Chapter 2: The First Capture

"So, since we both have Cyndaquils, how about we have a battle between them? To see who's stronger."

Frank and I stood in the middle of Route 29, about a half hour or so out from New Bark Town. After receiving our starters from Professor Elm, we hadn't wasted any time, and had immediately left the lab and the town before it even reached noon.

I turned to Frank. "Sure, why not. Not like you stand a chance, though."

"Really?" said Frank. "So you're going to trash talk now?"

I shrugged. "Eh, why not."

Frank simply crossed his arms and grinned. "Well, who was the top student in the battle simulator back in school? Oh yeah. This guy."

I snorted. "Whatever. I'll still beat you. The simulator's a lot different than an actual battle."

Frank rolled his eyes. "We'll see. But first, we have to find a good place to battle."

We continued down Route 29 for a couple of minutes, until finding a suitable battlefield: a small clearing located off to the side of the path.

"You ready?" I yelled out to Frank as I grabbed Cyndaquil's Poké Ball━the one with the flame emblem. I took it off of my belt, rolling the Poké Ball around in my palm.

"Ready when you are," Frank yelled from his side of our makeshift battlefield.

"Alrighty, then," I said. Nerves started to kick in. To be honest, I was getting a little nervous; but yet also very excited at the prospect of having my first battle. "Here we go!"

I threw out Cyndaquil's Poké Ball, and he materialized in front of me, ready for battle. "Cynda!" he cried out. I looked up his moves on my Pokédex beforehand, and I was ready.

Frank sent out his Cyndaquil. The two Pokémon stared at each other for a moment, before I initiated the battle. "Cyndaquil, use Tackle!"

"You, too, Cyndaquil! Tackle!" Frank commanded.

My Cyndaquil sprinted on all fours, charging towards Frank's, who similarly charged back at my Cyndaquil in return. The two Pokémon met near the middle of the battlefield, connecting shoulders. Met in a deadlock, the two continued to lower their shoulders and push into the other, attempting to overpower the other; but neither could gain an advantage.

"Cyndaquil, release yourself!" yelled out Frank. His Cyndaquil responded perfectly to his command, sidestepping out of the way. My Cyndaquil suddenly found itself lacking an opposing force. He stumbled over, shoulder-first, landing on his back and in a very vulnerable position.

Frank took advantage. "Cyndaquil, Tackle!"

I struggled to formulate a command quick enough, definitely not ready for the speed of the battle. So, Cyndaquil took the battle into his own hands. He tried to roll out of the way, but he acted too early, giving Frank's Cyndaquil enough time to react. It modified its angle of attack. Without missing a beat, it slammed into my Cyndaquil. He was pummeled and skidded along the ground, tumbling, until he landed at my feet.

I put up my hand, signaling for Frank to stop. "That's enough, Frank. You've won."

Frank smiled, and he returned his Cyndaquil to its Poké Ball. I did likewise with mine. "That was fun," he said, still smiling.

Despite the defeat, I held my head high. "Yeah, it was. You have quite the Cyndaquil there. He really knows how to battle and react to your commands. My Cyndaquil, on the other hand...well, we'll have to work on it. Both of us struggled today."

Frank laughed, a little embarrassed at the praise. "Yeah, guess I lucked out with the Cyndaquil I got. I'm sure yours will improve, though."

I shrugged. "He didn't do bad, I just should've reacted quicker. I did alright on the simulator back in school━"

"━top 5 is a lot better than "alright"," Frank interrupted me with.

I felt my cheeks redden at the compliment. "Not as good as you though…"

"Give yourself some credit, man! And plus, you did a lot better on the written exams than I did. You were second best in the class at that! Remember what Mrs. Franklin said to us? 'You three, you're all going places. I can tell. You three are the best and brightest trainers I've had in a while."

"I miss Luke," I said frankly.

Frank realized what he had done, and quickly tried to remedy the situation. "Shoot! Sorry, I didn't mean to bring it up," he said. The sadness on his face started to mirror mine as we remembered our friend.

After several moments of us looking down and glum, I decided to change the subject. "Hey, reminiscing about the past and feeling bad for ourselves won't get us anywhere...right? So let's get moving."

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Frank said glumly, kicking some dirt around with his foot, his head down. Slowly and silently, we began walking down the path again, onwards to our next destination: Cherrygrove City.

"It's getting dark, Frank," I said, noting the growing dusk around us. "What do you say we make camp soon?"

"Sure."

Frank looked around, and then led me over to some trees that had just enough room to fit both us and a campfire. Thankfully, Frank had rebounded from our earlier conversation about Luke, as had I.

"This seems like a good spot," he said, setting down his backpack and leaning it up against a tree. I did likewise. Frank reached into his backpack and pulled out his sleeping bag.

"Want to go gather some sticks?" Frank asked me.

"Sure, just watch my stuff for me."

I sent Eevee out, and he followed me as I went out into the forest to search for some sticks to help with the fire. He jumped around, eager to get some exercise after being in his Poké Ball the entire day. Just stay within my sight, I had told him. It's a good thing he knows how to listen.

Darkness quickly descended on the forest, and I found myself getting chills as the temperature dropped. It had been warm during the day, but now I found myself zipping up my jacket.

Through the darkness, I managed to stumble upon a fallen tree. There were several easy-to-reach, thin branches that would be perfect for a fire. I grabbed as many as I could and began stumbling back towards camp. Eevee remembered the way better than I did, and he led the way. I struggled to see him in the dark, so he began crying out, and I gingerly followed his voice, careful to watch my steps. Finally, I found my way back to Frank.

"Took you long enough," Frank joked as I returned. "I was getting bored."

"Whatever," I said, dropping the sticks in the center of our campsite, inside a circle of small rocks that Frank had arranged. After organizing the sticks into a pile, Frank pulled out a match and lit them on fire.

In a matter of seconds, a small but bright and warm fire was alive in front of us. I pulled my sleeping bag out of my backpack and snuggled up next to the fire. I sent out Cyndaquil so that he could enjoy the fire with Eevee and I. Frank similarly sent out his Poliwag and Cyndaquil. I looked at his Poliwag for a moment, remembering all of the memories we had with it back in Goldenrod. Frank hadn't received Poliwag as a gift like I had received Eevee; he had found it one day in the park, and the little thing has stuck to him like glue ever since.

Frank and I chatted, excited about our day, until finally our eyelids began to get very heavy. Poliwag put out the fire for us, and I quickly drifted off to sleep.

I woke up in the morning to find Frank already up. He was preparing a breakfast for us.

"What took you so long?" he asked. "Look how high the sun is! It's like…" he checked his Pokégear. "...9 AM already! We're losing valuable daylight!"

I was about to fire off a mean retort, but then I saw Frank smile and I realized he had only been joking. "Dude, I thought you were actually mad at me!" I said as I punched him in the arm.

"Hey, I could've had Poliwag use Water Gun to wake you up. Just be happy you woke up when you did. Because I was considering that," Frank joked. Or at least, I assumed he was joking.

"Poli! Poli!"

Frank and I both looked over at his Poliwag, who was standing next to the pot that Frank was cooking in. The lid was starting to shake violently.

"Shoot!" Frank yelled, along with some other choice words. He had Poliwag douse the flames beneath the pot, but the lid still bounced around uncontrollably.

"I let it cook too long! Now the steam from the water's boiling over…"

Without thinking, he reached for the lid, but the second he touched it, he yanked his fingers back, and he yelled some more choice words.

"Dude, watch your language," I chided. Frank glared at me, and continued on with some more choice words as he searched, one-handed, through his backpack. Finally, he pulled out an oven mitt that was vaguely shaped like a Hitmonchan-glove.

Gingerly, and with his good hand, he pulled the lid off the pot. A colossal cloud of steam shot out, causing everyone to jump back. When the steam had dissipated, Frank and I leaned towards the pot, checking its contents. Oats.

"Wow. I think they actually turned out alright," I judged.

Frank punched me in the shoulder. "Alright?! I put a lot of work into these, and 'alright' is all you have to say?"

I threw up my arms in surrender. "Chill, man! No need to punch me…" I said as I rubbed my shoulder. "It's just oats. It's not like it's a four course meal you spent half a day working on."

Frank rolled his eyes. "Well, I still worked hard on it, OK?"

"Fine…they don't look half-bad, I guess" I admitted.

Frank's expression softened. "Thank you. Now, was it that hard to say that?"

"No," I said under my breath. "Can we just eat now?'

"I thought you'd never ask," Frank said, pulling out a couple of small, plastic bowls from his backpack, and using a ladle to pour oats into both. "Eat up," he said as he handed me a spoon. After eating, we fed our Pokémon and then packed up camp, continuing down Route 29.

We spent much of the time walking in silence, both of us still a little shell-shocked that we're finally living out our dreams, traveling the Johto region to achieve our childhood goal of collecting all eight Gym badges and challenging the Silver Conference.

The silence was broken when a wild Pokémon wandered onto the path in front of us. Frank and I both instinctively froze.

"It's a Pidgey!" I whispered excitedly to Frank, pulling him off of the path and into the trees. The Pokémon hadn't noticed us yet.

"I want it!" Frank said, reaching to his belt for a Poké Ball.

"Wait!" I whispered, stopping him as began to bring his arm up to throw the Poké Ball. "I saw it first!"

"No, I did!"

"Well you didn't say anything! I did!"

"That's a stupid reason!"

"You're a stupid reason!"

Frank just stared at me. "Rock, paper, scissors for it, then? Two out of three?"

I glanced at the Pidgey, who had somehow not noticed us, despite our bickering. Still, I realized that at any moment it could simply walk away. "Fine," I said, hoping to settle our argument quickly. "Let's go."

We both put our hands out in front of us in the typical rock, paper, scissors fashion. I threw out rock, and Frank threw out scissors.

"Aha!" I cried. We threw again; I threw paper and Frank threw scissors.

"Yes!" Frank cried out. Both of us silently prepared for the final throw, and then we threw out our final choices. Me, rock again, and Frank...rock, also.

We both groaned, then threw out new choices, and this time I beat Frank by throwing out paper to his scissors.

"Yes!" I reached for Eevee's Poké Ball, palming it in my hand.

"Eevee, let's go!" I whispered as I sent him out. He materialized in front of me.

I heard Frank start to grumble. "You know, I never got a chance to stretch before we started."

"Shut up," I said, trying to focus on what move to use on Pidgey. "I have to focus. Don't be a sore loser." I laughed after saying the last part, causing Frank to bicker even more. I ignored him.

Eevee looked up at me, ready for battle, a confident a grin on his face. "Alright, then. I know what to do. Let's start this off with a Tackle attack!"

Eevee cried out confidently as he started charging at Pidgey. It turned around, completely bewildered, and got knocked to the ground from Eevee's full-body tackle. Seeing that it was dazed, I grabbed a Poké Ball out of my backpack and threw it at the stunned Pokémon.

The ball hit Pidgey, turning it into a red energy and absorbing that energy. The ball rocked from side-to-side for several excruciatingly long seconds, before finally stopping. A high-pitched DING sounded, and the Poké Ball emitted several stars.

For a moment I just stood there, frozen, trying to process what had just happen. Frank beat me to it.

"Dude, you just caught your first ever wild Pokémon!"

He grabbed me by the shoulders, jumping up and down, his face alight with excitement. Any disgruntled feelings he had from our rock, paper, scissors game were gone.

Slowly, I managed to realize what had happened. I walked over, still stunned, and picked up the Poké Ball. I pressed the center button, and Pidgey materialized in front of me. He looked up at me and tilted his head, confused as to what had happened.

I knelt down. "Hi, Pidgey. I'm Chris, and this is Eevee," I said as Eevee ran up and greeted him. Any tension between the two due to their battle was non-existent.

I reached into my backpack, and pulled out my Pokédex. I utilized the "scan" feature to get information on Pidgey: Common in grassy areas and forests, it is very docile and will chase off enemies by flapping up sand. The Pokédex also identified Pidgey as a male, like Eevee and Cyndaquil.

"Welcome to the team! We're very happy to have you," I said, smiling to Pidgey. He smiled back at me. "Oh! And there's somebody else you need to meet."

I reached back to my belt and pulled out Cyndaquil's Poké Ball. I sent him out, and he greeted Pidgey. Cyndaquil even shook Pidgey's hand (er, wing), and the two started chatting it up, talking about who knows what.

After that, we continued onwards towards Cherrygrove City rather uneventfully. Along the way, we encountered several wild Pokémon that Eevee battled. I would've tried to catch one, but Frank still hadn't made his first capture, and despite the fact that he had been happy for me when I caught Pidgey, I can tell that he's a little jealous.

Finally, as it neared dusk, we decided to set up camp in a small clearing, a little bigger than the area we had camped in the night before. Eevee, who was walking with us, was visibly exhausted from the day's battles, as was Frank's Poliwag, who had similarly gone through several battles. Sadly, Frank hadn't had my luck; the Pokémon he encountered had managed to evade his capture attempts.

Rather uneventfully, we set up camp, going through the same routine as we had the night before. We ate a small dinner that mainly consisted of jerky, and drank water that from a nearby stream that Frank's Poliwag had discovered. Even Eevee hadn't heard the stream, but apparently Poliwag could sense it or something. I'm still not sure how exactly he found it.

In the morning, I tried to cook some oats up, and had better luck than Frank. I kept an eye on them, constantly checking to make sure they were cooking alright. When they appeared to be done, I put out the fire and dished them out.

"Not bad," Frank said through a mouthful of oats.

"I did a lot better than you did," I said, elbowing Frank playfully.

"Yeah, well, you have the advantage of learning from my mistakes," he said.

"Whatever," I replied. Neither of us said anything else until we finished up our oats.

"So, what's your first Pokémon going to be?" I asked Frank as we started back down the path the next day. We both woke up early today, and decided to start out with only a small breakfast of leftover oats.

He looked at me and raised an eyebrow. "First Pokémon? It was Poliwag. You know that."

"No, I meant what's your first capture going to be?" I said.

"Oh." Frank shrugged. "I don't know. I haven't thought about it. I suppose, just the first wild Pokémon that I like that I catch. You didn't plan on catching a Pidgey, did you?"

"Well, no," I admitted. "I didn't really plan on what I wanted to catch. I just knew what I didn't want to catch. Like Dunsparce."

We both laughed. "Good choice," Frank said. "Dunsparce are weak."

"That's not exactly why I don't want one. Just, you know, a contributing factor. Weak Pokémon aren't bad, though," I said.

"I suppose so," Frank said. "But, strong Pokémon are nice to have."

"Yeah," I admitted. "They are. But, I'd rather have a weak Pokémon that's a good companion and friend, then to have a strong Pokémon that hates me and stuff."

Frank nodded in agreement, and that conversation was over. We continued onward, and nothing of much excitement happened, barring a couple of wild Pokémon battles (although no captures), until we reached the crest of a hill a little after midday. Down the hill, not too much farther ahead, was Cherrygrove City.

"Look!" Frank cried out. "It's Cherrygrove City!"

AN: Well, here's the rewrite! I know, I know, it's way overdue, but hey, better late then never, right? Please, don't be afraid to leave a review! I love to get feedback from my readers. And keep an eye out for the Chapter 3 rewrite; it should be right around the corner!