Authors Note: Sorry for the shorter Chapter, I wanted to end at Sprout tower but there was so much happening that I didn't realise and I thought the chapter was longer than this
As Dan ventured into the mysterious cave, he realised something very important. He couldn't see a thing. The sunlight entering the cave barely illuminated the area and Dan could just see the tips of his fingers on an outstretched arm.
"Stick with me, Aqua" Dan nervously ordered, worried if Dan lost Aqua, he would never be able to find him again. As Dan cautiously walked through the cave, he constantly ran into rocks and ledges. Dan hadn't realised that the rock formations had formed a maze until he became turned around, fell off a ledge and returned to the exact spot he had entered the cave. After realising the cave was actually a maze, he continued on using the rocks for guidance. The rocks were cool to the touch and slightly damp, while the sound of running water echoed in the distance. Dan could also hear a very unusual noise. Mumbling and screeching. However, he couldn't make out what the noises were saying. The noise was constantly echoing inside the dark caverns and it seemed there was multiple sources creating both the mumbles and the screeches.
"Pokémon" Dan realised. Moments after, Dan noticed a small boulder roll towards him. Assuming a Pokémon had pushed it towards Dan, he waited to see what type of Pokémon was lurking inside the cave. What Dan didn't expect was the boulder to suddenly stop in its tracks and grow a pair of arms. As the arms grew outwards, the rest of the small boulder started to change. It seemed to split in three separate areas, one large split forming along the bottom while the other two split along the top, almost connecting. As the splits grew wider, Dan realised that the largest split was revealing a fleshy area while the two smaller splits seemed to form pupils. Once it had stopped moving, the boulder let out a low, growl of 'Geodude' before zeroing in on Aqua. As soon as Dan realised he was now in a Pokémon battle, he instantly reacted.
"Aqua," Dan immediately commanded, his voice echoing throughout the cave, "Use Water Gun!" Aqua immediately released a torrent of water from his mouth, directly hitting the Geodude in the face. Aqua's strength, combined with the type advantage knocked the Geodude out instantly. The Water Gun was so powerful, it managed to push the Geodude back into the darkness of the cave.
As Dan and Aqua continued through the cave, they managed to find an item discarded on the ground. Dan reasoned that someone else who had wandered through this maze-like cave had dropped it and didn't want ro risk walking back inside. As he reached for the item, a creature swooped down and attacked Dan and Aqua. The creature was pale blue in colour with a purple skin. The creature also had pointed ears with and two small, thin tails and a wide, open mouth with four small fangs at each corner. The strangest thing about the Pokémon was its lack of eyes, even though it seems to have perfect accuracy as it hovered in place. As the creature hovered, it let out a shrill 'Zubat' before once again swooping down at Dan and Aqua.
"Hmm, it would be good to have a flying Pokémon" Dan tried to reason with him, before talking to his buddy. "Aqua" Dan commanded, "Use Rage." Aqua charged up his anger, glowing a faint shade of crimson, before attacking the Zubat in a flurry of rage. The attack seemed to take enough damage for capture, but before Dan managed to throw a Pokéball at the Zubat, the bat Pokémon latched onto Aqua, sinking his fangs inside and draining Aqua's life energy. Fortunately, Aqua managed to shake the Zubat off without losing too much energy.
"Alright Aqua," Dan started, "We want to catch it, not kill it. Rage, one more time" Dan commanded, every sound echoing throughout the cave. Aqua charged up Rage, his body glowing with a slightly darker shade of red before once again rabidly attacking the Zubat. As soon as Aqua had finished, the Zubat was finding it incredibly hard to stay in the air. Unfortunately, the attack had left Aqua so close to Zubat, the bat was able to sink its fangs straight into Aqua's head, beginning to drain Aqua's life. Before Aqua could have any more of his energy drained, Dan grabbed a Pokéball and launched it at the Zubat, halting it from draining any more of Aqua's energy. As the ball hit the Zubat, the familiar red energy covered his body, before sucking the bat into the ball. As it landed back onto the floor of the cave, the Pokéball quickly rocked three times before a resounding *click* sounded throughout the cave.
"Sweet!" Dan exclaimed. "I caught a Zubat." Dan immediately opened the Pokéball, releasing the Zubat. "What should I name you?" Dan questioned the Zubat. "How about..." Dan paused to think, "Bruce!" What Dan didn't understand was the Zubat he captured was a female. He quickly realised this once the Zubat attacked Dan, screeching into his face and flapping non-stop against his head.
"Alright Alright!" Dan quickly corrected, "How about Venom!" This quickly calmed down Zubat, as she reeled back and began to hover in front of Dan and Aqua. "O.K. Venom," Dan started to introduce, "Welcome to the team!" Dan beamed, sending Venom back into her Pokéball. Before Dan left, he looked down and remembered about the item he was going to pick up. As he reached down, he realised it was a Potion.
After Dan had picked up the Potion, he managed to escape the cave without running into any more wild Pokémon. As Dan left, he decided to train up Venom before using him to battle in the next Gym. As he walked along the rest of Route 31, he plucked another Apricorn from a nearby tree, picked up a discarded, empty Pokéball engaged in a battle with a Bug Catcher named Wade. Dan decided to use a trick he had heard about called 'EXP Switching' which involved releasing a Pokémon you want to train, then swapping said Pokémon for a stronger Pokémon to finish the actual battle. Dan managed to utilise the tactic while facing Wade's Caterpie's and his one Weedle. The Weedle was a new Pokémon Dan had never seen before. It was a light brown colour with a white spike adorning the top of his head and a second, smaller spike jutting out the back. It's face consisted of a stubby purple nose underneath two small black eyes with two rows of stubby little legs running all along his body. Dan easily managed to defeat all of Wade's Pokémon and decided to search the area for another new partner. Dan decided to try to capture someone new that he hadn't battled before. Sadly, his newest partner-Venom-was running very low on energy, so Dan decided to move into the next town which just happened to be Violet City.
Violet City was a very old town, full of cobblestone paving, Torches dotted along the edges of the paths and very old looking buildings. As soon as Dan found the Pokémon center, he noticed it was a different colour. Instead of the Orange most center's were coloured, this center was a dark shade of red. Apart from the colour scheme, the entire Pokémon center was practically the same. As Dan walked inside, he was met with another surprise. The Nurse from the previous center was also here. This seemed almost impossible to Dan. As he walked up he realised that all of her features were identical from her clothes to her height and even the hair style. The singular difference was the cross on the front of her Nurse's hat. Instead of the red he previously saw, this woman had a blue cross. After healing Venom and Aqua, Dan noticed a picture on the counter. The picture showed nine completely identical women, all in a nurse outfit with differently coloured crosses. This just confused Dan more than answer anything.
"They're my family." A soft, womanly voice explained. Dan had not seen the Nurse return and ended up jolting in place as she smiled back, unfazed by Dan's reaction.
"You'd be surprised how many people react that way," the nurse continued to explain. "These are me, my sisters, and my cousins. We all work as the Nurse Joy in all the different Pokémon centers."
"Ah" Dan sighed, understanding Nurse Joy, "That explains it. Thanks Nurse."Dan thanked before turning around and heading back to Route 31. Before he could leave, he was stopped by a young boy named Chris.
"Hey!" He shouted. "You're a trainer, right?" Chris started to question. "Do you have any Bellsprout? I can trade them for my Onix!" Chris started to question once again. The mention of Onix intrigued Dan straight away. Dan had seen an Onix on T.V. before. Onix was a gigantic rock-snake, easily towering over any Pokémon except for his evolution and some Legendary Pokémon. Dan started to imagine what it would be like to own one of his own. Unfortunately, Dan hadn't caught any Bellsprout, but decided he would, just for this trade.
"Sorry" Dan started to apologise, "I don't have one, but if you tell me where to find one, i'll go get it right away!" Dan explained. Chris' eyes lit up straight away and he pointed Dan back to Route 31. As soon as Dan knew where he was going next, he raced off, quickly waving goodbye as he hurried to catch this new Pokémon.