Chapter 2: Road to Viridian City

Jack

Jack decided to let his new Bulbasaur whom he nicknamed "Saur", walk next to him outside it's Poke Ball as he hiked out of town. He watched absentmindedly as Saur ran ahead, sniffing flowers, rolling in grass, and enjoying the sunshine. He wasn't really paying attention to it so long as it stayed in sight, his thoughts were still stuck on how badly he blew it earlier. He had liked Amanda for a long time and was going to suggest they travel together, but when she pressed him to speak he was so nervous he panicked and said the worst possible thing. He sighed and looked ahead of the path. They were at the outskirts of town and had just turned into route 1.

"Saur, come." he said to the Pokémon a few paces away. Saur made a growling noise and walked over to him. Since they would now be likely to encounter wild Pokémon, it would be wise to keep his Pokémon close.

No sooner had 5 minutes passed a small creature leapt from the tall grass along the path. It looked like a small rodent that was mostly purple with red eyes and a curly tail. Jack recognized it immediately as a "Rattata", a very common appearance in fields. He had studied hard so he didn't really need to open his Pokedex for this, but he had promised to input as much data as he could. He opened the small red device and pointed the lens towards it and a mechanical device responded:

"Rattata. Will chew on anything with its fangs. If you see one, it is certain that 40 more live in the area. Subject is Lvl 3."

The short description didn't tell him anything he didn't already know but was extremely impressed with how the device knew the creature's level. It was a perfect specimen for a new trainer's first encounter. He pointed towards the Rattata,

"Saur, Tackle!"

The Bulbasaur gave a cry and charged, the Rattata didn't seem to expect a fight and was tossed to the ground but got up quickly and was now furious. The Rattata growled and responded with it's own Tackle attack, but it clearly didn't pack the same punch. Saur responded with another Tackle and Rattata was thrown down again, but this time struggled to stand up. Jack knew the time was right, taking a Poke Ball from his belt he threw it at the creature. When the ball made contact it opened and a flash of light engulfed the Rattata, and it was sucked into the ball which closed with a snap. The ball seemed to wiggle a bit but then clicked, Rattata was caught!

Jack walked over and picked it up with a smile on his usually passive face. Sure, a Lvl 3 Rattata wasn't anything to write home about, but it was his first capture, and he was proud.

He and Saur continued on and about 3 minutes later encountered a Lvl 4 Pidgey, a small bird Pokémon capable of using the Gust attack which was basically a miniature tornado. Not strong enough to knock over a car or building but strong enough to send a human flying several feet. Pidgey, however, are docile by nature and didn't put up a huge fight when challenged and was caught just like Rattata. A few more of both species popped up over the course of the next hour as he walked but he didn't catch them. Instead he battled them to give his Pokémon experience, around noon he took a break and whipped up some food for his current team of 3.

As he watched Saur and his new Pokémon eat with gusto he thought about Amanda and wondered if he'd catch up with her today. Unlikely, as she was on a bicycle and would probably go straight onwards to Viridian City. She and Jack had studied with Oak for a few years, and they knew the areas surrounding Pallet Town very well and there were no Pokémon that peaked her interest until at least route 22 that spans off from Viridian. As he pondered this he noticed that the weather had suddenly changed and was about to rain. His Pokémon had finished eating so he returned them to their Poke Balls and walked up to the top of a hill to get an unobstructed view of the clouds. He saw in the distance what looked like many bird Pokémon hovering over something.

Curious, he pulled out a pair of binoculars and focused on the flock. It was still difficult to see but he was certain they were a flock of "Spearow", another bird type Pokémon like Pidgey but very aggressive. It looked like they were poised for attack, and he thought he saw a person with their arms spread out as if to protect something. He couldn't quite tell who he was looking at but thought he looked familiar. Suddenly several things happened at once, a small yellow figure hopped off the boys shoulder and began to glow, a lightning bolt struck the small yellow figure as it unleashed it's attack. The attack was magnified by the lightning and an enormous flash lit up the area engulfing the flock of Spearow.

"…!"

Jack grunted as he was blinded through the binoculars. As he rubbed his eyes he wondered what Pokémon could unleash an electric attack of that magnitude. The rain then started to begin in earnest, so he decided to set up his tent for now and not to worry about it. He would make a dash for Viridian City once the rain let up and see if he could get any news from the locals. Later as he settled down in his tent with the rain pounding the canvas he wondered if Amanda was okay, and hopefully she hadn't gotten to close to that explosion.

Later the sun cleared the sky and he emerged from his tent and saw a beautiful rainbow in the sky. He took a few moments to enjoy the scenery before turning to break up camp. As he turned, something in the sky caught his eye. He lifted his binoculars and looked up. Flying through the sky was a large bird Pokémon he had never seen before, glowing with every color of the rainbow.

Amanda

"Jerk, Jerk, Jerk, Jerky, Jerky, Jerk, Jerk!" the young girl grumbled loudly as she peddled at full speed down the path. Amanda was still steamed at Jack for his pervy comment, but what was really making her mad was the fact that she chose her current super cute outfit to dazzle him and the only thing he noticed was the one part of the ensemble not meant to be seen! She was so angry that she didn't notice a large tree root sticking from the ground and hit it full force. Lucky for her she landed in tall, lush, spongy grass that grew along the edges of the path but couldn't grow over the man made path.

"Owie…" she sobbed as pulled herself up, rubbing her head and her bottom. Spongy grass or not, there was no way anyone would come out uninjured from a flying headfirst off their bike at that speed. When she considered everything she decided she was lucky not to have broken her neck.

"Probably should have grabbed my bike helmet before I sped off this morning." She thought aloud to herself, which was something she did often. She was the opposite of Jack, a real conversationalist and gossip. She loved talking so much she would carry full conversations with herself when no one was around.

She stood up and began brushing herself off when she heard a growling noise next to her. She looked over to her left and saw a clearly startled Rattata.

"Oh, hello there wittle Rattata!" she said happily. "Sorry I frightened you." The Rattata however, did not seem impressed by her apology and continued to growl and poised itself for attack.

"Oh, fine!" she huffed as she took out the Poke Ball containing her new Pokémon. "Guess we'll do it the hard way! Go, Charmer!" She had chosen this nickname because it was so cute she was "charmed"…and also because it was a Charmander.

The small lizard like Pokémon burst out of the ball with a flash of light and gave a battle cry. The Rattata did not wait and charged in with a Tackle attack.

"Use that tail! Stop it in its tracks and use Growl!" Amanda shouted.

Charmer thrust it's burning tail forward like a torch and simultaneously let out a loud guttural sound from its throat. Rattata stopped abruptly in fright of the angry sound and the burning tail.

"Now, Scratch!"

With a cry, Charmer pulled back it's burning tail and lashed out with it's claws. The burning tail had distracted the wild Rattata so well it was completely unprepared for Charmer's attack. It was a critical hit and Rattata fell to the ground out cold.

"Well that's that! Good work Charmer!" Amanda said clapping her hands. "Although I do feel a little bad for the little thing…" she added. She ruffled through her bag and pulled out a package of nuts and placed a few next to the Rattata. "A present for when you wake up!" she said.

As she put away the snacks a thought occurred to her. "Whoopsie, I was supposed to scan it for the Pokedex! Oh well, there are plenty more Rattata out there and I intend to do a little more battling today anyways. But first things first, my bike."

She looked over and saw for the first time since crashing, the total wreck that was once her bike. The bike was completely totaled. The handlebars and front tire were bent, the bike chain was broken, and the cute little bell had broken to pieces. Upon seeing this mess she actually fell to her knees and cried because it had been a birthday gift from her father. She also had other things to worry about now that she was on foot, mainly budget. She had never planned on traveling very long between towns, so she packed much lighter than Jack had. She was prepared to camp on occasion, but she wasn't as much an outdoorsman as Jack.

"This is terrible!" she sobbed. "What am I going to do? I'm going to have rethink my entire travel plan!" She sniffled a little bit more before whispering to herself, "I suppose it's not too late to go back home and resupply…or I could even wait here for Jack to pass by…"

Her thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a sudden gust that blew the pieces of her precious bike flying away and herself tumbling backwards.

"Why?!" she squealed as she went flying while desperately holding down her skirt, which was pointless as no one was around to see.

After landing she quickly scrambled to her feet and saw not just one, but three Pidgey, hovering in the air. She was angry but also glad for the distraction and was eager to give Charmer more experience. After about 10 minutes, all the Pidgey lay dizzy on the ground, and she did not leave snacks for them. Afterwards Amanda treated Charmer's injuries and fed him. After finishing treatment she stood up straight, returned Charmer to its Poke Ball and said to herself, "I guess I'll just beeline for Viridian and have mom wire me some extra cash for supplies."

She walked for awhile without incident and around noon she noticed the clouds suddenly change. Seeing it was about to rain she took stock of her options. She could either set up her tent or take out the folded umbrella from her pack and push through. After a moment of consideration she decided on the latter and pulled out her umbrella and carried on. As it down poured, the road led her to the top of a hill where she paused to look at her surroundings. To the west saw what looked like in the distance to be many fluttering objects in air. She assumed them to be bird Pokémon but couldn't tell which species due to the rain and the distance. Suddenly, a bolt of lightning flashed, and an explosion of light and electric discharge flared in the distance. Even as far away as she was she couldn't quite look directly at it.

"What on earth?" she exclaimed in wonder.

Looking ahead she saw that her road turned in the distance towards the direction of the flash. She decided to run and investigate. It took her half an hour of running in which time the rain had stopped and the sun was beginning to shine out. She came to a clearing where many Spearow lay fainted, covered in harsh electric burns. To the side of the path was the remains of a bicycle, charred black from the lightning.

"Pikachu is the only electric type Pokémon native to this region.." she thought aloud to herself. "But Pikachu's Thundershock is nowhere near this powerful, to cause this much damage, I would have thought this to be a Thunder attack from a Magneton or high level Raichu at least…"

She then noticed that one of the Spearow hadn't fully fainted and was struggling to fly away. It was no good, the poor little thing was badly burned and paralyzed from the electricity. She did the only thing she could think of and tossed a Poke Ball at it. The Spearow vanished into ball with a flash of light. The ball wiggled weaky and snapped shut, Spearow was caught!

Amanda sighed. "I had planned on capturing a Spearow eventually but there's hardly any sport in this…"

Deciding there was nothing else she could do she started walking down the path which forked West and East. Both paths led towards Viridian City, but the West way was much faster by at least a full day. If she had looked East of the path she would have seen the source of the devastation, a young boy with an injured Pokémon in his arms.

Jack

After Jack had broken camp he ran at full speed towards the scene of the explosion. He was only 20 minutes behind Amanda when he came upon the devastation. He took note of the Spearow all lying unconscious and the severe electrical burns. He cupped his hand under his chin and started thinking.

"Thunder attack? Maybe. There are only a handful of Pokémon that could do this, and they would have to be a high level. Unless…the lightning bolt I saw earlier collided with the Pokémon and amplified it's attack. That would make sense, a natural lightning bolt contains far more voltage than even most high level Pokémon can generate on their own."

His thoughts were interrupted by an angry strangled scream.

"Waaah! My bike!"

Jack turned around and saw a young girl perhaps 12 years old, lamenting over the charred remains of a bicycle. She had red hair tied into a side ponytail and green eyes. She was wearing a yellow shirt that exposed her midriff, and blue shorts with red suspenders.

"That little brat! Just wait until I catch up with him!" she said angrily as she heaved the wreck over her shoulders.

She then spotted Jack and approached him furiously. "Excuse me, have you seen a kid with a Pikachu pass by here?"

"…"

"Ugh! You're useless!" she huffed and sped off down the East road.

"…"

He shrugged and headed down the West road and the fastest way to Viridian City.

End of Chapter 2