After winning my first gym badge at the Pewter City gym I set out for Cerulean City. On the way I found a male nidoran and battled him with Zappy, who during the battle, learned thunderbolt. I named my newly caught nidoran Venom. Eventually I came up to Mount Moon but I was feeling rather tired so I stopped at the Pokemon center just outside the cave. After I finished my lunch while Nurse Joy took care of my pokemon I continued in to the cave. Along the way I battled several trainers with mostly Zappy and Venom and found a moon stone. It was about half way through the cave that I had my first encounter with members of the villainous Team Rocket. Thankfully I made quick work of their pokemon and it wasn't long before I reached the end of the cave that Venom evolved into nidorino. Immediately after he evolved, I used the moon stone to evolve Venom into nidoking. Pretty soon I arrived in Cerulean City and stopped at the Pokemon center after the long trek through Mount Moon. The next morning I woke up and had some breakfast before leaving for the gym. When I got in the gym I used Zappy to make quick work of the trainers before coming up to the gym leader. A beautiful young girl not much younger than me named Misty. I said "My name is Jason and I challenge you to a gym battle." "Ok I accept your challenge but this is the last battle I'm doing before my year off." Said Misty "After today my sister will be taking over the gym to cover for me." With that the battle got underway, with me sending out Zappy and Misty sending out her starmie. "Zappy, use thunderbolt." I called out. "Dodge and use tackle." Misty said in reply. Misty's starmie almost fully dodged the thunderbolt but it just barely scraped the edge of starmie but it wasn't enough to prevent starmie from hitting Zappy hard. "Zappy, thunderbolt again" I called out again, and this time it hit hard but to my surprise starmie survived the hit just barely. "Starmie, bubble beam." Misty called out, which also hit Zappy hard which made it look as though he was struggling to stand up. "Zappy, quick attack" I yelled with excitement. "Starmie, tackle again." Misty yelled out in reply. The two pokemon hit each other hard resulting in a double knockout. "Pikachu and starmie are both unable to battle" said the referee. After complimenting Zappy on his efforts and getting him into his pokeball, I turned to misty and said "Your starmie was great." "So was your pikachu" said Misty. I then sent out venom to battle Misty's next pokemon staryu. "Venom use thrash." I called out. Venom charged towards staryu like a bulldozer and landed a very hard strike against it. "Staryu use water gun." Said Misty in response. The water gun did a lot of damage because of it's super effective matchup against Venom's ground type but he was still okay to battle. With Venom locked into thrash, he hit even harder against staryu knocking it out and getting me the win. "Staryu is unable to battle, nidoking wins, so victory to Jason." Announced the referee. "Great job Venom" I said, returning him to his pokeball. "Congratulations Jason, as proof of your victory at the Cerulean city gym, I award you the cascade badge." "Thanks Misty." I replied. "Listen, Jason, I've been thinking about what to do during my year off and during our battle I decided to travel around for a while so I was wondering if I could come with you on your journey." Asked Misty. "I'd love for you to come along. I have been rather lonely since I've been in Kanto." I answered. Suddenly Misty hugged me tight in response. I was stunned for a few seconds but then hugged her back. "It's nice to have you on board" I said before breaking the hug. "I think we should go to the pokemon center for some lunch then go to the next gym in Vermilion City" suggested Misty. After lunch and resting our pokemon we said goodbye to Misty's sister and headed for Vermilion City.
