“Well, well, well, look who’s here. A little Pidgey told me that you lost your gym battle. Meanwhile, I’m all set to leave today.”

“Then why are you here?” Red said, glaring at Gary, who was acting just as stuck-up and irritating as ever.

“Oh, I just wanted to check out this backwater training ground. See if all the hype was deserved. And when I found out you were here, well… let’s just say that I wouldn’t say no to a fight- my new Wartortle needs a scratching post to let out its energy on,” he responded, giving him an arrogant smirk.

“Bring it on.” Red looked at him with a steady gaze, returning his challenge. “I’ve spent the last three days straight training here, and I’m not going to lose anymore!”

“As if. Beating fifty Rattatas isn’t all that impressive.”

Red simply called over Bulbasaur, which had been wandering around nearby- the pokémon croaked happily as it dashed over, and appeared full of life compared to a few days ago, when he had started training. He looked at Gary, who regarded his pokémon with contempt, then sent out his own partner with a devilish grin on his face.

“Full team?” Red asked, shifting his foot as he took on a battle stance.

“Nah,” Gary responded, “I don’t want to waste too much time beating you.”

“We’ll see about that.”

Gary simply sneered at him, and pulled a pokéball out of his pocket. He pressed the release button, and with that, the battle had begun.

“Go, Bulbasaur! Use Vine Whip!”

Bulbasaur dashed forwards, stretching out its vines to ensnare Wartortle- Gary however, only smirked, and said, “Rapid Spin, Wartortle! It can’t catch you if you’re moving too fast!”

Red stayed silent as Wartortle retreated into its shell, and began to spin around at a dizzying pace- Lily had pulled that same trick in his gym battle, and he had an idea of how to counter it. He signaled for Bulbasaur to retract its vines, then waited, shouting out the occasional warning to it whenever the spinning pokémon drew too close. Eventually, Wartortle began to slow down, and he shouted, “Now, while it’s incapacitated- use Tackle!”

“Incapacitated?” Gary asked. “What do you mean? It’s not-”

“It just spent half a minute spinning at extreme speeds,” Red said, watching Bulbasaur move in towards its opponent. “It’s going to be dizzy, right?”

“And when it’s dizzy…” he continued, as Bulbasaur slammed head first into the dazed Wartortle. “It can’t do a whole lot.”

“You might be right about that,” Gary admitted, “but now I have you nice and close… perfect for a Bite attack!”

Wartortle snapped out of its shell, twisting around as it tried to take a big bite out of Bulbasaur- luckily, it managed to jump out of the way at the last second, crashing into the grassy field with a ‘thump’. Immediately, however, Wartortle chased after it, clamping its jaws down with gusto.

“Okay,” Red muttered, watching nervously as the turtle-like pokémon tore through Bulbasaur. “Try Razor Leaf- tear it to shreds!” he called out. That did the trick- Wartortle was forced back as a storm of serrated leaves erupted from around its captive, cutting into it like a knife through butter.

Gary was quick to respond, however, shouting, “Dodge, then use Protect!” Wartortle nodded, and slipped through the storm of leaves, managing to avoid a large chunk of the attack. Once it was out of the fray, it stopped, chest heaving, and a silvery translucent barrier formed around it.

A Protect shield- very few attacks could breach one, but it worked both ways, which made it a good option for rest and recovery and not much else. The two pokémon stood in place for a few short moments, both visibly exhausted and more than a little bruised, and the park was… oddly silent, for that brief time. Not even the chirping of Pidgeys and cries of victory from nearby trainers could be heard, though perhaps that was simply because all of Red’s attention was on the battle, and he had tuned out everything else.

Then, as soon as the Protect shield was dropped, both sides launched back into action.

“Vine Whip!”

“Use Bite again, Wartortle!”

Wartortle dashed towards Bulbasaur at a breakneck pace, while the latter held its ground, extending its vines in an attempt to lash its opponent like a whip. The shelled pokémon deftly avoided the appendages, however, ducking and weaving between them as it drew ever closer- though somewhat clumsily, owing to its larger size. Knowing that it was time to switch strategies, Red called out, “Now! Switch into Tackle!”

Instantly, the vines retracted, throwing Wartortle off balance and sending it dangerously close to falling over. It quickly recovered, however, and continued dashing towards Bulbasaur, who was now responding in kind, both pokémon heading on a straight path to each other. When they finally clashed, it was clear who had come out on top- Bulbasaur had aimed directly at Wartortle’s underbelly, knocking it back several feet. The latter wasn’t even able to reach down and bite back, with its short neck giving it a limited range. When the dust settled, Wartortle lay on the ground, defeated, and Bulbasaur remained standing- if somewhat shakily, about to collapse from exhaustion itself.

Gary recalled his pokémon with a sneer, looked back up at Red, and said some scathing remark that he didn’t particularly care to listen to- something like ‘you had an advantage’, or ‘I wasn’t even using my full team’. While both were technically true, they were excuses that meant nothing to him. He had won, and that was all that mattered.

He took pride in that, as he watched Gary storm off, muttering angrily under his breath. This was just the confidence boost he needed to take on the gym again.

Red swung the door to the regrettably familiar arena wide open, trying his best to appear confident. This time, this time, he would win. He had spent days training for this battle, but it would have all been for nothing if he lost now.

This time, a different person faced him from the other side of the pool- the oldest Sensational Sister, Violet, who had appropriately colored hair (or not so appropriate, though dark blue was close enough, Red supposed) and a light tan that he was sure made her a big hit on the beach. Just like last time, though, he didn’t particularly care who it was- he was going to win either way. Though, unlike his last battle, the stands were completely empty; while he admittedly would have liked for Phoenix and Ritchie to be here, the gym leader had apparently requested for the battle to be a private one.

“Oh, I remember you.”

“This time,” Red responded, “I’ve come prepared.”

‘If you say so…” Violet sighed, looking down at the pokéball in her hand. “But don’t count on it,” she continued, glancing back up at him.

“This will be a two on two battle between Red Genshoku of Pallet Town, and Violet Williams of Cerulean City! At first badge level, the challenger is allowed one substitution!”

‘Here we go again…’ Red thought, mentally preparing himself.

“Three…”

“Two…”

“One…”

“Begin!”

This time, Red was much more aware of just how crafty a gym leader could get in countering their weaknesses- so he wasn’t going to lead with Bulbasaur. Instead, he could scope out the scene with Mankey; even if it was taken out early, he’d hopefully have gathered enough information to properly counter Violet’s pokémon with Bulbasaur. And if she led with Shellder, like Lily had, then that was all the better…

But no- instead, he could see the small, blue, and rather spherical form of a Poliwhirl dropping down onto one of the many floating platforms.

‘Figures that they’d have different teams. Don’t know why I made that assumption before.’

“Go, Mankey!” he yelled, sending out the fighting type. “Use Seismic… Toss?”

He began to falter, as he noticed that, much to his annoyance, his pokémon was sleeping. “Uh, Mankey?” he called out. “Why are you…?”

Violet’s eyes widened, and she let out a short chuckle. “You can’t even keep your own pokémon awake, huh? It looks to me like you’ve trained them too hard.”

Red groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose. Surely this wouldn’t end up being even more of an embarrassment than the last battle… right?

“Well…” Violet continued, “let’s give it a nice wake up call. Poliwhirl, use Mud Shot!”

Poliwhirl dashed towards the comatose Mankey, glaring at it menacingly- a sight that Red would have found funny, were it not also firing a copious amount of slop right in his pokémon’s face. The disgruntled furball woke up in a way that reminded him of a cranky old man, blinking for a few seconds as it tried to process the situation. Once it realized what was going on, however, it looked at Poliwhirl angrily, and began charging towards it.

Red sighed, seeing the mistake that Violet had made- Mankey was angry after being pulled away from its slumber, and an angry Mankey was a force to be reckoned with.

“Now!” he called out. He could end the battle quickly and easily here, using one of the new moves Mankey had learned in his three days of training. “Use Cross Chop!”

Mankey, however, blatantly ignored this, instead opting to dash towards Poliwhirl full-force, swinging its arms with reckless abandon. Naturally, this was a rather poor decision, as Mankey, still coated in mud, wildly missed its target; Poliwhirl was able to dodge with ease and immediately return fire with a close-range Water Gun.

Red didn’t like the direction this battle had been going so far, but he did see a silver lining in the latest development- the Water Gun had washed off the mud that was coating Mankey, and it was once again able to see properly. Taking a deep breath, he shouted, “Come on! Use Cross Chop!”

For a moment, there was silence, as Poliwhirl and Mankey stared at each other from across a platform. Then, they both dashed towards each other at the same time, both raising their arms as they prepared to attack. When they clashed, there was a burst of energy that swept across the pool, sending a light ripple along the surface- Red shielded his face from the force, and when he looked back up, Poliwhirl was lying on the ground, knocked out.

He wasn’t sure how he had managed it, but Poliwhirl had been taken out in a single hit.

Red stood there, frozen in awe, and watched as Violet recalled Poliwhirl. She let out a heavy sigh as she did so, her face pale and strained- he hadn’t noticed that before.

“I’m going to be honest,” she said, looking him in the eyes. “I went easy on you. Poliwhirl was a recent catch and… obviously, not very strong yet.”

And with that, all of the pride and excitement that had been building up in Red evaporated.

“It’s not really worth it, then, is it,” he muttered, his voice slowly growing louder until he began to shout. “I trained for three days, and it doesn’t even matter because I would have won easily anyway? Is that it?”

“That’s not- well. Listen, there’s just… been a lot happening, and I’m not in the right state of mind to-”

“Then why did you stand up here and try to give me a challenge?! If your heart’s not in it, then just give me my badge and go! Sort out your own problems, because, frankly, I do not care!”

Violet stood in place, a battle of emotions playing across her face as Red watched in silence, beginning to realize just how unnecessarily aggressive he had been. He was full of pent up rage, and it was beginning to wear on him.

“I have a duty… as a gym leader,” Violet said, pulling out her second pokéball. “I need to provide an appropriate challenge to any trainer that faces me, no matter what’s been going on in my life outside of the gym. Especially being the oldest of my sisters, I’m expected to act a bit more… mature than I have been, I suppose. I can see now that by going easy on you, I damaged your pride.”

“Come on,” Red said, a rare smile tugging at his lips. “Let’s just continue our battle, alright? It’s more fun to beat someone who’s giving their all.”

Violet responded with a devilish grin. “How about this, then? I had to put up quite a fight for the league to even let me use this pokémon, since it’s not native to Kanto… but I think you’ll enjoy the challenge. I have a feeling that we all need to work out some frustrations, don’t we?”

“Mankey,” Red called out, looking down at the furry pokémon- it had been awkwardly wandering around for some time now, hopping from platform to platform as it looked for something to do. “Come on back. I think Bulbasaur needs a bit of action.” He noticed, as he pressed the return button on his pokéball, that it seemed rather annoyed at this- at first, he paid it no mind, though he would later begin to come back to this, and linger on it, quite a bit.

“Ready?” Violet said, looking him in the eyes. Red nodded, and the two of them both sent out their second pokémon.

Whatever Violet had sent out, Red didn’t recognize it at all- it was a small, flimsy looking thing with a purple underbelly, a sharp, razor-like tail, and brown, seaweed-like skin that settled in clumps along its back. It drifted in the water lazily, keeping itself afloat despite its thin, papery appearance. Surely this couldn’t pose a challenge, right?

He abruptly stopped that train of thought, and sighed as he sent out Bulbasaur onto a platform near the pokémon. Questions like this really just shouldn’t be asked, even internally, he decided, as the answers were typically unwelcome.

“This is Skrelp.” Violet smirked as she said this, which made Red feel slightly uncomfortable. “It might look weak, but, well… let’s lead with Smokescreen and Double Team, shall we?”

Before either Red or Bulbasaur had a chance to react, Skrelp let out a sharp squeak, and began pumping out dark, inky clouds en masse, covering the arena with a smoke so thick that it was nigh impossible to see through- for both pokémon and trainer.

“And now!” Violet shouted, “use Poison Tail!”

While Red couldn’t see anything, he could hear and infer, and it was rather obvious what the grunt of pain, faint bubbling sound, and disgusting, mustard-like scent in the air meant. Skrelp had most certainly hit its mark.

“See, Skrelp can, like, see through smokescreens. Which makes it perfect for setups like this one- thanks to Double Team, your Bulbasaur can’t even use its shadow to figure out where it is, cause there’s a bunch of fakes everywhere!”

At this, Violet let out a self-satisfied ‘hmph’, ready to continue with what Red could only assume was going to become a relentless chain of ‘shadow attacks’. Luckily, he had a plan to stop such a thing before it even started.

“You’re right, you know,” he said, taking a step forward. “Good thing Bulbasaur doesn’t need to see Skrelp for Razor Leaf to work!”

A barrage of leaves tore across the pool, ripping through the smokescreen- and, as Red had hoped, the onslaught not only tore several deep cuts into Skrelp, but also served to dispel the murky black clouds, exposing the arena once again.

This prompted a slow, methodical, clap from Violet- one that was not quite as congratulatory as it seemed. “Good job getting rid of the Smokescreen,” she said, looking down at Skrelp. “I have quite a few more tricks up my sleeve, though. I did say that this would be a bit cathartic.”

Red gulped. Maybe he should have just taken that easy win, after all.

“Now, Skrelp!” she called. “Use Acid, then Poison Tail again! We might not be able to poison a poison type, but that doesn’t mean we can’t do a whole lot of damage to it!”

“Pick it up with Vine Whip! It can’t break free without arms or legs!”

Violet scoffed. “Are you really so naive? Of course it can.”

Skrelp swam forward, preparing a glob of burning acid- Bulbasaur was too fast for it, however, and two vines shot out of its bulb, wrapping around it before it could launch its attack. It squirmed around futilely for a few seconds its flat tail wiggling around in desperation, until Red called out,

“Now! Start banging it around, and aim for the platforms.”

“Uh uh uh!” Violet responded, wagging her finger. “Skrelp, I know you don’t like to do this… but I think it’s necessary.”

The purple pokémon responded with a look of what could only be described as annoyance, but then began grunting and scrunching up its face, as if focusing on doing something. Red, however, wasn’t going to wait for it to finish.

“Come on!” he yelled. “Shake it!”

As Bulbasaur sent Skrelp hurtling towards one of the floating platforms, however, it suddenly disappeared from its grasp- all that remained within the vine’s hold was a layer of flaky brown skin.

“Skrelp here can shed its outer layer of skin,” Violet explained, “it’s not something the species can typically do at will, but I taught it how to so it could fight better against rock and ground types- it kept getting caught on their bumps and sharp bits.”

“Fine,” Red muttered. “We’ll just use Razor Leaf again! That worked well last time!”

Violet simply shook her head, giving him a look that implied she knew something that he didn’t- not a look he liked very much.

“Sorry,” she said, “but I think you’ll find that you’ve effectively already lost. See, that skin isn’t the only thing Skrelp can break off.”

It took Red a moment to realize what she was referring to, but when he did, his face paled. “The tail…” he murmured.

“Yep. You wouldn’t know, but Skrelp’s tails aren’t normally that sharp- again, a little attribute brought about by me to make it that much stronger. But the best part is that Skrelp can use Poison Tail, lodge its tail deep inside its opponent, then break it off. The result? Continuous damage, over time. Bulbasaur is as good as gone now.”

Red hadn’t noticed before, but Bulbasaur was wincing in pain every time it took a step- in fact, it seemed like it was going to collapse onto the ground at any moment.

Violet sighed, as if all the tension was escaping her, not unlike a steam vent. “Thanks, Red. You don’t know how helpful this has been. I am sorry that you lost like this, though- even if you sort of brought it upon yourself. I can make sure your next rematch is as soon as possible.”

“The battle’s not over yet,” Red observed. “The referee hasn’t even called the match.”

“It’s as good as lost, anyway. Unless, say, Bulbasaur evolved halfway through the battle, I don’t think there’s any way you can…”

Apparently, biology had a funny way of kicking in exactly when it was most dramatically convenient- because, right as Violet said that, two things happened;

First, Bulbasaur collapsed onto the ground, exhausted.

Second, it began to glow with a blindingly bright white light, as the massive reserve of energy it had been building up over the past few months for this express purpose was finally spent.

No one quite knew how evolution worked the way it did. In the span of about ten seconds, a pokémon could undergo a rapid physical transformation into a much bigger, stronger form. Most of the time, this happened simply within a general period of a pokémon’s life, though there were plenty of exceptions- certain energy-imbued minerals could trigger such an event, or even a strong bond with another organism, be it human or pokémon. Battling seemed to expedite this process- the general consensus was that, rather paradoxically, releasing energy through fighting and using attacks actually caused a pokémon to regain that energy at an accelerated pace. It seemed as if the internal process of storing and using energy was streamlined.

Regardless of how it worked, though, it was certainly a sight to behold- particularly when it was your own pokémon that was evolving. Even though Red had seen dozens of Clefairy evolve only a couple of weeks ago, it was a much different experience here, when the pokémon that had been his partner for a month or so now was changing right in front of his eyes. Needless to say, both he and Violet could only watch in silence as Bulbasaur turned into Ivysaur, slowly standing up in defiance of the razor embedded in its body.

“Well,” he whispered, “I definitely didn’t expect that to happen.”

Violet grimaced, but shook her head defiantly. “While that was definitely… rather convenient, it doesn’t guarantee that you’re going to win! A newly evolved pokémon will have trouble getting used to its new form- so it might be stronger, but it can’t control that strength yet. Skrelp, quickly- use Poison Tail again!”

“Again with the Poison Tail…” Red growled. “I’m getting a bit sick of that! Bul- Ivysaur, come on! Hit it with Razor Leaf!”

What followed was what seemed like a sort of kamikaze attack on Skrelp’s end- the badly beaten and cut up pokémon pushed through the onslaught of leaves, trying desperately to reach Ivysaur before it fainted. It jumped out of the water, growing closer and closer to its just as battered opponent; it readied Poison Tail as it did so, and both trainers knew that just one hit could be enough to take out their opponent, at this point.

But then, right before Skrelp reached Ivysaur, its tail poised mere inches away from its neck… It collapsed on the ground. It had been pushed to its limit, and it had no more energy left to give.

“The winner is Red Genshoku of Pallet Town!”

He had done it. Three days of training, a massive difficulty spike halfway through the battle, and an extremely well-timed evolution… and he had finally managed to win. As he went through the same motions as he had after his last gym battle, he couldn’t help but think that it felt a little different, this time. That much more rewarding.

“Red,” Violet called out, starting to clap- this time, however, it felt much more sincere. “I’m impressed. Instead of using my apathy to take an easy win, you pushed me to give it my all in the battle… and, admittedly, take out my emotions on you. I think, for winning, despite all of that, you really deserve this.”

The two of them stepped off the platforms over the arena, and walked over to the side of the pool. Upon reaching Red, the gym leader held out a sparkling blue badge shaped like a drop of water.

“This is the cascade badge- the mark of victory against the Cerulean gym. Congratulations, Red. You’ve done well to get this far.”

“Thank you,” Red said, gazing at the badge with reverence. Two down, six more to go.

Red emerged from the gym with a spring in his step- he was, naturally, in a good mood after his victory against Violet. Phoenix and Ritchie were waiting in the hotel room for him, so that was where he was headed.

At least, that’s where he was headed. Plans, however, tend to change.

As he walked down a rather long, winding, street, only a few blocks away from his hotel, something rather unusual caught his attention. The sound of a trash can falling over wasn’t particularly odd, but the loud squelching noise that accompanied it was. As he would come to regret later, Red’s curiosity got the better of him, and he wandered into the tight space, trying to find the source of the noise.

Finding nothing, he wrote it off on his list of ‘random weird city sounds that he really did not need to hear’- a list with only one item on it, and would hopefully stay that way. Shaking his head, he turned around to leave the alleyway- then froze, as he felt a hand fall onto his shoulder, holding it in a firm grasp.

“Hey…”