#Kunzite the Weedle

[gleamingrednuzlocke]

Chapter 4-Camping at Viridian Forest

Hey long time no see!

Sorry for the delay. For those who follow my other stories, you probably know why I haven’t updated the past few weeks. For those who just follow Gleaming Red, I’ll give you the long story short: Personal life was a rollercoaster.

Though I’m glad to be updating and working on stories again.

Enjoy!

Viridian Forest, the only known forest in all of Kanto, was a deep dark forest that’s a nature maze. However, despite it sunlight was able to seek through the trees giving little light for trainers crossing the path. It is also considered to be the best place for starting trainers. Many kinds of Pokémon live in this forest from the common Caterpie and Weedle to the rare Pikachu.

Neth didn’t care what he was going to find in Viridian Forest. He knew whoever would be next Pokémon would be the next friend and teammate. Morgan stayed close with Neth, while Amber and Jasper were able to go through the forest fine. Peridot was on Neth’s shoulder enjoying the sights and smells of Viridian Forest.

After breathing in some of that forest air, Peridot let out a sigh. “Smells like home.” She told herself.

“So you lived here before, Peridot?” Neth asked.

Peridot shook her head. “I lived near the edge of Viridian Forest, but never inside the forest.” She explained.

“Well, if we're lucky we can maybe find some of your friends.” The trainer told her. Peridot giggled and nodded.

While Amber was swinging on the trees, the Mankey saw a yellow tail with a thorn on it. Thinking it was a Caterpie, Amber tried to pull it out from the tree. “Found one!” She yelled.

Team Neth’s eyes widened seeing it wasn’t a Caterpie, nor a shiny Caterpie, but a Weedle. “Uh that’s a Weedle.” Peridot corrected her teammate.

Amber then looked at the Weedle, who was glaring at her. “Oops, sorry!” She apologized. Amber put the Weedle down gently, but the bug-type was still upset.

“You’re the third Pokémon today who mistook me for a Caterpie!” Weedle shouted.

“Hey we’re sorry Weedle. It wasn’t Amber’s fault.” Neth reassured the Hairy Bug Pokemon, but he wasn’t convinced.

“Yeah. Plus don’t Weedle and shiny Caterpie look the same?” Amber asked.

Weedle glared. “No!” He shouted. “We Weedle have a stinger on our tails, while Caterpie do not!”

Peridot looked at her tail to confirm Weedle's explanation. “He’s right.”

“Plus shiny Caterpie are absolutely rare. I’d never seen a shiny Caterpie in this forest!” Weedle explained. The Hairy Bug Pokémon kept on ranting on how rare a shiny Caterpie is and how the regular green Caterpie are common here.

The team started to feel annoyed with how brainy the Weedle was to the point Amber grabbed a Pokeball from Neth’s backpack and threw a Pokeball to shut up the Weedle. Not knowing that the Weedle was caught and joined the team.

“Amber!” Jasper shouted.

“What?” The Mankey asked. She looked and saw the Pokeball gave out the final click meaning it was official; the annoying Weedle joined the team. “Oh.” She realized.

Neth sighed and walked over to the Pokeball and picked it up. “It’s alright Amber, a team member is a team member no matter how annoying they are.” He explained. Soon Neth released the Weedle from his Pokeball and the bug-type was breathing heavily like he was suffocating inside. “You okay?” Neth asked.

Weedle finally caught his breath before letting out a sigh. “Yes I am.” He told the trainer.

“Good.” Neth sighed. “I’m glad you're fine, Kunzite.” He continued calling Weedle by his new name.

The Weedle’s eyes widened hearing Neth calling him by his new name. “Oh is that name now?” He asked. Neth nodded in reply. “It’s a cool name! I like it!” Kunzite beamed.

With Kunzite on the team, Neth’s team was now a team of five. Neth figured training the team again as now he has two bug-types on the team. Kunzite and Peridot had the advantage of taking down other bug Pokemon, while Morgan, Jasper and Amber took down stronger Pokemon like Pikachu. With all that training, Morgan ended up being one level higher than the rest of the team.

“Hey trainer!” A little boy shouted. Neth and his team paused on training and spotted two little boys, who were bug catchers, each with a Pokeball in their hands. “We saw you training? Care to battle us?” The Bug Catcher named Rick asked.

“Yeah!” The other bug catcher, who was named Doug, continued. “Or are you scared?”

Neth blinked in surprise. Sure, these kids were younger than him, but he wasn’t going to let two kids talk to him like that, “Hah! I’m not scared!” Neth shouted. “I’d love to battle!”

Bug Catcher Rick chuckled, “Alright! Let’s battle!” He shouted as he threw two of his Pokeballs and let out his own Weedle and Caterpie.

“Peridot! Morgan! Go!” Neth yelled. Morgan and Peridot were now in front of Neth ready to battle, though Morgan was a bit nervous battling, even though he was strong for a bug-type.

“Hey.” Peridot spoke up, causing Morgan to turn and face her. “You’ll be fine. I promise. It’s an easy battle anyways.” She reassured the Bulbasaur. Morgan gave a smile and nodded before focusing on the battle.

“Caterpie use Tackle! Weedle, use Poison Sting” Bug Catcher Rick yelled.

The Bug Catcher’s Weedle used Poison Sting on Morgan, who then flinched as the Poison Sting hit him. Gladly it didn’t do poison damage due to Morgan being half poison-type. The Caterpie tackled Peridot, but it didn’t do as much damage.

“Quick! Peridot use-“ Neth tried to command his bug-type Pokemon, but before he could Peridot used a Tackle attack on both the Caterpie and the Weedle, knocking them out.

“Well, that was easy!” Peridot beamed.

The Bug Catcher fell to his knees and put his two bug-types back into their Pokeballs. The other Bug Catcher, Doug glared and stepped up to battle Neth next. “Alright! I have three bug-types!” He shouted as he released a Kakuna from his Pokeball.

“Hah! This will be very easy!” Peridot yelled. She went to use another Tackle attack, but the smirk the Bug Catcher gave said he had a trick up his sleeve.

“Kakuna! Harden!” The Bug Catcher commanded. The Kakuna shined as Peridot rammed into it, however despite the Harden, the Cocoon Pokemon was tackled straight into the ground and knocked out. Though at the cost of Peridot getting dizzy. “K-Kakuna?” Doug asked. Seeing his Pokemon was knocked out he sent Kakuna back into his Pokeball and glared at Neth. Doug took out another Pokeball and out came a Weedle.

Even though Peridot could handle a Weedle, she felt dizzy from the tackle and decided to fall back. “This is your battle Morgan.” She said, dizzy from the attack.

Morgan gulped and turned towards the Weedle. “W-well it shouldn’t be that hard.” He said to himself.

“Morgan, let’s use Tackle!” Neth commanded. Morgan nodded and ran towards Weedle and used Tackle.

“Use your Tackle too, Weedle!” Doug commanded. The Weedle squirmed his way towards Bulbasaur, and the two tackles ended up bumping the two Pokemon and pushing them both back. The two Pokemon skid back and saw that their tackle attacks were equally strong. “Weedle, use String Shot!” The Bug Catcher commanded once more.

The Weedle then launched his String Shot at Morgan, which wrapped up the Bulbasaur’s legs causing him to fall flat on his face.

“Morgan!” Neth gasped.The Bulbasaur struggled to get the String Shot off of him, and one by one the sticky string came off his legs. “Are you okay?” Neth asked.

“I’m fine.” Morgan replied, getting the last of the String shot off of his legs.

Neth gave a sigh, and decided to call out the next move for Morgan to use. “Morgan uses the Tackle once more!”

Morgan nodded as he started to run, but instead of Tackle coming out, Morgan’s vines appeared and slapped the Weedle, knocking it out. The Bulbasaur stopped himself and was surprised by what he did. “What was that?” Morgan asked.

“I think that was Vine Whip?” Neth answered.

“Vine…whip?” Morgan asked, looking at his vines. “So I learned a new move.” He thought to himself. A smile formed on the Bulbasaur’s face as he gave a chuckle.

Doug put Weedle back to his Pokeball and let out another Weedle. Morgan gave a smile and was ready to battle again. “Morgan, let’s use Vine Whip again!” Neth commanded.

Morgan let out his vines and then went to attack the Weedle. The Hairy Bug Pokemon was hit a few times with Vine Whip, but wasn’t down just yet.

“Weedle, Poison Sting!” Doug commanded. Weedle then launched Poison Sting at the Bulbasaur, which injured him. Luckily he wasn’t poisoned.

“Morgan, finish it off with Tackle!” Neth commanded. Morgan nodded and used Tackle on the Weedle and knocked it out, ending the battle.

Bug Catcher Doug sighed and put his other Weedle back into the Pokeball. “Man, we lost!” He sighed.

The other Bug Catcher, Rick glared and pointed a finger at Neth. “You win this time!” He yelled. “Next time we battle, we will win for sure!” Then the two boys ran off.

Once they were gone, the rest of Neth’s team cheered for their trainer as well as Morgan and Peridot. “That was amazing, Morgan!” Amber cheered, hugging the grass-type starter.

Morgan blushed and let out a chuckle. “Y-you think so?” He asked.

“Absolutely! Told you that training would help!” Amber beamed, giving a punch to Morgan’s arm. The latter flinched not knowing how strong the fighting-type was, though laughed it off like it didn’t hurt.

However, the celebration was cut short when Peridot started to not look good and was glowing a bit. “P-peridot?” Jasper asked. Peridot slowly looked up at her team who looked concerned for her. “Are you okay?”

“I-I don’t feel so good.” Peridot whimpered. Soon she glowed even brighter and Neth knew what this was.

“She’s evolving.” Neth whispered.

Peridot changed shape and soon went from a worm shape to a crescent cocoon shape; a Metapod. Peridot blinked her eyes and just stared at Neth and the team.

“A Metapod.” Kunzite and Neth said at the same time. Neth smiled and walked up to Peridot and picked her up. “Congratulations Peridot! You evolved!” He beamed, however, Peridot didn’t respond back. “I guess you can’t talk for a while.” He chuckled.

Morgan and the rest of the team went up to Neth and Peridot worried that their new friend wouldn’t talk anymore. “Does that mean Peridot can’t talk anymore?” Morgan asked.

“Don’t be silly.” Kunzite replied. “When Weedle and Caterpie evolve into Kakuna and Metapod respectively we just lose our ability to talk till we evolve into our final forms.” He explained.

The Bulbasaur sighed, relieved his new friend will be able to speak to him again soon even if it would take a while.

“But how would Peridot respond to us?” Jasper asked.

“We have our ways.” Kunzite answered. Jasper glared and face palmed not getting the answer he wanted.

A tad bit later, Neth decided to do a bit more training while trying to get through Viridian Forest. Training a Metapod wasn’t hard, but Peridot wasn’t gaining as much experience as she did when she was a Caterpie.

“Hey you!” A voice called out. Neth turned and saw it was a little girl. “Battle me!” She commanded him.

With word getting out from the trainers that were training in the forest hearing about Neth they wanted to battle him as well. Neth loved a challenge, but he knew his team needed to rest as well.

“Alright.” He replied with a smile on his face.

The battle wasn’t too bad, the young girl had a Rattata that was quickly poisoned by Kunzite, making the battle end sooner.

“No!” The young girl cried. “My little Rattata!” The girl stood there and cried for a bit before she felt her Rattata nuzzle her cheek. She stopped crying and gave a sniffle to see Rattata was alright. “Rattata!” She beamed.

Neth kneeled down to the girl’s height and took out an Antidote from his bag. “Here, in case you get lost on your way out of Viridian Forest, heal Rattata with this to remove the poison. Then head straight to the Pokémon Center, okay.” He told the girl.

The girl sniffled before drying her eyes and took the Antidote from Neth’s hands. “T-thank you. You're so kind.” She told him. Neth smiled as a way of saying thank you. The young girl walked off and started to heal her Rattata.

Once she left, a glow appeared behind Neth and he turned to see Kunzite starting to evolve into his next stage. Soon the glow faded and Kunzite was now a Kakuna. “Nice! You evolved too Kunzite!”

Like with Peridot, Kunzite didn’t say anything, but did give a little hop to show his excitement. Neth chuckled, but before he could pick up Kunzite, he realized the problem. He’d been carrying Peridot throughout the forest and now he has to carry two cocoon Pokemon throughout the rest of the forest.

Morgan saw his trainer struggling, trying to carry Peridot and Kunzite. The Bulbasaur remembered he could use his vines and had an idea. Morgan then used his vines and tapped Neth’s shoulder.

“What is it?” Neth asked.

“C-could I help carry Peridot?” Morgan asked.

Neth looked at the Metapod before turning back to his starter Pokemon. “Are you sure?” He asked. Morgan nodded. “Okay,” he loosened his hold on Peridot as Morgan used his vines and carried Peridot. “Be careful alright.”

“I will.” Morgan replied.

Team Neth walked a bit longer, but Neth stopped to look up and saw from the bit of light they had, the sun started to set. The trainer let out a sigh. “Looks like we have to set up camp here for the night.”

“Fine by me.” Jasper replied, giving out a yawn.

Neth put his stuff down and took out his tent and got it set up. Soon he, Morgan and Amber went to look for wood for the fire as Neth and Jasper stayed behind to keep an eye on Peridot and Kunzite.

“We’re back!” Amber beamed as she and Morgan carried the wood for the fire. “Is this enough wood?” She asked.

“That’s plenty!” Neth replied. Amber and Morgan put the wood down in a pile and Neth used two stones to flick a flame and a campfire was made. “Perfect.”

Soon Neth dug into his backpack and took out cans of Pokémon Food for his Pokémon while he decided to have a bag of potato chips and a can of lemonade for his meal. However, as he took out the food a small photo fell on the ground.

Neth picked up and froze seeing the photo. It was when he, Miles, and Cassia were 7 years old and were at a Pokémon summer camp. The memories where the three were all cheerful and did everything together played in Neth’s mind; he wished that these memories stayed till their journey started.

“Neth?” Morgan asked, but Neth didn’t reply as he was so absorbed with the photo. “N-Neth!” Morgan spoke up a bit louder.

“Y-yeah!” Neth replied.

“You okay?” Morgan asked again, tilting his head.

“Yeah. I’m fine. Just thinking of something.”

Morgan was about to ask again, but decided not to. Whatever Neth was thinking about it was personal and Morgan wasn’t sure whether to pressure his training to spill the beans or stay quiet. “Well, alright then.” He said then went back to eating.

Neth sighed and decided to put the photo back in his bag then ate his dinner. Once he finished he changed out of his travel clothes and into his pajamas, which were a purple shirt with a gengar face on the back, bluish-grey sweatpants, and purple socks.

After dinner, everyone was asleep except Morgan. The Bulbasaur wasn’t used to sleeping on the grass, not even inside a tent. As long as he could remember he always slept somewhere warm, Morgan looked to see Neth, Amber and Jasper were sound asleep, while Kunzite and Peridot were asleep inside of their Pokeballs. Morgan got up slowly and walked towards Neth, but stopped not wanting to disturb his trainer of sleep.

Just before Morgan was about to try and sleep more he felt Neth grab him and held him close as he slept. “Couldn’t sleep?” Neth whispered.

Morgan smiled and gave a slow nod before closing his eyes. “Yeah.” He replied before drifting off to sleep.

As morning came, the caws of the Pidgey and Pidgeotto flying high woke up Team Neth. Neth yawned and stretched before he gave a wake up call to his team. “Wake up everyone!” Neth yelled.

The team groaned as they looked up at their trainer tiredly.

“Are you ready for a new day of training?” Neth asked. The team groaned and decided to fall back asleep. After packing everything up and the rest of the team being fully awake, Neth and his team were off and were just at the last end of Viridian Forest.

“Almost out of Viridian Forest!” Amber beamed. “Man, I can taste victory when we get to Pewter City!” She cheered.

Morgan chuckled nervously. He wasn’t too excited to take on the first gym, it felt horrifying every step they took. “Y-yeah.” He replied to his friend.

Amber saw how nervous Morgan was and rubbed his head. “Hey, I know your strong Morgan. You’ll be fine.” She reassured him.

“Thanks.” Morgan replied. Soon Morgan stopped when he saw his trainer stopped.

Neth glanced at Amber and Morgan and stepped aside. “We’re here.” He told his team. Morgan and Amber stood by Jasper and looked to see they were at the entrance of a city where the houses have Pewter colored rooftops, a museum and a building with a brown roof on it.

“Is this Pewter City?” Amber asked.

Neth smiled and nodded. “Yes!” He replied.

[gleamingrednuzlocke]

Chapter 7: At The Base of Mt. Moon

Hello! Here is the next chapter/update for you all!

Before we start, let me just say I was having fun with Legends Arceus and a certain fandom brought me back in so I delayed this story a little longer to work on a story for that said fandom. Plus like always life stuff happened, work was busy, and it is starting to get busier now with many sports events starting soon.

Thanks to my good friend @gigilefache for being my beta reader.

Other than that, enjoy!

Neth was the first one to wake up and quickly yelled to wake his team up. Though this in turn only caused Morgan to get scared and bump his head on the bed. “Oh! Sorry, Morgan!” Neth apologized.

“It’s fine,” Morgan replied.

Still feeling bad, Neth picked up Morgan and checked to see if a bruise formed on Morgan’s head. “No bruise,” he said. “Are you sure you're okay?” Neth asked.

Morgan nodded. “I am.” He replied.

Neth sighed and gave a small smile. “Okay.” He put Morgan down and soon he and the team left their room to have breakfast at the Pokémon Center Dining Hall. Once he and his team finished they left Pewter City and continued to Cerulean City.

Just as they started to make their way to Cerulean City, Morgan and Neth’s eyes widened seeing the number of trainers on Route 3.

“Ready to do some battling?” Neth asked his team. The team chuckled and smirked as they battled trainer after trainer, that is until one Bug-Catcher and his Weedle came about.

“Weedle! Poison Sting!” The Bug-Catcher commanded.

The Weedle then launched Poison Sting towards Jasper, and while it didn’t do much damage, the stingers did poison Jasper.

“Gah!” Jasper gasped. The Rattata started to feel hot, and the poison started to take full effect on him.

Neth gasped seeing Jasper sick from the poison. Neth looked back at who in the team he could use to switch out, but Jasper interrupted him. “It’s fine Neth! I can do this!”

The trainer gulped. He wasn’t sure about his Rattata wanting to battle more, but Jasper was sounding confident to take down the Weedle.

“A-alright,” he replied, “Jasper! Tackle, once more!”

Jasper gave a weak smile and soon dashed towards the Weedle and that tackle was the one to finish the battle. “No! Weedle!” The Bug-Catcher shouted. The Bug-Catcher went over to his Weedle and picked him up to see if the bug-type was still alive.

As much as Neth wanted to thank the trainer for the battle, it didn’t seem to be the right time. He quickly scooped Jasper and dashed back to the Pewter City Pokemon Center.

Back at the Pokemon Center, Neth waited patiently for Jasper to get healed. Soon, Nurse Joy came in carrying Jasper in her arms. “Your Rattata is much better!” She exclaimed. “You made it just in time, any minute later we might’ve not saved him in time.”

Neth smiled and grabbed Jasper from the nurse and held him close. “Glad you're feeling better buddy.” He whispered.

“Make sure to have Antidotes and Peach Berries with you at all times. Just in case you're not near any Pokémon Centers.” Nurse Joy reminded him.

“Antidotes and Peach Berries. Got it! Thanks, Nurse Joy.” Neth replied.

Nurse Joy smiled. “You’re welcome.”

Neth and his team left the Pokemon Center and grabbed the Antidotes, as well as a few extra Pokeballs just in case, and went back to Route 3 where Neth and his team left off. Neth’s team battles the remaining trainers with no problems.

Then, something amazing happened. Neth did some switch training with Kunzite and Jasper against a Bug-Catcher and it was soon Kunzite’s turn to attack. “Kunzite, Tackle once more!” Neth commanded.

Kunzite hopped from the ground and soon rammed into the Weedle knocking it out. The bug-catcher sighed that he lost the battle. “Not again.” He groaned walking away.

“Well, that was easy! Right Kunzite?” Neth asked. He then saw Kunzite starting to glow. “Kunzite?” Soon Kunzite started to glow as a crack was heard and out came a bee-like Pokémon; Beedrill. Neth’s smile widened seeing Kunzite had evolved, though his other Pokemon were in fear of seeing their team member evolve into a well-known dangerous Pokemon.

“Come on guys.” Kunzite chuckled. “I’m still the same Weedle you guys know!” As Kunzite pointed his stinger to the group.

“Careful with that thing!” Jasper shouted.

Jasper gave a sheepish smile and put his stinger down. “Sorry.” He replied with a chuckle.

Meanwhile, in a grassy field, a male Nidoran was taking a nap in the grass. He was soon woken up hearing Neth and his team passing by him. Nidoran peaked through the grass, watching the team pass by. “Who are they?” The Nidoran asked, in a low whisper. His eyes narrowed, waiting to see where Neth and his team were going.

When Nidoran saw Neth was about to step into the grass that was his time to attack. He leaped into the grass and tackled Neth in his stomach causing him to fall. Neth groaned and looked up to see what attacked him. Nidoran growled and was ready to charge again, but Morgan used his Vine Whip to hold the Nidoran back. Nidoran tried to force his way through Morgan’s vines, but Morgan was able to hold the Poison-type a bit longer before accidentally pushing him away. Morgan gasped seeing what he had done and went over to see if Nidoran was alright.

“You okay?” Morgan asked.

Nidoran groaned and rubbed his head. “Hopefully. What are you guys doing here?” He asked.

“We’re passing through,” Amber replied. “We just need to pass here, head to Mt. Moon, and head to the next gym in Cerulean Gym!”

Nidoran smiled. “Can I come?” He asked.

Morgan opened his mouth about to agree, but he got nervous and looked up at Neth.

“Of course, you can,” Neth replied with a smile.

Nidoran smiled as Neth took a Pokeball from his bag and captured the Pokemon. Neth smiled and looked at the Pokeball as he thought of a good name for his new friend. “Welcome to the team, Titanite.” He said, after coming up with a name for his new team member.

“Alright. Let’s check on Titan’s data!” Neth exclaimed as he checked the Pokedex on Titan’s Summary. When going through Titan’s data, Neth saw how low leveled Titan was compared to everyone else. “Guess we’re going to do some training before we head inside the cave.” The team nodded and got ready to help Titanite or Titan with training.

The training wasn’t too bad, a few wild Pokemon here and there that helped Titan level up bit by bit. Morgan and the rest of the team helped as well, including Peridot. Speaking of Peridot…

Peridot used Tackle on a Spearow, which surprisingly did critical damage despite the type difference. “You were amazing Peridot!” Neth beamed. Peridot blinked and smiled before starting to glow and evolve. Soon Peridot was now a beautiful Butterfree that flew into the area.

“I’m a Butterfree.” Peridot realized. She laughed and flew some more, “I’m a Butterfree!” She repeated, louder and prouder. The Butterfly Pokemon continued to fly before slowing down and just fluttered near Neth.

Morgan smiled seeing Peridot had evolved with Kunzite all on the same day, but soon felt a pang of jealousy seeing Kunzite and Peridot evolving before him. Peridot saw her team member looking down and floated towards the Bulbasaur. “What’s wrong Morgan?”

“N-nothing!” Morgan replied. He didn’t want to tell his teammate how he was feeling. He didn’t want to make the situation worse. “I’m just happy for you.” Peridot floated close to Morgan’s face, making the grass-type very nervous.

The Butterfree knew something was wrong with her friend, she could sense it. She was just about to ask Morgan again when a loud thud caught her attention. Morgan and Peridot turned around to see Titan critically injured by a Jigglypuff.

“Titan! Get up!” Neth yelled. Titan struggled to get up as Jigglypuff was about to attack it once more, but Peridot came in and used her new attack, Confusion, to take down the Jigglypuff.. Once the Jigglypuff was defeated and scared off, Peridot and Morgan went over to Neth and Titan.

Titan groaned. “Did I win?” He asked.

“Well I did, but you got your thorny butt taken down by a Jigglypuff.” Peridot explained. Titan felt embarrassed and hid his face in Neth’s shirt. “But you should get checked out.”

Seeing she could fly, Peridot flew as high as she could and saw there was a Pokemon Center not too far from their next destination; Mt. Moon. “Neth! I found one!” Peridot yelled. She then floated down closer to him, “and it’s not too far from here.”

“Well, what are we waiting for?” Neth asked. “Let’s hurry!” The team nodded and dashed towards the Pokemon Center to get Titan treated. The second they got to the Pokemon Center, Neth gave Titan to Nurse Joy to get him treated.

As Neth sat down to wait for Titan to get well, a fisherman walked over to him. “Excuse me, young man?” He asked. Neth and his team turned towards the man. “Would you be interested in adopting my Magikarp?” The fisherman showed his Magikarp, which looked to be bigger than him.

“Uh…” Neth shuttered a bit. He wasn’t too keen on getting a Magikarp, and he already had a full team of six. “Sorry. I already have six Pokemon.” The man looked down and left the Pokemon Center, but Neth rolled his eyes.

“Excuse me, Neth?” Nurse Joy asked. Neth and his team turned to see Titan in Nurse Joy’s arms. The Nidoran had a bandage underneath his horn. “Your Nidoran is all better.”

Neth sighed and held Titan in his arms hugging him. “Thanks again, Nurse Joy!”

“You’re welcome.” She replied with a smile. “Now if you are going straight to Mt. Moon now be careful, I’ve been hearing rumors of some evil gang lurking in there.”

Morgan gulped hearing the words evil team. “Don’t worry Nurse Joy, my team and I can handle a group of bad guys!” Neth beamed. Morgan’s eyes widened and he started to sweat bullets.

“Are you crazy?” Morgan whispered. Neth ignored it and he and his team left the Pokemon Center and headed inside Mt. Moon. Morgan gulped as they stepped inside Mt. Moon.

Mt. Moon was a dimly lit cave, so there was no need for Neth to pull out a flashlight to explore the cave. Walking through the cave, Neth heard echoes from multiple different Pokemon that he didn’t notice Amber stopped him. “What’s wrong?” Neth asked. Amber didn’t respond and just pointed at the ground.

Neth looked down and saw a Paras that he almost stepped on tilted his head in confusion. “Aww hello there.” He said. Paras squeaked in reply making everyone aww in cuteness. “Would you like to join our team, cutie?”

Paras squeaked, jumping up and down in excitement. Neth chuckled and took out a Pokeball tapping the Mushroom Pokemon on the head, capturing it. “Welcome to the team Tourmaline.” Soon as Neth said that his Pokeball had pixelated and disappeared.

Neth’s team gasped seeing what they just saw.

“Where did Tourmaline go?” Jasper asked.

“To the PC,” Neth answered. “It’s a system where trainers who have more than one Pokemon send their extra Pokemon.”

“Will Tourmaline be alright?” Morgan asked.

“He will. Don’t worry.” Neth replied, petting Morgan on the head.

Neth and his team explored more of Mt. Moon, till eventually, they made it to a dead end. The group was ready to turn back when a man wearing an all-black uniform with a red R on the shirt walked over to Neth and his team.

“Well, well, well. Another newbie trainer is lurking around here.” The man said, tossing his Pokeball back and forth into the air.

“Who are you?” Neth asked.

The man chuckled. “It’s classified, but just call me Rocket Grunt.”

“So you're part of Team Rocket.”

The Team Rocket Grunt made a clicking noise with his tongue. “Correcto, twerp.” The grunt then threw his Pokeball and out came a Sandshrew. The ground type growled and tried to scratch at Neth, who jumped back at the Pokemon trying to attack him.

“Hey! What gives?” Neth snapped.

The grunt chuckled. “You see twerp, Team Rocket doesn’t play fair. We are Pokémon Gangsters.”

“Pokemon Gangsters?!”

The grunt chuckled again. “We use Pokémon for our own good.” The grunt then glanced at his Sandshrew. “Now Sandshrew get rid of that twerp for me.”

Sandshrew growled and went in with a Scratch attack towards Neth, but soon Morgan came in and used Vine Whip on Sandshrew, slapping him away from Neth. “Leave him alone!” Morgan yelled, a slight whimper was heard in his voice. Sandshrew growled and went to use Scratch on Morgan again, but Morgan missed the move. “Neth!” He yelled.

Neth nodded knowing Morgan is ready to battle. “Morgan, use Tackle!”

Morgan ran and rammed Sandshrew to a rock, knocking it out. The Team Rocket grunt growled and put Sandshrew back in its Pokeball. “I’m gonna need backup.” The grunt grumbled as he sent out his next two Pokémon, Zubat, and Rattata.

Morgan felt a bit nervous battling two Pokemon, but he then felt Peridot come near him.

Putting her wing on Morgan’s bulb she whispered. “We got this.” Morgan nodded, trusting in his friend.

“Zubat, Astonish!” The Team Rocket Grunt commanded.

Zubat flew by and was ready to make a scary face, but Zubat froze mid-air. It turned to see Peridot’s eyes glowing red. The Butterfree snickered as Zubat was confused as to why Butterfree was snickering.

“Peridot. Use Confusion!” Neth commanded.

Peridot snickered as she used Confusion to push Zubat away and slammed the Bat Pokemon to a rock wall. Zubat groaned as it slid before being returned to its Pokeball. The Team Rocket grunt had one Pokemon left and sent it out revealing a Rattata.

“Think you can handle this one?” Peridot asked Morgan.

“Y-yeah.” Morgan replied, nervously. He then stepped up and was ready to battle the Rattata.

The Team Rocket grunt chuckled. “Rattata, use Hyper Fang!” He commanded. Team Rocket’s Rattata ran towards Morgan ready to pounce and bite him. This is when time started to feel slow with Morgan and Neth.

Flashbacks to the day Morgan and Neth started their journey, and Morgan almost died at the hands of a Rattata. “Morgan! Dodge it!” Neth called out, but Morgan stood frozen. “Morgan! Dodge it!” He repeated, but Morgan was still frozen in fear. “Morgan! Dodge NOW!” Neth screamed.

Morgan gasped, snapping out of it, and jumped to the side before Rattata could use Hyper Fang on him. Morgan glared and was ready to battle Rattata. Neth sighed in relief seeing Morgan missed the attack.

“Morgan! Tackle attack!” Neth commanded.

Morgan glared and dashed towards Rattata and rammed into the other Pokémon. Rattata slid holding its ground ready for their trainer to command them the next attack. “Rattata, Tackle!”

Rattata followed the commander and ran into Morgan, who braced the attack.

“Morgan! Vine Whip!” Neth commanded once more.

Soon Morgan released his vines and used the attack to knock out Rattata. Morgan breathed heavily, tired from the battle.

“I did it,” Morgan thought, “but why do I feel so tired and woozy?”

Soon Morgan glowed as his body started to change; the bulb on his back got bigger as what appeared to be leaves started to appear. Soon the glow faded, and Morgan opened his eyes to see he was no longer a Bulbasaur, but an Ivysaur.

“I…evolved?!” Morgan exclaimed. Neth and Peridot chuckled in glee seeing Morgan had finally evolved.

The Team Rocket grunt yelled in frustration and pulled out a walkie-talkie. “I need back up!” The Team Rocket grunt yelled. As soon as he said that three more Team Rocket Grunts and their Pokemon showed up ready to take on Neth and his team.

“Alright, little punk.” A female grunt spoke up. “Let’s see if you can challenge all of us.” Her Zubat glared as it flew right in front of her.

Neth glared, ready to take on Team Rocket as his team was even stronger now. “Alright. Let’s go!” He replied.

Soon, Neth’s Pokémon took down Team Rocket’s Pokémon one by one. Morgan used Vine Whip, Peridot used Confusion and Tackle, Titan used the best of his attacks but was switched with Amber or Jasper if the battle got too rough on him. After the battle, the Team Rocket grunts looked in shock seeing their Pokemon defeated.

“Who are the twerps now?” Neth asked, in a smug manner.

Team Rocket growled as they put their Pokemon back in their Pokeballs. “You win this round twerp.” One of the grunts said. “Next time we won’t go easy on you.” The grunts then ran out of the cave, and Neth sighed gladly now that it was all over.

“You guys alright?” Neth asked his team.

“Yep.” Jasper replied. “That was fun.���

“Can we do it again?” Kunzite asked.

Neth chuckled and soon he put his Pokémon back into their Pokeballs one by one. “Of course, but now I’ll let you guys rest a bit.” He told them.

Neth kept on walking through Mt. Moon and saw no more disruptions. He was almost at the exit but soon saw two large rocks on the wall of the mountain. Once he got a closer look he saw they weren’t rocks, but fossils.

“Back off!” A nasal voice shouted. Neth turned to see a Super Nerd trainer marching over to him. “These are my fossils! You can’t have them!”

“Says who?” Neth asked, crossing his arms.

“Says me!” The Super Nerd replied. “Unless you want to battle me?” He asked, showing his two Pokeballs.

The second the nerd said “battle” two of Neth’s Pokeballs that carried Manky and Morgan came out. The Nerd’s eyes widened seeing the two Pokémon in front of him ready to fight his Pokémon. “So you want to fight, huh?” Amber asked.

The Super Nerd gulped before chuckling nervously. “I’ll let you take one if your Mankey doesn’t kill me.” He whimpered.

“Thank you,” Neth replied. “And don’t worry she won’t.” He added as Neth looked at the fossils to see which one to pick. Neth decided to pick the fossil on the right; the Helix Fossil and put it in his backpack. Neth, Morgan, and Amber then left the cave and breathed in the fresh air.

Neth saw the sun was ready to set and through the horizon were the lights turning on in Cerulean City in the distance. “Looks like we’re almost there!” Neth beamed. Amber and Morgan chuckled as they followed their trainer to Cerulean City.

Meanwhile, in the bushes, the Team Rocket Grunt from earlier glared as he grabbed his phone and dialed a number. “Hey, Boss! Got some big news for you.” He said. A reply was heard muffled on the other side of the phone. “Looks like we got a twerp in our hands.”