Of course rock-head Brock, called out a level 12 Geodude.

Judging by how the last Geodude fight went and the assumed decent SP def. Stat, I decided to forego the usual leech seed and just power through it. That advantage against the high level opponent would in any case be diminished. So straight for the vine whips.

The super effective hit actually managed to one shot him. Oh well, guess I don’t even need the crits.

I noticed that Brock had an interesting expression on his face. Somewhere between annoyance and shock.

And now he pulled out the predictable level 14 Onix. Suspecting Onix’s higher defensive stats and abilities and that this fight might be ever so slightly drawn out as a result, I went ahead and seeded him first.

Interestingly enough, Onix got the first hit in, he had a higher speed then me, huh. Also my leech missed, annoying!

Stubbornly I tried seeding him again, and a good thing too, as he traded me a bind, which would slowly do damage to me over time. My leech seed did more damage though and outhealed it regardless, but it’s nice not to have to worry about the additional drain.

And… my next vine whip one-shotted him again. I figured he’d at least have some defence!

Oh, well.

That Onix was enough to push Bulby over to level 15 and now he wants to learn poison powder. If memory serves me correctly, that is that shitty DOT attack that only has a 75% chance of landing.

Honestly I would prefer to toss that crap to the wind, I hate low accuracy attacks. But then again, if I find myself in a bad type matchup, something that is very likely with a smaller number of pokemon, then having the additional type attack could potentially bail me out.

So now it was a decision of what to replace. I like having tackle as a physical attack option. Vinewhip for my grass type. Also leech seed is not going anywhere. I guess it has to be growl then. It’s not like there aren’t superior alternatives available to that in any case.

Poof, growl is gone…

Oh crap, he wants to learn sleep powder as well! Now this one is a tough choice. This guy has way too many useful options!

Sigh. Vine whip I cannot for any reason give up. And as much as I would like to stack sleep powder, leech seed and poison powder together, so that I can sit back and eat popcorn while I watch the masses die, I actually can’t give up tackle. My other assault type abilities all have low PP counts, and with only a single pokemon for my battles so far, I’m going to burn through them way too quickly! I’m not that big a fan of the android nurse joy, to be running back to her every five minutes!

Tackle has 35 PP, it's going to be a bit of a mainstay for me, at least for the time being. If that’s the case, the best thing I can do is replace the similar ability poison powder, with it’s honestly superior relative sleep powder.

After that, I watched as Brock gave me my Rock badge, looking very defeated, as well as 1500P and a TM for rock tomb.

I said my goodbyes, told the fool that he was going to keep getting his ass handed to him if he didn’t come up with some type counter measures, and went back to the pokecenter to refresh Bulby. Not that he really needed it.

Before turning to leave. I noticed the trainer in the corner of the room, the one that always has the Jiggly puff with her for some reason out in the open, was currently distracted, talking to another trainer, excitedly about how cute fairy pokemon are.

A mischievous idea was scampering across my brain, but that aside... Was that a thing? The NPC’s conversed with each other? Something seems a bit off about that.

As curious as this development was, I put it aside, since I did not want to miss the opportunity.

Leaning into Jiggly puff and quietly whispering into its large and likely sensitive ear, “Your master told me that she’d be really happy if you could sing a lovely song for everyone quick.”

Jiggly puff looked at me with its big eyes, filled with jubilation. Hah. Nothing like doing a good deed hey.

I gave Jiggly puff a big ol’ thumbs up, before exiting the build very quickly.

The only place left to go was mount moon. I quickly met up with a scientist type at the entrance.

“Oh Ben, I’m glad I found you. I’m professor Oak’s aide.”

Which one? You all look alike to me. Do you guys even have names?

“I’ve been asked to deliver this, so here you go.”

And he gave me running shoes.

So, the professor sends his clearly not very valuable aide across the countryside to give me a pair of running shoes?

The aid ran off.

Examining the shoes, there was a letter stuffed into them. It was from Mom, gushing on about how she was always going to support her little champion.

So Mom, somehow obtains Devon tech running shoes and gives them to Oak, a busy scientist, who gives them to his aide and sends him across the country to give to me? She should probably have given them to me the last time I saw here, but oh well.

I put the shoes on, which were more like a pair of boots, but couldn’t quite figure out how they worked, they seemed to have no effect on me.

After a short while of fiddling, I noticed a button on the sides of the shoes. Pushing it, they remained depressed and I could hear a hiss coming from the shoes.

Curious I tried them out. Walking did nothing, but as soon as I started jogging, woosh! Every step I took seemed to make compression sounds and propelled me forward. I had to be careful not to lose my balance, or I could get seriously injured.

I also had to be careful to redirect the force so that it propelled me less up and more forward, otherwise I was going to sprain something if I made my steps too forceful.

Either way, this was actually pretty cool and pretty fast means of movement. It took quite a while to get the hang of it though. I feel like it could become its own olympic sport. But doubted that would ever happen. The only thing these people had on their brains after all, was pokemon.

I packed my old sneakers in my backpack, as I may want to use them again later, they are way more comfortable than these gadgets on my feet.

Passing through a large canyon in a small wall like mountain range, on the other side I encountered a large plateau, with, you guessed it, a bunch of overly zealous trainers.

“Excuse me! You looked at me, didn’t you?”

Depends, are you in the habit of suing people for sexual harassment, or do you welcome the advances?

And so it began.

I eventually fought off Lass Janice, Bug catcher Colton, Youngster Ben, Bug catcher Gwen, Youngster Calvin, Bug catcher James and Lass Sally. That last one also making a sexually charged comment.

Is it me or does every cute girl trainer make some kind of sexual comment. I’m calling it now, the developers of this game are never getting laid.

I had used a combination of my Bulby’s abilities to get through the various fights. They really had some great synergy, with tackle being my main, with its 35PP. If the opponent seemed tough, I’d keep putting it to sleep and then use some vine-whips on it, since for most of the fights it had a bad type matchup.

Now, after defeating several of these guys, my PP was starting to get very low across all of Bulby’s abilities even if his health was basically full. He was also now at level 18 and had evolved into an Ivysaur.

I should be able to safely handle one more trainer though, with those PP numbers. My last trainer for this trip, and probably the last trainer for Route 3 was another lass.

“Eek! Did you touch me?”

OK! Now that is just going too far!

“Bring it! I’ll crush you!” I practically growled.

Lass Robin seemed taken aback by my outburst and looked quite scared. Regardless she feebly and shakely brought out a pokemon, as if driven by some compelling force to comply with what was expected of her.

It was a Jigglypuff. With a smirk I ordered Bulby to put it to sleep. The attack landed and I had to restrain myself from bursting into a fit of laughter. You got to love the irony.

After that I proceeded to pelt it with vine whips until it was less asleep and more unconscious. Every one of those delicious slap sounds were filling me with joy and bringing lass Robin a little closer to tears. Am I actually a sadist?

By the time the girl gave me her money, A custom I was starting to get used to now, she scowled at me through teary eyes, “That was mean!”

“Uh, excuse you?” I replied down through my nose. “Did you not just a moment ago falsely accuse me of sexual harassment and then without even asking me if it was okay challenge me to a pokemon battle? And you complain about my method of victory?”

Robin froze like a deer caught in headlights. Her bright blue eyes wide with realisation. “Um- U- Sorry about that.” Her head sank and her wavy light brown hair fell to the front. “I actually don’t know why I said that earlier.” She spoke softly, clearly humiliated.

I sighed. The people here are a little too serious for my tastes.

“Tell you what Robin, don’t sweat it. Now that I think about it, I am really hungry. How about you buy me some lunch and we call it even.” I tried to give her my friendliest smile.

It seemed to work, as she smiled back “Okay, deal.”

Although, truth be told, I actually was hungry and had no idea where I should get some food from. This just seemed like a convenient way of solving that problem. I couldn’t care less about the state of her conscience.

“Just one sec. Robin there’s something I need to take care of quickly.”

She nodded at me and waited patiently.

I then proceeded into the expanse of bushes that was behind her. Trudging through the brush, searching for pokemon I encountered Pidgey. I instructed Bulby to retreat and aside from Pidgey taking a parting shot at him, he left us alone after that.

Hmm. Just as I suspected, you can ‘run away’ from a fight. Just at the cost of one last hit. Well that was fine, my Bulby couldn’t spare even a single attack due to his almost completely depleted PP’s, but he had close to full health and could weather a few ‘run away’ blows while I searched.

After a few more encounters, including even a Mankey, I found what I was looking for. I had remembered that in a past playthrough I had found one of my important pokemon here. Although I couldn’t exactly remember which. Once this Nidoran popped up, I finally realised what it was: Nidoking. An absolute powerhouse.

I used a single tackle on the level 6 Nidoran, hoping that it wouldn’t outright kill him. Luckily it brought him straight into the red, but not unconscious. Nidoran simply responded with a leer.

Then to be extra safe, I used sleep powder to put him to sleep. Majorly injured and asleep, it should be a piece of cake to catch him.

Opening up my backpack and pulling out a fresh pokeball, I wound up into a magnificent pitcher's pose and pitched the pokeball at the unconscious Nidoran with great flourish.

The pokeball bounced across the ground and rolled, stopping at Robin’s feet.

I missed it!

Robin did her best to stifle a laugh and then look away when I glared at her, pretending she didn’t see anything.

I sighed and instead walked up to the blissfully sleeping Nidoran and dropped a fresh pokeball on top of its head.

It seemed to do the job just fine. The pokeball opened up and converted the Nidoran to energy, storing it inside. After a few glowing pulses, it de-illuminated, indicating a successful capture.