Legal Disclaimer
Pokémon, the Pokémon and the characters and situations of the Pokémon world are the legal property of Game Freak Software, Creatures Inc., Nintendo Entertainment and 4Kids Productions. No breach of copyright is intended. This is a non-profit work for free distribution through the World-Wide Web.
Author's Notes
This is loosely based on my progress through Pokémon Yellow. It also reflects parts of the new features of the Pokémon World as revealed in the Gold- Silver- and Crystal-versions of the game.
There is one major difference from the games. Ash Ketchum, has been the Pokémon Master now for ten years. He lives in Pallet Town with his wife, former Cerulean City Gym Leader Misty Waterflower. The two of them run the Blue Thunder Gym near the Pallet Docks, the Pallet Town end of Route 21.
Because I am basing this on the games rather than the animé, Technical Machines and Hidden Machines are in use, and the Experience Level rules are in operation. However, I will not limit Pokémon to just four skills. Instead, Pokémon can use any skill that they can use by levelling up after they reach that level. Aside from those skills, base-level Pokémon can learn up to four TM/HM moves, evolved Pokémon can learn five such moves and ultimate-level Pokémon can learn six. If a Pokémon can only be evolved by the use of evolution stones, trading or taming, I consider both forms as ultimate-level.
This story will, doubtless, have a strange feel for readers more used to the animé universe. There is no 'Trainer's License' in the game. Rather, anyone can catch a Pokémon (Rattatas and Pidgeys below Experience Level 2 can be caught without being weakened first). However, only the best can survive on the roads and beat the Gym Leaders, opening the way for them to compete against the Trainers of the Pokémon League.
As always, the story begins with a child and his dream. A dream to be the very best. A dream to 'catch 'em all', and to be the greatest Pokémon Master of all time.
Book 3 - Onward and Northward
Chapter 1 - Setting Off
Ben was checking his medical kit out for what, to Barb, seemed like the hundredth time. Ben and Barb had visited the local Pokémart to stock up on various medical and other supplies, including some new Pokéballs to replace those that they used to capture new Pokémon since they set out. Now, they were both getting ready to set out from Viridian City. Ben was understandably nervous, as this was going to be the furthest he had ever been from home. "Ben, can we just go, please," Barb sighed.
Ben looked up at his new-found companion. "Barb, I want to make sure that I've got everything I need," he said at last.
"I can't see how you could have missed anything," Barb teased. "After all, you've only checked your pack a hundred times!"
Ben sighed and looked at Barb in a long-suffering way. Barb giggled and stuck her tongue out at him. Okay, maybe she's right, Ben thought. However, he wasn't about to admit that to a girl. "Well, as my checklist is complete, how about you? Are you ready to spend days and nights in the forest, far, far from civilisation?"
Barb looked at the electrified fence that separated the human-controlled zone of Viridian City from the wild areas heading north to Pewter City and gulped. "How long do you think it will take then?"
Ben smiled slightly. "According to Nurse Joy, it will take us at least five days, maybe seven, to reach Pewter City on foot," Ben said. "And there are no Pokémon Centres on the way, so you'd better have enough Potions and curatives for the whole journey. Let alone enough food for all your Pokémon."
Barb grimaced slightly. "I'm sure that I'm ready," she said after a fretful moment. "Let's just get going. The sooner we start, the sooner we get there."
Ben tilted his head in acknowledgement of Barb's comments. He led the way to the heavy gate set in the electrified fence, turned the handle to disarm the electrical current in the gate and pushed it open. "After you, my lady," he said with an elaborate bow and a courtly gesture.
Barb couldn't restrain a giggle. "Thank you, kind sir," she said and walked through the gate with all the aristocratic airs that she could muster.
Shock rolled her eyes at the two teens' over-acting. She could smell their nervousness. Keeps them from getting sloppy, she decided. There was something going on between the two Trainers, too. She wondered exactly when her Ben decided to allow this other human to join them.
Ben and Barb both stood at the start of Route 2, feeling very nervous. The area was dominated by temperate woods that covered the land as far as the eye could see. The forest wasn't dark by any stretch of the imagination, but it was still very forbidding to the two teenagers. No doubt, there were many uncharted dangers and new Pokémon in the land ahead. Finally, Barb walked up to a Trainer's Tip sign and read it. "Route 2," she read out. "Viridian City to Pewter City via Viridian Forest. Proceed directly north for the quickest journey." Barb was about to set off before she realised that she didn't know which way to go. "Which way is north?" she asked.
Ben grinned. "Halfway between sunrise and sunset in the direction that the shadows fall," he announced.
Barb was impressed despite herself. "Hey, yeah?" she asked.
Ben shrugged. "I don't know," he said at last. "I'm going to follow my compass." He pulled out a hiker's compass, which had been hung around his neck and pointed to the north. Barb rolled her eyes and the two youngsters set off, very nervously, into the woods.
Ben pulled out his Pokédex and called up the file on the area. "Route 2," Dexter said in his cheerful voice. "The primary hiking route taken by Trainers between Viridian City and Pewter City. Route 2 is dominated by forests of moderate density and is, therefore, home to many more species of Pokémon than more open areas.
"Route 2 has three major features of interest to Trainers. The Viridian Forest Nature Preserve lies on the western edge of the route, halfway between its' two ends. The preserve is open to all Trainers, and they may capture several species of Pokémon there which are not found anywhere else in the world.
"At the northern end of the route, near to Pewter City, lies the north-western end of the Diglett's Cave cave system. Although a fast short-cut to Vermilion City in the Great Bay, it is not recommended that Trainers attempt to navigate the caves without a well-trained ground-type Pokémon and one that has used Hidden Machine #05 - Flash.
"Just south of the end of Diglett's Cave is the village of Forest's Edge. This small community is home to a small laboratory operated by the UN Governing Council's research and environmental protection agency. It is also the home to a regular Pokémon trading event that takes place every Thursday.
"Trainers on Route 2 are likely to encounter Rattata, Pidgey, Pidgeotto, both genders of Nidoran, Weedle, Caterpie, Kakuna, Metapod, Beedrill and Butterfree. At night, Trainers may encounter Hoothoot, Spinarak and small numbers of Zubat[/i]."
There was a long pause as the two youngsters tried to absorb the enormity of the journey ahead. "Well, no one ever said that it would be easy," Ben said at last.
"Come on," Barb said, trying to cover her nervousness with action. "Let's get moving."
~*~*~*~
Soon, the two young Trainers were out of sight from civilisation. They looked around them with interest and nervousness, always aware of the threat of wild Pokémon lurking in the woods. Ben was thinking about the information he had read in his Pokédex. "Do you want to visit the Nature Preserve?" he asked Barb.
"Why bother?" Barb asked.
Ben shrugged. "Well, there are supposed to be Pokémon there that you don't find anywhere else," Ben said. "If I am to do this survey properly, then I will need to look in there too."
Barb sighed in a long-suffering way. "Okay," she allowed. "I just didn't want to be out here too long, that's all." Seeing Ben's quizzical expression, she elaborated. "Look, Ben, I don't like being out in the wilds, okay?"
"What's the problem?" Ben asked. "It isn't as if there are dangerous Pokémon like wild Sandslash or Charmeleon. Just a bunch of bug-types, mostly."
"Yeah, well I don't like bug-types," Barb said quietly.
"Hey, come on! They can be great if you train them properly," Ben said with a fearless grin.
Barb shuddered. "Maybe, but I just don't like them, okay?"
Ben laughed. "Don't worry, Barb," he said in a 'tough guy' tone of voice. "I'll protect you."
Barb rolled her eyes and decided to change the subject. "We should have our flying-types scout around," she announced. "According to everything I've heard, there can be lots of stuff lying around that other Trainers have dropped." Ben nodded and reached for a Pokéball attached to his belt. There were two flashes of light as Avia the Pidgey and Wings the Spearow materialised. "Okay, guys," Barb said, "we want you to look around and see if there is anything interesting lying around anywhere nearby. Got that?"
The two Pokémon trilled their understanding and shot off in opposite directions. Once again, the two Trainers were left in silence. "Er... Maybe we should stop for lunch?" Ben suggested. "It is after midday." Barb shrugged. She didn't mind one way or the other.
The two youngsters shrugged off their backpacks and settled down at the base of a tree. Ben pulled out a military-style ration bar and offered half to his companion. The two sat in silence for a while as they ate. "So..." Ben said at last. Barb noticed that he didn't like silence and seemed a bit uncomfortable sometimes. "You are from Cinnabar Island?" Barb nodded. "How did you get to the mainland then? You don't have a water-type Pokémon."
Barb grinned. "I took the ferry, silly," she said with a laugh. Ben blushed slightly in a way that she categorised as 'cute'. That stopped her train of thought like a mountain dropped across its' path. Since when was she calling this boy 'cute'? She shook her head to herself. Something told her that this friendship might have some unexpected consequences in the near future. "I'm not poor by any standards," she continued at last. "My parents weren't happy with me deciding to go on a Pokémon Journey, but they didn't try to stop me." Of course that wasn't strictly true, but she had already promised herself that she wouldn't dwell on the past.
Ben was nodding to himself. "I guess it isn't easy for parents to watch their kids walk off into the wilds," he admitted. "But it is good that your folks respected you enough to let you do what you had decided to do." Barb flushed in a strange way when he said that, and Ben filed that away for future consideration.
Ben pulled out his water canteen and took a sip. Much to his surprise, when he looked up again something very big was hovering right in front of his face. It was yellow and black and was looking at him with soulless compound eyes. "Zee-drill!" it buzzed loudly.
Barb screamed and Ben fell over in surprise. The monstrous insect somehow managed to maintain its' relative position in front of the boy's face. "Shock!" Ben yelled. The Pikachu looked up from her Pokémeal bar and saw the creature at once. She immediately launched a Thundershock attack that blew the creature sideways.
The giant insect swung around in mid-air and turned to face the Pikachu. It was obviously tough enough to take a Thundershock and come up smiling. "Watch it, Shock, it is going to counter-attack!" Ben called out. The creature shot towards Shock, its' drill-shaped forelimbs whirling with a loud, metallic screech. The agile Pikachu managed to dodge the attack. "Use Tail Whip!" Ben called out. Shock did as commanded and the wild Pokémon staggered back.
There was a brief pause as the creature seemed to think about the situation. Then it's shape blurred and there were half a dozen of them hovering in front of Shock, who took a step backwards in fear. "How many of them are there?" Barb said, her voice tight with fear.
"It is some kind of illusion," Ben declared. "Shock, use Thunderwave on them all!" Shock gave Ben an odd look, but she understood his idea. She unleashed a Thunderwave, deliberately widening the wave-front so that it consumed all of the hovering bugs. Five vanished, Ben was right about it being an illusion and the wild Pokémon dropped to the ground, shaking its' impressive heart-shaped head in a dazed way. "Great! Finish it off with a Tackle!" Ben called out.
"Pikaaa!" Shock cried out, shoulder-charging her opponent and knocking it backward. It struck the tree trunk and fell limply to the base of the tree.
Ben and Barb stared at the creature wordlessly for a moment. "What was that?" Ben gulped.
As Ben had his hands full comforting Shock, Barb pulled out her Pokédex (an old Mark 2 model) and scanned the Pokémon. "Pokémon [HASHTAG]#015[/HASHTAG] - Beedrill, the Poison Bee Pokémon," her Pokédex reported. "Beedrill is a hive-dwelling bug-type Pokémon with a secondary alliance to the poison-type. It is frequently found in forested areas, as it makes its' nest inside dead tree-trunks.
"Beedrill is one of the few bug-type Pokémon to learn a variety of strong bug-type attacks, making it a 'must have' Pokémon for new Trainers. However, wild Beedrill are renowned for their bad tempers. It is recommended that a new Trainer evolve Beedrill from its' base form, Weedle, rather than risk attempting to capture a wild Beedrill."
Ben looked at the smouldering, unconscious bug-type and swallowed. He didn't like the look of this creature, and he certainly didn't like the look of its' long stinger and its drill-shaped forelegs. "Barb," he said. The girl looked at him, her eyes wide with alarm. "I'm beginning to see your point about bug-types."
~*~*~*~
A few minutes after that stunning encounter, Avia returned to her Trainer. She hadn't found anything. There was no sign of Wings, and Barb was just getting worried when the red-brown flying-type flew up and landed on her shoulder. The bird-like Pokémon pecked her trainer on the cheek for attention before proceeding to ignore Barb. The two youngsters took that to mean that she had not found anything of importance.
After recalling their Pokémon, Ben and Barb set off northwards once more. There was a lot of miles left to cover if they were to reach Pewter City in five days as they had initially expected. All around them, the forests remained silent. However, they only had to think back to the 'Beedrill' incident to realise that all was not as peaceful as it seemed.
~*~*~*~
"Shock, use Thundershock attack!" Ben shouted. Shock dodged the Hoothoot's tackle attack and unleashed her offensive electric-type move, slapping the other Pokémon from the air. Ben's opponent, a young male Trainer from Viridian City watched with horror as his flying/normal-type tumbled to the ground to join the Spinarak that Avia had vanquished about a minute previously.
"Aw, darn," the boy, Niles, said. He recalled his Pokémon before looking at Ben in an annoyed way. "You have a lot of luck, you know that don't you?"
"Sometimes luck is all you need," Barb interrupted before Ben could say a word. "But skill makes a lot of difference too." Ben nodded in thanks for his companion's words of support.
"Whatever," Niles said. "I'm just glad that the gatehouse to Viridian Forest is so close by, or I'd have to go all the way back to Viridian City to have my Pokémon healed." The boy handed over $50, the wager the two Trainers had made on the outcome of the battle. "Maybe we will get the chance to have a rematch one day," Niles suggested. "How about it?"
Ben thought about that. "Why not?" he said. The two boys pulled out their cell-phones to exchange numbers. After a few more pleasantries, they went their separate ways.
"You satisfied now?" Barb asked with a funny smile. Ben blinked at her in incomprehension. "That's the second Trainer that you've challenged in the last two days!"
Ben shrugged. "As someone not too far from here once said: 'That's what Trainers do, isn't it?'" Barb nodded in acknowledgement, her smile getting slightly wider. "Training only goes so far," Ben continued. "You have to be willing to put your Pokémon through real battle if you want them to grow as fast as they can."
Barb shrugged. "Maybe," she said. "I just think that you enjoy it a bit too much for my tastes."
[Tell Barb that I like winning fights,] Shock told Ben in a slightly condescending tone. Ben passed his Pikachu's comments on with a laugh and Barb rolled her eyes dramatically. He had noticed that there seemed to be some awkwardness between his Pikachu and his travelling companion. He couldn't figure out what the problem could be though. So far, Shock hadn't held any kind of grudge for anything bad that had happened to her, so Ben couldn't believe it was about their drawn match in Viridian City Central Park.
Ben shook his head. He would probably go crazy if he tried to figure out everything right away. Something was going on between him and Barb though. He just couldn't figure out what that was...
As the two friends (and their Pokémon) continued onwards, they came to their first major obstacle. "Great, more long grass," Barb groused.
Ben looked around. There was no clear way around the long, wide patch of grass. Thick trees enclosed the field to either side. However, on the other side of the field was a welcome bit of civilisation. "There is the gatehouse to the nature preserve!" Ben said. Indeed it was, surrounded by a tall fence with a car park and a feeder road heading off (presumably) to some highway.
"Let's get going then," Barb said. She didn't like crossing areas of long grass; there were too many surprises. However, the rare Pokémon that the Pokédex guide to the area promised waiting within was too tempting to pass up.
They pressed into the tall grass, their senses alert for the first sign of trouble. Fortunately, their luck seemed to be holding. No wild Pokémon lunged out at them and no attacks suddenly flashed out from in between the grasses. Then, just as they were about to reach the end of the trail, Ben froze. "What?" Barb squeaked.
"Look!" Ben whispered, pulling his Pokédex off of his belt. In the grass, close to the edge of the grassy area, sat two blue rabbit-like Pokémon. Ben read off the display of his Pokédex. "They're female Nidorans," he said. "I was wondering if I was going to get a matched set." Ben put away his Pokédex and reached behind him for the Pokéball carrying his newest Pokémon.
Barb raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure, Ben?" she asked quietly. "Poison-types don't perform well in native battles."
Ben smiled thinly. "All part of the plan," he said. The threw the Pokéball forwards. "Go, Thumper!"
"Nido!" Thumper squeaked as he materialised. The purple poison-type rabbit landed opposite the two females, who looked at him suspiciously.
"Okay, Thumper, use Leer!" Ben said. The Nidoran looked at his Trainer in a puzzled way, making Barb giggle. Ben rolled his eyes. Of course, he should have expected the Nidoran to be initially reluctant to face one of his own kind. "Trust me on this, okay?" he said. "Use Leer."
Barb, meanwhile, had come to a decision. Maybe it would be worth the effort. After all, a female Nidoran could ultimately give you a Nidoqueen, in due time and with a lot of effort. She was still too new to the training business to scorn any Pokémon. She drew a Pokéball and threw it forwards. "You're up, Rizzo!"
The Rattata materialised just as Thumper decided to obey his Trainer and fixed one of the female Nidorans with a Leer. The other one, not frozen by the endurance-sapping attack, backed off nervously from Rizzo. "Okay, use Tackle!" Ben commanded. As Thumper moved forwards, his target suddenly reversed position and sprayed a jet of chemicals from glands either side of her anus. Thumper reeled back with a dismayed-sounding squeak. "YUCK!" Ben backed off fast, as did Barb, while Shock looked sickened. The smell from the chemical spray was overwhelming. "Do it, Thumper," Ben gasped as firmly as he could without breathing in. The male Nidoran lunged forwards, but the female Nidoran easily dodged the attack. The smell was so overpowering that Thumper couldn't manage his normal attacking speed. The female Nidoran lunged forwards and tackled him against his side, sending him rolling away.
Barb got far enough away from the smell to be able to direct Rizzo. "Okay, Rizzo!" She called. "Use Tackle before she gets away!" The other female Nidoran was running for cover. Rizzo shot across the intervening distance and shoulder-charged her, knocking her sideways.
In reply to a desperate command from Ben, Thumper performed another tackle, this time connecting with his target. The female Nidoran was knocked head-over-heels by the impact. She struggled to her feet but she seemed to be having difficulty getting her bearings. Seeing his chance, Ben pulled out an unassigned Pokéball and threw it at the poison-type. Simultaneously, Barb threw a Pokéball at the other female Nidoran. However the ball just bounced off. Rizzo's tackle had been so powerful that it had knocked the rabbit-like Pokémon out with one blow. "Nuts! It's fainted!" Barb snapped. She jogged over, picked up the ball and gave Rizzo a scratch under the chin as a consolation prize.
Ben's Pokéball functioned as advertised. It lay twitching in the grass for a few seconds before locking closed. Ben picked up the Pokéball and held it to the sky with a triumphant cheer. "Yeah! I caught a Nidoran! Great job Thumper!" Ben picked up the smug-looking Thumper and almost reeled away from the smell. "Oh boy, I just hope that we can get that smell out of your fur...!"
To be continued...
