Derrick rushed outside when he saw his Pidgey was no longer in the Pokemon Center. With Bulbasaur at his heel, he glanced up to see his missing Pokemon gliding high above him in the direction of Route 1.
"Pidgey, come back!" Derrick cried in panic. The Pokemon, however, seemed to not even hear him, and with quick flying, it found it way back to Route 1 way before Derrick could. Soon, Derrick could not longer see the Pidgey, so he slowed to a halt at the city limits. "Augh!" he grunted furiously, kicking the ground before dropping onto his knees and mashing his hands against his face. He knew that he was never allowed to catch a fainted Pokemon. When it lost all of its HP, even when you were trying to catch it, your trainer simply had to try again with a different, stronger Pokemon. He knew this...
"I was just in a big hurry," he muttered to himself as he felt his other Pokemon's bulb nuzzling against his arm. He lifted his head and peered at his Bulbasaur, who had a concerned look on his face. Derrick's sullen features softened and he gave the Bulbasaur a reassuring scratch behind the ears. "Don't worry about it, guy. It was my fault, not yours. Besides..," his voice trailed as he glanced over his shoulders toward Route 22 where the Pokemon League was hidden, "There are other Flying Type Pokemon here that I can catch. Let's go after a Spearow."
Derrick and Bulbasaur quickly found their way to Route 22, where they began to search the tall grass. Derrick knew that Spearows weren't the most common Pokemon to be found there, but he wouldn't give up until they found one. His Bulbasaur, in the meantime, used the opportunity to level up a few times with the Rattata and Nidoran that were more common in the area. Derrick glowed with pride each time the Pokemon would make its foe faint. His situation may have been dire since he couldn't seem to "wake up" and he didn't have access to Red, but he was living his childhood dream of raising and training his very own Pokemon. No trading card game or console experience could even come close to him seeing his Bulbasaur actually grow and being able to nudge it with the side of his shoe intrusively when he once landed a one-hit KO.
Finally, Derrick and his Bulbasaur stumbled across a Spearow casually picking at the ground with its short beak. He put on a deviant smile. "There, Bulbasaur!" he commanded, "Use growl!" The Bulbasaur took on an intimidating stance and growled fiercely at the Spearow, making it flinch, its plumage becoming disorganized for a moment, before it lifted its head toward its challenger. In retaliation it brandished its sharp peak before charging after the Bulbasaur, using its Peck attack and landing a piercing hit to Bulbasaur's neck. Derrick thought quickly as the Spearow withdrew for a moment, ready for Bulbasaur's next attack. "Tackle!" he commanded, his Pokemon darting into a patch of tall grass for camouflage and leaping to collide head-on with the Spearow. Derrick grimaced as the two met, hoping that the Spearow wouldn't faint from such a strong attack. As Bulbasaur scrambled to Derrick's side, the Spearow shakliy got back onto its feet and glared at them both. Perhaps now he could catch it. Derrick discreetly pulled his only empty Poke Ball from his pocket before flinging it at the Spearow. Suddenly, however, Derrick saw a brown flash, and the Poke Ball was swatted away from the Spearow before landing with a soft thud on the ground.
"Huh..!?" Derrick exclaimed in panic. He rushed to pick the Poke Ball up from the ground before he saw what had happened. His Bulbasaur barked in surprised as they witnessed a Pidgey swooping down to pick a fight with the Spearow. He pecked wildly as he hovered in the air above the Spearow, kicking up a cloud of dust as Spearow fought back. Derrick and Bulbasaur watched the violent spectacle, which didn't last very long at all. Soon the Spearow was shamefully scurrying away, leaving the Pidgey as the winner. Derrick expected the Pidgey to fly away soon after that, being a satisfied victor, until it flew toward them and perched begrudgingly upon Bulbasaur's bulb.
"Wait.." Derrick began at length, "You're my Pidgey?" The Pokemon preened itself silently, making quick eye contact with his trainer occasionally. Derrick knew it was still mad at him. He crouched at Bulbasaur's side, finding Pidgey's eye level. Pidgey reluctantly glanced at him. "You were jealous," Derrick mused aloud, earning him an irritated chirp from the Pokemon. "No, no! You're right," he blurted, calming the Pidgey down for a moment. "You were right...that was my fault. I shouldn't have captured you after making you faint. And when you ran away, I should have diligently chased after you instead of giving up and trying to replace you. That was wrong of me." Pidgey's eyes shone as they finally locked gazes. Derrick sighed, wiping a hand across his forehead. "I've been playing Pokemon for years now, but I still have a lot to learn about being a trainer." He gently lifted a finger to scratch beneath Pidgey's chin. The Pokemon flinched, but gradually settled down and enjoyed the attention.
"I'm sorry, Pidgey," he said softly. When he took his hand away, the Pidgey shifted to fully face him now. "Would you be willing to be on my team? I need your help." The Pidgey clacked its beak a few times, as though it were giving the request some considerable thought, and finally gave a curt nod. Derrick sighed in relief. "Thank you," he chuckled softly. "Would you be willing to learn a new move?" The Pidgey peered at him sideways in curiosity. At that, Derrick pulled the HM out for the Pokemon to see. Bulbasaur looked up from below along with his new team mate at the shiny little disk. Even in the static, grey world Derrick was in, the disk still glowed as though the sun were shining against it. "This is Fly. I want you to use it. I need to get somewhere that I can't without you. Would you like to learn Fly?" Pidgey hopped on top of Bulbasaur, almost excitedly. Derrick smiled, examining the disk in slight confusion. He wasn't sure how he was supposed to actually teach an HM to a Pokemon.
Suddenly, the disk seemed to emit a quick flash of light. Pidgey jumped in surprise, only to become still again a moment later. Derrick furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. "Did you...just learn the HM?" he asked the Pokemon. It chirped blankly in reply. Scratching his head, Derrick stood. "Alright, then. If you can use Fly, then how about you show me? Use Fly, Pidgey." The Pokemon gave a hearty flap of its little wings before becoming airborne. It hovered a few feet above Derrick, who still scratched his head a bit. "Can you...carry me?" he asked, half imagining the Pidgey would refuse. It lowered its altitude, however, now hovering only about a foot above Derrick's head. He looked down at his Bulbasaur, who was returning his look with the expression of a blank-faced dog. Heaving a sigh, Derrick pulled Bulbasaur's Poke Ball from his pocket and drew the Pokemon inside for safe keeping. After pocketing the ball, he lifted his arms and grabbed hold of Pidgey's little feet uncomfortably. The Pidgey gave a trill that almost told Derrick to relax.
"Alright, alright," he replied, shifting his grip to be more firm and natural. He didn't believe that Pidgey would possibly be able to lift him off the ground until his feet went limp beneath him and the trees around him began to shrink. A wave of fear passed over him, mainly with the speculation of how Pidgey was able to hold his weight, and he bit his lip as Pidgey began to soar over Route 1. Derrick gulped down his fear and examined his surroundings. The world looked two dimensional from this high up. "Pidgey," he called up to his flying Pokemon. "We need to go to Cinnabar Island. Do you see all that water?" he pointed with his foot toward the edge of the approaching Pallet Town, where they could then reach Route 21. "Go that way. We can go straight there if you go that way." Pidgey chirped in affirmation, making its way straight toward the water.
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