Pretty Picky, Actually

It takes you the rest of the day to reach Veridian City, both due to the distance and because you and Charmy had to fight off a number of Pokemon that harassed you along the way. If you had been content to capture Rattatas or Pidgeys you could have had about twenty of them by now at the least. However, given your limited Pokeballs at the time you had to keep a more careful eye out and, as a result, when you reach the Pokemon Center at nightfall, you not only are turning in Charmy and the wounded Spearow for treatment but also a freshly captured male Nidoran and a Sandshrew as well.

Fortunately, Pokemon Centers have sleeping areas for traveling Trainers and once you got yourself some food at a local diner, you spend the night there to await your new-formed team's recovery, slipping into a peaceful sleep with dreams of the epic battles that hopefully are ahead of you.

In the morning, you go to the Nurse Joy and she hands you your Pokeballs, which you pop open to inspect the recovery of your Pokemon. They all look fully recovered and you kneel down next to the Spearow, holding out your hand out to it, palm-side up. "Sorry about the sneak attack yesterday, Peckster," you say, having already decided on his name, "I hope we can work together with no hard feelings."

To your surprise, Peckster lets out a happy sounding whistle and nuzzles the side of its head against your hand. It seems there are no hard feelings at all.

"Well, that's unusual," Nurse Joy says as she watches you, "You said that Spearow is the first wild Pokemon you caught?"

You nod and the Nurse Joy adds, "Well, it's just that Spearows are known to be a bit prickly for the first day or so after their capture, especially with new Trainers, but this one likes you right away. And I have to say, all of those Pokemon you have so far require a lot of particular care to grow right but they all seem taken with you too. You're very lucky and I hope things keep working out."

You return your Pokemon to their balls, thank Nurse Joy and step out into Veridian City to get a feel for the place.

Veridian is certainly bigger than Pallet Town (though that isn't hard, since sometimes it felt like there were only four buildings in total in Pallet) but you notice it isn't MUCH bigger. Along with the Pokemon Center there's a Pokemart and one or two other businesses along with a few homes but in terms of hustle and bustle it's still a bit on the quiet side.

As you pass by the Pokemart you wonder if perhaps you should take a look at the Pokemon Gym. Even if it's not recommended for beginners, it might be good to at least scout out what you could be dealing with. At the same time, a flash of movement out of the corner of your eye catches your attention and you turn to observe a very familiar looking rear profile of a young man in a blue sweater and purple jeans with also familiar looking shock of brown hair.

You would almost brush it off as someone just looking similar from behind if not for what almost certainly looked like a Pikachu sitting on his shoulder... but then again, for all that Blue could be a jerk, he wasn't one to break a promise casually. Maybe you're just seeing things and should keep going for the Gym? Or should you check this out?