[5:03 PM, Mar 10, Cerulean City Pokémon Center]
Leaving Mt. Moon, Red walks downhill along the east portion of Route 4, and reaches another seaside city--Cerulean City.
As the first visit to an unfamiliar town, Red locates the Pokémon Center as the most essential place. After healing his party, he immediately devotes himself into training in the outskirts of the city. As for the disobedient Pikachu, he gives no command to the mouse but only let him watch the battles of Charmander and Rattata, his fellow fighters. Red hopes that Pikachu would feel sorry for doing nothing when his friends are bathing in sweat.
Days later, it is Red's 6th visit to the Pokémon Center. His attention is caught when he hears two young girls talking about someone.
"Hi, Alice! Do you know about Bill the PokéManiac?" asks the girl in yellow dress.
"Definitely! I'll tell you, Miho, that he's not only a handsome lady-killer but a high-leveled computer geek. It's Bill-sama who developed the Pokémon Storage System! Wow, I can't stop thinking about him!" answers the girl with glasses as she displays a crazy look.
"But Bill's acting weird these days. Many guests have visited him only to find he's not in…" says Miho worriedly.
"Impossible! He must have been working all day before his complicated machines…" cries Alice.
"But he wasn't! He left nothing behind but a Clefairy in the living room, and left the door unlocked!" says Miho.
"Bill!" Red has heard of Bill before he obtained his Trainer's License, and he is thirsty to meet the IT guru in the flesh, but never succeeded to get Bill's address and contact information. He politely interrupts the conversation between the girls, "Excuse me, but can you tell me where the man called Bill lives? I'd like to pay him a visit."
"Em…I dunno for sure, but he lives not far from Cerulean City." answers Alice.
"I know his address. Let me tell you." answers Miho, "There'a cottage at the Cerulean Cape, and that's the eastern end of Route 25. To reach there, you'll go up north along Route 24 and the Nugget Bridge, turn right at the northern corner, and go east until you see the sea, and the cottage is on your left."
"Thanks." Red views his Town Map before he sets off to the north.
[5:39 PM, Mar 10, Route 24]
Most of Route 24 is on a golden bridge, the so-called "Nugget Bridge". At first impression, most of visitors may think that it is the bridge's color that gives its name, but they only reaches the edge of the correct origin.
On either side (east or west) of the Nugget Bridge, there are Trainers who keep guard, with strict looks on their faces.
As Red passes the first guarding Trainer--a Bug Catcher, he is stopped by the Trainer.
"Hold there, Trainer!" calls the Bug Catcher.
"Huh, you wanna fight?"
"People call this the Nugget Bridge! If you beat us five Trainers, you'll won a fabulous prize! Think you got what it takes? BUT, if you lose to ANY ONE of us, hehehe…I'm the first opponent. I suggest you weigh your strength before you insist on passing through me!" says the Bug Catcher in a menacing way.
"Didn't your parents teach you that pride comes before a fall?" replies Red angrily, "Charmander, I choose you!"
"Go, Caterpie! String Shot!" cries the Bug Catcher as he sends out a Pokémon.
The foe's Caterpie shoots silky threads from its mouth and ties Charmander.
"Haha! Nobody has broken free from my Caterpie's powerful strings!" says the Bug Catcher arrogantly.
"Then I'm the first!" says Red, "Charmander, burn the strings with Ember!"
Charmander hits the strings with his tail flame, burning them down to ashes. As a Fire-type Pokémon, his body is immune to the flame produced by himself.
"Good, Charmander! Now Ember at Caterpie!"
Charmander smacks Caterpie with his tail tip and defeats it.
The Bug Catcher then sents out his remaining Pokémon in order--a Weedle, a Metapod and a Kakuna, all of them defeated with a single Ember from Charmander.
"Humph! Though I lost, I did my best and I have no regrets!" says the Bug Catcher.
The second guard is a Lass that is a peer of the Bug Catcher. Red's Rattata defeated her Pidgey and his Charmander defeated her Oddish and Bellsprout, all in one shot.
"How could I lose? Tch, I did my best. I have no regrets!" says the losing Lass.
The third guard is a Youngster, challenging Red with a Sandshrew and an Ekans. Sandshrew's poor Special Defense makes it fall easily for Charmander's Ember. Ekans' Intimidate has no effect on Ember and it falls consequently.
The fourth is another Lass. She challenged Red to a double battle with her male and female Nidoran. But even their combination cannot withstand Charmander's Ember and Rattata's Quick Attack.
The fifth is a Camper boy in green. He has only a Mankey, but its level is much higher than Red's ex-opponents. The Mankey manages to deal a little damage on Charmander with Fury Swipes, but then faints from Charmander's close Dragon Rage onto its face.
After Red beats all five guarding Trainers, he is amused to find out that each of them lets out the same parting words as "I did my best. I have no regrets."
However, Red has no clue about what he will win for defeating the guards, until he is stopped by the sixth Trainer, a male Ace Trainer, at the northern end of the bridge.
"Congratulations, Trainer!" The Ace Trainers holds Red's hands in compliment, "You successfully defeated all 5 of my fellows. As promised, I'll give you a prize."
"But what is it?"
"It's this, a Nugget!" The Ace Trainer searches his backpack and rewards Red with a shiny, golden bead, apparently made of gold.
"Thank you. I suggest that the name of Nugget Bridge is from such a prize?"
"You're absolutely correct." says the Ace Trainer, "It's been a long history since we guard this Nugget Bridge. 36 years ago, the first generation of our team began standing on this bridge and required all passers-by to battle every of us. If they manage to defeat all of us except our leader, they'll won a Nugget. If they then defeat the leader, then an extra prize will be rewarded! However, if they lose to anyone except the leader, then sorry but they need to restart all over. Believe it or not, we're the 42nd generation of the Nugget Bridge Team!"
"So you must be the leader! What's the prize for winning against you?"
"None until you beat me! Battling me is optional to pass here, but is mandatory for the extra prize!"
"Haha, then I challenge you to a battle!" says Red.
Accepting the challenge, the Ace Trainer throws out a Poké Ball and releases an Ekans.
"Go, Charmander! Ember!" commands Red as he sends out his party leader.
"Ekans, use Bite!" commands Red's opponent.
Charmander spins around and scatter sparks onto Ekans, but Ekans holds on and bites down on Charmander with its fangs.
"Once again! Charmander, Ember!"
"Ekans, Bite!"
The second round of attacks crossfire. But Charmander's fire attack activates its additional effect--Ekans is burned! It struggles as its body glows red.
Burning is no better than paralysis, for it gradually cuts down the victim's HP, and their physical power is also cut in half. The burn on Ekans is absolutely a valuable opportunity for Charmander to attack!
"Farewell, Ekans! Charmander, Dragon Rage!"
Charmander spits a blue-greenish fire ball onto Ekans and cause it to faint.
"Very good, Trainer." The Ace Trainer claps his hands after recalling Ekans, "You are indeed a tough opponent. If you can beat my second Pokémon, the extra prize is yours."
"Go on, pal!" says Red.
"Go, Zubat!" exclaims the Trainer as he sends out the second Pokémon.
Though Zubat are blind and hate light, Zubat under training can withstand it to some extent.
"Charmander, Ember!"
"Zubat, Supersonic!"
When Charmander begins to spin, Zubat opens its mouth and emits distorting supersonic waves, making Red and Charmander hold their ears in pain and their heads ache. After a while, Charmander's eyes glow red and he starts waving his hands and legs in a random way.
It's confusion! Though confusion is not a permanent status condition, it messes up the victim's mind and make them attack random targets, and there's about one third chance that the victims will hurt themselves, or even their Trainers! Oh, my!
"Charmander, can you hear me? Ember!" cries Red.
But the confused Charmander do nothing but scratching the air and growling.
"Zubat, use Leech Life!" commands the Ace Trainer.
Zubat attaches itself to Charmander's back and bites down on his skin, sucking blood from Charmander. Charmander counters by scratching where he thinks his foe is--and that is exactly the opposite direction.
"CHARMANDER, CAN YOU HEAR ME? CHARMANDER!" roars Red.
As if a miracle, Charmander snaps out of his confusion and feels Zubat on his back. Meanwhile, the foe's Zubat is full of blood sucking and returns to its original position for its Trainer's next command.
"I'll make you pay with interest!" shouts Red, "Charmander, Dragon Rage!"
"Zubat, one more Supersonic!"
"Charmander. Protect your ears and DRAGON RAAAAAGE!" roars Red.
When Zubat tries its second attempt of Supersonic, Charmander spits his Dragon Rage onto Zubat's face while covering his ears with his hands. The Dragon Rage explodes upon impact and interrupts the foe's Supersonic.
"No allowing breath taking! Charmander, Ember!"
Charmander lands his final hit on Zubat, taking it down.
"Oh, yeah! We won! You are something, Charmander!" cheers Red. Charmander reacts by doing akimbo and roars happily into the sky.
"Yowch! Your team is horribly strong!" says the Ace Trainer, "Since I became the leader, nobody has defeated all of us including me before you, except a boy with orange spiky hair who looks the same age as you. Actually, he left only hours before you arrived here."
"Heh, it's nobody other than Blue!" sneers Red.
"And here's your extra prize." The Ace Trainer searches his backpack and gives Red a blue candy, "This candy is not for human, but Pokémon! It's called a Rare Candy, because its ingredients are so rare that its production is very limited. It permanently boosts a Pokémon's overall power, unlike other nutrition items. However, it's a no-no to feed too many Rare Candies to a Pokémon at one time, or they'll activate side effects."
"What are the side effects?" asks Red.
"In a benign condition, the Pokémon get puffy and loses agility and evasion ability, depending how many excessive Rare Candies they ate, and the symptoms will be self-cured in weeks. But in the most malignant condition, the Pokémon will suffer somnolence and obesity. They easily lose the will to fight in battles, and is more likely to disobey a Trainer's command if they feel bad. Remember, only feed Rare Candies to your Pokémon when you don't have time training them, and better not over 1 per day. "
"Can I use Rare Candies in-battle?"
"You can if you wish. But every nutrition item takes time to take effect, so feeding Pokémon in-battle won't affect the result anyway."
"Thanks for your advice. I'll go now. Bye."
[8:08 PM, Mar 10, Sea Cottage]
Darkness covers the sky before Red reaches the Sea Cottage where Miho pointed to, but not before Red battles a bunch of Trainers on Route 25, all of them being Cerulean City residents. According to a Hiker, only legal current Cerulean citizens are exempt from the battles with them. However, winning passers-by like Red are also exempt from rematches when the guard Trainers are updated. Exemption Trainers may still battle the guards if they wish. The Nugget Bridge is closed late at night and nobody is allowed to pass until the guards' return the next morning.
As Red approaches the cottage and knocks on the door, he hears nobody reacting to him. He gently pushes the door and finds it unlocked.
"Excuse me? Is anyone in?" asks Red politely.
Nobody responds.
In the main room, the ceiling lights are on despite nobody is in. The desktop displays complicated information on its screen, and in the opposite direction of the door, there are two cylinder modules connected by metal pipes. Lights flash on their surfaces.
Just then, the door to the bedroom opens, and a Clefairy bumps out. No wonder Bill's called a PokéManiac, thinks Red, as such a cute Clefairy is also in his collection.
"Hiya, bud. You just arrived in time!" the Clefairy talks, much to Red's surprise, "I've had some problems with myself, would you please help me out there…"
"Why, a talking Clefairy?" exclaims Red.
"Hey, what's that skeptical look, bud?" calls the "Clefairy", "I'm not a Pokémon! Call me Bill! I'm a true-blue PokéManiac! I'm not joshing with you!"
"Then why do you look like a Clefairy?" asks Red.
"Em…It's a long story. In short, I screwed up an experiment and accidentally got combined with this Clefairy! You're the first one to let me finish. The last four visitors before you were all scared away upon I opened my mouth!" explains Bill in Clefairy's form.
"So you want me to help you. What should I do?" asks Red.
"There's the Cell Separation System on my PC. It's not difficult to operate. Just like this…" Bill instructs Red the operation steps, and says, "Now I'll go inside that teleporter. When I close the door, you run the program on my PC. Is that OK?"
"Of course." accepts Red.
Bill enters the right module and closes the door. As soon as Red clicks on the "Activate" button, lights begin flashing on the cylinder teleporter's surface, and 8-bit sound effect can be heard. 30 second later, Bill comes out of the left module unharmed, while the Clefairy returns from the right module, regaining its soul.
"Yeehah! Thanks, bud. I owe you one. What's your name?"
"I'm Red, a Pokémon Trainer from Pallet Town."
"Red bud, are you here for my Pokémon Collection?"
"Not specifically, Bill pal. But I'll be happy if you could show me."
"Haha! Just a minute!" Bill searches his bookshelf and takes out an album. He opens the album and turns to a page. There are 4 photographs on this page, each depicting a Pokémon with a different form. At the bottom of each photograph, there is a line of note, possibly the names of the Pokémon.
"Eevee…Vaporeon…Jolteon…Flareon…" reads Red.
Eevee looks like a brown fox, but with longer ears and a less pointed nose, with a circle of fur covering its neck; Vaporeon looks like a blue version of Eevee but grows a long, ichthyic tail and its ears are shaped like fins; Jolteon has its yellow fur erected like needles and its tail shrinks considerably; Flareon grows red-orange fur, and its tail is also formed like flame.
"Eevee is such a marvelous Pokémon!" explains Bill, "Possessing unsteady genes, it tends to evolve into a different kind of Pokémon under different conditions. However, unlike ordinary Pokémon who evolve when they naturally grow in level, Eevee won't evolve until it's exposed to a specific type of stones, called evolutionary stones."
"Like Moon Stone which evolves Jigglypuff and Clefairy?" asks Red.
"Yep. If you obtain an Eevee, you should find at least one evolutionary stone to evolve it. For Vaporeon, a Water Stone; For Jolteon, a Thunder Stone; For Flareon, a Fire Stone. These stones are not Eeveelution-exclusive, though. However, an evolved Pokémon cannot revert to its pre-evolutionary stage, let alone Eevee. Moreover, Pokémon evolved via stones may not naturally learn some of their moves in their previous stages. So it's a bad idea to evolve such Pokémon too early."
"And do you know where I can find wild Eevee, Bill pal?"
"I'm sorry but Eevee is too rare in Kanto for me to even find a real one…" shrugs Bill.
As Bill puts away his Eevee album, Red glances at his smartphone and it displays 10 PM.
"Oops! Bill pal, I took you too long. I gotta go!"
"Oh, don't be so hurry. It's too late. How about spending this night with me here? I still have an extra bed and you can have it after I clean it." says Bill.
"Thank you very much." responds Red in gratitude.
[7:45 AM, Mar 11, Sea Cottage]
The next morning, Red gets up and has his breakfast at Bill's cottage. When he is about to leave, Bill stops him and hands over a ship ticket to him.
"It's a ticket to S. S. Anne! " says Bill, "S. S. Anne is a luxury cruise ship that stops annually in Vermilion City, and it's gonna return 2 days after! I heard that there're a lot of Trainers on board, too. This ticket is from my grandfather, but I think you fit it better than me. It's not connected to your Trainer's ID, so no worries, haha. If you enjoy world traveling, this is a chance you can't miss."
"Oh, gosh. The ticket price is 200,401 Poké Dollars. What a luxurious ship!" cries Red in his mind as he thanks Bill for his courtesy.
"Oh, and take this, too." Bill opens a drawer and gives Red a blue, triangular, badge-like device, "It's called a VS. Seeker! You can search Trainers around you who're in the mood of a battle. Just hang it on your backpack belt and walk! It recharges itself with sunlight and physical movement, so no worries about dry battery. If it finds such Trainers, it will inform you by ringing."
"Woohoo! Just what I needed!" Red thanks Bill again before he attaches the VS. Seeker to the left belt of his backpack, "Ah, Bill pal! How about I add you to my PokéChat friend list? I would like to consult you with issues on the Pokémon Storage System."
"Certainly!" Bill takes out his smartphone. Red scans Bill's QR code and Bill is added, and vice versa.
--End of Epsiode 8--
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