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A nap on the soft grass, Chuchu by her side, and a straw hat to block out the sunlight. Yellow had all the makings of a perfect afternoon in the Viridian Forest. Well, she didn’t actually know what time it was, but the middle of the day sounded like the best time to nap. She was merely half sleeping, though the melodic chirps and murmuring stream lulled her closer to a deep sleep. A sudden, unnatural splash woke her slightly, and she tilted her hat upwards to see the source of the interruption. Her vision was fuzzy from the influx of light, but she could see a blue blob with spikes growing steadily bigger.
Yellow sat up, placing the hat on her head as she yawned. She rubbed her eyes and rested a hand on the anxious Omny. Rushing past the memories of playful water-types in the river, she landed on a lone Primeape lying on the rocks, still and out of place. Primeape weren’t native to the forest.
“Okay, let’s go check this out!” Yellow woke Chuchu, and they followed Omny to the Primeape’s location. The spot was a ways down the river, as she tended to rest where the ground was level, but soon, she could see the Primeape exactly as it appeared in Omny’s memories. The sound of gravel crunching beneath her boots must have alerted the Primeape, as it sprung from its sleeping state and positioned itself to flee. Instead of running, however, the Primeape observed Yellow with recognition and leapt over the waters to rest under her hand. It wanted her to view its memories?
The Primeape’s feelings were excited and relieved, though there was an undertone of sadness. Then she figured out how the pokémon knew her: it was the same Primeape she and Green defeated as part of her training. What was it doing all the way here? She searched through its memories, mostly of it wandering the forest, until she reached farther back and saw a person telling Primeape to wait in a clearing and then disappearing into the trees. That was a while ago based on how far back she had to search. It was a probable case of abandonment, but there was always the chance it wasn’t.
“You’re waiting for your trainer?” she asked. Primeape nodded. Yellow hadn’t seen anyone come by the forest lately, but there was someone who might have. It wasn’t uncommon for Green to have challengers that fought him multiple times with different teams after losing, though most relied on the Storage System to switch pokémon. Maybe it was broken again?
Either way, he seemed like the next best step and it wasn’t that long before they were supposed to meet this week anyway. So Primeape and Yellow took a stroll to the Gym with Yellow occasionally peeking glances at Primeape, only to find it was perky the whole way. The Gym still had its usual weathered exterior despite all of Green’s claims to remodel, but Yellow suspected it had to do with his constant traveling. It would be nice if he could stay longer in between trips, but there was always a new technique to study or a battling buddy to visit. Yellow liked Blue and Red’s company, however rowdy, but the distance to Pallet seemed so far at times.
There wasn’t a battle occurring on the main floor, so Green was probably in his office upstairs. He created a rule against pokémon in the office after a disaster with Red, because who else would it have been? She thought Gold and Emerald would make good contenders, but they were banned from the office entirely, albeit for different reasons. Regardless, Primeape wouldn’t be allowed in, so she left Omny and Chuchu to play with it on the battleground. It looked a little worried when she patted its head and turned towards the stairs, though she reassured it she would be back.
Green’s office had a front window to let him know of any visitors, but sometimes he would be so absorbed in work one could spy on him for a few minutes before he noticed. Thankfully, this wasn’t one of those times and he waved and closed his laptop upon seeing her.
Yellow stepped inside the slightly messy office and took a seat on the worn couch. It hasn’t been replaced since he bought it—how long ago was that—maybe ten years ago?
“Hi, Green! It’s been a while, hasn’t it?”
He gave her a quizzical look. “We saw each other 3 days ago. Are you losing track of time again?”
3 days? It felt like a week already... “I guessed I just missed you, the forest has been pretty quiet lately,” she giggled.
Yellow thought she could see his face redden, but he had turned away to focus on some papers on his desk so she couldn’t be certain.
“But not today! Do you remember that Mankey pack we faced a long time ago?” she asked.
Green looked up slightly from the papers. “Not sure, we’ve fought a lot of things, haven’t we?”
“Yeah, we have...” She couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed, though maybe she was being childish to hang onto a simple memory from so long ago. Then again, her whole schtick was reading memories, so she couldn’t fault Green for not recalling, especially when his life was full of more exciting fights. “Well, I brought the leader of that pack because its trainer left it in the forest. So did anyone come by with a Primeape recently?”
Green appeared to come to a conclusion, and he shook his head. “That trainer isn’t coming back for it.”
She sighed, though it wasn’t surprising news. She simply wanted the confirmation. The trainer hadn’t even bothered to take Primeape back to its home to release it. The cliffs were a long way from the Viridian Forest, and Primeape didn’t even know it had been abandoned.
“I could find them,” Green stated, taking Yellow from her increasingly indignant thoughts. “Search Primeape’s memories and draw the trainer, and I’ll cross-reference with the association’s database.”
Yellow wasn’t sure if that was legal, but she trusted Green knew what he was doing. He wasn’t one to play by set rules, though most good people didn’t. But what would she do once she found them? Force them to take Primeape back? They would simply abandon it somewhere else. Maybe rough them up? Not really her style, but Green would do it if she asked. She settled on hopefully making them feel bad for abandoning Primeape.
They headed downstairs, and Primeape grew lively when they returned. It balked at Green, then ran circles around him when it realized he wasn’t going to attack it like before. Yellow went straight to drawing after it calmed down while Green was fiddling with his pokédex for a moment before storing it away and waiting for her to finish.
Once she had a good enough drawing, she ripped out the page and handed it over to Green. He went back to his office and was gone for a few moments, and Yellow spent some time comforting Primeape, though it seemed a bit confused at her continued reassurances. She felt her heart breaking for the pokémon, but it had to know the truth eventually. Only then could it heal.
Green returned, and Yellow could see he was trying to hide a smirk under an expression of indifference. “I’ve found our suspect: he’s a contender for the league. He’s got seven badges and is missing just one.” One badge short? That meant—
“He’s coming here!” Yellow deduced. She glanced at the oblivious pokémon.“Poor Primeape, I didn’t think it’d be so soon...”
“It might be for the better. What do you remember about Primeape?” Green quizzed.
She frowned. Now wasn’t the time for a test, and she wasn’t his student anymore. Yet Green’s knowing smile let her know that she should probably answer him.
“Primeape go on rampages that seemingly never end when they get really angry,” she recalls. Then it dawned on her.
“That’s right. When Primeape realizes its trainer has abandoned it, it’ll get angry, and I plan to use that to beat this trainer with his own pokémon.” Green wore a determined look now.
“Just Primeape?! But that’ll be one against six!”
Green chuckled. “Have a little faith, Yellow. I’ve got a pokédex too.” Yellow can’t tell what was more amazing: the fact that he was really going to fight a 1v6, or the joke he just cracked.
The trainer didn’t show up before closing, so Yellow stayed the night in Green’s office and slept on the couch. Meanwhile, Green decided to train with his temporary new pokémon, and Yellow was certain they were still going strong when sleep took her.
Green wasn’t in his office when Yellow woke up either, and she could hear the faint sound of fighting through the wall. Was he still training? She sat up and stretched her limbs. The couch really should have been replaced.
The scent of food turned her head towards the desk, where a bento box with a note on top sat in a cleared section. It read Lunch. Or Brunch, whatever makes you feel better.
She laughed, and put aside the note to eat her ‘lunch.’ She wondered if Green made the meal or bought it from the city. It did have a cooked element to it, but that might be her hunger talking. She was halfway through scarfing her meal when an unfamiliar voice brought her attention outside the office. She ran up to the window and saw that Green wasn’t training; he was already fighting the trainer! Yellow saw that Primeape was deftly dodging a flurry of punches from the trainer’s Hitmonchan and sighed in relief.
She was about to burst open the door when she second-guessed herself—what if she distracted Green and he lost? He couldn’t afford a single mistake with that kind of disadvantage.
Instead, Yellow remembered something Green had told her about the Gym. There should have been a monitor somewhere in the office to track the battle’s progress since both trainers had to register the pokémon they were planning on using. She combed through the office for a while until she found a small device with a display of two trainers in pixelated form. One was obviously Green and the other was a young teen in a red tracksuit. As expected, Green only had one pokéball on his side, representing Primeape, but the other trainer had six. Astoundingly, five were grayed out, leaving one bright pokéball remaining. And before Yellow could look out the window, the sixth one grayed out as well.
Green won! Yellow should have expected as much, but it was an incredible feat nonetheless. When she popped outside the office, she witnessed the trainer sprinting out the exit as Primeape chased them the entire way, only stopping when the automatic doors closed behind the trainer.
“You—you did it!” Yellow shouted, and Green looked up from downstairs to greet her like it was any other day.
Primeape appeared worse for wear, but it still had the energy to bounce over to her, and she quickly healed it. Primeape gave her a grateful look, then bounded back to Green, who recalled it.
“You’re keeping Primeape?” The pokéball Green was holding wasn’t one she’d seen before. It was a light green color with teardrop-shaped brown markings and a gold dot in the middle.
“Of course. Any pokémon that can defeat an entire team of a seven-badge trainer is worth keeping.” Yellow knew it was more than that, but it wasn’t like Green to admit that he’d grown attached to his pokémon in front of others. Yellow smiled, and asked instead about the pokéball.
“It’s a Friend Ball. Crystal gave me a specialized set of pokéballs last time she visited, and I haven’t found a reason to use them until now,” he explained.
“I see. I could tell how much Primeape liked you when I healed it,” she said, recalling Primeape’s feeling of belonging before she had even made contact.
“Really? I was thinking of going back to the mountainside to see if it would rather return to the pack.” Green observed Primeape through the transparent lid. “The land has been flourishing ever since you defeated Lance.”
“I’m positive Primeape wants to stay with you,” she nodded fiercely. “Wait a second, you do remember Primeape then!”
“I remembered when we were training,” Green said. “And it made me think of leaving the Gym for a bit.”
“What? Why?!” Yellow’s heart sank; why the sudden decision and how long was he going to be gone this time?
She noticed her outburst made him slightly shocked, though he simply smiled in response. “I want to see the revived mountainside for myself. I don’t think either of us have been back there since the battle on Cerise Island, so you should come with me.”
Now it was her turn to be momentarily shocked. Then Yellow readily accepted and realized she didn’t mind Green traveling if she went with him.