Stepping outside into the bright midday sunlight, a thought struck Ben.

Pallet town is small.

Surrounded on all sides by an impressively dense forrest, it basically consisted of a grand total of three houses.

Three houses!

Three houses does not a town make! Sigh. Memory limitations maybe?

Ben recalled that the house to his left was his self proclaimed ‘rivals’ house and that the one in front of that was professor Oak’s. Aside from that, there was a little girl loitering by a small flower garden and another fat kid wondering about as well.

Should he go talk to them? He couldn’t remember if these side characters in the starting town were good for anything.

Just in case, Ben approached the little girl.

“Hey little girl, how’s it going?”

Basically the only thing the girl did was VERY enthusiastically tell him to read the sign post she was standing next to. The sign post in question, in turn, was telling him that he should press ‘start’ to open the ‘menu’.

Nevermind.

Ben then proceeded to ignore everything else and went straight to professor Oak’s house.

On the way he noticed a break in the forest for a river that basically lead right up to the edge of Pallet town. If he remembered correctly that was an additional route you could take after you got the swim HM or something like that. He was momentarily tempted to fuck the game over and just jump the small white picket fence next to the river and go where he shouldn’t be going.

Of course then Ben also realised that there were likely way too strong pokemon lurking that way. Guess we may as well do this legit.

Entering professor Oak’s residence, Ben was greeted with a large square room with a floor made of long stone tiles. The inside was filled with a wall of book shelves and a number of scientific contraptions.

There was a woman in a green dress and two men in lab coats mulling about. I could swear the two men looked like twins. Also in the middle of the far end of the room was my ‘rival’, with his gorgeous hair, standing around, looking very impatient.

There was however no professor Oak.

I decided to greet Gary.

“What? Oh it’s only Ben. Professor Oak is out.”

Rude! And yes I can see that, thanks for stating the obvious. If Oak wasn’t here, was I supposed to do something to trigger his arrival? Ben couldn’t quite remember the contents of the pokemon games anymore, it had been too long ago he had last played them.

Looking around he saw that one table held two pokedex’s and another held three pokeballs. I wonder what would happen if I tried to take one? Maybe the game would glitch out and a Mew would appear? Wouldn’t be unheard of.

Curiosity getting the better of him, he walked over to the desk with the pokeballs and reached out for the first one.

“Ah, sorry I’m late!” Professor Oak came stumbling in, his head still sporting some bed-hair.

“Gramps! I’m fed up with waiting!” Gary snarled at him.

Was this how you normally triggered the encounter with Oak? Oh well.

“Gary, let me think.” Oak paused. “Oh, that’s right, I told you to come! Just wait!”

Seriously?

“Here Ben, there are three pokemon here.” He indicated towards the table, chuckling.

“The pokemon are held inside these pokeballs.” Oak tapped his chin while staring into space, seemingly ruminating on the past. “When I was young I was a serious pokemon trainer. But now in my old age I have only these three left.”

Aren’t you a pokemon researcher slash scientist guy? Why would you only have these three left?

“You can have one. Go on, choose.”

Don’t mind if I do.

“Hey gramps, no fair! What about me?” Somewhere in the background there was a bratty child throwing a tantrum. Ben tuned him out.

“Be patient Gary, you can have on too.” Oak scolded him.

Ben sighed. The guy needs to be pulled across your knee Oak.

“Professor, which is which?”

“Ah sorry, the one on the left is Bulbasaur. The one in the middle is a Squirtle. And the one on the right is a Charmander.”

“I don’t suppose you have a pikachu stashed back there somewhere there?”

Oak just looked at Ben puzzled. “No, I don’t why would you think that.”

“No reason” Ben replied with just a hint of sulking.

So the first choice. I can’t remember what I chose last time I played. Judging by the choice present, this is either the classic red or blue game, or the newer fire red or leaf green. I think the classic game had this scene where you hear about your amazing pokemon trainer dad on TV right at the beginning. Although I could be wrong though. But in all likelihood, this is either fire red or leaf green.

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Concerning the starting choice, if memory serves me there are an awful lot of water pokemon as random opponents in the game, with entire routes dealing with just them. So not a fan of the fire pokemon idea. Or at least, I hope I’m remembering the right game here.

Also I remember the first gyms being rock or water, then electric. So for an easy start I could possibly go with a water pokemon, or a grass pokemon. Honestly I like that the grass pokemon can beat out all the water pokemon I’m expecting to encounter and I feel like it has way more types that it’s effective against.

Yep, I’ve decided.

“I’ll take the Bulbasaur”

After taking my Bulbasaur, Gary rushes over to the table. “I’ll take this one then.”

Of course he will! Take the fire pokemon just so that he can have an edge against me. Pussy.

I sighed. Seeing as how nothing else seemed like it was going to happen I made for the exit. I did not however get two steps before-

“Wait, Ben! Let’s check out our pokemon!” Gary shouted after me. “Come on, I’ll take you on!”

Of course you will! You have a fucking charmander you prick! It’s gonna roast my flower patch on paws, alive! Shit. If only I had realised what was going on back there in that dream inside a dream, when Oak asked me what Gary’s name was.

I missed a golden opportunity to give him the name of ‘prick’. I would have had the satisfaction watching everyone around him calling him a prick! How could I have missed that! This world is too cruel.

Gary approached me and then pushed the button on his pokeball, releasing Charmander.

“Wait, here? You wanna fight right here?”

Garry tilted his head in confusion, “Of course.”

I was about to object to Oak about all the expensive looking scientific equipment strewn about, when he simply gave me a thumbs up.

I give up.

Common sense does not apply in this place.

I released my Bulbasaur. Just then I realised another problem. How was I supposed to know my pokemon's stats, HP, abilities, etc.

I know I’m going to regret this but, “Professor Oak. How do I know which attacks my pokemon has?”

Oak looked at me contemplatively for a moment. “Just one second.” He then went to sift through a pile of what can only be called ‘junk’. He came back a moment later with a pair of shades. They weren’t exactly cool, but they weren’t bad looking either.

“Try these on.”

Putting them on, immediately could see a HUD showing information about my pokemon's abilities, stats, HP, as well as the HP of my opponents pokemon. Although for my opponent, I could only see his rough HP bar and pokemon level, not specific numbers. That is really cool. Also, kind of breaking the immersion of the game here, but oh well. If it works…

“Gramps, I also-”

As if anticipating Gary’s complaint, Oak had already pulled out a second pair and them to him, shutting him up immediately.

“Alright! Let’s do this!”

I sighed again.

Professor Oak rattled on a bunch of instructions about how pokemon battles worked, but I just tuned him out and instead strategized. My Bulbasaur was level 5 with 20hp and was just standing there focusing intently on the Charmander that was likely of a similar level.

Come to think of it this is actually really cool! I have a fucking pokemon in front of my about to duke it out! Sorry little guy, but I am going to work you to the bone!

That aside. My level 5 Bulbasaur only has tackle and growl, which was good news, as it meant that Gary’s Charmander probably didn’t have any flame abilities yet and since tackle and scratch and all that were normal attacks I didn’t yet have to deal with a type disadvantage.

If that’s the case then the only thing left to worry about was whether or not to use growl before I begin chipping away at his health with tackle. Problem is I can’t remember if the attack lowering effect of growl is any good or not.

I know that the attacks that lower accuracy are absolutely brutal, from my memory of the game and I also know there are superior alternatives to growl later on that do the same thing but better. All in all it I don’t remember it being overly useful, especially in small scale confrontations like this.

Given that both pokemons are the same level, and are all starter pokemon, their basic attacks will likely do the same amount of damage. Hopefully. I could open with a single growl and then switch to tackles after that. I shouldn’t lag too far behind in health that way and I can gauge how effective the difference between his attack without the boost is and my own one, and make a decision after that. Even if I don’t come on top, I can always dig into that healing potion, it should be able to fully heal my Bulbasaur. Of course I would rather not waste it right now.

Yep, seems like a good plan.

Oak had also finished his explanations. I braced myself, ready to-

Wait. What was I supposed to do here, how would this work exactly. There isn’t exactly an interface with options here. Maybe it's like the anime and I have to instruct my pokemon verbally?

Looking over at Gary, he also seemed poised and ready for action. But nothing further was happening.

Oh well. Here goes nothing. “Bulbasaur, growl!”

Gary immediately responded, “Scratch attack!”

Bulbasaur issued a deep throaty growl as Charmander dashed forward. I noticed a few beads of sweat formed on Charmandar’s forehead as he closed in on Bulbasaur. But more noticeably, my overlay clearly indicated that Charmandar’s attack rating had been lowered.

His scratch attack landed and left deep gashes across Bulbasaurs body. The overlay informing me that 3 damage had been done.

I followed up with “Tackle” and my opponent with “Scratch” once more. My tackle landed first, sending Charmander into a bookshelf and sending books flying. I cringed at the damage being done, hope I don’t have to pay for it.

Charmander was up in no time delivering his retaliatory scratch attack. I noticed that Bulbasar’s attack was indeed doing a bit more damage than Charmander’s attack, likely because of the early growl. But still, it wasn’t by much and anymore would probably be a waste. I wasn’t even sure the first growl was even worth it for such a short fight.

Charmander’s scratch brought my Bulbasaur down to 14 HP.

Another exchanged round of blows brought Bulbasaur's health down to 11.

Another and at 8 out of 20 HP, I noticed that Bulbasaur had more health than Charmander now, if just by a little. So that one growl was worth it. However I have a feeling such a short match could not warrant a second growl, as the opponent would likely gain too much of a head start on the HP. Maybe in longer engagements, will have to experiment with it a bit.

Another round of blows, this time sent some expensive looking equipment flying and brought Charmander down to his last bit of health.

One more blow finally finished him off. Charmander by this point was looking rather banged up. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but Charmander simply fell to the ground unconscious, even though his injuries should surely not have been enough for that. Guess this is the PG version.

Interestingly enough my attacks always landed first. I’m not sure if that is because I as the MC get the initiative, or because Balbasaur maybe has a higher ‘speed’.

Either way, Bulbasaur gained 69 exp points and grew to level 6. Yay!

“What, unbelievable! I picked the wrong pokemon!” The child stomped in frustration.

I just rolled my eyes and smirked. Suck it Gary!