Jordan: Once again, we are back.

Camilla: It's a disclaimer.

Jordan: All right go to somewhere else.

Camilla: Jordan...it's someone else, not somewhere.

6. Mr. Pokémon

The atmosphere was now calm, and we could relax for a little while.

'I guess you guys don't get to relax much?' Jasmine asked.

'We normally get a few hours, but we haven't had many days of relaxation, and the most we have without any sort of event is about a day, sometimes a few hours less.' Camilla replied.

'It's nice to not worry about anything once in a while.' I added.

'So how many days have you been with events consecutively? Jasmine asked.

'Three, but this would take the total up to four.' Brock replied.

Jasmine didn't say anything after that, she must have been contemplating, she also wanted our help with something, but I had a feeling she didn't want to tell us what the problem was just yet.

'How about that dream searching, Camilla?' I asked her after a few seconds of silence passed.

'Still nothing yet.' Camilla replied. 'I was hoping to look in the brochures, but it was packed in here earlier and now I've just had a hectic morning, I can always look in the next Pokémon centre.' She replied.

There was no rush in finding a new dream, of course I had my dream before I went to Professor Oaks summer camp all those years ago. Camilla had her dream and at the last hurdle she lost it to her best friend, it was hard to find a new dream after losing the one you had hoped to win, then coming in second place.

I had no idea what my dream would be if it was like Camilla's or if I had become a Pokémon master by beating lance in the Pokémon league, but I lost at the second hurdle. Lance thought I would have battled him, he told me himself and he thought if anyone could beat him it was me, Lance was still the champion and it didn't look like it was going to change, but this year I was going to battle in the silver conference, it seemed like Lance was the champion of that too.

It was nice that we had a few minutes to relax, but we'd have to see Mr, Guide sometime today. I would have loved to reach Mr. Pokémon's house before it got dark tonight.

It might take us the whole afternoon, so the sooner we got to Mr. Pokémon's house the better.

I got up.

'Where you off to, Jordan?' Brock asked.

'I think we should go now.' I replied. 'I'd like to reach Mr. Pokémon's house before it gets dark, I don't know how long it will take for us to get there.' I continued.

'Good idea, I'd like to get there before it gets dark, I don't really fancy camping out, he may offer us a place to stay for the night.' Jasmine said standing up agreeing with me.

Neither Brock nor Camilla protested, we all made our way out of the Pokémon centre toward Mr. Guides house.

I walked in and saw he was sitting on an armchair. Suzy was sitting on a two-seater sofa that was next to it.

My friends and I squeezed ourselves on the three-seater sofa that was opposite them both.

Before any of us could say anything Mr. Guide took out a piece of blue plastic out of his pocket.

'This is a card I was given by the radio tower in Goldenrod City.' He said as if it was that simple.

'What is it?' Camilla asked.

'I don't know, I was given them because I helped new trainers by giving them a tour of the town and information when they got here.' Mr. Guide said. 'At least that's what they told me.' He continued.

He took out three more from his pocket.

He gave each of us.

It was a thin piece of transparent blue plastic. It looked like it was holographic. I had no idea what it was for, and Mr. Guide had no idea what it was, so I guess he didn't know either.

'Maybe when you reach Goldenrod you could ask about it, see what it's for. I'm sure you trainers would get more use out of them than me. I don't leave this city.' Mr Guide said.

'Thank you.' I said placing the plastic in my bag, I didn't think it would get so damaged in there, if at all.

'The whole city appreciates what you've done for us.' Mr Guide said.

I knew that, the amount of thank you's I received after we had saved the city from the Heracross, after I had captured it. That seemed like it was the only way we would have stopped this day from happening every year. I understood that the sap was sweet because these cherry groves were sweet, but sucking the sap destroyed the trees and this place would not really be cherry groves anymore, the groves of cherries was why the city's name was Cherrygrove.

This prophecy thing that Moltres talked to us about became clearer and clearer, I did a lot of things and maybe that was what was building me up to it, maybe I was purposely thrown into trouble to ready myself for the prophecy that I was in.

I couldn't think about that now, it was not the time to dwell on what will be when we have a task at hand.

'Thanks for helping us yesterday.' Brock thanked Mr Guide.

'I hardly did anything; it was you four who saved us.' Mr Guide said.

'Suzy...' Brock started.

'It's okay, Brock. I'm going to stay here a while longer, who knows maybe we'll meet up again in the future.' Suzy told him. 'I wish the rest of you good luck.' Suzy said.

'Thank you once again and goodbye.' Mr guide said.

We each said our own farewell and started on out into the afternoon.

I hoped we would reach Mr. Pokémon's house by nightfall.

We got to the start of the route in silence before Brock piped up.

'It seems Mr. Pokémon's house is at the halfway point in this route.' He told us.

So it may take us a while to navigate this route even after we get to Mr. Pokémon's house? I didn't think that it would be so tricky, but this route seemed long anyway. I couldn't see very far there seemed to be a lot of tree's that prevented me from seeing too far off. I knew we'd be able to find Mr. Pokémon's house and if it was late when we reached there maybe he'd let us stay before sending us back to Cherrygrove. I didn't really fancy spending another night in Cherrygroves Pokémon centre, not with how packed it was when I woke up last time, sure there was a perfectly good reason last time, but still I had no intention of sleeping there again.

We made a few feet of the route with silence after Brock told us how far into the route Mr. Pokémon's house was.

'You know that I've heard that one of the Gym leaders isn't in their Gym at the moment, so the gym is closed down.' Jasmine told us.

'A Gym without its leader?' Brock asked.

'That does sound strange.' Camilla started. 'But to be fair, the first three Gyms we went to the leaders weren't exactly there either.' She continued.

'I did have work.' Brock replied.

'We know you did.' I reminded Brock.

'Wait, you're a Gym leader?' Jasmine asked Brock.

'I'm a former Gym leader, my father has taken over the Gym in my absence.' He replied.

It was strange for Jasmine to bring that up, but it helped me know that there were only seven Gyms open at the moment. I hoped that it wasn't the first city's Gym, not like Viridians, it would take me ages to get there since we were on a task for professor Elm, so we would have to make this trek again to get to the next city.

'So, Camilla, do you have any idea what you're going to pursue now? There are no Chateau's in this region.' Jasmine told her.

'I didn't think there would be, but I'm not sure, I quite like travelling with no dream, I did it for almost a whole year. I was searching, but I didn't come across any that piqued my interest for me to pursue it.' Camilla replied.

'Well, every year there are more and more professions that Pokémon trainers can become, it's just a matter of finding one you like.' Brock interjected.

'I can't imagine what it's like, Camilla, but I sort of understand, if I couldn't chase my dream of becoming a Pokémon master I would find it hard to have another dream too.' I added.

'I'm sure Mr. Pokémon might have some ideas.' Jasmine said.

It was nice to be travelling with Jasmine, we hardly knew her, but she was proving to be a real asset, she had helped with the Heracross incident and now she was willing to help Camilla find a dream.

That was a good idea, he probably knows about most Pokémon professions, he knows a lot about Pokémon, maybe he knows a few Pokémon trainer professions that Camilla could work towards.

'He does know a lot about Pokémon, hence his name.' Brock agreed.

I knew Camilla had been struggling with a dream ever since she became the runner up in the battle Chateau. She enjoyed travelling with us in the orange islands, I knew that wasn't the only reason, but she had told me the real reason and it was best that it stayed between her and I. She hadn't told Brock the whole story, at least not as much depth as she had with me.

I didn't know if Camilla wanted to chase a dream yet, she still had to figure out her Chikorita, it did not like her and that was clear from anyone's point of view, we just didn't know why. I knew she would have trouble catching Pokémon and travelling on this journey if Chikorita didn't co-operate with her.

I knew if anyone could get Chikorita under control, it would be Camilla. I would not have had the patience with a Pokémon like that. I hoped I never had to deal with it.

'Maybe.' Camilla agreed.

I didn't know what Camilla was thinking of, but it didn't seem like it was professions.

We came to a fork in the road.

'Any idea which way?' I asked no-one in particular. No-one answered, which gave me the answer.

I decided to take the right route, it seemed denser that the other route, I don't think Mr. Pokémon would like to hide his house in plain sight.

As we got further in it became more and more dense, the trees started to thicken, I hoped I hadn't taken the wrong route, that wouldn't have been good, if it didn't lead anywhere then why was there a fork in the road?

I wasn't looking forward to going back, but we didn't really have a choice, no-one would go back in our place.

We ventured further through the dense foliage of trees, if they got any denser they'd be no general path to follow, we'd probably get lost.

We passed through the trees for bit longer in silence, none of us had anything to say, it's not normally like this, I knew we would have loads to talk about the further we ventured through Johto. Maybe we'd even have a few things to tell Professor Elm when we returned to New Bark, I'm sure Gold would like to know about it too.

I saw an opening up ahead and this would be where Mr Pokémon lived, or would it be just a clear opening with nothing distinguishable about it?

Once I reached the opening I saw a log cabin.

I didn't expect Mr Pokémon to live in a log cabin.

The walls looked like logs stacked on top of each other, they were going horizontally, the door was wooden and green with a white wooden doorframe, the door had a brass doorknob on the front. The roof was green slate, it had ivy growing on one side and down one side of the house. It was wonder this house was still standing, even if the ivy didn't topple it over it seemed like it was easy enough to catch fire, but Mr Pokémon must have seemed to mind. He must have lived here for a while, isolated from the rest of the region, I guess there were only a few people who knew of his location, or maybe he liked living away from towns and cities and he liked the wildlife, the environment.

I reached the door with my friends hot on my heels. I knocked on the door, it opened almost immediately.

The person who opened the door was not someone who I expected to see here.

He looked exactly as he did when I last saw him, but how did he get here so quickly his lab was quite far away from here.

'Jordan, Brock, Camilla.' Professor Oak greeted us.

'Professor Oak?' I asked.

'You have acquired a new friend.' Professor Oak stated looking behind us at Jasmine.

'Professor Oak?' She asked as the professor let us in.

'Yes.' He replied.

'The professor Oak?' She asked.

Was she surprised to meet professor Oak? How would she handle meeting professor Elm?

'Is there another?' He asked holding out his hand.

Jasmine seemed too shocked to shake his hand, so professor Oak coughed to get her attention.

'Is something wrong, Samuel?' A low voice called from somewhere else in the room.

'Why don't you sit down?' Professor Oak whispered gesturing toward the couch, it was the same colour as the door and roof. 'No, Wesley, just your guests are here.'

I looked around the house and saw that the inside looked exactly as the outside did. The logs were all horizontal.

To the back of the room, on the opposite side to the door was a grey brick open fireplace, there were a few logs of wood inside, the fire was not lit. Around the fireplace was a black iron grilled fireguard. The oval glass table was situated in between the two three-seater couches, it was on a grey oval rug, but the rug was slightly larger than the tabletop.

There was a doorway made of dark wood, the wood looked worn and like you could snap it if it wasn't so thick. I didn't know the doorway led to, but there was a man standing in the doorway.

He had a dark green fabric jacket with a red handkerchief in the handkerchief pocket. Underneath was a light grey shirt. He had brown trousers and his shoes were black, but they were worn and slightly dirty. He had white hair around his head, on top he wore a hat that matched the colour and fabric of his jacket.

He was holding a glass cylinder case, the bottom was light brown, it had a cream folded blanket resting on the bottom. The top was the same colour as the base. Inside was an egg. I knew it was a Pokémon egg as I had held one before, it looked roughly the same size, the colour was different from Rachel's Eevee egg and my Dratini egg. This egg was white with red and blue triangles randomly around it with white triangles inside them.

This was the "egg" that professor Elm asked us to collect for him, why was this egg so fascinating, sure we had no idea what was in this egg, maybe professor Elm did, maybe he knew a lot about Pokémon eggs.

'Wow.' I heard Camilla say.

She never had an egg; she only had a baby Pokémon.

I wonder what would happen if she had an egg, how would she fare as a mother figure to a baby that had hatched, she wouldn't be a surrogate mother, she would be a proper mother. Just like Rachel and I had been, but she would have the egg long enough to hatch it, she would be giving it to professor Elm before too long.

'that's a Pokémon egg?' Jasmine asked.

She seemed surprised.

'You haven't seen a Pokémon egg before?' I asked.

'Not like this, not in person.' She replied. She was still in awe.

I was surprised that she hadn't had any experience with eggs, every one of my friends either had an up-close experience with an egg, whether it be theirs or someone else's.

Mr Pokémon placed the case on the table gently.

He sat down next to professor Oak and seemed to press a button.

The glass of the case fell away, I saw there were three rods that kept the top from falling down.

Mr Pokémon took the Pokémon egg off of the blanket.

'Would you like to hold it?' Mr Pokémon asked Jasmine.

'You'd let me hold it?' She asked.

Mr Pokémon held out the egg to Jasmines outstretched arms.

Jasmine took the egg, cautiously. I know she didn't want the break the egg, but she had to hold it firmly enough so she wouldn't drop it.

She began to cradle it in her arms.

She looked a little uncomfortable at cradling an egg.

Camilla touched the egg.

'It's warm.' She commented.

'Yes, this incubator is what helps keep the egg warm.' Mr Pokémon said. 'A bag is suitable, but this incubator keeps the egg at a high temperature so the egg hatches quicker than if you carried it in your bag, the only thing that would beat this incubator, would be an incubated bag' Mr Pokémon said.

I had never seen anyone carry an egg in an incubator before, maybe it was new, or maybe they didn't have them in my home region.

'Can I hold it?' Camilla asked Jasmine.

Jasmine gave the egg to Camilla.

'Hello little one.' Camilla said to the egg.

In the small Pokémon village in Kanto, just before Vermillion city, we learned that talking to a Pokémon egg will get the Pokémon to know you better. Once it hatches it will be easier for it to imprint on you. Dratini imprinted on me almost immediately after it hatched, it felt weird to be a parent to a Pokémon, but I got used to it. I was so proud when it evolved and once again when it evolved into Dragonite, she was an amazing Pokémon.

'Don't get too attached Camilla.' Brock said. 'We have to deliver it to professor Elm, remember?' Brock asked.

Camilla nodded, she looked sad, maybe she wanted to hatch an egg like I had.

Brock was right though, we had to deliver this egg to professor elm, he'd know more about it and he might be able to study it better.

'Do you two want to hold the egg?' Mr Pokémon asked Brock and myself.

'No Thank you.' I politely declined.

'I'm okay.' Brock replied.

Camilla handed the egg back to Mr Pokémon, he placed it back in the incubator and pressed a button which made the glass come back up and surround the egg.

'I guess you'll be taking that back to professor Elm?' Mr Pokémon asked.

He knew we were the ones that were sent by Professor Elm, so it seemed like a silly question.

'You can stay her for the night before you head back if you like.' Mr Pokémon offered.

I looked out the window and realised the time had got away from us, it was beginning to get back. If we headed back to Cherrygrove now, it would be really late into the night before we made it to the Pokémon centre for our room.

'Actually about that.' Professor Oak started. 'I will take the Pokémon egg to Robert, Wesley.' He continued. 'I think these trainers would prefer to continue on with their journey more that returning to places they've already been.' He finished.

Professor Oak was offering to take the egg back in our place?

That was nice of him.

'Nevertheless, you still have a place to stay tonight.' Mr Pokémon said.

I was grateful that he was giving us place to stay tonight.

I wondered what the next place was and if it was where my first Gym battle was at. I was eager to get back to proper Gym battles, the last one I had was with Blaine, that was my last battle that didn't challenge me in other ways or bring me close to death. I still received badges, but I kind of forget what a proper Gym battle was like. I almost didn't realize that Camilla and Mr Pokémon had gone into another room with Jasmine in tow.

She was probably going to ask him about other classes of trainers or other Pokémon specialities there were.

When they were gone something hit me, Professor Oak was here.

'Professor Oak?' I asked. 'How did you get here so quickly?' I asked.

'I expected you to ask me earlier, Jordan.' He replied. 'I caught the train from Saffron to Goldenrod.' He replied.

There it was again, Goldenrod, it sounded like the Saffron of Johto, maybe it was even better than Saffron, maybe even bigger. I didn't know that a city would be as big as Saffron was, so if Goldenrod was bigger I would be astounded.

I didn't realize there was train that came from one region to another. I never realized that there was train station in Saffron, it was big, we probably didn't explore all of it.

'You never knew I had a radio show in Goldenrod, did you?' Professor Oak asked me rhetorically.

I was clearly amazed; I didn't know what to say. Brock seemed pretty impressed too.

'You never asked me what I did outside my lab.' Professor Oak told me.

I never assumed he left Pallet town. I didn't know he travelled all the way to Saffron to catch a train to Johto to do a radio show.

'Of course I couldn't do it when Saffron was closed for a blackout, but as soon as it was up and running again I came back to do my show. Maybe you could come and see me do one sometime.' Professor Oak suggested.

I didn't know what to say, but I would definitely want to see Professor Oak do his radio show.

'Wait a minute.' I said, another thought coming to mind. 'Who's in charge of the lab at the moment?' I asked.

'Tracey is looking after the lab with my granddaughter, Daisy.' Professor Oak said.

I completely forgot that Liam had an older sister, she was out travelling for the past two or three years, she had returned from her travels, maybe I would get to see her when I returned to Pallet town after I competed in the Silver conference.

This time when I battled in the Pokémon league I would aim for better than last time, last time I had lost my second battle against the Pokémon leagues finest trainers. This time I was determined to do better, this time I was going to prove to Lance that I could reach him.

Lance believed that if that mishap didn't happen I would have reached him, so this time I would make sure that every Pokémon I had would be completely under control no matter what happened. I would show everyone that whatever happened last year was a small mistake and that I was strong enough to go all the way.

'So, would you like to know how you're Pokémon are?' Professor Oak asked.

How had I not thought about that? It's like I forgot about them, forgot about Pikachu, forgot about my best friend. I felt instantly guilty, but we had had a few hectic days, and I had only said goodbye about two days ago now.

I didn't voice my thoughts; it would make me feel worse.

'I dread to know how they feel.' I replied.

'Why's that?' Brock asked me.

'They'd probably hate me for leaving them.' I replied.

'On the contrary.' Professor Oak started.

I looked up at him with surprise.

'Your Pokémon trust you completely, they knew you'd have good reason to send them to the lab, even Pikachu understands your reasons. They seem to like being in the fields behind my lab, in the brief time that I saw them.'

'Brief?' I asked.

'I left not long after, else I would not have made it here in time.' Professor Oak said.

I didn't know how long it took Professor Oak to get here.

'How did you get here so quickly from Goldenrod, it's not close is it?' I asked.

'I was a Pokémon trainer once upon a time. Wesley sent me a Pidgeot to bring me here.' Professor Oak told us.

I never knew that Professor Oak was a Pokémon trainer when he was younger, I also didn't know that about my mother until she told me.

Grown ups had loads of stuff I never knew about them, I'm sure when I was older children wouldn't know about me being a Pokémon trainer. I'm not sure everyone in the world knew about Lance, I didn't know if there were any other regions with their own Pokémon leagues and their own champions.

'Thank you for all your help.' I heard Camilla say.

She, Jasmine and Mr Pokémon were standing in the doorway.

'You're welcome, Camilla.' Mr Pokémon replied. 'I'm sure other people can give you better explanations in other cities, especially the historical ones.' Mr Pokémon continued.

I guess Jasmine had helped Camilla talk to Mr Pokémon about dreams.

Camilla and Jasmine came back to sit with us.

'Did you get what you came for?' Brock asked.

'It definitely helped.' Camilla replied.

Maybe she would find a new dream to pursue now.

'Oh, I mustn't forget, I know you like to travel, there is a cave just north of here that hosts Pokémon that appear no where else in Johto, and they are more frequent at night. You may want to explore that instead of staying here tonight.' Professor Oak told us four.

A rare Pokémon that only appears in this cave.

I didn't think we'd ever get this chance again, in the daytime we may never find this Pokémon, it may give me an advantage on Leaf's progression on her Pokédex.

I looked to each of my friends, they all had the same idea.

'It may be a good idea to check it out.' Camilla said.

'We have tents to sleep outside if it gets too late.' Brock added.

We hadn't slept outside, I think the last time I remember sleeping outside it was in the Pokémon village, just before Vermillion.

'I didn't know about the Pokémon that reside in the cave at night, and I know almost every Pokémon in Johto.' Jasmine told us.

Jasmine had lived in Johto it made sense that she knew most, if not all Pokémon, but I had lived in Kanto my whole life and I only knew of a few Pokémon that lived in Kanto before I set on my journey, I had read countless Pokémon books, but still had almost no idea of what encounters with Pokémon I would experience. I was glad I went on the journey; it was so much better experiencing than reading about it. Every experience ended and the memories were sweet and nostalgic, but they weren't as good as living it in the moment, so I would take as much time as I could experiencing everything.

We said our goodbyes to Mr Pokémon and Professor Oak as we decided that this may be our only time to explore the cave at night.

As we left we saw a small opening to the right of Mr Pokémon's house, maybe it was a shortcut to the cave. We walked a few metres in silence, Brock was looking at his map to see where this cave was and as much as he could about it.

I saw a set of stairs we had to climb, the ledge that was above us was quite high, and dark cave was obviously in that direction.

We reached the top and I still couldn't see the cave opening.

I didn't want to walk for too long in the dark.

'It says here the cave is called "Dark Cave" and that if you go too far it can become nonnavigational.' Brock said.

That meant no wandering, we'd have to stick together throughout the whole time, that would mean we wouldn't get lost.

I started to wonder about any people who had been in dark cave.

It was apparently nonnavigational, were there people in there unable to make it out as they couldn't see where they were, or where they were going?

I didn't want to know what it was like, there were apparently people who had lost their way in victory road, so I dreaded to imagine what dark cave was like.

I was about to suggest we setup camp, maybe we wouldn't be able to make it to Dark Cave tonight, I didn't want to lose the chance of seeing this Pokémon that was rare, but if it couldn't be helped what could we do.

Maybe we would have to take time out of our travels later and venture through dark cave later in our journey.

I glanced up to see if I could see the moon, but there was a huge structure in the way, it even prevented me from seeing the stars.

'Look.' Jasmine exclaimed pointing in the direction of where the structure was.

I saw a small archway that was pitch black. I realised the large structure was the cave, it looked like a mountain of some sort, like Mt. Moon. I wondered if this cave had different levels like Mt. Moon.

I hoped incidents that happened in Mt. Moon occurred in Dark cave too.

I couldn't have what happened to Brock and Rachel happen to Camilla and Jasmine, but to happen to Brock twice, I would feel like the worst friend ever.

'Dark cave.' Camilla said in awe.

Jordan: So we've made it to dark cave.

Camilla: And next chapter will introduce a new addition.

Jordan: But it won't be what you expect, or for who.

Camilla: Until we see you next.

Chapter Seven: A sparse cave