With Gimpy in his pokeball, Arden felt uncomfortably light. He tucked his hands in his pockets, unsure of what to do with his hands without holding the pokemon, as he approached the entrance of Mt. Moon. For a moment, he paused before the mouth of the cave, looking into the dark tunnel beyond.

Dark tunnels scared Arden.

He bit his lip and told himself it'd be alright. After all, he had a powerful pokemon on his belt. What could possibly hurt him?

Puffing out his chest and squaring his shoulders, Arden crossed the threshold into Mt. Moon. It took a moment for his eyes to adjust to the lack of light, and when they did he saw a huge cavern around him, with uneven grey walls, and stalactites jutting out of the roof. Droves of zubat clung to the stalactites, wings folded around them. Arden walked looking up at them and—as he did—tripped over a geodude.

"Geo!" shouted the pokemon angrily, as it raised one rocky fist.

Arden scrambled back and reached to his belt, pulling off a pokeball. "Go, pokemon!"

He threw the pokeball and it landed in front of the geodude before releasing a flash of light. Arden watched eagerly, curious to see what would come out of it. The light died away, leaving behind a red fish pokemon.

Magicarp.

Arden gaped at the pokemon as it thrashed about on the cave floor helplessly, flailing its fins and opening and closing its mouth while repeatedly making a noise that resembled a very choked battle-cry of 'carp'. The geodude looked at the magicarp for a moment, before looking up at Arden.

"I—that guy tricked me!" shouted Arden. "Urg—never mind. Magicarp's a water-type, and geodude's a rock-type, so it shouldn't matter if it's not very powerful!"

He turned to the flopping magicarp. "Attack! Do something water-related!"

The magicarp continued to flop on the cave floor for a full minute without doing anything. Arden scowled. "Why are all my pokemon so useless?!" he screamed, picking up the magicarp by the tail. It thrashed around in his hand as he looked to the geodude, which was watching him warily.

Arden swung the magicarp by the tail like he was swinging a baseball bat, and struck the geodude soundly, knocking it against the cave wall.

"Carpcarpcarpcarp," objected the magicarp, flailing its fins about uselessly. Arden observed that the geodude had been knocked out cold and dropped the magicarp.

"Oh, quit your complaining," he told it, picking up its pokeball. "You just won a battle. Probably the only battle you'll ever win."

"Carpcarpcarpcarp—"

"Yeah, whatever," said Arden returning it to his pokeball. The placed the pokeball back onto his belt. "Man, I've got to get rid of this thing. Useless..."

Shoving his hands in his pockets again, he entered the main body of the cavern which was—as one might guess—quite cavernous. A girl stood in the centre of it, staring at the opening. Arden looked at her and she looked back at him blankly. "Uh, hi," Arden mumbled after a moment.

"I came here with my friends and I got lost," she said.

"Oh," said Arden. "Do... you want help finding them, or something...?"

"No," said the girl. "But I do want a pokemon battle."

Arden sighed. "A pokemon battle? Really? I mean, you're not at all concerned about your friends?"

"Nope."

"Alright, fine," said Arden. "We'll, eh, we'll battle, then."

"Oh, good," said the girl, clapping her hands together in a very effeminate way. She threw a pokeball. "Go, Cleffairy!"

"Jeez, am I the only one in the whole world who nicknames my pokemon?" mumbled Arden, reaching to his belt. Clicking his tongue, he ran his fingers over Cruelty's pokeball and then—suddenly thinking better of it—picked up his squirtle's ball instead and threw it. "Go get 'em, Gimp!"

Gimpy stumbled and fell as he was released, hitting the ground with a cry of, "Squirt!"

"Get up—you're making me look bad," Arden whispered to the pokemon harshly, jerking him up by the arms into a standing position.

"Squirtle!" protested Gimpy, pulling his arms out of Arden's grasp.

"Oh—what a cute pokemon!" cooed the girl, bending over. "Where did you get it? I want one! It's so cute! Oh, isn't it cute, Cleffairy?"

"Cleffairy!" said the pink pokemon, smiling.

"Squuuuirtle," murmured Gimpy, blushing.

"Awwww! That is adorable!" said the girl, rushing forward to pick Gimpy up. She hugged tightly. "You are sooo cute!"

Gimpy grinned. "Squirt, squuuirtle!"

"Ung—hey, hey. Uh, are we gonna battle, or...?" Arden frowned, and kicked out the dirt as his question went ignored by the girl and her cleffairy who were too busy fawning over his squirtle to notice him. He sighed a few loud sighs, in hopes that he'd be noticed, but to no avail. "Oh, come on! I mean—he's not even the cutest pokemon I own!"

The girl looked up, delighted. "Oh, you have more cute pokemon? May I see?"

"Yeah, sure," said Arden defeated. He reached for Brain Damage's pokeball before stopping as another idea struck him. His hand moved slowly toward Cruelty's pokeball instead.

"Squirtle!" shouted Gimpy, seeing the movement. "Squirt squirtle squirt!"

Arden looked at him flatly. "Spoil-sport," he mumbled, grabbing Brain's pokeball and sending the pidgey out.

Brain Damage looked around his surroundings with wide, mostly-vacant eyes, cooing and thrashing his wings about. The girl squealed and dropped Gimpy before rushing to pick up the little pidgey. "He's adorable! Look at that little beak! And those cooing sounds he makes! So cute! Oh, I want one—I want one!"

"You have to be kidding," said Arden, narrowing his eyes and running one hand through his hair. "I mean, the whole area's full of—ah, never mind. What I mean to say is, you want one? Because I will trade you this one. Right now!"

He smiled in a way he wasn't sure looked completely honest. The girl looked up from cuddling his pidgey. "Really? Oh—but I couldn't. I mean, you must love him a whole lot, a cute thing like this..."

"Well, my granddad used to tell me that trading is an integral part of being a trainer," Arden told her looking down. "Because if a pokemon means a lot to you, and you give it to someone else, it's a chance for it to grow and to mean a lot to that person, also." That wasn't at all true. Arden didn't even have a granddad. He wondered how the swindler he'd met at the pokemon centre managed to pull off a con-job so smoothly.

"That's very true," said the girl, looking at Brain Damage. "And when you trade you make friends all over. Mmm. Yeah. Yeah! I will trade you!"

Arden grinned with relief. "Well," he said, holding out Brain's pokeball. "Here's his pokeball, for you to keep him in."

"Don't you want to know what I'll offer for him?"

"Eh—oh. Right. Ah, I have faith in you, that's all," said Arden quickly. "Enough that I don't need to know before hand. But, ah, what pokemon are you giving me?"

"Nidoran!" answered the girl, taking a pokeball out of her bag. Her cleffairy looked saddened. "Oh, it's alright, Cleffairy! I'm sure that Gentry will be plenty happy with... uh..."

"Arden."

"Arden." She patted the cleffairy's shoulder. "I'm sure that we'll see Arden again some day, and Gentry, too. Here you go, Arden. My name's Iris, by the way."

Arden took the pokeball from her, hooking it to his belt. "Nice to meet you, Iris," mumbled Arden. He pointed at the pidgey. "His name's Brain Damage."

"Brain Damage? Well, that's not a very nice name."

"Well, he—aah, no, I guess it's not. I have to get going now," Arden said, picking up Gimpy. "Have a, uh, good day, and take care of Brain."

Iris smiled. "Only if you take care of Gentry!"

Arden raised one eyebrow. "What, are you going to spy on me to make sure that I do, and severely mistreat Brain if I don't?"

The girl looked stunned for a moment. "N-no, that's not what I—oh, look, I think I see my friends." She started away, toward a group of people, with her cleffairy in tow. "Bye!"

"Yeah, you too," said Arden, slouching off in the opposite direction.