It's Time to Jump! Jump 1: Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Start of a Chance

I stared at Jumpchan as she flipped through what I think was the jump list? Not sure.

After a few more seconds she aha’ed and threw me a screen, again. “Here you go, it’s the stock-standard first-jump document, having a restriction to be only used as such and all that.” Stated Jumpchan and I looked at it. Blue and Dark Blue color scheme, very weird way of depicting but really a lot of images. It had a long introductory speech, as if the author was role-playing Jumpchan or something, and a circle divided in white and red at the top left corner, with a black line between the halfs.

It’s title? Pokémon Trainer CYOA. “What’s a Pokémon?” I asked, confused by the weird word, it even had that little thingy up on top of the e that I saw sometimes in Spanish or French words.

Jumpchan was sighing, weirdly enough, shaking her head. “I would love to place blame for this on the Dursleys but… Pokémon Red/Blue/Green didn’t come out yet in your time so they didn’t have the opportunity to deny it to you.” Stated Jumpchan before snapping a finger, causing a cute little animal in yellow with a lightningbolt-like tail to appear beside her.

“This is a Pikachu, one of the, what? 900 or so Pokémon sub-species I think. They’re still coming up with new ones. They’re part of a game series that starts being made in 1994 by the Nintendo company and grows into one of the largest game franchises around.” She explained as the Pikachu looked around before running up to me, curiously looking at me.

“For this jump you’ll be going in as a Pokémon Trainer, which are people who catch and train Pokémon for competitive purposes. The minimum age to become an official Pokémon Trainer is ten years old, that is why the age is determined through a throw of an eight sided die and adding a nine to the result as the minimum is then ten.” Explained Jumpchan, smiling a bit though I didn’t pay attention to that, more occupied with the Pokémon in front of me.

“Now, before we get started on your build, I must impose a few extra drawbacks that won’t be on the actual document.” Stated Jumpchan and I looked up, confused. “This is for the purposes of making this not too easy, as it wasn’t meant for a Jumper with four frontloads like yourself. It also allows me to allocate some extra funds. I also uncap the Drawback limit due to our little rule set.” She explained and I nodded, that sounded fair.

“For starters, I must insist that you take one of the Origins that aren’t Drop-Ins, as you have no knowledge of this world. This basically means you are under the “Cannot into Drop” drawback. It’s effect means however also that any 100 CP Origin is free and anything above is discounted.” Explained Jumpchan and a caption appeared explaining the full effects.

“Next I must insist on the “Start at the Beginning” drawback, which gives 100 CP. It means that you will be starting at the birth of your in-universe self and the clock for your decade only starts when you reach your starting age. Also, your powers will slowly mature over time.” Explained Jumpchan and the second drawback also appeared before me, that… wait, wasn’t this basically a free 20 year (minimum) life with loving parents?

“Not only that.” Stated Jumpchan, making me snap out of my reveree. She took out a coin, one side showing a Pikachu’s face, the other it’s tail. “For this jump and 100 CP, we redetermine your gender, that and your Gender identity.” Explained Jumpchan as I blinked, because what did that matter? “Heads you’re a girl, tails you’re a boy.” Stated Jumpchan cheerfully, flipping the coin up.

“Wait why is-” I couldn’t finish to ask why tails was boys, or why she looked so amused by whatever internal joke it was, as she caught the coin on the back of her hand and I instantly felt myself shrink and contort and my hair go longer, for some reason. “Aww, you’re so adorable now!” Squealed Jumpchan and made a mirror in front of me. She’s a god, so why not?

What was in the full body mirror was a girl a bit shorter than I had been, with black hair and green eyes. She also had my scar and her hair was tickling the shoulders, or my hair did, ‘cause that was me. My clothes were also a lot more loose, so I had to grab my pants so they wouldn’t fall off.

“Now that this is settled, let’s add “Nap-Time for Jumper” to it, for 50 CP. This will mean you have to take a 2 hour nap every day, I have plans for this.” Stated Jumpchan and I looked at her oddly. Why was she grinning like that? “Also, “No Access”, this means that you won’t be able to access the items you purchased here, nor can you bring anything into the Pokémon World you haven’t purchased here. That’s worth 200 CP.” Explained Jumpchan and I gaped, my items!

“Ahahah, no complaining.” Stated Jumpchan and I felt my face go red, because she just read my mind! “You can’t take any of this stuff into a world like Pokémon, not only would you have no practical use for any of them. That flying aircraft carrier would be pretty much useless for a Pokémon Trainer, after all.” Stated Jumpchan and I pouted at that, which got me a hug and squeal. Jumpchan´s weird.

“Next on my list of “OCDs” we have “Smart as you are”, this disables your intelligence boosting perks and disables the benefits of such as well for 100 CP. And before you say anything, Omega Level Intellect is frankly irrelevant here because you have no need for it. I will also disable all but two perks you got outside of here, that includes your home world’s perks. It’s a softened version of a certain Drawback, so I give you a one time discount on a undiscounted item.” Explained Jumpchan and I felt almost like doing a tantrum. But years under the Dursleys had made me… calm, let’s say it like that. I don’t throw tantrums.

I knew why she had chosen to put me into the spot of not having any intelligence boosting perks as I would’ve been able to choose those if I had wanted with the last one, it was titled “Power Locked”. Reviewing my perk list, using my remaining time of super intelligence for that, I chose to take “Seer” and “Animagus” ultimately. No point in losing my prophetic powers or my transforming ability.

“Well, isn’t that cute? I’m afraid though that Small Owls aren’t exactly native to Pokémon.“ Noted Jumpchan and I blinked a bit confused.

“Huh? Why not?” I asked, that just sounded weird.

“They have analogues to many animals in the form of Pokémon there, few of them being owls. Go turn into your Animagus form and I can show you.” She stated and I smiled, I had wanted to try it already so no problem. With a flap of my arms I transformed into my small owlish form and also lifted myself into the air, flapping my wings to land next to Hedwig on a stand who looked at me with a tilted head.

“Well, isn’t that just the cutest thing? Now, let me show you what I had in mind.” She stated, snapping her fingers. I instantly felt a shift as my body underwent another transformation and soon enough, as I looked to the side, Hedwig wasn’t there. Instead there was a strange, big bird with white feathers like her, but it had a large crest of silver on it- no, her forehead.

“And now we have a Noctowl and a little Rowlet Animagus.” Stated Jumpchan, making a mirror appear before me. As it turns out, I had become what I guess was another Pokémon? I was a small, owlish-looking thing with a round body, the top half being a brownish color while the lower part of my feathers appeared white. I had two… were those leafs? Yeah, leafs. They were under my beak.

“Hedwig is now a Noctowl, a Pokémon native to the Johto Region. I made her coloration match her normal colors somewhat rather than the normal colors of a Noctowl. You on the other hand are a perfectly normal little Rowlet, a Grass-type Pokémon native to the Alola Region.” She explained as I cocked my- wow, I didn’t know I can turn my head upside down.

“Now get back onto the ground and into working on your built little owly.” Teased an amused Jumpchan and I quickly did as commanded, landing on the ground and returning to normal.

Looking at the sheet itself come first but I skipped it for now and went to Drawbacks. They were nine in total, three with 100 CP, three with 200 CP, and another three with 300 CP each. One look at the latter list had me recoil. Wanted by the international police, hunted by a “God” according to this, that being a uncatchable super Pokémon. And the last had something called “Darkrai” give me sanity distorting nightmares at least once a week?

“Who made this thing? It’s like they’re expecting… uh… Chuck Norris!” Asked, needing a second to remember the name of that famous action movie star.

Jumpchan laughed. “Don’t ask me, Quicksilver made some… odd choices back when he invented the format.” Stated Jumpchan, shaking her head. “Some of the Supplements have long since been improved upon by other people at least.” Explained the goddess and I nodded. Couldn’t argue with that.

The 200 CP bracket was about being scared of Pokémon other than my Starter, a… “Wait, there are ghosts in that world?” I asked, blanching at the mention of “Ghost Pokémon“ in the document.

“Huh? Ah, not at all. There is a Ghost-type, similar to Grass-type, and while rumors and certain Pokedex entries say some of them are the reincarnations of people, it isn’t confirmed. Naturally the games don’t go much into detail on this so… yeah.” She stated and I swallowed, not gonna take that Anti-Luck.

Looking at my remaining 200 point choice was “Marked”, which would make a criminal organization want to steal my Pokémon from me. “How bad are the criminals here?” I asked, not thrilled at the idea.

Jumpchan looked at the drawback I was looking at, then snorted. “A 10 year old comes around every time to smack them out of business, they will use only Pokémon Battle against you so you can just beat them if you keep ahead of the curve.” Stated Jumpchan and I nodded, that made sense.

Well, that was one possibility, I wasn’t going to make that for sure. The 100 list was a bit more subdued. There was “Swarmed”, which would send a swarm of “Zubat” at me, which were noted to be rather weak. But they couldn’t be captured or otherwise stopped. “Crippled”, which would cause me to lose a leg to be then replaced by a prothestic. And lastly “Silenced”, which would make me mute. Like, literally.

The Swarmed thing could be dealt with and I guess it would be decent enough training in some way. Crippled was right out and Silenced was definitely not worth it’s 100 CP because of just how problematic that would be without telepathy.

Ultimately, I slotted in “Swarmed” and “Marked” as my Drawbacks, giving me another 300 CP to work with and giving me 1550 CP in total. Sighing I then went to the first part of the document, location. Looking at them, they were Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, Unnova, Kalos, Orre and free pick. After a moment I chose Kanto, simply because it was the #1 choice available really.

Second was Origins, I knew this sort of thing already. Options were “Drop-In”, which was naturally unavailable for me. “Hermit”, which would mean that I’d have been all my life living with a, well, hermit who raised me. Nope.

Third on the list, and like Hermit at 50 CP, was “Small Town”, which come with life with a mother and a father who works a lot, a small group of friends of which one has a “Crush”, whatever that means, in the first town of the Region. I would be physically fit and at least somewhat accustomed to camping and would have my Pokémon for at least a few years before starting my journey.

Fourth was “City Life”, which meant I’d be very agile and good at Parcour. I’d also have no clue on wilderness survival. So like I’ve been. It come apparently with a good sense of navigation, acrobatic talent and having saved my Pokémon from a shelter half a year ago.

Last on the list was the only 100 CP Origin, Money Bags. It come with a lot of money, top of the line gear and education but no real world experience. This would also make my Starter basically my guard dog, purchased when I was only a baby by my in-jump parents. Thinking about it I decided to go Small Town, as it sounded the most fun and relaxed of the Origins. I got it for free, naturally, since I had my drawback-based discount.

Next was my Starter Pokémon, which was the free “Actual Starter”, which would allow me to select one of the canonical Starter Pokémon. “In Region, Common” which would mean a Pokémon that was easily found in the wild. “In Region, Uncommon”, which was for Pokémon that were in my starting Region but less common than the above, “In Region, Rare” for those that were actually very rare in the Region, and finally “Out of Region+Hidden Ability”, whatever that meant. This would be Pokémon not found in the Kanto Region in my case.

Well, I didn’t want to spend CP on this and I suspected that the cost for a common Pokémon wasn’t exactly a good idea considering they’d be likely at a disadvantage, with prizes being Free, 50, 100, 150 and 200 in order. As such I took “Actual Starter”, which opened a selection screen with 23 Pokémon to select. Skimming them I saw that they were mostly based on plants, fire-related or red, and blue and water related.

Exceptions were a small, furry quadrupedal with brown fur labeled “Eevee” and, to my surprise, Pikachu. Admittedly, Rowlet was also on the list as part of the final three regular looking ones. “Pikachu can be taken as a Starter?” I asked, looking at the small, yellow being that was still around after the demonstration and now sat on the chest with my Dark Arts books.

“Naturally, they were available as a choice in two of the Main series games, Eevee was available in a spin-off and in one main series game. Why? You like the idea?” Asked Jumpchan amused and I didn’t hesitate to select it, this was the first Pokémon I had seen, and Rowlet was what I could turn into so… yeah.

Underneath the Starter selection was a number of options, designed apparently for my starter. Shiny, which sounded as if it was some sort of cosmetic change, Egg Move which I had no idea what that was, because what’s “Breeding” exactly? There was also “Advance Move”, which would be a move that was only available to learn after “Evolving” normally but that my Starter got already. And “Mental Bond”, which was basically what it says on the tin, between me and my Starter.

They were 50, 50, 100 and 150 respectively but I decided not to take any of them because I had too little CP for that and too little understanding on top of that. After this come the “Skills & Abilities”, which was definitely the early version of the catch-all “Perk” term and section.

Of this I looked at what was discounted/free first. There were three prizes overall, Free for Small Town was “Physical Fitness”, which would increase, well, that. It would be handy to have due to my lock on my already obtained perks for this jump. It was also free so… yeah.

The first discount was “Mechanic”, which cost, undiscounted, 300 CP and 150 for Small Town. It was basically a “Better at fixing things” kind of perk. It also would make me better at improving things but… yeah, no. I didn’t need it later and I doubt I would need it here. The Capstone and third perk was “Aura”, which would give me the ability to sense emotions, Aura, manifest Aura and throw something called “Aura Sphere”. This could all improve with training too but would cap at Lucario level, whatever that was.

I took it, for 300 CP on discount which left me with 1250 CP. I could also get one undiscounted perk for a discount thanks to a drawback, so I could take another capstone. The three others were “Pokeglot”, which would let me speak to Pokémon but at the same time, I would be able to once I got back my “I Speak Everything” perk. There was “Savant”, which was a mind booster but I had that put and done already too.

The last one was Psionics, though there was a generally undiscounted “Champion in the Making” perk for 300. Psionics was the City Life capstone and basically gave psychic powers, including telekinesis and telepathy. No mind reading and a cap at the level of a “Gardevoir”. I decided to spend my discount on this one, reducing it’s cost to 300 and then I also took “Champion in the Making”, as it sounded like this was a success boosting perk.

It would basically make me a born team leader/team coordinator and that was likely a great thing for someone like myself now that I was getting into this world. I already had somewhat a handicap since I had no idea about this world and would be going in pretty much blind as it was.

This left me with 650 CP to go though.

So I went to Items. Before the other stuff there had been a small list that included a number of items that I got basically for free. A Pokedex, Pokegear (phone basically), expanded bag, 5x Pokeballs, 3 “Potions”, described as first-aid in a bottle. Lastly, a hat. Yeah, weird.

I also, retroactively, chose my age and set it to 10, which was apparently the standard age? I would be a year older than I had been so far, which was interesting.

The items on sale were on the other hand… were odd.

3x Masterball was a -50 CP item that claimed it could catch any Pokémon in the wild but couldn’t be sold. Instant catch in other words. HM Collection was labeled as “Free” despite me not being a Moneybag, but I suppose that was because of my parents being rich in my original world. Same was true for Bicycle and the money bundle said Moneybags get 400k Pokedollar for free instead of paying 50 CP per 50k Pokedollars.

I slotted in the money, HM Collection and Bicycle, it would be nice to have some funds. There was also “Laptop”, which would be handy to have and I never had any sort of computer before so this was nice to have and Moneybags got this free too. Last on the free-for-Moneybags list was “Medical Kit”, which would probably come in handy down the line.

Well, first of all I didn’t get a helicopter, discounted or not 200 CP was too much for something I didn’t need later. A Motorcycle was also out since I was literally too young for that. Instead I took the 50 CP “Parachute” item as it would be very useful later on. Likewise I took “Rebreather” for another 50 because I would likely end up in the water sooner than later.

This left me at 550 CP. After a moment of looking at the options I opted for “Hypervizor” at 200 CP, as it would be handy to have that. The last 350 I had I then spent on Masterballs, 7 purchases of them for 21 Masterballs total. This spent me out ultimately.

“Well, those are some nice purchases, congrats on that. And nice to see that you make good use of my special rules.” Noted Jumpchan amused as I grinned at her, naturally they were good purchases!

“Well then, little Jumper, let’s get you started on this jump.” Noted Jumpchan with a smirk and darkness claimed me.

My full memories come to me after ten years of life here. And my god, being a child with loving parents is the best!

I was Yellow Viridi, a 10 year old girl who had awakened both Aura and psychic powers early on. My parents lived in Pallet Town in the Western border region of the Kanto Region. The closest city to Pallet Town was Viridian City to the North which also held the closest Gym but which also didn’t accept challengers with less than seven badges.

As for my Starter, I had found Chuchu as a Pichu as I was 5 years old and she had evolved within a year. My parents had contemplated buying a Thunderstone for her but we vetoed it back then because of no interest in it. Now I was 10 years old and the two of us could start our journey, and yes. Chuchu is the same Pikachu that Jumpchan created back then.

How do I look? Well, for starters, I’m not exactly black haired anymore. In fact, it’s a bright blonde color. My eyes are now also greyish brown in color rather than my old green, and my hair is long. Really long.

I also had some… issues. Namely, I’m Narcoleptic, meaning that I basically fall asleep at odd times. Especially if I use my powers a lot. Though taking a nap of 2 hours is usually fine for me to get through the day and it really just hits randomly throughout the day.

Leaving home was bittersweet, I could return any time I wanted but at the same time, all the memories and desires I got from being Yellow just gave me this lust to travel, it was quite strange and yet exhilerating.

When I was leaving town I noticed two other Trainers at the northern exit of Pallet Town. They were both boys and while one was decke out in a red and white outfit with a hat similar to mine and a Bulbasaur next to him, the other was a Brunette guy with a purple pullover shirt and baggy pants. He stood next to a Charmander.

These were two I knew in this life, Red and Blue respectively. Yes, those names don’t match their choice of Starter Pokémon, not really the point. As I approached their Pokémon charged one another and they begun to battle so I stopped to observe, no reason to interrupt I’d say. Neither appeared to know any moves beyond Tackle and Scratch respectively yet, which I knew they got today.

After the battle was over, Red won even if barely, I approached them. “Hey guys, had fun?” I asked, coming up to them with my shiny, new, Bicycle. Yup, got it from my parents for my birthday a week ago. Chuchu was basicaly riding shotgun on my shoulder.

“Well, if it isn’t yellow, I see you took your pet mouse as your Starter.” Commented Blue in a voice that was grating and, frankly? Too smug for someone who lost with type advantage.

“Blue, if your Charmander hadn’t just fainted I’d be showing you what Chuchu can actually do. As is, I’d run back to your grandpa for some medical attention.” I shot back at him, which made him scowl, but concede. As Blue left I turned to Red who had just put a Potion to his Bulbasaur. “So, you good to go on Red?” I asked, looking at the red-clad Trainer who looked at me and nodded.

Red’s not that much of a talker, a bit odd since he likes to give argue a lot with Blue when they disagreed with one another. I didn’t challenge him at that point, we were both going on a journey after all and neither of us wanted to waste more time standing around and his Bulbasaur, despite the Potion, was still more tired than Chuchu and we both knew that.

My first stop was in Viridian City, right to the North of Pallet Town.

I didn’t search Pokémon to catch on Route 001 due to them being fairly common ones and that I hadn’t found one that, well, spoke to me. As in, one that seemed, well, right.

In any case, arriving in Viridian City I found two things: First, the Gym was utterly empty. Apparently the Gym Leader wasn’t in at the moment so I couldn’t get my first Badge. I also only had one Pokémon and was told that the minimum was 3 Pokémon to challenge the gym, and at least five badges too. This was unusual as Gyms generally adapted their difficulty based on the badges the Trainer had already by using different Pokémon teams.

As such I had no real reason to stay around and went onto Viridian Forest, Chuchu’s home where I found her. My jump memories made navigating the forest rather easy for us. There were some Trainers along the way through the forest and we had to camp overnight within it’s confines, but we got out eventually. While in the forest I managed to nab myself a Pigeotto and a Caterpy, one caught to defend the other, and the other caught on his request.

No, I’m not a Pokeglot. But I knew when someone is pleading to come along so I took him in. The city after Viridian City was Pewter City, it was most well known for it’s musseum and the nearby Mt. Moon. At the Gym me and my Pokémon had to fight quite a bit to get to the Gym Leader, Brock, was a lot harder to do than expected really. Chuchu knew Double Kick but that was about all the counter had to his Rock-type Pokémon.

And yes, we lost. Badly.

I went back into training at the Forest and after two days managed to teach Chuchu another move that was super effective, Iron Tail. Piske, my Caterpie, meanwhile evolved twice in this time, first to Metapod and then into Butterfree. He also learned Confusion, a psychic-type move which was kinda funny since I was a psychic myself.

I also trained myself as a Pokémon, learning a lot about my Pokemagus form, as I called it jokingly. I learned even some moves! Like Razor Leaf and, which was my ace in the hole, Substitute. This latter move allowed me to make a copy of myself with a quarter of my vital energy but, and this was more importantly, I could use my psychic abilities to control the substitute me and even turn them back into a human to act as myself.

That was I managed to smuggle myself into the battle, when Chuchu was knocked out I excused myself to bring her back to myself, she never liked Pokeballs for some reason, then did my little switch. Onix, who was the second and last Pokémon on Brock’s team, went down easily after that point, having been weakened by Chuchu in the previous fight.

I took the badge with my substitute then switched once we were back in the Pokémon Center with Chuchu in good hands. That pretty much concluded my forray into Pewter City to be honest.

Next my journey led me to Mt. Moon itself, which lay between Pewter and Cerulean City. I would’ve tried Digglet’s Tunnel, but there was apparently some sort of construction work going on so they didn’t let me in. So East I went. Along the way I found even more Trainer who had this weird idea that I had to be strong and wanted to battle me, which let me try some more my Substitute trick.

To my surprise, I found myself evolving just before reaching Mt. Moon, thankfully that had no effect on my human form but it gave me a larger and stronger Pokemagus form in return. This also made it easier for me to use my psychic and Aura abilities in my human form.

At Mt. Moon I stayed at the local Pokémon Center for the night, except I had a dream, or rather, a vision. People in black moving about the mountain, them attacking me, trying to take Chuchu!

I woke up that morning with a splitting headache and found myself having bitten into the cushion for some reason. I took this as a warning of [Seer], I recognized the people from the news as Team Rocket members, though I had to wonder why I had this dream since it wasn’t the normal way the perk worked. Then again, I had a few such dreams in my jump memories which made me a bit apprehensive.

Going into Mt. Moon I got challenged by even more Trainers, up until I met the first group of Team Rocket Grunts. And promptly beat them. As it turns out these were the bottom ringers of the Organization, a bunch of punch-card villains with all the capacity for defeating a ten year old girl as a wet towel had to stop of wildfire. It was that one-sided.

Zubat, Rattata, a Sandshrew or two. That was the entire collection they had. Admittedly I also got into a fight with a duo who had a Ekans, Koffing and Meowth, but these were no stronger than the previously mentioned collection and they were the exception.

As for Pokémon, and I forgot to mention my Pidgeotto’s name, haven’t I? Well, her name’s Storm, ‘cause reasons. As for Pokémon from the Mountain, I caught a Geodude I named Golly for some reason, don’t ask me about my naming convention, I think something in my Jump-Self’s mind is going weird places.

Anyway, on my way out, before the Team Rocket duo, I found a crevice and managed to get it bigger with Golly. Inside I found what looked like a small, prehistoric graveyard as I found dozens of fossiles of all kinds Pokémon within. Then a self-proclaimed “Super Nerd” showed up and demanded that I step back as all fossiles in the cave belong to him.

The following fight lasted around 2 minutes of Golly playing basketball with the guy’s Voltorb that can’t use Explosion or whatever before he gave up. We ended up sharing the fossiles with me getting a Dome, Claw, Feather, Tooth, Shell and a weird, almost cat-shaped fossile that he couldn’t identify.

After that and the Team Rocket duo I mentioned I got to Cerulean City after all. I didn’t get to the Gym very quickly though since a frantic Bulbasaur ran into me. As it turned out, a Oddish that lived in the same building as the Bulbasaur, one of many Pokémon that had been abandoned and taken in by them, had gotten lost. One small search later I busted a Team Rocket grunt and returned the Oddish with the help of the Bulbasaur who decided to join me.

Yeah, odd.

I spent two days training Flora, she’s female yes, up to snuff and also went up North where Red and Blue had gotten into another fight. After the conclusion (Red won) I continued up to the “Nugget Bridge” as it was called and beat five local trainer before the manager of the thing approached me. He was trying to recruit me, or Team Rocket. Then he realized who I was and decided robbing me would get him promoted because of some sleight of my family against his boss.

I jailed him instead and took as my reward 20 Nuggets and 10 Giant Nuggets, lots of money as I was kinda running low at that point.

I made my way further north and come upon the house of the Pokemaniac known as Bill, inventor of the Pokémon Containment Box, or Pokébox for short. It was a device that was used to store Pokeballs of Pokemon off the main team roster as they were locked while inside. I didn’t have one yet, so he gave me one along with an invitation letter to a party on the S.S. Anne. That is, after I helped him separate himself from his Nidorina with whom he had merged by accident. Yeah, must have been weird.

On my way back I ran into a Trainer who was having trouble with his Charmander and after some debate, he gave it to me, as my Pokémon were fairly strong already. Bulbasaur had, by that point, evolved into Ivysaur and Piske had learned a number of powder moves while Chuchu now knew Thunderbolt and Electroball.

The Cerulean City Gym was quite honestly a bit of a let down due to the fact that we were able to breeze through it with absolute ease as it was a Water-type gym. Mysty gave us at least a good showing with her strategy, but when you’re up against high level Electric and Grass type Pokémon, then it doesn’t matter how good it is if you’re using Water type Pokémon.

That was how I earned the Cascade Badge for my collection. On my way out of Cerulean City I watched a Squirtle hit the Officer Jenny of the city, who had been guarding a house where a theft took place, and she run after it. Looking over the fence I saw a Team Rocket member standing at the back of the house which was fairly obvious to be the thief.

I jumped the fence, confronted him, and napped the stolen TM, which was Dig. He managed to escape sadly but I returned the TM to the owners who decided that I should have it since they could still teach their Digglet the old fashioned way.

I then made my way to Saffron City, which was the largest city in Kanto and pretty much at the center of it. However, the place was blocked off for some reason and I was told to “Bugger Off”. I still entered in my Pokémon form by flying over the place and found to my shaggrin that the city was under assault by Team Rocket. However, I saw a number of people in alternate uniforms using high-end Pokémon instead of the normal roster, meaning those were the higher ranking members.

Deciding to keep quiet until I could be sure to beat them, I decided to move to Vermillion City through an underground passageway. Weird how there was such a thing down here, as if someone had known that the city would be inaccessible.

Now that we’re talking underground again, remember that “Swarmed” drawback I took? Well, I didn’t mention it, because frankly they’re not that big of a deal, but yeah. I’ve been swarmed all the time by those Zubat the drawback promised. We deal with them generally either with Chuchu beating them electrically or me using my psychic abilities to beat them myself as it still counts as a form of Psychic type move.

I was attacked again, my Bicycle come in really handy in this situation since the passageway was so narrow and I had to leg it. Hard.

I hate caves.

Vermillion City is, as some may know, a harbor city where the main water way of the Kanto Region is located. It is also the largest trade hub due to this fact.

It has a very large shipyard complex to the south of the city, next to the main harbor section, and I heard rumors about how there was a truck no one had moved in years and some legendary Pokémon was supposed to be under it but those were just rumors from what I knew. Though no one but dock workers was allowed there.

Anyway, the gym was closed, as I found out, for the duration of the Anne’s stay in the harbor, something about the drawbridge needing so much energy that some kind of device within the gym would be kicking the fuses out of the entire cityif they tried to run them together or something. So I went aboard. The guard didn’t much care about whether I was actually the originally invited guest, or that the party had been already over by that point, so yeah.

I got into a fight with Blue near the cabin of the captain, apparently he had wanted to learn the Cut move for one of his Pokémon from the guy but he was seasick. Kinda ironic, I know. I managed to beat Blue who got, well, he’s kinda a sore loser and went all “This doesn’t count! I get you next time Yellow!” and something about smelling me. Creep.