"Thank you for waiting," the nurse said, "Your Pokemon are fully healed. We hope to see you again."
The nurse handed the two Poke Balls back to Josh and gave a quick bow before turning her attention back to the computer at the front desk.
Josh walked out of the Pokemon Center, still thinking of his battle with Ryan. The way his Charmander weaved between Hermes' and Pan's attacks, the way the fire burned Pan's vine, the way he casually said "this one's weak, we just have to finish it off."
It had always been that way between them. Josh and Ryan had dreamed of becoming Trainers for as long as they could remember, but they had had other interests along the way, which they always turned into a competition. Games of tag at school, baseball, memorizing their favorite Trainers and Gym Leaders' Pokemon. No matter what the contest was, Ryan always seemed to have an edge over Josh and everyone else. Even in the rare event Josh managed to beat Ryan at something, it had always taken hours of practice that Ryan never seemed to have to put into anything — and even when he lost, Ryan would just shrug and say he was bored of it.
The first Pokemon battle Josh had ever had, and he had lost.
The Viridian City Gym was closed again today. Josh had heard Trainers grumbling about the Leader constantly taking extended leaves even before he had gotten Pan, so it wasn't a surprise. Three years ago, when Jake had started his own journey, he was able to challenge the Viridian City Gym within a week. That was back when Viridian was still a Bug-type Gym. Instead, Josh headed North to Route 2.
Route 2 bent and curled around outcroppings of thick trees and tall grass that grew denser with each step. Eventually, the cover from the trees became so thick that hardly any sunlight made it through, and Josh was barely able to see more than 10 feet ahead of him. It was said that the Viridian Forest was a natural maze, and Josh could see why. With so many twists and turns in the forest path, Josh started to think he was heading the wrong way, but signs indicating Pewter City reassured him.
As Josh passed by a patch of long grass and towards the next corner he began to hear voices.
"No way! Koga's the best!"
"Lieutenant Surge is the best, he can fly a plane powered by his own Pokemon!"
"Koga's a ninja, he doesn't need a plane."
Josh rounded the corner, now seeing the kids who were having a debate. There were three boys, all wearing shorts, tank tops, wide-brimmed hats, and carrying nets. The tallest one looked about Jake's age, and the other two looked about the same age as Josh. There was a girl with them as well, wearing a white button-up shirt and red plaid skirt. As Josh got closer he could also see all three of the boys had Poke Balls on their belts, and the girl was holding one in her hand.
"I like Misty," she said.
"Yeah, Misty's cool too, I guess," the shortest boy said as he fiddled with his net.
"Hey!" the tallest boy said, "Settle an argument for us. Who's better, Koga or Lieutenant Surge?"
Josh stopped, and turned to look behind him.
"Yes, you," the tall boy said.
"Um," Josh said, looking up in thought, "I guess I like Surge better. Electric-types are cool."
The shorter boy jumped and gave Josh a thumbs-up while the other boy threw his head back and groaned. The tallest boy and the girl exchanged looks and laughed.
"What's your name?" the girl asked.
"Josh," he said.
The girl smiled, showing a set of perfect-white teeth behind a set of braces, and held out her hand, "I'm Caitlin, nice to meet you."
Josh took her hand and shook it, suddenly aware of how cold his own hands were.
"Hey, you're a Trainer!" the short boy said.
Josh looked down, his belt was now showing after shaking Caitlin's hand, with his two Poke Balls attached to his side.
The short boy took his own Poke Ball in his hand and held it up towards Josh.
"If you're a Trainer, how about a battle?" he said.
The image of Vulcan standing over Pan's limp body flashed in Josh's mind. He looked at Caitlin, who was still smiling at him. After a moment, Josh reached for his own Poke Ball and opened it, allowing Pan to emerge.
"You have a Bulbasaur!" Caitlin said, kneeling down to look closer at Pan, "Does he have a name?"
"Pan," Josh said.
Caitlin pat Pan on the top of his head, and she giggled when the Bulbasaur nuzzled her palm. Josh wondered why he had couldn't seem to look away from their interaction.
"He's a cutie," she said, finally standing up.
"I heard those are super rare," the tall boy said, "where did you get him?"
"He was a gift," Josh said.
The tall boy whistled. "Some gift," he said.
The short boy opened his Poke Ball and a Caterpie emerged. Josh could see Pan's reflection in the Bug-type's large, beady eyes.
A soft beep from Josh's bag reminded him to check his Pokedex. Josh pulled it from his bag and opened it. Caterpie had already been added to it. Josh grimaced at the thought of facing three of Ryan's Pokemon.
"What is that?" Caitlin said.
"A Pokedex," Josh said.
The Bug Catchers and Caitlin all gave Josh a quizzical look. Only then did Josh realize he had never talked about the Pokedex to anyone who didn't already have one — namely, Ryan, Ash, and the Professor — let alone even say the word 'Pokedex' out loud before.
"It's a digital encyclopedia," Josh explained, "it records all the information about the Pokemon I see, and eventually it'll have all the info on all the Pokemon in the Kanto region."
"Won't that take forever?" the tall boy said.
"There are two other Trainers helping me," Josh said.
The short boy let out a loud exaggerated cough, drawing everyone's attention to him.
"We've never battled a Bulbasaur before," the boy said, "This'll be an easy one. Caterpie, use Tackle!"
The Caterpie advanced on Pan, its tiny feet moving like the treads on a tractor, and smashed its head into Pan's. The Caterpie continued to drive Pan backwards until Pan dug his own legs into the ground and pushed, throwing the Caterpie back.
"Pan, use Tackle!" Josh said, slipping his Pokedex back into his bag.
"String Shot, quick!"
Pan charged froward, but the Caterpie shot out a string of white webbing that bent and curled in the air and quickly covered Pan from the tip of its bulb to its feet, gluing it in place.
"Now use Tackle!"
"Get out of there, use Vine Whip!"
The Caterpie advanced on Pan again, but Pan's vines sprang out from his bulb and swiped horizontally around him like the blades of a helicopter, cutting the webbing and whacking the Caterpie across its face and sending it flying.
"Now finish it off," Josh said, "Tackle!"
Pan charged forward as the Caterpie struggled to roll in
the grass and get back to its feet, but Pan slammed his head into the Bug-type's side and sent it tumbling even further. The Caterpie rolled onto the feet of its Trainer, defeated.
The short boy recalled his Pokemon and hung his head, mumbling something about overpowered Pokemon as he walked back to his friends. Caitlin clapped her hands and cheered. Josh felt a rush of heat to his face and suppressed the urge to smile.
The taller boy stepped forward, throwing his Poke Ball in the air which opened and revealed a Weedle. Again, Josh checked his Pokedex. According to the entry, it had already been captured and logged into the index. Just how many has Ryan caught already? Most of all, Josh's eyes hung on the words "BUG/POISON" in the typing category.
"Pan, come back," Josh said, recalling the Grass-type to his Poke Ball, "let's go, Hermes!"
Hermes emerged from his Poke Ball and immediately began flying along the edge of the clearing the Trainers were standing in, just below the mass of leaves above them that blocked out the sun.
"Weedle, use String Shot!" the tall boy said.
"Dodge it, and use Gust!"
The Weedle shot a string of webbing from its mouth, which arced towards Hermes, but the Flying-type turned at the last second and brought its wings together to launch a blast of wind, flattening the Weedle and the patch of grass it was standing on into the ground.
"Hit it again, Hermes!"
"Use Poison Sting!"
Hermes flew back around to make another pass, and launched another blast of wind, but not before the Weedle managed to lower its head, pointing its silver horn at the Flying-type and launch a purple-tinged spike that caught Hermes in the chest.
The Weedle was flattened by the blast of wind again, and this time went limp instead of getting back up. The tall boy recalled his defeated Pokemon back its Poke Ball as Hermes fluttered back to the ground.
Hermes stumbled as he landed, nearly falling over, then shook his head violently and squawked.
"Hermes, what's wrong?" Josh said, walking toward his Pokemon.
"It looks like he's been poisoned," Caitlin said.
"Sorry," the taller boy said with a shrug, "it happens."
"Hermes, come back," Josh said, withdrawing his Pidgey.
"You should take him to a Pokemon Center," Caitlin said, "the poison will still hurt him even inside his Poke Ball."
"Right," Josh said, "I'll go back to Viridian."
Caitlin shook her head. "We're more than halfway through the forest here. Pewter City's closer."
"Oh, right," Josh said.
Josh tightened the straps to his backpack and walked past the boys.
"Hey, you're a really good battler," Caitlin said.
Josh turned around, Caitlin had followed him, the three boys had gone back to their debate about Gym Leaders, and they were alone.
"Thanks," he said.
"But could I give you some advice?"
"Um, sure," Josh said.
"You withdrew your Bulbasaur because you were worried about the type disadvantage, right?"
"Right," Josh said.
"The funny thing about Weedle, they can only learn two offensive moves, Poison Sting and Bug Bite," Caitlin said, "do you get what I'm saying?"
Josh opened his mouth to respond, but then hesitated.
"The only moves Weedle had were Poison-type and Bug-type, and Bulbasaur is part-Poison," Caitlin said. "So it wouldn't do much damage, and there would be no risk of your Bulbasaur getting poisoned."
Again, Josh felt a rush of heat to his face, but now could only manage to look down at the ground.
"Right," he said.
"Viridian City Trainer School," Caitlin said, gesturing to her uniform skirt as if it were a karate belt, "they really drill us on that kind of stuff."
"There's no Trainer School where I'm from," Josh said, fidgeting with his backpack.
Everything he had learned about Pokemon had been from watching others, mostly the Indigo Plateau Conference at the end of every year and his older brother. Josh remembered how Jake had saved a month's worth of allowance to buy even a single Poke Ball, then taken their father's old, cheap fishing rod to the lake in Pallet Town hoping to find a Dratini. After hours of landing nothing but Magikarp, Jake had landed a Poliwag. It hardly seemed like much of an improvement, the way it had flailed about on the grass, but Josh could tell by the look on Jake's face that he had made up his mind — he wasn't going to throw this one back. He had thrown his one Poke Ball, waited for it to stop twitching, and picked it back up as though it still had nothing of value inside. Most students at Trainer Schools were given Pokemon by their parents, usually at a birthday party.
"Well, I'd say you're doing just fine without one," Caitlin said with a smile. "Are you heading to the Pewter City Gym?"
"Yeah," Josh said.
"Brock's a great Gym Leader," Caitlin said, "watch out for his Onix, it's faster than you'd think."
Josh searched for something to say, but all he seemed to be able to think about was how silly Jake had looked with that Poliwag, even after weeks of trying to train it. He had challenged Avery Oak and her Vulpix to a battle once, but she had just laughed it off. "Lucky isn't for battling, she's just a pet," Avery had said. Is that what Caitlin was thinking of Josh right now?
"Okay, thanks, bye," Josh said, practically tripping over every word, then turned on his heel and started to walk away as casually as he could.
Josh remembered the way he had shaken his brother's hand when he decided to finally leave Pallet Town to start his journey, just three years ago. It hadn't seemed like anything grand the way Josh had imagined it would, and he felt no different as he power-walked away from Caitlin, trying to outrun his embarrassment.