It had been one night since Romeo had caught a Kricketot, which shortly evolved into a Kricketune. A ten-minute walk away from the renowned Viridian City, Romeo had decided to camp out in the wilderness for a while.
The next morning, Romeo resumed his walk and finally made it to the city.
The morning was beautiful, as it was the day before. Romeo felt his pocket to see if his three pokeballs were safe. It was annoying having them all crammed in there, but that's okay. Today, he would send Kricketune to the Professor. After all, the Pokedex did say it wasn't that strong.
Romeo could remember yesterday's events clearly. He had started out on his Pokemon journey, and weakened an Abra that he planned to catch, but someone else threw their pokeball at it first. Romeo then discovered it was an employee at Viridian's Pokemon Mart, Isaac. They had a short battle, and Rome prevailed. Soon after Isaac left, Romeo caught a Kricketune.
Romeo looked around the town. It was a lot bigger than Pallet, where he was born and had remained in all his life. To Romeo's left was a huge sign saying, Viridian City: Home Of The Secret Gym. He wondered, does that mean there is a gym here? To Romeo's right was a larger sign – it read:
Trainer TipsThe most important think for a new trainer to know is to check the city when he arrives. Each city contains a Pokemon Center, a Pokemon Mart, and many other features that are unique to the town. Here in Viridian City, the final eighth gym lurks, but the private gym leader has been undefeated for a bit more than a year. In fact, one former Pokemon Master, Gary Oak, came in, and has not been seen since. Viridian City also specializes in Bug-Didotes. See more information at the Pokemon Mart.
Signed, Kyle BaggessThat was a long read, Romeo thought. I should take the signpost's advice and look around the town; he carried on thinking to himself.
He stood where he was and peered into the city to see what he could find. In the distance was the Pokemon Center, with the trademark red pokeball on its roof, sparkling like a diamond. Next to it was the Pokemon Mart, where Romeo decided he'd go to meet Isaac again, and find out what a Bug-Didote is. A few blocks to the right, there was a house with a signpost saying Viridian Battle Hall. To be honest, Romeo thought it was a bit shabby looking to be a battle hall, but it was still worth checking out. And then, behind the block of houses were four more rows, a fountain, a garden, and in the background was a big mansion, except with no windows. Romeo presumed that was the Secret Gym. There was a lot of sightseeing to do here.
Romeo looked back at the Trainer Tips signpost.
"Hey, dude." There was a man standing in front of it. "I'm Kyle." He wore a leather jacket, which had different Pokemon decorated on them, but for some reason all were of the ground type. Romeo pushed his Pokedex further into his pocket before it went berserk with Pokemon data information. Kyle had a short Mohawk hairstyle, which made Romeo impressed. After all, he only had short hair.
The name Kyle sounded suspicious to Romeo.
"Are you Kyle Baggess?" he asked. Kyle nodded and then eyed Romeo.
"How'd you know?" he replied, which implied the affirmative.
Romeo shrugged and pointed to the signpost behind Kyle. Kyle looked at it with interest, and then relaxed.
"Ah, I keep forgetting about that sign. I drew it up two years ago and haven't glanced at it since. I'm too busy doing my job." Romeo nodded. He knew the hardships of a job. His mother complained about her job all the time back home. She worked at a Pokemon Day-Care center, located in Cerulean City. She had to fly their every day, and her Pelipper was getting old. "Are you new here?" Kyle asked.
"Yeah, I've got a few things to do here, and few things to check out, so I'll see you later," Romeo answered, starting to walk into the city. Kyle raced after him.
"Wait up!" he exclaimed. "I'll come with you. I'll introduce you to my wonderful home," he said, helpfully.
"Ok, you can come," Romeo commented, secretly happy he had someone that could show him the way around.
"So, kid, I didn't catch your name. What is it?" Kyle asked, following Romeo en route to the Pokemon Center.
"Read my collar," Romeo answered. Looking at the bewilderedness on Kyle's face, he burst out laughing. "My mother writes my name on every piece of clothing I've got. I'm just joking, my name's Romeo." Now it was Kyle's turn to laugh.
"Wherefore art thou Romeo? Ah, therefore art thou Romeo," he joked. "You've gotta follow Shakespeare with a name like that."
Romeo imitated a laugh in a sarcastic way.
"My mother was a fan," he explained. "I've even got a sister called Juliette, but she studies ghost Pokemon in Lavender Town. She hates the name so much she changed it to Julia, but I still call he Juliette. It's quite risky because she sends out Misdreavus on me. Man, that thing spooks me." Romeo and Kyle stood silent for a while, before they both chuckled.
Finally, the two arrived at the Pokemon Center. They had been gossiping the way there and now knew each other decently.
"Why are we at the Pokemon Center anyway," Kyle wondered.
"Two reasons," Romeo said shortly. "One – heal up my Pokemon. Two – send my Kricketune to Professor Oak."
"You've got Pokemon?" Kyle rhetorically asked. "I guess you've been catching on the previous route, huh? They're all boring Pidgey's, Kricketot's, and Zigzagoon's. The only decent Pokemon there is Abra, but no one ever catches one because they Teleport away all the time. To get a Kricketune, you must have evolved your Kricketot. They're useless, anyway."
Ignoring the last comment, Romeo lit up.
"I caught an Abra!" he exclaimed. Kyle looked at him. It was almost as if he didn't believe Romeo.
"Prove it," Kyle ordered.
"Fine." Romeo withdrew the three pokeballs in his pocket and threw them at the same time outside the Pokemon Center.
"Kid, kid," Elekid said as he retreated from his pokeball.
"Krick, krick, tune," Kricketune said as he retreated from he pokeball.
"Abraaa," the little Abra said as he retreated from his ball.
"Woah," said Kyle.
As the two boys and the three Pokemon entered through the doors of the Pokemon Center, Romeo was amazed. The floor was spotlessly shining, with a huge picture of a Masterball flawlessly painted into it. All around the foyer there was elegance and purity. There was an escalator leading upwards to the left, and an escalator leading downwards to the right. In the middle of Center, up ahead of Romeo, Kyle, Elekid, Kricketune, and Abra, there was a counter with a middle-aged woman with pink curls in her hair leaning on it. She was wearing a badge saying, "Nurse Joy," and her uniform was appropriate to her title.
They went up to her, lead by Romeo.
"Hey, how may I help you?" the Nurse asked friendlily.
Romeo and Kyle both smiled at her. She was annoyingly attractive.
"Could we please heal our Pokemon?" Romeo questioned.
From his feet, Elekid, Abra, and large Kricketune hopped onto the desk. At the sight of Kricketune, Nurse Joy was taken aback, but soon she recovered from her shock, and escorted the Pokemon into a room behind the counter.
"The healing room," Kyle pointed out to Romeo.
A few minutes later, as Kyle was eying a female Hiker that was resting her Geodude on a leather sofa, Nurse Joy returned with three pokeballs in her hand. They were shiny new, like Elekid's when he had first got it.
"Hand over your old empty pokeballs, I've provided you with three new ones," Nurse Joy told Romeo.
He did as he was told, and took the three pokeballs from the nurse. Wow! Three spank-shiny new balls.
"Aren't we going to send your Kricketune to Pallet now, Romeo?" Kyle asked as Romeo made his way to the exit. Romeo tapped him on the back and thanked him. He'd almost forgotten.
"Go, Kricketune," Romeo said quietly in case of disturbing the public in the Center. Kricketune burst out of its ball.
Romeo and Kyle, along with Kricketune, made their way to the Pokemon Sender in the corner. Romeo instructed Kricketune to stand on it. Suddenly, the screen on the side flashed on, and there came a live image of Professor Oak's face. Then, Kricketune disappeared.
"Ah, Romeo. I heard from Seth not long ago. He sent me an unwanted Ekans. I've put it in the same cage as a Seviper that Tony once brought me from Hoenn when he was my assistant. I'm using it for research. Oh, and reminding me of Tony, he phoned me and told me he'd caught an extremely rare Pachirisu on the first route. Of course, he's using it, so he didn't send it to me. That's his electric Pokemon number up to two. He might become inspired, just as I am. Anyway, what Pokemon are you sending me, Romeo?"
Kyle was amazed at how fast Professor Oak could talk without stopping, but shut his mouth before it looked rude.
"Umm … wait, my Pokemon is sending," Romeo told the Professor.
Just then, on the other end of the screen (the Pallet side), something flashed, and a Kricketune appeared.
"Ahh," screamed the Professor, "out of all the Pokemon you could have collected so far, you caught a Kricketune?"
Then, Kricketune chased the Professor away from the screen, and it went blank.
"Wow, is he on drugs?" Kyle asked, and made them both laugh.
So, with two Pokemon left in his pocket, and a much more comfortable walk about to occur, Romeo, joined by Kyle, made his way to the Pokemon Mart, where Isaac was probably working. Also, what was a Bug-Didote? Romeo was curious to know.
"Do you want to stock up at the Mart or something," Kyle asked.
Romeo shrugged.
"Kind of," he said. "I want to go and greet someone I met yesterday. His name's Isaac."
Kyle laughed.
"Oh, you mean that geek that gives out free pokeballs?" he exclaimed. "He was showing off to everyone yesterday because his precious Bidoof evolved into a Bibarel." Romeo became annoyed. Isaac was his friend.
"Could you leave Isaac alone?" Romeo ordered jokingly, to show Kyle he wasn't falling out with him, he was just sticking up for a friend. Kyle made a buttered-up face and tried to imitate Romeo.
"Let's have a battle about it, later in the Viridian Battle Hall," Kyle said.
"You're on," Romeo finished, as they walked into the Pokemon Mart.
To Romeo's surprise, Isaac was not at the till. Instead, there was a short blonde woman with big round glasses. She looked boring, and Romeo didn't even want to think about what she'd be like if she was doing something like riding on a roller coaster. She looked like she'd take the fun out of the word fun.
"Where's Isaac?" Romeo asked her, with Kyle standing in the doorway.
"He's not on shift at the moment, come back at eight pm," the woman replied lazily, before packing a sort of spray into a customer's bag, and dumping it into a Pokemon trolley.
Romeo didn't even want to ask her what a Bug-Didote was, so he asked Kyle instead, once they were on a bench outside the Mart.
"Oh, it's Viridian City's specialty item," Kyle said. "All travelers from Pallet should get one, otherwise they'll virtually die in Viridian Forest." Romeo looked back at the Mart. A woman walked out with a shopping bag crammed full of Pokemon recovery accessories. This Bug-Didote sensation must be influential.
"But what is it?" he asked. Kyle sighed.
"It's almost like an Antidote, and cures poison too. However, a Bug-Didote was designed for Viridian Forest only. The people think the Weedle in there sting. Well, wait till they see the Beedrill! A Bug-Didote is the only item that can fully cure a Viridian poisoning. Bugsy, a gym leader in Johto, designed it. Heard of him? If I were you, I'd catch a poison Pokemon in the forest, just so you can use it against Erika in Celadon or someone."
After the final touches to their conversation, Romeo decided to buy three Bug-Didotes from the Mart, along with five pokeballs, and two Potions to go along with the one he withdrew from his computer three days ago.
Eventually, it was nighttime. It was an opportunity to catch Isaac on his late shift. However, Kyle didn't think that was such an idea, as he was tired and offered Romeo a place at his house to sleep. Tomorrow was the big battle with Kyle, and maybe a battle at the secret gym.
5 Questions to ask before you read the next chapter …
What is Kyle's real job?
How come Kyle was allowed to sign the signpost at the front of Viridian?
What will the result be in tomorrow's Hall match?
What Pokemon will Kyle have?
Will Romeo ever see Isaac again?