The Earth Badge was cool and heavy in Red's hand. He had successfully cleared his first gym. Though he hadn't defeated Giovanni's Beedrill, the experience was invaluable. It had shown him—and his own partner—what true, top-tier strength looked like. Failure was a far better teacher than easy victory. In the sheltered environment of Pallet Town, their only real sparring partner had been the playful Mew. This battle had been a necessary, humbling lesson.
(But the matter of that Gyarados…) Red thought as he walked through the now-dark streets of Viridian City. Giovanni's lack of surprise, his knowing comments—it confirmed Red's suspicion. He was being watched by Team Rocket.
(From now on, I'll need to use my Aura to constantly scan my surroundings.) He couldn't afford to have all his information fall into enemy hands.
He reached the Pokémon Center, its lights a welcoming beacon in the night. Pushing through the doors, he immediately spotted his brother. Ash was slumped in a chair, head bowed, the very picture of dejection. He was clearly blaming himself for the incident with the Spearow flock; Red could tell he'd just received a stern lecture from Nurse Joy.
"The Ash I know isn't this pathetic," Red said, his voice cutting through his brother's dark thoughts.
Ash looked up, his eyes widening. "Big bro, I..." he started to explain, but Red cut him off.
"What you need to do now is two things," Red said, his tone firm but not unkind. "First, pray that Pikachu will be okay. And second," he pointed toward a row of video phones, "call Mom. She's worried."
Ash nodded and walked over to a vacant terminal. Red followed, standing silently by his side as the call connected. Their mother's face, partially covered by a towel, appeared on the screen. "Boys! You made it to Viridian City already!" Delia exclaimed. "Your father took four days to make that trip! You're already so much better than he was!"
The casual mention of their father made the air grow still. Ash glanced worriedly at his brother. Red's expression had turned cool and distant. Noticing the shift, Delia quickly changed the subject.
"I have no feelings for a man who's been gone since before I can remember," Red said quietly, turning to leave Ash to finish the call alone.
"My brother is still..." Ash began sadly. He didn't resent their father's absence as much as Red did. But Red, the older twin by a few minutes, had taken on the burden of maturity, working hard since he was a child to support their family. He had been forced to grow up faster.
"Mom, we'll take care of ourselves, don't worry!" Ash said, wrapping up the call. He hung up and ran over to Red. "So, what did you do?"
"Challenged the Viridian Gym," Red replied simply, holding up the Earth Badge.
"The Gym?!" Ash asked, his eyes wide.
"To enter the Indigo League Conference, you need to defeat eight Gym Leaders and earn their badges," Red explained.
"Alright! As soon as Pikachu's better, I'm going to challenge the Gym, too!" Ash declared, his earlier depression forgotten, his imagination already running wild.
"Don't get ahead of yourself," Red said, lightly tapping his brother on the forehead. "The Viridian Gym is the strongest in Kanto. Very few trainers can defeat its leader. I only earned this badge because he acknowledged my strength; I didn't beat his final Pokémon. Right now, you and Pikachu... you wouldn't even make it past the front guards."
The harsh truth brought Ash back down to earth.
"But..." Red continued, seeing his brother's crestfallen face. "There's one thing you have that I don't."
"Uh... recklessness?" Ash guessed, his face scrunching up in a familiar, self-deprecating way.
Red paused. While not entirely wrong, it wasn't what he meant. "Your love for Pokémon," he said, his expression serious. "It's something I can't compare to. I love them, but I know I can't give my everything to them in the same way you do. You'd risk your life for them without a second thought. That's your greatest strength."
Ash looked at his brother, then re-examined his own heart, trying to understand what Red saw in him.
Just then, the Pokémon Center's main video phone rang. With Nurse Joy busy with Pikachu, Ash answered it. The screen flickered to life, showing a close-up of a bowl of instant noodles.
"Is that... instant noodles? Professor Oak!" Ash shouted.
"Oops, wrong camera!" The Professor's flustered face appeared on screen. "I heard from your mother you'd arrived! That's excellent time!" He then asked the inevitable question. "So! How many Pokémon have you two captured?"
"Not... not one..." Ash mumbled. The Professor sighed dramatically.
"And you, Red?" he asked, turning his hopeful gaze to the other twin.
"I've captured three," Red replied calmly. "All with excellent potential." He deliberately kept the details vague to avoid a lengthy interrogation. "Professor, I need you to look at this."
He held up the sealed vial containing the black sludge he'd extracted from Gyarados. "This is a sample of an experimental liquid."
"I can't analyze it through the screen, but clearly it looks dangerous," the Professor said, his expression turning grim. "Have Nurse Joy send it to my lab immediately."
"Professor! I saw that Pokémon from the mural!" Ash interjected, pointing to a large carving of Ho-Oh on the wall behind the phone. "It flew right over a rainbow!"
"Impossible, Ash! That's a legend no one has seen for centuries!" Oak countered. "You probably saw a Fearow and got confused."
"No. We both saw it," Red stated. He activated his Pokédex and displayed the photo he'd taken. The image was a bit blurry, but it was unmistakably Ho-Oh.
"This... this is incredible!" Oak stammered, leaning so close to the camera his face filled the screen. "Send me that photo immediately! The research potential is..."
"Three Master Balls," Red said, cutting him off.
There was a full thirty seconds of stunned silence before the Professor reacted. "THREE?! RED KETCHUM, ARE YOU TRYING TO BANKRUPT ME?!"
"I know what they're for, Professor, and you know I won't use them for evil," Red assured him calmly. "But the Pokémon I plan to face in the future... a normal Poké Ball won't be enough."
After a three-minute verbal battle, they settled on a deal. Two Master Balls, to be delivered after Professor Oak filed the appropriate paperwork with the League. The production methods had been lost long ago; the few remaining were a finite, priceless resource, and their every movement was tracked. Red had just secured two of them.
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