[Timeskip: A month later 1/2]

“Tell me why are you forcing yourself on me?”

Heath looked upon the situation for the past month and could only describe is as an annoyance. As soon as they finished having their memorable moment, the realization dawned that Heath did not collect the money he was promised in the beginning for escorting the normal type gym leader home. In light of this Heath had sought the agreed upon money but he was instantly plagued by the news that he wouldn’t be getting paid any time soon for his service. Unbeknownst to him, Birch and Norman made the deal that commission would be paid in full when Heath helped Norman’s wife, and his son Brendan feel comfortable with their entry into the life of Little Root for the first couple of days. It was interesting to say the least, after helping the pair settle in to their new homes it turns out that Brendan was gifted a Treecko, with the rank of diamond at that. Heath was extremely jealous at first but Brendan as it turns out didn’t have the amount of experience of his manga counterpart. Now that Heath had received his money, He quickly finished up the training with his pokémon had undertook over the last month and Now would his tour around Hoenn.

“C’mon. My dad said I could go with you. Aren’t we decent enough friends?” Brendan held Heath’s arm holding him from walking off into the wildlife. As It turns out that Norman also put a clause in the contract that would give a choice of Brendan to journey with Heath.

‘I need to be the main person reading any contracts that I’m offered in the future. This is so fucking stupid’ heath pinched the bridge in his nose out of frustration and looked at Brendan who had puppy eyes.

‘He’s not a terrible battler, but I don’t know if he is good enough to survive in the wild. It’s not the most difficult and If he travel ready, he would be fun to travel with. Should I take him with me?’ Heath thought about a couple of variables but realistically the thing he made Heath feel tempted to go with Brendan is the fact that he would be bored with being alone after awhile.

“Okay get off of me” Heath shrugged Brendan off and sighed.

“We can journey together, but you will be put to the test that. Being in ownership of pokemon is one thing. Surviving in the woods full of pokemon of varying strengths is another. If you pass by the time we get to Petalburgh we can continue otherwise, I’m dropping you off to Norman”

“YESSSSS, Thank you!!!” Brendan was pumped up.

“Why do you want to go with me so bad? Couldn’t you have gone on a journey with yourself?” Heath asked as he started walking into the forest. Brendan soon caught up with him, and began to tell him.

“Both of my parents agreed that they wanted me to go when I was a little older plus they wanted to wait for dad to get settled in Hoenn” Brendan sighed. Heath noticed that Brendan wanted to say more but there was hesitance so Heath let the issue subside while they walked through the ever serene forest. Pokémon were rarer than the first time Heath came but that was due to the strength of the Pokémon that stood by Heath’s s. While he didn’t mind Brendan was disappointed with the lack of action but they would be surprised.

Rustling was heard and as soon as Heath made contact with the bush that shook. He spotted Brendan running full speed towards the bush clearing it and then continuing.

‘Adventure!!” Brendan called out. Heath sighed heavily as he followed the Johto Native.

‘What did I get myself into’

Not far where they were walking Heath found Brendan looking at two Dog like pokemon facing off towards each other.

“Grrrrrrr” A growling poochyhena was found growling at another Pooch. Heath seeing this scene more than a dozen time just walks past slowly to avoid the encounter.

“Heath, I want to battle this Pokémon” Brendan shouted scaring away one of the Poochyhena while the larger one stood it’s ground growling at the two of them.

“Firstly why are you so loud.” Heath asserted

“I-”

“And second do you not know what the Pokémon is. Don’t you have a pokedex?”

“Bu-”

“Finally thirdly, Just battle it, don’t announce it to the world” Heath finally finished. Gesturing to him to battle the dark type Pokémon that instead of defending himself. Brendan quickly got the idea, and took out a pokéball throwing it.

“Go, Cyndaquil”

‘Cyndaquil? He has two starters?’ Heath’s eyes quickly widened as he saw the fire mouse Pokémon come into being.

‘It’s curled into a shaking ball, looks like this might be an interesting battle’ Heath crouched

“Cyndaquil ready for a battle?” Brendan asked, the pokémon peeked it’s head out and looked at Brendan. Seeing it’s trainer’s confidence, it slowly got out of it’s wrapped position, though it still shook, the pokemon adopted a more agile stance.

“Use Smokescreen and light it on fire using Ember” Brendan ordered.

“Cyna Cyna” The mouse quickly started sniffling and soon it puffed out a hug plume of black smoke covered the nearby trees and the rest of the environment. Heath noticed a blazing crimson aura collecting in the depths of it’s body but suddenly it was released as the fire leaked out into the atmosphere lighting the rest of the smoke with it. It was the coolest thing that Heath has saw but he then noticed the particularity of the smoke sticking to the background.

“Piplup quickly use water gun on the trees on fire, and some on the ground around the area.” Heath ordered. The fight continued but Heath made sure there was not affect of fire spewing everywhere.

Heath looked back at the fight and observed the participants

Cyndaquil

Age: 10

Gender: M

Rank: Silver

Potential: Silver

Moves: Pound, Smokescreen, Ember, Quick attack

Ability: Flash Fire

‘At least it’s not diamond but is strong for being in that level. It doesn’t have much as much as variety of finishing moves but Brendan is creative, reckless but creative but who am I to talk if I let guts whack down a tree’ Heath noted, and then looked into the residual smoke trying to find the gray wolf. He couldn’t quite see the Pooch yet but with the little bit of visibility he found the area of where it might be at and focusing his skill, he had it found.

Poochyhena

Age: 5

Gender: F

Rank: Copper

Potential: Silver

Moves: Howl, scratch, Bite, Ice Fang

Ability: Quick Feet, Rattled

‘It has Ice Fang. That’s pretty good, but I don’t he’s gonna catch it. Well knowing his personality. Probably’

The smoke soon cleared and it was quickly apparent that Cyndaquil’s attack was a little too powerful. Heath looked at the unconscious pokémon and saw residual scratches, and freshly burned fur

“Hey can you teach me how to catch it?”

Heath had looked at the battle, and then back at Brendan, then tilted his head.

“I’m finished” Piplup announced and leaped back into Heath’s arms who ignored the request from his companion and caught his Pokémon who resided on his shoulder. He promptly turned and continued walking his way to Oldale City.

“Heath, I’m joking” Brendan called out. He put Cyndaquil back in the pokéball and quickly caught the Poochyhena which was unconscious. He caught up, and the two walked through the forest without an further disturbance.

“So are you going to sell the Poochyhena or are you going to keep it.”

“I don’t know, the pokédex is still analyzed it around copper approximately.”

“When did you get pokedex? Wait, how does it analyze a pokémon’s rank?” Heath asked while looking at the pokéball in Brendan’s Hand.

“It’s takes a rough estimate based on size. Typically the smaller it is one of the tell tale signs of the pokémon being a lower rank”

“Does it do potential?”

“No, the research guild is trying to come up with a way but it’s still far from becoming public” Brendan waved the Pokéball and put it in his back pack that was reminiscent to the games being a green strap messenger pack.

“You’re not going to heal it?” Heath question.

“I would if we stopped but ill just do when we stop”

“So, how do you like Hoenn so far. I heard that you didn’t want to come”

“Well yeah, You know I had friends, not many, but my best friend Ethan would make everything fun. We did everything together, and he was even my rival when we got our pokémons, with me choosing Cyndaquil and him Chikorita. We even planned to go journey around Kanto and Johto just like Red and Blue did. But you know in reverse”

“But you got the news that you would be going to Hoenn”

“Yeah my father got wind that he had been offered a position in Hoenn, and suddenly were packing up and leaving.” Brendan said disgruntled with what happened to him. The emotions sticked to the air like glue as the atmosphere between the two of them became a little tense.

‘Why does this keep happening.’ Heath thought. This happened with Norman, and sometimes would even happen with Professor Birch as well. He just had nothing to talk about in this particular situation and he didn’t want to say the wrong thing. After a couple of hours progressing there way to Oldale City.

“you could have always just left” Heath finally decided to speak up.

“Not exactly. The fanbase for my father was becoming extremely negative, so even if we wanted to stay. We couldn’t, though New Bark Town was extremely proud of my dad. He was from New Bark apparently.” Brendan smiled solemnly as he talked about the good times in his town.

“How about you?”

“Me? Uh..”

‘I came from this world where no Pokémon exist but there’s this thing called animals. Though I lived in one of the biggest cities in the world’ Heath joked to himself before answering what he usually tells people.

“It’s complicated, but I found some nice people in Little root, and they brought me to Birch where he gave me food, shelter and a job” Heath smiled.

“Okay, so backstory is offlimits…so what is your goal by becoming a trainer”

“Well one of the goal is strength and security, and I guess the second is being able to see the different regions. I haven’t travelled much and enough though I researched a lot during my time in the Professor Birch’s lab reading is different from seeing” Heath shrugged.

“hmmm”

“What?” Heath asked. Brendan seemed to be unconvinced of this answer.

“Nothing? I guess I just thought it would be more practical. Maybe be the next Pokemon Master, or the next Champion.” Brendan replied.

“That’s more practical than site seeing some if not all of the regions?” heath shot back.

“Fair enough Heath. Fair enough” Brendan relented. The two continued the journey with no trouble, and soon Heath found Brendan at the brink of exhaustion about to collapse like his father which at first annoyed Heath, but it made Heath respect him slightly more .

‘He seems extremely tired, but he’s not tapping out. Strong willed but stupid.’ Heath chuckled to himself.

“Want to talk a break? You need to heal the Poochyhena and you seem pretty…tired ”

“Yes…Pleasseee” Brendan whined, They continued off the main path before running into a small clearing that was big enough for the both of them and then some. Heath quickly took Piplup off of his head while Brendan Brought out the two Pokeballs.

“Cyndaquil can you help me buddy?” Brendan asked. One of the pokéballs in hand shook gently, and Brendan pressed the button releasing the mouse out in the world. It quickly appeared, and Brendan petted the animal while they talked about game plan.

“So you just stand guard if tried to attack me, you stop it. I’m going to make a deal with him.”

“It’s a girl” heath interrupted.

“with her” Brendan corrected himself without looking at Brendan.