Journeys: Red, Green and Blue//ON HOLD//

Chapter 3

Red smiled as he walked along route one. It was a beautiful place, and most of the Pokemon were fairly easy to beat, especially compared to their first battle with Green and Zeni. That is, except when they Pokemon tried to gang up on them. Riza had nearly been defeated when a whole group of Pidgey had swarmed the two of them after they'd accidentally stumbled off of the route and into some nesting grounds. Luckily, Riza had just been healed, and she even learned Ember while trying to figure out how to hit more than one Pokemon at once.

"You ok now?" Red asked the small lizard Pokemon. Red had fixed her up with some potions, but what they really needed at that moment was a trip to the Pokemon Center. It was too bad that Viridian City was still more than a day's walk away.

Riza gave a nod of confirmation from where she was once again perched on Red's shoulder. Red had decided to leave her out of her Pokeball for the walk to Viridian City just due to the sheer number of wild Pokemon encounters they had. It became easy to quickly gain a lot of experience, but it did become rather repetitive after awhile, fighting the same Pokemon over and over again. Red had already caught a Pidgey, a Rattata, a Caterpie and a Wheedle for Professor Oak. Red had locked their Pokeballs just in case he caught too many. Trainers were only allowed to have six available Pokemon with them at a time. By this point, Red was kind of sick of those sorts of Pokemon and didn't want to add any of them to his personal team.

He continued to walk along the route. The ground seemed to be equal parts tall grass and dirt path, but it was all uneven, and there was no telling how big some of the grass patches were. Despite his temporary dislike of the Pokemon in the area, Red made it a point to walk in the tall grass as much as he could, at least when Riza was up for battles. The little Charmander was nearly as aggressive as the wild Pokemon they met. Oftentimes, the grass wasn't even an option. It covered across whole areas, and Red didn't want to try and find his way around them, lest he get lost outside of the route. A few minutes of walking later the two of them came up on another patch of grass. This time, they ran into the first human they'd seen since they left Pallet Town. Literally ran into him. The kid had been crouched down in the tall grass where Red couldn't see him, so Red ended up tripping over him.

"Oops. I'm so sorry about that," Red said, pushing himself back up. Riza was standing next to him, having bailed from her position on his shoulder when he'd fallen.

"Oh, hey, that's ok. You couldn't see me. Easy mistake," the other kid stood up. "I'm Joey."

"My name is Red. Hey, I haven't seen anyone else all day other than wild Pokemon. You up for a battle?" Red asked. It would be refreshing to fight a trained Pokemon rather than a wild one. Joey seemed to be a bit older than Red but not by so much that he would be far outside of Red's skill level.

"Sure, that would be fun," Joey pulled out a Pokeball as Riza jumped between them, accentuating a battle stance with a growl. He tossed the ball, revealing a Rattata.

"Alright then, Dragon Dance, Riza," Red immediately called out. Beginning battles with that particular move had become habit, as Riza's heightened speed made it harder for enemies to hit her.

"Ratters, use Tackle!" the youngster said as soon as the green and blue flame cleared from around Riza. She was caught unprepared coming out of a move and took the Tackle full force. Red made a mental note to train her to be more prepared for things like that. After the Tackle, though, Ratters didn't land a single hit. Riza was more than fast enough to handle herself. It took a few Embers to whittle the Rattata's hit points down completely, as Ember wasn't a move that got powered up by Dragon Dance. Red only used it because he thought a more long ranged strategy would work better. Soon enough, the battle was over, with Riza the victor.

"Good job Riza!" Red called, letting the small lizard crawl back up his arm and onto his shoulder.

"Dang it. I was sure I'd found someone I could beat. You just have that new trainer look about you. Guess that's what I get for being a casual trainer," Joey grinned, pulling some money out of his pocket and handing it to Red. "Here's your winnings."