Blue III

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So there I was, in the middle of Pewter City, unable to train against anyone other than the gym leader, Brock himself. Poor Uve had evolved into a Butterfree, but was still unable to do anything but harden his body against attacks. Which, admittedly, had been very useful against Fido and his Charmander, but I had my doubts that I could likewise get out of a battle with a fully-fledged gym leader with the same strategy unscathed.

So I sat in the grass for a long while, attracting all the critters I could to sacrifice them for Uve's growth. After countless hours (if by countless, I mean one), Uve finally grew frustrated enough at not knowing what was going on that he channeled his confusion externally (as in, you know, the move Confusion). Finally ready to face Brock, I moved in to the gym.

(Un)fortunately, during that time, Mortimer also grew strong (I had to have someone actually defeat the critters that pounded on Uve) and one-shot both Brock's Geodude and Onyx with a single Vine Whip a piece.

So much for the challenge of a gym, I suppose.

The brat that forced me to stick in the city indefinitely had vanished - probably running scared knowing what I would do to him, and I finally ran into all the trainers that were just beyond the pale. If only they would have walked the few steps to challenge me beforehand, I could have actually had a challenge...

Now on Route 3, I was finally able to capture the next member of my team. I walked into the grass and was greeted with a Spearow, which I promptly caught and named Bernadotte. There was a Pokemon Center immediately following the area, which was incredibly fortunate placement as there's a dark cave immediately beside it.

As I was healing my new friend, I heard several rumors of bandits stealing Pokemon in between avoiding this one schemer trying to sale me some useless fish named Magikarp. I figured that I couldn't very well avoid them if I needed to get to Cerulean City anyway, especially if they were intent on stopping everyone to get into Mt Moon, so I paid little heed and moved on in.

Where I found a Zubat, caught him, and named him Zakanien.

I'm in the process of making my way through Mt Moon now and have met my first member of the bandits - what I presume to be a lowly grunt. At least he let me know their name: Team Rocket.