Pokemon: Crimson and Azure

Chapter 6: Mt. Moon

In this chapter:

~Climbing the Mountain-Inside the Mountain-Team Rocket-At the top~

~Climbing the Mountain~

Hiking Time…

After gathering all of her things from the Pokemon Center, Crimson set out on the road to Mt. Moon: Kanto's highest mountain. The only route to the next town, Cerulean City, was by way of the mountain.
On the way to the bottom of the mountain, where there was a convenient Pokemon Center, Crimson fought a lot of trainers. Most of them were just kids, whom Crimson beat quite easily. However, she did run into a Hiker, who was quite tough to beat due to having rock-type Pokemon. But he was not nearly as tough as Brock, plus let's not forget t hat Crimson's Pokemon are at a higher level now. On the way to Mt. Moon, our hero had also caught her a Jigglypuff and a Spearow. Her Pidgey also finally evolved into a Pidgeotto, which was quite a sight to behold. Pidgeotto had doubled the stats of a Pidgey. Finally, around 2 hours after leaving Pewter City, she found herself in front of the Pokemon Center she was told about. Entering inside and healing her Pokemon, she noticed the atmosphere in this Pokemon center was a bit ….off.. It was probably the shady old man in the corner, trying to draw people's attention.
"Hey, you over there! With the red hair?"
Oh no … he spotted me … Crimson thought to herself
"Yes?" She approached him, trying to sound polite.
"How about we make a deal, kid. I have quite the Pokemon at my disposal, and I'm selling it for only 500 Pokedollars! What do you say?"
"Hmm, it depends on what Pokemon it is…" Crimson knew something wasn't right with this guy.
"Oh, you'll see! Just buy it, and it's all yours!"
"Well I…"
"Come on now, help the old man out here! I have a family to feed!"
Crimson knew he wouldn't leave her alone until she bought the Pokemon. She knew she should have just ignored him from the start … but she didn't. Big mistake.
With a sigh, she mumbled "Fine…" And handed him 500 Pokedollars. She had gotten quite a lot of money on the way over here, so 500 at least wasn't that much for her.
"Excellent! Here you go! Toodaloo!" The old man gave her a pokeball and ran off like a lunatic.
I hope it's at least a new Pokemon … Crimson thought to herself as she pulled out her Pokedex and examined the Pokeball. It was a new Pokemon. And an actual water type! It was a Magicarp. At first, Crimson was quite impressed. She finally had a way of dealing with those annoying hikers! … or so she thought. The thing was only level 5, it's stats were worse of that of a level 2 Pidgey, and it only knew one move: Splash, which wasn't even a water type move. She let out a sigh in disappointment… Ripped off again. At least she got Magicarp's Dex page early.
After storing the Pokemon in the PC box, Crimson started to calculate how much time it'd take her to go through . Inside the mountain there was a cave system, however it was easy to get around it due to signs all over the place, since so many trainers use that road. It was currently 7 PM, the sun was setting, but if it takes her only 3 hours to go through the cave system, she'd be at Cerulean City at around 10.

~Inside the Mountain~

Caves can be scary...

In the end, she decided to risk it and enter the cave system. Surprisingly, it was quite spacious inside, and there were lanterns hung on the walls all over the place, with signs pointing to the right way. After making her way through the first section, defeating trainers and gaining exp, she found a ladder. The signs weren't pointing that way, but curiosity got the best of her. She descended the ladder into a man-made tunnel, which was darker than the cave above. It was actually kind of chilling … Was she doing the right thing? Was this an alternate route still in the works? Finally, she reached yet another ladder going down at the end of the tunnel. She descended it carefully to find herself in a small chamber, with a mysterious figure who appeared to be looking for something. He was dressed all in black, and had a big red "R" on his chest. He quickly noticed her and spoke in an intimidating tone. "This is no place for children! Get lost!"
"Is that so? Then why didn't you put a sign up there saying it in advance?"
The mysterious individual got really angry when she said that. "I'll break you apart!" He yelled, launching at her like a madman. Right at that moment, her bag emitted a light as Flare got out of her Pokeball on her own and with a quick scratch attack, knocked the man out instantly before he was about to even land a hand on Crimson. All in the while, Crimson just stared with a shocked expression on her face. She was shivering. If it wasn't for Flare, god knows what that man could've done to her…
Flare turned around and looked at her trainer.
"Flare … You … you knew? You knew I was in danger… and came out to protect me?"
Flare nodded. To this day, Crimson doesn't know how Flare could sense then whilst inside her Pokeball, or how she broke free on her own. But Crimson knows one thing for sure: Flare saved her life that day.
Crimson smiled, a few tears running down her cheeks and hugged Flare. "Thank you…"
Flare's body was warm .. it reminded her of her childhood days, when she would hug her mother when she was upset. The feeling she got at this moment was similar to that feeling. After calming down, Crimson decided to keep Flare out of her Pokeball for a while, just in case if there were more of these lunatics down here.
She cautiously approached the man and checked his pulse. He had one, so he was just knocked unconscious. She let out a sigh of relief and got up. Just what was the man doing here? What was he after? And what's with that outfit? There so many questions flowing through Crimson's mind.. but the answer to all of them was now lying on the ground, sleeping. She decided to look around the room on her own, all in the meantime, Flare was keeping an eye on the odd man in case if he woke up and attacked her master again.
After a bit of scavenging, Crimson found a disk. It was a TM, containing a powerful new move: Mega Punch. Pulling out her Pokedex, she checked which of her current Pokemon could learn it. Pikachu and Flare were her best bets, but she decided to teach it to Flare.
After all that drama, she left the man down there. He would wake up soon anyway. Heading back up to the main cavern, she continued along the path, battling a few more trainers and a hiker and testing out her new Mega Punch. It worked like a charm, although it was sometimes a bit inaccurate.
After defeating a hiker, she found a ladder going down. However, the signs said that was the way to go. And so she did. Descending the ladder, she heard a rough voice. And then it hit her. It was a man dressed in the same clothing as the other one. This time, she was quick enough to hide behind a rock before he could notice her. He was yelling at his poor Raticate for not digging fast enough. Were those two connected? No, they had to be. Same uniforms, both were looking for something … but what? For now, all she could do was spy on him and hope he'd slip up. And he did. "Come on, you useless raticate! Dig faster! We will never find any fossils if you take so long!"
Fossils … so that's what they were after …
Crimson didn't want to get involved in any of this, but when she saw the man pull out a whip and hit his tired raticate with it when it couldn't keep digging anymore, she knew that he crossed the line. Flare knew that as well. She whispered to flare to attack the man with a mega punch, and so she did, jumping out of their hiding place and punching the man, knocking him out before he could even say "W-Wha…?"
She hurried over to the raticate that was lying on the ground in pain. She pulled out one of her potions from her bag.
"This might sting a bit… but you'll be alright." She said, spraying the raticate's wound from the whip. The poor thing squealed in pain, but afterwards managed to get back up on it's feet.
Those people … Crimson never knew this world could have such cruel people. No, they weren't people … they were monsters.
Approaching, she managed to find Raticate's Pokeball in his waist and took it, returning raticate back to it's ball. Crimson knew stealing was bad, but this Pokemon needed help … so she decided to release it. However, it was in a condition suitable for running away on it's own right now. All she could do was keep it in it's ball until they exit the cave, hoping it would feel better by then. A dex page for Raticate hadn't opened up, since she literally stole it from someone, but it was for the greater good.
She continued down the cave, running into a flock of Zubats and managing to easily capture one, adding another page to her dex.
She also had a lucky found and managed to capture one of those mystical Clefairy pokemon. She also found two odd looking rocks, that resembled the "Moon Stones" that she saw back in the Pewter City Science Museum.

~Team Rocket~

Just who on Earth are they?

After a while, she ran into … another odd man dressed in the same suit. However, this one seemed … friendlier than the rest. He noticed the girl and said. "Move along now, don't mind me. I'm just … looking for something."
"Looking for what?" Crimson asked, wanting to confirm her speculation that all of these people worked together, trying to find fossils and most likely sell them.
"None of your business, just go before I get mad."
Flare was now too tired to battle, so she had to retrieve her in her Pokeball earlier.
"Hmm, let's make a deal, I'll beat you in a Pokemon battle, and you tell me what you're looking for and who you work with, alright?"
The man stared at her for a few seconds before bursting out in laughter.
"Oh man… kids these days … Okay, I accept your challenge, but I'm not saying a thing! .. Because I'll win! HAHA!"
He laughed out, throwing a pokeball to the ground which released a zubat.
Crimson knew zubats were partly flying types, so she sent out her Pikachu, taking down the zubat with one thundershock attack.
The odd man stared with a wide open mouth as he retrieved his zubat. He stood no chance.
"Argh… FINE, I'LL TELL YOU EVERYTHING!"
Crimson smirked, retrieving her Pikachu.
"I … I work for Team Rocket! Me and my buddies were looking for fossils so that we could give them to the boss! God knows what he'd do with them, probably sell them. We're just grunts and do what we're told with no questioning."
"Team… Rocket? What's Team Rocket?"
"I'm not telling you. I only needed to tell you for who I work with. Look that up on your own. Later!"
With that, he ran off like a speedwagon. Although weird, he at least didn't abuse his Pokemon or attack her for no reason. Team Rocket … just who on earth was Team Rocket? For now, she shrugged it off, as it was all she could do. It was getting late and she had to reach the next town soon, as she was getting tired from all the walking on the rough cave terrain.
She was near the end of the cave when she saw an odd lookin fella. He wasn't with 'Team Rocket', but he still looked a bit crazy. He was giggling at two fossils, but then saw the girl approaching him and jumped.
"Wah! You're not getting these fossils! They are mine!"
"Uhm… I don't even want them, I just want to go through…"
"NONSENSE! You want them, I know you do! I can see the greed in your eyes! Ah! Let's battle and see who gets them!"
Before Crimson could object, the freak sent out his Pokemon, a Voltorb.
They battled. Crimson managed to win, although her Pokemon were getting pretty worn out.
"grrr… fine, a deal is a deal. Take one! We can share!"

~At the top~

...

Crimson didn't even want the fossils to begin with, but she had no choice now. She took one of them. The nerd told her it was a Helix fossil and that it was super rare. She had no idea what to do with it, but put it in her bag and research it later. Bidding her farewell, she continued a bit further, finally reaching the ladder leading to the surface. Climbing up to the top of the mountain, she pulled out Raticate's pokeball and released it. It was feeling better and ran off into the wilderness. She had saved a Pokemon's life of slavery today. She took a quick gander at her wristwatch. It was near 10 PM, the sun had set and the moon had risen. The sky was covered in stars and it all looked beautiful. And then, she noticed a familiar figure sitting on the edge of a small hill near her. It was her rival, Azure, hugging her knees and staring at the beautiful night sky. Crimson climbed up to where Azure was. At first she thought Azure didn't even notice her, but after greeting her and telling her to sit down, her speculation was broken.
"The sky is beautiful, isn't it?" Azure began a conversation.
"Yeah…" Crimson stared up at the stars.
"So many stars … I've always wondered what it's like up there. Are there Pokemon we don't know about yet up there? Could there be other civilizations like ours? Did Clefairy really come from space? Our world is so beautiful and full of mysteries… Mysteries we want to solve. Some of us do the best they can to solve those Mysteries … Like prof. Oak. Others don't, and just want to reach the top, like us… not even thinking about what mysteries our world beholds."
"I guess you're right."
"Where do we come from? Where do Pokemon come from..? So many unanswered questions…"
That was the end of the conversation. Crimson didn't know what to say. The Azure she talked with that day wasn't the same cheerful and clumsy trainer she knew. It was like she met a completely different person. After they both stared at the night sky for a while, the warm summer breeze becoming colder and colder as time flew by, Azure was finally the first the get up.
"I'll be going now… Good luck on your journey, Crimson."
"Thanks… you too."
With that, Azure descended the cliff and made her way to Cerulean City.
Crimson stayed for a while longer, thinking about all that Azure said. Azure herself was probably the biggest mystery though. She seemed so different … and why?
After a little longer, Crimson got up herself, and made her way down t he mountain and towards Cerulean City, which's lights could be seen in the time: Cerulean City