The four great pokedex holders of Kanto, Red, Green, Blue, and Yellow, managed to each capture the vast majority of pokemon, if only to give to Professor Oak for study.

There were a few pokemon, even among those which were not legends or even all that rare, which managed to remain as exceptions. Ekans rebuffed Yellow's offers of friendship, ran from Green's bravado, and while Blue's charms and trickery came close on occasion, she never did manage to capture one and eventually gave up.

It was Red and Red alone who managed to catch an Ekans. He did it not as a goofy kid, but as a silent pokemon master, having gained wisdom with experience, but lost his will to speak in the process. He approached the young Ekans silently, rolled a pokeball along the ground, and hit it in the tail before it could even react. The pokeball opened, shook thrice and stopped. Red made a V-sign, spun around with the ball and brought it to a transporter, headed for professor Oak's lab and the discovery of a medical use for Ekans venom.

He never, of course, lets Green forget this fact. Nor does Green let him forget that he couldn't even catch a Meowth.