Chapter 3:

Nathan Catches His First Pokemon

Wooper struck a ready position, while Mareep charged up. Phillip instructed Mareep to do a tackle attack. Wooper rolled out of the way. Mareep leapt to the other side of Wooper who responded with a Mud Shot. The mud blinded Mareep for a moment. He shocked the mud off. Phillip instructed Mareep to charge up. While his wool contained the electricity, he launched another tackle attack with electricity emanating off of him. Upon impact Wooper was stunned and Phillip threw the Pokeball. After a moment Wooper stayed in the ball and Phillip captured Wooper.

Phillip was excited to catch his second Pokemon in its infant stage. Nathan celebrated with Phillip, but soon whined.

"When am I gonna catch my first Pokemon?"

"We'll make sure you get one soon buddy."

Kathy watched in the distance. She couldn't explain it but she was drawn to Phillip and Nathan. They all stopped at the store in order to replenish their supplies. As they made their way down Route 30 Nathan turned around and yelled at Kathy.

"Why are you following us!? Go home!"

"I'm not going anywhere until you replace my bike!" she screamed back.

"I told you I would get you another bike! Leave us alone and we'll come find you!"

The two engaged in an angry stare down. Phillip stepped in between them. He first glared at Nathan.

"That is not how we treat people."

And then he looked at Kathy.

"You're welcome to come along, but we work as a team, we help each other out and we will be treating each other with respect." He said sternly with his eyes darting between the two of them.

The two of them reluctantly shook hands. They began again on Route 30. As they made their way a few miles down the road they encountered a Heracross. Full of glee Nathan shouted.

"I'm gonna catch it!"

Before Phillip could say anything, Nathan threw a Pokeball.

Heracross popped right out of the ball, looked towards Nathan and started brushing its feet across the ground as if it was getting ready to charge.

"You idiot!" Kathy shouted "You have to weaken a Pokemon before you catch it!"

"You have to battle the Pokemon in order to weaken it!" Phillip shouted after glaring at Kathy.

Nathan summoned Cyndaquil. As soon as Cyndaquil landed Heracross charged at him. Cyndaquil bounced out of the way. Nathan froze unsure of what to do.

"Do something!" Kathy urged him.

"Nathan you have a type advantage, use your fire attacks."

Heracross charged at Cyndaquil again. Cyndaquil dodged and did a tackle attack knocking Heracross into a tree. Nathan threw another Pokeball. After the ball shook a little bit Heracross popped out of the Pokeball again.

"This one's got heart!" Phillip said to Kathy as she nodded in agreement.

"Remember! You have a type advantage Nathan!" Phillip shouted again.

Heracross charged at Cyndaquil again. Cyndaquil rolled out of the way and fired an ember attack. Heracross fainted. Nathan threw the Pokeball again. This time Heracross submitted. Nathan captured his first Pokemon. Nathan and Cyndaquil danced with each other out of their excitement. Moments later Nathan summoned Heracross so that he could hang out with Cyndaquil. Heracross seemed happy to see Cyndaquil. Nathan introduced them to each other.

Kathy hid behind Phillip shaking. Phillip squatted down and introduced himself to Heracross, who seemed happy to meet him. Heracross looked over Phillip's shoulder to see Kathy. She squeeled and hid behind a tree. Heracross followed her around. Nathan cut her off to make her introduce herself to Heracross. She yelled at him and smacked him as hard as she could. Heracross walked away with his head drooped down and his forelegs hanging low. Nathan yelled back at her after recovering.

"Hey! Be nice to my Heracross!"

"Gross! That thing is slimy and yucky! Get it away from me!"

The rest of the team felt bad for Heracross. Cyndaquil and Tyrogue walked over to him to encourage him. Phillip tried to reason with Kathy.

"Come on Kathy. It's Nathan's Pokemon, not yours. You can at least say hello."

Kathy clenched her fists and closed her eyes screaming at the top of her lungs.

"I don't want anything to do with that nasty bug!"

As Tyrogue and Cyndaquil walked further away from Kathy and the team, Phillip noticed that Heracross was still limping a little bit.

"Hey Nathan. Do you know how to give your Pokemon a potion?"

"I've never done it before."

"Come with me, I'll show you. We'll leave Kathy alone for a while."

As they got further away from Kathy she started feeling cold and alone. Then she thought she heard another bug and ran to them screaming. Phillip and Nathan were squatting near Heracross when Kathy ran so hard she ran into them. As they were recovering Brett and Betty leapt out of some shady bushes and captured Cyndaquil with a bag.

They laughed as they began talking in rhymes about taking flight to the highest height. Before they could finish Tyrogue chopped them at Phillip's command. Before they could summon their Pokemon Tyrogue seismic tossed them away. Shocked at how quickly Tyrogue was able to dispatch of Team Rocket. Phillip shrugged and addressed the rest of the team.

"Let's make camp here and rest up for the night."

Everyone nodded in agreement. After everyone ate Phillip departed to go workout with Tyrogue and Mareep. Kathy was amazed at Phillip's dedication to train his Pokemon and work with them instead of having them do it alone like so many other trainers. The workout was complete. They had run for a while Phillip urged Tyrogue and Mareep to sit down with him as they relaxed together and he fished.

The line began to pull at him. He tried to reel it in. After a bit of a tug of war a Magikarp leapt out of the water spraying all three of them. The Magikarp got ready to attack them all again. As Magikarp jumped out of the water Phillip ordered Mareep to fire a thundershock attack. Before Magikarp fell back into the water Phillip threw a Pokeball. Several seconds later Magikarp was caught. Before Phillip could enjoy his Pokemon and introduce him to the rest of his Pokemon he heard a distant scream coming from Kathy. They all ran as fast as they could to get to the scream.

As they arrived, they saw Heracross trying to snuggle up to Kathy. She was screaming at Heracross while Phillip and Tyrogue were laughing. Heracross tramped off sad and disheartened again. Tyrogue followed him to encourage him. After a few moments of Tyrogue and Heracross talking about growing stronger the group decided to call it a night.

All of them lay on one side of a rock as Heracross sat away from the group staring at the moon. Brett and Betty dove out of a tree with a net catching everyone except Heracross in it.

They laughed again doing their peculiar rhyme about flying to the highest height. In a moment's time Heracross leapt over the rock and began rubbing its feet on the ground ready to charge. In an instant Heracross charged at Team Rocket performing a horn attack. The horn cut the net open and sent Team Rocket flying into the sky.

"WE'RE BLASTING OFF AGAIN!"

The team all gathered around Heracross and hugged him for rescuing them. They opened a hole from Kathy directly to Heracross. He dropped his head down and was about to walk away when Kathy ran to him and gave him a huge hug.

"Thank you Heracross. I'm sorry about what I said."

Heracross fervently smiled returning the hug.

To be continued…