Epilogue: The Future we Choose

Route 25-Kanto/The Couple's Pond
Afternoon/Tuesday

She slapped him. Hard. He stepped back wards in surprise and she took the 
chance to shove him into the pond that lay behind him. With that, she turned 
around on her heels and stormed off sending a loud "Pervert! See you never, 
Chris!" over her shoulder at him. He rose soggily out of the clear water and 
sighed.

In retrospect, it had not been a very good date from the start.

He had arrived late at the Poke-Center. He had refused to take part in the 
Nugget Bridge battles for fear that he would lose, which made him look like a 
coward. Their "romantic" stroll through the series of hedges on Route 25 had 
been interrupted when they stumbled into an area that had been completely 
closed-off and barred by a wild overgrowth of plants, and had to take a 
detour; thus completely missing out on the beauty of the area. Then, all he 
had wanted was a little kiss to end the day, and had unintentionally tripped 
and brushed against her chest.

She really didn't take that well, he thought as he got up from the knee deep 
water. She really didn't take anything else well either...what was that 
detour about anyway? All those plants had over grown all over that hedged 
clearing...It seemed weird to him that such a growth of plant life had been 
allowed to occur in an area where people obviously usually ventured through. 
The grass almost seemed knotted,he mused as he squeezed the water out of his 
damp shirt.

From somewhere above him, someone suddenly laughed out. Chris' face snapped 
upwards, and he found a blond older boy in hysterics, grabbing at his 
stomach, tears of ecstasy streaming dwn his cheeks.

Chris' face glowed bright red and he jumped out of the water; trying 
desperately to hold on to any shred of dignity he could still produce.

The blond boy approached him, a pleasant smile stretched on his face. The boy 
bent down and removed his pack. He shuffled through the contents and removed 
a single purple towel. He handed this to Chris: "That looked painful."

Chris took the odd towel, and looked the boy in the face. Purple eyes. That 
thought struck out easily enough, now that the purple towel's color had 
placed the color in his mind. Chris looked at the towel and shrugged: "Felt 
painful."

They introduced each other easily enough, exchanging names while Chris dried 
off the excessive moisture: Chris Gemport and Greg Metrawire.

It turns out that Greg was a distant cousin to Bill, the famous researcher 
who lives in the SeaSide Cottage on the cape. Greg was visiting his cousin 
for a few days while he passed through Cerulean and happened upon Chris' 
unfortunate scene.

For his part, Chris explained that he wanted to take part in gym battles in 
order to defeat Kanto's Elite Four. He summarized that he was a native of 
Johto and hadn't been able to defeat Johto's Elite Four, so he had come to 
Kanto to train from anew.

Together they walked back towards Cerulean.

From that inauspicious start, they quickly became fast friends. It wasn't 
long before they found themselves traveling together from town to town all 
over Kanto. It had happened almost instinctively and neither had asked the 
other if they wanted to travel together, it had simply happened.

They were both doing the Kanto-Gym-Badge-Thing, which was the reason why Greg 
was in Kanto in the first place, and eventually, they both found themselves 
challenging Kanto's Elite Four.

Chris was a fairly good trainer, his pokemon were trained and loyal, and he 
ranked above the usual trainer when it came to battles. Yet even Chris was 
amazed at Greg's pokemon and their skills. His pokemon were fantastically 
powerful and dangerously explosive opponents in battle. Each were honed 
warriors who had mastered their skills, and perfected their technique and 
strategy.

It wasn't long before they were not only good friends, but fierce rivals. 
Although admittedly, at that point, it was only a one-sided rivalry.

Chris made it to the 3rd consecutive battle at Kanto's Elite Four, but was 
felled by Agatha and her ghostly technique. Greg on the other hand, brought 
the battle all the way to Lance the dragon master, and triumphed; a Kanto 
Leage Champion.

The celebration short lived, Chris demanded they then head to Johto, back to 
his home region.

Seeing the results at Kanto's Elite Four, Chris was spurred forward. They 
traveled over his home region to earn their badges (Chris wasn't forced to 
re-earn his, but he decided to do so anyways, simply for the experience's 
sake) and eventually reached the Johto League.

This time the results were more than surprising. Both Chris and Greg became 
Johto League Champions. Chris' effort had paid off, he was quickly catching 
up to Greg's level.

From that point on, their rivalry became a true one. No longer one-sided, 
they both recognized that each other was a worthy opponent.

Again they traveled, this time their destination decided upon a region of 
Japan foreign to both of them: Sinnoh. However, having dropped by Chris' home 
in Johto, Greg too decided to swing by home. On their way to Sinnoh, they 
sidetracked to Hoenn, to home-sweet-home.

There Chris was introduced to Greg's family, and most notably, to Greg's 
younger sister: Karma Metrawire. The two hated each other at first sight. 
Their first conversation ended with Karma screaming that Chris was a slow-
witted clutz and Chris yelling that Karma was a purple toad.

That conversation led to a pokemon battle that Chris decisively won.

Karma fumed at the result and demanded to accompany Greg and Chris to Sinnoh. 
Promising to train and eventually crush Chris silly: "I must be slacking off 
if that klutz can beat me..."

The trio travelled together from then on.

Chris continued to have a recurring dream:

He was running through fields, forests, caves, deserts, mountains, and 
somtimes even through towns and over oceans. It felt great to run, and he was 
amazingly fast. He covered mile after mile and he wasn't alone either. He had 
two great friends who always ran with him. He couldn't get a good look at 
them but one was characterized by blue and the other by red. Together, the 
three friends visited many lands, made many friends, and became legends.

Unbeknowst to him, he wasn't the only person who dreamed that particular 
dream regularly. In fact, he travelled with two people who happened to share 
that very same dream.