Not terribly

As you’ve come to expect, there are several trainers along the way to Vermilion City, and every one of them wants to battle. You courageously accept their offers, knowing very well what’s on the line if you lose.

Admittedly, most of the battles result in a loss, rapidly depleting much of the supplies you have on hand for healing your pokemon. But you do manage to win a few! The trainers you beat seem mostly concerned with making their pokemon whip their tails around, rather than actually attacking. It seems strange, but after the run of luck you’ve had, you’ll take it gladly. As for the losses, well… not many people you battled are left wondering what you look like with no clothes on.

You also get a few battles in with Mankey, with rather poor results. Mankey is strong for sure, and when you can convince it to fight, its Karate Chop is devastating! …And the rest of the time it just plays around, disregarding the fight entirely by doing things like climbing on top of your head and flipping your hair over your face, turning you into some creepy, well-dwelling monster from a horror film. When Mankey dashes off in the middle of one battle, you’re **** to run away from the fight in order to retrieve him. The battle ends as a forfeit in your opponent’s favor, a fact which your opponent takes quick advantage of.

You decide against using Mankey for any more battles, and you finish up your trip with only a few more losses. Rather unfortunately for you, the trainers you beat must all be rather impoverished as you only make $10 across all of them, a small fraction of what you made at Cerulean. It’s either that or they lied about how much money they had, but they wouldn’t do that, right?

Money Gained: $10, Current: $25

You continue down the path until you reach a rather sophisticated but small structure in your way with tall fences on either side. It looks to be some sort of gate guarding the entrance of the city, and while you’ve passed through these once or twice before, this one looks remarkably more high-tech than the ones you remember. There’s both an entrance and an exit, and neither door has a handle.