The road north out of Pallet was made for walking. Low hills, wildflowers, a signpost here and there that nobody needed. Ren walked it with her Pidgey perched on her shoulder like a small grumpy king, and Adam walked it insulting every animal they passed.
"White," he said, about a Rattata. "White," about a second one. "A Pidgey. Green. Good for you, little guy, but no." He looked at a Caterpie crawling along a fence. "White. Very White. You're going to be a fine butterfly one day and I wish you the best."
"You are the worst person to go on holiday with," Ren said, grinning.
"I have standards."
"You're rating bugs. Out loud. To their faces."
[ In fairness, Ren, that Caterpie was very White. ]
"See," Adam said. "Sage agrees."
"Sage is your imaginary friend and she gets paid to agree with you."
[ I will note the insult. ]
Ren laughed, and the Pidgey, annoyed about the shaky ride, bit her ear.
---
He almost walked right past it.
A Mankey, up in a tree, chewing on something it had obviously stolen. It had the look of a thing that had never once been told no. Adam scanned it out of habit, already reaching for the word, and the word died in his mouth.
[ SCAN — Mankey (wild) ] Potential: Blue Fighting Affinity: A Ability: Anger Point (a hit in the right spot sends its power straight to the top) Speciality: Fury Engine (rare — the rage does not cloud the mind; power without the usual sloppiness) Compatible Treasures: Black Belt, Rage Fossil (rumoured) Possible Route: standard → Primeape; trained right, something much angrier
Adam stopped walking.
"Blue," he said.
Ren was at his shoulder before he finished the word. "Where."
"The angry one. In the tree." He tilted his head, reading it. "Most angry things get worse when they lose their temper. Sloppy. This one gets better. That's rare."
"So catch it."
And there was the problem. Ren had a Pidgey. Adam didn't have a starter Pokémon. He only had five empty balls, and one very firm rule not to use any of his powers. He couldn't hide behind it. He had to do this like a normal person, with no Pokémon of his own to send in, and the Mankey had already spotted him staring and did not like it one bit.
"I could lend you—" Ren started.
"No." Too fast. She grinned, because she'd heard the pride in it. "No. I earn this one. That's the whole point."
The Mankey threw its stolen fruit at his head.
He let it hit him. It bounced off his cheek with a sound like a knock on a door. It didn't hurt. Nothing in this forest could make it hurt, and that, Adam realised with a slow grin, was the gap they'd left him.
He couldn't use his powers. But he couldn't switch his body off either. He was still a walking tank, and nowhere in the rules did it say he wasn't allowed to just stand there and be very hard to hurt.
So he walked up to the tree, and the Mankey came down it like a small brown bomb. Adam let it hit him.
It hit him a lot. It was fast and mean and knew exactly where a punch lands hardest. It put punches everywhere, ribs, jaw and even at one point it clearly meant, lower, at which Ren made a sound she would deny later. Adam took all of it. He didn't hit back. He didn't dodge. He just stood there in the middle of a wild animal doing its absolute best, arms loose, breathing slow, like a man waiting for rain to stop.
The Mankey punched him for four solid minutes. Then it stopped. It stood there gasping, staring up at the big calm thing it hadn't even bruised, and Adam watched something turn over behind its eyes that he knew from the inside. He'd felt it himself, in a lot of worlds, staring up at things bigger than him.
Not fear. Respect. The kind a fighter feels for a wall that won't fall down.
He crouched to its level, slow, and held out an empty ball on his open hand. Not throwing it. Offering it.
"You hit hard," he said. "I could use that."
The Mankey looked at the ball. It looked at him. It looked, with what Adam decided was hurt pride, at its own sore knuckles.
Then it reached out one little hand and pressed the button itself.
Red light. A wobble. A click.
MANKEY, the Pig Monkey Pokémon. Registered to trainer: A. Varen.
[ Host. Your first Pokémon has a history of random violence, runs on rage, and caught itself out of spite. ] A pause. [ I have never been prouder. ]
Don't.
"Adam." Ren looked at the ball, then at his face, then back at the ball, biting her lip to hold something in. "Adam. It's you. You caught a tiny furious version of you."
"It is not."
"It's small, it's angry, and it decided to like you out of spite. That's you."
"...no, no, not small, maybe angry. You should know better than anyone else." Adam said, with a wide grin on his face, and put the ball away while she laughed shaking her head.
---
Viridian City was the first real town. They stuck out here, two trainers in their twenties starting out where everyone else was twelve, but Viridian was big enough to have seen stranger and not blink.
They found the Pokémon Center by the red roof and the crowd of trainers in front. Inside was cool and bright. A nurse with pink hair fed hurt Pokémon, while a Chansey assisted her putting bandages and using various devices. The atmosphere was serene in a way. Adam watched a kid nearly cry with relief handing over a fainted Spearow, and something in him let go. Not a game. A place with people whose whole job was catching you when you fell. They helped for free.
They built a whole system just to be kind, he thought. I forgot worlds could do that.
[ Enjoy it, Host. The next few on your list won't be like this. ]
Let me have this one.
They rented two beds and ate real food, paid for with money a twelve-year-old hadn't wanted to hand over, and Ren spread the map on the table and started planning like she meant to conquer it.
"Forest to the north," she said. "Then Pewter. First gym. Rock types." She looked up. "Your monkey's going to like it there. Lots of tough guys to fight."
"My monkey would fight them even if they weren't tough." Adam turned the ball over in his fingers, feeling the small warm weight of a life that had picked him. "Reminds me of a gangster, with anger issues." He could almost feel a twitch in the ball after he said it.
---
He noticed them because over the years he learned to always be on alert.
Two men at a corner table. Not eating, not talking to anyone, in dark clothes that were trying too hard to look normal. One had a phone to his ear and was talking low. Things like no, small stuff, we're not touching anything here, boss says keep it quiet till the Cinnabar shipment. And because it isn't about lunch money anymore, that's why. When he shifted, a red R showed at his collar for half a second, then hid again.
Adam didn't stare. He'd learned a long time ago how not to. But the part of him that had spent years counting threats made a small quiet note and put it away.
Sage.
[ I saw. Red R. Both low-level, no danger to anyone. But that man is scared of his own boss, and scared men repeating orders is how you learn what a group is really for. He said it isn't about lunch money anymore. ]
Yeah, Adam thought, and let it go, because it wasn't tonight's problem, and there was a warm bed and a warmer woman waiting for him. I heard it too.
The little line in the corner of his eye about breaking a syndicate could wait.
---
Later, brushing his teeth, he saw it again.
One bare bulb over the sink, throwing his shadow long up the tiled wall. Normal. And then, in the shadow, for less than a second, something that wasn't him moved. It rose up out of the flat dark and folded back into it and was gone before he could even turn his head. The bulb buzzed. The tiles were just tiles. His shadow looked normal.
He stood very still with the toothbrush in his mouth. He wasn't afraid. It had never been fear, but interest.
Still there.
[ Still there. ] Sage went quiet a second, the way she did when she was picking her words. [ It isn't stalking you, Host. It's keeping pace with you. Those aren't the same thing, and I don't like that I can feel the difference. ]
Adam looked at his own plain shadow on the wall of a plain little town in the kindest world he knew, and felt the old thing stretch awake in his chest, warm and patient and glad.
Something in the dark had noticed him. And it was waiting to be found.
"Adam," Ren called from the other room, "if you don't come to bed I'm giving your monkey to a child."
He spat, rinsed, and went. He left the light on a second longer than he needed to, in case whatever it was wanted to be seen.
It didn't. Not yet.
Tomorrow there was a big forest to explore, and a gym, and a whole year long trip ahead of them. The shadow could follow as long as it liked.
AN: If we get to 300 power stones, I will release an extra chapter on 500, another one. If you wish to support the story and read ahead, visit [email protected]/skeri123