A Pokemon Tale Part I: The Journey Begins

Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Team Rocket

The Road between Mt. Moon and Cerulean City-

Lance had followed the trail and it became clear to him where they were going. The tracks followed no road and they made strait for Mt. Moon in the distance. Also, he came across a crumbled photograph of men in black excavating a moon stone. Lance released Dragonite, and hopped on his dragon's back.

"We're going to Mt. Moon," he told his Pokémon. The Dragon took off and flew into the setting sun towards the shadow of Mt. Moon on the horizon.

 

Moon Stone Cavern, Mt. Moon-

The two Team Rocket thugs each had Poke-balls in their hands. Red and Blue opposed them. Squirtle stood in front of Red and was beating its shell with its fist. Nidoran stood menacingly (however menacingly a two-foot tall rabbit could stand). The thugs each released their Pokémon. The Rocket who stood opposite Blue sent out a Rattata. The thug across Red sent out a blue bat-like Pokémon with fangs and no eyes. Red checked his Pokedex to find that it was a Zubat: a Poison/Flying type Pokémon.

"Zubat! Bite that turtle!" Zubat flew towards Squirtle, but Red ordered a Withdraw. Like Ekans previously, it hurt its fangs on the tiny turtle Pokémon. Meanwhile, Nidoran was mercilessly beating up the other thug's Rattata. With a well-timed Double-kick attack, it was knocked out. Now it was two against one.

"Squirtle, try and knock it down with Water-Gun!" Squirtle shot the powerful spray of water into the air, but Zubat's echolocation allowed it to easily dodge and dart out of the way. "Try Bubble!" The Bubbles sprayed in an irregular pattern that was impossible to predict, unlike Water-Gun (which was more powerful but shot in a straight line). Zubat found all of the Bubbles too difficult to navigate through and it fell out of the air, only to be rammed by Blue's Nidoran before it hit the ground. They had scored a major victory.

The two thugs without their Pokémon were helpless. They recalled their fainted Pokémon into their Poke-balls and ran off down different passages, just trying to avoid capture. Suddenly a deafening boom rang throughout the mountain, followed by the sound of falling rocks. Out of one of the passages came the Team Rocket captain. When he saw that his underlings had not defeated the kids, he decided to take matters into his own hands.

"If you want something done right, do it yourself," he muttered to himself. "Go Grimer and Koffing!" Out of two Poke-balls came two Poison-type Pokémon. One, Grimer, looked like a pile of purple sludge with a face and hands. The other, Koffing, floated in midair and spewed gas out of the many holes that surrounded his orb-like body.

Red recalled Squirtle and sent out Pidgey. "Pidgey and I will take the floaty-one; you can take that pile of crap." Blue nodded. Red ordered Quick Attacks from all angles as Pidgey darted all around Koffing with great speed. Koffing was trying to use its Poison-gas attack, but strangely it had no effect on Pidgey, who was used to his own "poison gas" and other bodily gases.

Meanwhile, the fight against Grimer was going rather sluggishly. Nidoran couldn't scratch it because it had a consistency like that of a thick gel-like liquid. When Blue ordered a Double-kick, it got stuck in the gooey mess. It seemed like Nidoran was a goner.

Suddenly, Red's Pokedex began to beep. Under Pidgey's page was a new attack called "Gust." Red thought he might as well try it out now. The tiny bird flew back away from Koffing and began to beat its wings profusely, eventually whipping up a powerful wind, and blowing the Koffing into the cave wall. Red then ordered Pidgey to use it on Grimer to help Nidoran, and the wind slowly stretched out Grimer and blew it off of Nidoran. Victory was soon at hand for the good guys.

"Stop, right there!" came the voice of the Team Rocket Captain. He looked dirty now and his clothes were ragged. He no longer held the special Moon Stone bit instead a strange looking Pokémon. It was red on top and white on bottom, much like a Poke-ball, but it had eyes that were slanted in anger. "This is Voltorb. Its special attack is Explosion, now you can leave quietly and we can all forget about this mess, or I blow this cave to smithereens!"

They stood stunned. It seemed as though they would have to abandon their heroic effort when suddenly a powerful golden blast came from the sky in the open cave, which knocked the Voltorb out of the Captain's hands. In flew a Dragon-type Pokémon with a trainer on its back. Off jumped the trainer and Red realized it was none-other than Pokémon League Champion and Elite Four member Lance. He had idolized Lance and had a few posters in his room.

He looked around the room, surveying what had taken place in the cavern. He turned to the two young trainers. "You guys did really well here today. Why don't I escort you guys down to the other side?" He looked at the Team Rocket captain. Dragonite was restraining him from running. "Take him to Pewter City, I'll be there soon." Dragonite flew off with its captive and Lance once again turned to the trainers. "I'm Lance. What're your names?"

"I'm Blue," she looked at Red who was too star struck to speak. "This is Red."

"Well kids," Lance said. "What you did here was very impressive, but for your own safety, I urge you to stay as far away from Team Rocket as possible. You don't want to go messing around with them, they're a bad bunch. And I have my suspicions…" His voice trailed off.

They walked the rest of the evening until they came to the other entrance of Mt. Moon. Lance questioned them on what happened in vivid detail. They told him everything. However, Red left out the part about the strange grey-robed man. He didn't want to get him into trouble, and besides, Red didn't really know if he was part of the Team Rocket gang anyways.

"Before I leave," said Lance, "Maybe you guys could put this to good use. It allows some Pokémon to evolve. I'm sure you could find a way to make it work." He winked and handed a polished Moon Stone that he had picked up along the way down the tunnel to Blue.

"How will you get back?" she asked. "You're Pokémon flew away!"

"Oh, I'm sure I'll manage," he said. He turned and ran into the night. Red thought he saw him flying away on an orange Pokémon with its tail blazing in the darkness a few seconds later. He looked back the way he came. Mt. Moon loomed with most of the mountain range behind it. In front of their path was a downward-sloping trail that eventually crossed a river. On a hill in the far distance, he could see Cerulean City's lights. They camped for the night.