Pokemon really are incredible things. Reaper`s evolution right in the middle of battle was so unexpected even I was shocked. Now my Reaper has grown so much… From a small Weedle that I could carry in my hands into a Beedrill that maybe can even carry me now. How cool is that? How awesome all my other pokemon will be when they evolve?

"This changes nothing…" The Rocket grunt said, returning his Rattata to pokeball. "My second pokemon will be dominant in this damn cave!" And after that words he threw another pokeball, revealing… Zubat to be his second pokemon.

I wonder if I can use my Zubat in this battle? He is still hurt, but he is so fast that maybe opponent will not be able even to hit him. Maybe, I should really give the newcomer a chance.

"Okay, let`s make this even more confusing!" I shouted, throwing pokeball of my Zubat. Pokemon appeared out of it, flying in the air and looking around. Well, actually he can`t look, because he has no eyes, but I heard they have very good ability to use sound waves instead of vision.

Suddenly my Zubat turned back to me and attacked. Not the opponent, but me instead. I wasn`t expecting that at all, and had to dodge the attack, but I forgot that he can hit not physically, but by sound, and a loud, awful, ears-tearing sound hit me, almost knocking off. After a quick recovery I had to return this guy back. I guess, we have some job to do later.

"That was awesome!" The grunt laughed at me. "Zubat is confused! It hits dumbass in the confusion!"

"Just you wait." I will return to this later, but for now… "Dumpling, take this thing out of the… ceiling…"

Dumpling appeared in front of me, warming up a little, furiously swiping the air around him.

Finally I`ve noticed worry on the Rocket grunt`s face. Comparing to my Dumpling his Zubat was much smaller, and looked not that strong. But my last experience with Zubats reminded me to never underestimate these creatures.

"Start with Ember, Dumpling!" I commanded.

"What a dumb name… I will erase this dumbness from the face of planet! Use Astonish!"

His Zubat accelerated to my Dumpling and attacked him with the power of his sound. So, that`s how this move is called… That was not very powerful, but it somehow managed to surprise us. Dumpling shook his head after that and spit some Embers into the opponent, but fast Zubat somehow managed to dodge it. I could clearly see victorious look on the grunt`s face.

"We`re not finished yet! We have a lot more things to do! Let`s try out Metal Claw, Dumpling!"

Charmeleon jumped high, trying to reach our foe with his attack, but Zubat flew even higher, right to the ceiling. Just now I noticed how high this place became, not like tight tunnels I had to walk through earlier. This is really a place for a full-scale battle.

"Leech life, Zubat!"

What`s that? Another unknown move to me… And I definitely don`t like the name of it.

Foe Zubat with lightning speed rushed to Dumpling and made a small bite. That looked like not very hurt, but some green sparks appeared on Dumpling`s skin and flew towards Zubat, to be devoured by his body. And I did not like the view of it even more.

"Damn it, I forgot…" The Grunt grumbled something quietly. I wonder what did he mean? "Nevermind, use Supersonic!"

Even more unknown attack for me. I must understand what they do and try to do something against that.

Zubat hovered high above and launched some sound waves into Dumpling`s direction, but… they vanished right in the midair.

This is like that time with Butterfree, but now our opponent can launch a lot of distance attacks, but we have only Ember that can hit him. If it won`t miss… Which is very likely. I need a strategy, again and quick.

I looked around the place where we battle. The cave isn't that high, as it could seem on the first time, but high enough for Zubat to be out of our range. Opponent was flying high between the stalactites, feeling himself safe there. Maybe… we can use this?

These long rocks were sticking out of the ceiling, the walls – they were everywhere. This is very risky, but we can try one thing… To make it safer, we can do another thing, but this will add some risk, so…

Damn it. I just need to concentrate and execute my plan before I`m confused by my own thoughts.

"Dumpling, use Smokescreen!"

That was a very nice idea to check his moves in the Pokemon center last time. I didn`t even know that he learned a new move – Smokescreen. We have tried out this a little before going to the cave, and I completely forgot about that! That could help us in battle against Zubats…

Dumpling made a deep breath and exhaled a lot of smoke, covering himself and all the cave in some sort of dark mist.

"Go! Climb up the rocks and get him!"

While everything is covered in smoke, it is very hard for opponent to attack us, and we can use this time to reach Zubat and attack him. Dumpling started to jump on the rocks, from one to one, climbing higher to our opponent. I could barely see this, but I was sure he`s doing it right, as I planned.

"No way you can do this!" Looks like Grunt understood my plan. "Leech life!"

Zubat tried to bite my pokemon again, but in this messy smokescreen he missed and hit the rock Dumpling was standing on instead the Dumpling himself. Our foe managed to recover from this hit quickly and retreat back, but the stalactite cracked under the weight of Charmeleon and started to fall. This is not good…

"Balance, Dumpling! Balance! Don't fall!"

Charmeleon tried to stand on the sliding rock, like on surf board. From the side that looked cool, as he actually balanced pretty well, but also dangerous. And useful.

"Come on! Use your speed to attack with Metal Claw!"

If my calculations are correct, he can accelerate to speed high enough for a long jump that will help him reach that flying Zubat. In the smokescreen we have advantage because of surprise effect. I hope this will work…

Dumpling concentrated all his strength and crouched on his rock. Everything happened in a mere second, and it happened even better than I thought. Dumpling somehow managed to use his inertia to jump even higher as he pushed the improvised "board" forward, into this foe, flying around. Rock hit Zubat pretty hard, knocking him out from the air. Opponent lost control of his flight and fell on the ground.

Dumpling landed on him, kicking the fainted body with his foot. Bad guy was punished.

"Good job, Dumpling!" I cheered him and raised my head to look at our opponent`s eyes. But… He was there no more.

Damn it! The grunt used the moment of my distraction to escape from me, even if he had to abandon his Zubat. Yeah… This thought came lately to me. He actually abandoned his pokemon. That`s just disgusting thing to do.

I looked down at the lying Zubat, unconscious. I am not a very good guy, but I still have some soul not to leave him here in such condition. Caves can be dangerous, and I know this better than anyone.

So I put my hand deep in the greatcoat and took out a Revive crystal and used it on Zubat. After some time little creature recovered and flew up. He tried to look around in an attempt to find his trainer, but that was completely useless. That Rocket scum is gone.

"Listen there, little one." I tried to calm down this Zubat. "You see, there`s no one left. He escaped, abandoned you. And you have two choices: go look for him and hope this will never happen again – which definitely will - or start to live freely, like you have never been caught. Maybe he will actually soon dispose of his useless pokeball, and you really will be free, but still… Whatever choice you`re going to do… Don`t choose the first one."

I stood up and left Zubat alone. This is his choice to make. During my short, but quite remarkable journey I have clearly understood one thing: pokemon are as intelligent as we are. Some a little less, some a little more, but still they are nearly us. The creature hovered on place for a moment and with determination flew into the depth of cave, the way I arrived. Hope he did the right choice. I didn`t get which one.

As I turned back, I found Dumpling staring in the depth of cave, at the point where Rocket grunt was hiding. Something interesting was definitely inside that tunnel, and I headed there.

The line of mechanical torches were still present, and soon I saw the man on my way. The stranger was sitting on knees, accurately swiping dusty cavern floor with some strange brush. Judging by the equipment near him I could recognize him as an archeologist of some sort. Maybe, I am right.

Something strange was hovering around him. As I came closer, I could see this better. That was a metal ball with eye and two magnets on sides. This thing looked… alive. Is that a pokemon? If it is, I don`t know what is it and definitely don`t know how to fight it.

The man was in his headphones, quietly singing some strange and unknown song. Maybe this is why he didn`t react at all on all the battling that just happened very closely? I guess, this is who the Rocket grunt was hunting for. That bandit was talking about the fossils… Now I understand.

I have absolutely nothing to do with this archeologist, but he was standing on my way, completely blocking the passage. So I came closer and touched his shoulder.

"Hey, man, let me pass."

The archeologist twitched after this and jumped to the side. He looked startled and angry at the same moment.

"Wha… You scared me! Get out, I have an important research to do!" He was swinging his hands so emotionally he nearly hit me.

"Yes, I would like to. But I need to go THAT way." I pointed at the direction of my destination. "So would you please move away?"

"No, no! No no no no no no! You. Can`t! I haven`t finished digging this precious fossils out from the ground yet!" This guy seemed a little crazy.

"Listen, I don`t care about your fossils, and I have no time to wait, just let me pass." But after that he stood right at the center of road, blocking my way. His pokemon lowered height and looked at me angrily too.

"You. Shall not. Pass!" And both of them prepared for fight with battle stances.

"Okay, if the battle is what you want – you get one! Dumpling, come over here!"

My Dumpling, hiding behind me until this moment, stepped in front with a menacing look on his face. For some reason, this mad scientist started to worry quite a lot.

"Well… Maybe, we can arrange an agreement of some sort? I… I can share…"

"You have spent much of my time. I need nothing from you. Ember this… thing, Dumpling!"

My pokemon approached his foe and breathed a good amount of embers at it. Our opponent – whatever that was – was burned badly and fell on the ground immediately.

One-hit K.O. Looks like that was super effective. I need to remember that.

"No! Magnemite!" The scientist rushed to his fainted mechanical pokemon and took him on hands, instead of returning to pokeball. At least now he moved away from my road.

"Good job, Dumpling. Have a high-five!" For a moment Charmeleon was a bit confused, but then he remembered that little lesson of mine, and awkwardly gave me a high-five in return.

"And what about you…" We turned back to sitting near the wall mad scientist. The moment of victory triumph evaded in a second, and just anger filled me again. I just hate being slowed down. "I don`t know who you are, but if you will stand on my way again… If I know that you work for THEM… I`ll destroy you."

I followed the opened path. The cave further was lit pretty good, and I could see my way clearly, and yet somehow I managed to trip over something. Quite cracking sound didn`t mean anything good. As I looked down, two strange stones appeared in my sight. One of them looked strange, like a print of something bug-like in the stone, but the second one… Second one looked like the print of something like shell. And, of course, I stepped on the first one.

Of course, I was a little sorry for this, maybe destroying something scientifically awesome… stuff was a bit inaccurate of me. But that wasn`t my fault, that madman could just let me go and warn to look under my feet. I could hear his dirty swearing for a long time as I made my way deeper in the cave. Some new words for me, at least.

The tunnel led me to a ladder up. Up to the surface, I could even see the moonlight. To tell the truth, in this light pole, falling from the hole above, this ladder looked… like an actual salvation. The "hallelujah" song could fit good.

"So, this is our way on the surface. Aren`t you tired, Dumpling?"

I looked at my partner. That was a stupid question - of course, he was tired after all this, but, I guess, he was much more tired of long-walking than hard-battling.

"Yeah, I understand. Have a rest." I returned him to pokeball and started to climb up.

Nothing interrupted me on my way up. It took some time to reach the surface, but I was never so glad to see the sky again, to breath this fresh air.

I was in the place that looked exactly like Route 3. But all this was so familiar to me. This was the side road of the Route 4, leading to Cerulean City. And exactly this is where I have spent my childhood with my friends. A small countryside between the city and the mountain.

So many memories started to flood my mind. Good, not very good… And then the events that took place here seven years ago replaced them.

Damn. I shouldn`t think about it. I mustn`t think about it!

I hit the nearest tree with my head. That was stupid and hurtful. But that helped me to throw all these memories away. Maybe I shouldn`t come here.

I was standing there in such an idiotic position for a couple of minutes, trying to collect my thoughts. That was hard, but I decided to take my time.

"That is… not the best place to sleep, actually." Some female voice reached me from behind. And this voice sounded so familiar.

Hardly I managed to get away from the tree and turn back. Yes, I recognized her 100% correct. The girl from my past.

She ran to me and hugged very tightly.

"Thank god, I started to think you have gone mad and forgot your good ol` Misty. Glad so see you back home."