Chapter 7

Adventures at Mt. Moon

Following Ron's impressive victory over the Pewter City gym, he and Max decided it was best if they visited Ron's house. Reluctantly, Ron agreed with Max when he said that it would be best if Ron said goodbye before traveling across the world to train Pokémon. It did not take that long to reach Ron's old house, since it was only a mile or so from the Pokémon Center they had been staying at. Ron led the way up towards the front door of his mother's plain blue house, complete with white shutters and roof.

Upon the white, wooden door was a hastily written note. Having lived with the woman his entire life, Ron knew right away this was his mother's handwriting. He pulled the note off the door and closer to his face so he could read the small writing.

"I'm not here right now, nor will I be here over the next few weeks. Currently, I'm spending time with a new man in my life. If you have an important message for me, please call the house number (which you would have if what you had to say was important) and leave a voicemail. I will return your call when I can."

As Ron read this note, his hands began to shake. His mother had another man in her life? It should not have come as a surprise to Ron, as she was still pretty young. Either way, this was sure to make things even more awkward than they already were. His parent's separation had a huge effect on a young Ron, even today he was feeling the effect of the events that unfolded when he was almost too young to understand, but too old to think it was his fault.

Max could not find anything to say to Ron, so he just watched as his friend crumbled up the note left on the door. He then followed Ron away from the house and towards the city gate to the east. He understood that Ron wanted to leave all of this behind him, and was supporting him all the way in this endeavor. They were to travel through the passages of Mt. Moon, which would leave them right near Cerulean City, the place of Ron's second gym battle.

"Hey Ron," stated Max, "We never did find out how Vincent did in his gym battle." He was obviously trying to get Ron to stop thinking about that little note left on the door.

Ron, who had been walking while staring at the ground, looked up with a slight smile on his face. "Well, we didn't see his sorry ass around the city, so I'm assuming he won just as well as I did. That bastard is probably in Cerulean City while we speak."

He never was accustomed to cursing like this, but being frustrated brought the worst out of Ron. Realizing he needed to calm down, he took a deep breath and tried to look optimistically at the future. He was heading off to a gym that specialized in water Pokémon. Two of his Pokémon had a type advantage against water Pokémon, and he was pretty sure Spearow could hold its own in a battle with no advantage on either side.

They had decided to leave early in the morning, so that explained why there were no trainers hovering around the path to the mountain. Ron liked it this way, as he was not in the mood for a battle at the time. As they came upon the mountain, it overshadowed them greatly. Such a sight would intimidate an average person, but they were Pokémon trainers. Instead of fearing the unknown, they decided to take a rest under the shade of the mountain before entering the dark passages.

"Pikachu, Spearow, Bulbasaur…come on out!" shouted Ron as he hurled three Pokeballs into the air, releasing his Pokémon into the world. Max did the same, sending his Charmander and Caterpie out of their Pokeballs.

As most of the Pokémon took the time to stretch their limbs and unwind a bit before the long trip, Caterpie stood oddly still. Max began to get close to his Pokémon, wondering what was wrong, when suddenly it began to shoot a white web of sorts into the air, which rained down and created a protective shield around the worm Pokémon. Excitedly pulling a notebook out from his back pocket, Max began to take notes of this phenomenon. Ron did not know it at the time, but Caterpie was evolving.

When the string stopped covering Caterpie, Ron was shocked to find out that it was not the green little worm that was looking up at the world, but a strange cocoon-like Pokémon. It was still green, with two large eyes on each side its body. However, this Pokémon did not look like it could move…at all. All of the trainers other Pokémon gathered around in amazement, shouting out congratulations towards the newly evolved Pokémon in their many languages.

Beaming, Max shouted out, "Yes! My Caterpie evolved to Metapod!"

"You did a good job to evolve a Pokémon without putting it through any battles," stated Ron as he slapped his friend on the back. "But I guess Pokémon can sometimes evolve through nature, not battle?"

"I believe so. This will work nicely for my research paper on evolution that I plan on completing during these travels." He paused for a moment before looking into the distance, then pointed, saying, "By the way, there's the entrance we've been looking for."

"Don't you think we should wait until we get something to eat?" asked Ron.

Max agreed, and the two friends worked together to make a fire to prepare their food with. It never was that difficult to start a fire, thanks to Charmander and its fire attacks. Before long, they had prepared stew for themselves and opened packages of Pokémon food for their non-human friends. Once they had finished with their meal, they cleaned up where they had been, following the "Leave No Trace" principals set down by past Pokémon trainers and travelers alike. Their Pokémon were recalled to their Pokeballs and the two trainers headed off into the cave.

Ron thought that a cave would be a bit darker than this, but natural light seeped in through holes in the ceiling. They did not have that much trouble navigating the cave. According to a map that Max had, they needed to look for a ladder that would take them to the lower level. The lower level would then lead them to the other side of the cave, up another ladder. It would only be a matter of hours after that they would reach the exit.

Along the way through the Pewter City side of the cave, they noticed some wild Pokémon. Ron pointed out a few wild Geodude, much like the one that he had battled against the other day. There were a lot of blue bats with large gapping mouths flying around the cave, which Max identified as Zubats. Ron considered capturing one of these flying Pokémon, but then decided against it when he noticed how fast they were moving in a group. Surely if he attacked one, the rest would attack as well.

"Hey Max, is that the ladder we're looking for?" asked Ron as he pointed out a sign that was labeled "Ladder" right next to a hole in the cave floor.

Wanting to be sure he was correct, Max moved closer to the hole and discovered a small metal, rusty ladder that led to the lower portion of the cave. This lower portion connected the Pewter City side of the cave with the Cerulean City side of the cave.

"Why don't you go first?" insisted Max, obviously not trusting the stability of the ladder that had probably been installed in the cave a century ago.

Ron nervously proceeded to climb down the ladder, hoping that the added weight of his backpack did not lead to an accident involving the ladder. He practically held his breath the entire descent, not exhaling until he felt his feet touch solid, damp cave ground. Shouting out to Max that it was safe, Ron heard his voice echo off into the distance. He did not think it mattered, as he believed the only other people in the cave would be travelers like himself and Max.

Once Max reached the bottom of the ladder, he walked down the long winding passage with Ron. They had believed this passage was going to be short, but they happened to be wrong. It took a solid twenty five minutes of walking to reach the ladder on the other side.

"Well would you look at that?! This ladder is just as old and rusty as the last one! Knowing my luck, this one will break when I'm halfway up it."

"Oh relax Ron, if that last one held, then I'm sure this one will do just as well. You worry too much."

"It's odd to hear you say that, since you were the one who was too chicken to climb down the last one."

And with that, the argument ended. Not because the two trainers had run out of clever comebacks, but because they heard an explosion from somewhere beyond the hole in the cave portion above them. Although Ron and Max did not know it at the time, there were Team Rocket members working in a chamber of the cave up ahead, trying to find the legendary Moon Stones that were said to have been found right here in the mountatin.

Max decided to be the first one to climb the ladder, just to prove he was not a chicken or any other animal that you would name a coward. Ron then followed him up, arriving in the Cerulean City portion of the cave within a few minutes of ladder climbing that felt like an eternity. They made their way down the passage again, curious to see what the explosion was that had scared away all the wild Pokémon that most likely had been on this side, much like on the side they had just come from.

"Hey Max, are those ceiling lanterns up there?" Ron pointed to small light fixtures that were strung together near the top of the cave. This confirmed their unsaid belief that something strange was happening in this cave.

"Isn't it typical for something like this to happen when we're passing through? We couldn't have a normal trip to the museum, and now we can't even go through a cave without something happening," complained Max.

Ron slapped his hand on his forehead. "It's hard to call something typical when it only happens once…well most likely twice."

Max had to agree with this logic, following Ron down the passageway and hoping that whatever was around the bend, it was something they could handle with ease. He peered around the corner, terrified at what he saw. There were Rocket Grunts, at least two dozen of them, working in some hole that had been dug in the middle of this otherwise empty chamber.

He whispered to Ron, "How are we supposed to get around them? There's way too many of them for us to battle, and the only way through this cave towards Cerulean City is beyond this stupid chamber."

Ron would have enjoyed having some clever plan right now that might have gotten them past all the criminals that inhabited the nearby room, but he have no clue how they would pull this off. The only thing close to a plan that he thought of was frantically running through the room, hoping that they would be ignored or not noticed. But yeah…that would never happen, would it?

As he pondered what they could do, he thought that he saw a shadowy figure moving on the other side of the chamber. Whoever this person was, they most likely had the same problem that Ron and Max had. They needed to get through this chamber without pissing off two dozen Rocket Grunts, most likely led by a Rocket Executive or two.

"Ron, what's that Pokémon over there? Can you see anything?"

Max was referring to a small, puffy pink Pokémon that was creeping along the side of the chamber walls. It was most likely commanded by the figure that Ron had noticed moments before in the passageway on the other side of this chamber. Without any warning, the puffy Pokémon opened its mouth and began to sing in a bit of an eerie voice. This voice echoed through the chamber and was heard by everyone in the room. Ron could slight make out the word "Jigglypuff" being sung by what he believed must be a Pokémon…a Pokémon that had to be named Jigglypuff. Ron liked his logic here, as Pokémon were capable of saying their name and only their name.

As the lullaby traveled into the passageway Ron and Max were hiding in, they began to feel a bit sleepy. Because they were distracted by their own sudden exhaustion, they paid no attention to the fact that the Team Rocket members in the other room had collapsed.

As he drifted off into sleep, Max said, "Whoever owns that Jigglypuff might be on our…"

He obviously meant to add the word "side" to the end of that sentence, but he never got the chance. Both Ron and Max gave in to their exhaustion soon after hearing the mysterious Pokémon sing. Along with the Team Rocket members that had been knocked out cold by the song, two trainers who had nothing to do with Team Rocket also suffered the same fate thanks to the Pokémon's song.

Only a few minutes after falling asleep, Ron was woken up by a sharp pain on his face. Something or someone had slapped him hard on his face in an obvious attempt to wake him up. He had fallen asleep on the cold, damp floor of the cave, which was not exactly his idea of a perfect sleeping place. Pulling himself off the ground, he turned over to Max, who had also been woken up and left with red marks on his face.

"Man…that was really weird. I hope those Rockets are still sleeping," wished Max as he rubbed his eyes. He then climbed to his feet and peered back around the corner, relieved that the real villains had been kept asleep by whoever saved them.

Before the two friends walked safety through the chamber and into the passageway beyond it, they looked around for any sign of the person that had saved them. However, they were unable to find anything. They were both quite disappointed by this, as they had hoped they would be able to thank this mysterious Pokémon Trainer. Regardless, they were grateful that they would be safe from Team Rocket. Sure, they were Pokémon Trainers, but not Pokémon Trainers strong enough to take on that many enemies at once.

They did not speak a word until they were out of the chamber and at least approximately fifty yards down the passageway and away from the danger that they left behind. It was Ron that spoke the first words, expressing his happiness at their luck.

"I thought were goners before that Jigglypuff trainer showed up. Maybe one day we'll run into them again and be able to thank them. In fact, I'd like to have a battle against a Pokémon like that."

They continued this conversation as they made their way towards yet another ladder. However, there was a sign next to this ladder that read: "Exit." The best part about this ladder was not the sign next to it, but the fact that it looked like it was installed within the last decade. The two trainers happily made their way towards the surface, expecting the sun to greet them. However, it was night that awaited them on their return to the outside world.

"Talk about a mood-ruining moment," complained Max. "Now we have to travel in the dark to make it to Cerulean City. Knowing our luck, all the rooms will be booked at the Pokémon Center."

Ron silenced this complaining pretty quickly. Sure, there was a chance all the rooms were filled, but that was the least of their worries. Wild Pokémon could attack them while they were vulnerable, so they had to press onward. It just so happened that it only was about a mile till Cerulean City, and in no time they were greeted by a quiet city. After a bit of wandering on the dark streets, they found the welcoming red roof of the Pokémon Center. They walked through the sliding doors and towards the room registration desk.

"Look at that Max. It turns out they still had plenty of rooms for the night. I'll sign us up for a room on the second floor so we don't have to do that much walking. I'm exhausted."

"Yeah tell me about it. I wouldn't even need Jigglypuff to sing right now to help me sleep, give me a bed and I'll collapse on it right now."

And so they proceeded up the stairs, leaving the quiet lobby behind. Quickly finding their room, they each went to one of the beds that were on either side of the room. The placed their backpacks and Pokebelts on the ground next to their beds, then drifted off into sleep, dreaming about the adventures they would have tomorrow.