As much as it bothered him to admit, catching his first pokemon on Route 1 was quite the rewarding experience for Dylan.
It might be easier to explain this situation by saying that not every pokemon is either wild or caught in a Poke Ball. There are exceptions. Some pokemon are recruited for jobs and work around society, but are not under any official ownership. Much like humans, they can come and go to their job as they please. Pidgey and spearow work around the Kanto region to deliver mail, while machop and machoke are great employees for a construction company.
Pokemon employees are easier to please than their human counterparts, as they are often paid in favors or food or shelter. Independent pokemon are a sight to behold, but it never sat well with Dylan that humans who were in need of supporting their families were being replaced by pokemon workers, but the more he thought about it the more he realized how selfish a point-of-view it was.
As a carrier pidgey swooped down with a letter in its mouth, Dylan watched as it began to glide through the air choppily. Its wings rode the wind, but only just barely, and it struggled with the bag of letters it carried over its tiny body. Dylan knew what was coming next. He tried to prepare his arms to catch the bird as if it were a football soaring through the air. He wasn't very close though, as the pidgey made a faceplant into the mud inches in front of Dylan.
He knelt down and helped the pidgey back on her feet as he apologetically stammered, "Oh, s-sorry, I tried to catch you, but I was never very good with my hand-eye coordination…"
The pidgey, eyebrow cocked with a twinge of intense sarcasm, squawked, "Oh you aren't? Hadn't noticed."
She gestured to his hat with her wing, "I remember that hat. You're the kid who had me deliver to your mother in Unova. I really like your hat by the way."
"That means a lot..." Dylan said with a smile as he put a hand on his chullo hat. No one really ever complimented his hats before, he owned tons of chullo hat's but he always got either mocked or looked at strange for wearing them all the time, but he never cared much. His grandmother, who hailed from Snowpoint City and was accustomed to warm clothing, made him at least fifteen chullo hats before she passed, so they held special value to him. It was just nice to see another living thing acknowledge and like one of his hats. "...Honestly."
The pidgey reached into her bag with her wing, and produced a pink envelope. Dylan took the envelope with a smile and a, "Thanks."
He slipped the letter into his backpack and looked at the pidgey with concern, "Are you okay to fly? Your wing looks awful."
Indeed, the pidgey's wing had its edge torn to shreds. Judging by the look on her face, she was hoping he wouldn't notice.
"I put in my two weeks," she grumbled. "I sprained something, a tendon or a muscle, in my wing. They say I need proper training to get it healed."
"What kind of training?" Dylan asked.
"Anything that can get it moving in ways I haven't used it. All I ever did was fly around so it put a lot of stress on it. Other exercise would help."
"Like say… battling?"
The pidgey blinked excessively, a little puzzled. "Sure, I guess… are you insinuating…?"
Dylan pulled out a Poke Ball with a smile. This was actually so exciting, he had to interrupt the pidgey's sentence.
"Do you wanna' come with me? We could help each other out."
The pidgey seemed to look him over a few times. She gave a shrug. "Fine. Seems like it'd be fun."
"You have a name?"
"Roberta."
"Dylan. Nice to meet you, Roberta."
And with that, he threw the Poke Ball and caught his first pokemon. He didn't expect to be so wrapped up in the experience, due to his earlier ambivalence, but it was a positive change. He realized that maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all.
Autumn stood on Route 22 allowing the cool breeze to ripple through her long auburn hair. She gave a half-smile, appreciating the view of Indigo Plateau. She lifted up her squirtle, whom she affectionately nicknamed Stefano, and posed him as if he were a giant standing at the edge of the mountain. She pulled a large camera from her bag and took a snapshot from her place on the ledge.
Autumn enjoyed taking pictures from a young age; her mother always considered it a more ladylike option for a career and she oftentimes attempted to push her towards it, as it was a good career to allow Autumn's creativity to flow. Her interests in battling and following in her grandfather's footsteps overtook her passion for photography, however, turning it into merely a hobby. She still enjoyed it, and had the idea of documenting her journey in pictures and gathering them into a book she could look back on in the years to come with her children and grandchildren.
"That was so cute, Stefano," she said with a grin and much emphasis. "You could really be a model… your expressions are to die for."
Stefano's face went from an accepting and grateful smile to a worried one in the blink of an eye. He suddenly sprayed water from his mouth. It was such a surprise, Autumn leapt back and spun around to see what had startled her squirtle.
A mankey had Autumn's camera teeter-tottering in the grip of its natural misaligned arms. Autumn had everything on that camera. Her typically-well-to-do mindframe simply snapped into something a bit more feral upon the realization that her camera was stolen, with her taking on a persona with more resemblance to the pokemon she was chasing after than the usually calm, cool and collected Autumn Oak she was.
As Autumn made her way down the steep ledges of the hill, she heard more voices. They were shouting. She heard something that sounded like fire blazing through the air. She and Stefano made their way to the bottom of the cliff quickly now, but they could not make out where the mankey ran off to through all of the trees and sprawling pathways leading back to Viridian City and off toward Indigo Plateau.
"Maybe that voice is yelling at the mankey," Stefano suggested with a passive shrug. "I mean, it's worth a shot…"
Without a moment's hesitation, his trainer followed his judgment and they ran in the direction of Viridian City, in the direction of the voices, past all of the sprawling trees and many other wild pokemon - some slumbering, some hiding, and a small pack of nidorans of both gender that sat and watched with piqued curiosity over this running human and the shouting one nearby. Upon entering a clearing, Autumn stopped dead in her tracks as she saw the scene up ahead of her.
A messy cute boy with a silly looking chullo hat over his shoulder length brown hair, with a red and white tee and cargo blue jeans was commanding a lazy-looking charmander against a mankey with a camera in its grip. It was Dylan. The idiot!, she thought to herself. That's my camera! He is going to have his charmander fry my camera to a crisp!
"Stefano, use Water Gun on that charmander!"
It was the first thing that popped in her mind.
Stefano can take care of the charmander… I'll get the mankey myself.
Dylan tried his best to get to Ike, but he couldn't. Having battled a few trainers at the Viridian City Pokemon Center at the eye-catching fountain that acted as the centerpiece of the building's lobby, he was forced to resort to his newly-caught pidgey, Roberta, as his own starter refused to listen to him. Roberta was strong enough to take on many of the bug catchers' pokemon, but he had to constantly run to the counter and have her healed because Ike refused to battle. And soon, she began to protest.
"This isn't fair," she said. "I like getting EXP and all but I can't be doing all the work on this team. Emphasis on team."
And she was right.
Dylan had to do something, anything, about Ike and his disobedience. But what?
"Do you not like to battle?" Dylan asked the charmander curiously, as he scooped him up under the pits of the orange creature's arms, holding him on eye-level. He hoped that maybe this would help with their connection in some way, as silly as that may sound… it was definitely desperation kicking in. "Or do you just not like me?"
Ike proceeded to scorch Dylan's face with an Ember attack, causing the boy to scream in a high-pitched tone. With many onlookers giggling and taking jubilance out of Dylan's suffering, he dropped Ike onto the floor of the Pokemon Center and ran toward that beautiful fountain, past the trainers he just walloped, and dipped his charred face into the freezing temperature water. As he pulled his sopping wet face out of the water, one of the laughing bug catchers leaned in close and had the nerve to jeer, "You've got a little bit of ash still on your cheek there. Let me get that for you…"
Sticking his finger in his mouth and swabbing around, the cocky little bug catcher plopped his finger right onto Dylan's cheek and got rid of the remaining bit of ash.
"There," he bellowed. "Much better."
"And I've still got all your money in my back pocket," Dylan snapped angrily. He had no time to think. He just thought of how humiliated he was and how he couldn't let this douchebag get away with making it worse. "That's right! My back pocket! It's been pressed against my ass for the past hour and a half since I've kicked yours, as I've been farting all over it throughout that span of time. You have no room to laugh, punk."
And he points to all of the bug catcher's, his eyes wild.
"And that goes for ALL of you! I took ALL of your money and farted on it!"
Dylan was never great at managing his anger… or coming up with very intelligent insults.
As he made his way out of the center and realized the Viridian City Gym was shut down, he made his way toward the first thing his eye could catch - the Indigo Plateau. He had heard so much about it in school, it was one of the only topics that stuck with him. It had some sort of importance, but he couldn't quite remember what or why…
But he did always have an eye for sightseeing and he hoped that maybe here he could break through to Ike. He had to do it sooner rather than later.
Upon entering a clearing on the route, Dylan pulled out his charmander's Poke Ball, tapped the button in the middle and Ike's tiny and defiant with his arms crossed body materialized. Dylan looked at his charmander sternly.
"I am putting my foot DOWN," he said. "You embarrassed the crap out of me back there! I tried insulting them, and do you know how bad I am at insults? Probably not because you haven't even tried to get to know me."
"Well, I saw your lack of skills back there," Ike replied. "So I guess I do know you a bit after all."
His tone was so dry, so mocking. Dylan couldn't take it.
"Listen, you little brat…"
Ike was about to lay down, right here in the grass, when his eyes drifted off. The Indigo Plateau's tip was caught in his eyesight. Dylan's droning on and on about whatever was blocked out by a buzzing sound. Ike suddenly felt ill, nauseous, as the memories began to pour back into his mind like floodgates had opened and a torrent of remembrance wracked his brain and knocked it over.
He suddenly fell backward, and he saw Dylan's face peering into his. The anger was gone. All Ike saw staring back at him was a face of someone who showed concern, of pure horror from the situation…
As Dylan lifted him up, Ike felt the blood rushing back through his body and his vision straightened out. The blurs stopped and Dylan's voice returned to his ears, "...Ike, bro, seriously, what the heck…?"
"I'm fine," Ike grumbled simply. "Just… a little ill. Probably from that show you put on back there. I don't know what was more embarrassing to watch, you with you face on fire running through a crowd of people or you admitting to said crowd that you have gas."
Dylan sighed. "I'm getting nowhere with you fast, huh?"
That's when they saw a mankey running down the cliffside, with a camera in its hands. Ike's eyes locked on the mankey… he remembered it. More memories flowed back to him, more anger, more resentment. But this time, he could control it. He wasn't going to faint. But he was dead-set on making sure that mankey did.
"Let's catch it…" Dylan said. "Catching pokemon is getting exciting, admittedly, I shouldn't have shrugged it off so quickly."
"I've got this."
"Really?"
The hopeful tone in Dylan's voice made Ike realize that he mistook Ike's lust for vengeance as a way of building bridges between himself and his trainer. It was nothing like that. Ike wasn't doing this for Dylan, not for building up his team or allowing his trainer to catch the vile-looking thing… He was doing this for himself.
"Where are your friends?" Ike spat.
The mankey gave a soft smirk, "What are you on about…?"
"You don't remember me? Well, I remember you well…"
"I don't know what the fuck you're talking about…"
Ike spat a burst of flames in the mankey's direction. The monkey-like creature dodged, and Ike's attention turned to a shouting voice and a squirtle that just entered the clearing. That was when a stream of water from smacked into Ike's chest like a barrage of gunfire. Ike was thrown into the air, flying backwards. He watched the world twist around him, the trees become entwined with the peak of Indigo Plateau, and the bushes become one with the clouds. Preparing himself for impact with the gravelly ground, Ike was surprised to land in the arms of his trainer.
"Gotcha," he heard Dylan said proudly. Ike looked up at the smiling boy, for once without a hint of anger or pre-judged resentment, and gave a soft smile. But not too soft.
"Thanks."
This made Dylan smile even harder.
"Don't let it get away!" they heard Autumn shout.
Dylan reached into his pocket, and threw a Poke Ball before Ike even had the moment to argue. The ball smacked into the mankey's chest, throwing it backward. Its grip on the camera unlocked and the camera was sent catapulted into the air. Autumn dove for it like a football quarterback, arms outstretched. But Dylan and Ike's attention - both with different emotions and facial expressions, Dylan with one of excitement and hope and Ike with one of pure contempt - was solely on the mankey as the Poke Ball's laser technology vaporized the creature digitally and dragged it inside like a mini vacuum.
The capsule shook once or twice before the button in the middle glowed with a definitive red light, locking in place. Ike gave a roar of anger.
"NO!" he shouted. "Why would you catch that thing? Do you have any idea what it did to me?"
"No," Dylan admitted as he picked up his new mankey's Poke Ball. "Because you never talk to me or tell me what's wrong. I'm willing to listen though."
"I hate to admit this riveting family drama," Autumn's voice said with a heavy tone of sarcasm as she coddled her camera. "But you nearly destroyed my camera."
"Sorry," Dylan said quickly, but sincerely, as he recalled Ike into his Poke Ball. "I'd love to chat some more, but we have to go challenge the Viridian City gym…"
"Oh, you changed your tune pretty fast," Autumn said dryly. "Just yesterday you were Mister I-Don't-Wanna-Train-Pokemon, now all of a sudden you're gung-ho about your Nuzlocke challenge and you're ready to challenge gyms?"
"Sulking about my situation isn't going to change it. so I'm making the best of it. And it's a lot more fun than I expected."
"Well, that's good. I hope you know the Viridian Gym is closed, though…"
But Dylan was already on his way back toward Viridian City, waving at her.
"You just want to hold me up, Autumn… Not falling for it."
"I hope you have a klefki that'll get you in through the doors," she shouted after him. "Because the gym is C-L-O-S-E-D. Closed! I already tried."
And he was out of her eyesight. She shook her head.
Let him try.
Dylan pounded on the front double doors to the Viridian City gym and smushed his face against the glass, making a strange face as his eyes darted back and forth through the darkness of the gym. It was hard to make out anything or anyone inside.
"Hello?" he said, muffled by his face's distortion from the glass. "Someone open up…!"
"I told you," he heard Autumn say.
He pulled away, spun around, and saw her stood nearby with her arms crossed.
"Look at the sign, idiot."
She pointed to a sign on the door that Dylan failed to take notice of. He hated reading and didn't think twice that the note posted on the door was worth any of his time… he thought stopping to read it would just hold him up from his gym challenge.
"Sorry, the Viridian City Gym is temporarily closed due to a plumbing issue," Dylan read aloud. "We apologize for the inconvenience, please visit the nearby gym in Pewter City. Be sure to bring a team that is headstrong and ready for a rock-hard challenge."
He gave a pouty face and sighed.
"How the heck do I get to Pewter City then? Do you happen to have a master klefki I could use though?"
Autumn smiled, appreciating the joke, but she was a bit turned off on Dylan's tone. He made it not sound quite like a joke and she really hoped he wasn't that dense.
"Through Viridian Forest, which is that way," Autumn said, pointing down the pathway that was opposite of the one they entered to get to Route 22. "I'm gonna' backtrack and stop for supplies at the Poke Mart."
"Okay, I guess I'll see you later then."
And with that, Dylan started off for the pathway to the forest without another look back. Autumn shook her head, feeling embarrassed and stupid that she expected him to wait up for her. So frustratingly oblivious.
