A Pokemon Tale Part I: The Journey Begins

Chapter 22

Chapter 22

Road Block

The Outskirts of Cerulean City-

Red and Blue had spent the night at Bill's house, and they headed out the next morning. They had learned that the party on the St. Anne would take place in less than a week, so they had to be in a little bit of a hurry. They figured they'd walk back to Cerulean City on one day; the next day's journey would be straight south to Saffron City (where they would spend the next night); and the final trek would be south again to Vermillion City, leaving them a day or so to sight see.

"Can't we stop in Saffron so I can battle the Gym Leader, please?" asked Red.

"No!" said Blue. "I've always wanted to go on a cruise, and I'm not going to take any chances on missing the ship! Besides, after the cruise Vermillion City has a Gym you can challenge." Red didn't have the heart to try and win the argument, seeing how much Blue wanted to go on the cruise.

As they started up the hill that Cerulean sat on, they made for the Gym hoping that Misty would make accommodations for them. As they approached the Gym, they saw people pouring out of it, disappointed for some reason. Red figured that Misty had lost a battle, remembering how the people of Pewter City felt after he had defeated Brock.

They entered the large glass doors, and found Misty handing Green a Cascade Badge. Red thought after their last battle that he and Green had maybe found something in common, but his new Gym Badge inflated his ego once again.

"Hmph, smell ya later," is all he said as he walked out. Blue shot him a look of disgust. Misty decided to let them stay the night. Blue asked all about Poliwag to Misty, because she figured the Gym Leader was some sort of expert on Water-Pokémon.

"Well," she said. "Poliwag is kinda weak now (in comparison to the multitude of all the Pokémon in the world), but if you train it, it will evolve into Poliwhirl (who's great to have on a team). If you use the powers of a Water-stone on Poliwhirl, then you get Poliwrath. The last one's a force to be reckoned with for sure!" She showed them pictures, and the second stage looked like Poliwag but with arms and no tail, while Poliwrath looked just like Poliwhirl only angrier.

Suddenly, Misty's cell phone rang.

"Misty," she said. Her eyes grew large and angry. "You've got to be kidding me!" she slammed the phone down in anger, grabbed her Pokémon in their Poke-balls, and headed out the door. Red and Blue followed her for some reason.

"What's wrong?" asked Red.

"A Pokémon thief just stole someone's Pokémon," she replied. "Luckily, the thief is running blindly through the city, attracting a lot of attention so he won't be hard to spot." They walked outside the Gym and sure enough a man dressed in black with a red R on his shirt came running up. He saw the Gym Leader standing there and was afraid.

"OK, I'm sorry," he said as he threw the stolen Poke-ball away (its rightful trainer found it because he set a GPS on all his Poke-balls). "Can I go now?"