17 Surprise Encounter and Returning to Viridian

The valley where the ground dragon resided was quite deep into the Safari Park. So, Gary had to traverse a long distance to return to the threshold of the Safari Park. To accompany him, he called out Shadow (Froakie) from his pokeball.

(Sigh) "Shadow, accompany me. We have a long walk ahead!"

"Frroo.."

Shadow curiously tilted his head.

"Once we reach the pokemon center, you will meet your new teammates."

"Froo.."

"I am excited to train you all to the best."

".....kie"

"The sponsorship fund by now must have been deposited to my account. So, we can buy new TMs for you all."

"Froo...."

In this way, the pokemon trainer pair began their long walk to the Park's exit. And Froakie from that day realised that his trainer had a bad habit of blabbering on. The pokemon had already plugged his frubbles into his hears to get rid of the incessant chatter.

Finally, when they reached the gate, Froakie inwardly heaved a sigh of relief.

Gary took out the Safari balls to transfer his captures to his personal pokeballs.

"Umm, do you have a more private place?" Gary asked the old officer in his late sixties while eyeing the other trainers who were queueing up to enter the Safari Park. The old man raised an eyebrow in response, but brought him into a closed office place.

"Did you catch only three pokemons?" the old man asked while fiddling with Gary's Safari balls.

"I am not a fan of capturing pokemons above my carry limit."

When the three Safari balls opened up to reveal Gary's pokemons, the old man blurted out,

"What the fu*k, did you just barge into the territory of an Elite Four level pokemon to catch its offspring? Do you even know the consequences of a ramping Dragon whose offspring had disappeared?!!"

The concerned pokemon oblivious to all this, was already chewing a piece of large bone that Gary had stuffed in his mouth to prevent the land shark from biting his head.

On the other hand, the raging eyes of the old officer held an indication of swallowing Gary alive if he failed to give a satisfactory explanation.

"Calm down, old man. That monster tested me by battling my strongest pokemon. Then only, it allowed Gible to follow me." Gary secretly sent a soothing psychic wave to calm him down.

The officer stared at Gary for quite sometime scrutinizing him as if expecting to detect a change in his facial expression indicating that he was lieing. After staring for a long time, did he finally transfer Gible to Gary's ownership.

"I wil have to notify the League about your catch."

"No problem", Gary said in his trademark dismissive manner.

Finally, after collecting his pokemon, Gary sped towards the Pokemon Center.

The Fuschia Pokemon Center was just like the rest of the city. The architecture resembled that of traditional Japanese style. Gary handed over Metang's pokeball to Nurse Joy, "Please take care of him. He is a special one. Please, handle with care."

"Sure, Sir. Would you like to book a room, sir?"

"No, I will grab some food and then wait in the lobby."

His protesting stomach hastened up Gary towards the cafeteria. The delicious dishes that the Pokemon Centers were famous for really exploded like heavenly food in Gary's taste buds.

"Numm, numm, so fu*king delicious."

Gary's face instantly reddened up when he realised that he had actually said that aloud, snd the trainers eating were staring at him with mouths twitching in amusement. He hurriedly gobbled down the rest of his meal and left the cafeteria in swift steps to save his face.

His grumbling stomach having calmed down, Gary seated himself in the lobby to relax after his hectic morning.

No sooner had drowsiness started to invade him, than a violent shaking of the sofa he was sitting woke him up with a start.

Gary was thinking of beating up the imbecile who had destroyed his nap, when a bell like laughter from his left drew his attention.

And there sitted beside him was his high school classmate and this year's PTLTs second position holder, Leaf Green.

"Oh, it's you! But what's the meaning of this?"

Leaf stopped him with a mischievous smile, "Oh my, Gary Oak is losing his cool persona!"

"Oo, stop it, Leaf. You know, I kept up that persona just to fend off those annoying bugs."

"Yeah, yeah, the cold prince Gary Oak is apparently a huge foodie, who shouts out 'So fu*cking delicious',", after finishing with great control, Leaf couldn't hold herself anymore and broke out in peals of laughter.

Gary covered his face with his hands, but peeked between his fingers, "Oh my, did you just hear that?"

"Leave it, what are you doing in Fuschia?" Gary quickly said to divert the topic.

"Did you forget that my family shifted to Fuschia last month?" Leaf answered with a knowing smile that said 'I know what you are trying to do'.

Gary was furiously brainstorming ways to get back at Leaf and to save his face. Then, as if an imaginary light bulb lit up inside his head as he asked, "So, where's your buddy, Amelia?"

Leaf's teasing smile immediately turned into a scowl at the mention of Amelia Flowers, the 3rd place of the PTLTs, another of their classmates. Amelia and Leaf were like a cat and mouse. Wherever they met, their endless bickering would immediately start. The apt description of the two would be a fairy and a succubus, where Leaf was the former. Amelia had the innate talent of getting under Leaf's skin at every single turn. And Gary always ended up in a precarious situation due to their quarrel. For this very reason, Gary was unwilling to delay his journey after getting Shadow from his Gramps.

"That bit*h had the gall to say that her Charmander can KO my Bulbasaur! What does she think of herself! Had it not been for the Professor, I would have shown her who is stronger."

Now, it was Gary's turn to calm down Leaf. Having successfully riled up Leaf, now he was not ready to listen to her rant.

"Fine, fine, leave her, what have you planned for the next half of your journey?"

"I am planning to go to Celadon City. It will be great if I can get some tips from Erika on training Petal."

Gary raised an eyebrow to inquire what kind of pokemon Petal is.

"Oh, meet Petal, my Bulbasaur." Leaf relaeased her Bulbasaur who promptly occupied a comfortable position on her lap. "Bulba..."

Gary nodded understanding her logic, since Erika owned the strongest Venasaur of Kanto.

"You most probably came to the Safari Park, right Gary?" Gary raised his hands to signify he had been caught red handed. A smug smile crept up on Leaf's face at her correct guess.

"So, what pokemons did you get?" Leaf asked with extreme curiosity.

"Pancham, Roggenrola aaannnnndd...."

"Oh, come on, Gary, what is the third?"

"Gible."

"WHAT??" Then she suddenly realized that her voice was unnaturally loud that was attracting stares from the other trainers. She lowered her voice, "Did you just get a pseudo-legendary dragon from the Safari Park!!! You are so lucky!!"

Gary just nodded his head and did not elaborate on the battle where he was simply annihilated.

"Say, Leaf, will you take up a quick one on one between our starters?"

"Sure, I don't have any problems."

Petal jumped down from Leaf's lap as the two friends made their way to the training grounds for their battle.

"Let's keep it unofficial." Leaf suggested. Gary had no opinions against it.

"Petal, take your place." "Bulba..bulba.."

Gary released Shadow without a word.

"Frooa..kieee"

"Kalos starter, ha?" Leaf poised the question that Gary had been anticipating. He replied with a non-committal shrug.

Gary in the meantime took a quick eye over Bulbasaur's status.

———————————————————————————

Name :— Bulbasaur

Type:— Grass / Poison

Rank :— Novice (Peak)

Potential :— Deep Gold

Moveset :— Growl(N), Tackle(N), Vine Whip(P), Razor Leaf(P), Sleep Powder(N), Body Slam(N)

Innate Talent :— Toxic (locked), Ingrain(N)

TM :— Energy Ball(N)

———————————————————————————

"Ladies, first." Gary invited Leaf.

"Don't regret. Petal, start things off with Razor Leaf." Bulbasaur fired off a flurry of unnaturally sharp leaves at Froakie.

"Double Team and Agility." The razor leaves struck a false copy of Shadow making the attack useless.

"Petal, use Vine Whip in a circle to dissolve the fake copies."

The Vine Whips lashed out in a circular motion starting to dissolve the fake copies of Double Team from one side.

"Shadow, jump and use Pound."

The Agility enhanced Pound attack struck Petal on the face and pushed him back.

"Got you, Petal, quick use Sleep Powder. Now, what will you do, Gary?"

As soon as the sleep inducing powders began to emit, it quickly reached Shadow, who was close to Bulbasaur due to the Pound Attack.

Gary smirked, "Shadow, cover your face with your Frubbles and jump back." The frubbles prevented the Sleep Powder from going inside Froakie's nostrils.

"Energy Ball". "Water Pulse". Both trainers lashed out at the same moment.

The two attacks slammed into each other and created a mini explosion.

"Now, Shadow, full power Ice Beam."

"Oh, no. Petal, dodge!" The super-effective move slammed into Bulbasaur straight.

"Finish it off with Quick Attack."

The Quick Attack finished the match as the dust cleared to show a fainted Petal.

"You did a great job, Petal. Take a good rest." Leaf called back Bulbasaur into its pokeball.

Gary got down on a knee to pet Froakie who released a pleased cry at his victory. "Froo..." Then, he disappeared into the red light of the pokeball.

"That was a great battle, Leaf." Gary's words wiped away the slight unhappiness that Leaf felt on her loss.

"Damn, Gary. Going still strong as ever." Leaf's usual cheerful voice rang out as she approached Gary.

"Gary Oak, please report to the counter." An announcement in Nurse Joy's voice was heard at that moment.

"That's my cue to leave. I have a Teleportation service in fifteen minutes to Viridian, so we wil meet again someday." The two friends took part in their usual chit-chat as they made their way to Nurse Joy where Leaf handed in Petal for treatment. Gary took Nexus' pokeball from Nurse Joy and bade farewell to Leaf.

"Goodbye, idiot", was the last thing Gary's brain registered before a pair of moist lips touched Gary's cheek. Leaf giggled at Gary's dumbstruck expression as he rubbed his palm on his cheek and she disappeared along the road before Gary could react.

Gary finally came to his senses and set off towards the Teleportation Center in a trance.

As the Alakazam teleported him away to Viridian City, Gary's mind went back to the sensation pn his cheek. Gary's mental age was already in the thirties, so he had always been attracted to mature women ever since his transmigration into the pokemon world. During his days in the Pallet Town, Delia had stolen his breath and heart. He never had any romantic considerations for the opposite gender of his biological age. But the turmoils in his heart created due to Leaf's kiss made him rethink his feelings.

As a world where the strong ruled, multiple relationships were quite normal among the powerful. Due to his live spent here, he had partly been influenced by the values of this world. So, he was not against the idea of multiple relationships. But never before, he had thought of a romantic relation with women of his age.

As his thoughts began to get mixed with one another to form a complex net, Gary shook his head to clear it up.

'It's useless ro think of these things now, let's take one step at a time. First stop, Viridian Pokemart, TM Section.'

Gary strode towards the first floor of the Viridian Pokemart, where the TM Section was located. This place only had one use TMs and strong moves like Hyper Beam were as rare as feathers of Ho-oh. Such things and multiple use TMs were only available in the Silph Co exclusive store in Celadon City.

Gary had enough budget for five TMs. He first picked up a Thunder Punch for Nexus. Then he picked up a special attack for Pancham. He was of two minds on Dark Pulse or Shadow Ball, but he finally picked up the Ghost type move.

Next, was the Power Gem TM for Roggenrola, and Cotton Guard for Froakie.

While browsing through the Fire type moves for Gible, he spotted a lone piece left for Flamethrower. He was ecstatic at his luck and quickly picked it up.

When the payment was being made, Gary's heart was bleeding as he had to part with 46,000 pokedollars, leaving the rest amount to 24,200 pokedollars. Almost his entire monthly stipend of 50,000 pokedollars from the sponsorship was spent. In the ground floor of the Pokemart, he stocked up on bug repellents, Revives and Hyper Potions for the long journey through the Viridian Forest.

After restocking his supplies, he started off for the Viridian Pokemon Center to spend the night and enter the Viridian Forest in the early morning.

It was only 4:00 pm by his X-transceiver, so he had enough time for a short introductory training session between his old team and new members from the Safari Park.

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END