As James and Jen left Mt. Moon Square, Seymour the Scientist hurried into the small house that sat close to the small pond. Inside, there was more scientific equipment including a telescope. Seymour ran to a small radio set near the far window and keyed it.
“Raymond paging Administrator. Scientist Seymour Raymond paging Administrator Cade, do you copy, over?” A few moments passed, then the radio crackled, and a quiet but fierce voice emitted from the speaker.
“Administrator here. What is it this time, Seymour?”
“Two kids just found our research station. They found my note referring to Mt. Moon's designation as a Priority Yellow research site. Over.” Silence from the other end at first. Seymour looked nervously at the radio dial, wondering when was the last time he'd tuned it properly.
“First of all, spare me the radio lingo. You are a Scientist, not an air traffic controller.” More silence, then... “Did they see anything else? They didn't know what the station was being used for?”
“I, ah...” Seymour felt his face grow hot. “I told them that we were doing fossil research here. Nothing more.”
“You...” the Administrator's voice rose for a moment, but then he seemed to compose himself. “And you made no mention of who you work for? They didn't mention our organization in passing?”
“No, sir. Why would they? Do they know who we are?”
“If my current suspicion is correct, possibly. Otherwise, we may be safe.” The Administrator paused, then continued. “Continue with current operations, Scientist. Await my orders and be ready to move if necessary.”
“As ordered. I shall make the necessary arrangements, Administrator. Otherwise, I shall continue as normal. Seymour out.” As Seymour walked towards the house's small living area, he thought he heard a snarl of anger from the radio speaker.
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The Mt. Moon tunnels turned out to be more complex than either James or Jen had imagined. Each turn seemed to lead them down a dead end, and James nearly hit his head twice as they encountered low ceilings. Typhlosion scouted for the entry points for lower levels of the caves, which was imperative; neither James nor Jen felt like falling down any holes.
Typhlosion's presence also kept away a lot of the Pokémon scuttling through the caves. Once, however, a Paras, combination Bug- and Grass-type creatures with large foreclaws and mushrooms growing from their backs, approached them, but was scared away simply by Typhlosion igniting his fiery ruff. Another Paras drove them back from a promising-looking tunnel by unleashing a cloud of spores into the air, forcing them to double back and try another route.
“Why didn't we just blast it?” James asked, as they wandered down another tunnel. “Typhlosion could've barbecued that thing easily.”
“I saw beyond it, it was another dead end,” Jen replied. “And I don't think we want to be breathing those spores, anyway.”
After several hours, they finally found their way to the exit but, predictably, it was blocked. This time, a rail-thin teenager with a curtain of dark hair stood in their path.
“Hold it!” he said, as he watched them approach. “You wouldn't be carrying any fossils, would you?”
“No,” James said, eyeing him with suspicion. “Why?”
“All fossils found within this vicinity belong to me,” the boy said, grinning. “You aren't the first people to try and abscond with one of these rare, precious...”
“Oh, grow up!” Jen said, impatiently walking past him. “Do you really pull this on everyone who goes by?” The boy blinked.
“Um, yeah. The Cinnabar Island research lab pays a lot for rare Pokémon fossils. I made a thousand credits once, when I found one of the biggest Dome Fossils ever.” He grinned. “But I'm rambling. You guys sure you haven't got any fossils on you?”
“We already told you we don't,” Jen said, tapping her foot as she waited by the exit. “There's probably a lot near the other end of the cave, why don't you go look there?”
“And dig up those fossils myself? No way! I'd rather convince people to hand them over after they've already done the work.”
“You...” Jen's face went scarlet as she struggled to hold her temper down. “So you're just a bully and a thief, then?” The boy put a hand to his heart in mock pain.
“I'm stunned. You'd accuse an innocent guy like me of thievery? I prefer to call it...”
“I don't care what you call it,” Jen cut him off, taking out a Pokéball. “Let's have a battle. If I win, you're going to stop bothering people who just want to get through the cave.”
“And if I win?” the boy sneered. Jen returned the look with interest.
“I won't lose, so there's no need to speculate. Let's go.”
“All right, then.” The boy tossed out a Pokéball, and a creature resembling a violet ball with small vents across its body emerged. Its mouth hung open in a vacant expression, and this particular creature's eyes stared in opposite directions. Beneath the sagging mouth, what looked like a white outline of a skull sat above a similarly-coloured X-shape. Yellowish gas emitted from the protrusions across its body. As Jen sized the creature up and Typhlosion moved towards cover, James took out his Pokédex to scan the new opponent.
“Koffing, the Poison Gas Pokémon. This Pokémon stores multiple varieties of toxic gas inside its body, and combined with its thin skin and careless demeanour, this makes Koffing prone to explode without warning.”
“Gotta be careful,” Jen mused. “One false move and the whole cave goes boom.” She tossed out her own Pokéball. “Golbat, let's go!” The blue chiropteran chittered as he emerged, staring at his opponent with distaste. One of Koffing's eyes focused on him, while the other stared resolutely in another direction. “Okay, let's open with Confuse Ray!” Golbat's eyes glowed red, and a distortion appeared in front of Koffing's eyes.
“Gyro Ball, Koffing!” As if the Confuse Ray hadn't worked, Koffing spun like a top and was surrounded by a blue-white light. It followed up by ramming hard into Golbat, who flew up towards the ceiling to regroup.
“Air Slash!” Golbat generated what looked like a ball of wind above his wings, then flapped forward to push the attack at Koffing. Koffing took the hit and continued to stare absently at Golbat. “C'mon, hit it again!”
“Protect!” As another ball of wind sped towards it, Koffing generated a shimmering sphere around its body, blocking the hit. “Now, Thunderbolt!”
“How can it use Thunderbolt?!” Jen cried, as Koffing fired the familiar electric blast towards Golbat. The attack wasn't a direct hit, but was enough to force Golbat to fall a little in the air. “Okay, we've got to finish this real quick. Smack it with Wing Attack!”
“Gyro Ball!” Koffing spun towards the onrushing Golbat, and the attacks met in midair. Golbat's strike sent Koffing plummeting towards the ground. Jen smirked.
“Okay, let's end this! Air Cutter!” Golbat fired a bladed wind current that cut at Koffing's body, forcing it down to the ground. The gaseous Poison-type seemed to deflate a little as it landed. “Looks like we won.”
“No way!” her opponent cried, looking anguished as he called to Koffing. “Koffing! Explode! Fill the room with gas! Do something!” Koffing simply lay face-down on the cavern floor. “No...”
“I guess we'll be on our way, then,” Jen said, recalling Golbat. “Do yourself a favour, and just dig up your own fossils from now on.” With that, she walked towards the exit, a stunned James and Typhlosion following as her opponent just stared into space.
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“What,” said James as they finally emerged onto Route 4, “was that?”
“What was what?” Jen said, putting Golbat's Pokéball away. James gave her a skeptical look.
“You've been on edge ever since we got into the cave. What's going on?”
“Nothing's going on. I just got really mad at that guy for some reason. I mean, ambushing travelers just to steal fossils off them? How much of a jerk do you have to be?”
Jen remained in her bad mood the entire way down Route 4. By the time they reached a turn-off towards Cerulean City, even Typhlosion looked worried. James had given up trying to find out what was wrong, and continued his training with Blue. Unfortunately, she'd become so enthusiastic about practicing that she was now biting everything within reach. James ran out of Rawst Berries halfway down the route, and had to toss sticks for Blue to attack. The upside to this was that there was less shrapnel, but the noise from the snapping twigs irritated Jen even further.
“Can you guys give it a rest?” she demanded as Blue bit through her eighth stick of that afternoon. James and Blue stared at her, bewildered.
“Sure,” James conceded, as he motioned Blue to join the others. “We're done anyway.” He watched as Jen turned away. “Are you sure you're okay? Is anything annoying you besides broken sticks?”
“No,” Jen replied, an edge to her voice. “I've just been...thinking. I...I got rattled by that guy in the cave. Both him and the guy who pointed us towards the Moon Stone. You know, the one who all but told us that Stephanie was...”
“Not her again,” James groaned. “Jen, you've run into her twice, and you're letting her get inside your head. So what if she doesn't want to train the way we do? It doesn't affect us.”
This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
“I know that!” Jen answered, stamping her foot in frustration. “I just...I don't like it when people want to get somewhere without having to do the hard work in between. That guy I battled was just taking other people's stuff and selling it off, right? How is that fair?”
“But you knocked him off,” James responded. “I got a feeling a lot of it was an act, too. I'm sure he would have let us pass if we'd just walked by. How would he have stopped us?” Jen's expression remained defiant. “Look, it doesn't make any difference. We're almost to Cerulean City, and we've both got the personnel to take down the Gym there. I'm pretty sure it's a Water-type Gym.” Jen said nothing, and James shrugged and returned to talk to his team.
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A large sign stood near the end of Route 4, indicating that this, indeed, had been a point of no return in the past. However, a stairwell had been cut into the hill leading down from the route's main path to the road into Cerulean City, meaning that trainers could traverse Route 4 in both directions, instead of being unable to return to Pewter through the Mt. Moon caves. Raising eyebrows at the outdated sign, James and Jen descended the steps and hurried down the path that led into Cerulean.
Cerulean City was not quite as large as Goldenrod City back home, but it still dwarfed Viridian and Pewter by a considerable degree. True to the city's name, the buildings all seemed to be coloured a light shade of blue. The Pokémon Centre was in the centre of the city this time, and James and Jen made it their first stop as usual. As they walked inside, they saw a familiar face walk towards them from a side hallway.
Hunter Scott was a bit taller than James was, with rust-brown hair that was longer than it had been at the Silver Conference, where he'd parted ways with the Violet pair. His black eyes had dark circles under them, as if he'd been losing a lot of sleep lately. His grey shirt and dark jeans were more travel-worn than ever.
“Hey, guys,” he said, waving a hand loosely. “Looks like you caught up to me at last.”
“Took us long enough,” Jen answered. “You must've been traveling pretty slowly, for us to catch you here. It's been a while since the Silver Conference.”
“Yeah, well, you know,” Hunter replied with another airy wave. “I've been spending a lot of time imrpoving my team's defensive strategy. The Conference showed me that I have to step up my game a heck of a lot.” He sighed. “That, combined with the fact that I'm not in much of a rush to get home, and it's been pretty slow going.” He looked both of them over. “So, you both must have won a Boulder Badge by now. How'd it go against Brock?”
“I just managed to take the win,” James said, shrugging. “I've all but started from scratch out here. The only Pokémon I had with me at first were Typhlosion and Elekid, but I added both Nidorans to the team too.”
“Both of them?” Hunter asked, raising an eyebrow. “That's kind of unusual, for someone who doesn't specialize in Poison-types.”
“I didn't have much of a choice. Blue—that is, the female—was the one I caught in the first place, but the other one didn't want me taking his sister away, so I had to catch him too, just to get off Route 22 without any more trouble. Just what I needed, family drama to go with everything else.” Hunter's expression briefly darkened at the mention of 'family drama', but it was back to normal in an instant.
“Well, you'll find a way to integrate them, right?” He turned to Jen. “How about you? Did you catch any new team members?”
“I did. I'm training a Weedle right now.”
“A Weedle?” Hunter looked skeptical. “Beedrill's a decent option, I guess, but not one a lot of high-level trainers go for.”
“Maybe this one will make them re-think that,” Jen answered, grinning. “It scared the heck out of a girl we ran into in the Viridian Forest, anyway.” Behind her, she could almost see James rolling his eyes at the mention of Stephanie. “Gotta get him to the next stage first, though. That's going to take some time.”
“Just hope he doesn't develop into an unpredictable mess,” Hunter said, rolling his own eyes. “I still have to watch what I say around Forretress, or else it's duck and cover. He's still way too eager to explode.”
“You might want to teach one of your team members how to use Protect,” James said. “That'd give you some cover if Forretress goes off without warning.”
“That's a thought,” Hunter said. “The question is, who? Forretress can learn it, but that doesn't help when he's the one exploding.”
“And Protect wouldn't cover enough area, right?” Jen chimed in. “Unless you found a way for it to expand and cover your whole team.” Hunter shrugged.
“There's also the risk that I'll rely on it too much. Part of my style is being able to take a lot of damage, then give a solid amount back. Avoiding it with Protect wouldn't fit my way of doing things. Maybe we just need to learn when to run when Forretress misbehaves.”
“Could be.” Jen yawned. “Man, I'm tired. I guess the trip through Mt. Moon took more out of me than I thought.” James nodded.
“I could use some rest, too. We can check out the city and train tomorrow.”
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After a night's sleep, James, Jen and Hunter decided to check out some of the city before lining up their Gym challenges. Primary among the city's places of interest was Cerulean Cape, but a note in one of the Centre brochures recommended visiting in the evening, so they'd save that sight for later. Jen was interested in the Bike Shop on the southwest side of town, while James, Electabuzz fan that he was, wanted to look at the Marine Stadium, where the Starmie played their games. Hunter suggested the Cerulean Cave, but another check of the brochure indicated that it was off-limits to all but the most experienced trainers. Since the stadium was furthest from the Centre, the trio agreed to go there first, and work their way up to the Cape.
Where Kogane Stadium in Goldenrod was a venerable, old-school venue, Cerulean Marine Stadium was a modern baseball palace. A long stairwell sat beneath the brick front entrance, and pictures of notable players were hung along the stadium walls, all wearing the team's blue caps.
“It's not as big as Kogane,” James said, as they circled the ground, “but they built it a lot more recently.” His face darkened as he saw a pair of championship banners on a far wall. “They've also won more titles than the Electabuzz, and they tend to beat them all the time...”
“Isn't your goal to play for them someday?” Hunter asked, as Jen lagged behind, observing the structure. “Maybe you'll help the Electabuzz beat them.”
“Hopefully they won't have to wait that long,” James said, as they finished a lap of the stadium and moved towards the other side of town.
The Bike Shop was as the name implied. Rows of shining bicycles lined the inside of the building. Behind the counter, racks of spare parts towered over everything. A sign above the counter read Miracle Cycle: Serving Kanto and Johto since 1927. Though not considering buying one, Jen checked the prices on the bikes, and her eyes widened.
“A million credits, and that's the lowest price I can see,” she said, walking away from a green model. “I mean, it's not like any of us need one, but it's a little high.”
“I prefer walking anyway,” Hunter said as they left the shop. “If I had a bicycle, the travel would be a little too fast for my liking.”
“Considering how fast we've moved at times, Jen and I don't need bikes,” James answered, scratching Typhlosion's ears.
“That pace has gotten us in trouble before, though,” Jen quipped. “A bunch of people have told us to slow it down.”
“And we have,” James argued back. “We've stopped in cities for at least three days, right?”
“I'd settle for five,” Jen muttered, as they started towards a wide bridge towards the Cape.
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The sign next to the wooden bridge above a rapidly-flowing river read Nugget Bridge. Hunter informed the others that occasionally, a gauntlet challenge was held on the bridge, with a golden ball as the prize. A Nugget's only use was to be sold at a high price, so it was typical for trainers short on cash to attempt the run. As the afternoon began to fade into evening, though, the bridge was too crowded with tourists headed either for the Cape or back to the city to accommodate that kind of event.
Nugget Bridge led to Route 25, a maze-like thoroughfare with tall trees making the direct route impossible. As they tried to find their way through, James and Hunter got into a heated argument about which direction to head in, and Jen, tired of all the antics she'd endured in the past while, ranged ahead of them with Typhlosion at her heels. Neither boy seemed to realize she'd run off, and the topic of the argument shifted to something even less relevant. Without the arguing, Jen found her way through the maze fairly easily, and managed to reach the walkway to Cerulean Cape.
The view was fantastic. A grassy headland extended over the sea, and a tall lighthouse sat at the very edge. Jen walked to a railing on the west side of the cape and watched the sun drop in the sky, which was darkening rapidly. Typhlosion raised himself onto his hind legs and stared at the sunset himself, and Jen reached over to scratch his ears.
“It's spectacular, isn't it?”
Jen's head snapped around so quickly that she nearly cricked her neck. A young woman with muted green eyes and orange hair in a short bob stood nearby, having apparently approached unnoticed. Her yellow t-shirt and jean shorts reminded Jen of Stephanie's getup, but she drove the irritating Eevee trainer from her mind.
“Um, yeah, it is. You come up here a lot?”
“Of course. The view up here is like nothing else in the world.” The redhead sighed, and looked out at the shimmering water surface. “I've got big hopes for this place, you know.”
“Oh?” Jen couldn't see how this girl, not much older than she was by the look of her, could do much about it.
“Yeah. I want to make this the hottest date spot in Kanto, if not the whole world.” The girl looked at Jen, whose face betrayed her skepticism. “A place where you'd be able to spend a romantic moment watching the sun set over the ocean.”
“I guess,” Jen replied, looking back at the water.
“C'mon,” said the redhead. “There's nobody special that you'd imagine coming up here with?”
“I don't think so,” Jen said. “I'm twelve, aren't I a little young for that?” The other girl's expression was a mix of amusement and incredulity.
“No way! I had my first boyfriend at twelve, no reason you shouldn't either.” Jen shrugged.
“I guess I never thought about it before. I've been traveling with my best friend for almost three years now, and almost all our time's been dedicated to training.” She looked towards the path, and saw that James and Hunter had finally made it through the maze, though they were still arguing. “That's him, on the right, in the red shirt. The other guy's his rival.”
“Ah, so you've got two guys in your sights, huh?” The redhead grinned mischievously as Jen went scarlet. “You've been traveling with the one in the red all this time?”
“Y-yes,” Jen stammered, trying to compose herself. “I wouldn't call either of them my boyfriend...” The other girl's grin widened.
“Aw, c'mon. Do you at least use your feminine wiles to get them to do stuff for you?” Jen flushed an even deeper red.
“Feminine whatsits? And why would I want to get them to do stuff for me? James is my best friend, and Hunter's my friend too. I couldn't trick them into doing stuff.”
“You might someday,” the girl answered. She gave the two boys a long look. “I'll bet the one in the grey shirt is your boyfriend. The other guy doesn't seem your type.” Jen nearly squeaked her response.
“Hunter? I-I mean, maybe eventually? I don't know, it's still too early to tell...”
As the boys approached, Jen took a close look to see what in the world she was supposed to see in either of them. James' hair was sticking up on the left side as usual, a consequence of the many times he unconsciously ran his hand through it. She supposed that was sort of cute in its way. Then she remembered the cuts along his cheek, and felt a twinge of guilt. James had, after all, saved her from having similar marks on her face, or possibly worse, if his brothers were to be believed. Hunter, she noticed for the first time, had a dusting of freckles over his nose, which she didn't know what to make of. She had always seen him as kind of nondescript, like his battle style.
James and Hunter finally reached the railing, and both waved a hand in acknowledgment to the redhead. She waved back, and kept looking between them and Jen, still grinning broadly.
“You guys missed the sunset,” Jen said quietly, refusing to look at either of them. “It was really nice.” James looked out over the water, which continued to shimmer quietly.
“Nice view,” he said to no-one in particular. Hunter nodded in agreement.
“It's the best.” The redhead looked at her watch. “Well, I've got to get going. Good luck with your boyfriend,” she said to Jen, looking surreptitiously at Hunter as she did so. Jen screwed up her eyes in embarrasment, and Hunter looked quizzically at the other girl.
“Boyfriend?”
“You make sure you keep her happy,” the girl said to him with a giggle, and started down the path back to Cerulean. Both James and Hunter spun and stared at Jen, who was now trying to sneak away without them noticing.
“Jen?” James asked tentatively, “What is going on here?”
“Nothing!” Jen wanted to scream, but held herself in check. “Let's...let's just get back to the Centre, all right? I've had enough of things right now.” She started to run down the path after the other girl. Typhlosion took off after her, and both boys stared at one another.
“What was that all about?”