A chat with Professor Stump

“So, you’ve made it to Saffron, huh?” Stump asks with interest.

Onix lies behind you, curled up in order to fit inside your room. Even though it’s pretty spacious, Onix still has trouble finding somewhere he fits. But hey, you’re lucky he can even come out of his pokeball at all. It must mean the Pokemon Center is pretty sturdy! Mankey is conked out on the floor, probably reminiscing about his cushy life getting pampered by Charlotte. Grr… Gloom has taken his usual spot on your lap, and Dugtrio is, well… next to the laptop, sticking out of the desk.

Best not to think about it.

“Yup!” you answer. “I haven’t battled the Gym Leader yet, because of some s-stuff happening. But today I’ll go there and kick her butt!”

“I see. For once, I might actually believe you. Supposedly, Sabrina has the worst win rate in the entire league.”

“Really? Why?”

“I don’t know. I read an article a while back about the league needing to buy more badges for her Gym. I guess she has to hand them out like hotcakes from losing all the time. I don’t know what the standards are for Gym Leaders, but she must be pretty close to losing her position.”

“Huh. Well, an easy win works for me!” you declare. “I’ll just beat her Gym and move on to the next one!”

“About that. Your next destination is Pewter City, right?”

“Uhhh…”

“Just open a map,” she sighs.

You look up a map of Kanto online.

“I’ve already been to everywhere in the middle, so… Yeah, I guess I would go through Cerulean on my way to Pewter City. Or maybe I could go back to Fuchsia City and take a boat to Cinnabar…”

“No! Uh, no, I don’t think that’s a good idea. Boats are expensive,” Stump sputters. “And while you’re cutting through Cerulean, maybe, uh… you could visit Rifure? You know, come by and say hello to everyone?”

“Oh, that sounds like a great idea!”

Not! Why would you wanna go see all those perverts who were always treating you like a town whore and fucking you all the time!? You’re not a Pokemon Master yet, so you’re sure they’d just do the same thing again. Still… it obviously means a lot to the Professor, so…

“Really? You’ll visit? I was kind of expecting you to say no…” she mumbles. “Just let me know when you’re on your way from Cerulean, okay? No rush. See you then!”

*click*

This time, you’re the one who sighs. You better go take down this chump of a Gym Leader and go visit Stump before she dies of loneliness.