Chapter 4: Eevee Gets The Jitters

Ben looked dumbfounded at the screen where Levi was chuckling, presumably at his reaction.

"Beat me? For real?" Mick asked in a somewhat surprised tone.

"Yes, I want to see if he got what it takes to be a good example to my brother who'd be traveling with him." Levi smiled. "Not that I doubt him, but I just want confirmation." Levi looked straight at him. Making Ben feel conscious about himself, he didn't quite know what to say.

"You gotta be kidding bro!" Mick replied. "You know he picked Bulbasaur and I picked Charmander, so there's no way he'd beat me and I just don't want to throw the match, that'd be unsportsmanlike."

"I know and I know you'll give it your all despite the circumstances. But I feel like Ben can teach you a thing or two and he's the only person you listen to at times. I know deep down you respect his intelligence."

Ben had to sigh at this, because Levi was wrong, he was actually struggling to convince Mick in a few matters, like reading the books he lend him before the journey and letting him take courses in Viridian Pokémon Academy. But he knew he couldn't say no to challenges. It was ironic that the battle they we're having tomorrow now not only decided whether they'd take courses in the academy but also whether or not he'd get sponsoring for his journey. This battle had become quite important. It was a fight for the future. He was brought out of his thoughts when Mick called out to him. Apparently the phone call had ended.

"Ben? Ben? You alright?" Mick asked, waving his hand before his face.

"Uh, yeah sorry, got lost in thoughts" he said absentmindedly

"You got all that right?" Mick asked expectantly.

"Uhm, not really…" Ben said with an apologetic face

Mick sighed.

"Levi expects us to be at the South Viridian Arena tomorrow at 5PM sharp. It's a one-on-one Pokémon battle."

"I see…" he swallowed, lowering his head

Well, I guess there's no way out now.

"Listen Ben" Mick said as Ben looked up again. "I know you don't like it, but this is happening. I expect your A-game tomorrow."

Ben looked at his best friend for a while before he nodded reluctantly.

"I'll do my best." Ben said.

"Alright well, let's go check out our room then." Mick said.

They went to pick up their Pokémon from Nurse Joy first before heading to their room, which had a bunk bed and a desk with a computer, something which Ben smiled at. Back in Pallet Town they didn't have internet since it was so remote. Now he could do some real research. Maybe even to find out what happened to his father… But not today though, after everything that happened today he felt pretty exhausted.

Mick picked the top bunk, so Ben had to settle for the bottom one, he changed into his pajamas and lay down on the bed, with Eevee snuggling next to him, he looked up at Mick's mattress, drifting into thoughts again, he tried to focus on visualising the battle between him and Mick tomorrow, a couple of scenarios playing in his mind. He knew he could win, but did he want to win? Ben didn't have long to ponder however as he fell into an uneasy sleep.

Ben and Eevee stepped once more into the grassy fields of Route 1, soaking up the fresh morning air as the sun was about to rise slowly over the horizon, painting the sky into an orangish glow. He released Pidgey from his Poké Ball, who landed on the ground and eyed his new trainer curiously.

"Hey Pidgey, my name is Ben and this is my friend Eevee." he pointed out Eevee who was looking nervously at Pidgey beside him.

"We are just starting out on our journey and now you're a part of it. I hope you don't mind me been your new trainer?" he asked the Tiny Bird Pokémon.

Pidgey seemed to nod at Ben, making him smile.

"Ok good, because I'll need you in a couple of hours from now. Since Eevee can't battle yet and my Bulbasaur will be at a type disadvantage, I need you to win the battle against Mick, my traveling companion. It's an important battle, there are a couple of things at stake. I know you're freshly caught, but with my strategy I know we can win."

Pidgey stretched out it's wings and cooed as if showing Ben it was ready for battle.

"Ok, then let's begin some training exercises."

Ben and Eevee came back to their room around noon to find the room vacant. He guessed Mick was off training somewhere. His eyes landed on the computer as he smiled. Perhaps this was the time to do some research. Eevee jumped off his shoulder and got onto the bed as he curled up to take a nap. As soon as he booted the computer he decided to look up the Viridian Pokémon Academy. There was a detailed explanation of what the academy offered, it's facilities and a summary of what every subject entailed. He became quite excited at the prospect of studying there and testing his knowledge against other students.

He then looked up Eevee and found a wiki detailing Eevee's biology, explaining behavioral functions and how to take care of it. Ben decided to take notes of this, for future use. After all it was his mission to help Eevee get over it's trauma somehow.

Ben returned to the search engine where another item on Eevee had popped up in the form of a news story on Daily Pokémon and he decided to read it thoroughly.

EEVEE TO BE EXTINCT IN THE WILD IN KANTO

Minister of Environment and Wildlife: Louis Olivier says Team Rocket is to blame for poaching and trafficking Eevee on the black market.

Paul Cobbaert

Today at 07:39 AM

It has long been known that Eevee was among the rarest Pokémon to ever grace Kanto and were listed as endangered in the last few decades. It was a highly sought after Pokémon known for evolving into several different Pokémon, namely: Vaporeon, Jolteon and Flareon, a Water, Electric and Fire Type respectively, with reportedly capable been of other evolution forms according to scientists, although this is unconfirmed. Nevertheless this is part of the appeal that grew among trainers to catch one. While also been known to be affectionately referred to as 'pets' by the larger Pokémon enthusiastics community. This caused the rapid decline of the Evolution Pokémon ever since the first Poké Balls were invented in 1868. With Eevee been listed as an Endangered Pokémon since 1990 worldwide.

Efforts to preserve the Normal type Pokémon among others were made in 1987 by building a wildlife sanctuary in what's called present day as Evolution Forest, not far from the borders of the Safari Zone. However reports indicate the sanctuary was the victim of poaching in recent years, mostly done by the criminal organisation of Team Rocket who continues to be a thorn in Kanto's side. This has been confirmed by Minister of Environment and Wildlife: Louis Olivier stating "Team Rocket continues to traffick in rare Pokémon and has poached Evolution Forest again and again until there's nothing left. I continue to urge the Prime Minister (Joseph Lebeau) to increase security of our remaining wildlife sanctuaries."

Further sources claim that beyond the demand for Eevee on the black market, Team Rocket is utilising them in research to discover the secrets of evolution and thereby unlocking new possibilites for them. We can only fathom what they mean to accomplish by trying to ascertain this power.

Ben scowled and turned his gaze away from the computer, sighing as he got up and moved to the window to gaze upon the city outside. He clenched his hands into fists.

So Team Rocket used Eevee as an experiment to find out more about it's evolution powers… Ben thought Team Rocket is disgusting. Prying on Pokémon like that. What I wouldn't give to rid the world of them.

It took him a while to calm down, he eventually turned to look at Eevee's sleeping figure, it's body rising up and down with it's slow breathing and his anger dissipated.

I've got to be strong, for Eevee's sake.

He decided to sit behind the computer again and after taking a breath pressed the 'x' on the tab and opened up a new one. This time deciding to look up the gym leaders in Kanto. He discovered of the eight Gym Leaders in Kanto the closest gym was right here in Viridian City but unlike the other gyms scattered around Kanto it didn't have a type which it specialised in. Rather it was a gym where a Pokémon of any type could be encountered. Ben frowned at this as it would be difficult to prepare for a first gym battle at this particular gym. He decided to check the other gyms and found the other closest nearby gym was in Pewter City where the Gym Leader: Brock was a user of Rock type Pokémon. This worked out great for him as he already had a Bulbasaur that was strong against the Rock type, in further research he found out that the closest gym after that one was the one in Cerulean City where Misty was a user of Water type. This, again, worked out great for him since the Grass type was also super effective against Water. It seemed like taking Bulbasaur as his starter Pokémon benefited him in the early Gym challenge. However the same couldn't be said for Mick as Ben thought of his childhood friend. Unfortunately for him, both Brock and Misty would prove challenging with his Charmander who was both weak against Rock and Water types, which meant he would have to catch another Pokémon to use instead.

Further research revealed that in his first two gym battles he'd have to do battle with a two-on-two Pokémon battle setup. Ben reckoned he should catch himself something else in case Bulbasaur couldn't knock out two Pokémon back to back. Pidgey was unfortunately weak against Rock types so using him against Brock was out of the question, he would need something else. But he'd worry about that later. For now he'd like to focus on other things. He checked the time on his computer. 4:30 PM. It was time for his battle against Mick.

Ben, along with Eevee on his shoulder, entered a large stadium-like building filled with several battlefields where quite a number of trainers were battling to their heart's content, while there was also a number of people sitting in the stands. It was quite busy given that a lot of the trainers who came to battle here did so after school and but it would apparently be even busier during the circuit. A lot of trainers usually came here starting about two months before the conference started to battle for their final preparations, Viridian City been the closest city to the Indigo Plateau where the conference took place.

He quickly spotted Mick waving to him from a battlefield near the center and he walked over

"Hey man, Levi should be here soon." Mick said. "You look better then yesterday, had a good night's sleep?"

"Not really…" Ben said thinking back on how he had a nightmare of Damon and Maggie mocking him and how a gigantic Machop was ready to trample him.

"Just had a good training session before coming here and I did some useful research. I'm still not sure about Levi sponsoring me, but I feel ready to do battle with you." Ben said confidently.

Mick seemed to be a bit taken aback with how certain he looked but it was only visible for a moment before he grinned.

"I'm still gonna wipe the floor with ya, nothing personal." he remarked. "Tho I do feel bad for ya. I mean I want my brother to sponsor you so ya don't have to worry about money so much. But it's just not in my blood to lose on purpose…" Mick said a conflicted look appearing on his face.

"Mick, don't worry about it. I want a proper match. You told me to bring my A-game today and that's what I'm going to do. But I want you to bring your best as well. Ok?"

Mick looked back at Ben and looked back determined.

"Alright, but you will wish you hadn't said that!" he said as he grinned again.

Just then they felt a gust of wind blowing into their faces, which grew in intensity as they looked up, shielding their eyes somewhat while Eevee struggled to hold onto Ben's shoulder. They saw a large bird Pokémon descend with Levi riding atop of it. It looked like a larger form of a Pidgey which was partially the truth since it was the final evolved form of it, a Pidgeot.

It had large wings, sharp talons and a short, hooked beak. It's glossy plumage was mostly brown with cream-colored underparts and flight feathers. It's head had a decorated crest that was nearly as long as it's body. The center feathers of its crest were yellow, while the outer feathers were red. The fan-like feathers of it's tail are red. It's beak and legs were pink. Behind each eye was an angular black marking.

Pidgeot landed next to them as Levi slides off it's body, returning it to it's Poké Ball.

"Hey guys, how're you doing?" he said in an upbeat tone, he double pound fist-pumped Mick and did the same with Ben

"We're doing good bro." said Mick still with that grin on his face.

"Yeah we're ok." said Ben calmly.

They heard a lot of gasps and chatter as they turned to look behind to see a small crowd started to gather around them. Ben heard them say:

"It's Levi Woods! He was the runner up in the last conference!"

"Look at that Pidgeot, I wish I could fly on one of those…"

"Who are those two kids he's meeting with and why does one of them look like him?"

Ben was a bit taken aback by the situation. He hadn't quite thought people would recognise Levi and go admiring him, but he guessed he should've expected this situation, he glanced sideways at Eevee worriedly who began to grow very nervous as he started shaking.

Levi chuckled as he waved at the small crowd and told them to settle down.

"Alright, alright, that's enough. I know you guys probably want to get some autographs and all but the actual reason I'm here today is because of these two kids." he said as he dropped a hand on Ben's free shoulder and another on Mick's.

"This is my little brother and his best friend, they just started their journey yesterday and today they are battling to see who gets sponsored by me."

"What?! But bro the only one who-" Mick began

"So without further ado" Levi interrupted let's see what these two trainers are capable of!"

Ben glanced sideways to see Levi whispering something to his brother to which he reluctantly nodded. Meanwhile murmurs ran through the crowd and some were pointing at them.

I didn't want an audience for this. Ben thought as he looked around him to see how many had gathered, it was about thirty to fourty people.

I should've thought about this, now poor Eevee is terrified.

Eevee was shaking terribly in fright and Ben had to take him from his shoulder, into his arms and hug him.

"It's ok Eevee, these people aren't here to hurt you…" Ben said softly. Eevee calmed down a bit, but was still shaking.

The small crowd cleared the battlefield for him and Mick as they stood at opposite sides of the field. While Levi was acting as referee, not that the battles in an arena really needed one.

Ben took a deep breath and closed his eyes, trying to tune out the sounds of the crowd.

Just you and me Mick. I had imagined our first battle wouldn't be with such high stakes but it is what it is.

"Hey Ben!" he opened his eyes to see Mick looking back at him with his usual grin.

"Remember to have fun out there buddy!" he said while he chuckled.

He smiled and nodded, his anxiety for been watched dimming somewhat.

He's right. This is our first battle and it should be fun.

"Mick, Ben, send out your Pokémon!" Levi said from the side of the battlefield.

"Charmander, I call you to battle!" Mick released his Lizard Pokémon, who started to look around him, been somewhat surprised by how many people were watching him.

"Pidgey, I choose you!" Ben said as he released the Tiny Bird Pokémon, which was a bit hard given how he was still holding Eevee into his arms. Pidgey landed on the ground and focused it's beady eyes at Charmander. Mick seemed surprised, probably expecting Bulbasaur instead.

"Alright you two! Charmander against Pidgey, you guys can start!" Levi said, not been very referee-like.

Ben waited for Mick to make the first move and he didn't have to wait long.

"Charmander run up to Pidgey and use Scratch!"

Charmander began to run straight for Pidgey, Ben just waited until he was about to be in range.

"Pidgey fly up." Ben simply said and the Tiny Bird Pokémon flew up out of Charmander's reach, staying elevated a couple of meters above the ground. Charmander looked up, seeming worried. Ben looked at Mick who seemed to be equally as worried. He was probably wondering how to reach Pidgey. This was the perfect scenario. With Charmander been too young to know Flamethrower yet or any other move that could be used at range, Mick didn't have any chance of hitting Pidgey as long as it stayed afloat. Charmander may know Ember, but it would be hard to hit a Flying Pokémon with it unless it got close.

"Gust!" Ben commanded and Pidgey began to flap it's wings, sending a small twister towards the Fire type, hitting it as it grimaced.

"Charmander stand strong! Use Ember!"

The Lizard Pokémon began spinning around, sparks flying from the tip of it's tail that were carried up by the gust, but it didn't quite reach Flying type, the attack been too weak.

"Charmander keep trying! Try to boost your power!" Mick called out.

"Pidgey keep using Gust!"

Charmander may try as it might, but it wasn't even able to deal damage to Pidgey at all and although Pidgey was getting tuckered out, Charmander eventually grew too dizzy from going round and it stopped spinning, wobbling over the battlefield as it continued to take damage from the twister.

"Pidgey finish it off with a Tackle attack!" Ben commanded

"Charmander try to grab it!" Mick said in a panicked tone.

The Lizard Pokémon tried to steady itself and anticipate Pidgey's attack but was hit square in the chest and flew backwards, knocking it out.

"Heh, and the battle is over, victory goes to Ben and Pidgey, well done guys!" Levi said, flashing a smile at Ben and giving him a thumbs-up, while the small crowd cheered and applauded.

"Thank you Pidgey, you did a great job" Ben said as he returned Pidgey, he then looked over to Mick who looked troubled and disappointed, hanging his head. He wanted to walk over to him and encourage him, however he was grabbed around the shoulder halfway by Levi as he motioned the crowd to simmer down.

"Thank you, thank you guys, let me get your attention please!" Levi said, smiling brightly.

Ben looked down at Eevee, avoiding the gazes of the crowd. It was still shivering and anxious, but thankfully he seemed to be sort of alright given he was secured in his arms still. He tried to look up again and tried to look at no one in particular as Levi spoke.

"Ben is the victor and therefore gets my sponsorship! You should all keep your eyes on this trainer because I determine he will make it to the conference and land a big splash!"

The crowd cheered again

"Hey, I want to know something!" a girl spoke up in the crowd, her eyes set on Eevee before shifting her gaze at Ben.

"What did you do to that poor Eevee? It looks like you've been abusing it or something!"

Ben decided to open his mouth but Levi cut him off.

"That Eevee has been abused, yes." and the crowd began to raise their voices "But! Not by Ben." and the crowd went mostly silent again to listen in "Ben in fact befriended this Eevee after it wouldn't interact with anybody anymore and barely ate. It was heavily traumatised after it was been experimented on by Team Rocket. Ben is the only one it warmed up to since then. Please give him the benefit of the doubt. I wouldn't sponsor somebody who didn't have their heart in the right place!"

Mumbles grew through the crowd and some even cheered and clapped for Ben. Ben blushed and didn't know if Levi should've given out that information. He wasn't sure if he wanted anybody to know of Eevee's history. Then again, he might grow a reputation for the wrong reasons if people thought he was actually abusing his Pokémon so perhaps it was for the best.

Just then a man in his late teens stepped forward.

"Levi is it true what they say? They said you helped prevent a raid by Team Rocket by Prof Oak's lab!"

Murmurs began running through the crowd and Levi had to signal them again to be silent.

"Yes, yes, it's true." and the crowd began whispering amongst themselves as he explained himself.

"Yesterday two Rocket grunts broke into the lab and tried to make off with the Pokémon from the lab, however I intercepted them when they tried to flee with their balloon using Pidgeot and I was just in time to save Ben who had bravely tried to shield Eevee from harm who also abducted." he said, once again placing his hand on Ben's shoulder.

The crowd seemed surprised at this and Ben managed to pick out some of the things they began to say to each other.

"Wait, you mean to tell me this kid stood up to Team Rocket on his first day as a trainer?"

"That's unbelievable, I wouldn't be able to stand up to them, I'm too weak."

"Me neither, that kid got guts and he seems quite talented to boot beating a Charmander with a Pidgey."

Ben grew rather embarrassed from the praise some of the people were saying about him and he felt like he was ready to leave at this point. He'd rather not have revealed all of this to people he didn't know either.

"Well that's all the time I have for today folks. I've got places to be and hearts to steal." Levi said as he released his Pidgeot again with a flourish and mounted himself on his flying Pokémon, as the crowd had to make space for Pidgeot's take off.

"I'll send you the contract later Ben, just sign it and deliver it back to me." said Levi as he winked at him and took off, flying out of the arena quickly and out of sight.

Levi had left, but this put Ben in a rather precarious position as people crowded around him, mostly wanting to ask more info about Levi, but some also trying to challenge him to a battle, this caused Eevee to yelp and it struggled out of Ben's grip and made a run for it, weaving between people's legs in a desperate attempt to get away.

"No! Eevee come back!" Ben said as he reached out an arm, as if he could pull back Eevee that way. He quickly pushed back the crowd until he got an opening as he saw Eevee running out of the arena exit in the distance.

He hurried out of the arena and then tried to spot Eevee, then noticed a small brown figure running, crossing the street, and he watched in horror and with a lurch of his stomach as he ran straight in the path of an incoming car, that veered off with a sharp jerk narrowly dodging Eevee as it screeched to a halt against a lamppost, ruining the front of the car. Ben rushed across the street, still taking care there were no other cars coming.

"Hey kid! Your Pokémon wrecked my car, get back here!" he heard an angry man yell. Ben quickly looked over his shoulder.

"I'll be back! Promise!" Ben yelled back. Trying not to think how this would cost him a fortune. He had bigger concerns now.

Eevee ran a couple more blocks, all the while Ben struggled to keep up, the Evolution Pokémon been faster then he was, luckily for Ben his jogging routine had kept him in shape and it was thanks to this he didn't quite lose sight of it, that was until after a few minutes it turned a corner and ran straight into a park and between the bushes and foliage he couldn't make out where Eevee went. He settled down into a walking pace, slightly out of breath and began calling Eevee.

"Eevee? Eevee? It's ok boy, you're safe now, come out please!" Ben said as he looked around and continued to call out to him.

He searched for several minutes but couldn't find any trace of it, he asked people if they saw him, but no dice. All sorts of thoughts began to ring through Ben's mind. Eevee been attacked by other trainers who'd attempt to capture it, thinking he was wild, how he'd never see Eevee again, how some people might steal him and sell him off in the black market, enduring atrocious conditions again, or Eevee just wandering around lost in Viridian City and eventually starving to death. He was just starting to lose hope when he finally spotted Eevee hiding behind somebody's legs, shivering nervously as it looked around.

"Eevee there you are, I've been looking all over for you!" he said as he came running up. Eevee noticed him and relief seemed to pass over his eyes before he was abruptly picked up by the person he was hiding against.

"Who are you?…" said a cute, high-pitched voice with suspicion. Ben came to a halt before her and blinked. Before him stood a pink-haired girl about half a foot smaller then him with azure blue eyes, wearing a white sunhat and a stunning, expensive-looking white dress. She looked to be around the same age as he was.

"Uhm, I'm Ben, I'm this Eevee's trainer" Ben introduced himself.

The girl looked at him with skepticism and then back at Eevee that was now in her arms. Ben noted with surprise that Eevee seemed to have stopped shivering and seemed rather comfortable in her arms.

"Is that right Eevee? Is this boy your trainer?" she asked him.

Eevee nodded at this. "Eievui." The girl looked back at Ben with disdain however.

"Hmm… why is this Eevee in such poor condition?" she said seeming cross.

"It's not my fault! Honest! This Eevee has been experimented on by Team Rocket and I only got it yesterday from Prof Oak who asked me to take care of it."

The girl seemed surprised by this information and her eyes widened.

"W-What? Team Rocket? And you know Prof Oak?"

Ben nodded silently.

"That's horrible… I can't believe someone would experiment on such a cute, little Pokémon…"

She seemed sad all of a sudden, but then looked at him with an angry expression.

"Why did he run from you if you were supposed to take care of it?"

"Well you see I had a Pokémon battle in the arena a few blocks away, but a crowd gathered around us and that got Eevee jittery and scared so it ran away."

"If that's the case why didn't you return it to it's Poké Ball?"

"Because Eevee doesn't like going inside it's Poké Ball" Ben replied.

"Oh…" the girl seemed taken aback. "You say you know Prof Oak right? I don't think you are lying so uhm… here." and she extended Eevee towards him. Ben took Eevee into his arms after which he happily climbed onto his shoulder.

"Thank you." Ben said, there was a moment of silence between them during which the girl looked at the pair of them and seemed to smile.

"You know, it's quite uh… interesting but…" Ben began "So far Eevee hasn't responded well to anybody yet besides me, it seems like Eevee likes you."

The girl blinked for a moment and seemed embarrassed when she said:

"Oh… well, I don't know, most Pokémon seem to like me, I don't know why. I just have Pokémon running up to me wanting to be petted or asking for treats… I really don't know why they'd do that."

Ben smiled at this, he didn't say it but he could kind of guess why. She seemed innocent and kind and gave off some kind of sweet aura.

"Anyways uhm, I should really get going." said the girl "Please take good care of Eevee, ok? Bye!"

And without even waiting for a reply she turned around and hurriedly began to walk away. She left so abruptly Ben was stunned for a few seconds before he could even respond.

"Wait! Come back!" Ben had wanted to ask her a few more things but she either didn't hear him or pretended not to as she walked away from him with a fast pace.

"Bye…" Ben said quietly.

"She was interesting, don't you think so Eevee?" Eevee responded with a nod.

"Vui."

"I wonder if we'll see her again…" Ben wondered. Then he remembered there was a driver who was probably steamed that he left the scene of an accident his Eevee caused and then hurriedly turned around and ran back where he came from.

Oh man, what have I got myself into this time… Ben wondered with a dreading feeling in his stomach. He hoped the man wouldn't press charges against him.