Despite the thrill of being on her own and starting her big adventure, Jenn took her time on the road; she wasn’t in any sort of rush. For the first time she felt free, and like she had some kind of direction or purpose. So she just savored those first few days with Bulbasaur in the wild along Route 01.
Along the way, Jenn did get up to some half-hearted “trainer shenanigans”; she tried and failed to capture a Pidgey, and later missed when she lobbed a Poke Ball at a Sandshrew. Okay, she was going to have to work on that part. However, she did manage to win a battle against a few wild Pokemon Bulbasaur seemed to enjoy battling; he was always in the best mood after a good scrap with a wild Rattata. She made a mental note of that. She also met a traveling salesman named Jeff who gave her a potion. Thanks, Jeff!
Early on her third day, she accidentally triggered a Tauros stampede. So, she saw a beautiful Butterfree flitting about in the sky overhead and followed it, which led to this whole thing, which ultimately led to a bunch of Tauros getting mad, and that led to an angry Beedrill swarm, and THAT led to the stampede. They nearly got run down, but Jenn and Bulbasaur managed to escape by leaping into a river. It was totally embarrassing...but also kind of exciting?
After five days, they finally arrived in Viridian City. It was her hometown, buit she didn’t plan on staying any longer than she had to. She avoided the east side or any place she knew her mom or Chuckie might be and went straight to the Pokemon Center. She’d heal up Bulbasaur, buy some supplies, rest, and leave first thing in the morning.
She did just that, healing Bulbasaur and spending her time in the Pokemon Center. She swung by the Silph Mart the next morning to pick up some medicines before hurrying northward out of town.
After leaving Viridian City, Jenn traveled along Route 02 toward the Viridian Forest. She was a woman on a mission, and that mission was to capture a Pikachu. It was common knowledge that Pikachu lived in the forest; sometimes they came down toward the city and chewed on power lines. They were pretty rare and she wasn't super sure how to actually find one, but Pikachu was her favorite Pokemon; if they were out there she'd try to find one.
She spent two days searching the outskirts of the forest for Pikachu, even trying to use PokeChow to lure one out but came up empty-handed. She wondered if they were just deeper in the forest. She was disappointed, but not deterred. Her supplies were dwindling, so she'd go to th enearby Rako Village to rest and stock up on supplies before setting out again. Maybe someone in the village knew where to find a Pikachu? According to her map, she could get to Rako Village by nightfall, or even before if she kept a good pace.
As she finished breakfast and started breaking down her campsite, she found a friendly Caterpie rummaging around her bag looking for food. Jenn giggles a bit at the chubby little catepillar, and grabbed a few berries to offer it.
"I think you'll like this more than anything I have in there." she said with a smile. The Caterpie seemed to agree, and she gently pet him while it ate. She quickly found herself attached to the Caterpie, and asked if she wanted to come with her. The Caterpie excit
edly began to dance, so Jenn captured him. Two Pokemon now. She was feeling more like a real Trainer every day!
She got to the village about the time she thought she would; around five in the evening. Rako Village was even smaller than Pallet Town, without so much as a main street. As Jenn walked down the narrow country road toward the Pokemon Center, she suddenly heard shouting and stopped in her tracks. It sounded like somebody was in trouble. Without stopping to think about it, Jenn followed the sounds until she arrived at a small riverside farmstead. There, she saw a group of thugs terrorizing an old man. A kid with a net charged at the thugs, but they knocked him over pretty easily and just started beating him up. There was only one other person there, a trainer with an Eevee, to stop the group. It didn't look good.
Driven by instinct, Jenn sprinted over to help the trainer out. She threw out Bulbasaur, who took a stance beside the trainer's Eevee. The trainer seemed a little surprised at her sudden appearance, but he wasn’t asking any questions. Working together, Bulbasaur and the Eevee defeated the goons in battle—but that wasn’t the end of the fight; even without any usable Pokemon they started shouting profanities and threatening them. One of them pulled out a whip and cracked it at Bulbasaur. Jenn cried out in surprise—she was shocked and horrified by the cruel act, and for a second she just froze from the shock.
The other trainer threw himself between the whip and Bulbasaur, taking two lashes that had been meant for Bulbasaur. Jenn blinked. Wha—? What was even happening right now? Right then, the old farmer had returned, this time wielding a pitchfork and screaming like a madman. The thugs were freaked out (rightly so), so they turned tail and ran.
The other trainer thanked Jenn for her intervention, introducing himself as Mige. The kid with the net was Ryan, a local bugcatcher. After introductions, the farmer thanked them for their help and made them some tea. Mige explained that he was there looking into reports of a brand new Pokemon for Professor Oak, which had been called in by the farmer they had helped. It turned out to only be a group of Marrill. Still, Mige caught one to bring back to the Professor, and the three of them made their way to the Pokemon Center.
On the way, Jenn thanked Mige for protecting Bulbasaur, commenting that she thought it was really brave of him to do that. Kind of reckless and a little dumb, maybe, but definitely really brave. In all seriousness, she wanted to repay him. Mige replied that there wasn't a need.
As their Pokemon were being healed, Jenn asked Mige where he was headed next. Mige replied that he needed to get back to Pallet Town to see Professor Oak. Despite having just come from there herself, Jenn offered to head back with him. She wanted to go into the forest, but she couldn't deny that a small part of her wanted to know more about the strange boy—he was certainly different from almost anybody else she’d ever met, and her curiosity was piqued.
Jenn and Mige began the walk back to Viridian City. Along the way, they found Rootin’ Rudy and his Rowdy Mareep. The young farmer and his Mareep traditionally fought starter trainers who came up from Pallet Town. Seeing her Bulbasaur, he assumed that Jenn was one of the starter trainers; he’d fought a starter with Charmander and a starter with Squirtle already, but he hadn’t seen Bulbasaur yet. Jenn tried to explain that she wasn’t a starter trainer, but all Rootin’ Rudy seemed to hear was that she had received her Bulbasaur from Professor Oak.
“But I’m not—I’m not one of the starters. I got him from Professor Oak, yeah, but I’m—”
“It’s good enough for me. Let’s rumble!”
They battled—with Jen losing pretty definitively. Thanks to Rudy and Mige’s advice, she’d end up learning an important lesson about bonding with Bulbasaur and using that bond to make them both stronger.
For his part, Mige seemed to be a natural with Pokemon; a real savant. He was quiet and reserved, but she could see the care and the passion he had for his Pokemon—as well as for Jenn’s Pokemon. He was an odd Ducklett, to be sure, but Jenn could tell that he was a good person.
Overall, they spent two days together walking from Rako Village to Viridian City and over that time Jenn came to appreciate having a friend like Mige on the road with her. He didn't exactly excel at idle conversation, but he listened to her prattle on. She was happy to have made a friend like him.
When they arrived in Viridian City, Jenn was pretty insistent that they not stay too long and hit “the olllll’ dusty trail”. Mige was an agreeable sort, so after a night at the Pokemon Center he left to buy some things from the Silph Mart before they left for Route 01.
Jenn and Bulbasaur were playing in the grass by the Pokemon Center waiting for Mige to return when she heard a voice that gave her a knot in her chest: her mother. Paula was furious about Jenn vanishing for over two months. Jenn rolled her eyes.
"I'm surprised you noticed." Jenn said. Paula's eyes narrowed.
"Where have you been?" she demaned. Jenn scoffed.
"Not that it's any of your business--"
"Not my--I'm *your mother*!"
"_NOT_ that it's any of your business, but I've been in Pallet Town! I got a job working for Professor Oak."
"Bullshit." Paula said, snorting a laugh, "You expect me to believe the greatest scientist in Kanto would hire _you_? Stop lying and tell me where you really were. You snuck off with some boy, didn't y--"
"I'm not lying!" Jenn snapped, "I've been in Pallet Town. Where do you think I got this PokeDex? Fucking Food Mart?"
"So why are you back here then, oh high and mighty Jennifer?” Paula asked derisively, “Let me guess: you got fired. Figures. I guess your little fantasy didn't last too long, did it?”
Jen glowered. “No. The Professor gave me a Pokemon and--”
“Wait, a Pokemon? You? That’s not even funny, Jennifer. Who in their right mind would entrust a Pokemon to you?”
“Professor Oak would apparently! That’s what I’ve been saying! H-he says that I have potential, and so now I’m going to…to travel and do some fieldw--”
Paula interrupted with a peal of laughter that she’d apparently been trying to hold in. She laughed right in Jenn’s face.
“Oh my god, that’s so funny!” she said, “You can barely do the dishes when I ask you to! How could anyone look at you or talk to you for more than five seconds and not realize how damn stupid and irresponsible and selfish you are? How did you pull that con off?”
“I didn’t—I’m not stupid...” Jenn replied with a scowl, but her confidence was faltering. She looked down at her shoes, "Professor Oak said--"
“How do you expect to feed yourself, let alone a Pokemon? Hmm?” she asked with another bout of laughter, “You’re hopeless on your own, you know that.”
“I’m n-not hopeless…” Jenn mumbled. Paula frowned.
“Don’t mumble.” she said, “Come on. We’re going home. We’ll talk about your punishment once we—”
“No!” Jenn snapped, “I’m not going. I’m a trainer now. I have my license and I'm over fifteen. I don’t have to go with you if I don't want to.”
“Excuse me? Yes, you do. I’m your mother—”
“Barely!” Jenn replied, "You've only ever been my mother when you want to tell me what to do."
Paula’s face turned red and Jenn felt a flash of fear. She reached for Jenn’s arm, and Jenn winced out of instinct. Then, to both of their surprise, Bulbasaur growled and rammed into Paula, knocking her to the ground. Paula stared, dumbstruck and shocked as Bulbasaur positioned himself between Paula and his trainer. Sneering, Paula got to her feet.
“Fine. Fine! If you want to abandon us just like your good-for-nothing father, then do it! I hope you freeze! I hope you starve! Don’t bother crawling home when you realize that I’m right. You dummy. Dummy!” she screamed, “And don’t think for a second I won’t report you and your awful little Pokemon to the police. They should know such a dangerous animal is loose!”
The nurse finally came outside; some of the other people around the Pokemon Center had complained about the noise. Paula began to speak when the nurse calmly asked her to leave. With a deep scowl, Paula stormed away.
Jenn gave Bulbasaur a hug, quietly thanking him. The nurse asked if Jenn needed anything and Jenn politely declined, and thanked her for her intervention. The Nurse simply smiled softly and told her that it wasn't a problem. If she ever needs any help or a place to stay, the Pokemon Center is always open.
When Mige came back shortly after, he was obviously unaware as to what had happened earlier. She was absolutely fine with that; Mige didn't need to know what her life was like at home. This was the new her, free of her mother.
Mige asked if she was ready to go. Jenn have him two thumbs up and let him know that she was ready to roll! Together, they set out down Route 01 together, the wind blowing through the tall grass in waves.
Thankfully, they made it back to Pallet Town without any big incidents or stampedes. The pair returned to Professor Oak’s lab, and the Professor let out a hearty laugh when he saw the Marrill. He had been sure it was going to be something like that, but he figured that one needs to be prudent in this day and age.
Given that his errand was complete, Mige relaxed a little. He introduced Jenn to his legal guardian: Bill Fjord. THE Bill Fjord! The Pokemon Storage System guy! Yeah, that Bill! Jenn was honestly a little star-struck to say anything intelligent in front of him. Though, as she spent some time with them over the next day or two she quickly came to realize that Bill was actually a huge dork. Which was endearing.
Since she was there, Jenn returned to work; she helped out in the lab and in the fields; she figured she might as well make herself useful if she were going to stay there for the time being. While she remained cheerful and personable, Jenn was struggling with her conflicting feelings about training. She didn't want to let her mom get to her, but it was hard to just ignore what she'd said. Jenn had been so gung-ho about going out on the road, but she hadn't really given it any real thought, had she?
A part of her was afraid that her mom had a point; maybe she was just irresponsible and immature. Traveling across Kanto was a big deal. So much could go wrong out there and Jenn had no idea what she was doing! What if she messed up, and got lost, and broke her leg somewhere in the wilderness? What if she made some mistake that led to Bulbasaur or Caterpie getting hurt? Could she actually handle the realities of being a trainer?
Oak seemed to sense something was wrong, which was why she avoided him whenever she could. She spent most of her free time with Mige, showing him around the lab and introducing him to some of the Pokemon there, like Muk or the Tauros. He was nice and surprisingly funny, and she found that it was easy to just hang out with him.
Sammy didn't seem to like Mige. I mean, he was friendly and outgoing, but Jenn just had this sense that Sammy didn't really like him. He tried to talk to her alone whenever he could. Apparently, he was glad she'd come back so soon, as he'd decided to start his own trainer's journey and was getting ready to depart within the week. One day, while observing some of the Pokemon playing together, Sammy asked Jenn to go with him. Jenn was honest and told him that she wasn't sure that she wanted to go back out. Sammy was a little confused and asked what had changed, but Jenn insisted that he just drop it.
A few days after they'd returned, Jenn had brought Mige out to help groom the Tauro. She happily walked him through how to brush their manes and examine their horns—Mige was a total natural at it, shocker—when Sammy came over.
With a wide smile, he told Mige that he had an Eevee, too; Bill had given him one from the same litter that Mige's Eevee came from! To that end, Sammy challenged Mige to “a quick battle”. Mige accepted, and while he put up a good fight, Sammy was decisively declared the winner. After the fight, Sammy winked at Jenn and suggested that if she wanted to travel again, she should stick with him.
Mige had only been in Pallet Town a few days when he was ready to leave, bound for Cerulean City. He asked Jenn if she wanted to go with him, as he seemed to recall she was originally headed that way, too. A part of her really wanted to go with him; she wanted to hit the road again, plunge into the Viridian Forest, find her Pikachu.
By that point, she was caught up in her anxiety and the awful inner voices and intrusive thoughts that told her that her mother was totally right about everything. Jenn she felt unworthy of both her Pokemon and her Pokedex. So she politely declined with an apologetic smile; she lied and said that she'd had her fill of travel for a little while and wanted to stay to help the Professor with his research. Mige left soon after, and both Jenn and Bulbasaur was sad to see him go. She felt a tug of regret, but she figured it was for the best; she’d probably just slow him down and get in the way.
After a few days of struggling just to focus on her work, the Professor asked Jenn to take a walk with him. It was a beautiful day out, but the Professor didn't seem too interested in the weather. He asked why she hadn’t gone back out on the road yet.
"Not that I don't appreciate your help, and it's always nice to see you, but you've already been here nearly two weeks. I would think you'd be excited to return to the road." he said. Jen shrugged.
"Yeah, you know, I, uh...I guess I just figured I'd be more useful to you at the lab." she said, and the thought seemed to give Oak a chuckle.
"My dear, I have more aides around here than I know what to do with!" he exclaimed, "I can tell that you seem...conflicted. What's the real reason, if I may ask? I'm willing to listen."
Before she could stop herself, Jenn just blurted out everything; the two talked a bit about Jenn’s many anxieties—including the stuff with her mom—and Oak simply listened. When she was finished, he offered her some advice.
“I know it’s scary, stepping out your door and walking into the unknown. Who knows what could go wrong? But then again, who knows what wonders you’ll miss if you stay here forever? The only way that you’ll ever know whether you can be a trainer or whether you can’t is to go out there and try. For what it’s worth, my dear, I have every confidence that you can.”
Professor Oak was very reassuring, and their conversation gave her a lot to think about. In the end, Jenn didn't want to let her abuse and her anxieties define her. After mulling it over for the night, Jenn decided to listen to Oak’s advice. The only way she'd ever know whether she had it in her was to try and give it everything she had.
Sammy insisted on joining her. They were both going to be traveling the same general direction, so why not team up? They could even train to take on the gyms together. Jenn confessed that she wasn’t sure if she wanted to do gym badges, really. Instead, she had arranged to carry out field research for the Professor as she went from place to place. Sammy told her that was fine; they'd travel together, she could research, and he'd collect badges.
Their road went north, once more through Viridian City. Along the southern arm of Route 02, they passed by Rudy and Rowdy’s farm, where Rudy cheerfully invited them for lunch. Sammy would battle and easily beat Rudy. He admired Rudy’s Mareep, and would eventually trade a Mankey he’d caught along Route 01 for one of the flock. They traveled into the Viridian Forest. Sammy caught a few Pokemon along the way, but no sign of Pikachu. Bummer. The forest was dense and dark, but Sammy was a good navigator and they made good pace without becoming lost. The forest had a sort of primeval beauty to it, and Jenn often stopped to take notes, jot down observations, or take a picture of some flower or a Pokemon she came across. She even found evidence that there might be a nest of wild Squirtle in the forest. She and Sammy spent hours trying to track them down, but they never did find them. In the forest, Jenn also saw to her first real task from the Professor by tracking down a nest of Kakuna and planting some cameras around to monitor and study their behavior once they hatched--thankfully, Jenn and Sammy would be far away from the nest when that happened! Beyond the forest, the two would arrive in Pewter City. Sammy trained for his badge while Jenn pursued her next task from the Professor. Reports had come in about strange Pidgey north of the forest along the northern arm of Route 02. Jenn made her way down there, eventually finding a real fat Pidgey. In the process, her Caterpie evolved into Metapod. She caught the Pidgey and transferred it back to the Professor, who seemed pretty impressed with Pidgey's heft. This would be the general flow of things for awhile; they traveled with Jenn's focus being on performing her research for Professor Oak, such as observing the habits of local Spearow flocks or recording a Jigglypuff's song. Sammy would train every day. He proved to be an excellent battler, and he won quite a lot of prize money along Route 03.
The Professor's next big task was for Jenn to check on a colony of Clefairy that lived up in the Moon Mountains. Oak had found the colony when he was a young trainer himself, and he made sure to check in on them every so often. He sent her a great deal of his own research and observations of the colony, as well as a map that would lead them there.
Jenn and Sammy climbed a rough and difficult path up and over the moutnain. The weather was favorable, luckily, but their pace was still slow and careful. Along the way, Jenn would found a rare freshwater mountain Staryu and captured it. Not long after, Sammy captured an Onix. He was stoked about that Onix.
After five days, they found the colony. They set up camp on a small ridge, using the natural landscape to shield their camp from the Clefairy’s sight. They watched the colony with binoculars and recorded their observations of the colony's state, movements, and the like.
On the third day of observation, things started to move fast: a group of Clefairy returned to the colony carrying a pink-haired girl with them. She was unconscious, injured, and dehydrated. Sammy figured that the girl must have gotten lost and collapsed, and the Clefairy had probably found her somewhere in the upper canyons and brought her to safety.
It was a touching gesture—but they didn’t have the medicine or methods for actually helping the girl. Unable to just stand aside, Jenn and Sammy took a chance and revealed themselves to the Clefairy. They presented them with flowers and berries as a gesture of friendship. The Clefable who led the colony didn’t seem to mind their presence and permitted them to take the girl back to their camp.
When the girl came to, she introduced herself as Haley Comet. She was a trainer traveling from Pewter City to Cerulean City. She heard some rare Pokemon could be found in the hills and slopes of the mountains and decided to go over them, instead of through them. Unfortunately, she'd gotten turned around and lost during a storm. After a day or two she found a camp of what she thought were hikers or rangers. It turned out they were criminals involved with Team Rocket. They attacked her and tried to steal her Pokemon, but she escaped.
Sammy realized that the Rockets were still probably following her—and if that was the case, it wouldn’t be long before they got close to the colony. Jenn and Sammy decided to do what they could to get ready: while Sammy set up some kind of trap, Jenn and Haley tried to convince the Clefairy to run, but of course they didn’t get it.
By nightfall the Rockets appeared, right as Sammy had predicted. Upon finding the Clefairy colony, the Rockets didn’t seem so interested in Haley anymore. Sammy sprung his trap, using Onix to trigger a rock slide atop the Rockets. Jenn and Haley joined him in fighting the Rockets.
A brief, but fierce, battle ensued. Sammy used his new Onix, Jenn used Bulbasaur, and Haley used her Jigglypuff—it was injured but it was also the only one of her three Pokemon in anywhere near fighting shape. The Rockets gave as good as they got, however. Just as Jenn and her friends were starting to find themselves against the ropes, one of the Clefairy leapt in to help them by unloading a Double Slap on one of the Rocket Grunts.
All at once the other Clefairy followed suit, using their Metronome attacks to unleash total chaos on the Rockets. With the villains subdued, the Clefable elder used a powerful Amnesia attack to wipe their memories before sending them away. The colony presented Jenn, Sammy, and Haley with a Moon Stone as thanks. In addition, one of the Clefairy—the first one who had leapt in to help them—decided to leave with Haley Comet.
They stayed with the colony another two days before Jenn decided she’d gathered all of the information that Oak required. They packed up, ready to leave first thing in the morning. However, the night before, Jenn found that she couldn’t sleep. So she took a walk, climbing to the top of a small hill nearby and perched against a rock.
She watched the Clefairy dancing in the moonlight below, and she felt a strange nostalgia for something she’d never known. Maybe something she wanted? Sammy eventually joined her. He didn’t talk at first, but eventually he spoke up.
“You really surprised me the other day.” he said, “You’re normally such a scaredy-skitty. But you really stepped up in a big way for the Clefairy. I just keep thinking about it. I don’t know why I’m so surprised, honestly; you’re a…really special girl.”
Jenn nodded and started to say something in return, when Sammy leaned over, tucked some hair behind her ear, and then he kissed her. Jenn was completely shocked at the gesture, and just kind of froze there. She asked why he’d done that and Sammy told Jenn that he liked her, and that he had for a long time. Maybe sometime she’d want to go out and do something….like a date. Jenn told him she’d think about it.
And she did think about it! She actually kind of obsessed about it! She was beyond surprised at the whole thing and didn’t really know what to do. Nobody had ever expressed any kind of romanic interest in her before. She wasn’t sure if she was attracted to Sammy, on the one hand, and she’d never really thought of him as anything other than a friend. But on the other hand, he was nice. He was funny sometimes, and she liked traveling with him. Maybe she’d get more used to the idea as time went on? Either way, it felt nice to be liked.
The next morning, the three of them packed up and made their way down the mountain. Haley would join them until they arrived in Cerulean City. Along the way, the three of them helped settle a dispute between a man who only fought with punches and another who fought only with kicks (the Punch Master and the Kicking Man, respectively). Sammy sided with the Punch Master and Haley sided with the Kicking Man. Jenn found the whole thing kind of ridiculous and suggested that they maybe just try to acknowledge the others’ positives? It was a whole thing.
After parting ways with Haley, Jenn told Sammy that she’d been thinking about what he said in the mountains, and she’d like to go on that date. Sammy was thrilled! Jenn asked if they could see the Waterflower Sisters show; she’d always thought they were so glamorous and had always wanted to see the show. However, Sammy insisted that everyone went to see the Waterflowers. No, he would take her somewhere way cooler than a silly water ballet. Jenn kind of tried to hint that she’d really like to see the Waterflowers, but Sammy didn’t quite catch on. They spent the day at an amusement park. It was sunny and colorful, and there were quite a few rides and a lot to do. They went on the Ferris Wheel, Sammy won her a stuffed Snorlax, they got temporary tattoos (Jenn’s was of a flower on her wrist) and capped the night off with fireworks. They had fun, in the end. Sure, she was disappointed that she didn’t get to see the Waterflower Sisters perform but Sammy was being nice and he was making an effort. Sammy asked if Jenn might want to do that sort of thing again. Jenn said that might be nice. He brought up going steady, and Jenn was a little unsure at first. But she’d gone on a date with him, after all, and she knew she’d feel bad if he went through all that trouble for nothing. He was nice and he was trying and he liked her. After thinking about it for a few minutes, Jenn agreed to be his girlfriend. She’d get used to it eventually, she reasoned. But, she asked if they could take it slow with the couple stuff. Sammy agreed completely. Over the next couple of days, Sammy trained for the Cascade Gym while Jenn was waiting for her next task from the Professor. During that time, Sammy was pretty insistent on doing couple stuff; he constantly grabbed her hand, put his arm around her in public, and stuff like that. Jenn gently rebuffed him most of the time, reminding him that she had wanted to take things slowly. He’d apologize, of course.
Jenn was grateful when the Professor contacted her again. There was a Daycare along Route 5 that was suffering from a Voltorb infestation. Jenn and Sammy traveled to the daycare and were greeted by the owners, who explained the situation. Jenn and Sammy did some preliminary tests and found that the whole area was absolutely brimming with electrical energy. Sammy theorized that it was due to something going on with the nearby power plant. Jenn disagreed; if the power plant were the cause, then the Voltorb would be drawn there, instead of the daycare. Sammy dismissed the thought and assured her that it had to be the Power Plant; nothing else made sense. Jenn protested, but Sammy wouldn’t listen. So, they bickered and each ended up pursuing their separate leads. Jenn went back to the daycare—she knew whatever was happening had to be centered around there. She’d figure it out with or without Sammy. In the end, the daycare was actually being used as a holding area for stolen Pokemon that the Daycare had been taking care of. Among them was a large, angry Electivire and a host of Pichu. They had been bound and sedated using power cables, but that was unknowingly putting out an electric pulse that was attracting the Voltorb. The daycare owners had been attacked days ago, then stuffed away with the stolen Pokemon. Two poachers replaced them and pretended to be the owners to deter anybody from snooping around. Jenn was forced to try to deal with them on her own, but they caught her by surprise. While they struggled to tie her up (intending to put her with the daycare couple), Bulbasaur managed to get out of his Poke Ball, and he fought tooth and nail to protect Jenn. Bulbasaur injured one of the thieves with his vine whip attack, scarring the man’s face Backed against the wall (figuratively and literally), Jenn remembered the lesson she’d learned from Rudy and Mige that day in the meadow. She threw out Butterfree and, together with Bulbasaur, Jenn had them lace the entire area with Sleep Powder. The thieves were put to sleep long enough for Jenn to call the police and free the real daycare couple. When Sammy returned later that night, he was livid at Jenn for not listening to him. Why did she think going back to the daycare alone was a good idea? She should have just stayed with him; she could have been hurt! Jenn told Sammy that she went back alone because he refused to listen to her. She insisted that she wasn’t some kid tagging along on his adventure; she was doing actual work for Professor Oak and maybe sometimes Sammy should listen to her. It wasn’t fair that he never listened to her. When they got back to Cerulean City, Sammy apologized for his outburst. He was scared of losing her and he was really angry at himself for not being there. He promised her that he’d listen to her, too, from now on. After their misadventure at the daycare, Sammy spent a little more time training to face the Cascade Gym while Jenn studied the local wild Meowth population.
Jenn would be contacted by Professor Oak, who asked her to go to Cape Cerulean, a small port suburb north of the city, to meet with Bill Fjord. There had been numerous Dratini sightings around the Cerulean Sound and the Professor would like if Jenn could find any evidence of their existence there. The two set out the next morning.
Jenn caught an Oddish along the way that she found playing in a puddle. It was a beautiful and lightly forested trail that had a good view of the fast-moving rivers and, as they neared the town, a view of Cerulean Sound. It was vast, almost like an inland ocean in itself.
Along the way to Bill’s cabin, Jenn and Sammy heard rumors of wild Pikachu sightings in the area. Jenn got SUPER excited! She was on the hunt for Pikachu once again, and while she actually managed to find a Pikachu this time, it was clever and very fast, and Jenn wasn’t able to capture it. Sammy laughed and tried to give her pointers on her form, which annoyed her.
They arrived at Bill’s cottage as the sun started to set. Bill warmly welcomed the two of them before showing them to the two guest rooms on the second floor. Jenn got along well with Bill, who recognized both of them from Professor Oak’s lab. She asked Bill how Mige was doing, and he commented that last he heard, Mige had gotten his Boulder Badge and was headed to Mt. Moon. But that was awhile ago, so Bill was actually expecting Mige to get to Cerulean City any day now.
Starting the next morning, Jenn and Sammy set up on observation post behind the house, on the hill overlooking the bay. She and Sammy sat out there all day, every day. Jenn tried to focus on her work while Sammy mostly went for walks down by the beach. Ron the Raichu, one of Bill’s Pokemon who stayed around the cottage, would often bring Jenn a glass of water throughout the day. He was so sweet!
On her fourth morning of observation, Jenn went out running with Bulbasaur. When she got back, she took a few minutes to groom Bulbasaur and play with him a bit before she started working. Bill complimented Jenn on the care she gave Bulbasaur. Jenn had trouble accepting it the compliment; she confessed that she felt like she wasn’t the best trainer for Bulbasaur. He’d always been a fighter, eager to get stronger, but Jenn wasn’t a very good battler and was afraid that Bulbasaur wouldn’t be able to grow with her.
Bill understood that anxiety, but he told her that there was more to being a good trainer than just battling. How you care for your Pokemon was just as important as how you fought together. In the end, Jenn would know what was right for her and Bulbasaur. Later that night, Bill gave Jenn an Eevee for “being such good company for the Pokemon”; one of the Eevee from the same litter as Mige’s and Sammy’s. The Eevee was a girl, and she was quite prim and picky. Of course, Jenn adored her and couldn’t say no to Eevee’s big, adorable eyes!
Two days later, while looking out over the water from her observation post, Bulbasaur suddenly grew very excited, as did her Eevee. Both rushed out of the watch-post. Jenn chased after them to find that they were running to greet Mige! He had just arrived with two friends: Ace and Tim. Jenn and Mige shared a somewhat awkward greeting before Jenn explained why she and Sammy were there.
Sammy greeted Mige with a weird amount of gusto and “chumminess”. Sammy challenged Mige to a battle, which Mige declined due to their journey having been a long one. Sammy laughed and remarked that they’d just “battle tomorrow”!
After Mige and the others went inside to see Bill, Jenn snapped at Sammy.
“Okay, what was that?” she asked. Sammy perked an eyebrow and shook his head.
“What are you talking about? What was what?”
“That! Outside!” Jenn scowled, “It seemed to me like you were singling Mige out. Are you, what, are you trying to be, like, macho or something? Are you jealous of him?” she asked, and the question was a genuine one.
“Jealous? Oh man, that soap opera in your head sounds really wild!” Sammy chuckled, “I like Mige, honestly! But we’re rivals, and rivals are supposed to challenge each other and grow, you know? Stop being weird about it.”
Sammy asked if she wanted to go for a walk with him into town and maybe get a coffee? Jenn declined; maybe later. As she started to head back to the observation post, Sammy asked if she was going to catch up with Mige and his friends.
“No, actually, I just have a job to finish. Have a nice walk.” she said and made her way to the observation post. Bulbasaur and Eevee both seemed antsy, so she had them go inside to see Mige. God, Sammy really pissed her off sometimes.
Mige wandered out to her outpost a little later around sunset, near the end of her shift. He brought her Pokemon back out to her and commented that her Bulbasaur looked really health. Jenn thanked him and told her aboutthe other new team members she’d caught; Caterpie was a Butterfree now and she had caught a Staryu in the mountains. She confessed that she’d gotten really excited when she heard about Pikachu being in the area, but hadn’t managed to catch one yet. Mige apologized for the bummer and Jenn smiled and shrugged. It’s just how things go sometimes.
The two caught a bit, with Mige telling her a little about his journey since they parted ways, and Jenn commented how nuts it was that she got here before him. Eventually, the night had settled enough that Jenn called it a night. She bid Mige a goodnight and went back to her room. Sammy wanted to talk to her, but she told him that they’d talk tomorrow. She spent her night finishing up her report to the Professor and spent some time reading.
The next morning, right as Jenn was finishing breakfast, Mige came in and handed her a Poke Ball. She asked what it was and Mige explained that he had found a Pikachu during the night while he was out walking. He remembered Jenn saying that she wanted one, and so he caught it for her. It was an extremely thoughtful gesture, and she was legitimately touched by it. Not many people had ever really done anything like that for her before. The kindness nearly caused her to tear up. She beamed and thanked Mige, giving him a happy little hug.
After Mige left the room, Sammy came in and causally mentioned that he’d seen them hugging. Jenn excitedly showed him the Pikachu that Mige had gcaught for her. Wasn’t that so thoughtful? Sammy just sighed and shrugged.
“I don’t know, Jenn, I just…I think you could have caught a Pikachu yourself. It would have meant more if you had caught one on your own, but…eh. I’m happy for you, though.”
Jenn frowned, the response actually hurting her feelings. She announced that she was going to finish packing and left to her room.
Sammy seemed pretty eager to challenge Mige after that. He finally agreed and Sammy suggested they go three on three. Despite Mige putting up a valiant fight, Sammy won the second bout. Mige was a good sport and Sammy refused the prize money.
“Don’t worry about it, Mige. The experience is prize enough, you know? It’s what rivals do!”
After watching him battle, Jenn could tell that Mige had grown a lot, even in just the few weeks it’d been since she’d seen him last. He and his Pokemon were very close, and they all seemed to really love him. They trusted each other and gave their battles their all—for each other. Jenn knew what she had to do. She spoke to Bill and transferred Bulbasaur to Mige’s ownership. It made her sad, but she felt in her heart that it was the right thing to do for Bulbsaur. Before she left, Jenn gifted Bulbasaur to Mige, who seemed quite surprised. He asked if she was sure, and Jenn assured him that it was what she wanted.
“I know he’s my starter, and we’ve been through a lot together. I’ll always love him, and he’ll always be my little buddy, but…Bulbasaur really wants to battle and grow stronger. That…it’s a path that I’m not sure that taking. So, I think he’s meant for you instead.”
Mige accepted Bulbasaur and promised Jenn that he’d take good care of him. Jenn gave Bulbasaur a big hug and a little kiss on the top of the head. bidding him a fond farewell. Jenn and Mige exchanged contact info. After wishing each other luck, she and Sammy left for Cerulean City.
