Upon leaving the professor's laboratory, Tony found Delia waiting for him near the outer limits of Pallet Town's northern border.
"Shall we go?" Tony asked as he got within range to hold a conversation.
"Yes, let's go." Delia replied with a smile.
It took them four days to get to Viridian City, not that it mattered much to Tony. There were plenty of wild pokemon to battle. Granted that it was mainly flocks of Pidgey and Spearow, with just a smattering of bug pokemon like Weedle and Caterpie and an occasional Ratata or two. Tony however made no attempt to capture any of them.
"Any particular reason why not?" Delia had asked on the third day of the trip.
"Do you want the short list or the long?" Tony replied with an upraised eyebrow.
"Long one." Delia said with a grin, sure that there couldn't really be that many reasons.
"For starters, none of them caught my interests that much. Then there's the fact that it wouldn't be fair to the pokemon I have. I mean, when would I have to train them all? I spent eight years with Charizard alone, a number of them under the tutelage of Violet City's gym leader. Now I also have Chikorita and Seaking. Not that I'm complaining, since both are great pokemon..." Tony trailed off and forced out a sigh. "It sounds so pathetic when I vocalize my reasons for not catching more pokemon. It just wasn't in my game plan, really."
"That right there is all the reason you need." Delia said with a smile. "You don't capture more pokemon because you don't want to."
"How do you do it?" Tony mused.
"Hm? Do what?"
"You some how managed to put my jumbled thoughts and weak excuses in order."
"It just happens, I suppose." Delia shrugged.
"Hm." Tony took in his surroundings. The rumbling of his stomach brought him out of his revelry. With a faint blush and a nervous chuckle, he said, "Aw, geez. My inner Munchlax is grumbling. What's for dinner?"
Delia lightly laughed. "Rice balls with pomeg berries inside them."
"Sound's great!"
"Wow. There is so much about Viridian City that I completely forgot about." Tony muttered his breath.
Minutes into having first set foot within Viridian City had Tony pausing every now and then for remembrances peppered with nuances. It took them most of an hour to find the Pokemon Center, especially since Tony kept getting turned around and trying to go his 'usual' route that was only effective in Violet City.
"Well, you did mention wanting to see more of my old hometown." Tony said with a light chuckle. "Consider this the Backtracker's Tour."
After getting a clean bill of health for his pokemon, Tony hightailed it to the Viridian Gym. Disappointment emanated from just about every pore of his body when he read the posted sign that the gym was closed for remodeling.
"Shoot." he sulked. "Now what?"
"You could always show me the other parts of Viridian City that we haven't seen. Maybe where you use to live?" Delia replied from out of the blue.
Tony jumped in surprise. He wasn't sure why, but for a few brief moments, he had completely forgotten that he had a traveling companion.
"Yeah. I wouldn't mind seeing my old home myself. Provided that it's still there, that is." Tony said after he forced himself to calm down.
It took all of two hours and yet some more wrong turns - which Delia dubbed as 'detours' - before they arrived at the location of Tony's old homestead. 'Old' was too kind of a word. The building was more on the lines of ramshackle.
"That's too bad..." Delia said sympathetically.
"Hmm..." Tony replied with a nod. Shrugging, he added, "Oh well. Let's get going. If I remember correctly, there's a shopping district not too far from here."
"Great idea. We could use some more supplies." Delia said cheerfully before gasping in surprise and sharply turning to look over her shoulder.
"What is it?" Tony asked as he turned to try and get a glimpse at whatever it was that had made Delia nearly jump out of her skin.
"N-nothing. It was probably just a Gastly playing tricks, if anything at all." Delia's response sounded a bit forced to Tony, but he wasn't about to push it.
"If you say so..." Tony shrugged.
That evening, Tony and Delia headed back towards the Pokemon Center. Their shopping trip went without a hitch and now all they wanted to do was to get a good night's rest before heading off towards Pewter City in the morning. After storing their stuff in one of the rooms that the Pokemon Center provided as a temporary room and board for trainers, Tony turned to ask which bunk bed Delia would like to use.
"So, eh... which one would you like?" Tony asked nervously.
"I'll take this one right here." Delia said as she pointed to the lower bunk to her right.
"Then I'll go with that one." Tony pointed at an upper bunk on the opposite side of the cramped room.
For a few moments they stood in uncomfortable silence before Delia claimed she had to go to the restroom. Sighing with relief, Tony quickly dressed down to his boxers and climbed into bed.
"Good night, Tony." Delia said upon re-entering the room in her nightgown.
"See you in the morning." Tony replied before Delia turned out the light and went to bed herself.