So obviously I've been writing a lot recently. I appreciate the inputs.

Nugget Bridge (Route 24)

After practically one-shotting each of Gary's Pokemon with my weaker ones, I turned to the sturdy bridge colored in gold-yellow color, affectionately nicknamed Nugget Bridge. The wide area including the bridge and a bit of land beyond it is officially named… Route 24. Wow, what happened to Route 5-23, game world? Afterlife..world? Anyways.

The bridge was about 15 feet wide, and was occupied by trainers just leaning against the wooden railing. They were just waiting...creepily waiting for a weak trainer to walk by. They were all dressed in their own clothes, but I noticed that each of them had a small decorative pin with a bright red capital "R" on their clothes. Their affiliation with a certain underground criminal ring could hardly be doubted, although they seemed too young to be active members. They were probably just native youths that got recently recruited.

I knew what the game was. The one closest to me was a young kid dressed in bug-catching outfit, and was no bigger than I was. He would demand that I pay him a toll to cross the bridge, probably some ridiculously high price. Then even if he let me pass without a fight (unlikely), there was a "lass" right behind him that would ask me for another high toll, then another young punk behind her, and so forth, until I ran out of Pokemon or money, or both. Basically, they were bullies. And I don't like bullies.

They needed a (small) big brother to set them straight.

I approached the bridge and the small kid approached me.

"Hey! If you want to cross the bridge, then you gotta pay-"

"BEFORE WE GET STARTED," I shouted so loudly that all the punks on the bridge were startled and looked at me. "DOES ANYONE WANNA GET OUT?"

For a few seconds they were all frozen, and it was important to me that I gave them a chance to turn from their evil ways. Unfortunately for them, none of them did.

The guy at the very end (the one that tries to recruit you to Team Rocket in the game) was obviously the leader of this little band of A-holes, and he was the first to react by throwing out a Pokeball in aggression. That's all the encouragement I needed to get my team out.

It was a brawl. The enemy team consisted of a Caterpie, a Weedle, 2 Rattatas, 2 Pidgeys, 2 Zubats, 2 Nidorans (one male, one female), a Mankey, and 3 Ekans (one of them slightly bigger and more menacing than the other). If I was a fool, I would've thrown all my Pokemon out and hoped for the best.

Instead, I had Bulbasaur use Metapod and Kakuna as shields again, alongside Geodude and Sandshrew, way up in the front. They were basically the shields of the Phalanx, impenetrable. Guess where we were fighting? On a bridge only 15-foot wide. I told them to stay to my left, basically covering the entire width. When the baddies told their Pokemon to try to flank my shield, I had Charmander push them back with his flame and sharp claws on the side that was seemingly "open."

Once this formation was established, it was just too easy. Guess where I told Squirtle to go. We're on a damn bridge. He went into the water and started popping up here and there, spraying the most exposed enemy Pokemon with his water gun. It was the most perfect Guerilla warfare tactic. Once they were all thoroughly wet, Pikachu went to town with thunderbolts. The bugs, 2 Rattatas, and both Nidorans fainted quite quickly.

The enemy Pidgeys and Zubats tried to fly over my Pokemon shield, but were marked one-on-one by my own Pidgey, Spearow, and Zubat. Even though my Pokemon were outnumbered by one, the more organized teamwork did more than enough to make up the difference. The final blow was when my Pokemon flew out of the way, lining up the 4 enemy Pokemon, and Pikachu zapped them all in a single line. They all went into the water, and Squirtle rescued them later from drowning. After all, my beef was with the human A-holes, not their Pokemon just following commands.

The enemy Mankey and 3 Ekanses put up a fight. Bulbasaur adroitly placed Metapod and Kakuna in front of Mankey's punches and the snake fangs. The two cocoons were holding up perfectly as shields until I started to notice cracks in both of them, and glowing lights gleaming from these cracks.

"Bulby, throw both at the Mankey!" I shouted, as I noticed these lights growing brighter.

The Mankey took a full Metapod (remember, this is the huge one) to his face and went past his trainer, sprawling unconscious to the ground. The Kakuna actually went slightly to the right past Mankey, and took out one of the smaller Ekanses.

"Now! Their shield is gone!" said the leader of the Nugget Bridge Gang, noticing that Bulbasaur had thrown both cocoons away. He had ordered his big Ekans to counter attack.

First of all, my Bulbasaur alone would have destroyed two Ekanses without breaking a sweat. But secondly, he didn't need to.

From the cocoon of Metapod had sprung a giant, beautiful Butterfree, and from Kakuna, a mean-looking Beedrill. They had been in their cocoons long enough, using not only Harden, but a move that Brock had taught me.

"I call this move Bide," Brock had said, back when he showed my Pokemon this move. "Even though Rock-type Pokemon do this best, every type can actually learn it to some efficiency."

As inanimate cocoons of their pre-evolution forms, Butterfree and Beedrill had been absorbing and soaking up all the damage throughout this entire battle, and now that they were out, they were ready to release hell.

The smaller Ekans, despite inherent resistance to poisons, toxins, and venom, was poisoned by Beedrill's attacks, and fled the battle entirely, out of sight.

The bigger Ekans tried to bite Butterfree, but my BIGBOI actually was able to superhero-grab the top and bottom fangs of the snake Pokemon with his massive mitten-like hands. Then he fluttered his wings and dumped a pint or two of Sleeping Powder straight into the open mouth of his opponent. Ekans fell asleep, and legend says he's still sleeping to this day.

With all the enemy Pokemon out of the way, I rounded all the punks up and had them all line up.

"You, you, you, you, you, and you," I pointed to all the smaller kids. "Take that badge off and get the hell out of here. I remember all your faces. If I see you mingling with anyone affiliated with Team Rocket ever again, I'm going to personally come and destroy you."

These young'uns are very impressionable. They probably got recruited because they believed that signing up with Team Rocket was the only way to get rich and powerful. But now that they've seen a young Team Rocket recruiter get his ass handed to him by a 10-year old, they were surely to be set on a straighter path.

With many genuine apologies, the six young trainers ran off back to Cerulean (back to mama!).

With the young Team Rocket punk, I was less than forgiving. I set his Pokemon free into the wild, breaking their Pokeballs. I took all his money and Pokemon gear (e.g. Pokeballs, Potions, etc.). Amongst his other belongings I found two sizeable Gold Nuggets so I took them as well.

When I let him go, he muttered profanities and ran away. Something along the lines of "I'll get you, kid! We'll get you some day!"

Whatever.

Crossing the rest of the short bridge, I was ready to face Route 25 towards Bill's house.