Crossing Paths

by Hashtag-FriedShrimp

When Liam set out on his journey all he wanted was to have fun. He'll do that with the people he meets along the way, but Team Rocket, mercenaries, the international police, and injured pokemon are putting a damper on his plans. Hopefully, the friends he makes along the way will help, but if not there's always his growlithe Duck! OT! World: Anime & Games

2. Chapter 2: Meeting Penny

Chapter Two: Meeting Penny

Liam and Misty arrived at the Viridian Gym not long after leaving the Pokemon Center. It was still early morning, and so the streets were light on traffic, but just to be safe Liam had recalled Duck to his pokeball. The gym building was an ornate piece of architecture, a golden tan color with white, sun-bleached stone lining. Tall columns lined the front and gave the feeling that the place was inspired by the ancient empires of the western regions.

Since the pokemon gyms were still officially closed for a few more days there were no trainers waiting outside for a chance to battle, and that meant they were able to walk right inside. The front lobby had plain, simple decor and plenty of seating for trainers waiting for a battle. A secretary's desk was placed opposite the front doors, and sitting there was a pretty woman in a simple business suit, her brown hair tied up into a bun.

"Hello," she greeted as they entered, pausing whatever work she was doing with the computer sitting on the desk. "Are you Liam and Misty?" They nodded. "Giovanni told me you two would be coming. You can go right on into the battlefield. Just through those doors." The secretary pointed to a set of double doors just next to her desk.

They thanked her and walked through. Inside was a dimly lit room, large enough that it looked like it took composed most of the building. The walls were set well away from the battlefield and were a tan color similar to the stonework on the outside. There were no bleachers or seating area, as many other gyms had. Instead, opposite the doors they entered was a small personal balcony. A large window lit up the balcony from behind, with deep crimson drapes framing it. Center of the balcony was a regal wingback chair with a small side table. Giovanni sat in that chair, reading what looked like a business report, while a large persian lounged next to him.

At the sound of them entering Giovanni looked up. "Ah! Misty, Liam, a pleasure you've come. Thank you again for obliging my request."

"Sure!" Liam called up. "So how do you want to do this?"

"As I run a ground type gym, I would like to battle a water type first. Misty?"

"Fine with me!" She answered, then took out a pokeball from her bag. She moved to the challenger's position on one end of the field, and Liam moved to stand behind her. "Go, Stella!"

The same staryu from last night appeared, deep brown and brilliant gold in color. Apparently, it was Misty's first pokemon, but because of her responsibilities at the Cerulean Gym she had only been able to train it and never get a lot of battle experience. Liam and Misty had talked a decent amount about the kind of pokemon they had. Liam, of course, only had his growlithe Duck while Misty only had her staryu Stella.

"Wonderful," Giovanni commented, rubbing a heavy ball in his hand with his thumb. "Deep colors and great size. You've raised it well."

"Thanks!" Misty said, "Now are we going to battle or what?"

Giovanni smirked. "Indeed."

Then Giovanni threw the ball, and from it came an earthshaking crash. An onix had appeared, and it released a battle roar as it slammed onto the ground. It was big, as all onix are, roughly thirty feet long. It was also blue.

Not blue blue, but a light blue, as if made of ice. An idea that seemed better and better when Onix opened its mouth and the small snowflakes of frost fluttered on its breath. It glimmered in the sunlight coming in from the window with a luster equal to precious stones or crystal.

"I've never seen an onix like that!" Misty exclaimed, gaping at the behemoth. Stella was doing the same, though it didn't have a mouth to gape with.

Liam quickly brought his phone out and began to scan the onix with the pokedex app installed.

Onix, Rivo form. The Rock Snake pokemon. An ice and ground type. Onix devour ice, snow, and frozen dirt to repair their bodies after taking damage. Travelers will use the tunnels Onix make while eating to stay safe during snow storms.

"Huh," Liam muttered as he read through the information a second time. Interesting.

"He is quite taking, isn't he?" Giovanni said, smirking. "This drastic difference in appearance, resulting from the environment the pokemon's ancestors have lived in for generations, is called regional variance. More than his typing, however, Onix also has an interesting ability that I would like to try out with the both of you. But enough of that, let the battle begin!"

Onix roared in preparation, glaring down on Stella from well up in the air.

"I'll take the first move if you don't mind!" Misty declared, the fires of determination forming in her eyes. "Stella, use Water Pulse!"

Stella cried in confirmation then flexed. From the tip of its top leg Stella blasted a ball of glowing water at Onix. Giovanni said nothing and only watched with a confident smile as the water blasted into him, standing strong and taking the attack. Any normal Onix would have taken a decent amount of damage from that attack. This one didn't even blink.

"He should still take some damage if he's a ground type!" Misty couldn't understand it, and neither could Liam. There weren't many other dual ice and ground types that he knew of, Swinub and its evolutions were it, but even they took extra damage from water attacks.

"Onix's ability," Giovanni explained, "is unique to the Rivo region. It is called Ice Body, and halves the damage received from water attacks, but doubles the damage from fire attacks."

Misty growled in frustration. "Fine then! Stella, use Rapid Spin!"

Stella jumped into the air then began to spin, well, rapidly. It was a basic attack, but Liam knew that in the hands of pokemon like staryu and starmie it became something even more. The high speed gave it momentum to which it could glide through the air with, and by adjusting the angle and bend of it's different legs Stella could gain a certain amount of control on where it was going.

Stella, with its high rotation, smacked into Onix's face and rebounded away before he could react. Flying around the room at a great speed, Stella chipped away at Onix's defenses. Or tried to. Despite the changed typing, Onix still had an amazing innate defense.

Giovanni gave his first order. "Onix, use Hail."

Onix roared in response, his head held high as wintry storm clouds began to form above them inside the gym. Gray in color, they were lighter than the storm clouds from yesterday. A few moments later and large pieces of hail began to fall down on all of them. Onix, as an ice type, was completely unaffected, while Stella was beginning to be buffeted by the weather.

"Stella!" Misty called over the loud clunking of the hail falling onto the ground. "Stop your attack!"

Stella smacked Onix one last time on the edge of the nose, causing him to roar at Stella in irritation, before spinning back to Misty's side of the field. Still, Giovanni made no motion to command Onix.

"Alright Stella, I want you to use Confusion. But don't use it on Onix, use it on the hail!"

Giovanni raised an eyebrow in question, but sat back in his chair and watched with interest. The persian next to him watched out of the corner of its eyes with a sharp interest, however. Liam didn't really know what Misty was planning either, but it was an interesting move, he'd give her that.

Just like the night before, Stella brandished her arms, pointing them at the hail clouds above. To Liam's awe, the clouds and the hail, both on the ground and in the air around them, immediately stopped. The hailstones hung in the air, refracting the light from the window and the faint blue of Stella's psychic attack. Suspended as it all was, the scene was beautiful. Almost peaceful. Liam quickly snapped a photo with his phone.

"Now make a cyclone with them around Onix!"

And then the storm returned. The hailstones, directed by Stella, began to fly and whirl towards and around Onix, who could only look on in stricken dumbfoundment. Quickly the hailstones began to grow in speed, moving faster and faster until it was a veritable vortex swirling around Onix, a cylinder of flying ice and sharp wind reaching from the floor to the ceiling.

"Haha!" Misty laughed. "Onix might be immune to hail, but now its strength will be chipped away by the very thing it brought about!"

"Clever, and an impressive amount of psychic power for only a Confusion attack," Giovanni commended. "You're staryu has great potential. However, what will you do next? Onix, use Ice Ball!"

Misty looked to the vortex with surprise, unsure what to expect. Liam wasn't too sure either. Ice Ball was a physical ice type move. Would it be strong enough to break through that whirlwind?

Apparently not, as the sound of a large force connecting with the hail tornado could be heard, muffled by the whistling winds.

"Again!" Giovanni ordered.

Misty and Liam watched as, again, no visible change happened, but that same sound returned. Was it his imagination, or was it louder this time?

"Yes!" Misty cried, pumping her fist in the air. "Sorry Giovanni, but your attack isn't strong enough to break out of my combo attack!"

Giovanni leaned forward in his chair, but his confident smirk remained. "Are you so sure? Once more!"

Misty and Liam both looked at him with confusion, then back to the cyclone. That sound came again, stronger now, and accompanied by a visible shaking in the uniform structure of Stella's attack.

"What's going on!" Liam called out, his first time speaking since the battle began.

"Ice Ball," Giovanni began, "is an attack that grows stronger if used repeatedly. Onix has attacked with it three times. How do you think your attack will fair at number five? Again, Onix!"

"Stella!" Misty cried, her hands frantically waving in the air. "Pick up the speed! Try to get Onix to faint before he can break free!"

Stella cried in understanding, and the blue glow of the vortex increased in intensity, the psychic aura outlining Stella matching it. Liam and Misty watched with bated breath, then BOOM! A giant white orb, a ball of ice, blasted through the vortex, barely missing Stella as it flew across the room. There was a gap in the storm now where the ball launched through, the psychic energy having been pushed aside by the sheer force of the attack. Through it Onix leered at them, eyeing Stella as if daring it to close the hole.

Stella did. The shine of psychic power increased once more as Stella coalesced the storm together to cover for that weak spot. Onix roared from the inside, the sound merging with the howl of the winds as Stella put all of her psychic powers into keeping the vortex stable and at top speed.

"Last time!" Giovanni hollered, barely heard over the whipping winds.

A few moments passed, and Liam wasn't sure if Onix had heard Giovanni or not. But then another glowing orb of ice, even bigger than the last one, shot out of the storm with such speed that Liam almost blinked and missed it slam into Starmie at full force. It was when the hole in the storm had opened, Liam realized, that Onix memorized where Stella had been standing.

Then the storm broke apart, the hail falling to the floor and the storm clouds above dispersing. Onix stood there, as much as a giant ice snake could "stand," a little chipped around the edges but good to go. Liam looked to Stella, and saw that though it had been pushed back, it remained in the game. It's red gem flashed, signaling that it was low on power but still in the game, and Liam was surprised it was hanging in there. Staryu weren't exactly known for their defenses but, Liam figured, Misty had raised her's enough to be a fighter like her. That and ice attacks weren't that effective against water types. He preferred the former explanation.

"Quick, Recover!" Misty ordered. Stella didn't respond like it normally would, and instead simply began to glow an incandescent golden color.

"Finish it with Bind," Giovanni ordered, sitting back into his chair and petting his persian.

Onix roared as it leaped forward. Before Stella could complete its recovery Onix had wrapped his tail around it. Stella cried out, and the golden glow faded away as the move was interrupted.

Misty clenched her fists and grit her teeth, but then sighed and let her shoulders fall. "I forfeit."

Giovanni smirked with his victory but ordered Onix to release Stella. As it did, Misty returned Stella, whispering a compliment and wishing for a good rest. Onix returned to Giovanni's side of the field.

"That was well fought, Misty," Giovanni called down to them. "Using our Hail attack as you did was inventive, though I wish you had used more water attacks so I could know how Onix truly did against them."

Misty shrugged. "You gotta do what you gotta do to win, right?"

Giovanni chuckled. "Indeed. Liam," he turned to face Liam, a battle-ready look in his eyes, "are you prepared to face Onix now?"

Liam nodded and swallowed his nerves. His first, actual pokemon battle. Did the one against Team Rocket count? Maybe, if he counted it as a double battle with him and Misty teaming up. But then, there had been no real exchange of attacks and strategies. Duck had simply Roar-ed them away. So yeah, this was his first battle. To Liam, anyway.

Liam didn't feel entirely ready, but he got to see Onix in action, and already knew that Duck's fire type attacks would be extra effective. Although Giovanni, no doubt, had already made plans on how to deal with Onix's glaring fire type weakness.

But these second thoughts wouldn't help him, now would they?

Liam switched places with Misty, took a deep breath, then called Duck out. Liam didn't know how aware Duck was of the outside world while inside his pokeball, but when he appeared Duck was ready to go, his stance steady and his eyes determined to win.

"You may have the first move, Liam," Giovanni said, waving his arm towards them.

Liam nodded. First, test the waters.

"Duck, use Heat Wave! Max distance!"

Duck barked in response then began to run forward. Onix watched him wearily, aware of Duck's fire abilities and his own weakness to them. Duck's attack range with Heat Wave wasn't much, but against this Onix they didn't need much. The furthest Duck could hit an enemy and hope for a burn was about ten feet. At closer range the attack could do real damage, but ten feet was nothing against an Onix that was thirty feet long. It was essentially close combat by that point.

Maybe he should have had Duck use Flare Blitz instead.

Liam didn't have time to second guess, as the tendrils of fire breath washed over Onix. Against other opponents, it would have just caused a significant discomfort. Here, it did more. Onix reared up in pain, roaring as the boulders of ice that composed majority of its body began to steam, droplets of water melting away.

"Mud Bomb," Giovanni commanded, and Liam's eyes widened.

"Dodge it!" Was the best he could say, and then Onix glared down at Duck before thrashing his tail and spitting up a glob of mud almost as large as Duck.

Duck ran to the side, moving with a fast speed that was uncommon for growlithe as a species, and jumped as the mud came crashing down next to him. Some of the splatter hit, the force behind the attack causing Duck to release a short howl of pain, but then he landed. His one side was brown with mud, but Duck was ready for more.

"Again. Full speed," Giovanni ordered, and Onix released another ball of sludgy mud.

This attack flew at Duck faster than the last one, and Liam wasn't sure he could dodge in time. The ball was coming closer, and Duck wasn't moving because he was waiting for Liam to make an order and-

"Heat Wave!" Liam called before he could even think of a reason why to use it.

Duck followed orders and attacked. The ball of mud was close by the time Duck released his breath, but that only meant it took the greater force of the attack. Mud Bomb's momentum ground down under the blast, and the heat quickly dried the mud, making it nothing more than a big clump of dirt. For a split second Liam thought they had come up with a counter strategy against the attack, but then that dirt clump continued on. What it lacked in speed it now made up for in density. The dirt smacked Duck right in the face, causing him to yelp with pain and tumble backward.

"Once more. Full speed," Giovanni said, giving no pause to Duck's tumble.

Onix spat another Mud Bomb with a roar. Liam cried out Duck's name, telling him to watch out, but Duck was still getting back on his feet from the last attack. The Mud Bomb hit straight on, and with loud cry, Duck took the full brunt. The force pushed Duck to the back of the field. Liam ran over to him and saw that he had fainted in the middle of a muddy mess.

Liam sighed. "It's my loss," he called out.

He took out Duck's pokeball and pointed it at him. "You were great, buddy. Take a good rest." Liam returned Duck after that, then stood and shared a commiserating smile with Misty.

"You tried," Giovanni called down to them. "It was obvious that your growlithe was not at a strong enough level to fight Onix."

Liam sighed again and bowed his head. Shoulders slumped, he took a breath then looked up at Giovanni.

"You're right. I didn't know how we stacked up to you. I tried to be cautious about it, but, obviously, that didn't work." Liam looked down at Duck's ball, picturing him injured and dirtied.

"And that was the right decision." Liam's head shot up to stare at Giovanni. "You gauged your enemy by using a ranged attack, Heat Wave. That was the correct decision. Where you made your mistake was in continuing your caution."

Liam frowned and furrowed his eyebrows. "I don't understand."

"It's like this," Misty began walking over to stand next to Liam, "a trainer needs to be adaptable and change strategies when the situation says so. You saw how Onix reacted when you first hit it with Heat Wave. If you had gotten in closer and used it again, or used Flare Blitz, then Onix probably would have taken too much damage to continue fighting. If it could, then you were in a situation where another attack would have won you the match."

Giovanni nodded his head in agreement. "Indeed. By ordering your growlithe to dodge, you gave up your advantage: the close proximity needed for your fire attacks to succeed."

Liam slowly nodded his head. "I think understand. Thank you for the advice. Both of you."

"Of course. And thanks from me for battling my newest pokemon. Now, I have some work to attend to. Have a safe journey, and I look forward to a future challenge from you, Liam. Misty, I will see you again at the next Leader Tournament."

"It was nice to meet you," Liam said in parting. Misty said her own goodbye, and soon the two were on their way back to the Pokemon Center.

---

It was the late morning by the time that Liam and Misty were on their way out of Viridian City. Misty had a new bag, a large camping backpack, bright red, that they were currently keeping their food and medicine in. Liam's bag just didn't have the space with his tent set taking up so much room. Hopefully, they wouldn't have a need for medicine for a while. Duck and Stella were fully healed following this morning's battles. Stella was in her pokeball, so as to avoid drying out in the sun, while Duck was walking next to Liam. Having him out would, hopefully, be helpful while navigating Viridian Forest.

Haven to the majority of Kanto's bug pokemon, the Viridian Forest was essentially one giant hive. Bug catchers, that is, those who specialized in bug types for one reason or another, were the trainers who mostly populated the forest paths, though occasionally there would be other trainers passing through like Liam and Misty. Viridian Forest's trees were stories tall, thicker than a grown adult, and brought a relaxing shade to the forest floor. The limited light, blocked by the canopy, meant not much grew on the forest floor beyond grass and the occasional hardy bush. It was due to that lack of light that grass pokemon were rare here. They needed the light to survive and photosynthesize, and so they congregated in a few clearings scattered around. Bird pokemon could be found in the area since they fed on the neverending amounts of caterpie and weedle–the two most common pokemon in the forest–but they were often run off by swarms of more powerful bugs. The occasional poison pokemon could be found here, the ones that appeared were the ones that ate the occasional bush since they didn't have anything to fear from bugs bothering them.

It was no surprise, with all of this in mind, that Viridian Forest was a den of creepy crawlies and those that liked them. Everyone from this side of Kanto knew that those full trainers who entered would be challenged bug catcher after bug catcher.

It was great, easy training for Liam and Duck. As a growlithe, Duck would have an easy time defeating near whatever bug came their way.

At the entrance to the forest, where there was a sharp decline in tree height and forest density, Liam was first challenged to a battle. It was a little girl, maybe eight years old and too young to leave and travel the region on her own. Many such young trainers, from Viridian and Pewter, would come to the edges of the forest to catch pokemon and train them at home, or battle full, licensed trainers like Liam and Misty for experience.

Fresh off their defeat to Giovanni, Liam and Duck agreed.

"Go! Caterpie!" The girl called, tossing a pokeball.

Caterpie was little more than a green worm with big eyes and a small red horn on his head. That horn wasn't even sharp, as a weedle's was, but instead branched apart and ended in two rounded nubs. As a species, caterpie was the weakest pokemon in Kanto.

Just about to call Duck forward to battle, Liam felt someone slam into his back and clutch his shoulders, their nails digging into him as he was nearly toppled over. He was able to keep his footing, but now that person was practically lying on top of him and completely off the ground.

"No!" Misty screamed. "That thing is disgusting! Get it away! Get! It! AWAY!"

Liam flinched as her voice screeched right into his ear, but her vice grip was too strong to get away.

"Misty!" Liam yelled, "What's your problem? You're going to-"

"I! HATE! BUGS!" Her nails dug in even sharper, and Liam winced in pain. Duck began to growl at her, but Liam shot him a quick, pleading look telling him to stay back.

"Misty," Liam tried again, voice calmer now as he tried to pry her fingers loose, "could you please let go? You're hurting me."

"It's so gross!"

Liam, if he wasn't tight from the pain in his shoulders and hunched over from supporting Misty's weight, would have sighed. Nevertheless, he had a battle to fight. Liam looked over at the little girl.

To say she was a bit peeved would be an understatement. The girl's arms were crossed, her foot was tapping the ground, and she was glaring daggers straight at Misty.

"Caterpie!" Caterpie, who had been sulking more and more through Misty's tirade, perked up. "String Shot that girl! Try to hit her mouth!"

Liam looked down in surprise as caterpie began to follow that order. By Misty's incessant screaming she hadn't noticed.

"No! Please," Liam said, looking at the girl with begging eyes. "I'm sorry for my friend. She doesn't mean anything by it. She's just a lit-"

Liam hadn't been able to finish. Caterpie shot its String Shot, a thick thread of tough silk spewing from its mouth. This caterpie, Liam learned, didn't have the best accuracy. He was hit, square in the face, with a sticky, webby mess.

Even that didn't drag Misty out of her hysterics, not that Liam was paying too much attention by that point. No, he was ripping the sticky thread away or trying while balancing Misty on top of himself, gagging at the taste as he pulled some from his mouth. As Liam coughed and gasped Duck turned to the caterpie and growled, hackles raised. Before Liam knew what was happening, Duck had his jaws around caterpie's side. With an angry flail of his head Duck threw the caterpie, down and out from that overkill attack, at the little girl's feet.

Liam had only been able to look up as the girl gasped, quickly recalling her pokemon.

"Hey!" She yelled, her face now red and her eyes alight with anger. "Why'd you do that? Caterpie hitting you was just an accident!"

Liam's patience was, remarkably, still existent. How it was he didn't know, but that didn't mean it wasn't painfully beginning to dwindle.

"You shouldn't be having your pokemon attack people," he tried to explain, a tired edge to his voice. "You should be using your words first."

It was, of course, curse her, at that time that Misty realized caterpie was gone. She released his shoulders, hopped his back and said, curse her again, "Oh thank GOD that disgusting thing is gone." She shivered, clasping her arms around her shoulders. "Bugs are the absolute worst."

The little girl, if she could be any more furious, was. She tossed another pokeball, and in his head Liam cursed Misty a third time.

The pokemon that appeared was a kakuna. The evolved form of weedle, kakuna were yellow chrysalis creatures with sharp black eyes, that would eventually evolve into weedle's fully evolved form beedrill. As it was, kakuna were very limited in what they were capable of doing. The more energy they expended the longer they would be stuck in this form before evolving once more. As it was, the only defensive tactic they had in the wild was to harden the outer shell of their bodies. Trained, they could retain the moves known as weedle.

Misty was cowering behind Liam, thankfully not on top of him, before the pokemon had even fully materialized from its pokeball.

"Kakuna!" The girl commanded, "Use String Shot! Aim for that girl's face!"

Kakuna was trained enough to use String Shot, so that meant it could use Poison Sting, the other move weedle knew prior to evolving. At least, Liam told himself, the girl chose the less violent of the two options. Still, this kakuna's accuracy was even worse than the caterpie's. Liam still got hit in the face, and before he could stop the attack Duck was already unleashing a Heat Wave.

Kakuna was collapsed, almost extra toasty when Liam was able to breathe again.

"Duck!" He yelled. Growlithe, as a species, were very loyal and protective of their trainers. It was only expected that Duck would, after taking out Kakuna, direct his attention on the trainer that had attacked his owner twice. "Stop!" Liam yelled again. Duck, hackles raised and dangerously close to the little girl, growled once before walking back to Liam.

The girl had stood, frozen in place, as Duck neared, but breathed a sigh of relief when Liam called him back. Nevertheless, her angry grimace was back up just after and she glared at Liam.

"Maybe if you cut your hair you pokemon wouldn't think you're a girl!" Then the girl was stomping away back in the direction of Viridian City.

Liam looked down at his hair, straight and brown and long enough to fall past his shoulders and onto his chest. He had been teased about it when first coming to Kanto, but to hear it from an eight-year-old was something else. Wait… she hadn't paid him his earnings!

Liam sighed. Nothing he could do about it now. He turned to Misty, who looked thankful that the girl was gone but was now staring into the Viridian Forest with trepidation. Liam sighed again, adjusted his messenger bag, and looked down at Duck, who was sitting next to his feet and looking back at the retreating form of the little girl.

Liam looked into the forest with dread. "I'm going to regret this."

Without another word he walked forwards. Duck quickly turned to follow beside him and Misty hesitantly brought up the rear

---

The entire game started all over again. For five hours Liam would be challenged by waiting bug catchers camping out just beyond the wide forest path. Each time the routine with the little girl repeated. Eventually Liam had just told Duck that he might as well practice his Heat Wave and so that had become the preferred method of retribution. At least he was making sure to collect his prize money. Now if only he could get Misty to stop overreacting.

Honestly, Liam didn't understand how Misty had the energy to be this terrified for this long. Maybe it was the adrenaline. Or maybe it was the irrational part of irrational fears. Either way, Liam had quickly found it to be incredibly aggravating. She was straight up insulting every trainer and their pokemon that Liam was battling, and then he would take the fall for it by being String Shot-ed in the face.

He was pretty sure he could taste the difference in caterpie versus weedle silk now. His next benchmark–and wasn't that sad?–was seeing if he could taste a difference with evolved pokemon.

That was how his day was progressing.

When deciding to camp, they had found a small clearing just off the main path large enough for their purposes. Five minutes, they had been there for only five minutes, enough time for Liam to rest his sore feet and begin to enjoy the ambient sounds of the forest while he unpacked the tent when Misty did it. Again.

"Get it away! Liam! Get it AWAY!"

It was a caterpie, average size, average coloring. Completely average. Unbecoming and simply watching them with confusion as it ate a leaf about as big as it was. It was also sitting on a branch twenty feet above the clearing they had chosen.

He couldn't take this anymore.

"Enough!" Liam yelled, so loud that the caterpie was scared away and Misty shut her mouth. Liam leveled her with a glare. "For hours, hours, I have had to listen to you screeching your head off. And I can't take anymore."

Misty huffed, puffed her chest up and set her fists on her hips. Liam was too irritated to be the least bit intimidated. "Well I'm sorry," Misty began, leaning over and matching Liam's glare with her own. "I'm sorry that I'm scared of bugs, and we just so happen to be in the world's biggest hive! I've always been scared of bugs, and probably always will! It's called an irrational fear, and I'm sorry that I can't control it because it's irrational! I'm! Sorry!"

Liam scoffed. "Trying to take the high road by apologizing, I see. Well here's a news flash, Misty. Even if it's an irrational fear, you obviously still knew about it. So why didn't you tell me about it before we came in here? Huh? We could've gone a different route. Taken a ferry to Celadon, or Vermillion, or anywhere! But you agreed–that's right, you–that we should come through here for Pewter City. So unless you're sorry that you fucking lied to me, I don't give a shit."

The amount of venom that had built up into Liam's voice rivaled the rage that Misty had after Ash destroyed her bike. And now that this level of fury was directed at her, she found herself taken aback. Ever the stubborn one, however, Misty huffed, crossed her arms across her chest, and turned her back to him.

Liam let out an angry breath but didn't say anything more. He looked at the different parts of the tent, scattered around him. He was too irritated to deal with that right now. Duck pawed at his legs, a soft whine in his throat. Liam began to run his fingers through the crest of tan fur on the top of Duck's head, but decided to begin training–sprints to work with Duck's good speed–to take his mind off of this nonsense.

Time passed, the sky darkened, and eventually, Liam crawled into his sleeping bag, his messenger bag acting as a pillow and the tent still not set up. Neither Misty nor Liam had spoken to each other, and they probably wouldn't start until well into tomorrow.

Duck laid on Liam's stomach, relaxing as Liam watched the canopy so high above them be lost in the growing darkness. A cool, relaxing night wind was brushing through the forest, causing Liam's long hair to flutter around a little. Liam breathed in and enjoyed the ambiance. It was a far cry from Lumiose City, but it was… nice, in its own ways. It had been pleasant to be in a busy metropolis, even if Viridian City didn't come close to Lumiose's size, but Liam was finding that the quiet forest had its own perks too. He didn't enjoy sleeping on the ground, though.

It was in the moonlight peeking through the canopy that Liam saw it. Hopping from one high branch to another, a fiercely determined look on its face, was a caterpie. It looked to be normal in size, but Liam couldn't tell what its coloring was like in the darkness. Everytime a caterpie molted its green coloring would become a little deeper, a little darker. That would continue until the caterpie finally evolved, and so the darker a caterpie's color the closer it was to evolution.

That didn't really matter here, though. Not when this caterpie was jumping distances and moving with speed it had no right being able to do.

"Hey, buddy, wake up," Liam whispered, nudging Duck's sleeping body. Duck's ears perked up, and he sleepily blinked his eyes open and yawned. With heavy eyes he looked at Liam and Liam pointed at the caterpie. "Look at that! It's moving around like crazy. It's jumping so far-woah! Did you see that? That was like thirty feet! I think we should catch it, don't you?"

Duck woofed in quiet agreement. Duck quickly hopped off Liam, and stood at the ready, no sleepy look left in his eyes. Liam slid himself up so that he quickly slipped out of his sleeping bag, and then he was up and ready. He turned around to grab an empty pokeball from his bag but paused. He spotted Misty, with her bag zipped up all the way so that he couldn't even see her face. She wouldn't appreciate him catching a bug pokemon, not one bit.

But then Liam's anger from earlier came back. He snagged a ball from his bag, turned around, and prepared to order Duck to attack.

But he couldn't do it. His heart got the better of him.

Instead, Liam crouched down next to Duck. "We'll just let it go, okay bud?" Duck looked at him in confusion, his head cocked to the side. Liam nodded his head towards Misty. "She doesn't like bug pokemon, remember? We'll just catch something else here in the forest, alright?"

Duck's ears drooped, but he nodded in understanding. Liam returned to his sleeping bag, Duck curled up on top of him, and he tried to fight the disappointment in his chest.

---

The next morning Liam, Misty, and Duck were walking further into the Viridian Forest after a quick breakfast and morning routine. It had only been an hour, but already they had been challenged twice to a battle. It was amazing how many bug catchers challenged a person openly walking with a growlithe, but apparently, it was a point of pride in the forest for the catchers to defeat pokemon their own bugs were weak to. Liam could kinda get that, but both times Liam had offered the challenge to Misty as a sort of olive branch. She turned his offers down, though. Liam had won both battles easily–Duck wrecked house, bug pride or no pride–but Liam hadn't been able to focus on them.

He had expected Misty to be hanging onto her anger from yesterday, but instead, she had just been quiet. At first, Liam had thought it was the silent treatment, but the look on her face wasn't angry or upset. He wasn't quite sure what it was. Sullen? Close, but not quite. Thoughtful? Better, but still not right on the mark. Honestly, Liam was at a loss, and so he decided he'd just play nice.

Misty still cringed at the sight of the bug pokemon, and let out an initial screech upon their appearance, but there had been no continued screaming. Maybe she was trying to play nice by reigning herself in? Or maybe she was just starting to get used to the bugs. He hoped so, so hard that it was the latter. It normally took two weeks to pass through Viridian Forest, but if Misty stopped and screamed at every bug they came across it would take three times that.

As it was, no one had challenged Liam for the past twenty minutes and no bug pokemon had crossed their path in the last ten so for the moment they were moving at a normal pace.

"Hey, Liam?"

Liam looked back to see Misty had stopped walking and stood in the middle of the road. Liam stopped too and shot her a curious look.

"Yeah?"

"You… you know that, if you found a bug pokemon that you liked, you could catch it, right? I know that I don't like them, but that doesn't mean that you shouldn't try to catch the pokemon that interest you." Misty wasn't looking him in the eye, instead staring at her hands clenched together.

Liam paused and blinked at her in surprise. "You were awake last night?"

Misty nodded her head. "Yeah. I wasn't sure what you were talking about at first, but I could connect the dots when you told Duck why you weren't catching whatever pokemon it was that you saw. It was… it was sweet of you, and I felt bad for how I've been acting. I know I've been hard to deal with, but I–I just can't help it!"

Misty looked to be on the verge of tears, her shoulders starting to shake. Liam walked over and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "Nah, it's okay. It's like you said yesterday, irrational fears are irrational. So who needs a caterpie? It's not like their strong or very interesting. And they certainly don't have anything in the cute department. I mean really, if I caught a caterpie it would just be jealous of Duck, like, all the time. See?"

Misty laughed and opened her eyes to see Duck sitting at her feet, tail wagging and tongue sticking out the front of his mouth. Liam leaned down to look Misty in the eye. "So it's all okay, okay?"

Misty nodded her head, then brought her hands up to the rub the tears away. She stepped aside and turned so that her back was to Liam, then took a deep breath. A moment later she released it and turned back to him with a bright smile and only slightly red eyes. She shook her head. "No! It's not okay! I'm Misty! Future water pokemon master! And what kind of master would I be if I let some silly bugs scare me away!

"No! It's time I got over this and conquered my fears!" Misty raised her fist high into the sky, positively shining with newfound confidence.

And then she slouched over in embarrassment. "I just have no idea how to do that."

Liam snorted in amusement but shrugged his shoulders all the same. He didn't really know where to start either.

"Maybe you just need to meet the right bug pokemon!" Someone said, voice chipper and happy.

Liam, Misty, and Duck all looked around but saw no one nearby. Suddenly, an older girl, a few years past Liam, popped up from behind a bush still in her sleeping bag. A small tree, not dissimilar to the air fresheners used in cars, was attached to the zipper, which was far enough up that only the girl's face was visible from inside her bag.

"Sorry for eavesdropping," she said, chuckling. "I couldn't help but overhear your predicament since I was, y'know, laying here."

Liam looked down at Duck with a frown. "How did you not smell her there?"

Duck whined in confusion, but the girl hopped around the bush and into the path, answering all the while. "Oh, that was this tree thing! On my zipper? It covers my scent so that wild pokemon don't notice me as easily!"

"Huh," Misty said, "I didn't know they made things like that."

"They're super useful! Anyways," the girl continued, reaching out of her sleeping bag and undoing the zipper. She stuck her head out, revealing frizzy, unkempt hair kept back in a large messy bun. "About your bug problem. You may just need to meet the right bug! Do you have any specific problems with them?"

Misty shivered as she thought about that question. "Everything! I have problems with everything! They're so creepy! The way they cling to things? Uggh!" A more violent shiver racked through Misty's body.

"Okay then," the girl said, fully stepping out from her bag now.

Liam took a moment to notice that her clothes were well worn and wrinkled, the mark of an experienced trainer. Her t-shirt, showing a stylized design of a slurpuff that Liam recognized as having been popular in Lumiose a few years ago, was too big for her and beginning to wear. Blue jean shorts, rolled up her thigh a bit, were faded and torn in places. Her sneakers, a simple black and white, looked well broken in but not as much as the rest of her clothes. They had been replaced not too long ago.

The girl continued to speak during Liam's inspection. "So I'm thinking you should meet some bug pokemon that are cute or pretty and stuff like that! That'll be a good step. Probably."

Then the girl put on a pair of glasses, so large that they took up half her face, and Liam immediately recognized her. She looked up at them and, probably because she couldn't actually see them that well without her glasses, recognized them too.

"Oh hey!" She exclaimed, "You're that bike girl from the Pokemon Center!"

Misty immediately blushed a deep red and looked away. "Please don't remind me of that."

The girl laughed. "Oh? Sure, if that's what you want. Anyways, my name's Penny! Nice to meet you!"

"It's nice to meet you too. I'm Liam, and this is Misty. And this is my buddy Duck." Liam reached down and scratched behind Duck's ears, causing him to bark with happiness and lean into Liam's touch.

"Aw! Aren't you a cutie? You were right Liam, a caterpie has nothing on this little guy!" Penny reached down to pet Duck as well, but as soon as she got close he reached up and licked her hand. Penny laughed even more.

"Anyway," Penny said once she stopped laughing, "I think I have a bug pokemon that can help! Do you mind if I bring him out?"

"Um, sure, if you think so," Misty said, though she took a wary step closer to Liam.

"Right! Say hello to my boy Beautifly!" Penny tossed a pokeball up into the air, and immediately Liam perked up. That would be a great first bug for Misty!

The ball opened, releasing Penny's beautifly from within, but when it became fully revealed Liam had to blink twice to make sure of what he was actually seeing. It resembled a Beautifly, in certain regards, but it was very different, too.

Beautifly's wings, while normally a mixture of black, yellow, red, and blue, were a single, luminescent green. They were slightly larger: the upper set, which was normally a round curve, extended up a bit to have two rounded points; the lower set of wings were even more different, with the long, extended appendage that normal beautifly had there having been enlarged and lengthened so that they curled down far below Beautifly's main body. Put simply, Beautifly's wings were as beautiful as could be, and Liam would bet all the money he had that they were almost magical in the moonlight.

The only other difference was a ring of white fur or hair running around where Beautifly's head met his main body. The fur, almost like a collar, added an air of elegance to Beautifly that hadn't been remiss in the regular species but still added to his current appeal.

"Wow!" Misty said, nearly breathing it out. "He's amazing…"

Her eyes were wide with awe, not that Liam's weren't too. Liam took out his phone and scanned him with the pokedex app.

Beautifly, Rivo form. The Butterfly Pokemon. A bug and fairy type. The fur along Beautifly's neck grows longer and shorter depending on the temperature of the environment it lives in. People traveling at night sometimes mistake Beautifly's wings as those from mythical creatures of legend.

Tentatively Misty held up a hand, but paused and looked Beautifly in the eye. "It is alright if I touch your wing?" She asked, almost with the shyness of a little girl. Beautifly nodded and fluttered over to land on her hand. Misty didn't flinch or shy away and instead raised her other hand to carefully brush the wing.

Liam turned to Penny with a curious look. "This is a regional variant, right?"

Penny nodded. "Mmhm! From the Rivo Region! I'm from there too, but I'm just a normal Rivonian! No regional variations in me!"

"Rivo again, huh? You know, Giovanni at the Viridian Gym just got a Rivo onix."

"Oh yeah! I delivered it to him. Apparently, he requested one from the League here for some reason or another, and since I knew where to catch the really good ones I was asked to find one and bring it up here for him!"

Liam looked at her in surprise. "You came all the way to Kanto just to deliver a pokemon?"

Penny dismissively waved her hand in the air. "It's fine. I was thinking about visiting and this was the perfect chance to fly over for free!"

Liam chuckled. "Yeah, I can understand that."

"Penny," Misty began, still smiling at Beautifly, which had now taken to fluttering around in the air, "if he's a regional variant, then he must have a typing that's different from normal, right?"

Penny nodded happily. "Oh yeah, definitely. Most beautifly are bug and flying types, but down in Rivo they're bug and fairy!"

"With wings like those?" Liam joked, "I feel like I should be looking for fairy dust or something."

Misty and Penny laughed, but then Penny held out her arm and Beautifly landed with an easy grace. "You're not completely wrong about that, actually. Rivo beautifly are light enough that you can easily hold them up on your hand thanks to a special powder that they store in their wings. Regular beautifly, on the other hand, weigh sixty some pounds! "

"I think my hand would fall off I tried to do that…" Misty joked.

"I never knew there could be so many differences between pokemon just because of what part of the world they're from," Liam said, glancing down at Duck with consideration.

"Yep! Well, enough of that! How do you feel, Misty?"

"Good! I think you were right, Penny! As long as it's a bug that's cute or pretty I don't think I'll have a problem!" Misty seemed a little proud of herself, and Liam smiled. Hopefully, they could get her to, at the very least, tolerate the other not-so-pretty bugs by the time they left the forest. That was all he needed, tolerance. Or quiet dislike. He could work with quiet dislike.

"So now," Penny said, crossing her arms and looking out into the forest around her, "we just need to figure out which bugs around here are the kind that you're okay with, and work from there."

Liam brought his phone out. Opening up a map of the Kanto region, he tapped on the Viridian Forest. The data shown revealed what pokemon were typically found in the area, as well as rare ones spotted recently.

"Let's see," Liam began as he read down the list, scrolling with his thumb. "For bug pokemon, we have caterpie-"

"Nope!" Misty interjected.

"Metapod-" Liam continued on, unperturbed.

"Definitely not!"

"Butterfree, weedle, kakuna-"

Liam stopped himself this time and glanced over to see Misty with a look of consideration. "Misty?"

"Butterfree could be good. We haven't seen one yet, so I'm not sure, but it's worth a try."

"Great!" Penny exclaimed. "You have your next target! Good luck and good fun! If you have need of me, just holler! Don't know if I'll hear you, but might as well try, am I right?"

Liam and Misty looked at Penny with surprise as she collected her fallen sleeping bag, Beautifly fluttering above her.

"You aren't coming along?" Misty asked.

"Sorry, I'd like to, but I've got an adventure of my own to continue! I'm on the cusp of a major breakthrough!"

"Really?" Liam asked, "What kind?"

Penny suddenly adopted a paranoid pose, swiftly looking left and right, back and around, before motioning Liam and Misty close. Curious, they did, and Penny whispered into their ears.

"I'm looking for the Misty Woods, and I think Beautifly is my way to finding it!"

"The Misty Woods?" Liam asked at normal volume.

"Ssh! Not so loud! I don't want someone overhearing!"

"Whose listening? There's no one here."

Penny leveled him a flat look. "Just like there was no one here when you and Misty were talking earlier?"

"Fair point. Continue."

Penny sniffed and glanced at Liam before looking them both in the eye. "The Misty Woods is a legendary place here in the Viridian Forest, said to be home to all sorts of rare pokemon. Most think they're stronger, more powerful versions of the pokemon that already live here, but I have a different idea. I think a bunch of fairy pokemon live there."

"Why's that?" It was Misty who asked this time.

"It's just a hunch, but all sorts of other famous explorers and trainers have tried to find the place using bug and grass pokemon, but no one's thought to try a fairy type before! And, if I'm wrong and the other's are right, then it's okay since Beautifly is a bug pokemon too! And, if neither of those are right, I've even got a grass pokemon for backup!"

"There's a logic there that I can argue with," Liam said, though he was smiling anyways. "Mind if we join you on this mystery adventure?"

Penny looked them both square in the eye for a moment, but slowly she nodded her head. "Ok, you can come."

Misty and Liam stood up straight after that, matching grins on their faces. "Alrighty then," Liam said, looking to Penny, "where to first?"

---

As it turned out, Penny had no idea where to go. That was part of the problem. Part of the Misty Woods being that of legend meant that no one knew where it was. Liam had joked that, obviously, their friend Misty would know where to go, but that had only earned him pained groans and a playful slap to the shoulder.

With no other real ideas, Penny had decided to have Beautifly out as they walked in hopes of him detecting something. Thankfully, the main path of the Viridian Forest was one long, winding path that took travelers all about. That was why it took so long to pass through. A straight shot through the forest would take, maybe, four days, but any one who did that ran the risk of coming across a major hive or colony. There were a number of them scattered around the forest, and the main path was made so that trainers were able to avoid the hives at a safe distance. No sane person, even the powerful veterans, wanted to take on a thousand beedrill at once.

Occasionally a stronger pokemon would come close, but most of the pokemon living near the path were the weak ones that most people didn't have an interest in, or were born near it and had no problem with the humans passing through. Thus, trainers spent two weeks dealing with caterpie and weedle that weren't really useful.

That was a bit how it went for their group for the next three days, fending off bugs that none of them had an interest in. Sometimes Beautifly would speak with them, asking if it was okay for Misty to try petting them. Shockingly, it had been Misty's idea. If she knew that the bug pokemon wouldn't attack her, then maybe she would get over her fear a little.

It hadn't ended well.

After the first day, which had consisted of a few tries on Misty's part, Liam and Penny decided to try switching it up. Whenever they found a bug that was open to being touched by Misty Beautifly would be the one to bring Misty's hand the last few inches. That way Misty could get used to the feeling of a bug touching her before actually initiating contact with one she had a problem with.

That had gone over well, and so they tried a few times their second morning together to continued success. In the afternoon Misty decided to try on her own again. She had lasted about five seconds longer before throwing in the towel. It was progress. Miniscule progress, but progress nonetheless.

They decided to do the same on their third day of travel, in hopes that she could become comfortable enough that Misty could, at the very least, contain her reactions. A second or two longer, which seemed like good progress written down, but made no real difference.

Thankfully there were a lot of trainer battles to break up their experimentation. Liam took just about all of the offers for battle; Penny had said that Beautifly was too strong and that battling the weak pokemon would be like kicking a newborn eevee, while Misty had just said that Stella wouldn't get much out of them. That left Liam and Duck to face off in another round against bug pride.

A vast majority of the trainers he battled were bug catchers, and that meant Duck got a lot of easy battle experience, though occasionally they came across other trainers searching for other species of pokemon that lived in the forest. Pikachu were known to be found here, as were oddish, bellsprout, and male and female nidoran–all of them were rare for this part of Kanto. There had even been rumors of bulbasaur living in the forest, though not many believed them. The people who did were generally collectors looking for rare pokemon.

The collectors had been the most interesting battles since they typically had rare pokemon. One woman even had an exeggcute, a grass and psychic type with that was essentially a group of eggs sharing a hive mind. That match had been interesting since the psychic powers were difficult and the pokemon was a little stronger than Duck was, but Duck and Liam had trained against Misty's Stella and had some experience in fighting out of a psychic grip. It had taken a Flare Blitz, still as impaired as in the Viridian Pokemon Center, to defeat the exeggcute.

All of the collectors had expressed interest in Duck. Growlithe were only uncommon, but it's evolved form arcanine was a hot pokemon always around the top of Kanto's pokemon popularity polls, and since Duck had useful egg moves–moves that he had been born with that weren't commonly known by newborns–Liam had received more than one offer for a trade. He had turned them down immediately.

As it was, he was battling his fourth collector here in the forest when their group got a bit sidetracked.

---

Duck was ready for battle, stance low, growling at the opposing pokemon. It was a geodude, orange in color and clearly one of the extremely rare examples of what most people called a shiny. Beyond the bright coloring of its stone skin, the geodude was average in size, if a little bulky in the forearms. It was obvious why the collector had it, even if the geodude's different coloring was all that it had going for itself physically.

Nevertheless, Liam scanned it, secretly taking a picture of it for posterity since experiencing shiny pokemon, whether wild or caught, was incredibly rare, then nodded to the collector that he was ready to battle.

"Geodude," The collector, a portly young man with blond hair, called, adjusting his round glasses with a confident smirk, "use tackle."

Geodude rushed for Duck, aiming straight for his face.

"Jump and use Crunch!"

Duck did as ordered, making a short leap over Geodude's head just before it would have hit him. Duck landed with ease and spun around to latch his jaws on Geodude's flank before it could turn around. With a cunning glint in his eyes, Duck wrenched his head about, something that normally would have done more damage to pokemon that weren't made of stone, before tossing geodude to the side.

It landed with a thump and a pained groan, but picked itself up and began to turn to inspect the damage. A series of holes where Duck's teeth punctured were scattered on its backside, cracks webbing out from them. Geodude wasn't able to see them, its face was on the front of its body after all, but it could feel them with its large hands. As it gingerly prodded one of the wounds, it directed a glare at Duck, then roared.

It jumped up and down on the ground, raring to attack but waiting for a command from its trainer.

The collector chuckled. "I see, that's a strong attack you have there. What will you do when we use a strong one of our own? Rock Throw, Geodude! Quickly!"

Geodude cried with anger then plunged its fists into the ground. A moment later it tore them out, clumps of dirt and grass flying and two large stones in its hands. It threw one, and the stone flew through the air.

"Dodge it!" Liam ordered, and Duck jumped to the side and out of the way.

But then Geodude was there, having rushed in behind the rock. Close enough to have just punched Duck, Geodude threw it's second rock and struck him in the belly.

Duck cried out and hit the ground before sliding with his momentum.

"Are you okay?" Liam called. That had been a super effective move, and at that close a range it no doubt had done even more damage.

Duck carefully got back on his feet and leveled his own hard look at Geodude, who was smug with the success of his surprise attack.

"Ok," Liam said, trying to gauge how much more damage Duck could take. A few Tackles would be nothing, but another rock throw and they'd be in trouble. "Use Heat Wave!"

Duck barked and released his attack. The number of times that they had used it over the past few days had helped to develop Heat Wave into an actual attack. It was still underpowered for the level Duck was at, but Liam figured special attacks would never be his specialty. Physical moves would be easier, especially since Duck could put a little more oomph into those attacks with his good speed.

The orange waves of breath streaked towards Geodude, and though its trainer commanded it to dodge it wasn't fast enough to move before the heat hit it. Geodude was resistant to fire, and so it made to fight against the force of the attack. With each hand, he dug into the ground and began to crawl closer.

But the waves kept blasting it, and geodude weren't known for their strong special defenses. With one last, valiant effort it tried to get a little closer, his hand up to make another hold in the ground before geodude had taken too much damage. With a low groan geodude collapsed.

The collector frowned but returned geodude to its pokeball.

"Fine," he said as he walked over to Liam, reaching into his pocket and taking out a little bit of money. He handed over Liam's earnings and sharply turned away.

Liam pocketed the money and walked over to Duck, who was weakly coming closer. As he kneeled down to inspect the damage, the collector spoke again, and Liam turned his head to see the man glaring at him over his glasses.

"You better not be here for the bulbasaur!" He said, his arms crossed over his chest. "I saw it first! That means it's mine!" Before Liam could make the snappy retort of where he could shove his geodude the collector left.

Liam glared after him, but then looked down at Duck with a proud smile. "You were great, bud. Let's heal you up, hmm?"

Duck woofed, and though he was hurt there was pride shining in his eyes. Liam patted his head, then brought his bag around and began to root through it. Despite the large number of battles he had been in the past few days, Duck hadn't been taking an overly large amount of damage. Really, this was probably the first time he had needed more than a good rest.

Liam took out a potion and began to spray it around on Duck's side where the geodude had nailed him, as Misty and Penny walked over. They had been watching from the sidelines, Beautifly currently resting in his ball after a hard fight against a particularly strong Beedrill that had wandered too close to their camp. Beautifly had fought it back, showing that a weakness to poison didn't mean much to him, but had taken a few hard hits in return and was currently resting.

They had decided to take this day to take a break from traveling and just train, but then the collector had appeared. Training would have to wait since Duck had taken that Rock Throw, but he and Liam could get some work done later in the day, energized by a good victory.

Penny and Misty had happy smiles on their faces as they walked over.

"You did a good job, guys!" Misty complimented. "Taking out a pokemon you're weak to is a sign you're doing things right!"

"And the way Duck just blasted that geodude after taking the Rock Throw like he did? That means his Heat Wave attack is really starting to come along!" Penny said, adding on to the success.

Liam smiled at them both. "Thanks, guys." He looked down to Duck, setting the potion aside and patting his head again. "Why don't you take a rest and let that medicine sink in?"

Duck reached up and licked Liam's face, causing him to laugh, before he was returned to his ball. Liam shook the potion and felt what was left inside swish around. Another few uses and it would be out. Thankfully he had more than one potion, but the further into the forest they went the stronger the pokemon would become, and Liam didn't want to run out too soon.

Nevertheless, he stored the potion away into his bag and stood up.

"So, onwards?"

"Actually," Penny said, looking around them in consideration. "I'd like to look for the bulbasaur that guy mentioned. I've seen a few on TV, and would really like to catch one!"

Liam was a little surprised since Penny had been so focused on the Misty Woods, but it wasn't like that was going anywhere, or that they had much else happening today, so he shrugged. "Fine with me. I wouldn't mind catching a bulbasaur either, really. Would be great to use against the Pewter Gym."

"They are pretty rare," Misty added. "I don't know if I'd want one or not, but if I had the chance to catch one I'd take it."

"So it's decided!" Penny said, her voice high with excitement. "We'll look for it too! And I have just the girl to help!"

Penny threw a pokeball up into the air, and it flashed open, the light gathering together on the ground in front of them. A tall, imposing sceptile stood there, arms crossed and glaring down at them. It was about six feet tall, it's spiny tail was nearly as large as it was, with a vibrant, well cared for green color.

"Say hello to Lyla!" Penny said, a bright smile on her face as she hugged Lyla.

Lyla only harrumphed, apparently not happy with Penny's hug but used to receiving them.

"I love you too, you big grumpy pants!" Penny exclaimed.

Liam snorted with laughter and leaned over to whisper to Misty. "Whatever that sceptile said, it wasn't I love you."

Misty snorted too and nodded her head. Then she stepped forward and looked up into Lyla's eyes. Lyla glared down, and the smile on Misty's face faltered a bit, but she continued on. "It's nice to meet you, Lyla."

A small growling noise echoed from Lyla's throat in greeting. She looked over to Liam, and he nodded to her. That seemed to be more her speed, as she nodded back. Liam brought his phone and scanned her with his pokedex, then began to read through her entry as Penny continued speaking.

"I got Lyla years ago in a trade back when she was a grovyle. She was so energetic then, her trainer couldn't keep up!"

Liam peered at Lyla, and was pretty sure energetic wasn't the word her former trainer would have used. Nevertheless, Lyla was calm and here now.

"So you think she can help us find the bulbasaur?" Liam asked Penny.

She nodded her head. "Oh yeah! Lyla here can find all the best spots that the grass pokemon in the area like to hang around."

"That's great!" Misty exclaimed, excitement beginning to glimmer in her eyes. "You're going to make this so easy, Lyla! Penny! Thanks!"

Penny nodded in pride, though Lyla merely let out a scoffing kind of sound that made it clear to Liam that she was going to help, but she wasn't going to like it.

"And since it's my Lyla that's doing the work," Penny said, "then it's only fair I get the first shot at the bulbasaur when we find it!"

"I can agree to that," Liam said. Misty nodded too.

"Great!" Penny raised a fist into the air. "Then we're off to find ourselves a bulbasaur!" She immediately broke out into a roaring laugh, Lyla unwillingly following along.

Liam grinned and glanced at Misty. "How much do you want to bet that the collector guy overheard her?"

Misty chuckled. "Oh, he most definitely did."

They followed after Penny, grinning.

---

With Lyla as a guide, they made their way through Viridian Forest for a number of hours. A number of bug type pokemon had appeared but were quickly scared off by Lyla's intimidating, to them, presence. Which, thankfully, meant that they didn't get close enough to set Misty off.

It was actually really interesting how Lyla seemed to know where the best places for grass pokemon to congregate were just because she herself was one as well, despite never having been in the forest before. Lyla climbed the trees, or kept low to the ground, inspecting leaves and dirt and the growth of the plants. Whatever she saw there, it was enough to point her in a specific direction.

At one point Lyla had led them to an opening in the tree line, and when they passed through what appeared before them was a stretching piece of land, with no trees to block the sun, that was absolutely covered in flowers of all colors.

Neither Liam nor Misty had ever heard of such a place inside Viridian Forest, but here it was. Oddish and bellsprout relaxed about, as well as the occasional gloom and weepinbell. There were even a few paras, playing within the shadows of the tree line, and one incredibly large parasect that sat on the edge of the little meadow and looked over the peaceful scene.

There had been no bulbasaur, however, and so after taking a picture with his pokedex–to show to Professor Oak later–and placing the photo as a geomarker on his map so he could return one day, they left.

Next Lyla had led them to a small copse of trees, tall and skinny, with white bark and golden leaves that all three of them were sure shouldn't be found in the Viridian Forest. A few nesting tangela rested in the trees, their small children running around and playing with one another. Liam snapped another photo, marked the location, and then they left again. Still, there had been no bulbasaur.

Lyla led them to a few more locations, none as beautiful as the last two, that held only oddish and bellsprout. Eventually though, Misty had an idea.

"Hey, guys," she said out of the blue, pausing in thought, as they followed Lyla to wherever it was she was taking them again. Liam graciously greeted the break and took a moment to stretch his aching legs. Climbing all over the forest was going to give him amazing calves if anything. "I just had a thought."

"Yeah?" Liam asked, turning to face her as he began to stretch his arms around.

"We've checked the spots that the other grass pokemon like, but what if bulbasaur doesn't like those other pokemon?"

Penny frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Well," Misty began, "I was just thinking that, while some of these places have been amazing and quaint and all that, they didn't seem like places that Lyla would go to since they were all occupied by other pokemon. And then I realized, what if this bulbasaur we're looking for is the same?"

Liam's eyes widened with realization. "You're saying that we should be looking for somewhere to relax all alone."

Misty nodded, enthusiasm beginning to build. "Exactly!"

Her enthusiasm began to rub off onto Penny and Liam. "That's a great idea, Misty!" Penny exclaimed before turning to Lyla. "Okay, girl. Try to find us a place you would go if you wanted to be alone!"

Lyla nodded, a sparkle of interest in her eyes.

Then they were off. With new energy in their steps, Lyla steered them through the forest, across the main path, and even through the clearing Liam had his battle with the collector. They had been running as best they could through the forest when Lyla stopped all of a sudden in front of them. Thankfully, she had been running ahead of them, and so the Liam, Misty, and Penny sagged in relief behind her, thankful that they could finally stop running.

When he had caught his breath Liam looked past Lyla and he almost cheered.

Sitting at the end of a fallen, hollowed out tree trunk, sat a bulbasaur. The tree had fallen over a small cropping of rock, and through it, Liam could see clear up and out the other side. A small, bubbling stream flowed down past the tree trunk, falling over the face of the rock as a miniature waterfall before continuing on, making just enough noise so as to cover their arrival. The bulbasaur was lying there, eyes closed, relaxing in the cool air of the forest.

Liam immediately took out his camera, absently noting how nice the lighting was, and had just snapped his photo when someone shouted out. Immediately the bulbasaur was on its feet and growling. Immediately the four of them rushed forward and towards the fallen tree, but paused when the collector appeared not far away. Bulbasaur watched all of them through narrowed eyes, stance low and ready to flee or fight, depending on what happened.

"How dare you!" The collector yelled, two pokeballs in hand. "I told you that this bulbasaur was mine!"

"It's anyone's game until it gets caught!" Penny yelled back, Lyla leaping forward and ready for battle.

The collector sniffed haughtily. "Fine, if that's how it's going to be. Go, Golem!" He tossed both of the pokeballs he was holding and appearing before them was twin golem. Their spherical, stone boulder bodies, sporting reptilian arms and legs, stood near five feet tall.

Bulbasaur backed up into the tree trunk with a hiss at their appearance, and two vines slowly came out from the base of its bulb. It whipped those vines around, as if testing them, and kept them out as it watched Lyla and the two golem.

"Golem! Use Rock Blast!" The collector yelled.

Both golem opened their reptilian mouths, and glowing white balls of energy began to form there. A moment later they fired. The brilliant white orbs were launched through the air, streaking towards Lyla.

Penny didn't even give a command, but then the leaves at the base of Lyla's wrists glowed green, extending out and sharpening. The two leaves on each wrist formed into one and with flicks of her arms, Lyla easily cut through the enemy attack. The two halves of each blast veered off, snapping through tree branches and creating craters in the ground.

Liam and Misty immediately crouched down and covered their heads, but Penny stood tall and ready behind Lyla.

Liam had just looked up, peeking under his arm, and saw that bulbasaur had decided to flee instead of fight. It ran up through the tree trunk and was heading further into the forest.

"It's running away!" He cried out, and immediately everyone looked over to see bulbasaur's tailend disappear behind a tree.

"After it!" Penny immediately yelled, and Lyla jumped in pursuit.

"No!" The collector screeched. "Golem! After the bulbasaur!"

Both golem roared, then curled into a ball and began to spin at faster and faster speeds. Then they took off, barreling through the forest and mindless of the trees in their way, in the direction Lyla and Penny had gone.

"We should go too!" Liam said, looking at Misty. She nodded her head, and then they were chasing after the Penny too.

They were running and jumping and weaving around trees and branches and roots. All they could do was follow the destruction left behind by the golem. Snapped branches and destroyed tree roots were left in their wake, the rumbling of their rolling bodies echoing off the trees lining their path.

"I don't see anyone!" Misty yelled as they ran, "Do you?"

"No! But I think that guy's golem probably know where to go! We need to stop them before they bring down the whole forest!"

"Do you know how fast a golem moves when it starts rolling like that? We'll never catch up!"

"Well, we have to do somethi- Ahh!"

Liam tripped, his foot getting caught on a broken tree root curling up through the path the golem had wrecked. Liam took a hard tumble down and landed roughly on his shoulder, bouncing with the force and hitting his back on another tree root.

Liam groaned with pain and tried to get his arm underneath to prop himself up. That had hurt, but at least he hadn't broken anything. Hopefully…

"Are you okay?" Misty hurried over and helped him stand up, checking him all over for injuries.

Liam's shoulder and back throbbed, and when he tried to move his arm he winced with pain, but his muscles didn't twitch and he still had his full range of motion. "For the most part," he ground out. "That's going to bruise, though."

"We'll need to ice it."

"Not now," Liam said, looking out to where the golem's trail continued on. "We need to get moving before those golem hurt something."

Liam took a few steps forward but stopped when Misty placed a hand on his good shoulder and pointed. "It's a little late for that."

Liam looked over, and his eyes went wide with shock as he saw a green pokemon egg, fractured and heavily damaged with broken markings, lay by a fallen tree, the destroyed ruins of its nest around it. Worry immediately took him over.

Liam rushed over to it and began processing everything his mother had told him about pokemon eggs and what to do in a situation where one was broken.

"Is there anything we can do?" Misty asked as Liam kneeled down next to the egg.

"I'm… not sure. It depends on how close the egg was to hatching," Liam answered as Misty kneeled next to him.

"And the only way we can know that is by opening it up."

Liam bit his lower lip and glanced all over the egg, but nodded. It had taken so much damage… Fractured, cracks webbed all around it. Too strong of wind and the egg looked like it would shatter, inherent sturdiness or not. Honestly, it was amazing the egg had stayed together so much, but shards of shell lying on the ground next to it meant that the insides had already been exposed. Amniotic fluid was leaking out onto the ground.

"Is… is it okay to do that?" Misty asked. "Open it?"

"We won't be making anything worse."

Liam took the egg in his hands, gingerly sliding it around until the openings on the backside were facing up. A few were about the size of his thumb nail, but one was as long as his finger and as wide as two. Carefully, Liam hooked his fingers under the shell through those exposed openings and pried pieces away. Soon enough the inside, lined white and slick with the remains of the amniotic fluid, was bared open to the world.

Laying there, only a fourth of an inch big, was the tiniest living thing Liam had ever seen; a tiny spinarak. Its green body and yellow legs were all there, as well as the typical markings on its abdomen. Even its horn. Spinarak was practically a speck against the white coloring of the shell's inside.

Liam took a breath, breathing out through his nose. At first, Misty couldn't see anything, but then Liam pointed to the small green dot and Misty gasped, her hand covering her mouth and tears beginning to form in her eyes. She looked away and sniffled. Liam could only stare at the little spider, a deep sadness welling up inside him.

Then he blinked, and he thought…

"It's breathing!" Liam said, so quietly that he almost hadn't heard it himself.

"W-what?" Misty looked over to him, the tears in her eyes threatening to spill.

"It's breathing!" Liam looked at her with wide eyes, then back down to the spinarak. It was so small it was hard to tell, but Liam was sure of it, so so sure of it, that, slowly, spinarak's abdomen was expanding in and out. "It's alive!"

"Oh my-" Misty gripped Liam's arm as if daring him to say this was all a joke. She looked down at the spinarak and- "I-I can't tell, Liam. But I'll trust you."

Liam jerked his head to look at Misty, but in her eyes, he saw a sadness that told him she was sure spinarak was gone. Liam stared at her, hard, for a long moment, then turned back to the egg and nodded. Face set in determination, he began inspecting everything as best he could, watching with the strongest amount of attention Liam had ever given anything. If spinarak was alive, then that meant it could, possibly, be treated with regular medicine

Liam had an idea.

"Misty, grab a potion from my bag. And a- and a full heal, I think."

Misty nodded. She scooted around to his side and began rummaging through it. "Okay. Here." Misty leaned over and handed him a potion.

"Okay," Liam began, talking mostly to himself to help him process what to do. "Too much medicine can be poisonous so we need to be careful about applying too much."

"But spinarak are part poison type. Would it matter?" Misty asked as she watched over Liam's shoulder.

Liam paused, but then he realized he couldn't risk second guessing himself. "I'm not sure, but better safe than sorry."

Liam unscrewed the atomizer of the potion bottle. Light amber liquid, the potion, dripped from the clear rubber straw connected to it. Carefully, Liam moved the atomizer until the tip of the straw hovered just above the tiny spinarak. He watched with sharp eyes as a single drop of potion, as little as Liam could will fell and splashed onto spinarak. Quickly Liam screwed the atomizer back on and handed the potion to Misty. She took it from his hand and replaced it with a full heal. Liam repeated the motions and was careful that only a small drop of the full heal's medicine, this time a clear liquid, fell onto spinarak.

Liam passed the full heal back to Misty and leaned in close. Traces of the two medicines were quickly disappearing as spinarak absorbed them topically. He felt Misty lean on top of him, and together they watched with bated breath.

This close Liam was sure he saw the shallow intakes of breath. A few moments passed, and nothing changed, but slowly he thought that breathing motion grew ever so slightly larger, ever so faster. Part of Liam wished that he could make out the eyes better, and know if it was awake and too weak to move, but he couldn't so he'd have to do something else. Liam nodded his head and began to lean back. Misty, who was on top of him, was forced to do the same.

"Ok. I think it's breathing improved. I don't know what else to do until we get it checked, but…" Liam grabbed his bag and slid it over. From the inside, he removed a pokeball.

Misty's eyebrows shot up and her eyes went wide. "I get it! If the pokeball accepts spinarak, then we'll know it it's alive!"

Liam grimaced. "That's what I'm hoping for, but I don't know enough to say if that's true or not. And since spinarak didn't get to grow completely I don't know if the pokeball might disturb something in its body or not.

"But if I don't catch it then it'll definitely die out here, so..."

Misty didn't say anything, but after a moment nodded. Liam turned back to spinarak and, as gently as he could, pressed the button of his pokeball against it. Spinarak's tiny form dispersed into a white light that was taken in by the waiting pokeball. As soon as the light was completely in the ball snapped shut, and almost immediately afterward, in the fastest capture in probably the history of pokemon captures, the pokeball locked with a successful ding. No quiver, no flashing red light.

Liam stared down at the ball in his hand, then took out his phone and checked the pokedex app. It would have a record of spinarak's information stored inside now that he had caught it.

Spinarak, the String Spit pokemon. Spinarak can climb any surface easily, and shoot a strong web from both the front and back of its body. Its prey is caught and held tight in its web.

This Spinarak is: [error]. Known Moves: [error]. Ability: [error].

[ALERT] This spinarak is [0.22] inches and weighs [0.206] pounds. Immediate medical attention required.

Liam let out a long breath. "Well, if that doesn't mean it's alive then I don't know what does." Liam turned to Misty and began to stand up. "We need to find Penny, and then try to find someone that can help us."

"Right."

Liam pocketed spinarak's ball, then they moved as quickly as they dared through the fallen bramble of trees and branches. The trail went on for some ways but came to a sudden halt at what looked like an impromptu battlefield. Deep gouges in the earth, upended boulders, smashed trees, and the remains of sliced rock; markers of rock pokemon having done battle here. There were no sounds of battle, though, and no injured pokemon to be found.

"The must have moved off somewhere else," Misty said, walking out into the field.

"I can't tell which direction. Can you?"

Misty shook her head, and Liam groaned in annoyance before kicking a small rock away.

"We'll have to head onto the path, and hope we run into someone who can help. Otherwise, we'll just have to rush back to Viridian for spinarak."

Misty sighed. "I guess, yeah."

With one last look at their surroundings, Misty and Liam took off in the direction they remembered the path to be. It took them a while since they had run so far just since encountering bulbasaur, not to mention in search of it. Eventually, they broke onto the path, more clearly lit by the daylight thanks to the break in the trees.

Liam looked left and right, not quite remembering which direction was to Viridian, and looked to Misty for help. She looked just as lost as he was, and could only bring her arms up in a shrug.

Liam took off his hat and scratched at his head furiously, spinarak's pokeball heavy in his pocket. Where to go? They didn't have time! Spinarak needed to be at a Center now! Glancing down both directions, Liam threw caution out the window and began to just run in a random direction.

Misty called his name but followed.

Liam was at almost full sprint, banking around one curve in the path after another. He barely had time to think before he ran smack into another person, sending them both crashing to the ground.

"Liam! Are you okay?" Misty was at his side a moment later. Liam groaned but nodded his head. His shoulder hadn't needed that, but he would be fine.

He looked over to the person he had run into and was slightly surprised by what he saw. The man was wearing a brown poncho over a black leather jacket, the top of a red bandana poking up from underneath. Medium length blonde hair fell to the nape of his neck, a few locks hanging over a triangular eyepatch where the man's left eye would have been. A long scar ran from his forehead, under the patch, and ended a little bit below his cheekbone. A wide brimmed hat, similar to a cowboy's, had fallen to the ground next to a long, thin, military green duffle bag.

Both Liam and the man began to pick themselves up.

"Sorry," Liam said, dusting himself off, "I need to get back to the Pokemon Center in Viridian as soon as I can."

"It's alright," the man said, leaning over to pick up his hat and bag.

"If it's an emergency," the man began as he placed his hat back on his head, "there is a forest ranger station not far from here. They will have a way of arranging quick transport out of the forest."

Liam beamed at the news, trading a happy look with Misty. "Could you take us there?"

The man nodded his head and turned to move the way behind him, when all of a sudden, from the forest, burst bulbasaur.

Loose leaves scattered behind it, bulbasaur had leaped from the tree line and high up into the air, a hurried look on its face. Just at it flew over the path, however, a pokeball whizzed out from the trees and smacked the back of bulbasaur's bulb.

Bulbasaur was sucked inside with a disappointed cry, and then the ball fell to the ground and tumbled around. Liam and Misty looked at it, flabbergasted, and watched as it shook back and forth once, twice, three times, then pinged and locked itself.

Liam blinked in surprise and took a step forward, but then Penny crashed out of the forest, Lyla not far behind her.

"Did I get it?" She asked excitedly. She snatched the ball up. "Did I? Did I?"

She sent Misty and Liam and excited, questioning look. They both nodded, and she began to cheer and jump around. Liam didn't know what to say. Congratulations? What the fuck? Both seemed entirely appropriate.

Before he had the chance to say anything, however, the collector ran out from the trees as well. It took him a moment to take in the scene, and then he was scowling at Penny. "No! That bulbasaur was mine! I saw it first!" Then the collector looked over and saw the man Liam had bumped into standing there, frowning at everything happening before him.

Liam hadn't expected the collector's face to brighten the way it did. "Mr. O'Connell! What a surprise! Listen, I have a job for you." He leveled a finger at Penny. "I want that bulbasaur she just caught. Get it for me, and I'll pay you your usual fare."

Immediately Liam, Misty, and Penny's spines straightened. What? Usual fare? Was he a pokemon thief? Liam looked at the man suspiciously. He certainly seemed rough around the edges, though the well-worn look he sported was the same for most trainers who had been on the road for an extended period of time.

O'Connell stepped forward, silent and as stern faced as Giovanni himself. He came closer until he was standing in front of the collector, and suddenly he seemed enormous. Liam was tall for his age and for Kanto, at five feet eight inches, and the collector seemed to be about the same, but at that moment O'Connell seemed like a giant. Well over six feet tall, with wide shoulders, O'Connell was a man that no one should piss off. From the way that he glared down his nose, the collector had done just that.

"You seem to be operating under a misunderstanding, Mr. White," O'Connell said, voice low. It was as imposing as his stature, with an ironclad promise of bodily harm. "I am not a thief, and that bulbasaur has been rightfully caught by another trainer."

The collector, Mr. White, took a step back, but O'Connell followed after him. Mr. White clenched his shaking hands. "H-how dare you! I'm offering you generous pay on what should be an easy job!"

O'Connell's eyes narrowed, and a deep growl sounded from his throat.

Mr. White backed away again but tripped over his own feet. Falling hard on the ground, he scrambled back into the forest. O'Connell glared after him, but the distance brought Mr. White foolish confidence. He stood back up and took out an ultra ball.

He sneered at O'Connell.

"You'll regret speaking that way to me!"

He threw the ball, and as it burst open a Rhydon slammed into the ground. It was wide enough to take up nearly half of the path and tall enough that it towered a number of feet above O'Connell. A jurassic beast of stone, with a long drill-like horn as long as Liam's forearm, rhydon made more than imposing sight. This rhydon was far larger than any Liam had seen on TV, and if the extra bulk it was carrying meant anything, it was that rhydon had the strength to match its size.

Rhydon stepped toward O'Connell, the whirring of its horn easy to hear above the rumble its movements caused.

Penny stepped back, closer to Liam and Misty, since Rhydon's back was to them. Lyla followed her. While both frowned at the scene, neither seemed particularly worried.

"Shouldn't you stop him?" Liam whispered to Penny. "That thing is huge!"

She shook her head. "That other guy can handle it. I can tell. He's got experience."

Misty looked doubtful and exchanged a glance with Liam before watching Rhydon warily. "Experience, maybe, but something to take that down?"

"Trust me."

Mr. White came back out from the forest and stood triumphantly to the side and behind his rhydon. It was a spot where he could see O'Connell but still duck behind Rhydon if need be. "How does it feel, O'Connell?" He called, hands on his hips and the sound of triumph clear in his voice. "To face a pokemon I hired you to capture? Quite the specimen, if you recall, and the one I used to find my precious geodude!"

Liam listened with interest but was distracted when Penny tugged him off the path and into the treeline. He shot her a confused look, but she just smiled and pointed at Mr. White.

"I remember," O'Connell said, his low voice easy to hear despite being on the opposite side of Rhydon's hulking body. "I also remember that it wasn't worth a damn in actually catching that geodude. You had me catch it for you."

Despite being behind him Liam could see Mr. White's face and neck turn red with anger.

"Why you little- Rhydon! Stone Edge!"

Liam's eyes went wide as Rhydon's tail, a long and heavy looking thing, lifted up and then smacked the ground. The ground trembled, and not a moment later there was the sound of the earth being upended as, Liam imagined, pillars of stone suddenly jutted up into the light of day.

Liam waited for it, but no cry of pain or anything similar came. Stone Edge was the kind of attack that would put a person in the hospital with crushed limbs. Instead, all he heard was a simple "Go!"

A moment later, and Rhydon was flying backward, smacking into White's shoulder and sending him spinning to the ground with a pained shriek. Rhydon landed with a mighty crash past where Liam and the others were watching, and for a moment Liam couldn't look away. Rhydon was upended, his impact churning a giant dust cloud. As that cloud cleared Liam looked to see it, groaning and in pain, inside a crate made by its gargantuan form. A clear cracked injury, as if blasted by a cannonball, was spider webbed through the middle of its abdomen. A serious blow that would be causing Rhydon pain, but could be easily fixed once it had enough minerals to repair the damage. A nice sized rock or two would clear that up.

Then White was screaming, clutching his shoulder as he accused O'Connell of trying to murder him. He was trembling, and Liam wondered if White had experienced one of those "light flashing before your eyes" moments. He was pretty sure, though not completely confident, that Mr. White would have survived the impact. Yeah, a quarter-ton beast like Rhydon smacking into you would cause some hefty damage, but the knick White took would only break his shoulder if that.

Humans could take some surprising amount of damage and walk away–they had gone through extended evolution alongside pokemon for millions of years, after all, a few perks would come from that.

Team Rocket taking Duck's fledgling Flare Blitz attack and getting punted through a window? A perfect example of humanity's own organic defensive power. Banged up and sore, but they could walk away and recover with a day of rest. Ash and Professor Oak coming through that pikachu's electric attack with only some marks and no actual burns? An example of humans withstanding the energy based attacks pokemon could utilize. It was why Mr. White still had a shoulder.

Liam looked at Mr. White, who was cursing unintelligibly, then over farther. O'Connell stood next to a lithe, crimson Scizor. A humanoid insect that had developed a metallic red exoskeleton after coming into enough contact with heavy metals, it's round pincers could definitely cause the damage Rhydon took. Scizor stood in a relaxed manner, watching Rhydon with disinterest as the behemoth wobbled back to its feet.

O'Connell walked over to Mr. White.

"Damn. That was impressive," Liam muttered, and out of the corner of his eye saw Misty nod in agreement.

O'Connell stopped in front of the collapsed Mr. White and stared down at him with a cold, uncaring eye. "I have a policy, White," O'Connell said, kneeling down, "that any client that threatens me with the pokemon I catch for them will immediately have that pokemon reappropriated." Then, to Liam's disbelief, O'Connell reached over to take Rhydon's ultra ball from White's hand.

"No!" White shrieked, trying to toss his body away and block O'Connell. He wasn't fast enough. The black and white ultra ball was in O'Connell's hand and he was walking away without a second look.

"No!" White screeched again. Weak, he began to stand. "I paid you to catch that rhydon for me! It's rightfully mine! I paid for it! Mine!"

O'Connell didn't look back. "Not if you're going to attack people with it."

"No! Rhydon, attack! Stone Edge!"

"Scizor."

At O'Connell's command, Scizor flashed forward, a crimson streak in the air, and slammed a glowing white claw into Rhydon's face. Rhydon hadn't even begun to try and attack before it was collapsing, fainted. Liam gaped. Scizor weren't known for their speed, the metal exoskeleton was too heavy but damn! That was impressive!

O'Connell silently returned Rhydon then walked over to them, eyes intent on Penny. Liam and Misty both retreated a few steps, but Penny stood tall and matched O'Connell's stare with her own. When he reached her he held up Rhydon's ultra ball.

"I caught this Rhydon for that man, and he attacked you with it. I'd like to offer it to you."

Penny looked down at the ball and Lyla warbled next to her as the Scizor came to stand behind O'Connell.

"Thank you, but no. That's too close to stealing for me to be comfortable enough to accept."

O'Connell nodded and shrunk the ball down before depositing it into a pocket. Then he reached down to his belt, where six other balls hung–an assortment of different kinds; two standard pokeballs, the webbed design of Scizor's net ball, a green-spotted dusk ball, and two orange and yellow fast balls–and returned Scizor as well.

O'Connell turned to look over at Liam and Misty.

"I'll show you to the ranger station now." Without waiting for a response, he began to walk away.

Suddenly remembering the rush he was in before, Liam hurried after him uncertain whether it was okay to trust O'Connell or not. Behind him, he heard Misty fill Penny in on what had happened in the forest.

---

The ranger station was a small log cabin nestled on the side of the main path. Liam didn't remember passing it while they had been walking through Viridian Forest, so likely it had been ahead of them and Liam had begun running in the direction of Pewter and not Viridian. That didn't matter, though, since they were here now.

Liam rushed inside and immediately saw a male forest ranger, dressed in the typical orange garb, sitting at a small table at the edge of a kitchenette.

"Please help!" He rushed over without preamble, spinarak's pokeball in his hands. The urgency in his voice and on his face must have been enough, the ranger didn't even question Liam barging in and instead adopted a serious manner.

"What's the problem?"

"This spinarak!" Liam said, offering up the pokeball. "I found it after it's egg was destroyed by a trainer's golem tearing through the forest!"

The ranger nodded and took the ball before walking over to a computer and the small pokeball teleporter next to it.

"Did you do anything besides catch it?" He sat down at the computer, clicking around before typing quickly.

"I gave it a drop of potion and a drop of full heal. Regular potion," Liam clarified, moving to stand at the computer's side and switch from foot to foot, frowning worriedly. Behind him was the sound of movement.

"A drop, and not a spray?" The ranger asked, looking over at Liam.

Liam nodded, and as he did the computer screen flickered before the image of Nurse Joy appeared in a video call.

"Viridian City Pokemon Center," she announced, a serious look on her face.

"This is ranger station VF-2. I have a prenatal spinarak in need of immediate assessment," the ranger said, placing spinarak's ball on the transporter.

"Previous treatment?" Nurse Joy was typing away, the loud clicking coming through the call. Suddenly, the transporter flashed, and spinarak's pokeball was gone.

"Potion and full heal; one drop each."

Nurse Joy turned for a moment, followed by a couple of beeps, before looking back at the ranger. "I'm reading its vitals now. Wild or trainer?"

At the question, the ranger turned to Liam with a questioning look. Liam moved over to stand behind him and looked at Nurse Joy. "I found its egg in the wild, Nurse Joy."

A surprised look popped up on her face before becoming serious once more. "Thank you, Liam. I'll begin work immediately. Ranger." The video call ended and Liam leaned back with a worried sigh.

The ranger turned in his chair, a small smile on his face. "That's all we can do on our end. Why don't you sit with your friends, and I'll prepare some drinks for everyone?"

Liam nodded and turned around to see Misty and Penny sitting on a small couch across the room. On a second couch, pushed up against the kitchen table and facing the other one, was O'Connell. He was turned around, having watched what went down.

"Thank you for showing us here," Liam said to him, surprised that he had stuck around.

O'Connell nodded and turned to sit normally. Liam came around and sat on the spot next to him.

"Wow, Liam!" Penny said, sitting forward in her seat. "It's so crazy that you found that spinarak!"

Liam shrugged uncomfortably, then winced when some pain ran through his shoulder.

"Oh, that's right! Your shoulder is hurt!" Misty exclaimed.

"You're hurt?" The ranger said from behind them.

"I fell on my shoulder is all," Liam said. "It's fine."

"I'll prepare some ice for you," the ranger said, bringing over a small platter with four glasses of water. He set the platter on a small coffee table that sat between the two couches, then returned to the kitchen. A few moments later, the sound of ice clinking could be heard. "I'll need to get some statements from you all to write up in an incident report, but you'll be free to leave after that if you'd like."

He came back around, a bundled dish towel in one hand and one of the kitchen chairs in the other. He placed the chair at the end of the coffee table and passed the towel over to Liam, who felt the chill of ice inside and held it up against his hurt shoulder. The ranger retrieved a notepad and a pen, then sat down and looked at them with a kind smile.

"So, who's first?"

Penny started off, explaining how Liam had battled Mr. White earlier in the day and, after losing, how Mr. White mentioned that he was looking for a bulbasaur. From there the story was tossed around, Liam, Misty, and Penny all telling their share of the story. O'Connell had little to say, as he wasn't actually involved with spinarak's egg, but he did give Mr. White's contact information to the ranger due to the destruction Mr. White's golem had caused.

Eventually, however, they finished and began preparing to leave the station. There was no telling when Nurse Joy would be able to report on spinarak's state, and so Liam left his contact information with the ranger and said that he would be heading to Pewter City once he was through the Viridian Forest. The ranger promised to leave a message with the Nurse Joy there when he received some news.

After that, the four of them left the station and stood in the cool forest air. There was a few hours left in the day, enough for Liam, Misty, and Penny to make a decent amount of distance further into the forest, and so they decided to begin walking that way. O'Connell, on the other hand, was on his way to Viridian City, and so bid them goodbye before departing.

It was as O'Connell began to walk away that Penny turned to Liam and Misty with a wide grin. "Well, that was a fun side quest, but now it's time to turn back to our real adventure! The Misty Woods!"

Misty laughed. "Hopefully it won't get as intense as this has been!"

Penny and Misty continued chatting, walking forward on the path. Liam followed after, glancing back one last time at the ranger station and hoping that spinarak was okay, before taking a deep breath and letting a smile grow on his face. He rushed forward, popping between Misty and Penny, and hooked his arms around theirs.

Laughing, the three of them walked that way until they decided to stop for the night. If Liam's laughter had seemed a little forced, his smile a little fake, then neither commented on it.

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Edit Note: Forgot to include the backmatter! Now included below. Thank you kind reviewer!

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Pokemon and Their Nicknames

Liam's Pokemon:

Duck = growlithe; Spinarak (?)

Misty's Pokemon:

Stella = staryu

Penny's Pokemon:

Beautifly; Lyla = sceptile; Bulbasaur

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Chapter Word Count: 18,224 Date Posted: Monday, February 18, 2019 Edit Date: Tuesday, February 19, 2019