Route 1

(Route 1.)

Noah and Bagon took to walking along the trail once they entered Route 1. They saw a few wild Pokémon but Noah opted against catching them. Although owning a Pidgeot or Fearow in the future tempted him, he wanted to catch Pokémon that sparked his interest and the common Pidgey, unfortunately, did not.

As they continued to walk along the trail, Noah began to think about his first gym battle. While Viridian City had a gym, it was all but barred for any trainer that had yet to earn seven badges. Giovanni was known to be a ruthless battler and with his criminal organization running amok, he didn't even want to meet the guy until he had the power to challenge him.

That left him with the gym in Pewter City. Brock may seem weak but Noah had recently discovered that gym leaders are tasked with adjusting their strengths accordingly. Of course, each gym has different level restrictions placed on them but these restrictions do not apply to the Viridian City, Saffron City, and Cinnabar Island gyms.

Noah knew that Brock specialized in using Rock-type Pokémon. Although Rock-types are known to be quite strong, they had many exploitable weaknesses. There was just one problem – Noah had no Pokémon with a type advantage over them. Although he was confident that his Bagon could take on the gym, but he didn't want to place all of his expectations on one Pokémon.

After a moment of consideration, Noah decided to visit the small lake in the latter half of the route to catch a Water-type Pokémon. Noah had asked his grandfather to order him a compact fishing rod a while back and he had thankfully remembered to bring it with him.

While the two walked along the route, Noah's PokeNav had begun to vibrate. The watch had been gifted to him by Daisy before she left for her tournament, Noah couldn't help but miss his cheerful older sister.

Shaking his head, Noah looked at the caller ID and couldn't help but answer the call with a wide grin.

"Noah!! Where the hell are you? I woke up to find that you had already left!"

"Woah, relax their Gary. I had to leave early to make it to Viridian before sunset, you know how much I hate camping."

"That's not enough of an excuse to not even wake me up! Who knows how long it'll be before I can even see you again?"

"Alright, alright. I'm sorry about leaving without letting you know. There, you happy now?"

"Huh? Yea… Anyway, I wanted to wish you luck on your journey. Just make sure to call home every once in a while, I'm sure gramps would like that."

"That's a given, little bro. Take care of yourself and make sure to give Daisy a call, you know how much she adores on you."

"The same goes for you. I'll talk to you later man and say hello to Bagon for me."

"Cya."

Noah ended the call and looked down at his partner. "Well you heard him buddy. Let's speed up our pace a bit, we have a lot to do before the evening arrives."

"Agon." Bagon nodded in approval as he matched his trainers' speed.

…

(Route 1, Latter Half.)

Noah had reached the small lake and walked along the shore to find a small clearing. Upon finding a suitable one next to a tree, he placed his bag down and took out his fishing equipment. After he assembled the rod, he had latched a piece of bait on to the hook and cast the rod into the water.

He planted the other end of the rod into the ground and began to prepare lunch. He took out two cans of Bagon's favorite food and poured it into a large bowl.

"Come here buddy, it's time to eat," Noah said as he snapped his fingers together. This had been the signal that he had created to let Bagon know when it's time to eat, he had discovered early on the love this little fella has for food.

"Baeego!" Bagon roared in excitement and began to devour his food.

Noah laughed at his partners behavior and sat back against the tree. He took out a couple of sandwiches' that he had made in the morning and ate them. Now all he had to do was relax and simply wait for a Pokémon to take the bait.

…

(A While Later.)

Noah grunted as he yanked whatever was biting on the lure out of the water. Whatever it was felt extremely light but put up a fight. Bagon was waiting for whatever formidable opponent his trainer would pull out of the water and growled to make himself look even more intimidating.

While Noah hadn't been expecting to pull out a Gyarados or Psyduck, he hadn't expected a small blue creature fiercely struggling at the end of his lure. The Horsea was small, it looked strangely angry for its breed and glared at the duo that had pulled him out.

Horsea let go of the lure and spat a glob of ink at them before it landed on the ground. Noah and Bagon dodged out of the way but even so, the foul-smelling liquid caused him to gag a little. He looked at Bagon and was impressed with his friends' composure as he fought against the fierce Horsea, but reigned himself in to avoid causing real danger to it.

The battle was incredibly short. Despite the Horsea's method of fighting – firing powerful jets of water at Bagon with incredible speed – his starter Pokémon was hardly disturbed by its attacks. As Bagon backed off to avoid another jet of ink, Noah decided that it was time to end this and catch the Horsea.

"Dragon Rage." Noah ordered as Bagon cried out in acceptance as he opened his mouth and released a thick, transparent beam of energy at his opponent. The force generated from the attack was more than enough to knock the small creature out.

"You did good, Bagon." Noah said as he scratched under the chin of his starter Pokémon.

"Baeeeg." Bagon churred in happiness.

Noah took out a Pokeball and threw it at the unconscious Horsea. The ball sucked it in and rocked a few times before clicking. Noah grinned and made his way over to collect the newest member of his team.

"Bagon, come and stand beside me," Noah said to the dragon. "I don't want the Horsea to be intimidated."

Bagon nodded and quietly sat by his trainers' feet. Noah crouched down and released the Horsea. 'Maybe it wouldn't be so violent if it didn't see me as such a large being.'

Horsea was still unconscious when it materialized, so Noah took the opportunity to scan it with the Pokedex.

[Horsea, the Dragon Pokémon. If Horsea senses danger, it will reflexively spray a dense black ink from its mouth and try to escape. This Pokémon swims by cleverly flapping the fin on its back.

This Horsea is female and knows the moves: Bubble, Smokescreen, Water Gun, Twister and Bubble Beam. Its ability is Swift Swim, which increases the Pokémon's speed when it is raining or in the water.]

Noah nodded in approval, Horsea would definitely be an important member of the team but now, he needed to make friends with her. The trainer carefully dug out a revive from his backpack and snapped it open over Horsea's… mouth? Nevertheless, the powder inside of the diamond-shaped container went into Horsea's system, shocking her back into consciousness and repairing most of the damage she had suffered.

However, he didn't expect Horsea to blast him in the face with a weak Water Gun the second it woke up. Noah hissed in pain as the attack knocked him back. The trainer warily pushed himself up and realized that Bagon was about to attack her.

"Bagon, stop." He ordered calmly. His friend glanced back at him and loyally sat back down. Noah wasn't foolish enough to think that his starter wasn't more than ready to attack their newest teammate, Bagon was quite protective after all.

Noah turned back to Horsea, who was warily staring at him. 'At least she's not attacking…'

"Please listen to me." Noah soothingly spoke as Horsea continued to stare at him. "I've already captured you. That means that I am your trainer and Bagon here is your teammate. I'm not going to hurt you, I just want to help you get stronger."

Horsea perked up at the last sentence. Noah grinned, he had found what Horsea wanted out of their relationship. "I plan to sweep through the world and become a powerful trainer but for that, I need your help. Do you think you can keep up?"

Horsea eagerly nodded, its eyes lit up in determination.

"Wonderful!" Noah exclaimed joyfully. "Alright then, let's get a move on and find some Pokémon, I want to test your limits."

Horsea's eyes narrowed in concentration as Noah returned her and headed back to the trail with Bagon. Along the way, he ordered Bagon to keep an eye out for any Pokémon that could offer a challenge for their newly caught Horsea.