Matt helped me up and I looked at the Cerulean City sign. I wanted to go over and hug it, but that would've been weird. I looked to my left and saw the medium sized city. A river ran through it and a few bridges went over the river. I looked a little bit more over to the left and saw the entrance to Cerulean Cave. That's where you would catch Mewtwo later in the game. But we wouldn't do that for a while. Not until we figured out more about the game. "So what do we do now?" Elliot asked.

"Let's go to the Pokémon Center and get some rest. With all that we've been through over the past few days, I think we deserve it." We started to walk into the city and we watched NPCs walk by us. They were very robotic, but what else could you expect. I tried to look around for any real people, but it didn't look like there were many, if not any. I remembered that Audrey had told me she and Chris were in Cerulean City, but that was days ago and they probably had already moved on. I cringed when I remembered our last conversation on the phone. I put my hand in my pocket to try and call her, but Matt tapped me on the shoulder. "I think we're here." I looked to my right and saw a building that was red and white and had a giant Pokéball above the door. We walked in very quickly and we all had a sigh of relief. The three of us trudged over to the counter where Nurse Joy was and she asked the exact same message every Nurse Joy asked. I didn't wanna listen to it for the millionth time, so I looked around at the Pokémon Center. I noticed that there was a pool outside, probably because it was Cerulean City, a city with a Water type gym, and because people liked pools. I was the last one to hand my Pokéballs over because I wanted Matt and Elliot to go ahead and get to a room. After a few seconds, Nurse Joy handed me my two Pokéballs and I jogged upstairs to our room. Matt was looking at something on his phone, but I couldn't find Elliot. "Where's Elliot?"

"He's taking a shower. You should too Jake, you smell a little bit weird." He joked.

I rolled my eyes and threw a pillow at him. "You can take the next shower after him. I wanna try and call Audrey again."

Matt grinned at her name and I had a flashback to when he started liking her. She was in 5th Grade, he was in 4th grade, and I was in 3rd grade. He started liking her at recess whenever she tripped on a rock and he helped her up. Not knowing each other, Audrey looked at him for a second and ran away. I was sitting on the playground and I watched the whole thing. That's when Matt came over and sat next to me and I told him I was her brother. After sharing some of my Animal Crackers with him, we became friends and we had been that way ever since. I kept thinking about elementary school, especially whenever I would play with my Pokémon cards with other kids and I would always won. That's where I got the majority of my cards. Then they eventually banned the game during recess because they said, "it resembled gambling too much and certain people were offended by evolution." I thought it was stupid, and I would secretly battle people anyway. Matt threw the pillow back at me after a few minutes and he said, "Elliot's done with his shower, I'm gonna go take mine now." Elliot came out of the bathroom and Matt switched places with him. Elliot immediately laid down on a bed and he dozed off. He must've been really tired. I picked up my phone out of my pocket and I tried to call Audrey. She didn't reply. At this point I was sure she had deleted my contact. I got up to go use the bathroom in the hallway, and then my phone started buzzing. I looked to see if it was somebody trying to call me, and it was Audrey. I grabbed my phone and pressed the little green phone icon to answer. "Hello, Audrey are you there?" I worriedly asked.

"Yeah Jake, I haven't looked at my phone in a little while and I just noticed all of your messages."

That seemed like a first, Audrey being off her phone.

"Where are you?" I asked.

"We're on some Route. I don't know specifically, but Chris may know. How are you? Are you alright?"

I lied. "Yeah, I'm fine. Me, Matt, and another kid we met are in Cerulean City. We should meet up soon."

"Yeah, I'd like that. Me and Chris have had a load of fun on our journey. Have you and Matt had fun?"

"You could say that." I said, trying not to make her worried, even though she never was. She did seem different though. She was never this worried about me and she seemed a little bit more positive. "I just asked Chris where we are," Audrey informed, "we're on Route 6. He says we can stay in Vermillion City for a little bit longer to wait for you if you want. Maybe we can beat this game together."

Something really did seem wrong. My sister wouldn't voluntarily do something with me. Especially spend time with me for an extended amount of time. "Audrey," I asked, "what have you an Chris exactly been doing?"

"Oh…" She paused for a second, "He's taught me a lot about Pokémon and we've gotten to know each other a lot."

I bet you have, I thought. "You seem different," I said, being direct and not passive aggressive, "has Chris made you more happy or something?"

"I just feel different, like I could climb a mountain or something." She replied.

Thinking that this conversation was getting a little fishy, I said, "Well, I've gotta go now, tell Chris I say hey and maybe we can talk about our Pokémon later. See you later."

"Oh yeah, tell Matt I say hey and let's try and talk later. Bye." She hung up and I was even more suspicious. Chris had to be having some effect on her. Me and Audrey usually didn't like each other, but I was concerned because some stranger was doing things to my sister. It was my new goal to find them and find out what they were doing behind the scenes. I took the thought of her off my mind and took an extra change of clothes out of my backpack for my shower. I heard Matt turn the water off and it took him a few minutes to finally come out. I took my toothbrush and a bar of soap into the bathroom and I took my shower. While I was taking it, I had an interesting thought about the game. Were people still coming into the game? If so, where were they coming in? I tried coming up with feasible theories, but they had their flaws. I brushed my teeth for the first time in a couple of days, and I stepped out of the bathroom. We were all pretty tired, so I put away my things and I got into bed. Then I started to have another dream. I was sitting on a raft in the middle of the ocean and I saw something circling me in the water. I wondered what it was, but I was too scared to look over. Then it jumped out of the ocean and it splashed me when it dived back in. I looked closer and realized that it was Elliot, who was riding a Magikarp. I was very confused by this, and I wondered what this dream was supposed to mean. Then I woke up. The dream was brief, but then it made me think about something. I had just had a dream with Audrey in it and we had just talked to each other for the first time in a while. Something might happen to Elliot. I tried to think more, but then Matt asked me from across the room, "Are we gonna battle the Gym Leader today?"

"Sure, if you guys are okay with it." I replied.

"Do you think our Pokémon will be strong enough?" Elliot asked.

I stood up and said, "Yeah, they should be fine. Matt has Pikachu, which should do well against Water types, and he also has Ivysaur. I have Wartortle, which will do okay against Water types, but I also have Pidgey, who doesn't have a type advantage. You have Bulbasaur, who has an advantage, and you have Diglett. I think we'll all be okay. Now, what are the levels of your Pokémon?"

"Both of my Pokémon are level 17. I had to battle a couple of times on the Route and it gave my Pokémon some more experience." Matt replied.

"I think my Pokémon are both level 15. I helped Matt battle a little." Elliot said.

I remembered that my Wartortle had just evolved, so I checked to see what level it was. It was level 16 since it had just evolved and I also saw that Pidgey was level 17. We gathered up out things, cleaned the room, and walked downstairs to get some breakfast. We ate really quickly because we were anxious to get this battle over with. We started walking towards the gym, and I noticed something. I saw a building that said, 'The Cerulean Bike Shop. Bikes on sale now for only 1,000,000 PokéDollars!' I shook my head as I remembered it was impossible to get a bike for that price because of the games system. You could only get a bike from getting a bike voucher, which you could find in Vermillion City. We eventually reached the gym and we walked inside. It looked like a giant Olympic swimming pool, with a giant platform at the back of the gym, where I could see Misty. I remembered Misty in the anime, and I cringed. I always thought the anime was okay, but it started to decline whenever they started the Black and White series. That's really when I stopped watching it. I saw that there were two trainers in front of Misty who would challenge you, and I sighed. I wanted to get this gym battle over with. I thought to myself, Beggars can't be choosers. I walked over a small bridge towards Misty, and a swimmer swam up to me and said, "I've been swimming with my Pokémon all day. Let's battle!" He sent out a Horsea and I sent out Wartortle. I ordered Wartortle to use Bubble on Horsea, and a string of bubbles hit the small Pokémon that looked like a baby seahorse. The swimmer retaliated by ordering his Horsea to use Leer. It gave a menacing stare at Wartortle, which lowered its defense. I was cautious now because a critical hit might've taken out Wartortle. I commanded Wartortle to use Tackle, and it hit the Horsea square in the chest. I could tell that the Horsea was weak now, but it used Leer again. I was confused by the logic of the swimmer, but I used Tackle again to finish the Horsea off. Then he sent out a Shellder and he ordered it to use Supersonic.

It hit Wartortle with a beam of purple light and it made Wartortle confused. I could see little ducks floating around Wartortles head and he started to move around very loose, looking like a drunk person. "Come on, snap out of it!" I yelled. Wartortle hurt itself in its confusion, and it took more than usual because of its defense being lowered. I ordered it to use Water Gun, but it hurt itself again. I finally got what the swimmers logic was for using Leer. It was going to lower the defense so Shellder could take it out. I immediately recalled Wartortle. I sent out Pidgey and told it to use Quick Attack. It hit Shellder with a very speedy attack, hence the name Quick Attack. I could tell it was a critical hit, as the Shellder looked like it was in the yellow zone. The swimmer ordered Shellder to use Supersonic again, but it missed! I told Pidgey to use Quick Attack again, and the Shellder fainted. I had a big grin on my face, as I was happy to win the battle. The swimmer gave me some coins and he swam away.

I didn't know whether to go back to the Pokémon Center to heal Wartortle, but I decided he would be fine and I walked farther along the bridge. But then another trainer came up to me and challenged me to a battle. She sent out her Goldeen and I sent out Pidgey. I quickly looked to see how close Pidgey was to evolving and I calculated that if I won this battle and the battle against Misty, Pidgey would evolve into Pidgeotto. She ordered her Goldeen to use Horn Attack. It hit Pidgey with its massive horn, and Pidgey took a little bit of damage. I ordered Pidgey to use Quick Attack and it hit Goldeen. Then the Goldeen used Water Pulse and it hit Pidgey with a blast of water. I could tell Pidgey was becoming weaker, but that didn't stop me from keeping it in the battle. I ordered it to use Gust. Pidgey formed a small wind of water around Goldeen and it took a small amount of damage. Goldeen used Peck and pecked it with its horn. I could tell Pidgey was in the red zone, but I had an idea. If I used Quick Attack and if it was a critical hit, it could probably end the battle. I took the risk and ordered Pidgey to use Quick Attack. It hit the Goldeen with the move and it fainted. My plan worked. The trainer gave me a few coins and I decided it was best to go back to the Pokémon Center and heal my Pokémon. I walked past Matt and Elliot who had just finished battling the swimmer and I said, "I'm going back to heal my Pokémon. I'll be back in a couple of minutes."

They both nodded and I started to head back to the Pokémon Center.