“Err…Umm…You see…” Larry was left out to dry. Sybil's sudden question came completely out of left field. The flow of conversation had been so calm and relaxed, he hadn’t even considered that he’d spill something important.

  Luckily for him, he always had a fool-proof explanation prepared when the time came for someone to question him on knowledge he shouldn’t be privy to in his current state.

  “I got it from the net,” Larvitar didn’t sweat, a fortunate thing for Larry. Yet he couldn’t help but avert his gaze at the white lie, “...Been searching up a bit on our next challenge, you know?”

  A slight squint of her eyes, Sybil seemed to keep her gaze trained on him just a bit longer than normal, “Curious…”

  “He…He-he…Yeah, sure is…” Larry scratched at the side of his head nervously, “Anyway, uhh…We should go back to keeping watch, right?”

  Sybil nodded slowly before turning, “Yes…Yes, we should…”

  Turning, Larry let out a sigh of relief, ‘I think she bought that? But she’s a Psychic and can see the future…How the hell am I supposed to keep a secret from her?!’

  …

  His teammate retired after a few hours. It was obvious that a bird that was known for standing still for days on end wouldn’t have the stamina to keep walking for hours. Whatever the case, Patrat kept watch from Matt’s shoulder while Larry kept walking. Yet, Larry also felt winded by the end. He had gotten used to walking long distances over his reincarnation, but unlike him, the human body was designed to trek long distances, their ability to sweat allowed it to do so without becoming exhausted. Larry, meanwhile, tended to pant if he moved too quickly.

  ‘Can’t create a sandstorm though…’ Larry joked to himself. They were now back to setting up camp, and Larry had once again helped set up Valerie’s tent. With her tent still diced to pieces, Stella would still be sleeping in their tent again today.

  Mori had received a Paralyze Heal from Valerie and sat down at the edge of the camp to brood, though today it looked more like he was sulking, the usual aggressive energy was missing from the Steel-Type as his gaze was fixed on the forest beyond the clearing they’d found.

  Stepping over towards Valerie and Stella, Larry made the motion for Valerie’s phone, ‘Let’s go talk with the two about Mori.’

  “What’s up, Larry? Wanna tell me something?” Larry pointed at the two of them before taking his trainer's phone in his grip and waddling slightly further away from the camp.

  His motions seemed to confuse the two girls, but they followed regardless. “What’s he up to?” Stella wondered.

  Valerie already had an idea, “He probably wants to tell us something in private.”

  …

  “Tone down the bullying.” The text-to-speech voice spoke at a reduced volume at the edge of the camp.

  “Bullying? What are you talking about?” Valerie asked in a hushed tone, genuinely confused.

  “Mori.” Larry wrote out quickly, “You’re too rude.”

  The two exchanged a glance with each other, still slightly confused. Stella was the first to catch on, “Is this about competing with Dusty? Wasn’t this the plan?”

  With a sigh, Larry continued writing, “Mori doesn’t see it.”

  Once again, Valerie and Stella waited for him to write out a longer answer.

  “He doesn’t understand why he is being punished.” Larry wrote before continuing, “You never reward him for good behavior, but always punish him out of the blue. Get it?”

  Stella turned introspective at the explanation, “Hmm…”

  “I see your point, Larry, but has he done anything to deserve praise?” Valerie argued, “He hasn’t done much.”

  Larry was confounded by Valerie for a moment, quickly replying with an answer, “He started listening to Stella.”

  “He did,” Stella answered with a nod.

  “He defended you at night.”

  “Yeah…” The Steel-Types trainer nodded again.

  “And he started showing self-restraint.”

  “He did?” Valerie spoke up.

  It might not have been obvious to the two humans, but when Mori realized that he was wrong, he backed down. That Weedle might’ve irritated him enough for him to attack it regardless, but Mori gave it a fair amount of chances to get out of the way. He was hotheaded, but he wasn’t a completely reckless idiot anymore, “Mori isn’t good at it, but he’s trying.”

  Valerie saw the error in her argument, realization dawned on her as she grimaced, “Yeah, you’re right, Larry…I think I’ve taken you and Sybil a bit too much for granted. Mori didn’t even listen to you beforehand, did he?”

  Her friend shook her head, “N-No…If I asked him to do something, he wouldn’t do it…”

  “Yeah, he kept watch with me.” Larry reiterated his point, “He started listening.”

  His trainer sighed, “Ok. I get it. I’m sorry, Larry…Maybe we’ve been treating him a bit too harshly with how much improvement he’s shown.”

  “You were egging her on, Val.” She had been acting as the devil on Stella's shoulder, so Larry felt obligated to point it out. Stella herself didn’t have the heart to treat her Pokemon coldly alone, and that was obvious, but Valerie also seemed to be having a bit too much fun showing her the ropes.

  “Ugh…Yeah, you’re right. Sorry, Stella…” His trainer bowed her head towards her friend in apology.

  “You’re alright.” He was also grilling his trainer a bit in turn, it was obvious Valerie had simply enjoyed helping her new younger friend a bit too much. Stella relied on her, and so Valerie felt obligated to support her, “Just praise Mori when he’s doing well.”

  “We should,” Stella nodded, putting a hand on his head for a pet, “Thanks, Larry.”

  “He’ll change with time.” Larry wrote, “Good behavior should be rewarded.”

  “G-Guys?”

  “Eek!” Everyone jumped when Matt appeared behind the two trainers, “Umm…t-the food is done…”

  “Arceus, you scared me!” Valerie admonished with a hand on her heart, “Thanks for the heads up, let’s get some food into us.”

  …

  Larry was treated to another meal of forest soil, and on his return to the camp, Patrat approached him.

  “Hey, uh…can we have another training session?” Patrat acted meekly around Larry when it came to training, he still felt somewhat awkward asking him for sparring lessons. He’d asked him for some simple training advice and made him tutor him on some easy things he could do to improve, and Larry had been more than happy to give him that advice.

  ‘I mean, I’ve got the time, and Patrats become a good friend in the time we’ve known each other.’ Larry thought to himself, ‘Even if I don’t think he’ll be a master battler, some simple improvement could go a long way if I remember his last fight correctly.’

  …

  If Larry were to describe Patrat's fighting style, it would be ‘lethargic’. The rodent didn’t have instincts to dodge and acted sluggishly when making moves. His footwork was nonexistent any of his attacks were surprisingly weak.

  Now, was all of that because Patrat was a terrible fighter? No, not all of it. It was all because Patrat was terribly out of shape and, for lack of a better term, domesticated.

  Yes, instead of regularly fighting and training by himself, the Normal-Type hung on Matt’s shoulder and browsed the boy's phone in his free time. He had his reasons, he was his trainer's manager after all, but that didn’t stop him from basically being the closest Pokemon approximation of a couch potato.

  ‘If it wasn’t for his low food intake, he would have been overweight.’ Patrat were normally quite nimble and agile Pokemon, their thin, small, and light bodies allowing them to move surprisingly quickly.

  Patrat just hadn’t really been in his natural environment for multiple years, those years of relaxation indoors with no threats to fight and no dangers to face dulled the rodent's fighting prowess. Then again, Larry didn’t have a clue about how much fighting prowess a Patrat could possess in the first place.

  “Ngah!” The rodent released a Tackle into the trunk of a tree and recoiled off the wood with a heavy thump before dropping onto the floor in exhaustion, “Huff…Huff…I…can’t…any…more!”

  “We’ve been going for fifteen minutes, but sure, let’s take a break.” Larry sat down next to the exhausted Normal-Type, “You’re really out of shape, huh?”

  “Why wouldn’t I be?!” Patrat cried out after catching his breath, “That idiot Matt has been keeping me inside all this time! I’m not used to this whole traveling and training business!”

  “I get you,” He nodded back, “It definitely isn’t easy, but you’ll get better at it if you keep it up! Chin up!”

  “Urgh…” Patrat was exhausted, but still pushed himself back up, “You’re right! Let’s keep going!”

  Larry watched as his friend went back towards the tree he’d been practicing against with a fond smile. His opinion on Patrat had been mixed beforehand, the Normal-Type had been welcoming at least, but he could never really place him mentally. He was so entwined with his trainer that the two seemed to never come alone, but now that Larry had had some time alone with Patrat, he saw that he wasn’t just a part of Matt’s team but his own person. ‘Especially after finding out how the two met, I can’t help but want to root for the two.’

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  ‘Now, first we’ll get Patrat training his physical condition, and afterwards maybe I’ll look into specific stuff a Patrat could learn to improve his chances.’ It wasn’t a big plan, but Patrat wasn’t looking to earn badges anyway, even being able to defend against the rare wild Pokemon beyond intimidation would go a long way for him.

  Competitive viability from back in the games wasn’t everything, Larry knew there was something useful a Patrat could do, ‘Even a Normal-Type is bound to have a few cool, powerful, or interesting moves…’

  “Ngah!” Patrat lunged at the tree trunk once again, latching onto the trunk with its glowing pair of buck teeth before ripping its head away with a violent motion.

  CRACK!

  “Ptoh!” He spat the piece of bark and stray wood shavings away with a disgusted expression, “Terrible!”

  “Don’t stop now! Keep it up! We’ll have a small sparring session when you’re done!”

  …

  The next morning, Patrat was hanging on Matt’s shoulder with a far more tender grip. He had a pained expression on his face and chastised Matt at every opportunity to walk just a bit more carefully. Matt was forthcoming, but muscle pain is a fickle thing, so it was a useless endeavour.

  Stella had spent the rest of the evening hanging out with Mori. The Steel-Type was suspicious of her actions, but looked genuinely happy to hang out with her by the end when Larry and Patrat returned to camp. Valerie gushed to him about how well Stella threw in small praises as the two conversed. She also apologized for being a bit too harsh and told him he’d actually be the Pokemon she’d compete with, on the condition that he continued to behave.

  So by the morning, Mori was walking with a little extra pep in his step, a good thing in Larry’s eyes.

  Viridian Forest's treelines were beginning to lessen in density as they continued walking in the cool morning, and by early midday, they could already see Pewter City on the horizon. It seemed Viridian Forest stopped at a plateau slightly above Pewter City, allowing for quite an amazing view of the city.

  “We’re here!” Valerie called out happily, her arms held high as she stretched, “Finally!”

  “I’ve had enough of forests.” Matt groaned, “A-At least for now…”

  “Agreed,” Valerie sighed, releasing her stretch with a whine.

  “I can’t wait to sleep in a real bed.” Stella smiled.

  “Was it that cramped in the tent?” Valerie asked jokingly, “You’re gonna have to go buy a new one too, you know?”

  “Oh yeah…” She spoke, a tiny bit meekly, “I didn’t buy mine, where do you buy those?”

  His trainer could already see the girl's cluelessness. “There are stores for trainer gear. How about we go together?”

  “Sure!” As they continued walking, she hugged herself close to Valerie’s arm, and Stella was once again happy.

  …

  Larry trekked on downhill towards the city, passing through a mountainous and rocky area with the three trainers behind him. As their team passed a large rock, they spotted an empty wooden shelf, sitting on the grass on the side of a small hill, “Hm?”

  “Who builds shelves on the side of the road?” Stella wondered out loud.

  “Is it a shelf? It looks more like a wooden staircase to me.” Valerie argued.

  “W-What about the rocks on it tho?” Matt spoke up as he stepped down the staircase, carefully avoiding the rocks stacked on top of it, “They’re being sold, right? T-That sign says Souvenir Shop.”

  “But where’s the shopkeep?” She turned to him, confused, “And who would buy a literal rock?”

  “You, r-right?” Matt picked up a bigger one with both arms, a grunt of exertion escaping him, “Maybe it tastes good for Pokemon that eat rocks?”

  “I-Isn’t that shoplifting?!” Stella spoke in shock, “Are we gonna get arrested?”

  Matt only rolled his eyes, “They’re rocks.”

  “Tasty rocks, maybe.” Valerie reiterated his point before turning to Larry, “How about it, wanna have a taste?”

  Larry nodded vigorously. Soil was a nice food source, but it was a pretty boring food source. Wasn’t this basically like those little food platters in the supermarket that advertised food? He needed a little treat, and if someone was leaving samples lying around, who was he to say no?

  He jumped at the rock and chomped down on it, breaking it apart with gusto. The rock dropped from Matt’s grasp, a large leftover piece smashing into his foot with a heavy THUMP!

  “Ouch!”

  When the rock hit his tongue, all his other thoughts halted, and Larry was reminded of the taste of home, ‘This-!’

  “Mmm! This is spicy!” He’d eaten this before, back in Mt. Silver with his Mom! He quickly picked the heavy rock off of Matt’s foot, spotting its pitch-black interior, “I knew it! I’ve had this before! It's that rock me and Mom had back in Mt. Silver!”

  Stuffing the rest of the rock into his mouth, Larry patted his stomach in satisfaction, “Ahh! That was great!”

  “Good food?” Nodding back at his trainer, she smiled back at him, “I guess Pewter City really is the perfect place to raise a Rock-Type. We’re not even in the city yet, I guess we’ll have to go buy you some in the city.”

  Nursing his foot, Matt hissed in pain, “And maybe get my foot looked at?”

  Everyone nodded absentmindedly as they continued walking, “Sure, sure.”

  …

  Everyone's phones buzzed as the reception for their phones suddenly appeared again. From what Larry learned at trainer school by listening in to Valerie’s lessons, most routes didn’t have proper cellular service to supply an internet connection. It’s why Valerie had been stuck with a local copy of the Pokedex to identify what Pokemon Scatterbug had been when it had invaded Stella's tent, and why they needed to get to the city before being able to take the next call with Larry’s family.

  The streets of Pewter looked quite modern for what Larry had expected, but unlike Viridian, the city was far less green, with most of the buildings opting instead for brick and mortar walls or other stone or rock facades. It was also less dense as a city, with the city they saw when approaching from Viridian Forest being far more spread out than Viridian.

  The Pokemon Center was a large building in the middle of the city. Multiple stories, definitely more than four, but Larry couldn’t be sure as they approached. Making good headway had been a fortunate surprise for them, the deluge of new trainers hadn’t arrived yet, and the only other people in Pewter City were local trainers. Everyones Pokemon was recalled back in their Pokeballs when they entered the city. Valerie was a big shot now because of her win at the Viridian Gym, so a low profile was essential for them.

  “Let’s get everyone checked over and checked in. While everyone gets checked over, we’ll go shopping for that tent of yours and some human supplies in the meantime.” Valerie called out to nods from Matt and Stella. She turned to the Pokemon on her belt, “After you’re back out, we’ll go shopping for Pokemon stuff together. I still have to buy that Technical Machine with Sybil, and maybe we’ll find some good rocks for Larry, as a treat.”

  Both his and Sybils ball shook in agreement before Stella suddenly jumped Valerie with a hug, “Val! Let’s get a room together!”

  Chuckling, his trainer patted the girl on the head as they approached the counter, “Sure, I’d love to.”

  Larry grinned at the girls hyjinx, ‘Stella’s already got Valerie around her fingers. It's like she’s her actual little sister.’

  "Hello! Welcome to our Pokémon Center. We can restore your tired Pokémon to full health." The nurse joy at the reception, smiled at them with a perfect business smile.

  “Hi, we’d like to rent a room and get our Pokemon healed up.” Valerie smiled as she placed her Pokeballs on the specialized Pokeball tray, Matt and Stella following suit.

  “Of course! Please show us your License and we’ll find you a room and have your Pokemon healed.”

  …

  “Maan…Those healing machines are a godsend~” Larry purred to himself. All the aches that had accumulated over their trek through Viridian Forest were enveloped in the wonderful feeling of a warm bath before washing away into nothingness. All the foot pain and exhaustion from the long walk slowly disappeared in the calm satisfaction of his Pokeball as the machine did its thing.

  By the end of the procedure, Larry felt like a million bucks, or well, a million Pokedollars. ‘How do those work anyway?’ Larry wondered absentmindedly as he reveled in the feeling of the healing, ‘You would think Pokemon would never die around here with this kind of tech.’

  Now that he thought about it, he hadn’t really heard of anyone dying around here yet, ‘Mom got pretty close, but once they got her to the Center, she was right as rain, wasn’t she?’ It wasn’t that quick a thing, obviously, but the fact that the Center managed to heal a Pokemon back to health that had been in a scuffle with a legendary Pokemon meant the tech was the real deal.

  In between his musings, the nurse had taken their Pokeballs and once again placed them into the specialized Pokeball tray, with fancy round divots to fit the Pokeballs into. All five of them were retrieved, and she walked them back out. When they entered the reception area, Larry spotted Valerie, Stella, and Matt waiting for them.

  “Here are your Pokemon! They are healed back to full health!”

  Valerie took his and Sybils Pokeballs, Stella took both of hers, and Matt immediately opened his to let Patrat climb back up onto his shoulder. Now, at midday, the Center had filled up with people. No crazy crowds yet, but there were definitely more younger trainers around.

  “Thanks!” Valerie smiled happily as she clipped her Pokeballs back onto her belt.

  “Please come visit us again!” The Nurse gave another business smile as she disappeared back into the back.

  …

  ???

  The lights of the overlight lighting and the computer monitor were the only things illuminating her figure as she sat at the computer.

  The trek between cities wasn’t something to be taken lightly, and Heather had taken the toll on a whim. Whatever the case was, she was now in Pewter City, away from the Viridian Gym. From that sting.

  She was now a large amount of her belongings poorer and a fair bit worse for wear, just like her Pokemon, but she’d managed to make the trip through the forest alone.

  News surrounding the sting wasn’t hard to come by, but she knew not to simply open up her phone and take a peek through the headlines, the League wasn’t that stupid. Trackers, Accounts and various other means of collecting data would make her position known by this time yesterday, so she’d left her phone back home in Viridian.

  A sigh escaped her, her brows furrowed, and she stared into the screen of the desktop computer of the internet cafe she’d found herself at. The Center would ask for her license to assign her a room, so they’d know she was employed at Viridian City Gym, another tracker. She couldn’t even bring her Pokemon to get healed either.

  “Fuckin’ shit sucks…Fuck this…” She hissed into the screen in front of her, another imposing picture of Lance Blackthorn shot in front of the Gym after it had been raided, invading her ocular senses as she scrolled through the article, “Fuck him…”

  “Drow…” Her Drowzee grimaced at the sight of Lance Blackthorn, throwing the picture into the middle one of his three-fingered hand.

  First, she’d been forced to wade through the trudge that was Viridian Forest, all by herself, and when she finally got back to civilization, she was forced to camp out in an internet cafe of all places because she was now a wanted criminal, apparently.

  ‘Aceeuus…’ She drawled mentally as her eyes rolled into the back of her head, ‘Why the fuck did I ever think this whole Team Rocket thing was ever gonna work out? Am I stupid? I’m fucking stupid, aren’t I? Fuuuck…’

  “Zzz…” Houndour was snuggled into her lap, asleep, acting as a miniature space heater that kept her warm.

  Heather wanted to cry, she really felt like she should be crying right now. She should’ve been crying back in Viridian Forest, even back when she’d packed all of her most important things and left her apartment door open as she rushed out of the city into the forest. She should’ve been crying.

  But right now? It was all kind of numb. She knew she’d majorly, royally, yes, perhaps even completely fucked over her chances at a normal life by joining a group of criminals.

  ‘How the fuck was I supposed to know what the fuck I’d gotten myself into?!’ She whined, kicking her legs as she opened another tab on another website, ‘This definitely isn’t my fault, that fucker Giovanni never even alluded to any of this!’

  The worst part of it all? She’d left, run away. She knew Team Rocket also had a presence in Pewter, but could she even go there? After practically deserting their boss as she had, would they even accept her back in? ‘The League certainly wouldn’t, that's for damn sure…’

  She refocused, ‘I can’t keep sitting on my ass like this! This place literally costs money to use!’

  Was she going to have to go back to mugging? Like when she was younger? No, anything but that. Even a prison cell was a better option between those two. Try to reconvene with Team Rocket? Maybe they wouldn’t know that she’d fled, maybe they would think she’d simply managed to escape, just like Giovanni himself.

  “Oh, right. I gave him the training team.” Giovanni had definitely caught that little fact, considering he’d lost his last Gym Match because of it. Drowzee patted her on the arm, a sympathetic expression in its eyes. She knew the Psychic-Type was actually not that sorry, he just wanted another treat. “Yeah, yeah…Laugh it up…”

  “I guess…it’s gonna have to be Option Two…” She thought regretfully. Heather was already dreading her decision, but she couldn’t stay in an internet cafe her whole life, ‘I guess once you get in, you can’t really get out anymore…’

  Closing the browser and turning off the screen in front of her, she lay down in the small booth and made a motion for her face, “Ok, hit me.”

  Drowzee spun its arms around in the signature motion of Hypnosis, and she was out cold in a second.