"Are all these Growlithe so enthusiastic?" Gary asked, watching the three puppies wag their tails furiously.
"Yes," Colby replied, his voice softening slightly. "All the Growlithe raised in this station aspire to join the police dog unit. Only those selected by officers are given that opportunity. That's why they're all so eager to be chosen by a Trainer."
So it was the influence of the police culture.
Gary knelt down and let the three Growlithe sniff his hand more closely. After a moment of consideration, he made his decision.
"Alright. I choose this one."
He pointed to the middle Growlithe—the one with Quasi-Gym potential.
"Woof woof!"
The chosen pup erupted in excitement, practically bouncing against the mesh fencing of the nest. If the barrier hadn't been in the way, it would have already leapt out and tackled Gary in affection.
Colby gave Gary a sideways glance.
He had been responsible for raising these three Growlithe since birth. He knew their temperaments, their energy levels, their instincts. If someone were to ask which of the three had the highest potential, the answer was unambiguous: the one Gary had just selected.
He knows Pokémon.
Most Trainers would have picked randomly, or chosen the one that was loudest or most physically aggressive. Gary hadn't hesitated. He had examined all three in silence and picked the best one without external help.
If Gary ever chose to become a breeder instead of a Trainer, Colby thought, he would be an exceptional one.
"Here's Growlithe's Poké Ball," Colby said, pulling a standard red-and-white sphere from his jacket and handing it over.
Gary accepted it with both hands. "Growlithe, please take care of me from now on."
He pressed the button. The Growlithe was drawn inside in a flash of red light.
The ball clicked shut.
Gary looked down at it for a moment, then secured it to his belt.
According to the system's Green Champion Team collection mission, he now had Blastoise, Exeggutor, Arcanine, and Scyther. That left only three: Alakazam, Pidgeot, and Rhydon.
Pidgeot and Rhydon were achievable. He could find evolutionary lines for those species in the wild if he kept looking.
But Alakazam was another matter entirely.
Alakazam's pre-evolution, Abra, was notoriously difficult to catch. The species only knew a single move in its juvenile form: Teleport. The moment an Abra sensed danger, it vanished. Unless a Trainer had extraordinarily fast reflexes or some method of preventing escape, catching one was borderline impossible.
Gary wasn't worried, though. Golbat knew Mean Look. As long as he encountered an Abra, it couldn't escape.
The problem was encountering one in the first place.
He'd cross that bridge when he came to it.
After leaving the police station, Gary returned to the Pokémon Center and found a quiet corner to review Growlithe's full data.
[Pokémon: Growlithe ♂]
[Type: Fire]
[Level: 5]
[Potential: Quasi-Gym-tier]
[Ability: Intimidate (Upon entering battle, the opponent's Attack is lowered by one stage.)]
[Moves: Leer, Ember]
[Intimacy: 126 (maximum 255)]
Nothing unusual. The skill pool was basic. The ability was solid. Intimidate was an excellent passive trait—especially useful for weakening physical attackers right from the start of a battle.
Gary considered evolving it immediately using the Fire Stone he'd purchased, but he quickly dismissed the idea.
It's too young.
Growlithe had only been born a few weeks ago. Its body was still developing. Evolving it prematurely could stunt its growth or leave it with physical imbalances that would take months to correct.
Better to raise it for a while first. Let it mature naturally before triggering evolution.
Gary closed the panel.
Afternoon
Gary headed north toward Route 25, the forested path that connected Cerulean City to the northern wilderness.
He had no intention of challenging the Cerulean Gym today. The Gym was pathetically weak at the moment. The three acting Gym Leaders—Misty's older sisters—were utterly incompetent. They barely fielded battle-ready Pokémon, and the matches they offered were little more than formalities.
Gary had no desire to waste time on a hollow victory.
Still, he would challenge it eventually—mainly to trigger a potential system mission. The reward from the Pewter Gym had been the premium Hard Stone. If the Cerulean Gym followed a similar pattern, the reward might be a premium Mystic Water—an item Wartortle could benefit from tremendously.
But that could wait.
For now, he had a more pressing objective: finding a Pidgey with Gym-tier potential.
Two hours of searching yielded nothing.
Gary walked Route 24 and Route 25 thoroughly, scanning every tree canopy and grassy clearing. He encountered dozens of Pidgey, but every single one had Normal or Elite-tier potential at best.
Not a single Gym-tier specimen.
"Are you serious?" Gary muttered under his breath, frustration creeping in. "Not even one Gym-tier Pidgey?"
Pidgey was supposed to be his signature bird Pokémon. He had expected the system—or fate, or whatever governed this world—to throw him at least one decent encounter.
Apparently, that assumption had been wrong.
"Looks like I'll have to buy one," Gary said aloud, resigned.
In the Pokémon world, most species could be legally purchased as long as they weren't classified as rare, endangered, or under a hunting ban. Pokémon auctions regularly featured specimens with above-average potential, though species like Pidgey were too common to appear at high-end events.
Auctions generally dealt in rarer Pokémon—starter species, pseudo-legendaries, Shiny variants, or region-exclusive imports.
But there was one exception: Vermilion City.
Vermilion was Kanto's primary harbor city. Ships from Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, and even distant Unova docked there weekly, bringing foreign Pokémon that rarely appeared in Kanto's wild ecosystems. The auction house there hosted events every seven days, and its catalog was significantly broader than most other cities.
Gary made his decision.
"I'll check Vermilion after the phone arrives."
He had already ordered a mobile communication device online. It was being shipped from Johto and would arrive at the Cerulean Pokémon Center within the week. Once it came, he'd head south to Vermilion and see what the auction had to offer.
Gary turned and headed back toward Cerulean City.
It was still early evening when Gary returned to the Pokémon Center. Rather than rest immediately, he took his team to a nearby public training field and released all of them for their daily conditioning session.
He also formally introduced Growlithe to the rest of the team.
"Growlithe!"
The little Fire-type puppy barked enthusiastically, tail wagging as it sniffed each of its new teammates.
Wartortle gave a calm nod of acknowledgment.
Exeggutor's three heads tilted curiously, each wearing a different expression.
Butterfree fluttered down and chirped softly in greeting.
Scyther crossed its scythes and stared down at the puppy with cool indifference—but it didn't reject the introduction.
Golbat landed nearby and observed silently, its bloodred eyes unreadable.
Gary spent the next two hours running drills. For Growlithe, the training was simple: Frisbee retrieval and endurance running. The pup was only Level 5, but even at that age, a Growlithe's stamina was absurd.
Arcanine, Growlithe's evolved form, was known as a performance king capable of running ten thousand kilometers in a single day without rest. Even a juvenile Growlithe could handle an hour of continuous movement without significant fatigue.
Gary pushed Growlithe through a full circuit before letting it rest.
By the time training ended, it was nearly 5 PM.
Gary took his entire team to the best Pokémon restaurant in Cerulean City.
The establishment wasn't just a feeding station—it was a full-service culinary facility that offered species-specific feeds, high-grade energy cubes, and even allowed Trainers to prepare custom nutrition blocks using ingredients provided by the restaurant.
Gary had come for two reasons.
First, to treat his team to a proper meal.
Second, to prepare a batch of specialized food for Golbat.
Golbat's dietary needs were unique. It required blood. While Gary could purchase refrigerated blood packs from specialty suppliers, those were inconvenient to carry and had short shelf lives once opened.
A better solution was to create custom energy cubes infused with blood.
The process wasn't complicated. Standard energy cubes were made by blending berries, proteins, and binding agents with water. For Golbat, Gary simply replaced the water with preserved blood during the blending phase. The result was a deep crimson cube with a faintly metallic scent.
Gary prepared a small batch and called Golbat over to sample one.
Golbat bit into the cube cautiously. Its eyes widened. A moment later, it devoured the rest of the cube in a single gulp and looked up at Gary expectantly.
"Good?" Gary asked.
"Golbat!"
It nodded vigorously.
Gary smiled faintly. "Alright. I'll make enough to last you a few days."
He spent the next half hour preparing additional batches, storing them in sealed containers within his bag.
Night
Back at the Pokémon Center, Gary called Butterfree and Exeggutor aside.
"Tomorrow, we're challenging the Cerulean Gym," he told them. "I want you both to rest well tonight. You'll be the ones fighting."
"Butterfree!"
"Exeggutor!"
Both Pokémon responded immediately, understanding the assignment.
The Cerulean Gym was weak, but it had one significant advantage: home field. The battlefield was a pool. Exeggutor, despite its Grass-typing and natural advantage over Water Pokémon, would be restricted to a small floating platform in the center of the arena.
That limited mobility could be a problem.
But Gary had faith in Exeggutor's psychic control and Butterfree's aerial superiority.
Tomorrow's match wouldn't be difficult.
It would just be annoying.