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Glint left the residential area where he kept getting stopped by people he didn't know and rushed out onto route four. There were a few more people around than before, but the route didn't seem to bear any commuter traffic. In fact, most of the people Glint saw were camping out or hiking. They were either heading up the trail toward the mountain or gathered around a fire eating breakfast.
"I don't think we have anything to worry about now," Glint said. He followed the path southward, adjacent to a line of trees. Chances were they could cut through the forest and get to the passage through the mountain more quickly, but Glint felt it was a bit early in the trip to be getting lost. If they stuck to the path they were more likely to get to where they were going, even if it was the long way round.
"Grawr?" Gruff asked.
Glint pulled his pokégear out of his satchel and checked the time. "Breakfast?"
"Gruff ruff!" Gruff replied. Seemed like he was more than ready to eat.
"Okay, let's find somewhere quiet and I'll sort something out," Glint smiled.

"Coni, come out and eat," Glint said. He rolled Coni's pokéball on the grass next to him and it popped open with a flash. The little oddish opened its eyes and looked up and around in wonder.
"Oddish odd~"
"Hey there Coni. How do you like the wider world?" Glint asked. He emptied a tube of nutritional gel onto a tiny plate and put it down in front of the pokémon.
"Oddi~i~ish," Coni said. She bounced up, smiling at all the grass and trees all around her.
"Here you go Gruff," Glint said, pouring some pellets into a bowl.
Gruff was quick to tuck in, while Coni was too busy taking in her surroundings to be bothered about eating.
"Oddish?"
"Oddish oddish?" Coni asked. Glint frowned and looked around. It sounded to him as though there was another oddish somewhere.
"Oddish odd oddish."
Glint took a bite of his sandwich as a fat - really fat - oddish walked out from the grass behind Coni.
"Oddish," Coni chirped happily. The fat, wild oddish approached her, then walked around her. It seemed to be studying her.
"Oddish odd?" the wild oddish asked.
"Oddish?" Coni enquired.
"Oddish oddish odd."
"You getting this?" Glint asked Gruff.
"Grawr?" Gruff cocked his head. He didn't see the wild oddish as a threat, so he wasn't paying it any attention at all.
"Yeah, you just keep eating," Glint laughed. He routed out another bowl then, together with some grass pokémon food. "Hey fatty oddish. You want some food? We've got plenty."

While Gruff and Coni ran around together Glint made himself busy packing their things away and polishing off his own breakfast. Soon enough he was ready to set off. First things first, he had to return Coni to her pokéball.
"Gruff, c'mere. Time for us to go," he said.
Gruff ran over and, as Glint expected, Coni chased him. When she realised they were heading back toward Glint she stopped and looked up.
Glint knelt down to make her more comfortable. He spoke softly, with a smile on his face. "Are you going to return to your pokéball now? We still have a long way to go and you can't walk all the way. You'd get too tired."
"Oddish odd," Coni whimpered.
Glint had dealt with that sort of thing before. Lots of pokémon didn't like to go into their pokéballs at first. Especially not after having so much fun out in the world. "Okay, you can walk for now, but if it gets busier or if the path gets tougher to tackle, it's back to your pokéball. Deal?"
"Oddish!" Coni agreed.
"Good. You just be sure to stay close to Gruff," Glint smiled.

After another hour or so of walking the path that they'd been following ended. Glint checked his pokégear and figured that they had to start going eastward. Problem was there was a lot of tall, thick grass to the east. There would probably be wild pokémon, and they'd probably not be too happy having Gruff walking through their territory.
"I think you should return to your pokéball now," Glint said.
"Oddish?" Coni moaned.
"Yeah, you," Glint laughed. "See all that thick grass up ahead? There'll be wild pokémon in there and they might attack if we get in their way."
"Oddish..." Coni whimpered.
"Oddish!"
"Glooooom~"
"What--?" Glint jumped. Then a smell hit him. A thick, heavy aroma. It made him feel all light-headed. "Gruff... protect... Coni~"
Glint collapsed. Gruff ran over and put his front paws on Glint's chest. The sleep powder was thick, though, and Glint was out for the count.
"Grawr?" Gruff turned back to Coni. But she was gone. Coni was gone, and there was nothing Gruff could do. The sleep powder had started to have an effect on him, too. He only took two steps toward the treeline before falling down to the ground.

Blaize looked up at the sky, it seemed to be rather nice out and this only made Blaize happier. She trotted around in the tall grass, enjoying every blade touching her. Her tail wagged, but then she stopped dead in her tracks. She had caught the scent of another growlithe nearby, but also that of a human and other pokemon.

Blaize debated a few moments as she started to sniff the air to get closer to see this growlithe. She was rather interested in wanted to see another one of her types. Besides the pokemon she met while with Team Rocket, she hadn't seen any other growlithes and it had been a long time since she saw one. The main pokemon she had been seeing as of late where either ratata or pidgy. Sadly neither one of those pokemon could hold a real conversation with her, so she thought.

Slowly she came closer to where she smelt the other growlithe and then stopped in her tracks. She tilted her head slightly as she lowered her body closer to the ground. She saw a Vileplume and knew better than to just pop in and say hi to it. Sleep, stun, poison, no thank you. Though she did know she had the upper advantage with having the move flamethrower, but still, fighting was one thing she wasn't good at. She'd rather show off her soft fur than to fight. Which was rather weird since she was a growlithe and wasn't really that protective of things.

Blaize tilted her head as she listened in on the conversation. One thing she understood was she hated how stronger, wild pokemon showed the weaker ones the 'right' way, by force. No longer could she stand by and so jumped out of her hiding spot and though normally would have ended up saying 'Growlithe!' loudly, it came out as, "Stop it!" As she spoke those words she ended up jumping in front of Fatty and used ember to stop the petal attack.

Blaize had no interest in actually fighting the vileplume. She just wanted them to stop fighting and for both of them to walk away. Blaize slowly placed her front right paw firmly in front of her and her back ones at a slight slant. "Enough is enough. Let's just walk away from this and forget this ever happened." She was keeping a sharp eye on vileplume.

This wasn't the first time Blaize tried stopping wild pokemon fights and it wouldn't be her last one. Her sense of justice often got in her way and often she suffered from it. She'd be the one who'd end up getting hurt due to her poor fighting skills.

Upon seeing the vileplume spewing out a sleep spore, Blaize quickly picked up Fatty and took off. With barely enough time to get away from the spore. Blaize trotted a ways away from the vileplume and then finally set down the oddish. "Now be a good oddish and don't go getting into anymore trouble, okay?" Blaize gave a soft smile as she swished her tail a bit.

Blaize then watched Fatty take off. She then sat down and itched behind her ear. Too bad that growlithe and his trainer already took off. I would have really liked to have talked to that growlithe. She thought to herself as she then gave a stretch and a yawn. And with that she went onwards again trying to find a nice quiet location to take a nap. She was thinking about heading to the nearest city and finding a small alleyway to hide in. Those normally where the quiest places where she wouldn't have to worry about pokemon jumping out of nowhere, let alone trainers wouldn't go looking down that way.

Gruff watched as the bidoof ran away, puffing and panting. There were a lot of fat pokémon around--probably because they fed quite well on scraps of food left by the campers who visited the area. Some of them could do with being caught and trained up, otherwise they were just going to keep getting fatter and fatter until they burst.
"Bidoooooof!"
"What the--?" Glint gasped. There were a dozen chubby bidoof running toward him. They barrelled along, barely able to stay on their feet. Still, they looked determined. Again, strange for bidoof. They were usually so calm and relaxed...
"Gruff!" Gruff barked.
The bidoof all shrieked. They tried to stop. Inevitably every one of them fell over. They all rolled along and piled up in a heap. Glint almost wanted to laugh, but at the same time he was appalled that a group of pokémon could get so fat. Maybe it would be a good idea to chase them--then they might work off some of that blubber.
"Gruff, leer!" Glint shouted.
Gruff pounced forward and bared his teeth. The bidoof all panicked. They struggled to get up, falling over each other in an attempt to get away. It was a farcical sight.
"Now Gruff, roar," Glint said.
Gruff jumped closer to the fumbling bidoof. "Gra~a~awr!"
"Bidoooooof~"
"That's right, stretch those legs. A little exercise never hurt anyone," Glint called after the fleeing bidoof. He jogged forward to watch them make trails through the grass, over a tiny stream and down an embankment, into a secluded clearing.
"Grawr?" Gruff asked. He put his best foot forward, ready to chase after the bidoof on Glint's say so. There was no need to carry on following them, though. It's not good to do too much exercise all at once.
"No, we have to go up there," Glint pointed north, toward a steep hill. "Once we're up there we carry on going eastward, over more hills, until we get to a cave. That's the entrance to Mt. Moon."
"Bidoof! Bid bid bidoof!"
Glint chuckled to himself on hearing the pokémon rallying again. Obviously they hadn't had enough. Maybe they wanted a real battle after all.
"Squir? Squi~ir!"
Glint did a double take. He didn't know what to make of what he was seeing; the bidoof were carrying a squirtle on their backs. It was wiggling around in protest, but the bidoof didn't listen--they carried the water pokémon over the stream and dumped it on the grass in front of Gruff. "Hold the phone... Is that Squirbert?"
"Squir? Squirtle squirtle," the pokémon said. It really was Squirbert. He had old bruises on his chin and lip and a big red bump on his forehead. It couldn't be any other squirtle.
"Bidoof! Bid bid bidoof," one of the bidoof said.
"Squirtle?" Squirbert asked the bidoof. Then he stood himself up and looked where the bidoof were motioning. His irises shrank in surprise. "Squirtle!?"
"Grawr?" Gruff responded. He stepped forward and continued gruffing and ruffing inquisitively.
"Squirtle squirtle, squirt squirt squirt squirtle squirtle. Squirtle squirt, squirtle squirtle! Squirtle squirt, squirt squirtle squirtle. Squirtle squirt, squirt squirt squirtle. Squirtle squirtle. Squirt squirt? Squirtle squirt squirtle! Squirtle squirt, squirtle squirtle squirt. 'Squirtle squirt?' squirtle squirtle squirt, squirtle squirtle squirtle squirt!"
Glint couldn't keep up. Squirbert was flailing his arms around so wildly and speaking so quickly that even another squirtle would've had trouble.
"Grawr?"
"Squirtle!" Squirbert said, pointing at the bidoof. Glint and Gruff both looked at the group of plump, brown pokémon and were surprised to see them backing away, bowing their heads at Squirbert, like they respected him.
"What, do they expect you to fight Gruff? Why would they?"
"Squirtle squirtle," Squirbert pointed up. Then he whooshed his hand down. "Squirt!"
"They worship you because... you dropped out of the sky?"
"Squirtle squirtle," Squirbert wagged his finger. Then he motioned the whoosh to the ground again. "Squirtle squirt."
"Because you landed on something. But, what?"
"Bidooof!" the bidoof shrieked. They all panicked and retreated another few metres. Glint thought they must have seen...
"Machop!"
"Ohh," Glint cooed. He looked at the machop, stood up on the hill. It had a bump on its head, just the same as Squirbert. "So the bidoof worship you because you fell out of the sky... and landed on that machop."
"Machop!"

With Gruff partly patched up Glint moved on to spray the machop's injured arm with a super potion. He didn't like to see pokémon get hurt like that, but he knew just from looking at the machop that it wasn't going to forgive Squirbert. Even if Glint had tried to explain that Squirbert didn't mean to land on it, the machop wouldn't have cared. As far as it was concerned Squirbert had hurt it and deserved punishing.
"Revenge is a fool's game, you know, Machop?" Glint said. He dabbed its forehead with a damp cloth, hoping to bring it around.
"Bidoof bidoof bid bidoof!"
"Calm down already," Glint complained. He shooed the group of bidoof away. They wanted the machop out of their territory - seemingly because it had been harassing them - but Glint couldn't let them attack it. It was hurt so it wasn't going to be unleashing any karate chops for quite a while. "You've got nothing to worry about."
"Mah..." the machop stirred.
Glint lifted its head and put a cup of water to its mouth. "Take it easy. Here, drink some water."
The machop looked puzzled. As though it was surprised that Glint was helping. "Mah?"
"It's just water. You should drink more. It'll help to rehydrate you, which will help you feel better more quickly," Glint explained.
"Ma-a-achop," the machop grumbled. It knocked the plastic cup away and jumped up.
The bidoof all quivered. Each one curled up into a ball, scared that they were going to be attacked. They had definitely had at least one run-in with the machop before. Glint didn't know what he should do, or even if he should do anything. He didn't intervene in the oddish, gloom and vileplume's affairs and the bidoof and machop situation was no different.
"Why would you want to attack these bidoof, Machop?"
"Mnn..." the machop sneered.
"I'd have thought you'd want a challenge, and there's no challenge in these bidoof. Look at them," Glint said. He knew that machop were always trying to better themselves and weren't shy of challenging much more powerful pokémon. To him it seemed strange for one to be picking on a group of overweight, battle-shy bidoof.
"Machop machop," the pokémon replied. It looked around sternly and spotted Squirbert sat behind Glint. "Chop machop machop!"
"Squirtle squirt," Squirbert complained, offering his usual hand gestures. "Squirtle squirt squirtle. Squirtle squirt squirt squirtle, squirtle squirt squirtle squirt."
"Mnn..." the machop grumbled, reluctantly accepting Squirbert's explanation. It turned to the bidoof then, who were peeking out from their defensive curls. "Machop ma-a-a-chop."
"Bidoof. Bid bid bidoof."
Machop sat itself down and held its head. That was a pretty big bump it had. Maybe... maybe Squirbert's hard shell hitting it with such force and knocked the sense clean out of it. Maybe it was suffering from a sort of memory loss. Maybe it had just been confused and gone into a rage.
"You know, Gruff and I are going to Mount Moon. I hear lots of machop live up there. Maybe if you tag along you'll find one you know?"
"Mah...chop?"
"Gruff ruff ruff," Gruff stepped forward. "Grawr?"
"Mnn," Machop nodded. It rubbed its sore head. Clearly it still hurt.
Glint was sure he had something somewhere that could help. He searched through his satchel quickly and found a black sweatband. It was elasticated, so it would probably stay on the machop's head without any problems.
"Here," Glint said. He sprayed the headband with what was left of the super potion and offered it to the machop. "Put that around your head. It'll help that big bump to heal over."
"Machop?" the pokémon looked to Gruff.
"Gruff ruff," Gruff nodded. It seemed that Machop respected Gruff, having lost to him in battle. That meant that it was just as professional as the next machop. The idea that it had been bothering the bidoof for a prolonged period of time seemed silly. In fact, no matter how farfetched, Glint was more and more convinced that his amnesia theory was right.
"Machop," Machop said. It reached up and took the headband, then put it on, shifting it up and down until it was comfortable over the crests on its head.
Glint smiled, then pushed himself off his knees, to a crouching position. "Do you want to come with us to Mount Moon?"
The machop stayed sat still, fiddling with the headband it had just received. It looked at Glint with thoughtful eyes. Then, when Glint offered his hand, the machop pulled a disgruntled face. "Machop?"
Glint nodded. "You can trust me."
Machop studied Glint's expression a little while longer and slowly its own expression faded. It could sense that Glint only wanted what was best for it, and clearly it was grateful for the help. It reached up and took hold of Glint's hand.
Glint stood up and pulled the machop to its feet too. He couldn't help but smile, having befriended a new pokémon and having helped the group of bidoof with their problem.
"Squirtle squirt?"
Glint looked around to Squirbert, who didn't seem very impressed. He had his arms folded and was tapping his foot.
"Oh, sorry Squirbert. You want to come too?" Glint asked. Unfortunately, it seemed that the offer came a little bit late for Squirbert's liking. He turned his nose up and, just like always, started to walk away.