“Sorry about that, my father is old, but you wouldn’t expect it with the type of mouth he’s carrying. He you go.”

Heath obtained the catelog, and immediately scanned for some of the common items.

Pokéballs – 5,000

Potions (5 uses) – 1000

‘So even with a single quest, I can only buy a potion. It can be used three times though.’ Heath made a mental note. Not seeing the Oran berries, he returned the catalogs.

“Do you have an idea how much an Oran Berries are?”

Sherly looked at him with a weird stare, and Heath smiled awkwardly.

“Hmmm, you have that Quest.”

“Yeah, Is that common around here?” Heath asked.

“Depends on the season, around this time it’s pretty common, I’d say. Orans usually go for 200 Pokédollars each if you were to buy in them in the wild, but the owner of this quest being myself prefer more local berries as I believe them to be more effective.”

‘A map would be beneficial in this case. If she is the owner of the quest, and she’s a vendor she might have a map due to quest type’ Heath decides to ask.

“I’m sorry for bother you again, but do you have a map with some of the known berries in the areas inside the forest.”

“Smart one you are. I’m usually waiting for the smart ones towards the end of the season since it takes a while for a kid to think of asking” Sherly says as she bends down, and papers were heard flying places. She slowly came back up with her back slightly failing her, and she gave him the maps to the Heath.

“Here is the map showing some of the berries and pokémon in the forest and their areas, and you can cross reference that with the territories they’re in. Be careful. I recommend at least a sliver pokémon for that. Though I think you’ll be fine. It’s free of charge for the first map.” Sherly smiled and bid Heath a good trip...

“Thank you, I might be back later today, hopefully.” Heath waved and started walking towards the entrance of the town.

“We await your return” Sherly waves back

“Who’s we?” The old man chuckles

The lady tried to be polite but after the comment from her father she went back to hitting him, but smiled at Heath,

Heath collected his things and made his way towards the edge of the town. He quickly enters the thick bush, prepared for an annoying fight with the bushes once more. After an hour or two inside the forest he figured he should look at the map, and quickly saw that he was closing in on the area where the Oran berries were known to be kept.

“We’re here take a look at this; we need to find this.” Heath bent down and showed Piplup the Oran berry. Piplup stared at it for a while before nodding.

“Good, just shout when you find one.”

They continued walking around, looking for the berries. He saw a couple of berries but only found one or Oran berry so far. Heath thought it had something to do with the wild Beedrill around this area which scared Heath to a certain degree.

‘Even if this is a small town, there could be no telling how strong pokémon around this area are.’ Heath thought. That’s when Piplup suddenly disappeared. Health looked all around for that little guy, but he was nowhere to be seen.

“Piplup, Piplupppp, where are you?” Heath whispered. That’s when he heard and oink, and he poked his head through a bush. He saw two Oran berries dangling from a luscious evergreen. Health looked down and biting his lip at his fate saw a Sleeping Kakuna.

‘Observe’

Kakuna

Age: 9

Gender: F

Rank: Copper

Potential: Silver

Moves: Harden, String Shot, Poison Sting

Ability: Shed Skin

Heath’s expression immediately lifted.

‘I think we can do this, if Piplup only knew Ember’ Heath whined inwardly. He looked towards Piplup who looked at Heath with an expectant look.

“You want to fight?”

“Piplup” Piplup nodded while having a serious expression. Heath let out a sigh while thinking of a strategy. Piplup is definitely fast, but the main problem is that if Piplup gets poison things can become critical. He knew he shouldn’t be thought the worst-case scenario is He would put Piplup in his poke ball and run like a track star towards Professor Birch. Finalizing a couple of things, He immediately crouched told Piplup his strategy.

“Alright Piplup, here’s the plan we will do a Hit and Run. We will be avoiding only poisonous attacks, and we will try to end this quickly” Heath ordered quickly and concisely. Heath appeared from out of the bushes and pointed towards the Kakuna while thinking ‘Cringe’. He gave out his first order.

“Charge up, and use Pound”

Piplup immediately jumped and started glowing loud, with the Kakuna still sleeping, Piplup had a stationary target so when he finished Charging it immediately ran full force to the Kakuna. The opposing Kakuna immediately felt the intent of the charging Piplup and tried to roll out of the way but being slow Piplup still clipped most of the Kakuna.

“Kakkuuuna”

The Kakuna immediately uses String Shot in retaliation and at the same time Heath ordered/

“Quick Piplup run and use Growl. Avoid String Shot as long as possible, then when you see an opening use Pound”

“Piplup” The Piplup nodded, and nearly got hit by the incoming String Shot but nearly dodged out of the way. Kakuna continuously used String Shot which in turn covered some of the bark of the trees but after a while it got tired.

“Now!”

The Piplup started charging a Pound but unlike the first this one was less powerful. Piplup ran at the Kakuna but as it got near the Kakuna’s tail started glowing purple.

‘Fuck me’

“Avoid the Tail by jumping on the tree, then continuing the Pound” Heath adjusted his order. Piplup closing in jumped on the tree but nearly missed the bark as it wasn’t used to having that much power. He recovered and charged another Pound trying to continue its attack.

BAMM

A smack was heard within the tree, and soon Piplup launched itself towards the Kakuna which hit full force. The Kakuna shell buckled slightly and the Kakuna hit the floor so hard it plopped up and immediately used a move which Heath wasn’t expecting. A purplish glow was still found on the Kakuna, and it twisted it’s body with such finesse and hit Piplup which cause Piplup to launch up. Heath inspected Piplup which who was slightly hurt, but visibly fine.

“We got lucky, Use Pound again before she uses Harden”

Piplup Charges a Pound and hits the Kakuna withheld less impact but also allowed Piplup to evade.

“Again”

Piplup used Pound again, causing Kakuna to scream. Heath noticed a lot of cracks through its shell

“Kaku-”

“Again!!”

Piplup charged it’s pound a lot more this time and blitzed towards the Kakuna. A thud was heard and Piplup had a grin on its face while the Kakuna flew into the bushes.

[Kakuna was defeated. Piplup earned 200 Exp]

[First pokémon defeated gained extra 200 Exp]

[Piplup leveled up]

[Piplup leveled up]

[Piplup learned Water Gun]

‘Extra exp? That’s actually pretty good’ Heath looked towards Piplup who was in awe of its sudden changes.

“We got too confident, you got hit by a poison tail which could have changed everything” Heath scolded Piplup.

‘Can’t let us get too big of a head, especially since we won against a pokémon that was basically a stationary target’ Heath thought. Piplup fell crestfallen at his mistake, but Heath immediately went over and crouch down, petting the blue and white penguin.

“You did good though. Especially the Pound combo. That was awesome” Heath smiled, and he saw that Piplup still had a little bit of an ego boost but thinking it was okay to be slightly confident He looked up to the berries. Heath looked around for some way to get them and ultimately decided to just climb the medium sized tree.

After hustling his way up the tree, he grabbed the berries, and immediately regretted not asking Professor Birch for an old bag as he had to stuff everything into his pockets. Thinking about it now, Heath realized that he needed to be more prepared, so he didn’t have to travel back to town so often. Heath then slid his way down. And looked at the quest.

‘One done.’ Heath then heard a buzz coming from his wrist. It was his Xtransceiver, and it read ‘Birch’. He answered the call and saw Birch.

“He-”

“Daddy why do I have to go with him?” The voice was undoubtedly May, but confused he just listened.

“What’s your problem anyway sis Heath is at least a decent person. Dad wouldn’t have brought him over if that was the case. I bet you like himmmm” Max joked, but May suddenly appeared unknowingly on camera with a furious expression. Meanwhile, a disinterested Birch silently apologized while also looked a little annoyed.

“Max, shut up.”

“Both of you be quiet, I’m talking to him as we speak.” Birch said with a force smile.

“Hey Heath” Max appeared right next to Birch and investigated the screen with a smile.

“What’s up Max?” Heath sighed as he was unsure what was going on.

“What can I do for you Professor Birch?”

“Well, I completely forgot my wife told Max to take you out shopping, and he figured he should do it earlier to get it out of the way so you guys can hangout”

Max nodded and adjusted his glasses like a protagonist. While May looked annoyed.

“I also want May to go with you guys as there’s not many your guy’s age as most of them left on their journey” Birch solemnly said.

“Ughhhh” May groaned, while Max rolled his eyes

“Anything for you Professor. I’m currently in the Forest but I’ll be near the entrance in a hour”

“No problem, be careful coming back” Birch warned. Heath nodded and waved them goodbye. Birch ended the call before May could keep complaining.

‘What’s her problem with m? She wasn’t this much of a bitch in the show. Hopefully it’s just the woes of puberty’ Heath Shaked his head and looked towards Piplup.

“I wanted to look for the sitrus berries but now we have to get back to town. We might be able to come back later, if not we’ll set out after some desperately needed training for me, and you.” Heath told Piplup. Piplup looked a little sad, but he quickly pepped up, and headed back. As their way in the forest, they were undisturbed going out but they also found another 3 Oran berries going through a different way. Leaving the forest Heath saw the entrance of the town, He looked around for Max and May but not seeing them, he decided to hand in the quest.

[Meanwhile, in the forest.]

A damaged Kakuna laid stoically and his view pierced the sky with his glare. Pain seethed through his body for his knowingly last engagement. A human, and a pokémon rare to this region disturbed his peaceful sleep just for a reason he did not know off.

‘Why me? WHY MEEE? All through my life, my peers picked on me. My swarm treated me like filth, even my own parents left me next to this tree for the sake of not wanting me. I knew my life was over but the ones that caused this state have yet to finish me.’ Kakuna thought to itself in frustration. All of its life it wanted to grow up and become a powerful Beedrill that his swarm could be proud of but now he just sits and awaits Arceus to let him move on. Hours go by and the Kakuna feels the last of its strength slip away while it continued to feel bitter about its life. When a Weedle appeared looking at him, the Kakuna’s vision fading, he feels his rage boiling.

“I want to live. I want to live. I want to live,” The Kakuna chanted as his body started to glow brighter and brighter. It continued with an even stronger conviction.

“I must live and become strong. Strong enough for all of those who cross me will feel my wrath! I must get POWER” the glow within the Kakuna grows even brighter, and soon its shape starts transforming. Slowing metamorphizing into a different being.