Episode 3: Bit Early For a Reunion!

Viridian City was a much larger area than Red's hometown, though not quite big-city, it was definitely a fish-out-of-water experience for the Twelve-year old. Pikachu's attention was caught by the sights and smells around them, particularly by a nearby restaurant. A loud gurgling sound rumbled from Pikachu's abdomen... Red smiled.
"Hungry big guy?"
"Pi..." Pikachu tried to act tough, but honestly it was just adorably weak.

"That makes two of us, I got some money, all trainers are given some at the beginning, and it's a general rule that if we win, the other person has to give us a certain amount of money..."
"Pika?"
"Yeah, those Rocket goons aren't too good at listening to rules are they?"

"Ka!" PIkachu agreed, mad that the Rockets didn't give them their prize money.

Red and Pikachu waltzed into the place, a wide grin covering both the pairs' faces as they took notice that this wasn't just a restaurant, it was a Trainer Club!

Excitedly, Red walked up to the counter, it was set up like an old-fashioned bar, Pikachu took the seat next to him, propping its paws on the counter.

"Hey, can we get somethin' to eat?" Asked Red as politely as that sentence could sound on an empty stomach.

The girl behind the counter turned around.
"Red!" She smiled and walked over to him, she was about 5'5", in her late teens, blue eyes and dark brown hair... Just like her Brother's.

This was the Professor's Granddaughter and Blue's 17-year-old sister, Daisy Oak.
"Oh hey! You work here?"
"Well yeah, girl's gotta eat."
Daisy was basically Red's best friend and Babysitter since as long as he could Remember. He'd spend hours over at the Oaks' house just to pretend he was a Pokemon trainer with Blue, and Daisy would always be the champion in their games, pretending to Battle and always losing for the sake of making Red and Blue feel good... Red remembered how close he and Blue were then, he wondered if he would ever get along with Blue the way he did back then... Daisy on the other hand was a completely different story.

Daisy had become a trainer when she was eleven, leaving home for a long time, from what Red could remember, she had gotten her sixth gym badge and given up the Pokemon league, he didn't know why.

"Anyway, what brings you here kid? Long way from Pallet Town-" Daisy would have finished her statement, then she noticed the Pikachu at the Bar table.
"Oh my- Are you a trainer now?" Asked Daisy after noticing Pikachu.
Red nodded and smiled, patting Pikachu lightly on the head.
"Then, this Pikachu's yours?"
Red nodded again, when out of nowhere Daisy had picked up Pikachu.
"Ohmygosh it's so cute!" She rubbed her nose to Pikachu's, making the small Pokemon blush.
"How long have you had it?" She asked, still cuddling the very happy Pikachu against her very-well matured chest.
"This morning."
Daisy's eyes widened, "Seriously? You made it through Viridian Forest in less than a day?"
"Well yeah, with Pikachu it was easy."
Daisy set Pikachu down, "You must be good, though I should expect that from you, mister 'I'm gonna be the best like no one ever was'." She teased him about how he acted when she babysat him so long ago.

WHO'S THAT POKEMON?

Unlike their evolved form, these bird Pokemon travel in flocks and prefer not to get into fights.

Red caught up with Daisy, talking about what had happened in Pallet Town since she had left, when she piped up with a suggestion, "Hey, I get off in an hour, how about you and I battle one-on-one?"
Red smiled at that thought, and agreed.

One hour and one meal later, Red and Daisy stood at two ends of the Trainer Club Stadium. Trainer clubs are where Pokemon Trainers do battle to train, sometimes just for fun.

"Ready?" Asked Daisy, a determined smile on her face.
"Don't hold back." Pikachu jumped from Red's shoulder onto its spot on the stadium.

Daisy lifted her Pokeball and released her Pokemon for Battle.

In a shot of energy, the Pokemon was revealed to be a taller, darker and more tough-looking Pikachu.
"Raichu!" It said, standing on its back legs as it squared off to Pikachu.

The Pokedex, sensing unknown Pokemon, registered Raichu and piped off in Red's pocket.

"Raichu, Electric Type, Electric Mouse Pokemon, Evolves from Pikachu via Energy from a Thunderstone."
"A Raichu?" Red questioned, assuming Daisy did it to show off some kind of 'irony', she liked that kind of thing.

"Sure is, ready?"
"I was born Ready!"

"Raichu, Thunderpunch!" Raichu lunged at Pikachu, its brown paw connecting with its head.
"Pikachu! You okay?"
Pikachu jumped up, only a bit fazed, "Pika!" It squeaked, encouraging Red to go on.
"Cool... Alright, Pikachu, Tackle!"
"Raichu, stay frosty!" Daisy ordered and Raichu obeyed, evading Pikachu quickly and delivering a counterattack with a tail swipe.
Red was in trouble, he gritted his teeth... Then he noticed something, Raichu liked standing on two legs, unlike Pikachu, its legs were fairly long, and it used its tail for balance.
"Pikachu, slide underneath it!"
The yellow mouse obeyed, sliding under Raichu.
Daisy's eyes widened, a small scowl on her brow.
"Raichu, careful!"
"Rai?" Raichu watched the smaller mouse go under it, and disappearing from view.
"Now Pikachu, grab its' tail tip!"
Pikachu realized what Red was up to and eagerly grabbed Raichu's Tail.
"Shake it off Raichu!"

"Hold your grip and use Thundershock!"

Pikachu sent a relay of shocks through Raichu's tail.

"Now let go!"
Pikachu jumped off and landed a few feet from Raichu, who was now breathing heavily from the critical hit it just received.

"Raichu! Turn around quick!"
Raichu tried to obey, but it was breathing hard, just to the point where a tackle from Pikachu could directly hit it, sending a few feet back.
"Nice work Pikachu!"
"Pika!"

"This isn't over yet Red!" Exclaimed Daisy, whose Raichu had gotten up, and seemed a bit angry.
"Keep it up buddy!" Red called to his Pokemon, who responded by crackling electricity.

"Raichu, slam attack now!"

Raichu's Tail wrapped around Pikachu, the surprised Pokemon looked to Red, whose surprise was as evident.
Raichu followed through by lifting Pikachu up and slamming him down on the ground, severely damaging it.
"Pikachu!"
The small mouse was on the ground, not moving.
"Pikachu..." Red was about to call the match, when Pikachu leapt to its feet and managed to hit the unsuspecting Raichu with a Tackle.
"Pikachu!" Red shouted excitedly, Daisy's expression was honestly priceless.
"That's.. Im... Possible.."

Pikachu, beaten and bruised, continued to fight against Raichu in the longest battle it had gone through and hadn't given up...It was gonna win, and no one could tell it otherwise.
"Pikachu, time to make it or break it!"
Pikachu managed to connect one more Tackle to Raichu, who finally fell onto its back, eyes closed, unable to take anymore.

"Raichu!" Daisy ran out onto the field.
"Pikachu!" Red ran out too, Pikachu leaping into his arms.
"You did great buddy! That was awesome!"
"Pika, pikapi pikachu!" Pikachu replied.

Daisy looked up at them, smiled in defeat and returned her Raichu to its Pokeball.
"You did good Red, you and Pikachu have some real potential." She said, standing up and walking over to Red.
"Haha, it was all Pikachu."
"Pi!" Pikachu smiled and sat on Red's head.

"I haven't had a battle that intense since... Well, since my first Gym Battle!"

Red and Daisy left the restaurant, only to run into the first and only trainer to beat Red... Blue.

"Blue!" Daisy ran up and hugged her little brother who tried to squirm out. "Sis, c'mon, not in front of Red!"
"Shut up and hug me you little freak!"
Blue rolled his eyes and hugged his sibling, while Red and Pikachu snickered in the Background.
"Alright, alright, we hugged, get offa me!"
Daisy laughed and let go, Blue took a breath and turned to Red.
"Heh, nice to see you Red, don't suppose you're up to battle?"
Red shook his head, "Pikachu couldn't take another Battle, maybe some other time.

The moonlight revealed Blue's smirk.
"Figures, who'd you fight? Some Rattata? Woop, maybe your poor Pikachu got itself all worn out on a Metapod!"

Daisy put her hands on her hips and Red just scowled.
"Blue, quit it!"
"I'll stop being sarcastic when he quits being weak!"
"I'll have you know he just beat me, and if you're calling me weak, you've got another thing coming!" Daisy was holding Blue by his shirt.
"Fine, Fine! Put me down!"

"Good boy, now apologize."
Blue rolled his eyes again, and spoke, "I'm sorry..."
Red was going to Reply... But Blue continued.

"Sorry you're so slow!" He said before sprinting in the other direction.

Daisy sighed, "Oh Blue..."

Red sensed something was amiss, but he knew Daisy well enough to know when she needed her space.

Daisy invited Red to stay in her room in the nearby Pokemon Center, the Nurse there was a good friend of both Daisy and Red's mom, so she let him camp out there.

By the next morning, Red had already left with Pikachu and a nice Breakfast. Saying his goodbyes to Daisy, he set out in the direction of the next gym, directly north of Viridian was a little mountain city called Pewter, with its own Gym.

Route 2 was very grassy, full of wild Pokemon just itching for battles.

Red made it to near the end of the Route, and caught sight of an unpleasant sight, those two men from Viridian Forest stood in front of the gate to Pewter.

The young trainer hid again, to hopefully listen in to their conversation... A feeling of Deja Vu washing over him.
"Is it here yet?"
Asked the shorter grunt to his colleague, who just stood staring at the sky.
"Be patient, it'll be here."
"What are they-?" Red whispered to himself, only to be cut off by the sound of a Sonic Boom above his head, he looked up as he saw what appeared to be an orange blur drop something to the men.

"Alright, nothing like Air Mail!" The younger said as he caught it.

"With this detonator, Diglett cave will blow, and we can take the Pokemon inside.
Red was about to jump out as he had before, but the men had run off already.

"Did you hear that Pikachu?" He asked anxiously to Pikachu, who responded with a surprised squeak.

"They're gonna bomb Pewter City!"

TO BE CONTINUED...

HaHA! Dontcha hate cliffhangers? No worries, if you're good, the new episode may come on sooner!

Anyways, here's this week's mailbag!

Steelrush Writes:
Team Rocket, a band of dirty thieves lacking pretty much all moral fiber. It doesn't surprise me that one of them was willing to kill his own father, nor does it surprise me that the other one had a Zubat that was too weak to survive a thundershock from Pikachu.

Speaking of which, the Pokemon battle shows Red's intuition when it comes to Pokemon battles. In the world tournament (in BW 2) the announcer refers to Red as the living legend, which pretty much means he's the top dog when it comes to Pokemon trainers.

As for the Who's That Pokemon riddle, I can't make an accurate guess with the limited information.

Though there's many possibilities, when you said annoyance I think of Whismur.

I can go on with this post but I'm a little tired at the moment. Good job, and I'll think of some ideas to share with you later when I have some more energy.

My Reply:

I decided to take a more... Gritty take on Team Rocket, replayed Firered recently and lemme tell ya, compared to Galactic or Plasma... Rocket felt underwhelming.

So I chose to make 'em more than just a bunch of losers... I say that loosely, they're still losers, but they're better losers.

And yeah, you'll see a lot of that in Red, he's pretty much the imprint of every trainer who ever picked up a gameboy, so I wanted him to do what we couldn't, y'know?

And as for the answer to the riddle?...Well, you did your best, the answer was Zubat.
Maybe I should clarify, the WTP's are just gonna be gen1 Pokemon and their evolutions/preevolutions.

I'm no genwunner, but I like to keep all things in context, and that includes keeping the new pokemon a mystery before they're public ready.

Sigh... Only one noteworthy review this round? C'mon, I KNOW I'm getting more traffic than that, I can't make this what you want unless you put in your ideas! So... DO IT! Haha!

Well, till next time, This is Crobatman, Signing off!