In the corner of the Pokemon Center, Arden sat with Gimpy, waiting for the rest of his pokemon to be healed.

"I can't believe you wouldn't fight," he said to the wartortle.

"Tortle war tort," said Gimpy, flailing his arms. "War tort tort!"

Arden sighed and leaned back in the cushy seat. "We need to train," he said. "That was just sad, how easily that gym leader beat us. His raichu didn't even break a sweat doing it, either."

"Wartortle," murmured Gimpy.

The nurse leaned over the counter. "Your pokemon are fighting fit!"

Arden stood up and retrieved the pokeballs before leaving the building. As he walked along the sandy streets of Vermillion, he hooked his pokeballs to his belt. At length, he came to the city's edge and saw, beyond it, a large field of tall, verdant grass. Trainers and their pokemon were searching through the grass and battling one another.

"This looks like a good place to train," said Arden, entering the grass with Gimpy limping along behind him.

A spearow stirred in the grass, and Arden threw out one of his pokeballs. "Cruelty, go! Get that spearow!"

"Piika!" shouted Cruelty. His gaze fell upon the bird pokemon and, with great malevolence, he leapt at it, pinning it to the ground and beating it about the face with his paws and tail, and pulling out its feathers. Gimpy and Arden watched, eyes wide, as Cruelty beat and shocked the pokemon until it stopped moving.

"Ah—Cruelty, I think that's enough, okay?" said Arden. The pikachu ignored him and went right on pummeling the limp spearow. Arden grabbed a hold of his tail. "Cruelty, I said I think that's enough."

"Kaaa!" said Cruelty, wheeling on him.

"Enk—c-come on, now, Cruelty. I'm you're trainer and you have to listen to me."

"Pikachu," growled Cruelty, the fur on his back bristling. Arden took a step back. "Ka cha!"

"Easy now," said Arden, holding up his hands. "I mean, we're all friends here, aren't we?"

Cruelty leapt at Arden, but was at the last minute, intercepted by Gimpy's water gun attack. The pikachu was knocked backwards, and hit the ground rolling. "Are you going to behave now?" asked Arden as Cruelty got to his feet.

"Kaaa chu!" shouted the pokemon, charging at Gimpy.

"Tort!" yelped Gimpy, as he ran, fast as he could, away from the pursuing pikachu. Cruelty caught up with him quickly and took a leap at his tail. He grabbed hold of it and bit down. Gimpy fell to the ground and started kicking at the pikachu, who dodged each attempt to dislodge him from his tail.

Arden sighed. "You guys," he murmured. Deciding it was as good a way to train as any, he left them to their fighting. Looking elsewhere, he started away from them. A drowzee emerged from a nearby bush and Arden squared his shoulders and pulled a pokeball from his belt. "Alright! Thief, it's your turn!"

He threw the pokeball and the meowth appeared. "Meow."

"Thief—bite that drowzee!"

"Meowth!" said Thief, taking a running leap at the wild pokemon.

The drowzee looked up just in time to see the meowth come flying at it. Thief dug his fangs into the drowzee's nose at it thrashed about in pain and terror.

"Good boy, Thief," said Arden. "Now hit it with pay day!"

Without letting go of the drowzee's nose, Thief hit it with a stream of coins from his forehead. The drowzee screamed and smacked at the meowth with its hands.

"Yeah! Alright, it's almost done," said Arden, balling up his fists. "Finish it off with scratch!"

Thief let go of the drowzee's nose but—instead of attacking—sat down and looked about the field. "Meow."

"What are you doing?" said Arden, clutching his head. "Scratch, Thief!"

"Meow!" said Thief. He turned and bounded into the grass, disappearing from sight.

"Thief! Get back here!" said Arden. There was no stirring of the grass—no sign "Damn it!"

"TORTLE!"

Arden spun around to see Cruelty on top of Gimpy shocking him. "Cruelty!" he shouted. "Stop that! Return!"

He held up the pokeball, drawing the pikachu inside of it. Gimpy lay on the ground twitching. "Oh, get up. That little thing can't have hurt you too bad."

"Wartort tortle," said Gimpy, straining to get up.

"Drama queen," said Arden. "Return, Gimpy."

He sighed and sat down at the edge of the grass. "I hate this," he mumbled. "It's too hard. Everything about this is too hard. No wonder I lost. My pokemon are all jokes…"

He rested his head on his knees, frowning, eyes on the shore beyond the field. The ocean was calm and blue, with a ship floating lazily on it. Arden raised his head from his knees. "That looks nice," he said, reaching into his pack. He pulled out the ticket to board the SS Anne. "I should take a break from this stupid training. Yeah… That's exactly what I need."

He stood up, wiping the dirt from his pants before starting for the docks. Suddenly remembering Thief, he stopped and turned around. There was no sign of the meowth, though he thought he saw a sandshrew, briefly. He turned back around and kept walking toward the docks, sure that he'd never find the meowth. "Oh well," he murmured.