"Ugh, what is with this place!?" Jessie demanded. "We haven't found a single place where we can dig though the floor without falling through ourselves!"

"It's a cave that was unstable to begin with," Misty sighed.

"And one we never should've been in," Ash sighed. "I swear, if… when we get Brock and Charizard out of here, if he says he doesn't have a good feeling about somewhere, we don't go there."

"And I guess that means we'll be okay—we'll be following you," James said, with a lopsided smile.

"…You really don't have to do that," Misty said, after a moment.

"Hey, it's all we know," Jessie said. "Where else would we go if…" She trailed off as a light became visible. "Hey, is that…?"

"It's the end of the tunnel!" Ash realized.

"Well, that's all well and good for us," James said. "But what about the others?"

Ash looked at Geodude's Pokéball in his hand.

"So, I have an idea," he said, after a long pause.

"…Pikapi…?" Pikachu asked, unsure.

Misty frowned.

"Ash, I don't think I like what you're thinking…"

"Look, you three get out of the cave—you'll be okay," Ash said. "And Misty, look after Pikachu." He winced as Pikachu let out a cry of disagreement. "I'll stay with Geodude and dig through the floor here."

"…Is this safe?" Jessie asked, wide-eyed.

"I don't know, but it doesn't make sense having all of us in danger, does it!?" Ash pointed out. "Look, you guys can be right outside—you'll hear if… if anything goes wrong, and then you can intervene."

"…No," Misty said, firmly.

"But—"

"It's like I said earlier; Brock is my friend, too—and so is Charizard," she said. "I'll stand back, but I'm not going out there."

"Misty, us being stubborn is how Brock and Charizard got into this situation in the first place!" Ash reminded her.

Misty winced, looking away.

"I know you're right, but… how can I stand back and just do nothing!?" she asked, despairing.

"And it's part of our team down there, too," Jessie added. "If you twerps think we're also just going to sit out there and do nothing—"

"…May I make a suggestion?" James interrupted, quietly. "I think I have an idea that might allow us to help with saving our friends while still limiting the direct danger to most of us."

The others glanced at him in surprise as he held up another Pokéball.

"Geodude is probably only going to listen to either one of you two, and your specialty is with water Pokémon, so," James continued, nodding at Misty as he tossed the Pokéball to open it. "It'll be better if he instructs Geodude on what to do while we'll stay at the mouth of the cave and—VICTREEBEL, NO!"

Victreebel screeched, but paused in her usual attempt to greet James by chomping at him, rapidly realizing that this wasn't the time to be doing that.

"Right. Anyway," James continued. "We'll wait right at the entrance, and Victreebel will use Vine Whip to tether you to us, and we'll all brace her while you instruct Geodude to do his thing."

"And we can also have Bulbasaur and Chikorita hold on to you, too!" Misty added. "That's… actually a really good idea!"

"I have been known to be brilliant in a crisis," James said, proudly.

"…No, you really haven't," Jessie scoffed. "But I'll give it to you this time if it means getting the team back together."

Misty rolled her eyes, but then looked to Ash.

"Can you live with that?"

"Yeah, I guess I can," he sighed. "Let's just hope the digging part of the plan works and we can find the others."

She nodded, and Pikachu leaped to her shoulder as she, Jessie, James, and Victreebel stood at the cave's mouth. Victreebel wrapped a vine around Ash as he sent out Bulbasaur and Chikorita there to do the same.

Once he was secured by three sets of vines, Ash drew a determined sigh and called out Brock's Geodude.

"Geodude," he said. "This is hard for me to say, but… there was an accident earlier, and Brock fell down to the lower cavern in this cave, and Charizard and some of Team Rocket's Pokémon ended up down there with him. We don't know what happened to them, but we're hoping you can dig your way through the floor around here so that we can send Heracross and Zubat to find them. Can you do that?"

Geodude nodded.

"Okay, um…" Ash inspected the floor of the cave, doing a double take as he saw a crack in the floor near the wall. "Hey, that might be a good place to start digging; but be careful—we don't want any more of the cave collapsing."

Geodude nodded again, and began to dig at the crack; Ash stood by to help direct him, as well as calling forth Heracross to fly around and help clear debris out of the cave. Zubat also flew around, using supersonic to keep an eye on how thick and stable the cavern floor was during the digging.

The others maintained their post by the three grass Pokémon, holding on in case they'd need to help brace them.

"Just hold on a little longer, Guys," Ash said, softly. "We're getting you out of there—I promise."