The imposing, rough-faced, man had a purple mohawk, an open jacket showing off a shirt with the number 34 written on it, which just happens to be the pokedex number for Nidoking, blue jeans, a permanent scowl, and the special Celadon Nidoking jacket. This was the leader of the biker gang: The Celadon Nidokings.

"You are going to pay for what you did, brat!" the man said threateningly, while standing in front of his bike and their hideout.

Gary gave off his usual shrug and smirk combo. "I think it'll be you who pays for what your gang did and have done to the innocent people and Pokèmon that come through here."

"You'll eat those words and beg for mercy!" The leader sent out his pokèmon, which happened to be his very own Nidoking!

Growlithe growled at the sight of the enemy's Pokèmon, but didn't move from Gary's side, yet.

Gary lifted up an eyebrow at the choice of Pokèmon. His smirk turned into a grin, before pulling out his Pokèball. "Ok, this should be fun. Go Nidoking!"

His Nidoking appeared and stomped around roaring loudly. When catching sight of its opponent, another of its species, he grinned too, at the chance to see which Nidoking is stronger.

"Try to be entertaining, or else my Nidoking will make yours look like a feeble Nidoran," Gary mockingly said, really talking trash to the gang leader.

Growlithe barks as if he was participating in the smack talk

"You brat! That's it! Nidoking, use your Horn Attack!" the leader snapped.

His Nidoking tried to strike Gary's Nidoking, by ramming into him. However, with his great strength, Gary's Nidoking grabbed hold of the other Pokèmon, avoided the attack, and halted the forward charge. Pushing back against the other Nidoking.

Growlithe barked in support at Gary's Nidoking stopping the gang's Nidoking in its tracks, while Gary shook his head, smirking.

"That wasn't a good idea. All you've done is just given my Nidoking permission to teach yours a lesson. Now, use Thrash!" Gary ordered.

Gary's Nidoking roared loudly, and began pummeling his opponent. He threw and struck the enemy Pokèmon, like it was nothing but a sandbag. With a final strike to the head, Gary's Nidoking sent the enemy Nidoking to the ground. With swirls in its eyes indicating it fainted.

The leader growls in frustration, returning his Pokèmon. "Boys! Destroy this brat and his Pokèmon!" He yelled, as 5 of his gang members rushed out, sending out their Pokèmon. 3 Zubats, a Koffing, and a Graveler.

This caused Gary to sigh, "You aren't playing fair, but that tracks since you are losing."

Growlithe didn't like this one bit. This seemed to irk the puppy Pokèmon, and it attempts to jump in, to aid its new ally. However, Gary prevents this, as he and Nidoking both put out an arm to stop Growlithe from moving forward. This made the fire type take some steps back, and watch on.

"Don't worry, Growlithe. We've got this," Gary reassuringly said.

Nidoking took several steps back to stand beside Growlithe. Arms crossed, and grinning.

"Alright, come out Wartortle! Let's try that new move you learned from training!" Wartortle jumped out of the pokeball, Gary took a breath exclaiming. "Hydro pump!"

Wartortle took a breath, all his limbs receding back into his shell, then he let rip. Like a spinning top, spraying all enemy Pokèmon with high pressure water, shooting from all the holes in his shell. It ended in a spectacular way that would probably even have the Sensational Sisters of Cerulean City asking how he did that.

The gang and even Growlithe were shocked by this beatdown by a single Pokèmon. Wartortle landed in between the gang, and Gary's group. Eyes narrowed, and looked proud of his handy work.

"Let's get out of here!" The boss, who lost all his mettle, declared.

The now scared gang members all recalled their pokèmon, hopped onto their bikes, and followed their leader. Riding away from the route as fast as humanly possible.

Growlithe in pure awe of Wartortle and Gary's display of sheer power made this little fire type truly want to join the boy and his team.

"Heh, now that the nuisance has been dealt with," Gary said, then turned to smile down at the Growlithe, along with his other two Pokèmon. "You've seen what we can do. Normally, I would prefer to catch my Pokèmon in a battle, but I'll ask. Do you want to join my team, Growlithe?"

Growlithe, looked at the confident smiles of the Wartortle and Nidoking. It matched theirs, before looking back at Gary, and giving a affirmative bark.

"Alright then! Pokèball, go!" Gary said in triumph, tosses the ball in the air, and watches it fall back down. Tapping Growlithe on the head, and catching the fire type. "Alright, I just caught a Growlithe!"

Later..

After the 'not so tough' battle, Gary doubled back to the Pokèmon Center to swap some mons around, and get Growlithe on the team. By the time he was done, he only had 4 Pokèmon on him, with 2 spots opened for two new captures. With that taken care of, he left the center and Lavender Town.

Gary headed further down route 8, west of Lavender Town. Catching himself a Vulpix on the way through. Walking down the path, he noticed a lot of over growth of foliage, off to the side of the road, covering something big. He slipped in behind the foliage, and found the underground tunnel that goes directly under Saffron City.

Taking out his map, he quickly found that this could take him to route 7. Though by his estimates, it would take him till night to reach the other side. Shrugging, puts his map back up, called out Growlithe, and walked forward. This was so he can have company, and to get to know one of his new captures.

After entering the underground tunnel, he noted from looking at the walls that it had been used as an underground bunker in the last war to help keep civilians safe. Although, it has since been abandoned once that war had come to an end.

After walking for hours, Gary made it to the other end of the underground path. Once he was out, he quickly realized it was nighttime.

"Alright we will camp in the tunnel, no need to bring out the tent for once," he chuckles while talking to Growlithe, who followed diligently back into the tunnel.

Settling down only when Gary sat down and let out his party of Pokèmon who stretched and wandered up and down the path before settling down themselves for dinner and then bed.

The next morning

Gary woke up early to the sound of rain coming from outside. Sitting up in a sleeping bag, he looked towards the entrance, and saw that it was indeed pouring down outside. Quickly checking his watch, he saw that it was around 4:20 a.m. with the dark clouds hanging overhead.

Sighing at this turn of events, he thought of going back to sleep, since Primape wasn't here to wake him up early, he could catch up on some more sleep… and he did just that. Sleeping for another 2 hours, then he finally got up, to see that it was still raining outside. Seeing that it might rain all day, he decided to let his team have today off, after their morning routine and breakfast.

It was almost noon, and it had rained light and heavy throughout the morning. Gary had taken to looking over his notes he had taken over the course of his journey, while his Pokèmon had talked among themselves, and explored the tunnel some more. Having little adventures of their own, and getting to know their two new teammates, Growlithe and Vulpix.

While Gary remained at the campsite, trusting his Wartortle to keep an eye on the others, he looked out at the rain, reflecting what he had learned and discovered on this journey of his. While doing so, the rain had lightened up to a light sprinkle. As he looked out at the wet grass, outside the large entrance, he happened to have caught sight of a four leaf clover. Blinking at the sight of it, he placed his notepad he had been reading down, and walked towards the entrance. Keeping his eye on the clover.

He stopped, just at the entrance. Letting the light sprinkle land on his face a bit, as he stared at the clover, just 10ft away from him. Hands in his pocket, Gary gave a small smile at the supposed lucky four leaf clover. Thinking about how lucky he was to have gotten the chance to actually go on a Pokèmon journey, whereas his great-uncle, the mayor of Pallet Town, had tried to argue against Gary going. Gary was so lucky his grandpa stood in his corner, and won out in the end.

Suddenly, a rustling sound came to his ears. Taking his attention off of the clover, to scan the area for the source of that sound. Looking to his left, slowly coming out of a bush, was a soaked, brown and cream furred Pokèmon.

"No way! An Eevee?! Here?" Gary said in great surprise at such a rare find.

The now identified Pokèmon, Eevee, spotted Gary and stood still. Both it and the human boy stood there, staring at each other. Ears twitched at hearing the rain was about to pick back up, so it made its way into the tunnel. Keeping its distance from the human boy, staying near the wall. Once fully inside, it shook its wet fur.

Gary watched the Eevee with amazement. He never thought he would find a rare Pokèmon like an Eevee out here so soon. When the pokemon was done shaking its wet fur, they both locked eyes again. He slowly started to smirk, while noticing Eevee's body was becoming more tense.

"You must be hungry?" Gary said, unexpectedly, shocking the Eevee. "Well, I do have some food if you are."

Eevee watched the human boy turn and walked back to what Eevee could only guess was, the human's temporary home. It watched as the human knelt down in front of a brown bag, and began searching inside of it.

Eevee cautiously moved forward with slow steps, towards the boy. It was halfway to the boy, when the smell of food assaulted its nose. It smelled good, and its stomach betrayed how hungry Eevee was, with its loud rumbling. Which in turn, causes the human boy to chuckle at it.

"That tells me everything," Gary said, smiling and setting a bowl of Pokèmon food down, near the Eevee. "Here you go. This should tide you over."

The Eevee watched the boy set the bowl down, and walked back over to his home. Putting some distance between them. Eevee then walked over and sniffed at the food in the bowl. Detecting nothing wrong, it cautiously took a bite, and wagged its tail at how good it tasted before digging in for the rest.

Gary watched the Eevee eat, and resumed to look at his notes, while the rain outside continued to pour down. Everyone once in the while, he would look back at the Eevee, to see it had slowed down eating. Gary figures the little Pokèmon was savoring the taste, and didn't want it to be gone too quickly. Grinning at this, he wrote down possible move combinations a few of his Pokèmon could possibly do against opponents. Thinking of what he had seen of contest Pokèmon by Coordinators.

When Eevee was done with eating, it looked up at the human in thought. Watching the human engrossed in whatever he was doing with those items he had. Then, it grabbed the bowl in its mouth, and slowly came over to the boy. Placing the bowl down near the boy's feet, and slowly backing up a couple of feet.

Gary looked up and smiled at the Eevee bringing the empty bowl back. "Thank you, Eevee. Here, you must be thirsty after that." He poured some water, from his canteen, into the bowl, and watched Eevee come back over to lap at the water.

Some time had passed, and Gary's other Pokèmon had returned. When they did, they were quite surprised to see their human with another Pokèmon. Said Pokèmon, being an Eevee, was laying down beside Gary, curled up and sleeping. They saw their trainer looking at them, and giving them a motion to keep quiet. Confused by this, they all walked quietly back to him, and seated around Gary and the mysterious Eevee.

It would be hours later, into the night, when Gary and his Pokèmon were sleeping, and Eevee was keeping watch. It was seated against the wall, with Gary's camp in front of it. It would look to the right, to make sure no one was coming in from the tunnel, and look to the left, outside at the clouds slowly clearing up from the light shower that they had earlier.

It thought in silence at the conversations that it had with the Pokèmon that belonged to the human. They all looked really strong, and spoke highly of their trainer, which it now knew was called Gary. It learned that Gary was on his way to the next city, which was where Eevee was from, to challenge the gym for a badge.

Shockingly, it was Wartortle who invited Eevee to join the group. It remembered how Wartortle spoke with such strength and conviction, being Gary's first ever Pokèmon, about being with Gary that the other Pokèmon, besides Growlithe and Vulpix, nodded to. This gave Eevee a lot of thought for the night that it didn't sleep at all. Eevee was still awake when Gary woke up early, before the sunlight had even started to be seen. They both had locked eyes… and smirked.

The sun had barely peaked over the hill, and in the entrance of the underground tunnel, a battle had taken place. Eevee on one side, while Wartortle and Gary on the other. Both sides had grins on their faces, both were breathing heavily, and both Pokemon had taken a lot of damage. Gary then took out a Pokèball, and threw it at Eevee.

Not having the strength to dodge, the grinning Eevee felt the ball hit its forehead, and was then pulled into the ball. It struggled to try and get out, but after being weakened in that battle with Wartortle, it had no strength to fight off the capture. It was caught.

Gary whooped in gleam, then thanked Wartortle for his help, before returning the water type to its ball. He then walked over, picked up the ball that had Eevee in it, and brought Eevee out of the ball. Smiling down at the Pokèmon, he picked it, and held the exhausted Eevee in his arms.

"Thanks for having the battle with me, Eevee. You're now officially part of the greatest team of the future, greatest Pokemon Master," Gary said, with such confidence.

Eevee, smiled and chuckled at Gary's words, and nuzzled against the human's chest.

Gary smiled at this, and started walking away from the underground tunnel, towards Route 7.

"Running into me, and being caught by me, Eevee, you sure are one lucky Pokèmon," he said.

The four leaf clover from the previous day sparkled from the sunlight, beaming from the hillside. The morning dew dripped down to the grass, with the back of Gary Oak walking away, in view…

To be continued…

Authors notes: Cheaters never prosper, guess they learnt that the hard way

Thanks to the https//u/1725082/the-black-shinobi for this collab!