Indiana Jones travels to Celadon City with Gold and Max, and meet a rather worn-down world class trainer.

Indiana Jones and Pokemon don't belong to me, but you knew that already.

For those who don't want the .odt file:

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“No, there's no one here to battle, Togetaro.” Gold told the creature that had flown them into this new city. Max had called it Celadon City. Indy had seen the map on Gold's wrist-computer, though. Pewter, Cerulean, Viridian, Saffron, Lavender. What was up with this place and colors? Much bigger buildings and more densely populated here in Celadon City than Pallet Town, for sure.

This creature, though, this...Togekiss. What an odd name. But, more odd than that, with that large body and bulky, triangular wings, he wondered how it could even fly. He didn't think it was all aerodynamics, even now it hardly, if ever, seemed to touch the ground. Max had told him that Togekiss only appeared to places free of strife, but with how this one acted, he never would have guessed. It wanted to go after him right out of the Pokeball back in Pallet Town!

“You'll get your chance, I'm sure.” Gold chuckled, returning Togetaro to his ball in a flash of red light. “Not like Rocket's going to let us stop them without any fights.”

Indy looked around the place. There was people with all kinds of Pokemon out on the streets...it was still surreal for him. Sure, people walked around with dogs or cats back home, but these were just ridiculous! Human-sized bird creatures that walked like people, dragons, turtles with cannons on their back. Even the normal looking animals looked like they were blown out of proportion. Oh, and that strange, helmeted creature, that...Ralts, was still standing on Max's shoulder. Had been the whole time. It was kind of creepy, actually. “So, we're here looking for this...Red? Is this important enough to stall getting to Iron Island?”

Gold nodded. “Of course, Red's the best trainer there is! Well, besides yours truly, of course.” he chuckled. Full of himself, as usual.

Indy shook his head. “What's with this place and the colors? All the cities and the trainers. Who names their kid Red?”

“Well, I don't think that's his actual name. Just like my name's not actually Gold, and yours isn't actually Indiana, but...I don't think anyone knows what his real name is. Anyways, I heard that Red's here in Celadon right now. I've never been able to get a hold of him myself. He's got an original model Pokedex and never bothered to get a Pokegear.” he tapped the device on his wrist.

“Does everything start with 'Poke' here? It's kind of strange. It's like saying Pocket Ball, Pocket Dex, Pocket Gear.”

Gold shrugged. “I don't know, why are you named after a state?”

Indiana just stayed silent for a moment before they started their search for Red. The real reason behind 'Indiana' was more ridiculous, anyways. All six floors of the Celadon Department Store, and the roof, and nothing. Everyone seemed to assume Indy was a trainer, as the staff kept trying to sell him Pokeballs, potions, and other various things. Indy didn't know what most of these things did, aside from the Pokeballs, and that only because he saw one in action. Another oddity seemed to be strange disks meant to teach abilities to Pokemon. Somehow. How did that even work? A comparison to compact disks could've been made...if Indy knew what a compact disk was. Any computers Indy knew anything about still used punch cards, after all!

“Is it the outfit or something?” Indy asked as he, Gold, and Max stood on the rooftop of the store, looking out at the cityscape around them.

“What?” Gold and Max both asked.

“Seems like everyone with a strange outfit is a trainer around here.”

Gold started laughing a bit at this. “Oh, come on, the one with the strange outfit here is you. Especially that hat.”

Indy did not look amused by that. “Says the person trekking into the wilderness with a baseball cap.” there was a bit of a pause. “So, what has Red done that justifies us looking for him, anyways?”

Max joined in with his encyclopedic knowledge now. “He obtained all the gym badges in Kanto, stopped Team Rocket's takeover of the Silph Corporation, defeated the Elite Four, and obtained data on all 151 known Pokemon at the time. All at 11 years old, within the span of a year.”

Indy didn't know what most of this meant. “Gym badges, Elite Four? You realize I'm not from here, you have to explain these things.” The fact that an 11 year old was able to stop an organized crime member, much less a group of them, seemed rather impressive on its own, though.

Gold chimed in. “Each city has a gym with a gym leader, the best in that area. You beat them, you get a badge for it. Once you have all eight in a region, you get the chance to fight the Elite Four, the best of the best for the entire region.”

“Seems like they'd get replaced more often.” Indy replied.

Max started in again. “The gym leaders and Elite Four, not often, most trainers travel around too much to take on their duties, but there's tournaments in each region to determine the champion every three years. You've met one of the former champions already, actually.”

“Really? Who's that?”

Max continued on. “Professor Oak. This was almost thirty years ago, but he was the first champion of the Indigo League.” Again with the colors.

“Indigo League?”

“Kanto and Johto are combined into one region for the sake of champion tournaments. Which is too bad for Gold.” Max chuckled a little.

Gold grumbled. “Don't remind me.”

“Let me guess, Red beat you?” Indy asked, mostly taking a guess at it.

“Yeah, he's the current Indigo champion. I beat the Elite Four in Johto and Kanto, but he still beat me. This was two and a half years ago, but...still. Who decided to combine regions, anyways?”

Indy snickered. “So, despite what you've been telling me, Red is the best, including you.”

“Oh, our battles have always gone back and forth. It's strange, I actually haven't seen him around for almost a year now, though. Sounds like he's laying low, for some reason. As low as you can being a world champion, anyways.”

Max explained before Indy had a chance to ask. “All the new champions have a tournament shortly after the regional tournaments. To determine who's the best of the very best. Red's been the Indigo League champion twice in a row, and he's the current world champion. At least for another few months, until they compete again.”

“So Pokemon training is pretty serious business, then. Almost seems like everything revolves around it.” Indy said as he looked around the city. There was a very obviously labeled Pokemon Center, like there seemed to be everywhere. There wasn't one in Pallet Town...but there was a giant laboratory for Pokemon research there, surely that cut it.

“You're telling me there's not something that everyone obsesses over where you're from?” Gold asked.

“Football, baseball, politics, academics...there's plenty you can do for worldwide acclaim. Here it seems to be all...Pokemon. Isn't there any human-centered sports?”

Gold chuckled a bit. “I think you're asking the wrong people about that.”

“No kidding.” Indy replied dryly. “So, where are we looking next? We've been standing here too long.”

Gold looked around as he talked. “Well, I was hoping to see him from here. The Celadon Game Corner's always a popular place. I doubt Red's hanging out there, but someone might have seen him.”

“Well, let's get going, then...” Indy started before glancing at the Ralts again, who still hadn't moved. “Okay, your...creature hasn't moved since I've seen it. It's kind of freaking me out.” The Ralts hid a bit behind Max's head during this. Oh. Now it moved. There was almost a...fearful vibe in the air.

“Hey, you're scaring it.” Max shook his head. “Ralts communicate mostly through emotion...he's usually only like this around a lot of hostility, though.”

Gold rolled his eyes, mumbling under his breath about how much that would help.

“Didn't think I was that bad.” Indy started walking towards the stairwell, Gold and Max following close behind. “What is this game corner, anyways?” Indy asked as they went down the stairs.

“Well...our little corner of the world isn't free of gambling.” Gold snickered a little bit. “Slots, pool...they started adding card games in there I don't understand, but- Oof!” Gold's talking was cut short as someone shooting up the stairs bumped into him, almost knocking him over. An angry looking man in a black suit, of a scrawny build, young adult, with hair parted in the middle that was dyed a teal color. “Hey, watch where you're going!” the man yelled out, almost getting knocked over, himself.

Gold snapped back at him. “I was, you're barreling up the stairs!”

“Don't you start mouthing off to me, kid!” the man yelled.

“Try slowing down, then!” Gold yelled back.

They both looked at each other with a piercing glance before the man started running his way up the stairs again. “What's his hurry?” Gold grumbled. Indy noticed the Ralts was hiding behind Max this whole time. You didn't need to be telepathic to sense the hostility there, though.

Max sighed. “Gold...you were getting hot-headed again.”

“Well, sorry, just...some people...” he trailed off, still sounding angry, walking his way down the stairs again, Max and Indy following closely. Soon enough, they were out to street level again. Every time they went out here, it felt strange to Indy, seeing all these creatures, every which way. Some of them were even having battles out on the street. Indy didn't think that could possibly be a good idea...he saw a rock get split in half by a beam of energy last time he saw a Pokemon battle, and there was inhabited buildings everywhere!

He didn't have much time to worry about that, though. Soon enough, they were at the Celadon Game Corner. The place was really loud, the sounds of all the slot machines very obvious. There were several rows of slots machines, and the other side of the building, which looked like a more recent addition, separated by a soundproof wall, housing pool tables, along with several tables for several different card games. That side of the room wasn't nearly as populated as the slot parlor.

“So, any ideas on who to ask first?” Indy said loudly...the only way they could currently hear each other.

Gold shook his head. “No need!” he motioned over to a far row of the slot parlor. Several had some smaller pokemon out, but Gold motioned towards one trainer who looked like a young adult, though it was hard to see his features at the moment. Slowly taking spins of the slot machine, his face hidden by his red and white baseball cap. He was wearing a black t-shirt with a red vest over it, this vest having a white collar, that color extending to a stripe down the middle. A black wristband rested on each wrist, and a simple pair of jeans and red and black sneakers completed his outfit. The outfit looked like it had seen quite a bit of wear, as if it had been exposed to the elements for years.

The part that caught Indy's eye, though, was the pink furred, feline looking creature wrapped around the yellow backpack its trainer had on the ground. Its tail split into two near the tip, and it had a red gem in the middle of its forehead. It had its eyes closed and seemed disinterested until they started stepping closer, it looking up, perking up its large ears and opening up its eyes. The eyes were purple with white pupils...and no scleras. It was unsettling, like it was staring, not at them, but into them. Though, it seemed to be looking straight at Gold, showing particular interest in him.

“What is it, Vee?” Red asked, seeming to be talking to this...thing, though the conversation would sound one-sided. “I told you, don't let anyone disturb-” There was an abrupt pause to his speech before he slowly stood up, glaring right at Gold. “What are you doing here?” he asked, quite sternly. Indy felt like he was really missing something here. It seemed like Gold idolized this guy, even if there was a competitive tone to it, but Red did not seem happy to see Gold at all! Now that Indy could see Red's face, he could see a lot of stress on his complexion, just like one most likely would on his own. Red wouldn't even be 20 years old, but he looked like he'd been through too much for his age. The signs of physical and emotional stress would be obvious, especially as Gold showed up.

“I could ask you the same thing! It's been an almost a year, and I haven't heard from you at all!” Gold replied, sounding as unsure as Indy was about why Red was taking this tone with him.

Red paused for a moment, looking away from Gold. “... ...you should leave.”

“What? Red, what's going on here?” Gold asked, sounding really confused.

Red stayed silent as he headed for the back exit, his creature, Vee, following close behind. They hadn't even told Red why they were here, and already Indy could tell this wasn't going well.

“Hey, wait a minute!” Gold started to go after Red, Indy and Max following behind. They all exited into an alleyway, as Red suddenly turned around, pinning Gold against the outside wall of the building they had just exited, putting a gun to Gold's body under his vest. Indy very quickly had his own revolver out, but Red didn't even seem fazed by this. Red's gun looked very modern, more so than Indy would be familiar with, but it looked to have the same stopping power as his revolver, if not more so. Semi-auto, certainly held more bullets. Vee was staring daggers at Indy, as if to say that very bad things would happen if he were to fire that gun.

“I said you should leave...” Red said, not yelling, but in a very angry tone.

“Red...what the hell is going on?” Gold asked, shaking. Max and Ralts both looked like they were about to run for it!

“I don't think you want to know.” Red almost growled out, jerking the handgun away from Gold's body, holstering it back into his vest. Indy slowly put his own gun away. Why would someone get so angry at an old friend to pull a gun on them? There had to be a reason. Indy had a few over the years, for sure.

Gold, obviously, had the same question. “We've been friends for years, Red. Now you act like you hate me. Why would I not want to know what's going on?”

Red paused again. He seemed to need to pause to think about what he was saying quite a bit. “... ... ...follow me, let's see what you think once you see what you've done.” Red started walking, onto the main road. Off towards the Pokemon Center.