Rattata burst into a blindingly bright white light as it began to evolve, Blue covering his eyes with his right hand.
Slowly, the light faded and what was left was a large brown rat, shaped like an egg, it's purple fur replaced with a brown, it's underside like cream, and it's whiskers bigger than it's hands.
Blue's hand fell and he opened his eyes to see the Raticate—his Rattata evolved before him, smirking. 'Well, maybe you won't be useless after all.'
Raticate ran to it's trainer and hugged his legs out of sheer excitement, startling him as it's whiskers tickled Blue even through his clothing.
"Hey, ha ha, s-stop." Blue said as he pushed his rat Pokemon away, his legs still tickled even after it stopped.
"Rati." Raticate said as Blue put his hands back into his side.
The spiky-haired kid looked at Route 11, ready to go on a new adventure when suddenly something happened to his body... his belly started roaring with fury! It was at that moment that he remembered that he hasn't eaten in a while—maybe even in a day.
"Oh god no, well at least Megan gave me enough money to buy new food." Blue said to himself, partly to himself but mostly to announce it to his Pokemon who roared with excitement in their ball, it has been a while since they have eaten as well. Raticate being the exception as his belly felt full after evolving, still he was happy his trainer wasn't constantly complaining about Red like in Route 6.
Blue travelled back into Vermilion city, the sun starting to set as shops started closing, He saw a shop from the corner of his eyes and ran to it, his body starting to sweat especially with his spiky hair but eventually he did manage... to... arrive at the shop.
"Hello mister, what would you like to buy from our shop?" An elderly looking woman asked, her body clearly fat with Slowpoke tails.
Blue looked up to her eyes. "Wh... what do you even sell?"
"Oh... we sell lots of things—Slowpoke tails raw or cooked, cooked Krabbys, cooked Magikarps, and even cooked Staryus." She replied as Blue took deep breaths and scratched his back, wishing he had bought extra clothes—maybe he could buy them later.
Blue had expected the woman to sell Slowpoke tails, judging from her body and cooked Krabbys and Magikarps are a dime a dozen—you can't really call yourself a food shop if you don't sell them after all but he did not expect her to sell cooked Staryus of all things.
"I would like five Slowpoke tails raw." He said, clear and concise unlike before, he always preferred them cooked and always ate them that way but now he wanted to see what his sister was talking about.
The older woman smirked as she brought a basket full of these raw Slowpoke tails, splashing the counter with water from it, spilling her apron and Blue a little bit though he had already been covered by water from his sweats. "That would be $250." She said as she grabbed five of them from the basket.
Blue smirked, surely a trainer as powerful as Megan must have at least given him 5x that amount but... as he ravaged his bag, looking for Pokedollars, he would manage to find them! $30 of them that is.
"Oh come on!" He shouted as he held his Pokedollars—30 before him, holding himself back from attacking the shop. He had forgotten to ask Megan to give him money after he won the battle.
"What's the matter boy?" The elder woman asked politely, the money faced to Blue, meaning she couldn't see the amount.
"Nothing—nothing." Blue said as he put his Pokedollars back into his bag, cursing himself for forgetting the way Pokemon trainers even make a living. "I—I changed my mind, I don't want to buy anymore, bye!" He said as he ran off, confusing the elderly woman.
After a few seconds, Blue stood near a random person's house panting like crazy, wishing that he had running shoes once again. 'Maybe I have something worth selling.' He thought to himself as he opened his backpack once again, ravaging it to find something he could sell and he would—an S.S Anne ticket dropped to his legs, it's blue background representing the waters the ship would sell on.
'Oh I almost forgot, Daisy gave me an S.S Anne ticket.' He thought to himself as he picked up the ticket, it would definitely throw him back into the green but as he held it in his hands, he realized... that the S.S Anne is only for elite trainers and elite trainers have money—lots of money that he could win.
He grinned upon this realization and walked to the ship, it's large size creating a shadow over him. He was forced to wait in a line as the employees inspected each trainer's ticket and allowed some to pass—some forced to go home. It was one of the worst humiliations he faced, he was itching to be the person at the end and eventually he was, showing his ticket to the inspector and boarding the ship.
When he arrived at the ship, Blue immediately started challenging people to battle, Raticate at the top of the party as he wanted to see how much stronger he got after evolving and it was safe to say, it was far stronger.
"Hyper Fang!" Blue shouted. The Rat Pokemon transferred all it's energy into a single fang as he held the Growlithe to the ground before unleashing it with a single—powerful fang to it's neck.
"Growl!" The puppy Pokemon shouted as it gained, Blue smirking that his Raticate is stronger than before.
"Hand me the money." He said as he opened his hand, the gentleman—not the one from the fanclub frowning before pulling them out of his rather pocket and giving it to Blue who checked it and found it to be—$1200.
'That's good, enough for some Slowpoke tails.' He thought to himself as he walked up to the store inside the ship and bought 5 of those Slowpoke tails with $320—far more expensive than the one from the elderly woman.
He gave his Pokemon four and ate the fifth one, his belly filling quickly, although he would admit that his taste buds have gotten more appreciation for it, he still preferred the Slowpoke tails cooked. He would then fight people similar to the gentleman in strength, always beating them with one Pokemon, getting a reputation even among the skilled, his pockets now being filled with $5200.
However that was when he realized that the ship hadn't set sail yet and that—the captain didn't seem to be even... present. Curiosity getting the better of him, Blue walked up to the Captain's conor, forgetting to heal his Raticate, and when he got to the hallway, he was surprised there wasn't anyone preventing him from doing so—like in the games but real life seems to be stranger than fiction.
He went up the stairs and saw the Captain throwing up into a trash can, Blue's face going inwards out of disgust. 'Eww, that's abs-absolutely disgusting.' He thought to himself as he went down the stairs again. 'At least I found out the reason why the ship hasn't sailed yet.'
Blue walked the hallway, trying to go back to the city but that's when he came across someone familiar... Red, his red cap and jacket creating an imposing figure as he stared at his rival, simply stared, no emotions, no anything.
"Hey Red, I was wondering when you'll show up. Did you hear what the trainers here have to say about me? They absolutely love me! They call me the best trainer—they love me." Blue said as Red simply prepared his Pokeball, not even reacting. "I went to the ship's captain to find out what happened to him and guess what? He's sick ha ha! He's throwing up in a little trash bin. I wonder when his vomit will fill the bin and he'll have to use another one, maybe it already has and the current one is actually the 5th." He said, laughing a little, his face disgusted at just the thought of it.
That was when finally his rival spoke back. "Are you gonna fight me or not?" He simply said in a clear concise manner that would make even Oak blush—maybe that's why his grandfather even gave him a Pokedex.
"Well yes, of course I wanna battle. Why would I not want to battle, ha ha." He said as he grabbed a pokeball from his bag and threw it, releasing a Pidgeotoo out of it. Red simply smirked and lazily threw out his pokeball, releasing a Zubat.
Blue smirked, knowing the stats advantage Pidgeotoo had over Zubat, this could be his revenge against this Pokemon who one shotted one of his."Gust then Tackle attack!" Blue roared. The Pidgeotto flapping it's wind creating a strong wind that threw the Zubat to the ground, Red running after it to inspect when suddenly Pidgeotoo flew to the bat Pokemon, startling Red who backed off and tackled it onto the floor with it's talons in Zubat's mouth.
"Not so tough are you, Red?" Blue asked smirking as Pidgeotto continued it's tackle but Red simply smirked as if he knew something Blue didn't.
"Zubat, use supersonic!" Red commanded, his voice lowkey. Yellow rings started emerging from the bat Pokemon's mouth, hitting the Bird Pokemon exactly in it's chest.
'Dang it!' Blue shouted in his mind, not wanting to give his rival any satisfaction as Pidgetoo walked away from Zubat, tripping backwards before standing up, only to trip again.
"Continue the damage with wing attack, Zubat." Red commanded. The wings of his Zubat flashed with energy before hitting the standing Pidgeotoo right in it's side, impaling the bird Pokemon.
"Snap out of it! I know you can do it!" Blue shouted, not knowing what else to do—and it worked as the bird Pokemon regained focus on the Zubat impaling it's sides but still being pinned by the wing attack, however slowly but surely the energy and power from the wing attack started fading, the wings looking normal again.
That's when suddenly Blue came up with an idea. "Push 'em off with gust." Pidgeotoo flapped it's wings once again and created a large gust pushing the bat Pokemon away to Red's side, hitting the floor hard.
"Wing attack!" Blue commanded in unison as Red commanded. "Zubat, fly up and wing attack!" Both wings of both flying Pokemon flashed with power and energy as they flew up to the roof and flew towards each other at immeasurable speed, attacking each other in a unison that blinded both trainers.
When the dust settled and both trainers opened their eyes, they saw... Pidgeotto on the ground clearly fainted while Zubat lifted itself up from the ground, Red being able to feel it's fatigue.
'Dang it, I thought the stats advantage was gonna lead to a victory. Well at least Raticate may have it's revenge.' Blue thought to himself as he grabbed the Rat pokemon's pokeball.
"Go Raticate!" Blue said as he released Raticate from it's Pokeball, Red however held Zubat's ball and withdrew his Pokemon. 'Dang it, just when I thought Raticate was gonna have it's revenge, of course Red would screw me everytime.'
"Hey, why did you withdraw your Zubat? Not confident it's strong?" Blue asked, smugly, trying to hide his anger at his rival.
"I am confident it's stronger than your Pidgeotoo." Red simply said as he pulled out another pokeball and threw it, releasing a Nidoking, it's towering body even reaching the ceiling, causing Blue to seethe.
"Get close with a quick attack then Hyper fang!" Blue commanded. The rat Pokemon dashed to Nidoking's side, almost like a teleport and thrusted it's fangs filled with energy onto its legs, causing the drill Pokemon to scream "Nido!"
"Nidoking, use double kick." Red commanded, his expression just like before. The drill Pokemon's legs lit up with red energy as it screamed in pain before kicking the leg the Raticate was biting, throwing him into the air before hitting him again with it's other leg, throwing the rat Pokemon to it's trainer's side.
Blue ran up to his Raticate. "Get up, Raticate." He said as he looked at his rat Pokemon. Raticate started to stand up like normal but then... it started coughing blood, startling both trainers before falling to the floor. Red could only watch from afar, despite how much he hated him, he didn't want to check on him without his permission—after all it's his Pokemon.
'Dang it, I forgot to heal Raticate.' Blue thought to himself as he touched the rat Pokemon. It's heart... didn't seem to be normal, it didn't seem to be beating. Blue's eyes widened with terror at just the thought of it. 'Su-surely he's just fainted, surely he's not dead, right?'