Red walked Rookidee out to the edge of the city the next evening. He had spent most of his morning with his head in a book and writing. It was only after he started to slip out out the zone after finishing his thesis did Red notice Rookidee's anxious energy. As much as Red felt sorry and grateful–being interrupted while working is the worst–he told the bird that it should have told him the moment he was up.

Well, it didn't matter much anyway and Red led the bird as far as he would go. Rookidee tentatively flew past the area where concrete met grass and was effectively startled when something immediately dashed out at him.

Pichu met the Mankey with a Spark. The Mankey cried out in pain as it was slammed into the very tree it jumped out of. It got angrier as it growled at Pichu. But before it could attack, Charmander hit it with a Dragon Breath. The monkey promptly fainted.

Red nodded at them with an twinkle in his eye that his Pokémon were quick to be familiar with: approval.

The boy turned to the Rookidee who still held an expression of shock. "Sorry about that. I've been training them to pay more attention to their surroundings. Didn't mean to startle you."

Charmanders were either bred or captured and raised in the lab. The natural instinct to be aware in the wild had been mellowed out. Pichu still had the natural instinct to be weary but was less inclined to fight and more to actually run. That habit also has to be rid of.

He turned around. "Okay guys, let's get going." He issued a glance back at the bird. "You're gonna want to go too before that Mankey wakes up."

Before he began walking, Pichu jumped up onto his shoulder, something that was increasingly becoming a habit. He glanced at her. "You know when I said you need to get used to higher places so you can fire electricity better." He shifted his shoulder pointedly. "This is not what I met."

Pichu only turned her head away. She opened an eye discretely to check his reaction and seeing that he only shrugged in resignation before beginning walking, she settled herself on his shoulder.

Rookidee watched them go. A little moment later, it heard Red sigh. "You too Charmander?" He said. But despite the tone of his voice, he bent down to pick up the Charmander a second later.

Rookidee tilted its head, curious.

/

Yellow looked around the park. She was sure this was the place that they agreed to meet up as this was the last place she chased Meowth to.

"Meowth?" She looked down to Bulbasaur who shrugged. It hadn't met the Meowth. It resumed to eating the small bag of jelly candy Yellow bought on her way here.

She shook her head. Bulbasaur really loved sweets. She was hoping one day she would be able to curb it but when Red mentioned he was gonna try and learn how to bake, she gave up that plan quickly.

"Meowth?"

A blur swiped for Bulbasaur's bag. Bulbasaur jumped away just in time and began charging up a move.

"Wait, wait, wait!" Yellow moved in front of Bulbasaur. The green orb of energy slowly faded away. Energy Ball was quickly rising in the list of Bulbasaur's favorite moves after Vine Whip and Sleep Powder which was only so high because he didn't like to spend too long battling.

"This is the Meowth I was talking about." She turned to Meowth. "And you don't just sneak up on people and try to steal their food! You saw how that went yesterday."

Meowth hissed as if it was offended and while Yellow didn't speak Pokémon, she could tell it probably was.

She glanced at Bulbasaur as it huffed and walked over to Meowth who tensed up. It was surprised when the grass type thrust the bag of candy over to it.

It seemed to look at the bag in disbelief but once a few seconds past, grabbed it and began digging in furiously. Bulbasaur cried out in surprise as all its precious snack was being eaten and snatched the bag back quickly with its vines. Meowth cried out in annoyance.

Yellow giggled and the two turned to her. She smiled at them. "Okay, then. Let's get to healing."

/

Blue had absolutely no set goal for the day. But Yellow had forced him out of the house, saying that he need the vitamin or he was going to be pale as a ghost. She ignored all his attempts to point out that he got enough from traveling in the wild.

"Do you think she'd notice if we went back to the Center?"

Spearow glanced at him with a looked that clearly conveyed its thoughts. 'Do you want to risk it?' It said.

Blue shook his head. "Now you're right. Girls have a weird way to knowing these things." He sighed heavily. "But what am I supposed to do now?"

He paused as the aesthetics of a certain building caught his eyes. They followed the twinkling lights that run to the top of the building where a large sign labeled 'Arcade' was displayed.

"I could-" He stopped himself with a frown. One of their reoccurring problems was their lack of money. Should he really go and spend some on a silly game?

He shrugged and began walking to the building. "Today's all about relaxing. And since I just won a gym battle, I've got money to spare for a game or two."

/

Red was back at the Pokémon Center after making a detour at a grocery store. He pointedly ignored the presence that followed him on the way back.

He made his way upstairs to one of the Center's kitchen. There were only three of these in the whole building as it was deemed less important to others like medical or training rooms.

He placed the bags on the table at the same time Pichu jumped onto it. The boy rolled his shoulders to adjust to the weight that was no longer there. When he was done he surveyed the room. It seems well stocked with equipment enough. There was even an oven thermometer.

Red took a moment to admire the view through the window–his room didn't have a window–pointedly ignoring the flash of dark blue before turning back to his Pokémon. Pichu was holding onto the small bag of chocolate while Charmander had an apple in his hands and looked ready to take a bite of out it.

The trainer took up the cooking book his mother had sent. This one was centered on desserts and Red wanted to try three different recipes before dinner.

"So." He began flipping through the pages. "Which one should we start with?"

/

Meowth's jaw dropped in shock at the scene before her. The three Ekans all hissed at her threateningly. Meowth growled at them, hair rising on end.

"Wait, Meowth." Yellow said, crouching down and Meowth glanced back at her. "Are you sure you want to battle them? I can't remove poison with my powers so you might have to go to the hospital."

Meowth turned it head back at the three snakes and growled. She didn't care. These purple noodles were trying to take over her space. It didn't mean much to her as it was just an old box, but simply giving up would be a blow to her pride.

"I get it. This is your home right? And you can't just give it up?" Yellow said standing. She was close enough so Meowth nodded. "Okay. Then I'll help! Bulbasaur, let's go!"

Bulbasaur came forward obediently. "Use Razor Leaf!"

Meowth itself used Swift. The Ekans all went to dodge the moves but didn't have to as due to the uncoordinated time of their attacks, Meowth and Bulbasaur's moves cancelled each other out.

The Ekans stared, processing what just happened before looking at each other and laughing. Meowth glared harder, hoping it would set them on fire.

"We have to coordinate our attacks Meowth. Let's keep our distance for now okay?" Meowth glanced back at her before nodding. "Okay, Bulbasaur. Razor Leaf again!"

As Bulbasaur fired Razor Leaf, Meowth reused Swift. She smirked at the trio as their attack landed.

"Bulbasaur! Energy Ball!"

Meowth charged up her own orb of energy. It was dark and relatively smaller than Bulbasaur's but still caused damage to the three.

They hissed and all simultaneously dived at the duo.

"Dodge you two!"

Both of them leaped out of the way. "Bulbasaur, use Energy Ball again!"

The Ekans were already charging again and Bulbasaur wouldn't be ready in time so Meowth jumped onto Bulbasaur's back and gave it some of her power.

Bulbasaur cried in determination as it orb tripled in size before firing it at the poison snakes.

Yellow's voice was clouded in awe. "That was Helping Hand!" She smiled at the cat. "Thanks Meowth!"

Meowth nodded and got into position as the Ekans slowly rose up. She vaguely registered them saying something as they charged but didn't pay attention to their words. She just extended her claws before slashing two of them. The last of them she bit before throwing it away.

Seeing as they weren't getting back up, Meowth and Bulbasaur untensed before the cat starting gagging and wiping off its tongue.

She was a street cat and even she's never tasted anything that disgusting. Yellow's laughing made her pause. "So now that you defended your home, how about a treat?" She smiled brightly. "On me."

/

Blue knew he should get going. If he played one more game, he would fall too far into the rabbit hole for his own safety. As he hesitated, walking past the claw machine someone called out to him.

"Blue?"

He turned around and his eyes widened in surprise. "Skyla?"

The girl came up to him looking sheepish. "Hey..."

He folded his arms,"I haven't seen you for days. The only way I knew that you hadn't left the city is that your backpack hasn't moved from off the floor."

Skyla sighed heavily. "I'm sorry." Her fists clenched and she didn't meet his eyes."I just-" She took a deep breath before looking at Blue with fire in her eyes. "Can we talk?"

"Sure?" Blue tilted his head, blinking. "Whaddya wanna talk about?"

Skyla stared at him determinedly.

"Can you train me?"

/

Several bowls of failed Poffin batter laid across the large table. Pichu hopped on his head to wipe his sweat and he murmured a thanks while keeping his focus on stirring.

The first two recipes had went well with one batch of Pokepuffs and another of cookies resting over to the side. The last recipe, Poffin, was taking some time. One of the instructions were to continue stirring while alternating the heat. Red hadn't considered how tiring it would be to continue stirring at steady pace while making sure to keep the right heat.

The first two burnt because he was stirring it too slow. The next, he stirred it too fast but since most of the batter was there, he kept it. They burnt in the oven anyway.

Red held his breath as he poured the batter into the Poffin pan. How he poured it had nothing to do with the taste but at this point, he wanted to be sure. After, he brought it over to the oven. "Ok, let's not burn it this time." He triple checked to make sure it was at the right temperature before closing it. "Now we wait."

He glanced at the clock, his mouth turning into a frown at the time. This was his last chance to retry this recipe as he'll have to head to dinner next.

He looked back over to the oven.

"Don't fail me now."

/

"Oh, Skyla!" Yellow waved to her as she and Blue walked up to the table. "We haven't seen you in a while. I thought you left the city. How are you?"

Skyla shook her head slowly, looking embarrassed as she sat down. "I didn't leave the city. But I'm fine."

"That's good." They looked to Red as he approached. "The food will be here in a minute." He took his place by Yellow, picking up the book that was in his seat and opening it. "You can let out your Pokémon if they haven't eaten yet."

"Are you sure? I wouldn't want to impose."

Yellow waved off her concerns. "You wouldn't be. Red, order more for Skyla would you?"

"Sure." The boy got up before Skyla could say anything, resting the book on the table. She sighed. "Okay then." She took two pokeballs out of her little purse before opening them. A Chespin and a female Nidoran.

"So." Yellow stared at her. "What have you been up to?"

Skyla shrugged. "I was just thinking about how to beat Brock. I spent most of my time wandering around the building. It was only today when I left and met Blue. He helped me train."

Yellow nodded before frowning. Red had returned and immediately went back to reading. "You were in the building this whole time?" She tilted her head. "I didn't see you on any three of the stories though?"

Before Skyla could answer, Blue piped up.

"It's two."

"What?" Yellow asked.

"It's two stories."

Yellow gave a half chuckle, the noise sounding like a puff of air. "No, idiot. There's the underground floor." She held up three fingers. "It's three."

"Yes but it's underground, smartass." Blue aggressively tapped his index on the table. "It doesn't count." He held up two fingers on both hands. "There's two stories."

"That's four, dumbass." Yellow retorted cheekily with a matching look on her face.

Blue rose an eyebrow before leaning back and folding his arms. "I'm surprised you would know that, considering your track record in school."

Yellow's face was outlined with annoyance. "I had just transferred you prick!" She said with a higher voice. It still wasn't loud enough to draw much attention, but it had some of their Pokémon looking up at them with question.

"You've been there all your life and I still got a higher grade on the test than you!" She continued.

Seeing what was happening, the Pokémon with the exception of Skyla's went back to talking.

"That's because you studied!" Blue turned his head away to hide the fact that he was very much pouting. "That's cheating."

"How is that cheating?!" Disbelief was in Yellow's voice. "It's school!"

Skyla looked between them as they argued. How did a question about her turn into this? She sneaked a glance at Red to see that he hadn't looked up from his book at all, seemingly content. The girl glanced back to the other two. They were clearing kicking each other under the table.

She tilted her head. Is this normal?

Red threw Pichu up into the air again, the Pokémon rising high up into the air and flipping with a laugh. She fell into his cupped hands before she was propelled through the air again.

Red had found something out.

He had also gotten up early today. They would be leaving the city tomorrow and he wanted to spend some hours earning money so that he could have more to spend in the next city. Cerulean was known for its beautiful souvenirs.

Plus, he wanted to buy some things in preparation for Mt. Moon.

Mt. Moon could be a difficult place to go through depending on how you look at it. It was almost completely dark so you need flashlights to see, sounds echo throughout the tunnels so you might need earplugs to sleep and you'll definitely need a can or two if repel for the Pokémon. Mt. Moon was a house for many Zubats, Paras, Onix, Zubats, the rare Clefairy, Rhyhorn, Zubats, Geodude, Sandshrew and did he mention Zubats?

Yeah, they were the most annoying.

It only took three days to get out if you followed the right path–the one that was marked as the best by the league–but just two days of that could be enough to drive someone crazy and most preferred to go around it.

That took over a week. Red was not going around it.

"Hey you."

Red paused, Pichu landing softly in his hands a second after. He looked towards the voice, just to figure out if they were talking to him. He wasn't really watching if any trainers came to the outside training field he was at and since he wasn't with his friends, he was expecting to be left alone.

"Oh?" The face he saw was one he recognized, surprisingly.

"It's Grey."

Grey blanked for a moment before his mouth twitched into a frown. Red chuckled internally while Charmander scratched his head. He forgot that it wasn't his name.

Grey clicked his teeth in annoyance but chose to brush aside Red's blunder. "You and me. Battle. Now."

Red blinked. He looked over the boy's attire. He had on a white button up pajamas and matching shorts. There were indents on his face, probably from lying on folded fabric and he had on mismatched bed slippers. Did he jump out of bed just to challenge him?

Red met his eyes again, aware of Pichu climbing onto his shoulder and mimicking his bemused expression. "Like that?"

He was genuinely confused but Grey only seemed to get more irritated, his eyebrow now twitching.

"Yes." The boy gritted out."Now."

Red looked at the sky, the sun was beginning to rise. He supposed he had time before he had to go work.

"Okay."

Red went to his own end of the field, Charmander following after him. "One on one? I've got somewhere to be in a few."

Grey's hand tightened around his pokeball. Was this kid mocking him?

"Okay." He bent down to pick up a stone. "We'll start when this rock hits the ground."

Red nodded. "Okay, but can I get your name first? I don't want to keep calling you Grey."

"Choose your Pokémon." He held out his pokeball. "I'm going with this one."

Red sighed. Okay, guess he'll continue to be Grey then. He turned to Pichu. "Let's end this quickly, okay?"

Pichu nodded and hopped of his shoulder. Grey's eyes scanned it before releasing the Pokémon inside the ball.

"Oh? A Minccino." Red said, interested. They were a Pokémon native to the Unova region and were a pure Normal Type. It made them dangerous. Normal types only had one weakness out of eighteen types and usually had no problem learning moves of other typings. "It's quite cute."

But then he noticed something weird about the grey fluff ball. "Why is it so dirty?" He murmured.

Red hadn't meant for the Pokémon to hear but apparently the big ears weren't for decoration as the Minccino stiffened before curling in on itself, embarrassed.

Grey frowned at the Pokémon before meeting Red's eyes with annoyance glinting in his own. "That's none of you business." He threw the rock in the air. "Let's go."

Red knew he should have been watching the rock, but he couldn't keep his eyes of the Minccino. Something about it was just...wrong.

He was brought back to the battle as Pichu gave a startled squeak as it narrowly dodged the waves of a Hyper Voice.

"Sorry Pichu." Red scratched his temple, a little embarrassed at being so into his musings. Pichu huffed at him but nodded, forgiving him easy. Red pointed to the Minccino. "Arumi Zero."

Pichu nodded and it darted off, jumping into the air. Electricity surrounded it before it slammed into the Minccino.

It was always nice to see his opponents confused face when he used completely nonsensical words to order his Pokémon to attack. Pichu had only started learning after he woke up from his two day sleep, but she lived in the city for most her life and picked up the meanings pretty quickly.

"Ku Four." Red said again.

"Dodge it, Minccino!" The boy shouted, looking for where the attack could come from. Minccino did the same and their eyes moved to Pichu when she jumped in the air again, raising her arms and summoning stars.

It was Swift.

Minccino began running, still heeding its trainer's previous orders but Grey stomped his feet. "No! Don't dodge, counter attack! Use Swift!"

Red raised a brow at the boy's enraged shouting. This was completely different from his previous behavior.

Minccino turned around to counter the attack, but the Swift had already caught up and it took the attack head on. It rolled off the field.

Swift was a sure hit move. It would never miss as long as the attacker had their eyes on the target. But the attack is only as fast as the user so it should be applied with that in mind.

"Hey Minccino, get up!"

Minccino slowly got up, then it looked at its fur before stiffening up. It pulled its large ears over its face, hiding away.

"Don't do that! Use Hyper Voice!"

As Minccino tried to hide even more, Red sighed. "Pichu, use Thundershock."

The small shock of electricity was more than enough to make Minccino faint. Grey recalled it with a click of his tongue. He walked–though it was more like stomping–up to Red and handed him sixty dollars.

Red accepted it. "Why did you challenge me?"

Grey stared at him. It seems like he was back to his normal behavior, though with a little anger simmering beneath. "I'm going to beat you."

Red tilted his head. "But you can't."

Grey took an instinctive step towards in anger but paused on Charmander's warning growl. Red held a hand out to stop his starter. This conversation was important.

"No offense at all, but you can't ever win with your Pokémon if you don't at least try to understand them." It was the basic rule of being on a team that everyone should know. But maybe this guy didn't go to school?

Grey clicked his tongue again, folding his arms. "I've done plenty fine without cuddling up to my Pokémon. I never lost a battle."

"Then those trainers must be pretty weak." Grey's eyes narrowed but Red continued on. "How long have you been a trainer?"

Grey stared at him as if he wanted this conversation to be over but one look at Red eyes showed that he wouldn't let him go. He sighed under his breath. "Two months. My mom made me file a learner's to let me out early."

Red nodded. Not unheard of but rare. Parents aren't usually eager to let their kids run around in the wild. Red nodded. "Okay then. Have you ever read Minccino's data before?"

"Of course." The boy replied as if Red was talking crazy and Red got a little hope. "How else would I know its moves?"

Red lost whatever hope that had bloomed. "Wow, you're hopeless."

"What?" The boy seemed ready to battle again.

Red sighed. "Minccino's are clean freaks. They are never gonna do their best without getting the chance to clean something or themselves at least a few times a week. It gives them a major confidence boost if they do and they'll be more willing to battle for you if you encourage it."

Grey paused. "You...want me to be all buddy buddy with a rat?"

"It's a chinchilla." Red supplied helpfully.

"Whatever it is." Grey shook his head. "It's only job is to battle for me."

"And yours is to care for it." As Grey glared at him, he folded his arms. "How about a proposal? We have another battle tomorrow, same time?"

"What for? You already proved your point."

Red withheld the need to say that it was Grey that challenged him.

"This is completely different. We'll switch Pokémon and battle again."

As simultaneous cries came from his Pokémon, he held up his hand to stop them, not taking his eyes of Grey. "I'll take Minccino for the day and you take Charmander." Arecus knows Pichu would have killed this guy.

"We'll come back here and battle. I'll prove to you that I can win with Minccino."

Grey scoffed but he was clearly interested, eyes flickering down to the fire type for a brief second. "Fine then. What's the prize?"

Red shrugged. "Pride?"

Grey shook his head with a smirk. "Oh no. There needs to be higher stakes for this. Whoever wins have to fork over a thousand."

A thousand dollars. That was more than the standard price of a full six on six individual Pokémon battle. It was also one third of the general amount of Red's money.

He nodded. "Deal. Just let me speak with Charmander for a bit."

Grey nodded and gave them some space. Red bent down to his Pokémon's level. Charmander looked up at him with betrayed eyes.

"I'm sorry Charmander but I swear it's only for today. You saw how that Minccino looked, we can't just leave it like that."

It murmured at him, still unsure and he nodded. "It really is that important. Imagine you without fire and Pichu without electricity."

Pichu's eyes widened while Charmander let out an understanding sound.

"I just want to teach Grey a lesson." He really needed to find out this guy's name. "Once it's over, you'll be greeted with as much spicy poffins as possible okay?"

They were the hardest to make but Red could do it if he got back early. He was sure to fail at least one batch.

Charmander seemed to be ready to accept as he heard of the reward and he nodded.

"Just...listen to him, alright? Not unless he's being unreasonable."

Charmander nodded and Red mimicked him before standing up. "Okay." He turned to Grey who was fiddling with Minccino's ball. "We're finished."

Grey walked over and handed him Minccino's ball and Red did the same with Charmander's. Charmander seemed hesitant again now that he was in front of Grey but Red got him to go with a few head pats.

Before Grey left, Red called out to him.

"Hey." Grey turned back to him. "What's your name?"

POKÉ NEWS!!!

-When Skyla had heard about Blue passing Brock's challenge, she was embarrassed to face him as she thought he would see her as a bad trainer. However when she saw him at the arcade, she called out to him before she could stop herself and had to come up with a reason on the spot. She thought he would reject but Blue didn't and chose to train her earnestly. He even encouraged her not to give up, telling her that perseverance did more that people gave it credit for. She felt grateful towards him and promised to try the challenge again when she was ready.

-Red knows that Rookidee is following him. He has almost no interest in catching it as if he wanted an avian on his team, he would prefer a Noctowl because of their ability to fly silently and their psychic prowess. They're also fairly uncommon to have as they are nocturnal and hard to catch.

-Yellow had taken her friends words into thought and is thinking of becoming a activist. She would try to let the people change their views on the world and let them see that their are other colors present in the world than just black and white. She initially felt guilty for changing the original goal but it was as Red said, she owed them nothing.