Hi and welcome to the second chapter of my story. I hope you like this, I've revisited it many times over to try and get it proper. Please read and review.

Thanks


Chapter Two: The Path to Viridian City

The faint sound of a snoring bulbasaur was the sound that greeted Kei as she woke up. Charmander was sleeping soundlessly to her side, curled in a ball and keeping his tail far from anything flameable. Sitting up in her smalltent she yawned and stretched the remains of sleep from her laxed muscles, when she felt her muscles respond more to the ordersher brain producedshe crawled out of the tent; Charmander crawling silently out with her. "Good morning, Charmander." Kei said as the red and yellow fire pokemon stood up and did hisstretches.

"Char," he replied while yawning deeply. Kei patted his head as she went by to start the gas fire to cook breakfast. After stretching,Charmander started hisexcercises,and Kei watched him for a bit as hebent over three times to touch his toes and then stretched up as high as hecould, standing on his toes to lengthen each stretch. She turned her attention back to the fire and started it up. Bulbasaur was lying on his side, snoring surprisingly loud, his right rear leg up in the air and moving every so often as if he was running, Kei smiled at the sight. Bulbasaur was by far the most confident and funnypokemon she had, he was always the one to try new things first. Charmander was more timid but there was no doubt he had some power to his attacks, even his ember burned quite harshly then the normal charmander, he was much more careful then Bulbasaur or Squirtle, being a bit clutzy he kept an eye on where he put his tail. Charmander was very friendly and he complimented Bulbasaur's personality well. Squirtle was the more level-headed of the three, able to rely on his head to get him out of trouble but certainly not one to back down from a fight. He followed the flow of battle and just went with it while Blubasaur tried to bend battle to his favour and Charmander listened solely to Kei's direction. The smell of egg caused Bulbasaur to open a large red eye and stop snoring, rolling onto his stubbylegs hestretched each leg in turn and charged Kei, almost pushing her over.

"Bulbasaur!" he shouted in her ear and jumped off her.

"I know you're awake Bulbasaur, as does half the woods thank you very much!" Kei said with a smile. Bulbasaur just sat down near her and waited for breakfast as she went to her bag to get the Bulbasaur Feed. Squirtle had appeared out of nowhere when she turned around and she quickly grabbed his food as well. Squirtle seemed less tired then the other two, probably because his thick shell gave enough of a sound barrier to stop Bulbasaur's snoring reaching his ears. As her egg and bacon cooked Charmander finished up his excercises and she called her pidey, rattata and newly caught spearow from their balls to eat as well. She had sent three of her pidgey and another rattata back to the pokemon storage at the lab as she only had space to carry six pokemon at a time. Finally, everyone was eating happily and Kei put some sauce on her bacon and egg sandwich before biting down. Breakfast was nearing an end when Rattata lifted her head suddenly and sniffed the air, ears twitching. Kei heard grass being trampled underfoot and the outline of a figure was making its way towards their little camp.

"Hello, sorry to disturb you." came a young male voice. A young boy, about ten years old stumbled into their camp and approached, he had dark brown hair and brown eyes, his face was typically boyish and he looked short for his age.

"Hi, can I help you with anything?" Kei asked. She had guessed that he wanted a pokemon battle but he might not, you never know.

"Indeed, I wish to challenge you to a pokemon battle, two pokemon each." he said, striking a pose.

"Fine, but can I finish breakfast first?" Kei asked kindly. The young boy nodded and sat down to wait. "May I ask what your name is?"

"Oh, sorry, my name's Roary Hill. I'm from Three Island."

"A long way from home aren't you?" Roary shrugged his shoulders.

"Yeah, but I like Kanto, there's alot of things to see and many types of pokemon." Roary said, standing as Kei got up. "Are you ready now?" he asked excitedly.

"Yep, we battle with two pokemon. Right?" Roary nodded and retrived a pokeball from his belt.

"Chikorita!" a beam of red light formed into the body of the cute leaf pokemon, the leaf on it's head was laid back and it's feet set to dodge attacks.

"Charmander, this is your battle!" Charmander ran in front of Kei and growled low, the flame at the end of his tail glowing brightly. There was staredown andKei was winning, her face held nothing, only deep concentration. She waited for Roary to get impaticent and make the first move.

"Tackle!" Roary shouted. Chikorita charged at Charmander, but the flame pokemon just stood still, he had faith in his trainer. When Chikorita was in the proper radius Quill gave her command.

"Tail whip, Charmander! Catch it with your flame!" Charmander executed the attack flawlessly. Chikorita landed heavily on its side, a huge burn mark on it's left shoulder and a scorched leaf. Roary's chikorita however, got up again and waited for its master's order.

"Vine whip!" Chikorita sent two selnder whips at Charmander, who dodged easily and did an impressive back flip to gat out of range.

"Use Ember!" Charmander whipped his tail at Chikorita again sending some sparks of fire at the limping grass type. The embers hit their mark and Chikorita fainted on the roots of tree it had landed on. Charmander ran back to Kei jumpped into her arms cheering, the cheers of the other pokemon behind them. Roary called back his chikorita and pulled another pokeball from his belt.

"Hot Spot! Your turn!" the Magma slid forward. Squirtle already knew he was up and took his place opposite his opponent in front of Kei.

"Squirtle, Bubble!" the powerful foam made a direct hit on Sulgma, but the fire like pokemon was stronger than it appeared.

"Hot Spot was my first ever pokemon, he's the strongest I've got." Roary explained. "Hot Spot now! Fire Blast!" the powerful blast hit Squirtle. But Squirtle was a water type, he wasn't going to be beaten by some fire bug, that was slower than a weighed down snorlax. Squirtle stood shakily to his feet, his face seething with rage. Squirtle rolled into his shell and rolled towards the slug at an incrediable speed. Slugma was thrown from the ground by a force eqvuililent to a train. "Slugma!"

"Squirtle quick! Water Gun!" Sulgma couldn't stand the feirce torrent of water and fainted with asizzling sound as some of the water evaporated from his magma body. Squirtle ran to Kei and let himself be picked up as Kei and her other pokemon cheered loudly at his victory. Roary clapped as well once he recalled Slugma. "Squirtle that was great!" Roary approached and held out his hand.

"Here's your prize money." he said, Kei looked at him strangely. "It's custom for someone who has lost a pokemon battle to give money or an item as a prize to the winner. Kei accepted the money once he explained it to her. "Say, are you going to Viridian City?" he asked "I need to go to the pokemon center there. Err... I should've known fire never beats water."

"Yeah, we're going there." Kei said as she got everyone into their pokeballs. "You can come with us if you want."

"I'd like that, thanks." Roary helped Kei and the boys pack up before walking on, it wouldn't take a long time to get to Viridian City and Roary explained he was hoping to get some bug type pokemon in the forest which led to Pewter City. Kei kept the information about the bug types as they walked on and then told of why she had started her journey so late compared to other trainers and about where she lived. Ash's success seemed to have reached the Islands and Roary was quite honored to talk with someone who knew the pokemon master on first name terms. It was the beginning of a strong friendship, even if they couldn't see it yet. They continued on their way to Viridian.

It was around eleven o' clock when they saw the city in the distance and took a bit of time to stop and look at the view. They were on the outskirts of the woods which connected Pallet Town to Viridian City, from here it would only take fifteen minutes to get to the city itself. The boys sat down to rest and Kei and Roary followed. The heat in the woods was stifiling, even in the shade, Roary made a comment that if it was that warm in the woods, would it be like in Viridian Forest; Kei didn't want to think. The only ones who seemed unaffected by the heat was Charmander and Bulbasaur, who didn't understand why the rest of them were panting like houndours; they liked the heat, it gave them more energy. Charmander was a reptile after all and Bulbasaur had a plant on his back, so sun was always welcome. Kei pulled out a canteen of water from her backpack and drank deep, not caring how much she took because she would be able to refill it soon in the pokemon center. She handed the rest to Squirtle who only took a small sip to keep hiswater levels up. Roary didn't want a drink, he just wanted some rest for a while. "I wonder how Jenny and Joy are doing, I haven't seen them for quite a bit." Roary said to himself.

"Who and who?" Kei asked turning her head to speak to him.

"Officer Jenny and Nurse Joy." Roary explained "Nurse Joy works at the pokemon center and Officer Jenny is a captain at theViridian City police force."

"You seem to know this place well," Kei said, Roary nodded "All I've ever seen of the city was in the back of an ambulence and the hospital ward I was being treated on." Kei had told Roary how she was linked to the city and he thought it fair to tell her how he knew Jenny and Joy.

"When I first came here a few of months ago I didn't realise there was some work going on under the city and on some parts of it's outskirts, hugewater pipesand electric wiresamong other things. Anyway, me and Hot Spot were walking along a route that they were digginf under and the ground gave way,they were puttingwater pipesunder the ground. When I came to, Officer Jenny was helping me to my feet and Nurse Joy had been tending to Hot Spot. I spent a few days in hospital, thankfully nothing too serious and Hot Spot was waiting for me at the pokemon center."

"Didn't they have warnings posted up?" Kei asked "Surely if work like that is going on they need to warn people."

"They did post warnings, but someone thought it would be funny to put on abet to see if anyone did have a cave in."

"Is it safe now?"

"Yeah, the works stopped now and all the tunnels are secure. We won't be falling into any holes too soon." Roary said with a bit of glee in his voice. Both of their faces dropped when a loud rumbling was heard, the boys had the same expression. After a few seconds the sound stopped, Kei turned to her boys.

"Pleasesay that was one ofyou." The boys just looked at each and then back to their trainer, running over to her. The rumbling sound returned, this time louder and there was a shift in the ground beneath the three pokemon and the young woman. Then the ground gave way.

"Kei!" Roary tried to grab Kei but only succeeded in nearly falling into the hole himself, he strambled away from the ground as it continued to fall awayto the trunk of a tree, by that time the cave in finally stopped. He crawled to the edge and tried to see how far Kei and her pokemon had fallen; he couldn't see them, only a strange blue light which he guessed had to be from Chamander's flame, he couldn't understand why it was blue though. "Kei!" his voice echoed off the ragged walls of the cave and tried to hear if anyone made any attempt to respond. Nothing. "Kei! Boys!" Nothing again. "Hang on! I'm going to get some help!" Roary got to his feet, paying no attention to his shaking legs and ran to the entrance of Viridian City, hoping Officer Jenny would be at her post.

The first thing Squirtle was aware of was a very excited Charmander running around impatiently somewhere behind him, he couldn't tell if Charmander was good excited or bad excited, his massive headache was the only thing really worrying him. (('What on a Blastiose's back did I do?')) he thought, and groaned quietly withdrawing back into his shell. The quiet was short lived however,as Charmander had heard him groan and was now banging a fist rather loudly on his shell.

"Char! Charmander!" the hits were relentless, they even sped up after he heard Chamander scream. When Squirtle showed no signs of comming out of his shell Charmander heated things up, with any fire type pokemon, that is often meant litterally. "Mander!" Squirtle was engulfed in a ball of flame inside his shell and had no choice but to react. After extinguising the flames he came out his shell in a rather angry fashion and asked why the reptile had the intention to turn him into a Magcargo. "Charmander! Char! Char!" the fire pokemon said pointing to the pool behind him. (('Kei's drowning!')) Squirtle looked behind his fretting brother and saw why the Charmander had such a sense of urgency. Kei was doing a rather good impression of a dead-man's float in the middle of a pool of blue, strangely glowing water. The turtle pokemon didn't need to be told twice he ran to the edge of the pool and dived in. When he got to Kei he was met by Bulbasaur who had woken up on the other side of the pool and had swam over.

"Squirtle, squirtle." Bulbasaur helped the water pokemon get Kei onto his back, making sure her head was out of the water and then both swam back to Chamander who helped haul a limp Kei onto the bank. Maybe feeling hard ground underneath her, or maybe the way her boys pounded her back to help expell any water in her body, Kei began to cough up the strange water that was in her airways. Other than that, she didn't move. With their master saved the boys relaxed and Squirtle had completely forgotten the rather rude wake-up call Charmander had given him. They suddenly went rigid than collasped. The cuts on Bulbasaur and Squirtle from landing and falling over sharp stones, and the cuts on Chamander's hands from where he had pulled Kei out by her wet clothes were glowing the same strange blue light as the water.

Jenny was getting annoyed, you could tell, it was the way a few strands of hair hung in her face that you could see she was annoyed. She would have gone into the ten foot wide hole earlier but she had to wait first for the emergency services and a paramedic, as well as Nurse Joy because pokemon were involved. She hated waiting, especially when someone could be being crushed by a huge boulder. When she had seen Roary running as fast as a rapidash towards the entrance of Viridian City she just thought that the boy's chocolate addiction had finally caught up with him and he was having a year's worth of sugar rushes all at once. But when he skidded to a hault at the window to her post and began to babble incoherently she knew something was really wrong. Once she had managed to calm him down enough to take a few breaths of air he was finally able to tell her that someone had fallen in another cave-in. But that was weird because all the work for the improved power systems in the city were meant to befinsihed. Someone's head was going to roll when this got out.

"Why isn't anyone down there yet!" Roary said, he was getting impatient as well, and Jenny was just aboutable to keep track of her self when she was annoyed without anyone else.

"We still have to wait for the paramedic from the hospital before anyone can even go near the edge of that hole." Jenny said.

"I was at the edge of that hole when I yelled down it to see if Kei was alright and I got nothing!" Roary was getting angry now "For all we know she could be bleeding to death or one her pokemon trapped under rubble, unable to move or... "

"Roary calm down! We won't be saving anyone if everyone's running around like headless torchics!" Jenny said holding the boy by his shoulders so her words would sink in. He noticably calmed down.

"Sorry Officer, it's just Kei had to wait a really long time to go on a pokemon journey and this could ruin it."

"She'll be fine, we'll get her out." The sound of an ambulence was finally heard and Jenny immediately gathered her volenteers and began to climb down into the hole.

Kei sat up carefully from her lying position which left her feeling stiff and sore, she didn't remember where she was until she got a good look round. She was still in the cave with her boys lying in three untidy heaps around her. She clutched at her head as a massive headache threatened to explode her brain inside her skull, looking at her hands she saw they were covered in cuts from where she had tried to hold onto rocks before hitting her head against Squirtle's head and the two of them going unconscious. In front of her there was a pool of water, no strange glow or abnormalities and feeling as if she had half of it soaked in her clothes. She wondered how Squirtle would feel when he woke up, they had hit their heads pretty hard together.

"Boys," Kei called out to the three heaps (('They look... different.')) Kei thought as she saw that Charmander seemed to be a few inches taller and his tail looked thinner, Bulbasaur seemed to have got grass on his head somehow and Squritle's shell looked different (('Must be this dim light, and they are lying down so that might make them look a bit odd.')) "Boys, is everyone okay?" for a few seconds there was no sound then Bulbasaur's voice broke the silence with his own version of a quiet 'oww'. Squirtle sat up and since he was right in front of her Kei could see that there was something very different about him, then Charmander sat up and now his 'hair' along with the flame on his now thin tail lighted everything. Charmander, Bulbasaur and Squirtle were all looking rather more... humanoid. (('What happened to my boys!')) Charmander now had short, swept back blonde hair which continual burned in fire, along with eyebrows over his light amber eyes surrounded by a slender and fresh face. As she expected, his new human face held confusion, his old plump body, normal for a healthy charmander, had turned into a slender body of a human runner. Bulbasaur now sat up, showing Kei that the grass was infact Bulbasaur's short, cropped hair. Bulbasaur's new features were more square, more solid than Charmander's and his face held boyish charms and a grin that soon dropped at seeing the altered Charmander and Squirtle. Speaking of Squirtle, he had turned to look at Kei after seeing his brother's and he was the stronger of the three, stocky and his new limbs thick, probably all the help needed to carry his new, improved and heavy looking shell. His curled tail had remained unchanged and his chest and stomach now had the pattern of his muscles underneath the yellow surface, he had no hair, to keep with fluid dynamics. "Boys, we have a seriousproblem."