Warren grinned as he walked out of the Pokemon Centre, his badge catching the sun from where he had clipped it onto his belt. His happiness was short-lived, however.
"So, it looks like the loser trainer beat the even more pathetic Gym Leader." Warren groaned and turned slowly to see Guy standing there, smirking at him. "It's not really that impressive, though, seeing as you needed two tries to defeat her," he mocked, though the effect was somewhat ruined by the strange sounds coming from his nose when he breathed. Warren smirked as he realised that Guy's snozz had probably not had the benefits of $300 worth of potion.
"Hey, with a nose like that, you could get into pro football. I even know what position you could play!" Guy frowned, confused, as Warren grinned. "I think you could make a great referee!" Warren burst out laughing as Guy blushed furiously. "After all, you already have the whistle built in, right?!" Warren collapsed with laughter. Guy looked at him, torn between anger and shame. Eventually, the latter won and he spun on his heel before marching off with an ugly look on his face. Warren just smirked.
"Come on, we could destroy the next gym together!"
"Bell, bell, sprout!" Warren sighed. Bellsprout had proved to be an admirable fighter and as he stood on the outskirts of Cerulean, he realised that he didn't want to release it.
"How about...I release you after the next gym?" Bellsprout raised a non-existent eyebrow and Warren grumbled as he realised that even he wouldn't have fallen for that one. Then Bellsprout flashed its eyes open and stood up straight. If life were a cartoon, Warren would have sworn that he saw a little light bulb turn on. Bellsprout bent down and picked up a rock before turning back to Warren.
"Bell..." it said, holding up a leaf. "Sprout..." it showed him the pebble. "Bellsprout!" it brought the two together. Warren scratched his head.
"Ummm...you want a leaf? No, you've got two. You want a stone? But you don't need me for that. Errr...leaf...stone...wait, you want a Leaf Stone!" Bellsprout nodded and shouted gleefully. Warren smiled.
"So, you want to eventually become a Victreebel, right? So you need me to train you to Weepinbell level, then you need a leaf stone?" Bellsprout nodded again, smiling happily. Warren grinned too and extended a hand.
"So, you'll give me how long to get this Leaf Stone, exactly?" Bellsprout thought for a moment, then held up both its leaves.
"Two...two what? Months?" Bellsprout shook its head. "Weeks?" It nodded. Warren sighed. Leaf Stones were rare and hard to find, which meant that even if he did find one, getting it might not be easy or cheap. But, he had to try.
"Alright," he sighed, "I'll do my best!" Bellsprout punched the air happily and promptly marched off.
"Hey, wait up!" Warren called. He was about to run after it when something jumped out in front of him, something cat-shaped and with a gold coin on its head. And it did not look happy.