These Silver Eyes - Chapter 4 - JustAScarecrow - Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (2024)

Chapter Text

These Silver Eyes

Chapter 4: Ignorance is Bliss

Now that I caught all members of my team in Hoenn, I was very much done with this region.

Feebas, Beldum and Bagon… I was still happy as hell that I succeeded in getting them all and it must have shown in my body language because Gaia hadn't released me yet. She was happily cuddled into me and I just pat her in satisfaction, getting a happy mewl out of her.

Actually, she might have been this clingy because she was still worried about that scar I got on my midsection.

The pain was mostly gone now, besides a dull buzzing, and it practically vanished altogether, by the time I made it to Southern Mauville.

After getting the f*ck out of Meteor Falls and Route 116 in general, I swiftly rushed through Rusturf Tunnel and decided to set up camp on the outskirts of Verdanturf Town, after verifying that there was in fact not a Salamence hunting me down to get their daughter back.

The nice thing about Hoenn, was that there were literally trees everywhere. They naturally littered the region everywhere you went and because the region had so much rain and sun, they grew to gigantic heights that provided great cover.

If I thought Johto was full of vitality, Hoenn must have been vitality itself.

I went to sleep without wasting any time because that whole debacle with Fraxure, left me goddamn tired and I had traveled without rest from Meteor Falls to Verdanturf.

Needless to say I fell asleep quickly, before waking up early and rushing through the routes and Mauville. This city was awful to deal with when it was filled to the brim with all those people. They would cut my time down by an amount I didn't want to deal with.

It was a good thing that waking up early was a universally hated thing. Mauville had been barren, save for some kindly old man, with an aged Manectric, who waved at me.

I sent a single wave back because he was old. Being rude to old people wasn't cool unless they were rude first.

That brought me here, to the southern part of Mauville right at the entrance of Route 110.

Hoenn's routes in general, tended to be a lot bigger than the Johto and Kanto were massive and Route 110 was no exception. It wasn't as big as the Route 119 and 118 combo, but it was still a time consumer…

If you didn't own a bike. Without a bike it'd take at least a day if you walked, but if you had one? Life was easy!

Thankfully, I did own one! A nice little foldable bike that I permanently borrowed during my stay in Johto.

On Route 110, there was a massive structure called the Seaside Cycling Road that provided a very swift shortcut between Mauville and Slateport City so long as you had a bike.

Seriously, it reduced the trip to like an hour or more if you utilized it.

Perfect. The faster I could get to Slateport, the faster I could go to Kanto.

I ignored the guard signaling for me to get on the bike and idly flipped him off, before getting onto the cycling road.

It was obvious to see why it was called the Seaside Cycling Road. I was offered a gorgeous view of the expansive ocean that seemed to go on forever while pedaling over to Slateport.

Clear blue, no signs of pollution and all those water types. I even caught the huge ass shadow of what could only be a Wailord, just lounging about as I cycled.

Hoenn was amazing and I'd never state otherwise. It was as if humans attempted to impose their will on it but the nature fought back and they compromised instead

The only thing not amazing about it, was the fact that I was willingly attempting to give myself a heat stroke due to trying to maintain anonymity.

At least the wind from going so fast was doing me wonders.

There weren't much people on the road. It was still fairly early in the morning so I only saw some dedicated cyclists who had the gear on and all.

Those guys were really dedicated for their cause. They only glanced at me and gave me a thumbs up once we flew past each other.

They probably assumed that I was insane as them and working out this fine morning.

I guess that was a valid assumption, this reallywasa workout. Cycling for this long, was doing wonders to my legs and combined with the fact that I woke up ridiculously early, I just wanted to book my trip and got to a hotel so I couldsleep.

Unfortunately, I couldn't sleep just yet because I had things that needed to be done. At the very least, I had long done my research on Slateport so I didn't need to aimlessly wander around.

If I had to aimlessly wander around in this city, I'dlose my mindbecause Slateport City was almost as enormous as Mauville.

Much like Mauville and Lilycove, Slateport was a very popular tourist spot in Hoenn. It was one of the most populated cities in the entire region and it fully embraced being a port city.

It almost reminded me of Olivine but on steroids. There was even a beach further south that wasverypopular by the masses.

Huh... Lilycove and Slateport were pretty similar.

Naturally, I didn't give a damn about any of the tourist attractions this city had to offer at the moment. The only thing I cared about, was getting a ticket to Kanto and sleeping.

Thankfully, the Slateport Harbor wasn't very far from the entrance I entered Slateport through so it didn't take me very long at all to find the place.

In a move that I was getting dreadfully familiar with, I approached the receptionist there with a single purpose on my mind.

"Fastest boat to Kanto?" I asked curiously, skipping all pretenses and getting straight to the point.

Look, I'm tired, I've been walking for a long time, my legs were killing me and I had a new scar on my body because I couldn't stop being an arrogant ass.

The poor receptionist must have seen the exhaustion in my eyes because he didn't even question my sour mood.

He just smiled sympathetically and typed something on his computer.

"Tomorrow at 5 pm to Vermilion City," he said kindly. "It'll be 6000 Poke."

I aimed my Pokegear at the machine offered to me and glanced at the successful transaction.

I wonder how that worked. I heard Porygon and Porygon 2 were the driving force of the internet and whatnot in this world.

Porygon-Z were almost impossibly rare in this world to the point that just finding information on them was difficult. Unlike with Milotic, not a single person actually knew how to evolve it, barring the scientists who worked on Porygon...

For natural reasons they did not disclose information on how to evolve Porygon2 into Porygon-Z because Porygon-Z was considered a failure of a pokemon...

Huh... I knew how to evolve a Porygon2... but I'd rather get the necessary items (Upgrade and Dubious Disc) to do that before actually catching the Porygon.

Food for thought.

"There's a hotel about 10 minutes away. Pokemon friendly and cheap despite how lavish it is," the guy over the counter informed me, handing me my ticket.

"…" I said nothing for a while, just glancing at him, before I nodded my head. "You're not half bad," was all I offered.

There's no way I was going to apologize for my terrible etiquette… but this guy didn't deserve my moody nature.

God, what did Fraxure do to me?

The receptionist even seemed to understand that was my way of apologizing and just smiled knowingly.

"Have a good day," he offered.

"...You too," I said gruffly, marching out of the harbor.

One day. That was fantastic. I was going to go to that hotel, I was going to get some sleep and I was going to laze in there until I thought of something to do.

I needed to relax. I had been running myself ragged for areallylong time so now it was time to just take it easy for the rest of my stay in Hoenn.

Now to find that hotel…

Turns out that receptionist was right. This hotel was fairly cheap for how nice it was.

I landed on the bed with a relieved sigh and released my entire team.

Without really thinking about it, I deftly caught Gaia and placed her on my chest, gazing at the grass type with a tired smile.

"I must be more tired than I thought… are you getting heavier girl?" I asked with a raised brow.

Gaia smiled smugly but said nothing.

Instead she began urging me to get some sleep and I yawned in agreement.

"I'll probably go to sleep for a long time. Do whatever you want but don't destroy anything," I instructed, allowing the Chikorita to jump off me.

"Loki, you're in charge. Make sure they don't kill each other... or me."

The Zorua nodded in affirmation and I shot them a thumbs up.

"Have fun. G'night," I told them.

Then I passed out without further prompting.

"Why are you in charge?" Ares asked with narrowed eyes. The Bagon was gazing at Loki with suspicious eyes.

"Because that's what Silver wanted," Loki replied easily. The Zorua had been about to start warming up, before Ares initiated conversation with him.

Ares sniffed. "My vassal simply doesn't understand because we've not been bonded long enough. Soon he whose eyes roar like the moon, will recognize my might and when I spread my wings, I will be fully in charge!"

Loki sweatdropped at the Bagon. "If that's what you want, but Silver has to approve it first."

He was admittedly, quite surprised that Ares was so refined in speaking. He honestly didn't expect it of her.

Freyja, normally so kind and patient,snorted."As if a brute like you has what it takes to be in charge when all you think about is violence. Go headbutt a wall until you faint. Loki will always have my vote as leader over you."

Ares snarled immediately and glared at the Feebas. "Be grateful that my vassal fancies you! One headbutt to your body and you wouldn't be alive to feel it!"

"Ridiculous," Beldum said simply, floating off to hone their skills.

Loki sighed. "Why do you two have such a problem with each other in the first place?" He asked curiously.

"She's rude to me for no reason!" Freyja announced with a deep frown.

"Because she's weak!" Ares said bluntly, pointing a stub at the fish. "Unable to do nothing with draconic abilities but make a mockery of it! If not for my intervention, you'd have let our trainer die before he could recognize and unleash my potential!"

If not for Ares firing her own Dragon Breath at that troublemaking Fraxure, her vassal would never have been able to catch her! Such a future was preposterous! She had known he was her trainer from the moment she laid eyes on him spying on their village, with no one but her sparing a glance!

They were destined partners!

Freyja scowled in return. "I'm not… strong enough yet but I will be! I'll be as strong as possible because Silver believes me and I won't let him down! Then, when I'm strong enough, I'll beat you too!"

The Bagon snorted disbelievingly. "You? Beat me? No matter how strong you may become, all of you will pale in comparison to my eventual might! Banish such preposterous thoughts, bottom feeder!"

"Just you wait, brute!" Freyja replied in determination.

Loki gazed at their third teammate with a curious eye. Freyja was shy on the best of days so he never imagined she'd so strongly fight back against something.

Hmm, perhaps this would help the Feebas in the long run then. Some competition was always healthy and based on what Silver said… Bagon would become one of their hardest hitters in the future.

He'd monitor them for longer before making a set decision. For now, so long as she was motivated, it'd be useful.

"Enough arguing, Silver is trying to sleep here! If he wakes up there's gonna be hell to pay!" Gaia demanded, waving a threatening vine and making them all go silent.

The Chikorita nodded in satisfaction and smile triumphantly. "Now that that's settled… Loki! I need your help! I wanna surprise Silver when he wakes up!"

Loki gazed at his friend with a curious look, before nodding.

"Sure, what do you want to do?" He asked.

Gaia's smile widened.

Catching up on sleep, was definitely one of the nicest feelings in the world.

During my trip from Fortree to Meteor Falls, I didn't actually sleep and to be fair, Tropius had cut my trip down by so much, that I decided to just finish my journey to the Stone Residence.

Then I finally slept in Meteor Falls… but I didn't quite sleep for too long for the time I was in there. I would get some rest, but there was still the mission to accomplish so I always woke up early.

But now, I could fully get some rest with the knowledge that I was completely done with Hoenn and I'denjoyit.

Sure, I'd probably be resting some more during the ship ride there but I'd for sure be studying and training because the grind never stopped.

Right now? Just fully resting.

I yawned and peered at my Pokegear.

Huh, I had slept the whole day. I really was exhausted wasn't I? It had still been morning when I fell asleep yesterday...

It was early morning of the next day and I had a good bit of hours left before I had to go back to the harbor so I could laze about for a bit before turning productive.

I lazily pushed myself up and caught the gaze of Beldum.

Their single red eye had a flash of purple, for a moment and I tilted my head.

"Mornin," I waved at it.

Beldum didn't really like me at all but at least it tolerated me enough to not kill me in my sleep.

He continued gazing at me and I could have sworn they looked almost… confused.

Why?

"Are you trying to look into my head?" I asked suddenly, raising a brow.

Beldum looked surprised that I managed to figure it out and I snorted.

"Here, go ahead and try," I offered, relaxing a bit. "Communicating with you would be fun, but I doubt you have enough power for that… and apparently my mind is weird."

If anything, that seemed to interest Beldum even more and I watched as it actually beginapproachingme.

The little steel type began floating over and once it got close enough, they began focusing.

For a long while, I felt nothing. Like I said before, Beldum's output was just not strong enough.

Even Jasmine's Bronzong seemed to be struggling. The other psychic hadn't even been able to pierce my mind because I had my guard up the entire time I was talking to my friend.

Beldum would very likely struggle even despite the fact that my guard was fully down for him to attempt to establish a connection.

Judging by the slight frustration in Beldum's eye, they weren't making much success.

Despite having little psychic reserves, Beldums were innately good at establishing connections because they were apart of a hive basically.

As I spent more time with Beldum, his connection with their hive in Rustboro, would eventually whittle into nothing, making him unrecognizable by them.

So he was preparing for that by forming a connection with me. They were dependent on having that bond but I didn't realize they'd be so reliant on it.

"Don't push yourself. Try establishing a connection when you get more power," I informed him.

In the first place, I was surprised he even wanted to form one. I kinda kidnapped him and all that.

Maybe the large distance we made from Rustboro, had cut the established connection? There wasn't much detail that went into how Metagross operated.

Beldum didn't look satisfied by that and continued in their crusade of establishing a bond with me.

Was it that big of a deal? Was this an attempt to ruin my mind? I doubted it, especially considering how fortified it seemed to be against psychics.

...Maybe it was just not being used to not being connected to his hive and it was finally catching up to him.

I closed my eyes and tried to fully relax, which was not very easy considering I was almost always on edge but since I just woke up…

Honestly, I wasn't sure what type of block I had in my head that made it so difficult for psychics to peer into my mind…

Was it something I always had from my previous version of Silver? Or was it something else?

Otherworldly energy…

That's what Bronzy had said that one day… whatever this otherworldly energy was, made it capable of draining an elite Bronzong.

Hm…

I think I had a pretty decent idea what was going on but I couldn't be too sure if my thinking was correct because Legendaries were at play here.

For now, I needed to let Beldum try and establish a connection and to do that, I needed tonotbe thinking things that would make me more stressed.

I didn't have anything that made me particularly happy, so my best bet was to just try and empty my mind completely.

Think of nothing… just… completely… empty —

"Bel!"

I popped open an eye at that victorious and metallic noise, before feeling a little nagging feeling at the back of my head.

Beldum triumphantly gazed at me and I couldn't help but return the smile… before it was wiped off my face at a startling realization.

Wait a f*cking second...

My eyes widened in horror. "Beldum, hold on you need to disconnect from me right now!" I said urgently.

A look of shock crossed my features as Beldum seized up and began shaking in place.

I hastily grabbed him.

"Hey, woah woah. Calm down Beldum," I hissed, wincing at the cool metal of its body.

Damn it, was I stupid?! I already acknowledged that whatever was going on with my body was legendary in nature... so why thehelldid I let a Beldum try to connect to me?

Not even Bronzong could speak to me for long and Beldum was trying to do even more.

"Don't even think about killing it,"I snarled venomously, hoping that whoever the hell was tainting me, f*cked off and didn't break my Beldum.

Before I could find a solution to Beldum's problems… it seemed to miraculously stop on its own...

No that wasn't right, for a brief second, I saw a blue aura surrounding my psychic, before it vanished.

I watched in confusion as Beldum stilled… andblinkedits single red eye.

Then it gazed at me as if I were a new person…

At the same time, the nagging in the back of my mind took complete root, before I finally stopped registering its presence.

"St...r...a...ng...e."

I gazed at Beldum in shock.

Were they speaking to me? It was extremely broken buthow?

Most baby psychics didn't have the capacity for that until evolving. Even despite Beldum's former hive, it should not have been possible until it was at least a Metang and even then, it would only truly be able to communicate proficiently as a Metagross.

...I don't know at all. At the very least, just that one word seemed to exhaust Beldum and it continued gazing at me like I were some type of puzzle.

"I guess that means you accept me as your trainer now?" I said blandly, brows furrowed by the turn of events.

Beldum nodded it head and a mental image of a black and green figure appeared in my head.

"Ah because of the events with Fraxure," I muttered.

Well, that made sense but I still didn't understand what happened between Beldum and I. Why were they able to stay connected to me even with my guard back up?

Did I become apart of its "hive" now?

I sighed.

Best to just do some research on it later. For now I needed to wake up my dead to the world team —

I froze completely as I finally took stock of the room.

Everything was a mess. They had clearly been having way too much fun despite me saying not to make one…

At least nothing was broken.

But that wasn't even the most surprising part of this entire ordeal.

No, the most surprising part was the f*ckingBayleefsleeping happily away right beside my bed.

…

"Why can't I just catch a break?" I sighed miserably.

Turns out, while I was sleeping Gaia and Loki decided to spar because she was actually way closer to evolution then I thought.

"Bay!" Gaia cheered, butting her head against my chest and getting a disbelieving laugh outta me.

"As proud as I am that you've evolved…" I began.

All my Pokemon went stiff, at the sight of my smile completely vanishing.

"I know I said not to break anything... but that doesn't mean completely ruin the room. Not to mention, I missed the first evolution on the team," I said with a small frown.

They all winced, barring Beldum, at my severe expression and looked away.

I sighed. "I'm not all that mad… but no more surprise evolutions please. I wanna be there to see it."

They all nodded and I smiled.

"Now, all of you are cleaning the room, except for Beldum," I instructed.

They began protesting immediately.

"Bag?!" Ares said incredulously.

"I'm not stupid," I rolled my eyes. "All of you played a part in messing this room up except for Beldum. Even after I said not to break anything, you guys went and did the next best thing," I said with a stern frown.

"Congratulations on evolving Gaia, we'll check you outafterthis room is cleaned."

They gazed at me in shock before saying what could only be, "Fineeee," in their respective tongue.

"Bel," Beldum said smugly, floating over to me.

Now that I had properly punished my team, it was time to get the day started and prepare to leave this region.

I was pretty excited. It was time to finally begin the process of getting stronger and pitting myself against Gym Leaders was filling me with a thrill that wasn't as addictive as my stealing streak… but definitely up there.

While I wanted to do them in order, it made the most sense for me to fight Surge first because I would be landing in Vermilion City.

Afterwards… yeah I could just cut through Diglet Cave to Pewter couldn't I? Then I'd traverse through Mt. Moon, beat Cerulean and then I'd be back on pace because I could head to Celadon relatively easy from Cerulean...

The good thing about Kanto was that all the cities were very close to each other... it just had stupid ass video game plots preventing you from reaching them.

Alright, not bad at all. I had a plan and it sounded pretty good to me.

Was I expecting the plan to stick? Nope... but it was best to at least have a mental map formed of my path.

"Ares, Freyja. Stop arguing," I demanded, watching the two make biting remarks towards each other.

Kudos to my adorable Feebas for doing her utmost to clean up the mess they all caused, but she wasn't really effective.

I snorted at seeing the two reluctantly back off from each other and sighed.

Ares and Freyja had quite a bit of animosity towards each other and from what I understood, it was because my most recent member didn't acknowledge Freyja's strength.

I'd need to make sure there were no grudges being formed. For now, it was giving Freyja quite the competitive air and I'd, hopefully, have a Milotic before a Salamence.

If Freyja became a Milotic… the power dynamic between the two would shift dramatically until Ares evolved into her final form.

Hah, their competition would be very uneven for a while but I'd make sure Freyja didn't get dejected by it.

We were trying to build her confidence here, not plummet it by pitting her against adragon.

"Alright alright, you guys have no clue how to clean properly," I sighed.

While Loki and Gaia were doing a pretty good job, Ares and Freyja werenot.I'm pretty sure they were actually making it worse and I don't know what I expected really.

Freyja had no limbs and Ares' were really tiny... and they probably never cleaned before either.

I lazily rolled off the bed and landed on my two feet. "I'm hungry and I wanna bathe so I'll help you out."

All my Pokemon (not Beldum) perked up at the word bathe and I resisted the urge to groan out loud.

Goddammit…

"Ares… by chance, do you also want to bathe with me?" I asked slowly.

Much to my annoyance, the Bagon nodded without any hesitation, almost looking at me like it was a ridiculous question and I did groan this time.

Ridiculous.

Now that everything was settled, I was taking the time to inspect Gaia and her new form.

She looked far different from the Chikorita she had been before and I marveled at the fact that she was already experiencing evolution.

Sure, she had been showing signs but I didn't think that meant she'd change so soon!

Well, I suppose it made sense. Starter first forms evolved fairly quickly and I imagine I had been traveling long enough to be on pace to get my second or third badge.

We had been training the entire time as well, exhausting ourselves just about everyday…

Now that I rationalized it, it was beginning to make sense that Gaia had evolved.

I thought my lack of fighting trainers was going to bite me… but I was still getting visibly stronger because of my crazy shenanigans in this region.

Training was scarily effective and I could thank both my research and Jasmine for that.

Huh, would you look at that. I actually missed Jasmine. I wonder how my shy and adorable big little sister was doing.

I'd check up on her during the boat ride. She hadn't called me in a while so she must be busy with gym business.

But I digress, Bayleef and Chikorita shared almost no similarities with each other.

Her hide was yellowish now, losing the green coloration up until reaching evolution again, she was a lot taller now, but surprisingly, she didn't get much heavier. I could comfortably still lift her.

Her leaf had changed in appearance as well, protruding from her forehead instead that curved a bit with a sharp edge. She grew her tail out as well from that tiny thing it had been before.

Finally, her neck beads had sprouted far more, giving off a delightful aroma that seemed to energize me just by inhaling it.

Huh, was Gaia a walking drug?

Nah… apparently, Bayleef's leaves were actually very healthy for people and just standing next to one, allowed the fragrance to give off a combination of simulating, energizing and rejuvenating effects.

And people didn't like this Pokemon? That was incredible! Just being in the presence of the Chikorita line, was beneficial to a person.

I wonder what prolonged exposure would do… hopefully I didn't become addicted to it.

Upon evolution, Gaia had learned one new move and that was Reflect.

My eyes took on a manic glint at that.

I had her demonstrate it to me and upon seeing the shimmering Blue glass-like material, I realized that Gaia was already just a few steps away from beingcompletely insufferable.

Naturally it wasn't perfect, but we had time of course. Mastering this move was imperative for my Bayleef and I had discovered some very interesting things about the technique as well.

Gaia preened under my attention, enjoying every moment of it and I pat her leaf at a job well done.

"Riding on my shoulder might be a little impossible now, girl," I said sheepishly.

Her happy look, immediately turned into one of horror and I couldn't resist the chuckle that erupted from my body.

"Alright, I'm gonna go turn in this key and then we can go shopping until it's time to go," I told all my clean Pokemon.

They let out noises of affirmation before I returned all but Loki.

Like clockwork, my first pokemon jumped into my jacket and I snorted.

"I'm thinking of upgrading all of your diets and it sounds pretty expensive… so I won't be paying for it," I informed him.

"Zor," he nodded in agreement, already knowing what his job to play was.

"Yeah, this trip is mostly for you guys. I want to get stuff just to make your lives more comfortable," I added.

Specialized brushes, specific foods, stuff like that. My little soldiers needed to be well kept if I wanted them at 100% so that's what I'd do.

Loki smiled at my list and just gazed at me with proud eyes.

I snorted and ruffled his tuft. "Aren't you just too adorable. I'm gonna miss you hiding in my coat when you evolve."

Loki just laughed.

Damn, I already knew it before hand... but stealing must have been my special characteristic because this was getting pitifully easy.

I was even doing it in people's faces. Most of the shops that catered to Pokemon, were outside in stands… meaning I had to get up close and personal to the vendor.

Easy work when you had a Zorua.

I didn't even have to go fully invisible. I just had Zorua practice his precision with Illusion by making him cover specific parts of my body.

Namely, my hand. Hard to see a hand swiping something off the shelf, when it looked like said hand was in that person's pockets.

For the more complicated things, I had Zorua spread out the illusion so I could safely grab at it and stuff it into this awesome bag of mine.

Fun fact, I did my research... and the intricacies of this bag sounded almost exactly like the Storage System in the games that you would put your overcaught Pokemon.

I guess a storage system to keep your Pokemon would be a little (extremely) unethical so they focused that kind of technology to other things, like the inside of a Pokeball or this bag of mine.

I love technology. Those bags of food were not small at all but with this storage bag, you wouldn't think it was even in here.

The horrifically crowded market streets, helped me out in troves with my stealing. There were honestly so many people, a natural disgust crawled through my body.

But I'd tough it out for my team. They deserved the best.

Hell, I was even learning how to cook for us. Making food for them (and myself), was actually really healthy. I managed to secure myself a bunch of berries, a Berry Pot that originated from the Johto Region and a Berry Mixer that was very popular with contests people.

Damn, I needed to relax. I was beginning to feel bad at how many things I was stealing…

Oh who am I kidding? No I didn't. I even stole some stickers to differentiate between my Poke Balls. I'd be applying those during my trip.

After nabbing everything I needed, I decided to just chill until it was time to go.

Thankfully, I was actually allowed on the S.S. Tidal earlier than the departure time and after flashing my ticket, I was promptly directed to my room by the pretty lady.

If there was one things I appreciated about the ships, it's how nice the setup was.

Every room I had been in, even the one from Cherrygrove to Olivine, had been very nice.

The rooms of the ships that brought you from region to region were fantastic. And every room was large enough to accommodate nearly all sizes of Pokemon except for the ludicrously big ones.

I released my team at once and let Zorua jump out of my jacket.

"Alright you all, we're gonna be headed to Kanto in the next few days and we'll be training the whole time in this room... unless you guys want some fresh air out there," I began.

They nodded at my words and I smiled at having their undivided attention.

"We're gonna all learn a utility move, because I don't want you guys really destroying anything. Practice the moves you already do know and get a more firm grasp of them too," I said.

I had already picked out utility moves for all of them to learn too.

"First… Loki, I want you to learn Agility," I listed, beginning with my first Pokemon.

Since he was born with Extrasensory, Loki's psychic reserves were good enough for him to dip into learning more psychic moves earlier.

While he couldn't learn any other offensive psychic moves besides Extrasensory, he didn't need anymore offensive moves regardless.

It just allowed him to learn the other psychic moves he could learn easier.

Pretty neat.

Loki nodded and I showed the move to him so that he could understand the basics.

"Gaia, you're learning Light Screen," I turned towards my Bayleef, flicking to that move next. "I was gonna save this for later, but since you learned Reflect, getting the basics of Light Screen should be easy. As long as we get a working version, it should be fine. Mastering both of these moves will be imperative to our goals."

Gaia nodded confidently and I smiled at her in return.

"Beldum, there's nothing you can learn at the moment," I informed it with a small frown. "For now I want you to refine the moves you already know. By the time you evolve, you'll have them all down pact."

Beldum's were just not good at emitting their attacks until evolution. They were better at harnessing it inside of their metallic bodies but pushing it out, was incredibly difficult.

It's why they couldn't even learn confusion until evolution. Young Metang's werejustdipping into being able to emit attacks.

It was the reason why Metagross favored physical attacks so much. When they were all you could rely on in your first evolution, and you took forever to reach the final stage, you'd get pretty good at your niche.

My Beldum would be good in both. That was without doubt.

Beldum sensed my intent and nodded, a passive metallic sheen making its way over their body.

I was glad that the steel type was warming up to me faster than I imagined. They'd never fully acknowledge me until reaching its desired state, but my actions at Meteor Falls seemed to increase its respect to a level that made them at least decide, that it was safe to consider me as apart of their "hive".

Weird now that I thought about it, but eh… weirder things had happened to me.

"Ares, you'll be learning Scary Face," I said calmly.

Funnily enough, Ares would actually not have that easy of a time learning Scary Face… because she had Sheer Force.

I don't really know the specifics of it and it was a little to sciency for me, but Salamence born with Rock Head followed by Intimidate were more common for a reason.

It helped them more in the wild. Having a naturally Intimidating aura, did wonders for being an indomitable creature.

The ones born with Moxie… were very out of control, to put it nicely.

To be honest, from what I read. You'd have to be insanely unlucky to catch a Bagon that would evolve into a Salamence with Moxie.

Salamence were aggressive, but they wouldn't go out of their way to cause untold mayhem. No Pokemon was wild enough to do that quite frankly.

Salamence with Moxie were a whole different story.

Moxie was an ability that slowly but surely released the inhibitors that held back a person or pokemon's will, the more foes defeated hence the "raise attack on every defeat".

For Salamence, more defeats meant it's bloodlust would rise more and more.

Even one defeat, was enough to send a wild Salamence on a complete rampage and most of the Dragons that had been forcefully put down, were due to having Moxie and causing destruction.

Huh, what a dark and twisted way to explain why it was a hidden ability. Salamence were quite frankly, too dangerous naturally and adding something that released their inhibitors…

You couldn't give an apex predator more power. Salamence with Moxie were hunted down in the old days or kept in captivity, plain and simple.

That must have been one of the reasons why Ares' mother, kept her so close. Judging by how battle hungry my little adorable Bagon was already… there might have been more behind that Salamence kept her daughter on what seemed to be a tight leash.

I doubted it was just the future Moxie because I'm sure there were worthy trainers but that had to have played a part.

Raising a Salamence with Moxie… wasn't smart.

For one, you needed to have a team that could handle its rampage and when the Pokemon rampaging was one of the most dominant dragons in existence (Up there with Dragonite, Garchomp and Hydreigon in sheer destructive power), not many trainers had that.

Only well established trainers were equipped to deal with them.

Huh. Go figure.

So basically, Ares understood that she was probably never going to get an actual trainer and decided to take matters into her own hand.

What a go getter. If you want something done, do it yourself.

I could get down with that.

But before I went off on that massive tangent, I was saying something about Scary Face being more difficult to learn for her…

Well Bagon's with Sheer Force had differences from their brethren. Thinner helmet, smaller fangs, more lithe body.

Overall an appearance that was much less physically imposing. But goddamn did they make up for it in aggression.

I was kind of excited by the prospect actually.

Ares nodded in confirmation and I finally turned to Freyja.

The Feebas gazed up at me in curiosity and I pat her head.

"So Freyja, learning moves as you are now… isn't very easy. So I decided on a workaround."

Everyone of my team piqued in interest, as I shuffled for something in a specific section of my bag.

A small disc, colored a light blue greeted them and I smiled.

"It's Rain Dance, to give your water moves a little more oomph and to give you more speed too," I explained.

I wanted to get more TMs… but the selection I saw, weren't all that useful so I just opted to steal this TM for Rain Dance instead.

Something thatwasuseful was seeing the sheer price this TM cost.

I'm pretty sure these were permanent. If they weren't, a scam was being ran on us all.

Well only one way to find out.

"I'm going to return you now," I told my excited Feebas.

She nodded rapidly and I put her in the ball, before taking the disc and slotting the hole into the little poke out button of the Pokeball.

Pokeballs, for their basic appearance… were actuallyreallyadvanced in nature. These things would have the greatest geniuses from my old world salivating.

One of the nifty features was being able to transfer the information of Technical Machines, into whatever Pokemon resided in the Pokeball.

The Pokemon wouldn't master it immediately, but it would get the basics down enough to actually use the technique.

Extremely convenient. Rich trainers normally jacked up their Pokemon with a bunch of Tms and it backfired eventually because they never bothered mastering it.

I released Freyja from the ball and gazed at her with curious eyes.

"Might regret this… but Freyja, use Rain Dance. I'll deal with the mess afterwards," I ordered.

Freyja pondered my demand, before summoning a little rain cloud over her head only, causing a light drizzle to hit her skin and save my room from terrible things.

I gazed at the little cloud and heard Ares snicker in the background.

Rain Dance was supposed to fully alter the weather and cause a drizzle to appear... in a much larger area.

Really proficient users could cause it to storm with thunder and everything. Hell they could even wrestle control of the weather from opponents.

...Freyja was a long ways away from that.

Freyja looked rather dejected but I simply smiled, as ideas began brainstorming through my mind.

"Hey Freyja, could you move to the left for a bit," I suddenly asked, ignoring the light patter wetting the floor.

Dejected eyes landed on me, but my Feebas followed my orders.

"Now focus real hard… and make the Rain Dance move left too," I instructed, eyes pondering.

Freyja looked puzzled by my command but nodded, shutting her eyes tight and straining on the connection to the rain cloud.

Much to my delight, the little cloudfollowedher.

"Amazing… I didn't know Rain Dances output could be reduced to this," I muttered, brainstorming with ideas.

I lifted Freyja up and placed her in the tank for water types.

"Freyja, I want you to practice Rain Dance as much as possible," I said with a pleased smile. "I want it to seem like it's second nature for you to summon rain. Increasing the power is important, but controlling it is even more important right now. Focus on making the drain vanish, before increasing its size, then increase the size and repeat."

If Rain Dance could come out this small… I wanted Freyja to master it to the point where she could cause a flood if she so pleased.

It made sense that different Pokemon could make different levels of rain. Kyogre wasn't the only pokemon with Drizzle as its ability, but Kyogre's ability to summon rain nearly flooded the world.

If Drizzle was naturally that dangerous, we'd be suffering another Moxie problem where pokemon would be forcefully hunted down... but itwasn't.

You could control the output of the rain... that wasamazing!

She looked at my eager expression with wide eyes, shocked that I was excited by something she was displeased with, before the little Feebas began nodding, absorbing my own excitement.

Freyja's tiny stores, had inadvertently shown me that you could control Rain Dance more then I initially thought.

Making it that small… while it wouldn't give her the power boost a full fledged Rain Dance would, it could reduce the benefits to just her.

I doubted I'd have discovered this if she was a Milotic or any other water type in general. The control needed to maintain this…

As long as you used your power wisely, you could be formidable. Forget increasing Feebas' power output, that was just not probable at her stage.

Control was what I needed to focus on. Control to make her weak attacks impactul and energy conserving… and then control to make her eventual strong attacks, downright deadly.

Power came later… Since Feebas had small stores, it would be far easier to grasp and get a control of, helping Freyja in the long run with understanding the steps needed to make her powers submit.

This was the correct answer. Make her bring out the full use of what she was equipped with, before finally trying to increase it.

By the time she became a Milotic, Freyja would be able to switch between a needle and a hammer at a whim.

Perfect for a water type. That type of flexibility...

"Freyja, It's not gonna be easy… but I want you to try your best at letting out a steady stream of Water Pulse, while maintaining some control over Rain Dance. Build up how long you can do it."

"When you can't do that anymore, practice with doing the same stream with Dragon Breath. Alternate between strong and weak versions until you have a perfect feel for all of it. Gauge the power for both, try to find a middle ground and try to mold it into different shapes. We need to fight smart."

Freyja had been given rather simple tasks by me before so this one understandably caught her off guard.

She looked a little unsure but I flashed her a reassuring smile that made her eyes light up.

Then, she glared at Ares and nodded fiercely.

"Atta girl," I praised.

I stood up and stretched. "Alright. Let's get started, no time to waste. We got a few days before we land in Kanto so lets make the most of it."

They all let out choruses and got to work.

I sighed.

Time for me to do my work too.

I idly tossed a Pokeblock over to Ares and watched her gulp it down without hesitation.

The Bagonfinallynodded in satisfaction and let out a satisfied roar, that sounded more like a bark.

"So Ares likes spicy," I mused with a contemplative expression, jotting it down in the page dedicated for my Bagon.

Besides training and studying, I had taken on the arduous process of learning how to cook a meal for me and my team.

Maybe that's why the limit was 6. You could actually hold more than 6 Pokemon, but things would get expensive very fast.

Type specialists existed for many reasons. Easier to train your Pokemon, likely similar diets, easier to become an expert in your craft… It was overall a lot cheaper to be a type specialist, especially if u weren't sponsored by a notable trainer.

What type would I have even chosen if I went that route? Probably Psychic, Steel or Water.

But anyways, I sucked at cooking currently. I was a decent cook back in my previous body by virtue of living alone for a while… but none of that translated to my life currently.

Sucks but oh well. I'd get better in time.

At the very least, my Pokemon didn't have to suffer like I did.

All of them had different diets but there were similarities.

Zorua, Bagon and Beldum had fairly similar diets in regards of what they eat.

Zorua typically ate anything without much complaint, but meat was what they preferred.

Bagon were mostly carnivorous, but had no complaints about what went with the meat.

Beldum, surprisingly, ate meat as well but they did prefer metals.

Feebas mostly ate insects and plankton. It changed once becoming Milotic, evolving into also eating smaller fish and what not.

Finally Chikorita and subsequent evolutions, were herbivores and also gained sustenance from Photosynthesis.

Some Meganium's were documented only needing the barest of sunlight to sustain themselves.

That was pretty cool.

Naturally, there were specific meals catered to specific Pokemon, condensed and stored so trainers didn't have to be like hunters of the past, getting their own food by slaughtering whatever they encountered.

This world catered to Pokemon in every possible way in every single detail.

I took a variety of different foods that were packed with the specific nutrition needed.

Carnivore centered packs, omnivore centered packs, herbivore centered packs and even one for Pokemon that dwelled in the sea… this would be sufficient for now and there were very helpful reviews on them that let me know I picked the right choices for my team.

A thief should be fully prepared! What type of thief would I be, if I didn't even know what I was stealing?

Slateport was a practical goldmine so of course I'd do my research beforehand on what was worth taking.

If I had done my research on Lilycove, I would have probably stayed there and stole a bunch of TMs for myself…

Hmm, guess I could research Celadon for later. They'd probably have neat TMs for me to take.

Besides getting food catered for them, I also began learning how to make Pokeblocks too.

The little snacks were useful and were also quite packed with their own nutrients. You just had to blend some berries together and bam, easypeasy.

It was a wonder only contest people did this. Though, I suppose getting all the stuff for making a portable Pokeblock maker would start adding up. None of this looked very cheap and buying berries over and over again would start to get really expensive.

...Which I accounted for too.

With my Berry Pots growing 5 berries for me at a time, I had my very own resource and as a result, I didn't think I'd have to go hunting for berries like a maniac. I didn't get every kind of berry, but I got a ton that enhanced Pokeblocks... and I even got the ones I noticed naturally, like Oran, Sitrus, Leppa... all the status healing ones! When you were gonna steal, might as well be effective as possible.

They didn't even take all that long to grow either. The Berry Pot promoted their growth without me having to find a random patch of earth to build a garden on and in only a matter of days, I'd have a fresh batch.

The technology in this world was absurd.

Guess when you weren't focused on constant warfare, you could evolve different things to an impressive degree.

Why focus on furthering your warfare, when you had monsters to do it for you? Focus your efforts into something else and be progressive.

But yeah... I decided to dabble in making different Pokeblocks and feeding it to my team to see which ones they liked.

Once I got a firm grasp on which ones each of my members liked specifically, I'd slowly but surely mass produce them.

Based on plenty of experimentation, I managed to basically get the gist of what every member of my team liked.

Loki heavily preferred bitter Pokeblocks, with some partialness to spicy as well. He was willing to eat sour ones, but didn't much like the dry or sweet ones, though he'd still finish whatever I offered him.

His favorite was a mix of bitter and spicy from what I noted.

Gaia hated the bitter Pokeblocks. She wouldn't hesitate to spit it out if I gave her one. On the contrary, she loved the sweet and spicy ones. She also liked the dry snacks and tolerated the sour ones.

Her favorite was naturally, a mix of sweet and spicy.

Freyja proved to be the pickiest of my Pokemon surprisingly. She loved dry and sweet blocks the most and hated all the others. She especially couldn't stand spicy and sour so I'd have to be careful what I fed her.

Beldum preferred sour and bitter Pokeblocks the most. They didn't dislike any of the others and would eat them if offered, but it reacted most well, when I gave them one of their preferred ones or a combination of the two.

Finally, Ares loved spicy and sour, hated sweet, didn't care for bitter and liked dry. Funnily enough, she despised any combination I attempted, preferring to eat them alone.

I sighed as I finished noting all this down.

This was hard work! I had spent practically a whole day figuring this stuff out but I had a good idea of what worked and was pretty proud of the results.

My Pokemon also loved it because I gave them free snacks in the process of learning… greedy little squirts they were.

Now, I just needed to get better at cooking human food. I get that I was 12 and all that but seriously, this was ridiculous.

I was talented at a lot of things, but taking care of myself did not seem to be one of them.

Well, that was fine. I already excelled at all things Pokemon, so it was time to excel at all things human.

Which meant fulfilling standard human affairs and not ending up a complete recluse (Joy's words not mine)...

"Silver?! You're calling me first?!"Jasmine asked in clear surprise. There was a joy in her tired eyes and I felt a wry smirk forming.

"Yeah, I thought you died because you haven't been blowing up my phone for a while," I greeted.

"O-Oh!"She gasped."I've been a little busy with duties and it's been a little stressful… but I didn't want to burden you with my issues…"

Jasmine trailed off as she noticed my unimpressed expression.

"Are you f*cking serious, Jasmine?" I said slowly, frowning slightly at that.

She flinched at my words and I sighed.

"You don't gotta be reluctant to call me just because you're struggling with stuff… we're… friends and a friend will listen to your worries," I explained patiently.

Granted, I wasn't a very good friend to have when your a shy and introverted girl but still, I wasn't that terrible.

"Look Jas, if you're going through something, don't bottle it up. I get you probably confide in your Pokemon, but you can tell me too."

I had been in this world for a decent amount of time now and besides my Pokemon, Jasmine (and recently Joy) was my most consistent form of communication with an actual human.

It's not like I found her annoying or anything either… Jasmine was a great friend and she was way too nice for her own good.

Sure I might have been annoyed when we first met, but being rude to a person like Jasmine was like… kicking a puppy.

"Silver…"Jasmine sniffed, looking exactly like said puppy.

I watched in confusion as actual tears began springing up in her eyes and for a moment, I thought her troubles were more serious than I initially thought.

"T-That's the first time you called me your friend!"She exclaimed, wiping the tears from her eyes with a happy smile.

…

"I thought it was obvious we were friends. I respond to all your messages and answer all your calls," I said blandly.

"Well… that's true… but I don't know. I didn't want to burden you with something I can't even go into much detail about. Wouldn't that be rude?"she asked, looking doubtful.

"90% of what I say is rude, idiot. Don't go assuming things either, it's better if you just ask me so I can tell you straight up if I mind or not," I chastised her with a disappointed frown.

"Don't go making up scenarios in your head alone. You're stupid so it'll never work out well for you."

The sound of a haughty penguin in the background agreeing with my sentiment, caused me to snort.

Jasmine's face burned red and she turned to the left to glare at Empy.

"Alright, what's got you stressed out?" I asked curiously.

"...Ah well… make sure you don't tell anyone,"she requested.

I shot her a flat look. "Jas, you are the only person I like. I hate speaking to everyone else."

Her face lit up a dark red at that. "Really?!"She asked in shock.

I raised a brow. "Are you really surprised by that?"

"...Actually no I'm not. I'm just surprised you like me,"she replied, a hint of exasperation on her face.

"Hey, I've come to appreciate your insistence. You're a good friend which is why I haven't deleted your number yet," I assured her.

As expected, she beamed at my compliment and I watched the tension leave her face.

A bit scummy by me, but I was curious about what had her feeling stressed.

"Well, I'm not sure how much you know about them, but Team Rocket are becoming a more prominent threat in both Kanto and Johto… I've even heard of some sightings in the archipelago's of Kanto."

She sighed."They've recently been spreading their influence en masse and we're no closer to finding out anything far too prominent about them."

Team Rocket eh? Makes sense that they'd be cause for concern.

"It's getting bad. More trainers are turning up missing. Some are in Team Rocket. Others…"

The Gym Leader sighed and I furrowed my brows.

"The worst part is, we don't have any solid leads on any of their high ranking members or their motives. Whenever we might have one, they slink away into the shadows again."

Yeah, it'd be hard to get a solid lead of the criminal organization when their leader was the strongest Gym Leader in Kanto.

"Silver I know you're very averse to the idea, but please consider getting a companion to travel with. I… don't want anything bad to happen to you and Champion Lance is adamant on continuing the gym circuit for this year."

I nodded. "Makes sense. Canceling the circuit would let Team Rocket know that they're winning. It would be disastrous in the long run for their confidence but either way, unless you find some things out, it's still a loss regardless of intent."

Jasmine looked at me with wide eyes and I blinked.

"I'll also consider getting a traveling companion?" I added in confusion.

"Silver, you're really smart. That was basically what they were saying too,"she informed me.

I nodded with a thoughtful expression.

There was no way I could out Giovanni without being a prime suspect myself and besides, it would be the word of a trainer without a single badge against the strongest Gym Leader of Kanto.

Normally I wouldn't care either… but Team Rocket couldn't only be getting victories. A lead would turn the League ravenous and I'd be even more in the clear as they focused on destroying each other…

Jasmine was a Gym Leader too. My suspicions would be laughed at but hers would be taken far more serious and she trusted me almost unconditionally.

"Have you ever considered a mole in the league?" I asked curiously, cupping my chin to really sell the idea.

Jasmine's brows furrowed in confusion."A… mole?"

I nodded. "Yeah… I'm sure the league isn't full of complete idiots and Team Rocket has been a ramping threat for a while now. It's a little suspicious that besides some names, you hardly have any more leads on them. Suspicious enough for me to think someone might be feeding them information," I mused.

Jasmine's doubt, slowly but surely faded away, as the logic of my words were processed by her and I withheld the urge to sigh.

The people of this world were so naive. I don't get it. This world was definitely darker than most pokemon depictions… but then I got moments like this, where people won't even cast doubts on the idea of a traitor.

"That… makes a lot of sense,"she muttered, brows furrowed.

"Surprised no one thought of it," I shrugged truthfully. "If I had to guess, it's probably in the Kanto region, since that's where they're most prominent… and it might be someone influential."

This might be suspicious… but 90% of the time, I complained to Jasmine about how much studying I did and how much I hated it so knowing stuff like this, wouldn't be too weird.

"…" Jasmine's brow furrowed more and more. She remained silent for a long while and I imagine she was having a conversation with Bronzy.

Psychics were insanely useful.

I let her mull things over, idly running a brush through the dozing Loki's fur. I had taken to caring for them beyond just training and that meant self care as well. I even had a nice little specialized rag for Ares' helmet!

My attention flitted back to my screen as Jasmine spoke up again.

"What should I do? This does sound like a valid concern I should bring up… but how would I go about it?"she eventually asked.

Despite being a Gym Leader of 2 years, Jasmine was still only 16 years old. She was still very young so I wouldn't fault her even a little for being lost…

In the first place, I just didn't like seeing so much stress on her face.

"You need to make sure your suspicions remain between you and one other person that's not me," I said easily.

"Raise your concerns to a trustworthy source that can look into your claims. The less it spreads, the more likely you are to get a solid lead."

"Who… would be trustworthy enough?"Jasmine asked, looking unsure of how to approach this.

Aww, she was so adorably innocent. She had no clue how to do this at all.

"You're best bet is speaking to the Champion himself. I wouldn't trust anyone else in the league with this but him… and if even he's untrustworthy, then we've got a whole other issue to worry about."

Jasmine went silent again, mulling over my words.

Then, I proudly watched as her expression turned serious, befitting of her Gym Leader role.

"Alright, I'll schedule a one on one meeting with Champion Lance and express my concerns to him. Though it's certainly not a guarantee, it's not an option we should rule out at all."

"Sounds good," I nodded.

"Thank you Silver… you might have just opened a lot of eyes with this new perspective."

"Don't mention it. I'm just trying to peacefully get stronger," I told her with a roll of my eyes.

She nodded, a look of worry in her eyes as she gazed at me.

That made me tilt my head a bit in confusion. "What's the matter?" I asked curiously.

Jasmine flinched back, eyes wide at being called out and I pursed my lips.

Did I reveal too much? Was even innocent Jasmine suspicious of me now?

That wasn't good. Jasmine knew a lot about me.

"Um… I know you said I shouldn't be afraid to ask but I'm still a bit… No, I'll ask,"she eventually said, pepping herself up.

"Silver… do you have history with Team Rocket?"Jasmine asked quietly, afraid to even ask the question.

…

Huh? What the f*ck? Wait, did I actually end up revealing too much information? Did Gold leak my identity and Jasmine was making false connections?

While Giovanni was my sponsor, I don't know what further connection I had with Team Rocket and stealing Gaia was my first heist... but I was still a thief so it was logical to make the connection.

"That's a bit of a weird question to suddenly ask," I pointed out, not willing to further incriminate myself by answering said question.

"I know it is! But it's just… the moment I mentioned Team Rocket… you had the most angry expression I've ever seen on your face… and I don't even think you realized."

I froze completely.

"…"

Seriously? Clearly my hate for Team Rocket ran deeper than I thought because I hadn't even noticed that my expression changed. I thought I was normal the whole time...

Butwhy exactlydid I hate them? Even if I wanted to truthfully answer Jasmine's question, I wouldn't be able to because I didn't know.

But this feeling…

"They've done something unforgivable to me is all," I said tersely. Based on this feeling, that seemed as honest as I could get.

There was a flash of sorrow and pity in Jasmine's eyes and only the fact that I genuinely did warm up to her, stopped me from hanging up in her face and never calling her again right then and there.

Thankfully, she didn't pry (not like I had anything to give her) and instead said,"Alright Silver, I'll call you later after a few phone calls. I missed talking to you!"

I inclined my head. "Sure, see ya Jasmine."

She smiled shakily before the screen cut and her face vanished.

I immediately sighed.

Unfortunately, there wasn't much more I could (or wanted to) do in regards to Team Rocket, without looking massively suspicious. Even now, I felt like I stuck my neck in too much but maybe my innate rage at the criminals played a part.

Which begged the question… what was my deal with Team Rocket? Where did this rage and hatred stem from?

I know Giovanni was my sponsor but what did he do to me? What was this interest in me?

I was from Viridian and I had no contact with either of my parents... but I hated my mother... did she abandon me to Giovanni? Was she also connected to Team Rocket? Was it because I was from a wealthy family?

Rich parents tended to be douches so maybe that's why I had called my mother a bitch…

Ugh. I was missing something important here.

Trying to figure this all out was impossible. I know I came to terms with my identity, but at this rate, my past that I didn't know about was going to bite me.

Should I also add Team Rocket to the list of criminals I need to permanently get rid of? I wasn't strong enough to do so, but I could work in the shadows to take them out, leaving anonymous tips to the league...

Well, only time would tell. I was in the middle of getting stronger. I was not strong yet.

I'd be strong when Magma/Aqua/Galactic came into play but Team Rocket was heavily active during my most vulnerable stage of being a trainer.

It'd be reckless to throw myself at them.

Who do they think I am, Red?

"Good morning passengers! In approximately three minutes, we will be arriving in Vermilion City! Make sure to view the city when the sun is setting, you won't regret it!"

I heard that message in the middle of blow drying my hair and idly pulled the electric toothbrush out of my mouth.

"You guys heard that right?" I shouted to my team.

A chorus of noises, was my response and I nodded.

"Alright, I'll be out in a sec so get ready to leave," I instructed, turning my blow dryer on again.

The trip to Kanto was as peaceful as every other boat ride I had taken. I remained holed up in my room, except for when I wanted food, and trained with my team to help them hone the moves they knew.

On the bright side, being in such close proximity with my team at almost all times, increased all of our familiarity by quite a bit.

I had verified that while Ares and Freyja had animosity towards each other, it wasn't detrimental to my Feebas.

The little fish just looked up at me with determination in her eyes and shook her head no, when I asked her if she wanted me to tell Ares to back down.

That surprised me a bit. Freyja was really shy and reserved so I thought she would have wanted me to tell Ares to calm down for a little.

Maybe Freyja was using it to fuel herself. I didn't want to overwhelm her with compliments all the time, but I did compliment her whenever I saw fit, refusing to let her confidence dwindle even a little.

If I saw her rivalry with Ares negatively impacting her, I would step in immediately but right now, it didn't seem completely necessary. I was sure Loki was doing the same thing as well so that was good.

Besides that, Freyja and Gaia seemed to get along really well…

Granted, my Bayleef was very outgoing so she got along well with everyone on the team but Freyja seemed to admire her quite a lot and Gaia was a big fan of it so the two were shaping up to be quite the good friends.

Surprisingly, Ares got along great with Loki.

The two had taken to some very light sparring with each other and though my Bagon was stronger, Loki managed to get the victory more often than not in their quick bouts.

He was forcing her to think instead of throwing herself into every fight without logic and it was doing wonders for my very brave Bagon.

That had gotten the two rather friendly and Ares' mother must have been a tired person because the two were starting to become quite the mischievous duo… well, whenever Ares wasn't nose-diving off my bed head first.

I only let them get away with it so often because I liked seeing Loki's mischievous side… the Illusion pranks were not cool though.

Imagine waking up to a Salamence staring you down. Heart attack inducing I tell you but I couldn't even stay mad because Loki had been genuinely remorseful at that one in particular.

Beldum was as much of a loner as I opted to be, so they tended to channel their abilities near me, while I studied or did whatever activity I thought of. I'm also fairly sure they did extra training at night when everyone was sleeping.

Regardless, it tolerated the team just fine. They weren't especially close with anyone but that was no surprise. Beldum would warm up to them all eventually so for now, this was perfectly fine.

Now it was time to get started. I had spent a whole lotta time preparing myself for this part of the journey and now it was time to really get the show on the road.

I returned my entire team, pocketing them in their customized balls and grabbed all my things.

I dumped my blow dryer (I still couldn't get rid of that damn cowlick) and toothbrush in the bag, placed my sneakers on and shrugged on a violet jacket with red lines.

It was early in the year, I heard Kanto would be decently cold at around this time.

As I stepped off the S.S Tidal, I let out a pleased sigh as an actual cool breeze brushed against me that contrasted the boiling heat of the Hoenn region.

Next time I'm visiting Hoenn, it would hopefully not be as a criminal so I didn't have to deck myself out in so many layers of clothing…

Or I could invest in more clothes that counteracted their extreme weather. Surely in a world as dominated by nature as this, that would exist.

Huh... why didn't I look into that earlier?

Well, regardless, the air of Vermilion city, despite carrying the sea breeze smell that I was getting very tired of, felt very nice.

Vermilion was one of the more normal cities I encountered. There was nothing too unique about it besides its incredible proximity to the sea and how large the port was.

It was still nice all the same.

As I walked on the stone pavement, I took in the sights with a curious eye.

Vermilion, much like Slateport and Olivine, had a diverse amount of people. It wasn't very easy for me to identify what region they likely hailed from based on features and whatnot, and I didn't really care to, but they did have their differences.

Maybe enough time here would help me spot the differences. I cared very little about learning of other people so I certainly wouldn't research it. It's not like I wanted to talk to them so what's the point in learning where they likely hailed from?

I sighed as I entered the Gym of Vermilion City and approached the receptionist there.

It was a really big guy, who looked like he ate bricks for breakfast and squatted weights as a hobby.

"What do you want, kid?" He said gruffly, gazing at me with bored and intimidating eyes.

I sneered, utterly nonplussed by the fact that this dude could fit my head in his palm. "I'm here to sight see your ugly mug. Why else do you think people walk in a Gym, dumbass? I want to schedule a battle with the Gym Leader."

So my people skills didn't get any better… but it's not like I was trying to make it better… it was kind of funny being an unabashed asshole to everyone.

Besides, he started it!

I saw an actual vein form on the guys head and he glared at me.

"Name?" He asked through grit teeth.

"Silver. S-I-L-V-E-R," I said slowly.

"I know how to spell it," the receptionist cut in, brows furrowed.

Heh, he must have not expected my attitude. I wasn't gonna let anyone bully or intimidate me no matter the size difference.

I smirked in what had to have been an insufferable manner and shrugged helplessly. "Coulda fooled me. I'm surprised you can even type without busting the keyboard. Now hurry up and continue with the questions, old man."

I wasn't intending on being this rude, but I was getting really irked with people calling me kid. It grated on my ears like a personal ick and made me rather sour.

"…" The receptionist took a deep breath to compose himself and gazed at me with a measured expression.

Huh, surprisingly smart for a guy this muscly. I was expecting someone like him to have exploded by now.

I guess they didn't just hand out this job to anyone.

"How many badges do you have?" He asked slowly, no doubt realizing that someone way younger than him was setting him off.

"Zero," I replied easily.

He shot a brow up at that and gazed at me searchingly, before coming to a decision. "Listen, normally you'd be able to without a hitch but right now, Surge is upping the ante for trainers challenging him by a lot. Go fight another Gym Leader else your team'll just end up in the Center."

My brow raised at that.

Surge was upping the ante? In the games, he was the third gym leader and that Raichu of his was pretty damn annoying to face…

Jasmine admitted that she was actually the seventh strongest gym leader of Johto. I wonder who the strongest to weakest were in Kanto.

How did the Kanto and Johto leaders fair against each other? Who was the strongest Gym Leader in the Indigo League, Clair or Giovanni?

Food for thought… but…

"You're really sh*t at your job," I said blandly. "Are you some type of pervert? Why are you keeping me here longer than I want to be? I'm here for the gym challenge. Should it really be this difficult to schedule a match?"

I glowered at the guy wasting my time. "The match. Schedule it. I don't give a f*ck if he's upping the ante."

The man spluttered, face going red and he stood up to regard me.

"Now listen here you little —,"

Whatever he was about to say, was cut off, as booming laughter reached our ears.

The sound of footsteps approached from further within the gym, until a massive palm grabbed the door that separated the interior of the building and a person stepped through.

Well damn. If I thought the receptionist was big, this freak of nature was something else.

I had to strain my neck just to look at this guy's face. Wasn't that a thought? I was short but still.

Lt. Surge cut a massive figure. He was the type of guy to be the tallest in the room without trying and he seemed to love that fact.

He wore a green shirt with no sleeves, camo pants, large boots and some shades that were currently in his hand so he could regard me with a raised brow that he clearly perfected.

"If the kid wants to get his confidence shattered this early on in his journey, I say let him!" Surge bellowed, voice carrying effortlessly through the entire room.

I pursed my lips and gazed at the electric gym leader with a searching expression, stifling my annoyance at being called a kid again.

"So you're the gym leader," I said, wholly unimpressed by my ordeal here toschedule a match. "Maybe you're slightly smarter than the dumbass you hired but I'll still make it easy for you to get. Me. You. Battle. Badge."

Surge glanced down at me and unlike the easy to rile up receptionist, he simply let out another bellowing laugh.

"Schedule the match, John," Surge said eventually, slapping the receptionist on the shoulder. "This kids got guts! I wanna see what he's made of!"

John (oh he had a name tag), didn't even bother protesting Surge's decision and just typed something on the computer. He almost looked relieved at not having to deal with me... or maybe that was relief that Surge was going to put me in my place.

"The match is scheduled for 3 days from now," the receptionist said after a moment.

"Hear that?" Surge asked, turning towards me with a co*cky grin. "3 days from now, meet me in here and I'll give ya a battle that'll shock you straight!"

I rolled my eyes at the pun. "If you decide the rules, make it a 3 on 3. I wanna get experience off this battle."

The gigantic gym leader began laughing even harder. "You heard all of that and still wanna fight 3 on 3? I like this kid! He's got a spine on him! Silver you said? Alright, don't disappoint me!"

"Whatever," I scoffed, marching out of the gym.

I deftly dodged the body of the girl I was about to run into, relying just on instincts to do so and began mulling over my scheduled match in three days.

To be honest, I was a little thankful that my match was in 3 days… after all, the last trainer I battled wasGold.

In Johto.

I could use these 3 days to properly battle trainers and train too in preparation to beat Surge.

A 3 on 3 and allegedly, Surge was getting rough against trainers, so this would be more difficult than any first badge fight I'd normally have.

No sweat. Couldn't become strong without struggling. I'd beat Surge here and make my statement properly.

Besides… I'm very confident that I'm much stronger than a 1 badge challenge regardless and I wanted to be pushed in all my Gym Battles.

I nodded to myself and decided that Route 6 was a good spot for me to check out. According to my map, it was littered with trees and was probably a hotspot for trainers as well.

Alright, let's go fight some trainers —

"Hey! Wait!" A voice shouted, making me twitch slightly.

Naturally, I ignored it. Why the hell would that be for me? I literallyjustlanded in the Kanto region.

"I guess I can visit Pokemon Center's now huh? No need to avoid them like the plague anymore,"I mused.

My team was in a good state. They didn't need the center at the moment but since I'd be fighting trainers, trips would be inevitable.

Fighting Surge 3 on 3 would be great. I already knew who I'd be using too so I'd be using these 3 days, to get them ready —

I paused in my gait at the rushed footsteps and instinctively clenched my fist in preparation to strike, only for the footsteps to stop in front of me as a figure cut my path off.

"It's rude to ignore a girl calling for you, Silver! You nearly bumped into me back there too!"

...

I glared at the person with enough venom in my gaze to make most people freeze.

Bumped into? When the hell did I almost bump into someone?

Oh back at the gym.

"Who the hell are you and how the hell do you know my —,"

I froze completely, sentence dying on my lips as I took proper stock of the person I was currently staring at. The longer I stared, the more the horror coursed through my body.

"I was listening in on your conversation back there at the gym and I was in so much awe! I have no clue how you were able to talk to those two giants like that so easily! You have like, no fear at all in your heart and I thought that was pretty cool… Oh! Where are my manners!"

It was a girl with very messy long brown hair, wearing a short black dress. She was a tad shorter than me, with a smile on her face as she regarded a complete stranger with familiarity that no human being should express on their first meeting.

But that wasn't the problem. No there were much bigger problems then a stranger treating me like we were friends.

No, the problem were those big, real bright,forest green eyesstaring at me with clear interest.

Ah f*cking —

Give me a break. I knew who this was.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Leaf Green, but you can just call me Green! That's what all my friends call me," the girl finally introduced, smiling at me like I was one of those friends she mentioned.

…

"Oh and this is Vee! He's my first friend!" She exclaimed, pointing at the sleepy Eevee that seemed to blend in with her jungle of hair.

Green's smile turned into one of confusion, as I let out a miserable groan.

When I said coming to Kanto would give me good information, I was expecting to sort of ease into it.

Instead, much like my life since becoming this new version of Silver, I was slam dunked immediately.

Leaf Green, the female player of the Kanto region, was currently standing directly across from me with a friendly, albeit confused, smile on her face.

Rotten, miserable, sh*tty Legendaries. They better pray I don't ever get my hands on a Master Ball.

"What do you want exactly?" I asked with a raised brow, effortlessly moving past her towards Route 6 with a purpose.

To no one's surprise, she hastily began following after me.

"You're gonna fight Surge in 3 days right? Well, I am too!" She beamed. "I set up a fight with him as fast as possible because I wanted to catch up to you before you disappeared!"

I grunted, a little outraged that she managed to set up an appointment that quick.

"We should train together! I dunno, but you seem like you could be a pretty strong trainer!" Green exclaimed eagerly, getting straight to the point.

She was fairly laid back and cheerful, weathering my bad attitude without issue.

She also seemed to have a mischievous streak, but Green hadn't attempted to rob me yet (not that it would have worked) so I could safely assume that she wasn't primarily the manga version...

But she had on a black dress. I'm pretty sure she wore this in the manga as well, so it was probably a version that didn't forcefully become a thief like I still was? The masked man (wasn't that Gym Leader Pryce actually?) didn't exist in this world so she was free from that life.

Guess I wasn't as lucky huh?

"You heard the conversation right? I have 0 badges… and I imagine you don't have 0 either," I said calmly, deciding to get information out of this before eventually turning her away.

"I've got two!" Green preened, showcasing her badges. "I beat the Pewter and Cerulean gym leaders for them, now I'm here to fight Surge!"

She spun until she was directly in front of me and looked me directly in the eyes.

"She has no idea what personal space is,"I instinctively thought, resisting the urge to shove her away.

"I heard about how Surge was upping the ante and I got a bit nervous, but seeing how unfazed you were, inspired me! That's why I wanna train with you so we can both beat him!" she exclaimed cheerfully.

Wow, it was as if someone heard all my complaints about how the people in this world were too cheerful, and decided to shove a prime example in my face.

Green was a little hyper and by a little I meant she had to have been drugged up on sugar.

Still though, this was not only a good opportunity to milk her of information, but Green was likely a competent trainer as well.

Sparring with her should be much better practice than finding random trainers on the road.

"Alright, sure," I said calmly. "But I prefer to train in isolated areas. Do with that information what you will."

The little idiot nodded without any hesitation, not a hint of suspicion on her face despite the fact that I was trying to advertise the word "caution" for her.

"Sure! Lead the way, Silvy!" She chimed.

"Don't f*cking call me that," I bit out harshly.

Silvy? Ridiculous.

Green didn't even flinch at my biting words, a mischievous glint in her eyes.

"What? Don't like a cute girl calling you nicknames?" She asked innocently.

"Maybe she's more like manga Green than I initially thought,"I thought with furrowed brows.

"How old are you?" I asked in annoyance.

"12!" She said without missing a beat. "You?"

"...12," I grunted.

So we were the same age? That didn't seem right. Wasn't Green a few years older than Silver?

But it looks like we started our journeys at the same time…

"Where are you from?" I continued, idly shoving some shrubs out of my face, as we traversed through the forest.

"Pallet Town!" She informed me, smiling thankfully at my pushing through the shrubs.

I made a show of raising a brow. "Pallet Town? Are you an Oak sponsor then?" I prodded.

Green nodded easily. "Yeah I am! You know a lot of stuff!"

She really was too trusting. Green answered all my questions without any hesitation, finding it in herself to trust mealready.

I just don't get it at all really.

"Doesn't he have three per year? Were you the only one?" I asked, glancing at the open area with appraising eyes.

This would do fine. There was even a lake in the area for when I inevitably worked up a sweat.

"Mhm!" She nodded, setting her bag down once she noticed me stop moving. "There's me, Blue and Ash! We were the top 3 but Oak made an exception this year and accepted a fourth named Mason!"

…

"Blue… and Ash," I said slowly, closing my eyes and letting out a deep sigh.

Green did not notice.

"Yeah oh but his actual name is Gary! I just call him Blue because I'm Green haha! We grew up together! We used to be pretty close but those two got lost in their rivalry and I didn't feel like being in the middle of that," she sighed with a shake of her head.

"They're both so stupid, arguing like little kids over every small thing… it was getting exhausting, so I just focused on improving until it was time to start my journey!" The girl explained to me.

I wasn't fully listening to her, just mulling over the revelation that Ash did actually exist in this world.

At least that confirmed it to me. So I truly was in some massive mishmash of a universe.

"I actually saw Blue back in Cerulean," she exclaimed, not realizing that I didn't care even a little about Gary.

"Yeah?" I said disinterestedly, digging around in my bag to start preparing food for my team.

"Uh huh! Right on the bridge! We battled and I won pretty easy!" Green preened, puffing up at the thought.

"Wow, you must be strong," I said idly, tossing a snack over to the Eevee who had curiously approached me.

He consumed the Pokeblock easily, eyes lighting up at the taste and I tossed him another.

That got a purr out of him and he lazily rubbed his face against my open palm.

"I'm the best battler in Pallet!" Green bragged, putting two fists on her hips.

Finally done with my preparations, I decided to stop letting her talk my ear off.

"You wanna train right?" I asked, interrupting the girl. "We should probably get started on that because you talk a lot."

Green blinked, before noticing Vee next to me with an amused look in his eyes, still accepting my mindless pats.

A tinge of red dusted her cheek and she laughed nervously.

"Sorry, once I get going, it's hard for me to stop," she said sheepishly.

"Yeah, I know. If I didn't already decide to use this spot, I'd have ditched you," I scoffed.

Green pouted. "You're pretty mean you know?"

That got a snort out of me. "Mean doesn't even begin to describe what I am, Leaf. If you make it past the first day, I'll be impressed."

She puffed out her cheeks in annoyance. "Not Leaf! Greeeen! Call me Green, Silver!" The shorter girl demanded.

"Alright, let's get started," I decided. "I'm gonna feed my team first, they should be getting hungry soon."

"Don't change the subject! Say my name! Green! Greeeen!"

"W-Woah! I've never seen these Pokemon before! They're so cool!" Green awed, gazing at my team with clear delight in her eyes.

She was clearly a lover of Pokemon and she gushed over them all, Loki in particular.

"Can you tell me abit about them?" she asked eagerly.

I nodded shortly.

"This is Loki, my Zorua. He's my starter," I introduced, nodding towards my first pokemon that was currently being hugged by Green.

"A Zorua..." Green muttered in awe. "What region are Zorua's native to?"

"Unova," I answered easily.

Her eyes lit up. "I have a pokemon that's normally native to Unova too! I'll show you after your introductions!"

That got an interested look out of me.

A pokemon from Unova? Really?

"This is Gaia, my Bayleef. I found her in a forest," I lied easily, running a hand against her head.

Gaia sighed in bliss at the touch, nodding in agreement and leaning into me happily.

"A Bayleef! Wow, did you know that Bayleef is a starter for the Johto region?! They're really rare!" She beamed obliviously, walking up and joining me in patting Gaia.

"Really? Where I found her had quite a bit," I hummed.

Green nodded rapidly, not a hint of suspicion on her face as she gazed at Gaia in awe.

Good. Maybe if she was still a Chikorita there'd be more suspicion but we'd have to wait and see later.

"This is Freyja, my Feebas," I said, hoisting her up. "I fished her up after spending a while hour searching for her."

Freyja looked embarrassed at that, still taken aback by the fact that I was searching for her specifically.

"A Feebas," Green muttered, eyes turning calculating as she gazed at my fish. "I think I heard a bit about them! I don't know too much though," she admitted, putting a hand on Freyja's scales to pet her.

"Nice to meet you Freyja!" she beamed.

Freyja looked surprised by Green's energy but smiled in return.

That raised my respect slightly for Green. If she had saidanythingabout Freyja, I would have called it here and left.

"This is Beldum. I found them and we came to a mutual agreement so now we're partners," I said easily, omitting just how I found my steel type.

Beldum didn't react to that, but I felt a flash of amusem*nt in my mind and couldn't help but smirk.

At least that wasn't murderous intent.

"No nickname?" she mused to herself, inspecting Beldum's tiny body with a fascinated gaze. "What typing is a Beldum?"

"Psychic and Steel," I replied.

"Oh! I remember now! Beldum is the pokemon that evolves into Metagross," Green's eyes widened in shock. "Wow! That's insane!"

Beldum perked up in interest at hearing their final form mentioned and I nodded.

"And Bagon turns into Salamence!" She cheered, inspecting Ares with wide eyes.

She was much smarter than I thought. I wasn't expecting her to know of Pokemon outside of Kanto.

"Ares," I introduced, patting her on her skull. "She sought me out and saved my life."

Ares let out a fanged grin and leaned into my touch.

"Your team is so awesome!" Green gushed, inspecting them all again to memorize them. "Here take a look at mine!"

With that, she released her entire team, too eager to think about it further.

I snorted at her excitement and gazed at Green's team with a hint of interest.

Green had 4 Pokemon to her name in comparison to my 5 and she proudly puffed up as they materialized.

"This is Vee, my Eevee! He was my first Pokemon. I had him even before I officially became a trainer," She introduced again, pointing at the Eevee with better kept fur then her hair.

It didn't look much different from pictures of Eevees I saw but the little fella, from what little I saw, was quite lazy.

Still adorable as all hell.

"This is Lapee! My Lapras! She's my most recent capture!" Green continued, pointing at the water type who smiled gently at us all.

A Lapras… I gazed at the water dinosaur with interested eyes, inspecting it with a hum and offering it a small smirk in return as I pat it between its ears.

Lapee merely let out a dignified coo and leaned into my touch.

"Aren't Lapras super rare? How did you manage to get one?" I asked curiously.

Green puffed up at that. "I got her from a friend named Bill after uh… saving him from a problem! He was given her as a gift from someone in Saffron City but she wanted to explore the world more so I ended up taking her!" She explained with a big smile.

Lapee crooned, clearly pleased that Green was her trainer so there were no complaints to be made.

I raised a brow but shrugged, not quite caring enough to prod.

Bill huh? The guy that gives you the ticket to the S.S Anne? He also brings you to the Sevii Islands as well...

Wasn't he also insanely rich? Not a bad person to become friends with Leaf. Just off of one meeting she managed to procure a Lapras.

"This is Saury! My Ivysaur! He's my starter pokemon that I picked from Oak!"

My favorite of the Kanto starters was a sight to behold because what the hell... he wasmassive.

Green's Ivysaur gazed at me with half lidded, albeit serious eyes, looking way above the average size of what an Ivysaur should be.

Ivysaurs tended to about 3 feet but this thing was damn near5.

"He's pretty big huh?" Green laughed, rubbing the flowery bud with a fond smile. "I dunno what happened! He used to be such a tiny Bulbasaur, then he became this huge! When I spoke with the professor about it, he actually came to me to inspect him! Said a bunch of things but I think he threw in the world Alpha or something."

Alpha? The f*ck was that?

...Dunno. Something else I'd inevitably have to research because it seemed kind of important.

Ivysaur grunted, never taking his eyes off me or my team.

At least someone on her team was intelligent. There wasn't too much distrust (that he knew of) but he was rightfully wary of the strangers.

While he wasn't as big as the average Venusaur (he was about a foot shorter)… when the time came where hedidbecome one, he'd be a goddamn giant.

Her next and final member though, was byfarthe most surprising one and I felt my mouth slacken a bit at seeing it.

"This is Larvee! She's the one I mentioned being from the Unova Region! I found her in Viridian Forest," Green introduced, showing me the honest to god Larvesta.

I gazed at the extremely rare bug type with wide eyes, gazing into its cheerful and innocent blue eyes.

Volcarona was one of the coolest bug types out there. But not only were they cool, they wereseriouslyf*cking rare, even in their native region.

How the hell did she manage to find one in Viridian Forest? Was it the work of poachers? That had to have been it right?

This world had a lot of cross region Pokemon but this was pushing it.

Areas like Viridian Forest, might actually have a ton of rare Pokemon in them but I think it would be well known if a family of Larvesta were living there because the forest would have been burned to the ground.

If Green hunted this thing down and its mother or father was nearby, she'd be dead plain and simple.

"A Larvesta?" I asked incredulously. "Do you realize what you just caught?"

Green sheepishly rubbed her hair. "I did a lot of research... I caught something really amazing didn't I?"

"Amazing is one way of putting it," I said dryly, grunting at the heat the Larvesta was radiating.

"…It's not like I planned for this! I decided I wasn't going to leave Viridian without catching a new member of the team because it was just Saury and Vee for the longest!"

The girl grinned fondly. "I'm a little picky for teammates so nothing really caught my eyes for a while and I must have stayed in there for days! I was looking for a Scyther actually but then, I woke up one day and Larvee here was sitting on me, looking me dead in my eyes!"

Ah, so she was insanely lucky. Figures.

"Alright guys," I announced suddenly, turning to my team.

They all went straight at my voice and I smirked in a pleased manner.

"This is Leaf —,"

"GREEN!"

"Leaf. We're gonna be training with her for the upcoming gym battle," I told them all.

"My match should be a 3 on 3 and he's an electric type specialist. We'll discuss formations more but my planned are Loki, Ares and Gaia."

The three made noises to confirm they heard me and I turned towards Freyja and Beldum.

"You two don't have many advantages over electric types and they tend to be fast too but you'll be fighting the next gym leader for sure so keep polishing your techniques," I instructed them.

"Fee!" Freyja nodded in determination.

"Bel," Beldum didn't fuss.

"Alright, focus on getting down the moves I gave you," I finished, shrugging my jacket off as I prepared to work out myself.

I turned towards the gaping Green and raised a brow in confusion, making sure my black undershirt was on correctly.

"What?" I asked.

She snapped out of her shock and gazed at me with practically shining eyes.

"W-Wow! You're so structured and organized! Training outside of battles… You dedicate time to that too… I never thought of doing that! I get all my experience off battles!" Green told me, gazing at my Pokemon and then her own.

"I'm totally adopting some of your strategy. That's so genius of you! Oh I just knew talking to you was a good idea! You have that vibe, you know? Well, not the really rude vibe that you have but the other one!"

"Shut up," I groused. "You talk way too much."

Green flushed red. "No I don't! You… just talk too little!"

I shrugged. "That's true, but that's because I don't like talking to people. I especially don't like talking to people who don't know how to take deep breaths," I stressed.

Bless Jasmine's soul. We were both fairly introverted so neither of us liked talking too much… until you brought up steel types. Once you did that, she wouldn't stop going.

Green was a tried and true extrovert it looked like. She was outgoing and could talk for three people if she really wanted to.

Essentially, she was the total opposite of her male counterpart, Red. That guy was so introverted, he made his home on the peak of the most dangerous mountain in the world and became famous off saying just "...".

Well, Green's personality was fairly in line with her manga counterpart. It was probably just amped up because she hadn't gotten kidnapped by some perverted freak this time around.

Explained why she didn't seem to be a thief either. I wonder if she still had the talent for it?

I don't think I got kidnapped by that masked man either actually… or maybe I did, I dunno.

I doubt it though.

I blinked as I noticed Green's lips moving and focused back onto the real world.

"—Saying I don't know how to take a deep breath? Super rude, Silvy! You're not nice at all you know that? I haven't heard a single positive thing come out of your mouth since even before we met!"

God, she was still going?

These 3 days were going to be agonizing weren't they… At least I began filtering her voice out already.

...I should just start my own workout.

"H-Hey! Don't walk away when someone's talking to you! You know how many people would kill to talk to a cutie like me?! I'll tell you, alot! Alot of people Silvy!"

"Alright a 2 on 2? First two Pokemon captured?"

"Yep!"

I nodded, wiping the sweat off me and stood across the eager Green.

So my first battle was against Green…

Perfect. This should be good for me. A one on one against a sponsored trainer… the alleged best trainer in her class as well.

Plans began running through my head, as I signaled for Loki to step onto the field.

At the same time, Vee jumped off of Green, all signs of laziness gone as an alertness entered the Pokemon's eyes that caught me slightly off guard.

Almost as soon as Vee landed on his side of the field, Green adjusted that white hat (she had put it on the moment I agreed to battle) and I watched the eager grin vanish from her face, replaced by something far more serious.

Oh? I felt a small and eager smirk forming on my face at that.

Seems like Green was full of some tricks herself. Her complete shift in mood…

There was no obvious signal, but Green and I began the match at the exact same time.

"Loki, Torment and Hone Claws," I ordered in quick succession.

"Vee, Quick Attack to get close, Tail Whip afterwards on the eyes," Green replied without missing a beat.

Both Loki and Vee exploded into action swiftly.

As the Eevee glowed white and rocketed towards the Zorua, Loki began glowing with dark energy and growled lowly, activating Torment on Vee and making the normal type splutter in confusion as the Quick Attack slowly but surely petered off.

At the same time, Loki's claws sharpened and he dashed forward.

Vee instinctively flinched backwards as Loki closed the distance, only for my Zorua to smirk.

The dark type sprinted right past the faltering Eevee, before he turned on a heel and slammed the Pursuit into Vee's back.

He squealed as he tumbled across the ground and I pressed my advantage.

"Another one, hit it with Pursuit again," I commanded.

Loki didn't hesitate. Dark energy shrouded him again and he dashed forward with merciless intent.

Green's face never even shifted. She remained perfectly calm. It was almost like looking at an all new person.

Right as Loki got too close, Green struck.

"Vee, Detect, then use Return on the opening."

"Detect? What the f*ck?!"I thought in shock.

There was absolutely no time to react and I watched with some dread, as the fallen Vee, effortlessly weaved the lunging attack from Loki with glowing eyes.

Then, he began glowing white and slammed their head into Loki's gut.

"Zor!" Loki grunted, as the attack fully connected with his midsection and launched him away.

I grit my teeth as he tumbled across the ground.

Return was a move that did more damage the Pokemon liked you… and considering Green mentioned that Vee was her very first Pokemon, that meant the move was terribly effective.

"Loki, you good?" I asked in concern, watching him shakily climb to his feet.

"Zor," he said darkly, glaring at Vee with a newfound fury.

I knew what that meant.

"Use Scratch," I ordered calmly.

My Zorua dashed forward, claws poised to dig into Vee.

Green's brows furrowed at the reckless move. "Vee, intercept with Sand Attack. Once it's blinded, finish with Return."

Vee was already on the move. He dug his palms into the ground below and launched a stream of sand at the charging Zorua, getting a yelp out of the Dark type.

Finally, Vee began glowing white once more and rushed Loki with intent to finish the match off.

The Eevee let out a might yell and ran full force into the blinded Zorua…

Only to let out a noise of confusion at flying right through.

"Extrasensory," I said simply, as Loki's illusion wore off right behind the confused.

Green's eyes widened for the first time since this battle started, as the Extrasensory hit Vee point blank.

"Eev!" The Normal type yelped, as it was launched backwards to Green's side.

Much to my annoyance, the Eevee shakily pulled himself up and panted, mirroring Loki.

I said nothing, as Zorua unknowingly set up an illusion again.

Unfortunately, Green was prepared this time.

"Vee, use Swift!" she barked, not leaving any room for trickery.

"f*cking… this girl is scarily competent,"I thought in disbelief as Vee began launching homing missiles in the shape of stars that honed in on Zorua.

"Loki, destroy as many as you can with Snarl!" I barked right back, eyes narrowed as the illusion trick failed.

Loki dropped the illusion and opened his maw, letting out a bark full of dark energy.

Despite getting tagged by a couple of Swifts, he managed to destroy a majority of them so he wasn't down yet…

But he'd be down soon. Loki was visibly exhausted. He was not built to take hits and he had taken that Return point blank earlier.

I needed to wrap this up.

Evidently, Green was thinking the same thing based on Vee's condition.

I wouldn't give her the advantage.

"Vee, Quick Attack!" Green commanded.

"Let's wrap this up. Loki, Agility into Pursuit," I commanded, eyes narrowed.

Agility wasn't mastered, but it was enough to give him a moderate speed boost and that's what we needed to keep up with the Eevee.

Loki grunted, tapping into his psychic abilities to give himself the necessary boost to increase his speed to respectable levels.

The two charged each other with intent to end this, streaks following both.

Right before they clashed, both Green and I struck.

"Detect, then use Return!" Green shouted.

"Taunt and then get behind for Pursuit," I barked.

Once we both heard our respective orders, a look of horror crossed Green's features, while a victorious smirk made its way onto mine.

Vee's attempts to dodge the upcoming attack with Detect, failed, as Loki's Taunt washed over it and filled the Eevee with a blistering rage.

Loki leapt cleanly over Vee's lunge, before landing on his paws, turning in one single motion and launching himself directly into Vee's back with the dark energy of Pursuit.

Vee squealed as the attack connected and he collapsed on the floor, not making a move.

Loki huffed, as Green extended a Pokeball and returned the Eevee, looking at the ball in slight shock.

"Why do you have 0 badges?" She asked me in curiosity.

"I just now chose to start the gym challenge," I replied easily, watching Loki make it back to my side with a slight limp.

I offered to return him, but my first Pokemon simply shook his head no, intent to leave his mark before going out.

Green smiled at me. "You're more impressive than I initially thought, Silver. That was a fun fight!"

I snorted. "The match isn't over yet. Send out your next one, Leaf," was all I said.

She nodded and Saury stepped onto the field.

The massive Ivysaur's eyes were alert, as he focused his gazed on Loki and I returned to the match at hand.

"Loki, Agility," I said tersely.

Loki began dashing around the field, the effects of his shoddy Agility increasing his speeds to respectable levels.

"Saury, don't let him use his tricks. Slam him."

Quicker than the exhausted Loki could react, two vines snaked around him and hoisted him up, before slamming him into the ground.

I clenched my jaw, shock in my eyes at seeing the Ivysaur react to my Zorua.

Sure he was tired, but those vines… what the hell was that speed?

I returned Loki to the ball and gazed at the Ivysaur again.

...I pursed my lips and beckoned Gaia forward.

Green's Eevee was very impressive for an Eevee. The little foxes weren't really known for their prowess in battle, but the girl here managed to raise one that would become incredibly strong in the future.

It was not only Eevee that was impressive.

This Ivysaur was a monster of a Pokemon. It was undoubtedly Green's strongest Pokemon and it wasn'tclose.

"Gaia, use Razor Leaf," I tried, brows furrowed.

"Razor Leaf," Green called out.

The two shot out a massive barrage of Razor Leafs. Some collided with each other, others connected to their respective opponents but the attack was largely ineffective all the same.

...How was I going to do damage to this thing?

"Vine Whip, grab her," Green said calmly.

"Don't let that happen, use Reflect," I commanded, eyes narrowed as Saury's vines flew forward at amazing speeds.

Gaia narrowed her eyes and summoned a shimmering blue screen that caught the vines of the Ivysaur.

"Now, wrap your own vines around his," I ordered.

The Bayleef smiled in a pleased manner at my command. Before Saury could recall his vines, Gaia lashed out and wrapped her own vine whip around them.

"Slam him. Don't stop," I ordered ruthlessly.

Gaia didn't have the firepower needed to take out her grass starter brethren.

Not only were Venusaur's more offensively geared than the Meganium line, they were also partPoisontype.

I was inherently at a massive disadvantage here and I vowed to get Gaia a counter to this goddamn beefy dinosaur.

For now, I just had to play my cards right and whittle Saury down.

Gaia let out a bellow and lifted up her target, before slamming him down to the ground.

Saury, who I just noticed was glowing a bit, grunted as he met the ground and Gaia attempted to do it again… only for her to blink in confusion at seeing the Ivysaur remain rooted to his spot.

"Saury, don't let those vines go. Bring her to you and then Take Down," Green said calmly.

With almost startling ease, Saury heaved the startled Gaia to his location.

"If he was this strong always, why did he let Gaia lift him the first time?!"I thought in shock.

Then it hit me.

"Gaia, you gotta use Reflect and then Synthesis after the Take Down!" I demanded urgently.

Growth. The Ivysaur had been slightly glowing when Gaia hoisted him up and I finally realized that things were very bad right now.

The Bayleef attempted to heed my order but the chain of events just happened too quickly.

She managed to get the Reflect up but it meant very little in the face of Saury, who justbashedthrough it.

"Don't let her heal, use Sludge," Green said, a tone of finality in her voice.

Saury grunted and spat out a single, noxious, blob at the Bayleef.

The super effective attack had devastating effect and I watched in shock, as Gaia squealed at the corrosive poison before going limp.

Saury's vines snaked back into his body and he let out a single grunt, sauntering back over to Green's side without prompting.

"Good fight! You're way stronger than I expected," Green exclaimed, cheerful demeanor back again as she approached me.

"…" I said nothing, as I returned Gaia to the ball. A frown formed on my face as I ran through the battle again.

The problem wasn't Gaia vs Saury… it was Loki vs Vee. If I had taken out that Eevee faster and accounted for that Detect, I'd have been able to potentially make an impact against the Ivysaur to soften him up for my Bayleef.

She was inherently at a huge disadvantage against her Kanto counterpart so maybe I should have had her face against Vee instead.

I sighed, missing the way Green's smile turned shaky.

That probably wouldn't have changed much. Saury was just too strong and I don't think anyone on my team would have made much of a difference at my current stage. That Ivysaur was seriously ridiculous.

Actually, as I battled it, I realized something alarmingly startling about Gree —

"I'm sorry!"

Huh?

I gazed at the nervous looking Green with a raised brow.

"It… was kind of scummy for me to challenge you to a 2 on 2! I knew Gaia didn't have any advantage over Saury while he had all the advantage over her but I still asked for the battle. I just saw how organized and structured you were... so I wanted to see how you fared in battle because I was feeling jealous... E-Even though you don't have any badges, you're still a lot stronger than a lot of the trainers I did battle. I hope this doesn't make you cancel our training —,"

I groaned loudly and put a hand up. "You talk so much. Shut up for a bit," I requested.

You'd think with the way she reacted, I was going to assault her for losing.

Actually, why was she so nervous?

"What's your deal? Why the hell are you apologizing after winning? Do you take me for some type of pitiful f*cking weakling?" I asked slowly, eyes narrowed.

Her eyes were wide and she shook her head rapidly. "N-No not at all! I think you're really good!"

My eyes narrowed further. "You beat me. That's that. I'm more than a little annoyed that I lost, but it's not the end of the world. I don't know what this all is, but donotapologize to me after winning a battle, that'll piss me off even more than losing."

It must have been because of Fraxure nearly killing me but yeah I wasn't super pissed about losing.

Don't get me wrong, I was still pissed that I lost, but it was the just wait till I get my runback kind of pissed.

Not the I'll end your miserable existence pissed.

Green's nervous expression lessened slightly. "So… you're not mad that you got beat by a girl?"

I snorted loudly. "I'd be this pissed if the strongest trainer in the world beat me. A loss is a loss and I don't like losing. Gender doesn't have sh*t to do with that."

Was that what it was? She thought I was gonna be super pissed that I lost to a girl?

Right… this was a world full of kids. I guess the idea that some boys would be very annoyed if they lost to a girl wasn't that surprising. I wouldn't be surprised if they still thought cooties existed.

Luckily for her, I'd be pissed even if a future version of myself showed up and beat me in a battle to humble me.

"So… do you still want to keep training with me?" She asked hopefully.

"You're probably the strongest trainer I'll meet in the next 3 days who won't stomp me, so yeah. That's obvious," I scowled, not seeing the point of these questions.

By now, Green was grinning once more, whatever internal crisis she was going through somehow appeased by my words.

"Does that mean we're still friends?!" The Pallet Town resident asked excitedly.

"Since when the hell have we ever been friends in the first place, Leaf?" I asked in disbelief.

Green squealed excitedly, rushing me for a hug.

She did not get that hug.

"Oof!" She yelped as I instinctively gripped her arm and flipped her over my shoulder, bringing her right to the floor.

"Habit," I said, hoisting her up off the floor.

"It's okay, Silvy! You're really rude, but you're also a pretty nice person, aren't you?" Green beamed, sending out a signal to her team, letting them know it was alright and that they could back down.

"I don't know how the hell you came to that conclusion, but I won't dwell on it," I grunted.

Then, I sobered up as I remembered my earlier musings.

"Hey, Leaf," I called, turning towards the girl. "You mentioned being the best battler in Pallet?"

She nodded eagerly. "Yeah! I actually haven't lost a battle to anyone close to my level in skill yet! And call me Green!"

I pondered that. "What did you help that Bill guy with?" I continued randomly.

Green's eyes widened at that question and she looked back and forth, before leaning into me to whisper in my ears.

"Between you and me, he got put into the body of a Clefairy and I just ran a machine for him to get him back to normal," she whispered.

Goddammit.

"...One more question," I requested.

Green nodded happily.

"Have you encountered Team Rocket yet?" I asked gravely.

Her smile turned into a frown and I felt my fears get confirmed.

"Yeah, I did! I heard that they attacked Viridian City sometime while I was in Viridian Forest… but I officially encountered them in Mt. Moon and thwarted their operations. I also met them in Cerulean... they stole some guys TM and injured him really badly," she explained to me with a deep frown.

I nodded thoughtfully, but on the inside I was a cursing and scowling mess.

I thought because Ash existed in this world, Red would not and that was true…

To an extent.

You see, Leaf Green here wasn't just her counterpart from the Manga…

Her prodigious battling, the events she went through, hell even the way her demeanor shifted in battle…

The reason Red didn't exist wasn't because Ash was in this world.

No… Green right here was the reason Red didn't exist… becauseshewas Red.

Well, I suppose that wasn't very fair to her at all now was it? She was her own person and it would be rude of me to only think of her as someone else.

Green was the stand in for the main character of the Kanto video games.

What an interesting turn of events…

This gave me a lot to think about but I did know one thing.

One day I was going to beat Green in a battle. She was the real deal and measuring my growth against her…

Not bad at all.

"Alright, I'ma go use that lake to clean up for a bit," I said bluntly.

Green blinked in confusion. "The Center is only like an hour away. We can just go there," she pointed out.

"Don't feel like it," I replied blandly, pulling out two potions and releasing Loki and Gaia. "I want to stay here for a bit longer, but I'm also sweaty. Going to the Center is a waste of time."

She gazed at me in awe and nodded furiously. "I wanna start dedicating more time to training too so I'll stay here!"

I scoffed but nodded. "Sure, whatever."

The fact she got this strong without proper training...

I might have just created a monster.

Naturally, my team decided to join me for a bath and I snorted, scrubbing down a grumpy Gaia as she rubbed a vine against my scar.

"Don't be too upset, Gaia," I informed her. "We can't win them all and I know you want to, but we aren't the greatest yet," I reassured.

Evolution had increased her hormone output by quite a lot so she could get really moody but I had gotten fairly good at calming her down.

"Green's the real deal so don't be offended that we lost to her," I told my team seriously. "I'm just as upset that we lost, believe me… but we'll get stronger."

My entire team nodded in unison and Gaia grumbled in acceptance.

"Don't worry girl, we'll get back at that Ivysaur," I mumbled, stroking the leaf atop her head soothingly. "I'll figure something out for you."

Her scowl vanished and she nodded in determination.

I smiled, idly snatching Ares out of midair so she didn't dive headfirst in the water.

Despite just being shy of a 100 pounds, I hardly registered Bagon's weight and stared at the unapologetic dragon with a look of exasperation.

"I know you want to fly… but please stop diving headfirst into everything. You put yourself in a lot of situations you could avoid if you did anything else," I chastised.

Honestly she was lucky she had such a hard head. Multiple times a day, she'd find the highest spot she could reach and dive off of it like a little psycho.

Sometimes she got stuck and I had to save her.

Ares simply let loose a fanged grin, no doubt ignoring my order completely as I slowly began dipping her back in the water.

"One day you're gonna get real stuck and I'm gonna leave you there until you beg for help," I assured her.

Freyja snorted, agreeing with what I said and successfully drew Ares' attention to her.

Like clockwork, the two began arguing with each other and I released the Bagon from my hold so they could settle their hourly squabble without drawing me into it.

Training today went fairly well and I'd use Green for these upcoming days to make a good amount of progress.

After I beat Surge, I'd travel through Diglett Cave to battle Pewter (was Brock traveling with Ash?) Gym and then head through Mt. Moon to Cerulean City…

That was good for me, since that meant Green and Ash could do whatever the hell they wanted, without me getting involved.

Perfect —

"U-Um, Silver?"

I went stiff at the voice of Green.

Not because I was naked underneath the water and there was a girl behind me…

No, it was because Green currently sounded like the guiltiest person on the planet.

"What did you do?" I asked calmly, inclining my head to gaze at her, body still underwater to not reveal anything inappropriate to her.

The girl refused to make eye contact, yelping the moment she gazed into my piercing silver eyes. She couldn't maintain eye contact for more than a second and began staring a hole into the floor once more.

On her shoulder, Vee was looking at the girl with an utterly exasperated expression, disappointment firm in his stance.

"I-I'm sure this may seem bad b-but I-I just saw something ruffling really hard a-and I was going to call you but then everything happened so fast and please don't be mad at me!" She blurted out.

I frowned slightly at that, brushing my soaked hair aside and freeing my other eye in the process.

"I'm going to ask again.Whatdid you do —"

I abruptly stopped speaking, as I took full stock of the situation before me.

Green was there naturally, along with Vee and all her other members…

But that wasn't all…

There was a fifth pokemon there.

A small, light-yellow Pokemon with a rounded body was by Green's heel. It's body was encased in a white eggshell that had red and blue borders on it.

…

A Togepi… and judging by it's utterly tiny size, it was recently hatched too.

From the egg thatIstole.

"Toge?" Togepi tilted its head, holding up its stubby little arms for Green.

"You went through my f*cking bag?!" I snarled in fury, eyes flying open in a furious rage. "What the f*ck is wrong with you?!"

She flinched back at my severe expression, a frantic look making its way to her face.

"No, I promise I wasn't looking through your bag! I didn't see anything!" She tried.

That failed to placate me in the slightest and only the looming fact that I was naked in this lake, was doing her any favors.

"I'm sorry!" Green blurted, the moment I opened my mouth to rip into her.

"I was just discussing with my team about the upcoming training with you while you bathed a-and then I was gonna bathe too so that we could keep training together… Then I heard a loud cracking! I admit… curiosity got the best of me but when I saw an Egg hatching I was going to run to you immediately… but I was too late and Togepi already laid eyes on me," she explained, looking depressed at the idea.

"I understand if you don't ever want to speak to me again… and I haven't caught Togepi yet either so you…"

"You might as well f*cking catch it," I sneered, interrupting her. "Judging by how sorry you are, you already know what it means to be the first thing a hatched Pokemon sees so there's no point trying to throw a pity party."

She flinched back harshly but nodded. "I'm… its parent now."

When a Pokemon first hatched, it imprinted onto the first thing it saw and if it was a trainer, it was strongly advised for that person to raise the Pokemon up until it became independent enough.

As a trainer, hatching an egg meant you were that Pokemon's trainer. There was no other way around it.

Togepi was Green's now and there wasn't really much I could do about it.

I sighed and felt my anger tapering off, though the withering glare never left my face.

Well, whatever. Togepi would have been a fine sixth pokemon but it wouldn't have been my first choice for the slot.

Though, if I had known this was gonna happen… I would have planned more for my sixth member.

But still, I was mostly annoyed that she went through my goddamn bag.

It sucked that I wouldn't get Togepi, but this wasn't the end of the world and in the first place, I stole the Egg so that Gold wouldn't get it.

Considering I completely finished my mission in Hoenn as well… to be honest, I was satisfied with my team. A sixth pokemon would come eventually... but not getting one immediately, was not the end of the world.

Sucks that I'd miss out on a fairy type though. That typing was kind of ridiculous but I'd probably look for another one in the future.

"Don't go through my stuffeveragain," I stressed, removing my eyes off of her and dipping my hair in the water again.

What did I even want my sixth pokemon to be? I guess whatever caught my eyes next.

Green had a look of shock on her face. "Y-You still want to hang out with me?"

"I've never once wanted to hang out with you," I replied shortly. "This is strictly business. We train for the next three days, I get my badge, then we go our ways."

"What about Togepi… this was your egg and I just… if only I hadn't been so nosy," Green frowned sadly, actually looking like she was about to start crying.

No wait, those were definitely tears forming in her eyes.

"It doesn't matter what I think anymore idiot," I scoffed, nonplussed. "Togepi hasn't looked my way even once. Its eyes are only on you so just catch it. I don't care anymore and it wants you to pick it up."

Togepi still had its stubs up for Green right now and it even began whining while we were arguing. Green bit her lip and glanced down at it, before hesitantly picking it up.

Judging by the way Togepi lit up, it really did only have eyes for Green.

There would be no point trying to separate the two. I didn't carethatmuch about owning a Togekiss.

I already had Ares anyways and I'd much rather fly on a Salamence.

"Now can you get out of here? I'm naked," I grunted, pushing my hair out of my eye and scowling as it flopped right back into place.

Stupid.

Green looked stunned and honestly, I'd normally be extremely pissed but I was already over the situation. It's not like I bonded with it at all. The egg stayed in my bag 24/7 to the point where I even forgot I had it at times.

Maybe Fraxure nearly killing me did something to me besides humbling me something fierce…

Or Gaia's drugs. Could be anything really.

Green's eyes lit up at that and a grin formed on her face.

"Alright Silvy! I'll head back first then… see ya tomorrow?" Green asked, anticipation in her eyes.

"Get out of here Leaf and stop calling me Silvy," I grunted, not even looking in her direction anymore.

I heard a giggle and the shuffle of multiple footsteps, before it eventually dwindled into nothing.

"She's so annoying," I sighed.

She was lucky I still wanted to get some information from her and that her strength was the real deal.

Loki shrugged sympathetically and I felt a tingling in my mind that caused me to gaze at the completely dry Beldum.

The steel type gazed at me with its singular red eye and looked distinctively smug.

He hadn't spoken to me in a long time, but I was able to sense his intent now (it was pretty strange) and right now, he was giving me a very "You deserve it" vibe.

...Dick.

Green showed up for the subsequent 2 days, as cheerful as ever with one extra Pokemon to her name.

Togepi, who was a male, was too young to join training so the little guy was just being attended to by Green, who had went last minute shopping for a baby pokemon.

I learned a good amount from her through small talk, particularly about her childhood friends.

Ash missed a starter like usual, ending up with Pikachu and Blue ended up with Squirtle.

The person who got Charmander wasn't all that impressive according to her and I already forgot his name so there's that.

She also lived with just her mom and was a single child.

I didn't ask for all of that but she had apparently decided that we were actually friends now no matter how rude I was to her.

She was a complete weirdo.

Regardless, that didn't take away from the fact that she was a brilliant trainer.

Training with her, benefited me more than battling random trainers.

I would know, we actually took time out of Day 2 to go battle some trainers.

That's what let me see that I actually put up a great showing against Green because no one else that was near our level even camecloseto beating her.

Her whole team wasn't strong… no Larvy was considerably weak. Lappy was quite strong, but it was clear that Green recently acquired her.

Vee and Saury on the other hand…

The Eevee, while coming close to losing matches, was a real trooper. He and Green had great synergy that let them hit above their weight class…

But Saury was the real monster. Green's Ivysaur was some time of freak of its line and seeing it perform, showed me that even if I could confidently take out the rest of her team, this grass type would ensure that she won the battle.

It was bulky, strong and had no need for actual speed because those vines were all it needed.

Not to mention, he and Green had a scary amount of synergy.

That Ivysaur was shaping up to be a behemoth of a cornerstone. I shuddered to think what it would be like as a Venusaur…

Didn't matter. I assured Gaia we'd get our revenge and that's what we'd do.

The days passed by quickly and I wasn't going to lie, my own personal improvements after training with Green, were tremendous.

I also had an innate talent for battling. My countless victories, despite not having battled since Johto, accounted for that.

I took to battling like a duck (fun fact, people of this world saidPsyduck)to water.

That's something else I noticed battling other trainers besides Green. They were so easy toread.

The more trainers I battled, the more I realized how impressive my training partner was.

All the trainers I battled, did nothing to hide their thoughts. It was so obvious when they were getting nervous, when they thought they were about to win…

It made the battles against them all the more easy. They were showing off that at the end of the day, they were amateurs and there was nothing wrong with that… it just highlighted how exceptional Green was.

There was no loudmouth Green when she was battling. The hyperactive girl transformed into a hyper-focused battler.

She was above her fellow peers by quite a bit and by the time she reached her full potential, she'd be a real menace.

That… slightly increased my respect for her. She would be a good measure to test my own growth whenever we ran into each other.

My training with her was done so after this, we'd go our separate ways. I'd likely head to Pewter and she'd go to wherever the hell her next badge was.

Good, she still talked way too much...

Actually, that just reminded me of an encounter we had during our 2 days here. Green's urge to talk seemed to be a disease that inhabited all the Oak sponsors.

Day 2 of training

"Well, if it isn't Green!"

I twitched at hearing someone mention my partners name but ignored it.

Green froze, recognizing that voice before a competitive gleam entered her eyes.

"That's my cue to go," I said blandly, preparing to leave her for the day.

"Wait Silvy!" She urged, grabbing me before swiftly letting me go at my warning look.

"Silvy? Who the hell are you?" The voice asked snidely.

I sighed, brushing a hand through my hair as I turned to gauge the person.

He was slightly taller than me, with auburn hair and bright blue eyes that were glaring at me with an innate smugness in them.

"You must be Gary Oak. Leaf has told me so much about you, all against my will," I said in disinterest, wondering what monstrosity I was going to cook up today.

My cooking had not gotten better. At least my team got to eat good.

Gary Blue Oak glared at me almost as soon as I mentioned his last name. "Don'tsay my whole name. Call me Gary or Blue you f*cking nobody."

I raised a brow. "I'll call you whatever the f*ck I want. What exactly are you gonna do about it if I don't?" I sneered.

Green watched in some disbelief, as Blue returned the sneer and focused his full attention on Silver.

I watched Blue return the sneer and raised a brow.

Someone with backbone?

Yeah right, let's see how long that lasts.

"What? Don't like being an Oak? Is the shadow your grandpa casts too big?" I asked smugly.

Judging by how murderous Blue suddenly became, I struck a nerve.

"Silver, you shouldn't say things like that!" Green said with wide eyes, turning towards me with shock on her face. "Blue's sensitive to that type of stuff!"

"Aww," I mock frowned. "I'm so sorry to hear that. Poor Blue must have it so hard carrying such a burden as the gasp... Oak name! I wouldn't want to wish that on anyone!" I sighed.

My sneer returned as I dropped all pretenses. "Get the f*ck over yourself. I bet you're the type to abuse that name so long as it's convenient to you. You have no right to be ashamed of being born in such a lavish lifestyle, f*cking brat."

"Silver!" Green shouted in horror.

Blue's murderous glare deepened and he rushed me without any hesitation, but I rolled my eyes at the action.

Clearly I was more athletic than he was.

I sidestepped his lunge and tripped him, using my superior agility and I watched as he stumbled to the floor with an oof.

"You sure fight like a guy who's lived a lavish life," I grunted, completely unimpressed.

Blue snarled and shoved himself up. "I'll f*cking kill you!" He swore.

My gaze darkened into something dangerous at those words. "Are you sure you can back up those words?" I asked lowly.

"You'll find out soon enough," he spat.

"ENOUGH! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU TWO?!" Green shrieked, releasing Saury from her ball as Vee jumped off her shoulder. "Stop! Stop right now!"

Two of Blue's pokeballs shook, before they opened and out came a Wartortle and his own Eevee.

Loki, who was watching from inside my jacket, growled warningly as he poked his head out and glared at Blue and his team.

"Stop? I'm just retaliating," I said simply. "He's the one that rushed me because I said a few words."

Green frowned at me. "But you said some really rude things! You were way outta line!"

I rolled my eyes. "I called him by his name and he called me a f*cking nobody. Who was really outta line? I haven't been the aggressor once, I'm just retaliating. I even tried to leave," I pointed.

Green flinched at the accuracy of my words. "Well that's... true but —"

I interrupted her. "I don't give a damn if he's your childhood friend Leaf. He might be your friend, but to me he's a douche that clearly needs to get put in his place, so I'm going to put him in his place."

"I was thinking the same thing," Blue snarled. "We're already at a field, let's use it."

"Sure thing. 1 on 1," I said confidently, already grabbing at a Pokeball. "I can spare a few extra minutes but not too much. Let this nobody teach you a thing or two about battling."

Green looked helplessly at the both of us, clearly not having expected a meeting to go so south.

I always expected a meeting with me to go bad... but I expected to be the aggressor in all these situations.

What a fresh turn of events. That would make this feel all the better.

"Gaia," I said easily.

"Wartortle!" Blue barked at the same time as me.

At once, both our starter pokemon shot out their balls.

Sensing my slightly foul mood, Gaia's face morphed into a scowl and she glared at both Blue and his Wartortle.

Wartortle flashed a co*cky grin but it vanished as he felt just how foul his trainer currently was.

"Aqua Jet!" Blue said immediately.

"Reflect, grab it," I said easily.

Wartortle ducked into his shell and began spinning, before jetting off with incredible speeds.

Gaia was already ahead of him. She summoned a blue wall that Wartortle crashed into.

The hard shell protected it from the rattling that Reflect would normally give it but that didn't matter because Gaia's vines swiftly wrapped around it.

"Poison Powder inside the hole," I instructed ruthlessly.

Blue's eyes widened. "Water Pulse! Stop it from doing that!"

Credit to Wartortle. He immediately stuck his head out and conjured the necessary amount of water, spitting it directly at Gaia's face...

To very little effect. Gaia growled in annoyance but followed through with her orders, spitting out a poisonous cloud directly in Wartortle's face.

Then, she brutally slammed him onto the floor with her vines.

"Wartortle!" Blue shouted.

Wartortle hacked and coughed. It had inhaled a full dose of Poison Powder so it had gotten poisoned immediately.

Now it was on a timer and being on a timer against Gaia wasn't a very pleasant lifestyle.

"Use Icy Wind!"

My eyes widened a bit in surprise at that. Wartortle couldn't learn Icy Wind naturally.

Gaia let out a slight squeal as the super effective attack struck and Wartortle grinned, before devolving into hacking coughs once more.

"Icy Wind huh? Sure are putting that Oak money to use," I taunted, unbothered by that.

Blue snarled at that and tried his best to ignore me.

"Well, I guess money can't buy everything... like skill," I shrugged helplessly.

"SHUT UP!" He roared. "Wartortle Aura Sphere!"

"Light Screen then Synthesis," I said smugly, not showing the surprise I felt at Wartortle knowing Aura Sphere.

Blue's eyes flew open in even more anger, as Wartortle valiantly summoned an Aura Sphere and shot it out, only for it to break against the conjured Light Screen.

Then, the water type could only watch helplessly as Gaia flashed a smug grin, very reminiscent to mine, and began glowing. The damage she took from the Icy Wind began patching up until she were as good as new.

"Razor Leaf."

Blue tried to recover from his shock. "Wartortle, Rapid Spin! Run away!"

But it was not to be, Wartortle took a second too long to sink back into his shell and the Razor Leaf mercilessly slammed into it.

"War!" Wartortle groaned, before falling back in defeat.

"Well done, Gaia," I said easily, smiling as she ran up to me with a pleased smile. I ran a hand against her and chuckled as she nuzzled her head against my chest. "Sorry about that, I know that was too easy but I wanted to make a point."

Gaia scoffed at that, just pleased to put someone in their place just like I was.

Blue looked stunned at his loss, gazing numbly at his defeated Wartortle and I sneered.

"No wonder you get offended when someone calls you Oak, you can't even beat a nobody huh?" I said mockingly.

Let it be known, no one could out asshole me and that would not change.

"See ya Oak, maybe don't pick fights you can't win."

With that I turned on a dime and left.

Battling with Gaia became far easier when the opponent was visibly frustrated, that's why I goaded him mid match...

Though I doubted I needed that. I would have won that match regardless.

So I was weaker than Ivysaur (I refused to acknowledge that I was weaker than Green herself) but I was stronger than Blue it looked.

Not bad. I was stronger than I thought.

"Let's get something to eat yeah? On second thought, I'll spoil myself with something edible," I decided.

"Bay!" Gaia cheered, trotting next to me.

"Are you alright, Blue?" Green asked quietly, looking at her quiet childhood friend with concern.

She had never seen Blue so outclassed... while she was stronger than him, Blue had a way with words that Green could never really go against so even her victories didn't feel as complete.

But Silver completely beat him in both the battle and talking aspect. It was almost scary to see how unraveled Blue became when facing her training partner.

Blueflinchedof all things and gazed at her with a sneer. "Just leave me alone, Green. I don't need your sympathy," he snarled.

Green frowned sadly. "But Blue —"

"I said leave me alone! The last thing I need is for Gramp's favorite to try and cheer me up!" he roared.

With that, Blue turned on a dime and stormed off.

Green had a hurt expression at that and just watched him go, before sighing and rushing to catch up to Silver's location.

It didn't take her very long, her red haired friend was walking at a rather leisurely pace by his standards and so when she caught up, he spared her a single glance.

"Why did you say such cruel things?" She asked bluntly.

Silver was cold but that was... just really cruel. He had said such harsh things to Blue and sure her Pallet friend was rude... but that was too much.

"Why?" Silver replied, gazing at her with his customary bored expression. "Do I need a reason beyond him calling me a nobody?"

"...Yes," Green said firmly. "That was harsh Silver... Blue has a tough life despite what you think."

Silver let out a noncommittal hum at that.

She sighed. "Blue's parents are... not in his life and he's only got the Professor and Daisy, his older sister. He might be a bit rude but he's gone through a lot."

Silver said nothing for a while.

Then he turned towards her with those striking silver eyes of his.

"I don't care. At least he has a good family to complain about. It really pisses me off seeing someone get gifted everything they could ask for and they're still unsatisfied with their life. What a sickening mindset."

"Now are we done? I'm hungry."

Green stood in shocked silence at that and nodded numbly.

No one said anything and she just watched Silver's figure retreat further in the distance.

At least he has a good family to complain about...

I grunted. That wasn't something I really thought of saying. I just said it on instinct much like all the other things I said on instinct.

Blue seemed to irk me in a way that went beyond his annoying attitude and I didn't realize until Green pressed me.

Whatever, what's done was done. Blue had already beaten the Vermillion Gym so I wouldn't be seeing him for a long while.

Spoiled idiot.

Green had tried to act normal meeting up with me and I decided that it was a great idea so I made no mention of the events of day 2. We managed to get back on track and now we were here at the Vermillion Gym for both our respective battles.

"Hey musclehead," I greeted, gazing at that John receptionist from the other day.

I saw his jaw clench instinctively at my voice and resisted the urge to laugh.

"I'm here for my battle with your boss. Hopefully you don't make this take longer than it needs to as well," I told him.

Unfortunately, John seemed to grow a brain since our last meeting and simply jammed a finger to the back.

"Not gonna say nothing? Smart," I shrugged helplessly, making my way to the back of the room.

"Surge is gonna teach you a lesson so there's no need," he bit out.

Heh. Dumbass.

"Having another man fight your battles? No wonder you're just a receptionist. You a house maid too?" I fired back, smirking smugly at seeing a vein form on his `.

Green couldn't hold in the giggle anymore.

"Shoulda stayed quiet Jane, worked out way better for you this time around!" I shouted co*ckily.

"I don't get how you're not even a little intimidated by them," Green said after getting her laughter down. "They were looking down at me the whole time when I spoke to them!"

A sneer formed on my face. "I won't let anyone look down on me. There's nothing to be intimidated about anyways. Just a couple of muscleheads," I retorted.

Green gazed at me. Her match was up next after mine so she asked (begged) to watch my match and come here together.

"So you aren't nervous?" She asked me.

"What's there to be nervous about?" I asked in return, blood pumping at the idea of this match. "Being nervous just gets in the way of how effective I can be so it's unnecessary."

From the corner of my eye, I watched Green stand a little straighter, gazing at me in awe and I snorted.

"I get nervous before every match against a tough opponent," Green admitted. "But it all goes away once the match starts."

"As long as it goes away then you're fine," I replied with a roll of my eyes.

What a trip. Her? Nervous? Bullsh*t. She looked and acted as confident as I did in battle.

Boisterous laughter rang out, as Green and I reached the back of the gym.

I gazed around at it all and nodded, impressed by the sight.

Jasmine invited me to see her gym right before I left Olivine but I denied her offer, claiming that I'd like to see it when we battled eventually.

For some reason, that made her panic and she claimed that she actually needed to renovate the area. I'm pretty sure she actually did renovate it a few weeks ago because she suddenly promised that I'd love seeing her gym.

I should have accepted the offer to see it just once. Gyms were cool.

We were in a stadium. The terrain was a flat plain of dirt and there were seats all around that were currently empty.

"They normally fill up with higher number of badges," Green whispered to me. "There's some exceptions though. The Sensational Sisters are really popular so they always get filled seats for Gym Battles."

Sensational Sisters? Well, Green only had two badges so I imagine that was Cerulean City.

Oh right, those were Misty's sisters. Weren't they trash? Did I really have to battle them?

Bah, they were probably better in this world. Had to be because this world didn't mess around and if they were anything like their anime counterparts, they'd be out of a job.

Gym Leadershadto be competent. There was no room for the embarrassments you saw in the show.

"Right on time!" Surge called, standing on the opposite side of the giant field. "I've been waiting for you Silver! I've been eager to face you and I ended shocking all my previous challengers straight!"

"Silver?" I raised a brow, idly glancing at the referee on the sides. "Looks like you guys are actually able to remember names. I'm impressed."

"Only the ones worth remembering!" Surge grinned. "I heard about Green over there too," he mentioned.

Green blinked. "Me?!" She asked in shock.

Surge and I both scoffed simultaneously.

"Don't be surprised about that dumbass," I chided.

The gym leader nodded. "You trashed Pewter and Cerulean in your battle! Of course we've got eyes on you kid! I'm looking forward to our battle but for now, go sit on the stands."

Green beamed, a glimmer of excitement entering her eyes.

"Good luck, Silvy!" She called out.

"Shut up, Leaf," I replied.

"GREEN! CALL ME GREEN!"

I snorted and said nothing, silver eyes turning focused as I peered at Lt. Surge.

"Seems like the kid's ready! No more wasting anytime!" Surge bellowed, gazing at the ref who took that as his cue.

"This is an official gym battle of the Vermilion City Gym between the challenger, Silver of Viridian City and the Gym Leader, Lt. Surge! Each side is allowed 3 pokemon and only the challenger is allowed to swap. The match will be decided when all 3 Pokemon of one side are unable to continue!"

"As the Gym Leader, Surge must release his Pokemon first!"

Surge was already throwing a Pokeball and I hummed at the sight of the pokemon before me.

It was a small and chubby rodent, covered in yellow fur with two horizontal brown stripes and two red pouches on its cheek.

A Pikachu. I'd have been able to identify it even if I didn't know a damn thing about Pokemon.

I nodded. This is about what I expected if the match really was a 3 on 3.

"Ares," I said calmly, releasing my Bagon from her ball with a sticker of a dragon roaring.

Surge raised a brow high at the sight of Ares, gazing at it with searching eyes. He looked a little caught off guard that this was my first choice but hid it well.

Ares let out a battle roar, that got both our blood pumping and I felt a feral pulse course through my body.

"The contestants are set! Pikachu vs Bagon! Begin!" The referee announced.

"Quick Attack!" Surge called out instantly.

"Rage," I retorted instantly.

Pikachu's were fast. Faster then my stubby little Bagon. Dodging moves was a waste of time and energy so we'd weather and benefit from them.

The Quick Attack connected clean but Ares shrugged it off, eyes gaining a red tint as Rage quickly took effect.

Good. As long as Rage was active, Ares would get stronger from getting hit. Excellent for the pestering attacks of a Pikachu.

Surge frowned, no doubt realizing the same thing.

"Use Thunderbolt!" He shouted.

"Dragon Breath," I retorted instantly. "Afterwards, Scary Face."

"Chu!" Pikachu growled, shooting a burst of electricity at Ares who fired back with the turquoise energy of Dragon Breath.

Dragon Breath met Thunderbolt and the two moves combated with each other, until the powered up Dragon move overwhelmed the electric attack and forced Pikachu to dodge...

Which left it completely open to the terrifying visage of Ares glaring at it.

We didn't master Scary Face as well as we'd like… but I discovered that Rage made the move alot easier to use and it was taking full effect right now.

"Dragon Breath," I said calmly, as Pikachu took a step back in fear as the effects of Scary Face washed over it.

"Pikachu, move!" Surge barked, as Ares opened its mouth once more.

Pikachu unfortunately, was too afraid to follow Surge's command and the Dragon Breath, powered up by both RageandAres' Sheer Force crashed directly into it.

Sheer Force removed all secondary effects of moves that had them. I didn't know the specifics of how that worked in this world, but it had to do with the structure of one of Bagon's organs that allowed for stronger but shorter attacks.

Pikachu squealed as the attack connected right to its gut and the little guy began tumbling across the ground with burn marks on its fur.

Much to my surprise, it actually did get back up. I thought that Dragon Breath was going to take it out but it was a little sturdier than I imagined.

One more hit would probably put it down for the count though.

"Dragon Breath again," I ordered.

Surge knew that Pikachu was in no shape to dodge the attack, so he shouted out "Shockwave!" as a last ditch effort.

Ares roared with a feral grin and belched out a giant Dragon Breath.

Pikachu panted and began sparking, before letting loose what seemed to be an unfocused blast of blue energy, but was proven not to be, as it honed in on Bagon's location.

The attack left it wide open for the Dragon Breath though and with a pitiful noise, the rodent was batted away.

Ares let out a slight grunt as the shockwave slammed into her but mostly looked unbothered, merely allowing it to fuel her battle lust.

"Pikachu is unable to battle! The winner of this match is Bagon!"

"Well done," I praised with a confident smirk.

"Gon!" Ares grunted, gazing at Surge's side with hungry eyes.

Surge pursed his lips at the one-sided affair and gazed at me in a new light.

"You're stronger than I expected… so I'm gonna use a different second pokemon," he announced, grabbing a pokeball.

I inclined my head. "Sounds good to me. This match would have been boring otherwise."

Surge grinned and tossed the ball.

What came out, was cause for concern and my smirk vanished.

It was yellow and bipedal, with a vaguely humanoid shape. There were two antennae on its head with bulbous tips and it had two large fangs jutting out of its mouth.

To top it off, black stripes littered its body with a large lightning bolt in the middle of its chest.

"An Electabuzz as his second?"I thought with a deep frown.

Considering his last was almost certainly gonna be the Raichu that he had been solely using for the past few months to put trainers pokemon in the hospital… this was gonna get much tougher than I anticipated.

I grunted and steeled myself.

That was all the better for me. I wanted my battles to be tough and I wanted to come out on top knowing that my opponent was putting in the effort to win a battle.

No better way to improve, if you weren't trying your best to win a close battle.

That was the fun of it all.

"The contestants are set! Bagon vs Electabuzz! Begin!"

"Dragon Breath."

"Shock Wave."

Ares opened her mouth and fired the Dragon Breath at the same time Electabuzz fired a wave of electricity.

The turquoise beam managed to catch a couple of the Shock Wave, but the majority of the wave managed to land directly on Ares, making her grunt in annoyance.

Worst, the Dragon Breath didn't reach Electabuzz at all. It moved out of the way of the attack whose strength was diminished slightly by the Shock Wave.

Staying away was a bad idea in the long run. It was best that I accepted that reality right now instead of continuing this stubborn and slow defeat.

"Headbutt," I ordered, testing the waters a bit.

"Quick Attack," Surge retaliated, confident grin on his face.

Electabuzz whirred in confirmation and rocketed off, white streak following after it as the electric type charged the slower Ares.

Ares bellowed, not backing down for even a second and rushed her opponent…

Only to get batted away as the larger Electabuzz practically bowled her over.

"Thunder Punch!" Surge shouted.

Electabuzz's fist began sparking and it whirred, before slamming it against Ares' gut, making her cough a bit at the heavy blow.

I grit my teeth. Despite not being very effective, that didn't change the fact that Electabuzz carried quite a bit of physical power and my Bagon wasn't the biggest girl around.

Just the blow from the punch was enough to do damage, the electricity was a bonus.

"Scary Face!" I barked, eyes narrowed as I thought of a plan to win.

Ares recovered from the punch and snarled, eyes flashing an intimidating red as she activated Scary Face once more.

Unlike Pikachu, Electabuzz only showed slight effects to the Scary Face.

Makes sense, Electabuzz were predators too and I only had a Bagon. Once she became a Salamence, Scary Face would be most effective.

"Dragon Breath!" I ordered.

"Quick Attack! Get away!" Surge demanded, even as Ares opened her mouth.

Electabuzz began glowing white once more and dashed away, successfully avoiding the attack but I was thankful for the sudden space between us.

"Quick use Dragon Dance!" I barked, smirking as Electabuzz made great distance from her.

Surge's eyes widened in disbelief at the sight of Ares' body moving to a rhythm that only she could hear, red and blue aura surging around her.

"Dragon Dance? What?!" He grunted in shock, before coming to his senses.

"Electabuzz, Shock Wave!" Surge barked, frowning slightly as Ares finished her dance.

"Dragon Breath! Destroy it!" I retorted.

Dragon Dance was a move that was very similar to the games. The user would perform a dance that had draconic roots to it (don't ask me. I didn't know the lore behind it) that boosted the offensive capabilities of a Pokemon.

The difference between the games?

Every attack was offensively boosted. Especially dragon moves.

This world was really fun.

Case in point, Ares opened her mouth and launched a gigantic dragon breath, dwarfing all her others since the match started.

That pesky Shock Wave attack stood no chance and was engulfed by the turquoise flames, but Electabuzz was already on the move.

The electric type launched forward but Ares could match it now. She was capable of reacting to him because her training partner had been my quick little Zorua.

With a feral grin, Ares ducked her head and Headbutted the hell out of Electabuzz.

Fun fact, Ares had been getting pestered by attacks the whole match and I had used Rage at the very beginning.

She didn't dodge a single attack, just allowing all of them to brush against her draconic skin and letting it fuel both her love of battle... and Rage.

The results? Electabuzz's gut was nearly caved in from the force of the Headbutt.

"Buzz!" Electabuzz wheezed, as inertia finally shifted and launched it away from it's position.

I smirked wildly as Electabuzz soared away and tumbled against the ground, collapsing with a pained heave but much to my displeasure, the Electric type got back up with shaking legs.

Tch. Whatever, it was the same situation as with Pikachu. One more hit and it was as good as done for.

Surge grunted at the state of Electabuzz, no doubt noticing that it wasn't faring too well.

"Quick Attack," he ordered, co*cky grin finally off his face.

"Meet it with Headbutt. Overpower it," I grunted.

Ares' aim wasn't good enough to hit a moving target with Dragon Breath but the speed of Dragon Dance should help her keep up with it.

"Thunder Wave!" Surge suddenly shouted.

My eyes flew open in shock.

I had prepared for the possibility of Thunder Wave, but after seeing Pikachu not attempt it even once, I assumed Surge was the type to just keep his offense up, with no room for status moves.

"I don't normally do this against newbies, but I can't have you just steam rolling the match now can I?" The Gym Leader informed me, grinning smugly at someone who he was probably twice the age of.

This son of a bitch was trying really hard to make sure a 0 badge trainer didn't win this match huh?

Electabuzz, surging with the speed of Quick Attack, completely diverted his course of action and juked to the left.

As a surprised Ares missed her mark, my Bagon was left wide open to the sudden Thunder Wave.

The weak waves of electricity connected squarely with Ares and she let out a whining snarl, as static began coursing off her.

I snarled in annoyance and bit my cheek.

One thing I noticed, was that I had a tendency of letting my teams nature seep into me when I got caught up in the middle of battle.

Depending on who I was using, I'd handle things a little differently and because I was battling with Ares, my strategy became a lot more aggressive because she was my most aggressive pokemon.

I don't think I needed to fix it because it allowed me to relate more to my pokemon but I was the brains here. I needed to act like it.

"Quick Attack!" Surge barked, a predatory gleam in both his and Electabuzz's eye.

I grit my teeth. "Ares, Ember. Slow it down," I called out.

Much to my frustration, the moment Ares opened her mouth to form the necessary energy, the static began running through her body and she was left wide open.

The Quick Attack connected squarely with her and she was launched away from the momentum of the tackle.

Ares let out a roar of aggravation as she attempted to move, only for those sparks to make their presence known.

Electabuzz panted in exhaustion but began whirling its arms.

"Shock Wave!"

"Try and destroy as much as you can, Ares!"

No luck. Every bolt of the Shock Wave crashed into the paralyzed Ares and I snarled.

Paralyze was f*cking ridiculous. What the hell? Potions and other medicine weren't allowed in battle either so I was just stuck in this situation?

Bullsh*t.

By now, the damage had accumulated on my hardy Bagon and she was panting as harshly as the Electabuzz was.

Neither were going to last long but Ares should have comfortably won this before.

I'd have to look into status conditions more and try to find counters to them. They were nonsense.

"Wrap this up Electabuzz! Thunder Punch!" Surge shouted, intent to finish this off.

Electabuzz roared along with Surge and launched itself forward, sparks rolling off the fist it had been whirring just before and I grit my teeth.

Alright then. Ares and I already fought recklessly enough.

Time to up the ante.

"Ares, block it with your head!" I yelled, silver eyes blazing in a moment of madness.

Surge's eyes widened at the command.

Ares roared in confirmation and ducked her head, allowing the Thunder Punch to bash into her hard skull. Electricity surged across her body, but her head weathered the physical punch extremely well.

Electabuzz roared in pain at connecting with the Bagon's skull, the physiology of the dragon type making it regret its decision, and I sneered.

"Ares, Bite. Do not let go of it!" I ordered with a maniacal gleam in my eyes.

Ares matched it. She fought through her pain and leapt at Electabuzz, latching onto the arm of the taller pokemon.

The electric typehowledat that, fruitlessly trying to get Ares off of it and failing at the raw determination of my psychotic dragon.

"Ares. Dragon Breath," I said in a tone of finality. "Don't let go."

Electabuzz and Surge eyes widened in horror simultaneously.

Ares knew exactly what I meant and without any hesitation in her bones, she charged a Dragon Breath in the mouth that was still latched onto Electabuzz.

Electabuzz's frantic energy increased at that and it desperately tried to get Ares off of it. It began sparking with electrical energy but it began sputtering out slightly due to just how tired it was.

"Electabuzz, Shock Wave! Get it off of you!" Surge ordered frantically.

It was not to be. The moment Electabuzz began gathering the necessary energy from its spent stores, Ares fired the point blank Dragon Breath.

A loud explosion took place and I stared coolly at the field.

Both Bagon and Electabuzz were on the floor, unconscious from being in such close proximity to the Dragon Breath. Brutal burns marred the Electabuzz's body, the unique property of draconic flames making its statement known.

"Electabuzz and Bagon are both unable to battle!" The referee announced. "Will both trainers please release your next Pokemon!"

I returned Ares to her ball. "Nice job you little psycho. You did your job well," I praised.

Well was an understatement. Ares went above and beyond to do her job and win or lose, she'd be getting rewarded for the display.

"You're nuts and so is your Bagon! A perfect match eh? I'm impressed!" Surge exclaimed, letting out a barking laughter as he gazed at me. "I won't lie, I expected this to be a wash in my favor but here I am on the backfoot! This went from a humbling session to a genuinely exciting battle!"

"You already used an Electabuzz against me and you still have one more. Aren't you a little ashamed to be doing this against a trainer with no badges?" I grunted, palming one of my pokeballs, this one with a black taping that covered the red of the pokeball.

He clutched one of his pokeballs and a grin made its way to his face. "I'd only be ashamed if they didn't deserve it! You're more impressive then you let on so it's only right I give you what you deserve!"

With that, he tossed his final pokeball and I gazed at his last pokemon.

It was a rodent, fur orange instead of yellow and cheek pouches yellow instead of red. It had bifurcated ears and a long tail with a thunderbolt at the end.

As expected, his final pokemon was the same Raichu he had been using since the circuit started.

Why he was using it? I don't know but allegedly, he was using it against anyone that he was sure it was stronger than.

In fact, Surge seemed to be upping the ante on every trainer that battled him for some secretive reason. I heard against more formidable trainers he was actually using his real team, with a much stronger Raichu and a goddamnElectivireof all things.

I wonder what the deal was. Jasmine told me she only tended to use one pokemon from her actual team in battles against the strongest opponents. Anymore and the battle would swing in her favor.

She was far stronger than a trainer with 8 badges... it was surreal to imagine.

Regardless, this wasn't the Raichu on Surge's main team. If it was, this wouldn't be a very fair fight now would it? The Raichu on his main team was his second strongest Pokemon and Surge was astrongtrainer.

That didn't change the fact that this Raichu had been sending lesser trainers straight to the Pokemon Center.

Normally, against a 0 badge trainer like me, this would be a slaughter but I was here to win.

"Loki," I said calmly, releasing my first pokemon.

The Zorua said nothing as he took the field, gazing at the co*cky Raichu with a neutral expression.

"The contestants are set! Raichu vs Zorua! Begin!"

"Thunderbolt!" Surge said immediately.

"Agility," I retorted, eyes narrowed.

"RaiiiiiCHU!" Raichu growled, shooting a massive beam of electricity that dwarfed the much smaller Zorua.

The f*ck? That Thunderbolt was gigantic...

Zorua grunted, slipping into Agility and dashing away from the attack with startling ease.

Without needing any instructions, he immediately activated both Taunt and Torment.

"A Zorua eh?" Surge muttered, watching his Raichu began growling in fury. "Those lil things are tricky… alright."

"Pursuit," I muttered.

"Quick Attack, run the runt over," Surge ordered.

Loki cloaked itself in dark energy and sprinted over to Raichu's position, boosted by the Agility.

Raichu didn't falter for a second. Getting on all fours, the large rodent launched itself forward into a Quick Attack of its own.

The rat blinked in confusion at running right through Loki's body, only to let out a squeal of annoyance as the real Loki slammed right into its back.

"Raiii," Raichu growled, anger mounting at the nuisance of a Pokemon.

"Snarl," I commanded, eyes narrowed as we continued to whittle down the Raichu.

That's what battling Loki would be all about. Frustration at being hit by everything, while failing to track its opponent properly.

"I see what your game is," Surge suddenly said. "And it's not going to work."

"Shock Wave!" The Gym Leader announced.

I snarled in annoyance. Did every single one of his pokemon have Shock Wave? What an annoying move!

Raichu grinned menacingly and summoned the tracking electricity.

Illusion wouldn't be able to avoid this attack so I thought of something else.

"Loki, run from the Shock Wave! Don't stop!" I barked, eyes narrowed.

Loki slipped back into Agility without any hesitation, sprinting away from the volts of electricity chasing him down like heat seeking missiles.

"Thunderbolt, cut off its course!"

A massive bolt of electricity, that effortlessly dwarfed Pikachu's earlier, attempted to smash into the Zorua but he just continued to run, leaping clean over the attack all while Shock Wave continued chasing him.

What the f*ck was this move? Did it run out of energy?!

"Get behind Raichu! Let it take the hit!" I demanded.

Loki followed my order without any hesitation, using his superior speed to sprint towards Raichu's location.

The rodent had no time to react, as Loki forced it to get in between him and the Shock Wave and the surprised Raichu was forced to take its own attack.

Luckily, it didn't seem to have Lightning Rod to boost its own output even further.

"Not bad… but not good enough," Surge said calmly.

Unluckily, that attack didn't do anything.

Before I could tell Loki to get out of there, Surge sealed our fate with one move.

"Discharge, don't give it anywhere to go."

Raichu let out a pretty evil noise and lit up far too brightly.

Loki howled in pain as the wide electric attack struck him and sparks began surging across his body.

"Mega Punch."

Raichu grinned violently and began charging up a Mega Punch, no doubt willing to sock my Zorua with glee.

Yeah right. f*ck off you little rat.

I returned Loki to the ball with a deep frown. "I forfeit Loki."

Loki would have been able to whittle down that Raichu… but these tracking moves were seriously infuriating. Without being able to rely on Illusion, a pokemon like Raichu would eventually overwhelm him like shown here.

Tch. He wasn't gonna be happy about that and I wasn't either.

"The challenger has forfeited Zorua! As a result, Raichu wins the battle! Challenger, please release your final Pokemon!"

Raichu looked miffed at not being able to land that Mega Punch and that was the main reason I didn't let it do so.

"Gaia," I grunted, releasing the Bayleef from the ball. "You're last girl. Let's wrap this up."

Gaia gazed back at me and smiled eagerly at the prospect for battle, getting a small smirk out of me too.

Raichu looked none the worse for wear. The only thing that had really taken a hit was its mental and by now, Taunt had worn off, though Torment still remained...

Not that they knew that.

"This is the final round between Gym Leader Surge and Challenger Silver! Raichu vs Bayleef! Begin!"

"Thunderbolt."

"Light Screen."

Raichu wasted no time launching that massive bolt of electricity but snarled in annoyance as a shimmering pink screen formed and blocked a majority of the attack.

"Not bad," Surge commented. "Raichu, Mega Punch."

"Reflect."

Surge's eye twitched a bit at that but I wouldn't have noticed if not for paying attention to it.

Like trainer like pokemon I suppose.

Raichu launched himself forward to throw the Mega Punch, but collided solidly with the wall of Reflect and let out a growl of annoyance.

"Grab it. Poison Powder and Leech Seed," I instructed with a small smirk.

Gaia followed my orders to a tee. Vines, that had gotten suspiciously quicker after meeting Saury, lashed out before Raichu could step back, wrapping around the evolved rodent.

She opened her mouth and fired out a poisonous cloud and at the same time, the beads around her neck fired seeds that took root in Raichu's body and began wrapping around it.

"Discharge!" Surge growled.

"Don't let it. Slam it on the ground."

Right as Raichu began sparking, Gaia lifted it high and brutally slammed it onto the field.

Raichu whined as Gaia disrupted its attack with that brutal slam and the Bayleef lifted the rodent up to do so once more.

"Raichu, cut the vines with your tail and get away!" Surge suddenly said, noticing the dire state that the battle would very quickly begin to take.

I frowned as Raichu's sharp, lightning bolt shaped, tail effortlessly cut through Gaia's vines, getting a growl of annoyance out of her, and the evolution of Pikachu rocketed away.

No matter. Playing keep away wouldn't do it any favors. It was already panting slightly from the effects of getting drained by both Leech Seed and Poison Powder.

Surge must have realized that too.

"Thunderbolt! Full voltage! We need to end this quick!" He barked out.

Raichu was in full agreement.

"CHU!" Raichu roared, letting loose a massive bolt of thunder.

"Light Screen," I grunted, eyes narrowed.

Gaia summoned the shimmering pink screen but she had only just recently learned Light Screen and it was an exhausting move to maintain if not mastered.

As expected, the ridiculous Thunderbolt smashed through the Light Screen and directly into her, getting a squeal of pain from Gaia.

It said something about this Raichu that the thunderbolt did that amount of damage despite being not very effective.

"Quick Attack! Use Mega Punch afterwards!" Surge demanded.

Raichu surged forward quickly with the speed of Quick Attack, before using the momentum to slam a Mega Punch directly onto Gaia's midsection.

"Bay!" Gaia squealed in pain as she was sent tumbling back.

She let out a whine of pain, bruises and burns already littering her scales.

My eyes narrowed. "Razor Leaf!"

The sharp and numerous leaves were shot out like rockets, greatly enhanced by Gaia's evolution but none of that mattered because Raichu had already gotten out of dodge with another Quick Attack.

The moment Raichu's Quick Attack ended, I struck.

"Use Razor Leaf again right now!" I told her with a predatory gleam.

Surge's eyes narrowed in confusion at my command. "Raichu, Quick Attack again! Get out of that spot! Run circles around it and use Shock Wave!"

But much to his surprise, Raichu's attempts to activate Quick Attack completely failed, leaving the shocked rodent at the mercy of the Razor Leaf.

It recovered admirably and tried to move, but it was too late and the sharp leaves reached his location, cutting into him with expert precision.

Raichu squealed in pain and confusion, caught completely off-guard and I pressed my sudden advantage like a shark smelling blood.

"A gift from Loki,"I smirked violently. "Gaia, grab it now."

"Raichu, move out of the way!" Surge's voice was frantic and confused, not able to piece together why Quick Attack failed yet.

Raichu, in a moment of raw panic and confusion, that showed it was not apart of Surge's main team, attempted to activate Quick Attack again, only to failonce more.

Not to mention, the poison and Leech Seed were swiftly sapping it of energy while Gaia steadily healed back up. Right now, the poor guy was in a complete state of delirium and we took full advantage of that.

Gaia had a rather sad*stic gleam in her eyes as her vines lashed out and wrapped around the Raichu without any mercy.

She definitely inherited being a sad*st from me, because my eyes were almost certainly reflecting the same thing as hers.

"Summon a Reflect under it and slam it down," I ordered.

"Raichu! Thunderbolt! Put everything into it!" Surge barked in a last ditch effort to get out of the sticky situation.

Props to this Raichu for being able to follow that order despite how terrible its situation was. With a loud roar of its name, the rodent exploded in pure electricity and sent it Gaia's way.

At the same time, a blue screen formed under it, before the Raichu was lifted high into the air and slammed down into the Reflect with crushing force.

Gaia let out a shriek of pain as the hellish Thunderbolt crashed into her and she began swaying heavily, before a green aura surrounded her and began slowly patching her burned marks back up.

Raichu was not so lucky. The electric type lay prone, unconscious to the world around it. Cuts littered its body from the Razor Leafs and bruises marred its fur from the slams of Vine Whip.

"Raichu is unable to battle and as a result, Gym Leader Lt. Surge has no more Pokemon to use! The winner of this match is the challenger, Silver!"

"WOOO! GET EM SILVER!" Green cheered, clapping happily at my display. There was an excited gleam in her eyes and I snorted to myself.

I let out a grunt of surprise, as I was tackled to the floor before letting out a tiny chuckle as Gaia began excitedly licking my cheek.

She looked exhausted but that was to be expected. Her moves were really draining to use and Raichu packed a ridiculous punch.

"Well done Gaia. You're on a roll," I praised, running a hand against her leaf with a pleased smirk. "You beat the hell out of that Raichu. A lot of people got wiped by it you know? And you beat it while it was practically fresh!"

"Bay!" She cheered, accepting my praise with a smug look.

"Not bad at all!" Surge boomed, making his way over to my side with a grin. "Torment eh? It took me too long to realize that's what you used."

I glanced up at the Gym Leader, managing to straighten my features even as Bayleef continued her affections on me.

It must have been a funny sight to see someone who always had a harsh expression like me, getting gushed over by a Bayleef. The contrast must have been very peculiar.

"No point announcing a move like Torment," I said idly, pushing myself up to regard the massive man. "Best to let opponents figure it out on their own."

That's exactly what I had told Loki. Why would I ever announce Torment or Taunt? It was much better to keep it a secret that could help you at the perfect time like against Raichu here.

Surge thought Loki only used Taunt, so I goaded him into using Quick Attack twice and he fell for it.

Once Quick Attack failed once, Raichu delved into a panic that swiftly snowballed the match into my favor.

He may have taken out my Zorua quickly, but Loki still made his presence known.

"Not bad at all, Silver!" Surge laughed, clasping my shoulder with that meaty hand of his.

I nearly buckled from the force and batted it aside with a withering glare. "Don't touch me," I growled.

If he was bothered by it, he didn't show it.

"You're definitely a newer trainer but your progress isn't 0 badges at all! You already have different methods for your teammates too… you're gonna end up a scary trainer," the gym leader praised.

"As the leader of Vermilion, I acknowledge your skills and hereby grant you the Thunder Badge!" He announced, pulling out the badge.

It was an eight-pointed gold star that had a gold octagon in the center of it. It gleamed and I grabbed it out of his hand with a curious gaze.

Oh wait, I didn't have a badge case.

"You don't have a badge case do you?" Surge snorted, even managing to makethatsound loud. "Hold on one second, I'll get you one. Consider it a gift for giving me a helluva surprising battle."

I was going to refuse the offer but honestly, I had no reason to so I just shrugged in acceptance.

The giant of a man lumbered off and I idly watched him go, noticing a figure running up to me from the corner of my eye.

"That was awesome!" Green praised, patting Gaia on the head with a wide grin. "Seriously! You're so good! I can't believe this is only your first gym badge! You and Gaia totally owned that Raichu! I knew she was strong but she's so strong!"

Gaia puffed up at that and I couldn't keep the pleased smirk off my face.

"The training paid off. Gaia was able to weather Raichu's onslaught real well and Saury seemed to help her out with the speed of Vine Whip too," I mused, recalling the battle in my mind.

I know Loki wouldn't be happy about that, but he shouldn't be ashamed of his performance. The fact that every single one of Surge's pokemon had Shock Wave, was just annoying for his entire style.

He also didn't have the required power to take out Raichu. When you were against a tougher opponent that countered your style of fighting, there was only ever one outcome that it would reach. That was just the harsh reality and I hope he didn't take it too bad.

Green beamed. "Will you watch my battle?!" She asked suddenly.

I raised a brow at that.

Well, she had been my training partner for these 3 days… if not for Green, this match might have been even harder but she helped me out a ton…

It would only be right if I watched her battle...

"Hell no," I replied with a snort, returning Gaia to the ball with another pat.

Yeah right.

Green blinked, before her eyes went wide in confusion.

"N-No?!" She balked.

"Yeah… no," I said coolly. "I'm not interested in watching your match. You're not gonna lose anyways with that monster of an Ivysaur."

She spluttered in disbelief. "Don't be so mean Silvy! Watch my battle!"

"No."

"Pleaaaase!"

"No."

"Prettyyyyy pleaaase!"

"No."

By now Green was clutching my jacket in a way that didn't make me want to instinctively throw her (I had batted her hand off of me multiple times over the day), refusing to let me go.

She was gazing at me like a kicked puppy and I gazed back with unimpressed eyes.

Fun fact, Green didn't like when the day ended with just training. No, for some godforsaken reason, she actually enjoyed hanging out with me.

She would constantly pester me to do things after training was over, since we started in the morning and finished around midday, and used these same exact eyes to get me to agree… but she didn't realize that these eyes barely affected me.

I simply agreed because I had nothing better to do, but agreeing after the first ask was not really my style.

I liked to make it seem like I was putting up resistance despite not caring. Made the weaker people back off.

Green was not one of those weaker people. She would bug me forever if she had to.

Mischievous and cunning Green must have thought it had to do with her "cuteness" whenever I eventually complied.

I snorted at the thought. What a funny girl she was.

"Actually, you should stay back and watch the battle! I've got something to give you!" Surge called out, handing me the badge case.

I shot him a scalding glare, as Green perked up in joy.

"So just give it to me now dumbass there's no reason to wait," I bit out. I opened up the case and placed my badge in any slot before shutting it and placing it in my bag.

"It would be faster to just hand it out to you and the girl here after her match," Surge laughed, utterly unbothered by my foul temper.

Are you kidding me? Everyone here was a freak.

I scowled and marched to the stands. I had half a mind to just ignore him and leave but whatever. I didn't have to leave for Pewter immediately I guess.

"Yay!" Green cheered happily, taking her place on the field as she shot me a thumbs up.

My response was to flip her off but she brushed it off like she brushed off all my terrible mannerisms.

Annoying. That's what she was.

Green and Surge's battle, unlike mine, was a one on one battle.

This was what he had been doing against every other trainer that challenged him. I was the exception because I had requested for it and for some reason, he agreed to my demands.

Probably to put me in my place.

Heh, he failed. I had already gotten my arrogance beaten in by a Fraxure, I wouldn't lower it any further until I nearly died again!

Green was all business. Her black dress was gone, replaced by a teal shirt and red skirt combo, red wristbands, long cyan socks and white shoes.

That same white bucket hat remained firmly on her head as she gazed calmly out at the field.

Surge, considering Raichu was unconscious from my earlier beating, had sent out a hardy looking Magneton and in response, Green confidently released Saury.

I watched the match in renewed interest because the first thing Surge had Magneton do, was use a move by the name of Electric Terrain.

I vaguely remember a move name like that. Changed the field or something.

It must have increased the power of electric moves too because that Magneton was rocking some serious firepower.

It's electric attacks came out in furious bolts, hitting the Ivysaur who managed to evade some, but not nearly all of them.

In response, Saury launched various grass attacks, testing Magneton for something and watching as the floating magnet hardly registered some attacks.

Steel type was a terrible typing for the Ivysaur. Not only did it resist the grass type attacks, it was completely immune to poison attacks as well.

"Sunny Day," Green said suddenly, looking completely at ease despite the matchup disadvantage.

Saury grunted and began concentrating, before shooting a white light into the sky.

I scowled in annoyance, as the rays of the sun intensified and punished me for wearing long clothing.

But that annoyance turned into a silent surprise as the entire tone of the battle shifted.

I knew Green's Ivysaur had Sunny Day. I don't know how he had it and why, considering he didn't even have Solar Beam yet… but it did help boost Growth.

"Growth, Saury."

Saury let out a rumbling growl, plant on its back blooming a bit from the effects of the Growth and I watched it soak in the sunlight.

Then it took a single forward and my mouth opened a little bit, as that massive f*cking Ivysaur began moving like it were a Pikachu.

Wait just a goddamn second. Did this thing haveChlorophyll?!

Holy hell, are you telling me this entire time Saury was even stronger than I initially thought?

Saury belied his size greatly with how quick he was suddenly moving and two gigantic vines, size boosted by Growth, sprouted out before slamming into the frantic Magneton.

Magneton never stopped firing attacks. Thunderbolts, Shock Waves… I even saw it shoot out an unpolished Flash Cannon and Tri-Attack.

Before, Saury would just weather the attack and fire back even stronger but now he wasactively dodging them.

Those huge vines of it began battering the Magneton nonstop, before Saury supplemented his offense by firing Razor Leafs at it as well.

It didn't matter if they weren't effective, because the Ivysaur was hitting it far muchandit was boosted by Growth. The damage was very quickly adding up and Saury just naturally hit really hard.

I would know. None of my Pokemon could beat this thing and three of them had resistance to its moves. The one who currently came closest was Ares but she lost in the end too.

Saury wrapped up his dominant performance by wrapping more huge vines around the Magneton, before slamming it brutally on the ground.

"Magneton is unable to battle and as a result, Gym Leader Lt. Surge no longer has any pokemon left! The winner of this match is challenger Green!"

Green grinned and leapt happily. "I did it! Yes! Good job Saury!" She praised happily, hugging the Ivysaur.

Saury grunted, smiling slightly at Green and wrapping his vines around her before she returned him to his ball.

"Damn,"I thought with furrowed brows. Saury was actually a freak of a pokemon.

Chlorophyll blindsided me. Saury hadn't deigned to showcase that ability in our spars and I felt my resolve to crush Green in a battle raise.

It's not like Saury would be her only problem in the future either. Green's team was going to progress almost as hard as my team was.

Right now to be completely honest, if not for Saury, I'd be able to comfortably beat Green in battle but that Ivysaur completely flipped the power in her favor.

But as she got better, her team would very quickly catch up to Saury. Lappy was getting strong fast, but Vee, Larvee and Togee were still babies (Vee less so).

Her final team looked pretty scary. Both our final teams did actually.

The fights between us were going to only get better. I guess she really could be my rival for this region.

"Alright, what the hell do you want?" I asked, ignoring Green's badge face shoving as I instead gazed at Surge.

Surge laughed and began digging in his pocket.

"You sure don't waste any time, kid!"

I sneered, only to blink as Surge produced two pieces of paper and two TMs.

"The reason I've been upping the ante, is because of these babies right here!" Surge said, handing the paper to both me and an interested Green.

"Tickets?"I thought.

"A ticket?" Green said aloud.

"Yep! To the S.S Anne! We're running a special event with it this year." Surge exclaimed. "Only worthy trainers are allowed on and I'm the one tasked with giving out the tickets, so I've gotta weed out the ones not ready for it!"

My brows furrowed. A ticket to the S.S Anne from Surge?

Wasn't this… from the Anime? In the games Surge didn't give you a ticket to the Anne. Bill did.

But now he was? Yeah this was from the Anime for sure.

"When does the boat show up?" I asked calmly.

"Two weeks," Surge replied easily.

Two weeks… perfect. I could probably get Pewter and Cerulean badges at that pace if I planned correctly.

"Alright," I grunted, pocketing the ticket. "I guess I'll be there."

"Me too!" Green nodded in excitement.

Surge nodded with a grin, before handing us the yellow discs. "A gift from me! It's the TM for Shock Wave! It's permanent too so use it as much as you want."

Shock Wave… I didn't even know when I was going to catch an electric type or which I'd catch.

It would be useful though. If I did catch one, I was going to abuse this Shockwave move because damn was it annoying.

I took it out his hand and placed it in the TM section of my bag.

"Awesome! Thanks so much!" Green beamed, doing the same thing.

Surge laughed again. "Alright, now I gotta head to the center and you kids probably do too. I haven't lost back to back in a long time."

"No. Leave me the hell alone," I said with a glare.

They both completely ignored me and I sighed.

Whatever.

"So what do you plan on doing before the ship arrives?" Green asked curiously, biting into her sandwich as she gazed at me with those big green eyes.

Green wasn't an uncommon eye color but her shade of it was pretty damn unique, much like my pale silver eyes. Hers were a fluorescent green, practically glittering with wonder.

"Going to Pewter City through Diglett's Cave... then traverse Mt. Moon to head to Cerulean," I replied, biting into my own sandwich.

Green nodded, expression thoughtful. "You plan on fighting the gyms there?"

I nodded. "That's the plan. I have two weeks to get their badges, then I'll come back here and get on the boat."

Wooo… another boat ride. Was this like my fourth one? In such a short span too. I never even road a boat back in my previous world and it was basically my main form of transportation here.

And I spent most of my boat rides cooped up in my room. Maybe I'd actually enjoy the benefits of a boat when I got on the S.S Anne.

"What about you?" I asked, finishing off my sandwich.

Green's thoughtful expression deepened. "I… was thinking of going to Pewter City through Diglett's Cave… and then Cerulean through Mt. Moon."

…

I glared at the girl with narrowed eyes. "Absolutely not, Leaf."

There was something deeply wrong with her. I don't understand what was wrong with her.

"We are not traveling together. Go get your other gym badges. You've got time to secure one or two just like me," I said firmly.

"But Silvy! I had so much fun hanging out with you these past 3 days!" Green argued, crossing her arms and having the audacity to pout. "You're one of the best trainers I encountered my age and you taught me the importance of training too! I think we'd be great traveling partners!"

"Cool," I said blandly.

She was insistent. "Wouldn't it be fun if we traveled together?!"

"Maybe for you and even then, I doubt it. We're complete opposites. We'd probably kill each other after a week."

"Nuh uh!"

I felt a twitch form in annoyance and took a deep breath.

This was one of the things Green would pester me about until I actually left this damn city.

"What is your deal? Why do you want to travel with me?" I asked, trying to figure this out. "I'm not nice. I'm not pleasant. I don't think I've complimented you even once and I was a complete dick to your childhood friend. So why are you so insistent on this? You've been a trainer long enough to have a traveling companion but you decided I was the right choice. What's wrong with you?"

Was she dumb? What type of masoch*st would want to put up with me for a prolonged period of time? I don't even think Jasmine was that insane...

Nah she was. Bless Jasmine's, too nice, soul.

Green frowned slightly, thrown for a loop by my questioning behavior. She didn't expect my curiosity because I wasn't curious by nature. I either said yes or no without questioning her but for something like this, naturally I'd want to ask questions.

This wasn't some small thing such as hanging out. This was a decision that would change my entire journey through Kanto.

In the first place, I wanted to travel alone. I was still a criminal after all and I didn't plan on suddenly becoming a saint.

"Well… it's just," Green pursed her lips. "I dunno… I just haven't had this much fun hanging out with someone in years. I used to have fun with Ash and Blue, but they've become so hostile, that if I hang out with one of them, the other will get mad and it's exhausting…"

"But you're different! Yeah you're mean and really rude and you don't really like anyone, but you're that way with everyone! You're mean… but I still like hanging out with you because you're just generally malicious! You don't actually hate me because of anything I've done! That's just who you are!"

Are you f*cking kidding me?

Since when was having a bad personality a good thing? I just don't get it at all. Jasmine thought the same thing didn't she?

"Besides… Team Rocket is becoming more prominent and I personally stopped their operation twice. I've been meaning to travel with someone for a while because I could be in some danger… Most people are already buddied up and honestly... I don't think I can rely on them if that happens like I can rely on you!" Green added, using the most logic since this whole thing.

...That made sense. She should have just lead with that.

She had a point. I seemed to have problems with Team Rocket as well so having her watching my back and vice versa, wasn't a bad idea.

"We're leaving tomorrow at 8 in the morning. Show up outside the center or I will leave you," I said tersely.

Green lit up at that and a wide grin split her face. She leapt across the table and hugged me excitedly.

"Yes! I'll be there! I definitely will! I'll even set an alarm for an hour earlier!" She announced.

I grunted in annoyance. "Don't touch me," I demanded, shoving her off me.

Unfortunately, I had done this too many times to her and she swiftly recovered.

"Tomorrow at 8… alright! I'm gonna go now for some last minute shopping! I'll see you tomorrow!" Green beamed, backing away and waving at me.

I sighed and waved her off. "Yeah yeah. See ya Leaf," I replied.

"STOP CALLING ME THAT! CALL ME GREEN!"

A snort left me as she disappeared, before I sighed.

I was still in the center waiting for Ares, Loki and Gaia to finish their checkups from the battle so I'd be here for a little longer.

To appease Jasmine and Joy, I did actually plan on finding a traveling partner… at some point, once I was sure my criminal actions weren't going to catch up to me.

Getting one as soon as I landed in Kanto, was not the plan.

Getting the counterpart of one of the main characters in the series, was definitely not the plan.

Green wasn't exactly like the video game version and that made sense because this world was not the games.

But if there was one thing she had, it was their talent.

Sure she wasn't as invincible as the protagonist of the video games and I very much doubted Green was going to become Champion in her first year (I don't think that was possible in this world) of training… but she would become Champion eventually at this rate if that's what she set her mind to.

Her team had some similarities to the depictions of Red as well, though likely not in the exact order he got them.

Venusaur, Lapras and Eevee were common sights… but she had a Togepi and now a Larvesta too... with the addition of all the cross region stuff, it makes sense that she would have different choices but it was fascinating all the same to actually see.

It wasn't ideal that I was traveling with a hero but whatever, if push came to shove… I'm positive that I could escape in the long run.

I could also conveniently disappear whenever she was off doing her main character stuff or whatever.

…Sometimes I wish I didn't get humbled by that Fraxure. Yeah my ego was massive after all my success… but now I've been reduced to this, actually considering other people's words and not being an arrogant ass all the time.

Normally, my conversation with Green would have ended the moment she appeared in front of me… and our pleasantries would have turned violent when she opened my bag…

But now we were traveling together. What a funny twist of fate.

"Silver! You're pokemon are healed and ready to be taken back!"

I sighed, standing up to go approach the, too nice, Nurse Joy.

Why was it that whenever I said one thing, the other tended to happen?

It was ridiculous.

I was staring at my team, in my room at the Pokemon Center, with a small smile.

"First things first, we won the match and got our Gym Badge," I revealed, showcasing the badge for them all to see.

My smile widened at the pleased noises of my team.

"Ares, Loki, Gaia… fantastic job," I praised, gazing at the three fighters who participated.

"You all did great and before you start complaining…"

I sent a pointed glance towards my first pokemon and was satisfied to see him flinch in surprise.

"That Raichu packed too much power for you with a surefire way to hit you through your illusions. You don't have to be disappointed in that, besides Torment helped Gaia and I wrap up that match with little issue so thank you, Loki," I praised.

Loki's argument died on his lips at my logical words and I scratched behind his ear.

"Don't worry about it. You win some you lose some and that Raichu was a fully evolved Pokemon. We'll steadily increase your firepower until you have the strength to supplement your trickery," I assured.

My Zorua gazed up at me, before his eyes narrowed in determination and he nodded.

I gazed at Gaia with a proud gaze. "I already sang my praises to you girl, but you did a fantastic job neutralizing Raichu. You poisoned, restrained, drained, blocked… it's a controlled style and it's frustrating for them, but really enjoyable for you, isn't it?"

The unsavory gleam in Gaia's eyes, told me all I needed to know. It was clear as day that she enjoyed controlling the tempo of the fight and we'd keep at it.

I'd give her options to speed up the fight, options to slow it down… She'd completely control the field and her opponents every step of the way.

Finally, I turned to Ares and felt a feral smirk forming at the same time as her.

"Ares, you performed way above what I expected of you," I said genuinely, rubbing the hard helmet of hers. "Not only did you crush that Pikachu with hardly a struggle, you beat the hell out of an Electabuzz too! You fought through the pain and kicked his ass!"

Ares roared at that, looking utterly pleased with herself and I couldn't fault her.

"We'll continue to increase your power and endurance for now. You can take a good hit and once you become a Shelgon, we'll teach you even more defensive techniques, to help supplement the power you'll have as a Salamence, got that?" I instructed.

Once she became a Shelgon, her defenses would skyrocket but everything else, barring power, would practically disappear in preparation for the metamorphosis into Salamence.

I would take that time to teach her how to take a hit that didn't involve abusing her shell. Shelgon's would always be naturally more durable then Salamence because of that shell, but that didn't mean my Salamence had to lose all that durability.

Ares was going to become her namesake, a real war machine.

Ares looked up at her trainer, eyes practically shining in anticipation.

If there was any doubt about picking the wrong trainer (there had been none), the match she had against Surge dashed all of it away.

Her trainer was truly a worthy vassal, befitting the honor of riding along with her once she gained the abilities to dominate the skies!

I saw the look in Ares' eyes and smiled in a pleased manner. Looks like she was truly on board with me being her trainer now.

Good. Getting her loyalty now, would do wonders in not getting maimed to death when she first evolved into Salamence. The early hormones for Bagon's final evolution were infamous enough to warn most trainers about.

"Alright, next up we're going against a Rock type gym," I announced to my team. "Freyja, Beldum. I'm using you two for this battle no matter what so get ready."

Beldum simply nodded, their intent flashing through my mind for a moment.

Freyja looked a lot more nervous.

It was no secret that she was my weakest Pokemon but her control had been increasing steadily these past few days.

Her work with Water Pulse in particular, was getting pretty damn good. Rain Dance's output was slightly better but it wasn't anything too impressive. Maintaining it though, required a lot of energy so I had her practice keeping it up as long as possible.

While she couldn't beat any of my or Green's pokemon (her battles with Larvee were very close!), she was able to get some victories against rather incompetent opponents… in my opinion.

"Don't be nervous," I assured. "You have me guiding you. We'll win this badge and you'll win your match. Just do your best and I won't be disappointed."

Freyja gazed up at me, taken aback by my complete confidence in her, and then she smiled shakily at me and nodded vigorously.

I smiled at her and let the topic drop.

"By the way, we're traveling with Green for the time being. I don't know if its permanent but for now, we'll try it out," I told them. "Any objections?"

There was a brief silence, before my team gazed atmelike I had grown another head.

"What…?" I said in confusion.

"Bay," Gaia drawled, pointing a vine at me and getting a nod out of every single one of them.

"...I'm the only one that would have a problem with that?" I asked in disbelief.

Once again, they nodded.

"Fee!" Freyja beamed.

"You guys like Green?" I asked dumbly.

Yet another group of nods.

"Zor zorua," Loki explained gently.

"...You guys this this is good for me because I don't talk to enough people...?"

A final group nod. Even Beldum and Ares agreed on that one and they could care less about my social interactions

...

You've gotta be kidding me. No way were my pokemon telling me I needed to be less antisocial. No way were they actually encouragingmeto travel with her.

"...You guys are free to do what you want for the rest of the day," I grunted sourly, marching over to my bed to sulk in peace. "I'm gonna check out the next moves I want you to learn and do some adjustments now that we have another person moving with us. Don't mention the less than legal things I do by the way. That's a team secret."

I finished by tossing them all a pokeblock and got noises of affirmation from them all.

Before I could pull out my Pokedex to make good on my words, my Pokegear vibrating, made me glance at it and I flipped it open.

A message, from Green…

"Tomorrow at 8 right? I think that's what you said... Wait that's definitely what you said! Okay Silvy! I gotta go, Togee just tried to steal this trainers food so I have to apologize!"

I felt my eye twitching in annoyance.

When the f*ck did she add her number to my Pokegear? When the f*ck did she get mine?

The chilly morning air brushed against me and I let out a cold breath, stuffing my hands in my jacket pockets, before removing one to push the hair out of my eyes.

It was currently 7:50 and I was waiting for Green to eventually show up.

My internal clock demanded I wake up earlier, so I had been awake since about 6 actually. I took a bath with my team, made my team food, choked down my slightly edible meal (it was motivation to better my own cooking), and did a light workout that got the blood moving.

I had already returned the keys back to Nurse Joy so all that's left, was to wait for her to show up.

Before, I was going to leave her as soon as 8 hit… but with the news that my team liked Green, I would wait for a little longer.

Currently, I was relaxed against someone's house, the Pokemon Center visible from a distance that would allow me to see Green come out, as I contemplated my next course of action.

Considering I now had a person I was traveling with, it would be best if I start including her in my planning. Green was the type of person who would generally follow whatever I say we were doing, but she was independent enough to pitch in her own ideas.

I had a very my way or highway mindset, but that was typically when I had a set goal. If Green wanted to go somewhere and I didn't find it inconvenient, I'd not have much problem going.

Hm… I should consider a new sixth member. I wasn't hard pressed for one, and I would surely catch more than six in the future but I suppose filling out the last slot was a good side goal to focus on.

I was missing quite a few types as well…

I guess from the types I was missing, filling my last slot out with a Fire, Ghost or Electric type would probably be what I want the most.

But I couldn't really think of one right now, that'd be feasible to hunt.

The only fire type I'd seriously consider in Kanto, was Magmortar and the only electric type was its counterpart, Electivire.

Conveniently for Ghost, Dusknoir would be awesome too. It may have sucked in games but here? They were astonishingly rare and powerful.

Same with Electivire and Magmortar. They were much stronger than the games portrayed them as.

But alas, I don't think I wanted to catch those three. Sure if the opportunity arose, I'd take it... but I think I'd like to consider other options…

Which was the problem. I doubted I'd find options like those in Kanto. Sure there was much more national variance, but pokemon still had preferred regions.

I guess looking for a Ghost was my best chance? Most Ghosts congregated at Lavender Tower and we could realistically head there en route to Celadon.

I may even find something in Rock Tunnel. Maybe I'd even ask Green to let Lappy ride us to the Power Plant. There might be a decent electric type over there.

Alright, that didn't sound too ba —

My eyes darted upward, as the sound of a woman singing, interrupted my musings…

Except it wasn't a woman singing.

I froze solid, a primal fear surging through my body that filled me with just as much confusion because I didn't knowwhyI was afraid.

Well, I didn't know for long but I soon found out.

The source of the woman singing, wasn't actually a woman. It was a pokemon.

Light green in nature, the pokemon had some insectoid features but it looked much like a dragonfly.

A Flygon, one of the many dragons from Hoenn.

And on the back of that Flygon was a man.

He was a tall, middle aged man with very short black hair. He was wearing a long sleeved black shirt, with a large V neck that showed a white undershirt underneath and black trousers along with shoes.

It wasn't the Flygon that was filling me with such fear… Despite the fact that the dragon was gazing at me with a violent gaze, familiarity in its eyes… I didn't fear it nearly as much as the man riding on it.

The man gazing down at me with cruel gray eyes that looked similar, but oh so different to my unnatural silver hues.

"You're nervous," Giovanni pointed out idly. "I thought I taught you that being nervous detracted from how effective you could be. It's a waste to be anxious."

He was practically saying the same thing I said to Green earlier right before my gym battle. It was something that I thought of myself…

Why was he saying the same thing?

Taught me? What did he teach me?

"What do you want?" I bit out, anger mixing in with fear for reasons I couldn't explain.

Giovanni raised a brow, gazing down at me with slight amusem*nt.

"You ran off without saying a word and while the thought is still amusing, isn't it natural for a father to be worried for his favorite son? It's only right that I come to pay you a visit after hearing that you remained in Kanto. Not to mention, you managed to beat Surge. It seems like you really are worth my investment."

You would have thought hell froze over, with how my body stilled.

What did this asshole just say ?

Isn't it natural for a father to be worried for his son?

Oh no no no no. No f*cking way absolutely not.

...My connection to Team Rocket, my hatred for them, my anger and fear at Giovanni, my thieving and belligerent attitude, my birth city being Viridian…

Was because I was thesonof Giovanni, leader ofTeam Rocket?

"You've gotta be f*cking me."