“Deep breaths, Misty, deep breaths. Think of water pokemon.” I reminded her, steering us away from a rustle in the bushes.
“I just want to be out of this forest already.” She obsessively checked to make sure she wouldn’t step or walk into a bug pokemon. “How much longer until we get out of here?”
“Maybe a week?” I was hedging my bets.
“It’s not like any of these pokemon are attacking us so there’s no reason to be scared.” I couldn’t see but I was sure Ash was rolling his eyes while he said that.
“Phobias aren’t logical, Ash. Everyone has something they’re afraid of.” I scolded him.
“Not me!” He boasted. “I’m going to be a Pokemon Master and a Pokemon Master isn’t scared of anything!”
“That’s not funny. You know I hate bugs and I saw one right over there.” She pointed at an orange worm trailing behind us.
“A Weedle!” Ash took out his pokedex and scanned it.
“Weedle, the stinger on this pokemon’s head guarantees that any attacker will get the point right where it hurts.”
Was it just me or did that thing have a sense of humor?
“A stinger, huh? Now, there’s a challenge.”
“Why are you so excited about a bug with a stinger? Make it go away!” Misty screeched.
“You got to be kidding. You can’t possibly expect a great pokemon Trainer like me to let a Weedle escape. I’m going to catch it.” Ash decided, reaching for a pokeball. “Oh! Oh, yeah, I almost forgot. You have to weaken a pokemon before you can capture it.”
Thankfully Ash remembered the last time he tried throwing a pokeball at a pokeball.
“Let’s go, Pikachu.” We all turned to Pikachu.
“Pikachu.” Who had apparently decided to take a nap.
…where did he get a sleeping mat that size?
“Ah, taking a nap, huh? Okay, snooze, you lose. There’s still Pidgeotto and Metapod to do the job, and they give me the respect I deserve.” Ash goaded Pikachu.
“You deserve to have your head examined.” Misty shot off before noticing Weedle climbing up her leg.
…huh I didn’t even see Weedle crawl that fast.
“Don’t just stand there! Catch it!” Misty yelled as she ran away from Weedle who couldn’t hang onto her leg as she ran.
“Wait! Misty!” I ran off after her, stopping only long enough to see Ash release Pidgeotto and Pdigeotto send Weedle flying with a Gust attack.
I hope Ash doesn’t take too long to catch Weedle.
“Misty! Where are you!?”
How could I have lost Misty so easily? She wasn’t running that fast and I didn’t stay that long to watch Ash and Pidgeotto.
Rustle.
I stopped as I saw a bush rustling.
“Misty?”
The rustling stopped and out popped a Caterpie.
“Caterpie?” It gazed at me with a head tilt.
Shortly after Ash’s Caterpie evolved into Metapod, and I made sure another Beedrill wouldn’t jumpscare me and Misty, I checked my pokedex to see if Metapod could keep evolving. I found that it did and evolved into Butterfree. One of two pokemon Flora suggested I capture for utility, and I could see why. Caterpie’s String Shot was pretty impressive and according to the pokedex Butterfree could learn moves that poison, paralyze, and put pokemon and people to sleep. I wasn’t sure about poisoning or paralyzing other people’s pokemon, but putting them to sleep should be fine. Discord even said to go to Viridian Forest and capture some pokemon.
There were a few problems with capturing Caterpie, namely that if I and Ash had a pair of Butterfree it would be confusing. Especially if we ended up battling together again and we both used Butterfree. Sure we could give our pokemon nicknames and I could give my Butterfree an accessory to distinguish my Butterfree from Ash’s, but during the heat of battle I had to assume that it would still be easy to lose track of our respective pokemon and for them to mix up our commands.
And with Oddish? I already had Bulbasaur and I didn’t want another pokemon that was weak to bird type pokemon.
Why would Flora have two grass type pokemon if they both shared a weakness in bird type pokemon?
“You going to catch it?”And speaking of Flora…
“No.” I said turning to face Flora who tilted her confused.
“And why not?”
“Because I’m not going to catch pokemon just to use them to make gym battles easier!” At my answer she shrugged.
“Sure, that’s a good enough answer I suppose.”
“You’re not going to push that idea?”
“Why would I? What would I gain from doing so?” She turned around to leave.
“Wait!” I ran up to catch her.
“What?” She turned around to look at me.
“I answered your questions, so why don’t you answer mine?” I challenged.
“Sure, what’s your first question?”
“Can you teach my Bulbasaur Bullet Seed?”
“What?” Whatever she was expecting I was going to ask, that wasn’t it.
“You said that I should teach whatever grass type pokemon I had Bullet Seed and since your Bulbasaur knows Bullet Seed I thought that maybe you could teach it to my Bulbasaur.” I rationalized.
“And why would I waste my time teaching your Bulbasaur Bullet Seed?” She glared at me.
“Well since you’re going to be following me you might as well make yourself useful.” I said smiling as she blinked in shock.
“And what makes you think I was following you?”
Really? She was really going to play dumb?
“Yesterday me, Ash and Misty left Viridian City early in the morning and we didn’t see anyone when we entered Viridian Forest, meaning you secretly followed us into the forest instead of just challenging me to a battle in Viridian City where you could treat your pokemon. And even if you were already in Viridian Forest when we arrived, the fact that you went to Viridian City to treat your pokemon and in one day still managed to find me in a forest is suspicious, unless you didn’t heal your pokemon.” I pointed out.
“Of course I went back to heal my pokemon.” She shot back. “I care about my pokemon and am not crazy enough to travel inside Viridian Forest without them at full health.”
“So you admit you're following me?” I said, smirking as she realized what she just said.
“And if I were?”
“Then I’m going to haul you to officer Jenny for harassment.” I threatened her with a glare.
“Woah woah woah.” She held up her hands and took a step back. “There’s no reason to bring the cops into this.”
“Oh, I won’t.” I said with a smile. “So long as you tell me why you’re following me.” She stared at me flummoxed until let out a tired sigh.
“You’re really paranoid about this aren’t you?”
“It’s not paranoia if a powerful Trainer and literal criminals are following me around a forest!” I pointed out. “Now don’t change the subject.”
“Wait criminals? What criminals are you talking…about…you’re talking about Team Rocket aren’t you?” She deadpanned.
“Yes! The fact that you even know about Team Rocket is not helping my nerves!”
“Ok, ok! Calm down, jeeze” Whatever she was going to say was drowned out by music playing from my bag.
I wanna be the very best~
“Hold on.” I reached into my bag and brought out the pokegear. “Yes?’
“Can you put me on speaker phone?” Came the voice of Discord
“Oh, let me see.” Fiddling with the pokegear for a few seconds, I managed to put it on speakerphone, whatever that was. “Got it.”
“Good. Flora just give her the TM for Bullet Seed already.”
“What?” We echoed looking at the pokegear.
“Look, the sooner this scene can end the sooner Silver Spoon can leave Viridian Forest. Do you know how boring those two episodes were despite their plot significance? I’d much rather she traipsed through Petalburg Woods, at least those episodes were interesting.”
What was Discord rambling about?
“And you’re just gonna drop the whole mysterious rival angle?”
“I repeat, I want the plot to leave Viridian Forest already.” Discord whined.
Well, at least we don’t have to dance around the issue of my mystery stalker and Bulbasaur gets to learn Bullet Seed…somehow. What was a TM?
“Very well, I’ll give Silver Spoon the TM.” Flora relented.
“Good, and also watch out for those Beedrill.”
Click.
“What Beedrill?” I asked aloud as a low buzzing started getting louder.
I and Flora looked up and saw a horde of Beedrill chasing Ash, Misty, Pikachu and some weirdo in armor.
…
Ok, maybe Discord had a point about leaving Viridian Forest.