Out to Route 4

I had been walking alone for thirty minutes with Mankey holding up the lantern for me when I noticed that someone was following me. I got Geodude out of his Pokeball and gave him some instructions.

I kept on walking for about five minutes and started to hear some squealing behind me. I ran back towards the sound, ready to attack. But it was just a… Clefairy.

No, THE Clefairy that had escaped Team Rocket and tried to help her friends.

Geodude, like I had instructed him, had pretended to be part of the ceiling until the Clefairy came by behind me. He just dropped down and held Clefairy in a strong grasp.

"Geodude, it's okay, let her go," I said.

The Clefairy looked at me with a sad expression on her face.

"I'm sorry buddy," I tried to comfort her. "I thought you were Team Rocket."

She suddenly winced with fear at the mention of Team Rocket and it pained me to see that.

"Anyways, I don't think you have to worry about them anymore," I said.

I retrieved Geodude into his Pokeball and was walking away when I felt a tug at my pants. The Clefairy was holding onto me. She was smiling.

"What's that, girl? You want to come with me?"

So far I'd been keen to catch every new type of Pokemon I saw, but after seeing how the Clefairies had suffered in the hands of Team Rocket, I was willing to catch a Clefairy at the next opportunity. But here was one that wanted to come along. I gladly welcomed her to the team.

Before we moved on, however, my new Clefairy kept on pointing to a particular fork in the caves. I took a detour in that direction, and came to a...dead end?

I was very confused but upon close inspection of the walls, I saw that certain rock formations were different from regular dirt and rocks. Mostly gray in hue with glints of silver, it could only be...

Moonstones!

With some help from Geodude, I was able to use the sharp edge of my shovel to retrieve 3 large pieces the size of sweet potatoes.

"Woah! The only one I've seen in real life is the small chipped one at the Museum at Pewter!" Alan later said when I showed him my loot.

Along with Clefairy, it definitely proved to be a source of envy from other trainers.

In the last leg of my journey towards Route 4, I came across a strange nerdy-looking man… No, let's just call him a nerd. I came across a nerd with really thick glasses (not only the frame but also thick lenses so his eyes appeared comically enlarged from my perspective) and a white lab coat.

He was in the middle of the cave so I could hardly avoid him.

"Huh! Who are you?! You're not here to take my fossils, are ya?"

I was thinking "fossils?" when he suddenly attacked me with a Grimer.

I threw 2 selected Pokeballs out, and while the Pokemon were coming out, it hit me.

HAHAHA He's the FOSSIL DUDE!

You know in the games, there's a dude that you beat in Mt. Moon that offers you a pick of Dome or Helix Fossil? It's this dude!

I laughed throughout the entire battle, but here's how it went:

I had Mankey already carrying the lantern for me, so Mankey, Geodude, and Bulby all grabbed larger rocks and pebbles and started throwing them at Grimer. The slimey (?) body of Grimer was able to soak up some damage, but the combined power of 3 very proficient rock throwers was too much. Grimer started to slow down, and then finally just kinda broke down and became a pool on the ground.

Next was Voltorb, which is a very weird Pokemon to see in real life. Just bigger than a foot in diameter, the Pokeball-shaped Pokemon just kinda rolled around at times, and could launch itself in different directions as well. Later on, speaking to Pokeball experts has taught me that Voltorbs are created when occupied Pokeball experiences catastrophic failure, merging the advanced tech with living flesh (gross). Leaving Pokemon in Pokeballs for too long, or not changing the Pokeball for too long (you can link Pokemon to new Pokeballs at Pokemon Centers) increased the possibility of this happening. Experts are not sure why this happens, given the relatively advanced technology and safety of Pokeballs.

Oh, Voltorb was easy to deal with with Geodude as well. Geodude just grabbed Voltorb and kept throwing him around until the ball-shaped zapper exploded into oblivion. I thought it would result in fragments, but Voltorb maintained his ball shape, just sizzling with heat and smoke, unmoving.

The last Pokemon was Koffing, and I just used Pidgey and Spearow to blow the toxic gas that was being released. Koffing was too slow to land any of his floating tackles, and eventually used up whatever gas reserves he had within his body, and was unable to fight any more.

I went up to the two fossils the Lab Coat Rocket was guarding. One was a fossilized snail-like creature, and the other the noticeable horseshoe crab shape. Both were the size of my open palm.

"Yes, since you've defeated me, you can get the first pick of- hey… HEY! What are you doing?!" The Rocket protested as I took BOTH fossils and shoved them in my bag.

I turned and stared back at him.

"Oh, uh… I…" He drew back into the corner.

I walked away, leaving him in silence.