The Journey Continues

The Vermillion Crystal

Since departing with Ash, Goh has been on a journey around Kanto. This adventure was something that he had been pondering for a long time now, and while he initially had some reservations about heading out on his own, Chloe and Ash had eventually convinced his concerned side to just go with it. And honestly? Best decision he's ever made. For 17 years he was cooped up in his home, and the last year had been spent as a researcher, and while that had definitely broadened his horizons, there's just something that hits differently about going on a whole journey. He wasn't joined by any human presence on this trip, but that was alright: he was already used to his own company. Besides, he has his Pokémon. What more do you need, really? He was finally getting out into the world in its most raw way.

So far, Kanto has been beautiful, more than he could ever have dreamed of just in his backyard. After his experiences as part of Project Mew, Goh had acquired a newfound appreciation for the element that battling plays into the process of catching Pokémon, and so in order to take another step towards his goal, he decided to go through the Kanto gym circuit. Brock had been fairly easy, being double weak to Inteleon, although it could've been easier as the leader used Pokémon that roughly matched Goh's levels despite being the first gym. Misty, on the other hand, had been a bit tougher. He had his staple grass-type Grookey of course, but Grookey could only do so much. Thankfully, the nice thing about having caught 104 Pokémon so far is that he had options to fill his team with. Raichu, Gossifleur, and Exeggutor ended up being a perfectly good team to take on the tomboyish mermaid with.

Now, he was making his way through Vermillion Forest, heading back to his hometown and the site of many incredible memories from the past year for his 3rd gym badge. Cinderace was walking beside him, absent-mindedly kicking little pebbles that he found along the road.

"Do you know the best thing about Vermillion City, Cinderace?"

"Cinder?"

"We don't have to sleep in the Pokémon centre," Goh replied with a grin.

Goh thought about seeing Chloe. After him and Ash left on their journeys, she had decided to take their role as her father's research aide, travelling to different regions to investigate occurances that the professor had deemed noteworthy. It was quite the character evolution for her: for years, one of the things they treated completely differently were their relationship to Pokémon, Chloe wanted nothing to do with them. Since him and Ash started at Cerisse Laboratories, though, and occasionally brought her along on their travels, she had warmed up to the concept of being a trainer much more.

In truth, this may be the first time Goh and Chloe have been separated for this long and by this much distance. The two were on their own paths now, each working towards their goals.

Cinderace kicked a stone, and it collided with another. Goh's eyes idly followed its course, unfocused on what he was actually seeing, until a small glint caught his attention. Pausing for a moment, he knelt down to investigate the glimmer.

Cinderace's little rock had dislodged a slightly bigger pebble, about the size of a marble, and the force of the impact had knocked off just enough dust for the real nature of this stone to shine through. Goh studied it, finding it to not be a pebble but a small gemstone. He looked up to Cinderace. "Do you think it's a mega stone?" He dusted it off some more, but found no helix pattern signature of one. It was bright red, slightly hot to the touch. "Woah... I've never seen anything like this before."

"Cinder..."

"Wanna try it?" Goh asked his Pokémon. Cinderace nodded, being handed the crystal. He felt the raw energy coming out of it, feeling a bit empowered. Testing his intuition, he kicked up a nearby pebble and used Pyro Ball, aiming it to the ground to prevent any wildfires. "Did that look a bit bigger than normal to you?"