"right, so where are we?" I reached into my backpack and pulled out my map for the 5th time in a row. It was nothing much, just your standard trainer map that you can buy off of the Department store for more than generous adult prices, buying it was made easier thanks to both of my parents. I twisted the map and released the lock of its red, cylinder-like container, and pulled it on both sides, revealing a semi-digital map of Johto with, thankfully, a built-in GPS.

I assume it was because of the red dot currently telling me where I am - on the border of Ilex Forest and a few kilometers to the Daycare on the north, - that the price of these things was so high. It must've been one hell of a cost for the people that gave these maps to the main characters back in the games.

And yet, they still do it.

"Grimer!" at his call, I looked at the place he was looking at and raised an eyebrow, my eyes moved over to his small frame,

"that's... a Paldean Wooper." I said and he nodded, followed by a soft call of his name, "fair enough, shadow sneak."

that Paldean wooper stood no chance against my more experienced Grimer and was promptly beaten, then eaten. And as Grimer happily munched on the pokemon, I sat on a nearby rock and continued staring at the Map. Johto... Johto was larger than I initially thought while using the games as Baseline. I knew that the place was a country but still...

I wiped my forehead, sighing when I saw that there was a message from a nearby ranger telling me to be careful. Because for all it was popular, the Pokemon league decided that it would be best if trainer maps were connected to the ranger database so that it would become easier for them to find anyone who got lost in the wild. They also thought it was necessary to make trainers register themselves using their trainer cards on the map's personal database for said trainers and without it, the map wouldn't even be able to get used at all.

"right, so, we're currently here..." I looked at the dot that indicated our place on the map, "Azalea town is only around a few more miles out so if we started walking faster, I think we can get there before the sun sets." my head tilted upwards and I looked at the afternoon sun, it was already more than halfway through the sky.

"Grime?" I frowned and nodded,

"yeah, you're gonna have to stay in the Pokeball bud," I replied, ignoring the slightly deflated posture of Grimer after I did. I waited for him to finish eating before sucking him back inside his Pokeball, from there, I continued my trek around the edges of Ilex Forest to reach Azalea town, a place, that, I hoped would let me catch a Zubat.

I looked over the horizon, imagining a purple bat flying up high and scouting any potential danger, "it should be fast enough to accompany me during these at least,"

I went down the hill and into the grasslands, where my hair proceeded to get messed up by the strong wind. I fixed it and opened my Map again, breathing in relief when I saw that I was now close to the town.

As I continued my fast-paced walk through the fields, I started looking around, just appreciating the scenery of the place whilst I contemplated the things that a Zubat can potentially do. I knew that my Grimer was technically special, with him knowing three egg moves meant for fighting, the guy was and is most likely bred for fighting.

Experiencing battles with him made me think that training a pokemon that wasn't like that would feel pretty weird and a major part of me told me to go back to the daycare lady and ask if they had any newly hatched poison types that were specifically bred for fighting like Grimer was. I ignored most of these feelings and continued on, from the experience of not wanting to go to school back in my old life, I knew the things I was feeling were more or less superficial and can be easily ignored but the nagging kept on biting the back of my mind until I climbed another hill whereupon a flock of spearrows attacked me,

I tried to run away as fast as I could, all the while my hands started moving to the Pokeball on my pocket as one of them took a dive-bomb for me, its beak already glowing whitish-blue.

I was able to release Grimer in front of me just in time and he managed to intercept the attack with a scary face that made the flying type slowly fly away the moment that we got close. I sighed in relief and watched as the flock circled above us, from my view, I managed to see that the sun was starting to set ever so slowly and my eyes went over to the wall of trees on right.

My head whirred with possibilities as I got conflicted on what to do, between the flock of Spearrows and the closed-off Ilex Forest, one, didn't sound better than the other. I looked at Grimer, then at the 10-ish spearrows flying in the sky, all of which are circling us with critical eyes.

If my pokemon faints here...

Grimer was sucked back into his Pokeball before he even knew what happened and I immediately bolted for the trees, at least there he can put up some semblance of a fight and I still have the three potions I packed in my bag for this small journey.

His Pokeball started to shake in my hand and I gripped it tighter, "if you fought them, you would have fainted before we even reached the 7th Spearrow, power-up punch and all." I said to my pokemon, "we have better chances if we dragged them inside Ilex Forest and play dirty."

The ball stopped shaking after my explanation and it was only when I was close to Ilex Forest that I felt something hit my back. I stumbled forwards but managed to grab a branch, I pulled myself up and continued on into the thicket of trees.

After about a few feet of walking, Grimer was released out of his Pokeball and the two of us looked around warily, the flock was gone but that didn't mean they weren't waiting. They can easily do guerilla tactics if they wanted and since the place is more trees than it's open areas, that means that they can easily wait us out.

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Unless, of course, we can faint every spearrow that gets in our way.

Once I saw that the area was clear, I patted Grimer on the head and he relaxed, his body slumping but still wary. I gestured for us to keep moving, "come on, we don't have all day." I said, pulling out my map before sighing, "of all the things..." I stopped my complaint halfway through as the map in my hand snapped shut. For all that it was advanced, the damn thing couldn't even keep track of anyone inside the forest, and instead, you become a small, red dot always situated at the center of the place.

And it does nothing other than notify the league that you are in fact, inside of - in this case, Ilex Forest, - the place that Dot is on.

I stored my map back inside my backpack and the non-euclidian knapsack gladly swallowed it up without any resistance, the map disappeared in its depths, my hand coming out of its mouth empty. After that, I pulled out the basic first aid kit that I bought along with a single potion, then, I looked at Grimer and nodded at him, "see how bad it is bud,"

The ball of sludge nodded and trodded behind me, seconds later, he called out his name in concern, "that bad huh?" another call of his name in affirmation made me wince, "you know, I've always wondered how in the living hell do you guys survive each other's attacks without fainting," I gestured for him to touch my back when I saw him reaching out to my wound, he gladly did so and I resisted the urge to wince when I felt sudden, burning pain clambering up my back. Then, just as quickly, it faded when my pokemon's poison took effect, acting as a disinfectant,

I wiped the beads of sweat forming on my forehead, "thank you bud," I got a call of his name in reply, "right, when it gets worse, you can use your little toxic crystals." that, made him look at me in concern and even if he was behind me, I could feel him shuffling in his spot, "it's, it's fine," I waved him off, remembering the words of the hiker that saved us in that tunnel, "I've been inhaling your poison gas left and right ever since we started battling and I think I have at least built up a bit of resistance for it,"

I saw him nod in the corner of my eye, "good," I handed him the bandage that I had ripped from the roll, he went over to me and held it out and I sprayed the white cloth with alcohol and anesthetic, "now then, help me wrap it around my back," he nodded and started by placing an end of the bandage on my now exposed abdomen, I held it in place as he started going around me.

It didn't take long for him to finish the job and I was soon wrapped up in bandages, "Grime?" my pokemon said and I nodded, he then went out of my range to pick up two sticks from the shade of a nearby tree, he handed one of them to me and I gave him another coil of bandages in return.

With these in hand, I pressed the stick on my back and Grimer started wrapping, once that was done, it was the other stick's turn and once again, it was wrapped around me. I stood up when it was done, sighing in relief when I felt the support of the sticks straightening up my sore back, the anesthetic would do wonders in helping with the numbness that would follow when my back is forced to be straight for hours on end; something that I would gladly keep up with if it means that I can recover fine.

My first aid now done, I took the blue potion and started spraying it on my pokemon, and almost immediately, his tired posture straightened and his body started to buff up, gaining mass nigh instantaneously the moment that the spray made contact with his blob-like skin. Puffing up, he walked forwards and I soon followed, we both continued moving.

The Spearrow flock that attacked us in the fields was nowhere to be seen and for the next 30 minutes or so where we kept walking, I constantly checked my pokewatch to make sure that me and Grimer were making up for the lost time that cost us to hide from the birds. It was only around 4:53 or so and we had plenty of time to walk the remaining miles to Azalea town.

Relief came over the two of us when we saw an opening and almost immediately, we ran towards the ray of light as fast as we can and-

"now! Ratata! Quick attack!

- walked into a fight between three Team Rocket Grunts against an old man with an axe on his hip.

The moment that we saw this, Grimer and I stopped going forwards and instead, hid under the bulk of the nearby trees to observe the situation; everything seemed stable for now, and the old man and his pokemon, a Charmeleon, were able to hold off all of their enemies - a Koffing, Zubat, and a Ratat, - just fine. The Charmeleon that hid inside his smokescreen didn't feel like he was harmed and the old man behind him looked like he wasn't tired at all.

Seeing that he was fine, I looked over the surroundings, or, as Dad would call it, the battlefield. According to him, it was essential to know what kind of place you will be fighting in if you're in the wilds and I completely agree with him in that regard, "let's see here, trees, a lot of them, a few bushes, shadows, apricot plants, and,-" I paused, "a shrine?" I said the last part a little bit louder than the last and I was sure that the Ratata fighting out there looked in my general direction.

I sucked in a deep breath, then I looked at Grimer, "alright bud, we're going to help," I said, keeping my eyes on the shrine, then at the three-team Rocket Grunts fighting the old man, one of them, the Koffing trainer, was clutching his head and it was only then that I noticed that the pressure of Ilex Forest couldn't be felt at all...

I've been ignoring it for so long that when it actually disappeared, I didn't even register it.

I frowned, making eye contact with Grimer, I gave my pokemon a nod, "alright, go ahead and take them down, shadow sneak." - he nodded and disappeared from his spot, turning into a pile of black ooze that melted into the ground.

Since I didn't give him a command on who to attack, it was completely up to him on who he wanted to attack and by his choice, he re-emerged from the Koffing's shadow and flew straight to the ball of gas, punching him at the bottom and distorting his ball of a body into one that had its side punted over,

Gas spewed out of the pokemon's mouth as its flight started to get disorientated from the impact. Before any of the grunts could react, I issued another command- "bite!" - then ran into another tree to make sure that my cover wasn't blown.

Grimer did as followed and his mouth turned black to the point that the white crystal made out of concentrated toxins that was his fang got obscured. He bit into the Koffing, striking the levitating pokemon down and dragging him to the ground as Grimer fell, I gave my pokemon another command, "pound!"

And so he did, striking the Koffing with a whitened fist that sent him tumbling before he once again took flight,

It was after 4 seconds of shock and my pokemon's third consecutive attack that everyone finally reacted, the old man started first; "Ember! Aim at the gas!"

And so, the chameleon followed his trainer's command and fire started to build up inside his throat, orange dyed his mouth as smoke started to billow out of his nose,

He fired, striking the gas in the air, making an explosion that was big enough to reach the Grimer on the ground,