Chapter 3: A Mazelike Forest!

In the last chapter, Jordan and Dalton reached Viridian City! But the gym was closed, and it turned out to be only something of a temporary rest stop. But then they met a new friend, Kendall, who offered to help them get to Pewter City. Now everyone is prepared to head north, where they’ll make a trek through an ominous forest. Now we’ll see how they cope with the trouble that lurks within…


“What’s that?” Jordan asked, as the three of them and Pichu progressed until they saw a gate house.
“That leads into a large maze of trees called the Viridian Forest. It’s very hard to progress through for beginning trainers, but there are three of us, so it shouldn’t be too hard,” Kendall explained.
Dalton passed a large overgrown tree blocking a path that led somewhere. “I wonder where that goes?” he pondered.
“I’m not sure either,” Kendall wondered. “I think those types of trees grow in narrow paths like that.”

Pichu ran forward to the entrance of the large gatehouse, and everyone else caught up to him.
“Are we going to go in?” Dalton asked.
“I think so… there’s no use in waiting around,” Jordan replied.
So they went through the gatehouse, and when they stepped out, they were on the other side, in a dark maze of thick, tall trees and wild Pokemon.


“Okay, this place is really unnerving,” Dalton mumbled.
“Well, just follow me,” Kendall said. “I’ve been here once before, so I think I know where to go.”
Jordan nodded slowly and looked around at the shadowy trees and the faint glints of sunlight nearly obscured by them. At times the thick grass around them seemed to rustle, probably teeming with wild Pokemon.
“Are you sure we’re heading the right way?” Dalton asked Kendall. They were walking northwest where it only seemed to grow deeper, and the grass looked like it could go up to their waists.
“Absolutely,” Kendall said, and then the path swung eastwards. They began walking in that direction, until suddenly the grass right in front of Jordan parted violently.

“WHOA!!” Jordan screamed as a Caterpie sprung out of the thick grass. “Go, Pichu!!”
Pichu leapt forth at Caterpie and the two of them stared at each other. The Caterpie did not, in fact, seem that aggressive, but it had startled everyone.
“You should try catching it,” Kendall advised, which Dalton agreed to.
“Okay! Pichu, use Thundershock!!” Jordan yelled. Pichu sent out jolts of electricity at Caterpie, zapping it.
Caterpie shook its head and then spat a long silky thread at Pichu, entangling his arms and limbs.
“That will make him move slower,” Kendall said.
“Okay, no big deal. Pichu, just be brave and use another Thundershock!” Jordan yelled out. Pichu let loose with a second Thundershock move.
“Caaah!” Caterpie whined as it got charged with a large amount of volts. Now weakened, it stood there facing Jordan indecisively.
“Okay, Caterpie! It’s time to meet my little friend!” Jordan yelled, and he tossed a Pokeball he had at the ready. The red and white sphere flew at Caterpie, who got instantly swallowed up.

“Will it be caught?!” Dalton asked in suspense.
“It should be. I wore it down a lot,” Jordan said with a nod.
The Pokeball shook once, then twice. The red light on its button did not fade.
Kendall stared at it. “It’s slowing down…”
The Caterpie ceased struggling, and the light faded.
“I caught a Pokemon…” Jordan stated.
“I CAUGHT A POKEMON!! SWEET!!” he elatedly screamed. His arms shaking, he dashed over to the Pokeball and picked it up. “I caught a Caterpie! That’s the first Pokemon I ever caught!”

Jordan stared into his Pokeball. There he had his second companion, after Pichu. Now he had a team.
“Hmm… I think you should give it a nickname,” Kendall remarked.
“What? A nickname?” Jordan wondered. He had almost forgotten the others were there, as he was still standing there staring at his Pokeball.
“Definitely. It gives your Pokemon a lot more personality. I do it to all of mine. You and Dalton should name all your Pokemon, in fact! It gets bland calling them by their species.”
“Alright. But… urgh…”
“What?” Dalton asked.
“I have no idea what to name the Caterpie I just caught…” Jordan said stumpedly as he opened Caterpie’s Pokeball. The caterpillar Pokemon seemed feminine, so he assumed it was a she.
“Well, if you can’t think of one, just come back to it later,” Kendall answered with a simple shrug.
“Yeah… my mind’s totally drawing a blank. But Pichu… uhhhh…”

“Are you drawing a blank with him too? Jeez…” Kendall said.
“I’ll just name him something that sounds cool. Xentaro. It has no real meaning, but… it’s complex at the same time,” Jordan determined.
Pichu’s eyes widened. “Pichu pi?” Pichu asked.
“Yeah. I think I’ll name you Xentaro. Xentaro the Pichu… and when you evolve that’ll be even more fitting. So now, you’re Xentaro.”
Xentaro looked thoughtful for a second and then smiled. “Chu.”
Meanwhile, Dalton had his Eevee out. “I’ll name you………. Errrrrrrrrrr…”
“Having a tough time too?” Jordan asked.
“…………VEE! Vee the Eevee! Yeah! Vee! Get it? It’s the last three letters in Eevee,” Dalton explained as if that wasn’t glaringly obvious.
“I guess there’s no problem with that. It’s pretty cute…” Kendall decided.
“Agreed,” Jordan said. “Now, can we get a move on? I feel like more Pokemon’s eyes are on us.”


The heroes kept wandering through the darkness. The trees curved off again southward, and they began picking up the pace, dashing through the thick grass.
“I have a feeling we’ve made hardly any progress,” Dalton complained.
“I’m just happy with having another Pokemon!” Jordan said.
“I’m sure we’re getting there,” Kendall replied, as they saw a guard house up ahead.
Dalton noticed a sign and read it. “You must weaken a Pokemon before it can be captured… trouble is, I’ve read that sign before.”

“What?” Kendall asked. “Wait, did we go in a circle? AUGH!”
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Dalton groaned.
“Well, it would help if we kept walking instead of standing and making remarks…” Jordan said sarcastically.
“Fine! Let’s keep going!” Kendall said. They took another path through the woodland, but things only seemed to get more sinister.

Another human figure’s silhouette lurked a long way down the path. Uneasily, Kendall started running forth. “Hello?”
A young boy with a giant straw hat turned his head to face the group of people walking in his direction. “Did you ask for a challenge?”
“Umm, no! I was just wondering who you were,” Kendall explained hastily.
“Well, why don’t we have a battle anyway? I’ll get to show off my bug collection!” he proposed.
“Alright, I suppose so. Let’s go, Kusabana…” Kendall said, throwing her Poke Ball and casting a sorrowful glance at what appeared there. “Kusabana…”
Kusabana blinked back at her trainer, but gave out a sigh and faced forward. Kendall straightened up uncertainly as the other Poke Ball collided with the ground.
Out of the Poke Ball appeared a Kakuna, a yellow cocoon Pokemon.

“It may be glaring at us, but it’s weak…” Kendall said to Kusabana. On the inside, she was disappointed that they were fighting a weak trainer. She didn’t want Kusabana to be so unhappy… it couldn’t continue much longer. She shook her head and yelled, “Use Leech Seed!”
Kusabana stood there disdainfully. Kendall’s eyes opened. “Kusabana, it’ll make the battle easier! Please, use it!”
Kusabana blinked and shot a seed at Kakuna.
“Your Pokemon not fully there?” the bug catcher said. “Kakuna, use Harden!”
Kakuna’s shell became stiffer and tougher, but the seed hit its mark and began leeching from Kakuna’s body. The cocoon’s health began draining rapidly…
“Just please work with me for this battle,” Kendall pleaded. “Kusabana, use Tackle!”
Kusabana turned up her nose, but began charging anyway. Kakuna tumbled over on its side, getting weak but still glaring at its opponents.
“Poison Sting!” the bug catcher yelled. Kakuna shot a barb of poison at Kusabana, which zipped through the air and struck her in the bulb. Her legs buckled painfully – she had become poisoned!
Kusabana narrowed her eyes at Kendall. Kendall hesitated, but then said, “Kusabana. I’m sorry. I… didn’t tell you to dodge it. Keep Tackling, and I’ll heal you after the battle. I-I promise.”
Kusabana’s eyes wandered off into nowhere, but she charged forth and struck Kakuna again, sending it flying. The cocoon Pokemon was taking serious damage, and its health was draining beneath the halfway point. “This is almost over,” Kendall said after a period of silence.
“Grr… I can’t win. Kakuna, use another Poison Sting!”
Kakuna pricked Kusabana with another poison dart, but Kusabana wasn’t much effected. The poisoned Pokemon looked on as Kakuna’s eyes drooped with fatigue. She then ran forth and slammed into the Kakuna one last time, sending it bowling over into a tree, and unconscious.

“Return,” the bug catcher groaned, lifting his Pokeball. The red energy beam absorbed Kakuna and beamed it back into its trainer’s hand. “Your Bulbasaur doesn’t seem to want to listen to you.”
“Y-yeah, maybe,” Kendall mumbled as she returned Kusabana. Kusabana seemed to stare vaguely in the direction of Jordan as she turned red and got transported into the capsule. “Bye…”
Kendall trudged off silently down the path while Jordan and Dalton looked at her with concern. They dashed after her, and the Bug Catcher shrugged and ran back to the city, leaving only the darkness of the spot in the forest that was their battlefield.

“Are you okay?” Jordan asked.
Kendall lifted her bowed head a little. They had stopped to sit down deep in the forest, before they tackled the winding path ahead.
“I really feel like I’m not good enough for Kusabana. She needs a better trainer, one that… I don’t know,” Kendall explained. “She always has been… a high-class Pokemon, and I want the best for her. It depresses me that I’m not living up to her standards…”
“Well, we’ll try to help in any way that we can,” Jordan proclaimed. “Right, Dalton?”
“Yeah,” Dalton chimed in.
“Thank you… but… I don’t know how,” Kendall sighed. It looked like tears were forming in her eyes.


The forest was so dark that only sparse spots of sunlight were shining into the path they walked. Kendall had taken care of Kusabana with an Antidote and everyone had charged forth.
“Doesn’t it feel like we’re near the end?” Dalton pondered.
“Yeah, which is good. Look…” Jordan remarked, pointing into the sky. It was getting redder and redder.
“The sun is setting?” a mostly recovered Kendall asked. She had cheered up with the prospect of continuing to Pewter City. “We’ll need to hurry out of here. Let’s go!”
Kendall ran ahead through the thick grass, and Dalton agreed and passed Jordan to follow her. But right before his eyes, a Pokemon sprung up out of the grass!
“AAAAH!” he screamed, and he fumbled his Pokeball. It dropped to the ground, and the yellow wormlike Pokemon rammed the button with the spike on its head in challenge. In a burst of light, Vee materialized.

“A Pokemon challenged you!! Fight it, Dalton!” Jordan yelled.
“I’m getting on it,” Dalton groaned. He stared down the worm Pokemon, and opened up his Pokedex.
“Weedle,” the Pokedex declared. “the hairy Pokemon. It eats its weight in leaves every day. It fends off attackers with the needle on its head.”
“Okay, Vee! Watch out for that needle!” Dalton said. “Tackle it!”
Vee charged straight forward to the Weedle, but it lowered its own head, causing Vee to run straight into its needle. “Veeee!” he cried out with a shudder.
“Vee, are you okay?” Dalton asked.
“That’s a strange reaction,” Kendall said. “He might be poisoned.”
Vee groaned and then dashed at the Weedle again in defiance, barreling into his body, and they rolled over eachother and collapsed. Vee got off of a squished Weedle.
“Uhh… Weedle looks kind of… overwhelmed.” Jordan commented.
“Biiiidle,” Weedle murmured.
“Maybe it was weak, so it’s easily worn out,” Kendall decided.
“Well, let me try to catch him!!” Dalton yelled, and he threw a Poke Ball without delay. It missed and broke on the ground.

“….”

“Okay, I’ll try again!” Dalton yelled. He readied a Pokeball, but Weedle got up and shot a dart from the needle on its head. It struck the ground before Vee, causing him to jump and run in circles in alarm.
“Eeeveeveeeeee!!” Vee yelled.
“Maybe I need to hit it one more time,” Dalton decided. “Vee, tackle him!”
Vee jumped at Weedle and slammed into the worm, sending him flying backwards and tumbling onto its back in pain. Weedle tried to right itself, but it was too exhausted to move.
“The perfect chance!” Kendall shouted.
“POKE BALL, GO!” Dalton yelled. The Pokeball soared at Weedle and captured him, and it hardly shook before the light faded.
“I win! I wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin!!” Dalton sang as he picked up the Poke Ball.
“Name him!” Kendall yelled.
“Uhhhh… okay! I’ll name him Spear, after the spear on his head. That good enough?” Dalton asked.
“Sure, now heal Vee!” Jordan pointed out.
“Shut up, yeah, yeah!!” Dalton shouted as he grabbed the Antidote from the Poke Mart and sprayed Vee. Vee had some relief as the poison in his body healed. “Jeez, will you guys ever gimme a break?” Dalton groaned.
“Just gotta look out for your Pokemon! But anyway, we both have two Pokemon. That makes us even,” Jordan said.
“And I have… two Pokemon…” Kendall contributed. But then it dawned on her that the darkness had become nearly unbearable, and she gave a start running towards the visible exit house.

“Whoa, we’re almost out of Viridian Forest!” Jordan yelled.
Dalton recalled Vee. “No, really,” he said.
“Come on, Xentaro!” Jordan shouted. Xentaro ran after him, and Dalton came behind.
“I didn’t use to be the slowest person here! STOP RUSHING MEEEE!!” he yelled.


“Come on, guys, really!” Dalton yelled, picking up the pace and shortening the distance between him and his companions. “Spear could use this running exercise, y’know!”
Jordan and Kendall looked back.
“Jeez, you’re kicking up a lot of dirt, bro,” Jordan remarked.
“Arrrgh!” Dalton yelled as he ran full sprint. They had reached the exit house, but Dalton couldn’t stop in time and careened in to the wall, slamming his face. “Owwww!” he groaned as he stepped backwards in pain.

“Listen, it’s getting really late now so we need to get to Pewter City as soon as we can,” Kendall mentioned.
“Right, right,” Dalton said, righting himself.
Then it occurred to all of them that a single Beedrill was lurking in a tree near the right of them.
“Why is one all by itself? Doesn’t it swarm?” Jordan asked.
“Yeah, it does,” Kendall said. “But this one seems to be a loner.”

The Beedrill, staring back at them, felt threatened and suddenly rose from the very area it sat and flew at everyone.
“AAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!” Jordan screamed, jumping back awkwardly, his limbs stiff as a robot.
“C’mon!” Kendall yelled. “Do something! Here!” Once again, she threw out Kusabana instead of Pinkie from her Poke Ball.
Kusabana appeared again from the red and white orb, but turned her nose up at Kendall. “Bulba…” she said, and then looked a little more uneasy.
“K-Kusabana?” Kendall asked in a meek tone.
Kusabana waited for an order as the Beedrill’s drills focused on Kusabana, veering towards her.
Kendall tensed up and then suddenly screamed, forcing herself to say something.
“NO! DODGE IT!!”

Kusabana jumped aside as the Beedrill came towards Kendall. Kendall avoided its spears by crashing to her knees rapidly, as a dead weight. Kusabana gave her a look that said that she would’ve dodged anyway.
“God… why am I so ineffective? That command was… as good as doing nothing. I’m sorry, Kusabana. I-I… I know I’ve… I’ve… I’ve let you down!!” she screamed the last part, a tear dislodging itself to the ground. She had been once again hit by the realization that she just wasn’t good enough for Kusabana.
“I have to find you another trainer… uh… uh… just please… just get out there and fight the Beedrill your own way. It’s better than anything t-THIS trainer can do…”
Jordan and Dalton were completely surprised, and they ran to comfort Kendall.

Kusabana walked out as the Beedrill once again honed in on the grass Pokemon. She jumped aside with a “Saur!” and pivoted on one stubby leg to the Beedrill which was now shooting away from her.
“Kusabana’s going to try tackling after Beedrill!” Jordan yelled, seeing that Kusabana was charging along the ground, but the Beedrill was faster than Kusabana and began to loop up in the air. Beedrill’s entire body began to twirl as the drill locked onto Kusabana’s forehead. Kusabana, this time, was the one not knowing what to do.
“Ugh! Go, Caterpie!” Jordan yelled out. The meek Caterpie looked at the Beedrill.
“What will a Caterpie do?” Dalton asked.
“Umm… I don’t know! I just think she could do something! Caterpie, String Shot!”
Caterpie rapidly squirmed along the ground to the scene, seconds before the drill was going to impact and shot her string at Beedrill’s drill. It quickly slowed the drill’s speed down, twirling around it until it looked like cotton candy and rendered Beedrill’s attack harmless as Beedrill went bowling over Kusabana.
“Caterpie, tackle NOW!”
Caterpie made a rough U-turn and leapt into the fray, but Beedrill suddenly spiked Caterpie away. The puny Caterpie rolled along the ground and got stopped by friction.

“Jordan, you’re way outmatched by that thing! You’re only gonna be able to delay him!” Dalton yelled.
Beedrill rose into the sky and locked onto Kusabana one more time. With lightning speed, it was a matter of seconds –

“Um, ah, ah, ah!! Kusabana, use Vine Whip!!” Jordan screamed out in desperation.

Everyone, including the Pokemon, cringed unanimously, unable to look at the split second of action.

Then they opened their eyes, and Kusabana looked surprised as her vines were entangling the buzzing Pokemon. The Beedrill started darting through the air but was snapped back like a chained dog. Kusabana grew enraged, and she began thrashing Beedrill on the ground and finally swung it against a tree, knocking it out cold. “BZ-bz-bz-bzzzz…” it buzzed defeatedly, slumped down at the base, looking in a bad condition.

Kendall’s streaked face just stared at Jordan and Kusabana with genuine surprise as Kusabana stared at her own vines and at Beedrill before looking at Jordan.

Kendall stood up. She looked supercharged, as if she could run back through the whole forest in five minutes. She still was in disbelief, her eyes shooting around everywhere. “Huh, uh, I can’t believe… uhh…” Cogs were turning in her head. “Nevermind. That was pretty amazing. I’m, uh, happy how it turned out. Let’s recall our Pokemon, huh, hah, and finally leave this place.” She looked completely breathless, and her heart was beating a thousand miles an hour. With not many words exchanged between them, they recalled all their Pokemon except for Xentaro and headed for the exit. Kendall looked out of it, but in her head, from what she had just seen, she was now a few steps ahead of them.

People in the exit house who had heard the sounds waited for them to walk through the other side.
Then, they began whispering amongst themselves.


Jordan, Dalton, Kendall and Xentaro trudged up the path to Pewter City. Suddenly, the sight of the city loomed over them. Perhaps bigger than Viridian City, Pewter City was a bustling mountain town. Lots of natural rock formations seemed to lend to the shape of the city, and stone-grey roofs sprawled out in front of them, though the darkness made them look nearly black. Jordan shared a weary grin with his companions. They were exhausted, but almost too exhausted to truly enjoy it. They let their legs dictate the direction of the Pokemon Center, and as the night sky rushed them into the building, Dalton’s eyes shot to the wall clock. 9:00 PM. They had spent 9 hours wandering through the forest with only one break for food, but they must have broken a record by only being on the second night of their adventure. Incredible…

“Heal my Pokemon, Nurse Joy. I’ll take them in the morning…” Jordan grumbled, as Dalton and Kendall copied the same thing.
Nurse Joy took them and said, “You kids look so tired!”
“Haha… we… went through the forest in only 9 hours,” Dalton remarked.
Nurse Joy’s eyes widened. “I can’t believe you kids didn’t take your time and camp for a night, at least!”
“I’m just glad… we’re here,” Jordan said.
Kendall nodded slowly, but she was restless and fidgeting.

That night, as everyone said goodnight and went into their rooms, Jordan and Dalton plopped down like dead weights.
And Kendall was almost certain that she had found a good trainer for Kusabana.


NEXT CHAPTER PREVIEW:
There seems to be no stopping Jordan and Dalton! The next morning, Jordan is confident to challenge the Pewter Gym, and Dalton wants to see the museum and keep training with his Pokemon. But with Xentaro and Caterpie, is Jordan truly prepared to face the powerful rock foes within, or will he require an arduous training session?
Don’t miss Chapter 4: A Stone Gray City!