"Alright, we should be almost there," I grunted.

  We weren't very far from Sunnytown now, fueled by our desire to get Loki checked on and as a result, we sped up our pace a little.

  "Hold it right there!"

  But alas, the world really wanted to bring the absolute worst outta me.

  Green and I abruptly stopped pedaling, as no joke, a group of bikers surrounded us.

  I twitched violently at that.

  Did these assholes actually surround me?

  The bikers of this route, were some of the most insufferable people I ever had the displeasure of meeting.

  Loud, obnoxious and full of themselves... up until I stomped that out by crushing them in battle.

  The cycling road, unlike the one in Hoenn, was riddled with delinquents who thought they were big and bad up until they encountered yours truly.

  Trying to intimidate me and ending up an embarrassed mess at the end of it basically summed up our life on this route so far.

  I even reduced one to tears. Grown man too... grown man who couldn't even get a second gym badge.

  Ridiculous. I hated this route so much.

  "Whatever comes out of your fucking mouth better not be irritating, obnoxious, or something worthy of pissing me off," I warned, not intimidated in the slightest by the group of bikers.

  It was a very unreasonable thing for me to say because I was irritated from the very first second of this conversion.

  Case in point, my hand was already reaching for my bag and Green shot me an exasperated look.

  "Can we help you?" Green asked politely, deciding to take control of the conversation like she often tended to do. "We're in a bit of a rush so if not, please let us through."

  I scoffed and said nothing, eyeing down each one with a scowl.

  Most only had one pokeball attached to their waist and at this point, I was completely confident that Green and I's team could steamroll them.

  And then after we steamrolled them, I was gonna make sure they couldn't ride their bikes anymore by smashing their legs.

  This damn cycling road was full of annoying bikers who swore they were thugs and big baddies... then they sent out the most ridiculous shit.

  "We haven't seen your face around these parts before," some guy with a ridiculous haircut greeted in a half friendly/half challenging manner.

  No seriously. It was a shade of orange sticking straight up, with a lighter patch of orange donning part of it.

  "We're not from around here," Green explained politely.

  "Shouldn't that be fucking obvious? It's almost the middle of the year and the gym circuit challenge," I scoffed with a roll of my eyes. "You expect everyone on this route to be from around here?" I sneered.

  The guy with the ridiculous hairdo was apparently not the sole leader of this dumbass gang because there was a green haired girl with some ridiculous shorts on.

  It was pretty cold right now. How the hell could she walk around with shorts that small?

  "You got a problem?" the girl asked.

  I sneered. "What clued you in, dumbass? Was it the happy greeting or the baseball bat I'm about to shove up all your —"

  "We're just journeying around the region and we're in a bit of a rush so if you don't mind!" Green interrupted immediately, way too used to my terrible attitude escalating situations.

  "Woah hold on, you can't go without greeting us!" he immediately exclaimed.

  "Can I kill them yet?" I muttered to Green quietly.

  "There will be no killing of any sort!" she muttered back.

  "What about breaking of limbs?"

  "...That's still up in the air."

  I nodded, pleased by that. "What the fuck do you guys want?" I asked with a raised brow. "Depending on what you say, I have been given permission to start doing things my way."

  "I-I didn't give you permission! That's not what I meant!" Green balked at me.

  "That's what I heard."

  "You are so ignorant!"

  We both paused, as the girl stepped off the bike and walked up, crossing her arms across her chest.

  "Greetings around here mean battles," she said, glaring at us with a slight scowl.

  I was wholly unimpressed.

  "So you're surrounding us. Refusing to let us go through and using shitty intimidation tactics… all for a battle? Is that right?" I asked incredulously.

  "That's right!" The guy said, completely missing the way I glanced at my bag, hellbent on pulling out my bat.

  "And out of curiosity... what will you do if I refuse?" I asked with narrowed eyes.

  The guy paused at that, thrown for a loop.

  "Huh... no one's ever refused before," he mused. "But if you did refuse, we would keep you here until you accept."

  The girl nodded.

  I nodded too. "Violently?" I asked. "Would you keep us here through violent means?"

  The biker gang balked. "What?! No! We're not monsters!"

  How unfortunate for them. I was definitely a monster in that case.

  I reached into my bag without hesitation and pulled out my baseball bat.

  "What... are you gonna do with that?" the lead guy asked curiously.

  "Stay still and you'll find out quickly."

  Green gaped and ripped the baseball bat out of my hand, stuffing it away into her bag and ignoring the dirty glare I shot her.

  She let out a strained scream, as I reached into my bag again... and pulled out a long stick that had been carefully carved into a staff.

  "That... is an awesome stick," the male biker complimented.

  I nodded, pleased by how stupid he was. "It's damn awesome. I have more of them. Wanna see?" I asked curiously.

  The trees in this world were really damn tough by virtue of Pokemon. I even made sure to research which one Farfetch'd use to make their leek and used it as inspiration.

  That handy knife, which I'm pretty sure was made from Pawniard pieces, did a helluva job at carving them. My wooden weapon looked damn good.

  Good foresight by me to create more than one. Who knew I'd be using them so early!

  Before I could make good on my intentions, Green decided it was high time to end this conversation.

  "A battle? Alright, sure! How about we make it a double yeah? You both have one pokeball so we can just do a 2 on 2 double battle!" she interjected, realizing that I was very close to doing something criminal.

  The dude nodded at the request, taking his gaze off my well crafted weapon. "Sounds good to me! The names Chopper and this is Tyra —"

  "I don't give a fuck about your damn names!" I barked, turning on a dime and stomping off with my bike, invisible Loki in tow. "Let's get this over with!"

  I glared hellishly at the crowd blocking my exit and was about to push someone out of the way... before thinking twice of it.

  Why? Because I thought of something better of course.

  I shoved one person to the side instead of backwards, watching as he crashed into the person next to him... and watching as that person crashed into the next person.

  What followed next was a literal domino effect as they were all knocked to the floor.

  "Next time don't box people off. You never know how they might react," I sneered, rolling my bike over the first guys groaning body as I stepped over him.

  "Let's go Leaf!"

  Loki snorted quietly in amusement, quiet voice huffing next to me as we walked off to the nearby battlefield. It was flat but the edges around were elevated, boxing off whatever fought in there.

  It looked like it was done by a ground or rock type. Clearly it was a safety precaution and I scowled.

  How convenient. Clearly this was an ambush spot for them.

  "S-Sorry about him. He's been getting very annoyed with the bikers on this route," Green muttered, turning and racing after me.

  "He has issues," Tyra muttered, glaring at my back.

  "And your ass has burns all over it! Wear an actual biking fit if you're gonna sit on one all day instead of barely passable shorts!" I sneered.

  She gaped at my comment. "W-What is wrong with you?!"

  I flipped the middle finger in response, getting her to splutter even more.

  "Stupid dumbass idiots." I muttered increasingly more graphic obscenities under my breath and ignored the horrified and groaning biker gang.

  "I think they're more afraid of you, then we should be of them," Green whispered, catching up to me quickly.

  "Because they're just a group of idiots," I scowled. "Now why the hell did you offer up a double battle?"

  Green blinked at the sudden question. "Well, I figure we should get our team synergy up a bit more you know? We train a lot but doing actual double battles might be useful."

  I mulled that over.

  Yeah it would. We'd probably be battling in unison a lot in the future. Building up our chemistry in battles, actually sounded like a great idea.

  "Alright, but we're making this fast. I want to go to the damn center," I grunted, fiddling with Loki's pokeball even despite the fact he was right next to me.

  "Yeah I get that," Green nodded in understanding. "Saury evolved in the middle of Viridian Forest sometime after I caught Larvee. I was so stressed trying to get out of there because he was so huge and I thought something bad happened to him!"

  I snorted at that. "Leave it to you to overreact… but I get that. Our teams are important to us."

  She nodded. "Yep! Now let's win this battle!"

  Green and I stood next to each other, idly going through our motions at the ensuing battle.

  Her expression shifted into something cool like it usually did, while I began humming a tune to myself, like I usually did.

  She fiddled with her hat, while I fiddled with my pokeballs.

  Then, we both got ready at the exact same time, throwing out our respective member.

  "Gaia. Make this fast."

  "Let's go Saury."

  My Bayleef and Green's Ivysaur burst from their respective balls, gauging their opponents with a malicious and cool glint respectively.

  "Golem let's do this!" the boy shouted eagerly.

  "Cloyster teach them a lesson!" the girl barked.

  My eyes widened a little.

  "A Golem?" I mused, eyes glinting curiously as the fully evolved rock pokemon appeared.

  That was a quite the strong pokemon to own… but it looked newly evolved. Not used to going back to two arms. Smaller than the average Golem…

  I felt the air shift against me and spared a neutral glance at seemingly nothing.

  Except it was Loki of course. He was put out that I wanted to get him checked up on before we could do anything extensive and as a compromise, I allowed him to work on his illusions so long as they weren't too taxing.

  He seemed to be enjoying his newfound control over it and honestly, I was too.

  It wasn't everyday you got to sit and enjoy an actual conversation with one of your members that wasn't an extremely sarcastic psychic. Loki was very good at human language while utilizing his illusions... and he tended to very much enjoy morphing into a human body that looked exactly like me.

  That was very flattering.

  Right now he was camouflaged, blending in with the environment and hovering me just in case the biker gang did choose to get violent.

  It was cool. His control over his illusions had gone up to another level… I couldn't wait to test out how good he was in battles and I could tell he was antsy to try his new power.

  "Alright, let's get this done," I grunted, shooting Gaia a smile.

  "Yep," Green nodded.

  "Cocky huh?" the boy (one of these days, I'd not automatically forget people's names) said.

  "Aggressive and cocky... makes me really wanna put em in place," the girl replied with a scowl.

  "Your voice sounds beautiful when I can't hear it. Let's keep it like that, Shorts," I retorted boredly.

  Gaia snickered at that, peering at her opponents with an eager gleam.

  The green haired girl blinked before flushing in anger.

  "Let's crush them, Chopper. We'll show them that we're only dedicated to our bikes! And my name is Tyra!" she growled.

  "What a name. I certainly haven't already forgotten it," I said dryly.

  "Would you shut it?! Cloyster, Icicle Spear!"

  Gaia snickered and summoned a Reflect, blocking both Cloyster and Golem's attacks but making the wall shudder.

  Saury didn't let that go unpunished. A flurry a razor sharp leaves shot out of him...

  Unfortunately, the pokemon were quick to react. Golem immediately hid inside its shell, while Cloyster clamped its shell shut.

  The leaves battered the two but what would have been a practical oneshot, was weathered well by their shells.

  "Bay," Gaia mused.

  "Ivy," Saury grunted.

  Golem rumbled, still tucked into his shell, and began rolling rapidly towards them.

  I grunted at that. "Are you crazy having a Golem do that without any barriers around?" I barked in confusion, watching as Gaia manipulated the Reflect to block Golem from crashing into Saury.

  "We're careful! That's why the battlefield is like this!" Chopper assured.

  The Rollout broke straight through the already weakened Reflect and I sucked my teeth as Golem hit the Ivysaur, sending him skidding back.

  Judging by the alertness in his gaze, Saury was clearly agitated by them now.

  "Leech Seed," I grunted, watching as the Ivysaur spat a ball of light from the plant on his back.

  It rushed into the sky and I idly put a pair of shades on to block the sunlight.

  Gaia hummed and fired off a flurry of seeds that latched onto both Golem and Cloyster, before they bloomed.

  It wasn't as effective due to those pesky shells, but it would slow them down by a little...

  But clearly not by much. Golem was still in its Rollout and that was a problem.

  Golem's could not see at all when they were using Rollout. It made them some of the most hazardous pokemon to encounter and you dearly didn't want to be in one's path while it was inside its shell... unless you wanted to get turned into paste.

  It was a good thing the battlefield was encased by that wall. Golem was picking up speed and was crashing into things indiscriminately.

  Gaia squealed as the ground type came flying towards her at intense speeds, summoning another Reflect that held up long enough for thick vines to wrap and yank her out of the way.

  Before she could even thank Saury, the two grass types let out shouts, as ice cold spears crashed into them repeatedly, courtesy of the smugly grinning Cloyster.

  Golem continued spinning, careening towards the water type and Cloyster summoned a green shield, catching the Golem and rebounding it in another direction...

  Right into Saury and Gaia. The Golem crashed into the both of them with dreadful speed, plowing directly through a Reflect.

  Green and I scowled at the course of the fight currently.

  Judging by their growls, Gaia and Saury were in the same boat.

  Now I was sufficiently annoyed.

  "Growth," Green said with pursed lips.

  Saury began glowing in a harsh green light, gleaming sun ahead energizing him even further with the growth.

  "Cloyster, Aurora Beam!" Tyra shouted urgently. "Hit the Ivysaur!"

  Cloyster opened its mouth and shot out a pulsing multicolored beam... but as it fired the beam towards Saury, a set of vines wrapped around it.

  Gaia glared maliciously at the Cloyster. It squeaked in horror and immediately shut its shell, leaving it largely protected from anything Gaia could do.

  Unfortunately, Gaia was my pokemon.

  I rolled my eyes. "You know what to do," I sneered.

  Gaia let out a thunderous (and adorable) bellow, hoisting the protected Cloyster up with her vine... before launching it in the completely out of control Golem's path.

  The stupid thing was still using Rollout and before the, at the moment, blind ground type could crash into us again... we forced it to crash against the Cloyster.

  As Cloyster flew through the air, it landed directly in front of the Golem.

  "Oh no! Golem wait!" Chopper shouted but it was too late.

  Golem's unstoppable rolling, crashed into Cloyster. Kudos to the Cloyster because it was making that reputation of its shell being uncrackable really true...

  But just because you couldn't crack its shell, didn't mean the thing inside was suddenly immune to everything.

  As Golem unknowingly crashed into its partner, it began carrying the stunned Cloyster to the walls of the makeshift arena.

  It practically smushed the water type into the wall, momentum completely halting his Rollout. As he popped out his shell finally, Golem heard his trainers distressed shouts and looked down, expression shifting into horror as he regarded the Cloyster shell.

  "C-Cloyster!" she shouted in horror, watching as her pokemon popped out of its shell, eyes swirling from the rollercoaster of a ride it went on.

  "Magical Leaf."

  "Seed Bomb."

  Golem wasn't given any chance to even properly mourn his mistake, as he was instantly bombarded with sharp leaves and exploding seeds. Gaia and Saury relentlessly barraged the duo.

  Gaia huffed in satisfaction, watching with a glint as the two cried in pain and collapsed.

  Saury rumbled, fierce expression melting off as he nodded to Gaia at a job well done.

  "That's that," I grunted in contemplation.

  For how fast that battle was, this duo was surprisingly strong.

  Nothing we couldn't deal with... but I doubted they would lose to anyone who happened to come across this route. A Golem and Cloyster were real problematic and I simply refused to continue testing the waters of how durable they were inside those shells of theirs.

  Testing it once was enough. I wasn't the type to keep attacking something the same way until I finally learned my lesson.

  The shells looked hard so I worked around it. If it were a single battle I'm sure I would have had to cook up something different.

  Trainers in general, were getting stronger. We rarely encountered the trainers that were too strong for us, likely due to them already having their gym badges and seeing no reason to travel around the region again, so most trainers we encountered were far below Green and I's level and the few who weren't, outclassed us by a good bit.

  It wasn't often we ran into those near us. This was pretty refreshing…

  "Dumb stupid ass bikers," I sneered.

  ...But that didn't change that they held me up.

  "Good match!" Green said with a smile, expertly standing in front of me. "But seriously, we need to get going now! My friend is really steps away from hurting you guys!"

  The boy with the fiery hair shook his head disbelievingly. "You two are the real deal alright!"

  I rolled my eyes. "You both have a single pokemon each? Be serious. That means you dedicate all your time to them for what?"

  People who only had a single pokemon, typically wanted it for protection, companionship or any other variety of reasons. They were the people who didn't want to actually dedicate their time to being trainers.

  It was actually fairly rare to encounter people with full teams of pokemon because they truly were a hassle to take care of, especially if you weren't an accomplished trainer.

  Many trainers kept their teams small, up until they began establishing how they fared against others.

  Those who found themselves successful, eventually branched out into capturing more members.

  The less fortunate ones, kept their teams small. It would be no good to catch a full team without having proper sustenance for them and if they sucked, they'd run through resources fast until they were brought to the point where they either had to give their pokemon away... or release them.

  I was an outlier. It was reckless of me to catch a full team of 5 before knowing how I stacked up against the competition, especially considering I didn't fight many trainers at all until I had my members…

  Not to mention, it split my attention way more focusing on them all while every single one of my members were fresh.

  It was a risky method, the way I went about things. Timing captures and giving a gap between them, let you focus specialized attention onto members.

  By the time you got your next member, the previous member was mostly established…

  But I did not do that.

  Barring Loki, I caught my members basically right after the other. Gaia, Freyja, Metang and Ares were captured in incredibly quick succession.

  But it was working out. The benefit to what I did, was that if done well my entire team would grow much stronger at a fairly equal pace... and the closer they were in strength the better they could push each other to get stronger.

  It allowed me to do infighting way more between my members because it was a toss up on who could win. That's why I had been so exceptional despite not facing any trainers. Because my team was so evenly matched... for the most part, they gained experience off each other.

  No one had been significantly stronger than the other barring Freyja for obvious reasons... and even she had been capable of putting up enough fights to learn from them.

  I was lucky that my team was so competent and I had a knack for this trainer stuff.

  It was high risk high reward and I was being rewarded nicely for my risks.

  Good. I kinda didn't have a choice with the quick succession of captures. The faster you did something, the less time the opposition had to react after all. Imagine if I took a month long break after stealing the Beldum. That could give someone time to find out one went missing and search for my location... especially considering Meteor Falls wasn't far at all from the Stone Residence.

  It was good to take your time with things... but not all things. Sometimes, you had to be fast.

  I blinked at my tangent and gazed at the dorks calling themselves a gang with actual bikes.

  Not even motorcycles. I should steal a motorcycle…

  But that'd be a bit harder to hide... and I had a bike and skates.

  Actually, I should get some form of transportation that didn't take long to get on. I think I remember Gold mentioning being great at riding a skateboard.

  Skateboards were easy to equip and fairly fast too. Took much less time than putting my skates on... and besides, if Gold could do it, I definitely could.

  "Did you say something?" I asked our opponents, tilting my head in contemplation.

  Did I really need 3 modes of transportation? One for ease of equipping did sound good...

  The male teen nodded eagerly. "Yeah we were —"

  "Actually, never mind. I don't give a damn. Let's go Gre — Leaf," I decided bluntly.

  The guy blinked owlishly at my interruption, mouth flapping as his words died on his lips.

  Green twitched in annoyance. "You were literally about to just call me Green. Just call me Green!"

  "I have no idea what you're talking about. I was talking about the girl with the green hair and the tiny shorts over there," I said, pointing at our opponent.

  The green haired girl twitched, burning red at my words and glaring at me.

  "Then why did you say Leaf then huh?! In fact, why did you say let's go?!" Green asked, placing her hands on her hips with a flat glare.

  "She looks like a stupid leaf... and I said let's go because I'm sure I have some pants that can replace hers," I said bluntly, placing a snack in Gaia's mouth.

  "I'll hurt you," Green said flatly, patting Saury on his head.

  "Hey! Watch it you annoying twerp!" the girl growled, marching up to me with a scowl. "Don't think I'll let you say anything you want!"

  I rolled my eyes as the biker gang, in unison mind you, began shuddering at their female bosses anger.

  Seriously?

  "I'm terrified. I definitely won't bash your kneecaps. I'll definitely be as afraid of you as your gang," I said dryly.

  "Wow... he's standing up to Tyra," Chopper muttered in awe. "I didn't know that was possible!"

  The gang nodded in unison and Tyra turned towards them.

  "Shut it!" she barked.

  They immediately whitened and went silent.

  I shook my head in exasperation.

  What was with everyone being universally intimidated by some girl with a little authority in their voice. People were allegedly terrified of my aunt.

  Ridiculous.

  I ignored whatever the boy and girl were saying, choosing to focus on more important tasks like patting Gaia on the head, before returning her and Loki.

  The gang never even realized my Zoroark was out.

  Heh, that was still awesome to say.

  My Zoroark.

  "Well, we're outta here biker dorks," I bowed mockingly. "May we never meet again. If we do, count your days."

  Green shook her head in exhaustion. "It was nice fighting you guys! Let's battle again sometime in the future!"

  "Sure thing!" the guy (Copper?) exclaimed. "Tyra and I will definitely take you both on!"

  "Focus on your pokemon more instead of your bikes if you want a chance at beating us... otherwise don't battle me," I muttered, grabbing my bike once more.

  "I'm going to get back at you next time. I thought we had bad manners but you're even worse," the girl named Tyra said, crossing her arms as she glowered at me.

  "Whatever you say brute," I retorted easily.

  "B-Brute?! What are you talking about?!" she shouted.

  I ignored her completely.

  "Have you ever wondered why your name is Leaf Green? Are green eyes a running trait in your family? Do you guys love the color green?" I asked Green suddenly.

  Green blinked at the random question, expression turning contemplative. "U-Um… my mom has the same green eyes as I do... her name is Maple. Hey, is your name Silver because of your silver eyes?"

  "I would assume so. Seems like both our parents weren't all that creative."

  Green opened her mouth and closed it, as a contemplative expression crossed her face that looked distantly close to the face I'd make if I were having an existential crisis.

  Oh wait. I did have one of those.

  "Wait a second… are Gold and Crystal their real names too?" she asked cautiously, even as we rode off.

  I thought about it and shrugged. "I think so. Never heard them refer to themselves as anything else. I know Crystal has a little sister named Lyra though so maybe she has a different name."

  "We're all named after colors. And those colors are the colors of our eyes. I call Gary Blue because of his eyes too...," Green pointed out with a disturbed look.

  "Is this a coincidence? Do our parents happen to know each other?!" she asked in horror. "I've never met anyone else named Green or Blue or Crystal or Gold either! How do we happen to all be friends with each other?!"

  ...Oops.

  I rolled my eyes at the drama queen. "It's an interesting situation... but if it makes you feel better, your name is Leaf... but I guess leaves can come in the color green too."

  "Why are you so annoying to me?!"

  "Fighting fire with fire."

  "Ugh, you're just the worst!"

  Sunnytown seemed to follow the trope of the Celadon and Saffron, being far more metropolitan in nature than other cities.

  Stone roads, skyscrapers, all that jazz.

  I didn't really care about admiring the sights. I just wanted to get Loki checked up on so Green and I beelined straight to the Pokemon Center.

  "Hello, welcome to the Pokemon Center!" Nurse Joy greeted. "How can I help you?"

  "My Zoroark recently evolved. I wanted a checkup done on him to see if there were any complications," I explained quietly, handing her my team.

  Green followed suit and the Nurse Joy nodded politely, accepting the Pokeballs and placing them all in two trays.

  "Of course! Congratulations on the evolution! It's not often such a rare pokemon like Zoroark is seen. I've never actually seen one," she praised with a gentle smile.

  It was true. Zoruas and Zoroarks were exceedingly rare captures. If they didn't want to be captured, you'd probably never even know there was one there.

  How my mother managed to get a Zoroark? No idea... but you didn't really get to choose to catch a Zorua, they normally choose to let you catch them.

  The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

  That must have meant that at one point, my mom wasn't a complete piece of shit.

  Go figure.

  I smirked wryly. "Thanks. He's done nothing but make me proud."

  She smiled kindly, before she had the Chansey escort the trays to the back.

  "Would you two like a room? I'll be sure to call you when the checkups are done," the nurse informed us.

  "Okay! One for the two of us!" Green nodded happily.

  I nodded and the two of us accepted the keycard and headed to the room.

  "You know, the more I think about our travel plans, the more I realize we're maniacs," I said idly.

  The fastest way to get to Cinnabar after all, was to go south of Fuschia or Pallet Town. Heading to Saffron after Fuschia and then choosing to go to Cinnabar was a maniacal decision that would have us traveling for quite a long time—

  …

  Wait a goddamn minute.

  Saffron.

  Oh shit, Saffron.

  Damn I forgot... Were Team Rocket going to attack Saffron in this timeline? Would they do such a thing with a powerhouse like Sabrina in the city?

  I mulled it over. They had attacked the S.S Anne because it was in the middle of the ocean. It would be hard to get reinforcements if the boat was attacked.

  Saffron was the heart of Kanto. Would they really attack it?

  ...The Game Corner was their hideout, they attacked Lavender a little before Green and I showed up...

  "What's the matter?" Green asked quietly.

  I pursed my lips. "I think Team Rocket is going to attack Silph Co. But I don't know when exactly."

  This world was a mix.

  It was redundant to say but I was saying it for a reason.

  Because this world was a mix, there were multiple main characters here. While that wouldn't be so bad, one person alone threw that out of loop.

  Ash Ketchum. His existence made things far harder to understand... but I think I understood it.

  While Ash was certainly an important person... Kanto did not currently revolve around him.

  No, the events happening right now... Mt. Moon, Cerulean, the S.S Anne... the major events of Kanto didn't involve Ash at all.

  Most of the major events taking place, all stemmed from the game and Ash was not Player 1 of the games...

  At the moment, Player 1 was my companion herself, Leaf Green, which meant this world currently revolved around Green's actions...

  And Green wanted to battle Sabrina 6th... which was the exact slot her badge went into.

  You could fight Koga and Sabrina at the exact same time... but no matter which order, Sabrina's badge goes in the sixth slot.

  Using that as reference, and the fact that you can't battle her until you get rid of Team Rocket, then if Team Rocket did attack Saffron, it would be sometime in the nearer future. Either before or after Green and I battled Sabrina for her sixth badge.

  Of course the timeline could also be way out of sorts, but I don't think so. If I looked at this world from the perspective of Green being just as much of the main character as Ash, I could say with confidence that Team Rocket was going to attack Saffron in some capacity.

  Ash didn't have to deal with Team Rocket... but Green was dealing with them in almost the same way the player does.

  Would she have accidentally found the Game Corner? Did me attacking it earlier than it was intended force us to attack Proton? We probably wouldn't have encountered him if we waited after our Gym Battle.

  ...So that meant it was better that we did. Proton was dead now and one dead Executive was already a big help for me.

  Green's eyes widened in horror. "You're sure? Would it really be smart of them to attack Sabrina's city? She's probably the most difficult Gym Leader to attack!" she whispered to me.

  I frowned. "I wasn't sure before... but now that the Game Corner is lost, they'll want to salvage such a loss. I wouldn't be surprised if they upped their aggression all over the region as a result of the Game Corner."

  One thing had been bothering me all this time but I finally understand it now.

  Initially, it made no sense to me that Team Rocket had Mewtwo but hardly used it to exert more of their pressure. With the legend at their beck and call, Indigo would be at their heels already.

  But Giovanni did not want Mewtwo to be the reason Indigo was under Team Rocket's control...

  Giovanni wanted to be the reason he was ruling the world... and while that could cause some confusion, considering Mewtwo was on his side already, it made sense when you factored one thing.

  He did not have full control over Mewtwo. In his eyes, Mewtwo was not his complete weapon yet and as a result, he was keeping the legendary on a leash.

  Giovanni did not trust Mewtwo at all. Not just that. He didn't trust the control he had over the legendary.

  He wanted a way to ensure the legendariy's power before Mewtwo realized just how powerful it really was.

  Before Mewtwo realized it did not need to listen to Giovanni's orders.

  Of course, I couldn't just go on theory. That theory didn't matter squat anyways. Mewtwo was currently still their trump card and he was an ally to Team Rocket...

  But I don't think Mewtwo would be playing a hand in the Saffron invasion if there was one.

  "So they're gonna go for Silph Co…" Green said in concern.

  "Most likely," I said truthfully. "If they plan on attacking Silph Co though, we probably need to warn someone…"

  "We can't be too sure though," Green pointed out.

  That was true. Green didn't have the knowledge that I did but at the same time, she had a point.

  "Okay, after Fuschia, we'll head over to Saffron and verify. If I'm right, we'll have to get some type of help because there's definitely going to be an Admin there and we can't deal with them like we did Proton," I said truthfully.

  Even despite being the epitome of technology and what not… Team Rocket likely had moles in there. So if they truly attacked, it was because the moles couldn't get what they wanted.

  ...

  Seems like we really did have to go to Saffron next. The timeline was rough enough for me to guess that there was a real chance Silph could be hit sooner rather than later.

  Ugh, even if I wanted to go to Cinnabar next, I wouldn't be able to sleep right. I needed to thwart Team Rocket's success by any means possible or it was doomed.

  Team Rocket operated in a lot of places but I know for a fact that if they raided Silph Co, it'd be their most important heist to date.

  It was imperative that they didn't succeed. I'd even camp in Saffron just to really make sure it didn't go well for them.

  "We don't have to go to Cinnabar immediately," Green agreed, frowning slightly. "You were right about the Game Corner and I wouldn't put it past them to attack Silph Co."

  I nodded seriously. "We might have to. It'll only benefit us in the long run. More training and preparation for Blaine as well. The league still has a lot more months to start," I muttered to her.

  We nodded at that, both in full agreement with each other.

  With that out the way, we conversed normally, informed Jasmine about Loki's evolution, listened to Jasmine squeal in excitement about said evolution and eventually got called back to the Nurse.

  As we made our way back out to the front, we were met with the beaming Joy there. She was looking at us with delight.

  "Your Zoroark is perfectly healthy and in incredible condition!" Nurse Joy informed me, smiling brightly as she whispered her praise to us. "You both take impeccable care of your pokemon. I'm truly pleased by what I saw. Please do keep up the good work. Being a trainer is more than just battling!"

  Green flushed and I smirked.

  "Of course. They're our little willing soldiers after all," I said truthfully, accepting my 6 pokeballs and hiding them under my long shirt. "It's imperative to make sure they're in the best condition."

  "Soldiers, hm?" Nurse Joy hummed. "That's quite the strange way to view Pokemon, Mr. Silver," she pointed out.

  I tilted my head. "Is that so? I thought it was obvious. They are soldiers and I'm their commander. It's up to me to make the calls that will win them their battles and it's up to me to make sure they're in the condition to carry out the strategies I have planned for them. It's a mutually beneficial relationship."

  Nurse Joy looked somewhat startled by that, gazing at me with wide eyes. "I… see," she mused.

  "So that's how you see things?" Green wondered, eyes wide. "That makes a lot of sense actually. You're very pragmatic and efficient. It's also no wonder you shoulder the blame of failures so much..."

  I tilted my head even further.

  Was my view of things unique? Surely I wasn't the only one who viewed Pokemon like that?

  ...Except maybe I was. I wouldn't be surprised because finding someone with my mindset was getting pretty difficult.

  I shrugged helplessly. "We should go to bed. We've got a long day ahead of us."

  "Yeah! Let's do that!" Green beamed.

  "Goodnight, you two. Please continue taking care of your team and yourselves," Nurse Joy said kindly, waving at the two of us.

  "Goodnight," Green waved.

  "Night," I grunted.

  I needed to buy that bangle tomorrow… also I needed to find someone that could transfer pokeballs. My team deserved a bit more luxury.

  "How's it look?" I asked curiously.

  Loki grasped his long mane of hair, fashioned into a ponytail with the help of a shining silver bangle, and inspected it.

  Then, he nodded in satisfaction and rubbed his muzzle against me.

  I smile at that. "Good. You might have noticed but I also transferred you all into Luxury Balls like Oberon. I heard they're much comfier or whatever. I have no idea what goes on in Pokeballs."

  It actually hadn't been that difficult. Apparently the technology to transfer Pokeballs had been discovered years ago in Sinnoh.

  Go figure.

  Well, I got gifted 10 Luxury Balls back on the S.S Anne so they came in handy for making my team comfier.

  "It's nice. Both the Luxury Ball and the bangle. I like them," Loki said, transforming back into his favorite illusion of me.

  It was still strange looking at my face with slate gray hair.

  I nodded in satisfaction. "You got the all clear to battle too. I know you were getting antsy."

  He nodded immediately at that, transforming back into a Zoroark in his eagerness.

  I snorted as he grumbled in embarrassment.

  "C'mon, we need to at least get you fully used to everything. We're basically done with this city anyways."

  "Silvyyyy!"

  I grunted and paused from my activity of fiddling with an empty pokeball to look up from my spot.

  "What's up Leaf?" I asked, placing the object to the side. We were currently taking a break from traveling, back on Route 17 once more to continue our course to Fuchsia.

  "Smile!" she beamed, holding up her pokegear and snapping a picture of me.

  I blinked owlishly at that, inspecting the picture she showed me.

  "You're surprisingly photogenic!" Green praised. "How did your face even morph into a scowl so quickly?!"

  "Habit?" I mused, gazing at the picture of me raising a brow and scowling.

  She nodded in agreement before sitting right next to me and smushing her cheek with mine. "Cheese!" she grinned happily.

  I rolled my eyes as she took of a picture once more, this time with the both of us in it.

  "Why exactly are you snapping pictures of me?" I asked as she removed her cheek from mine with a beaming smile.

  "Well the first one was because Lorelei asked me to give her a picture of you... and then I realized we never took a picture with each other! Me? Not take a picture with you?! How could I have missed such an important detail!" she exclaimed.

  She began fiddling with her Pokegear and said, "Oh! I can send this to Jasmine as well! There's no way she has a picture of you! Next time we see her, we'll take a group photo."

  I snorted in amusement and picked the pokeball back up. "Ms. Aunt asked you to take a picture of me? Why didn't she just ask me herself?"

  Green snorted in return. "Yeah. I'm sure you would have willingly given her one. Knowing you, you'd take a picture of your middle finger and send it."

  I shrugged. "Fair enough."

  My pokegear began vibrating (I had it set to vibrate) and I fished it out of my pocket, seeing the name "Ice Cold Stalker" on it.

  I watched Green run back to wherever she was and picked up the phone.

  "Sup aunt," I greeted easily, watching as her face appeared on screen.

  "Hello Silver. How are you today?" Lorelei asked, smiling at me as she typed away at something.

  "Eh," I replied, tilting my head at the sound of clicking.

  She let out a noncommittal hum at that and a comfortable silence started, only broken up by the sound of her typing away at whatever league business she had.

  "I hope you didn't mind me asking Green to take a picture of you," she suddenly said.

  I had taken my attention off the screen, allowing the lull of the typing to fill the air as I handled my business, so it took me a bit to register her statement.

  "It's whatever," I commented. "But why do you want a picture of me?"

  "I wanted to print and frame it in my office... also I wanted to make it your profile picture. It's a nice picture but I do hope one day I can get one where you smile."

  I blinked owlishly at that. She wanted to frame a picture of me in her office?

  ...What a dork. Whatever.

  I ignored the slight warmth and rolled my eyes. "I don't smile for pictures. I only smile when something unfortunately funny is happening to another," I replied easily enough.

  Lorelei sighed. "I believe you... have you eaten today? Bathed properly? Route 17 is quite the enormous route so it's easy to be ill equipped for it."

  "I'm fine." I sighed in exasperation. "We stopped by at Sunnytown a few days back and replenished anything we might have used."

  "Ah yes. Your Zorua evolved correct? Well done on achieving such an accolade. It's truly rare to find a trainer who owns a Zoroark."

  I smirked proudly. "Loki put in the work and earned it. All I did was guide him in the right direction."

  Lorelei smiled, looking just as proud for whatever reason. "Excellent job, Silver. Please keep up the good work."

  Seriously. She was a dork.

  Her expression turned a tad concerned. "You mentioned replenishing supplies. Are you low on funds by chance? You and Green do both have a team of six respectively so prices will rack up very quickly. If you'd like, I could easily send some money over. I have more than I know what to do with—"

  "Nah," I denied easily, interrupting her tirade. "I appreciate the sentiment, but Green and I are fine right now. We don't need help at the moment."

  Lorelei sighed. "I expected you to say that. I understand how you think. You would refuse any and all handouts offered to you and I greatly respect that... but please don't let that pride negatively impact you."

  "Whatever you say mom," I said sarcastically, waving her off and watching as Gaia whined in defeat at Loki's hands. "If I need to milk you of your Elite 4 money and you're willing... then yeah, I'll do it. Money is money."

  "..."

  I gazed down in confusion at the silence and saw Lorelei positively glowing. There was a smile on her face and I perked a brow.

  "Why are you so happy all of a sudden?" I mused curiously.

  "No reason at all," Lorelei replied immediately, removing her glasses by what clearly looked like habit and wiping them clean with a rag. "I will call you tomorrow to check up on you again."

  I scratched my hair and nodded. "Sure, whatever. We'll just be traveling and traveling and more traveling. Message me first though. I tend to ignore calls."

  "Understood. Goodbye, Silver. Make sure you eat a balanced meal."

  I grunted and the call hung up.

  What made her so happy? Judging by what I knew of Lorelei, any other person would be grinning ear to ear.

  ...Did I even care enough to ponder it?

  Nah.

  "Silvyyy, try this!" Green suddenly exclaimed, placing a plate in front of me.

  "Are you gonna keep bothering me?" I asked, not looking up this time.

  Green puffed out her cheeks and said nothing.

  I sighed as a spoon of something was suddenly pushed towards me.

  "Try it! Please!" she pleaded with wide eyes.

  I glanced at what was being offered to me and tilted my head, before glancing at the place that Green had taken a chunk out of.

  "A muffin?" I asked curiously.

  She nodded eagerly. "I made it using Pecha Berries as the base."

  I shrugged and opened my mouth, bravely eating the entire piece of muffin on the spoon.

  Green watched in anticipation as I chewed it, eyes gleaming in curiosity.

  "Well?" she asked.

  I blinked. "It's actually not terrible. Pecha berry flavored Muffin?" I mused.

  I grasped the actual muffin and inspected it. It was a little burnt around the edges and while far from perfect, it didn't taste as bad as I expected it to.

  "Since when do you make pastries?" I asked.

  "I just wanted to try my hand at something a little sweeter and this one was fast and easy!" she beamed, rubbing her messy hair.

  "A little more work and I'd even say it tastes good," I said truthfully.

  Green cheered. "I'll get better! Making sweets are kinda fun!"

  I snorted and handed the muffin to Oberon, watching as he bit into it with a happy cry.

  "H-Hey! You were supposed to eat that!" she spluttered.

  "There's no way I'm eating all that," I replied in amusement.

  Green pouted. "You're so terrible!"

  "You've only said it a million times. Now c'mon. Let's get back to traveling," I chuckled.

  "Oberon, slash."

  "Don't give it the chance, Machoke! Karate Chop!"

  I sucked my teeth as the tired Oberon was struck square in the chest, sending my little bear across the clearing.

  There went the streak we had been somewhat building up. How unfortunate.

  I returned him to his ball with words of encouragement.

  Across from me, some tall and muscular jackass smiled cockily across from me. There was a Machoke crossing its arms as well, scratch marks over it at the efforts of Oberon.

  "Nothing to it! Send out your next already so we can get this over with!" he said cockily.

  I twitched at that, decent mood turning foul at the cocky talentless shit before me.

  "Wanna act all big and bad huh?" I mused darkly, clutching a pokeball. "Fine then."

  I threw out my pokeball and said, "Metagross, let's teach this dumbass a lesson."

  The guys eyes widened in horror immediately. "W-What?! Didn't you fight Erika like 3 weeks ago?! It already evolved?!" he gaped.

  I glared coldly at him as a Metagross coalesced on my side. "You talked a big game making fun of my weakest member after countering him. I'm just returning the favor."

  Metagross rumbled ominously. It was an intimidating thing. They were far too intelligent to ever prey on humans for the fun of it, but you still never wanted to run into a Metagross.

  Massive and robotic in nature, with a turquoise colored body and 4 legs that had horribly sharp claws attached to it.

  "Agility," I said immediately.

  "M-Machoke, use Knock Off!" he barked nervously.

  Machoke nodded, shrouding its thick arms in dark energy as it bounded after Metagross...

  To no success, Metagross effortlessly weaved his attack, sped up by Agility—

  "Extrasensory."

  —Then his eyes flashed and he absolutely crushed Machoke underneath the heavy Extrasensory. The rainbow colored beam smashed into the Machoke, sending him flying from the raw force behind it.

  He was unconscious before he hit the floor, unmoving from his spot.

  "Oh wow, that's about how I expected that to go," I said, unmoved by the guys sudden nervousness. "Send out your next. I've got places to be."

  The dude flinched back, shakily returning his Machoke.

  "Hurry up so I can get this assbeating over with. I don't got all day," I said cruelly. "You ambush me, you recognize me and then you challenge me to a battle and immediately send out a counter to my first pokemon... then you talk as if you're hot shit. Don't worry, I'm going to put you in your place."

  Metagross rumbled, already back at my side.

  The guy shook his head harshly and gained some of his bravado. "Haunter! Let's do this!" he shouted, sending out the ghost type.

  Haunter cackled as it was released from its ball... before going completely stock still, eyes flitting over to me in horror.

  "Haunter don't worry about it! It's freshly evolved and you're super effective against it!"

  The ghost gazed back at its trainer with horrified eyes that caused me to snort.

  Its poor trainer thought it was terrified of the Metagross.

  "Shadow Ball!" Haunters trainer shouted, eager to get an early advantage.

  The Haunter shuddered, forming a ball of ghostly energy that it immediately lobbed over at the prone Metagross.

  "Dodge it. Use Shadow Ball after," I instructed.

  There really was no need. Metagross was already on the move.

  He effortlessly leaned to the right, already forming a ball of ghostly energy in the same movement.

  While his practice with ghost moves wasn't the best, it was still enough to make Haunter shriek. The Shadow Ball whizzed through the air and the ghost dashed away as fast as possible from it.

  "Pursue it with Bullet Punch," I pressed easily, utterly unbothered.

  Metagross rumbled in acknowledgement, before lunging forward at a burst of speed. The Agility had already been applied so now my opponent could only watch the terror of a speeding Metagross crashing into its Haunter with the force of a bullet train.

  "W-What?! With just a Bullet Punch?!" he gaped in disbelief, watching as Haunter crumpled to the floor. "No way! I don't care if you have a Metagross! A Bullet Punch isn't taking it out in one hit you cheater—"

  "Send out your last pokemon," I interrupted coldly.

  He spluttered, gazing into my frigid eyes with a bead of sweat.

  "K-Kadabra! Let's do this! We'll teach this cheater a lesson!"

  I stared coolly as he sent out his third pokemon.

  "Cheater? Sure let's go with that," I rolled my eyes. "Charge him."

  Metagross rumbled in agreement and rushed after the wide eyed Kadabra (it also terrified of me by the way) with blazing speeds.

  "Slow it down with Psychic and then Teleport away!"

  As Metagross charged Kadabra, it's eyes glowed brightly, only to peeter out abruptly as it tried to halt the speedy Metagross.

  My pokemon continued unimpeded, wholly unaffected by the attack and in a panic, Kadabra tried to teleport away.

  I sighed as it vanished a few feet away. "Night Daze."

  "Night what?!" the guy blinked in confusion.

  Metagross let out a noise of amusement, glowing crimson, as it crashed one of its feet onto the ground.

  A giant dome of pink and crimson consumed the battlefield, engulfing the Kadabra almost effortlessly.

  "And that's that," I sneered, watching as the dust settled. "Worthless garbage. Someone with your skills, should never even think about trash talking."

  The guy flinched back at that, eyes wide in disbelief as he gazed at what just transpired.

  Then, he stepped back in disbelief as Loki dropped the Illusion, showing the Zoroark in all its glory.

  He snickered at the dumbfounded look on my opponent's face and I snorted.

  "Y-You..." he stammered.

  "My money. Now," I demanded. "If you even have any. With your level of skill you must not win a lot."

  I shrugged helplessly and snatched the money out of his hand. "Well whatever. Thanks for wasting my time. We're going Leaf."

  "Kay!" she beamed. "Hey that was pretty good battling by you... but you should be a little nicer! Keep up the good work!"

  I snorted. Green was giving advice to someone who looked a fair bit older than us.

  "Well done Loki. You've been cleaning house," I praised, watching as he easily kept pace with us.

  "Zor," he smiled, rubbing his snout against me.

  I chuckled at that.

  Loki's evolution was as incredible as I expected it to be. His parameters had absolutely spiked in all areas and he was a complete force now.

  Speed, power, stores... Loki had everything needed for us to fulfill our fantasies and that meant all that was left, was putting the work in.

  "I can't believe we're getting recognized," I sighed tiredly.

  How annoying. It didn't happen often, but people would occasionally recognize Green and I. Most times it was for battles, other times it was to just ask how we got so strong so fast...

  They were all annoying. Every person who approached us had been met with extreme resistance by me and apologetic words from Green.

  "It's exciting! You should be a little kinder. I think that guy was about to cry," Green sighed.

  I rolled my eyes and pocketed my money. Then, I released Oberon from the ball and sprayed him down with a potion, all while we walked to our destination.

  "He should have kept his mouth shut about Oberon. Honestly, he challenges me to a battle, I send out Oberon first, he counters with a fighting type, wins and then talks shit before the match is up. He was begging for it," I sneered.

  "You have a point," she mused. "Oberon's such a cutie, how can anyone be so mean to him?!"

  Oberon blushed in embarrassment and ducked into my body.

  "Not bad Oberon. You tried your best," I assured with a small smile. "We've been getting some wins but we aren't the strongest yet so we'll run into matches we lose. Don't worry about it."

  He nodded, clutching me tightly and I chuckled in amusement.

  "You did good. Your Slash is looking strong. Let's focus a bit on your speed and approach to certain things..."

  The terrain suddenly shifting from advanced technology, to rural in nature, let me know that we were finally making it to a new city.

  It was fascinating seeing how the routes reflected the city that was nearest to it. The routes near Saffron, Celadon, Sunnytown and the sorts were quite advanced.

  There were more paved roads, more human built structures and of course there was the Cycling Road.

  But here? Route 18 was a lot different than even the previous Route 17. Technology was replaced by trees, bushes, wooden fences and the sorts.

  It was incredible how two places right next to each other, could look so drastically different.

  You saw more pokemon as the routes became less tampered with. They seemed to flock to the more natural routes and I tilted my head curiously at that.

  I had long gotten used to seeing a large array of different types of pokemon hanging around in the routes. It was cool but it was normal now…

  Still, it was always nice to appreciate the simple things. Even those damn Fearows that thought it was cool to attack us.

  Ares had fun when that happened. She had taken to brutalizing anything that could fly lately.

  Fun stuff. Pretty sure Loki began hunting as well after evolving.

  Well, as long as I didn't see it, that was fine. I'm sure as a Salamence, Ares was gonna hunt a lot too.

  I just needed to make sure they weren't a trainers pokemon...

  "We're almost to Fuchsia!" Green cheered, full of renewed energy. "I wanna take a hot bath and eat some good food and set up a gym battle!"

  I nodded in agreement. We had left Sunnytown about two weeks ago and had just been traveling the entire time.

  It was the longest I had been out in the routes. I was used to speedrunning things but taking it at a more moderate to even slow pace was good too.

  "Don't wanna visit the Safari Zone?" I asked curiously.

  She shook her head. "I don't want to catch anymore members. There are a lot of cool things in the Safari Zone but I'm satisfied for now!"

  I nodded in agreement. "You and me both. I don't think there's anything in the Safari Zone I wanna catch either. We've got our work cut out for us already with a full team. Catching more would be detrimental."

  There were cool things but… honestly, I wasn't too interested in it and I was fine with my current team.

  "You read my mind! I didn't expect to have 6 at this point but its working out well because I have you!" Green beamed.

  I rolled my eyes at her earnest words. "Yeah. We're probably the best pair that could have happened. I'd probably only be this good with Gold or Crystal," I said truthfully.

  Green squealed happily and squeezed me happily.

  "Will you hug me for every little thing?" I asked in mild amusement.

  "Of course! Since you began accepting them instead of hurting me, it's been open season!" she admitted shamelessly.

  A hug happy maniac and a person who'd hurt you if you touched them.

  Truly a perfect pair.

  I just rolled my eyes and let it be. Green and Jasmine were the only people on the planet I'd actually consider hugging back anyways.

  Based on some messages between Gold and Crystal in our other group chat (it was Green. You know it was Green) they had caught some of their own encounters in the Safari Zone.

  They wanted to keep them a surprise but our counterpart duo seemed fairly excited about it.

  Not bad. I was looking somewhat forward to meeting with them again.

  Right now they should be about halfway to Celadon I think? Their trip from Vermillion to Fuchsia had taken quite a long time as well.

  We had unintentionally passed each other on our journeys to our respective cities but any chances of meeting up had vanished, long after we figured that out.

  They had gotten their Fuchsia badges too, though from how much they complained, they didn't have many answers to Koga's poison types so it was a tall task for them.

  Though, Koga was only their fourth badge. I imagine it'd be even harder for them if they were battling him for a higher tier.

  Koga was a very heavy hitter Gym Leader after all. Many people liked to battle him early on to just get his badge out of the way.

  From what I understood… barring Giovanni, who refused to battle anyone with less than 6-7 badges… then the Kanto Gym Leader challenged the most early on, was Sabrina.

  It made sense. I hear later battles against her, were probably the second hardest in the region. She was a truly frustrating opponent to deal with when instead of Abras and Drowzees, you were facing Alakazams and Hypnos.

  Blaine tended to get challenged later on no matter what, due to the inconvenience of reaching Cinnabar.

  Surge was right after Sabrina. The maniac of a gym leader battled like he had a vendetta against you. While Electric certainly wasn't the scariest type to face... later on Surge would send out pokemon that were fast and hit hard.

  I heard he even had a second Electivire for 8 badges... which was completely bullshit and unfair by the way. Electivires were ludicrously rare for a reason and Surge was one of the few trainers who had one on his main team.

  Koga was incredibly annoying to fight because of his style of slowly choking you out with his pokemon. In his later gym battles, he had access to a potential Crobat and no one wanted to deal with that pokemon if they could help it.

  That's why I had been convinced I was dead when Proton sent one out. Crobats were complete menaces to deal with. Ludicrously fast with access to poison type moves... it was one of the best at hit and run tactics and even disregarding that, they hit hard.

  The gym leader challenged the most at 7 badges, were Pewter City, Celadon and Cerulean in that order.

  They were the most lenient at that tier and you were almost guaranteed to have an answer to those typings if you weren't a specialist.

  Though, I imagine with the resurgence, Cerulean would become a lot harder to get a badge from.

  It was kinda fun figuring out how differently this place was… and it was fun seeing how cowardly most trainers were.

  Planning your gym battle route to get the easiest battles? What a pathetic mindset to have.

  Avoiding a gym because "It'd be better to fight the hard gyms first"?

  Ridiculous. If you wanted to be the strongest, things like that shouldn't bother you. Plotting the route you'd take based on who was easiest, was crazy talk.

  If a city had a gym in it, you should just battle them. It shouldn't matter what order you did them in. Traveling like that would just take up a lot of unnecessary time, leaving you with less opportunity to fully dedicate to just training for the conference.

  I fought Pewter, Cerulean and Celadon early on because they were nearby. I don't care about how easy they are later on.

  In fact, getting those badges so quickly in succession, was quite helpful. It saved me a lot of time going to the closest cities. If I got all my badges in a timely fashion, I could go find an isolated area with Green and we could just only train without traveling around.

  Losers ran away from challenges. They could never hope to become strong like that.

  That's what I respected about Green. She willingly skipped Sabrina not because it'd be easier to fight her later on… but because it'd be harder.

  Hell, Green wanted to battle her seventh if she could but it would have been incredibly inconvenient. She was a real maniac, my traveling companion.

  It was impressive and I approved.

  Not like I'd ever tell her that.

  Me? Willingly compliment Green out of the goodness of my heart?

  Don't be ridiculous now.

  Fuchsia dipped back into the more natural aspect of Kanto that one half of the region seemed to embrace. There were not many advanced displays of technology, city being just as rural as the routes around it and I admired the old school feel of it.

  This city seemed to have the most wild pokemon idling about in Kanto so far. They were everywhere in all sizes and shapes.

  A Pidgeot screeched directly above us and I craned my head to look at it, before focusing on the smooth dirt roads below to regard the Arbok curled up on the side.

  It cracked open an eye, hissing at me threateningly and flicking out its tongue.

  I stared, utterly unintimidated as it suddenly turned its head to a spot right next to me.

  The Arbok's hissing turned into a strangled noise, as a Garchomp suddenly materialized behind me, snarling at the wild snake in a threatening manner.

  Green laughed wildly as it hastily slithered away from us and I pat Loki's wild hair.

  "Straight to the gym?" Green asked excitedly, smiling the whole time.

  "Yeah," I nodded in agreement. "We can set up our battles and then take it easy. I have a feeling that after this, things will be hectic."

  Green nodded sympathetically. "We got a lot stronger on the way here and we can only get better," she assured me.

  She wasn't wrong at all. In the month it had taken us to get here, we had been training a lot and when you were training with someone, who was equal to you in skill, constantly, you both would begin to improve at an explosive rate.

  Whenever Green and I took a break, we trained with the other. Even simple things like having another perspective helped out a lot.

  I'd be significantly weaker traveling alone or even with any new trainer besides Green, barring Gold and Crystal.

  I snorted. "You're right. We'll only get stronger from here."

  With a few directions from a rather quiet man, we hastily made our way to the Fuchsia Gym and entered the Japanese styled building without wasting any time.

  I gazed at the interior with a curious eye.

  In terms of simplicity, Fuchsia was definitely one of the most simple. The entire interior looked akin to a dojo to me. The floor was wooden, the rooms were fairly bare and it was largely empty, barring the stern looking man at the counter.

  My eyes flickered in a direction for a second, before I focused on the man again.

  "We're here to schedule a gym battle," I said bluntly to the man, returning his stern face with a small scowl of my own. "This is Leaf Green and I'm Silver. We both have 4 badges."

  The man nodded, utterly unfazed by my abrasive nature.

  Bummer. Harassing receptionists had become a fun hobby of mine.

  Harassing stiffs was even more fun.

  "Understood," he said, typing away swiftly and efficiently.

  I watched his fingers blaze across the keyboard and grunted as he gazed at the two of us once more.

  "Two days. That is how long you have until you are required for summons. Failure to arrive will postpone the opportunity to apply for upwards to five days," he explained.

  I rolled my eyes. "Thanks so much. I was definitely considering bailing out," I said sarcastically, turning away with a small frown and departing from the gym.

  Green and I walked in some silence, heading towards the Pokemon Center.

  "Two days huh?" she murmured contemplatively. "Okay, that's good enough to prepare for Koga."

  "Shouldn't be terrible at all. We got this," I said with a shrug.

  She nodded confidently. "Yeah we do!"

  I smirked before stopping abruptly, annoyance replacing my earlier expression. "You can stop hiding now. I've noticed you since we were in the gym."

  Green blinked in confusion, only to yelp as a figure landed in front of us.

  "Cool," I thought idly.

  "You could sense me?" the stranger asked, voice sounding genuinely surprised at that little detail.

  It was a girl. She looked to be a year older than us, with a spiky head of purple hair, tied by a yellow band, and matching purple eyes.

  She was decked out in an actual ninja outfit. It was all black and covered her fairly well, long pink scarf flowing behind her.

  Did people actually walk around in ninja outfits? Did casual wear just not exist?

  I blinked boredly. "Why do you think I called you out?"

  Sometimes, it felt like I was the straight man in a fucking comedy movie. So much ridiculous shit happened around me and I was the only one who thought it was incredibly odd.

  Like that girl who randomly kissed me on the cheek for doing something as basic as making sure she didn't get assaulted by a criminal. Or Lance having the worst disguise of all time... or this girl thinking I would just randomly say "Come out, I know you're there", without actually knowing if someone was there.

  I nearly pinched my nose at everything I recalled. This world was so anime it hurt.

  The girl frowned. "To think I'd still be lacking in my training. I'll have to rectify such a mistake. Father would be displeased to hear about this."

  I sighed. "Why the hell are you following us? It's not a good look for the Gym Leader's daughter to go stalking two random trainers."

  Green's eyes widened. "Oh! You're Koga's daughter?"

  The girl coughed, clearly surprised that we identified her so quickly. "That's… correct. I am Janine, daughter of Koga and next in line to inherit the Fuchsia City Gym."

  "That doesn't help us figure out why you're stalking us," I said bluntly.

  Her cheeks dusted slightly at my blunt and accusing tone. "I noticed you glance directly at me while you were signing up for the gym battle. I thought it might have been a coincidence but you didn't look elsewhere so my interest was piqued."

  The Venomoth next to her buzzed in affirmation. It looked bigger than the average one

  "I then recognized who you two are and only grew more interested. Silver and Leaf Green, two first year trainers with four gym badges. My training is by no means complete, but it's highly unlikely for a first year trainer to spot me while I remain completely hidden."

  She peered at me with blatant curiosity. "Do you also have some form of training?"

  I scowled but before I could respond, I instinctively lashed out and grabbed the arm of the girl who suddenly rushed me, before flipping her entire body over my shoulder.

  Janine landed deftly on her feet and I snarled at the unaffected girl.

  "What the fuck do you think you're doing?" I growled warningly, clenching my fist. "Next time I'm not throwing you over my shoulder, I'm breaking a limb."

  Green squeaked at that, already intent on pulling me back and away from this maniac.

  "I see. You truly do have some form of training," Janine muttered. Venomoth flitted back over to her side and I scoffed.

  "Green, we're leaving. This girl is a weirdo and I'm tired of dealing with weirdos."

  Green sighed and nodded. "At least you two didn't actually start fighting… I didn't wanna break that up," she said bluntly.

  "I didn't wanna fight. I'm tired and want to take a shower," I grunted.

  "Me too," she replied easily.

  "One moment please," Janine called out.

  I did not listen. "Fuck off. Let's just leave this meeting here and forget this ever happened."

  Attacking me out of nowhere, how utterly ridiculous did you have to be to do that?

  Janine looked puzzled. "You do not wish to battle?" she asked in slight confusion.

  "No," I denied harshly. "You stalked me, attacked me and now you wanna battle me?" I asked incredulously.

  What the hell was wrong with some of the people I happened to meet? Why were they all freaks?!

  I turned towards the girl with narrowed eyes. "Do you have any friends?" I asked randomly.

  She opened her mouth.

  "Human friends. Your dad doesn't count," I interrupted.

  She shut her mouth abruptly.

  Janine furrowed her brows. "I've been immersed in my clan training for years. I did not have time for such things."

  I sighed, not even remotely surprised. "How old are you?"

  "I am 14."

  Right. Okay. Cool.

  So this girl had basically spent her whole life training herself and then her pokemon. As a result, she really really didn't understand social cues.

  I guess anyone could become a Gym Leader huh? I mean people like Surge and Giovanni could so I shouldn't be surprised at all.

  "You have terrible social skills and that's coming from me," I informed her helpfully. "Just because it looks like I know what I'm doing, does not give you free reigns to attack me. Maybe next time, ask for a spar or something."

  "He is correct, Janine. It is unwise to jump to such conclusions, no matter how confident you may be in your assessment."

  I watched as a figure flitted into view, causing Janine to go stiff.

  "Double cool," I thought.

  "I apologize for my daughter's actions," Koga said, bowing shortly. "It is rare for her to encounter someone near her age with formal training of sorts. In her excitement, she made a hasty and unwise decision."

  I grunted, unwilling to disclose anything about my physical abilities. "It's your fault anyways so I don't get why you're apologizing on her behalf. Do it for yourself first," I scowled, glaring at the gym leader next.

  Koga looked slightly taken aback, neutral expression making way for a slight quirk of his brow. "Pardon me?" he asked.

  I rolled my eyes and scoffed loudly. "You're her dad and you don't see the problem with the fact that your daughter has the social skill of Slowpoke? Do you have the social skills of a Slowbro? How could you possibly think this is okay?" I pointed out.

  Green sighed tiredly. "I don't get how you're like this. It hasn't even been an hour."

  "What I don't get, is how you always find a way to pin the blame on me!" I snarked, rounding on her with a glare. "You need to stop accusing me just because I'm ruder than the person messing with me. I'm the one being harassed every city I land in. My life would be so much simpler, if people actually left me alone like I wanted to be!" I barked at her.

  Green flinched, taken aback by me suddenly attacking her.

  Then she mulled over what I said and eventually nodded. "You know what… you're actually right. Now that I think about it, you really do try to end conversations as fast as possible… huh, you even did the same with me and Blue and Ash... and Mason," she mused, pursing her lips as she finally saw the truth.

  I sneered. "Yeah. I have basically never initiated anything with anyone but somehow, I'm in the city making this dumbass dad see that he did a terrible job at parenting his daughter."

  My companion laughed sheepishly and stepped away from my angry glare. "S-Sorry about that… I won't accuse you so much. But you're also still kinda a dick so I think you deserve it."

  I shrugged, already used to it.

  "I do not think I have the social skills of a Slowpoke," Janine frowned, pondering what I said.

  I rolled my eyes and completely ignored her. "Your kid is a human, ninja man. I bet you've done a good job raising her as a fellow ninja, but you did a terrible fucking job raising her as a daughter. That's pathetic and you need to do better," I reprimanded with a shake of my head.

  That got Janine to react. "Do not speak of my father in such a way! He is one of the greatest people I know!" she scowled.

  I sighed. "Everything that comes out of your mouth bores me to death. You can't be this big of a drone," I said with a shake of my head, half lidded gaze turning towards her.

  "D-Drone?!" she spluttered. "I am no drone. I am a well respected ninja of my clan!"

  I groaned audibly. "We're leaving Leaf. I'm seriously sick of this conversation."

  Green laughed nervously. "Yeah we should get you outta here before you make an enemy of the city."

  Koga said nothing, mulling over my words.

  "Hearing about my failures as a father was not what I was expecting today... but I believe what you say has some merit," he said eventually, making me pause. "My apologies, Janine… It appears I truly have neglected part of my duties. I will seek to rectify this immediately."

  Huh? Seriously? Accountability?

  I almost clapped. Koga was a pretty respectable guy.

  Janine looked bewildered by that. "F-Father?" she asked in confusion. "What neglect are you speaking of? You've done no such thing to me!"

  "In your eyes, perhaps not. But how are you to know better?" Koga asked bluntly.

  I watched his daughter go silent in shock and snorted loudly.

  "You know what. The fact that you managed to realize so quickly, makes you not so shitty in my eyes. You're just a terrible dad," I rolled my eyes.

  "…" Koga frowned contemplatively at that. "It seems like there is much for me to think about in these upcoming days, including our battle."

  Before I could say anything, the gym leader vanished.

  ...How the hell did he do that?

  "What did you do to my father?" Janine accused, frowning at me with a glare.

  "Spoke the truth. Don't get mad at me for opening his eyes," I said bluntly.

  Her glare deepened and a small scowl formed on her face.

  "My father is a great man. He has balanced his duties perfectly and you have no right to slander him like that!" she defended.

  "I don't know who you're arguing with. It's not me," I retorted boredly, heading towards the Pokemon Center with a resigned Green.

  To no one's surprise, Janine followed us.

  "I'm arguing with you! You said things that weren't true!" she blamed me.

  "No I didn't. I don't care enough to lie to strangers. Aren't you guys ninjas? If it weren't true, you should be able to tell or something," I replied with a wave of my hand.

  Janine immediately spluttered at my sentence. "T-That comes off so offensive! Don't state such stereotypes like they are true!" she finally cracked.

  "It's actually impressive how you can break people's character. Is that a special talent of yours?" Green whispered to me.

  "Yeah, it's an ability called common sense."

  "I heard that!"

  I sighed and kept my pace. Even as we entered the Center, she easily kept pace with us.

  "Hey," I greeted the Nurse Joy, handing her my Pokeballs without her having to say anything.

  Green followed suit and smiled at the Nurse Joy.

  "Can we get a room as well?" Green asked politely.

  Nurse Joy nodded slowly, glancing slowly behind us and noting the Janine glaring at the back of my head.

  "Ignore it. Temper tantrum," I mouthed silently.

  She nodded again, slower this time.

  "Here you are... have a wonderful day," she said, handing our team off to the Blissey behind her and then giving us a keycard.

  We accepted it thankfully and immediately walked off.

  "Isn't it crazy that they've just stopped giving us separate keys?" I asked Green with a scowl. "Why do they think I wanna share a room with you now? You've already stolen one half of my tent."

  "It's fun and you know it! I'm gonna be in your room the whole time anyways!" Green beamed, nonplussed by the revelation. "We get to have sleepovers everyday!"

  "Yeah, I love waking up to a forest of hair somehow finding its way onto me… despite the fact we have separate beds."

  Green blushed in embarrassment. "Sorry. I can't help it," she mumbled, hanging her head.

  "You aren't even attempting to solve your problem," I said dryly.

  "S-Stop ignoring me!" Janine shouted finally.

  Wow, she really was persistent. She even followed us into our room.

  I rolled my eyes. "Why are you upset again?" I asked, finally acknowledging her.

  "You insulted my father! How dare you say the things you said about him? He's done no such thing to warrant that!" Janine replied immediately.

  I stared at the slightly taller girl and sighed tiredly. "You have no social skills. Do you realize that you followed me all the way from the gym, to my rented room in the Pokemon Center and you don't see the problem with that."

  Janine blinked at the callout.

  "He um… has a point," Green chimed in. "Normally people don't uh… follow others into a room that they haven't been invited into."

  "No one does that. Not even me," I grunted, taking a seat on my bed even as Green leapt happily on it. "You have no social skills. You don't know how the hell to act like a normal girl. You were raised as a ninja and future gym leader. That's it. Koga did his job as your teacher well, but he did a terrible job as your father."

  If someone had done that to Jasmine, their ass would have met my foot. While definitely socially awkward, Jasmine wasn't nearly as terrible as this girl here.

  Janine looked stunned. She opened her mouth and then shut it, realizing that there was not much she could say to defend herself here.

  "That's… not true," she said eventually.

  "What do you do for fun?" I asked boredly, falling back onto my head and crossing my arms behind my head.

  "For fun? Do you mean in my free time?" Janine replied.

  "Yeah, sure," I replied.

  "I like to meditate in order to clear my head of unnecessary thoughts. Most of the time, I will use the spare time to hone my craft or clean the dojo. I like to have my team spar with each other and I may sometimes join them. Afterwards, we discuss what could be done to improve and then I feed them and myself..." she listed off.

  A light amount of snoring cut her off and Janine blinked in surprise as she saw Green, unconscious on my bed with a happy smile.

  "You put her to sleep. Nice," I praised, yawning slightly myself. "Get it now?"

  Janine blinked, before the ninja girl flushed.

  "...I will delve deeper and analyze your claims further," she mumbled in embarrassment.

  I snorted. "You do that," I told her, resisting the urge to sleep because I needed to get my and Green's team since she was already unconscious.

  Janine frowned. "You have opened my eyes in ways that I don't find… enjoyable and I harbor a strong dislike of you."

  I snorted at that.

  "After your affairs with my father, let us do battle. I'd like to see why there are so many whispers of you," she eventually said.

  I raised a brow.

  Janine's team was too strong for me currently. She was very clearly experienced and based on her Venomoth alone, I'm fairly sure she was going to be a gym leader in about another year or two.

  "Whatever you say," I said coolly. "I don't take defeats well. Just understand the consequences of what's going to happen after our battle."

  I still remember that Ace trainer that patrolled the routes between Pewter and Mt. Moon. His name was Brace or something but all I needed was a face.

  When I got my hands on him again, he was gonna regret beating me.

  Janine jumped at that, whirling towards me with a startled gaze.

  "Dangerous," was written all over her face. It was easy to tell what she was thinking.

  Ninjas had pretty good instincts.

  "I… will keep that in mind," she muttered, silently exiting the room.

  I watched her go with a blank expression.

  "Silver. Green. Both your pokemon are ready to be picked up," a voice rang into our room.

  I stood up and frowned.

  I didn't like fighting battles I knew I was going to lose. It was a waste of time when I could be improving myself to get to that level.

  Fighting an unbeatable force was something a person like Gold or Ash would do. It was an idiots goal to fight someone so strong, you couldn't even learn anything from it.

  That's why I didn't chomp at the bits to battle Lance. He was so out of my league, there was nothing I could learn from the fight.

  Getting defeated in one shot wasn't a learning experience.

  But… I'd be trying to face off stronger threats anyways. Proton's team still looked way stronger than mine and I doubted he was the strongest Admin...

  Perhaps I had to become a bit more like the idiots then. I had already stepped one foot onto that path.

  I stood up and stared at Green's sleeping body, sighing with a shake of my head.

  "Dumbass stole my bed," I grunted, making my way out of the room.

  Maybe I was becoming an idiot because I constantly traveled with one.