of someone picking up, but it soon got replaced with loud static.

She pulled the receiver away from her head until it stopped and asked, "Mark, can you hear me? It's Amy."

In response, another burst of static made her flinch before she growled back, "Fix your stupid Pokegear, Mark."

She knew the Pokemon Center phone worked because she had just gotten off a call with her parents, so something had to have gone wrong on his side.

After a few more miscommunications, she finally heard him respond with, "…ello? Can you … me now?"

Amy's face brightened up at hearing his voice and she answered, "Yes, Mark, I can hear you, but you're breaking up."

A couple of seconds of silence followed before the boy's voice came from the receiver, "Leaf? Is … you? Can you hear me now?"

Amy considered hanging up on him then and there. Ever since they've got to know each other he'd called her that stupid nickname. He'd said it's not because of her green hair and eyes a bunch of times, but she knew better. She even had the stupid last name of Wood, how could he have another reason?!

Setting that old wound to the side with practiced ease, she answered him, "Yeah, Mark, it's me. I can hear you clearly now," coming to this point, she hesitated, and instead of asking what she really wanted, questioned, "How's your journey been so far?"

Oblivious to her stalling, his excited voice said, "Oh, it's been great! Ivy and I fought our first battle a little outside of Pallet on the first day, near that lake towards the east, you know? Anyway, we won but then got caught in a spring storm on our way around Viridian City. Then, a couple of days ago, I met some cool people on the outskirts of Viridian Forest and had a barbeque with them. Now I'm camped out at a nifty meadow filled with rolling hills in the middle of the forest and am playing some music for the local Pokemon. Other than that, we've been training and making progress towards Pewter. What about you?"

Amy held in the sigh of longing she wanted to release at the retelling. At times she wanted to join Mark on his supposed legendary adventure, but then she remembered how much she hated the two nights she had to spend sleeping in her tent in the middle of the forest while having to rely on her company's protection and gave up on that notion.

The group of three she joined for a safer journey had some nice people, but she still hadn't developed a friendship with any of them so it pained her to ask them for anything without having to explain that she didn't want her own Pokemon to burn her tent down while she still slept in it.

Friendly or not, Charmander's tail had a real fire on it and just a moment of inattention could ruin her. And she couldn't make herself leave him out in the dark and cold while she slept in the relative safety of her tent.

She put those morose thoughts aside and congratulated her friend with, "That's really nice, I'm happy you're having fun," before she told him about her boring adventure, "I've met up with the group I told you about before in Viridian City on the first day. From there, we traveled together down the main path through Viridian Forest and spent two nights on the road. Pretty much nothing happened until we reached near Pewter City where a strange boy in an old-fashioned suit of armor with a sword challenged us to a duel. One of my companions defeated his Metapod, while I defeated his Pinsir…"

The Bug-type's screams at getting hit by Charmander's Ember rang in her head for a moment, and only when Mark asked, "Hello? Did I lose you again?" did she come back to herself.

"Sorry, no, I'm here, got lost in thought there," she said in her best cheery voice and continued, "Anyway, after that we came across a large gathering of the Beedrill evolutionary line and I caught a Weedle but we stayed away from them. Finally, we reached Pewter City yesterday and challenged Brock for his badge."

She halted for a moment at the recollection of that disaster, and forced herself to resume when her friend questioned, "And? How did it go?"

"Well, Brock couldn't take all of us on in the same day, so on the first day a boy from our group lost and a girl won. Then, today, I lost and a boy won," she explained before she paused to gather her courage and continued, "That's why I'm calling you now. You said to call if I needed any kind of help. The group I'm with is planning to stay in Pewter for at least several more days to do some tasks, but if we all gather our badges sooner, we'll move on. I'm afraid that they'll leave me behind if I don't manage to get my badge in time."

Amy held her breath as the moment seemed to go on forever, only for Mark's voice to break it with, "Sure, no problem. But first, tell me what went wrong in the battle."

She let out the held breath in relief before she hurried to explain, "Well, he started with his Geodude and I sent out Charmander, however, like you said, his attacks didn't do any damage to Brock's Pokemon and soon I had to switch in my Weedle who didn't last past two attacks," Amy felt her face burning at the admission of the total loss, but she forced herself to add, "I saw that he has an Onix from the other's battles. There's no way my Pokemon can beat something so big and strong."

A snort of derision answered her last statement, which Mark confirmed with his words as he said, "Onix is a horrible Pokemon. Don't let its size fool you; it's pretty much all a sham," leaving that sentence without explanation, he continued, "You should have at least been able to defeat his Geodude. A few well-placed Embers and a dodged attack or two while lowering his shouldn't have made much of a problem with a few days of training," he paused in his mumbling before asking, "You did train your Pokemon, right?"

She felt offended at the notion of him thinking so low of her and started to tell him so with, "Of course I did, what do you take me for? We trained as a group every morning and evening," then she remembered the rest of what he said and felt glad he couldn't see her through his Pokegear as she grimaced at the memory of commanding her Charmander to only use Scratch and Growl.

It's not like she didn't understand the point of staying at a distance and peppering the opposing Pokemon with flames, but she couldn't make herself do it after what happened to that Pinsir.

Not seeing her internal struggle, Mark only grunted in reply and went on with his suggestions, "Well, then you should either train your Charmander to use Metal Claw, which shouldn't take too long if you did indeed train with him, or try to catch something more effective on the Gym Leader's Pokemon and use that one. From what I've heard around the lab, ever since his father failed in his bid for the Elite Four and did a disappearing act and his mother bailed on the family, Brock's been a joke in the inner circles of the League. The only reason the PIA hasn't shut the Gym down already is because it's one of the eight traditional ones and has been in that family for generations."

Amy felt even worse for failing to defeat the supposed joke, but then she remembered what Mark said and asked, "Isn't it supposed to be super hard to teach Metal Claw to a Charmander? At least, I think that's what you said in one of your rambling stories."

She could almost see the nodding when the boy replied with, "Sure, sure, it is for other Charmander, but not those from Kanto. Ours have somehow figured out the trick and passed it on down their lines so since Oak got yours locally, it shouldn't take too long. Just make sure to show him some Steel-type energy in usage and he should figure it out in no time. And if he doesn't, Geodude and Onix are weak to a lot of Pokemon so you should be able to capture one fitting your purpose in the surrounding area."

Hearing all the things her friend came up with removed a large portion of the weight on Amy's back and made her feel happy about their continued friendship, even though he drove her crazy sometimes. The part where she could still use her Charmander without having him use Fire-type moves helped too.

Setting all of that to the side, for now, she focused back on the conversation and said, "I think I'll do both. Thanks a lot, Mark. This means a lot to me," then she paused to stop herself from saying more and instead asked, "When will you reach Pewter City?"

Mark hummed in thought for a couple of seconds before answering, "Either late tomorrow or early the day after. It depends on what I come across on the way. I might even get the Boulder badge before you if you don't start taking training seriously."

Amy rolled her eyes at his provocation, she understood he did it to make her want to do better, but it still annoyed her from time to time. Instead, she let it pass and said, "That's great. We'll see each other soon then. Good night, Mark."

"Good night, Leaf," Mark replied and ended the call. He stood there, at the top of the nearby hill, and stared at his Pokegear with a thoughtful look on his face for a dozen seconds.

Calls of "Free!" and "Bulbasaur!" snapped him out of it, making him look at his hardworking and hungry Pokemon near their camp. He smiled at them and started down the slope while shouting, "I'll get dinner started, then I'll sing you guys a few more songs before bed."

*tap* *tap* *tap*

Mark's eyes snapped open at the tapping noises coming from the side of his tent.

Without waiting, he grabbed his knife while saying, "Kraven, Ivy, get up, now."

Even the sleep-loving Butterfree snapped-to at the tone of his trainer's voice and the three of them prepared themselves as best as they could in the few seconds they had before Mark unzipped the entrance.

Outside, and a little to the side, an Oddish stopped itself from tapping the tent once more and gave them all a panicked look. Whatever had scared it, made it not even notice their serious expressions as it babbled, "Odd-Oddish-Odd!" and turned to run away towards the tree line.

Mark blinked in surprise at the strange occurrence, then he frowned when he saw other Pokemon he played music for last night join in the exodus.

The human and two Pokemon extricated themselves from the tent and watched the procession of fleeing critters for a moment before Mark noticed they all came from the same direction.

"Kraven, go scout but don't get seen, I'm going to pack everything away," he ordered and turned back to the tent to get dressed while his Butterfree flew up high and proceeded to scout.

A couple of minutes later, he finished stuffing everything into his Bag in a hurry just in time for Kraven to return with a strange look on his face.

Once he landed, he beat his wings once in a signal for 'Pokemon' and shook his head when Mark asked him how many, telling his trainer that he either couldn't count them or he didn't know to count that high.

Mark's brows rose higher when Kraven couldn't say if the Pokemon were powerful or not, so he decided to go see for himself.

In a careful walk, then a crouch, and finally a crawl, Mark neared the top of the hill that hid them from the rest of the place and caught his first sight of the issue.

There, in the middle of the meadow, on and around five or six smaller hills stood dozens of Scyther.

Some engaged in duels on the tops of the hills, while others either watched or waited their turn on the sides.

'Fuck me, what are they all doing here?' Mark thought with more than a little surprise. Usually, Scyther either formed small groups or went at it alone; he hadn't heard anything about them organizing fight clubs in the middle of the woods.

He racked his brain for anything he read about them that might explain this, and finally remembered that they usually fought for hierarchy in their groups when it came time to select a new leader and/or when they decided to have offspring.

Unlike most Bug-types, Scyther bred rarely, and no more than once every couple of years. This, in part, boosted their rarity in the world.

'Only, I haven't heard of any such large gatherings ever. Did we really stray from the beaten path so much?' Mark contemplated, but in the end, he decided that it didn't matter in the here and now.

After monitoring them for a dozen minutes, to make sure none of them planned to go over to his part of the meadow, he slowly backed himself away from the ridge and returned to his former camp.

At first, he glared at Kraven for a moment, but when he saw the Butterfree already looked down, he eased up a little and commanded, "Go check the entire area, and do it properly this time."

Without a word of protest, Kraven flew off into the sky. He knew he somehow made a mistake in his last evening's recon. In no way could he imagine such a number of Pokemon sneaking up on him otherwise.

Mark, on the other hand, understood that Scyther could even go unnoticed when standing next to someone with enough foliage for them to blend in. And after checking his Pokegear, he realized that they slept in way past 10 AM so they gave the ninjas of the forest plenty time to gather from farther away. However, he still needed the scouting done and a little humility would do Kraven good.

While he waited on that, he crouched down to pet Ivy since she looked concerned while he thought about his options.

'Should I just leave and forget about this?' he questioned for a split second before he decided, 'No, that would be the worst wastage of an opportunity I've ever done in this world. But do I really want a Scyther already, or should I stick to my plan on getting the scar-faced one from the Orange Islands?'

He considered that for much longer since he had no plans of catching a Scyther for his Kanto team, but wanted a Scizor for when he went to Johto.

'God damn it, and I already had a nickname for him and everything! Goodbye Tony, I never knew you,' he finally gave up on a possible target for one right in front of him.

'First I have to figure out how this group operates, and which of the younger ones I should go for,' with that decided, Mark busied himself with setting up their camp again in a more hidden position at the edge of the woods and sorting the things he hastily stuffed in his Bag.

An hour later, when Kraven returned with the news that he couldn't find any more of the Bug ninjas in the area, he fed everyone and then sent the Butterfree and Ivy to train inside the forest so their noise wouldn't alert the Scyther of their presence while he settled himself at the ridge of their hill with a pair of binoculars for a long observation session.

'The males fight the males and the females females, do they pair-bond for the season once they decide on the rankings?' he thought once he noticed that peculiarity. Some Pokemon, like Scyther, had subtle and not so subtle gender differences. Here, in particular, female Scyther had a larger abdomen than males.

'If one defeats the other, but then the first one gets defeated by another, the initial defeated one can challenge for a rematch, but otherwise can't. Man, this whole thing might take weeks,' he realized when he saw the same Scyther fighting again and again.

'That one has Technician for sure if those initial clashes of Fury Cutter are anything to go by, and even against other Technicians, he seems to have an advantage in skill. I should keep an eye on him,' Mark's eyes gleamed as he studied one of the younger Scyther manage to beat one of the weaker older ones. In general, the older Scyther had a darker green exoskeleton outer shell and more scars, while the younger members of the group had lighter and smoother ones. The older Scyther managed to win most fights against youths, but exceptions existed.

'Some kind of honor does exist. If a Scyther gets too injured or exhausted, the others will generally leave it be until it challenges someone,' he figured out once one of the stronger Scyther got left alone when everyone could see she exhausted herself in her last match.

After a full day of similar observations where he only took toilet and food breaks, Mark returned to his camp with the setting sun as the Scyther too stopped their battles and started settling down for the coming night.

His two Pokemon watched him with expectant eyes as he chewed the last of his dinner and considered their options.

'The best chance I have to get the most of them would be to attack now, but that won't win me any favor with them if what I saw today had any merit. On the other hand, I'm pretty sure Kraven can take them with proper preparations in the light of day. Now, what do I do to make sure the one I want doesn't just run away?' Mark thought as he stared in the direction of the resting Scyther.

When he finished the last bite of his sandwich, Mark turned to his team and said, "OK, here's what we're gonna do…"

The next morning, as the sun rose and the Scyther gathered once more to fight their battles, Mark signaled Kraven to get started and climbed up the hill near their camp.

He could feel Ivy's disapproving glare bore a hole into his back, but he managed to convince both of his Pokemon that this way they had the best chance of accomplishing all of his goals so they allowed him to do it.

A minute later, he stood on the top of the hill with his knife in his right hand and a Pokeball in his left. The Scyther still didn't notice him so he shot one last glance at the Quiver Dance-boosted Kraven, then he squared his shoulders and started his challenge.

"Attention, Scyther!" he shouted, thankful that singing taught him how to project his voice better. Even then, he doubted that if he tried to do this with humans that even half of them would understand what he said, thankfully Pokemon only needed to hear him to receive his meaning.

Giving the now alerted crowd a quick scan and settling his eyes on the Scyther he wanted to capture, he continued, "We challenge you all to a duel!" at his prompt, Kraven rose into the air above him and let out a fierce, "Free!" to back him up.

Mark could feel the collective glares of the Bug-Flying-types directed at him, but he ignored them as he focused on his target and continued, "We will let you go if you flee, but if you decide to stay and fight you will be captured and added to my forces!"

With that, he raised his right hand and pointed his knife at his opponent before he declared, "Let us begin!" as an unnatural wind gathered behind him and made his clothes flutter.

He could feel the Flying-type energies from Kraven's Tailwind enter his body and make him feel more agile and flexible. They wouldn't last long, but both he and the Butterfree needed them for their battles.

As a few of the Scyther started to lift off the ground, Kraven gave out another challenging, "Free!" and shot off like a rocket towards the enemy forces.

A fully Quiver Dance-boosted and then enhanced by Tailwind Kraven was a beautiful and terrifying sight to see.

Within a blink, he left a dazzling trail of spiraling sparkling dust behind him and found himself among the flying Scyther.

As the mixture of Stun Spore, Poison Powder, and Rage Powder started to settle among the ranks of the Bug-Flying-types around him, Kraven's wings started to glow red and he released a horrible screeching Supersonic which accompanied his Bug Buzz and slammed into all of the gathered Scyther under and around him while sending the powders towards them.

All of them, except for the one Mark challenged directly who had started running with the white afterimage of Quick Attack straight for his target at the start and luckily avoided the initial assault.

From the corner of his eye, Mark glanced at the crouching Ivy hidden behind the ridge and murmured, "Get ready," before he stored the Pokeball in his left pocket and gave Kraven's fight one last look.

In the air, some of the older Scyther sent Air Slashes towards the fluttering Butterfree which he either avoided with his irregular and speedy flight or took straight on when he decided to fight back since the Scyther's weak ranged attacks couldn't do much to his boosted defense.

For every white blade of air that came close to him, Kraven shot out two jagged circles of terrifying Flying-type energy back at his opponents all the while letting out howls of "Free-Free-Free…" Which, now that Mark thought about it, probably meant he cursed out the entire family line of his opponents instead of just letting out random noises as he believed previously.

As the boy watched, an older and battered Scyther managed to get through the assault and into melee range with Kraven and swung a shining white scythe at the Butterfree, which soon enough got covered in Psychic-type energy and nudged just enough to sail past the fluttering wings of his target.

In response, Kraven's face adopted a frightening visage of two long fangs of yellow energy which he proceeded to stab into the Scyther's unprotected neck before he used Gust to shoot the wounded Mantis Pokemon out of the air.

Mark had to tear his eyes from the beautiful destruction his partner wroth at Ivy's warning, "Saur," and refocused them on the young Scyther now climbing his hill.

He directed a challenging smirk at the oncoming warrior and said, "Come on then, I don't have all day."

In response, the Scyther stopped his climb and pointed a bladed arm at his challenger while his eyes glowed red and he said, "Scyther-Scy!"

Mark felt the desire to lower his guard overwhelm his control for a moment as he met the Scyther's eyes and he even dropped his knife a little, but before the Bug-Flying-type could take advantage of it past taking a few steps, he reasserted his mental strength and broke the Leer's influence over him.

Now, his smile showed his teeth to the nearby opponent as Mark chuckled and said, "Fighting dirty, are we? Two can play at that game. Now, Ivy!"

The Scyther looked confused at his words but soon found out their meaning as the sound-waves of Ivy's Growl passed through him and lowered his attack power. He glanced at the small Bulbasaur who peaked over the ridge of the hill just enough to implement her ambush but dismissed her in favor of focusing back on his challenger and rushing up to him.

From what he observed, Mark noticed that the Scyther didn't use any moves other than Fury Cutter in their duels, but nothing stopped them from psyching out their opponents before the fight as the Mantis Pokemon showcased with his Leer.

Setting his musings to the side, Mark prepared his knife in a horizontal blocking position as the Scyther swung his right scythe at him.

Even with the all-powerful high ground's aid, Ivy's Growl, and Kraven's Tailwind boosting his reaction speed, he barely managed to deflect the bladed arm in a small shower of yellow energy.

Mark had to take one step back to brace himself for the horizontal swing of the left scythe and barely managed to block the increased power of the attack without losing his knife with a vertical parry.

'I can't let him build up consecutive Fury Cutters,' flashed across his mind as he chose to duck under the horizontal slash of the right scythe, feeling the wind ruffle his short hair, and heard an unsatisfied sounding, "Scyther," come from his opponent.

Mark didn't have time to put up a defense for the next diagonal slash of the left bladed arm after his crouch so he jumped back and let out a hiss as the Scyther scored a shallow cut across his chest.

The enemy stopped and gave the boy a satisfied look while he opened his mouth to say something, only for a Leech Seed to slam into the side of his abdomen and sent its entwining vines all over his body.

'Fucking finally,' Mark thought with relief as the short exchange felt a lot longer to him.

When he came up with the plan of challenging this particular Scyther, he'd never thought about doing it alone. After all, a Pokemon trainer fought with his Pokemon and it would be idiotic if he ignored that option. And he had almost no experience in fighting with bladed weapons outside of screwing around with sticks with his brother and friends. But still, he had to follow the Scyther's tradition as best as he could so he forced himself to stand and battle while Ivy supported him from the side.

Using the moment of shock the Scyther experienced when the vines enveloped him and he turned his head to glare at his attacker, Mark jumped forward and bowled the Pokemon over.

They had a pretty similar height and mass so it didn't take much to surprise the distracted Scyther and bring him to the ground, where he had a lot more experience. For this move, he earned a cut on his right shoulder and felt the tip of the right bladed arm puncture the back of his left thigh from the Pokemon's surprised reaction.

Pushing through the pain, Mark exploited the temporarily stunned Scyther and started slamming the steel pommel of his knife into the Pokemon's head.

Due to the protection he still had thanks to his Bug-Flying-type energy, the attacks didn't harm the Scyther too bad externally, but internally he still got his brainbox shaken up with every hit which made him unable to respond to the assault.

Around the fifth or sixth slam, Mark felt the familiar wave of energy that a Growl made pass through him and his opponent and thought, 'What the hell? Did she panic?' but on the outside, he ground out through gritted teeth, "Stop screwing around and follow the plan, Ivy!" as he continued his delaying tactics.

In the original plan, Ivy only had to use Growl at the beginning of the fight, but due to the amount of damage Mark took she thought it best to help him out and weaken his opponent one more time since she knew he could break out of it.

What she didn't take into account, was that Mark's strikes lost some of their power during those precious seconds he needed to break out of the Growl's influence, giving the Scyther enough time to somewhat regain his senses.

Seeing the refocusing eyes of his opponent, Mark considered staying the course but then decided on revising the plan and brought the tip of his knife to the Scyther's neck and pressed hard enough to send the message through as the bladed arms neared his body.

The two duelists glared at each other, one with a knife-tip pressed against his neck and the other with a scythe at the side of his head and hip.

"You lost," Mark ground out and pressed a little harder with his knife to get the point across.

"Scyther!" the Pokemon answered as his arms twitched a little to remind Mark of their position and with a clearly unwilling expression on his face.

Their staring match soon got interrupted by green sparkling powder as it fell all around them.

The Scyther's eyes widened and flashed towards Ivy's position, while Mark's snarl turned into a pleased grin.

A few more seconds passed as both man and Pokemon fought off the effects of the Sleep Powder, but soon enough the Scyther's eyes started to droop.

Mark dropped his grin and looked into the closing eyes of his opponent to say, "Welcome to the team," before they shut for good and the Pokemon's bladed arms fell to the side.

By this point, Mark felt that the Leech Seed had done its job in addition to the pummeling he provided, so he fished out the Pokeball out of his pocket and pressed it against the Scyther's sleeping form.

His pleased expression quickly turned into one of panic as the ball sucked the Pokemon in and left him without support. In his haste to move the knife away so he wouldn't fall face-first on it, and to preserve the Pokeball, Mark splayed his hands open and slammed his wounded chest straight into the ground.

"Son of a bitch," he growled as the pain spread throughout his body, but the wonderful sound of a successful capture soon drove all complaints out as he stared at the silent red and white device.

Somehow, after hearing it hundreds of times already, this one sounded the sweetest.

His reverie got interrupted by a worried Ivy slamming into his side while shouting, "Bulbasaur-Saur-Bulbasaur!"

Mark suppressed the twang of pain that went through him to say, "I'm fine, girl. Good job."

When he raised himself to his knees and stored his knife in its sheath, the Pokeball on his belt, and the Leech Seed in his pocket, he turned to his Bulbasaur and saw that she had a look of guilt on her usually innocent face.

This made him forget about his immediate issues of pain and potential passing out to comfort her with, "It's all right, Ivy. We sometimes panic in stressful situations. That's why we train so we don't make those mistakes when it matters. I'm not mad at you."

Seeing his words have a positive effect on the small Pokemon, Mark turned his attention to his other partner and gaped at the destruction laid before him.

Furrows dug through the land everywhere and a few hills missed chunks out of them, while unconscious Scyther lay in crumpled heaps peppered across the meadow.

He could still see the backs of a few quickly retreating Scyther in the distance while Kraven dueled the last two in the air.

It looked like the Tailwind speed had left him, but he still had the bonuses from Quiver Dancing and Scyther didn't fight as well in the air as they did on the ground.

The two visibly wounded Scyther decided to charge the Butterfree at the same time, making Kraven surprise them and charge them in return.

He had enough time to send one of his jagged Air Slashes at the healthier-looking one before he collided with the other unprepared Scyther and took him down in one of his patented suicide Tackles.

Which meant that he used his full speed to either slam straight down at his target from the air or taking his target from the air and dive-bombing with them straight into the ground.

After the couple of seconds it took for the dust to settle, Kraven flew away from the side of the hill and the crumpled Scyther while only showing slight signs of wobbliness in his flight.

Once he returned to the sky and found no more enemies for him to battle, he released his loudest, "FREE!" yet and started flying back towards his trainer.

Mark chuckled at the antics of his first Pokemon and praised him appropriately once he neared enough to hear, "You were wonderful, buddy! I can't imagine any other Butterfree could do what you did out there."

He gave Kraven a moment to puff his obviously wounded and tired body up before he yawned and asked, "Can you hit me with the red stuff a little? I'm starting to feel drowsy and we still have things to do."

The Butterfree obeyed and sent a burst of his Rage Powder at his trainer, making Mark's eyes shoot open and his fists squeeze tight.

From the few times he tested it out, Mark found that Rage Powder massively increased his adrenaline production and his will to fight anything near him. With some effort, he could suppress the desire for battle while relying on the adrenaline to keep himself going for at least a few minutes.

Not wanting to waste any precious time, the group returned to their camp where Mark started pulling out Pokeballs by the handful and giving them primed to his Pokemon while he took out his first aid kit and started cleaning and bandaging his wounds.

Kraven took up a Pokeball and went off to teach Ivy how to catch other Pokemon, leaving Mark to lament the loss of his new clothes as he ripped his t-shirt off his torso and started treating himself.

The wound on his chest bled the most, but the one at the back of his left thigh penetrated his flesh the most so he focused on that one first.

By the time he finished, he had six Pokeballs on his belt while the rest of them got ported back to Oak's lab once his Pokemon made the capture.

He released the four Scyther who battled Kraven just enough to force-feed them each a Pecha Berry so they wouldn't die of Poisoning and returned them. They could stay in the semi-stasis of the Pokeball long enough for him to reach Pewter City and send them to the lab without having to get to know them.

The Scyther he decided to keep he left asleep for now because he felt himself getting drowsy again.

To that point, he pulled some Sitrus Berries out for Kraven and gave him the order to scout things out once he recovered, and had Ivy guard the camp as he dragged himself into the tent and passed out.

*Ring!*

*Ring*

*Ring!*

Mark's eyes snapped open and he brought his wrist up to check the time, groaning soon after as the sudden movement disturbed his wounds.

The Pokegear showed 09:16 AM and four missed calls from Oak.

'Well, at least I haven't slept for long,' he thought with a chuckle and started moving towards the outside gingerly.

Once he dragged himself out of the tent, he saw that both Kraven and Ivy stood guard over him while he slept so he said, "Thanks guys, I feel better already," which made their worried faces relax a little.

Mark focused his gaze on Kraven and asked, "Any further trouble from the Scyther or anyone else?"

When he received a shake of the head, he let out a sigh of relief and said, "That's great. Give me a moment to get in touch with the Professor and then we'll meet our new team member and have some food."

This made the Pokemon cheery since they skipped breakfast in order not to feel too bloated during the battle.

Mark took his time climbing the hill with his wounded leg so he had the best signal possible, and chose to ignore the sounds his Pokemon made as they followed him as he did so. He wouldn't begrudge them their worry, but he wouldn't allow them to treat him like an invalid either. Especially with this world's humans and how quickly they recovered. He didn't see himself moving anywhere today, but tomorrow he'd get back on the trail towards Pewter.

As he neared the top of the hill, his Pokegear started to ring again so he answered it with, "Hello, how can I help you?" He knew the reason why the Professor called him, but he decided to screw around a little.

The other side didn't seem in the mood as Oak's voice came through clearly with, "Mark, what did you do?! We just spent the last two hours healing a whole swarm of Scyther from Kraven's usual mix of chemicals. Then we couldn't get a hold of you, and Benedict said the Scyther told him you challenged one of their number to a duel! Do you want me to tell your parents that you're engaging in personal combat, not even a week outside of their care?"

The boy gave out a hollow laugh in response and proceeded to explain the whole thing to the Professor while leaving out how much he got hurt in the process.

Once he finished, Oak remained silent for a while before he asked, "You did record this gathering with the Pokedex, right?"

Mark froze at the question as his brain raced for a way to skirt around an honest answer. In his defense, he'd thrown the thing into his Bag on the first day and had forgotten about it.

"Umm…" he started, but the Professor interrupted him with a disappointed sigh and a, "Of course you didn't."

They stayed silent for a moment before Mark decided to change the subject and ask, "So, Professor, how many did I catch in the end? I didn't get the full number before I took my nap."

Sounds of typing and clicking came from the other end before Oak responded with, "You are now a proud owner of twenty-three Scyther, nine female, and fourteen male. This is including the ones you still have with you. Are you planning to do the usual and have your brother sell them off or do you have other ideas? I'll warn you in advance that I'm not running a breeding house here."

Mark shook his head even though the Professor couldn't see him as he answered, "Nah, I'm not selling them yet. Do you mind separating the males from the females but still letting them go on with their fights? I'd like to know the duel records of the males."

Without even thinking about it, Oak said, "Mark, my boy, I don't have the time to spend my days watching some Scyther fight for dominance. We can take care of your Pokemon without a problem, but I'm not going to order anyone something not in their job description just because you asked me to."

Mark rolled his eyes as he thought, 'I guess I'll have to play my trump card,' before he asked, "Professor, is Daisy there? Can you put me on speaker if she is?"

After some fumbling and what Mark thought were some mumbled curses, he heard from the other side, "Hey, Mark, Daisy here. Congratulations on the Scyther! They all look really tough. What can I do for you?"

A fond smile spread across his face as he said, "Hey, Daisy, thanks. Listen, I'll pay you 5000P if you take note of the duel record for my male Scyther."

It didn't take her even a second to consider before she shouted, "Deal!"

Mark thought he heard some muffled complaining coming from Oak, but he ignored it as he added, "And can you please ask Benedict to tell the Scyther that they'll still get to mate with each other if they continue their duels in the case they refuse because of the new environment? Tell him I'll have my brother bring him one of my special goodie bags if he does it."

The Professor tried to interrupt him with a, "Hey, what did I tell you about…" when Daisy agreed, but Mark ignored it and continued, "Thanks for all the help, you two. I really appreciate it. When I reach Pewter City I'll send four of the Scyther I have with me to you. Bye until then!" and ended the call.

He let out a sigh of relief at having that taken care of before he turned to his nearby Pokemon and said, "All right, let's get to know our new team member."

Kraven gave him an unconcerned nod, while Ivy still looked dubious at having someone who fought them so viciously as a part of their group.

Mark removed the second Pokeball from his belt and released the still sleeping Scyther in front of him. The Pokemon didn't have anything that could make him distinct from others of his species. With light-green carapace, white blade-arms, and cream-colored wings Mark doubted he could pick it out from a lineup if he didn't monitor his fighting style and the way he acted.

After force-feeding him the Chesto Berry and the Leech Seed which originally drained him, the Scyther roused from his sleep in a dozen seconds and quickly pushed himself to his feet while giving the trio surrounding him and the environment beyond careful looks.

Once he gave the wary Pokemon enough time to center himself, Mark nodded his head at him in greeting and said, "Hey there, I'm Mark and these are Kraven and Ivy. You lost our duel so, as I said in my challenge, we'll be your new teammates," as he gestured towards his other two Pokemon.

In response, the Scyther pointed one of his bladed arms in his direction and complained, "Scyther-Scythe!" before he turned the arm towards Ivy and added, "Scyther!"

Mark's brow furrowed a bit as he glanced at Ivy's angry face and asked, "You think I cheated because Ivy helped me?" When he got a confirming nod and a "Scythe," from the Pokemon he gave the Bug-Flying-type an unconcerned shrug and continued, "Well, I am a Pokemon trainer that's kind of what I do. I let my Pokemon fight for me. Even then, she never attacked you directly. I'm the one who knocked you on your ass."

As the unwillingness gathered in the Scyther's eyes once more, Mark turned to Ivy and asked, "Girl, can you please go and check our camp? I think I saw something moving there."

Without even an ounce of suspicion, Ivy answered with a confident, "Bulba!" before she gave the Scyther a look of scorn and trotted down the hill towards the camp.

Silence ruled the hill with the three of them who remained until the Bulbasaur distanced herself enough for Mark to ask, "Do you still want to hook up with a female Scyther? Is that the problem?"

The Scyther's confident stance stiffened a little at that question, so before he could answer Mark exploited the pause to say, "Because if it is, you don't have to worry. I've caught nine females after the battle. And you know that only the strongest chose to stay and fight until the bitter end. If you stick with me, I will make you strong enough to win the affections of the best of the bunch without an issue."

When the Scyther went to scoff at Mark's claim, Kraven jumped in with a "Free-Free!" which made him pause and turn to give the meadow another, longer, look.

Once he returned his gaze to match Mark's own, the scorn left the Pokemon's black eyes and interest replaced it. A few seconds later, after he gave Kraven a measuring look, he gave his new trainer a nod and agreed with a "Scyther."

Mark's mouth spread into a sincere smile at his first proper capture of a Pokemon who would stay on his team.

To celebrate it, he exclaimed, "That's great! Once again, welcome to the team! Now, before anything else, I need to give you a nickname. You don't mind, do you?"

The Scyther looked confused for a moment before he gave a sort of half-shrug with his bladed arms which Mark took as a go-ahead.

'What do I call him? Tony's out, he doesn't look like a Tony. What does he look like? There's nothing to make him stand out except for those large bladed arms which I can't wait to see him pick something up with… Wait, that's it. I don't really remember the movie. Something about cutting bushes? But I do remember the character's look and it fits. Now, to make up a backstory," Mark fell into deep thought for a minute before he remembered the image and name of a character he once saw in a movie a long time ago.

When he finally settled on his story, Mark snapped his fingers and pointed at the mildly curios Scyther before he said, "I got it. There once was a man born with very sharp blades instead of fingers. Even though everyone made fun of him and ostracized him for his disfigurement, he didn't let that get him down as he practiced with his unique hands day in and day out until he got so skilled with them that he could cut through anything he wanted. Due to his skill, he attracted a lady which other jealous people wanted to keep away from him, but with his blades, he cut through all of their problems and ended up with the love of his life. The name of this man was Edward Scissorhands. Thus, I name you Edward or Ed for short. It will fit even better when you evolve into a Scizor later."

Scyther, now Ed, looked suitably impressed with the tale and made Mark pleased that he had no objections to evolving, or else he'd have to look for a replacement.

'The only problem now is that I don't have my Johto stickers printed out yet,' he thought while he urged the two Pokemon to return to the camp to have breakfast.

When he ordered the Kanto series, he had to do it from a special Silph Co. subsidiary which made the stickers so they wouldn't interfere with the Pokeball and could shrink and enlarge together with it. They cost a decent amount so he didn't see the point of getting them before he started preparing for Johto.

Ivy met them in the camp and gave Mark a shake of the head when he asked if she found anything. Even then, he praised her for her work and went on to make food and start figuring out how to best integrate Ed into the team.

"Keep at it, Ed! Are you going to bitch like that to your lady too?" Mark yelled up at the flying and complaining Scyther in front of him.

In the two days since their battle, Mark found out that in addition to a traditional Scyther moveset, Ed knew Steel Wing somehow. From time to time things like that happened which reminded him that Pokemon could learn egg moves even without breeders since things like game mechanics didn't exist in this world. Plus, only Pokemon with strong parents could inherit egg moves so he felt even more pleased with his choice.

Ed, on the other hand, hated his parents at the moment.

Both Mark and Kraven didn't feel satisfied with the showing of the entire group of Scyther when it came to their flying skills. To rectify that weakness, Mark had Ed practice his flight while using Wing Attack and Steel Wing one after the other on the tree branches they passed by during their trip.

Once they finished their breakfast on the day of the big battle, Mark decided to end his adventuring through the Viridian Forest and sent Kraven out directly to find his quarry while he rested and recuperated his wounds.

Then yesterday, after they set out, they had to circle around a huge area infested with Beedrill since Mark didn't want to do extermination work for free. However, it did show how bad of a Gym Leader Brock turned out since Giovanni would never allow such a large nest to stay so close to his domain and the main road into Pewter City.

Due to that, they finally neared their target this morning as Mark could see the cabin in the woods in the distance.

The falling branches from Ed's attacks must have alerted the person inside the cabin because soon after Mark caught sight of it, the door opened, and out stepped a boy in a samurai outfit with an unsheathed sword in hand.

"What do you want?" he yelled out when he saw Mark but didn't give the blond boy time to respond as he ran out of the cabin while waving his sword around and yelling, "Hey, don't do that to the trees! They're ancient!" at Ed.

Seeing the boy run up on him, Mark drew out his own knife and said in a serious voice, "Put that sword away or I'll show you some real blade work," like he knew how to use it for more than cutting meat.

The boy stopped his advance and lowered his sword, but didn't back away. Instead, he asked, "What do you want?"

By this time, Ed joined them on the ground while Kraven stayed high up in his scouting position and Ivy rested in her Pokeball after her morning training so she could challenge the Gym at full power.

Mark lowered his knife too, and answered, "My name's Mark from Pallet Town and I'm here to challenge you to a Pokemon fight."

The boy's eyes brightened as he exclaimed, "Another one!? You're on!"

With that, he turned around and ran to the clearing in front of his cabin.

Mark sighed and followed after him while he sheathed his knife with Ed trailing in his wake.

The samurai hurried into his cabin to put his sword away and came out with two Pokeballs. He released a Metapod out of one and shouted, "Let's go! Harden, Metapod!"

Mark felt the desire to facepalm, but he held it back manfully and said, "Just… use Furry Cutter until it's down."

Why the boy would give his Scyther a stationary target to build up the power of his move, Mark would never know, but give it he did.

After three hits to the constantly Hardening Pokemon, Ed knocked it out and the samurai returned it in favor of his Pinsir.

"Hit it with Tackle, Pinsir!" the excited boy yelled and his Pinsir obeyed and charged straight at Ed.

Mark could swear that Ed gave him a dirty look over his shoulder for forcing him to battle these unworthy opponents, but his warrior's pride wouldn't let him back down so he met the Pinsir's Tackle with two consecutive slashes of his Fury Cutter and knocked him out too.

As the boy cried out and returned his Pinsir, Mark released a sigh of both annoyance and relief and said, "Let's go, Ed," before resuming his journey. He didn't even want to spend the effort to extort prize money from the pathetic samurai.

To his surprise, the loser called out, "Wait, are you just going to leave like that?"

Mark didn't bother to turn around as he answered, "Yeah, and remember, I'm from Pallet Town."

He ignored whatever the samurai had to say after that and continued on towards Pewter while in the back of his mind he grumbled, 'Stupid canon bullshit. Spent almost two days searching for this moron only to end it in a minute. Hope you're happy Ash and Butterfree, you ungrateful bastards.'

Soooo, what do you think?

I had to give a nod to some classic music at the start. And the wild Pokemon liked it too!

How did you like the change of PoV to Amy/Leaf and her part of the story?

Now, the Scyther gathering and everything around it. I took inspiration from various parts of lore for Scyther and have come up with something which I think is original to me, and I do hope you liked it.

As Mark said, he didn't plan on catching one until he had time to visit the Orange Islands (well, I never planned on doing that but Mark thought he would) but he had to take the chance when it presented itself to him. And no, it's not one of the eight he wanted to get for Kanto.

How did you like the battles? Both Kraven's and Mark's? I really tried to convey what I have in my head onto the page, but I wonder how you'll see it. Especially for Kraven, it's hard to describe what I imagine that crazy bastard can do.

Did anyone get angry when he decided to duel the Scyther himself? I debated on letting Ivy take the fight head-on, but decided against it due to the culture I gave the Scyther and because Mark wouldn't want her to get too hurt against something he didn't think she could handle in a full-on fight at the moment.

What do you think he'll do with the rest of the Scyther he caught? I think I came with a pretty nifty plan for them for the rest of the story, but we'll see what you guys think of them.

How about the nickname? I thought it pretty funny how Scyther can't hold anything with their 'hands' and it reminded me of that character.

What about Ed in general? Does anyone have issues with his personality and goals for now? He'll be part of the group for a while, but Mark still plans on keeping to his original eight and doesn't plan on using him in Gyms in Kanto because he's stubborn like that.

And finally, that last battle against the samurai. I wanted to show how annoyed Mark is that he has to follow canon while still doing it so that he has time to grow his team for the moment when he decides to tell it to fuck off.

Cya!