Chapter 6

"Holy shit." I breathed out in a gasp, and I just knew my eyes were wide and mouth gaping open.

It hadn't taken any more than another good forty odd minutes for me to reach Viridian City, and the sky had quickly dimmed. What could I say about it? Nothing much to be honest, it was like any other city, I wasn't much of an architect - the only thing I could really say, was it was clean. Not one piece of litter, not even a hint of graffiti anywhere.

Granted, I was only walking through the main streets, so odds are that the alleys are full of litter and graffiti.

The people though, they were amazing. Not even just because of the varied hair colors - just walking down the street I'd seen hair ranging from green, to blue to even one white haired girl and I'd had to force myself not to follow her and focus on my objectives. Curse my white haired waifu adoration.

Even the clothes were massively different from person to person. A lot of the people I passed were dressed casually, but many of them were donend in sturdy cargo wear, hiking boots, thick jackets - real adventure gear, albeit somehow they still seemed to come off as really stylish.

No, besides all the exotic people, what was even more amazing was seeing the odd Pokemon accompanying their trainers. I hadn't seen many of them while I followed the map towards the Pokemon Center, but even then, seeing the sheer amount of pokemon all around me was a surreal experience.

I passed by a construction site where a large office building was being built, and the area was filled with pokemon. Machoke packed full of rigid muscle were carrying massive girders with ease, Graveler rolling around over the area, flattening the ground out.

Wild Murkrow, Pidgey and the odd Pidgeotto perched on the top of buildings. A gorgeously groomed Persian basking behind the window of a Pokemon Salon. I even passed by one guy who was walking down the street casually with a large and rather intimidating Mightyena walking by his side as if it were just a common dog.

It'd made me kinda glad I'd kept Pidgey out of his pokeball. I wanted to bond with the little guy, becomes friends with him. But with Pidgey on my shoulder, I felt like I belonged here and wasn't just some outsider.

It was a good feeling.

I'd reached a big gap in buildings, and to my surprise it was to show off the massive lake at the side of Viridian City, connected to the stream, river or whatever it was that ran down Route 1 I'd caught Poliwhirl at.

I knew this waterfront too. It was shown clearly in Pokemon Generations. Was this even really just the main anime world? I can't remember this lake from the main anime. Was this world like an amalgamation of the pokemon worlds? What about the games? If it was, would things be in the same place? If so I knew where to get a Pidgeotite - but that was only hopeful thinking right? There's no way it'd be there.

Especially considering the fact that it was just outright in the open in the middle of a town. You'd have to be blind to miss it.

My thoughts didn't really get to continue on that route because a massive pillar of water burst upwards from the depths of the water just now, the spray shooting off so far I felt it rain down on me and Pidgey, the little bird ruffling his feathers with an annoyed bark from his beak.

The water spire pulled back seconds later to reveal a massive blue serpent. The beast of a pokemon didn't even look at me, instead it looked up into the darkened sky - how long had I been walking through this city for now? - above us and roared at the moon so loudly I had to clasp my hands to my ears to stop them from ringing.

It was massive, so big I couldn't even begin to describe its size. But the head alone was bigger than I was tall and I could see the thick rigid scales that formed over its serpentine body from where I stood a good thirty feet away. They looked thicker than some olden plates of armor I'd seen while in museum's and touring a few castles.

It went quiet after a few moments and the Gyarados just looked up at the gleaming moon.

"Holy shit." I repeated, it felt like I was just repeating those two words constantly, but seriously this was insane. I had to withhold the urge to swallow, I could even feel hysteria beginning to bubble up in my chest but I clamped down on it because one emotion won out over it.

Awe.

I want it. I want it so bad it hurts.

I was never a big Gyarados fan in the beginning. I mean, I rarely used them. And usually preferred other water types. Until I caught one in Pokemon Go, and really came to appreciate them. The size, their looks, their power, I was hooked after that. it alongside Pidgeot, the first pokemon I actually caught were my go to team members alone for the longest time.

I looked up at the Gyarados still staring almost forlornly up at the moon. This kind of Pokemon would be the problem, just how could I capture it? I mean, I don't really need to, I could catch a Magikarp practically anywhere and raise one up, but who knows how long that could take, Magikarp evolving were really sporadic in the anime world. And I feel stupid for thinking on it, but I want this one. This Gyarados is a legitimate pokemon that appeared in the very first episode ever aired. It was a childish desire to want something like this just because it appeared in a show episode, but I can't help the desire.

Now that I'm thinking about it. A grin spread across my face, because wasn't my new Spearow an actual recurring character from the anime? And I caught him. Spearow is like one of the top prizes from a collector's collection.

I turned to the bird that was surprisingly just staring up at the massive water serpent with cool, almost nonchalant eyes, "Think you could take this guy?" I joked.

The little bird rolled his eyes and puffed up his chest. I'd learned a little bit about Pidgey in just the short amount of time since we battled Poliwhirl. He was both confident and brave. And he liked to fight, like a lot and that he was very proud of his strength. I'd had to stop him from picking fights with a bunch of those Mankey in the trees in Route 1 - and while I would have loved to catch one, I wasn't so sure in my ability to handle a temperamental Primeape at this point.

Thinking on it now, I should have caught one of the Sandshrew. A ground type would be a big help against Brock and I knew Sandshrew could learn Iron Tail, I could have put it through the same training as my two birds when I trained them to learn Steel Wing.

Eh, I'll double back before I head for Pewter City, it wasn't a very long walk to reach the area where I saw them.

Pidgey lifted his wings up drawing me from my thoughts, preparing to beat off and completely not to my surprise, launch himself at the Gyarados. I put a hand on his little head and kept him at bay, "We'll save that for another time alright?" I said to him, "I don't have enough to feed a Gyarados, so there's no point in beating it down when I can't capture it right now."

Left unsaid was that I was damn sure Pidgey would lose. Strong as he was for a Pidgey, that was a freaking Gyarados. Maybe once both Poliwhirl and Spearow are healed up, a triple team on Gyarados would be enough, or I could maybe make friends with Ash, Pikachu would be a big help and Gyarados wasn't exactly going anywhere.

Pidgey lowered his wings and sniffed in annoyance at me through his beak. I had to stop myself from grinning, the little bird had done the exact same when I'd stopped him from attacking that good dozen or so strong group of those Mankey.

I really lucked out with my first capture. Like I was so lucky it wasn't even funny. The only reason I caught Pidgey was because the little bird was so stunned by the fact that a human literally punched him, that he couldn't react in time to fight off the pokeball.

I'm pretty sure the only reason he was listening to me as well was due to his pride. Though at this point I couldn't be sure, I can only hope Spearow will be as easy to get along with. Thankfully, I'm not to worried about Poliwhirl, I figure with the zeal he showed for training will be an easy way to win him over.

Sighing I shook my head and took one last admiring gaze of Gyarados before pulling my phone back up and following the map again. I can't just waste time around here can I? I don't really know when the Pokemon Center closes or if rooms will already be taken up by this point.