It had been about 4 minutes since Red had lost all feeling in his right arm. He didn't blame Green for being scared, but he was getting tempted to try prying her fingers off of it. The walk through the Viridian Forest was not going to be easy if they kept moving at this pace. Green was too frightened to move on her own and Red was dragging her along. He looked at Blaze for advice, but his Charmander simply shrugged. He sighed as he slowly reached over and held one of her arms.
"Green, I can still read the entrance sign to the forest, we've barely moved. Are you really going to let a beedrill you haven't even seen stop you from following your Grandpa's work?" He asked softly. Green nodded causing Red to let out a bemused sigh. Suddenly, he gave a sly chuckle and said, "I guess you weren't serious about exploring the whole region if you won't even explore one tiny forest."
"Hey! I am still serious about that! I'm taking my time going through here because I wanna explore the forest with you." Green's lie was obvious as she nervously took another step forward and almost tripped over a rock.
"Green, you might wanna open your eyes if you're planning on exploring the forest." Red said as he gently placed his free hand on her shoulder. "I'll still be here whether or not you squeeze my arm, and I'm sure Blaze is more than willing to try his fire against any Beedrill that come our way." He felt Green's grip loosen and smiled.
"Thanks, Red. Let's get through this forest then." She wiped her eyes with her hands and got a determined expression on her face. With the veil of fear being lifted, Green was able to actually take in the beauty of the forest. The light shone through the tall trees to create a pattern along the path they walked. "You know, this place is a lot more peacful than the Beedrill lead me to believe." She smiled before noticing Red looking at his arm. "Did I squeeze you too hard?"
"Not really, it hurt in the moment, but it's gotten better after you let go." He chuckled as he put his arm down and kept walking.
"Then why were you looking at your arm like that?" Green asked, still worried about him.
"Oh! I just wanted to know what time it was." He chuckles as he shows her his watch. "Besides, you were squeezing my right arm, not my left."
"Oh, right, sorry again for that." Green said softly.
"It's alright Green, you were scared, don't beat yourself up over it." Red chuckled as they kept walking through the grass.
Suddenly, there was a rustling through the bushes. Green jumped as she saw something yellow sticking out of the bushes. "B-b-b-beedrill!"
The Pokémon crawled out of the bush, it's ears perked up at the sound of her voice. It's tail was sticking up into the air as it began approaching Green. Green let out a scream as it placed a small hand on her sneaker and looked up at her with an itrigued expression. "Pika?"
Red chuckled as Green let out a noise of confusion and looked down at her feet. The Pikachu pawing at her foot was definitely not a Beedrill. "Oh, hello there little guy, how are you doing?"
"Pika!" Responded the Pikachu as it smiled and jumped in the air a little.
"Is that the Beedrill you were afraid of Green?" Red asked chuckling.
Green groaned at Red as she sent out her Bulbasaur. "Rose! Weaken it with tackle." Rose charged forward and tackled the mouse Pokémon to the ground.
The Pikachu was not happy that he was suddenly tackled to the ground by a Bulbasaur. His cheeks began sparking with Electricity as it then channeled into the opposing Pokémon. He let out an enraged "PIIIIKAAAACHUUUU!" as he used his thundershock. However due to Rose's dual Grass poison typing, the Thundershock was not very effective. The Pikachu struggled for a bit under the weight of the Bulbasaur before giving up.
"All right!" She threw out her Pokéball and the button hit Pikachu right in the head. The ball opened up and the Pikachu was sucked inside. The ball began shaking on the ground. Once, twice, three times... and then it was still. Green raised her hand in triumph as she cheered about catching her new Pokémon. "I think I'm gonna name you Rika." She smiled at the Pokéball.
Red looked at her and realized that he was too busy teasing her about her overreaction to the Pikachu's entrance to even attempt to battle it. He slapped himself in the forehead as Green celebrated with Rose about their win. "Looks like I'm the only one left who still has only one Pokémon."
"There's plenty of Pokémon in this forest, I'm sure you'll be able to find a great addition to your team." Green began skipping along the path now as Red followed her at a light pace.
"You got over your nerves pretty fast, what happened?" Red asked.
"Pikachus are extremely rare, only 5% of the population of the forest, with a lucky first encounter like that, I think we'll be safe from any Beedrill attacks."
Red decided not to mention the flaws with her thinking as they continued along the path. They approached a small clearing with a spring. They decided to have their Pokémon drink from it and took a small rest by the water. They layed down next to each other and just began looking at the clouds. Green pointed to a cloud. "That one's shaped like a Geodude!"
"That one's shaped like an Onix." Red said pointing to another. As they laughed together while cloudgazing, neither trainer noticed the creature slowly wriggling towards them along the grass.
"That one kinda looks like a Butterfree, what do you think Red?" Green asked with a smile. As Red turned to look at where she was pointing, the creature began crawling onto Red's shoe causing the trainer to twitch and turn to look at it. The second he saw it, he let out a startled jerk and accidentally flung it into the air. It was a green caterpillar. It was only about a foot tall, it's big black eyes made it look cute and it had a y shaped antenna on top of his head. It landed on the ground lightly and let out a small noise of pain and surprise.
"Woah!" Red said as he looked at the Pokémon in front of him. He had quickly gotten to his feet and prepared a Pokéball in his hand. "Blaze use Ember."
"Don't do that! You'll take it out completely" Green said quickly leading to Blaze quickly closing his mouth to contain the flames. This caused some steam to rise out of his nostrils, but it seemed that Blaze wasn't actually hurt by this action.
"Ummm... Any reason for the freak out? I was gonna use a supereffective attack on the Caterpie and then catch it." Red said puzzled as the Caterpie suddenly shot a web out of its antenna which wrapped around Blaze's legs and tied them together loosely. "Hey! It just used string shot!"
"You don't use super effective moves on the Pokémon you wanna catch, you weaken them with normal effective moves, like a scratch attack." Green said a little crossly. "I swear, sometimes it feels like I'm the only one who pays attention during grandpa's lectures."
"Right." Red mentally facepalmed at his impulsiveness before nodding at Blaze who understood. Blaze ran at the Caterpie with a scratch attack, but he was slowed down by the string allowing the Caterpie to tackle him to the ground. Blaze grunted before slapping the Caterpie with his claws and causing it to fall to the ground. Red took this opportunity to go for the Pokéball in his hand. The ball collided with the Caterpie before opening up and trapping it inside. The ball shook a few times before finally falling still. "I did it." He smiled as he walked over to pick up his Pokéball. "Thanks for the reminder Green, I guess I got a little excited. I think I'll name him Gabriel."
"Happy to help, sorry that you had to waste a turn and get hit with a String shot though." She picked up her backpack and continued along the path. The intrusion of the Caterpie had kinda ruined the mood they had, plus they needed to get a move on if they wanted a place to sleep that didn't put them at risk of being attacked by Beedrill or anything of the sort.
"Well, I'd rather take a string shot than a burnt Caterpie." He said as he walked behind her with a chuckle. "We only have a few more steps to go before we reach the cabin to spend the night."
As they approached the cabin, they heard a lot of noise from outside. They rushed over to see that Blue and Wingstorm had already arrived and appeared to have been engaging in battle with the bug catchers. Wingstorm was flying around as he made gust attacks that blew the Caterpies and Weedles around almost effortlessly.
Red's walking pace slowed to a bit of a crawl as he made his way towards Blue. Blue had his hand held high in victory before putting it down and approaching the arrivals. "How did you guys get here after me? I left way later. Did you two get stopped on the way beforehand?" Blue asked with a bit of laughter in his voice. "What were you two doing in the forest for so long?"
"Couldgazing." Red said, looking away from him.
"That's not all we did!" Green spoke to both of them, but mostly to Red, "We also caught a new pokemon each!" She took out her Pokéball and sent out Rika. The Pikachu looked up at them excitedly. Green smiled and began petting the top of its head. "Isn't Rika cute?"
"What about you Red, what Pokémon did you catch?" Blue asked looking at him. Red took out his Pokéball and revealed Gabriel.
"Caterpie." He felt embarrased by how weak his second Pokémon looked compared to Blue's especially. Wingstorm would easily make short work out of Gabriel, and Shellshocker's skill against Blaze had already been established. Why couldn't I have been the one to catch the Pikachu? Rika can take out both of Blue's Pokémon, Red thought to himself as he stared at Gabriel and saw what he thought was a glimmer of courage in his eyes. Though it could have just as easily been a trick of the light.
"Say Green, why have you only caught Pikachu? Don't you wanna be a Pokémon researcher?" Blue asked staring at his twin who had a look of realization on her face as she facepalmed.
"Alright, what Pokémon have I missed capturing so far?" She opened up her Pokédex and began checking on Pokémon she's seen. "Well, I only saw Red and Blue's... there were so many, why didn't I try to catch one?... We're still in the forest, there's still time to get this one." Blue waved goodbye as he walked inside leaving the two to reevaluate their progress.