One really short chapter before the length and the plot increase.
The president of the Pokémon Fan Club gave them a bike voucher, which led to a side quest to get a bike from Cerulean City. The voucher was only good for one, but Leaf challenged the shop owner to a battle and won her own.
The side quest over, they made Rock Tunnel their next destination. They could get there from Cerulean, always a plus, and the path was the easiest way to get to Celadon City, where Red could get another badge.
Unfortunately, the path from Cerulean City to Rock Tunnel was filled with other trainers looking for a fight.
"This is disappointing," Leaf said, looking down at her Wartortle as if he was her only hope. "I want to win prize money, but I don't want to backtrack. Are you sure Beedrill can't learn Fly and carry us to the next stop?"
"Legally, Fly is only used for backtracking long distances." Red squinted into the distance, where he could barely make out the outline of what he hoped was Rock Tunnel. "It's not that far. Maybe they'll have a Pokémon Center waiting for us."
"And what if we get there and there's no healing spot? I don't think we have enough Super Potions to get us from here to Celadon."
"So make some witchy potions. I'm sure you have an idea for health potions somewhere."
"I can't!" Leaf complained. "Mom only lets me make witchy potions out of water and mashed berries, and we don't have the berries, so anything I make will taste super gross."
"Maybe we can spray them on the Pokémon like we do the Super Potions."
Leaf stopped whining, and actually thought it over. Sheldon looked horrified. "I don't want to be a test subject!" he complained. "Don't do this to me, Red!"
"Maybe not," Leaf decided, almost as Sheldon said it. "I don't think a Water Gun attack would be a good idea for the base of a homemade Potion." Sheldon sighed in relief, but Leaf wasn't finished. "I can go on the internet and look it up, though."
"Let's not," Red told her. "We're far enough behind as it is."
And then he took the first step into the maze of trainers, and almost immediately got challenged to battle.
Leaf ended up catching a Sandshrew while her brother was distracted by a trainer. Red didn't notice until they were almost to Rock Tunnel, where she let Sandshrew out of the ball in the hope of navigation.
"You already have a Ground-type," Leaf pointed out. "I couldn't catch the Meowth I wanted."
"I don't need an explanation," Red promised. "I just want permission to borrow it any time I want to."
"Her," Leaf corrected. "Sandshrew's a girl. Jigglypuff got bored of being the only female Pokémon on two teams."
"Boys can be hard to deal with alone," Sandshrew added. "They burp, fart, and have contests to see who can make the rudest noises."
She seemed to forget the fact that the humans couldn't understand her. Red didn't bother to point it out to her.
There was a Pokémon Center outside of Rock Tunnel, and the siblings did have enough Super Potions. They did not expect Rock Tunnel to be even darker than Mt. Moon.
"We don't have anything with Flash, do we?" Leaf asked after a moment.
"No," Red answered, disappointed, "and apparently, we were too stupid to bring flashlights. You'd think we'd learn after Mt. Moon."
He heard a rustling sound behind him, and then the area lit up. He turned around to see Sandshrew holding a lit stick like a torch. Leaf smiled innocently. "I've played enough Zelda to know that this works."
"How did you even light it? We don't have Fire-types and Mom doesn't let you play with matches."
"I rubbed two sticks together like I saw on TV."
"And how do you plan to put them out?"
"Ground is super effective against Fire."
Since she seemed to have planned everything out, Red decided to allow it. Unfortunately, the sight of moving light attracted both wild Pokémon and trainers, and they found themselves facing too many opponents. They did find other items dropped by helpful veteran trainers with too much time on their hands, and possibly by the other trainers who just couldn't find whatever it was that they dropped.
And, at the end of the trip, Sandshrew did manage to put out the torches. Flash was entirely unnecessary.
Rock Tunnel led to Lavender Town. Lavender Town, Red would decide later, was the biggest mistake of his life.
Leaf seemed to decide so the moment she set foot in the town. She didn't respond when Red called her name, choosing instead to focus on the tower that stood in the distance, halfway out of sight, and much taller than the buildings they'd seen so far.
"I don't like this, Red," she whispered. "I don't like this."
"I don't, either," he admitted. "Can't you hear that music?"
Leaf stopped to give him a concerned look. "No," she said quietly. "I can just…feel that we aren't supposed to be here. Can you hear music that isn't there?"
He wasn't sure. Red could very clearly hear something that sounded like music, but it could have been that he was just a little freaked out by how few people there were in this town and his paranoia was manifesting. Or maybe – and this was a thought that had briefly crossed his mind before – he had magic, too.
"We are supposed to be here," he said, choosing not to acknowledge the question. No matter how he answered it, it would make him question everything he thought he knew about himself. "It has a Pokémon Center. We'll go there and head out of town as soon as possible."
Leaf looked at the tower again. "But what about that tower?"
"I guess there might be a few items in there," Red admitted. "A quick exploration won't hurt anything."