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

Chapter 15

Five days after Furi had evolved, Red and his group of Pokemon were still in Viridian Forest somehow. The forest seemed to never end, with each group of trees being followed by yet another group of trees. He certainly hadn't expected the beginning of his journey to be so tedious, but here they were, surely ages away from Pewter City. It was probably due to all the stops they had taken that had greatly extended the length of the trip. Riza and Piyo didn't seem to think this was quite as boring as Red did and were enjoying all the travelling and battling. However, Furi had been spending much more time in his Pokeball, since it was harder for him to move now. It made Red feel kind of bad for keeping the Pokemon cooped up, so he'd been letting him out whenever they stopped for anything.

Every once in awhile, they heard the sound of people shouting or crashing through the forest. It was really strange. Once, they'd gotten close to whoever it was making all the noise just to see what it was, and they had seen Team Rocket grunts. Ever since, they'd been sticking close to the path. Team Rocket was nothing but trouble, especially with everything that had happened in Viridian City. Red still wondered once in awhile who that girl with the Bulbasaur was.

"I wonder how close we are," Red muttered, pulling out his Pokegear, since his paper map wouldn't be quite as useful in the middle of a forest where everything looked the same. He had to keep an eye on the battery indicator because he didn't have an Electric-type to charge it. Thankfully, there was at least enough power to check their location. "Looks like we're almost there." he zoomed in on the map, seeing a little dot labelled as the adoption center far away from the little dot that was him. It was kind of funny, seeing how far away from the path the adoption center was. The good news was that there was a lot more distance between Red and the adoption center than there was between the adoption center and the edge of the forest. It meant they were actually making some progress. He'd been beginning to doubt that they'd ever make it out. After he put his Pokegear back away, he looked up to see that neither of his Pokemon were paying attention.

"Good to know that I'm talking to myself," Red grinned at the ridiculousness of that. That was the first time he'd really smiled all day, with the long road they had to walk taking a toll on his energy. He'd gone from a normal life living with his mom and only having to worry about himself to constantly being on his feet with three Pokemon to look after.

Once again, the bustle of several people could be heard. It was a lot closer to the path than the other times he'd noticed it, and it almost sounded like the group was searching for something. Not that it would be easy to find much of anything making all that noise. Soon enough, the people were visible, a small group of fairly obvious Team Rocket grunts with bright red R's plastered all over their uniforms. Red tensed as they got close. His last encounter with Team Rocket hadn't been a positive one, so he didn't expect this to go any better.

"Hey you, kid," one of them called out, a man with a severe look and dark purple hair poking out from underneath his hat. There were five of them in total, seeming to intentionally make as much noise as possible as they moved through the forest before stopping at the path. Three of them spread out slightly, wearing the usual black grunt uniform, while the other two stayed within speaking distance of Red. Like the two with the talking Meowth he'd met in Viridian City, these two were wearing white uniforms, including the severe looking man and another one who looked a bit younger.

"Um... hi?" Red wasn't sure how to respond, but he did know that he didn't want Team Rocket anywhere near his Pokemon. Briefly, he let out a sheer whistle to call Piyo and Riza back to him. Having them roaming right now just made him nervous. Team Rocket was well known for their propensity to steal Pokemon after all. Feeling the weight of Riza climbing up onto his shoulder made Red feel slightly better, and he could see that Piyo had chosen to land in the branches of a tree that was just to the right. All three of his Pokemon were accounted for, but sadly that didn't chase away all of the nervousness that plagued him.