Pick Your Poison - Chapter 7

With the final verdict that Rick was staying, I walked out of the Pokémon Center and took a look outside. What I saw was… well, to put it bluntly, underwhelming. Back in Pallet Town, there were only three houses—one vacant—and Grandpa Oak’s lab. That’s all, just four small signs that Pallet Town was claimed, inhabited territory. I expected Viridian City to be bigger, and bigger it was, but not by much. It was still reminiscent of a middle-ages village. I swear, every building was not within a hundred feet of another, with no walkways or sidewalks in between. Even dirt paths had only barely been established. One would wonder how this city has been around for nearly seventy years. I sighed in disappointment… was every sign of civilization in Kanto going to be like this?

Suddenly, I heard Rick’s quick, interrupting voice announce to me, “Well, bugger, you don’t live here, do you?” he asked with a slight laugh in his voice, as if in disbelief. He breathed a sigh of relief when I shook my head. “Okay, good. After this is all done and overwith, I don’t want this dump to be my home.” I shuddered at the thought of what he might think of Pallet town… Over there, there was at least an acre of fields between each house, of like… three houses and the single lab that Pallet Town is known for. I shook away the thought.

I looked up another slope—yeesh, how untamed was this place?—over to a building that was larger than even the Pokémon Center. I would have wondered what it was, if there wasn’t the massive but simplistic word “GYM” plastered boastfully over the edge of each corner. I scoffed. It’s like the Gym Leader was begging someone to come inside and fight him. I shrugged, and headed off toward it.

“Wait,” called Lyra, “did you forget what Professor Oak said?” Hmm… ‘professor.’ I wonder what that meant. “He said that I’m—” she cut herself off when Rick cleared his throat. “…that we’re not ready for trainer battles yet. We must train, but it should be on wild Pokémon. We mustn’t get in over our heads.”

Oh, that’s right… I remember what Grandpa Oak said. …Well, now I do, anyways. Especially now, since every time Lyra turned, I saw a glimpse of the scar on her underbelly. I cringed, then clenched my teeth as I remembered that horrible moment that I saw Lyra’s blood on Forge’s claw. “Right… I kind of forg—”

“Ah, lady, you worry too much,” Rick blurted out. “I like Auv’s excitement. I wanna get stronger so I c’n eventually take on my dad.” I looked at Rick inquisitively. “You know the one, the jerk who went right ahead to sic the whole flock on me.”

I my eyes widened as I heard this. “Your dad was the one who made everyone attack you?” I put hand on my head, as if to hold onto my hat so it wouldn’t be as blown away as I was. “That’s…. sick, awful… Who would do that?”

Rick shrugged his wings, his determined look sort of fading into that of disappointment. “Well, my dad, for one thing.”

…I decided that this conversation was not headed in a direction I wanted to go, so I changed the subject; “Well, okay, let’s go see the Gym. Maybe those trainers will go easy on us?” I knew that was a stupid idea; unless you want to go bankrupt, you’re supposed to fight with all of your might and strength. And, I’m sure everyone knew it was a dumb suggestion anyway, but you can come up with some pretty amazing excuses when your life is at stake.

Lyra, of course, still disapproved of going to the Gym this early, as seen by her very uncomfortable grimace, but I insisted we go and give it a try. We walked up the slope leading up the ramp, an astounding distance further than it should have been, and walked to the Gym. I took a deep breath, and pushed on the door.

…it didn’t budge. I pushed again, harder this time. Next, I punched it, then reeled in pain as my fist throbbed. I think I may have jammed a knuckle… I was met with a laugh from Rick, who was shushed by Lyra, scolded with the phrase ‘Don’t laugh at his pain.’ After flicking my hand around and applying pressure to it, I announced with certainty, “Okay, so… it’s locked.”

“Well, ya don’t say, mate?” Rick said, rolling his eyes with a chuckle. “Now, why do ya think it’s locked?”

I shrugged. I don’t know, I thought the Gym was supposed to be open to receive new trainers. It was certainly showing off enough, you’d think it was practically asking for Trainers to come in and demolish the trainers inside.

Lyra perked up, and said with a sigh, “You really don’t remember what Professor Oak says, do you? He said the Viridian Gym was closed, and that you must head to the Pewter City Gym instead.”

“…Well, now you tell me.”

“You were supposed to remember, Auvy… A Pokémon shouldn’t remind his Trainer of what to do or where to go. The Trainer is supposed to be in charge, but if I’m honest, I feel like I’m taking charge of you at this point.” She said, albeit quietly and reluctantly. It looked like she forced herself to say it, cringing and not making eye contact with me. I almost asked her why she even said it, if it was so forced.

“Pah, ‘Auvy?’ Where’d that come from?” Rick asked, chuckling once more. “That’s a pet name if I ever heard one. Maybe the girl is your owner, Auv?” this sent him into a laughing fit; it tickled him a lot to see a Pokémon taking more charge than its Trainer. I, however, wasn’t as eager to laugh. I rolled my eyes.

Based on my looks at the Town Map that belonged to my dad, I knew that Pewter City was to the north. So, I turned the direction I needed to go, and started walking. “Hahah, ha, heh, aw c’mon, it was funny.” Rick insisted. Neither I nor Lyra gave him a laugh. “This group jus’ keeps getting better by the minute!”

~

“Hey, excuse me,” someone called out to us when we were getting close to the north exit of Viridian City. It seemed like it was a good mile away from the Pokémon Center… I turned my head to look at them, and it was an elderly man with white hair and a concerned look. “I couldn’t help but notice you trying to enter the Gym back there. May I ask the reason for that, if you don’t mind?”

I shrugged, and answered, “I wanted to battle the Gym Leader inside.” I cocked my head to the left when he shook his head at me, frowning.

“That is a foolish thing to do, boy,” he said, almost as if he were sorry for the fact that I had tried to enter the Gym. “Especially with Pokémon like yours. They are very young, and inexperienced; you must train them, coordinate with them, and learn how to communicate easily in battle, and how to fight more experienced opponents. I can see from your Pokémon's scars that you’ve had bad experiences in the past.”

Lyra jumped to attention, looking very shocked at the old man noticing her scar. She self-consciously lowered her body to the ground, trying to hide it in the grass below her. Rick, glared angrily at the old man, unfurling his wings to hide his own scars. I, as well, glared slightly. “Thanks for insulting my Pokémon.” I hissed at him.

The old man shook his head once more. “I am telling you that for your own good, young one. It will help you prevent against loss. There is no feeling worse than letting your friends get hurt, knowing you could have done better to protect them. If you want the best for your Pokémon, do not let them get into too much danger, or else you may find them to be in a lot of trouble.” He walked forward, and put his old, wrinkly hand on my shoulder. “Take it from me; you do NOT want to lose your Pokémon. Loss can lead…” he swallowed and hesitated, “…Loss can lead you to do very irrational things that you will regret later.”

The look in his eyes… they showed grief, especially saying that last part. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that he had lost someone close to him, and by the way he warned me, also did something stupid after that. I nodded slowly. “All right, sir, I’ll… I’ll take good care of my Pokémon.”

The old man once more smiled, and patted my shoulder before lowering his hand. “Thank you, young one; I am glad you are taking my advice.” He took a deep breath and sighed, calming himself down. “Though, if you truly are trying to take on the Gym Leader as you say you are, you are going to need many more Pokémon than just two. The Gym Leader here uses six Pokémon, and they are very high-level. Do you know how to catch Pokémon?”

Whoa!! Six Pokémon? Like… SIX? I’ve barely heard of anyone but the Champion using six Pokémon! Everyone I’ve heard of usually only had or one or two, sometimes the occasional three! That truly unnerved me, and it would be an extremely tough journey if the Gym Leader in the first town after Pallet has six Pokémon. I swallowed hard, and my knees almost collapsed from under me. Then, something DID make them collapse; I don’t know how to catch Pokémon. Programs on TV, even reality shows, never showed actually catching a Pokémon; any Pokémon in the possession of any of the characters or people always had them at the beginning of the episode, or they just say they caught one.

I fell down to my knees, before quickly correcting myself and getting to my feet. “N-no,” I replied feebly, “I… don’t know how to catch a Pokémon…” Come to think of it, I never actually assigned Rick to a ball. Technically, he’s still wild; he just follows me around, essentially. Lyra buried her face in the grass she was laying in. She must have thought I was a real idiot.

The old man, a bit surprised at my collapse, smiled. “Well, that is where I can be of further help to you. Come here, I will teach you how.”

~

The old man led me for a little bit toward the north exit of Viridian—which, funny enough, was where Rick, Lyra, and I were originally headed—until I saw something… “Stop,” the old man said to us, putting an arm in front of me to stop me. There, in the road, was something… wriggling. It looked like it was slowly crawling along the ground, but in doing so performing the dance move, ‘The Worm.’ Upon closer examination, I was yellow in color, with little pink nubs along the bottom—its feet, I assumed. The whole one-foot length of it was divided into different segments, with a large segment at the front, sporting a pink nub, two black, beady eyes, and a sharp-looking horn on the front. It stopped and looked at us, tilting its head to the side as it saw the four strange figures observing it.

Something about that thing just… creeped me out. I was never really a fan of bugs, and this thing was very buglike. The old man stepped forward, and pulled a Poké Ball out of his pocket. What was he going to do with that? I thought Poké Balls were meant to hold Pokémon. With another step, the man reeled back, and threw the ball with surprising force; I could hear it whistling through the air as it flew forward.

The ball impacted into the bug’s soft skin, knocking the bug back with a squealing noise, the ball bouncing off at least a foot before it stopped dead in the air. I just stared at it as it froze, perfectly still in the air, all momentum gone from it. With a metallic opening noise, like an airlock opening or something, the ball opened, and the little bug became transparent and red… It zoomed in a serpent of energy, swirling slightly as it came down into the cuplike interior of the ball, before the capsule shut tightly, button glowing red.

The ball fell to the ground, bounced a bit, and began to wobble back and forth. Confused, I wondered what was wrong. Was the ball malfunctioning? Was it about to explode? I began to be scared, backing away for safety, before a very jolly little “Click” noise was heard. The old man smiled, and chuckled. “There we are. I have just caught a Weedle, a small but reliable Pokémon. I made it look easy, but there is more to catching a Pokémon than just throwing a ball at it. You must have the wild Pokémon submit to you, either by way of physically weakening it, or by convincing it to allow you to catch it.”

I actually chuckled inside at the thought of talking a Pokémon into letting me catch it. It seems so ridiculous and benign, but at the same time it seems like a nice alternative to having to lay the smack down on it, and it also seems like it could very well work. “Thank you, sir,” I said to him, nodding. “But, I don’t have any Poké Balls, except for Lyra’s ball…”

The old man batted a hand at me. “Say no more, you can have some of mine. They’re nice and polished, and are in excellent condition. As well, you can also have this…” With that, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a curious-looking device. It looked like one of those tubes that you can press a button to get change out of; you know, the ones that arcade owners have, except there were three tubes, each about an inch and a half wide, and five inches long. Each tube had windows along the front of them to see what the dispenser held, and an outward curve at the bottom, giving it a slight ‘J’ shape. A small, circular tab protruded from the front of each one.

“This is a Poké Ball Dispenser I made, myself. It can only hold up to fifteen Poké Balls at any one time, but its main function is quick access, not storage. Whenever you need a ball, just press the thumb lever at the bottom, and a Poké Ball of the type you want will fall into your fingers. You can attach it to your belt or backpack, or wherever it is accessible and comfortable.” He handed the object to me, and I saw that it was not made of anything spectacular, mostly wood and some plastic, but the build of the thing showed that it was serious about doing its job. The tubes were painted a yellow-orange sort of gold, while the other features were a lighter, more saturated shade of yellow. It looked actually pretty cool.

“Thank you again,” I said, smiling at the little object I received. I figured this would be good on the right hand side of my belt. Upon closer observation, I saw that there were already Poké Balls loaded into it, which was even better. “Why did you give it to me?” I asked him; there had to be some reason behind him just giving it to me.

“Well,” he addressed me, once more smiling, “I can tell you have a long journey ahead of you if you want to battle the Viridian City Gym. Let this just be a gift to you, and I hope it will serve you well wherever you go.”

Well, what can I say; I’m speechless. I just smiled and thanked him a third time, before waving goodbye and turning to the north city exit. “Good luck to you!” the man called to me as I left. “Make sure to train your Pokémon well!” I even barely heard him say something else…

“Please… don’t make the same mistake I did…”