Although it was now early evening, the streets of Cerulean City were still crowded enough that Gold could walk through the city without attracting attention. Making his way from the station through the main shopping district, he headed north onto Route 24. As Cerulean Cape, to the north of the city, was a popular attraction for young couples, most of the people walking to and fro along Nugget Bridge were in pairs, making Gold worry that he would draw suspicion; however, the people he encountered were too involved in their own amorous activities to be concerned with him, and so he continued on his way. Upon reaching the end of the bridge, he doubled back along the riverbank, taking the rough, overgrown path leading to Cerulean Cave. Although he was having a hard time seeing the path in the darkness, the streetlamps on the bridge threw just enough light onto the path to enable him to follow it.
After 20 minutes, he finally got to the end of the path, peeking out from behind a tree at the entrance of Cerulean Cave. On the other side of the small clearing was a jagged cave mouth encircling the utter blackness within, as if threatening to swallow anyone who dared to enter. However, what drew Gold's attention was not the cave itself, but the two people standing either side of the cave mouth. It had been many years since he had laid eyes on that black uniform, with its blood-red emblem, but even now he felt his heartbeat increasing as he recognised the two men as Team Rocket grunts.
So Team Rocket IS involved in all of this, Gold thought to himself.
Gold stood watching the two men from his hiding place, confident that his black clothes would provide him with adequate camouflage in the shadows at this distance. He saw that the guard was changed every 15 minutes, with two new guards coming to replace the two previous, after exchanging a few words. After seeing this happen twice, Gold had formulated his plan. Reaching to his belt, he grabbed one of his Poké Balls.
"Sunflora, GrassWhistle," Gold whispered, using a nearby bush to disguise the flash of light as he called out his Pokémon.
Gold covered his ears with his hands as Sunflora brought her two leafy arms to her mouth, blowing through them to create a soothing melody which echoed through the area. The two Rocket grunts started upon hearing the noise, but after a couple of seconds they became drowsy, falling to the ground in a deep slumber. Once he was sure they were out cold, Gold recalled Sunflora and ran across the clearing. He started to undress the grunt closest to his own size, and dressed himself up in the Rocket uniform, hiding his own clothes and the two guards' sleeping bodies in a nearby bush. Pulling the cap low over his face, he entered Cerulean Cave.
As he started walking through the cave, the moonlight streaming into the cave mouth provided just enough light to enable him to make his way forward. He was immediately suspicious at the lack of any wild Pokémon; the last time he had been here, he had been set upon almost immediately by a wild Machoke. After walking for a couple of minutes, however, he began to hear the roars of Pokémon, along with a great many echoing footsteps, and he saw a light at the end of the tunnel. After a few hundred metres, the passage opened out into a wide cavern, brightly lit by electric lights; where Gold remembered there once being a roaring river, there now milled hundreds of Team Rocket grunts. To the sides of the cavern stood steel cages, crackling with electricity, containing a wide variety of strong-looking Pokémon which Gold recognised as the species inhabiting Cerulean Cave. Even as he stood watching from the cavern entrance, a Primeape punched the bars of its cage and was blown backwards by the resulting electric shock.
Realising he would look suspicious just standing there, Gold walked quickly and confidently down the steps carved into the side of the former river, into the throng of Rocket grunts. They were all engaged in talking amongst themselves, having small Pokémon battles, or tormenting the caged Pokémon. Taking another look around, Gold couldn't see any sign of the mysterious Pokémon among the caged ones; he did, however, notice a heavy-looking metal door set in one of the walls, which none of the Grunts seemed to be approaching. He made his way over to the door and, noticing that it was slightly ajar, slipped inside, having to use all of his strength to push the door shut behind him.
Once the door was closed on, he took a look around the room he now found himself in. The rocky cave appeared to be a makeshift laboratory of some kind, with long metal benches topped with bottles, papers and assorted instruments. The centre of the room was dominated by a large cylindrical vat of gently-bubbling clear liquid. When he saw what was floating in it, Gold couldn't help but gasp. The purple-and-white-skinned figure facing away from him was largely humanoid, with the exception of a long, thick tail extending from the base of its spine, a pair of tube-like structures running from the creature's shoulder blades to the back of its head, and the familiar four-fingered hands which had grasped Gold's arm the night before – this was the mysterious Pokémon! Hoping that it was asleep, Gold crept slowly and cautiously around the side of the vat, trying to see the creature's face. Before he got that far, however, Gold saw a figure hunched over a bench in front of the vat, and so he quickly ducked under the bench nearest to him to avoid being seen. Looking out from behind the bench, Gold could see that the figure was a short, grey-haired old man, who appeared to be studying some small, glowing red gemstones with a magnifying glass, lifting each one up in turn and appraising it beneath his lens. The man was obviously oblivious to Gold's presence, so he slowly and quietly crept closer to him. When only one bench remained between the two of them, Gold stood up soundlessly, reaching for a bottle on the bench to knock the old man unconscious with. His fingers were mere millimetres from the bottle, however, when his movement was arrested by a menacing laugh which suddenly echoed through the room.
"Not another move, Gold," said a familiar voice which caused Gold's blood to freeze in his veins; from behind a stone pillar at the back of the room stepped a tall man in a black suit, whose black hair was now punctuated by streaks of white.
"Giovanni?" Gold managed to say.
"But of course," the Team Rocket boss replied, a wide smile on his face, "Dear Gold, you look like you've seen a ghost."
"I… I saw you jump into that waterfall," Gold said, shocked, "I saw you die."
It was about five years ago when Gold had first met Giovanni. After having defeated all of the Gym Leaders in both Johto and Kanto, Gold had been doing some training in Ilex Forest with his friend, Crystal, when the pair of them had seen the forest guardian, Celebi, shoot through the trees towards the forest shrine. Following the Time Travel Pokémon, the two had gotten caught up in a time distortion caused by the injured Celebi, and ended up glimpsing into the past of their other friend, Silver, Giovanni's son. Another distortion left them in a cave behind the Tohjo Falls, where Gold ended up face to face with the former Team Rocket Boss. While Gold's past self battled the head of Neo Team Rocket, Archer, Gold's present self fought with Giovanni; both battles resulted in victory for Gold. The combined shock of being defeated by a child again, and of his subordinate once again disbanding his organisation, apparently broke the once-proud boss of Team Rocket, and he had thrown himself into the deep plunge pool of Tohjo Falls in despair. At that moment, Crystal had successfully treated Celebi's wounds and convinced it to take them back to their own time, but Gold was sure that the violent waters and sharp rocks of the waterfall had spelt the end for Giovanni.
The Team Rocket boss, who still appeared to be very much alive, stood laughing at Gold's consternation.
"In a way, you did see me die," Giovanni said, walking towards the old man, who still appeared to be working at his bench as though nothing was happening around him, "And yet you see me here, reborn, my resolve stronger than it has ever been."
As Giovanni reached the bench and started inspecting one of the red gemstones, the old man turned around, revealing the evil grin on his face. He adjusted his red-lensed glasses and chuckled to himself.
"When my spy told me you were boarding the Magnet Train for Cerulean City, I knew you would make your way here," the little man said, "Why do you think it was so easy for you to enter our hideout?"
When the man said the word 'spy', Gold heard a bizarre cackling from the side of the room. Turning his head, he saw a Sableye laughing to itself, grinning as widely as its master.
Giovanni replaced the red gem on the table, and turned to the old man.
"Good work as always, Charon," Giovanni said, causing the scientist's smile to widen still more, before turning back to Gold, "I don't know how you discovered that we set up our base in Cerulean Cave, Gold, but now you are in our territory, you can be swiftly and cleanly disposed of."
Giovanni clicked his fingers, pointing to the roof of the cave above Gold's head. Looking at where Giovanni was pointing, Gold saw too late the Gliscor that swooped down and pinned him to the floor, its pincers digging painfully into Gold's wrists as he tried to kick off the Fang Scorp Pokémon.
"Goodbye Gold," Giovanni said, smiling sadistically at the scene before him, "Gliscor, Poison Jab!"
Gliscor released one of Gold's arms and drew back its right arm, which began to glow purple with poisonous energy. Despite having one hand free now, Gold was still unable to wrench himself from the Pokémon's grip, and it had positioned itself in such a way that he couldn't even reach for his Poké Balls. As Gliscor was about to bring its poisoned claw down onto Gold's head, the ground beneath Gold started to rumble loudly. With a loud roar, the earth beneath him gave way, and Gold felt himself tumbling down a steep slope, the lights of the laboratory rapidly disappearing away from him. Giovanni's Gliscor had released its grip on Gold entirely when the floor had collapsed, trying not to fall into the hole along with him, but above the sound of falling rock Gold heard Giovanni bellow an order to his Pokémon.
"After him!" he shouted.
Gold saw Gliscor far above him as he fell; it was a long way away, but it was gaining on him. After a minute of tumbling, Gold came to a stop as the shaft gradually levelled off into a horizontal passage. He was bruised and bleeding, but he got to his feet as fast as he could so that he would be ready to face Gliscor. However, from out of the darkness down the tunnel, a blue orb of energy flew right over Gold's head, impacting on the roof of the tunnel a few metres behind Gold and bringing the rocks crashing down with a deafening rumble, blocking the tunnel off and separating Gold from the approaching Pokémon. Now in total darkness, his hand shot to his belt and he grabbed a Poké Ball, calling out his Typhlosion to brighten up the gloom and to face whatever had just tried to attack him.
"Show yourself!" Gold shouted, his voice echoing down the tunnel.
In response to his order, a figure stepped out of the darkness and into the light shed by Typhlosion's flames – it was a Lucario.
