Barely feet away from Viridian City, Morgan, Rick, and Chris find themselves at the entrance to Viridian Forest, the only way to Pewter City and their first gym. The forest trees are tall and cast shadows all around. The dark forest is a perfect habitat for bug-pokemon. But before the three can get into the forest, they bump into a peculiar friend.

"Move! Move! Get out of the way!" Yelled a brown-haired boy about the same age as Chris, Rick, and Morgan. In fact, he seemed familiar to all of them.

They jumped back as he ran out of the forest and he stopped a while behind them, panting and brushing something that may have been invisible off of him, mumbling something to himself. "Not going back – totally gross – INSANE!"

"Um," Rick said. "Are you okay?"

"Okay?" The boy snapped. "Okay?! No I'm not okay! Do you know what's in there?!"

"Um, bug-pokemon?" Morgan said.

"Yes! Bug-pokemon! Creeping, crawling, disgusting bug-pokemon!"

"Oy," Chris said.

"It's okay," Rick said, patting the boy softly on the back. "Hey, do we know you? You look familiar."

The boy was still panting a bit, but he calmed down enough to say "Yeah, we go to school together. My name's Leo."

"Oh! That's where I know you from!" Morgan yelled out.

"Yeah, though we don't go to the same classes," Leo said. "So you guys are going out to Pewter City too?"

"Yup, we're going for the pokemon challenge," Chris said smiling. Leo cringed slightly.

"But you'll have to get through the forest…"

"Oh, that'll be easy," Chris said.

"I don't think I can do it, not with all those bug-pokemon."

"We could go with you through the forest! Don't worry, we'll protect you from any bug-pokemon!" Morgan assured Leo.

"No, I couldn't possibly,"

"C'mon," Rick said. "We'll be with you every step of the way."

Leo looked at each of the three and seemed to be fighting with something inside of himself.

"Listen, I'm no scaredycat! I just really don't like bugs…"

"It's okay, trust us, we won't pick on you," Rick said reassuringly.

"…Okay, I'll go with you."

"All right!" All three exclaimed.

"Then come on! Let's go!" Morgan cheered.

She and Chris each took one of Leo's arms and slowly led him to the forest edge where Rick stood smiling holding back a branch.

"We'll just stick to the path and we'll be fine!" He said.

Leo was staring dead ahead, a look of fear in his eyes. An odd sound came from his throat as they entered the forest.

"Alright! First steps done!" Morgan said happily.

Indeed, the first step in their adventure was complete. They had walked out of Viridian City and into the forest, beyond which lied Pewter City and their first gym.