Chapter Text
“I see,” Jessie eventually said from where she was seated on the grass opposite Joey on the northern outskirts of Viridian.
They’d moved here to allow Happiny a less concrete jungle first look at reality. Something she seemed to appreciate as she was happily playing inside the stream gurgling away through the clearing with Joey’s Misdreavus and an errant Magikarp. She was occasionally picking up stones from the river bed, but had until now discarded all of them without a second glance.
Metapod was off gargling poison, Rattata was sullenly hitting his tail against a large boulder, and Diglett was looking at the baby Pokemon with wonder in his eyes. He seemed almost too afraid to approach, as if he was scared that he’d hurt the little pink Pokemon.
“So the Happiny is afraid of men because she was likely stolen from the nursery by a team of male Team Rocket members. Then it was stolen again by a male duo, after which it was stolen again by you,” Jessie quickly recapped while bobbing her head and ridiculously long hair. She eventually threw him a frown. “It’s not alright to steal, you know.” She chastised with a wagging finger.
Joey looked over at Happiny, who was noticeably playing at the spot furthest away from him. “Says the right person,” he grunted.
Jessie put a hand to her heart. “Why I never… I was forced to steal because of my underprivileged background and lack of education. You did so because you were greedy.”
The trainer raised an eyebrow and demonstratively looked down at his outfit.
The girl at least had the decency to blush. “That doesn’t count,” she argued.
“What’s done is done.” Joey shook his head. “Regardless of anything else, however, the theft happened in Viridian three months ago. I can’t be seen running around with a Happiny here. The original plan, if she hatched before my fifth badge in Pewter, was simply to carry her through Viridian forest, but that probably won’t work now.”
“She’ll need to slowly get used to men again,” Jessie commented. “And you’re right, since this is the city in which the crime occurred, it's the worst place to acclimate her.” She paused. “We could simply bring her back to the nursery. Return her.”
Joey’s face darkened. He’d gone through all the trouble, all the rationalisations, carried the egg around for months, only to have to return it. “She’s seen my face,” he said darkly. “No witnesses.”
The girl sitting opposite him cringed and took a sip from a water bottle that they’d bought on their way out of the city.
“Why did you want a Happiny so badly anyway? They’re not known for being the most enthusiastic battlers.”
Joey frowned. “I’m not a brute; I also appreciate the contributions of a dedicated support Pokemon. With a Chansey’s move set, my team could stay in the wilds longer, train harder, and improve faster. I already calculated everything. The strength boost of an early Chansey acquisition evens out losing a battle slot in your team of six, while also being much safer. Now… Well, maybe I’ll get lucky and find a Clefairy in Mt. Moon. Wasn’t planning on going there, but well, I have months to burn. I only need four badges this season.”
Jessie looked at him. “So after all that effort, you’ll let her go?”
Joey sighed. “Of course. I’m not a monster. I refuse to have a Pokemon that doesn’t want to be with me. I’ll find someone, a nice lady, a wild enclave of Chansey. Something.”
“You have a good heart, you know,” Jessie told him. She paused. Before awkwardly rubbing the back of her head. “You know…” She stopped before looking down at her feet. “Forget about it…”
“What is it?” Joey asked.
“It’s a stupid idea, you’ve already helped me enough.”
“Being kind, when done with any sort of intentionality, can be said to benefit the giver almost as much as the receiver," Joey shot back.
Jessie lifted her head, smiled at him before letting herself fall back and spread out on the grass, limbs splayed.
“You know, I was giving up my hope on humanity. I was going to kill my sense of empathy. My trust in society. My hope,” she suddenly said in a shaky voice.
Joey listened, moved closer, and took Jessie’s head in his lap as she cried.
“I haven’t let myself cry in front of anyone since I was five years old,” the girl sobbed with a ridiculous smile on her face. “Nobody ever cared. So what’s the point?”
Joey put a hand on her head and massaged her scalp, sighing. His trainer’s journey was starting with more crying women than he’d initially thought. Theresa had also cried when he’d gone to the orphanage for the last time.
“Then you came and just solved all my problems. I knew I could finish school, be the best, but no one ever gave me a chance,” the girl in his laps babbled. “You’re the first one who believed in me, at all.”
“You’re a strong woman, you know that,” Joey told her. “You can do anything you set your mind to. Most people can, when they really try. My help wouldn’t have mattered if you’d failed the entrance exam. Others surely failed. They were studying in a house, with supportive parents, food in their stomachs, new clothes, and regular showers. You were roughing it out, studying in the library, stealing to survive. You helped yourself long enough so that someone else's contribution could change your fate.”
Jessie’s sobs stopped, and she broke away from Joey to sit on her own again. She rubbed at her reddened eyes. “I hate crying. I hate it,” she muttered.
“The first thing we do when we’re born is cry. To ask for help. We need other people. Humanity can survive alone, but it can only thrive with others. Stop thinking about how it's bad to ask for help. Look, I’ll do it right now,” Joey took a deep breath. “Jessie, please help me. I need someone to take care of Happiny, either on a permanent basis, or until we find someone who’s willing to take on that task.”
Jessie suddenly turned more serious and nodded. “I’ll take her. Truth be told, I was getting bored with Viridian anyway. The nurse placements only happen at the end of the year. Coincidentally, I’m free for the League season.” She looked away awkwardly. “If you’ll have me.”
Joey hadn’t really thought about having a travel companion, but well, it wasn’t a bad thing. Jessie likely wouldn’t be a battler anyway. If she didn’t resort to crime, she’d find a place she wanted to settle down or become a nurse in the future. It was temporary, and she was helping him. He’d taken the Happiny; now he needed to take responsibility. He couldn’t return her; his concerns about being identified and his identity forwarded were still valid, especially in Viridian, a town that had its roots deeply entwined with Team Rocket.
“Write me a list of things you need,” Joey said resolutely. “Additionally, tell me what to get from your dorm. I’ll meet you here, and then we’ll leave for Pewter. You can capture and register Happiny there.”
The magenta-haired girl nodded, pulled a notepad and a pad from her bra and quickly wrote down a list of things before ripping off the paper and extending it towards him.
Joey dubiously looked at the sweaty piece of paper. Then he pulled out his Pokenav and snapped a picture of the list. He nodded at Jessie. “See you soon,” he said, before walking back towards the city.
-/-
Two hours later, Joey and Jessie, the JJ crew, entered Viridian forest.
Jessie was clutching Happiny in her arms and feeding the baby Pokemon a whole bottle of Moo Moo milk while the Pokemon played with an oval stone it had found in the river. Tucking and untucking it in the crease of her diaper-like bottom.
Every now and again, Happiny would throw an unhappy look at Joey, before Misdreavus flew down from where she was scouting their surroundings to make funny faces at the baby.
The Viridian forest was dark and foreboding. Its trees stretched high into the sky and blocked almost all sunlight from breaking through.
It was also incredibly alive. Kukuna and Metapod hung from the trees while Caterpie, Weedle and the occasional Rattata scurried through the underbrush.
Nobody approached the pair walking through the main path, likely because they were being accompanied by a ghost. Even the occasional trainer that they came upon steered clear, simply throwing a concerned look at Misdreavus.
They mostly looked to be beginners, and Joey having a ghost Pokemon clearly indicated to them that this wasn’t a fight they wanted to pick.
One bug catcher had asked Jessie if she’d wanted to battle, but she’d simply frowned at the boy until he buzzed off awkwardly.
Joey looked at the ratty backpack slung over Jessie’s shoulder. There hadn’t been many things in her room in the nurse school. A few sets of clothes and some hygiene items.
It seemed that being an orphan in the Pokemon world wasn’t such a bad deal when one compared it to how much shit parents could ruin one’s life.
“Your Rattata,” Jessie eventually said as they walked, after she’d lost the wide-eyed look common in people who were leaving their hometown for the first time. “He seemed to be in a bad mood.”
Joey shrugged. “It’s perfectly fine to occasionally have trouble adjusting to new realities. He’s my starter, but recently he’s been unable to win a fight against Misdreavus.” He nodded upwards towards the ghost floating above them, occasionally doing twirls. “He’s adjusting.”
“I read about that in a Pokepsychology book,” Jessie mused. “The starter often feels a need to be the strongest on the team, which they often are since they started training the earliest.”
“Yeah, but Pokemon also grow, change, and have their own opinions. Rattata has a good heart, the best heart. I believe in him unconditionally. He’ll find his way back when he realises that pride is unconductive,” Joey said. His starter’s Pokeball on his belt twitched.
Joey smirked. Guilt-tripping the little shit would take a bit of time, but Rattata would soon have to learn to suck up the fact that he couldn’t always be the strongest, the fulcrum of every strategy.
“Do you think they’ll accept my application as a trainer in Pewter?” Jessie suddenly asked, switching the topic.
“The nursing certificate technically means you don’t have to complete an exam,” Joey said with a frown. He’d read up on the regulations as they’d walked. He nodded towards Happiny. “You already have your own starter. What’s the problem?”
“Just bad experiences,” she muttered.
“If they make a problem,” Joey said threateningly. “We’ll make it their problem.” Sometimes, when it came to government institutions being intentionally obtuse, because the clerk had an internal reward system for rejecting as many applications as possible, it was good to know how to let the inner Karen out. And Joey’s inner Karen was very strong and very shameless.
Jessie laughed at that. “Thanks,” she said.
“Anyway,” Joey continued. “Everyone is eligible, if they have the proper exam results, to receive a starter and a stipend for one year. You don’t lose the license after a year if you don’t get eight badges in one season, but you have to start funding your own journey. What this means is that the League essentially creates incentives for people who don’t even want to battle to just go out and travel for a year.”
“I’m also getting money from the scholarship,” Jessie laughed darkly. “My bank account is growing,” she hissed happily.
“If you manage to save a bit, you’ll be in a good position,” Joey agreed before looking up at the canopy and the few rays of sunlight that managed to break through.
“I heard the league is removing the tier system and the other restrictions for trainers. You can technically capture as many Pokemon as you want, whichever Pokemon you want. Your stipend just won’t increase until you get more badges, so those who catch more Pokemon than they can feed will get into trouble.” It was a bit stupid that the league was removing the system right after it had majorly screwed Joey over last year, making him go through a lot of stress to get the requisite amount of badges to capture Misdreavus, but such was life. He wasn’t going to make a boomer-complaint about how future generations should have it as hard as him. He was happy that the restrictions were getting loosened.
“Anyway,” Joey continued. “I’ll be paying for Happiny’s upkeep until the end of the year. That’s me taking responsibility. If you want, you can use your trainer stipend to feed and trainer a second Pokemon, actually try out the journey. I don’t think you’ll be winning any battles with Happiny.”
“Happ, Happ, Happi,” the baby Pokemon muttered through sips of milk in a dissatisfied tone. It probably translated to something like, ‘Keep my name out of your filthy mouth!’
Joey sighed. Why did he have to have such a rebellious daughter? Weren’t babies supposed to love their papa?
“I don’t know if I want to battle, honestly,” Jessie eventually muttered.
“No one’s forcing you. Kanto is a bit behind in these things, but places like Hoenn and Sinnoh have a special coordinator license with which people compete in contests,” he said, remembering that Jessie had shown talent in that area in the anime.
As expected, the girl perked up at that. “That sounds interesting, actually!” she said before turning towards Joey. “Should we stop soon for dinner?” she asked.
The trainer critically observed the path they were walking on, which was starting to become more overgrown and lively as the evening approached. Viridian forest was probably the sort of place that only truly came alive in the deep night.
“I usually train in the mornings and battle and walk in the afternoon,” he explained briefly. “But Viridian Forest is a place where training is a bit hard because we’re in the middle of the wilderness and might disturb the locals. Similarly, the risk of wild battles is relatively high, so I wouldn’t necessarily engage in any trainer battles.” He quickly consulted the map on his Pokenav. The path through the Viridian forest could generally be walked in 20 hours. The issue was that if you got distracted by battles, getting poisoned, or catching a new team member, it could take up to a week to actually get through.
Joey didn’t want to deal with that. He wanted to get to Flint and get his badge. Also, he was starting to have a sort of idea as to how to bring Rattata out of his funk and for that, he needed to be in Pewter.
They’d started the morning by leaving the Poketech academy and delivering one last beat-down on Giselle in the morning. The ferry from Vermillion to Viridian had taken three hours. Another three hours had been spent dealing with Happiny hatching and preparing Jessie to leave.
It was now 5 pm, and they’d only walked 3 of the 20 hours that they would need to. The sun was setting, and the Kanto February wasn’t that warm of a month. However, if they stopped now, they wouldn’t be able to arrive in Pewter late in the evening tomorrow. Even if they woke up at dawn and started off at 8 in the morning, they’d need a third day.
If he’d been alone, he would have pushed through the night, but now he wasn’t.
“Are you up for maybe continuing to walk after dinner?” Joey asked. “Quick dinner break until 7 pm and then do another 3 hours minimum? Wake up at 5 tomorrow and we’ll just about make it Pewter by the mid-evening.”
Jessie tilted her head at him as if looking at an alien. “That doesn’t sound that bad,” she said.
Joey inwardly pumped his fist. It seemed his new and impulsive gained travel companion wasn’t going to drag him down.
But then the girl shook her head. “But as a nurse, I’d have to suggest against it, for Happiny’s sake. She’s starting to get restless and needs to play. She can’t walk fast enough to keep up with us, and we also can’t just carry her for the whole day tomorrow.”
Joey sighed. “That… makes sense.” He’d read up a lot about how to take care of baby Pokemon in preparation for the hatching, but well, maybe he’d need to be more patient. He’d had some baby humans in his last life, and those had been utterly exhausting. He’d been seduced by the perceived ease of taking care of baby Pokemon because they could walk from day one and grew up incredibly fast.
“What’s our actual ETA then?” he asked. “In consideration of the…” he waved his hand in the air.
“Happiny probably shouldn’t be carried long distances for longer than three hours at a time for at least the next week. That means that if we walk three times per day, before breakfast, before lunch, and before dinner, we should be fine reaching Pewter in the evening in two days,” Jessie said clearly.
Joey found himself nodding along. “Good, good.” It was still a way more forgiving schedule than anything to do with a human baby. It would have been easiest had Happiny hatched later, after Pewter. Joey wouldn’t have minded staying put for a month to take care of the baby Pokemon.
Unfortunately, she’d hatched in Viridian, which was a place he couldn’t stay too long.
“Then we’ll try to do that. For now, let's keep going and stop at the next hut,” he decided.
Considering that Viridian Forest was one of the most walked paths in Kanto, it was also the path with the best service line. After all, traditionally, people started their trainer journey in Pewter, which mostly meant taking a ferry to Viridian and walking north. A significant number of trainers got stuck on badge three, but that meant that almost all of the trainers in the region attempted the rock badge.
This meant that Viridian forest, as long as you didn’t get lost, was absolutely littered with prepped camping sites, wooden covers, and little huts. All of it was maintained and stocked by the Kanto rangers.
He’d read a study once that this practice alone had bumped up the average amount of badges gained in the first year from 2.1 to 2.3.
Exactly as he’d read, another fifteen minutes of walking brought them into view of the very first possible camping site. A small fenced-off area starting from the road and encircling an almost empty clearing.
There were two trainers already present, setting up their tents, but they barely threw a glance at the newcomers as they joined them and took up their own spot.
Having already practised back before the Indigo conference, Joey set up his outdated ranger tent in record time and had dinner bubbling away barely thirty minutes later.
Soup was the easiest thing to consistently make over a fire on the road, so this was what he was doing. Some beans, potatoes, corn, onions, leeks, spices and tomatoes and voila.
He spread out the bowls for his Pokemon and filled them with the requisite vitamins, minerals, Protein-heavy Pokechow while also giving them each a bowl of soup. Then he portioned out some for himself and Jessie and poured the rest in a thermos so he wouldn’t have to make lunch tomorrow. For breakfast, he’d prepared some fruits, nuts and oatmeal cookies. That would have to tide them over.
Jessie watched all of the process with wide eyes, making Joey puff out his chest with pride. It had certainly been worth it to practice camping for two weeks last year. It had been much easier to learn it without anything at stake with the season over. If he fumbled the tent-pitching now, he could have delayed their departure tomorrow. Small errors like that stacked up.
“You’ll make a great house-husband one day,” the girl eventually told him with a thumbs-up after she’d tried the soup.
Happiny angrily guzzled her Moo Moo milk while glaring at Joey with narrowed eyes. She put a hand up to her eyes before pointing them at Joey. ‘I’m watching you.’
Joey wondered where she'd even learned that gesture, considering she’d just been born six hours ago.
“The only thing I’m marrying is my champion’s title in five years,” Joey grumbled.
“That’s the plan?” Jessie asked.
“Yeah, I think I can get at least top four in this year’s conference.” Ash had reached the top sixteen with an absolutely atrocious effort. Also, the brackets of young and older trainers only met in the top 4. He refused to believe there was anyone who had started their journey last year or this year that he wouldn’t be able to beat. “Then next year I’ll win it, probably in Hoenn. Then three years to beat all the Elite Four and the champion, easy,” he explained.
Jessie threw him a dubious look. “Whatever you say,” she eventually replied, obviously not believing his story too much, but not wanting to say it.
Joey shrugged. He didn’t need other people to believe. He believed in himself and his Pokemon.
Talking about his Pokemon. He turned to his starter and quirked an eyebrow, gaining the Rattata’s attention. He jerked his head to the side to signal that he wanted to have a more private conversation.
Rattata nodded back and stiffly hopped to the side, his food finished.
Joey followed and sat down to talk to his starter.
“Look,” he started, before hesitating. He shook his head. Some conversations weren’t meant to be easy. “I’m very proud of you,” he started again. “We met almost on the day one year ago, I think I’ve started fulfilling my part of the premise. There’s hardly a Rattata in the region stronger than you, and we’re well on our way to crushing the conference at the end of the year.”
Rattata stared at Joey with a sad look on his face.
“You’re sad because you’ve been unable to beat Misdreavus recently, I get it. But it’s not like you regressed in strength; you’ve improved a lot. It’s just that Misdreavus learned some moves that work really well for her recently while also tapping into the potential she’s been building for literally decades now.” Joey patted his starter on the head. “I could tell you not to mind the loss because the match-up is bad. After all, your normal moves can’t hit her, and your fighting moves are not that useful. But we can never beat everyone. It’s impossible. Until we’re the strongest, there will always be someone stronger. And when we’re the strongest, the day that someone finally surpasses us will approach rapidly. Your value to the team doesn’t lie just in your strength, but also your spirit, and I hate seeing you lose sight of what’s important.”
“Ratt,” his starter protested.
But Joey just shook his head. “I think you know intellectually that battling is a team sport. You need a trainer to reach your full potential, and I need a strong, hard-working Pokemon to reach mine. I’ve always been able to rely on you, and I still do. But having a strong teammate is a good thing, not a bad thing.”
Rattata sullenly turned his head to look away.
“I know you’re hurt,” Joey said empathetically. “But I have a suggestion. If you don’t think that your teammates should be strong-”
“Ratt!” the Pokemon interrupted him, denying the statement.
Joey pushed through. “If you don’t care, then embrace them, don’t reject them as you’ve been doing. I have a job for you. I know that originally Diglett was supposed to serve as a pivot to the Pewter gym, but I want to give that role to you.”
Rattata perked up.
“You’ll be solely responsible for taking on the next gym. If you want anyone to join you in the battle, you have to ask me yourself. If you think you can do it on your own, you can try. Just know, you can change your mind whenever me and your teammates will step in to lift you back up if you’re losing.”
Rattata glared at Joey heatedly. “Rattttt,” he muttered.
Joey understood the words on a visceral level. After all, Rattata was acting out because his pride had been hurt. Joey had retaliated by pressing the same point.
His starter’s words had been simple.
“Bring it on.”