Cerulean City

After a quick visit to the Pokémon Center and at the behest of Joule I stock up on more potions from a nearby mart. On my way out I notice Green hanging out near a bridge.

+ Hey, Green!

Oh, hey Cally. No luck finding your friend yet?

+ No, I take it you haven’t spotted him either?

Nah, ‘fraid not. Are you still trying the gyms?

+ Yeah…

Oh! I almost forgot! Gramps told me to give you this.

Green hands me a small laminated card, it has a picture of me on it along with a bunch of my details.

+ What’s this?

It’s your trainer card! Gramps had one made for you, you’ll need it if you’re going to take on the League.

+ How did he know all my details? I didn’t tell him any of this!

I guess Gramps is more resourceful than we give him credit for. Sorry I couldn’t help but read your card a bit. I didn’t know Cally was short for–

+ Stop right there, I know what my full name is and I don’t like it, I never did. Just call me Cally.

That was a sore spot!

Oh, sorry. Anyway, I got an idea for how you can find your friend!

+ Oh?

Every trainer is registered with the Pokémon League. There’s a list of all the previous League Champions in the Hall of Fame, if you get there you can access those records for all Champions in the world!

+ Oh wow, really? But what if he didn’t win?

It also keeps track of those who’ve attempted the final challenge and once a trainer gets their first badge it tracks how many badges they have!

That sounds like a lot of stuff to keep track of…

+ Oh great! It wasn’t too difficult to get one badge so he must be on that list! How did you get to know all of this anyway?

Gramps has been working closely with the Pokémon League lately, he’s even spent a lot of time in the Hall of Fame recently.

+ I see…

You should also know the gyms get tougher the more badges you have. How about we battle for practice?

+ Okay then.

Go Spearow!

+ Get ‘em, Joule!

+ Thundershock!

Leer!

Joule zaps Spearow for critical damage. Spearow collapses to the ground.

Take that! Damn Spearow!

Go Sandshrew!

+ Joule, come back! Go Clive!

+ Slash!

Sand Attack!

Clive slashes at Sandshrew with his sharp claws, Sandshrew retorts by kicking sand in Clive’s face.

+ Sand Attack!

Scratch!

Clive scoops some sand in Sandshrew’s face, Sandshrew swipes it’s claws at Clive.

+ Slash!

Sand Attack!

Clive slashes Sandshrew across the face. Sandshrew kicks up more sand but misses Clive completely, the sand dissipates into the breeze.

+ Slash!

Scratch!

Clive swings too high and Sandshrew ducks down before quickly scratching him along the chest.

+ Slash!

Scratch!

Clive slashes upwards, sending Sandshrew reeling backwards onto it’s back.

Hmph, and I thought another Sandshrew would be a better challenge. How boring.

Go Rattata!

+ Clive return! Go Naomi!

+ Confusion!

Quick Attack!

Naomi’s eyes glow, Rattata darts at her and slams into Naomi before being flung back at force, sending it flying over the nearby Pokémon Center followed by an audible thud from the street.

Oops! Was that one of those critical hits I keep hearing about?

Go Eevee!

+ Naomi return! Go Selene!

+ Sing!

Sand Attack!

Because you know I’m all about that bass

‘Bout that bass, no treble

I’m all about that bass

'Bout that bass, no treble

I’m all about that bass

'Bout that bass, no treble

I’m all about that bass

'Bout that bass… bass… bass… bass

Yeah, it’s pretty clear, I ain’t no size two

But I can shake it, shake it, like I’m supposed to do

'Cause I got that boom boom that all the boys chase

And all the right junk in all the right places

+ Selene?

I see the magazine workin’ that– hm? What’s up?

+ It’s asleep.

Oh… okay.

+ Pound!

Eevee, wake up and use Sand Attack!

Selene winds up her arm and harshly bops Eevee on the head, dealing critical damage.

+ Pound!

Eevee, wake up!

Selene bashes Eevee again.

+ Pound!

Do something Eevee!

Selene switches arms and smacks Eevee upside the head.

+ Pound!

Tackle or something!

Ugh… why does my head hurt?

Selene uppercuts Eevee to the jaw.

Bleh…

I need to stop going easy on you! That said, you should probably train more before taking on this gym. A guy named Bill lives up north of here, he might teach you a thing or two. Not about battling but the more you know about Pokémon in general won’t hurt your chances!

+ Er… sure.

We should go anyway, there should be plenty of practice and training opportunities from the trip alone.

+ Fine.

Route 24

+ Go easy on that Bellsprout! He’ll make a great team mate!

I’ll try, Miss Cally!

Paulie blasts the Bellsprout with a gust of wind, sending it flying into the nearby river.

Oh dear, I guess I don’t know my own strength!

We could have done with a grass type! I saw a pool in that gym, that means they use water types and I’m not doing all the work by myself in there!

Oh my!

Oh great…

Good Lord I appear to have evolved!

+ Woah…

Even his monocle got bigger…

Route 25

You! You there!

+ Hm?

I’m no good at training Pokémon, it doesn’t understand my orders.

Well if you named some actual attacks…

You look like a strong trainer, can you adopt her?

“Tombstoner” isn’t an attack.

Couldn’t hurt to have a fire type. But, you know we can only have six Pokémon on the team at any time, right?

+ Oh?

Extra team mates get sent to the box. You should send one of our birds there, having two is a little redundant.

After a quick trip to the Pokémon Center I figure out how to send Meryl to the box.

Oh sure, send me to the box! It’s not like I’m hungry or anything!

I rush back to the kid with the Charmander.

+ Okay kid, I’ll let your Charmander travel with me.

Great! I wasn’t going to cut it as a trainer anyway. Summer, you go with this trainer now!

Okay, maybe we can actually get things done! I’m Summer and I’m so glad to find a human who can understand me.

+ Hi Summer, I’m Cally.

And they call me Joule, welcome aboard.

We continue onwards defeating a string of trainers. After defeating a couple who made way too much effort to let everyone know they were boyfriend and girlfriend I can now see a clear path ahead.

Hang on, I feel strange since I burned up that last Oddish…

+ Oh?

Crap, it’s not poison is it?

No, I…

Not another one, so soon too.

I feel so much stronger!

Heading inside Bill’s house I see nothing around of interest apart from a computer that was left on. Looking at the screen there appear to be a lot of notes about evolution, I don’t understand much of it besides the mention of something called Evolution Stones.

+ Hmm, I wonder what Evolution Stones do exactly?

They’re useless, you shouldn’t waste your time on them. Come on, there’s nothing here, let’s just go already!