Chapter 3

Red stepped foot on Route 1, not for the first time. He had been here once before, in his childhood. He remembered the whole town came out here for a picnic once. He wandered off into the grass, and was attacked. Two Spearow and a Rattata had approached him, and started pecking at him and scratching him. He was terrified until, for some reason, he saw a flash of light and the two Pokemon ran away, injured. He saw a small creature with a strange shaped tail run towards the bushes. Ever since that day, he'd been scared to come here, but now he felt much safer because Bud was by his side.

He pushed on through the route fairly quickly. At every opportunity, he would stop and battle with some of the wild Pokemon in the area. He noticed that there were no longer any Spearow here. There were pretty much only Rattata and Pidgey. He would have to catch a Pidgey, he thought to himself. Then he realised, he had no Poke balls yet. He couldn't catch ANY Pokemon without some of those. He hurried even more. After a few hours, he had made it to Viridian city.

He headed straight to the Viridian City Pokemon centre. It was a small building near the centre of town with a red roof, and a sign saying "Viridian City Pokemon Centre."

Red went in and asked the nurse there to nurse his Bulbasaur back to health.

"My,my!" the nurse said. "This Bulbasaur looks as though it has been through a lot of battles."

"Hehehe…" Red replied. "I just started out in the Gym leader challenge. I travelled here from Pallet town. We ran into a few Pokemon on route, and we had no choice but to battle. I ran out of Potions too."

"Well, while I restore this Bulbasaur's energy levels, I want you to head over to the Poke mart across the street over there and buy some more medicine" the nurse told him.

"Yeah, ok. Good idea. Ill be right back then." Red agreed.

Red went out of the centre and headed over to the Poke mart. When he entered, the shopkeeper yelled to him. "Hey, kid! Yeah you! Professor oak just called. He said he forgot about this till now. He has a package waiting for him here, but wondered if you could take it back for him instead. He said that unless you deliver it, I shouldn't sell anything to you."

"Did he hell." Red replied with a sceptical look on his face.

"Yeah ok, I made that last part up, but I'm busy kid. I'm watching my favourite show in the back. You go on ahead and deliver it." The shopkeeper replied, throwing the parcel at Red. With that he ran to the back part of the store.

"Aw man…" Red said to no one.

He ran back to the centre, and phoned Professor Oak. "Hey Professor. Thanks a lot. Now I have to go all the way back to pallet with this stupid parcel. Great."

"Hehe….yeah. I'm sorry, I just clean forgot. Come back, and I'll give you five free Poke Balls in return" Oak told Red.

"Wow. That saves a lot of valuable money from the budget I set myself. More to spend on Potions" Red said.

After some more small talk, Red hang up and asked if Bud was ok now. The nurse told him he was and gave him back his Poke ball. He released Bud, and placed the, actually rather small package, on his back, held in place by his seed. Bud and Red began the trip all the way back to Pallet, avoiding any battles that came their way, and running from the ones that they couldn't.

By the time they got back to Pallet, it was getting dark. They entered Professor Oak's lab, and saw him sitting at the desk with papers in front of him. Red said they had brought the parcel.

"Ah, excellent Red. This is the custom Poke ball I had ordered a while ago. I'm still testing it, but it will soon be able to catch any Pokemon without fail" Oak exclaimed.

"Um, yeah that's great. Now, the matter of my reward…"

"Red, patience my young lad. As I promised, here are five Poke balls." Oak said, handing him the red and white spherical objects.

"Thanks" Red said.

Red ran back on to Route 1. By this point it was pitch black, and he was getting tired. Pidgey and Rattata were uncommon at night times, and the rain that was starting didn't help any. He gave up on his search for a Pidgey, and headed to Viridian City once more. He went straight to the mart, determined to buy Potion, but it had already closed. Tired and irritable, he walked back to the Pokemon Centre, and entered to get out of the rain.

Inside, he got a room and released Bud from his Poke Ball. He told Bud about how he had been attacked and a strange little creature had saved him. Bud was fascinated at this story. He sat and listened intently, finding some parts funny, and being terrified at others. Red couldn't expect anything less from one so young. He realised he would have to catch some new additions to his team in the morning. After making sure Bud was ok, he went to sleep.

In the morning, Red woke up and went through to the main dining area of the centre and had his breakfast. He then took Bud through to the Pokemon feeding area. There it met a Rattata, a Mankey, and someone's Weedle and Caterpie. They seemed to get along well, and Red was pleased to see his Bulbasaur communicating with others, and not shying away. While Bud ate, Red went and got changed. When they were both ready Red went to the Mart and bought 3 Potions and a few more Poke Balls.

He headed to the Gym, but on the gnarled, weathered oak door was a sign which read, "GYM ABANDONED. FAULTY WORKMANSHIP MEANS THIS BUILDING IS NOT SAFE. PLEASE KEEP OUT."

Red was shocked by this news. He went and asked some of the local people, who told him that the Gym leader abandoned the gym years ago. Red wondered how the hell Professor Oak had forgotten this. He didn't want to go back to the Pokemon Centre to phone Oak, it would take far too long. He vaguely remembered a map in the Centre, and that he should head north. He headed out straight to Viridian forest to the North, because there was nothing of interest to him to the West on Route 22. As he passed, headed for the forest, a kindly old man saw that he had Poke Balls at his waist.

"Err, excuse me young man, but I see that you are a Pokemon trainer. Well, I'd like to help you in any way I can, so I'm gonna show you some techniques I invented for catching Pokemon." He said.

He took a Poke ball from his belt, and showed Red some good stances and throwing styles that ensured a better Poke ball throw, and how to get a good aim at the Pokemon.

Having received this wise mans teachings and knowledge, Red pushed on. He soon arrived at the entrance to Viridian Forest, north of Viridian City. He entered the forest and was stunned by the view. Long grass, trees, and crawling with Pokemon. Red began his search for wild creatures, but found none that he really wanted to capture.

He didn't want a Caterpie or a Weedle, because he had never really liked bugs that much. Everything else wasn't really worth his time.

But then, he heard a buzzing sound. Suddenly, he realised he had walked into an

enclosed area. There were trees on every side. He started to feel like something was watching him. The buzzing got louder and louder, moving closer to him through the trees. Then, a MASSIVE group of Beedrill swarmed out from behind the cover of the foliage. Red was trapped. He couldn't see a way out. At the last second he noticed a small stump sticking out from the ground, with enough space underneath for him to hide under. He ran as fast as he could and dived under the stump. The Beedrill raced over-head, moving from tree to tree, taking honey and sap from their bark. A small group approached the stump, jabbing at it with their Twin needles. Red had no idea what he should do. He couldn't let out Bud and try to fight his way out. They were outnumbered by far too many for that. His only option was to lay low and hope that they didn't notice him. That plan, however, didn't exactly work when his bag tipped open and spilled about 70 pieces of Pokemon food on to the ground beside him. In seconds, hundreds of Beedrill raced towards him at top speed. The first one there scooped down to pick up the food, but at the same time saw Red. NOW he was in trouble. All bud knew how to do was Tackle and Growl. There was no way it could match these strong fighters. Not to mention the fact they could fly.

Red tried to get out from under his stump, but he was trapped. A Beedrill, possibly the leader of the swarm, had blocked the entrance and was swiping at Red with its stinger. Red thought he was dead, until he saw a familiar flash of white light. The Beedrill blocking the entrance turned, and was shocked at what it saw. A tiny, strange looking creature was defeating the whole swarm in a battle. It raced to rally its troops, letting Red escape from his shelter-turned prison. When he stood up, he too saw this strange little thing attacking the swarm with no fear. The creature ran towards them, then stopped and turned. It put its arms out, as if trying to tell the swarm not to touch them. The Beedrill took no notice of this and charged at them anyway. At the sight of this, the small, yellow, rodent-like creature leaped forward, and stretched out in mid air as it let out massive charges of energy. Every Beedrill either fled scared, or was knocked out. The creature did a flip in the air and fell back to the ground, landing comfortably on its feet. Red was amazed at this.

The little rodent turned and looked at them, and gestured as if it wanted them to follow it. It seemed friendly enough, and knew the forest better than him, so Red obliged. He ran after it, until it eventually brought him to a small clearing in the woods. At this point, Red fell to his knees in a mixture of exhaustion, confusion and shock. He then remembered the small helpful creature that had saved their lives. He thanked it greatly, and offered it some of the little Pokemon food he had left. While it gnawed away at the chewy dry food, Red managed to take out his Pokedex and get information on it.

"Pikachu. This small electrical rodent is, surprisingly, found mainly in forest environments. When large groups of these Pokemon gather, they have the potential to create thunderstorms. If you touch its tail and startle it, it will either bite you, or shock you. Very hard to get along with and difficult for new trainers." The voice of the Pokedex stated.

"Hm…" Red thought to himself. "Difficult for new trainers. Well, I always did enjoy a challenge. And it was very impressive during that battle. Plus, it is unbelievably cute. Although looks can be deceiving…Oh well! Its worth a try!"

Red decided he wouldn't just go ahead and take it from its home in a Poke ball. He would try to win its trust first. He let out Bud and let the two get acquainted. Pikachu, after a few minutes of communicating with Bud, walked over to Red, sat down in front of him, and started scratching at it's ear. Red leaned down and looked at it, and saw that it had a small cut. He used one of his newly bought potions, which Pikachu took, but in slight pain. It was at this point that Red realised something. He had seen this little face before. He also remembered that familiar flash in the enclosed area. This wasn't just a Pikachu. This was the very same Pikachu that had saved his life four years before. Having realised this, a smile broke across Red's face. He leaped forward and picked the Pikachu up, supporting it under its arms. Then he remembered what he was doing and closed his eyes, expecting an agonising jolt of electricity. However, when he reopened his eyes, he saw Pikachu's face smiling and laughing back at him, happy to be held by Red. It ran up his arm and onto his shoulder, sniffing at his face and his hat. Then it clambered down his side, to the holder of his Poke balls. It sniffed curiously at them, and pawed at one of the buttons, wondering what would happen. To Red and Bud's surprise, the ball opened, and shot a white light at the Pikachu. It had actually caught itself in one of Red's Poke balls, and didn't look as though it was putting up much of a fight against being captured. It looked as though it actually wanted to come with Red.

When the ball stopped moving, Red couldn't believe his luck. He had caught one of the rarer kinds of Pokemon that were found in the forest, and without even having to battle it. Although having said that, he did have history with the Pikachu. Maybe that's why it decided to come with him. Who knows? All Red cared about was the fact that he now had two amazing and loyal Pokemon to help him become the best he could be. He hadn't felt this excited since two days before, when he saw Bud for the first time. He decided that he would name his new team-mate "Chuu". He thought this was a very fitting name for such a bright, happy little creature.

Red remembered that, although he had just caught a new Pokemon and it was a time for celebration, he DID come here for a reason. To get some battling experience in, and to make his way o the next Gym. He really wanted to stay and laze around a bit, but really wanted to get out of the forest before nightfall. And so, he pushed on further, deeper into the forest, with his new companion, and Bud by his side.