A/N: Hey. It's been a while. Work got a 1000% busier and I've been writing less, far less than I want to. That's life, I guess. Enjoy!
Last Day in Vermilion City
"Urgh!" Surge shouted in defeat. "I- I'll remember you, you Jigglypuff punk!" He said, pointing at my mask.
There were many things I wanted to ask Surge, like whether he was truly loyal to Team Rocket (I doubted this), or whether he was just in it for his own gains (most likely). And whether these gains were about money or for more electric power. But he ran off after retrieving his Pokemon into their Pokeballs. I doubted if he could've been turned into a force for good anyways.
With all the Rockets unconscious, I was able to unlock all the cages and let the Pokemon out. I also took all the Rockets' Pokemon and freed them as well. Given the choice, they all opted to run away from their trainers. Makes sense, since they're abused and forced to fight all the time.
I opened the hatch on the side of the ship that dropped down a short distance to the side of the dock. It was already getting dark, and the Pokemon easily hopped down and started to run off to their respective homes, or back into the wild.
I shut the hatch behind me and made my way back into the city, took off my Jigglypuff mask and changed back into my regular clothes that I stashed high up on a tree. I had Charmeleon burn the evidence while making sure no one saw me doing this.
Next morning, I checked out of the Pokeroom and headed out towards Route 11. At this point, if this was the game, I would need to get Flash and go back up near Cerulean to go through Route 9, and to through the Rock Tunnel. But since this real world was not a stupid game world, I got to go straight East towards the watery Route 12, up North to Lavendar City.
But right outside the gates that divided Routes 11 and 12, there was a huge crowd of people who couldn't go past a giant… Snorlax. The giant, 8-foot tall Snorlax was sleeping right in the middle of the road, covering the path leading to the docks.
Could people go around by jumping into the water or go into the thick of the woods infested with bug Pokemon? Sure, but no one really WANTS to do that, do they?
"What is this?!" Someone shouted in frustration.
"I'm going to be late!" Another person shouted.
"Let's wake him up!" Someone was a Pokemon trainer and encouraged other trainers to use their Pokemon to try to awaken the Snorlax.
But despite the tackles, the scratch attacks, and even fire (someone had a Growlithe), Snorlax was undamaged, and continued to sleep and snore. It was clear none of them knew how to deal with a sleeping Snorlax. Unfortunately, I didn't have a Pokeflute either.
I hustled back into Vermilion City and went to the closest mart.
"Welcome to Pokemart," an employee greeted me. "Can I help you?"
"Oh yes," I said. "Give me five… no, TEN of your largest Pokemon food packages. The largest ones."
I got my Pokemon to help me carry the Pokemon food. Imagine this: me running in the front, and then Ivysaur with two giant Pokemon food packages held up with his vines, Charmeleon clumsily trying to hold one with his paws, Wartortle carrying one on his head, Graveler and Primeape with one each, Parasect scuttering on the floor with one on her giant mushroom back, and so forth, making a train of procession with a LOT of Pokemon food.
"Huh? What's this?!" The people still gathered in front of Snorlax were puzzled by the appearance of me and my Pokemon.
"Excuse me, please give us some space," I said.
These people needed to get out of the way. If they weren't going to contribute to the solution, they were part of the problem.
"Lay it all here, guys," I instructed my Pokemon. "Cut them open Charmeleon, Parasect."
They used their sharp claws to open the top of all the Pokemon food bags.
"Pidgeotto, start fanning gently towards his nose!"
Pidgeotto stood behind the giant stash of Pokemon food and started flapping his wings gently. The smell started carrying over to the sleeping gentle giant.
"Grrrrooooohhhrrrr?" Snorlax sniffed once or twice in his sleep, and then slowly brought his massive body upright. He looked at the pile of Pokemon food and planting his face into it, started devouring it with methodical mastication.
You know how when you see a bird, you know that with its wings and all, it's designed to fly? Or if you see a horse, it belongs on the plains, roaming free? It's kinda like looking at a Snorlax and understanding that it was somehow… DESIGNED to eat food, that all of its physiology is optimized for consumption.
"Wow, good work!" Someone shouted at me.
"Thanks, kid!" Another one said.
One by one, the crowd started to slip by Snowlax, afraid of losing this window of opportunity. There were a lot of people coming in towards Vermilion City as well.
It took all of a minute for Snorlax to devour close to 500 pounds of food. He started licking the food packaging, and was soon finished. He started sniffing around for more food. Then he got slightly annoyed that there weren't any more.
"GRRAAAAAHHH!" Snorlax started to become anxious and frustrated about starving to death.
"Hey buddy!" I shouted at him.
"HORRRH?" He looked down at me.
"Do you want to come with me?" I held up a Pokeball at him. "I promise to give you loads and loads of food if you do!" I held up a handful of high qualify gourmet Pokemon food that I had been saving for this moment.
"WORH?!" Snorlax smiled and started to jiggle a bit. He very happily went into my Pokeball. After eating the rest of the food I had on me, of course. He went into a nice long nap.
This is how I got one of the rarest Pokemon to catch (in this world), the rarity being an account of the fact that it just costs too damn much to keep it fed. Good thing that Snorlax is an omnivore, and is oftentimes satisfied with a lot of grass and shrubbery. He is also very comfortable and warm to sleep on, which came in handy many times later on when I had to camp outside. He is definitely one of the team favorites amongst my Pokemon. A furry and lovable tank tent.
Next steps: Route 12 was definitely the way to go, given that Lavender Town was a lot closer than Fuchsia City. It also made sense for me because I wanted to double back to the other cities in the central "belt" area.
I defeated all the trainers on the way, and it was a good thing that I was making more money, because now I had a big boy to feed.
On the way, I checked in with a few fishermen and there was even a fishing shack where a bunch of Pokemon fishermen (those who specialized in catching Pokemon, not just regular fish) were hanging out. I showed some interest and one of them hooked me up (pun intended) with a nice fishing rod. She even showed me how to use it to get the best results.
"Here," the woman said. "Use these kinds of bait for the fish Pokemon, and these other ones for shellfish and others! It's all in the wrist when it comes to throwing out the line and latching on. Here, let me show you."
With her help I was able to catch a bunch of Pokemon from the dock: Shellder, Tentacool, and Krabby. While I was fishing, my other Pokemon were, of course, instructed to train in and around the water. It had been the first time that they were introduced to a flowing body of water whose current wasn't too quick to swim in.
Reaping all the benefits that Route12 has to offer, I went into Lavender Town.