CHAPTER 2

After a few minutes of walking west and avoiding Pokemon, we finally arrive in Cherrygrove City. I can tell this town is pretty boring. All that's here are flowers and the sea. I start to head toward the Pokemart, to see what they have there, when I'm interrupted by an old man.

"Excuse me! Are you a rookie trainer? Of course you are." I don't get to answer that myself? "I'll give you a tour of this town, okay? Follow me!" He runs off toward the Pokemon Center, then comes back. "Whoops! I forgot, you don't have any Running Shoes!" Running Shoes? I can run perfectly fine without them, though... "Here, I'll go a little slower." He runs slowly to the Pokemon Center this time, and I follow him.

"This is the-"

"This is the Pokemon Center, lad. Here, you can heal your Pokemon and store the rest in boxes on a PC." He runs to the Pokemart. I follow.

"Great. I needed to go here. Okay, I'll just go-"

"This here is the Pokemart. You can buy and sell stuff here." He head toward the ocean now. Once again, I follow him. How is this old man so fast?

"Here's the ocean. Here you can, well, catch water Pokemon and swim and stuff." Finally, he runs to some old house. "This is my house. Here, you can have these shoes. There still toasty!" They're what? "Ha ha, I got you! I'm kidding, I'm kidding. These ones are brand new."

"Okay. Thanks, I guess." He goes into his house, so I head on over to the Pokemart. I can't believe there's no Gym here. I would've challenged it. The door to the Pokemart opens, and I walk in.

"Oh! You must be from Pallet Town! Can you deliver this to-"

"Wrong game, lady. What do you have here?" She looks shocked, but she takes out a few things and sets them on the counter.

"We have some Potions, and some Antidotes, and some Paralyze Heals."

"Wait... No Pokeballs?" She shakes her head.

"We just ran out. A kid about your age with red hair just bought the last five. We'll be restocking tomorrow, though."

"Oh... Okay. Well, see ya." I leave the blue and white building and sigh. I can't wait until tomorrow to get Pokeballs. Professor Elm needs me to do this today.

"Let's go, Cilantro. We might as well get this over with." I look around for the next route. It's right next to the Pokemart. We start off, but then a familiar voice calls out.

"Young lad, wait! I forgot to give you this!" The old man from before is running toward us. He stops next to me, breathing heavily. He has some weird chip-like thing in his hand. "You have a Pokegear, right? Take this Map Card with you. It'll help you on your journey." He takes a deep breath and runs off. I put the Map Card into my Pokegear. It tells me where I am and what's around me, too. Mr. Pokemon's house is up ahead, it seems. But... There are two houses on this Route. Which one is his? I guess I'll just have to check both.

The first house has an Apricorn tree next to it. Looking through the window, I see that a man lives here. Is that Mr. Pokemon? I knock on the door and wait. The man comes to the door and opens it.

"'Ello 'ere, chap. Wot brings you 'ere today?"

"I, uh... Are you-"

"Misser Pok'mon? No, sorry. 'E lives up that-away some. But, since you came 'ere today, Oi'll give you this 'ere Apricorn Case, wot'you say?" He goes inside for a minute, and comes back with an odd-looking box-like case.

"Uh... Sure, thanks." He nods and goes back inside, and shuts the door behind him. "He sure was odd, right Cilantro? Let's check this next house up here. The Map says there's some tall grass up ahead, too. Let's be careful."

The next house also has an Apricorn tree near it. But this one is pink, not green. How many different colored Apricorns are there?