We encountered another Zubat, pushing Nidoran to level 7.

A Geodude, which Robin captured this time. Now she had a half decent counter to the Zubats around here at least. She used a potion on it, as she didn’t want to trouble me to travel back to the pokecenter so soon.

Picked up a Paralyz heal, and met Bug catcher Kent, after which, my Magikarp hit level 6 and Nidoran, level 8, learning Focus energy. An attack that I had no intention of using. Tried it in the past, and it kind of sucked.

Generally I was always starting with Magikarp, then switching to Nidoran, who would take a free hit. And then, unless Nidoran could very easily and with minimal damage take down the opponent, I would switch to Bulby, to do the heavy lifting.

In a multi-pokemon trainer fight, I would switch back to Magikarp then Nidoran after each defeated pokemon, achieving the same effect of the XP sharing and damage dealing.

Of course Nidoran was taking a lot of hits like this, and his HP was being slowly whittled down. But once it got too low, I would simply switch up the order and start sending Nidoran out first, letting Magikarp take the free hit instead and ultimately extend the duration I can keep this XP sharing strategy up.

As we worked our way deeper into the cave system, we battled some more trainers and then came upon our first highly questionable ladder descending.

Descending it, we made our way through a tunnel and ran straight into a level 7 Paras. Even though it was my turn for the encounter, I could practically see the hearts jumping up and down in Robin’s eyes.

“Do you want to take this one?” I knew she couldn’t resist a cute orange doe-eyed crab with mushroom-like ears. Not a chance!

She bobbed her head up and down eagerly and sent out Geodude, which should be a good type matchup.

Only, it wasn’t. I laughed so hard. She had no paralyz heals on her and Paras just kept paralyzing Geodude without end. And it kept on proccing, again and again! The amount of bad luck required to pull this off was fast becoming astronomical. Eventually Geodude managed to get some hits in and bring Paras into the red, but not before my stomach muscles were feeling incredibly tired though.

She then wound up with an impressive pose, and successfully threw a pokeball with great style at the barely conscious Paras. After the successful capture, she turned and grinned at me mockingly, in retaliation for laughing at her misfortune just a moment ago no doubt. Yeah, yeah, show off.

Following the passage to its end, we descended another ladder. And low and behold the first Team Numbskull trainer!

“We, Team Rocket, are pokemon gangsters! We strike fear with our strength.”

Seriously?! How have you not been arrested, sprouting crap like that!

Robin, instinctively took a step back, nervously. The Team Rocket grunt however, looked surprised by my lack of reaction.

“Tell me, do you by any chance know Jesse or James? They should also be members of Team Rocket.”

Now the grunt was really confused, “I- Uh- no, I don’t. But I’m relatively new myself, so…”

Robin was giving me a rather strange look. Guess I better get on with this.

“All, right, let’s do this!”

I brought out my Magikarp, and the grunt pulled out a level 11 Sandshrew.

I did my usual switch-a-roo, letting the the Shrew through some sand and scratch attacks at me, before ending up on Bulby and one shotting him with vinewhip. When the Grunt pulled out a level 11 Rattata, I started my switch-a-roo cycle once more. Bubly took him down after a leech seed and two tackles. Last was a level 11 Zubat and I just rinsed and repeated my method.

With the grunt defeated, he gave me some money. It really is weird having a criminal freely give you money for beating them down. I glanced over to Robin, wondering what she thought about this concept, but aside from being wary of the Grunt that was now just kind of moping about and not really doing anything, she didn’t seem to notice or care about the money thing.

A little further in there was a Starpiece up for grabs. That should fetch a decent amount of P.

Since there was nothing else in this area and it was a dead end, we headed back to the ground floor, fighting the occasional pokemon along the way.

Exploring further on the ground floor, we found a potion, a rare candy, and... an escape rope.

I quickly turned Robin’s attention to the nearby pokemon trainer as a distraction away from the offending item. The escape rope is an item that instantly takes you to the entrance of the cave in the original game. How was I supposed to explain this to Robin, without breaking her? More to the point, how would I even use this thing, without breaking me?

Yep, Stashed away, indefinitely, that one.

We ended up battling Super nerd Jovan with his Magnemite and Voltorb. I just followed the same tactic as always. Also, there was Bug catcher Robbie whose last pokemon, a Metapod, I did not bother bringing out Bulby for.

After that, Lass Miriam, and then we finally came across our next ladder descending.

Another passageway and ladder later, we were deeper into the cave system and facing yet another Rocket Goon.

“We’re pulling a big job here, get lost kid!”

The battle ensued and after mopping the floor with his Zubat and Ekans, there was yet one more Team Rocket grunt left questioning his life choices.

After retrieving the only other thing in this portion of the cave, a TM46 (Thief), we went back to the main floor.

“What do you think they're up to?” Robin asked, still clearly a little on edge about running into infamous criminals the whole time.

“Dunno, but there should be a bunch more of them, so I guess we’ll find out.”

“You’re not afraid?”

“Not really, I mean, they’re pretty damn weak.”

Robin sighed and put a hand to her head as if to ward away a headache, “I think it’s just your sense of power level, that’s seriously out of whack.”

On the main floor, we carried on deeper into the cave, defeating Youngster Josh. At which point, Nidoran had levelled enough to learn Double Kick, which I was very happy about, since the next opponent, was Hiker Macross.

This guy brought out only rock pokemon. I was able to switch only between Magikarp and Nidoran, and use Nidorans fighting move, Double Kick, to waste away the rock pokemon.

The reward for this endeavour, before the final descending ladder, was a moon stone. Can’t wait to use that to evolve me a Nidoking. I will probably evolve him as soon as I get my evolution to a Nidorino. I remember that I once tried to push Nidorino till like level 50/60 or something before evolving him and was not impressed by any of the attacks he got. On the other hand, even a level 20-something Nidoking gets a decent normal attack pretty early on. I think it was Thrash or something. So I don’t see any point in waiting, might as well push into the higher base stats sooner.

Also, I will probably give the Nidoking the Rock tomb if he has a slot for it, just for some variety.

Following the ladder down, we followed through another passage before descending again. Here we found a revive, also, the next Grunt

“Little kids shouldn’t be messing around with grown ups!”

Yes, that’s right, now go to bed you twerp!

“It could be bad news!”

One Rattata and Sandshrew later, and we were on our merry way once more.

We followed around the caverns for quite a distance and more than a few corners before running into another Team Rocket Grunt. This one finally informed us of their master plan.

Basically they are hunting for fossils to revive extinct pokemon and earn big bucks.

His schemes did not amount to anything other than a thrashing from me of course. A small accident occured and my Bulby tackled his Zubat out of the air so enthusiastically, that it went flying right into the Rocket Grunt and knocked him right off his feet and flung him into the cave wall.

Well, I guess, Team Rocket’s blasting off again!

After leaving the poor criminal behind, we come upon a scientist-guy.

“Hey, stop!”

“I found these fossils! they’re both mine!”

And so, it was up to me to school Super Nerd Miguel in the concept of modern day Darwinism.

Putting out a level 12 Grimer, I let my Nidoran do the heavy lifting this time. Followed by that was a level 12 Koffing, so I left it to NIroran again. Last was a level 12 Voltorb, so I did my full cycle and let Bulby take him down.

After defeating him, “We’ll each take a fossil! No being greedy!”

Says you! Loser!

I chose the Helix fossil, although to be honest I had no intention of including Omastar in my lineup, maybe I can gift it to Robin?

One more encounter with my Nidoran smashing a Geodude with his rock kick, saw him finally climb to level 16 and evolve into Nidorino.

I did not hesitate to use my moon stone and evolve him into Nidoking on the spot and then straight after, taught him rock tomb, replacing the useless focus energy attack. Now I had a slightly underleveled powerhouse and a hard counter for the electric gym if needed. Nidokings combination ground type will help him out, as well as his new rock attack.

After another passage and a ladder or two, why finally saw daylight! Fuck yes! Done with that awful fucking cave! That was always the most annoying part of the game for me.

So now, I was sitting with a level 13 Magikarp, so still a ways to go there. A level 16 Nidoking. And Bulby had climbed up to level 21.

It had taken some time, multiple trips back to the pokecenter and even a couple of health potions, or in Robins case, a whole lot of health potions, but we were finally out. Also where was she keeping the damn things on her? She only wore a dress and had no backpack?

A glanced over to Robin, and she looked equally relieved to be out of the cave. The bright sunlight reflected across her face as she turned and gave me a big smile.