The Viridian Verdant was one of the roughest and toughest bars around. It was frequented not by the typical office workers or other nine-to-fivers.

Its main clientele were all large, swarthy menfolk with arms that rippled with muscle.

Lumberjacks, hikers, miners, steelworkers, and builders rubbed elbows in the Verdant.

The police had broken up so many fights here that they ran hourly patrols past the Verdant once it opened and for at least an hour after it shut its doors each day.

That being said, the Verdant got a few odd stragglers as well that didn’t know of its reputation and came in for drinks. Usually, those people left when they realised they didn’t match the ‘vibe’ of the establishment and did not come back.

As with any sample of data, however, there were outliers.

“How does he keep making these discoveries?” wept a Professor into his elbow while next to him, his fellow Professor signalled the barman for another round.

Twin Fuzzy navels slid across the bar and came to a halt right in front of the professors with an ease that spoke of practice.

The rest of the occupants of the bar didn’t even bat an eye at the two men who had what had to be, in many of the bar residents’ opinions, the most feminine tastes in cocktails around.

At a stall along the wall, Jessie paused in grooming her Feebas long enough to give the pair of scientific types a long look.

If she were still in Team Rocket she might have approached them and tried to offer them employment. In Team Rocket there had been a standing referral-based bounty on securing intelligent men and women for the organisation.

Sitting in bars close to universities, colleges, and technical institutes, therefore, became rather common haunts for some Rocket grunts that were good at ‘selling the dream’.

Jessie turned away, knowing that wasn’t on the cards anymore.

Meowth noticed what she’d been looking at long enough to pause at lapping up his milk. “What’s up with those geeks?” he said rather loudly.

A giant hirsute man who’d been playing pool nearby turned and levelled a look on the pair of them that would have quelled an avalanche of Geodude.

“Hey! Mind your manners! Those two there are Professors Dinkleberg and Turner! They were rivals for years, but came good recently! That being said, I and a lot of the others around this here bar won’t hear you badmouthing them!” The man pointed straight at them. “Those aren’t Geeks! They’re nerds!”

Meowth and Jessie blinked. Before Jessie could shush him, Meowth tilted his head. “What’s the difference?”

The man’s finger maintained its position, directed right at them, only to waver for a moment as the man turned his head. “Oi! Nerds! Why can’t we call you Geeks?”

Professor Dinkleberg, who’d been sobbing into his elbow, sat bolt upright and swivelled around to lock eyes with the giant man. “Because I’ll stop providing your cousin review sessions and tutoring with me during my office hours!”

“My cousin graduated years ago!” rumbled back the man with a sly grin.

That seemed to stump the obviously drunk professor. “Professor Turner… Why do I suddenly feel very old?”

“Because we are old,” replied his friend as he stared into a mirror behind the bar only to give himself a wink. “And some of us are doing it better than others.” The professors began to shove each other and most of the bar turned to watch as the two men, with arms like twigs begin to flap at each other in what must have passed as a ‘fight’ between them.

The big man, with his finger still pointed at Jessie and Meowth clicked his tongue. “Someone should break that up,” he said while doing nothing of the sort.

Around the Verdant, others nodded that something should be done. So money began to change hands as bets were made.

Meowth’s ears twitched as he heard comments of ‘tire each other out’, or ‘Dinkleberg is gonna puke first’, rather than any sign of the people betting on a victor.

“Why are we at this bar again?” Meowth asked as he slowly began to lap at his milk. He certainly didn’t mind being given a free show to accompany his drink but it was a different place than their usual haunts.

“Something about James meeting a group of old friends,” Jessie muttered, only to grimace as both of the professors landed blows to each other's stomachs.

Both fighters’ eyes bulged and then as one, they threw up on each other.

The crowd groaned in disgust and then groaned in defeat when one woman cheered. “Ha! Suckersbet! The cashpot is mine!” bellowed the woman as she snatched up a sizable pot of pokedollars.

Meowth sat up. “If I’d bet that woulda been what I went for,” he remarked lazily.

Jessie grunted, her eyes still on the spectacle the pair of Professors had made of themselves as they were separated with murmurs of ‘come on now, time to break it up,’ from the big men now that the fight was over.

Jessie shook her head. “They could have done that a lot earlier,” she muttered before looking at the reclining cat pokemon across from her. “If you knew what to bet on, why didn’t you?”

“Feebas!” said the fish pokemon sitting next to Jessica. Jessica leaned in and gave the little fish a rub and a smooch quickly.

“Just so Pretty, Meowth is just full of hot air,” Jessie smirked.

Meowth sat up. “That ain’t what she said,” he declared, thrusting a single claw at Jessie’s face.

“Semantics,” Jessie replied, waving the claw away. “It’s what she meant to say!”

Meowth huffed. “And I didn’t bet cause if I did, the only way we’d have made it out of here with everyone’s money was if we had created a ruckus or we paid out enough to buy everyone drinks, in which case we’d have been down money!” Meowth retorted.

Jessie considered this before clicking her tongue. “Yeah, it’s not worth creating a ruckus. Although a distraction would have worked just as well,” Jessie pointed out.

“Oh yeah and what sort of distraction would be big enough to—” Meowth started to snark only for James to kick open the door and enter with what had to be a trio of drag queens.

“Hellllloooooo Verdant! Let’s get this party started!” he announced, sashaying up to the jukebox to select a tune before he grabbed a man and woman by the arms and led them into a square dance.

Before even a minute had passed, most of the bar had twisted around to watch or participate. Within another minute, everyone close to the dance was laughing and clapping along as men and women in various states of dress twirled around in time with the music.

Jessie pointed at James. “That sort of distraction,” she said, answering Meowth’s unfinished question before she took a long final sip of her milkshake. She wobbled the glass. “Urgh, I preferred when we were bad guys and could drink. Now I feel like I have to always be a goody two-shoes in public,” she said.

“Heh, sucks to be human sometimes, don’t it?” Meowth said as he ran a finger through his bowl of milk.

Jessie frowned and inspected the contents of said bowl. Did that milk have a bit of a stronger smell than it should? Was that milk, or something else?

She decided not to ask, Meowth looked far too smug so instead of fueling his ego, she ignored him.

“That’s a nice fish,” someone slurred from next to them, and Jessie turned her head to find both of the Professors standing in front of their booth. Both men were drenched as though someone had dipped them in a Ponyta water trough to sober and clean them up.

“Thank you!” replied Jessie. “Her name is Pretty and she’s going to be one of my best pokemon one day!” As she said this she made sure to direct a look of pure joy at Pretty who blushed and looked away only to furtively glance back with a pleased expression.

“Hmmm, so you’ve discovered the link between Feebas and Milotic I take it? and like many a young trainer are trying to evolve it? Lots of people have tried and few have succeeded. The precise mechanism of evolution is as yet unknown… apart from an extremely rare item which is usually only seen on auctions,” said Professor Dinkleberg as he slid into the booth next to Meowth.

Meowth scooted further in to avoid having to touch the dripping professor.

Professor Turner did the same, only Jessie didn’t shift. “O-oh? What’s the item?” she asked coyly, batting her eyes at her booth companion who blushed as he suddenly found himself the focus of Jessie’s attention.

“A Prism Scale, although there is also some debate over its efficacy,” shot Turner before his companion could try and steal Jessie’s attention.

The other man sniffed. “It is thus far the only reported method that is not being held under lock and key by certain families,” Dinkleberg said with a touch of heat.

“Touchy subject?” asked Meowth.

Dinkleberg and Turner, who’d been in the process of drinking glasses of water, paused and stared at Meowth. They then looked at each other before looking at their water. Dinkleberg twisted to the bar. “Callum my good man, we need to keep our buzz going! Give us some mid-strength drinks!” he said.

Meowth’s brow twitched. “I’m not a hallucination, cause of your drink! I’m just a smart pokemon!” he snapped.

“Interesting? Would you say that your parents contributed to it?” “Your trainer certainly must have worked wonders with you! Your coat looks marvellous!” “The healthiest, smartest Meowth I’ve ever seen!” said both men over the top of each other.

Meowth’s face fluctuated from smug, to annoyed, to pleased, and then cycled back through.

Jessie coughed. “Meowth isn’t mine. He’s his own,” she said.

“Uncaught?” said Turner as his hand shot into his coat pocket. Dinkleberg matched him only for their hands to suddenly be caught by Jessie, and a newly arrived James.

James stared down at the Professor cooly. “You will not attempt to capture our friend, or there will be consequences,” he said, speaking each word with such a chilly menace that both men stiffened and shivered.

Jessie nodded. Meowth shot both trainers a heartfelt smile. “Wow, you two sure showed your colours, didn’t cha?” He held in a smirk as he saw both James and Jessie pickpocket the pair of professors some pokedollars.

Dinkleberg slumped. “I’m sorry, I’ve just been facing a lot of work, and I’ve been over-stressed, and to hear another discovery has been made in the Pewter Gym, it… well, it just drives a man to drink it does!”

Meowth grunted, not relaxing as he caught the way both men continued to inspect Jessie and James for any signs of distraction.

Turner nodded. “Hear hear! Our university has been looking into the impacts of the environment on pokemon evolutions for years now, and Brock just swoops in with two new discoveries! First that Variant Golem of his! Then the secondary Scyther Evolution! Then he’s worked out something with his girlfriend and her new Farigiraf, and I hear there is something else in the works for both Gyms that are hush-hush!” Turner sighed. “I have students who are asking to apply to intern at Gyms!”

Dinkleberg sighed. “It’s just a fad Turner, you know this as well as I do that they are finding the initial points of interest, and it will be the actual research teams that do the proper work!”

“Oh I get it, you guys are just butthurt that Brock proved a theory of yours correct before you could, didn’t he?” Meowth said with a smirk.

Both professors turned together. “That is not the case!”

Meowth just raised his paws in a ‘what can you do’ gesture while shaking his head. “Eh, it sucks to suck sometimes. I’m not surprised that you’re falling behind, your students don’t want to work under you—” with each point Meowth made the Professors twitched, “— that your funding is probably being shifted to others, and that you’re flailing around in a bar instead of out there trying to be apart of the new discoveries. Sounds like you’re out of touch,” he said.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from NovelBin; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Both Professors shot to their feet, anger flashing in their eyes. “If you were a man, I’d challenge you outside in an instant! I might be a Professor, but my pokemon team is still formidable!”

“And if I were a human, I might care,” Meowth replied. He made a shooing gesture. “Now, I think you’ve proven what sorta guys you are. Bye!”

Jessie and James both shifted, reminding the Professors not to do anything foolish.

Both men stalked off with glares so full of poison, Meowth wondered if he needed to take an antidote just to be safe.

“That was well done,” said a deep voice.

Meowth glanced up and found himself looking at a man he’d thought to be nothing but a Hiker. “Yeah, yeah. What’s it to you?”

“Merely an admirer of anyone who can put those two in their places. They were really annoying to deal with during my degree. They’re great Professors as lecturers but as researchers? They pretty much just recycle old studies and post papers. They meet a quota rather than worry about advancing understanding,” said the Hiker-like man.

He coughed. “Oh, sorry, my name is Stephen, and I work… well, I work with Gym Leader Brock right now, but I’m also an assistant of Professor Samuel Oak,” he said.

The trio all stiffened, and Stephen smiled. “Yah, he’s not scary if you do as you're told or have something that will interest him. I’m in pretty good standing with him and I’d love to facilitate a meeting if you’re alright with that.”

Meowth sniffed. “I think I’m all nerded out,” replied Meowth dismissively.

Stephen chuckled. “Ah, Samuel Oak is a bit more than just a Nerd or a Geek.” Meowth and Jessie shot Stephen an amused look while James looked confused.

Meowth shrugged. “Not really worth my time if you catch my drift?” He made to stand only for Stephen to raise a hand.

“I hear what you’re saying,” he declared as he reached into his back pocket and pulled out his wallet. He then placed down a hundred pokedollar bill and slid it across the table.

Meowth waved at James. “That’s the sort of money that moves my mook, not me,” he said.

James smirked, understanding straight away that Mewoth was going fishing.

Stephen sighed and deposited another bill on the table. Meowth gestured to Jessie who played along.

Stephen rolled his eyes and slid another bill only for Meowth to point at Pretty the Feebas. Pretty blinked dolefully.

Jessie and James shot Meowth a flat look, but Stephen just laughed. “Alright that’s on me I should have seen that coming!” he stood and moved so that he could slide the money under Pretty’s fins.

Pretty flapped and wiggled at being included while Jessie shot Stephen a pleased look. Meowth held back a smirk when he spotted her slipping some cash that she’d pocketed from Turner.

Meowth smirked as Stephen handed him the fourth bill. “One final question before I decide,” Meowth stated seriously, his eyes looking up at Stephen. “What’s in it for you?”

Jessie and James tensed, but Stephen merely smirked. “Do we have a deal if I answer?” he replied.

“Sure, just interested is all, it’s just a meeting,” Meowth replied.

Stephen smirked. “So you know about how the recent discoveries have caused a feeding frenzy in the academic circles? People are vying for spots at the Pewter and Saffron Gyms, certainly, but there are also a lot of people being scouted. People with interesting or useful skills. I present you to Oak, I get a referral reward,” he announced with a pleased smile.

Jessie, James, Pretty, and Meowth all gaped at Stephen’s smug face.

Meowth looked at the money, realising he’d probably just been handed chump change for whatever Stephen was going to be given, that or he was one of those weirdos who liked what they did enough to spend their own money.

“So this is what it’s like to be recruited like an academic,” Jessie muttered to herself.

Stephen just laughed and nodded. “Lots of changes are happening all over Indigo Institutes, trust me! Also, we’ll have to talk with Oak about your pokemon to see what he thinks about your method for your Feebas,” Stephen started to say as he led the trio out the door and south to Pallet Town.

[/hr]

Six pokemon.

It was a frankly paltry number for a proper pokemon team. Jules knew this, anyone who wanted to be competitive as a pokemon trainer did. More pokemon meant more possibilities with typings, moves, and counters.

While six pokemon would never match up against others, Jules knew he couldn’t be too mad. He was better off than a lot of other trainers. He knew this.

He hadn’t won a full sponsorship like Mia or Humphrey had from their showing before the circuit started.

They’d both further impressed Brock and earned the right to a year-long full sponsoring which meant they had as many as twenty-six pokemon available to them!

Unlike them, Jules was capped at six unless he made his own way and attracted a sponsor of his own or won so many matches that you couldn’t help but be in the black when renting out a stable.

Pokemon, much like many things in life, always had ‘gates’ to them that were unlocked if you had enough money or skill. Brock had even spoken of this during lessons regarding managing finances and how important it was to track your expenses and income.

Doing well could lead to a snowball of prosperity… if you could just get enough.

Sadly, this was not a good circuit to be anything less than great. Tons of foreign trainers with pokemon that Jules had no idea about were floating around and while some of them could pay out big time, some of them also could trash his team.

When there were people running around like that, it was somewhat hard not to be envious of those who had better starts.

Mia and Humphrey had at least earned their boosted starts.

Some of these foreigners were just powered-up rich types with too much money which meant they had bigger stronger teams most of the time. Seriously! He’d been resting up in the Fuchsia pokecenter and one guy had done a freaking fashion show with thirty different pokemon! Each pokemon had a different outfit! Wow, who had that sort of money?

Hoenn trainers were weird!

Jules had four pokemon in his team. Pidgeot, Ninetales, Golduck, and Victrebell.

It always surprised people when they learned that Jules was a student of Brock’s only to not have a single rock type to his name. In fact he’d started with a Pidgey of all things.

Thankfully Brock didn’t care. He gave out optimised pokemon teams and Jules had seen that some of the most basic setups didn’t feature rock-type pokemon.

“Need a strong electric type pokemon,” Jules said to himself as he consulted his map. So far he’d gotten himself the Pewter, Cerulean, Celadon, and Fuchsia badges along with three of the four lesser Gym badges.

Thankfully, he’d beaten up Grey before his gym had been shut down.

Now he just needed one more badge. Which, sadly meant he’d need to earn it from either Saffron, Vermillion, or from Manny, who was reported as a very tricky fighter to face after the second badge tier.

Jules rubbed his forehead. Perhaps Victreebel would be enough to earn him a win? He’d done so against Cerulean on his own as barely a Bellsprout and backed up well with Pidgeot against Janine in Fuchsia.

Jules nodded to himself. Manny, it was. Then he could spend the rest of his time building up his team and attempting some of the smaller tournaments out there. He had yet to win one but this all came back to there being so many trainers this year.

Some of the others of their group were hunkering down for the year and finding employment while training up their teams but Jules felt like that was a mistake.

If you wanted to be great, you needed to be able to run with the big guys. It was just… that running was proving kind of hard.

Thankfully, he had a few things going for him. Pidgeot was now of a size to carry him places instead of having to walk. That sped things up while also opening up courier jobs for Jules.

He had a monthly stipend from Brock, which had actually been increased after the first month when Brock caught on to the trainer surge. That was perhaps one of the good side effects. Brock had faced so many trainers he’d been more comfortable increasing the allowance money Jules received.

Jules… might have gone a little mad with the boost to his income. He hadn’t realised back then what more trainers facing Brock had meant, even when Brock had spelled it out. He’d been a bit too focused on the money and hadn’t listened like he should have.

He’d run off and bought himself some nicer things than normal, like a limited edition pokemon Master Series backpack. This splurge of money hadn’t gone unnoticed and had drawn in a few rookie crushers.

Jules had then found himself facing a very lean month where he’d had to perform a few jobs to stay afloat.

This, sadly, had resulted in all the trainers that had started the circuit a few weeks behind him catching up and overtaking him. Suddenly, his easy run was over and he found it much harder to advance along routes that were congested with trainers fighting it out.

More than once, Jules had set out only to encounter a battle taking place that caused widespread destruction or even an odd cave-in. Jule had more than once considered getting a pokemon that could clear out cave-ins to help speed his travels along but he’d shaken it off, not wanting to break from his planned team.

Thankfully with Pidgeot such delays were things of the past!

“Jules!” shouted a familiar voice.

Jules glanced over his shoulder towards the entrance of the pokecenter where Ritchie and Bugsy were standing. On Ritchie’s shoulder, Sparky was waving in greeting.

Jules offered back a casual wave but narrowed his eyes. Hmmm, now what did these two want?

Ritchie walked up while Bugsy trotted nervously which only reaffirmed in Jules’ mind that they wanted something from him.

“Hey! How have you been man?” Ritchie said.

“Alright, what about you?” Jules replied, waiting with bated breath for the reason Ritchie had approached him.

To be fair to Ritchie, he spent the next ten minutes catching up with Jules on what had been going on. Jules was rather surprised to learn that he’d run into Forrest and that they’d ended up running a show in a circus.

“That sounds… kind of crazy fun,” chuckled Jules.

Ritchie grinned. “I know right? Here, take a look at these pictures!” Ritchie then proceeded to give a one-man slideshow of the circus with enough action shots of the event for Jules to feel like he’d really missed out on something.

A pang of envy flashed through him. While Ritchie, Bugsy, Forrest and the others had been playing around he’d been having to work or train to keep up with all the other trainers running around. He hadn’t gotten to go on any crazy adventures like them.

Wasn’t a pokemon journey supposed to be like that?

So far it had been a lot of work, training, and hard slog.

Jules crushed those thoughts as Ritchie coughed. “Say, I heard something interesting from chatting with Mia the other day! She mentioned that Brock is running a training camp and that if you’re in good with a trainer invited to the camp they have the option of a plus one?”

“I was wondering… only if you wanted to, that is,” Ritchie hurried to clarify. “I’d really like to train under Brock! He helped me out when I came to Pewter a couple months back now! I totally understand if you don’t want to or can’t though!” Ritchie hurriedly said.

Jules worked his jaw back and forth. It kind of annoyed him that Brock had included that offer. If everyone brought a plus one there were going to be as many if not more trainers who weren’t from Pewter than those who were. Still… It was nice to have something that other people wanted.

And it might also work in his favour now that he thought about it.

“I can do that,” Jules said, raising up a finger to forestall Ritchie’s excited blabbering. “But! I want something in return!” Jules clarified.

Ritchie nodded. “Sure thing! Tell me what you want and I’ll help out as best I can!”

“I want an electric type pokemon,” Jules replied.

Sparky twitched. “Pika?” said the little pokemon and Ritche started to step back.

Jules rolled his eyes and waved his hand back and forth. “Not your pokemon. I don’t even want to trade for a pokemon. I want to catch one myself.”

“Ah, you’re having trouble with that eh?” Ritchie replied. “Need another electric type to lure them out?”

Jules sighed. “I actually need to go off the Routes, or at least the public routes.”

Ritchie and Bugsy both blinked in surprise. “Eh? Really?” Ritchie asked after a moment’s hesitation.

Jules rubbed his temples. Urgh, people like these who already had good teams were just… “Listen, you already have a strong pokemon team but I’m kind of struggling with building out my roster. The places where pokemon should be abundant have kind of dried up a bit due to how many trainers are stomping through there these days. Lots of rare encounters have become even rarer, and sometimes, if you do get lucky, you have to compete with other trainers on catching the damn thing!” Jules stated tersely.

Bugsy shook his head. “That’s not how it should be. If you are in an encounter with a pokemon then you have first rights of capture!”

Jules stared at Bugsy. “I challenge you to go out tomorrow and try and catch something while others are around. Better yet, try to do it while there’s no one around and you find a strong pokemon. The noise of your fight will draw people in, and you’ll get a front-row seat to what actually happens in instances like that.”

Bugsy set his feet. “I’d just fight them and beat them to show them the error of their ways!” he pronounced proudly.

Jules stared at Bugsy, and a wave of annoyance flashed through him. “Must be nice having a full team of six that are hand-raised to be powerhouses. If you get in a tough match, you can use three without breaking a sweat right?” Jules asked with a falsely sweet tone.

Bugsy hesitantly nodded, aware that this wasn’t going the way he thought it would.

“There are a bunch of trainers like me that only have four or less pokemon. If we use more than two, we’re at risk of not being able to limp back to a pokecenter,” Jules bit out.

“If we have a tough fight with a strong pokemon that we want to catch and another trainer steals the capture from us, there’s often not much we can do!” Jules snapped.

Bugsy stared. “That… isn’t what… no, they’re in the wrong,” Bugsy said weakly.

Ritchie stepped between Jules and Bugsy, “Hey woah, try not to bite his head off Jules man, he didn’t know. That! That sucks that it has been happening to you man!”

Jules turned his head away, fuming at the injustice of it all before nodding. “Sorry,” he bit out. “It’s happened twice now, and it’s really frustrating. I brought it up with Brock and he said I need to stay safe in those situations and advised me to travel with a few other people.”

Ritchie nodded. “That would help, yeah, can’t have people stealing from you if you got more backup,” he said. “So you want to travel together for a bit?” he asked.

Jules nodded.

Bugsy stomped his foot. “It’s still wrong! Could you have perhaps taken a photo of them?”

Jules rubbed his cheek. “I didn’t think of it at the time. Brock mentioned that as well and he sent me a gift that I’ve set to auto record my day.”

Bugsy and Ritchie tilted their heads. “What has the memory to do that?” asked Bugsy.

For the first time since they’d arrived, Jules felt a stirring of pride as he brought out something a lot of other trainers didn’t get. Jules lifted the top pocket on his shirt and revealed a small red electronic book.

Bugsy and Ritchie gasped. “You got a pokedex? Nice!” they said.

Jules nodded, pleased by their reactions. Ritchie even went as far as to beg him to scan his team to show Ritchie how they were going along with any insights the pokedex could grant.

“I only have this older model that doesn’t have that feature!” Ritchie said.

Jules felt really good being able to do that. It also gave him an idea of how to earn a steady income. If more trainers wanted insights into their pokemon, well he could provide that sort of service now, couldn’t he?

That was for later though, for now, Jules had a trip to plan and hopefully this would turn out to be the first proper adventure of his pokemon Journey.

Ritchie bounced from foot to foot. “So? Where are we off to?”

Jules grinned. “We’re going to the old decommissioned power plant that’s north of Lavender town and east of Cerulean.”

Ritchie and Bugsy perked up at that with Ritchie punching the air. “Let’s go adventuring then! We’ll find you the strongest electric pokemon around!”

Jules laughed. Yeah, that’d be the day.