Valerie tapped out after the second Teleport, more than content with throwing up the entire contents of her stomach and wobbling on her feet like a newborn fawn after the disorienting experience. Larry did have to agree with the slurred admission she made after the second time she vomited in the bush, there was far less vomit.

  The jury is still out on whether that was because of an increasing proficiency for Teleportation or because a large part of the contents of her stomach was already heaved up in said bush on Teleport Number 1.

  Whatever the result was, Valerie had taken the time after to simply sit out as she watched her Pokemon and hang out. Teleporting back to Mt. Silver to meet with his mother would have to wait a bit more if they wanted to take Valerie with them. Sybil also admitted that she would likely require more training to manage a teleport of such a vast distance anyway. They might’ve won a Gym Badge, but for a Pokemon Trainer, training never stops.

  Looking at himself, Larry largely felt like he was finally hitting a wall of his abilities and strength. If it wasn’t for Dragon Dance and Rock Polish, they wouldn’t have done as well in their Gym Battle, and Larry was sure he was already fighting above the first or even second Gym Badge Level, so it wasn’t as if he wasn’t fighting well, he just wasn’t improving much either anymore.

  Though with the way Valerie and her mother had explained Gyms, it wasn’t as if proper Gym Levels even existed. If you managed to make your way through a Gym's Challenge, whether it was by battle or another type of challenge, you would always be guaranteed a fair fight in Kanto, or at least a fight against the Gym Leader's team closest to your own prowess, unless you were fighting Giovanni.

  For now, Larry wanted to focus on coverage; it was one of the ways to save himself as a future Tyranitar and a current Rock/Ground-Type, because there was one issue with the Tyranitar evolutionary line: its many weaknesses.

  ‘Six Weaknesses as a Larvitar and Pupitar, and seven as a Tyranitar. I mean, that’s ludicrous!’ And it wasn’t like these were weaknesses to rare Types, no. If a Fighting-Type move, a Type of move a large variety of Pokemon get access to, hits a Tyranitar, it's toast.

  Now, Larry knew that real life wasn’t a game, so a Fighting-Type even managing to get close enough to hit a Tyranitar would be a rarity. Before even getting close, they’d be either crushed by a shower of Rocks, fried to a crisp by a Hyperbeam, or whittled down by a Sandstorm. But it was obvious now more than ever, Larry wasn’t the only powerful Pokemon in the world, no matter how much he enjoyed the Pseudo-Legendary moniker.

  There would be Fighting-Type to challenge him in the future, just as there would be Bug, Water, and Grass-Type to challenge him…or Ground-Type…or Steel-Types…’Damn, this list of weaknesses is too long…Where was I going with this?’

  Type Coverage! If he managed to learn a large variety of moves, he could hit a large variety of different Pokemon more effectively. With the four-move limit of the games non-existent, the sky was the limit for Larry. Although he would have to keep himself to a more limited moveset while fighting against different trainers and Pokemon, nothing was stopping him from learning as many moves as possible.

  The newest Type of Move Larry had laid his eyes on was actually the aforementioned Fighting-type, mostly because of what he’d said before, almost any Pokemon was able to learn Fighting-type moves in some capacity, perhaps even a Larvitar? It would give him some more coverage and a brand new Type of Type Energy to master.

  The only big, glaring problem with his plan was, he had absolutely no idea where to even begin. Rock, Dark, Normal, and Ground-Type moves sound logical for a Larvitar, but Fighting-Type? What Types of moves were even available to a Larvitar? Most Fighting-Type moves relied on a human stature, arms and legs, with hands and feet to punch and kick with.

  Larry came to the most natural conclusion, ‘I guess I’ll have to consult with Valerie about it, or at least get a hold of her phone to look it up myself.’ Walking over to the sickly girl, who still had her head in her hands, Larry made a quick attempt to get her attention, “Hey.”

  “Urgh…What’s up, Larry?” Valerie, sitting next to Matt, turned to him, still swaying slightly while sitting.

  “I need to look something up.” He spoke, making a motion as if he were using a phone.

  “You need to use my phone?” Valerie pulled the device from her pocket. “Here, type it out.”

  Larry took a minute or two and tapped his query in a line of text, letting the text-to-speech voice announce his question, “I want to learn a Fighting-Type move. What moves can I learn?”

  “Fighting-Type?” She took the phone back from him with an intrigued look, before recognition dawned on her, “Ah, right, we’ll be fighting the Pewter City Gym next. A Fighting-Type move would be good.” Valerie was already tapping away, her motion sickness at least somewhat forgotten, “I’ll look into it, you just sit tight, ok?”

  He was able to use a mobile phone, but without opposable thumbs, the experience wasn’t as easy as one might expect. It was more akin to only being able to use your two pointing fingers on the device, which felt surprisingly unintuitive, so Larry delegated the actual task of searching the web to Valerie herself.

  …

  Next to Larry, Patrat tapped him on the shoulder, “Psst…Hey…”

  “You don’t need to whisper to me.” Larry turned to the Normal-Type, “What's up?”

  Patrat fidgeted around as he sat down next to Larry, “Well…I was there when you had your Gym Battle and…well…”

  “Hm?”

  “I saw you’re really strong and...Since we had that spar before…” A beat of silence passed as Matt’s Pokemon deliberated on how to phrase what it wanted to say, “Do you have any battling advice?”

  Momentarily stunned, Larry simply looked at the Pokemon, which quickly averted its eyes, “D-Don’t look at me like that! I-I just realized I need some help getting better at fighting…I thought you might be able to help…”

  ‘Patrat’s always pretty sharp-tongued and crazed, but I guess even he has a soft core.’ Larry noted.

  “Sure, I can give you some tips.” He agreed with a nod, “Why did you ask?”

  “Why?!” Patrat turned to him, surprised.

  “Yeah, there’s got to be a reason you want to be able to fight better.” Larry rationalized.

  “W-Wellll…” Patrat deliberated with himself about what to tell him before it tuned up its act again.

  “Hmph! That moron up there will get himself killed if I don’t protect him.” Patrat announced derisively as he jabbed a thumb back over his shoulder up at his trainer, “I’m good but…Not good enough…You know?”

  “I get it.” Larry agreed, ‘So he’s too proud to say that he wants to protect his trainer?’

  For now, he decided to go along with Patrat, see what he could do. “Well, what kind of moves do you know?”

  What ensued was a quick back-and-forth between the two of them. The long and short of it was, Patrat was basically useless in a fight.

  He knew Bite and Tackle and apparently could dodge pretty well, but that was about it. It was a pretty amazing revelation to Larry that Pokemon in this world weren’t naturally good at fighting. If a Pokemon didn’t put in the time and effort to learn new moves or improve at fighting, it simply wouldn’t.

  Now, it wasn’t all for nothing, Patrat could do a variety of things Larry had only learned to do recently. He was a genius on a computer or smartphone, able to interface with both devices with the same, if not better, skill than Larry, a former human with a penchant for doing so. The Normal-Type had opposable thumbs and knew how to read two human languages. Larry knew the same, though he doubted written English was of any use in the Pokemon world.

  Patrat had taken on a Pseudo-Moderator role in Matt’s online presence, used to taking the young boy's phone and simply doing his work for him when the boy was busy. It was quite an amazing thing for a Pokemon to do in Larry’s eyes.

  That wasn’t his only talent. Patrat are naturally skittish and, when faced with a fight, usually try to flee first, which makes Patrat quite adept at climbing and moving around in general. Couple that with impeccable eyesight, and you’ve got yourself a wonderful companion Pokemon for the wilderness, which will keep you safe not through combat, but evasion.

  ‘I see his motivation to become better at fighting, but I really think he’s better off working on his talents for detection and evasion.’ Larry still remembered Patrat from the games, with both it and its evolution being largely useless, even in the end-game of the story of the games.

  Every Pokemon has some sort of niche, so it's quite an amazing feat for a Pokemon to be so unfathomably useless in combat, considering even Pokemon like Bibarel found some sort of competitive niche.

  “So…” Patrat finished, “What should I work on?”

  ‘I should just be honest…’ Larry thought to himself.

  “Look, Patrat.” He began, “I think you’re better off working on things outside of fighting. You’ve got a unique set of talents, amazing eyesight, you're very nimble, and you know how to work with human devices. You and Matt are going to be traveling with us anyway, so I think you’re better off doing things like…keeping watch for wild Pokemon and helping Matt with his recordings.”

  Patrat just stared back at Larry, “So…What you’re saying is…I’m useless in a fight?!”

  “No!” Larry denied immediately, “No! No, you have your uses in a fight! I’m sure of it! It’s just…well…Considering we’re all gonna travel together, we should all focus on what we’re best at and…and Patrat are great at keeping lookout, right?” He stumbled over his explanation, “I-uh, I mean, you can still join in on our training sessions, right? If you really want to, sure, but I just think, you know, you’re not, like, that used to fighting, right?”

  Suddenly, Valerie called out to him, “Hey, Larry. I just found some Fighting-Type moves for you! Come over here and check this out!”

  Larry immediately turned, more than happy to be spared from an awkward conversation, “Oh, sorry! Valerie is calling! Let’s continue this talk later, alright?”

  Patrat simply nodded as Larry extracted himself, “...Sure.”

  …

  What Valerie had found online for him was a sparse offering of two moves, both of which she was unsure if he could actually learn. Firstly, Brick Break. Brick Break was the go-to Fighting-Type move to learn for any Pokemon, as practically anything with arms to hit with was able to learn the move. Valerie had found clips of various Pokemon, including a Muk, performing the move in battle.

  How a viscous mass of poisonous goop learned to punch hard enough to break bricks was a mystery to both Valerie and Larry, but if the video and the attached comment section of various people corroborating that their Pokemon could learn the move were anything to go by, then Larry could probably do so as well.

  ‘I like to think I could hit harder than a literal mass of death slime.’ Larry thought to himself.

  The other and more interesting Fighting-Type move Valerie had found evidence that Larry could learn was Superpower. Though the evidence was far less clear. Apparently, a single move tutor up in the Battle Frontier of Sinnoh advertised being able to teach the move to a large variety of Pokemon on his own website.

  Sinnoh was a long way away for a single move, and Larry had taught himself how to use Dragon-TE too, so he didn’t think he’d particularly need to go all the way to the man, unless it turned out he couldn’t do it himself. So for now, the focus was on the easier Brick Break, and if that turned out to be a piece of cake, Larry would give himself a shot at learning Superpower.

  Pointing at Brick Break, Larry made a nodding motion up towards Valerie, “Let’s learn this one.”

  “Alright, let’s try and learn Brick Break.” Valerie agreed. The girl deliberated for a moment before she turned to her Pokemon again, “Actually, the prize money from the Gym came through this morning. If you really want, we could just go ahead and buy a Technical Machine for the move.”

  “H-How much did you get?” Matt spoke up with a raised hand.

  Valerie held up both of her hands, leaving only two fingers down and closed.

  “E-Eight?” Matt mumbled, “Eight what?”

  “Eight thousand Pokedollars!” Valerie exclaimed.

  Both Matt’s and Patrat's mouths dropped at the number, but Larry and Sybil could only turn their heads, ‘Eight thousand? How much is that again? I think a Pokeball is 150 Poke Dollars?’

  “T-That is…a lot,” Matt spoke.

  “It is,” Valerie agreed, “It's enough for two or three TMs, at least the cheap ones. That’s why I thought we might want to buy one.”

  “Hmm…” Larry thought about the small disks he’d seen in Pokemarts for a moment, but shook his head after a moment, “I wanna try learning it without one.”

  “Alright, your choice.” She shrugged, “Then what about learning the one we got from Giovanni?”

  ‘That sounds like a good idea!’ Nodding in agreement, Larry instead pointed at Sybil behind him, “I think buying some TMs would be far more useful for Sybil.”

  Sybils' head turned back towards him, and a nod of agreement came from her, “Indeed.”

  “You’re saying I should buy TMs for Sybil instead?” Valerie guessed. After a confirming nod from Larry, she continued, “Good thinking, Sybil could do pretty well with some TMs. I’ll have to look if we’ll be able to find any good moves in the PokeMart in Viridian City or Pewter when we get there.” She turned to Sybil, “Let’s go look after the call with Larry’s mom.”

  “I thank you.” Sybil bowed gracefully.

  …

  “H-How long until the call?” Matt asked from the sidelines, “I’m curious how a, uhm…Tyranitar looks.”

  “Should be any minute now.” Valerie glanced at her phone as they waited. It was the original reason they came here. Since training just before heading out into the wilderness didn’t seem like the most ideal plan today, they decided to simply hang out instead.

  VVVVRRRT! VVVVRRRT!

  Picking up her phone, Valerie accepted the call, and everyone scooched in closer to see her smartphone's screen.

  “Valerie!” Maxine called out from the small device, a grin on her face as she positioned the camera on her head, “How’ve you been?”

  “I’m doing great, Maxie!” Valerie smiled back at her, both Larry and Sybil, behind her, gave a cursory wave.

  “Oh, I see the Natu evolved?” She chimed up as her head bobbed up and down inside the camera, she was evidently still moving, “What was her name again? Did something big happen?”

  “She’s called Sybil!” His trainer corrected, “And something huge did happen, didn’t you watch the video I sent you?!”

  “I did!” Maxie defended, “I just didn’t have the time to watch it through! You had your Gym Battle, right? How’d it go?”

  “You didn’t watch the end?!” Valerie sounded appalled, “That’s the best part, Sybil evolved and managed to beat Giovanni! I got the Earth Badge!”

  “Seriously? Congrats!” Maxie gave her a thumbs-up as she came to a stop. She swung her phone's camera around once to show the imposing figure of Larry’s mom sitting harmlessly in the clearing near the cave entrance of Mt. Silver, the same perpetual scowl on her face as ever. Larry jumped at the image, “Mom! Hiiii!”

  “She’s also already here, just let me…set up the phone here…There we go!” Maxie released her hands from the phone and stepped back a few steps, “I brought a Tripod with me. Now I won’t need to hold it up the whole time!”

  Maxie sat herself down next to Larry’s mother, keeping a respectful distance from her as she spoke up, “Now, you guys want to repeat that? You beat a Gym?” Adjusting herself on the ground, Maxie seemingly noticed someone else in the video feed, “And who is the boy behind you, Valerie?”

  His mother finally perked up, “What is a Gym again?”

  …

  After Matt finally introduced himself and Maxie put him through the wringer on his intentions about journeying with Valerie, she finally let him go. The boy kept to the sidelines afterwards, awkwardly fidgeting around as he watched the video feed. Following Matt’s grilling, Valerie gave the duo at Mt. Silver a simple rundown of what had happened recently. From the Gym Battle, to the arrest of Giovanni, and finally, another Pokemon Center being blown up.

  “That happened again?” Maxie couldn’t quite believe what she was hearing, “Let’s hope this won’t repeat a third time. I’m already lucky we weren’t called in for that for some weird reason. I did hear about the thing that happened at Viridian Gym, but I haven’t heard much about the Viridian City Pokemon Center being blown up yet.”

  “I’m lucky I got out when I could.” Valerie admitted, “It's weird how few people were inside, but at least it means nobody was seriously hurt in the attack.”

  “I want to see the battle.” Larry’s mother suddenly blurted out.

  If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

  “You mean the Gym Battle?” Larry guessed.

  After a nod from her, he mimed the request to Valerie by first making a motion of watching a phone screen to follow it up quickly with a few shadowboxed moves to represent a fight before pointing at his mother beyond the screen.

  “What?” Maxie cocked her head to the side at the action, “What’s Larry trying to say?” but Valerie understood the motion.

  “He’s saying his mother wants to watch the Gym Battle.” She explained, “Do you think you could pull it up on your Styler for her?”

  “Sure thing.” Maxie kept the call going as she quickly retrieved her phone and started the video before placing it back down.

  Everyone seemed to watch as his mom's eyes were transfixed on the screen, she didn’t speak a single word as she watched the fight. She watched curiously as Larry disappeared into a sandstorm at the start, only to come out of it completely unharmed by any of Rhyhorn's attacks.

  When he finally counterattacked, she cheered with a loud growl, “Yeah!”

  Larry could see her tail begin to sway from side to side as she sat, her gaze still stuck to the tiny phone screen. When Nidoqueen made its entrance, her face turned far more serious, but Larry's speed seemed to shock her every time he moved.

  “How are you this fast?” She spoke to nobody in particular, still enraptured by the recording of the battle.

  “Status-Moves!” Larry supplied cheekily. He wouldn’t explain it all until the battle was fully over.

  Nidoqueen proved far more difficult than Rhyhorn, and Larry watched as his mother's expression morphed from a confident smile to a more concerned glare directed at his opponent.

  When he took a Double Kick to the face, his mother's mouth fell open before she managed to catch and compose herself. It fell open again when he took a second one, only to rise back up from the ground.

  “She’s eating this up,” Maxie whispered close to the phone.

  “Yeah, she’s loving this.” Valerie agreed in a low tone.

  “...She looks mad…” Matt countered quietly.

  When Giovanni announced Earthquake, her brows rose, but she reeled back in surprise when Larry used a series of Boulders created by him to traverse the quaking Battlefield, “No way!”

  Disappearing into a Dig, Larry shot into the injured Nidoqueens' stomach with all of his leftover strength. She didn’t hesitate to hit him with a third and final Double Kick in retaliation, ending Larry’s run in a draw.

  As Larry skidded to a stop in front of Valerie, his mother's tail slapped the ground behind her harshly, forcing Maxie into a flinching motion, “Gack!”

  Larry knew it was time to calm his mother down, as her agitation at the Gym Leader seemed to slowly boil over, “Mom! Wasn’t that a great fight by me?!”

  At the tone of his voice, she immediately calmed, the feed also switched back over to the video call, so she got in close to the phone and purred out a caring, “Yes…You did so well…So very well…”

  “I did!” Larry agreed quickly, a slight blush on his face due to the earnest praise, “But Gym Battles aren’t won alone. Sybil did just as well in her part of the battle as I did. She beat a Persian by evolving in the middle of the battle!”

  Finally wrenching her gaze from Larry over to Sybil, the Psychic bowed gracefully, “It was a surprisingly close match.”

  “C’mon, don’t play your achievement down.” Larry poked his arm into her side playfully, “You fought so well by the end, Persian didn’t even stand a chance anymore.”

  Sybil twitched at the compliment, “Thank you.”

  Larry’s mother watched the exchange fondly, her scowl softening just a smidge at the sight of Valerie’s team, “I see...Good work…Sybil.”

  “Thank you as well, Larry’s mother.”

  “You haven’t seen Sybils part yet, keep watching!” Larry called out.

  After a quick growl towards Maxie, the video continued where it left off, and his mother watched with a curious expression as the tiny form of Sybil took the stage. She compared the minuscule, round bird with a glance towards her current form.

  When Sybil began Teleporting, Larry could watch as her brows began furrowing at the sight. She certainly didn’t see many Psychic-Type moves up in the recesses of Mt. Silver, so the move Teleport must be new to her.

  Persian got the upper hand quickly after getting rid of its confusion, and everyone had tense expressions on their face as they watched Sybil try her hardest to get an upper hand.

  “My Persian won’t be hit by Confuse Ray twice in the same fight, Miss Riston,” Giovanni spoke with that same confident and snarky smirk.

  The tone of his voice forced a groan from Valerie’s throat, “Ugh, I was so annoyed by him when he did that…”

  “I wonder how he escaped?” Maxie muttered under her breath.

  When Sybil took a position on one of the rocks, her gaze suddenly turned to the roof. Transfixed on one of the stagelights shining down onto them, she was suddenly enveloped in the light of evolution.

  She took flight immediately, crying out with a loud caw in celebration at the moment.

  After that, the fight was largely done with, and Sybil's new attacks made short work of the Persian. It only turned even worse when Giovanni seemingly tried to taunt the newly evolved Xatu, forgetting about her ability in the heat of the moment.

  It was the first time Larry himself had seen the ending of the fight as well, but even knowing they’d already won, he didn’t expect such an awesome ending to the fight. ‘Persian really was helpless once Sybil began flying and using Psychic-Moves on it, it couldn’t even begin to dodge. I don’t know if the fight would’ve gone as smoothly if Giovanni had sent out another Ground-Type, probably not, as well that's for sure.’

  Valerie had a smug smile on her face when she turned to him, “I think she liked the fight, right, Larry?”

  Glancing back at the screen, his mother watched the ceremony at the end of the battle with a fond smile. She turned to Larry and his friends, the smile still plastered on her face, “You’ve become so strong, Larry. I am really proud.”

  “I don’t think I need you to translate for this one.” Valerie stopped him short.

  …

  Their meeting continued, the mood far lighter than before. In the chats following the battle, his mother had just a few questions, the most important one being how he managed to get so fast.

  When Larry explained the importance of Status-Moves to her, she nodded along with clear interest. Clearly, she hadn’t shared that same interest beforehand, only using a small variety of moves like Growl or Roar as intimidation rather than actual tactical moves in battle. It was obvious to Larry, considering their time together, that the two had never spent much of any time working on Status-Moves, with the only one his mother had ever imparted on him being Screech.

  While it had come in clutch in the battle, Larry hadn’t gotten the most use out of it yet. Whatever the result, his mother was now more interested than ever. Once they could travel back to Mt. Silver, he’d definitely swap places and become the teacher for a moment and impart some of his knowledge.

  The idle conversation continued, one of which was his mother's current living situation now that she was back in the mountain caves. It turned out, she was staying in the second layer at the moment, happy to be allowed to hang out with Donphan and the entire group of Pokemon up there. Going up and down to the third layer is too much of a hassle when she’s forced to return to see her kid outside of the mountain.

  When Larry was finally out of topics to bring up, his mother actually opened up as well for the first time.

  “Recently…New Pokemon are showing up in Mt. Silver.” She spoke idly during a break in the conversation.

  “Huh?” It had successfully hooked Larry's attention, “New Pokemon? Like what? Tell us!”

  “Donphan and Ursaring…They’re busy preparing a space for him.” She slowly explained, her gaze fixed on the ground, “Maybe… It's because of the bird?”

  ‘Moltres? What does it have to do with this?’ Larry questioned himself, “What kind of Pokemon is this new one?”

  “He didn’t say…” She explained, “He doesn’t talk…”

  ‘Well, that's concerning…’

  “Then what does he look like?” ‘If she doesn’t know the name of his species, maybe he can find it out by guessing what he looks like?’

  “Purple…” She began, “Two legs…two arms…a tail…”

  Larry almost couldn’t believe his ears, “Does it look cat-like?”

  “What's a cat?”

  “Forget it…”

  Another Pokemon came to mind, “It wasn’t a Sneasle?”

  “No.” She denied instantly, “Sneasle are already in the mountain. He’s much bigger.”

  He wasn’t a betting man, but Larry couldn’t believe what he was hearing, ‘Please don’t tell me that Mewtwo…Didn’t he want to kill everything in the first movie or something?! He was on an island or something, why’s he in Mt. Silver right now??? Didn’t he flee from Viridian Gym?!’

  If there was anything he didn’t want to worry less about right now, it was Mewtwo and the machinations of Team Rocket and the League surrounding the artificial Pokemon, ‘Let’s just drop it for now…I just wanna enjoy the time with mom…’

  “...Is he nice?”

  His mother hemmed and hawed for a second, “He is ok. We don’t talk much.”

  “That’s good…Just make sure you become good friends with him, ok?” Larry cautioned his mom, “And don’t start any fights with him, ok?”

  His mother nodded, “Ok, but-”

  “Definitely don’t start any fight with him.” He reiterated, “Ok?”

  “I won’t…” She finally nodded.

  “Good!”

  …

  With the topics of discussion slowly running dry, it was time for Valerie and Maxie to get their chat on. The situation at Mt. Silver was over and done with on her end, and she was finally back to a regular schedule. She was promised to be back to her usual schedule of work soon, the only issue with that being that Valerie’s father wasn’t there to do his shifts.

  It meant that a new ranger was assigned to his post in the meantime. Right now, it was looking to be one of the few that had helped out during the state of emergency around Mt. Silver, but who it was wasn’t clear to them yet.

  “I just hope they’ll be a good guy or gal. So many different rangers and other officials flocked to the area that I couldn't even tell you all of their names. I think there were at least three different Steves around the area.” Maxie joked, “We had to get used to calling them by numbers. Steve One, Steve Two, and Steve Three. I’m lucky they only stayed here for a few days, it felt awkward the whole time.”

  Valerie giggled at the implications.

  In the end, there wasn’t much the rangers could do about what had happened at Mt. Silver. Hundreds of Pokemon had gotten hurt in the mountain, several hundred more had died at Moltres' outburst, and the geography of the mountain was changed entirely in the short minutes the fight took place.

  All the Rangers present had recorded the changes and then gone on their merry way. More than happy to drop all of their findings in the laps of the local Rangers and higher-ups before flying back to their own stations.

  ‘Definitely feels like procedure took precedent over practicality.’ Larry mused to himself, ‘All this busywork, from police officers, rangers, and league officials, all to say that some powerful Pokemon messed up an area of land practically nobody goes to and then document every single thing about it.’

  “Well, at least it's pretty much done with now.” Maxie shrugged, “We did get a slight boost in funding from it, though, that's a plus. Maybe we can finally afford a new coffee machine for the watchtower.”

  “You said it yourself.” Valerie reminded her, “No sleep for the wicked.”

  Scoffing with a grin, Maxie nodded along, “I did say that.”

  Stretching with a groan, she looked at the time before she spoke again, “Ugh. We really did spend a lot of time talking.”

  “We did.” His trainer agreed with a stretch of her own.

  Maxie turned to the Tyranitar next to her, tentatively patting her arm, “Are you happy you got to talk to your kid again?”

  His mother agreed, giving back a meek nod as well, “It's nice…”

  “It is.” Larry had to agree from the sidelines with a nod.

  “Let's do this again.” Both he and Valerie spoke at the same time.

  The two shared a look for a second before they both burst out in laughter, “Pahaha!”

  “Wow,” Maxie awed, “You guys are really in sync. I wouldn’t have guessed you only caught Larry a few months ago.”

  “Me neither.” Valerie agreed as she put a hand on Larry's head, “I never expected how much I cared about the Pokemon I caught.”

  Her gaze was soft and caring as she looked at him, “I can’t imagine how I’d live without them anymore.”

  “So…” Maxie cut through the tender atmosphere, “Another call in a week?”

  Everyone nodded, more than happy with the arrangement. Valerie pulled Larry and Sybil close in for a hug, “Come here, guys!” The three snuggled in close. Valerie's grip was as hard as iron as she looked at the phone camera, “Say bye to Maxie and Larry’s mom!”

  “Byeeeee!” Larry fought to release one of his arms from Valerie's grasp to wave at the screen.

  “Goodbye.” Sybil opted to simply bow her head.

  Both Matt and Patrat, on his shoulder, waved towards the screen as well.

  On the other side, Larry’s mom waved shyly as Maxie leaned close to the screen with a casual wave of the hand, “See you next week then. Bye-bye!”

  The call disconnected, and Valerie finally released the two from her grasp as she stretched once more. It was just passing midday now, and there was still plenty of daylight.

  “Alright, let’s go check the PokeMart for some TMs and then get ready for Viridian Forest, why don’t we?”

  “U-Um…” Matt spoke up with a raised hand, “Wasn’t the PokeMart in the, uh…Inside the PokeCenter?”

  “Oh.”

  …

  “Sorry, Sybil, I guess we’ll have to go look at the PokeMart in Pewter City when we get there…” Valerie apologized as they exited the door of Gustav's bakery for the final farewell to her parents. She had told them that with Sybil's Teleportation, it wouldn’t be a long farewell, but her mother still insisted that she and Gustav send her off in person from their home.

  They had gone back to their home for now, and Michelle had already grilled Matt, just as Maxie had about all of his personal information, even attaining the contact information for his own family. After a small celebration around their dinner table, it was now time to set out, though, finally.

  While their journey had technically already begun, with them finally setting out for real, Larry knew there was a bit of a tense atmosphere around the group. This was everything they’ve been working towards, and Larry could see it in the expressions of Valerie’s mother and stepfather.

  Both were smiling, but obviously tense, even though Valeire herself seemed far less concerned, “Did you really pack everything? What if you need Repels in Viridan Forest?”

  “Mom, I’ve had everything packed up in my backpack a long time ago, and I can handle Viridian Forest.” She rolled her eyes, “I’ve been in Mt. Silver, you know?”

  “I know, it’s just…a sentimental moment.” She hugged Valerie close, “I know it's an annoying thing to ask, but…make sure you stay safe. Also, come home when you find time, alright?”

  “I’ll stay safe, Mom, don’t worry.” Valerie patted her mom on the back, “Besides, I’ve got my Pokemon and Matt to back me up.”

  When Michelle released her daughter, Gustav stepped up, “We have not known each other for long, but I would still like to say I am rooting for you. You are a lovely girl, and from that Gym Battle, it is obvious you have a talent for training your Pokemon.”

  “Thank you, Gustav.” Valerie appreciated the praise.

  “I hope you’ll stay safe and have a fun journey.” The man pulled up his phone, pressing it to her hand, “And here is the final person who wanted to say their farewells to you.”

  Pressing the phone to her ear, Valerie was momentarily unsure who would still be left before her memory caught up to her, “Hello? Dad?”

  “Ahaha! Caught me!” His trainer's father spoke over the loudspeaker.

  “Dad!” Valerie jumped at the tone of her father's voice.

  “Congratulations on the win at the Gym and on finally starting your journey properly.” Drew called out over the phone's speaker, “I’m sorry I couldn’t be there in person to send you off, but this is the next best thing, isn’t it?”

  Valerie began sniffling at her father's apologetic tone, but composed herself, “It really is, thank you, Dad. I’m so happy I got to hear from you before heading out.”

  “Of course you’d hear from me!” Her father's tone of voice carried the same pride he always got when his daughter gave him attention, “How could I forget my little girl, all grown up now and already getting Gym Badges! I watched the whole thing ten times over by now, it's that boring being stuck in a bed between physical therapy, what an amazing fight!”

  Valerie seemed to physically grow a few inches from the praise, her smile widening, “Thanks…Thank you so much, Dad…I’m so happy I got to do all this…”

  Her father's grin was audible, even without the usual video call present, “You would’ve done amazing anywhere, Valerie. You’re the smartest, most amazing girl I know.”

  “Yeah, yeah.” Michelle finally spoke up, cutting through the honeyed atmosphere around the father-daughter duo, “We’d all love to hear you heap even more praise on our daughter, but if we keep this up, the sun is going to go down before she gets going.”

  “Right...Right…” Drew agreed, suddenly aware once again of the other adults who just overheard his gallivanting speech about how amazing his daughter was, “Good Luck on your journey, Valerie. Write or call me from time to time, I’d love to hear what new messes you’ve gotten yourself into, and I’m happy to give advice.”

  “Thanks, Dad.” Valerie smiled at the phone, “I’ll make sure to give you a call from time to time.”

  “Now go on out there and get some badges!” Drew cried out halfheartedly, “I’ve gotta get back to physical therapy! Get back into my beach body figure from before this whole thing.”

  Michelle scoffed, “Maybe from your dreams.”

  “Get out there!” Drew ignored her comment, “Become the champion, catch ‘em all! Do what you want! Make your parents proud!”

  “I will, Dad. Thanks for the motivation.” Valerie looked more than ready now, “I think I’m ready to get to it now. Goodbye!”

  His trainer finally turned, Matt with his Patrat following after her, “Bye, Guys!”

  “G-Goodbye!” Matt followed her example, as did Patrat on his shoulder, waving back towards the girl's family.

  “Bye, Valerie!”

  “Goodbye, Valerie!”

  “Show ‘em what you can do, Valerie!”

  Larry himself was also feeling the spirit by now, ‘Let’s give ‘em hell!’

  …

  The duo of trainers finally exited Viridian City around the beginning of the afternoon. They passed a sign stating the fact that they were entering Route 2 soon after, and with the city population behind them, Larry and Sybil were finally released back out of their Pokeballs.

  Stretching, Larry let out a squeak of comfort, “Finally~ Freedom!”

  “Sorry for keeping you in the Pokeball, but I’ve noticed a lot of eyes on us after we beat Giovanni.” Valerie apologized, “I doubt we’ll need it, but keep an eye on the wild Pokemon around here.”

  “You got it!” Larry nodded happily. Valerie’s guess was right, as the most harmful Pokemon he could see in the distance, a Bellsprout, looked more than content just bathing in the sun between the high grass on the sides of the pathway.

  “Y-You were a big deal before as well, but, uhm…I’m surprised nobody has come up to talk to you yet.” Matt spoke up next to her.

  She put a hand on her chin, “You’re right, but what would they even ask about? Aren’t most of the interesting things people would want to know about me already out?”

  “P-People sometimes want autographs from famous trainers…” He argued back to an agreeing nod from Patrat.

  “Maybe I should’ve practiced my autographs then.” Valerie mused as they walked up a slight incline.

  The area around them hasn’t changed drastically from the interior of Viridian City. There weren’t any houses to be seen anymore, but there were still a large number of trees on the outer edges of the path, with the occasional pieces of plains peeking out to them on the sides.

  Larry couldn’t remember there even being a Route 2, in his mind, the entirety of the Viridian Forest was just parked next to Viridian City, when in actuality, the Route subsumed the forest within it on both ends, with Route 2 continuing on the other side before you finally made your way into Pewter City. It did make sense to at least have some sort of distance between the two of them. In his research before setting out, he’d also found out about the Diglett Cave, supposedly somewhere on this Route.

  He’d felt a bit bad about not remembering any of these places from his time playing the games, but it must’ve simply been too long since he’d last played them. Whatever the case, somewhere on the Route, beyond the Viridan Forest, was a cave entrance to a cave filled with Diglett and Zubat. If he already felt uncomfortable in Mt. Silver, Larry didn’t want to know how he’d feel in a cave entirely inhabited by just Diglett and Zubat, ‘Sounds like a terrible experience…’

  Luckily, Diglett Cave wasn’t on the agenda for them, and he could count himself lucky only to be thrown into a thick forest filled to the brim with bugs. ‘Well…It is an alternative…’

  Both parts of Route 2 into and out of Viridian Forest were around a six-hour walk on foot. With the forest itself depending on its condition, taking a few days to traverse, it forces one to keep their wits in the deep darkness of the forest.

  Pokemon-wise, this was a downgrade in every regard to both Mt. Silver and Route 28, which was the obvious answer, but it was still reassuring to know Larry could probably deal with anything and everything found on this Route on his own.

  On the sidelines, he saw a Rattata busily burrowing around in the dirt around a tree, Pidgey and Weedle relaxing in the treetops, and various other largely harmless Pokemon enjoying their afternoon in relaxing calmness. It was a surprising contrast to the tops of Mt. Silver, where competition was rampant. The Pokemon around here didn’t seem to care to compete as much as simply live alongside each other. In hindsight, it was obvious that not every Pokemon was as bloodthirsty as the battle-hardened ones up in Mt. Silver.

  Sybil, next to him, perked up as they walked, her gaze stubbornly stuck on the sun still up in the sky between the treetops. “Hmm…”

  “Something up?” Larry asked his teammate.

  “Well…” She answered cryptically, opting not to answer.

  “Alright then, keep your secrets.” ‘Damn Psychics…’

  Larry was bound to find out rather soon than later though, as suddenly a young boy charged up from behind a tree on the sidelines of the path, “Hey! You!”

  “Huff…Huff…” The boy couldn’t have been more than ten years old, he looked even younger. Wearing shorts, velcro shoes, a short T-shirt, and a cap, stylishly turned around, he pointed a finger up at Valerie, “I challenge you to a Pokemon Battle.”

  “Whoa!” Larry was awed at Sybil for her prediction, “That was a good guess!”

  “Thank you.” She inclined.

  “What an iconic image!” He finally uttered, framing Valerie and the boy with his arms, “The only thing missing is the exclamation mark over his head.”

  “Iconic?” Sybil quirked her head to the side.