We went back quickly first to heal up at the pokecenter and re-purchase another super health potion, just in case it’s needed again.

Advancing along the bridge, that soon turned into more of a raised walkway, we encountered some more trainers.

“People call this the nugget bridge! Beat us five trainers and win a fabulous prize.”

Well I normally settle for humiliating individual trainers, so you’ll get no complaint from me for humiliating an entire team of them, while leveling my pokemon with free XP.

“Think you got what it takes?”

And with that, Gug catcher Cale sent out a level 10 Caterpie. What an epic disappointment this was going to be. So I decided to just do some Magikarp tackling for the time being.

Caterpie went down to Magikarps weak-ass fury, followed by a level 10 Weedle, soon after.

Magikarp did get poisoned though. I was about to pull him back to deal with the poisoning later, but saw the dumbass bug catchers next pokemon was a level 10 Metapod.

I took the epic waste of time from my opponents continuous hardening and first cured Magikarp, then healed him. Then I slowly whittled him down with just my Magikarp’s tackle. It took a while, but he finally went down and Magikarp grew to level 16 for his efforts.

He then brought out a level 10 Kakuna. And I went all out on tackles once more. I fell just short of finishing him off before my Magikarp’s PP ran out. Determined to send the XP to my Magikarp only and mostly because I’m also seriously stubborn, I decided to waste attacks on splash, until, Kakuna ran out of PP for all his own attacks and started ‘struggling’. It ended up hurting himself to death.

“Whoo! Good stuff!”

No! You just suck dude! Your enitre team of pokemon was taken out by a mother fucking Magikarp! You need to consider a career change, like seriously!

I glanced over to Robin and could see the intense look of pity on her face. She was thinking the same thing, albeit probably with nicer words of comfort in her mind, that she dared not speak out loud.

Healing Magikarp back up, I advanced and the second person challenged me, Lass Ali.

A level 12 Pidgey came out and I stuck to my usual rotation, bringing out Nidoking. A good ol’ rock tomb for the air type and he was down.

She then sent out a level 12 Oddish which was a bit of a difficult customer for my lineup. I sent out Nidoking and settled for the neutral type, Megapunching him to death. Oddish was out after two hits and Nidoking rose to level 17.

Next was a level 12 Bellsprout. Nidoking pummeled it with a one-shot Megapunch.

Next was Youngster Timmy and his level 14 Sandshrew. Since I was sticking to my two learning pokemon for now, and avoiding Bulby, I continued with a neutral, but powerful Megapunch. I realised after the first piss-weak hit, that this thing must have a pretty decent phyical defense even after that first defense curl of his.

I didn’t want to summon Bulby in and had no better choices, so I just stuck with it anyway. Between the annoying accuracy losing sand attacks and his continuous defence upping defense curls, that bloody rat actually got my Nidoking’s health quite low before the poison status from my barbs ended up finally finishing him off.

Next up was a level 14 Ekans. I let Magikarp out and used a potion to heal Nidoking instead first. Then I switched to him after. Ekans would be useless against Nidoking, one of the worst possible matchups you could get. Two Rock tombs later, and he was down.

Next was Lass Reli, surprisingly she brought out a level 16 Nidoran (Female). Two rock tombs later and it was down. Then she brought out a level 16 Nidoran (Male) and after a switcheroo, I just repeated. The second one kept ‘shouting’ my attack rating down, so it took several rock tombs to finish it.

And lastly, Camper Ethan sent out a level 18 Mankey. A switcheroo later and Mankey’s mostly fighting moves were not really working out against Nidoking’s poison hybrid type. I didn’t have a particularly strong answer to his fighting type either, so I just used Peck, flying move. It worked surprisingly well for its lower attack rating. Two shots and he was out.

Magikarp went up to level 17 and Nidoking, level 18.

After finally exiting the overly long bridge/walkway, I was congratulated by some random dude on beating the five competition losers and he gave me a nugget.

“By the way, how would you like to join Team Rocket?”

Well, I didn't see that one coming!

“We’re a group of professional criminals specializing in pokemon. Want to join?”

I just laughed.

“Are you sure? Come on, join us!”

Robin was even glaring at the man by this point.

“I’m telling you to join!”

“Dude, team rocket is a bunch of losers.” I replied.

“Okay, you need convincing!”

“Yeah, dude, just come at me already, you’re wasting my time.”

“I’ll make you an offer you can’t refuse!”

And with that, he sent out a level 15 Ekans. A switcheroo and two rock tombs later and it was out, but not before doing some decent damage to Nidoking with that bind crap.

Next up was a level 15 Zubat. I just one-shotted him with a Megapunch. And the fight was over.

“With your ability, you’d become a top leader in Team Rocket.”

“Oh, dude, just Fuck Off already!”

“Come on, think of the opportunity! Don’t let this chance go to waste.”

He’s worse than a fucking telemarketer!

“Magikarp- Tackle!”

Magikarp rammed the Rocket grunt right into the hedges behind him, burying him deep. I would have used My Nidoking’s Megapunch, to send Team Rocket blasting of again, but I was a little bit concerned about committing wanton murder.

The river that had been flowing next to the bridge also stopped at the same point and there was a bushy ridge between it and the mountain that we could backtrack along. In those bushes we met: Camper Shane.

Some switching and Rock Tombing later and it became ‘Camper Shame’.

Exploring further turned out to be a dead end, and we only ran into a random Pidgey.

Exploring further in along the original bridge route, led us into a sandy mountainous area, where we found a TM45 Attract.

Exploring further Eventually gave way to a grassy plateau, filled with a plethora of maze-like shrubbery and a whole lot of pokemon trainers. It took me quite a bit of time to get through all of them, having to run back to the pokecenter a couple of times in order to save on expensive healing potions.

Most of what we fought were in the range of regular pokemon like Rattata and Spearow, as well as rock and ground types. Also, quite a few poison and fighting types. The majority of these pokemon fell very easily to my Magikarp, Nidoking combo. Nidoking with his current array of attacks were a great matchup for the majority of these pokemon.

Unfortunately Nidoking always did the heavy lifting, none of the pokemon were low enough level for Magikarp to attempt to solo them. All said and done, we defeated Hiker Franklin, Hiker Wayne, Youngster Joey, Youngster Dan, Picknicker Kelsey and then...

Hiker Nob. Seriously? What is wrong with these developers and their naming sense?

After that, Camper Flint, Youngster Chad and Lass Haley. I only brought Bulby out once, when Nidoking was in a tight spot against a reasonably well levelled slow poke, but aside from that it was smooth sailing. Nidoking was now level 21 and Magikarp, level 19. Almost there!

We finally reached the end of the plateau and it opened up to be surrounded on water on all sides. There was a white house here and some dainty ponds. A girl and boy were standing by one such pond, holding hands.

“This cape is a famous date spot. Misty, the gym leader, has high hopes about this place.” sais the girl.

“If you’re out at Cerulean’s cape… Well, it should be as a couple.” Says the boy.

I just looked over to Robin and gave her a suggestive wink. She just rolled her eyes playfully, in order to hide her embarrassment that had yet to subside.

We entered the house and it looked more like a messy science lab. There was scientific contraptions, diagrams, panels and books scattered about. Lots of boxes of junk and a large scientific machine on the far end.

“Hiya! I’m a pokemon… No I’m not!”

Oh and there was a Cleffairy here trying to make conversation with us, or argue with itself, I wasn’t quite sure which yet.

“Call me Bill! I’m a true-blue pokemaniac!”

Ya got the maniac part right!

“Hey! What’s with that skeptical look? I’m not joshing you, pal.”

Dear god, the language in this game is so cringe sometimes.

“I screwed up an experiment and got combined with a pokemon!”

“So, how about it? Help me out here!”

“Wait till I get inside the Teleporter. When I do, go to my PC and run the Cell separation system.”

I agreed and the Cleffairy trotted off and entered one side of the large scientific machine.

I glanced over to Robin, who had been stunned to silence by this turn of events. The look in her eye worried me a bit.

“Robin. You can’t capture it. It’s a person!”

She just gave me a sharp look for making fun of her and then pouted cutely.

I ran the program as instructed and after a bit of a lightshow, Bill emerged from the machine.

“Yeehah!”

Oh gods no! Just no! Language!

“Thanks, bud! I owe you one! So, did you come to see my pokemon collection?”

Can I answer no to this?

“You didn’t? That’s a bummer.”

“I’ve got to thank you… Oh, here, maybe this’ll do.”

He then handed me a ticket to the S.S.

“That cruise ship S.S Anne is in Vermilion City. I hear there are lots of trainers on board, too.”

“They invited me to their party, but I can’t stand fancy do’s.”

“Why don’t you go instead of me? Go on and have a good time.”

I was a bit worried suddenly as I realised this was a key item, but there is only one of them. Would I have to part ways with Robin? Inspecting the ticket itself, I noticed there was a room number printed on it and that it actually admits up to four people. Seems they rent them by the room.

That was a relief.

We thanked the crazy scientist and left.

I noticed an alternative path leading back the way we came. A tall hedge that hugged the mountain side with a narrow gap to walk along. Since I thought it might lead to the next area, we followed along.

It led us all along, around the mountain and then past the bridge we had originally came across.

It turned out to be pointless as it ended in a small cliff that we jumped down, which put us right at the start of the bridge. But it did seem like a bit of a short cut, so there’s that at least.

Entering town once more, I noticed that officer Jenny was no longer guarding the door to that house that got robbed. So guess, that’s where we’re headed next.

“Before we get back on the road, you want to grab a bite to eat and rest our feet a bit?”

“Yeah sure.”

I was feeling a bit hungry again. We once more made do with the basically empty upper floor of the local pokecenter.

While eating our Onigiri, I tried teasing Robin a bit more. I waved the S.S ticket in front of her, “So this thing says I can bring someone with me. You looking forward to a romantic cruise with me on a luxury cruise ship?”

She snorted, “What with a shrimp like you?” Ouch, hit hard on the ‘height’ sore spot, hey.

But I could see by the expression on her face, she was definitely looking forward to it.

It occured to me, with that last playful, catty retort of hers, that Robin had changed a lot in the short amount of time I had known her. She was- I don’t know- Maybe, more demure previously? Now it was like she was more willful. I don’t know if that’s because maybe she’s spending time with me and I’m having an effect on her, or if it was just because she was opening up to me a bit and letting a bit more of the true Robin shine through.