Right then and there, Karl, Hadley, and Kevin knew for certain that they were on their own. And that though Celadon City was far away, and the journey long and possibly dangerous, they would have to find their way. At least they could pass the time by helping Professor Oak with the Pokedex.

"All right, let's get to Celadon City." Karl ran up the relatively steep slope towards Cerulean City, but slipped and fell. "Ugh!" A rockslide fell down right onto him! "Help me!" Before he knew it, he was completely covered by the rocks. A few seconds later, he emerged free, hurting all over his body. "Ouch... that hurt..."

Hadley realized that the ground rumbled a bit, which probably caused the rockslide to fall on Karl. "Guys, I think an earthquake might be coming in, so we should get through here as soon as possible!"

"Let's get moving, then." Kevin certainly didn't want to fall into a crack in an earthquake.

Inside the cave, there was very little light. "All right, Blowtorch, let's light up the cave!"

Karl called out the Charmander. With the lizard's flaming tail, a little bit more was visible. "Let's be careful."

Blowtorch had a deadly feeling in the pit of his stomach. Team Rocket was here. He just knew it. There was no question about it. But where exactly were they? Why could he sense it? In any case, he knew where they were, and scurried away.

"Hey, Blowtorch, come back here," ordered Kevin.

"Come back!" yelled out Karl. He could hear his echo in the cave. "I think he wants us to follow him. Wait for me!"

"For all we know, Team Rocket might be here. I think they heard you," said Kevin. "If so, we're in trouble. So keep your voice down!"

---

Conner and Sandy watched as Team Rocket Grunts and Elites dug up and compiled fossils to place into the lorries of storage trucks.

Conner told Sandy, "For once, we can be the slackers when it comes to breaking the law. It's good to be a high-ranking Rocket!"

"Can't say it better myself." Sandy had finally found her dream job.

Blowtorch sneaked toward the dig site. He had to be very careful here, or he, along with the three trainers, would be spotted, and end up where Robert and Daisy were now.

"We've gotta stop them," whispered Kevin.

"We can't," said Hadley. "They're too powerful for us to beat."

"Why, isn't that a Charmander!" called out Sandy.

"Oh, no, they found us!" Karl knew they shouldn't have been so obvious!

Conner and Sandy ran down towards the three. "You're Professor Oak's grandson, right?" Conner asked Kevin.

"Well, not really..." Kevin tried to talk his way out.

"Don't lie to us," warned Sandy. "We called him two days ago, and he said you had a Squirtle. And what about a Bulbasaur?"

"You mean this one?" Hadley called out the Bulbasaur.

"Exactly. I believe we haven't introduced ourselves. I'm Conner Drayan."

Kevin remembered that name from on the package containing the Pokemon. "Yep, I know you."

"And I'm his wife, Sandy. Now please, we don't want to hurt you, we just have to favor to ask of you."

"So hand them over!" ordered Conner. "Or we'll have to force you."

"Heck no! They won't go!" exclaimed Karl.

Koopa, Blowtorch, and Flora didn't seem to think that these were very good trainers. Team Rocket was all that they realized – of Pokemon abuse.

Blowtorch placed his tail at the bottom of Sandy's skirt, setting it on fire. "Hey! I'm on fire! Get it off!" Sandy struggled to put out the fire.

Sure, Squirtle thought. I'll save you. Not!

Conner pulled out a bottle of water, and squirted it on Sandy, putting out the fire. "Squirtle obviously doesn't care about us. You brats!"

The ground then began to rumble violently. "We've gotta split," said Conner. "And you're coming with us!"

"Not so fast!" It was Brock, the Pewter City Gym Leader! "You're not leaving with them! Come on, Geodude, let's prove we're serious!"

The rocky Pokemon materialized, and rammed into Conner's stomach. "Ugh! That hurt! But we're not stopping there!"

"OK, then, I surrender!" Brock said. Not really. He had a plan to escape.

Team Rocket packed up everything and they drove off via trucks and cars as rocks began to fall.

Karl, Hadley, Brock, and Kevin were pulled into the lorry of a truck.

---

A few minutes of rushing and bumps passed.

Brock looked around. Whole loads of fossils were stockpiled. "Team Rocket's going to take our work, just like they did with the museum."

He pushed at the back door, but it was latched closed. "Onix, let's force the door open!"

The large rocky snake rammed into the door, but it was fairly sturdy and didn't budge. "Come on, Onix, push with all your might!" encouraged Karl. "Let's help it."

Karl, Hadley, Kevin, and Brock inserted all of their strength to push down the door. Team Rocket was sure to catch them, but they had to try, anyway.

Onix, with the help of the humans, successfully pushed down the door. Brock told the younger trainers, "Quick, let's get out of here!"

As they jumped out of the vehicle, they realized that they still had to leave the cave, as Kevin was hit by a falling rock. They followed the truck, running as fast as they could to avoid getting hit by rocks.

---

Outside, the sky was a pleasant surprise after the dark cave. The vehicles drove out, along with Karl, Hadley, and Kevin, who just barely made it out before a rockslide closed up the exit.

"Man, I don't want to go through this again." Kevin's head hurt. "I think I got a concussion."

Hadley looked around, and saw that a rockslide had sealed up the exit. As if that were not enough, another rumble filled the area. "Come on, let's get as far away from Mt. Moon as we can!"

The ground began to make a small crack. Kevin and Brock were on one side, and Karl and Hadley were on the other.

Brock then told Kevin, "Jump!" They both jumped, but Kevin fell into the ravine, dangling under an outcropping. He hoped it was anchored securely.

"Help! I'm going to fall!"

Hadley then looked down, and saw Kevin hanging on a rock for dear life and slipping. "Quick, Flora, use your vine whips to save Kevin! I'll weigh you down."

The Bulbasaur pulled out two whip-like vines, and lowered them to Kevin, who grabbed one of them at a time. Then he was pulled out, with Hadley pushing down Flora to keep her from falling into the ravine."

The small crack had eventually formed into a massive, twisting ravine. Fortunately, everyone made it to the other side away from Mt. Moon.

But now that had no way of getting back, which may be just as well. They had passed the point of no return.

"Whew! That was close," said Karl.

"We weren't aware of any earthquake warning," said Brock in bewilderment. "This just seemed completely random. For some reason, I think something isn't right."

Hadley, the scientific girl, knew that earthquakes couldn't happen just like this. It may have been magic, but she sure didn't believe in such. There was no such thing as magic.

"We'd better get to Cerulean City. I'll tell everyone about this earthquake." Brock then led Karl, Hadley, and Kevin to the road to Cerulean City.

"Mother Nature must be in a bad mood today," remarked Kevin. "We don't know what she may start up next!"

"But why did Team Rocket want our Pokemon?" asked Karl. "They're not that rare, and I'm sure they wouldn't want young, inexperienced Pokemon." He wasn't sure about the inexperienced part, though.

"Well, it's because, let me put it this way, these Pokemon weren't ours to begin with," said Kevin. "For all we know, they may be theirs!" He knew they were. It served Team Rocket right.

---

In an isolated parking lot, Team Rocket parked at faraway parking spaces. There was nothing in sight of civilization – just a parking lot and the forest surrounding them. A grunt looked around and realized that the back door of one of the trucks was wide open. "Hey, Hans, you might want to take a look at this!"

"OK, Franz." Hans noticed that some of the fossils were missing – they had probably fallen out.

Conner and Sandy knew that something else was missing – those kids! Sandy sighed. "They've dodged us, and now we've got to go after them. We need their Pokemon! Don't they realize that those creatures are worth a fortune?"

Conner knew what to do – ask the boss to send Rockets throughout Kanto to search for the kids. "Those kids can run for their lives all they want, but there's no way on Earth that they can hide, with our good grunts to help us!"

"If those kids think we're stupid enough to forget about them, they're wrong," said Sandy. "They're the stupid ones. Yes, kids are stupid and helpless."

---

The four finally made it to Cerulean City. It was a mess. The earthquake probably reached here. There were barricaded roads, damaged buildings, and spouting fire hydrants. Brock then told the three, "I'll tell the others that something strange is going on because of the earthquake."

Kevin was still hurting all over and exhausted. "All right, then, we'll continue on to save Daisy and my dad at Celadon City."

Karl asked Hadley, "All right, then, where do we go after this?"

Hadley looked at the map. "Our next destination is Saffron City. That's south from here."

'Then, let's go." Karl then knew from here on that it was a cakewalk to Celadon. But when they reached the exit, they saw that a massive rockslide had sealed it up.

"The earthquake did reach here..." said Hadley in disappointment. "We'll have to find another way out. We can't wait for the mess to be cleaned up."

"Let's try Nugget Bridge. Maybe Bill Microbyte can help us. He's a Pokemon expert," said Kevin happily.

Karl thought about this. "It's worth a try - if the bridge didn't get destroyed in the earthquake as well. Hadley and I can't swim."

Hadley shook her head. "Bill's not an earthquake expert, though."

Karl then insisted, "Maybe not, but for all we know, he probably knows how we can get past the rock-slide."