The Heart of Viridian Forest

Below the thick tree cover of the Viridian Forest, a lone dirt trail covered in leaf litter can be seen. With shrubbery lining the sides of the path, a lone male Nidoran springs into the center of the road. The blue skinned, tiny Pokemon, entered a golden patch of light, approaching a clod of grass to eat. As it nibbled away on the plant matter, a crunch from a branch caught its attention, making its right ear twitch. Cautiously turning back to its meal, the Shiny Pokemon continued to chew on the grass in the center of the trail.

"Leaf Blade!" A female voice exclaimed from somewhere in the forest. Diving down from the leaf cover above was Alexa's Grovyle, with the male Nidoran locked in its sight. Crossing its arms and elongating its blades, it slashed at the Poison Pin Pokemon. Springing backwards, evading the starter's attack, the Shiny Pokemon bounded on four legs back up the trail, dashing away from its attacker. Grovyle locked the target in its sights and pursued after it, with a dual Leaf Blade drawn.

"Wait!" Alexa shouted, leaping down from the trees above. Hitting the ground on two feet, the trainer blocked the Nidoran's path down the trail. Keeping one hand extended, she tried to calm the startled Pokemon. "I'm sorry for scaring you! I just wanted to try and add you to my team… You see, you're really special, and I just know that you and I can be really strong together!"

The Shiny Nidoran glared at the trainer, before spinning around to the Grovyle behind it. Using its left foot, it kicked up some dirt off the road, hitting the Pokemon in the eyes with a Sand Attack, making it fall to its rear.

"Hey, that's not very nice!" Alexa exclaimed, approaching the Nidoran, moments before it spun around, kicking sand up into her eyes as well. "Gah! My eyes!" She exclaimed, falling backwards as well. With both attackers apprehended, the Nidoran bounded away, hopping back into the bushes out of sight.

"Shit!" Alexa cried out in agony. "I hate sand!"

"GRO-OH-OHHH!" Her Pokemon responded, rolling on the ground as well, as its eyes went bloodshot from the irritant.

"I'm sorry, okay?! I thought we could reason with it!" The trainer said with closed eyes. "We gotta find a river or something to wash this out!"

"I can help with that!" A familiar voice said, appearing higher up the trail, running towards the blinded trainer and Pokemon. "Are you alright, Alexa?"

"Oh thank Arceus!" Alexa said, keeping her eyes closed. "Thanks for the help, Bryce."

"Wait. How'd you know it was me?" The hooded boy said as he bent down with a water bottle in hand, surprised that the girl could recognize him.

"Water first! Then I'll explain!"

"Grooo!"


After the failed attempt at capturing a Shiny male Nidoran, Alexa and her Grovyle sat together rested up against a tree with looks of relief on their faces. Due to the well placed Sand Attack on them, they were left blinded for a brief period of time before their new acquaintance from Pewter City had crossed their path, rinsing their eyes with some fresh water.

"Grovyle," The Hoenn starter said with relief, seated peacefully at the trunk of the tree.

"You said it Grovyle," Alexa said, leaning her head towards the Pokemon. "Thanks again, Bryce. You really helped us out back there."

"I felt horrible about making you so uncomfortable back at the Pewter Gym! I followed you guys so I could apologize! What happened to you two?"

"Grovyle and I here came across a Shiny Pokemon and tried to catch it," Alexa said, looking at her Pokemon before looking at the boy. "But the little guy got away."

"A Shiny Pokemon?! Those are super rare!" The 10 year old exclaimed.

"I've come across a few in the last couple of months," Alexa said. "But when I try to catch them, I have no luck."

"But... you've gotta be lucky since you've see so many of them!"

"That's the worst part!...Tell you what. I'll let you in on a little secret. About my blessing and my curse," Alexa said with a grin, ready to bestow some knowledge of the Pokemon World to an excitable new trainer. Reaching into her jacket pocket, she paused. "But you have to promise to keep this a secret!" She said, before removing the item on her. Zipping his lips, Bryce patiently awaited to see what the trainer had. Pulling out a blue star on the end of a leather strap, Alexa showed the boy her token. "This is called the Shiny Charm. It has some kind of magical properties to it that increase my chances of stumbling into shinies in the wild. One of my friends in the 'Ultimate Alliance' gave it to me before he had to go back to his home dimension."

"HOME DIMENSION?!" Bryce exclaimed, taken aback by this remark. "Does this mean… he's an alien!" The boy said, saying the latter half in a whisper. "Or and ULTRABEAST?!"

"What?" Alexa said, somewhat dumbfounded. "No, he's a human! And his name is Ross and he's… my best friend."

"Huh," Bryce said with a surprised look on his face. "Why'd he give up the charm? It seems pretty special."

"Well…" Alexa said, as the smiling face of the young, blonde haired boy appeared in her head. A blush set into her cheeks as she reminisced of her friend. "His home world is taken over by Team Rocket… and he had to go back alone to face them. Before he left, he gave me his charm so I could keep it safe. If Team Rocket got their hands on it, they might use it to encounter and enslave Shiny Pokemon for their benefit."

"That's awful!" Bryce said. "Glad to hear that it's in the hands of a strong trainer like you!"

"Thanks Bryce," Alexa said with a grin at the compliment. "But I have a lot to prove before I can truly call myself a strong trainer."

"Well you sure know a lot more than I do," Bryce said, before drifting off into thought. "Say… will you help me catch my first Pokemon? That way when I go on to challenge Brock again, I can have a new member of my team to battle him with!"

"Well, I don't see why not!" Alexa said beaming at the boy. "There's plenty of Pokemon that you can catch in Viridian Forest! It's all a matter of finding out which one will be your partner."

As the two gazed around, taking in the sights and sounds of the brilliant forest surrounding them, they heard the Pidgey's chirping, saw the Caterpies crawling, and the Mankeys roughhousing just off the beaten path. Taking a glance at the boy, Alexa watched as the boy nodded his head in the direction he wanted to go.


"Alright! So catching a Mankey didn't go as planned!" Alexa said, opening up a bandage and placing it on the forehead of her new friend's Bulbasaur which he held in his arms.

"Bulba," The Pokemon said in a disheartened tone.

"It's not your fault, little guy," Alexa said, pressing the bandage on its forehead. "It's just that Mankey had a little bit more experience than you do."

"Oh, I just know that Bulbasaur can get stronger!" Bryce said, who also had a fresh bandage applied to his face too. "But no matter how much training we do, a stronger opponent comes through and wipes the floor with us!"

"Well, I guess that means you ought to start a little smaller," Alexa responded. "The forest here is chock full of Bug types that would be perfect for a beginner like you."

"Bug Types?!" Bryce cried out. "But Bulbasaur is weak to-"

"Hey, remember what I said. It's all about how you battle them that matters."

"Ok… I'll give it a shot," Bryce said, glancing down at the Grass Starter who looked up at him with a set of large, hopeful eyes. "What do you say, Bulbasaur? Should we go out and find a new teammate?"

"Bulba!" The Pokemon exclaimed, giving a determined nod.


As a lone, spiked-headed Weedle climbed up the base of a tree in Viridian Forest, Alexa and Bryce peered at it from a bush several yards away. Unaware of their presence, the Bug/Poison type slowly climbed its way up the bark of the tree.

"Alright," Alexa said in a whisper. "You send out your Bulbasaur and hit that thing with a Vine Whip!"

"But what if Bulbasaur gets hurt-"

"You better hurry or it's gonna get away!"

"Ahhhh!" Bryce roared, emerging from the bush. Throwing his Starter's Pokeball forwards, he exclaimed: "Bulbasaur! Use VINE WHIP!" The Grass/Poison starter emerged from its ball and rushed towards the base of the tree, determined to best its new foe.

"Bulba!" The Pokemon cried, as two long vines emerged from each side of the green bulb on its back, they shot forwards, smacking the Weedle off of the tree. Hitting the forest floor, the Bug Pokemon was stunned, unexpecting of the attack.

"Alright!" Alexa cheered, emerging from the bush as well. "Now's your chance!"

"Yeah!" Bryce cheered, enlarging a miniaturized Pokeball into his hand. "Go… Pokeball?" He said, giving the orb a soft toss at the grounded Pokemon. Enveloped in a red light, the writhing Weedle entered the Pokeball, which landed and rolled across the grass. The Pokeball shook once, then twice. Finally, after a third shake, the Pokeball went still. Bryce had caught his very first Pokeball.

"Ahaha!" The trainer said with a set of wide eyes as he rushed across the forest floor towards his Pokeball, taking it into two hands. "Even though Vine Whip was four times weaker, we still managed to catch it! Way to go Bulbasaur!"

"Bulba-saur!" The Pokemon exclaimed, leaping up into the trainer's arms, nuzzling against his face.

"Weedle. The Hairy Bug Pokemon…" The boy's Pokedex began to say, before Alexa tuned it out.

'Man… does that take me back,' Alexa thought to herself as a smile grew on her face, reminiscing to the day her very first Pokemon had entered her life, moments before battling a Caterpie, leading to her very first capture. Her focus was soon drawn back to the smiling boy, holding his Bulbasaur and brand new Weedle in his two arms.