Entering Celadon City
I made it up to the upper floors where a mysterious layer of thick fog started to make it hard to see. The lights were all dim and I had to walk with Charmeleon beside me just so I can see more clearly by his tail flame.
I ran into a few trainers that uttered unintelligible gibberish and used Ghastlies mostly, and the occasional Haunter. Physical type moves didn't seem to work at all, and I did best with Pikachu and Charmeleon.
The popular belief (and the canon lore, I think) is that these are Ghost types, but how does that even work? Do all dead Pokemon become Ghastlies and then evolve, or do certain Pokemon become Haunters right away?
My own theory is that they're not Ghosts, and they're more of a semi-gas Pokemon.
"That's interesting," Bill would later say about my theory. "I'm not much of a superstitious person myself, so that's more reasonable for a scientific mind as I have. Whatever the truth is, there IS scientific evidence that trainers that specialize in Ghost type Pokemon DO suffer with negative mental and emotional health issues."
This explained a lot about the temperaments of the people of Lavender Town, as well as the fact that Ghost Pokemon are NOT popular at all with trainers anywhere else in Kanto, despite being powerful against many types.
It was after the third battle vs. a Ghastly that I started to feel unwell. The fog, the atmosphere, the crazy trainers here were all getting to my head. It seemed important that I needed to reach the top floor, to get the…Pokeflute? Wait. I already cleared the Snorlax. I don't need the Pokeflute. I made the executive decision to come back the next time. I couldn't stand another minute in this creepy place.
On the way out, on the edges of the inexplicable fog, I saw a small Cubone hiding in the corner. It indeed had a Marowak skull over its head and refused to take it off. I thought about leaving it but this place didn't seem like the best location for a Cubone to grow so after a short battle with one of my Eevees, the Cubone was caught by a Pokeball.
I hightailed it outta there and returned to the Pokeroom. The next day, I headed West towards Celadon. Route 8 was gr8 m8, I r8 it 8/8.
There were a lot of trainers that were turned off by Lavender Town and were camping out here instead of staying in town. I battled many of them, who were mostly good natured and friendly. One of them that used Vulpix and Growlithe in battle told me where he found them. I took a little detour and found an area where there were a lot of Fire types. It was a good place for me to train my starters there battling the feral Pokemon there. I also snagged a Growlithe, Vulpix, and Ponyta of my own.
At the end of Route 8, the road into Saffron City was blocked by another squad of Rockets. I considered paving my way through, but decided against it. I still wanted to get stronger while I was under their radar, my face unknown to my enemies.
Again, there was an old underground passage that led to Route 7 that I took. And wow, Route 7 is crap compared to Route 8. I skipped it and entered Celadon City through the East gates.
Celadon City was easily my favorite city in the entire game when I played it in my past life. It's the only city with a gigantic department store instead of a small Pokemart, lots of houses with secrets, AND a whole lot of Rockets to put into their place. It was hard not to get excited.
My plan was to check out the Gym first. I considered checking in at the Pokemon Center, which was right by the East Gate of the city, but I saw an ad for a local hotel, near the district with the Slot Machine Game Corner and the big restaurant in which a man gave me a Coin Purse, just like in the game. I figured that I'd need a base camp from which to execute my Rocket-hunting plans, so I checked into the hotel instead of the Pokeroom.
I asked for a room on the 3rd floor looking into the West. From the windows I could actually safely get onto the roofs of the adjacent buildings, and from there, make it onto the roof of the Game Corner building as an alternate entry/exit point. For now, it was time to check out the Gym.
Walking towards the South end of Celadon City, it was TRANSPARENT that the large building covered in glass was the gym (pun intended). It was a huge structure covered with glass, not exactly a dome, but with a flatter roof, which was glass as well. I couldn't see the lower half of it, as it was covered by a wall, but I could still see the tall trees and other plants inside the building.
Walking through the path towards the Celadon City Gym was like walking in Viridian Forest all over again. The trees were large and thick, and the shrubbery and wild flowers were various in species. There were tons of Grass type Pokemon if you ventured a bit into the paths less traveled by trainers.
The road too, was grassy, as opposed to being paved like the rest of the city, and after about a quarter mile through the green back road, I was standing in front of the Celadon City Gym.
"Why is the entrance of the gym here and not facing towards the city?" I overheard two trainers talking in front of the gym. I slowed down to listen to the conversation. I was also curious.
"They say that when Erika, the 'Nature-loving Princess,' became the Celadon City Gym leader a few years back, she insisted that the gym had as little to do with the city itself as possible. That's when the wall went up and the new route to the gym was created."
The trainers talked about how the Gym staff were also heavily involved with plant and nature-related programs, like gardening, flower-arrangements, and the preservation of the woods just South of the city.
I walked towards the entrance and there was a creepy old bald dude peering inside the gym through the glass windows.
He muttered under his breath: "Heheh! This Gym is great! It's full of women!"
I shook my head and entered the gym.
But I mean… the creepy old bald dude wasn't wrong… It WAS full of women. The three gyms I've been to thus far had a mix of male and female coaches and staff. But Celadon City gym only seemed to hire women as their employees. There was a large bulletin board that had pictures of Gym Coaches you needed to defeat in order to challenge Erika, and they were all women. Another section of the bulletin board had non-battling Gym programs I already mentioned (e.g. gardening, flower-arrangements, and landscaping programs) also had an all-women staff leading them. Curious.
In any case, I was here to do business.
The first coach sent out a Bellsprout firstl. I had wanted to test out my recently acquired Fire types, so I chose Vulpix. The Bellsprout was quite skilled in Razor Leaf, being able to launch two sharp leaves in succession. Vulpix had gotten some training in agility from my rat crew, and was able to easily dodge them. And although it wasn't quite a "Flamethrower" yet, Vulpix was able to breathe streams of flame in a small cone, setting Bellsprout on fire. It was "Very Effective," and obviously, the match was quite easy.
The next Pokemon was Weepinbell, who was sturdier than Bellsprout, but the Type weakness was too much for it to handle my Growlithe, who was stronger and more ferocious than my Vulpix.
The next two Gym Coaches were just as easy to defeat, as they mostly used Bellsprouts and Oddishes. These two matches were beginning to gather a crowd of young trainers, who were finally beginning to realize that Fire type was the way to deal with Gym Coaches at the Celadon City Gym (uhh… hello…? You're figuring this out just now?).
"Dude! How did you beat her so easily?! I signed up for rematches four times now and I still haven't beaten her!" A young trainer asked.
"It's the FIRE Pokemon isn't it? Because FIRE can set PLANTS on fire?!" Another trainer answered his question.
They badgered me until I told them that "hey, you can set wood on fire, so I thought I'd try burning things?" Apparently that was mind-blowing.
I signed up for the next qualifying match for the morning after and came back to my hotel room because it was getting late.
"Is your room secure? Group call at 2200," Bill had sent a message on the digital hologram watch he had given me. I used a scanner to make sure there were no signs of eavesdroppers.
At 10 my hologram transmitter started to beep and I answered it. In the call there was Bill, sitting in his home office.
"How's everything going?" he asked.
We caught up a little bit when two more people joined. It was Misty and Brock.
"So, you DID decide to join us, did you?" Brock said, his arms crossed, but with a genuine smile. His arm muscles were huge. It was hard to believe he was only 15.
"Recruited, thanks to me," Misty replied. It was just like living in the anime.
They debriefed me about what was happening in Pewter, Cerulean, and the Mt. Moon regions.
"You really crumbled their plans in this area," Brock said. "Haven't seen any Rocket movement in Mt. Moon since you left."
"Same with Cerulean and also down in the Vermilion City area as well. The Lieutenant has been quiet," Misty said.
So Lt. Surge was licking his wounds. Possibly rethinking his relationship with Rocket. He seemed to be more interested in money than the overall Rocket agenda, whatever that was. I shared this idea.
"Could be," Misty said. "So maybe he won't trouble us any more."
"I wouldn't count him out just yet," Brock countered. "He is an evil man."
"I'm inclined to agree with Brock," Bill said. "Just because he's into money more than Rocket's ideals, doesn't mean he won't stand in our way. He was dishonorably discharged from military service for corruption and insubordination."
"Hmm," I considered. "That is to say, even if he doesn't care about Rocket's agenda, they could easily buy him out. Hire his services to do their evil deeds."
"In any case," Brock continued, "now that you're in Celadon City, we wanted to warn you about our faceless friend, Green."
Misty had mentioned Green before, a faceless and otherwise nameless ally whose primary stage in battling Team Rocket was Celadon City. Even to the resistance, very little was known about Green, except that he was skilled in hand-to-hand combat and had kept the Rockets at bay in Celadon. He was known to operate in stealth in a black suit, wearing a black motorcycle helmet with densely tinted visor of a dark green hue, hence the code name.
"The word is that Sabrina in Saffron City is either in or working with Team Rocket," Misty said. "Without Green, Celadon City would've fallen into Rocket's hands already."
"It is likely that you Green will be able to help you," Brock suggested. "Or you him."
"Why would Green need my help? What have you heard?" I asked.
"In Green's last report," Bill started, "it is mentioned that communication with our agents in Saffron City had been completely disconnected, and without their intel, it was impossible to stop Team Rocket from establishing a base of operation within Celadon City."
"The problem is," Misty said, "Green was unable to pinpoint their secret hideout."
"This is a real challenge…" Brock said to himself.
"Celadon City is HUGE," Bill said. "It has a huge commercial district - at the center of which is the department store - as well as numerous factories in the industrial district. Not to mention numerous Pokemon research centers that I used to visit as well. To try to pinpoint their SUPER SECRET BASE in such a big city would be IMPOSS-"
"They're in the Game Corner shop," I interrupted. "You can access their base by pressing a hidden button behind the poster near the back."
Brock, Misty, and Bill looked at me, their jaws dropping. Then they started talking at the same time.
Brock: "But how did you-"
Misty: "How the hell-"
Bill: "How could you possibly-"
"Look," I stopped them. "That's not important. What's important is that we have to take care of the Rockets here and we can establish communication with agents in Saffron. Sabrina will be tough to take down. If we're to expect Green to help us, we need to help him take back Celadon first."
They agreed.
"Misty and I can come down to Celadon, and we can-"
"No Brock," I said. "If you and Misty leave your respective cities, then Team Rocket will know that you're both in the resistance. It's important that your involvement with the resistance remains hidden. Besides, even if the Rockets don't figure that out, your absences alone might give them the opportunities for them to creep back into Pewter and Cerulean."
"Then we'd have to drive them out all over again," Misty said.
"What do you suggest?" Bill asked me, and both Brock and Misty turned to hear my answer.
Without intending to do so, I had already become the leader of this group.