Hi. It's me again. I should really learn not to have any expectations for the lenght of these things. All the time, I'm like "this chapter is gonna be short", but then it isn't. Can't really say much more without spoiling anything, so I'll save anything important for the postscript.

Well, I can say a fun fact. Didn't... didn't really know it was called postscript in english until a couple minutes ago. Here we call it postscriptum. It's not really that different. I guess we just keep the original phrase while the english language changes it to make it easier to understand, but I would have made a fool of myself if I didn't check to make sure if it's different in english.


Pokemon Tales: Red Chapter 3: Prepare for Trouble.

"How did that song go again? "I'm on a road to Viridian City. I'll meet my friends along the way..." I can't really remember what comes after that. How about you Eevee? You must have heard it a couple times" Red turned to his companion, walking beside him.

"Vee. Veevee. Eeeevee."

"No, that's not it. Oh, well. It doesn't matter anymore cause it seems like we're not on the road anymore." Red declared as he noticed the sign declaring that Viridian City was only 500 meters away.

. . .

His first stop in the city was the Pokemon Center. Although he was carrying various healing items with him, there was no reason as to why he would avoid the advantages provided by free healthcare.

Soon after he and his Pokemon were rested, he decided to pay a visit to his parents. He used the key to open the front door but as he went inside, he came to realize that it's still pretty early in the day so both of his parents were still at work. He thought about going to his dad's grocery shop since it wasn't far away but he changed his mind, deciding that he's gonna spend the night, so they are gonna meet later anyway.

"Well, since I want you to meet them later, you should probably get accustomed to the place" he said to Charmander as he was releasing him from the pokeball.

Since Eevee was always outside of his ball, as soon as they got to the house he laid down on his favorite spot on the couch, but when Charmander was released, he was eager to play, so he grabbed the dog by his leg and dragged him down. Red took out one of Eevee's chew toys and the Pokemon began a playful romp.

Red went to the kitchen, opened the fridge and looked around for a second before he grabbed a carton of milk and poured himself a glass. He sat on a chair and watched the playing Pokemon for a while. After finishing the glass of milk, he got kinda bored and went to the salon to try to watch some television, but that didn't prove helpful. He turned around while laying on the couch which made him fall to the floor. The Pokemon stopped playing for a short while in concern, but after he started to get up, they continued their fun. As a last resort, Red turned on his father's computer and went on the internet.

"Maybe I should try meeting with my friends?" he thought as he was skimming through a site with funny videos, but he quickly decided against it.

For some reason, he thought that it would look dumb if he met them again so soon after starting his journey. Thinking about that, he remembered an important part of being a Pokemon trainer which he still hasn't experienced. He didn't yet have a Gym battle.

"I wonder where the closest Gym is."

He used a search engine to quickly reach his answer.

"Oh? We have one of them in the city? I guess I never cared to look for it before I was a trainer, and after that, I focused mainly on training with Eevee. Anyway, I should go check it out."

He torn out a page from his father's notebook and wrote down the address for the Pokemon Gym, after which he whistled to his Pokemon to get their attention.

"Hey, guys. Looks like there's a Gym in this city, so we're gonna go to check it out. Are you ready?"

Eevee barked happily in response, but Charmander had a puzzled look on his face.

"Hmm... I guess you never heard of Gyms... It's like... we get to fight strong trainers and their Pokemon and if we win we'll get a prize."

After that explanation, Charmander also responded happily. Red returned him to his pokeball.

. . .

Looking around, then back to the piece of paper, then around again, Red was searching for the Gym. The place certainly seemed harder to find than he would have expected. He even asked some people for the way, but none were too sure where the Gym was, even if they knew it existed.

Finally, Red decided to take a short rest on a bench in a back alley he was walking through. He looked at the address again, certain that that either the Gym didn't exist anymore or that someone didn't want it to be found. When he put the paper down, he saw in front of himself a suspicious building with small windows, automatic doors and a yellow roof. As Red came closer to the building, he noticed traces of what seemed to be the words "Viridian City Pokemon Gym" next to the door. It seemed as if they were erased by the rain and no one bothered to provide a new paint job. The whole building looked kinda dirty and weed was sprouting from the ground around it.

"What's going on here?" Red pondered, while examining the building.

The automatic doors didn't seem to work, which added to the feeling that the building was abandoned.

"Hey! What are you doing here?!" somebody yelled from the right.

Red looked in that direction to notice a thin man in black clothes, with a red "R" on his shirt, walking from behind the building. He had a cigarette in his mouth, but as it was almost burned out, he threw it on the ground and stomped on it. When he got closer to Red, he sized the boy up, as if to examine if he was a threat.

"Get the hell out of here." he spoke again after a few seconds.

Red, being very confused, looked around almost like he was hoping that something would clear up the situation but there was nothing there.

"What is going on here?" he asked the man.

In turn, the adult also became visibly dumbfounded, probably because he expected his word to instantly get rid of the teenager.

"What do you mean "What is going on here"? Just scram, you moron."

"I mean... I would gladly do that, but the thing is, I have some business at this Gym." he explained while pointing with his thumb to the right.

"This Gym?"

Red began to feel like he was on a prank show with a hidden camera somewhere, but decided to continue talking in a calm and collected way "Yes. This exact Gym. There aren't any other Gym's around as far as I'm aware."

A vein popped up to the surface of the man's forehead, showing his growing irritation.

"Can't you see the place is closed? Whatever your business here was, you can't do anything with the place closed. So just get the hell out of here before I kick your ass and never show up here again. Capeesh?"

"No!"

"What the hell?!"

"I'm a Pokemon trainer. Part of that is collecting badges. I can't give up on doing that before I even got my first one."

"That's not my problem! The place is closed and I was told to scare away any losers trying to get inside!"

"Huh? Who told you to do that? Also... while we're talking about that, what's with the ridiculous outfit?"

"Ridiculous?! I see that somebody hasn't been watching the news as of late. I'm a member of Team Rocket! We're the biggest gang in Kanto and soon, on Earth."

Red was completely lost about what to think about everything, but he decided to take things easy and start by returning home and learning more about whatever happened to this Gym and if Team Rocket was actually a thing. He started walking away but a yell from the man stopped him.

"I don't like that attitude of yours. I don't wanna have you blabbing about what you saw here to other people so I'm gonna have to kick some sense into you with the help of my little friend. Go, Ekans!"

He threw a pokeball, from which emerged a purple snake.

"Was... Was that like a penis joke?"

"What?! No! Gah! I'm not wasting anymore time talking to you! Ekans, use Poison Sting!"

The snake opened its mouth and a rain of purple needles flew in Red's direction, with the boy managing to dodge them in the last second.

"That's how you want to play?"

Red's Eevee, who was standing back this whole time, not sure about what the humans were talking about, became angry after seeing his trainer attacked and was ready to fight back, but Red waved his hand to stop him.

"Not this time, buddy. I promised Charmander a Gym battle and since we can't have that, this will have to do. Go, Charmander!"

The lizard jumped out of his pokeball, full of energy. Red didn't have time to give him an order, because as soon as he saw Ekans, he was running at him full speed to deliver a Scratch. The snake Pokemon used his body like a spring to jump out of the way, not realizing that this way he exposed himself to something worse.

"Use Ember!"

Balls of flame flew towards the snake, who didn't have any way to avoid them. While he landed on the ground, he was already in severe pain, but still listened while his owner gave him the next order.

"Wrap!"

Ekans ensnared Charmander with his body and began to choke him.

"Oh no, you don't! Charmander, bite him to escape!"

The lizard put his sharp teeth into the snake's tail, freeing himself from his grasp. Ekans tried to run away, but Charmander kept his fangs sunk in his opponent's tail.

"Let's take a page out of Green's book. Spin around!"

Charmander began to turn quickly, making both himself and his foe dizzy, but when he finally let go of Ekans, not able to keep him because of centrifugal force, the snake was thrown into the side of the building. He wasn't even able to get up before Red gave Charmander another command, and the lizard sent the final Ember barrage, causing the snake to faint.

"What?!" the Team Rocket member yelled in surprise.

He proceeded to recall his Pokemon and gave Red an angry look. The teenager just smiled in response, having confidence in himself and Charmander after attaining this quick victory.

"You want to go another round?" he asked with a smug face.

The adult looked like he was about to say something, but was clearly too embarrassed by his lose. Red realized that the man didn't have other Pokemon, and that's why he wasn't keen on speaking out, on the account that Red could have chosen to repay him for that Poison Sting earlier. So instead, the Team Rocket member just ran away using one of the alleyways. Red slowly walked towards that direction with his hands holding up his head from the back. He was wondering if the man would return but seeing how quick he escaped, the boy dismissed that possibility.

"Great job, Charmander" he said to the Pokemon as he patted him on the head.

Jealous Eevee jumped into Red's arms, so for a couple seconds he hugged both of them.

. . .

The sun was already setting on Viridian City as Red's parents met on the way back to their house.

When they saw that the lights were on, the mother got kind of wary, but the father came to a quick conclusion that Red must have returned. His prediction came true when he opened the door, and instantly they could see Red's shoes and jacket in the front hall, and also smell the delicious food being prepared by their son. Red heard them entering so he peeked out of the kitchen, wearing an apron and a headscarf. He smiled happily and they responded in kind. While they were getting changed into their home clothes, he finished cooking and invited them to the dining room.

Soon, he came in, carrying two plates of food in his hands, one with spaghetti, the other with cheese and spinach cake. Eevee walked into the room graciously carrying a plate with three glasses of juice on his head. Charmander jumped onto one of the chairs and took the plate to put it on the table. After that, Red took out a candelabra, and the lizard Pokemon lit the candles using his Ember. Red took some of both the dishes and put them into the Pokemon's bowls before beginning the dinner with his parents, all the while remembering to warn Eevee about eating too quickly, as he was known to sometimes choke on his food.

The boy spent a pleasant evening with his parents, telling them about meeting Green, Professor Oak and befriending Charmander. The next day came, and he was ready to continue his journey. After checking the internet again, he learned that the second closest Gym should be located in Pewter City. Although there wasn't any indication that this one also wouldn't be closed, Red remained hopeful.


So that's it. So, as I said previously, I didn't know that this chapter would be this long and it very well could not have been. In the planning stages it was just Red arriving in the city, going to the Gym, fighting the Team Rocket member and leaving the city. But when I got to writing, before I could realize it, I was writing about a bunch of useless stuff. And that's okay. If it was just what I planned, it would feel like if I was just checking marks on a piece of paper, throwing out anything that doesn't advance the plot.

But I feel like those moments describing Red's down time, thoughts and the relations with his parents are good to make the story seem more normal paced. Especially, since Red won't be visting Viridian City for a long time.

Another thing when it comes to changes, is the changes I made to the story from the game. This isn't meant as strictly a retelling of the game. Already, the previous chapters had many differences, but I feel that this one is the most impacted by it. In the game, you don't fight anybody in Viridian City, you don't learn about Team Rocket until Mount Moon and the abandoned Gym situation is like "whatever". I struggle, but I try to make things make sense in a real world kind of way. Like, in the games, didn't Lance and the Elite Four wonder why the hell they didn't get any challengers for a while, since nobody could get the necessary eight badge? Or, how was Giovanni even appointed a Gym leader. Maybe this story will answer some of these questions based on what I think, or maybe not.

Anyway, a slight sneek peek into the next chapter: Viridian Forest, bugs, new character and the chapter is probably gonna be called Bluebell. I keep not being sure what I'm gonna name the chapters because I feel like some of the futures one could be better if they were fused into one or changed in a major way. That's it. Till the next time. Or not.