Brock wasn't sure what had happened; he remembered falling, but everything had gone dark when he'd collided with one of the large chunks of falling debris. His senses were slowly returning—and the first thing he realized was that he was suffering from one of the worst headaches he'd ever felt in his life.

The second thing he realized was that, all around him, an argument was going on—

"Chaabok! Chaaabok!"

"Weezing Weeze!"

"Yeah, dey're right! The last time somethin' like this happened, you let us have a truce! Remember—dat island with all them giant Pokémon?"

Charizard's angry roaring responded, and Brock finally looked and saw from the glow of Charizard's tail that he had somehow ended up on the large Pokémon's back.

Ash… he realized.

Ash was a lot of things, but unwaveringly loyal was one of them; he'd clearly been desperate to save him, and had sent his most powerful Pokémon to get the job done. And the gamble had worked; as Brock looked around at all the jagged rubble around them and the minimal extent of his injuries, it was clear that Charizard had definitely prevented anything worse from befalling him.

Arbok, Weezing, and Meowth didn't look that much worse for wear; Weezing must have used his levitate ability to stop his own fall and help Meowth and Arbok, but based on Charizard's angry reaction to their presence, it was clear the hot-tempered winged lizard blamed them for whatever had happened.

Meowth gulped.

"Y-Yeah I know we were all da same size back then and you're bigger than all of us now and don't need our help," he stammered. "But, hey, can't we talk this over, 'mon to 'mon? I swear, we had nothin' ta do with this!"

Arbok and Weezing frantically nodded in agreement.

Charizard's mouth flared in preparation for an attack, and the three Team Rocket Pokémon cringed in sheer fright.

"Whoa, wait a minute!" Brock exclaimed, almost frantically. "They're calling for a truce—they're in no shape to fight!"

The flames in Charizard's mouth grew more intense, and Brock knew he was fighting a losing battle—it had taken so long for Charizard to start obeying Ash since his evolution. Why should he expect Charizard to listen to him, when he wasn't even his trainer?

"Nooooo!" Meowth wailed, as Arbok and Weezing started crying in fear. "Have some moicy on us!"

Charizard merely responded by taking aim.

"No!" Brock cried. "Charizard, stop! Please!"

There was an incredibly intense moment as Charizard's head turned slightly to allow him to look back at Brock, and Brock looked back at Charizard.

And, for the briefest moment, they weren't here, in the chasm of this Johto cave; for just an instant, they were back somewhere in a grassy brushland area of Kanto between Cerulean City and Vermillion City—running through the pouring rain, trying to reach the Pokémon Center, with Brock carrying a severely ill Charmander in his arms as Ash protected the tiny tail flame.

The flames in Charizard's mouth suddenly quelled, and the winged beast closed his mouth, giving Brock a small nod.

Brock released the breath he hadn't even realized he'd been holding. Miraculously, Charizard had decided to listen to him after all, despite having no obligation to do so.

"Okay, now that we've settled that, can someone please tell me what happened while I was knocked out?" he asked.

All four of the other Pokémon started talking over each other immediately.

"Whoa! Whoa, okay! Not all at once—you're making my head hurt!" he said. "Meowth, you tell me in English, and Charizard, you wait til he's done and tell me if it's the truth."

Charizard nodded again, much to Brock's surprise; Ash had told him about Charizard mellowing out in the Orange Islands, but this was more than the older boy had expected of Charizard.

"Okay, so it's like dis…" Meowth said. "Well, you were there for the foist part, so you remember—there was da big kaboom, and da three of us fell, and you fell in after us. Dat younger twoip sent Charizard here to catch ya; it was kinda impressive, really—he dove under you and caught you in midair after you got knocked out, and then he flew off, I guess trying to find a way to fly back up. Weezing broke Arbok's and my fall, and we were trying to find our own way back up when we ran into Charizard, still carryin' ya. And dat's where you came in—or came to, in dis case—with da three of us trying to get him to agree to a truce."

Brock looked to Charizard again, who nodded to agree that, yes, Meowth was telling the truth.

"I'll say one thing for him," Meowth added. "He was a lot easier to get along with when he was a Charmander."

Charizard looked back at Meowth with a snarl, causing him to back off.

"Charizard," Brock said, firmly. "I know you can't stand them, but working together is going to be our best chance in finding the others."

"Weezing, Weeze…"

Brock wasn't sure what Weezing had said, but Charizard had paled, and even Arbok and Meowth stared at him in horror.

"Don't say things like dat! They gotta be okay!"

"Oh, no…" Brock realized. "We really don't have any way of knowing what happened to them, do we…?"

A million worries formed in his head. There was no way to tell how badly the cave-in had been for those who hadn't fallen—what if they had been caught in a slide, buried by debris? What if they were…?

Brock shook the thoughts from his head.

"We've got to believe that they're fine, and that we'll find our way back to them," he declared.

Charizard managed another small nod.

"…I hope you're right, Kid," Meowth said, sincerely. "But how do we get outta here? The chasm we fell in got covered by large chunks of the tunnel ceiling—it's blocked off. And I dunno if you got a good look around, but there ain't much walkin' space down here—it's just a few dry strips of pathway and a whole lotta water."

Brock pulled a small flashlight from his pocket and looked around; sure enough, they were on a small, raised pathway next to the large, underground aquifer.

"At least it's traversable. But first, we've got to find which direction to go. If I had my compass, we could orient ourselves, but it's in my backpack…"

"Chaaabok?"

"Nah, I wouldn't say it's hopeless," Meowth said. "If we could send Weezing up ahead to look around and see if dat's the right way, dat would help." He glanced at Charizard. "And you can fly, too, right?"

Charizard frowned, looking out at the large aquifer.

"Oh, right, you hate water probably even more than I do…" Meowth mused.

"There's a better way," Brock said. "Did you notice how it's not as musty as you'd expect down here? With all this water, you'd think the air would be oppressive down here. Fresh air is flowing in from somewhere—we just have to find out from what direction, and then we can try using that opening for our escape."

"How do we do dat?"

Brock hesitated, glancing back at Charizard.

"Can you hold out your tail?" he asked.

Charizard tilted his head, confused.

"Please?" Brock added.

Charizard still wasn't sure about what Brock was trying to do, but as he held his tail out, he and the other Pokémon looked on in surprise as the stream of fresh air cause the flames to lean in one direction.

"And now we know where the air is coming from," Brock said, indicating the direction. "Let's go—but be careful. The last thing we want is falling into that dark water."

"You got dat right…"

He got down off of Charizard's back and began to lead the others down the pathway.