Sometimes people make me mad.

Sometimes people piss me off.

Sometimes people around me just make no sense.

But what really matters is sometimes – very often recently people surprise me. Not in a good way, usually, but this time…

I don`t know whose idea was to build a Pokemon Center in the middle of nowhere, right near the entrance into the dark cave of , but this is really ingenious and… useful. I wonder how many travelers usually stop here for a rest every night, after crossing the caves on foot. I wonder how many will it cost to rent a room here, when it`s so demanded. "Demand creates supply" they say.

In an hour I reached this Pokemon Center and stayed in the local buffet for some time. Of course, the profitable position let them dictate their own prices, so I had to spend quite a lot. At least, pokemon food was free. I wonder why people feed other people for money, and feed other people`s pokemon for free? Sometimes I think it`s easier to live as a pokemon these days…

There was no need to stay for the complete check of my pokemon, so we just had a dinner here and moved on as the sun is still high in the sky. Actually I completely lost the control of time and just continued my journey, not noticing that evening has already come as I entered the cave.

To my surprise, the cave wasn`t that dark, I could clearly see my path. Somebody was training near, according to the sounds. I wouldn`t like to battle inside a cave, where the ceiling can easily crush on you from above, so maybe it will be better to avoid anything like that.

The long tunnel led me to a large place in this cave. High ceiling, thick and strong rock pillars, numerous tunnels in the walls. A whole bunch of wild zubats flying near the stalactites. This place could even better fit Rock-type gym than the Brock`s stadium. There were even trainers battling!

I could see three battles at once, pretty far from each other to make sure one will not disturb another. As I watched closely, I managed to see what pokemon are participating in this, but I could recognize only Geodude. There was another pokemon, looking like Geodude, but bigger and with legs and another pair of hands… An evolution, maybe?

Oh well, these guys look too tough and experienced for me now. I should follow the biggest tunnel to the exit, maybe later I will join these battles here someday. So I found the tunnel, big enough for cars to pass through it, and entered it. To my surprise the road was pretty well lit through small cracks in the walls. But as I proceeded deeper into the mountain, everything around became darker and darker, and I still couldn`t see the light in the end.

Soon I started to hear strange sounds. Something dark and uneasy covered the me around... And soon I realized what was that…

The nasty squeak of a huge Zubat pack, flying somewhere near me. I really don`t want to meet these things, and I can`t be too cautious about this.

"Dumpling, come out…" I said quietly, sending my Charmeleon out. He appeared in the floor and started to blink his eyes quickly, trying to adapt to darkness. As for me, I have adapted to darkness a while ago – I can do that pretty quick. So I squatted before him and petted his head.

"You will get used to it soon, friend. Maybe, I will need your help as my bodyguard. Good?"

Dumpling found me with his eyes and nodded. That was a good idea to have him near me in case of wild pokemon attack or something. Usually cave are full of different creeps – Zubats mostly – and the attack is very possible. I have travelled quite a lot, and visited a lot of caves, but I always had repels on me for a situation like this, but, unfortunately, not now. I should keep in mind this and buy some when I`ll reach the nearest mart.

And that was very in time as a wild zubat appeared from the turn and, after a little look around, found us and headed straight in our direction. Not bad, I think, my Dumpling can deal with it.

"Dumpling, use Ember!" I commanded. He shook his head a little, still trying to adapt to darkness. Zubat had an advantage in this environment as he don`t need to see us to attack, but I`m sure we will manage it.

Zubat rushed to Dumpling, flying by some strange spiral trajectory, carefully dodging an ember, and in a moment he reached close distance. That is one fast Zubat, I think. But in a close distance he can`t deal with our power.

"Metal Claw!" I shouted, and Dumpling prepared to launch a powerful attack, but suddenly Zubat made a very loud creaking sound. That was a very unexpected move, Dumpling wasn`t ready for that and flinched, losing all his charged power.

"Come on, man, pull yourself together! You`re fast too, use Ember from behind!"

Dumpling jumped to the left, trying to hit his opponent in the back, but the attack missed as Zubat flew high and hid somewhere among the stalactites. This thing is not just fast, but cunning too. This could be useful in my team. Maybe, I should catch it?

All we need to do is to and at least one nice attack. I am sure one will be enough to weaken Zubat, but for now it is quite hard to attack at least once. Maybe, we need to outsmart him.

"Dumpling, be ready… And swipe Metal Claw in front of you on my command!"

Pokemon took his battle stance and looked up for the opponent. As for the Zubat, he didn`t keep us waiting and launched another attack, trying to get closely again and repeat the same trick again.

"Now!" I shouted to Dumpling, but he hesitated for a moment as Zubat was still too far for a close attack. That gave our foe a second to attack again with his scream move and hide above again. Dumpling shook his head, trying to recover from that attack, and turned to me, questioning me with his eyes.

"I know, I know… But you need to trust me, okay? You should do this even if he is too far… for example, NOW!"

As I was talking, Zubat returned with a new attack. This time Dumpling was ready to this and executed my order perfectly – opponent was too fast, and our attack in advance hit him exactly in the second he was very close, trying to attack us by himself. Zubat was hit pretty hard and thrown back in the darkness of cave. For a second it was absolute silence.

Crap, I guess, he`s gone. Looks like I will not catch him, but at least Dumpling gained some useful experience from this battle, and so do I. One Zubat alone, maybe, was not a big problem… But soon I realized he was not alone…

In a seconds a flock of Zubats appeared from the same turn and headed to us. One Zubat was not a big problem, but was still a problem. And a whole bunch of these problems were flying straight to us.

"You know, Dumpling. Even a brave man sometimes must say the most important thing in the world… RUN!"

We both rushed to one of the side tunnels and ran as fast as we can, but the Zubat flock were closer and closer. I have already understood how fast these things can be, and had no intention to know how hard they can hit.

"Hey, climb up!" I said to Dumpling and gave him my hand. He jumped on my back and hold tight for me. An additional weight was significant for me, but actually he was much lighter than I thought. I`m used to carry things on my back, so that wasn`t too heavy for me. At least now we can hold them back.

"Use Ember on everyone that comes too close!"

Dumpling moved his position on me so he could shoot at them and started to spit flaming embers into the enemies. I shook my head to make glasses move a bit down to the nose, so they could reflect happening behind. I couldn`t see much, but at least something. Dumpling did his job very good, acting like a turrent and keeping wild Zubats away from us. Sometimes he managed to actually hit them, and they were trying to fly for their lives, but the flock looked like wasn`t going to decrease.

After some time of running with this weight I started to feel myself tired. I guess we have lost our main road a while ago and got deeper into the mountain, but that wasn`t the main problem for the moment. As I was more and more tired, it became a lot harder to keep my speed, and Dumpling was tired too after a continuous ember shooting. Some Zubats reached us and started to shout awfully, but their screams were not that bad as were ones of our first encounter. That Zubat was definitely the most hysterical of them all.

And, as I remembered about him, exactly his scream reached us from the distance. I even turned my head to see him flying his spiral trajectory towards us. He easily outran all other Zubats and reached us, screaming very loudly, flinching not just Dumpling, but me also. As I turned my head straight, I saw a huge gap in the floor, leading somewhere below. Something collapsed here down to the lower tunnels, and I couldn`t stop myself to prevent falling down.

So, I just accelerated as I can and jumped. But it was a very stupid to believe that I can reach the other side of tunnel, and that thought came to me as we were falling down in the darkness, hitting every rock on our way.

Damn… That was very hurt… I guess we have fallen quite deep, but looks like all my bones were still in place. I put myself together and managed to stand up. Dumpling was on my back no more.

"Hey, Dumpling? Where are you?" I tried to call for him carefully, trying not to attract any attention and hoping we somehow managed to lose them.

Dumpling was lying some meters away from me, in one piece. That was very good, but something was under his hand… As I came closer I managed to see that. A Zubat.

Looks like Dumpling grabbed Zubat before our falling there, and both of them landed there now. As I came closer, they started to move, signaling both of them are alive and almost well. Signaling me that Zubat isn`t fainted.

I took my chances and quickly took a pokeball out of my pocket and threw it into the Zubat. The capsule hit it, flying back and landing on the ground.

First shake…

Second shake…

Third shake…

Click!

All these suffers really paid themselves, as I caught a pretty nice Zubat!

I took the pokeball and looked at it. For a moment I thought it will shake once more and explode in my hand, releasing the small beast inside. Really, this was too easy for such an annoying creature. But now this annoying creature is mine, and he will help me a lot in my quest. Dumpling stood up and came to me. He tried to roar for victory, but I shook my head negatively, because the sound may attract Zubats again, and now this is the thing we need least.

Some strange sound reached me from the depth of darkness. Something like… somebody is coughing… On this ground level even I could barely see anything, so I just looked in the direction of the sound.

I looked at the pokeball again. I will deal with you later. For the moment, I guess, I have found something interesting, and maybe important…

I put pokeball on my shoulder belt and stood up. The sound repeated, a bit louder. Dumpling heard that too and prepared to face a threat. I cautiously made some steps in the direction of sound, trying to see through the darkness. Some strange silhouette appeared in my eyesight, sitting near the wall not far from our current position. After some time I managed to see it better, and was shocked by what I saw.

The figure in front of me was a guy from Team Rocket…