Chapter 10 Viridian Forest Objective!

Waking up early in the morning, I decided to start it with a satisfying stretch in bed. Feeling my movement Zorua who had crawled onto my chest in the night gave me a wronged look. I just laughed it off and gave her some tickles waking her up completely. Unfortunately she didn't take too kindly to the playful awakening. Because she hit me with a counter, sending me off the bed and waking up Feebas. A rowdy morning awakening behind us, we got everything ready to go after a small breakfast. Making my way down to the reception area I gave Nurse Joy my room key.

"Good morning Nurse Joy, it was a pretty eventful meeting between us but I gotta get started on my journey now. Be careful of pokemon thieves in the future. If you could also tell Ash and Misty that I'll catch them in Pewter City and I'm sorry for not sticking around long enough to tell them."

"Leaving so soon? It's so early, but I should know trainers like you are always eager to move around. Thank you so much for your help the other day, if you're ever in Viridian CIty again make sure to stop by I'll be here. Be safe on your journey, I'll make sure to pass along your message, it's the least I can do for your help."

She sends me off with a warm smile and a wave. There's no need to prolong goodbyes, I'll probably see her when I visit the Viridian Gym for my final badge. There's no set sequence of gyms you should challenge but the Viridian Gym has a specific restriction. To challenge the Gym you need to have 7 gym badges prior. Normally Gyms don't have a restriction like this, at most they can decide the field for their gym However, this rule was formally accepted by the League due to the strength of the Viridian City leader. For most normal trainers challenging the Kanto circuit the 8th gym has become a rite of passage, a testing ground to prove your qualifications as a trainer. But the truth is much more complicated, because the leader is Giovanni. Who is also the leader of Team Rocket. Even though he's a criminal boss his power and influence make him almost untouchable, but he can't beat the Elite Four and the new champion. If I were to make an analogy it's like the balance between the light and dark sides of the region. And if I was to make a guess, Giovanni is keeping tabs on the stronger trainers that come through for either recruitment or other nefarious ideas. However, he's not some unbeatable force because his gym battle pokemon have been set by the League. This was the League's stop measure to make sure trainers can still win and possibly join the League in the future.

As I was wandering around inside my own thoughts I finally found myself in front of the Viridian Forest entrance, the only public route to Pewter City. From the information I gathered prior to coming it's about a 1-2 day walk before reaching the next city. But I have other plans before heading straight to Pewter. There's a certain pokemon I want to catch before I reach my first gym battle. With the help of my compass I found that the pokemon I'm searching for might be ahead in the forest. After all, the compass doesn't give any specific coordinates; it only points in the direction of what I'm searching for. I didn't say anything to Misty and Ash before I left, one because they're not even awake yet, and two because I don't want their budding routine to distract me from my current goal. With that I take out my compass and head towards the direction it's pointing, and I have Zorua on my head as my lookout to make sure we're not taken by surprise by wild pokemon.

-Somewhere deep in Viridian Forest-

It's already been a day in the forest but I haven't had any leads on the pokemon I'm searching for. It seems to keep changing locations within the forest because the compass needle will face one way but swing another. I'll try again tomorrow, I know it's in the area because of how fast the needle moves when the pokemon moves. If it was further away then the needle would move at a much slower pace when it moves. Also with my fortune eyes, I need to work on a better name for that ability, I've seen the gold aura move around in the distance. Unfortunately it's night time and I'm already tired from trying to keep up with the pokemon. So I'll need to set up camp, and I've already found a pretty spacious clearing.

With everything ready I press the Dino Cap and throw it into the clearing. *POOF* Out of the Dino Cap comes a slightly shabby cabin. Ugh, I may have not thought this through enough. I thought that it'd be nice to have a mobile home to sleep in, instead of the alternative of sleeping on the ground. I didn't have much time to prepare this before my journey and I took an abandoned cabin that was in Pallet. Of course I did this with the permission of the town chief, he was happy to free up some new land for development.

(A/N: Cabin)

Opening the creaky door I take a look into my new temporary shack. Inside is the living room which connects to a master bedroom, well the only bedroom, and another door connecting to the kitchen. The living room has an old wooden table and a slightly torn couch. With some new furniture and some fixes it could be quite homey. To the side of the furniture is a small electric powered heater, it's the only addition I made, a heating system that runs through the house. Inside the bedroom is a new bed, a broken closet and dresser. I had brought one of the extra beds at Gramps' house. Inside the room is also a bathroom with a sink and shower/tub. Before I stored the cabin I made a water filter system to run through the house, producing clean water by taking moisture in the outside air. Moving out of the bedroom I make my way to check on the kitchen. On the left are some countertops and cupboards, as well as a working sink. Then on the front wall is an oven which is also connected to the heater system. It's a work in progress but it's the first home I made for myself. Well it's about time I get some rest, but I make sure to make food for everyone before calling it a night. Can't forget about my companions, even the ones that haven't hatched. I don't know if Charmander can hear me inside of its egg but I hope my feelings get across from my aura. So with Feebas in the tub, Zorua and the incubator in my bed I retire for the night.

(A/N: Floor plan)

-The following day-

Waking up early in the morning with my cabin back in its capsule, I move towards the direction on the compass. It seems it hasn't moved yet, it might still be sleeping. It seems like the saying is true the early bird gets the pokemon, obviously I gave my own spin on the old adage. Making my way through various shrubbery, and avoiding some sleeping pokemon. I make my way to an oran berry tree where I can see the pokemon I've been looking for all day resting on one of the branches. The pokemon I've been looking for all this time has been Pidgey, but it's not just an ordinary run of the mill Pidgey. This one is a shiny variant, a golden bird so to speak. In the original pokemon games, pidgey was one of my favorite flying pokemon to have because of its final evolution Pidgeot. This isn't the only reason I'm trying to catch one, I have a theory that with my scan I can find a way to permanently mega evolve Pidgeot. This theory came to me when I had scanned a passing Pidgeotto, under the evolution information there was one that said Lvl.36+. I expected but there was a second line of information, "this evolution requirement cannot be unlocked in wild pokemon." Since then I've had dreams of riding a shiny mega Pidgeot. Now, let's check out the stats of this Pidgey…

[Pidgey (Shiny) ♂

Normal/Flying

Lvl.13

Potential: ✧✧✧✧ 4 Stars

Bond: 0%

HP: 45

Attack: 25

Defense: 24

Sp. Attack: 27

Sp. Defense: 23

Speed: 33

Ability:

Keen Eye/ Cannot lower accuracy of this pokemon

Big Pecks/ Defensive stats cannot be lowered

Moves: Tackle, Sand Attack, Gust, Quick Attack, Air Slash, Brave Bird

Evolution Requirements: Lvl.20+]

Another 4 star potential pokemon, I think shiny pokemon are born with high potential. Well, I can only guess because I've only seen two shiny pokemon so far. Alright I think it's time for me to catch this pokemon, it should be easy because I haven't been spotted and Pidgey is asleep. I remember that my father told me tips about catching wild pokemon, there's the communication method. Which is when you ask the pokemon if it would let you catch it, sometimes you bribe it with food to make it friendlier. The next method is the sneaking method, which is to catch the pokemon without being spotted, this can also lead to a critical capture. This can fail if the pokemon is too strong or the pokeball quality isn't great, which shouldn't be a problem with my luxury ball. The last one is the battling method, which involves weakening the pokemon before capturing it. I'm going to go with the second method because I don't want to risk it flying away and having to track it down again. With that I toss the pokeball at pidgey, once it hit its mark Pidgey was enveloped in a red light and the luxury ball fell to the floor.

*wiggle**wiggle**click*

Yes! I caught it! It was a little anticlimactic for all the work I put in trying to find it, but it's satisfying seeing all that effort pay off. I grab some oran berries from the tree and then take Pidgey out of its pokeball. It looks around confused before focusing on me and flying onto my arm. The nice thing about luxury balls is that it automatically increases the pokemon's favorability/bond with you. Currently Pidgey's Bond with me is at 23%, ignoring that I feed him. "Hey Pidgey, it's nice to meet you and welcome to the team. You might be confused about being caught all of the sudden but now I'll make sure to take care of you. These oran berries are a little apology from me. Currently you're my fourth pokemon, I can't show you all of them right now but this is Zorua resting on my head. Make sure to get along with everyone from now on."

"Piii!"

After interacting some more with Pidgey I returned him to his ball. Now that I've got what I wanted in this forest I should make my way to Pewter. With my compass I find my way back to the main path. On my way I decided to fight some pokemon to train up my pokemon. It was mostly just Beedrill and Kakuna because they were the most aggressive species in the forest. Once I reached the path my companions had leveled up quite a few times. Zorua had reached Lvl.16 and learned Torment, Hone Claws, Fury Swipes, and Scary Face. Feebas didn't get too much spotlight because she didn't have any water to battle in, but I managed somehow by holding her like some kind of cannon. She was able to jump to Lvl.18 but didn't learn any new moves. Feebas doesn't learn moves normally, but with TMs and training I might be able to teach her a few things before she evolves from the food I'm feeding her. Pidgey had the biggest jump to Lvl.20, and he evolved in his last battle. It seems like it doesn't matter if you evolve your pokemon at higher levels. The reason the pokemon stats increase after evolution is the evolution itself. After they reach a higher stage their stats grow with their evolution, but ultimately this doesn't change that pokemon grow stronger after evolving. I do wonder if there are issues if a pokemon evolves sooner than its evolutionary requirement, I mean the requirement must be there for a reason. But I should stop focusing on this, I'm a pokemon trainer not researcher. Either way I'm not the type to discard my pokemon for something silly like potential or stats. I would just train them to surpass those limits, they are my companions and this journey is one we are making together.

-A few hours later-

It seems I was closer to Pewter than I thought, luckily the area I found Pidgey wasn't too far away from the City. Looking back to the forest I wonder how long it'll take Ash and Misty to make it here. Being closer to the city my reception is better and I found that I had some unread messages on my phone:

(1 day ago)Misty: Hey you could've said goodbye in person before you left, I would've woken up for you. ;)

Hope to see you In Pewter City!

(1 day ago)Gary: Hey Slowpoke, I've already made it to Pewter City and won my first badge. Me and Squirtle destroyed Brock's rock type pokemon. Make sure to check out the recording, you can see how great I am. Make sure to send me your battle video too, can't wait to see how strong you are. Smell you later I'm on my way to Cerulean City.

Attachment: Battle1.mov

(1 day ago)Gramps: Make sure to call me young man, I had to hear from Officer Jenny how you had a run in with Team Rocket. I don't want to hear about your wellbeing from others!

(1 day ago)Jay: I'll wait in Pewter City, I heard you came across some criminals from Gary.

(Today)Leaf: I'm going to have my first gym battle tomorrow, it would mean a lot if you watched my battle, big brother.

Oops, I should've let everyone know that I was going through the forest beforehand. It seems like Gary is really speedrunning this whole gym challenge, I'll have to watch his battle later. Before I start replying to everyone I should go to the pokemon center to get a room, it's late in the day and the sun is going down. On my way into Pewter I saw an old man selling rocks, it seems like Brock's dad still hasn't made up with his family yet. I politely greeted him, after all it's good manners to be polite to old folks. I also took a moment to scan some of his rocks to see if there were any hidden treasures. I felt really stupid when the scan only borught up [it's a regular rock], but I found one hidden treasure. There was actually a [meteorite piece] in the pile of rocks, it didn't look like anything special, but my fortune eyes told me this was something I might need later. I bought it off of him for 100 pokedollars, a ripoff for a normal rock but a steal for me. It fit in the palm of my hand so I was able to put it in my pocket and be on my way.

(A/N: Brock's dad)

I was quickly able to find the Pokemon Center, this one was a tall building with many windows. The building may be different but Nurse Joy looks just like the other Nurse Joy, so some things are the same. I had her heal my pokemon just to be safe, after all we had a lot of battles before getting here. With my pokemon healed I got a room in the pokemon center. Inside my room I did my usual routine with the addition of Pidgey, I still have plenty of food supplies so I should be fine for a while. I also took time to respond to everyone…

(A/N: Pokemon Center)

Misty/Me: Sorry about that Misty, I was trying to find a specific pokemon so I was in a bit of a rush. Currently I'm in Pewter, maybe we'll see each other soon.

Gary/Me: Haha alright Rapidash, you should slow your horses I'm not racing you to get badges. I checked out your battle video, it wasn't bad but remember type advantage isn't everything. I bet you've caught a lot of pokemon too, but quality will be quantity! I just made it to Pewter. I'll have my battle today or tomorrow, so I'll send you my fight soon.

Gramps/Me: Sorry Gramps I should've called sooner, but with everything that happened I kinda forgot. It's late tonight so I'll give you a ring tomorrow, just now I'm doing fine. I can't wait to show you the new pokemon I've caught!

Jay/Me: Hey Jay just got to Pewter I'll meet up with you tomorrow!

Leaf/Me: Hey little sis, don't worry I'll be there to cheer you on in your big battle! Let's meet tomorrow morning in the pokemon center lobby.

With all of that taken care of, it's time to get a good night's rest for tomorrow…