>>58798331After healing, I decided to skip the Route 4 Magikarp. Gyarados is strong, but with the reduced level caps it isn’t available until after Misty, and by then I’ll have the Old Rod anyway. Saving the Route 4 encounter gives me a shot at catching a Sandshrew after Mt. Moon, which would be amazing for Surge (Sandslash with Dig, plus Swords Dance later).
My Mt. Moon encounter was a Zubat, which I named Squeak. That thing got boxed the moment I had a seventh Pokémon. The trainers in Mt. Moon were enough to evolve Thorn into Nidorino, and after grabbing a Moon Stone, he became a Nidoking. Nidoking easily handled Jessie and James, and after escaping Mt. Moon I headed to Cerulean City.
In Cerulean, I picked up a Rare Candy, bringing my total to two (with the other from Mt. Moon). I’m not using them yet, since they’ll be much more valuable later.
Then I fought Blue in Cerulean, and his team is way scarier than last time. Thorn deleted Blue’s Spearow with a couple Horn Attacks without taking any damage, which gave me a completely undeserved sense of security. I made the mistake of letting Thorn eat two Sand Attacks from Blue’s Sandshrew, dropping his accuracy and causing him to miss three Horn Attacks in a row while Sandshrew chipped him down with Scratch every turn.
With Thorn at low health, I switched in Prickle (now level 12) to finish it. Prickle took some damage and brought Sandshrew to a sliver, so I sent in Sparky to Quick Attack for the KO. Next was Rattata, which is scary because Hyper Fang hits hard, but it never used it. Sparky knocked it out with two Mega Punches (thanks to the TM I grabbed in Mt. Moon). Eevee went down the same way, taking three more Mega Punches.
(2/3)
