"Your Pokémon are ready to fight again, thanks for visiting the Pokémon Centre", Nurse Joy said with a warm smile. "It sure was a tough battle, wasn't it?"

Danny nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah, it was. My Weedle, ehh I mean Kakuna had a close victory. Together we won the right to train an Abra"

"Well, congratulations!", Joy responded. Danny's attitude caused her smile to grow bigger.

"Thanks", Danny responded with a smile. "I gotta go, my friend is waiting in the restaurant. Winning battles sure works up an appetite."

Joy started to laugh, which caused her pink hair to jump up and down as she waved Danny goodbye.

Danny walked outside while putting the Pokéballs back onto his belt. He let Charmander out immediately but decided to leave Kakuna and Abra in for now.

"Have you ever seen such a big city?" Danny asked the Fire-type while they wandered through the Viridian streets. Charmander shook his head.

Viridian City wasn't the largest city in the region, but easily larger than the small Pallet Town Danny and Richard came from.

Danny, of course, had lived in an entire different world before coming here. But as a small-town boy he didn't visit larger cities all that often. He preferred the smaller places, where people all knew each other and where it wasn't as busy.

It's safe to say Danny was amazed, there were street artists performing nearby, with a hat laying on the ground. A little bit further two women were talking with grocery bags in their hands. Multiple Pidgey had landed to feed off small crumbs of bread.

Richard had secured a table for two, outside of a small restaurant.

"Took you long enough", he sighed when he finally saw Danny and Charmander walking towards them. Squirtle had kept Danny's chair occupied, but jumped off to play with Charmander.

"I didn't want to hurry, there's so much to check out here", Danny explained. "Didn't you order anything?"

"I did, it should have been here already", Richard answered, loud enough for the waiters to hear. Within seconds, two plates filled with food were brought to them.

Danny took a huge bite out of his sandwich. "I was in dire need of some food."

Richard looked annoyed. "You should learn not to talk when you have your mouth full."

"Do you mind?" Danny responded.

"As a matter of fact, I do", Richard knew these arguments usually ended up with a lot of squabbling without results, so he stopped and looked around instead.

Sure enough Danny, who knew that what he just did wasn't appropriate, kept his mouth shut. He didn't want to admit he was a bit embarrassed by the call-out.

Charmander and Squirtle ran around a bit but made sure to stay close by. The two trainers gave them some of their food, which was highly appreciated.

"Did you hear the Viridian City Leader is gone again?" The voice came from the table right behind Danny.

"No, I didn't. How many times did he leave the town already? Twice?" another person asked.

The first man agreed. "I think so. You know he was the Team Rocket leader, right? Word is that he left to add a real strong Pokémon to his collection."

When Danny heard the words 'strong Pokémon' he couldn't resist.

He turned around, causing his chair to make some loud noise as it scratched the tiles.

"Excuse me, sir, what kind of strong Pokémon?"

The first man, a bit annoyed at the interruption, looked at Danny with an intimidating gaze. "Nobody knows. Some say Arcanine, others say Dragonite. I think it's a stronger one."

He was quite muscular and tall. He had brown, short hair and wore sunglasses, even though the sun wasn't shining that brightly. A t-shirt with Gengar print and blue-coloured shorts finished his look.

"One thing is for sure", he continued, "if he gets that Pokémon, the Gym will be undefeatable."

"With enough training and belief every trainer can be defeated", Danny reacted.

"I don't know kid, some Pokémon are just too strong", the second man responded. He was smaller and not as muscular as his friend. He had black hair, parted in the middle. His light-blue blouse was mostly covered by a darker jacket and he wore long, silky jeans. He also wore glasses.

"Besides, training only gets you so far. You need to have certain skills as a trainer, like I do", the first man commented.

Knowing what was about to go down, Richard quickly took a few bites of his food while he still could.

Danny smirked. "I'd say it's a combination of the two maybe, but if you don't work with your Pokémon and only rely on your skill you will surely lose against someone who trains a lot more."

"Is that a challenge, kid?"

Danny hadn't mend to challenge the guy, but the arrogant prick needed a lesson.

"Yep. I'm confident my trained Pokémon can beat your skills."

"Bring it on then."

The men stood up from the tables and Danny followed suit, commanding Richard to do the same. The latter, quickly stuffing his mouth with as much of the delicious treat he could, quickly raised.

"Follow me", the man said.

The four walked away from the restaurant and through a few small streets until they reached an entrance to Route 1.

"Here we can battle", the second man commented. He gestured for both Danny and his friend to take a stand.

"How many Pokémon Eric?" The man on the side, now acting as a referee, asked.

"Make it two Niall, I don't need to use anymore to defeat this whimp."

Niall looked to Danny for confirmation, the latter simply nodded. As he had found out by now, his heart pounded in his throat whenever a battle was about to start.

"Doduo, start this off!"

Eric threw one of his Pokéballs high in the sky, where it released the two-headed bird Pokémon.

Danny quickly took out his Pokédex to check for some additional information.

Doduo, a Twin Bird Pokémon. Once its heads begin to fight each other, Doduo becomes incapacitated.

'Now that's something I can use as a strategy, turning the two heads against each other', Danny thought to himself.

"Charmander, want to start?"

The Fire-type jumped onto the battlefield with an enthusiastic attitude.

"Great! Start off with Scratch."

"Jump up in the air Doduo", Eric responded.

The Flying-type leaped into the air and saw Charmander run underneath it. But as often with gravity, things that go up always come back down.

"Get out of there Charmander!"

Danny's call came too late, Doduo landed on top of Charmander. It had no trouble running away, while Charmander had a bit more trouble getting up.

"There's no way you can train for moves like this, you need to have the skill of adapting", Eric grinned.

Danny ignored him. "Use another Scratch."

"Jump up again Doduo."

The same thing was bound to happen. Charmander found himself at the place Doduo would land again.

"Now, Ember up to the sky!" Danny shouted.

Charmander lifted his small head up and released small, burning embers from his beak. The flightless bird couldn't get out of its straight line to the ground and had to take the attack head-on. It fell a few centimetres near Charmander to the ground.

"Get up and use Fury Attack!" Eric commanded.

"Charmander, dodge it and react with Ember."

Eric quickly realised another Ember might be fatal. "Get out of there Doduo, run!"

Then something happened that made everyone, except for Eric, laugh. The left head of Doduo wanted to go to the left side while the right head wanted to go right. As a result, Doduo went nowhere and, before the two heads could bicker, was hit with another Ember attack. This time, knocking it out.

"Return Doduo", Eric growled. His plan to beat Danny 2-0 had gone up in flames, so he had to take out the big guns.

Danny, on the other hand, was cheering with Charmander.

"Don't be happy just yet. Gastly, you're up."

Instead of throwing, Eric simply held the Pokéball up. Gastly slipped out and made some menacing faces toward Danny and Charmander.

'On my pc they may look great, but in real life they are quite scary', Danny couldn't help but think.

"Are you up for this Charmander?"

The Fire-type heavily nodded.

"Okay then, use Ember!"

"Gastly, attack it with Night Shade."

Gastly's eyes glowed up for a second. Charmander froze and fell to the ground, mouth open.

Both Richard and Danny had no idea what was happening. Danny ran forward to see what was going on.

"Charmander, can you hear me?"

"Your Charmander is out cold", Eric grinned. "That's Night Shade for you."

Danny was flabbergasted. A move strong enough to take down Charmander in one hit, that was insane.

"Take a long rest, Charmander", Danny said thankful but anxious. What was he going to do now?

"Now I can choose Kakuna, but Gastly won't take any damage from it. Or I choose Abra, who doesn't have any battle experience with me. What should I do?"

Danny looked towards Richard, who immediately understood which dilemma Danny was fighting.

"Danny, you better use Abra, it's your best shot."

The trainer nodded thankfully.

"Abra, it's your turn."

Luckily for Danny, Abra was still awake.

'Now let's see which attacks Abra knows.'

Just like all trainers, Marcel kept a list of moves his Pokémon knew. So by scanning Abra, Danny's Pokédex immediately received the data.

Danny came to an awful conclusion.

"It only knows Teleport!?"

Eric heard Danny's desperation as well and didn't feel much for a theatre show.

"Gastly, let's put a quick end to this battle, use Night Shade again."

Without ever really noticing he participated in the battle, Abra froze and fell down to the ground. This time the attack was super effective, and Danny realised there was no way Abra would take that hit and stand up.

"With Abra down, Gastly wins the battle for Eric", Niall said, with satisfaction clearly hearable in his voice.

"I'm sorry I put you into a battle you weren't ready for", Danny said sadly when he returned the Psi-Pokémon to his Pokéball.

"That was a great battle kid, good luck with the Gym Leader." Both men started to laugh when they walked away.

Richard walked over to Danny. "Why didn't you attack that Gastly?"

"Because the only move Abra knows is Teleport."

"Back already?" Nurse Joy said with a wink when Danny re-entered the same Center he had left roughly an hour ago. She assumed they would pick a room for the night, as the Center also acts as a trainer hotel at times.

Joy realised Danny's earlier enthusiasm had turned into sadness. "What happened?"

Danny sighed. "There was this guy I just battled. His Doduo wasn't tough to beat. Especially when it started an argument with itself." While saying that, a small grin formed on Danny's face, but it was quickly gone again when Danny remembered the end of that story.

"But then he send out a Gastly. It was way too strong and defeated both Charmander and Abra without even moving."

Joy started to think. It all sounded really familiar.

"Did you battle Eric?"

Danny looked up shocked and nodded.

"Well, then you aren't the only one. Eric always does this. First, he fights with a weaker Pokémon, which he hasn't trained yet. When his opponent becomes over-confident, he sends out a stronger Pokémon, almost always Gastly", Joy explained.

"That's just mean, someone should put an end to his reign", Danny said angrily, to which Joy agreed.

"The thing is, there aren't many trainers around here that are strong enough. Most start their journey here you know. Your Abra couldn't beat it either?"

Danny shook his head. "Abra only knows Teleport."

Joy giggled a bit. "Sweety, most wild Abra only know Teleport, it's the way they survive in the wild. I've heard rumours you can get rare TM's here, maybe that can help?"

Danny had heard of TM's before, in the games he used to play they were a vital part of teambuilding and strategy.

"Where can I find them?", He asked.

"The Viridian Pokémart has a special offer which sells a bunch of HMs, if you're lucky one of them can help you with that Gastly."

Danny nodded and wanted to run out.

"Didn't you forget anything?", Joy giggled again, putting the tray with two balls on the desk. "Because Night Shade doesn't do any damage to the body the healing process is rather quick."

Danny blushed and laughed a bit, ashamed of forgetting two-third of his team. "Thanks, Nurse Joy."

Meanwhile, Richard had gone back to the restaurant earlier to order another sandwich. Considering he didn't get to finish the first one due to Danny's outburst, he decided Danny should pay for the sandwich. He gave some small bits to Squirtle, who loved it as well.

Danny ran out of the Center and started looking for a Pokémart.

"I'm sure we passed it somewhere…"

He wandered through the city a bit, not finding anything even close to a shop. But he did find Richard, who was enjoying his sandwich on the same terrace they sat on earlier.

"What are you doing?", they both said it at the exact same moment.

Danny quickly explained what he was looking for, while Richard continued to enjoy the sandwich. There was no hair on his head that considered ditching it again.

"You know where we need to go right? Across from where we entered Viridian", Richard said, but only after he had eaten every single bit of the sandwich.

Danny had let his team out when he had met up with Richard, but since Kakuna couldn't move on itself anymore he was carried in Danny's arms. Abra, for a change, was awake and silently followed his new trainer.

He had been relieved when Danny beat Marcel, but also a bit worried. What kind of trainer would this person be? So far, this new trainer was better than the old one.

"What do you even need?", Richard asked.

"Nurse Joy talked about a TM, that would give my Pokémon the possibility to learn a new move. To beat Eric, I'm going to need it."

"Well, here it … is." Even before Richard could finish his sentence Danny had already run inside, followed by Charmander.

Abra had looked the other way for just a second and was confused to see his trainer gone.

Richard kneeled down and petted the Psi Pokémon, but the last one was looking around for its trainer. When Abra couldn't find Danny, he looked towards Richard with a look that could only mean one thing: Where is he?

Richard sighed. "In there." He pointed towards the shop.

"Just go through the doors and … oh, you're already gone."

As soon as Abra knew Danny's location he had left immediately.

"Now you can move fast", Richard said with a bit of irritation in his voice.

"You must be looking for one of my TM's, my special offer?" The clerk asked when Danny wandered inside. The man was balding, and it was no secret he loved eating.

"I do, one that fits Abra." Coincidentally Abra just walked in.

"That Abra?", the man asked with a smile on his face.

Danny turned around. "How did you ...? Where did you…?"

Abra looked confused, which caused the clerk to laugh loudly.

"I would be confused too if I had to finish those sentences by myself." He turned his attention back to Danny. "So, this Abra or another?"

Danny looked strangely and decided not to answer the question, causing the clerk to laugh even harder.

"I have TM29 for you. With this TM it can learn Psychic. I received it from a colleague from Saffron, interested?"

Danny nodded heavily. Psychic was just what he needed.

"Now. I can see you are just starting your journey, so you probably never used a TM before, am I right?"

Danny nodded again.

"Thought so. Well, you just place it on the Pokémon's head. It needs to connect with the Pokémon's brain. Once it does, the TM will make a soft noise."

"That doesn't sound too difficult, I'll take it", Danny said. He took the TM from the clerk, in exchange for the cost: 50 bucks.

"You are sure it works?", Danny asked with some doubt in his voice, but the clerk started to laugh again.

"Sure, it will, boy!"

Danny, Charmander, and Abra walked out of the shop. Outside, Richard, Kakuna, and Squirtle were waiting on them.

"Did you get it?", Richard asked as soon as he heard the bell that indicated the doors of the shop were opening.

Danny pulled up the CD-like device and gave it to Richard, who looked at it.

"This thing is going to teach Abra a move?", Richard was filled with doubts.

"How does it work exactly?" He asked.

Danny took the TM back. "Apparently I have to place it on Abra's head."

"Well, that's not too difficult."

Danny nodded and turned his attention towards Abra.

"You need to sit really still right now, don't move. Otherwise, the TM might drop from your head and break."

Richard started to laugh. "Abra and moving."

Richard didn't know how wrong he could be, cause Abra was actually moving a lot more than usual. Danny couldn't get the Psi Pokémon to sit still.

"Let me help." Richard grabbed Abra's hands. Meanwhile, Danny continued trying to put the TM on Abra's head. Little did they know, this was the worst thing they could do: Abra felt threatened and used the only move it knew. Teleport.

All of a sudden, Richard was grabbing air and Danny almost dropped the TM onto the ground.

"Where did it go?", a flabbergasted Danny asked.

He looked around, expecting to see Abra running away, but no Pokémon could be seen other than a Pidgey ascending into the sky.

"We need to look for it", Richard said. "You take that part of the city, I'll go this way."

Danny nodded and the two trainers ran off.

Near to them, Eric, Niall, and some of their friends were drinking a beer on a small terrace near the place Eric had battled Danny earlier.

"I'm telling you guys, that kid didn't stand a chance", Eric laughed.

Niall countered directly. "That's not true. You were worried about that Abra", he said.

"Yeah, that's true. If that Abra was properly trained, it might have beaten Gastly."

One of the other men pointed towards the battlefield. "That Abra?"

Eric turned around and reacted surprised. "Yeah, it is. But where is its trainer?"

Abra wandered around, quite confused.

"Maybe he released it?", Niall wondered out loud. "It lost after all. Some trainers decide to ditch their Pokémon after a loss."

"Some truly cruel people out there", Eric reacted. "Maybe I can help."

Meanwhile, Danny and Richard were still looking for Abra. Both had wandered through the streets of Viridian City for the past hour. The only thing they noticed was the size of the city.

Danny had just walked through a shopping street. The street was filled with adults that took their children for an afternoon away or couples that went on dates. That street alone took him roughly half an hour to get through.

"Danny!"

Richard ran towards his friend but had all the info he needed by looking into his friend's eyes.

"You didn't find it either huh."

Danny shook his head sadly.

"Where can it be? We looked everywhere."

Richard scratched his chin. "Maybe it went back towards Viridian Forest?"

"That's a good one!"

Danny and Richard ran towards the forest again, without realising toward the place Danny had just battled.

Right at that spot, Eric had taken Abra to train.

"Let's teach you a thing or two. Gastly, come on out."

The Ghost Pokémon was released and looked at Abra with arrogance. Eric noticed.

"Don't give that look, Abra is going to be our newest team member. You will help me train it."

Gastly sighed and turned to face its opponent. Abra didn't really move and just sat on the ground.

"Gastly, you will attack Abra with Lick", Eric ordered. "Abra, just use any attack that comes to mind… except Teleport!", he quickly added.

Abra looked at Eric strangely.

Gastly realised Abra wasn't going to do anything, so it decided to attack itself. It released its tongue and moved towards Abra.

At that moment, Danny and Richard made their way onto the battlefield and saw Abra.

"Stop that!", Danny yelled and ran toward his Pokémon. He jumped, grabbed Abra, and fell a few meters to the side, preventing Gastly from attacking the Psi Pokémon.

Eric looked confused. "So, you didn't release it?"

Danny, now also confused, reacted angrily. "No of course not, why should I?"

"Well, it was wandering through Viridian. I figured you released it, so I took it upon myself to train it a bit. Maybe it could have been an asset to my team."

"Well, it already is an asset to my team, and I will never let it go", Danny snapped.

"Then how did it get away from you?" Eric got annoyed by Danny's attitude.

"It used Teleport", Richard responded with a calm voice.

"Now we're here, I would like a rematch", Danny said. "One on one."

Eric laughed. "Sure, but you do realise I will be using my Gastly, right?"

"I was hoping on it."

"So be it."

Both trainers went to the furthest point to face each other again. Abra had silently followed Danny, not sure what would happen now.

Danny kneeled down, with his back towards Eric, and looked Abra in the eye.

"So, you want to beat that bastard too, right? For that to happen you need to let me help you."

Abra didn't respond, which Danny took as a yes.

He laid the TM on Abra's head and this time, the Psychic-type didn't move. The TM started making some machine noises, like two gears grinding against each other until it stopped, and Danny heard a soft noise. According to the clerk, Abra now knew Psychic.

"Are you ready?", Niall asked, apparently for the second time. He was quite annoyed and wanted to get back to his beer. Their group of friends was watching from the side.

"Yeah I am."

Well than let's get this over with."

Danny felt sweat dripping from his forehead, he was nervous as all hell.

"I trust in you", he whispered to Abra.

'I won't lose this time.'

"Gastly use Night Shade", Eric ordered again.

"Abra, use Psychic!"

The moment of truth was there. Did the TM work? Was Abra fast enough to out speed Gastly and defeat it?

Abra's eyes started to glow blue, and a blue aura formed around Gastly, who was visibly shook and maybe even scared. It tried to get away from it, but Abra was in control now. He smashed the Ghost-type onto the ground.

"Gastly, you okay?" Eric suddenly realized this Abra was not nearly as weak as it seemed to be. Now it could properly fight, it was definitely up for the task.

When Gastly got up Eric grinned. "Night Shade, quickly."

Before Danny could react, Gastly grinned widely, and that creepy silence came back. Abra fell to the ground.

Danny almost bit his nails off, struck by the feeling of another loss, but all of a sudden Abra started moving again. He pushed himself up and faced Gastly again, although a bit worn out.

"Abra, are you okay?!"

Niall looked at Eric with an irritated look and the latter understood.

"Finish this quickly with Night Shade!"

"Abra, another Psychic!"

Danny, Eric, Richard, Niall and the group of beer-drinking men stood silently, nailed to the ground. What followed was complete silence, after which Abra's eyes, which had shined a really soft blue during those seconds, started to shine a bright blue and Gastly felt that terrible aura again. Abra's Psychic had stopped the Night Shade from affecting it and now it was Gastly that was in trouble.

The Psi Pokémon smashed his opponent to the ground once more. Gastly had no more strength left to get up and remained on the ground.

Abra was the winner.

Eric realized this too. His winning streak had officially come to an end. He returned Gastly to its Pokéball. "Time for a rest, we'll beat the next guy."

Danny, on the other hand, ran toward Abra with enthusiastic gestures and hugged the Psi Pokémon. The latter hugged back and felt a warm glow come over him. Abra hadn't felt appreciated in a long time and didn't want to miss it ever again. This trainer was alright.

Eric walked up to Danny and stuck his hand out. "You don't give up easily, I give you that. Who knows, maybe you do stand a chance against that Gym Leader after all."

Danny shook the older trainer's hand and nodded. "Thanks, you aren't bad either."

Eric laughed. "Maybe it's time I trained some more."

Danny had to laugh as well. "Sounds like a good plan. We'll train as well, right Abra?"

Danny might as well have talked to a wall, cause the only noise Abra was making was the sound of snores.

"If you want Abra to become stronger, you'll have to let him sleep first", Richard said.

This caused all the men to start laughing. Abra didn't mind at all, as long as he could have his nap.