>You want to challenge me or something? …I hate to say it, but I'm not in the mood for a battle now. Take a good look around you… A volcano erupts, and just like that, a whole town disappears. We can go on winning and losing in Pokémon. But if nature so much as twitches, we can lose in a second.

This has always felt like a weirdly resonant bit of story in the Johto games, Blue growing disillusioned with Pokemon battling because of the Cinnabar volcano erupting - it sort of feels like a metaphor for growing up in a way, Pokemon battling is all fun and games when you're a kid but as you grow up you realize it's not able to solve your actual problems.
I wonder if it's somehow a hint at why Red decided to exile himself in Mt. Silver too, maybe he grew similarily disillusioned after witnessing that same event.