Viridian Forest

When a Pidgey decided to flutter down into the tall grass of the dense Viridian Forest, Sage had gotten the idea to battle the Pokémon. After all, they certainly needed more practice, considering they had only done a couple of battles all the way back in Route 1. However, Osheen immediately drew her attention when she spoke up from behind her. “Uh, Sage, you might want to like move ahead a bit… I’m pretty sure there is some kind of… bee-like Pokémon around here.” Her sister revealed as she tried to lift her shoe, showing a thick mass of honey that was sticking to it.

Sage’s heart sunk into the deepest pit of her stomach, and her whole body seized up in dreaded fear. S-She… hated Beedrill. Forests were notorious for them, and their massive size, and massive stingers, had scarred her for life.

“Let’s just try to get out of this forest as quickly as possible,” Sage decided with a shudder and bypassed the Pidgey completely as she ventured further into the route once her sister removed her foot from the honey.

Sage hid over by the large boulder that was free of any flowers or fauna while Osheen continued to struggle with her shoe that was stuck in the honey. In the end, her twin removed it from her foot and walked over with one barefoot. “It looks like it’s just going back and forth over there,” She tried to reassure her, but Sage wasn’t so convinced. She didn’t rightly care if it was only going back and forth over there — it was huge, and they were too close to its path. She hated forests.

But, they were kind of stuck in a dilemma since Osheen had taken her shoe off, and Sage didn’t feel right asking her to start treking down the path with no shoe on. There was no telling what sort of poisonous barbs or otherwise were on the ground.

“Hurry and get it off, so you can put your shoe on and we can get out of here.” Complaining wasn’t above her though, as she antsily remained where she was, shuffling her feet, and rubbing her arms.

Her sister began walking, however, despite Sage’s want for her not to. And, admittedly, with her sister so willing to simply go on their merry way, Sage did have a moment of weakness, of wanting to simply run off down the path despite potential poisonous danger lurking ahead. But, she stopped herself, took in a deep breath, and refused to budge from her spot.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea,” She told Osheen stubbornly. “I don’t know what’s in this forest. We’ve never even been to Kanto before! There might be poisonous goo from Pokémon like Grimer, and you already stepped in honey with your shoes on. I’d feel more better if you just cleaned your shoe up and put it back on, then we can head off and get out of here.”

Sage frowned when she realized that Osheen had gotten annoyed with her, and obviously didn’t share the same concerns as her, as she stubbornly just… put her shoe back on and told her to come on so that they could just continue down the path. Sage felt her own flair of annoyance, but did start to step forward, angry with her sister’s lack of regard for safety. But, as soon as she made it in place beside her twin… something unexpected happened.

A wild Pidgey, different from the one she had seen previously, came from seemingly nowhere. It hovered in the air, just out of reach above their heads, and let out a challenging bird-like sound as it began to heavily flap its wings — picking up a gust right overtop of them.

“Wh-What the!?” Sage cried out as her clothes began to dance and fly in all directions, along with her ponytailed hair, and she raised both of her arms in an attempt to shield her face and eyes from the airborne sand.

Sage slowly moved forward at her sister’s heed, arm still raised to block the billowing dust and debris from her eyes. However, she was certainly surprised when Osheen abruptly gripped both of her shoulders and told her amidst all of the gust-billowing that she would have to take on the wild Pidgey because she had another Pokémon that was coming up behind them. The look on Osheen’s face didn’t give it away — but it didn’t have to. Sage’s complexion instantly paled, and she didn’t hesitate to grab Shinx’s pokéball and call upon her Pokémon’s aid.

“All right. If I have to, I’ll have Shinx incinerate any bees with an electric attack,” She said, none the wiser to the fact that her Shinx currently… didn’t have an electric attack. She felt falsely protected with her electric Pokémon out and guarding them.

And she didn’t hesitate to initiate the battle with the pesky, annoying, Pidgey. However, upon gazing upon her PokéDex, she finally realized that… Shinx didn’t have an electric move. The realization caused her to press her lips firmly together, and feel a surge of disbelief and disappointment, because she had been hoping for a type-advantage. Well, at least flying-type moves weren’t as effective on electric Pokémon — so she still had that advantage.

But, what was more worrisome was the fact that Shinx wouldn’t be of much use in defending against a horde of Beedrill! Her nemesis Pokémon!

“Tch,” She sounded with annoyance and started off the battle. “Shinx, let’s start with Leer.” Despite this being the blue and gray cat’s first battle, she was taking the entire thing rather calmly. Poising herself, she planted both of her paws deep into the ground, her fur bristling out, as she sent a powerful Leer toward the opponent.

The wild Pidgey retaliated with a Gust immediately, billowing the flying-attack straight into Shinx. She took the attack head on, stood her ground, and Sage hesitated a bit in the battle. Although, not intentionally. She just had so much information to process! Nevermind the fact that she had no idea what was going on with Osheen in her battle!

“Tackle attack, Shinx.” She called and pursed her lips, holding one hand close to her mouth as she watched her Pokémon close in on the Pidgey in order to tackle into it. The Pidgey, angered by the direct attack, immediately blasted sand in retaliation before it took off into the sky to circle Shinx airborne.

Shinx coughed and sneezed against the assault to her face, pawing at the grains of dirt to remove them before she shook down her entire coat and then narrowed her gaze to try and locate the rampant flying bird.

Sage turned to glance toward her sister when Osheen stepped into place beside her, and she was visibly shocked to see her returning so quickly. Clearly flabbergasted, her sister provided an explanation to solidify her conclusion; “The bee is gone”.

“What? How? —,” She was confused and floored by the turn of events, especially since the battle between her Shinx and Pidgey had been a slow and steady one. H-How had Osheen managed to take the Beedrill out so quickly? W-Were they actually weak against psychic-type moves?

“Shinx, another Tackle!” She called out to her Pokémon and then glanced to Osheen briefly. “My battle is taking a bit longer,” She pointed out needlessly, and gave a bit of a disappointed pout. But, she couldn’t keep her attention on Osheen for too long, because the battle was still going on in front of them.

Shinx rushed forward to attempt a Tackle, but with Pidgey airborne the contact never landed. And Pidgey Gusted a powerful torrent of air and debris right into Shinx’s face, sending the cat Pokémon whirling back quite a few feet.

“Shiiiiiii,” The Pokémon cried, although she was still quick to get back up, far from beaten in the battle.

Sage looked to Osheen with a bit of worry and apprehension, but then turned to glance at her PokéDex for another quick look over her moves. She really felt like Leer at this point wouldn’t make enough of an impact, especially since Shinx had already lost 30% of her health and now had the added problem of potentially missing with her attacks.

“Try another Tackle, Shinx,” Sage told her gently, and gave a subtle nod when Shinx briefly glanced back toward her, feeling a little self-conscious that her battle was taking longer when it was obvious that Espurr had done a much better job.

This time when she rushed forward and launched into the air she hit the Pidgey dead on and sent the small bird back to the ground. The bird attempted an awkward Gust as it tried to recover, but it was still enough to graze Shinx at such close proximity. Sage wasn’t even the one to order her Shinx, the cat Pokémon taking her own initiative to plow forward in another Tackle against the bird, and Pidgey kicked up another Sand-Attack dust storm in a desperate attempt to take to the skies once more, clearly on its last legs in the battle. Shinx rushed blindly through the sand in an attempt to attack the Pidgey before it flew off, but through it all she wasn’t able to land the attack and Pidgey soared above and then dive-bombed for its own Tackle against the cat-like Pokémon.

“Try to hit her, Shinx!” Sage called out, clearly seeing that the battle was certainly wearing Shinx out by this point in the battle. A frustrated sound escaped the feline as she launched forward in another desperate attempt to Tackle the Pidgey and end the match. But, it seemed the tables had turned, Pidgey using its flight to its advantage, flapped over the attack and then Tackled Shinx straight back into the ground. "Sh-Shii...nnnx..."

“I’m sorry Sage…,” Osheen sympathetically offered and reached out to grasp onto her arm for support. “Maybe we need more training.”

Sage pressed her lips firmly together, feeling tense and disappointed with the current outcome of the battle. But, she didn’t have time to stand here and dwell. The battle was still ongoing and her PokéDex was showing that one more direct hit from Pidgey and her Shinx would be out of the battle.

Osheen’s Espurr jumped forward and sent a Leer attack toward the Pidgey, successfully stifling the bird for a split second — and while Sage had been in the process of pulling out a Potion, with the intention to heal her, Shinx used the opportunity Espurr afforded her and plowed forward with another Tackle, successfully sending the bird flying and landing in a knocked out heap within the grass.

Sage stared agape at the scene before her and the victory her Shinx was awarded with the Pidgey now KO’d in the dense patch of grass underneath an oak tree. “U-Uh, well…,” Her gaze slid to Osheen for a moment, looking sheepish. “We’ll just pretend that never happened.” She cringed and, heart pounding a little with the thought of them somehow getting into trouble, Sage hopped forward in one fell swoop in order to scoop Shinx up into her arms, grab her sister’s hand, and then began to book it down the pathway.

Sage had not only healed Shinx fully with a few potions she had stored within her bag, but she had also put the cat Pokémon back into its pokéball. She wasn’t exactly sure where they were along the path or how much longer it would be until they got out of the forest, but her feet had been sore and aching, and so she hadn’t been against the idea to take a break under the large oak tree. Sage drew her own thermos from her bag and opened it up to peer into the icy slush water inside before lifting it to take a large few gulps. She didn’t normally like water, but these thermos’ and their advanced technology of keeping the confined water icy were amazing! She loved ice water, and chewing on the ice, which she knew was bad for her teeth.

“This place is crazy beautiful, but so active.” Osheen pointed out, because they had passed by quite a few other trainers along the way. At least the path didn’t seem so isolated or dangerous with so many others venturing by as well. Currently, off in the distance she could see a small group of trainers huddled together fighting wild Pokémon. “There’s a nice cool breeze in the forest,” Sage commented and grinned at her sister, finding it surprising that her twin wasn’t complaining about the lack of sunlight in such a dense forest.

To her complete surprise one of her pokéballs suddenly burst with a bright flash of light, and without warning Wisteria, her Bulbasaur, had appeared with them under the canopy. But, her large, round, eyes were focused on something else as she bounded over and sounded excited. “Bulba bulba!” It was as though she had just found her favorite ice cream sitting around.



Sage had to crane her neck to see her Bulbasaur as it came venturing back, all fat and plump as she was, sporting a new impressive root around the bulb of her seed on her back. “Bulba bulba!” She enthused, looking back at it, and sprouted a few flowers over the root to really set it into place.

“Wh-What is that?” Sage questioned, clearly baffled.

Osheen complimented Wisteria, to which her Pokémon daintily blushed and then looked to her immediately for praise. Sage smiled warmly at her starter and even reached out to give her a few good pats to her forehead. “It does, it looks really nice.” She told her, and Osheen had taken the opportunity to pull out her PokéDex and scan Bulbasaur in order to pull up the information on the item she had found. “It’s a… big root,” Her sister revealed and then handed her the device for her to take a look over.

Sage gave it a glance over and ended up looking impressed. Handing the PokéDex back to her twin, she gave Wisteria another pat as she lightly chuckled. “Wow, and you found that all on your own, too?” She complimented her. “Came out and immediately sought it out.”

That was actually rather impressive, in all honesty.

“Thank you Wisteria, I’m sure that’ll help us in battle together, and it looks very nice wrapped around you like a flowery wreathe.”

“Bulbasaur!” Wisteria chimed, clearly flattered.