After twelve hours walking Jack was half way to Viridian City. He was also absolutely shattered. His feet hurt, his legs hurt and his shoulders hurt from carrying the backpack. After about an hour of walking he had released Dante and from then on they trekked together, talking and getting to know each other so that they would be more of a unit when they started battling.
There were no trainers on the trek to Viridian and they had not bumped into any wild Pokémon. Jack sat down with a bump and decided that he would take a long rest. 'Are you tired, Dante,' asked Jack. I have more stamina than a human. I can walk for weeks if I need to. 'That's good then, I think we should start training.' There are no wild Pokémon here, nothing for me to train against.
Jack crouched down over one of the many holes that dotted the grasslands, dangerous traps for a novice walker which could result in a devastating broken ankle or leg. 'You see these,' he motioned towards one of the holes, 'these are Rattata dens. They live underground like this to escape from predators and to make a comfy den. All we need to do is draw them out...' Jack looked around and inspiration struck him.
'Can you breathe fire yet?' he asked Dante curiously. As an answer Dante opened his mouth and blew out a small stream of fire. It was small but Jack could still feel the heat. That is the best I can do, I need to practice. 'Breathe a very small bit of fire into the hole and they will come running out to defend their burrow.'
A very small stream of flickering orange flame shot out of Dante's mouth and down the burrow. Immediately there was a crazed chattering. Invaders. Predators. Protect young. Bite. Four Rattata shot out like lightning and were on to Dante in a flash. He shook of two, sending them flying with a twist his body, and began to heat up his skin causing the other two to release him, their flesh burnt.
'Dante, used ember,' ordered Jack and Dante let out two thin blasts of flame that took out two of the Rattata's. They lay on the ground, unconscious and a little bit charred but still alive. Dante turned on the rest and hit them with powerful tackles that lay them flat on the ground. Dante sat down on his haunches smugly piece of cake. Jack cocked his head to the side, 'really? Then you won't mind if we do it some more.'
For the next four hours they trained as they walked along, make slow progress but gaining valuable battle experience along the way. By the time it was nightfall after a full day of travelling Jack could see that Dante was getting stronger. His steel mask and bangles seemed less pliable and harder. His ember attack was hotter, thicker and more dangerous, his full tackles were more destructive and his ancientpower was positively murderous.
When they were only hours away from Viridian City Dante's training moved to a whole new level. A whole flock of Pidgey descended around them with murderous intent. That was strange in itself, Pidgey were normally docile creatures that didn't like confrontation. Protect the nests. Protect the nests babbled the Pidgey. Ah thought Jack to himself that's why. They all dive-bombed Dante at once, pecking and scratching with razor sharp beaks and talons.
With a roar Dante let out a thick pillar of white-hot fire between his rugged steel teeth, burning two of the Pidgey to a crisp. They fell to the ground accompanied by the smell of burning meat. Jack wrinkled his nostrils before crying out, 'Dante, use ancientpower!' Dante let out an explosion of energy that threw all of the Pidgey of him, but the damage wasn't focussed enough to take out any of them.
Before Jack could let out another command Dante began to emanate an orange glow, suddenly he burst into flame and ran in a flaming tackle, smashing through the flock of Pidgey. Ah flame wheel thought Jack that is a powerful move! All the Pidgey were on the floor, unconscious or dead. Looking at the two dead Pidgey Jack felt a tide of remorse over take him, and he turned away, not wanting to look.
Dante nosed the dead Pidgey sadly I didn't mean to do this. They surprise me and hurt me. There was real sadness in his voice. 'We will try to be more careful next time,' said Jack, 'we cannot let this happen again, whatever the situation.'
They reached Viridian City around late afternoon. Jack returned Dante into his Pokéball and entered the small but bustling city with joy in his heart; he never thought he would see another city ever again. It wasn't as large as Saffron, nor was it as high-tech with the buildings made out of stone rather than gleaming metal and glass, but to Jack it was fantastic, he was as close to heaven as he could be. Jack headed straight to the Pokémon centre, navigating his way easily through the grid-layout of Viridian. As he was about to enter through the glass revolving doors a tall girl rushed out, knocking him to floor in the progress.
Jack was taken completely surprise and didn't even have time to break his fall before he fell backwards onto the ground. The back of his head hit the ground hard and blinding pain shot through his temple, 'Ah shit!' he shouted, clutching his head. The girl bent over him, her face a picture of concern, 'I'm sorry, I wasn't looking where I was going.' Jack groaned and took her proffered hand, surprised when she easily pulled him up.
With quite a lot of help from the girl Jack managed to stagger into the Pokémon centre and totter up to the counter leaning heavily on the tall blonde girl at his side. He placed Dante's Pokéball on the counter, 'can I have this healed please?' he asked the red haired Nurse Joy, 'and can I have a headache tablet, I fell on my head quite hard.' Nurse Joy nodded and placed Dante's Pokéball in a machine that looked like an updated version of the one Professor Oak used, this one was all clean stainless steel and harsh flashing lights.
'If you need a room to stay you can stay at one of the trainer rooms upstairs there. They aren't exactly luxury but they are free so....' Jack thanked the Nurse and walked towards the stairs. The girl placed a hand on his shoulder. 'Sorry about that, I'm Lelana, I'm a trainer too and I have a spare bunk in my room...' Jack turned and met the girl's hesitant look with a grin, 'I'm Jack and I'll be happy to stay there.'
Lelana looked relieved and led Jack upstairs to a small room. Nurse Joy was correct about it – it wasn't exactly luxury. The room was bordering on tiny. In one corner rested a metallic bunk bed, in the other corner was a tattered armchair. A very small bathroom containing a small shower, a toilet and a sink led off through wooden doors. 'It's not much,' shrugged Lelana, 'but it's comfortable enough. I take the bottom bunk.'
'So you're a Pokémon trainer too?' mused Jack, an idea beginning to germinate in his head. Lelana nodded. 'How long have you been a Pokémon trainer?' Lelana cocked her head to the side, 'oh, I got my Pokémon on the first of January. I have no badges yet. You too?' Jack signalled affirmative, 'I challenge you to a battle.' Lelana's grin was wide and toothy, 'You're on!'
Jack was also grinning, he couldn't wait to finally test out his talents on a real trainer. The mayor did not count to him. 'I say we battle just outside the entrance to Viridian, maybe a crowd will come to see my destroy you!' Jack's faith in Dante caused him to be slightly arrogant. Lelana took in her stride through, just smiling and shaking her head with a look of silent disbelief on her pretty face.
They faced off on the grassy plains outside Viridian City with a distance of around twenty metres between them. They released their Pokémon with two flashes of pure white light, which coalesced to form the outline of the Pokémon before revealing the two opponents. Dante stood at a face-off with a proud and majestic Arcanine – an intimidating fire-dog Pokémon with soft but thick orange fur and black stripes and a tufted mane and tail of thick, creamy coloured hair. 'How do you have an Arcanine already, I thought you only got your Pokémon a couple of days ago?'
The look on Lelana's face was enigmatic, 'I got a Growlithe then but I trained non-stop and it just evolved earlier today.' Jack narrowed his eyes, this was going to be harder than he first thought.
'Dante, use slash,' ordered Jack. The muscles in Dante's hind legs bunched as he hunkered backwards before exploding off the floor in a huge lunge. 'Windie, extremespeed,' said Lelana calmly as the lava dome Pokémon bore down on her. Windie moved sideways so fast that her body blurred and Dante's claws buried themselves in the ground. Lelana winced, 'that attack had some power.'
Jack smiled, 'Dante has huge strength. You don't have a chance.' Lelana stuck out her tongue, it was surprisingly long and red, 'if you say so rival. Windie, extremespeed again and follow it up with crunch.' Windie became an orange and black blur as she moved towards Dante, knocking him to the floor before viciously biting him with her razor sharp canines.
Dante let out a pained growl but his thick skin enabled him to shake it off. 'Dante, use slash again,' Dante's claws collided with Windie's side, throwing her bodily through the air and leaving three angry red scratches along the side of her torso.
When Windie heaved herself to her feet she had lost a lot of its strength and could barely stand. 'Windie, howl,' instructed Lelana, still calm even in the heat of battle. Windie lifted her powerful, shaggy head to the heavens and roared viciously, increasing her attack in the progress. 'Dante, use calm mind,' bid Jack and Dante began to focus his mind and calm himself to raise his Special Attack and Special Defence.
At the same time both Lelana and Jack shouted an order, 'Dante use flamethrower.' 'Windie use take down.' Dante let out a white hot pillar of flame that gave off so much heat that the air shimmered and warped around it. Windie sprinted towards Dante in explosive bounds powered by her muscle-bound hind legs. The flamethrower attack hit her in midair, stopping her in her tracks.
For a moment Windie hung there, the force of her leap equal to the force of the flamethrower, but quickly the flamethrower won over and sent her spinning backwards.
With an agile twist of her body Windie landed lightly on her feet, but she was panting heavily, her wounds taking a huge toll. Dante was also starting to tire but he was in much better shape than Windie. 'Come on Windie, keep on fighting, we don't want our first fight to become a loss. Howl again.' Windie savagely howled again, raising her attack to an even more impressive degree.
'Dante, let's finish this,' shouted Jack, excited now that victory was in sight, 'Dante use mach punch.' Dante moved incredibly fast landing a number of lightning quick punches on Windie. Windie sprawled backwards but managed to right herself. 'Now, use crunch!' Windie bit down hard on Dante's side, her increased attack adding impressive power to here already dangerous attack. Dante screamed as Arcanine took a clump of flesh out of his side and nearly collapsed from the pain. Fire coursed in the wound, flickering and spurting out where blood should have been.
Dante was badly injured, but he was still standing. 'Come on, one last attack Dante! Give it your all!' God this hurts. But....I will do it. I will win this! Dante turned and roared. He was still weak on his feet, but that didn't stop him from launching one last attack. His steel mask began to glow with an iron sheen and he launched a crushing headbutt attack. The two Pokémon clashed heads but Dante came off much better.
The attack was filled with power and in one hit Windie was knocked completely unconscious, blood seeped from her head wound. Lelana gasped and ran up to her, 'Oh my god Windie, are you OK?' Behind her Jack sprayed a full restore onto Dante and watched in wonder as his wounds began to heal itself, the muscle, flesh and skin knitting together before his eyes.
After it was finished Dante collapsed from tiredness, though he was healed his energy was not replenished and he had expended so much energy in the fight that he could not physically stay awake. Jack returned him and shot a worried look at Lelana. 'Don't worry, she'll be find once we take her to the Pokémon centre,' said Lelana, reassuring Jack's worries.
Nurse Joy looked worriedly at the flat LED machine, easily interpreting the mass of graphs, pie charts and statistics. 'I'll have to keep them here overnight, they aren't in good condition at all but they should be in perfect health by the morning.' She tossed back her long red hair, 'that must have been some battle.' Jack nodded enthusiastically, 'it was so evenly matched, if anyone watched it would have been a great spectacle.'
At that moment a small, rather rotund man in white shorts, a Hawaiian shirt and dark sunglasses. 'Hi guys, I'm Scott,' his voice was girlish and full of enthusiasm, 'that was a fantastic battle there, you both showed so much skill and passion.' His smile was so large that it threatened to split his face in two, 'I am creating a Tournament start on January the first next year and I am trying to find trainers that are skilful enough to compete in it. After that, I'll have my eye on you two. If you get good enough expect an invite.' He left as abruptly as he had arrived, rubbing his hands together in glee with a huge smile still fixed on his face.
The two young Pokémon trainers walked upstairs to their small room and settled down for the night. For some reason, neither of them felt like talking. Lelana was sulking into her pillow and Jack did not have the heart to needle her on her loss. Both the trainers went to sleep quickly, a Pokémon battle takes a lot out of you.
So they didn't see the two men peering up into the window, skulking body language and furtive expressions showing that they did not want to get found at whatever they were doing. When they spoke they spoke in exaggerated whispers, 'they have really strong and rare Pokémon.' The other one nodded, 'if we can steal them, Giovanni will be extremely happy. We have to make sure that they aren't found.'
The first one rubbed her hands together in glee, 'I'll ambush them in Viridian forest, you wait outside Pewter if they somehow get past me?'
'Uh, Lelana, do you....do you need a travelling companion?' stuttered Jack the next morning, embarrassed for no reason that he could think of. Lelana winced, 'I'm sorry, I am only staying here overnight, my dad is picking me up and taking me back to Fuchsia where we live. I promised him I would not leave on my journey for another month.' Jack went red and looked away, he was completely mortified.
'I'll probably meet you there then, rival.' Without another word he turned and left, heading for Viridian City gym. The gym was a large, rugged stone building with only a large gym sign to signify its purpose. Jack walked up to the large wooden door and gasped with surprise. 'Closed, closed!' he spluttered angrily, staring at the hastily scribbled sign on the door, 'isn't that illegal?'
A deep voice behind him spoke up, 'yes, it is illegal but the gym leader has gone AWOL. You'll want to travel through Viridian Forest to Pewter City and challenge the gym there.' A tall man in his twenties stood behind him, long black and red cloak and spiky hair blowing in the wind.
'Thanks, who are you?' asked Jack, turning round. 'Ah,' the man smiled an enigmatic smile that totally confused Jack, 'that I cannot tell me.' He laughed, 'fancy me running into the one person who does not recognise who I am. The one person...' He turned and looked straight at Jack. 'You will know who I am by the turn of the year, I am sure of it. Maybe we will meet again sometime in the future.'
The man walked away, and the second Jack looked in the other direction he disappeared, leaving only a draft of cold air, seemingly caused by nothing, nearly blowing over Jack's scrawny body. After about ten minutes of navigating his way through Viridian Jack found himself on its Northern edge. His way was blocked by a frail old man holding a coffee cup. 'Hey, boy, are you a rookie trainer? Do you need me to show you the basics?'
He stood in front of Jack, blocking his way. 'Here, take this Teachy TV. My grandson is a teacher on it. He knows a lot about Pokémon.' The man thrust the TV into Jack's hands, not letting him say any words.
'Uh, thank you?' said Jack hesitantly, 'but I'm not sure I need this.' The man shook his head and smiled, 'of course you need it, it helps for all rookie trainers to have a helping hand. You'll thank me when you're Pokémon Champion.' Jack smiled crookedly, 'you really think I could be Pokémon Champion?'
The idea was strange to him, he used to think of just becoming a Pokémon trainer and nothing after that, but it started an obsession that would drive him for the rest of his time as a Pokémon trainer. 'There is just something about you, some passion that drives you that makes me think that you will make it. When you are Pokémon Champion remember me.'
Jack nodded, 'I will remember you, when I am Champion.' The word seemed strange in his mouth, as if his tongue was feeling its way around the word.
'I will be Champion!' It was a promise to himself, a promise to the Universe, a promise that he would put his heart and soul in to and succeed. 'Nothing will stop me,' he muttered, 'Nothing!' God help the trainers that I will meet on my way. God help the trainers that try to stop me. For they will fail, they will ultimately fail. And I will prevail.
He walked towards the dark and forbidding mass of trees that was Viridian Forest. Another step on his Journey to Champion. He was one more step towards his ultimate goal. He entered the forest with no fear or consternation in his mind.
As Jack walked away the man looked on in consternation. The change in personality of that man had been dramatic, his aura had gone from compassionate and trustful to incredibly focussed and determined, a trait that was not necessarily a good thing. His aura now danced around, flickering and changing between good and evil. At a later moment in time one action will determine what path he takes.
He hoped that it would be the right one. He also wondered what he had created in that boy. He wondered what would be the consequences of his actions. But did he regret? Probably not. All his long life he had wanted to give advice to a trainer who was something. Not a trainer who was nothing. Finally he had met a trainer from that backwards, hell-hole that is Pallet Town who might be something. He knew for sure.
He had created a Champion. Finally, in putting that idea in the mind of the impressionable boy, he had created a Champion.