Chapter 23 - A Place with a Destructive Past

After doing his homework, which is short, Rico jumped to his bed in resting his body and mind from his daily routine. The night was peaceful and good, with a few, white clouds sailing across the sky. It was 9:54 p.m., a few hours after dinner time, and the rest in the house are either resting or doing remaining work for the night. Rico's team are resting as well, after an entire day of training and other activities. Then, as his head was resting on the soft pillow, Rico starts to think about going to other places in Kanto, places that he haven't visited or seen yet. With this in mind, Rico reached for his precious journal from his nightstand and opened it in the center, revealing a piece of folded map of Kanto. Getting it, Rico started to cautiously and carefully unfold it and start looking at the names of various places in the region, while sitting cross-legged on his comfy bed. The other names of places in the map are marked with a blue triangle next to them, indicating that those places are already visited recently. Then, as he glance over name to name, Rico's attention was caught by one unique name of a place: Porta Vista.

"Wow, this place sounds cool," Rico wonders in curiosity. "I think that will be a good one. But how I suppose to get there?" He then start looking for routes to get there, and eventually, found out that the city of Vermilion had a harbor to where he can board a ship to get there. Having found a route to get to Porta Vista, Rico began making plans for a trip to that place, evenly inviting Isaiah and Catherine to come and explore with him. In response to that on phone, Isaiah and Catherine positively and enthusiastically accepted it, as if they wanted to go somewhere new.

So, the next morning, the three of them asked their parents to allow them to go that place. In response, they allowed them to go to that place, if they knew how to get there. Rico and Isaiah then responded that there is a harbor in Vermilion City, and can take a ship to get there. So, with their parents' permission, they packed up their backpacks, the common type of bags traveling Pokémon Trainers used, including necessary items and items for Pokémon. They planned to take all of their teams with them to that paradise-like place. By 8:21 a.m., they took off from Pallet Town all the way to Vermilion City, which is far away, and have to traverse a few cities along the way. Ash, meanwhile, was too busy at the gym, but luckily for him, his siblings and Rico told him about their trip. Along the way, whenever it is noon, afternoon, and night time, they would stopped walking in their long journey and camp until the next day. Also, if there is a wild Pokémon trying to attack them, they will always succeed in driving it away; or, if the wild Pokémon was too strong and tough, they had the option of running away and hide until that strong, wild Pokémon was out of sight. And also along the way, if they are lucky to find a nearby Pokémon Center or an inn, they would lodge there and eat up so they could regain strength and energy, as well as their Pokémon in their strength. Despite of all that difficulties and a little setbacks, they had arrived at Vermilion City, a big city where one of the Kanto's gyms, an Electric-type, was located. It was 10 in the morning when they arrived there. And upon walking down the streets, the three of them and their teams are delightfully surprised by the city's appearance, especially when they enter Vermilion City's gym, where the gym leader, Lt. Surge, was currently battling a Pokémon Trainer, who was there for the gym badge. And upon entering the interior of the gym, they witnessed Lt. Surge's Pokémon defeating the Pokémon Trainer who owned a Hariyama. The Trainer was utterly disappointed by it, but Rico and Catherine approached him and told him not to give up and just train up more and do his best. Eventually, it encouraged the desperate Trainer, who then called back his defeated Pokémon and left the gym to the Pokémon Center. After that, Lt. Surge saw the three kids who just recently entered his Electric-type Pokémon Gym, and then greeted them with a welcome in a cool, manly way, before introducing himself to them.

"Hi, there," Rico greeted him back positively. "I'm Rico Titus from Philas and Kanto, and this is Lucario, my Pokémon." Lucario then greeted the tough-looking gym leader in response.

"I'm Catherine Ketchum," Catherine introduced herself to Lt. Surge. Sceptile then greeted the gym leader in response.

"And I'm Isaiah Ketchum, Catherine's brother," Isaiah positively and cheerfully introduced himself to the gym leader.

"Nice to meet you all," replied Lt. Surge with very cool positively. "Say, are all of you here for the gym badge?" But then, Rico, Catherine, and Isaiah said no to him, telling the gym leader that they will be going to the harbors and hop on a ship to Porta Vista, and this surprises Lt. Surge mildly.