Something Oddish in Cerulean

Local Cerulean trainers were hosting a tournament of sorts on Nugget Bridge, but by the time I got there the tournament was over. In fact, the tournament was exposed as a recruiting ring for Team Rocket and was overturned by a trainer quite a few years younger than me. Although Team Rocket was gone, the trainers were still there accepting challenges and I took them on one by one without hesitation or incident. After trouncing Wolf and the Nugget Bridge trainers, I was feeling pretty proud of my team and confident in our ability to succeed.
Beyond Nugget Bridge which spans Route 24 was a short hike along Route 25 to the Cerulean Cape. Bill lived out there in a small cottage and welcomed trainers to come visit and discuss all things Pokémon with him. Just west of Nugget Bridge, I caught a second Pidgey whom I named Charlie. He was a bit stronger than Kiwi when we first met, but now that Kiwi had evolved into Pidgeotto, Kiwi was a star member of my team.
League rules dictate that trainers can only carry six Pokémon at a time in Kanto, so Charlie would soon be stored away waiting for his day to train and battle alongside his teammates. The sixth member of the team was about to be Arnold, a small Oddish I caught on Route 25. This tiny little sprout was unexpectedly strong. He single-handedly toppled an Onix in his very first trainer battle on our way to meet Bill. I knew in that moment that he would be a great asset when I went to challenge the Cerulean Gym, which was known for its fierce water-type Pokémon.

When I first met Bill, he was recovering from some rare illness. He assured me it was not contagious, but he was still not feeling quite himself. I could tell he didn’t really want to talk about it, so instead I steered the conversation to our absolute favorite topic: Pokémon. Bill is a self-proclaimed PokéManiac and no one has ever really challenged it. His obsession with Pokémon has very few rivals.
Bill is credited with inventing and operating the Pokémon Storage System that was available in Kanto at the time, and that system’s descendants are still in use today. At that very moment, Charlie was sitting in a subsection of the Pokémon Storage System that was allotted to me for my own personal Pokémon needs. Much like the Pokédex, this would prove to be an invaluable tool to help me kick start the Pokémon Sanctuary that I run today. It’s because of people like Professor Oak and Bill that Kanto was such a tremendous hot spot for aspiring Pokémon trainers back then and is still somewhat of a legendary region to this day.
Bill was delighted at my idea for a Pokémon Sanctuary. He was also interested in my resolve to not let any Pokémon faint in battle. He was shocked I was able to let go of Rascal (Sr.) and Nibbles. I assured him then and I assure you now, it was not easy. It truly broke my heart, but it was an important part of my growth as a trainer. Bill offered to help in any way he could with my project. He also offered to look after or find aspiring new trainers to take care of any future Pokémon I was forced to release by my own personal code. His love for all things Pokémon was abundantly clear.
Bill was eager to show me his favorite Pokémon, one I had never heard of before meeting Bill. He had numerous files on his computer system about the Pokémon Eevee, and Bill had been doing research into its wide variety of evolutions. Bill was a leading expert on the Kanto Evolution Stones which included Moon Stones first found on Mount Moon, as well as Fire, Water, Thunder and Leaf Stones. More would be discovered in time, but these were among the first known to transform certain Pokémon when exposed to their faint light. Bill showed me some pictures and sketches of Flareon, Vaporeon and Jolteon.
Bill and I spent several hours passing the time in conversation, but eventually it was time to head back to Cerulean City to rest up before my gym challenge. I was really happy I had taken the time on my trip to meet Bill and shake his hand. As I said, I couldn’t have gotten where I am today without Bill and his amazing work on the Pokémon Storage System.

The day after I met Bill, I challenged Misty at the Cerulean City Pokémon Gym. Unlike my devastating loss to one of Brock’s junior trainers, my new friend Arnold made short work of the two trainers in Misty’s gym. They simply couldn’t hurt him more than his own absorption could repair. All the Pokémon of the Cerulean City Gym were powerless against Arnold’s ability to drain their energy and bolster his own.
I was worried about facing Misty. I had been warned that her Starmie was one of the most powerful Pokémon in the region, so I came prepared. After defeating Misty’s Staryu efficiently with Arnold, I put her Starmie to sleep with a soothing powder that spreads from Arnold’s leaves. Though, Starmie’s powerful psychic attacks had the potential to cripple or even knock out Arnold instantly, it simply slept peacefully while Arnold nuzzled up to it and sapped its energy. Misty was soundly defeated and Arnold was the super star of the Cerulean Gym challenge.
It wasn’t the most exciting series of battles in Kanto, but sometimes strategy and planning is more important than a fast paced battle of strength and determination. I was lucky to have found such a great Pokémon like Arnold just a day or two before challenging a tough gym leader like Misty.

Current Team:
Attacks in Blue are recently learned.


Bill's Storage: Charlie (Pidgey)

The Nugget Bridge Rematch

Now, you might be wondering what happened to Wolf after we parted ways in Viridian, but he couldn’t have been farther from my mind as I made my way down from Mount Moon toward Cerulean City. I didn’t care where he was or what he was doing. I really hoped we wouldn’t cross paths again, but Kanto is a surprisingly small place for a Pokémon trainer, I would come to learn. I would run into him again in Cerulean, but in the short time since I started this journey, I had changed. I had a firm resolve and determination to take care of my Pokémon, rather than win at all cost like Wolf or Team Rocket. I had suffered the heart break of losing Rascal and Nibbles, my first two Pokémon. I was still trying to find my way, but I had also grown stronger.
Before I get to Wolf, let me catch you up a bit. Along the way down from Mount Moon, I happened upon a new Rattata. He was strong and fast. He reminded me of Rascal when we last saw each other as opposed to the weak and fragile thing he was when we first met. I caught this Rattata and named him Rascal Jr. If I learned anything from encountering the Dread Rocket Raticate, it was that there was untapped potential within Rascal Jr that I would have to bring out before I could challenge the Cerulean City Gym. Rascal Jr. could be taught to deliver a cruel bite.
I trained more rigorously than ever before. I made sure Rascal Jr. was not only faster and stronger than that Raticate on Mount Moon, but had the hyper fang bite of doom in its arsenal. I did not rest until Rascal Jr met my high expectations for what he was capable of. Retrospectively, I was perhaps a bit hard on Rascal Jr because of how I was feeling about Nibble, but Rascal Jr was soon the strongest Pokémon on my team as a result. As always, although these training sessions were aimed primarily at Rascal Jr, the rest of the team benefited from them as well. Vesper even learned a powerful bite.
During this time of intense training, I was staying in Cerulean City close to our training grounds on Route 4. You simply couldn’t get around Cerulean City without hearing Bill’s name several times a day. Now Bill is a self-proclaimed Pokémon enthusiast and is credited as the inventor of the Pokémon Storage System that we all access regularly to store and transfer Pokémon even today.
Although Professor Oak first showed the system to me, I had been using it regularly to transfer some Pokémon to my sprouting sanctuary project via Bill’s storage system without ever knowing whose it was or how it got there. I had certainly taken it for granted, and I think we all do every now and then even still. I decided that before I would challenge the Cerulean City Gym, I wanted to hike out to the coast north of Cerulean and meet Bill personally. I was curious, and I was thankful.
When I was happy with the progress Rascal Jr had made, I packed up for the trip and headed out across Nugget Bridge to the north. It was there on that fateful bridge that I was tracked down by Wolf. He called out to me from behind just as I was setting foot on the bridge. Apparently he had heard that I was training in town these past few days and was eager for a rematch. I tried everything in my power to keep my face neutral and not unleash the full extent of my anguish at seeing Wolf. I’ll never know how successful a job I did.

Wolf had a stupid, cocky smirk on his face when he threw out his first Pokémon which was a Pidgeotto. It was plain to see that he considered this his prize bird in the collection and it was fun for me to see the smirk wipe off his face when I tossed out my recently evolved Kiwi, now a formidable Pidgeotto himself. The two bright-breasted birds squared off against each other on the ground, then took to the sky.
Kiwi and I launched our all-too-familiar “sand in the face” technique which had yet to fail us. Wolf’s Pidgeotto had suffered this indignity once before but still fell right into our trap. It’s ability to land any hits on Kiwi tanked and Kiwi was soon the victor of the Pidgeotto contest. Wolf was frowning now as he threw out his next Pokéball.
His next Pokémon surprised me. It was a curious little yellow creature that I hadn’t encountered yet. More surprisingly, it was completely useless in battle. I believe Wolf had just caught it earlier that day and didn’t even bother to train it yet. It was easy pickings for Vesper, who I can rarely say had easy pickings. The Abra (as the Pokédex informed me) seemed particularly weak to Vesper’s ability to leech life out of its opponent. It took out the weak little Abra without any problems. I heard Wolf let out an audible curse and it was my turn to smirk.
Wolf’s third Pokémon was a Rattata. I could tell just by looking at it that it was a tough little fellow. Still, I couldn’t resist tossing out Rascal Jr and sizing up which of us had the better trained Rattata. As Wolf’s Rattata attempted to lower Rascal Jr’s guard with disorienting tail whipping, Rascal Jr chomped down hard. Following up with a very quick attack, Rascal Jr proved to be the winner of this match up and without even taking any hits at all.
I knew Squirtle, or one of its evolutions would be Wolf’s final Pokémon based on our previous match. I admit I was a bit worried about it,  but I kept Rascal Jr out on the bridge to hold his ground. Wolf’s Squirtle managed to land a couple of tackles on my agile Rattata, while Rascal Jr used his own tail to disorient the Squirtle. Then Rascal Jr bit down on Squirtle with such ferocity that it knocked it completely out of the match. Victory was ours and it felt so damn good this time.
I really felt like the superior trainer. Thinking back on Viridian City, I could see now the difference between a trainer who took his training seriously, and someone like Wolf who just took it all as an idle hobby. I felt bad for Wolf’s Pokémon, honestly. They fought so hard for him and he didn’t even care.
When Wolf extended a hand for me to shake, I simply shrugged. Wolf stifled a small laugh and shook his head. I remember him saying, “It was good to see you, Fox. Keep up the hard work.” Then he turned and walked back into town. I watched him go this time, remembering how angry watching him leave made me the last time. This time I felt almost nothing. This time I was stronger both as a trainer and in my resolve to train harder - to train especially harder than Wolf.

Current Team:
Attacks in Blue are recently learned.

The Dread Rocket Raticate

Mount Moon is an interesting place. Located in northern Kanto, it’s notable not only for its wealth of Pokémon Fossils, but also its extraordinary rate of meteorites per year. I spoke with Gym Leader Brock about it before leaving Pewter City and learned that it was somewhat a rite of passage for Pokémon trainers heading out from western Kanto to the eastern plains. There were certainly easier ways to get to Cerulean City and Saffron City, but Brock assured me that if I was serious about Pokémon training, Mount Moon was the best way to go.
Mount Moon is an arduous climb and littered with numerous interlocking caves that weave beneath the peak. It was not for the faint of heart, but it would be a chance to bond with my Pokémon in the wilderness. I used some of the winnings I earned at Brock’s gym to stock up on food, potions, and a handful of Pokéballs before setting out down Route 3 toward the famous landmark mountain.
Along Route 3, I battled a very enthusiastic Shorts Appreciation Fan Club. Delightful young trainers eager to challenge Brock and head off on their own through Mount Moon, but mainly obsessed with shorts. It was along this route and among these youngsters that I first heard the name Team Rocket whispered. According to these young campers and hikers, Team Rocket had set up an operation of sorts at Mount Moon and their presence there was deterring a lot of trainers from passing through.
Back then, Team Rocket was an organization to be feared. They had a lot of influence over everyday life in Kanto, and very few people had the courage to stand up to them. However, as a newcomer to the Kanto region, I was truly clueless at the time. I could see that the kids were unsettled by the thought of Rocket grunts lurking in the caves of Mount Moon, but I was incapable of understanding what this threat meant to them, or what it would come to mean to me. I pressed onward down Route 3 hoping to reach the base camp and Pokémon Center at the foot of Mount Moon before nightfall.
Along the way, I managed to catch a Spearow who I gladly added to the team. I named him Shakespear. Shakespear would come to serve me well inside the dark tunnels of Mount Moon. He needed some training before we entered, so I set to work using the base camp as our new base of operations. Shakespear proved to be a formidable bird and was not unlike Kiwi in his ability to grow quickly adept at fighting and training.
While we were training in the shadow of Mount Moon, Lucky developed a powerful psychic attack that had the potential to inflict confusion upon his opponents, and I noticed Nibbles able to inject a bit of poison from the tip of his horn with some regularity. I was certainly impressed in the team’s progress. It was time to start our trek through the underbelly of Mount Moon.

The Zubat was one of the easier Pokémon to sketch,
due largely in part to their huge colony within Mt. Moon.

They don’t write this on any of the brochures that I saw, but Mount Moon is absolutely infested with Zubat. You can’t go three feet without being assailed by another Zubat, and so naturally the next great addition to Team Fox was a Zubat named Vesper. As I’m sure you can imagine, if you are at all familiar with Zubat, Vesper was a bit of a nightmare to train. That might actually be an understatement.
As we methodically made our way through Mount Moon, I was determined to get Vesper up to par with my other traveling companions. He would often open up a battle with other Zubat, or with the occasional trainer we found along those winding paths, only to be replaced with Shakespear who was an absolute terror in those tunnels.
Shakespear earned his place on my team as the number one Zubat deterrent on Mount Moon. He could out-perform them at every turn, pecking them out of the sky and sending a message that we were not to be trifled with by other Zubat. Those other Zubat did not get that message, however, and continued to plague us the entire time.
Among the outer caves of Mount Moon, I ran into a wide variety of trainers. As Brock had mentioned, it truly did seem as a thoroughfare for aspiring trainers to test their resolve against both the forces of nature and each other. In this particular case, Mount Moon served to test young trainers against a never ending onslaught of territorial Zubat. There were young boys and girls, among them a bug catching kid who wandered too far from Viridian Forest, I presume. I passed and challenged the occasional hiker and a science enthusiast. None posed much of a problem for my team and the pain of losing Rascal felt like it was passing somewhat.

In the heart of Mount Moon, I finally encountered members of Team Rocket. As I approached in the darkness, I heard them talking. Another young trainer had passed through quite recently and dealt them a severe Pokémon beating that still had them upset. Instead of keeping him out of their operation, he had apparently just blown straight through them and their Pokémon without hesitation. When they saw me lurking in the darkness, eavesdropping on their conversation, well they decided to take out their frustrations on me.
Although most of them were weakened by this previous trainer to a point where they couldn’t even muster a Pokémon to participate, there was one trainer in that dark tunnel I will never forget. He was the champion of their little operation under Mount Moon, and he would make me pay for wandering where I wasn’t wanted. He only had one Pokémon to face my five, but it was enough. I was lucky he didn’t have any more.

This Rocket Grunt had an absurdly powerful Raticate, an evolution of my previous Pokémon, Rascal. I knew I had to be careful and so I threw out Lucky to face him. Lucky had recently learned to harness particles on its wings into powerful toxins, and so I had Lucky blow a debilitating sleep powder onto the Dread Rocket Raticate as I would come to call it. As expected, the Raticate dozed off gently and opened itself up to tormenting psychic attacks from Lucky.
What I did not expect was its incredible resilience to Lucky’s powerful psychic ability. This ability had taken down numerous thick skinned Geodude along the tunnels of Mount Moon, but the Raticate was formidable. I could tell it was almost defeated, but just as Lucky was going to incapacitate it, Dread Rocket Raticate woke up. It quickly evaded the next attempt to spread a sleep powder. Then it bit down and it bit down hard on Lucky. It was a blow so devastating that Lucky was indeed lucky to not pass out from the strain. I had to switch.
I took a moment to collect myself with all the other Rocket grunts gathered around to cheer on their formidable leader and his terrible Raticate. I knew his Raticate was on the verge of defeat. It would only take one more solid hit to knock it out of the fight and claim a victory. Vesper was still useless. Kiwi and Shakespear were valid candidates, because of their speed and agility. But of all my Pokémon, Nibbles had the most solid defense with his very thick hide, so I felt if any of them were going to survive that devastating hyper fang it would be Nibbles.

Sadly, I was wrong. Nibbles came out of his Pokéball twitching his long ears and ready to face any challenge. Nibbles didn’t even have the chance to see what hit him. That damned Raticate bit down on Nibbles head so hard that he was done in seconds. There was no time for Nibbles to react. His fight was over before it had even begun. I let out a loud wail that echoed through the caverns beneath Mount Moon, but that exclamation of shock and disbelief was drowned out by the numerous members of Team Rocket whooping and hollering at their leader’s small victory.
It would be short lived. Kiwi came out and could sense my distress. He launched a brutal quick attack on the Dread Rocket Raticate and ended the fight in a single decisive blow. Team Rocket was not amused, but they were out of Pokémon and wouldn’t dare lay a hand on me with my trained Pokémon at my side ready to defend me.
I carefully excused myself from whatever nefarious plot they were hatching in that large cavern. They allowed me to pass on my way without any more provocation. They probably said a bunch of intimidating junk that those gangster types like to say, but honestly my heart was sunken deep into the ground. I wouldn’t have heard anything they said. Although probably meaningless to them, I had failed Nibbles and now we would part ways forever.
Speaking honestly, I had high hopes for Nibbles. He was so small and weak when we met, but he had the heart of a champion. I thought Nibbles would be with me on Victory Road, facing down the Elite Four and the Indigo Champion. I thought we would take on the world together, but these foul Team Rocket hooligans put an abrupt end to that fantasy.
I nursed Nibbles back to good health in some quiet corner of Mount Moon and spent our last remaining moments together just appreciating the company. Much like with Rascal, I tried to explain to Nibbles why it was important to me that he lived out the rest of his life here on Mount Moon (and I could truly think of no better place for him) and why I would have to press on without him. I shed a few tears and gave Nibbles a careful hug, avoiding his poisonous horn. He seemed to understand and with a final look at me, he scampered off into the darkness.
I soldiered on for Rascal and Nibbles. I pressed on to Cerulean.

Current Team:
Attacks in Blue are recently learned.

Battle for Boulder Badge

After the devastating loss of Rascal, I went back to training out on Route 2 with Lucky. There was no way a mere Metapod was going to stand up to Gym Leader Brock. I had confidence that Rascal, Nibbles and Kiwi would help me earn the Boulder Badge, but without Rascal my confidence faltered. It took us a few days, but eventually Lucky sprouted wings and evolved into Butterfree, a significant improvement over the lovably little lump of a Pokémon he was as Metapod. I did not neglect Kiwi and Nibbles during this time, either, but their progress was a bit less important.
Once Lucky had evolved, I spent what little money I had on a couple of potions at the PokéMart. Although they were expensive, I would not let another Pokémon fall in the Pewter City Gym. I absolutely would not. My nerves were shot as I stepped into the gym for the second time. I remember I was sweating and shaking just thinking about facing Brock. I saw the Junior Trainer who had bested my poor Rascal. He gave me an approving nod, but it did little to improve my disposition. Brock stood at the far end of the gym and beckoned me forward. He had seen my fight with the Junior Trainer several days ago and was eager to face me.

I clenched my jaw tightly as I threw out my first Pokémon. Kiwi met Brock’s Geodude face-to-face in the gym’s arena. We wasted no time kicking up as much dust as possible to obscure Geodude’s vision. Brock had Geodude spend most of its time curling up into a defensive ball, but every now and then it lashed out with a tackle that it simply couldn’t land on Kiwi. When I felt it’s accuracy was sufficiently incapacitated, I withdrew Kiwi and used Nibble to wear down the Geodude slowly but surely. The Geodude was powerless in the dust Kiwi’s sand-attack had kicked up and against Nibbles relentless tackling.
Then Brock threw out his champion, the Onix. I tossed Kiwi back into the ring hoping to repeat our earlier performance on Geodude. Kiwi kicked up as much sand as he could, but Onix still managed to land a lucky strike on him. It hurt Kiwi enough to discourage me from keeping Kiwi on the field any longer. Nibbles was sent out while Onix merely bided his time. I knew immediately that any attacks on Onix while in this defensive state would be unleashed twofold onto its attacker. Your only choices are to crush it swiftly, which is difficult against a rock hard Pokémon like Onix, or to wait it out.
Nibbles began to stare down his opponent while it remained in its defensive posture. Slowly this would lower the Onix’s defenses and leave it vulnerable to a massive strike. Eventually, Nibbles was exchanged for Lucky who covered the Onix in its string shot while it continued to wait for our attacks. Feeling safer, Kiwi returned to the battle to continue whipping up sand into Onix’s face. Then as soon as Onix released its defensive posturing, Kiwi slammed it with a gust from his wings and knocked the Onix to the floor.
That was how I won my first badge in the great region of Kanto.

Brock was impressed and clasped me firmly on the back with a great slap of his hand. He knew about Rascal, of course, and was pleased at my stance on training. He liked how patient and defensive I was and as a reward not only gave me a handsome sum of PokéDollars, but a Technical Machine that would teach certain eligible Pokémon his Onix’s signature technique of biding time and waiting for the counter strike. This strategy didn’t really work out well for Brock that day, so I wasn’t sure how I would incorporate it on to a team that I intended to take as few hits as possible. I didn’t want to be rude, though, so I graciously accepted the TM #34 and the Boulder Badge.
I was now officially on the road to challenge the Indigo Plateau League. I really hadn’t come to Kanto expecting to do something quite that dramatic, but I was slowly being pushed in that direction. Professor Oak had prompted me to take this journey and running into Wolf made me question what the journey really meant to me personally. The encounter with the snarky trainer in Viridian City helped me shape my personal goals and encouraged me to challenge the gyms to seek reputation and understanding in the world of Pokémon training. Now, I had my first badge pinned proudly to my backpack and I was on my way to the next adventure — with considerably more money to spend thanks to my winnings.

Current Team:
Attacks in Blue are recently learned.

Monumental Heartbreak

I made it through Viridian Forest to Pewter City safely. The Pewter Pokémon Gym was open and available, but Lucky was in no condition to train there. Instead we made daily forays into the forest to train against other Caterpie and Weedle. Eventually Lucky evolved into a Metapod which was amazing to watch. At the time, I was so excited to see an evolution first hand. It was the direct result of our diligent training together and it felt great to see Lucky move into his next life stage, growing stronger before my eyes. This physical manifestation of growth and improvement encouraged me to take our training to the next step. It encouraged me to take my team to the Pewter City Pokémon Gym.
I walked in headstrong and confident that my team was ready to face the challenges ahead. I announced myself as a challenger. I waited for the trainers representing the gym to step forward. I expected to face more than one young man before challenging Gym Leader Brock, but apparently this young trainer was the only one representing Brock that day. He only had two Pokéballs at his side, but he assured me I was no match for Brock. He was about to prove it to me firsthand.
He tossed out a Diglett which popped up out of the dirt floor of the gym. Kiwi took to the air. If the Diglett knew any ground attacks they would be wasted on Kiwi while he remained airborne. Kiwi opened with our classic Sand-Attack gambit to kick as much dust and dirt up into the Diglett’s eyes as he could. Kiwi took a few scrapes as he wore down the Diglett’s accuracy, but eventually the Diglett was completely ineffective. I switched in Nibbles to tackle the Diglett into submission.
The Junior Trainer revealed his final Pokémon to be a Sandshrew. Its defense was formidable so I used Nibble to distract him with a series of disorienting glares before pulling Nibble out of the battle. Rascal jumped in to eagerly sweep through the defenseless Sandshrew, but I miscalculated. After two vicious slashes from the Sandshrews sharp claws, Rascal was down and out. Rascal slumped to the ground unconscious. My heart sank into my stomach and I felt faint. I failed Rascal.
It was in that moment of horrible defeat that it occurred to me that I should have used a potion on Rascal. I shouldn’t have let him suffer those two powerful attacks head on. I should have sent in Kiwi to wear down the Sandshrew’s accuracy. Lucky didn’t stand a chance against this Pokémon if it took out Rascal so easily. Kiwi was my only chance to get out of this mess. I knew that if I didn’t keep my head in the game, I might be saying goodbye to more than one Pokémon that afternoon. I tried to shake off my sorrow and focus on the battle ahead.
Kiwi was much faster than the Sandshrew. He kept firmly out of reach and launched a series of quick attacks on the Sandshrew to finish it off. The Junior Trainer conceded defeat, but it was I who felt defeated that day. This young boy had no idea I’d just recently vowed to never fight my Pokémon to the point of unconsciousness. Now, just days after determining the way I wished to train and respect Pokémon, my resolve was going to be tested. Rascal and I would have to part ways.
I explained this to the trainer who didn’t quite understand, but he said the gym would be happy to watch after Rascal for me. Rascal was always enthusiastic about training and living here at the gym would be a fitting end to our relationship, so I agreed.
I took Rascal to the Pokémon Center and waited for him to recover from his injuries. I don’t really know if he understood, but I explained to him that in order for us to grow stronger I would need to let him go. We had to follow different paths, now. I had chosen a training style where I would not let my Pokémon fall in battle and even though Rascal was my very first Pokémon companion, I could not go back on my conviction. We said our goodbyes. I released Rascal to the care of the Junior Trainer at the Pewter City Pokémon Gym and withdrew my challenge.

It’s an understatement to say that I was devastated. In that moment, I certainly regretted making it my personal goal as a trainer to not push my Pokémon too far. As Wolf had said, it’s just part of the training to the average trainer. You win some and you lose some. But that just wasn’t my way. I wanted to build a place where I could protect Pokémon and people would come from all around to study and understand them better. I had to be better than the average trainer. I had to hold myself to a higher standard. Pokémon would fight. They would fight to protect me in the wild, and they would fight for my dream in competitive matches. But I had to have limits. I had to take responsibilities for my failures and this was the only way I knew how to do that.
Rascal was the first of many such failures, and saying goodbye to my first Pokémon was certainly one of the most painful experiences as a Pokémon Trainer that I have ever faced. Back in those days in Pewter City, I questioned everything about my journey. I spent a long time just wondering if I should return to Professor Oak and give up. These thoughts just stemmed from the profound sadness and disappointment, though. Ultimately, I would move on. I would grow stronger and persevere.
Beyond the tremendous heartbreak of failing to protect my first Pokémon, I was also terrified of Brock. This failure humbled me tremendously. Everything I did going forward would be taken slowly and with greater attention to strategy. This included returning to challenge Brock. Without Rascal, my team had a gaping hole that needed to be filled. The only one who could fill that hole was Lucky and so we left Pewter temporarily to train like our lives depended on it. I would absolutely not lose another Pokémon in this city.

Current Team:

A Trainer's Resolve

The sky began to darken as I made my way back into Viridian City after defeating Wolf on Route 22. There was still time to push on through Viridian Forest to Pewter City, but it looked like the weather was going to take a turn for the worse. I had my eyes on the sky as I made my way toward the Pokémon Center to get treatment for Kiwi, so I didn’t notice that I’d picked up a new follower. He had been watching me since I came back into town, but I barely noticed him. It wasn’t until I came out of the Pokémon Center and saw him leaning casually against a light post that I really noticed him. His hair was messy, and his arms were crossed against his chest. He was younger than me, but he didn’t carry himself that way. When he saw that I finally noticed him, he pushed off the light post and walked up to me confidently.
“I saw you fight,” he announced.
“Yeah? Are you a trainer?” I asked.
“Yeah. Are you?” he asked. His words had a bit of venom in them.
“What is that supposed to mean?” I asked.
“You aren’t serious at all, man. I can tell. You wouldn’t stand a chance against a real trainer like me.” He was cocky, not unlike Wolf.
“Is that a challenge?” I asked.
He laughed at me. “Oh, no. I’m being sincere. You need to get serious before you can take on someone like me.” I rolled my eyes and began walking away from him. I had swallowed enough attitude already that day. He quickly followed after me. “Hey, I’m not trying to offend you,” he assured me, though his tone wasn’t as convincing. “I just can’t stand to see casual jokers like you walking around calling themselves Pokémon trainers. Sure, there are bug catching kids who are out having some fun, but then there’s real training. Your friend back there on Route 22 said he was going to challenge the Indigo League. What about you? What are you doing?”
“I’ve been training,” I said. “Real training. What do you know about it?”
“Are you going to take the Gym Leader Challenge? Are you going to face the League? What? I’m serious. Why are you here?” He was persistent.
“I am going to start a Pokémon Sanctuary,” I reluctantly said, hoping it would be enough for him to leave me alone.
“Oh, like a Pokémon Safari?” he asked. He seemed genuinely interested which was a departure from my encounter with Wolf.
“Similar, I guess. I want to create a natural habitat for as many Pokémon I can and provide a safe place for them to live and interact with humans in a natural environment. You wouldn’t catch them. You’d go there to understand them better. Maybe to study them in a safe environment, or just to understand yourself and your relationship with Pokémon better. You know?”
“My grandfather would love a place like that,” he said with a snicker. “So you’re what? Playing at training?”
“No. Not at all. It’s important to me to understand Pokémon, so it’s important for me to be a trainer. I’m traveling Kanto to catch, record and study as much as I am here to train and battle. Why do you care?” I suddenly stopped to ask him.
“I told you. I can’t stand seeing trainers like you. You looked so pathetic out there against that other guy. Yeah, you won, but you looked like a chump. You gotta get serious,” he announced. “If you want respect in Kanto, you gotta take your training seriously.” He flashed a couple of badges he had pinned to his backpack. “You earn these and people will know you’re serious. Maybe some day I’ll see you up on the Indigo Plateau.” He laughed as if that thought amused him, but I sensed he wasn’t mocking me this time. He was genuinely enjoying a thought of us battling it out in the big league matches on the plateau.
“What do you think I should do?” I asked rhetorically.
“You need to figure out what Pokémon training means to you. Stop thinking about your Sanctuary, or whatever, for a minute. Maybe that will happen, or maybe it won’t, but right now you need to figure out what kind of trainer you are and what your Pokémon mean to you.” He ran his fingers through his messy, brown hair and nodded to the building across from us. “Look at that place. What a disgrace.” We’d stopped just near the Viridian Pokémon Gym. “If I ran that place, it would be open all day every day, so trainers could come and train or challenge the gym. That’s what it means to me. I’m ready to train, to fight, to win all day and every day. The guy who runs this place is a coward. The League should kick him out and give this gym to someone who actually cares.” I could only nod in reluctant agreement. “Look, I just wanted to pull you aside and tell you if youI  are gonna face guys like that or guys like me, you better get serious about it. You’re only going to get yourself or your Pokémon hurt if you don’t and that really pisses me off.”
“I’ll think about what you said,” I offered. He seemed to take that answer as the best he could get and nodded a gruff approval.
“Good. Maybe someday when you’re ready we’ll have a real battle. Smell ya later.” He laughed at me and walked off.
I rolled my eyes behind his back. What did this kid know about me? Even still, his words stuck with me for a long time.

Rain drizzled down the leaves of Viridian Forest, methodically finding their way down to the ground where I was making my way. The dense forest was dark and gloomy even on the best of days. As a result it was full of bug Pokémon, including the newest addition to my small team. I was lucky to run into a Caterpie with my last remaining Pokéball. I was told by the Pokédex that they were quite rare that time of year. As a result, I named him Lucky. I ran into a handful of bug-catching kids who wanted to battle and throughout these few fights I could only think about what that kid in Viridian City had said to me.
Was I any different from these kids who were mostly playing at Pokémon training? Did I have what it takes to stand face to face against real dangers in the wild? Could I some day challenge the very best trainers in Kanto with confidence? In the wake of my battle with Wolf earlier that morning, and the unsettling conversation with a pushy little trainer outside Viridian Gym, it’s fair to say that my trek through Viridian Forest changed me. It was where I decided exactly what kind of Pokémon trainer I was going to be, and how I would achieve my goals as a trainer and future preservationist of Pokémon.
I decided as I made my way onward to Pewter City that if I expected my Pokémon not to fail me, then I could not fail them. I decided that if I were going to build a safe place for Pokémon to live and interact with each other and with humans, I needed to build a safe space for them on my team. I needed to understand their strengths and their weaknesses. Unlike Wolf who was content to just laugh as his Pokémon fainted, laugh as he traded away a tiny fraction of his disposable credits to me, I would not accept fainting as a part of training. I made the decision that my Pokémon would never be pushed to the point of  breaking. If I ever failed them, even once, I would let them go. I would find them a better home, or release them back into their habitats to live out their days naturally. As I passed through Viridian Forest, I emerged from my own cocoon with a newfound purpose and seriousness. I had decided exactly what it meant to me to be a trainer and hopefully someday the owner of the world’s first successful Pokémon Sanctuary.

Current Team:

The Lone Wolf

What can I say about Wolf that you haven’t heard somewhere before? My relationship with Wolf has almost always been complicated. We grew up together and were friends when we were young. We spent most weekends and holidays together back then and we were practically inseparable. We spent so much time playing and talking about what kind of Pokémon we’d train when we grew up, it’s crazy to think how far we’d ultimately drift apart. We were like brothers in those early days. The rift began to grow between us when we entered our teens.
It’s safe to say I still don’t completely understand what happened to this day. We just began to see things differently and move in different social circles. The kids around us were getting their first Pokémon and heading off on their Pokémon journeys, but not us. I didn’t have the means to head out with a Pokémon when I was that young. Wolf, however, did have the means to leave on a Pokémon adventure. Wolf had the means to do whatever he wanted, but by that time he wasn’t all that interested  in Pokémon anymore. He was interested in money. We didn’t see eye to eye, and as a result we really didn’t see each other much at all for quite a few years. But over those years a bitterness grew between us.
As I followed those excited youngsters through the streets of Viridian City, there’s no way I could have known I was about to see Wolf again. I would never have even imagined that he was in Kanto. The last I had heard about Wolf was that he was running a small but successful business back home. I believe it was a Pokémon Rental service for people wanting to experience Pokémon battles and training, but without the fuss of leaving home or frankly doing any of the work that comes along with it. When I found out, I was hurt that I hadn’t been invited to help start it up. We grew up dreaming about working with Pokémon, and then he went and started without me. I felt so left behind by my childhood friend that I completely distanced myself from him. Speaking honestly, I may have always been a bit jealous that success came so easily to him and that he took his family’s generous start up money for granted.

I found the mysterious newcomer to town quite near the open field where I caught Nibbles. From a distance I could see him gazing up at Indigo Plateau. I rushed across the field to challenge him. The two city kids were just behind me eager to see a Pokémon battle with their own eyes. When my footfalls came into earshot, the trainer turned around and when I saw the face of my former friend I was completely stunned. My feet faltered to a complete stop. The children behind me almost slammed into my backpack because I stopped so abruptly. The expression on Wolf’s face was also one of surprise, but it quickly melted into a sneer.
“What are you doing here, Fox?” I remember him asking.
“I heard there was a trainer out here. I didn’t know it was you.” I felt my words coming out as a stutter. “I came out here to challenge you.”
“Oh. No.” His tone was sympathetic. “I mean, what are you doing in Kanto?” I felt stupid that I misunderstood him.
“I’m here to start the Sanctuary. You remember my idea, right? I want to start a Pokémon preservation park. I’m still working out the details, but Professor Oak agreed to help me get started.”
“Right. Yeah. I remember.” He laughed a little. “It’s a cute idea, but I thought you’d have given up on that by now.” I remember his tone felt so condescending at the time. I felt flush with anger. He either didn’t notice or didn’t care. Wolf turned to look back up into the mountains. “I’m here to challenge the champion of Indigo Plateau,” he announced smugly.
“I thought you were running some company back home,” I asked through clenched teeth. I didn’t really want to talk about it, but I also didn’t want Wolf to be here right now.
“Yeah. I am.” He spoke without looking at me. “I hired some managers, which gives me a bit more free time. It practically runs itself. So instead I’m here to challenge the Kanto Pokémon League.” He turned back to look me in the eye. I felt he was mocking me when he asked, “Did you say you wanted to challenge me?” He looked as though the thought was delightfully amusing. He looked as though fighting me was beneath him.
I had a newfound conviction in my voice when I answered. “Yeah. I do. Are you ready or do you need a minute to collect yourself?” I took Kiwi’s ball from its holster on my backpack strap.
Wolf looked me straight in the eyes and laughed. “You’re so serious, man. I’m ready. I’ll fight you with the junkémon I just got.” We both tossed out our Pokéballs and both our Pidgeys faced off against one another.

The fight was absolutely nerve wracking. Not only was this my first competitive battle ever, but it was against someone I couldn’t bear to lose against. It was an understatement to say I was determined to win. Not to mention, I simply couldn’t afford to fail. I needed that money I’d get from a victory over Wolf to support myself in the future. Meanwhile, the look on Wolf’s face appeared as if he couldn’t care less.
Kiwi and his Pidgey circled each other overhead sizing each other up. Kiwi dove down into the grass and buffeted some dirt and soil up into his opponents face. I stifled a small smile that some of the dirt and grass found its way into Wolf’s face as well. The attack was a complete success, for both of Wolf’s Pidgey’s next couple attacks missed Kiwi outright. Although Kiwi had the advantage, Kiwi only managed to lightly wound his opponent before it landed a very lucky strike on Kiwi knocking him from the sky and into the grass.
I remember my heart leapt into my throat seeing Kiwi hit so hard. I immediately withdrew him and tossed out Rascal. Wolf’s Pidgey was significantly weakened now and still couldn’t see clearly. Rascal had done most of his training against other Pidgey, so I was confident he would win. He did not disappoint me. Landing a decisive quick attack on Wolf’s Pidgey put the bird completely out of commission. I watched as it fell defeated into the grass and I was flooded with a mixture of emotions. I was elated that I was now winning against my former friend, but I was sad that his Pokémon had gotten so badly hurt in the process. This battle marked the beginning of many conflicting feelings about caring for Pokémon and also battling with them.
Wolf withdrew his fainted Pidgey and tossed out the only other Pokémon he had with him. I was surprised to see him with such a rare Pokémon as Squirtle - one that Professor Oak had promised he would track down for me if I could help him test the Pokédex. Then I remembered Wolf came from a wealthy family. It probably was not that big of a deal to him to have this fairly uncommon Pokémon rounding out his team. Wolf made me so angry, so frustrated. He made it all look so easy. I think Rascal could feel how heated I was, because he was also worked up into a frenzy. After distracting the Squirtle with a series of mesmerizing tail whips, he devastated it with a well placed tackle to its exposed head. Wolf was utterly defeated, but I was still angry.
Wolf laughed as he withdrew his Pokémon. He laughed!
“You’re really worked up over this, huh?” he asked me.
I denied it even though he could see right through me.
“Well, good match. I’ll transfer you the winning credits.” He shrugged. “It was good to see you, Fox. Keep training. Maybe we can have a rematch some time.”
“Don’t you even care?” I demanded as he turned to walk away from me. “You lost! Your Pokémon are completely knocked out.” I honestly have no idea what I wanted from him. I don’t know what he could have said to make me feel better. Even in defeat his arrogance and his self-entitlement defeated my spirit. My grand victory over my rival felt like a complete failure, in part because he didn’t even care.
“Fainting is part of the training process, Fox.” He said nonchalantly. “I can afford to help them heal and get back into the fight. It’s no big deal. Next time I see you, we’ll do it all again.” With that our first encounter in Kanto was over as he casually strolled back into Viridian City. The children rushed up to me to congratulate me. Their happy, smiling faces beaming with pride at their new friend’s victory made me feel just a bit better. But my eyes kept drifting to Wolf’s back as it slowly disappeared into the city.

Current Team:
No Change from Episode 2

Nibbles & Kiwi

The early days in Kanto were tough. I didn’t have enough money to survive on my own for long. What little money I did have I spent on food, lodging and a meager collection of Pokéballs. Aside from my companion, Rascal, that’s all I had. Even though I had a Pokédex on loan from Professor Oak, I was still a long way off from building the Sanctuary and filling it with Pokémon from all over the world. I remained in good spirits, but I had to make some tough financial decisions. I knew that Pokémon trainers dealt primarily in PokéDollars which were universally accepted, but in order to earn some I’d need to find other trainers interested in competitive battling for prize money. Losing was not an option, because the risk of losing money to another trainer would doom the entire adventure. Winning a competitive match certainly meant bolstering my team, so while I waited patiently for the Viridian Pokémon Gym to reopen its doors to the public, I set out to capture new companions.
Rascal was really thriving due to our training. He had grown much stronger from our first encounter in the fields beyond Pallet. His progress filled me with confidence. West of Viridian City in the foothills of the Indigo Plateau, we encountered an aggressive, little Nidoran. As absurd as it may seem, I think the Nidoran was weaker than Rascal when Professor Oak and I first caught him. He was puny and feeble, but he made up for it in sheer enthusiasm. I named that little fellow Nibbles and we began training as soon as he was rested. Nibbles was always eager to train and never shied from a challenge.
Now, I do recall the Pokédex made the distinction that Nibbles was male. I remember clearly because I pondered this several times throughout my journey in Kanto. Pokémon gender at the time was nothing more than hypothetical conjecture. There was no definitive study on the subject, and Professor Oak’s Pokédex entry on the Nidoran species compiled by me and other contemporary Pallet Town trainers would spark a more conclusive investigation in the near future. I used the computer in the Viridian Pokémon Center to email Professor Oak several times about Nibble and the Pokédex entry. He requested I find a female variant of the species, but in all my searching of Kanto that year, I was never able to capture one. The closest I came to a female Nidoran was in trainer battles which collected a good amount of data, but unfortunately not as much as I’d be collecting on Pokémon directly in my care.

Training Nibbles was a lot of work. In those early days, he was pretty useless in a battle. We relied heavily on Rascal to teach him how to handle himself and get him ready for competitive battling in the future. Some days we were out in the south training against wild Rattata and Pidgey. On other days we made our way into the shadow of Indigo Plateau to the west and were fighting Rattata and other Nidoran. Eventually, Nibble’s aggressive and enthusiastic nature paid off and he was able to protect me from all the wild Pokémon we encountered. He was ready, but unfortunately the gym was still closed. So we ventured to the north side of Viridian City for the first time to see what we could find, capture and study there.
On Route 2, Nibbles pinned down a Pidgey which I expertly captured. Kiwi was a welcome addition to the team. Kiwi was the strongest wild Pokémon we’d subdued so far, possibly stronger than both Rascal and Nibbles combined when I first met them. This made him a lot easier to train. He was able to steadily hold his own against wild Pokémon right away. The four of us continued to train around Viridian City until my two weeks worth of paid lodging expired. At that point, it was time to move on. There were no trainers to fight in Viridian City and I had given up on the gym reopening in time to rescue me from my financial crisis. I would have to take the team north through the forest to Pewter City and hope the competitive Pokémon scene was better.
I packed my meager supplies into my backpack and headed out the north gate. I would have been well on my way down Route 2 toward the Viridian Forest, except I had happened to overhear a conversation between two children. They noticed the Pokéballs holstered to my backpack and began excitedly chatting. They found it coincidental that I happened to be leaving just as a new trainer was arriving. I casually approached the children, trying to pretend I wasn’t eavesdropping, but soon was crouched down beside them. With wide and eager eyes and perhaps a hint of desperation in my tone, I asked them where I could find this new trainer in town.
They began jumping up and down in excitement, asking if we were going to battle. Laughing, I told them it would be up to the other trainer, but I was hoping to challenge him. The next thing I remember, all three of us were rushing through the city streets toward Route 22. My heart was pumping at the thought of my first trainer battle. My finances were completely forgotten, too. My brain was a complete blur. The only thing I could think about was the challenge and the thrill. Despite building and training my team for two weeks, I really wasn’t prepared for what we would find on the road to Indigo Plateau.

Current Team:
Attacks in Blue are recently learned.

Tabula Rattata

You could say this all started back when I met Professor Oak in Pallet Town. My story doesn’t start out much different from the stories of many other young aspiring Pokémon enthusiasts. The idea to build a Pokémon preserve and sanctuary came to me much earlier, of course, but I didn’t start working on it in earnest until after a very long discussion with the original Pokémon Professor. His research on the natural relationships between humans and Pokémon, particularly his work on shared habitats and habitats in close proximity, really inspired some of my early ideas of building a park that people and Pokémon could both enjoy.
I had wanted to meet Professor Oak in person for quite some time, but travel to the Kanto region was quite expensive for me as a teenager. I was seventeen when I first read some of Professor Oak’s articles in current Pokémon journals. I learned that the professor was working on a revolutionary new device that was capable of recording and studying Pokémon both in the wild and in captivity. We know this device today as the Pokédex, and back then it really ignited my budding desire to capture, catalog and build an environment in which Pokémon could thrive and people could come study or otherwise spend time with them. The Pokédex is exactly what I felt I needed to set things into motion and so I began corresponding with Professor Oak several months before we actually met in person.
Through our correspondence, the professor was more than happy to keep me up to date on his progress with the Pokédex. When it was finally ready for field testing he sent me a personal invitation to Kanto. The idea was to form a mutually beneficial relationship where I helped him test the Pokédex while he and the Pokédex itself would help me begin my arduous task that lay ahead. I spent almost all I had saved to get myself to Kanto, but it was completely worth it looking back. The Pokédex proved to be invaluable to my task, and Professor Oak himself was an amazing mentor.
The day I arrived in Pallet Town, Professor Oak and I spoke about Pokémon passionately for several hours. I understood the fundamentals of catching and battling Pokémon, of course, but the professor was shocked to know that I’d never caught or trained a Pokémon myself. During the course of our talk, he convinced me that in order to build my Pokémon Sanctuary, I would need to know all I could about Pokémon and that there was no less certain way than to begin my journey as a Pokémon Trainer. He entrusted me with one of his earliest versions of the Pokédex which was rudimentary compared to what we see nowadays, but still unbelievably advanced at the time. Then he took me out to a field just beyond the boundaries of Pallet Town where we waited patiently for an opportunity to catch my first Pokémon.
While we were sitting out in that field, Professor Oak told me that he had recently given away his last remaining Pokémon, so we would have to wait for a Pokémon significantly weakened and unable to resist capture. He also told me that if I were successful at field testing his Pokédex in Kanto, he would make sure to acquire the three beginner Pokémon that he’d recently given away to young Kanto trainers from Pallet Town. The Charmander, Squirtle and Bulbasaur native to Kanto were extremely rare and Professor Oak was one of the few ways to get ahold of such unique Pokémon. It was a rare opportunity for me to get some exclusive Pokémon into my Sanctuary when I was able to open it. Sitting there in the tall grass with Professor Oak, I knew that this was one of those important moments in my life where everything was about to change forever. I took a great risk coming to Pallet Town with my life’s savings, but I would eventually leave with my first Pokémon companion and the very tool I would need to catch, catalog, study and care for every new Pokémon I could find. It felt amazing.

Now, catching that first Pokémon was not at all what I was expecting. It’s safe to say that my first Pokémon was quite possibly the most feeble and sickly Rattata within three miles. We saw many healthy Pidgey and Rattata soaring through the air or scurrying through the grasses, but the professor assured me that we’d only be wasting our Pokéballs on them unless they were weakened. It was a daunting test of patience, but finally the most pathetic Rattata the world has ever known crossed our paths and was easily captured. He was scrawny and weak, but he was mine and I really did adore that little fellow. I named him Rascal and we were instant friends. Once I was armed with my own captured Pokémon and a Pokédex, Professor Oak and I parted ways. He told me to head north towards Viridian City - a bit of a sleepy hamlet compared to the cities I was used to back home. Along the way I could train Rascal and I would be able to find a gym in Viridian where I could continue the training.
Some of my toughest challenges as a trainer were those first few days with Rascal. He was honestly much too weak to face a full strength Pidgey or Rattata, so again we had to choose our battles carefully. I made sure he was well fed, rested and groomed, but actually getting battle experience and building up his strength was a tedious job. Although your first Pokémon is intended to keep you safe from wild Pokémon that have a tendency to be territorial, Rascal couldn’t really protect me from much of anything on that initial trip up to Viridian City. We made our way very slowly and carefully avoiding unwanted attention. I took the time, hiding in the long grass, to sketch Rascal and wild Pokémon alike, but we did everything in our power to avoid unnecessary battles. They could have been a disastrous and premature end to my Pokémon journey.
Rascal and I did come stumbling into Viridian City sometime after dark that day, if I recall. I was broke having spent everything I had just getting to the Kanto region, but what little I did have I spent on Pokéballs and some lodging there in the city. I spent at least a week in Viridian City. Part of the reason was waiting for the Pokémon gym to reopen after a mysterious closure some time before we arrived, but part of me was also taking the time to slowly build up Rascal’s strength and endurance. Alongside Rascal, I carefully studied the Rattata and Pidgey found along Route 1 which connected the city to Pallet Town. At first, Rascal could only confront other Rattata that we found alone and vulnerable, but slowly - painfully slowly - he built up enough strength to defend against healthy Rattata and Pidgey as well. It was a harrowing week of hiding and running from the strong, and building up Rascal’s ability and confidence on the weak, but we managed to persevere.


Current Team:

The Pokémon Sanctuary Project

Alola! Welcome to my new writing project!

I've been a Pokémon fan since I picked up Pokémon Red in 1998 just before my 18th birthday. Over the years, I have toyed with the idea of building a comprehensive Pokémon zoo of sorts. It's a huge undertaking that grows with every passing generation of Pokémon game that adds more Pokémon to collect. I've started and failed a few times over the years to create a comprehensive collection of Pokémon to carry forward into future generations.

The closest I came was in a Pokémon Emerald run I did in 2008 (roughly). I'm not sure if those creatures are still on a copy of Emerald, or stored in the Ruby/Sapphire Box on some Gamecube memory stick somewhere. I may try to hunt them down in the future, but for the purposes of this project I'm starting from scratch, and I'm starting where it all began. I'll be playing through the Virtual Console version of Pokémon Red.

I'm going to be documenting this journey in the form of a serial narrative. I hope to upload a short story every week as I progress through Pokémon Red with my created character, Fox, who aspires to be a world renown Pokémon collector and zoologist. In order to make his story more interesting to read, I will also be doing the initial playthrough as a Nuzlocke Challenge that I will detail below. As I handle the writing, my brother will be doing some original art for the series to spice up the adventure. I hope this will make the experience fun and interesting for personal friends and Pokémon fans alike.

The Nuzlocke Challenge

1. Any Pokémon that faints must be released. 
2. Only the first Pokémon encountered in each area can be caught. No second chances. 
3. All Pokémon will have personalized nicknames to make them more endearing. 

These are the basic rules of the challenge and speaking retrospectively they really make the early game quite challenging and intense. I've never had more tense encounters in an RPG in my life. In addition to these rules, I have also decided that (for the sake of the narrative) I will not be using a starter Pokémon. The challenge starts for me when Fox catches his first Pokémon on Route 1 and then trades away the Charmander he used to catch it. I've run from all battles before that point and just rushed to a point where you can catch your Pokémon. So Rattata or Pidgey (no spoilers! don't look at the episode title!) will be the first and only Pokémon on my team leaving Route 1.

Addendum: I will not be catching an HM Slave. All HMs will be taught to actual members of the team unless I hit a roadblock. If the path forward requires an HM that I absolutely cannot teach without catching a new Pokémon, then an HM Slave may be caught. If that occurs, that Pokémon will only exclusively be used for the HMs and never for battle, but I will be trying to avoid this at all cost. Having one of four battle moves taken up by an HM adds to the challenge, but I won't accept it as a loss if I get to an impasse due to HM nonsense and am forced to catch an extra Pokémon.

• Episode 1 - Tabula Rattata
• Episode 2 - Nibbles & Kiwi
• Episode 3 - The Lone Wolf
• Episode 4 - A Trainer's Resolve
• Episode 5 - Monumental Heartbreak
• Episode 6 - Battle for Boulder Badge
• Episode 7 - The Dread Rocket Raticate
• Episode 8 - The Nugget Bridge Rematch
• Episode 9 - Something Oddish in Cerulean
• Episode 10 - Kanto Underground
• Episode 11 - All Aboard the S.S. Anne!
• Episode 12 - A Tremendous Chop to the Team
• Episode 13 - The Team Surges Forward
• Episode 14 - A Wild Side Quest Appears
• Episode 15 - Putting a Pin in Lavender Town
• Episode 16 - Quiet Gardens of Celadon