"You know what, Gimpy?" asked Arden as he rested on a small ledge, with his feet dangling down. To his back, the outskirts of Viridian City were visible. "I'm not even from here. I'm from Goldenrod City."

Gimpy felt rather flattered that the boy should travel so far, and just to choose him for a partner.

"But the pokemon lab in Johto was out of pokemon," Arden said glumly. "So I came here."

Gimpy flattened a little, but still felt flattered that Arden chose him.

Arden sighed. "I wanted a charmander," the boy told his pokemon. "But it was already gone. So was the professor's bulbasaur."

Gimpy was feeling much less than flattered.

Arden stood. "Well, I suppose we should head into town," he said, picking up the squirtle. "I think there's a gym there."

The squirtle looked at his trainer flatly. He couldn't beat a gym leader's pokemon yet—he hadn't won a single battle in his life. Gimpy began to voice his objection, but Arden shushed him. "Look! A wild pokemon!" said the boy quietly. He pointed to a patch of grass bellow the ledge, which was shaking slightly. The pair waited with bated breath, watching the grass and, after a moment, two rattata appeared there.

Arden took in a breath sharply. "Okay, Gimpy!" he said. "It's your time to shine! Go get 'em!"

The new trainer set his pokemon on the ground. Gimpy limped towards the cliff and, slowly, began a careful descent down it. Grabbing a lock of his own hair in his hand, Arden shook his head vigorously. "No, no! Faster! It'll get away!" he sobbed. He ran up to the ledge and grabbed the squirtle. "Here, let me help you!"

Arden meant to slide down the ledge, land in front of the wild pokemon and maybe intimidate them a bit. However, what he ended up down was sliding, tripping, tumbling in a ball with Gimpy, giving them both stinging abrasions, and falling flat on his face in front of the rattatas, his stunned pokemon sprawled out on top of his head. The wild pokemon squeaked at each other—a sound which sounded to Arden suspiciously like mocking laughter—then, they turned and bounded back into the grass.

Groaning, Arden sat up and pulled Gimpy into his lap. "Great," he murmured, crest-fallen. "Now not only are the pokemon laughing at us, they're bringing friends with them to laugh at us… Grah! I hate this region!"

Gimpy tilted his head to one side and, timidly, patted the boy's shoulder, but Arden shrugged him off. Arden stood and, morosely, started back up the ledge. Grimly and silently, the pair made their way toward Viridian city. Arden trudged through a patch of grass, staring dismally ahead. With a flutter, a flock of pidgey flew up in front of him, startling him out of his stupor.

"Gah!" he screamed and fell backwards, heart pounding, and dropped Gimpy hard on the ground.

"Squirtle!" groaned Gimpy, laying on his back in the grass. A fainting cooing from beneath him enticed him to roll quickly onto his feet.

Arden leaned over to look. "Gimpy! I can't believe it!" he exclaimed. "You fell on a pidgey! Look at that—! It's out cold!"

The squirtle rubbed the back of his head.

"No, it's a good thing!" said Arden, picking up the pokemon and spinning him around. "It's the first good thing that's happened since I got to this stupid place! You KO'd another pokemon! …with your butt! That's good! That's good."

Gimpy wasn't convinced, but he didn't object. He felt it wouldn't have made a difference anyway.