A/N: All you silent readers suck. Say something or I stop writing.

Episode 9: Viridian Forest (Part 2)

While walking together in search of wild Pokemon, Alan and I had an opportunity to chat, and I naturally learned a bit more about how things worked in this world.

For example, I asked about the Pewter City Gym and learned that you have to defeat gym trainers before you can challenge the leaders for their badges. Even when you become eligible, you have to sign up for a time and date; you can't just walk in and demand a fight. And these gym leader battles only happen once every few days, so it might be a long time before getting a badge.

"So I might not even be able to get a badge for a while even if I'm skilled enough to beat the gym leader? That's kinda lame," I said.

"Well, yes, but that's how the Pokemon League tries to maintain its prestige. But there ARE ways to speed this process, if you're good enough."

What. I need this info. Now.

Alan went on to explain that many Pokemon trainers that are eligible for battling the gym leaders loiter around the gym. When they find someone with an earlier battle date, they fight for their ticker, essentially.

"Wait," I interrupted. "Why would anyone with an earlier time battle someone with a later time? They have nothing to gain?"

"True," Alan admitted. "That's why those with later times often wager larger sums of money for the tickets."

"Hmm, I see."

"Besides," Alan said, "Pokemon trainers are competitive by nature. Many don't back down from a challenge."

"Makes sense."

"Oh, here we are. We have to keep our voice down here."

Alan motioned for me to follow him quietly through some bushes. After a little bit, we came into a thick grove of trees, and a small clearing. There were many Caterpies roaming about, eating leaves, and a whole lot of Metapods on the trees, sleeping and growing.

"Woah…"

It was one thing to be given three Pokemon to you, already captured, and also to have a bunch attack you, but it was quite another to witness a group of a species of Pokemon living peacefully in its natural habitat.

I took Bulbasaur out and walked into the clearing. The Caterpies noticed me and back away, with suspicion. Alan followed behind me.

"Hey you guys," I said, keeping my voice low. "I don't want to hurt any of you, so please don't attack me. Just hear me out."

The Caterpies looked a bit alarmed, but stood still.

"I just want ONE of you, and I promise I'll leave the rest of you guys alone."

The Caterpies made a bunch of… bug noises. They seemed to consider what I said. After a few seconds, the Caterpies made way for a particular Caterpie that was… HUGE. It was almost a full foot taller than any of the others, and had a mean expression on his face. It slowly crawled in front of me, and I was afraid it would attack me, but it stood still.

"He's… so big," Alan said.

I took an empty Pokeball out and threw it the giant Caterpie. Instead of letting it hit itself, Caterpie turned swiftly and batted the Pokeball back at me with its tail. It then puffed its body to make it look bigger.

I suddenly realized what it wanted. "You don't want to go without a fight, do you?"

The Caterpie stood its ground.

"Fine," I said, with a smile on my face. "I respect that."

It wasn't as easy a battle as I thought. The overgrown Caterpie had really hard lips that made my Bulbasaur feel pain. It also could take some tackles like a beast. In the end, though, Bulbasaur was clearly the stronger fighter.

Lying on its side, and panting in exhaustion, the Caterpie finally relented and was captured by a Pokeball.

I took him back out and treated it with a potion that I got off the Dicks earlier, and gave her (turns out) time to say farewell to her friends. One of them really wanted to come with us, so Alan gladly captured that one, too.

"That was something," Alan said while we were walking to a different part of the forest.

"I'm glad it wasn't such an easy fight," I said. "I think Bulbasaur learned something from it."

Again, turns out "levels" and "experience" and "stats" are all in-game stuff that didn't translate over in this world. Nothing appeared quantitatively anywhere, except physical attributes like weight and height that are measured at Pokemon Centers for medical purposes. It would take my own personal skills to be the judge of a Pokemon's fighting fitness and skill.

At a different part of the forest, we had to sneak by a hive of Beedrills. We weren't going to mess with that… there were dozens and dozens of fully grown Beedrills. We snuck past by their main territory until we ran into some harmless Weedles and got one each without much resistance.

We ran into a few nice Pokemon trainers and I agreed on a few battles. I used all three of my starters evenly, working on them evading attacks, mostly. All of them were getting better working with my commands, but Bulbasaur especially showed great improvement in speed and using his vines.

Oh, just a note on "moves," also a game gimmick. In reality, Pokemon obviously know more than just four moves, and can learn more without forgetting. It's just that some moves become obsolete as they grow and have to fight stronger opponents. Also, they have no limitations on basic moves like tackling and scratching, it's just a matter of stamina. Special attacks, however… we'll talk about it soon.

Another thing that is not part of the game, but is actually common practice in this world: training with just your own Pokemon. You can have them spar each other and you can even practice fighting with them. Obviously during training, you don't aim to hurt each other for real. But imagine training a police dog in real life, and you get a good idea.

Getting closer to the North end of the forest meant that the trees became smaller and sparse. I caught a Pidgey, a Rattata, and both genders of Nidoran here. Then we came to the main dirt road again where we could see other trainers walking towards some buildings ahead in the horizon.

We were finally approaching Pewter City.