The forest was lush and vibrant with the smell of flora wafting through the air. It delighted my senses as I walked through, completely unaware of the young boy trying to get my attention. He ran up to me, finally, and got up in my face looking annoyed.

"Hey!" he shouted, "You're a pokemon trainer, aren't you?"

Refocusing myself, I stared at him for a moment. "Yeah, I am. What of it?"

He smiled playfully. "Then you can't refuse a battle from any trainer, especially us Bug Catchers! C'mon, I'll take you on with my Weedle!" He sent out the small worm pokemon as if he'd been waiting for this for ages.

I rolled my eyes in annoyance, but sent out Charmander anyway. Who was I to turn down some free practice?

The Weedle began by squirting some sticky string at Charmander, which was more of an annoyance than anything. It didn't slow it down all that much. Charmander was, however, momentarily stunned due to some getting in its eyes. Weedle took this opportunity to use its stinger. Charmander winced a bit before retaliating with an Ember, knocking the Weedle out in one hit.

"What?!" the Bug Catcher roared, "No fair! There's no way you could have beaten my top percentage Weedle! You obviously cheated!"

I rolled my eyes again. "I was using a fire-type. Of course I won. Maybe you should learn more about type match-ups."

"Who actually memorizes type match-ups? What a loser!" he whined, storming off before I could yell an insult back.

That made me mad. I wanted to scream in his general direction, but then I felt someone watching me. I looked around, looking for anyone else who might be with me in the clearing. Nothing. And then…

I heard a rustle come from a nearby bush. Thinking it was a pokemon, I got down on my hands and knees and said, "It's okay, you can come out." What came out from behind the bush was not a pokemon, but a girl with her hair in a ponytail. She looked to be a few years younger that me and I could tell from the look of her that she was someone quite unusual.

"I'm sorry I was spying on you." she said, shyly. "I was watching your battle."

I stood up and brushed the grass off my jeans. She seemed embarrassed for having been spying on me.

"It's fine." I said, awkwardly. "What did you think?"

Why the hell did I say that?

But her face lit up. "Oh! I thought you were amazing! I've never seen someone battle so passionately-" She was talking very fast. She seemed so excited, as if she had been holding that in.

She went on. "-I could never do that, you know? Especially since I don't have my own pokemon! But I see a lot of trainers come through here, so-"

"Wait," I interrupted. "You don't have a pokemon of you own?"

She looked down at her feet. "No…but I'll get one someday! The problem is that I don't really know how to catch one..."

I smiled at her. "I'll tell you what. I'll catch you a pokemon, then you can battle like I do. I'll even teach you battling basics. Sound good?"

"Oh! Yes, please!" she beamed.

I gave her an approving nod. "My name's Red. What's yours?"

"I-I'm Yellow!" She then turned to Charmander who, despite winning the battle, looked quite unwell.

"Your pokemon is poisoned. Its health has been dropping while we were talking. Oh, I'm sorry I didn't notice…" She gave Charmander a gentle pat on the head. Which seemed to perk it right up.

"Thanks, Yellow. I'll get Charmander to a Pokemon Center as soon as we get to the next town." I said, happily.

We walked around a bit as I told her the ins and outs of battling. She seemed very interested, if not a little overwhelmed with excitement.

"And choose your battles wisely." I said finally. "You don't want to get in over your head." Yellow nodded.

Another rustle coming from a nearby bush snapped both of us to attention. We peaked over it to find something with a lightning shaped tail sniffing at the flowers. A Pikachu!

I took a deep breath. "Watch how I do this, Yellow. I'm gonna show you how to catch a pokemon." She nodded again.

I sent out Rattata, who went in for a Fury Swipes attack. The Pikachu quickly dodged out of the way, having been apparently aware that we were here. It charged up for an electric attack, then gave a jolt of electricity to Rattata. Rattata gave a yelp of pain, then scurried back toward me. At this point I guessed that it was refusing to fight any more.

"I don't know if Charmander's up to fighting. Maybe we should-" But I was cut off by Charmander running up and throwing an Ember, catching the Pikachu off guard and hitting it in the face. It seemed to have a serious burn there. Now that Pikachu was knocked off its feet, I threw my pokeball. It engulfed the Pikachu and drew it inside.

Soon it was wiggling around on the ground as the pokemon struggled, when a click told me it was caught. I smiled as I picked up the pokeball and handed it to Yellow.

"Pikachu is your pokemon now, Yellow. Do you wanna practice battling on some wild pokemon?" I looked her in the eyes as she smiled back.

"Even better," she said, looking excited. "I saw some more Bug Catchers up ahead. You wanna go battle them with me?"

I was a bit taken aback, but I nodded. "If they're all as much of a jerk as the one I battled, I'll be happy to take them down!"

We ran up ahead, ready to battle. It was only later that I realized, not only had Charmander seemed to have fully recovered from the poison, but Pikachu's burn mark was gone too.

After beating the seventh Metapod in a row with the occasional Beedrill or Butterfree and leaving the Bug Catchers begging for mercy, we reached the exit to the forest. Yellow was laughing like she had never been happier.

"Did you see how much damage your Charmander's fire attacks did? That was amazing!" she beamed.

"Give yourself some credit, Yellow. You've really mastered Pikachu's Thunder Wave. Those bugs couldn't attack at all!" I was impressed. She learned fast.

As the sun hit my eyes, blinding in comparison to the dark forest, the next town was visible. Pewter City was within reach.

Yellow coughed awkwardly. "I, uh, guess this is where we should part ways and I'll…catch some more pokemon. B-but, promise I can battle you someday? So I can maybe be your...?"

I chuckled slightly. "Friend? Sure. I'd love to see all the pokemon you catch. We'll meet up sometime in the future, okay?"

Yellow nodded, then ran off somewhere ahead. I began to run towards the direction of the city. I was ready to face whatever came next.

Pewter City was much bigger than the towns I'd seen so far. I had no idea where to go, so I pulled aside a local.

"Excuse me, I'm a pokemon trainer. Can you point me in the right direction? Where should I be heading?"

The guy grabbed my arm and pulled me over to a building on the side of town, saying, "A pokemon trainer, huh? We get a lot of you around here. You want to head to the Gym, son!"

When he finally let go and I was able to process what had just happened, I looked up at the building with a big "Gym" sign on the front. That's right, I should collect the eight badges so I can challenge the Elite Four.

I was ready. I took a deep breath and opened the doors. Time for my first gym battle.