I do not own pokemon

Next morning, mountains north of Kanto

It was almost dawn when Parker finally reached a small alcove where he could rest. Pan slid off of his helmet, resting on the ground at his side, while Vike dropped the sword on his lap and sat on his head where Pan was just seconds ago. He finally got the chance to examine it a bit closer. The blade itself was surprisingly sharp for a museum piece, and seemed untouched by time, not even a hint of rust on it. The scabbard, while still functional, was somewhat damaged and was covered with various colored stains and battle damage. Weird, why would a scabbard suffer battle damage? He then noticed an inscription in the hilt, with ancient letters he didn't recognize.

"Vorpqay? Worqay? Worpuey? Fuck it, it's Worp." he muttered, before laying on the ground, his head twisted to the side to observe Pewter city below him. He wasn't more than a couple hundred meters up, but his position granted him a full view of the city and whatever they might try to do. It wasn't a perfect view, he was a bit too far up to observe individual people, but he could still see them. He frowned. If he could see them they could probably see him as well, especially if he was wearing a bright red backpack against a dull brown cliff face.

Then, an idea struck: he pulled out the leather shirt and tied it over the backpack, the brown leather and quills covering the backpack in a color much closer to that of the mountain. Not a foolproof strategy, but it would definitely make him far less noticeable to anyone looking up.

But, before he could continue, however, he needed to rest. He would need to find food and water, but at least he was much better equipped than he was when he started. He rolled to his side, closing his eyes for an hour or two before resuming his climb.

Twelve hours later

Climbing during the day was much easier than at night, and he was making progress much faster than before. The rock face was steep and only had a handful of alcoves where Parker could take a break every hour or so. Despite the apparent tediousness, however, he pressed forward for the rest of the day, ignoring the stomach rumblings when he skipped his meals.

He should have probably robbed a restaurant before going to the museum. Better yet, why didn't he go for the vending machines immediately after grabbing the bag?

It was pointless to dwell on it at the moment, he was certainly not going down to Pewter city. If he remembered correctly, a ferro rod was included in most climbing gear. Sure, it wasn't as practical as a lighter, but it should be more than enough to cook a Pidgey or two once he reached a clearing and could collect some firewood.

After reaching another alcove, Parker decided to call it quits for the day. He was starting to get tired and while they needed to overcome the rock wall if they wanted the chance to get their hands on some firewood and a wild pokemon to cook over it, there wasn't a point in a risky nighttime climb when they could just rest and continue in the following morning.

The following day

The climb was starting to become difficult. His stomach started to ache in protest of the lack of food, and Parker was sure both Vike and Pan started to feel the hunger as well. He could feel that his grip strength was diminishing, and by the time he reached the top of the cliff face, he had already slipped four times, scraping over the rocks as the anchor points strained, but held him from slipping too far down.

He rolled over the green meadow, taking a minute to relax his sore muscles. After a few minutes of relaxation, he got up and started looking around. The area was clearly a large scree that over the years had been slowly covered in moss, small bushes and the occasional tree. Not much there to find, but Parker had already seen something amazing. Right at the top of the scree there was the unmistakable look of a wellspring. Forgetting about his empty stomach for a second, Parker walked to the water gently dropping from the stone wall, barely a few drops at a time, and clasped his hands together, gathering the water to drink, soon joined by his two pokemons.

Once the tree had drunk their fill, they started to explore the area a bit better, with Parker gathering up any piece of dry wood he could get his hands on from the brushes. There were a good number of small caves, mostly formed by a few adjacent boulders that just happened to leave an empty space in between them large enough for Parker to walk, or sometimes crawl, in between. It honestly felt like the ceiling could collapse at any point, so Parker preferred not to venture too deep, only remaining within a couple steps from the entrance.

After a few minutes of walking, Pan spotted a cave that was large enough to house them and seemed stable enough to satisfy his paranoia, and the group gathered the sticks into a pile near the entrance.

With their soon to be campfire set up, Parker left his backpack and gym bag behind and led his team out to search for something to eat.

To their surprise, the area was mostly barren, only dotted with the occasional Geodude that the trio swiftly avoided. There wasn't anything to eat on the rock pokemon, after all.

The search brought them to one of the few trees, at which point Vike screeched in excitement. After his screech, a purple ball of fur jumped down from the branches, trying to run away. Before the pokemon could take another step, however, Parker was onto it, kicking it with surprising speed, before Vike could sweep down onto the pokemon, biting into it and draining its blood. The speed of his attack surprised Parker. Did he learn Quick Attack? He knew Vike was far faster than him, so there was no other explanation. Still, he wasn't expecting Quick Attack to be THAT fast. He supposed that was good to know for the future.

Shrugging at the new discovery, he picked up the pokemon… a Venonat? He was never too interested in the more exotic pokemons, especially the weak ones. He was pretty sure this thing was a bug type, and wasn't looking forward to eat bugs, but being picky was a luxury he could not afford at the moment. Slinging the pokemon on his back, he approached the tree. With one quick slice, he cut off a long thin branch that would make up his skewer and headed to their hideout.

Once there, he started to frown. He knew he should probably skin the pokemon, but the thing had fur, wouldn't it be easier to simply put it on the fire and let it burn off? Sure, it would probably stink and make a lot of smoke, but he was going to start the fire in the open, both smoke and smell would just disperse.

He also knew he was supposed to drain the blood… He had no clue how to do it, but he supposed stabbing it a few times with Worp and leaving it there while he started the fire would take care of it. So, that's what he did: his sword pierced the pokemon's body and, once the carcass was impaled on his freshly made skewer, Parker could start working on the fire.

Even with the fire rod, actually setting the twigs on fire took way longer than expected. After a good 20 minutes of trying, Parker decided to search for some old crumpled leaves, to hopefully help the fire start, and once he gathered a few, he was able to see the first embers after only a few seconds. Once the fire had grown to a decent size, he finally carried the Venonat, which had bled a good amount more than what Parker expected from something this small. onto the flames. As expected, the burned fur caused a lot of smoke and an ungodly stench, but thanks to Vike flapping his wings, the air was swiftly cleared. The Venonat looked charred and Parker had absolutely no idea how long it was supposed to cook, but he decided to air toward caution. After all, better eat something overcooked than something raw. He decided to keep the Venonat on the fire until dusk, turning the skewer every few minutes to ensure that it would cook evenly. During the time, Pan had left the campfire on five occasions, always returning with a few sticks that Parker added to the fire. Vike, on his end, had just taken a very long nap. Once the sun had begun to settle, Parker finally decided that the pokemon had cooked for long enough. He removed their meal from the flames and, while waiting for it to cool off enough for anyone to touch it, made a quick trip to the wellspring to clean the sword as best as he could.

Back at the fireplace, he cracked the charred exterior of the Venonat and exposed the pure white meat underneath. Despite how unusual the smell was, resembling a mix between a fried Pidgey and a mushroom stew, it was inviting enough for Parker to start diffing in. He didn't touch the various organs, handing them over to his pokemons who were more than eager to feast on them, and kept to the white flesh. The meal was satisfying and soon, he decided to call it quits for the day, leaving the remaining twigs to burn out on their own as he laid on his back and slid into the world of dreams.

Later at night

Parker woke up not two hours later in a lake of sweat, his breathing short and his body on fire. He was familiar with the sensation: poison. Was Venonat a poison type pokemon? Of course it was. How could he have forgotten such a thing? The thing had 'Veno' in the name, for Arceus's sake! Of course it had venom! He tried to get up, only succeeding in rolling around on the floor, waking up Vike in the process.

The Zubat looked annoyed, but screeched in panic as soon as he saw the conditions of his trainer. Pan woke up from the screech and immediately rushed to his side. Why weren't they in pain like him? Were poison types immune to poison?

"I… need water." he croaked out, voice hoarse and ragged.

Vike screeched something and flew out, while Pan stayed at his side, trying to pull him up.

He could barely move his mouth, he would never be able to reach the wellspring on his own. His body felt like it was on fire, and he felt like the world was spinning. He tried to puke, vomit crawling up his throat and out of his mouth. Not enough. He didn't know how long had passed, but by now he suspected a good chunk of his meal had been digested. Still, he needed to remove as much poison as he could.

"Push me… to the side…"

He croaked to the Nidoran. After a few seconds, he felt the gentle push of Pan helping him turn around, rolling him to the side.

He puked once more when Vike flew in, his mouth full of water as he poured it on Parker's face. It wasn't much, but he felt a lot better this way,

The night was long, with Vike flying back and forth to bring him water, Parker emptying his stomach and Pan doing what she could to assist the two. Eventually, Parker fell into unconsciousness.

Notes

The climb was long, but thanks to Parker's experince it wasn't as difficult as it could have been.

Finding food, on the other hand... well, that's a whole another story

Surprise surprise, eating poison type pokemon is not really a good idea if you don't have a way to overcome the poison, as Parker has learned the hard way

Next chapter will have a rather serious deviation from canon pokemon, I hope you'll find the concept intriguing enough to continue reading