After waving goodbye and thanking nurse Joy, the trio made their way out of the Pokémon Center. As soon as they stepped out they immediately felt the blazing hot rays of the sun. The Pokémon Center's air conditioning no longer protecting the three from the humidity outside.

"So... Why were you guys in the Pokémon Center?" Misty questioned the two boys as they strolled through Viridian City. The extremely warm temperatures, mixed with the fact it was a weekday, left the trio to have the sidewalk completely to themselves.

"Well I was there to see Nurse Joy," Brock grinned, remembering the red-handed implant radiating off his left cheek, struck there by his beautiful nurse Joy.

"Of course you were-" Misty sighed, "It's good to know that you haven't changed a bit Brock. But wait.. does that mean that you have stopped by at every Pokémon Center just to see the nurse Joy working there?" Misty asked in disgust.

Noting the content sigh, and even larger smile smack itself onto Brock's face, Misty took that as a major yes. She set a mental note to herself that she needed to send apology cards to all the Nurse Joy's in the Kanto region, based on the one encounter she had already witnessed.

The three of them continued their journey through Viridian City, each letting their eyes wander up and down the streets of Viridian. Large gray skyscrapers reached for the sky above them, living up to their names. Oak trees lined single-filed along the sidewalk and the curb of the street, their green leaves providing a touch of shade.

Each building that attached to the sidewalk was vibrant with colours to attract costumers. Some buildings smelt of lavender and other pleasantly fragrant soaps, while others smelled of barbeques, with sizzling steak and hot-dogs. These were the restaurants Misty had to yank Ash away from. The stores of Viridian were jammed with people, most likely escaping the heat of the afternoon. Misty noticed a small pebble laying on the sidewalk and began kicking it along the path, finding the small object to be quite the entertainment.

Meanwhile, Brock decided to peer at every girl that he happened to see on the streets, or stores and began daydreaming off to Brock land. Misty, already knowing the drill, not even having to glance up from her rock, grabbed Brock by the ear and tugged whenever she got the feeling he was about to harass another poor girl.

However, not liking the silence beginning to settle between the three, Ash spoke up to answer Misty's question.

"Well, I was there because of you," Ash finally replied, pointing at Misty.

"Me? Why?" Misty looked at Ash, a bewildered expression on her face. Letting the pebble she was kicking skip off the sidewalk and into the blacktop streets.

"Well, um, I was kind of the person who ran you all the way into the Pokémon Center," Ash murmured, scratching his head in embarrassment. Ash hadn't come to the realization that his sentence sounded so disturbing until it had all tumbled out of his mouth. Ash wasn't exactly renowned for his intellectual conversations, but he decided a nice cover up to the last one that spewed out of his mouth would be a good idea.

"Not that I was following you or anything!" Ash quickly added. "I just kind of happened to be there when you fell and hurt yourself," Ash mumbled shyly.

"Oh," was the only response Misty could muster up, thinking back to when she fell on her head. However, Brock nudged Misty out of her thoughts.

"Right! Um.. thank you, Ash. I guess I never got to properly thank you for helping me out back there," Misty eventually muttered out.

"It was no problem, really," Ash dismissed, waving Misty off. "Although, I do want to know why you screamed back there in the forest. What happened?"

"Oh, it was nothing..." Misty replied sheepishly, not exactly wanting to flaunt her fear of bug Pokémon.

Ash raised an eyebrow, "I wouldn't exactly call your ear piercing scream 'nothing-'" Ash insisted, "there must have been something in that forest that freaked you out so much."

Brock smiled in amusement, a hilarious idea infusing itself into his head. "Ahem, if you'd like Ash, I could shed some light on the answers to all your questions. You see, Misty here has this particular fear of carrots, peppers, and the best of all, she has an extreme phobia of bu- OUCH!" Brock groaned, doubling over in pain when he felt Misty's elbow jab itself into his precious rib cage.

"I have a fear of what, Brock?" Misty snarled, lowering herself to Brock's sore, doubled-over body. Her facial features contorting themselves into a look that could rival Haunter and Ghastly's level of frightening.

"N-nothing.." Brock wheezed, still catching his breath as a result of the redheads' short-circuiting temper. "You have some real anger issues, ya know that?" Brock glared, recovering from her last blow.

"Hmph, damn straight I do," Misty smirked, her body casually slumping back into its relaxed state. "But enough of us Brock, so Ash, what were you doing in the Viridian forest?"

Gloating and smiling like a moron, Ash answered, "Well you see Misty, I just happened to be on my way to one of the best training facilities in the world. I don't know if you've ever heard of it, but it's the camp Pokémon, the very one ran by Cynthia and Lance themselves. It's kind of a big deal." Ash finished his confidence and ego, inflating even larger than before.

"Oh realll-llyy," Misty drawled in response, exaggerating the syllables in her words, "I've heard of the camp Ash. In fact, I was accepted into it. Guess that means we're going to be seeing a lot more of each other, Mr. Pokémon master." Misty giggled, emphasizing her point by yanking Ash's cap down, shielding his line of view.

"Hey! Misty cut it out!" Ash whined, glaring at the redhead through his spiky black hair.

"Aw look at that-" Brock cooed, "I love how you youngsters flirt nowadays," Brock teased.

"I don't like him! I don't even know him!"

"I don't like her! I don't even know her!"

Both Ash and Misty yelped at the same time. Looking at each other in revelation, the pair of teens immediately felt their cheeks flush, a pink tinge rapidly spread across their faces.

"Yeah sure guys, be in denial all you want." Brock taunted. "Anyways, since we are all heading to the camp, let's just take the train." Brock rationalized, looking up at Ash and Misty for approval.

"Wait- Brock, you got into the camp as well?" Ash wondered aloud, causing Brock to mentally face-palm himself.

"Yes Ash, I was accepted as well, didn't you hear me tell you that back in the Pokémon Center?"

"Hey! It's not my fault you started going all scientific and stuff with your breeding facts! All I heard was, blah-blah-blah-breeding-blah-blah-blah-blah-pokemon and after that, I kind of tuned you out." Ash mocked, putting up his left hand to mimic what he was saying by opening and closing it as if it could talk like a puppet.

"For your information Pokémon breeding is a fascinating subject if you just take the time to really study it." Brock insisted.

"Yeah, I'm sure Brock" Ash answered, voice dripping with sarcasm as he rolled his eyes.

Ash, Brock and Misty continued to make small talk and a few joking jabs at each other as they silently agreed to take the train to the camp instead of walking in the wretched heat. Fortunately, the journey went by smoothly, aside from having to allow Misty to rest once in a while.

As Misty laughed at another one of Brock's awful puns, Ash began to take in just how pretty the redheaded trainer was. The first thing that stood out to him was her long red hair that appeared to shimmer in the sunlight, reflecting a rustic-orange colouring. Her creamy pale skin tinged with a warming pink. However, her most startling asset was her cerulean eyes that sparkled with humour. Ash suddenly felt his knees go weak when he realized Misty was shooting him an incredulous look.

Misty continued to stare at Ash, trying to piece together what had just transpired between the two. Meanwhile, Brock remained blissfully unaware, much to both Ash's and Misty's relief.

Suddenly a loud clanking sound startled the three teens. Looking over to their rights, the trio observed a large building that glistened with white marble steps and gigantic white columns that streamed up and down the front. The ceiling was concealed by gorgeous and complex designs etched into the marble. A humongous sign hung on the wall. An array of vibrant coloured lines flowed in zagged and overlapping patterns over the sign, protected by a clear plastic barrier.

"So this must be the Viridian Train Center!" Misty gushed, taking in all of the pretty architectures of the fascinating building.

"Oh right, you've never been to Viridian have you Misty?" Brock chortled, shaking his head in amusement.

"O-of course not Brock," Misty stuttered sheepishly. "You've met my sisters. They may be dense, but they were way too overprotective of me. Which is ironic considering they all called me the 'runt' of the sensational sisters." Misty huffed in defence feeling frustration overtaking her by just mentioning her over barring sisters

"Hold on.." Ash interrupted, putting his hand up to his chin, "Misty did you just say you're related to the sensational sisters? As in the three vivid coloured hair sisters that are notorious for their looks and not for their battling?"

"Yup," Misty answered awkwardly, shrugging her shoulders.

"Wait I've battled them before! How come I never met you?" Ash inquired, comprehending why he never ran into this beautifu-boastful girl (his mind corrected) before.

"Well, I never took over the gym leader position until I was thirteen." Misty elucidated.

"Oh, now that makes sense," Ash nodded, "I was ten when I battled them for the Cerulean Gym badge."

"Though, it wasn't much of a battle when your sisters insisted that I just take the badge since apparently all of the trainers that passed by defeated every single one of their pokemon." Ash snickered, the frustration of Misty's face overwhelmingly obvious, even to someone as dense as Ash.

"Ugh, those dolts," Misty breathed, fighting back the anger bubbling up. "Of course they would be stupid enough to let all of their Pokémon faint."

Feeling abandoned by the conversation Brock added, "How come you never knew Misty took over the gym? It was a big deal in the Kanto region. She was able to elevate the status of that gym from humiliating to undefeatable in just three weeks."

Misty felt both flattered and uncomfortable by Brock's compliment. However, Misty glanced over to Ash to see his reaction and it was a damn priceless one at that.