Pokémon: Kanto's Rebirth [T] [IC]

((OOC: Thanks! :D))


FORD K N O X

→ viridian city

The second day of Ford Knox's pokémon journey started with a gray sky, full of clouds. Ugly words flew mutteringly through his mouth as he got out of bed and got ready for the day. Pikachu had been sleeping peacefully at the foot of the bed, but now yawned and watched his trainer go about. The second last thing Ford did before leaving his room was making sure he had all necessary things in his bag and the pokédex and smartphone in the front pockets of his black jeans. The very last thing he did was opening Pestify. Immediately messages came up that had been sent privately to him while he was asleep.


That was sent in the very middle of the night. What was Aquarius thinking?


Honestly, Ford just wanted to ban that guy. He was never really nice to talk to, and he didn't even say things that made sense. This was probably nonsense too; maybe Aquarius had suddenly grown jealous of Ford getting a pokédex and pokémon and planned on going on a journey too. He just wanted to intimidate Ford and it didn't work. Who let that guy onto the Zodiac, by the way? Couldn't have been Gemini.

He walked down to the kitchen and found the head chef of the Knox house there. It was a hearty man who always tasted his own food but strangely enough was the tallest and thinnest man Ford had ever known. It was as if his metabolism worked at tenfold the rate of usual men's.

After a decent breakfast and lots of sandwiches and small packages of relatively healthy snacks put away into the backpack by the Chef, Ford left the house with Pikachu in his arms. Pidgey and Pansear were in their pokéballs, both having been healed at the pokémon center on the evening before. Today he had planned on going to route 22 to find more pokémon. Being native to Viridian City, he knew very well that he would have no luck trying to get further after route 22 at this point; the League guards would chase him away if he as much as lingered near the gates for too long. But he had spotted a lot of pokémon in his days sneaking out to play on the route, sometimes together with Will.

First, he should stock up though. He went to the pokémart and looked through the wares. He had never gone into this store with the purpose of buying something before. Just sneak peeked in or followed a friend who would buy something for their pet occasionally. But now he would buy his own stuff! If he only had the money to do so. He hadn't, at the moment.

Now, he was a rich boy. His dad had made sure to spoil them, which was part of the reason that Burt was such an unbearable brother and person generally. Ford had tried to not be so obviously spoiled, moderately successfully. The modern smartphone was a pretty obvious display though. He could just go back home and fetch some money now. But that wouldn't be completely fair. He should earn his own money. By battling. And to battle successfully, he would need pokémon. And to get pokémon, he should go out to route 22.

Hm, seems like his trail of thoughts ended up right where it began, didn't it?


→ route 22

Anyways, Ford was soon stepping onto the westward route with its somewhat rocky and windy landscape. A river ran alongside the road, which winded upwards towards the Victory Road and eventually Indigo Plateau. The place only legends reached. Or incredibly lucky / rich / badass people. Ford didn't need to go at all that far though. He just wanted to stray away from the path enough to see some wild pokémon. He encouraged Pikachu to look around as they walked away from the road in a particularly rocky region, out onto a ledge. Looking down, Ford was just a little relieved to see that a deep part of the river was beneath him. Just in case he should fall. Not that he planned to.

Suddenly, Pikachu said something to make him look up. The rocky ledge widened into a plateau where three yellow mouse pokémon sit together and talk. They weren't the least bit like Pikachu, but something still told Ford that they were mouse like. Oh yeah, it was the pokédex, which he held up in front of himself to let it recognize and read the info on the pokémon ahead. They hadn't spotted him nor Pikachu yet.

"Cool, I think they are rare!" he said, excited. Pikachu smiled.

Just to make sure that it was a good idea, he pulled up the smartphone and consulted with the guys on Pestify. He just hoped that Aquarius wouldn't be on at the moment...


When he looked up, Pikachu was sitting with the three Sandshrew, talking. Ford was shocked but managed to keep calm and quiet. Did wild pokémon just walk up to each other like that? Anyways, the Sandshrew didn't seem hostile; they just talked friendly with the electric mouse. Maybe, as mouse pokémon, they could communicate and relate easily. Ford didn't know about that stuff. Virgo might know. Or Leo, actually. He looked down at the smartphone again, about to message Leo privately to evade Aries' emo talk. The pokédex was in his other hand now so he wrote with only his thumb - quickly though, as he was experienced with messaging like this.

Unfortunately, fate wanted other things to happen. The rock ledge that Ford was standing on suddenly crackled and grumbled. All hairs on Ford's body stood up and Pikachu's ears shot up. The mouse had time to see a frightened look on his trainer's face before the ledge under his feet disappeared and he fell helplessly down. Without saying goodbye to his newfound acquaintances, Pikachu dashed to the edge of the plateau and saw a big 'splash' where the boy landed in the river. His head soon came up, panting for air and trying to swim against the strong current. Pikachu's eyes scouted for the fastest way down there and his legs took him on that way even before the eyes had found the end of it.

Ford was completely soaked and so was his backpack and probably everything inside it. He swam and swam but didn't seem to get anywhere. He had to struggle to stay afloat. Through splashes of water and streams, he could see Pikachu loyally running along the beach, eyes fixed on him. But that little mouse couldn't possibly hope to save a human from drowning here. When Ford's brain formed those words, panic struck him for real. He might drown! He started waving his arms and legs about even worse than before, getting bruised by some underwater rocks in the process.

Pikachu helplessly ran on the shore and thought, thought and got frustrated by not being able to help. Eventually, the normally calm pokémon couldn't take it anymore. It sat down and screamed.

"FOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORD!!!!!!!!" which of course sounded to Ford like 'CHUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!!!!'

Suddenly, Pikachu wasn't alone on the shore anymore. Three yellow mouses of the earth stood beside him and one of them quickly ran away down the beach to try to spot where the human boy were now. Another one left Pikachu to scream something down into the river itself, standing high on a rock to avoid getting wet. Sand pokémon disliked water too much to dive into it themselves. But other heads popped up in the water, heads of pokémon who didn't mind getting wet. Some heads were pink, others were blue and some where red and white. There was even a yellow head there too. The second Sandshrew said some things to the pokémon, who first looked warily at each other but then nodded and started swimming downstreams with the Sandshrew running alongside them on the shore.

The third sand pokémon had stayed by Pikachu's side and carefully took his paw to comfort him. Pikachu was speechless and didn't even know how to say thanks to what he suspected that these wild pokémon were trying to do for him. Sandshrew motioned for them to follow, when it noticed that the water pokémon had caught up with the first Sandshrew, and thus the human boy.

Pikachu's legs had never run so fast, he thought. When he reached the others, the river had widened up to a small lake, but Ford was so beaten up from the river ride so he couldn't stay afloat and as soon as he drifted into the lake, his head - eyes closed - disappeared beneath the surface. Pikachu yelled, but only a second later, the boy's head bobbed up again, along with the only yellow head in the water. A head with a large, flat beak and narrow but wide eyes. The pokémon ferried the boy ashore, where they all helped getting him out of the water and up on the dry grass. Pikachu frenetically licked his face to wake him up. When it didn't work immediately, he found his fellow team members' pokéballs and made them break out.

Pansear was annoyed with Ford being asleep, but after being yelled at by Pikachu, he instead conjured some fire in his hand to warm the boy up without burning him. Pidgey chose another approach. He forcefully slammed down into the boy's chest with his Tackle attack. Pikachu was about to yell at him too, but it had done the trick! Ford couched up some water and started breathing normally again. Pikachu now hugged a proud Pidgey instead of bashing his head in.

When Ford sat up, the water pokémon started a commotion and scurried away back into the water. Ford didn't quite realize what had happened until he saw his three pokémon standing in front of him with relieved faces and two Sandshrew jumping away in the distance. He connected that with all the water pokémon that had been there when he had waken up and understood.

"Oh my god," he said. "You guys saved me?"

Pidgey blew up his chest and looked important, until Pansear set one of his tail feathers on fire with a giggle and made the bird mad. Pikachu gestured at the lake and in the direction of the fleeing Sandshrew though. He wished so much that he could talk so that Ford would understand. Why were humans so bad at understanding others? From what Pikachu had seen during his time as a pet - or as a captured pokémon could be a better way to put it - humans even had a hard time understanding each other. Pokémon never had that problem. Being creatures made up of the same flowing aura energy, they could understand each other profoundly no matter what words really came out of their mouths. Even human words. But humans were so... distant. So strange. Pikachu gave up and sighed.

But Ford lifted Pikachu up in his arms, surprising him. "Thank you," he said with a big grin.

Had he understood? Pikachu smiled as well. Maybe there was hope for humankind after all.

Behind a rock, the third Sandshrew watched the happy reunion. Thoughts were awakened inside its mind. A strange longing.


→ viridian city

They came as far as back to the doorstep of the Knox house before Ford realized that he had dropped both his pokédex and his smartphone into the river. They were probably both broken now and lay at the bottom of the whirling inferno he had barely escaped with his life to spare. He spent half an hour panickingly half-crying at the kitchen table while both Nanny and Chef tried to comfort him. Then he shaped up - after getting a weak electric shock by Pikachu who was tired of his crying - and decided to go visit Will. First he got new dry clothes, of course, and left his backpack at home for Nanny and Chef to pack with new, dry stuff. He put on a new pair of jeans that were just as black as the old ones and reluctantly switched to less comfortable sneakers while his Converse dried. His favorite blue hooded shirt also had to dry - and be washed even - so Ford put on a green one for a change now, on top of a simple white t-shirt.

Will of course understood Ford's devastation over having lost his most precious mechanical items. He packed some of his own weird mechanical stuff and encouraged Ford to go with him back to route 22 to search. It wasn't even midday yet so they should have lots of time. Ford had no hope of actually finding the things and had already started planning how to excuse himself to professor Oak for having destroyed his precious pokédex. Or rather, how to avoid getting hanged and banned from ever becoming a pokémon trainer again. Will did what he could to cheer him up as they walked back to route 22 with Pikachu tagging along.


→ route 22

They went right back to where Ford had fallen down the river. Not via the broken ledge, but down at the shoreline. It wasn't easy to find the exact place though, since they couldn't be sure of where and when Ford had dropped the items.

"Here somewhere, then?" Will said, taking off his backpack and starting to rummage through it.

"I don't know. Really, I have no idea."

All of a sudden, a yellow pokémon dashed between their legs and came to a stop by the shoreline. It turned to look at them but didn't say anything for a while. Then, just when Ford was about to question the situation, Pikachu spoke up. He looked friendly, as if he knew the new fellow. Maybe it was one of the Sandshrews from earlier? Sandshrew then pointed down into the river and turned back to the water. Pikachu ran up to it.

"What... do you think it knows where the stuff are?" Will asked.

"I... still have no idea," Ford said.

They both walked closer to the water's edge and saw numerous water pokémon popping up their heads in the stream, seemingly fighting the current without problems. Ford wished that he was as good as swimmer as they were... The pokémon didn't do more than carefully glance up though. The humans were scaring them, no matter how Pikachu tried to tell them that they wouldn't get hurt.

Only one head remained after all other water pokémon had sunk back down again after having spotted the humans. It was the yellow one with the flat beak. Ford picked up his... no, wait, he didn't. Because his pokédex lay on the bottom of the river somewhere, unless some jerk had eaten it or otherwise destroyed it already. Ford was fuming and Will noticed.

"Hey there," he tried. He hadn't spoken to many pokémon before the monkeys for his experiments. The duck actually walked ashore and stood to look at them with a strangely disturbed face, while holding its head between its hands as if it hurt. "You're a duck. I don't know your name though."

"Let's call him Duck for the moment," Ford said, keeping his cool somewhat. "Hey, Duck, have you seen my stuff?"

"Maybe you should try a more gentle approach..." Will suggested when Duck's face grew increasingly narrow.

"I mean... I've lost some things in the river. Would you please look for them for me? It would mean a great deal," Ford said after having taken a few deep breaths. It wasn't like the items were going to work when he got them back. What were they really doing here. He was as good as dead already.

Pikachu sighed sadly, but Sandshrew looked from Ford to Pikachu and then to the duck who was almost about to step back into the water again. Sandshrew didn't like seeing Pikachu so sad. It quickly ran down to the duck, dangerously close to the water, and talked to it. It knew that Duck had been the one to really save Ford earlier and that the human might be a bit blunt to not even say thanks for that now. But humans were like that, obviously. And it would make Pikachu happy if Duck helped them. And that would make Sandshrew happy and that would make Duck the best duck in all of Kanto. Phew! Sandshrew didn't think that it had ever talked in such long sentences before. The sand language was short and concise, normally.

Duck still looked like it couldn't care less, but its gaze lingered on the sand mouse for a moment before it turned away and sunk down into the whirling water. Sandshrew sighed and turned back to Pikachu and the humans with a disappointed look. It tried. Pikachu wondered why it was doing this.

"That's it, then. I'm dead. Really," Ford exclaimed and slumped down on his back in the grass, staring up into the sky.

"No, you're not. Just tell the professor that an accident happened. He'll be glad that you're alive!" Will said, standing beside him.

"Haha. You should have seen the old man yesterday. He didn't really want to hand Pikachu to me after I consulted the Zodiac before deciding on..." Oops.

"What's the Zodiac?"

"Oh, right..." He had forgotten. He was supposed to ask Will if he wanted to join. It meant less now though. Without the smartphone, Ford wouldn't be able to be on Pestify when he was journeying so Will wouldn't know anyone there most of the time. "It's just... a thing. Nothing..."

The thick mattress of clouds above did nothing to improve his mood. What a disastrous start on his journey, and likely its end. Just then, something else was in the sky above him, for only a few seconds. Then they fell down on his belly, making him jump and sit up. Two wet items: one pokédex and one smartphone. Both almost without a scratch. Ford turned around, bewildered. On the shore stood Duck, still with a narrow and grim face. But he stood there. He hadn't just turned his back on Ford.

"Whoa, he did it!" Will cheered together with Pikachu.

Sandshrew nodded and smiled, in its discrete, Sandshrewy way. Ford took the items - both were stone dead, but still, they were back in his possession - and walked up to Duck.

"Thank you," he said. "I guess... I underestimated wild pokémon."

"They do seem more intelligent and compassionate than I too thought!" Will commented.

"Yeah..."

Both a wild Sandshrew and a... Duck, had helped him today. And he had seen even more pokémon scurry away when he woke up earlier. They must have helped him as well. Why did pokémon do that? But then again, there were humans too who dedicated their lives to helping wild pokémon thrive without capturing them. Helping was maybe natural. It was in pokémon's blood. Humans maybe had just forgotten that.

"Let's go back to my house. I actually think I can help revive your pokédex and phone... give me a few hours," Will said. "Pity I didn't even get to use any of the equipment I brought here. It could have helped us locate the items, but probably not fetched them for us. So we still have the duck to thank for that."

"Yeah..." Ford said again. He was thinking. The duck was still there. Maybe it was thinking the same as Ford was?

Pikachu seemed to understand his trail of thoughts and walked up to the duck, nodding with a determined smile, as if he wanted to tell Duck that it was doing the right thing.

"Ford?" Will said, having put on the backpack again.

Ford took up a pokéball from a pocket. He had brought some on pure instinct. As a trainer, it already felt wrong to not carry empty pokéballs wherever he went. Without another word, he threw the ball at Duck, who only winced a little as the ball hit.

"What are you doing?"

"Capturing good pokémon, I hope," Ford said. "I didn't get an opportunity to ask my usual people about it, so you'll have to stand in. Think the duck will be good to have on my team?"

Will blinked, a bit confused but glad for the honor of being asked for his opinion. "Yes," he said. "I do. That pokémon helped you already."

"All good then," Ford said with a relieved smile, waiting for the pokéball to stop wiggling about... or burst open. He wouldn't know until either thing happened. "Say, I appreciate your opinions. How would you like to become part of the people I usually talk with... permanently?"

Will raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean? Is that a really weird way of saying that you want to... uh, be better friends again?"

"Not really. I mean, of course I want that! I'm sorry for being distant, once again... but I mean..."

Pikachu suddenly pulled Ford's jeans leg, making him look at his surroundings instead of talking to Will at the moment. Indeed, Duck had burst out of its pokéball. But it was still standing there. As if it... "It wants me to battle it!" Ford realized. "It's one of those pokémon who doesn't respect you until you beat it. Like my Pansear!"

"Oh?" Will said. "Then what about this one?"

He pointed at the Sandshrew, who had crept closer and closer to Pikachu and Ford as they spoke. Now it was blinking up into Pikachu's face as if it didn't want to leave it. It reminded Ford of how Pansear had refused to leave him before, but in a much less intensive manner.

"That one... seems to just want to join me. Am I right?"

Sandshrew shifted its gaze to Ford and nodded shyly, but then looked back to Pikachu, who felt both a bit flattered and bothered by the attention.

"Haha, it seems to want to join Pikachu, actually!" Will giggled.

"Hey, you will be with Pikachu if you become my pokémon," Ford said and took up another empty pokéball. He simply dropped it onto Sandshrew's head. The pokémon got sucked in and the pokéball wiggled while Pikachu eagerly looked on.

"Seems we'll have to use another pokémon to battle Duck with, then..." Ford said, seeing as the water type still stood rooted in its spot as if it was waiting for Ford to take action. He thought hard. Well, not that hard. He had a fire type and a bird and fire was easily doused by water. Bird it is.

Pidgey came out of its pokéball and flew directly up into the air. He recognized the duck from before and wondered for a moment why he should battle it. But then he saw Duck's determined eyes and decided to do battle fur realz.

Ford directed and Pidgey flew. They started head on with a Tackle, which Duck countered by spraying a Water Gun at the bird, pushing it backwards. Change of strategy: a Gust instead! Duck tried to counter that too with a Water Gun, but the strong Gust burst through the water beam and turned into a light rain of drops onto the ground around them. Then the Duck used some attack to spray additional water all around it to make the ground wet and slimy. It didn't cause much inconvenience to Pidgey though, as he could easily stay airborne now that there were no nasty paralyzes to strike him. He took the opportunity to fire a Sand Attack at Duck, which turned into some sort of mud throw after the Water Sport. Duck was taken by surprised and actually fell backwards, tumbling down to the beach some meter below the ledge he had been standing on all this time. Ford and Pidgey followed, Pidgey throwing another Gust at the water pokémon before it had gotten back onto its feet. That made it fall over again, and then the bird finished with a strong Tackle, beak first. Actually, it had looked more like Pikachu's Quick Attack than like a normal Tackle. Maybe Pidgey had learned a new attack? That seemed to be enough, anyways.

Duck stopped struggling and looked up into Pidgey's eyes, and then Ford. It knew that Pidgey hadn't won the battle on its own. There was a human mind behind it. And this duck wanted to know more about that. When Ford threw the pokéball again, the duck couldn't resist and got sucked inside. Now the ball rolled from side to side in the sand once again... would it come to a stop in the 'right' way this time?



((OOC: ~4400 words. Also that was a Psyduck, I think you realized that. So trying to capture both Sandshrew and Psyduck here.))
​

FORD K N O X

→ viridian city

Chatting on a desktop computer was sort of annoying after being used to be on the go with a smooth smartphone.


Ford happily turned off the desktop and went over to Will's place. His blue shirt had been washed and dried, and so had his Converse shoes, so he was finally back into his most comfortable attire. Upon reaching Will's home, he was directed to the garage by the father, where he found Will putting the final touches on his newest invention.

"The Poképhone!" he presented proudly. "Isn't it cool?"

Ford took the machine, which was only the same size as the old pokédex, but with black and blue colors. It had a large screen and a full keyboard below it - with very small keys but manageable if he practiced a little. It also had some microphone and speaker holes.

"It's the perfect pocket computer for a trainer! A phone, a minicomputer AND a pokédex! Isn't it good? Don't you think you could try it?"

Ford was speechless. After a few stuttering tries, he came up with: "How did you do this?"

"Oh, it's not too difficult. I merged your smartphone and pokédex, reviving them in the process. And I added another function... but it's only in the prototype state. I'm not sure you'll like it, even. And I think it won't work every time... well, you can try it out."

"What function?"

"A translator."

"For when I meet Hoenn people with that tricky dialect?"

"No, for pokémon."

Ford looked at Pikachu, who was sitting on the table in the middle of the room, trying not to touch the electric screwdriver next to him. "What, so I could understand Pikachu?"

"Sometimes. Perhaps. Try it!"

Ford turned the machine on. It worked just like his smartphone, with an app for the pokédex. There was also an app neatly labeled 'translator' which could be running in the background. Ford started it up.

"Pikachu?" he tried.

"Pikachu!" Pikachu said.

"Oh, it doesn't really work."

'Guess not.'

"Too bad, it would have been cool to talk to you for real."

'Not to mention useful.'

"Yeah."

Silence for a few moments, during which Will clapped his hands over his mouth in amazement and Ford's jaw dropped to the ground.

'What?' Pikachu said, confused.

"You speak!" Ford exclaimed.

'I was only silent when we first met because I didn't have much to say to you,' Pikachu explained.

"But... I understand you!"

'That is actually... quite cool,' Pikachu admitted with a calm smile.

Ford attacked Will with hugs and 'thankyouthankyou's but Will ushered him away and looked thoughtful. "It didn't work as intended," he said. "I only got that you spoke with Pikachu, but I didn't understand what Pikachu said."

"Maybe it only works for the one holding the machine?"

Will tried holding the Poképhone but he still couldn't understand Ford's pokémon.

"Maybe the thing is that only the pokémon's trainer can understand it?"

"Yeah, that could actually be it! There is some strange connection between a pokémon and a trainer after it's been caught. I need to investigate that further!"

With that, Ford left the garage and went back home to fetch his backpack and get going. He talked a little with Pikachu on the way. They didn't have much to say, he realized soon. Pikachu was a pokémon with pokémon thoughts, not another human with their own life and problems. Things that worried Ford, Pikachu had many times not even thought about. Ford couldn't wait to try this thing on his other pokémon as well!


Finally free to chat and walk at the same time again, Ford decided to go to the pokémart now. And just when he had thought that, he realized that he still didn't have more money than before. He would need to earn some. By battling, because that was how trainers made their living. So he would need to win as well, or he would get ruined immediately. Well, if he did lose, he could just scuttle away back home and fetch some of his spare money. Or some of Kid Knox' for that matter. So it was a win win situation! Relieved with that solution, Ford went to the local battle club.

He had been here to watch battles before, but of course never participated in one himself. Registering at the club was a breeze, contrary to what Ford kind of had hoped. He didn't really want to enter and battle officially yet. He had never battled another trainer before! Maybe he should go to the local school and see if he could find an eager kid with a poképet to battle instead. He wasn't sure if he could really demand money if he won such a battle though... no, he should do this the real way. Learn the hard way. With a little help from Pestify, perhaps...

He was assigned an opponent after only a few minutes - the battle club in Viridian wasn't the busiest in Kanto, even if it was popular - and the two teenagers stepped onto the arena and shook hands. It was indoors; a plain ground arena with some places for the audience on the sides. The only audience for this battle was the referee and two of Ford's opponent's friends though. Thankfully, Ford thought. He didn't doubt that he was going to make a fool out of himself. The opponent was a brown haired boy with a huge sleezy smile that Ford recognized from school. He was one grade below Ford or something.

"Hey, geek!" the boy, named Adam, called out. "I've got five pokémon! Can you match that?"

"Sure!" Ford said, realizing that he had to battle with all of his pokémon in this battle."

Before the referee got onto the arena, Ford took up the smartdex, slightly panicking.


The referee waved. The battle had started. Adam sent out his first pokémon immediately; it turned out to be a male Nidoran.


Seeing Adam raise an eyebrow at Ford typing away, the black haired boy got stressed and took Leo's advice. It wasn't the most logical or strategical but nevertheless, he got a pokémon out on the arena. Pansear flexed his muscles with a mischievous smile.

"So, Pansear," Ford said. "This is the first time we really battle. On the same side."

"Haha! The first time? You're not just a geek, you're a NOOB too!" Adam laughed and got his friends laughing with him.

Pansear looked over his shoulder at Ford. 'Don't worry,' the pokémon said, making Ford realize that the translator was still running in the background on the smartdex. 'I got this!'

"Ok, Nidoran, Peck!" Adam called out and Nidoran jumped forward with its horn ready to peck the monkey.

"Leer!" Ford shouted and even though Pansear probably wouldn't have done that in the wild, he decided to try obeying Ford for now, giving the Nidoran a mean glare that slowed its approach a little from shuddering. The Peck still hit, but Pansear wasn't thrown back from it, and not badly pierced either.

"Scratch!" Ford quickly shouted, but Pansear had already instinctively clawed Nidoran in its face in retaliation. The pink pokémon was pushed back with the wound.

"Ah, well. Luck!" Adam decided. "Double Kick!" Nidoran ran towards the monkey.

"Incinerate!" Ford said, seeing Pansear's hands light up as he did so. Pansear managed to fling the flames at Nidoran before the Double Kick impacted, and thus both pokémon were struck by each other's attacks. Nidoran was burned and fell down and Pansear was bruised and thrown back to land at Ford's feet.

"No! Are you ok? Can you stand?" Ford asked his pokémon. He didn't want to lose his very first battle...

'Sure...' Pansear said between clenched teeth and dragged himself up. The Nidoran did the same.

"Again! Double Kick!" Adam said, apparently convinced it was the strongest attack available.

"Dodge!" Pansear managed to dodge the attack to the side. "Now, grab it!" Ford said, thinking hard and hoping it wouldn't be dangerous to touch the poisonous rabbit pokémon.

"What?" Adam said, annoyed, as Pansear reached out and managed to grab Nidoran's hind leg.

"Lick!" Ford said triumphantly. After the next attack, Nidoran spaced out, being paralyzed in the face by Pansear's rather affectionate licking. "Haha!"

"Nidoran is unable to battle," the referee announced.

"No! It's just paralyzed!" Adam tried.

"It's hurt too and we don't allow major injuries in this club. Nidoran is out. And... so is Pansear."

"What?!" Ford exclaimed and saw Pansear drop to the ground, looking sick. He ran up to him and saw that he really didn't feel well. "He got... poisoned. Oh. I'm sorry, Pansear," he said.

'No sweat,' Pansear said. 'I can still... battle!'

"Not in this arena. We'll switch!" Ford said reluctantly and took Pansear into his pokéball.

The next battles were just as eventful and dramatic, if not more. First Pidgey got to face a Spearow. It was an aerial battle that mostly consisted of exchanged Tackles or Pecks, until Ford realized that Spearow wasn't at all as good as blowing up wind as Pidgey was. Then Gust was used to keep Spearow at a distance and blow it into walls and stuff. When Pidgey finally got a chance, it threw a Sand Attack at the other bird and managed to finally get close and Quick Attack it into fainting. Ford was quite proud of himself - and of course of Pidgey - after that battle.

Next, Sandshrew was put to the test. It was immediately clear that the sand pokémon disliked fighting. It faced a Machop and all it did initially was avoiding its punches. Ford thought for a while and took out Pikachu from his pokéball.

"Just sit here and cheer on Sandshrew, will you?" he asked him.

'Uh... sure!' Pikachu said with a shrug and proceeded to cheer his teammate on. This worked just as Ford had intended. Sandshrew manned up and dared to face Machop head on. But even with its speed, Sandshrew was struck by many of Machop's punches and kicks. Eventually it seemed like the sand pokémon would curl up into its Defense Curl and take the attacks until it fainted, but it managed to obey another order from Ford and hit the Machop with a Sand Attack to the face. That was when - if not earlier even - Ford decided that Sand Attack was his favorite move. The bothered Machop now stumbled backwards, allowing for Sandshrew to crawl close and hit it with Poison Sting. It managed to work and make Machop poisoned and after a strong Scratch, the Machop was hurt badly enough for the referee to declare Sandshrew the winner. Pikachu jumped out to him and cheered in joy and even though Sandshrew was relieved, it fainted just then, out of nervousness and exhaustion. It was still young, Ford reminded itself. This might have been the toughest battle it had ever had so far. He hoped he hadn't traumatized it for life.

Then it was Duck's turn to be put to the test. Or Psyduck, as Ford had now discovered that it was called. Psyduck faced a Poliwag so the typing wouldn't be a problem. But he refused to battle initially!

'I have a headache,' was his excuse.

"Come on, Psyducks always have headaches! The pokédex says so."

'Well, you wouldn't like to battle with a headache either, would you?'

"Yes I would! If my honor and the honor of my whole team depended on it!"

Psyduck stared at Ford for a moment, and the referee asked Ford if he wanted to switch pokémon already. But then Psyduck turned around without another word. It agreed to battle, apparently. Ford sighed. What a person.

They started off with a competition of who's Water Gun was the strongest. It turned out they both were strong, and made the referee wet as the man stood in the middle of the battlefield. Eventually, the referee commanded both pokémon to use other attacks. Poliwag went with Bubbles instead, but Psyduck - being a water type - wasn't afraid of them and easily burst them with his Tail Whip. Then, Adam thought he'd be clever and use Hypnosis. Poliwag lulled Psyduck into standing completely still...

"What are you doing! Psyduck! Snap out of it!" Ford shouted.

'It's soothing. For my headache,' came Psyduck's reply.

"THINK ABOUT YOUR HONOR!"

'Honor means little when your head screams at you.'

"Uh... on the contrary! It's when things really matter that you have to shape up and be brave even if you are hurt!"

Psyduck turned to stare at his trainer again, right when Poliwag shot more Bubbles at him. They almost reached Psyduck, when he finally moved again and started running towards his opponent, bursting bubbles with his Tail Whip as he went. The little tadpole could only watch as the duck came closer and suddenly Scratched it hard. Its little tadpole legs weren't at all fast enough on land to run away from that attack, and it was even thrown up into the air. On Ford's command, Psyduck then finished by shooting Poliwag with Water Gun until it slammed into the ceiling above. It then fell down and landed with a 'splash' in front of Adam's feet. The referee instantly declared Psyduck and Ford the winners, to Adam's dismay.

"Haha, you're awesome!" Ford praised his water pokémon.

'You are annoying,' Psyduck said, but then smiled a little before going back into its pokéball.

"Heh. Maybe I deserved that. I know I'm a monster when I have headaches. Well, Pikachu, are you up for the finale?"

'I always was!' Pikachu said and stepped up onto the arena from his place at Ford's side.

Adam's final pokémon was one that Ford had never seen before. He took up the smartdex to identify it.


"Pikachu, Thundershock!"

Pikachu charged its attack up and fired it as quickly as he could. The Houndour fired an Ember attack that met with the lightning and made a minor explosion occur in front of Adam. The smoke settled quickly... no, it didnt! Adam had commanded Houndour to use Smog already. Poisonous gas lay in a cloud on his part of the battlefield, impossible for Pikachu to see through, but perfectly clear and breathable to Houndour. This wasn't going to be easy.

"Thunder Wave!" Ford commanded, not wanting to give Adam time to launch an offensive attack.

Pikachu did so, and since the Thunder Wave was more like a shock wave that spread out, than an aimed attack like Thundershock, he could send it at the whole cloud at once. Houndour would be struck or... yeah, it jumped out of the smog cloud, which now quickly evaporated since the dog wasn't entertaining it anymore.

"Quick Attack!" Ford hurriedly shouted, thinking about Scorpio's plan.

"Leer and Ember!" Adam said with a smile and made Ford flinch. Pokémon could obey two commands in a row like that? Apparently, if they were trained to.

Houndour Leered at Pikachu, making him gulp and slow his approach, then the dog fired Embers in the mouse's path to stop it from reaching the dog. It worked and Pikachu was hit by Embers, with interrupted the approach for Quick Attack.

"More Embers!" Adam laughed and his friends on the side of the arena cheered.

"Pikachu!" Ford shouted, at loss of ideas. But Pikachu had his own plans from time to time. He dashed away quicker than the eye could follow, using Quick Attack not as an offensive technique, but as a means to escape. The embers hit plain ground as Pikachu was back at Ford's side, panting.

"Awesome!" Ford said and reached down to pat his little friend. "Can you continue?"

'Yes,' Pikachu said and stared into Houndour's eyes, which were narrowing.

He burst away in another Quick Attack, but Houndour blew out a cloud of Smog again before the mouse could reach it. Pikachu didn't stop though. It jumped into the cloud and hit the dog, tackling it to the ground. Then he finished with a Thundershock that hit right on target. Houndour fainted and the referee was just about to declare Ford the winner, when Pikachu stumbled and fell over as well. It had been poisoned by the Smog. The referee declared this round a draw but Ford the winner of the battle overall, since he had won most of the matchups.

Fetching the mouse and carrying him in his arms, Ford was pretty damn proud over his team. First time he battled with half of them and they did very good jobs. None of them seemed to hate him... well, apart from maybe Psyduck. But he would loosen up, Ford was sure. He got paid in the reception, since both trainers had paid a sum when they entered the battlefield, and the winner took it all.

With these new money, Ford could finally go to the pokémart with a clean conscience and buy a couple of Potions, a Paralyze Heal, a Poison Cure and some new empty pokéballs. He wasn't sure what he would find in the forest, but chances were that there were more pokémon out in the region of Kanto that he would love to have on his team. His team of win. His SMARTTEAM. No wait, that didn't really sound good. Let's just call it 'the team'.
​

FORD K N O X

→ viridian forest

It was afternoon when Ford and his entourage reached the station at the edge of Viridian Forest. A house built for weary travelers to rest up before continuing. Ford didn't even enter it. He had instead gone back to Viridian City's pokémon center to heal up properly, after having spent many hours training and then battling random trainers on route 2. Surprisingly, Ford had won most of those battles. He hoped it wasn't only thanks to Scorpio's tutoring.

Armed with medicine and pumped up pokémon (well, all but one who still groaned about his headache), he stepped away from the station and went in under the green ceiling that the lush foliage of the forest made. All his pokémon were in their balls at the moment, but he thought that he'd better let someone out. Just in case he ran into a nasty bug. He didn't know how many trainers could be in here, but bugs seemed more probable to encounter since so many trainers seemed to stay on route 2 for long.

Pidgey became his choice of pokémon to keep outside.

"Stay close, but keep an eye out for wild pokémon, will you? Or people," Ford told it.

'I guess I can follow that order,' Pidgey said with a nod and proceeded to fly around a meter or so above his head while he walked, sometimes coming to rest on branches in the trees.

The road wasn't exactly wide. To his sides, endless green vegetation grew, and while some trees weren't much higher than triple his size or so, he could spot some very tall trees through the leafy ceiling. This forest must be old! He had never really ventured into it before. There had never been a need to do so. Anyways, since there was no imminent danger or interruption, this was a golden opportunity to space out in Pestify for a while and let Pidgey do the navigating with his sharp eyes.



Pidgey had found something indeed and struggled to get Ford's attention. A green bug crept out on the road in front of them... no wait, this wasn't a road. This was just a small clearing in the otherwise dense forest. The road was nowhere to be seen.

"Pidgey... didn't you stay on the road?"

'I followed the best branches. What did you expect?' the bird replied as if he had no idea of how this situation could be not pleasant.

Ford considered panicking and blindly retracing his steps, but first he should deal with the bug. It looked scared of the bird already, which was sitting on the forest floor some meters away from it. In defense, it shot out a sticky web that narrowly missed Pidgey. It had apparently not practiced its aim as diligently as Ford's team had.

"Use Whirlwind!" he ordered, and in a matter of seconds the bug was blown back into the bushes from where it had crawled out. "Great! Let's find the road now. What direction did we come from?"

'It's hard to tell, I led us in circles,' Pidgey admitted.

"WHY?!"

'You didn't tell me not to, and I find it soothing to fly in circles!' the bird defended itself.

Now it was definitely time to panic. Especially as another bug came crawling out from another nearby bush. An orange one. This time, Ford took a deep breath though, and aimed the smartdex at the bug. Weedle, weak but poisonous.

"Great, that's not what we need now," he said in a slightly high pitched voice as he had to suddenly dodge a String Shot himself. Pidgey came to his rescue, perhaps feeling a bit ashamed of having led him astray, and blew the bug into a tree with a Gust. "Thanks..." Ford muttered and started walking... in just any direction really. Any one was as probable as another.


It didn't take long. He managed to meet three more Weedle and two Caterpie over the next five minutes, all easily chased away by Pidgey though. But Ford noticed that his bird pal was getting a bit tired from Gusting and Whirlwinding so much. He let the pokémon rest inside its pokéball and took forth Pikachu instead, who was glad to come out and help. He had never liked sitting inside his pokéball much.

After almost an hour of aimless trekking, Ford definitely admitted that he was lost, and he had made Virgo worried in the process. She wanted to make Taurus - I mean Will - go out and find him, but Ford assured her that that would only make it worse. Two Zodiacs lost in a forest weren't better than one. On another note, it was soon getting dark.

"I guess... we'll have to make use of this tent tonight," Ford said when they had found a decent spot to camp in. He took out a package the size of a hand from his backpack and pushed a little button on it. In a matter of seconds, the package had unfolded itself into a decently large one man tent. Inside was a sleeping bag. Awesome thingy!


'Ford,' Pikachu said all of a sudden. While Ford was laying on top of the sleeping bag inside the tent, Pikachu was sitting in the opening, looking out into the night. 'Something is approaching.'

The blood in Ford's veins turned to ice. Not literally, of course. He quickly pulled Pikachu in and closed the opening, eyes wide open in fear. "What is it?" he hissed to the mouse.

'Don't know,' Pikachu answered, wriggling himself away from Ford's grip down to the floor. 'But I think it's been watching us for a while. Let's go to sleep instead?'

"How can you think about going to sleep when some dangerous wild pokémon is stalking us?!"

'It's on the outside, we're on the inside?'

"THIS TENT HAS THIN WALLS!"

'Oh. So it probably heard you now?'

"... dammit!" Ford whisper-shouted, crawled into his sleeping bag as if it was a protective armor and went back to Pestify.


He instructed Pikachu, who still didn't seem to think it was worth it, and took out Pansear, who seemed really confused about being squeezed into a tiny tent with the others. They heard some branches snap and the sound of leaves on the ground rustling as something slowly but steadily moved closer. Pikachu's sensitive ears could almost pinpoint the location of the intruder, even though the opening of the tent was closed and they couldn't see it with their eyes.

"Now!" Ford mouthed to the mouse, who jumped out from the tent and fired a Thunder Wave blindly in front of him at the same time.

Ford and Pansear heard a scream and a 'thud'. "That's your cue! Locate target and Incinerate!" Ford ordered the monkey, who smiled eagerly and shot out of the tent as well. His eyes soon found the shape laying in the leaves and he quickly lightened the small flames in his hands, ready to throw them...

Pikachu jumped in the way. 'Wait!' he yelled.

Pansear almost fell over when he had to put out the fires and stop his arms from swinging around. 'Whaaat?' he said annoyed. 'Clear orders and not even you could follow them?'

"IS IT DEAD?!" came Ford's terrified voice from inside the tent.

Pikachu sighed. 'No. Look!' He stepped aside to reveal what was whimpering on the ground, struck and affected by the Thunder Wave.

Ford finally dared to come out of the tent. He got Pansear to make a half-Incinerate by holding the flames in his hand to make a torch in the dark. The light fell upon a small, green creature with a big leaf on its head and worried, red eyes. All fear was lost immediately, as Ford recognized it but couldn't exactly name it. The smartdex did it for him.

"Chikorita," Ford mumbled. "Not exactly a killer bug. Why was it sneaking up on us?"

Chikorita stuttered something that Ford didn't understand. He shook the smartdex a little, in case the translator was out of function momentarily, but then remembered that it only worked on his own pokémon. He couldn't talk to wild ones, and perhaps not with pokémon of another trainer either. Luckily, Pikachu could.

'It's saying it got lost in the forest and thought the tent looked funny. It just wanted to investigate.'

"Oh. Well, go investigate somewhere else. I've got to get some sleep tonight, or I'll be even worse tomorrow when it comes to jumpiness!" Ford said, feeling irritated.

Chikorita smiled. The paralyze seemed to begin to wear off, because it managed to stand and giggle a little.

"WHAT?"

'It thinks you are funny!' Pikachu said and couldn't help giggling a little himself. Pansear even broke out into big laughter.

"I can't take much more of this..." Ford sighed, which made Chikorita even happier. He looked down into the smartdex to see what kind of pokémon it really was. A grass type with mostly defensive abilities, apparently. Not a pokémon to brag about. But cute, he guessed.

He went back to the tent, but felt too wired up to go to sleep immediately, so he almost immediately went out again. Pikachu and Chikorita were conversing and it seemed like the latter was quite childish. With Pansear's help (and protection; they actually found another Weedle), he gathered some wood and made a campfire, where they all sat down on some rocks and logs and had a late dinner instead. Ford didn't want to give the wild Chikorita any of his food, but Pikachu treated it to some of his own so it was a lost cause.


That made Ford stop and think. Did Cancer mean Pisces and her team? Was Cancer one of the guys who rooted for Pisces? Because she was the popular one... He didn't care about Cancer anyways. That guy was fun at times, but he had been even more of a jerk than usual lately. But Virgo... and Gemini and Libra and Leo. Who did they vote for? Both? None? No, they would of course favor Pisces. Who wouldn't. He was just a loser who was contemplating catching a green banana pokémon.

Pikachu looked up from his weird chatting with the wild grass pokémon and saw how depressed his trainer was all of a sudden. He told the Chikorita to wait a moment and jumped over to the boy.

'Cheer up!' he tried.

"Mhm..." Ford said.

'I can't read your mind but usually when you look like this, you're worrying about some trivial thing that isn't at all as severe or bad as you think it is!'

Ford looked up with a curious face. Pikachu smiled at him. Pokémon really worked differently than humans. Problems for Ford weren't always problems in Pikachu's eyes. Maybe he was silly to sit here and think he was bad just because some of his friends cheered another one of his friends on. Come to think of it, wasn't Pisces his friend too? Yes! At least somewhat. So he could cheer for her and hope that she would cheer a bit for him! They didn't need to be bitter rivals! Though... why would she cheer for him when she didn't have to? For him it would be a defense mechanism - a way to put up with being non-popular. But for her it would be unnecessary. His face drooped again.

Pikachu shocked him and made even Pansear jump up from the food he was eating, and exchange a questioning look with Chikorita.

"HEY!" Ford scolded. Pikachu just stared at him. And something came back to Ford's memory.


A smile played across his lips. No, he didn't have to be as everyone expected him to be... if Pisces was being the ordinary, strong cooltrainer who evolved her pokémon early and captured lots of strong types, couldn't he try to best her by training less expected types? If he ever beat her in battle, he would be so much better than her if he had stranger pokémon. Awesome.

"Chikorita," he said, getting up from his spot. "I know it's dark and so, but would you battle me?"

Chikorita looked terrified at first, but then Pikachu seemed to assure it that it would be fun. He asked Ford to be the battling one, glancing at the impatient Pansear who had finished his food and looked like he wanted nothing more than to burn a little banana with his fire. Chikorita didn't seem to realize what it was getting itself into, but it smiled now and agreed. It and Pikachu stepped back to allow some space between each other.

"So I'm capturing a Chikorita, out of everything I could have found in this forest... well, it's better than some bug," Ford said, shrugging. "Pikachu-"

He didn't have time to utter his first attack before Chikorita stormed forward in an attempt to Tackle Pikachu, all with a smile on its face. Pikachu managed to escape with Quick Attack to the right, and then ran around the campfire to use the Quick Attack offensively at his opponent. Chikorita noticed, though, and quickly scattered a blue powder into the air while laughing. Pikachu couldn't slow down fast enough and got the dust onto him.

'Sleepy...' he uttered, stopping in his tracks and fighting hard to keep his eyes open.

"Sleep powder! Ah! So this Chikorita is that kind of pokémon!" Ford realized. He was still mad at the Butterfree he had fought earlier - to have a powdering pokémon of his own would be an awesome revenge. On any trainer he happened to come across next. Hm.

"Thundershock!"

Pikachu fired it away and struck the Chikorita rather easily. It didn't seem too hurt though, and instead quickly recovered and swung the leaf on its head to throw sharp Razor Leaves toward Pikachu, who got hit and scratched.

"Are you alright?" Ford said when Pikachu fell over at his feet.

'Yeah,' the mouse reassured him and got back up to his feet. 'She's... strangely clever.'

"SHE?!" Ford gaped. He hadn't really thought about it, but all the other members on his team were male. He would capture a female now? Well, some variation couldn't hurt, right? "Thundershock again!"

Chikorita tried growling to make the attack less powerful by appealing to Pikachu's soft side. Totally useless. The thundershock struck her hard and made her whimper instead of counter attack.

"Quick Attack!" Ford shouted and Pikachu obeyed, quickly tackling the poor grass type so that it rolled around on the ground out into the darkness where the light from the campfire didn't reach.

"Thundershock again!" Ford yelled triumphantly, but Pikachu just turned to look at him. "Oh... ok, maybe that's enough."

They walked over to the spot where Chikorita had landed instead... but she wasn't there.

"She... left?" Ford wasn't sure if he should be relieved or disappointed.

Pikachu looked sad.

"Oh, did you look forward to having her on the team?" Pikachu nodded. "Hm... maybe I did too. Yeah. I did. Pity she didn't."

Sighing, the two guys turned back to the campfire, only to hear Pansear laugh out loud. Blinking, they saw him sit and chat friendly with the little banana pokémon he had been wanting to fry earlier. She was roughed up, but not fainted yet. She smiled weakly at Ford and Pikachu when they saw her. Pikachu shone up infinitely and ran up to her, even apologizing for attacking her so hard.

'It's ok! It was fun!' she said, which made Ford stunned for a moment. He wasn't supposed to be able to hear her speak yet! He hadn't captured her yet! Did this indicate that... the important thing wasn't the capture with a pokéball? But something else? He had to talk to Taurus about this. And maybe Virgo.

Still, he took up an empty pokéball and showed it to Chikorita.

"Would you do me the honor?" he asked her, stepping close.

'To do what?'

"Come with me on my journey! And Pikachu and Pansear and several others, of course."

Chikorita looked at him for a moment, then at Pikachu, who nodded eagerly and Pansear who shrugged but gave her a cool blink. Then she smiled.

'Try to catch me then!' she laughed and suddenly jumped away.

"Hell..." Ford muttered and wondered if he really wanted this particular Chikorita... nevertheless, he threw the pokéball towards her before she reached the edge of the campfire's light again. It hit, with its special pokémon-seeking properties. The pokémon got sucked in and...
​