1.1 Venture Forth!

Ben and I quickly sped toward Viridian City. On our way, we met a nice man who worked at their pokémart. He gave us a free sample of their potions. We took it gratefully and vowed to buy more when we got to the city.

Of course, we couldn't actually do that because the man actually working wasn't anywhere near as nice.

"Sorry, but we are holding off selling stuff until we get this package to Professor Oak."

"And why is that?"

"Because it is important to the plot."

"Worst. Reason. Ever."

Ben piped up beside me. "I want a Rare Candy."

"They don't sell those here."

"But I want a Rare Candy."

"Please be quiet. They don't sell those here."

"But...but...I wanna Rare Candy!"

"Ben, please! They aren't selling me anything so, even if they had Rare Candies, I could not get you one."

"Oh."

Phew, he was done.

"I wanna potion."

I looked down and glared at him. He gave me a cute smile, so I picked him up, grabbed the parcel for Oak and headed out.

We headed back to Pallet, fighting the few wild pokémon on the way. Ben got a bit stronger on the way and we made it back to Oak's lab easily. Kevin was there too when I got there.

"Gramps, why did you call me back?"

"Be patient Kevin. Anna, do my eyes deceive me or is that my package from Viridian City?"

"You may be old but your eyes are as sharp as ever." I gave him the package. He set it aside and handed me what looked like a squished, red phone. Kev got one too.

"What the heck is this Gramps?"

"This, my boy, is a pokédex." He started being long-winded again, so I'll cut it down for you.

A pokémon encyclopedia is what it meant. It could store information, specifically on pokémon we catch but also ones that we just see. We can learn a lot and blah blah blah. To fill this was his dream, but he got bogged down with research and making this (and giving us a four-hour story of what he actually did) so the task falls to us intrepid pokémon trainers.

After giving us the story, he gave each of us five pokéballs for a start. I ran back to my house to tell my mom (and Kev's sis met me and gave me a map, not that I needed one) and then Ben and I went off to begin our own pokémon researching adventure!

Let me guess, you want more, right?

Well, right away I met another friend. A purplish mouse with a white underbelly, buck teeth and a curled tail met me in the grass. He became known as Derek.

Derek - ♂ Rattata.

Rash Nature, Guts ability.

Lvl 3, Route 1.

I looked at my pokédex, What the heck does a rash nature even mean?

"I think," Ben said, reading my thoughts, "that a rash nature does stuff impulsively? Maybe?"

"I would agree," Derek said. "I do tend to do that a bit too much. But...I kind of want to go back to sleep actually."

"Fine," I said. "Go in your pokéball and sleep."

We went back to Viridian and headed west to route 22 to check it. We found another friend there - a small-ish, roundish, fuzzy monkey with a pig nose and very lanky limbs. I called this Mankey Al, short for Alice.

Al - ♀ Mankey.

Bashful Nature, Vital Spirit ability.

Lvl 5, Route 22

"Now I know what bashful means," Ben said, reading my pokédex over my shoulder, "but that thing does not look it."

"You're right in that one," Al said. "I tend to be a bit of trouble..."

"Well isn't that just wonderful," I said. "Two trouble-makers and a sleepy-head."

"Oh hush," I heard Derek say from his pokéball.

We continued on from there up to route 2. There was a small brown bird there. She flew straight up to me, tapped my pokéball and went inside it. After being caught, she opened it up and flew out. I looked at her incredulously.

"What? You looked like a nice girl."

Ashley - ♀ Pidgey.

Serious Nature, Keen Eye ability.

Lvl 3, Route 2.

"So...what now?"

"Training? I don't really know."

"Well, I think training isn't a bad idea," Al said. "I'd like to get a bit stronger before we get into that forest up there."

"Okay. So training it is."