The sun rose as a few wild Pokémon made sure to keep clear of a single tent in the middle of the field. Even though Danny was filled with adrenaline and wanted nothing more than to continue his journey as quickly as possible, he overslept. It wasn't until Richard started talking, that he woke up.
"Well, for sleeping in a tent, it was quite comfortable. Did you sleep well?", he asked while he crawled out of the tent.
Danny mumbled something and turned around, his head still glued to the pillow.
"Danny!" Richard spoke up a little louder.
"Huh, what?" Danny asked, looking up, half asleep.
"It's morning, time to wake up."
With a shock, Danny got up. "I overslept!"
Richard started laughing. "Get yourself cleaned up a bit, I'll start making breakfast."
The two of them didn't arrive on Route 1 until late in the night and they didn't have the chance to check out their surroundings as it had already gotten dark. But now, in the morning light, the two trainers could take a good look at the environment around them.
Richard, who had done multiple field trips towards the route, saw nothing new. Danny, on the other hand, was only in this world for a mere day.
When he got out of the tent, he gazed his eyes out. Sure, he had visited forests before, but this seemed different. It might be the lifeforms he could see. Unlike the animals he was used to, these were Pokémon. He couldn't define any species, but they were definitely Pokémon.
Not only that, but it was so much different from the games he knew. Route 1 in the games was a straight forward line with some tall grass here and there, where the Pokémon would appear. But here. Fields on all sides of them with groups of trees to fill up the scenery.
It hadn't rained in days, so Danny dropped himself on the grass. "I'm really in the mood to catch some Pokémon."
Richard looked at his pal. "Easy there, I need something to eat. After that, you can go and catch some Pokémon."
Danny could see in Richard's eyes the argument was not going to be won, so he settled for a piece of baked bread instead.
"Do you think we should let Charmander and Squirtle out?", Richard asked as he sat down as well.
Danny nodded. "I don't see the harm in that."
"This dream is fantastic. But I did just sleep, in my dream. Does going to sleep in a dream not cause you to wake up in real life? Well, it doesn't matter. As long as this dream continues, I'm enjoying the heck out of it."
They both took the only filled Pokéball of their belts and let out their partners.
Charmander jumped out and turned around, looking curiously at his trainer. Meanwhile, Squirtle inhaled the fresh air and seemingly enjoyed it.
"Do you think they like baked bread?", Danny asked.
Squirtle turned around and ran toward his trainer. In a fraction of seconds, he had taken the piece of bread out of Richard's hands and started nibbling on it.
"I take that as a yes", Richard laughed.
Danny had to laugh as well. He took out another piece from the stew and gave it to Charmander. Watching his new friend step forward to grab it, made his heart leap with joy. This creature that never used to exist, but was suddenly here. Breathing, walking. And it was his Pokémon. It was a concept he could hardly grasp.
"Careful, it could be hot", Danny said to warn his little friend. Charmander took a bite and didn't seem impressed.
"It is great to be on our way,feels like an eternity before we finally could head off," Richard said. "I'm happy we can do this together."
"Yeah, definitely", Danny answered dreamily, his thoughts going back to what Route 1 was like in the games and what was going to be next.
"Danny? Your bread is getting cold", Richard noted.
Danny snapped out of his thoughts and looked at the piece of food. With large bites he devoured it, only to take another one.
Charmander and Squirtle had both finished their food as well and started playing together, something the two trainers noticed.
"Looks like they were friends before they met us", Richard noticed. Danny nodded. "They did seem to be happy to be traveling together. I feel bad for Bulbasaur though, left all alone."
"Alone? Have you not seen the backyard of the professor? If it isn't picked up by a trainer later, it will have a lot of friends to hang out with."
Danny nodded as he took another bite of his bread, now cooled down a bit. "This tastes really good by the way", he murmured with his mouth full.
"Thanks, preparing food is one of the most rewarding things there is, I love it."
While Richard continued enjoying his own creation, Danny heard a noise coming from some bushes nearby.
Being a new trainer, the first thought in his head was it being a wild Pokémon. He pushed the leftover bread in his mouth and jumped up. He was ready to further expand his team. Usually he caught a Pidgey on this route, he was curious what it would be here.
"Letf's go Charmanfer", Danny said with a mouthful. The fire lizard could barely understand what his trainer said but understood the message.
The two ran towards the bush, ready for anything that could come out. Richard had followed a bit together with his Squirtle.
"Watch it, it might be a Beedrill", Richard warned.
Danny shook his head. Beedrill didn't live on Route 1. But then again, it could here. Anything could live here. "Maybe it's a Scyther! That would be awesome."
Charmander looked at Squirtle, silently praying for a Caterpie or a…
"A Weedle!", Danny cried out, as the Hairy Bug Pokémon made its way out of the green. For a second he was disappointed, but that feeling quickly disappeared.
It looked up and instead of being startled, which could have been expected from a small creature facing four giants, it didn't seem to mind the large beings at all.
The Weedle just kept on crawling. In fact, it was crawling towards the piece of bread Richard had left behind when he went to see what Danny was up to.
Danny looked at Charmander. "What do you think? Want to try and battle it?"
Charmander nodded determined.
"Now ehh, what moves do you know?" Danny scratched his chin. He had no idea what moves Charmander already knew.
Richard sighed. "Didn't you pay attention when Oak explained things? Your Pokédex has the moves Charmander knows registered."
When Richard realized Danny still didn't understand what he was talking about, he sighed again.
"Every time your Pokémon learns a move, you register it in your Pokédex, Oak must have done that as well. Just check with 'My Pokémon'."
Danny opened the small device and found a page for Charmander. Moves: Scratch, Leer, Ember.
"Charmander, use Scratch?", Danny said, more as a question than an order.
Charmander growled and ran towards Weedle, who had no idea he was being battled.
The Fire-type swung its small paw in the air and back, landing on the Weedle's back. The last one cried out in pain and turned around, now not too happy anymore with the surroundings.
Weedle retaliated directly. It pushed itself from the ground, aiming its horn at Charmander's belly. The sting released some small, purple bubbles into the air.
"That's a Poison Sting attack", Richard said. "I hope your Charmander isn't poisoned."
"I'm counting on you Charmander, are you ready for another attack?"
Charmander nodded.
"How about an Ember?"
The Lizard Pokémon opened his mouth and let out small embers.
"That should do it." Danny took an empty Pokéball from his belt. He stopped for a second and only looked at the object in his hands.
"This is it. Yesterday around this time I was walking towards work, now I'm about to catch my first Pokémon", Danny thought to himself.
"Danny! It's getting away", Richard warned.
Danny shook back into reality and saw Weedle crawling away, Charmander had been covered in what looked like the result of a String Shot attack. The starter did his best to get it off of him.
"No way you can leave now." Danny threw the ball and it landed on top of the Bug-type. With a red light, the small Pokémon was absorbed. It hit a rock before rolling onto the grass.
Danny looked intensely at the ball, seeing it wiggle around like a toll toy.
"Come on ..." Danny gritted his teeth. A few more seconds he had to wait before the liberating 'Click' could be heard.
"It... It stayed! We caught our first Pokémon!", Danny cheered.
Charmander had already returned to the food, he couldn't really be bothered by the capture. Food, that had the priority.
"Congrats Danny. Now let's finish breakfast, before our Pokémon do", Richard laughed.
"That's a good plan", Danny laughed. "Do you think it's safe to let Weedle out?"
Richard thought about it for a second. "I don't see why not. You can always recall it if it tries to flee."
Danny nodded. "That's a good point."
He took the now occupied ball from the ground. He noticed a small dent in it, but that could barely spoil his morning. He pressed the white button in the middle, letting his newly caught Weedle out.
The Bug-type was a bit confused but didn't seem to be harmed by Charmander's Ember. Instead, it went straight back to the food it had intended to feed on.
Squirtle didn't mind the arrival of a new team member one bit, Charmander on the other hand had a bit more trouble adjusting. It felt strange to him that he now had to share food with the Pokémon he had just defeated in battle.
He stayed away from the food and looked up at his trainer, hoping that he would send that weird thing away. Instead, Danny kneeled down with the Fire-type.
"Don't worry Charmander. Weedle is a part of our team now, you don't need to worry. It won't hurt you."
Danny's words comforted the Fire-type a bit and he started eating, side eyeing Weedle from time to time. The latter didn't seem to notice or care. It did make a bit of room for the larger Pokémon to have a space too, something Charmander appreciated.
"That's a good start to the day I'd say", Richard laughed. "What's up next?"
Danny had to think for a bit. Here, his knowledge of the game came in handy again. "There's a Gym in Viridian City, right? We could just walk that way." He took another bite of his breakfast, clearly enjoying it.
"In the games, that Gym is abandoned this early. But maybe in this world, it isn't."
"You should stop this journey and become a cook! This is really delicious", he praised, holding up the piece of bread as if he worshipped it.
Richard's cheeks grew a bit reddish. "I'm really not that good."
Danny waved the modesty away. Squirtle burped loudly to power up Danny's argument.
Richard saw no choice but to accept the praise. "Now, Viridian City", he said to change the subject. "That means we need to track through Route 1 first."
"Well, let's get on our way, shall we?" Danny said. He put the remaining bread in a special bag so they could eat it for lunch as well. Richard threw some dirt over the fire and quickly packed the tents.
In less than ten minutes the two were on their way again. Charmander and Squirtle followed suit, while Weedle had claimed a place on Danny's shoulder.
While walking through the forest landscape that filled Route 1, Danny couldn't help but be marveled by the beauty of it, once again. All kinds of moderate trees, ranging from the smaller cherry trees to the imposing walnut trees. The path they followed, which was not much more than a sandy path with a few bricks here and there, led them through a meadow as well.
The occasional wild Pokémon came by, and Danny battled them to train both Charmander and Weedle. He had registered Weedle's known attacks in the Pokédex, but he quickly knew all moves by heart.
It took them the entire morning and a large portion of their afternoon before they reached the edge of Route 1. They had eaten their lunch on foot, but even then, Route 1 was large enough to keep them walking for hours.
Neither minded though. They talked a bit about their new Pokémon, laughed when Charmander and Squirtle ran ahead to play and had a very mature conversation about girls, because which teenager doesn't?
"Look, there's the sign!" Danny pointed.
Before either could take their first steps in the first major city they would visit, Richard heard a sound.
Charmander got into battle position, although he had gotten a bit tired from the training he wasn't used to quite yet.
Instead of what either expected, an Abra came walking out of the city. It had a sad and sleepy expression on its face, like it could literally cry itself to sleep.
Danny was the first to come to his senses. "What is an Abra doing here?"
Richard held up his shoulders.
With the initial shock gone, Danny realized the opportunity facing him. Abra was a Psychic-type Pokémon. If it evolved all the way into Alakazam, that would give him the possibly strongest Psychic-type in Kanto. And in the games, that gave you a fantastic advantage, especially with all the Poison-types around.
The sympathetic side of Danny remained the stronger side, so his first concern was to find out who left Abra there.
"Do you think it belongs to someone?", Danny asked.
Richard looked around a bit, but there was no trainer in sight.
"Maybe it's a wild one", he suggested.
Danny took out his Pokédex to learn a bit more about the Psychic-type in front of them, who had stopped walking when it saw the two trainers.
Abra, a Psychic Power Pokémon. It sleeps eighteen hours a day but employs telekinesis even while sleeping.
"Eighteen hours? That's a lot. That means it's only awake for six hours. My goodness", Richard reacted surprised.
"A battle is a matter of minutes you know, after that it can go back to sleep."
"Are you saying you want to catch it?"
"Why not? If it's really lost it deserves a trainer that doesn't abandon it. And if it is a wild Pokémon, I can catch it anyway if it wants me too", Danny reacted, which caused Richard to laugh.
"Don't blame me if I have to laugh when Abra falls asleep in the most important battle you ever had."
Danny didn't respond. Instead, he took another empty Pokéball from his belt and got ready to capture the Psychic-type.
"Stop that! That Abra is mine!"
A boy, possibly the same age as Danny and Richard, came running out of the city.
His hair, semi-long and brown, was messy and his shirt and pants were covered in mud. He probably fell chasing down Abra. His shoes still shined.
"That stupid thing ran away, that doesn't mean you can simply go around and catch it."
Danny didn't expect that reaction. "What do you mean saying it's stupid?"
The guy reacted irritated. "Stupid as in it can't do a thing right. It sleeps all the time and when it's awake it doesn't do anything I say. It fled because I yelled at it."
"Well one way to avoid someone from running away is not yelling at them", Richard said sarcastically, which didn't better the mood.
"It's none of your business anyway. Come on Abra, time to go."
Abra, however, didn't obey. It simply sat down on the ground.
"Abra, listen to me you worthless Pokémon!"
Danny couldn't take it any longer. "That's it. If you can't take care of Abra, I will."
The guy laughed. "Give me one good reason why I should give my Abra to you."
"I'll be able to actually take care of it."
"Ha, like you take care of that Weedle on your shoulder? Weedle is one of the easiest to evolve and yet you haven't."
Richard tried to calm Danny down a bit, but the latter was easily provoked.
"How about I battle you for it? My Weedle against anything you send in."
"Oh boy", Richard sighed.
The other trainer laughed. "Sure. Raticate, come on out!"
Danny let Weedle crawl onto the ground from his shoulder. "Are you up for this?", he asked.
Weedle didn't respond, simply looking at the way larger Raticate, he was now facing.
Richard leaned down to whisper in Danny's ear. "Are you sure about this?"
"Yeah positive. Weedle has been training as well and I'm sure it can handle Raticate."
The irritated trainer had walked a while back, to make room for the two battlers.
Suddenly, something popped into Danny's mind. A solution to a problem that they would still face, even if he won.
"Let's make this interesting. Winner gets to train Abra."
"Sure", was the only reaction from his opponent. "Now let's start this thing, I don't want to be out here long."
Danny nodded. He remembered another thing from the games: the player had a rival. In his favorite games it was the grandson of Oak. But Danny had a feeling this guy was his rival now. So he had to win this battle.
"Weedle, let's start this off with a Poison Sting."
The little Bug-type hurried forward and landed its small horn right in Raticate's center. Neither the trainer nor the Pokémon seemed to care much.
"Raticate, respond with Quick Attack."
"Weedle, dodge it!"
Weedle tried his best but was simply too slow. The larger Mouse Pokémon bashed into him and swung him away. Weedle landed near Danny's feet, seemingly hurt.
"Hang on Weedle, think about the Abra we can help", Danny said, trying to motivate his team member.
Abra was silently watching the battle or fell asleep. No one could tell. But its eyes were closed and it was swooning a bit.
Weedle got back up again and crawled back towards Raticate, ready for round two.
"That's the spirit Weedle! Hit it with Poison Sting!"
"Dodge it Raticate." This time the trainer did give an order to dodge the attack, but Raticate had gotten arrogant and stayed in place. The horn hit at the same spot and did significantly more damage. Some purple bubbles came free when Weedle's horn made contact.
"Poison? That's one way to win it", Richard mumbled.
The trainer noticed too, realizing the battle now had a time limit.
"Hurry up Raticate, use Tackle, that should do it."
"Weedle, dive down!"
Raticate launched itself at Weedle but ended up flying over the smaller opponent. Its claws barely scratched the Bug-type's body but didn't do any damage. The landing wasn't great either.
"Now, use String Shot on Raticate and make it a lot of strings."
Weedle released a small, white string from its mouth that strangled around Raticate. More and more he shot that quickly tangled the Normal-type to the ground.
Struggling to break through it, Raticate used its large teeth to bite through some, but it couldn't reach all of them. Not to mention the poison slowly taking its toll on the Mouse Pokémon.
The trainer gritted his teeth, he didn't expect to lose. He had no idea what to do next. Raticate was stuck there and Weedle took the request for 'a lot of strings' quite seriously.
"It's over", Richard stated, seeing as Raticate had nowhere to go and was only suffering.
The trainer angrily returned Raticate, as the strings around it fell to the ground.
"Next time, I'll use my Bulbasaur…", the trainer said. "Now let's go Abra, time to go."
"Wait a minute. The deal was that the winner would be Abra's trainer. I won", Danny reacted quickly. Richard nodded in agreement.
Being outnumbered, the trainer gave in. "Fine, you can keep it. It's a worthless Pokémon, that will never change." With that, he turned around.
"You better run, I sure hope we'll never see you again!", Danny yelled.
"Oh, you will. I will be the strongest trainer in Kanto in no time. Just keep your eyes peered for champion Marcel." And with that, he walked back into the city and disappeared.
Danny looked at Abra. "Do you want to join my team?"
Abra didn't react, it had fallen asleep.
"I take that as a yes", Danny laughed. He threw a Pokéball at Abra. After rolling around for just a second, it clicked.
"I caught an Abra!", the trainer happily cheered. Charmander happily growled as well.
Also wanting to celebrate with Weedle, Danny realized the little Bug-type was gone.
"Wait, where is …"
Weedle laid all curled up on the ground and started to glow all white.
"W-what's happening", Danny wondered. "Is it wounded?"
It took him a second before he realized what was actually going on. It looked different from the game, there was no cut scene or anything. It just started happening. "No way, he's evolving!"
As the light vanished, Weedle's brown body had grown into a yellow color, and he had gotten quite a bit larger.
"Congratulations Danny, that's one hell of a first trainer's day", Richard complimented his best friend.
Danny was stunned. He was at a loss for words.
"An evolution, two new Pokémon. Please, let this dream never end!"
He took out his Pokédex to check for more information.
Kakuna, a transitional stage between Weedle and Beedrill. Kakuna remain inactive until they evolve into deadly Beedrill and hatch.
"What a day. I captured two Pokémon and one of them has already evolved." Danny was psyched. He quickly returned Kakuna to his Pokéball for some well-deserved rest.
"That's nice and all, but we'll have to find me a Pokémon as well", Richard stated. "The first Pokémon we come across is going on my team."
Danny laughed. "Deal."
"Now let's get ourselves a room with actual beds that are way more comfortable then the ground", Richard started walking towards the city.
Danny nodded in agreement and followed suit.
And so, the two friends left Route 1 and entered Viridian City, their first big stop on their journey. A journey that will have a lot of twists and turns in it, but with two new teammates they are ready for anything.