The way back was surprisingly fast. No more blinding sun, no more heat, no more trainers that always try to challenge you to a delaying battle… The day is slowly coming to end, and I am slowly coming to the goal. I passed some familiar hills and trees and then finally got to the seashore. Vermillion City is near, and so is Diglett Cave.

Now this place was absolutely empty. All tourists are gone, and now just a lone Raticate is crunching something near the entrance. As I approached the cave, pokemon squeaked and ran inside. Am I really that scary? Then I did a really good job over my style.

I cautiously stepped into the darkness of cave. Actually, it wasn`t that dark as long as I am not far from the outside. And there was definitely some other light source deeper in the tunnel.

"Come on, Dumpling, let`s have a walk." I said while taking out a pokeball and releasing my pokemon outside. He wasn`t fond of caves, but he has some experience and I can trust him my own safety.

And so we were slowly walking forward listening to any sounds surrounding us – water drops or the distant rumble of digging Digletts.

"Stay where you are!" Suddenly a loud voice sounded from behind, and something sharp poked me in back of the head. That was so sudden I experienced two shocks at once: from the damn abruptness and the second from the fact I recognize this voice.

"Bill?" I asked carefully.

I ignored the gun pointing at me from behind and turned around to face Bill. Now his mechanical weapon was pointing at my forehead, but I didn`t care.

"If you will take this thing away, I can even say I`m glad to meet you."

Bill was confused for a second, but then hurried to take the gun away.

"Vengeance, right?" He questioned me.

"You can call me Ven. If you promise not to poke me with your guns anymore."

Behind Bill I noticed the Raticate that, I guess, I saw near the entrance. Dumpling looked seriously at him, not showing any trust, and so did he.

"Hey, Dumpling, it`s Bill. He is our friend, I guess."

"Stop this, I am sorry enough." He waved his hand to his pokemon, and they walked back a little. "This is an unexpected encounter. What are you doing here?"

"Firstly, this…" I raised my hand with case to show him. In the first seconds he looked at it with a lot of suspicion, but then recognized it and gladly smiled.

"You got it! I can`t believe this." He took the case from my hands and shook it a little. Something metallic inside rattled quietly.

"I hope this will help me in my investigation." I said to Bill. He immediately raised his eyesight to me and smiled cunningly.

"Follow me."

He headed to one of the tunnels, leading me deeper and deeper in the cave. We were moving pretty quickly, and I managed to notice a couple of Digletts hurrying to get away from us. These are small mole pokemon – always sticking their head out of ground, wherever they are. Partly they look kinda interesting to me, but the fact that they easily dig their way through a solid floor in building and appear from under the carpet, leaving holes everywhere and in everything makes them some considered as varmints. How does their bottom look is a real mystery. Observing even a tamed Diglett is a pain, as I know.

Soon we came to the cave dead end, but this dead end wasn`t usual - a lot of equipment was stored here. A couple of boxes were opened and turned upside down so they could be used as a table and chair. I noticed some papers, laptop, food cans and a toolbox on the larger crate. Some Digletts were pushing a large stone to the wall, and a familiar pokemon – Kletto the Clefairy - was busy with opening the big metal box.

"I see you settled here pretty well." I said to Bill.

"Yeah. It`s like my.. field base of some sort, while I work on a special project." He replied proudly. "Have a rest for a while, guys." He told to Digletts and Kletto. All pokemon gladly nodded and scattered. Bill approached the improvised table and invited me to take a seat. So I took my place behind the table and Bill moved one more box near it to sit too. Not the most comfortable place, but it will do.

"As I can see, you didn`t get a key from it?" He questioned me.

"Well… No." The question confused me a bit. I don`t remember seeing any key in Mr. Aquantis` room.

Bill sighed and immediately moved his toolbox closer and started to open the case.

"Then we will go the hard way."

That made me smile a bit. A creator is breaking in his own creation.

"So, can you tell me about this project of yours?"

"Sure." He replied while working with the case. "I want to talk to local pokemon and persuade them to dig a cave to my underground lab."

"Wow. Are you sure they can make it?"

"It`s no problem for Digletts. But that`s not all. Then we will dig tunnels to the every city of Kanto and launch a train underground, connecting all cities together! Sounds great, yeah?"

"So, you want to invent a subway. Sorry, dude, there is already one in Unova."

"Really?" He was really upset by this news. "Ah, screw them, ours will be better!"

"Well, good luck to you anyway. Any success already?"

"Not much… I can`t persuade wild Digletts to work with me until I catch them and order to do so… But I managed to catch just two of them. Others… Just ignore my pokeballs. They literally ricocheted from their heads! So I couldn`t get any help from them."

"Strange… Did you offer them money, power and long life? Who knows what these creeps want." I sarcastically joked and looked back at some wild Digletts on the distance.

"Exactly! I have no idea what they tell me in reply. I wish I had a translator of some sort…"

"You are an inventor! Invent some!"

"This is not that easy." Bill put away his tools and looked at me. "I tried, believe me. But I had no success. It`s easier to find a talking pokemon than invent a device like this."

"There are talking pokemon?" I was really surprised.

"Well, I didn`t meet any." Bill slowly returned to the process of unlocking the case. "Some people say that psychic and ghost types can, but… I don`t believe it. I have four psychic-type and three ghost-type pokemon, and they do not talk."

"What about… legendary pokemon?" I suddenly asked.

He stopped to think. The silence fell on us in this cave.

"I don`t think they exist." He finally replied.

"So, you think that the great Kanto trio is a fiction?"

"Different legends tell different things about them. The same thing is usually told about… gods in any religion. I don`t believe in this crap."

"Ah yes, you`re a scientist. An atheist… Actually, I don`t believe this too. But sometimes I think about my life… And make a conclusion that, at least, curses exist."

"The same goes to me." Bill smiled.

"I wish I could talk to pokemon. I want to understand them… Understand what they want. This could solve so many problems. For example… After a battle when pokemon suddenly tries to perform a new move he would say 'Hey! I can do this thing now!'"

"Hah. What`s the problem with this?" Bill smirked. "You can check their moves in the stationary machines in PokeCenters."

"No, this is not the problem… The problem is that I can`t control this process. I know they can learn just four moves at once, right? Some sort of… nature mechanism, or instinct – I don`t know. What if my Dumpling will learn something new and forget something old but necessary for me? Smokescreen, for example? I use this move very often in battle."

"Well, I think I have something that could help you. I invented a 'TM case' that can control the moves of your pokemon, helps you teach moves through disks right with it, and much more."

"Wow… That sounds really cool. I would be very grateful for this."

If he is telling the truth, the device like this could be very handy for me on my journey. I just need to get it somehow.

"I`m glad that someone appreciates my inventions." Bill smiled again and finally clicked the mechanism in his case. The box opened, revealing the metallic device inside. It looked pretty high-tech and too difficult for me.

Bill took the device from his case and put it on box-table. Then he cautiously pulled closer the laptop and connected with a wire to the device. After a couple of minutes clicking buttons on his laptop he finally moved away from it and leaned on a rock behind him with a satisfied look.

"Now I will copy the info on my scanner, and we will be able to find out what secrets it has."

"Thanks a lot, dude. I`m in your debt." I tried to lean back too, but I nearly fell back because of nothing being behind me. So I leaned on the table and looked at Bill again. And he looked at me.

"So… You managed to beat Misty, yeah?" He suddenly asked.

"She told you about that…" For a second I felt a little bit of pride because of Misty telling her ex-boyfriend that I, her ex-ex-boyfriend, beat her in a gym battle. "Yeah, I have the Cascade badge from her. Have to say, she is quite strong battler."

"Yeah, she is…" For some reason Bill guiltily looked away from me. "Why did you two actually break your relationship?"

I don`t like to speak about my relationships with anyone. Especially with men. I feel something wrong in it. But right now I had some feeling that I need to speak out.

"Actually, we never broke up. Nearly seven years ago she left Kanto for a vacation, and then… a lot of shit happened. After that I just couldn`t stay with her. I met Misty just one more time and left her. I had to."

"Ah, destiny can be rough sometimes…" Bill replied and checked the process on his screen.

"Why did YOU two broke up?" I asked him in reply.

"Well, it`s quite trivially. I spent too much time on my projects, not much time with her. My gifts were all hand-made and sometimes dangerous… And, in the end, I almost burned her house… So, she got hysteria and left me. After that I realized I don`t need a girlfriend too much… At least, not now. Anyway, we are still good friends and drink tea sometimes... Oh! By the way…" Suddenly Bill opened the small crate near him and took out a thermos and two small cups. "Want some tea?"

"Sure, why not? Great idea! Let`s have a teatime in the middle of damn cave surrounded by wild and angry pokemon."

"Why do you think they are angry?" He asked me with a bit of worry in his voice.

"Because they are watching us…" I pointed behind his back. He turned to see a wild Diglett sticking out of a rock behind and looking straight at him. After the first Diglett Bill noticed another one, from the other side. I stayed absolutely still and calm, although I counted six wild pokemon behind him and seven more behind me, reflecting in my glasses. But some of them were sticking out of one hole, and I suspect them counting as one pokemon – Dugtrio. A larger and stronger and stranger evolution of Diglett.

Really scared Bill turned back to the table and froze.

"How long are they here?" He asked me with trembling whispering voice.

"A couple of minutes." I replied calmly.

"Why didn`t you tell me?"

"I didn`t want to spoil the touching moment."

Just now I thought about our pokemon. Where are our pokemon? If the wild ones are preparing an attack, our guys had to warn us. Just a minute ago I could hear the joyful barking of Dumpling and glad cries of Kletto and Raticate. Now it is just us and a whole bunch of Dig-family.

"What are we gonna do?" Bill whispered.

"We wanted to have a tea, right?"

"Are you kidding? With all of them standing right here?"

"The first thing life taught me – never show your fear to your enemy. He will definitely use it against you. Otherwise he will have nothing to use, and go away." This didn't seem to calm Bill down, just scare him even more and plus confused. "Well, this doesn`t always work in life. But sometimes it does."

Bill tried to open a thermos with his shaking hands, but I stopped him.

"Give me that, you`ll spill everything." I opened the thermos by myself and cautiously poured the tea into two cups. It was still hot, just as I like.

"What do they want?" Bill whispered even quieter while taking his teacup.

"Let`s think…" I leaned back and put one leg on another. "You came on their territory to build a subway for people. You wanted to use them as the work force. And these guys know perfectly that when subway is finished, they will not be able to live there anymore. Conclusion? They do not want to spoil their home but they want to throw a random indulgent human away. Maybe, in pieces – who knows?"

Bill sadly looked down realizing his guilt. In a deep thought he made a small sip from the cup.

"Take this." I took out a chocolate bar from my pocket and handed it over to Bill. "The tea will taste better and help you calm down."

He looked at me like at a madman, but accepted the offer. Surrounding Digletts started to make some strange noises, and come a bit closer. I noticed the look of impatience on their solid faces, and that looked to be curious and suspicious at the same time.

I took a chocolate bar for myself and made a sip from teacup. The warmth from drink filled my body, and the taste of it was really good… and familiar. Bill seemed to enjoy this too despite the crazy atmosphere around us.

"So… Why do they not attack?" Bill suddenly asked, taking away an emptied cup.

The question was… strangely good. Why Digletts just stand there, around us, periodically coming a bit closer and further. What are they waiting for?

And then just suddenly I realized everything.

Bill noticed worried look on my face, and that made him worry more too.

"What?"

"Take everything you can carry and be ready…" I whispered to him. He questionably raised his eyebrow, but asked nothing more, just slowly and without any sharp movement closed his laptop and disconnected the scanner device.

"Oh, and prepare your pokemon too…" I added even more quiet.

I stood up from the box and stood in the center of this small cave room, attracting the attention of pokemon to me.

"So… Gentleman… Or ladies… whatever gender you, creeps, are. We are terribly sorry for this… troublemaking human over there. We will leave the tunnels of your underground kingdom and never return. Hope we could achieve the understanding."

Digletts suddenly started to clamor loudly so even I could feel a small shake around me. This is not going to end well if these guys cause an earthquake or something like that and collapse the cave on us.

Digletts` constant moving up and down made me dazzle a bit. I shook my head and then made a step forward.

"We mean you no harm, folks. Don`t you believe me? Maybe he can make you believe." I cautiously took a scratched pokeball and dropped it on ground, releasing my

Weepinbell outside. Digletts and Dugtrios tenses before the sight of him. I guess, it`s no surprise as they all are definitely ground-type. Some smaller Digletts moved a bit further from us.

"No? You don`t trust him?" I playfully asked the angered crowd. "How about these guys?" And I added Reaper and Moment to the circle of defenders. "Just stay here, guys… Don`t provoke them."

But we didn`t need to provoke them for an attack as the diggers attacked on their own. Every wild pokemon in the room quickly hid under the ground and then appeared right under us, hitting boxes and legs with their heads.

"Moment, find Dumpling! Harry, whip all of them with your vines! Reaper, use Fury attack!" I gave orders to my pokemon and then turned back. "Bill, are you already?" I rushed back to him and helped to put some tools in the box and close it.

"Thanks. Let`s go." He said with such sadness in his voice. Yeah, we can`t take all the equipment with us and the most of it will be lost here and destroyed by local pokemon. But our lives cost a bit more, I guess.

I accidentally kicked one of Digletts trying to hit me from under the ground, stumbled on him and nearly fall forward, but Bill grabbed my hand and helped to restore balance.

"This way." He ran into one of the tunnels that, I guess, lead to the exit. I had to follow him.

"Team, move on!" I shouted to my pokemon and ran from the room. I had to return my Weepinbell as he isn`t very fast to keep up with us, so Reaper was flying right near me. Bill suddenly turned right on the divarication, and at this moment I heard something strange from the left.

"Wait a second!" I tried to hear what`s there. Through the noise from digging pokemon underground I heard the scream of Moment. "He found them! Here!" I rushed to the left and after some meters could hear Bill running into my direction.

Digletts and Dugtrios appeared to be quite fast pokemon as they overtook us even under ground and started to appear on our way, endangering to make us stumble on them more than actually hit. Reaper accelerated before us and hit some Dugtrios sticking out of ground on our way, making them go back under ground.

"Thanks, Reaper!" I raised my thumb up and jumped over another Diglett, luckily dodging another collision. Moment`s cry was louder and louder as we approached the source.

Soon we reached another cave room filled with new group of Digletts and Dugtrios. The group of pursuers blocked us from behind, so we were quickly surrounded by these pokemon. A large hole in the ceiling stated that we are close to the surface, but still it was too high for us to reach. I had to take some time to look around and notice the bodies of fainted Dumpling, Kletto and Raticate in the center of room

"Here they are!" I shouted to Bill and pointed at them. "Do you have any Revives?"

"I do. But I don`t have time to use them." He replied while returning his pokemon back to pokeballs.

"Fair enough." I replied while returning my Dumlping back too. "But now we are surrounded. Should we fight?"

"Not anymore." Bill said proudly and took a whistle of some sort. He blew in it but no sound was made. Just a loud roar from high above, and almost immediately a large shaded silhouette flew over the gap in ceiling.

"What the heck was that?" I wondered.

"My personal rescue team." Bill replied and jumped a bit away from the space under the gap. A second after that some creature fell down from the sky, crushing the ground over us and scaring away the nearest foes. This pokemon was quite tough-looking – he had large skinny wings, armed with short but sharp claws, strong leg, big menacing jaw and a long spiky tail. The body looked pretty solid and strong and covered with small pieces of rock.

"Ramos, use Steel wing!"

The pokemon swung with his huge wing, slashing the wild pokemon under him and making them hide in the ground. This gave Bill some time to jump on the back of his pokemon and give a hand to me.

"Get in!"

I wanted to object that flying on pokemon is a very dangerous and risky thing, but I didn`t want to stay alone with this mad potato-heads sticking out of the ground, so I grabbed his hand and get on Ramos too. We flew through the destroyed hole in the ceiling and rise very high. I could literally see the whole Kanto from here. Even a part of Johto, maybe.

"Come on, big guy, you`re not restored completely. Head to the landing." Bill told his pokemon with care. The monster replied with a sad roar and slowly headed to the nearest road. All this time I was absolutely silent. The excitement filled me completely, as the fresh air hits my face with all its might. I forgot about all precaution and just enjoyed the flight.

Holy shit this is so cool! I definitely evolve my Dumlping into a mighty Charizard and will fly on him everywhere!

I came back to senses just when we already landed. Bill looked at my face, confused and at the same time broken into pleasure, and clicked fingers in front of me.

"Hello? Are you okay?"

Well, to my surprise, this helped. I shook my head, looked around and jumped off the pokemon.

"This was awesome! What pokemon is that?" I looked up at the monster.

"That`s Aerodactyl. Quite rare pokemon, I should say. They extinct many thousands of years ago, but I was so lucky to find a fossil with its DNA. Some my friend from the laboratory helped me restore it to a completed pokemon!"

"Amazing… Just amazing…" I lost my speech for a moment. Trying to keep my thoughts together, I reminded myself about my mission and all that not-so-awesome stuff.

But another look on Aerodactyl made me wish a new thing…

"I want to battle your Aerodactyl." I declared to Bill. He just smirked a bit.

"I`m not sure. Ramos haven`t restored his powers completely yet after the… resurrection." Bill gently scratched the hard skin of his pokemon. "But I have another Aerodactyl, much older and stronger. Maybe we will battle someday, but not today."

"You`re right. We all are tired after that… incident in the cave." I remembered that my ace pokemon is fainted right now, and even though I have some Revives I don`t want to throw him into battle this moment. "I`m sorry for your equipment left behind."

"At least, we saved this." He replied and took the scanner device from his pocked and raised it high enough before me to make sure it`s almost intact. It wasn`t. The device looked like trash after all this, but Bill seemed to be sure he still can save the data on it.

"Okay… But you seem to lose your laptop on the way."

Bill shockingly looked around him to realize I tell the sad truth.

"Oh crap… That stupid idea costed me quite a lot." He looked at the scanner in his hand like he`s going to smash it to pieces in rage.

"Don`t worry, dude, if there`s something I can do – just tell me. You`re helping me already with this thing..." I put my hand on his shoulder and gave him a friendly look. After all, I feel a little guilty for the happened too.

"Ah, never mind. I`ll find the way to restore things. But… let`s have a little rest."

Bill pointed at the nearest tree with some logs lying nearby. The night is surprisingly warm, so we could actually have some rest here. So I found a nice spot on the log and sat near him leaning with my back. The sky above looks so calm and quiet… Actually, it never changes. It is always stays the same, from any place…

"How did you know they will actually attack us?" Bill suddenly asked.

This was obvious. Too obvious. For me. He can`t see the things I see.

"Because… They behaved not like the usual wild pokemon." I replied gloomily. "They distracted us, then took our pokemon away and beat them far enough from us. Then they surrounded us and patiently waited… For an order." I turned my head to Bill. "And in the end, you said you couldn`t catch them. Pokeballs ricocheted from them. That means they are already caught by someone."

"Holy crap… Do you think..?"

"Yes, Bill. This was not a usual attack. This was the intended assault."