Poka was indeed correct in his count that he'd be next in line when we reached Cerulean City, but his belief that he'd be Bulbasaur was predicated on the mistaken theory that I'd actually wrap up affairs in Cerulean before heading north. See, Bulbasaur's unavailable until after getting the Cascade Badge, and since Blue's highest-level Pokémon is the same level as Misty's lowest-level Pokémon...the decision to head north to Routes 24 and 25 before challenging her was an obvious one. After LavaLord was all caught up, I headed north, and Blue was easily defeated--with Sandshrew put to sleep by Masterplum before it could even attack and both Spearow and Eevee using non-damaging attacks on their lone turns before being two-hitted, only LavaLord's first Low Kick against Rattata missing the target kept it from being a flawless victory--Rattata got a second hit in due to using Quick Attack on turn 2, so I used Jeffrey to take on Eevee. (Yes, I'm using Switch instead of Set.) Unfortunately, on Nugget Bridge, tragedy struck. Since I seemed to remember there being Normal-types on the bridge, I led with LavaLord, so when the second trainer led off with a Pidgey, I switched to Tsunami, opening it up to a Sand-Attack. The first Thundershock missed, and Tsunami got hit with a critical; the next Thundershock was just a little too weak to OHKO it, and then after a Quick Attack also missed, the Pidgey landed its second critical hit in three turns, finishing off Tsunami.
...Goddamnit. Like I said, despite giving my own name to it, I haven't been terribly fond of this Pikachu, and if it weren't Yellow Version I probably would've boxed it long before endgame anyway (and might've still done so)...but couldn't it survive just a little longer? Bulbasaur's one of my favorite Gen I Pokémon, and now I'm locked out of it due to my lack of Pikachu.
...Three attempts to release it, and it keeps saying "Tsunami looks unhappy about it!" And he's still in the box. Well, whatever. Sit in the box for awhile, and maybe I'll be able to drag your corpse to the Bulbasaur lady's house. I'm not taking Regaro out yet, though; I need a spare slot for Poka the Charmander when I get to the end of Nugget Bridge anyway.
The final trainer on Nugget Bridge has a level 18 Mankey. It Karate Chops Masterplum and crits, then Low Kicks him and crits again. Karate Chop isn't a fighting-type move in Gen I, but even critical, it only does 20 damage, and Low Kick is a Fighting-type move so thanks to Masterplum's resistance, it does just 7. Masterplum reaches level 18 and replaces Stun Spore with Supersonic. Poka joins, and then I head onwards to Route 25...good, just as I'd hoped; the first Pokémon I find is a grass-type, and one with a decent Grass-type move at that. Although in the long run, I think that Pidgeot is probably a better Pokémon than Fearow, it takes way too long for Pidgeotto to actually learn a Flying-type move, whereas Spearow start out with Peck, so Hydras gets sent to the box.
Team (in acquisition order, as usual):
Jeffrey - Level 18 Nidorino - Route 22
Masterplum - Level 18 Butterfree - Viridian Forest
Hobo - Level 16 Spearow - Route 3
LavaLord - Level 16 Mankey - Route 4
Poka - Level 10 Charmander - Route 24
Genesis - Level 12 Bellsprout - Route 25
Box:
Hydras - Level 16 Pidgey - Route 2
Regaro - Level 11 Zubat - Mt. Moon
Overly Clingy Corpse:
Tsunami - Level 17 Pikachu - Pallet Town
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I'm a cat person, but I can still appreciate a SuperNiceDog.