Pokémon - The Journey Begins
Chapter 6: A New Friend
Matt, after winning his first badge at Pewter City, is feeling rather proud of himself. After some experience with trainer battles, he felt he is ready to take his Pokémon training to the next level by collecting the remaining badges at the other Indigo gyms while at the same time increasing his Pokémon collection.
Squirtle, Matt's first Pokémon, was not too far behind him, still disliking the tight confinement of the Pokéball. He however realized that there are certain times when he must return, regardless of his personal thoughts. After all, Matt is his trainer; he knows best.
Walking down the long, dark cavern of Mount Moon, Matt stopped to look at the archetecture on the walls.
"Wow, Squirtle, take a look at this," Matt said, hearing slight echo from his voice. "Heh, cool. But seriously, come and look."
Squirtle, somewhat interested took a look at the cavern walls. He didn't exactly understand what was so intriguing about these walls.
"I think it's cool," Matt commented. He then turned his attention to further down in the cave, where there were several lanterns and digging tools scattered all over the ground.
"I wonder what all of these are for?" Matt muttered. "Are they digging for something?"
Matt walked closer to the tools to investigate out of curiosity. However, he heard a small digging noise not too far from him. He turned his attention toward it, and spotted a red, insect-like creature planting some mushrooms into the ground.
"A bug Pokémon?" Matt asked himself aloud then stands up. "Hey, isn't that a Paras? Cool! If I catch that, then I'll have five Pokémon to carry around."
Matt pulled out a Pokéball from his Pokémon belt and enlarged it. He then tossed it onto the ground close to the Paras.
"Spearow, go!" The Pokéball sprung open, with Spearow's shape taking form. It screeched upon its release.
"Spearow, Peck Attack!"
Paras, hearing the Spearow's cry turned around to witness its surroundings. However, it turned around just in time to be struck by several peckings from the Spearow. The persistent attacks eventually flipped Paras over on its back. Matt quickly pulled out an empty Pokéball and threw it at the weakened Paras. After the Pokémon was confined, it began shifting around. It stopped after a few more seconds.
"That was a bit too easy," Matt commented. "Well, I hope that this isn't a weak Pokémon...."
Matt picked up his new capture and patted Spearow on the head for a job well done. In case of future encounters, Matt decided to keep his Spearow outside of the Pokéball.
As Matt continueed to walk down the vast cavern of Mount Moon, he was rather disturbed by the continued silence. The only sounds which he could hear are his footfalls, the quieter yet blunt footfalls of the Squirtle, and the Spearow on his shoulder who picked through its feathers in an attempt to groom itself.
"Was this Paras the only Pokémon here?" Matt wondered.
Several moments later, the sound of metal hitting the cavern walls was heard.
"Keep working, Zach!" a female voice shouted.
Matt stopped in his tracks. "Wait a second...I know that voice," he quietly muttered, placing his index finger on his chin, and his thumb close to his mouth.
An exasperated sigh is heard shortly after. "Come now, I've dug everywhere! Surely you don't want my delicate gloves to get ruined doing such meaningless mine work! Let's just give up!!"
Matt's eyes widened. "Team Rocket?!" he said, almost too loud. In reaction he covered his mouth, hoping that he wasn't heard.
Matt took a few steps back slowly, but Squirtle didn't realize what was happening, and had his foot stepped on.
"Squirtle!" Squirtle yelled, pulling his foot back and started rubbing it.
"Damn it! I'm sorry!" Matt replied, kneeling down towards Squirtle.
"Who's there?" demanded the female voice. She walked around the corner and saw Matt, Squirtle and Spearow. "You! It's you!"
"Huh?" the male voice replied and quickly took a peek around the corner. "Oh my, Cloë, that little rat has returned! Upon our retreat from the Viridian Forest, we nearly were captured by the police."
"Nearly!" Cloë replied.
"You little rat. You made us so very angry that we had to capture some even stronger Pokémon than the last time so that we may do away with you," Zach said.
"You guys are a joke," Matt commented. "Don't think I'll be losing to the likes of you." Matt stood up and dusted off his knees.
"This time, we know better. We shall strike at once!" Cloë shouted, throwing a Pokéball. "Clefairy, go!"
"Vulpix, go!" Zach said.
The two Pokéballs struck the ground as the both sprang open. A sout, pink Pokémon with small wings appeared from one Pokéball, and a small fox-like Pokémon with several tails appeared from the other.
"Fine...if you want to use two Pokémon at once, then I'll do the same!" Matt replied, looking at both Squirtle and Spearow. "Get them!"
Squirtle, from its neutral position attacked full force with its Water Gun. Since Vulpix was a fire-type, the water damaged it greatly. It attempted to counter with an attack of its own, but Squirtle struck it with a Tackle attack, sending it violently into the cavern walls.
Spearow's speed and agility flew around Clefairy several times to lower its defenses. Clefairy, constantly watching and moving around in circles to keep in pace with the Spearow, became very dizzy. Spearow witnessed this as a perfect time to strike, and collided with it head on. Clefairy was sent off of its feet and crashing rougly into the ground. Neither Pokémon was moving.
"No fair, no fair, no fair!" Zach complained. "We even put forth a lot of effort into taking these Pokémon! Fine, we'll just have to keep on fighting."
Cloë grabbed Zach's hand which was reaching for another Pokéball.
"Don't bother! We need to find the Moon Stone; we can't keep wasting time with such trivial matters!" Cloë pulled a smoke bomb, and throws it on the ground, completely fogging the area.
"Damn it, not again!" Matt shouted, inhaling and coughing from the polluted air. He dropped to his knees and began to cough even harder.
"Why the hell isn't the smoke clearing?!" Matt roughly shouted with tears in his eyes due to the hot smoke which continued to flood the area. "Is it because we're indoors?! Damn it! I'm going to suffocate!"
Matt, slowly climbed up to his feet, then searched for both Squirtle and Spearow. The smoke had cleared slightly enough for Matt to see just a little bit. Having both of them in hand, he began to run; he was stopped shortly by tripping over the fallen Clefairy, and crashing violently with his elbows scraping into the ground.
"OUCH! For the love of God!" He began to hyperventilate, but slowed down his breathing when he realized that the smoke was as a matter of fact clearing. He sighed, then slowly pulled himself to his feet, brushing off the pieces of rock that were stuck to his clothing.
Matt looked at the cuts and scrapes on both his arms and legs. He then checked to make sure that Squirtle and Spearow were all right.
Out of frustration, Matt looks down the long cavern and let out a frustrated yet: "Damn you, Team Rocket! I swear one of these days you'll get yours!" Matt shouted. He then sighed, and grinned. "Well...I feel better--hmm?"
Matt noticed that both the Clefairy and Vulpix from the previous battle were left behind. Didn't Team Rocket say that they were stolen? Matt thought to himself.
"It won't hurt having these two," Matt commented, searching for an empty Pokéball. "Crud, I only have a few left. I'll have to make sure to stock up when I get to the next city."
Matt tapped both Vulpix and Clefairy with empty Pokéballs. Both of them were contained inside, and since they were both weakened, there was no conflict in either one of them. Picking up the two Pokéballs, one of them glowed brightly and vanished. The other Pokéball remained.
"What the...? Where did it go?!" Matt shouted, and started to look around. "Wait a minute...I had four Pokémon coming in here, Paras made five and...of course! I can only hold six Pokémon at a time. Since I captured the Vulpix first, the Clefairy had to be the one which was sent back."
Matt then turned his attention to the abandoned tools which were being used to pick at the walls. "Now I'm not so sure that this is a natural cavern. I could be wrong, but Team Rocket said that they were digging for some sort of stone. I guess that's why all the digging tools are here," Matt said aloud.
Matt, certain that he may not battle any other Pokémon placed Spearow back inside of its Pokéball. With Squirtle right next to him, he continued to walk down the long cavern.
Shortly, rapid and consistent footfalls were heard further ahead in the cavern, as if somebody was running. "Val! Val! Where are you?!" a female voice cried. "Val!!!"
"Hello?!" Matt yelled. "Who's there?"
The girl slows down, hearing the voice close. She then turned a corner and spotted Matt. "Oh, I'm sorry. Excuse me, my name is Lizzie, and I was wondering if you've seen a Vulpix? It's a fox-like Pokémon with about five tails. Team Rocket came and stole her from me," she explained.
"Well, I found a Vulpix here just a few moments ago, but I don't know exactly if it's yours. I do recall Team Rocket saying it was stolen."
"Really?! That has to be the one then!" Lizzie shouted.
"I don't know, can you prove it to me?" Matt asked.
Lizzie frowned. "Hey, why are you being so stuck-up? It has to be mine, I know it is!" she shouted.
"Okay, okay, you don't have to shout. Fine, I'll use my Pokédex." From his pocket Matt dug out his Pokédex. He then removed Vulpix from his Pokémon belt and scanned its identification. Several tidbits of information appeared. Date it was originally captured, its number, and its original trainer. Unfortunately, Lizzie's name was not there.
"Sorry, the only information on this one is my information," Matt replied.
"That's because when they stole her from me, they cleared the Pokéball's information and had her classified as 'wild'. Please, you have to believe me, I would never mooch a Pokémon from anybody!"
"I wouldn't know this; I mean I don't even know you."
"Come on!" Lizzie shouted.
"Okay, fine. Since Team Rocket said that it was stolen in the first place, then it has to be yours. Problem is, I had an encounter with it and it's currently knocked out." Matt enlarged the Pokéball and opened it. An exhausted Vulpix rested on the field.
"Val! It really is her!" Lizzie shouted, kneeling over to pick up her Pokémon. "Thank you, thank you SO much!"
Yeah, yeah...where do you come from, anyway?" Matt asked.
"Me? I live in Cerulean City. I came here to go back home, because I had just earned a Boulder Badge back in Pewter City. Then I ran into Team Rocket, and they stole my Vulpix!" Lizzie replied loudly. "Oh, I'm sorry, I just got really excited. But thank you for finding my Vulpix!"
"A Boulder Badge? When?" Matt asked.
"Just yesterday. Why?" Lizzie asked.
"That's funny...when I fought with the gym leader he said that I was the first trainer to beat him in almost a few years," Matt replied.
"He did? Geez, you know, he said the same thing to me, too! What, you don't believe me? Look!" Lizzie reached into her pocket and showed it to Matt with her palm open. Surely enough, that was the Boulder Badge.
"Strange...anyway, I'm Matt. I travel from Pallet Town. I'm actually a new trainer."
"There seem to be a lot of them lately. I'm relatively new actually; I'm part of the new generation where you can be ten in order to become a Pokémon trainer."
"Yeah, that's me, too."
"Mind if I join? I get very lonely, and the people in Cerulean often tease me, so I decided to become a Pokémon trainer," Lizzie said, with a half evil smirk on her face.
"So you're doing it to impress everyone..." Matt muttered.
"Gee, what gave it away?" Lizzie asked, winking.
Matt blushed. "Well, I suppose it wouldn't hurt to travel with someone. I mean, this old guy back in Viridian City said it would be a good idea to find a traveling companion. Mostly because of Team Rocket."
"Yeah, that's what everybody's been saying back at home, too! 'Don't go alone; Team Rocket will come and eat you!' That's what everybody's saying to the kids back at home. I guess if it scares them enough, it'll actually convince them."
"Yeah, but if it's this dangerous, why aren't they traveling with somebody older?" Matt asks.
Lizzie shrugged. "It beats me. You know, parents are so lazy these days, they want to find excuses for them not to raise their own children."
"I hear that," Matt replied, chuckling "So, shall we get going? I'm going to Cerulean City, too. I want the Cascade Badge."
"Sure, let's go!" Lizzie said, smiling.
Both of them continue to travel the long, twisted path of Mount Moon. Fortunately for Matt, Lizzie had already been in the mountain a few times, so navigating wasn't very difficult. While traveling, a swarm of Zubats bothered them, but Matt and Lizzie managed to catch one each.
"That makes seven...again!" Matt said.
After ascending a large hill, Matt pointed ahead, and noticed a bright light from the top. It was the exit to Mount Moon. Excited, Matt quickly darted up the hill and ran right through the exit. Though the light outside was blinding at first, Matt was surrounded by the bright sun, followed by a cool breeze. Fresh air at last.
Lizzie and Squirtle weren't too far behind; they too rushed to get outdoors. Lizzie pointed off in the distance towards the entrance to Cerulean City. Matt became excited.
"All right. I'm ready to go for another badge," Matt said. He then looked towards Lizzie. "Since you already live here, do you already have a badge?"
"Well...since I'm a friend of one of the gym leaders, they gave me one. I feel rather guilty about it," Lizzie said, frowning.
"Don't worry, I'm sure you're good enough to have earned it if you had battled." Matt lowered his head. "But, something puzzles me...."
"Well? Are you going to tell me what is? Well, obviously you are; why else would you bring it up?"
Matt laughed. "You know too much. When I encountered Team Rocket today, they said they were digging for some kind of stone. Do you know what it is?"
"Oh, that. Moon Stone. That's pretty much what makes Mount Moon so popular. They're always closing off certain sections of it just to look for it. It's actually a very valuable piece of material; some sell it for cash, but I only think it's popular because it causes some Pokémon to evolve."
"Oh, it's one of those evolution stones then..." Matt replied
"Well, except that this is very valuable. There was so much of it one time that you could literally take it away in handfuls. But now, it's so rare that people can barely see any of it anymore. I mean, there are dozens of excavations each year, but hardly any of it can be found. Most people get rich off it by auctioning it off to the highest bidder."
"Well, I don't like the idea of these evolution stones. I really don't..." Matt commented.
"Hmm?" Lizzie asked.
"Well, using evolution stones is a sign of laziness in my opinion. I mean, why choose a Pokémon if you're not going to spend time training it to get stronger naturally?"
"Well, a lot of the older trainers get a little impatient and want to use evolution stones. I really don't like the idea much either. But you can't really judge a Pokémon trainer if they've used an evolution stone. I've read stories of trainers being forced to use evolution stones to save their lives."
"That's true, but I guess we agree on something. That's important in a relationship," Matt muttered, not exactly realizing that he was thinking out loud.
Lizzie shot Matt a look. "What do you mean by that?"
"Huh?! Matt turned red. "Oh...I mean a friendship, not a--oh, never mind. Let's just go."
TO BE CONTINUED.
Chapter 6: A New Friend
Matt, after winning his first badge at Pewter City, is feeling rather proud of himself. After some experience with trainer battles, he felt he is ready to take his Pokémon training to the next level by collecting the remaining badges at the other Indigo gyms while at the same time increasing his Pokémon collection.
Squirtle, Matt's first Pokémon, was not too far behind him, still disliking the tight confinement of the Pokéball. He however realized that there are certain times when he must return, regardless of his personal thoughts. After all, Matt is his trainer; he knows best.
Walking down the long, dark cavern of Mount Moon, Matt stopped to look at the archetecture on the walls.
"Wow, Squirtle, take a look at this," Matt said, hearing slight echo from his voice. "Heh, cool. But seriously, come and look."
Squirtle, somewhat interested took a look at the cavern walls. He didn't exactly understand what was so intriguing about these walls.
"I think it's cool," Matt commented. He then turned his attention to further down in the cave, where there were several lanterns and digging tools scattered all over the ground.
"I wonder what all of these are for?" Matt muttered. "Are they digging for something?"
Matt walked closer to the tools to investigate out of curiosity. However, he heard a small digging noise not too far from him. He turned his attention toward it, and spotted a red, insect-like creature planting some mushrooms into the ground.
"A bug Pokémon?" Matt asked himself aloud then stands up. "Hey, isn't that a Paras? Cool! If I catch that, then I'll have five Pokémon to carry around."
Matt pulled out a Pokéball from his Pokémon belt and enlarged it. He then tossed it onto the ground close to the Paras.
"Spearow, go!" The Pokéball sprung open, with Spearow's shape taking form. It screeched upon its release.
"Spearow, Peck Attack!"
Paras, hearing the Spearow's cry turned around to witness its surroundings. However, it turned around just in time to be struck by several peckings from the Spearow. The persistent attacks eventually flipped Paras over on its back. Matt quickly pulled out an empty Pokéball and threw it at the weakened Paras. After the Pokémon was confined, it began shifting around. It stopped after a few more seconds.
"That was a bit too easy," Matt commented. "Well, I hope that this isn't a weak Pokémon...."
Matt picked up his new capture and patted Spearow on the head for a job well done. In case of future encounters, Matt decided to keep his Spearow outside of the Pokéball.
As Matt continueed to walk down the vast cavern of Mount Moon, he was rather disturbed by the continued silence. The only sounds which he could hear are his footfalls, the quieter yet blunt footfalls of the Squirtle, and the Spearow on his shoulder who picked through its feathers in an attempt to groom itself.
"Was this Paras the only Pokémon here?" Matt wondered.
Several moments later, the sound of metal hitting the cavern walls was heard.
"Keep working, Zach!" a female voice shouted.
Matt stopped in his tracks. "Wait a second...I know that voice," he quietly muttered, placing his index finger on his chin, and his thumb close to his mouth.
An exasperated sigh is heard shortly after. "Come now, I've dug everywhere! Surely you don't want my delicate gloves to get ruined doing such meaningless mine work! Let's just give up!!"
Matt's eyes widened. "Team Rocket?!" he said, almost too loud. In reaction he covered his mouth, hoping that he wasn't heard.
Matt took a few steps back slowly, but Squirtle didn't realize what was happening, and had his foot stepped on.
"Squirtle!" Squirtle yelled, pulling his foot back and started rubbing it.
"Damn it! I'm sorry!" Matt replied, kneeling down towards Squirtle.
"Who's there?" demanded the female voice. She walked around the corner and saw Matt, Squirtle and Spearow. "You! It's you!"
"Huh?" the male voice replied and quickly took a peek around the corner. "Oh my, Cloë, that little rat has returned! Upon our retreat from the Viridian Forest, we nearly were captured by the police."
"Nearly!" Cloë replied.
"You little rat. You made us so very angry that we had to capture some even stronger Pokémon than the last time so that we may do away with you," Zach said.
"You guys are a joke," Matt commented. "Don't think I'll be losing to the likes of you." Matt stood up and dusted off his knees.
"This time, we know better. We shall strike at once!" Cloë shouted, throwing a Pokéball. "Clefairy, go!"
"Vulpix, go!" Zach said.
The two Pokéballs struck the ground as the both sprang open. A sout, pink Pokémon with small wings appeared from one Pokéball, and a small fox-like Pokémon with several tails appeared from the other.
"Fine...if you want to use two Pokémon at once, then I'll do the same!" Matt replied, looking at both Squirtle and Spearow. "Get them!"
Squirtle, from its neutral position attacked full force with its Water Gun. Since Vulpix was a fire-type, the water damaged it greatly. It attempted to counter with an attack of its own, but Squirtle struck it with a Tackle attack, sending it violently into the cavern walls.
Spearow's speed and agility flew around Clefairy several times to lower its defenses. Clefairy, constantly watching and moving around in circles to keep in pace with the Spearow, became very dizzy. Spearow witnessed this as a perfect time to strike, and collided with it head on. Clefairy was sent off of its feet and crashing rougly into the ground. Neither Pokémon was moving.
"No fair, no fair, no fair!" Zach complained. "We even put forth a lot of effort into taking these Pokémon! Fine, we'll just have to keep on fighting."
Cloë grabbed Zach's hand which was reaching for another Pokéball.
"Don't bother! We need to find the Moon Stone; we can't keep wasting time with such trivial matters!" Cloë pulled a smoke bomb, and throws it on the ground, completely fogging the area.
"Damn it, not again!" Matt shouted, inhaling and coughing from the polluted air. He dropped to his knees and began to cough even harder.
"Why the hell isn't the smoke clearing?!" Matt roughly shouted with tears in his eyes due to the hot smoke which continued to flood the area. "Is it because we're indoors?! Damn it! I'm going to suffocate!"
Matt, slowly climbed up to his feet, then searched for both Squirtle and Spearow. The smoke had cleared slightly enough for Matt to see just a little bit. Having both of them in hand, he began to run; he was stopped shortly by tripping over the fallen Clefairy, and crashing violently with his elbows scraping into the ground.
"OUCH! For the love of God!" He began to hyperventilate, but slowed down his breathing when he realized that the smoke was as a matter of fact clearing. He sighed, then slowly pulled himself to his feet, brushing off the pieces of rock that were stuck to his clothing.
Matt looked at the cuts and scrapes on both his arms and legs. He then checked to make sure that Squirtle and Spearow were all right.
Out of frustration, Matt looks down the long cavern and let out a frustrated yet: "Damn you, Team Rocket! I swear one of these days you'll get yours!" Matt shouted. He then sighed, and grinned. "Well...I feel better--hmm?"
Matt noticed that both the Clefairy and Vulpix from the previous battle were left behind. Didn't Team Rocket say that they were stolen? Matt thought to himself.
"It won't hurt having these two," Matt commented, searching for an empty Pokéball. "Crud, I only have a few left. I'll have to make sure to stock up when I get to the next city."
Matt tapped both Vulpix and Clefairy with empty Pokéballs. Both of them were contained inside, and since they were both weakened, there was no conflict in either one of them. Picking up the two Pokéballs, one of them glowed brightly and vanished. The other Pokéball remained.
"What the...? Where did it go?!" Matt shouted, and started to look around. "Wait a minute...I had four Pokémon coming in here, Paras made five and...of course! I can only hold six Pokémon at a time. Since I captured the Vulpix first, the Clefairy had to be the one which was sent back."
Matt then turned his attention to the abandoned tools which were being used to pick at the walls. "Now I'm not so sure that this is a natural cavern. I could be wrong, but Team Rocket said that they were digging for some sort of stone. I guess that's why all the digging tools are here," Matt said aloud.
Matt, certain that he may not battle any other Pokémon placed Spearow back inside of its Pokéball. With Squirtle right next to him, he continued to walk down the long cavern.
Shortly, rapid and consistent footfalls were heard further ahead in the cavern, as if somebody was running. "Val! Val! Where are you?!" a female voice cried. "Val!!!"
"Hello?!" Matt yelled. "Who's there?"
The girl slows down, hearing the voice close. She then turned a corner and spotted Matt. "Oh, I'm sorry. Excuse me, my name is Lizzie, and I was wondering if you've seen a Vulpix? It's a fox-like Pokémon with about five tails. Team Rocket came and stole her from me," she explained.
"Well, I found a Vulpix here just a few moments ago, but I don't know exactly if it's yours. I do recall Team Rocket saying it was stolen."
"Really?! That has to be the one then!" Lizzie shouted.
"I don't know, can you prove it to me?" Matt asked.
Lizzie frowned. "Hey, why are you being so stuck-up? It has to be mine, I know it is!" she shouted.
"Okay, okay, you don't have to shout. Fine, I'll use my Pokédex." From his pocket Matt dug out his Pokédex. He then removed Vulpix from his Pokémon belt and scanned its identification. Several tidbits of information appeared. Date it was originally captured, its number, and its original trainer. Unfortunately, Lizzie's name was not there.
"Sorry, the only information on this one is my information," Matt replied.
"That's because when they stole her from me, they cleared the Pokéball's information and had her classified as 'wild'. Please, you have to believe me, I would never mooch a Pokémon from anybody!"
"I wouldn't know this; I mean I don't even know you."
"Come on!" Lizzie shouted.
"Okay, fine. Since Team Rocket said that it was stolen in the first place, then it has to be yours. Problem is, I had an encounter with it and it's currently knocked out." Matt enlarged the Pokéball and opened it. An exhausted Vulpix rested on the field.
"Val! It really is her!" Lizzie shouted, kneeling over to pick up her Pokémon. "Thank you, thank you SO much!"
Yeah, yeah...where do you come from, anyway?" Matt asked.
"Me? I live in Cerulean City. I came here to go back home, because I had just earned a Boulder Badge back in Pewter City. Then I ran into Team Rocket, and they stole my Vulpix!" Lizzie replied loudly. "Oh, I'm sorry, I just got really excited. But thank you for finding my Vulpix!"
"A Boulder Badge? When?" Matt asked.
"Just yesterday. Why?" Lizzie asked.
"That's funny...when I fought with the gym leader he said that I was the first trainer to beat him in almost a few years," Matt replied.
"He did? Geez, you know, he said the same thing to me, too! What, you don't believe me? Look!" Lizzie reached into her pocket and showed it to Matt with her palm open. Surely enough, that was the Boulder Badge.
"Strange...anyway, I'm Matt. I travel from Pallet Town. I'm actually a new trainer."
"There seem to be a lot of them lately. I'm relatively new actually; I'm part of the new generation where you can be ten in order to become a Pokémon trainer."
"Yeah, that's me, too."
"Mind if I join? I get very lonely, and the people in Cerulean often tease me, so I decided to become a Pokémon trainer," Lizzie said, with a half evil smirk on her face.
"So you're doing it to impress everyone..." Matt muttered.
"Gee, what gave it away?" Lizzie asked, winking.
Matt blushed. "Well, I suppose it wouldn't hurt to travel with someone. I mean, this old guy back in Viridian City said it would be a good idea to find a traveling companion. Mostly because of Team Rocket."
"Yeah, that's what everybody's been saying back at home, too! 'Don't go alone; Team Rocket will come and eat you!' That's what everybody's saying to the kids back at home. I guess if it scares them enough, it'll actually convince them."
"Yeah, but if it's this dangerous, why aren't they traveling with somebody older?" Matt asks.
Lizzie shrugged. "It beats me. You know, parents are so lazy these days, they want to find excuses for them not to raise their own children."
"I hear that," Matt replied, chuckling "So, shall we get going? I'm going to Cerulean City, too. I want the Cascade Badge."
"Sure, let's go!" Lizzie said, smiling.
Both of them continue to travel the long, twisted path of Mount Moon. Fortunately for Matt, Lizzie had already been in the mountain a few times, so navigating wasn't very difficult. While traveling, a swarm of Zubats bothered them, but Matt and Lizzie managed to catch one each.
"That makes seven...again!" Matt said.
After ascending a large hill, Matt pointed ahead, and noticed a bright light from the top. It was the exit to Mount Moon. Excited, Matt quickly darted up the hill and ran right through the exit. Though the light outside was blinding at first, Matt was surrounded by the bright sun, followed by a cool breeze. Fresh air at last.
Lizzie and Squirtle weren't too far behind; they too rushed to get outdoors. Lizzie pointed off in the distance towards the entrance to Cerulean City. Matt became excited.
"All right. I'm ready to go for another badge," Matt said. He then looked towards Lizzie. "Since you already live here, do you already have a badge?"
"Well...since I'm a friend of one of the gym leaders, they gave me one. I feel rather guilty about it," Lizzie said, frowning.
"Don't worry, I'm sure you're good enough to have earned it if you had battled." Matt lowered his head. "But, something puzzles me...."
"Well? Are you going to tell me what is? Well, obviously you are; why else would you bring it up?"
Matt laughed. "You know too much. When I encountered Team Rocket today, they said they were digging for some kind of stone. Do you know what it is?"
"Oh, that. Moon Stone. That's pretty much what makes Mount Moon so popular. They're always closing off certain sections of it just to look for it. It's actually a very valuable piece of material; some sell it for cash, but I only think it's popular because it causes some Pokémon to evolve."
"Oh, it's one of those evolution stones then..." Matt replied
"Well, except that this is very valuable. There was so much of it one time that you could literally take it away in handfuls. But now, it's so rare that people can barely see any of it anymore. I mean, there are dozens of excavations each year, but hardly any of it can be found. Most people get rich off it by auctioning it off to the highest bidder."
"Well, I don't like the idea of these evolution stones. I really don't..." Matt commented.
"Hmm?" Lizzie asked.
"Well, using evolution stones is a sign of laziness in my opinion. I mean, why choose a Pokémon if you're not going to spend time training it to get stronger naturally?"
"Well, a lot of the older trainers get a little impatient and want to use evolution stones. I really don't like the idea much either. But you can't really judge a Pokémon trainer if they've used an evolution stone. I've read stories of trainers being forced to use evolution stones to save their lives."
"That's true, but I guess we agree on something. That's important in a relationship," Matt muttered, not exactly realizing that he was thinking out loud.
Lizzie shot Matt a look. "What do you mean by that?"
"Huh?! Matt turned red. "Oh...I mean a friendship, not a--oh, never mind. Let's just go."
TO BE CONTINUED.
