We all met in the lobby of the Pokemon Center the next morning, achy and dehydrated from our night on the town. Amy and Hana both had heavy bags under their eyes, and the former was drifting in and out of sleep as they leaned into Hana's shoulder. Even I was sore in my hips and lower back from the amount of dancing we'd done.

The only one who looked chipper was Yuji. He stood by the reception desk, carrying both his own and Amy's bags as he checked us out of the Center. "Thank you for everything, Nurse Joy," he said, voice full of energy. "It's truly been an honor to stay with you."

Nurse Joy giggled. "There's no need for that Mr. Amano. We were happy to have the four of you for your stay." She handed him back his trainer card. "I hope you have a safe trip through the forest."

Yuji smiled and thanked her.

Ugh, jerk. I thought, groaning as my sore back complained under the weight of my bag. Of course he looks fine after a long night with basically no sleep. Dude doesn't even look sore.

I glanced over at Hana, and she met my eyes. We nodded to each other and mutually agreed on what we'd do next.

We both slid our packs off our shoulders and dropped them into Yuji's hands.

"Bye, Nurse Joy!" I waved as we walked out the door.

"We'll see you when we come back through!" Hana guided a sleepy Amy behind her.

Yuji didn't even question our decision. Instead, he gave an exasperated sigh and shouldered all four of our bags.

Together, the four of us headed out of the Pokemon Center and, eventually, out of Viridian City. Route 02 gradually split off from the main roads and headed among the tall fields towards the distant dark shapes that made up the Viridian Forest. Even though we could see the forest itself, Route 02 was deceptively long and could take two whole days of walking to even get to the forest.

We didn't leave Yuji holding the burden of our bags. As soon as we made it to the actual route, we each shouldered our supplies and got into a loose walking formation. Even though I knew very little about the Kanto region, I was placed in front because I had a Pokenav+. Its consistent signal and library of maps made It invaluable to have on loose routes like this one. Hana followed behind me as a secondary navigator with an eye for the route guideposts, followed by Amy and then Yuji.

Walking with my friends had a completely different vibe than traveling alone. On Route 01, I'd just been me, joined for a few stretches by Artis. I'd mostly just been quietly walking along the trails with an earbud in, listening to podcasts, and watching the countryside go by. Honestly, it had been a glorified nature walk.

With the others, we just talked. We talked about little things, meaningless things. We commented on things we passed, we argued about music, and we cooed over the small Pokemon that crossed our path. It made the time pass so much faster than any amount of podcasts.

Eventually, Hana steered the discussion toward things that were important for us to know about the Viridian Forest. Even though the others all knew much more about the route, it was important to remember that we were all still green trainers. None of the others had ever gone through anything like the forest.

"Remember, we don't want to run into anything bigger than a Weedle," Hana explained, reading off of her notes. "Beedrill are the biggest source of injuries on the route, but there are also other native species, like Pidgeot and Ariados that have caused their fair share of trainer incidents. There are also invasive species like Roserade and Carnivine that have been spotted in the forest, so we should keep our eyes up when we're walking. There have been no recent sightings of Team Rocket in the area, so we should be-"

"Wait," I frowned and looked up from my Pokedex, where I'd been searching through all of the Pokemon that Hana had named. "What the hell is Team Rocket?"

I heard all three of the others stop behind me. I turned and they had all gone pale and were staring at me in a mix of surprise and confusion.

Well, now I feel dumb.

Amy spoke up first. "Oh, Derek... ...you really don't know anything about Kanto."

I gave them a flat look. "I feel like I've stated this multiple times."

Yuji opened his mouth the speak and then reconsidered. He tried again, this time saying, "Team Rocket are villains, criminals who steal others' Pokemon and make a profit off of selling them to the highest bidder. They're a full organization that can be traced back to just about every crime under the sun."

"Oh, so they're like gangsters?"

Hana frowned. "Do you not have anything like that in Hoenn?"

I shook my head. "We had some crazy eco-terrorists a couple of years ago, but nothing like what you're talking about. Are they normally a problem for low-rank trainers?"

Hana nodded. "They mostly prey on inexperienced and weak trainers, taking them as easy targets to steal their Pokemon. Once you have a bit of notoriety, they tend to leave you alone unless you cause trouble for them."

I grinned. "Then I guess we better get to earning some badges!"

The others gave polite laughs, but I could see the talk about Team Rocket had made them nervous. Whatever the deal with these criminals was, they had impacted the lives of people who were just living in the region. From what I'd figured out, all of my friends came from very different parts of Kanto, and they'd all had equal reactions to the organization.

Team Rocket was bad news, and I hoped we'd never have to interact with them.

----------------------------------------

We made it through both days of Route 02 with very few interesting interactions. We passed some Pokemon that were on the weaker side every once in a while, but none of the others seemed interested in catching anything anytime soon. They'd done what every new trainer did when they first started training to be a champion and planned out every prospective Pokemon for their individual teams. Apparently, Hana and Yuji both had eyes out for Pokemon that existed in the Viridian Forest, but neither would elaborate when I asked.

I personally didn't have any idea what Pokemon I would add to the roster for my team. Back when I'd been in Lilycove, I'd always imagined a team of powerhouses led by a Flygon or a Walrein, and with Artis I was halfway there, but I really had no idea what else could be found in this region. Ideally, I'd eventually like to have a team that was balanced both in types and roles, instead of specializing in a single strategy or type. Artis would eventually play the role of my tanky defensive wall, so my next Pokemon should probably be something that could physically deal a lot of damage to balance him out.

We did end up passing a few Pokemon that I hadn't seen before, and I recorded both the male variant of Nidoran and the blue pinecone, Pineco, into my Pokedex. While I had turned down Professor Oak's request to capture a Pokemon of every species, it still made sense to document what I could when I saw them. Neither of them struck me as Pokemon that I was very interested in. Nidoking had been tempting, but there were so many other ground types that I wanted to keep my options open.

As we walked, the others started covering my knowledge of the Kanto region. Having three trainers who'd lived here their entire lives was unsurprisingly very helpful in getting me up to speed on this region's League.

"And which city's Gym is specialized in Grass-type Pokemon?" Hana asked, testing what we'd been going over.

"Uh, Cerulean- no, wait, that one's water type." I racked my brain as we walked. "It's the other 'C' one, uh, Celadon!"

Amy giggled but didn't speak up. I could hear Hana's smile, though, as she said, "Correct. And which Gym leader is known for being very aggressive and attack-heavy in their fights? Bonus points if you can name their type specialization."

"Lieutenant Surge, with an electric type Gym!" I smiled in self-satisfaction. Of course, I was going to remember which Gym Leaders were the most passionate fighters. It was just one of those things my brain had an easy time remembering.

"Very good!" Hana directed her next question to the other two. "He's got the basics on the gyms down, what should we go over next?"

Yuji quietly spoke up. "Perhaps Derek may want to know about some of the Pokemon from this region. Derek, will you require assistance in finding Pokemon to add to your team?"

"Sure, I guess." I thought about what I'd aim for next, but instead decided to aim a little higher. "Are there any good dragons in this region?"

Amy let out a sad sigh. "Kanto has two native dragons, and one isn't even a dragon until its final stage."

"Dragonite and Kingdra," Hana explained when I shot her a questioning look.

For once, I actually recognized both of the Pokemon being talked about. Horsea, Kingra's first stage, was also native to Hoenn, and it was a fairly uncommon but well-known water type. Kingra's power had been shown off multiple times in the Ever Grande Conference, using a combination of Rain Dance, Dragon Dance, and Swift Swim it made itself untouchably fast. Honestly, it would have made an amazing team member, but with Artis already covering my water type slot, I wasn't in a rush to jump into another.

Dragonite was a completely different story. Everyone knew about Dragonite. The orange dragon was a monster on the battlefield, and at the top of its class when it came to physical fighting. Both of Kanto's most recent champions, Professor Oak and Lance, and Drake of Hoenn's Elite Four had tamed Dragonites and turned them into some of the strongest Pokemon around. It would make an amazing hitter and definitely carry any team to victory. Even though its pre-evolutions were rare, if someone had enough money they could commission an egg from some of the more exclusive breeding houses.

All of that didn't really matter, though. I was a zero-badge trainer with one Pokemon on my belt. Dragons were notoriously strong-willed and hard to train. In order to tame one, it had to respect or fear its trainer. Ideally, I would want it to trust and respect me, but I definitely couldn't make one fear me at my current strength.

"It is kind of weird that you guys only have two," I mused. "Especially when one of them is so rare. In Hoenn, I can think of at least three or four that are available to most trainers on the routes."

"Yeah," Amy grumbled. "Most people who want a dragon type here have to import them from other regions, or we just kinda don't have 'em."

We fell into a healthy silence as we walked. We were in the final hours of day two, and the setting sun illuminated the dense forest further down the route.

The Viridian Forest was magnificent. The route outside of Liliycove was also supposed to be a forest but it was full of short trees and dense bushes, the constant humidity making it more similar to a jungle. This was nothing like that. The Viridian Forest had tall trees that stretch high into the sky, easily two to three-hundred feet tall. The thick trunks of the trees were evenly spaced about a dozen feet from each other, creating natural archways of branches and walkways between the low bushes. Because of the spacing of the trees, you could see deep into the forest where the canopy absorbed all of the light of the sunset, leaving a deep and solemn darkness.

It made me feel small.

We camped a few hundred feet from the treeline that night. We could have traveled for another hour or so, but none of us were eager to sleep in the dark forest more than we had to. We'd fallen into a habit of setting up our tents with the entrances facing each other at night, leaving a small space for us to talk or sit between the tents. The other three had a larger tent that they all slept in, and I had my single that I didn't normally feel the need to pull out. This close to the forest, though, there was no way I was sleeping exposed to the elements.

Once we'd served ourselves dinner from our ration packs, Hana started running through the guidelines for traveling through the Viridian Forest.

"Just like the other routes, there's going to be guideposts every half-mile to make sure we're staying on the path," she said. "However, about eight miles in, they're going to change from yellow to red, which signifies that we should move as carefully and quietly as possible until they turn back."

I nodded, and Yuji and Amy both gave sounds of understanding. From what they'd told me before, Viridian Forest was home to some nasty bug and grass types that could get really aggressive. The more accessible parts of the route often only had first-stage Pokemon, but once we hit the red markers, we were open season for the big ones.

The Viridian Forest Trail was about seventy-five miles long and would take us about nine days to complete because of the slow pace in the middle. Battling outside of emergencies was a definite no-go, as it was almost certainly going to alert the more aggressive Pokemon in the forest. Given that the majority of the trail would be in the 'quiet zone', we'd have almost a week of no training and minimal talking. The rest of Route 02 was on the other side of the forest, which would take another two days to complete, setting us up for an expected eleven days of travel until Petwer.

"I resupplied our pecha berries and antidotes in Viridian," Hana continued, "but we only have enough to cure five to ten cases of poisoning, depending on the severity. I also bought some paralyze heals and awakenings, but I'm hoping that we won't run into anything with those capabilities. We also won't have signal in the forest, outside of the Pokenav+'s positioning system, so I'm going to leave a notification with the Rangers tomorrow morning that we're headed into the forest tomorrow morning."

Amy threw a lazy hand in the air. "And what were the jobs you picked up for the forest?"

Hana pulled out her phone and scrolled as she talked. "I only signed us up for two, because I know expediency is a goal for this trip." She smiled as I threw her a grateful look. "We're supposed to be catching a strong bug or grass type for a trainer in Lavender Town, and someone in Pewter is willing to pay us for any rare or exotic mushrooms that we come across."

That all sounded reasonable. Both jobs were passive ones that required minimal additional effort on our part. Hopefully, we'd come across a sleeping Roselia or something similar that could be taken out by a Powder Snow.

I blanched as I thought about all of the other potential Pokemon we could run into.

I raised a hand. "What Pokemon are we going to have out while we travel?"

Hana gestured to Yuji to answer. He nodded and spoke up. "Despereaux is the only one of our Pokemon that can actually keep up with our hiking speed for the yellow zones, so he'll be out for the first and last days." He turned to Amy. "In the red zones, I was hoping that I could carry Pennywise because he wouldn't be as much of a burden on my shoulder."

Amy nodded. "Yeah, as long as he's okay with it. His Barriers will help if we run into trouble."

"He also won't be the only one out. I'll have Paige on my pack in case we have to run away from something big. Her Powder Barrage should be able to slow it down," Hana said.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

I felt a little guilty as I realized the only Pokemon that wouldn't be contributing was Artis. He was too slow to keep up with us as we walked, and he was far too heavy to be carried. I could pick him up every once in a while, but forty kilos was too much to move with any amount of speed.

"And I can take shifts to carry any of the Pokemon, or the bags of the people carrying the Pokemon so that we can distribute some of the weight," I said, not wanting to not contribute.

Yuji made to say something, but Amy put a hand on his arm. "Sure, Derek! I'm sure Pennywise would like to hang out with you," they said.

I nodded, and Yuji gave me a look. I couldn't read it exactly, but as best I could tell he didn't want me to have to pull any extra work. He very obviously only made plans that put burdens on himself, but that didn't work for me. If was going to be a part of this group, I was going to earn it.

As I zipped up my tent and laid down for the night, I pulled out my Pokedex. There was no harm in starting to try to plan out some of my team, after all.

Especially not if it would let me help my friends.

----------------------------------------

The next morning we woke up before dawn. We wanted as much time with the sun as possible before nightfall in the forest.

We packed up camp and up tout our fire, falling into a different hiking order than normal. I handed my Pokenav+ over to Hana, who would be taking the lead. Without a phone signal to provide data, it was basically just a GPS anyway, and she'd promised to take good care of it. Behind her was me, and then Amy, and then Yuji bringing up the rear with his partner, Despereaux.

I hadn't interacted too much with the Rattata, but he seemed to have a good head on his shoulders. The purple Pokemon always listened diligently to Yuji's every command and would carry them out to the best of his ability. Despereaux had none of the timidness that I'd seen of the other Rattata on the routes, and you could tell he was a fighter just by looking at him.

As we passed under the canopy, the cold temperatures of the morning dipped by another few degrees. The cool air of the forest was humid and earthy, and the light breeze raised the hair on the pack of my neck. This place was old, and it knew it. The thick undergrowth was ever so slightly thinner along the trail markers, but the resilient root system made the trail just as perilous as the bushes surrounding it.

We didn't really speak when walking through the forest. We didn't technically have to be quiet yet, but there was something so oppressive about the darkness that made us all hesitant to talk. Even under what should have been a rising sun, the branches of the trees never betrayed that it was anything other than night.

Without my Pokenav+ or the sun, I had no way to gauge how long we walked. There was no point of reference in the woods, only the next tree, the next bush, and the next trail marker. Occasionally we would hear rustling in the woods, and we would all stop and hold our breaths. Minutes would pass, but when nothing jumped from the bushes to attack us we continued on.

After several hours of walking, Hana pulled us off of the trail to stop for lunch. We sat among the roots of the trees, eating our protein bars in relative silence.

Amy yelped, standing up quickly from their spot at the base of the tree.

All three of us turned, and my hand shot down to Artis' Pokeball.

My shoulders relaxed, however, when I saw the Pokemon that had caused their outburst. Attached to the tree by its sticky little red feet was a bulbous beige worm, about a third of a meter long. Its bright white stinger on its head and proud red nose identified it as a Weedle.

Hana let out a nervous laugh, and I let go of the breath I was holding. Yuji sighed and gave an order for Despereaux to keep an eye on the Pokemon.

Amy flushed. "Sorry about that," they muttered under their breath. "I just heard something behind me."

Yuji put their arm over Amy and pulled them into a hug. "It's fine, I think that we're all a little on edge."

Hana and I joined the group hug, showing solidarity, but that didn't stop of from hearing Amy mutter "coulda been a Scyther" under their breath.

We all laughed.

----------------------------------------

It was mid-afternoon when we hit the first red marker. It signaled that we'd made it eight miles into the forest (making great time) and that it was time to be cautious as we walked. Yuji returned Despereaux and Amy and Hana brought out their Pokemon. I took Yuji's pack as he carried the Mime Jr.

Our pace slowed considerably, and the nervous energy that we'd had at lunch was only amplified by our increased silence. We made it less than an hour into the red zone before we had our first incident.

As we walked, I heard a cracking of branches and twigs behind us, and my head whipped around.

Yuji had heard it too, and he shouted a warning. "Get down!"

Crash!

The bushes behind Yuji exploded as a shiny black carapace burst out from the undergrowth.

The creature had a single massive horn and two clawed arms. It stood at a meter and a half in height, and its yellow eyes were alight in rage.

Shit. I thought as I recognized the bug from the list of dangerous Pokemon that Hana had made.

We'd run into a Heracross.

As the fighting bug rampaged across the trail, though, I realized that it wasn't angry at us.

"Pinsir!" Screamed an unfamiliar Pokemon voice from the other side of the trail.

An identically sized brown bug type sprinted towards the Heracross, snapping two massive pincers on the top of its head that clacked menacingly.

The two Pokemon collided, and the trees around us shook. The Heracross got both of its arms around Pinsir and lifted it off the ground. The Pinsir struggled and lashed out at Heracross, battering it with its hands and slashing for any carapace that it could reach. The Heracross slammed the Pinsir into a tree beside it, cracking the wood, but the Pinsir shrugged it off like it had been a light breeze. The Pokemon returned its hit by slamming its arm against the Heracross' chest, leaving a crack in its carapace.

This was nothing like a trainer battle. This was brutal.

Hana's hand landed on my shoulder, and I whipped around. She was scared. "We need to go!" She yelled as quietly as she could. Amy was clutching her arm, and even from here, I could see their knees visibly shaking.

I nodded and made to take off down the trail when I realized we'd left someone behind.

Yuji was standing at the edge of the clearing, eyes transfixed on the fight. Pennywise the Mime Jr. was hanging on to his back, seemingly forgotten as he struggled to hold on.

I ran to him, startling him out of his trance. "Hana says it's time to go," I said, trying to keep the panic out of my voice.

The Pinsir escaped the grip of the Heracross and brandished its pincers, wrapping them around the torso of the Pokemon and slamming it into the same tree. The wood crackled and groaned under the strain.

"But..." Yuji looked at me, then back at the fight. There was determination in his eyes. He winced as Pinsir slammed Heracross into the tree again.

I realized what was going on.

Heracross was the Pokemon he'd been hoping to catch in the Viridian Forest.

On the fucking legends, I swore.

"Alright, fine!" I yelled. "Stay away from the fight for now, let me make sure the others are safe!"

I snatched Pennywise off of Yuji's back before he fell off and ran back to Hana and Amy. They'd taken refuge behind a fallen log while they waited for us, and Paige stood guard diligently between her trainer and the battle. Amy was pale and shaking.

Hana's eyes widened in distress as I returned without Yuji. I put Pennywise into Amy's arms before explaining what happened. "Yuji wants to catch the Heracross, he's on standby watching the fight."

Hana put her head in her hands and inhaled, taking a deep and shaky breath. She collected herself and looked up at me. "I need to be out there," Hana stated. Her eyes still showed how scared she was, but her expression was controlled. "Paige is the best shot at weakening it enough to be caught."

I nodded and help haul her to her feet. Amy held Pennywise tight to their chest, but also stood with us. Neither Hana nor I said anything to stop them. They were just as good a battler as the rest of us.

I released Artis, who immediately understood the situation from the rampaging of the two bug types. He rolled in front of me, and I could see the cold mist already gathering from his mouth. He was ready for a fight.

The Heracross had retaliated against the Pinsir, planting both of his feet against the ground and leveraging the Pinsir into the air. The brown bug still held onto Heracross by its Vice Grip attack from its pincers, but Heracross was able to move without being impeded too much.

Heracross leaned its head backward, before bringing its horn down like a battleaxe onto Pinsir's side. A crack resounded through the air and Heracross did its first real damage to the Pinsir.

Yuji had done what I'd asked and stayed away from the fight. Despereaux was out now though, and the two of them looked determined to intervene.

Hana ran up to him and said something, but I couldn't hear over the persistent sounds of carapace impacting carapace. He nodded back at us and pointed at the tree behind the two fighters, the one that had taken multiple hits from their duel.

I nodded in understanding. Hana crept around the edge of the fight with Paige, positioning themselves to have the Pokemon directly between themselves and the tree. Amy caught on to what was happening and whispered to Pennywise. Within moments, there was a thin transparent barrier of light in front of each of us, though I could see the tiny psychic type struggling to hold that many barriers at once. We'd need to do this soon.

Yuji and I sprinted past the two Pokemon, finding our way behind the towering trunk of the tree. We looked at each of the others, and we all nodded in agreement.

There was a small pause as Pinsir gained the upper hand in the fight again, crunching down with its Vice Grip attack. In that moment, Hana, Yuji, and I all shouted our orders.

"Stun Spore!"

"Take Down!"

"Rollout!"

The cloud of yellow spores hit the two Pokemon first, and both had been too distracted to dodge. Pinsir and Heracross both stiffened as their muscles seized from the Stun Spore.

Neither Yuji nor I had aimed at the Pokemon. Artis and Despereaux slammed into the tree at the same time. With it already having cracked multiple times, the wood groaned under the sudden assault. Splinters of wood shattered outwards from the trunk, sending out a spray of deadly shrapnel that impacted against Pennywise's shields as the Mime Jr. struggled to keep them up. They held, and the tree precariously leaned forward.

The bugs couldn't move or even shout as the weight of the old tree came crashing down on them. A huge dust cloud went up as the tree impacted the ground, reverberating through our bones.

We waited, breath held.

The dust cleared, and both Pokemon lay there, fainted.

I looked around at the other trainers. We all were panting, out of breath. Achievement was clear on their faces, but we were all way too wired to cheer.

I pulled Yuji's bag off of my shoulder and handed it to him. He gave me a grateful look and pulled a Pokeball from it.

He stepped forward, tossing the Pokeball towards the Heracross. It disappeared in a flash of red light, and the Pokeball landed on the ground.

It rumbled once.

Twice.

Three times.

The Pokeball clicked, confirming the catch.

Yuji's face burst out into a grin, and he reclaimed his Pokeball and the new member of his team.

His face went slack as the Pinsir next to him moved. He jumped back and we all tensed again. Apparently, the falling tree hadn't fainted it completely, and it was just held back by both Paige's paralysis and the weight of the tree that had landed on it. Yuji looked at each of us, silently asking if any of us wanted to catch it.

Amy viscously shook their head, and I gave a thumbs down. As strong as that Pinsir had proven itself to be, it had also shown to be angry and vindictive, not traits that I wanted in my teammates.

Hana, however, pulled a Pokeball off her belt and chucked it at the Pinsir. It disappeared in a flash, and the tree collapsed further into the ground, filling the space the that the Pokemon had left.

Three of us looked at her as one, confusion clear on our faces.

Hana walked up to the ball, stored it in her bag, and wiped her hands on her shirt. "We needed a bug type for our job," she said in a shaky voice. "I'm positive that this counts."

I looked at my distressed friend for several seconds before I realized what she'd meant.

Our job.

She meant the job she'd picked up in Viridian, the one she'd grabbed because it was supposed to be an easy pick-up on our way through the forest.

The looks on the other's faces made it clear they'd also forgotten about it. It must've been the shock of what we'd just been through, or the sincere ridiculousness of the situation, but Hana broke into a grin as we all stood there in stunned silence. Her shoulders rocked as she laughed, though honestly it could be considered closer to crying.

It didn't take much for the three of us to join in. Just like when Amy had been scared earlier, we pulled into a group hug in the forest. I think we all just needed some human contact after that.

None of us had ever seen anything like that in person. I'd watched so many trainer battles that it was practically in my blood, but I had never realized just how brutal the wilds could be.

And this was day one in the red zone of the Viridian Forest.

----------------------------------------

We continued on for another hour even though we knew nightfall was coming soon. We wanted to get as far as possible from the sight of Heracross and Pinsir's duel, just in case any other Pokemon had heard it and came to inspect it.

We set up camp directly on the trail, trying to keep away from the dense foliage that could contain any number of Pokemon. We set up as large a bonfire as possible to keep the bug and grass types away and slept in shifts to keep it burning. While we watched it to make sure it didn't get out of hand, we weren't particularly worried with the sheer humidity of the forest.

I also completely forwent setting up my tent. It was the other's idea, but since we were sleeping in shifts there was enough room for the remaining three to share the tent. Whoever came in from the watch would wake up the next person and take their spot in the tent.

I ended up on the second shift after Yuji and before Hana. We all made the silent decision that we wouldn't be waking Amy for a shift. They were still pale and nonverbal by the time we bedded down, and it was clear that the fright of the battle had taken a lot out of them.

Sleep came way too easily after the events of the day. Not only had we gone through the whole ordeal with Heracross, but we'd also traveled twelve miles through dense forest. We still had six or seven whole days left in the red zone, depending on our progress. I had a dreamless nap before Yuji woke me for my watch. Once I vacated my spot, he wordlessly slumped into my spot, not even crawling into the bedroll before falling asleep.

Ultimately, nothing happened on my watch. I heard a few Pokemon fly high over our camp, and occasionally saw sets of eyes reflecting light in the darkness, but our fire did its job of keeping the Pokemon away. To pass the time more quickly, I started studying my Pokedex again.

I honestly couldn't thank Professor Oak enough for the high-tech encyclopedia. Besides my Pokenav+, it was probably the most important thing that I owned. I had caught myself up on the local Pokemon up through the rest of Route 02, including in the forest, and was now giving a look at what I'd be facing in the Pewter City Gym. The lines that I was supposed to be facing, Geodude and Onix, were both doubly weak to water type moves, so Artis would be able to sweep them as long as he didn't get hit. He was getting bulkier by the day, but he had a natural weakness to rock type moves.

My alarm went off before I expected it to, and I realized that it was well past midnight. I wasn't tired and debated not even waking Hana for her morning shift. I decided against it though and gave her shoulder a gentle nudge.

Her eyes popped open and she blinked sleep from her eyes. When she'd woken enough to recognize her surroundings, she gave me a grateful nod and started getting up. I leaned over and grabbed Yuji's collapsable percolator off of the fire, pouring Hana a cup of hours-old coffee. I didn't touch the stuff, but apparently the members of my group were all caffeine fiends.

Hana pulled her coat on and joined me on a log by the fire. She gratefully took the cup and sipped on it. We sat and listened to the crackling of the fire and the distant cries of Pokemon.

It was a few minutes before either of us spoke up. "How did you guys meet?" I asked, breaking the quiet.

"What?" Hana turned and furrowed her brow.

"You, Yuji, and Amy. How did you guys meet? From what I can tell you're all from different parts of Kanto."

Hana's expression soothed as she understood what I was asking. "Well, you're half right," She corrected. "Yuji and Amy are from Kanto. I'm technically from the Sevii islands."

That surprised me. I knew that Kanto had taken over the islands a few centuries ago as a southern colony, but other than that I didn't know very much about the islands. It was less surprising that Hana herself was from there, and more that I was meeting anyone from them at all. Parts of the islands were supposedly closer to Alola than Kanto, and it took a long time to get there from the mainland.

"We actually met online," Hana continued. "The Kanto forums are the most popular ones in the islands, given our connection to the Kanto region, and I met both of them in the beginner trainer forum."

"So you took a boat across the sea to travel the roads with two internet strangers?" I laughed. "Didn't your parents tell you not to talk to strangers?"

Hana laughed too. "It wasn't like that. On the islands, there aren't a whole lot of people in general, let alone around my age. Once I figured out I was old enough to get into the trainer forums, I disappeared into the internet. I spent a long time studying all of the strategies that trainers posted, learning as many secrets as I could. Eventually, I started posting my own hypothetical training strategies. Amy was the first person to comment on one of my posts."

"Oh yes, Amy, the beacon of positivity."

"Absolutely not! They trolled my post, leaving a huge paragraph about how I didn't understand how psychic types worked. And to their credit, I didn't. My post was completely wrong."

"And did Yuji set them straight?"

"Worse! Yuji was the moderator who locked my post when other people started dog-piling on it!" Hana was giggling so much at the memories that little tears started to bead in the corners of her eyes.

I laughed too. I could definitely imagine Yuji sitting with his back perfectly straight in front of a computer, telling off internet trolls and moderating forums.

"After Amy had to apologize or lose their account, we made up. We did a few championship watch parties for some of the Indigo Plateau last year, and Yuji and a few others joined us. We became fast friends after that. We did research, shared strategies, and trained. All of it was online. When it came time to figure out where I was going to start my journey, I could only afford a boat to Cinnabar. Amy and Yuji both flew to the island to take the boat to the mainland with me. We headed up from Pallet Town, past Route 01, and eventually made it to Viridian."

Hana looked up and smiled at me, a genuine friendly smile. "And then we met you, a hot-headed trainer who said he was going to 'make Giovanni bleed' with two days of training under his belt."

"To be fair," I said. "I'm just that good."

Hana nodded. "And, to be fair, you did it. A week after getting your first Pokemon, and starting the season several days later than everyone else, you went toe-to-toe with Giovanni's first badge Pokemon."

"And lost," I sighed.

"And almost won." Hana pulled out her Pokegear. "I don't know how much you're on the Kanto forums, but people noticed."

I frowned and looked down at the screen. She still had no signal, but she had tabbed a forum thread from a few days ago. It used the same photo that Daisy had sent me with her text, and it was titled 'Who is this guy? Did he almost BEAT Giovanni?' It had a couple of speculative comments about Artis, and there was some praise for Hana's idea to dig a ditch in the field, but most of the comments were about me. Some were calling out my outfit (for both good and bad reasons), some were commenting on how I kept my cool the whole fight, and a lot were speculating that I was going to do well this season. Someone had even posted that I was probably headed to Pewter next, and to keep an eye out for my challenge in a few weeks.

I was stunned. "I had no idea," I said dumbly as I handed Hana back her Pokegear.

"We should get you set up on the Kanto trainer forums." Hana grinned mischievously. "I happen to know a former moderator, maybe he can help you out."

We both laughed.

It was genuinely nice to spend time with my friend.

Even more so because we still had a week left in the red zone, and we knew the worst was yet to come.