Chapter 4

"Charmander, Ember."

The Fire type let out a small flame at its opponent who couldn't dodge in time. It was hit by the attack and knocked back head over heels. When it stopped rolling, both Charmander and Red could see that it had no energy left.

Red walked away from the unconscious Rattata with Charmander at his side. They had been travelling Route 1 for a week now, and had battled many pokemon, none strong enough to give the red lizard a challenge. Charmander is really powerful. I can see why those special pokemon are reserved for established trainers.

While walking and not battling, Red and Charmander had gotten to know each other. Each night before bed, Red would tell Charmander about his life, how he had grown up in a far away town, his life at school and the death of his father. How his mother had forced them to stand up for themselves and building the business back. While Charmander learned about Red this way, Red would observe Charmander's habits to get to know it better. The way it cleared away all the leaves and stones on a patch of ground before curling up to sleep and how it would alternate between small and large bites while eating. The bond between trainer and pokemon only grew stronger.

As Red and Charmander cleared the top of the next hillock, they found themselves facing a sprawling spread of buildings and houses. They glanced at each other and smiled through their eyes. Their days of sleeping on the ground were over, even if it was for only a little while. Red was not a great cook, meaning that his pokemon and he had to eat canned food and whatever fruits and berries they could scavenge. There was always enough to eat, Red had made sure of that, but canned beans and meat could only satisfy some of their cravings. Viridian City would provide them with their first hot meal in days.

Over the last five years, Red had done a lot of research on his journey. He knew he would have to collect the eight Gym badges to challenge the League. The town where he lived earlier had many trainers passing through regularly. Since he worked at the store, and a visit to the store was a priority to many trainers, he always had trainers to talk to, and to ask questions of. He had even met Blue once, but the prodigal trainer had boisterously refused to answer any questions stating that his secrets were his own. Regardless, Red had found out the best routes to take, where the shortcuts were, which pokemon were available at each locations, how to catch certain evasive species.

His research, however, was much more exhaustive than simply the secondhand information from other trainers. He was regularly up to date on the League rules and who the Gym Leaders were and what type of pokemon they used. In short, he was as prepared as any trainer could get before setting out from home.

He knew that the Gym in Viridian was empty. It was empty most of the time. The Leader was Giovanni, a rich and powerful man whose presence in the business and political world took up most of his time. He used Ground type pokemon, but he accepted challengers only on a few days a month, when he could take time off from his busy schedule. Potential challengers would have to wait in Viridian until one of those days. League rules stated that every Gym must be open for five days a week and that the Gym Leader must be present for at least two hours everyday that the Gym is open. Giovanni's system was blatantly against the policy of the League, but his influence and contacts could cut through all the red tape, so he remained Gym Leader much to the frustration of many trainers.

The duo made their way towards the pokemon center. On the walk there, Red's thoughts drifted back to the journey through Route 1. On his very first day on the road, he had gotten into a battle with a Pidgey, which he had caught. Its pokeball was attached to his belt at the moment. What do I do with it? As a species, Pidgey are pretty useful. They have decent speed and attack stats, and can be ridden once they evolve into their final form, Pidgeot. The one I caught seems to be average, nothing special about it. Charmander will eventually evolve into Charizard, who can fly me around, so Pidgeot will be redundant. Blue also has one, which means that they must be pretty strong.

He finally settled on keeping it with him and training it for the moment. He would take a more concrete decision later.

While Charmander was powerful and unbeaten, it had taken a few hits. Red had also trained Pidgey a little, battling it against some of the weaker pokemon that the little group encountered. Both pokemon had some injuries that would need to be healed. As they entered and reached the counter, Red spoke to the nurse standing there, "Full Restore please."

Nurse Joy took Charmander and the two pokeballs from Red with a smile. She called Charmander back into its ball and placed both in the healing machine. She pressed a button on the machine and waiting for a few seconds while the healing was taking place. In a few moments, Red had his pokeballs attached to his belt and Charmander standing by his side. He nodded thanks to Nurse Joy and made his way to the cafeteria.

As he entered, he stopped at the doorway to look around. The place was almost empty. There were a couple of dozen tables in the room, of which only two were occupied. The table nearest the door was off to the side against a large window that looked out into the concrete Viridian jungle. A group of three trainers sat at the table, slurping their ramen noisily and generally chattering away with small talk. Two were female and one was male. Just some average trainers. But why is the place so empty? It's almost time for the League Cup. Only a couple of months to go. Normally at this time of the year Viridian is packed with trainers waiting to register. The ones at that table can't be the only ones here. Red gave them a cursory glance before focusing on the only other occupant of the room.

It was a girl about his age who had taken a table at the very back of the room. She was wearing a blue tank top due to which Red could see that her arms were slim yet strong. A white hat was lying on the table next to her tray of food, which she seemed to have mostly ignored. Wow she's really pretty. I wonder what her name is? Should I go talk—Yikes she's looking at me! He jerked away from her gaze, touches of red shading his cheeks and feeling foolish for ogling, he walked towards the counter to get some food, Charmander trailing alongside.

He made his way to a table as far away as possible from the two occupied ones, one that was in the center of the room. As he placed his tray on the table, he glanced at the girl sitting by herself and noticed once again that she was looking at him. This time he also managed to see that she was wearing a red skirt, which showed off her slender legs. Feeling a blush coming on, he decided to sit facing away from her. He called out Pidgey and placed some pokemon food in front of Charmander and it. He made sure that there was enough for the both of them to eat their fill but not completely stuff themselves.

While eating his lunch, which consisted of rice cakes and barbecued pork, he thought about some battle strategies that he could use in the future. Charmander is very strong. It can get over its weakness to Rock and Ground with pure power and moves such as Metal Claw, but Water is another problem. The best strategy would be to not use Charmander against a Water type, but every situation is not ideal. Once it evolves into Charizard I can use Flying type attacks, but until then I need a solution.

His concentration was on his thoughts while he absentmindedly ate his lunch. So deep was he into his contemplation that he didn't notice when noise level in the cafeteria suddenly died down. He didn't even realize it when footsteps sounded towards him. He was, however, shaken out of his reverie when a shadow fell across his table. He looked up to see one of the three trainers from the first table standing there. It was one of the girls. She was wearing school uniform type clothes, a white shirt with a tie over a red skirt. On her feet were black shoes with stocking reaching her knees. She had a strange look on her face, like she was angry or upset. Her friends were standing some distance away, amused smirks plastered on their faces and whispering to each other. Well well well, this seems like a classic case of a bully with her thugs behind her ready to step in at need. Let's play along and see where this goes. Red's instinctive response to years of being a bullying victim was to play along as much as possible, and then flee when the chance arose.

So he sat there looking at the girl standing in front of him. Charmander had also looked up from its food when the girl had arrived and it was now standing straight, not moving a muscle, though ready to burst into action at a moment's notice. But that was before I had my own pokemon. Now I can fight back. Pidgey was still eating as if it hadn't noticed what was happening. Charmander is really strong and really smart. I'm really lucky to have been given one of the special pokemon.

"Um, hey, I was just, um, thinking, and I thought…"

Red was surprised to hear a tremor in the girl's voice.

"I thought, um, wudjubintrestedinnabal?" Is this girl crazy? What was that word she just used? Red looked at her as if she had grown an extra head.

"Eep! Sorry!" her exclamation was punctuated by the growing blush on her cheeks. "I meant, um, would you, if you don't mind, um, you know, battle against me? You don't have to say yes, you know, only if you want to!" She turned around and gave her friends a nervous smile.

Suddenly the whole situation took on a whole new meaning for Red. This wasn't a bully come to play pranks on him. This was his first trainer battle! Her friends weren't laughing at him; they were snickering at her embarrassment! She's probably a newbie like me if she's so shy about a battle. Wow, my first trainer fight!

Heart thudding in his chest, Red nodded. His plate was almost empty, and though he had been through tough times as a child and had learned the hard way not to waste food, he was too nervous and excited to finish the remainder. His heart felt like it was going break his ribs, that hard was it pounding. Yet, the ever stoic Red did not show any emotion. He looked over at his pokemon and saw that they were done eating too. He reached his arm out with a pokeball in hand. He recalled Pidgey with the ball, while Charmander scampered up the same arm to perch on his shoulder.

"Wow, I wasn't sure that you would agree! I'm so excited! Your Charmander looks pretty strong. And it's so serious too!" She really talks a lot. I hope her battle skills are as formidable as her mouth.

Red and the girl made their way outside the pokemon center with her two friends following. Once outside, they walked to opposite sides of an area cleared just for pokemon battles. One of her friends, the male, stood between the two acting as referee.

"This battle is between Alice of Saffron City and… what's your name dude?"

"Red. Red from Pallet Town."

"This battle is between Alice of Saffron City and Red of Pallet Town. Each trainer may use only one pokemon. Whoever knocks out the other's pokemon first is the winner and will receive 200 pokeunits from the loser." 200 pokeunits? All I can get with that is a potion. Oh well, it's just my first battle. There are lot's more trainers out there to defeat. I wonder what pokemon she will use.

The girl, Alice, plucked out a pokeball from three that were attached to her belt. All three were in their miniature forms, for easy storage. When she pressed the button in the front, it enlarged in her hand to the normal size for ease of use. She threw the ball towards Red and shouted "Go Pidgey!"

Her Pidgey appeared out of the pokeball. The small brown bird flapped its wings and flew around the field before landing facing Red.

A Pidgey! Should I use my own or should I go for the kill? Charmander can easily take it down. But Pidgey needs to be trained. I don't want to lose my first battle ever.

"Pidgey, you're up" Red said while throwing his own pokeball into the field. The bird pokemon landed facing Alice and her Pidgey. Red noticed that his pokemon was slightly larger, and the brown was a little deeper, so he could easily tell the two apart.

"Oh yay! I was really hoping you wouldn't use Charmander. It would have destroyed my pokemon. Pidgey, use Tackle!" Alice's Pidgey dove towards Red's.

"Sand Attack, then Gust" said Red.

Red's Pidgey flapped its wings at the ground sending a spray of dirt and sand at its opponent's eyes. The smaller bird was rendered blind and veered away from Red's Pidgey before crashing to the ground. Red's Pidgey flapped its wings again, sending a powerful burst of wind at the fallen bird just as it was rising. It got hit by the sudden wind and flew back a few feet to crash into the ground again.

"No! Pidgey! Get up and use your own Gust!"

"Quick Attack."

Alice's Pidgey stood up looking quite tired. It flapped its wings once to get airborne, and tried flapping them again to send a Gust attack. Before it could muster enough wind power to send a Gust, Red's Pidgey flash disappeared and reappeared in a collision with the other Pidgey. It then flew back to Red's side of the field and landed facing Alice. Alice's Pidgey, on the other hand, had tumbled to the ground yet again, and this time was out for the count.

Alice's face fell, and she quickly recalled her pokemon into its pokeball. Red did the same, but after congratulating Pidgey about a job well done. It looks like Pidgey is pretty strong too. I wasn't sure it would win, let alone attain a flawless victory.

Red looked up after recalling Pidgey and saw Alice being comforted by her friends. She still looked dejected. Red walked up to her and held out his hand.

A look of realization came over Alice. "Sorry, I forgot, I owe you 200" she said as she searched around her backpack for the money.

"That's not what I meant," said Red, still holding out his hand. Alice gaped at him, holding the money in her hand. She looked at his outstretched hand, and then up at his face before a wide smile crept onto her own. She grabbed his hand with her own and shook it. "Well fought," said Red.

"Here, I owe you this anyway," she said pressing the notes into his hand. He nodded before pocketing the notes and turned and walked away. What he didn't see was that the girl from the cafeteria had been watching the whole thing from the window, a sly smile on her face, plans already whirring through her head.