Pokemon Tales: Red Chapter 9: Nugget Bridge is Falling Down.

"It looks like I'm at the right place."

Green was looking up at the small house standing in front of him while holding a piece of paper which was a quickly drawn map he received from a person in the city, after he asked them how to get to this place.

Before beginning his journey, he learned a great deal about Pokemon from his grandpa, but Professor Oak assured him that there were many other people he could gain knowledge from. One of them was Bill, the brilliant teenager responsible for creating the Pokemon Storage System which has since been put into use all over the world. Unfortunately, he didn't think ahead and copyright his idea which according to Oak's estimation, would have made him one the richest people in the Kanto Pokemon League was still very grateful so they decided to build this house for him and fund any of his future research.

Since Bill didn't want to disturb anybody, he lived outside of Cerulean City and one had to go through the famous Nugget Bridge to get there. Green woke up as soon as he could but the walk to this place still took him a good couple hours. It was almost noon, and Bill couldn't have left the house and not pass Green on the way, so it was weird that he didn't answer the door.

As he pondered at whether to give up on meeting the scientist or wait some more, he heard a screech behind he turned around, he saw a tanned girl with pink hair braided into twin tails, in tight, orange shorts and with a sleeveless shirt in the same color which revealed her belly. She was getting off her bike while moving the glasses she was wearing up her head. She noticed the trainer after a couple seconds of making sure that her bike was stable.

"Oh? Are you a friend of Bill's?" she asked.

Green turned his head to the sides and answered "No. I had reasons to meet him but he didn't answer the door."

"That's weird. He was supposed to meet with me 2 hours ago but he didn't come so I was worried about him." she said while putting her hand on the door handle "It's open. Let's go in. Maybe he got sick, since he didn't even call."

"Wait. Are you sure we can go in?"

"Sure we can. I'm his girlfriend. By the way, my name is Laoettia. What about you?"

"I'm Green."

"With envy?" she asked while trying to stop her giggle.

"What?"

Apparently, the joke wasn't understood by the boy, so the girl just said "Don't worry about it."

Both of them went inside and were greeted by a complete mess. The floor was almost unseeable because of all the documents laying around. The house seemed to consist of only 2 rooms, although the one they were took up a lot of space and the ceiling was fairly high. The corner right to the entrance contained a kitchen with stacks of dirty plates and bags full of trash. To the left was a bed with a lamp and multiple towers of science fiction books next to it. In the middle of the room was a desk with a computer and several empty coffee mugs. Opposite side of the entrance, was a peculiar machine which consisted of 2 chambers and a big tube connecting them.

Green stood by the door, careful not to step on anything that could be important, but Laoettia didn't seem to mind and started looking around, making sure that Bill wasn't somewhere on the floor, sleeping in a pile of dirty laundry.

"I'll check the bathroom. You go look if he's not in that machine of his."

Green, still a little reluctant, traversed the room and approached one of the chambers. He grabbed the handle and opened it slowly. It was completely empty. There were some mechanisms on the walls but he still didn't understand what purpose the machine could serve.

He checked the other chamber and after opening it, saw a mysterious creature sleeping in it. It resembled a Jigglypuff but was less round, its eyes were smaller and it had wavy, brown hair. The trainer used Pokedex, but the device showed no results. For a second, Green thought that maybe Bill was involved in some experiment to create a new species of Pokemon.

"He wasn't in the bathroom." he heard Laoettia's voice behind him.

He stood up and turned to her "Do you know what that is?"

"Is that some kind of Pokemon? I know Bill had a couple of them but I never saw one like this. But it looks weirdly similar to him."

"What do you mean?" Green was puzzled by her statement.

"Its hair is similar to Bill's. It's face also reminds me of him."

Suddenly, the creature started moving. It got up to a sitting position and started rubbing its eyes while yawning. Without realizing that its being watched it said "Gee willikers, I didn't realize that a Jigglypuff needs so much sleep."

After hearing a thud, the being looked outside the chamber, realizing finally that the door was open, and saw that Laoettia fell on her bottom, clearly afraid of it.

"It spoke!" she screamed.

"Wait up! It's me!" the creature tried to calm her to no avail.

The girl quickly got up, ran outside and judging by the sound of it, drove away as fast as she could. The monster looked at the entrance to his house with shame. Green remained calm and went over what this could mean in his head. After reaching a conclusion, he squatted next to the creature.

"You are Bill, aren't you?"

It jumped back in surprise. With its gaze focused on Laoettia till now, it didn't notice the other person.

"And who are you?"

"My name is Green. I'm the grandson of Professor Oak."

"Oh! I heard about you. But wait... Before we talk, can you return me to my original form?"

"So I guessed right. You wanted to use this machine to transport a Jigglypuff but somewhat you got stuck inside and the process began, somehow fusing you with the Pokemon."

"As expected of Professor Oak's grandson!"

After a couple whiles, Bill and Jigglypuff got separated. The scientist had to get new clothes and was finally ready to talk with the trainer.

"Thanks for helping me."

"No problem. But... What is the purpose of this machine? You already developed the Pokemon Storage System."

"Yes, I did. But it works only when the Pokemon are enveloped by the field generated inside pokeballs. Thanks to this machine, any Pokemon, any being really, could move location in an instant. Imagine that this machine is placed in every Pokemon Center in the world. Not only will people be able to travel far away in a second, it will also make me rich. I won't make the same mistake again."

"I see. What about your girlfriend?"

Bill got pale from embarrassment "I... It's the third girlfriend I lost this month."

"What?"

"Yeah. A lot of girls start dating me because they expect that I will become rich, but none of them can put up with my lifestyle. I never managed to get a second date. I try to not let that get to me. It doesn't work. I'm immensely sad and lonely. But it's not your fault."

Green was at a loss for words.

"But I have to say that I'm sorry. As you see, I have some things to work out before I can begin making money off this thing so I can't have you staying here and getting in the way of my work."

"I'm sorry?"

"But! You helped me, so I want to show you my gratitude. You can have this and this." when saying that, he held out both of his hands, one with a pokeball, the other with what seemed to be 2 tickets for a cruise.

"A Pokemon?"

"Yes. It would be weird having Jigglypuff here after going through that experience."

"And the tickets?"

"Have you heard about St. Anne? It's a luxury ship that's gonna arrive in Vermillion City in about 2 weeks. They are gonna have a charity auction there. The League officials sent me these tickets and I planned to go there with my girlfriend, but since I don't have a girlfriend anymore..." when talking about this, Bill slowly got sadder, till he laid on the floor with waterfalls of tears pouring out of his eyes.

"Oookay. It was nice to meet you. I have to go now." said Green, before leaving in a hurry.

When the doors closed behind him, he let out a sigh of relief and proceeded to walk back to Cerulean City.

. . .

"Ceruleaaaaan Cityyyyy!" Red shouted out with a big smile on his face and both of his hands lifted up to the sky.

"Why are you yelling?" Blue gave him a look of disapproval while covering her ears.

"I'm excited! I'm pumped! I'm ready to fight!"

"Who are you going to fight?"

"The Gym leader, of course. Who else?"

"It seems you didn't do your research. The Gym leader of Cerulean City is a lot more busy than Brock since this place is closer to the center of Kanto so you can't just expect to get in without making a reservation."

Red dropped both of his hands and looked at Blue with a shocked face "Then what am I gonna do?"

"Don't worry. Let Blue handle everything. I'm going to get reservations for both of us. In the meanwhile, you can go check out Nugget Bridge."

"A what now?"

"Nugget Bridge. I read that it's a place where the trainers from the city gather to have Pokemon fights."

"Where did you read that?"

"On this sign."

Red looked past Blue and to the thing she was pointing at. It was a map of the City which mentioned various places that people might find interesting.

"Okay! Wish me luck!" he said while running away.

She waited a couple seconds before yelling "The other way!"

. . .

Somewhere else, Alex walked, through automatic doors, into a dark room, lit up only by a couple red balls embedded in the floor. There were three desks in the room, each with a comfortable swivel chair behind it. 2 of them were already taken so he sat in the one closest to the entrance, without saying anything.

Since there was still a little time before what they arrived for would happen, he closed his eyes to relax. His fight with Red was still fresh in his mind and the thought of making that teenager a Team Rocket member didn't leave him for a moment.

"We heard about your loss." a female voice declared.

Annoyed, Alex opened his eyes and looked to the right. Behind the middle desk sat a female Team Rocket member, a couple years younger than Alex. She wore the standard uniform used by all the female members, had dark hair arranged in a nice looking bob cut, and would be by most standards considered to be fairly attractive, even though she didn't wear any make-up, since the Team Rocket rules didn't require it and she was the most devoted of all members, to the point where she wouldn't do anything that didn't in some way serve Team Rocket.

If she were to be honest with herself, her hair would definitely be longer and she would probably use make-up, but the first one could get in her way during fights and the second was a waste of money. Her name was Angie, and although Alex didn't put in as much effort as her, he still produced results good enough to become an admin so he got irritated whenever she acted like if she wanted to tell him that she was better.

"You call that a loss, but I call this an investment in the future. You haven't met the trainer I fought. He is the most promising person I ever met. If I was you, I would be careful. If I get him to join Team Rocket, he will take your place in no time." after responding, Alex smiled, confident that his remark would anger Angie.

If the girl wanted to say something, she didn't get the chance.

The third person in the room was Peter, a pale man with long, dark hair and big bags under his eyes. His uniform couldn't be seen beneath the long, grey cape which surrounded his body and which allowed him to wear a hood, even though there was no reason to.

He put down the small carton of orange juice from which he had been drinking through a straw and said "If I were to have my way, you would be hung up naked and lashed for 24 hours for your incompetence. Then I would say that your punishment is over, only to slice open your belly and letting you die."

Alex backed off a little while nervously swallowing saliva.

"That's not in the rules." stated Angie.

They all turned their attention to the screen placed on the wall in front of them, which had just turned on. To Alex's relief and to Angie's disappointment, the one addressing them wasn't their boss. It was one of the scientist who was working on the biggest project Team Rocket was involved in. It has been going on for a couple of years and completing it was their main goal. The admins weren't directly involved in it but they still received regular updates.

"I welcome you all." the man said while bowing his head "I have great news. Codename M2 should be finished in 3 day's time."

Angie contained her excitement, but was screaming from happiness on the inside. Peter's eyes opened wide with shock, after which he gave a slow clap. Alex shouted out "Yes!" while hitting the table with the bottom of his fist.

"Wait up. I was ordered to tell you not to get too excited. Even after it's done, there will be many tests we will have to conduct before it is ready to be used. You are to proceed with carrying out any missions you have been assigned or came up with by yourself and not worry about this whole thing. And nobody who isn't an admin can learn about it. Is that understood?"

Angie stood up and answered "Yes, sir!" while saluting.

Alex also saluted, although without saying anything. Meanwhile, Peter just gave the scientist a thumbs up gesture, much to Angie's chagrin.

"Then, till we can talk again. Farewell." the man said with a smile, and the screen went black.

. . .

Charmander stood his ground while being hit by a small wave of air. It pushed him back a little but didn't hurt him too much. He was ready to counterattack.

"Finish it with Ember!" Red ordered.

The lizard shot out the attack from his mouth and the enemy Pidgey wasn't fast enough to avoid it. The bird fainted and its trainer, a boy couple years younger than Red, returned it to its pokeball. It looked like he was about to begin crying because of his loss, so the teenager reached out with his hand. The opponent did the same with hesitation.

"It was a good fight." said Red "I'm sure that you will become a great trainer. You need to train every day and take good care of your Pidgey. But before that, you should go to heal it up in the Pokemon Center."

The boy nodded and ran towards the city. Red looked at him for a while, until he heard a voice saying "That was a nice fight."

When he turned around, he saw Green sitting on the railing of the bridge, with Ivysaur standing close to him. The trainer from Pallet Town had one of his legs held up by the other and one his hands keeping his head up while itself being place on the knee that was higher in the air. There was a slight hint of a smile on his face. Red analyzed that picture for a short while before saying "Um, who are you?"

Green's hand slipped and he almost fell from surprise.

"It's me! It's Green!"

"Oh, Green! Now I remember. The third color."

"I have literally no idea what you are talking about."

"Doesn't matter. What matters is this guy!" Red announced while pointing at Ivysaur "Your Bulbasaur evolved."

"Oh. Yes, he did." Green said while jumping off the railing.

He went up to Charmander and kneeled down to look at it closer "I see that you managed to tame this one."

"There was no need to tame him. Charmander is a natural fighter. He just needed somebody to give him a target. He helped me win many fights. But also, look at this." after saying that, Red showed him the badge he got from Brock.

"You want to brag?" Green responded while opening his badge case, which apart from the Boulder Badge, contained the Cascade Badge.

"Well..." Red tried to find a good argument as to not feel inferior to Green "...Badges aren't everything. You could win a Gym battle and then lose to a random person."

"I guess. Want to check that out?"

"You think I'm a random person?"

"Not necessarily, but it's only the second time we met. We are at least one meeting away from becoming acquaintances."

"But you want to fight against me?"

"Yes." Green answered while holding up a pokeball in front of his face.

"What about Ivysaur? I thought it would be fun if we both used the Pokemon we got from Professor Oak."

"I've already had him fight a couple people today so he's a little exhausted. Your Charmander too."

Red looked at his Pokemon. Although the lizard took a fighting stance, the trainer could see that his breathing was irregular and there was sweat dripping from his forehead.

"You're right. Come back, buddy." he returned it to its pokeball.

"Besides, I have this new Pokemon and I wanted to test its strength. Go forth, Jigglypuff!"

The pink Pokemon appeared from the flash of light while rolling but it's eyes were closed. After rotating a couple times, it stopped upside down. He woke up, probably because of the blood flowing to its brain and struggled a little to get on its legs, after which it took a serious pose, pretending like the whole thing didn't just happen.

"Is he... Is he alright?" Red asked, being a little embarrassed for Green.

Green blushed a little and responded "It's fine! Don't make us wait!"

"I choose Eevee!"

After being released from its pokeball, the dog was the opposite of Jigglypuff. It landed gracefully, let out a growl to intimidate its opponent and showed off with a nimble backflip. As usual, Red had to pat it on the head before the Pokemon was prepared to fight.

"Are you ready?" Red asked.

"Always." Green responded with a slight smile.

"Quick Attack!"

Eevee run towards it's opponent before Jigglypuff could tell what has happening. As it was hit, it filled its mouth with air, causing it to float up till it was over the rail. The balloon Pokemon landed and looked down on the dog while making an inviting gesture. Eevee wasn't so easily provoked, so instead of directly attacking, it also got up on the railing.

"Quick Attack again!"

"Disable!"

Right before it was about to be hit, Jigglypuff jumped up and a flash of light appeared in its eye. It landed back on the bridge. Eevee stopped and also got down.

"Since a normal Quick Attack doesn't work, we will have to use "that". Quick Attack Version B! Mirror Room!"

To Red's shock, instead of executing the order, his Pokemon looked at him with helplessness in its eyes. Green wasn't so kind as to let them figure out what was happening and commanded "Double Slap!"

The pink Pokemon approached the opponent and began a series of attacks with both of its open hands. Despite the name of the move, it hit the foe 4 times before it stopped and jumped back to a presumably safe distance.

"What was that?!" Red yelled.

He sounded more angry than he wanted to, but couldn't help himself, since this was the first time their signature move was completely stopped before it could even begin.

"Disable allows a Pokemon to block their opponent from using the last move they used before they were affected by it. Even if you came up with a different way of using Quick Attack, it's still essentially the same move. You won't be able to use it for some time. Huh... And here I thought you would give me a good battle."

Red closed his eyes and breathed in to calm himself. He knew that Green wanted to drag him into his pace, but he could still think clear enough to not allow him that.

"We have different ways to beat you." Red said while masterfully feigning confidence.

Besides Quick Attack being unusable, the environment didn't allow for a Sand Attack, limiting his options even more.

"Tackle!"

The attack didn't reach its target. Jigglypuff was already fast enough to avoid a Quick Attack, so Eevee using Tackle seemed to him almost like its opponent was moving in slow motion. It sidestepped with ease and, after receiving the command to use Disarming Voice, let out a shout which created a pink heart shape in the air. This creation hit Eevee, causing him damage, and pushing him away from Jigglypuff.

"Hit him with another Double Slap!"

As Jigglypuff was approaching Eevee, Red clenched both of his fist while looking down, ashamed that there was nothing he could think of to win this fight. He always relied on Eevee's speed so when it was taken away, he felt like a fool for not thinking about alternative ways to achieve victory. His mind was going through multiple thoughts at the same time. Some of it, was trying to come up with a way to win, some was a misguided anger at Green for revealing this weakness to him and some was the feeling of wanting to use quickness in some way.

"Quick Attack... quick... fast... swift..." he said quietly while frantically checking the Pokedex for some clues on how to win.

As he said the name of the disabled attack, information about it appeared on screen. What caught his attention was that the text suddenly changed. It displayed the information of a move called Swift. Seeing as Eevee was a Normal type Pokemon, Red never considered that it could learn an attack that wasn't physical in nature. He looked up with his spirits reignited at the moment Eevee was about to be hit and yelled "Jump!"

Green and Jigglypuff were equally surprised by this. Eevee landed again on the rail. When it saw that Red has regained his confidence, it let out a happy shout. The trainer from Pallet Town was carefully analyzing what his foe could have wanted to do, since he thought the victory was as good as his.

"We won't be needing Tackle to win this fight! Eevee, use Swift!"

Green got scared for a second but breathed out with relief when he saw that the dog was confused by the order. He never used that attack before so it wasn't surprising that he didn't know what to do.

Red scratched his chin, thinking for a couple seconds on how to explain what he wanted before saying "It's like stars which you shoot and they are really fast. I guess the name "Fast Stars" would be better for it... or... Speed Star? That has a nice ring to it."

After hearing about what the move was supposed to be, Eevee gathered energy in his body and opened its mouth to shoot out several starlike projectiles.

"Dodge!" Green commanded.

Jigglypuff used its round shape to roll out of the way, but when he stopped, thinking that he managed to avoid getting hurt, he saw that the stars followed him. Without having to be ordered, he tried to jump out of the way but it turned out to be pointless. Wherever he moved to, he was followed by the attack. And while he was getting tired, the stars were constantly gaining on speed. Finally, he was backed up against the rails and was hit in the face. He yelled out in pain.

"Another one!"

Before Jigglypuff could get up, Eevee jumped towards it and shoot out another Swift. This one was from a much closer distance, so there was no time to even try to get out of the way. After the opponent got hit a second time, the dog landed and started observing it intensely to see if the fight was over. Jigglypuff, fueled by its anger, got up too quickly for Eevee to open its mouth and began trying to use Double Slap. The attack was barely grazing the dog as it swayed to the sides. It did a backflip to gain some distance and suddenly a weird but somehow comforting feeling came over its body. It shouted happily in the direction of its trainer. Both of the teenagers realized what it meant, but Red was quicker to react.

"Quick Attack!"

Eevee ran into Jigglypuff, knocking it a little upwards.

"Mirror Room!"

The dog accelerated like if it was shifting into a higher gear and began attacking from every direction without letting the pink Pokemon hit the bridge. As the circle it was attack in got tighter, its opponent was sent flying upwards.

"Swift!"

Jigglypuff was already 5 meter above the bridge, but after being hit, he flew 2 times as high. Green was sure that even if he didn't already faint, he would if he hit the bridge, so he recalled him back to the pokeball. Eevee looked at him in surprise, but when Red ran over to hug him, he realized what happened. He won and it was the time to celebrate. He growled happily while being patted on the head. Finally, he also went back into his pokeball. Red stood up and faced Green.

"How was that?" he asked with a smug grin.

Green remained calm and answered "I would be very disappointed if you couldn't beat a Pokemon I just got with one you had for a long time."

Red was disappointed by Green's composure when faced with defeat.

"You weren't looking so hot for a second there." Green added.

"I will... You..." Red was too irritated to come up with a good comeback.

Green started walking away towards Cerulean City.

"I said that we won't be acquaintances until we meet a third time. I'm looking forward to that. But even now... you are definitely not a random person. I will... consider you... my rival." after finishing these words, Green sped up his walk.

When he realized that his new rival was just too embarrassed to say that face to face, Red started laughing out loud, not at Green, but from happiness.


It's me, your friendly neighborhood good-for-nothing. Back with another chapter.

This one had a lot of stuff added. Everything with Bill and Team Rocket wasn't originally planned but after the last chapter having that short bit with Green I wanted to add more of him in this one. Besides, since in my plans Green gets most of his Pokemon "off-screen", it was nice to have him get Jigglypuff with it, instead of just showing up with it.

The same goes for the tickets for St. Anne (I'm somehow used to using that name instead of S. S. Anne). They will of course be important later so it was a good course of things to not have them appear out of nowhere.

When it comes to Jigglypuff, I had a stupid reason for having Green get this Pokemon and decided to keep it, even if the reason was no longer valid because I think it's cool to have a rival with a Pokemon that just seems unrival-like.

It was also a good idea to introduce the other Team Rockets admins earlier, since originally they were supposed to appear one by one and they wouldn't have a lot of interactions. After having Alex act like an asshole, it was my point to make the reader realize that he's the most normal one out of the three of them. Overall, there is a lot of foreshadowing in this chapter, but if you didn't pick some of it up, you don't have to worry because it won't really become apparent until later on.

Since everybody loves statistics(maybe it's just me) I decided to do a little thing I'll place at the end of every chapter which will keep you up with the Pokemon and badges owned by the 6 most important characters. The ? indicates a Pokemon a trainer has in his possesion which hasn't been shown yet. I don't know if you would count that a spoiler, but besides that, there will be nothing else. So, if a Pokemon evolves between chapters it won't be listed here until it appears in the story.

Red. Team: Eevee, Charmander, Pikachu.

Badges: 1

Green. Team: Ivysaur, ?, Jigglypuff.

Badges: 2

Blue. Team: Bellsprout, Squirtle, Zubat.

Badges: 1

Alex. Team: Ditto, ?, ?, ?.

Angie. Team: ?, ?.

Peter. Team: ?, ?, ?.