"Haha! Someone's hungry!"

I couldn't help it if my stomach was rumbling.

"Dave, we are intrepid explorers," I said, trying not to giggle childishly at how my voice echoed around the cave. Mount Moon was pitch black, but we had Jett and Storm to light the way. Flame walked beside me, Storm was in my pocket, and Dave let Shadow out simply because he loved the dark. Must have been natural for a Ghost type. "And we must brave everything. But hunger gets what hunger wants!"

"Not gonna lie, dude, I'm starving too. That roll only just whetted my appetite. Nah, once we get to Cerulean with Joel we'll go to a restaurant and have a biiiig dinner! There's a great place there and-"

"Aw, please, Dave!" I cried, holding my stomach. "I can't take it!"

He burst out laughing, but was interrupted by Jett running up to him and making a kind of bark-like sound, jumping up to him. "What is it, boy?" We followed after the Jolteon - pretty hard to do, since it was lightning-fast. Ace and Jett were stood around a ladder, curiously wondering where it led down to. The cave was damp and dark but it had a pretty high ceiling, so there were no chances of stalactites. That would have been most unpleasant.

"Well, we have to go down," Dave shrugged. "Otherwise we'll never get out of here."

"Where's it go?"

"Underground. Down here's where I saw the suspicious people."

I stepped forward to go first. Flame jumped on my back and I made my way down the ladder, and felt Dave jump on soon afterward, Ace under one arm. It seemed to go on forever, or at least a few minutes - eventually, I felt a weight off my back and turned my head. Flame was on the ground, looking up at me.

"Flame, tell me when it's alright for me to jump - and don't tell me it's alright when I'll jump and end up breaking my neck, okay? I trust you, boy."

From above me, I saw Dave give me a thumbs-up. The little things - like how you held Storm when he fell. That builds trust and love. I figured telling Flame I trusted him would help him feel the same way towards me.

"Chaar!"

I jumped and landed quite safely. Flame pounced back up onto my shoulders and Dave followed down soon after with Ace. We looked up at the ladder to hear scuffling, and then Jett was standing in front of us, quite happily. Dave ruffled the Jolteon's fur and kissed him there. "Awesome, boy."

What lay beyond us was - excuse the pun - beyond me.

A huge wall of darkness, that even when Ace and Jett flashed some sparks to light it up, was still an enormous veil of black. But we had nowhere else to go other than forward, or pointlessly climb back up that ladder. I couldn't help but gulp and frantically searched for Dave's hand in the darkness. He didn't pull away.

"Oh, such a pretty boy! Obviously too stupid to not know we weren't here! Did you think you could just get through us so easily, boy?"

"What the fuck? I'm telling you, I'm only passing through-"

"Grab him!"

"Hey! Let go of me! Fucking hell, let me go! I don't know anything about you or your stupid plans! I swear I don't know shit about it! Darrell! Darrell, help! Someone please help!"

"You know," Dave began, letting Jett and Ace lead the way, Flame at my side. "There are some good Pokémon here, apparently. I want a Machop. Really want one. But I don't think they're here. The most I saw was a-"

"Shh!"

I silenced him quickly. Jett and Ace turned back to look at us, confused. I could hear small voices from a distance away, but still in the same area. Footsteps, shuffling, noises. There were other people here and I hoped they weren't trainers. I wasn't in the mood for a battle. Getting out of Mount Moon and to Joel was the only concern of mine.

"I hear voices," I whispered to him.

"I fuckin' hope not, you crazy-"

I couldn't help but snort at that and giggle into his shoulder. "But seriously! There's people here!"

"Well, of course there's people here. You can't expect the entire universe and its contents to be contained within the confines of where we are standing now."

I looked down to Flame, who looked back, equally as bemused.

"You're very philosophical for this time of day, Dave."

"I've just ate a buttered roll, what do you expect?"

Then we both erupted into a fit of giggling, which seemed to go on for at least thirty seconds until a bright light blinded us - a light that didn't come from our Pokémon. I could hear Jett growling and making that barking noise. Ace stood beside him - and I admired the little guy even more. In the face of danger, he had always scrambled to run behind me.

"Who are you? Why are you here?" a voice behind the light said. It was a torch and they were shining it in our faces. I covered my eyes to try and stop the sudden ache behind my eyes.

"Sorry, man, I didn't know we weren't allowed down here! We can go where we-"

Dave let out a yelp as the figure grabbed him - which meant he lowered his torch and from Jett's glow, I could see a red "R" emblazoned across his black sweater. A knot of fear tied itself up in my stomach again. This wasn't just some youngster trying to pick a fight. This was a real guy who really wanted to hurt us. Who was hiding something, who was…one of those suspicious guys Dave had been talking about.

"Let him go! We're not going to hurt you!" I said, holding my hands up a little in surrender. "We don't mean anything, we're just passing through, we're-"

"Shut up, you little rat!" With his free hand, he tried to punch me - and memories of Gary Fucking Oak flashed back and I dodged by ducking. He let Dave go, and moved closer to us. His voice became softer. More dangerous. "I'm from Team Rocket. And you little vermin aren't supposed to be here."

"Vermin?" That was it. I couldn't help the rage and frustration that was building up inside, ready to explode, too fast for me to handle. "You're from Team Rocket, you abuse Pokémon for a living and we're the vermin? You're all talk, you are, you vermin, and we didn't even fucking know you were here-"

"Darrell!" Dave interrupted. Not angry. Concerned. Worried.

Man, was I pissed off.

The Rocket smiled. "Darrell? That's your name? Well, then. You wouldn't happen to know this pretty little guy, would you?" He shone his torch in front of him to reveal a tied up figure, shouting and shrieking for help. It took me a few seconds but then the knot of fear in my stomach turned to the most red-hot, excruciating hatred and anger I had ever felt in my seventeen years of life.

"Joel!"I looked at the Rocket, fists clenched, teeth gritted. "What are you doing with my best fucking friend?"

"The same as what you're doing. 'Passing through'. We're conducting experiments here. Top secret experiments. Which no stupid little rat is allowed to know about, and no stupid little rat is going to stop us. He was shouting your name, as if you'd come to help him."

"Of course I'd help him!" I literally screamed in his face, and Dave nor Joel made no attempt to shut me up. I pounced on the Rocket, punching and kicking as hard as I could - I didn't even know if I was doing any damage. Unable to control this monster of rage that surged like a haemorrhage through my veins, electrocuted with hatred and anger. Behind me, I could barely comprehend that Dave was untying Joel and helping him out - I couldn't help but think that maybe I was the one who needed help, and not just in this fight. Anger had always been a problem.

"Come on, Darrell, let's go!"

"Well, you saved my ass," Joel laughed heartily. We were out of Mount Moon at last, and the sight of green grass, shimmering waters and a sun had never looked so good. I breathed in deeply to try and calm myself down. Joel laid an arm around me as we headed onward to Cerulean City.

"It must've been terrifying," Dave shrugged.

"I was damn scared, alright," Joel grinned. "But I knew they'd never get away with it! They're all idiots anyway, and…Darrell? Hey, dude, what's up?"

"What? Nothing. I'm fine."

"Like hell are you fine," Joel said. He stopped and stood in front of me, staring me dead in the face. No smiling. "I get you were pissed off. But don't let it bug you. Someone'll catch Team Rocket someday. They aren't gonna jump in our windows at night and kill us, got it? By the looks of it, you didn't even hurt that guy much. He was asking for it. Now, are we gonna head to Cerulean, or are we gonna stand here like complete idiots and be mistaken for poodles?"

I had to laugh at that, and all of my anger was immediately vanquished.