A/N: Qestions!

Guest:

Fox: Will there be a Larvitar in this story?
I absolutely love that Pokemon

This story is purely based in Kanto, so other regions' pokemon will be very rare, if present at all. So probably not.

Well, enjoy the chapter!

Just Another Pawn

Chapter 8: Caves

Brock, Misty, and I were on the pathway leading out of Pewter city and into Mt. Moon. I particularly disliked this place, it was perfect fuel for my irrational fear of caves. Actually, no! It's not irrational! I wouldn't be surprised if Satan himself made them as a demented labyrinth to torture unborn children!

...Okay, a little irrational. Anyways, it was for this reason I studied the interior of the mountain for weeks before my journey, and even brought a detailed map from one of the top researchers who worked here when it was first explored in-depth. I wanted to be out of there as quickly as possible.

Nonetheless, we found ourselves at a sign reading 'Mount Moon'. Considering there was only one major mountain in Kanto, I found the sign to be quite annoying. It sounded as condescending as me.

A man a few years older than Brock was sat cross-legged at the entrance to the mountain, "I wouldn't enter if I were you."

I raised an eyebrow, "Why not?"

"Men have been known to work here in the past. Some guys were diggin' and cavin' in search of somethin'. If ya don't want to get caught up in that, don't go in."

I sighed, "It's not like there's another way to Cerulean. Thanks for the heads up, but I think we'll go in anyways."

The man stayed sitting as I passed him, "Don't say I didn't warn you."

The cave was exactly as I had expected; a dark hole in the wall that didn't allow for visibility more than a few feet. Already prepared for the masochist's dream, I pulled out my flashlight and map, and started moving through at the fastest walk I could muster.

"A~Ash!" Misty called, "Slow down! You shouldn't rush a lady!"

Brock joined in, "She's right, Ash. Warnings from suspicious men should be taken seriously."

I turned and looked at him blankly, "I seem to recall a suspicious man warning me 5 years ago."

He waved off the retort, "Still, there's no rush. You should take time to smell the roses."

He walked passed me with his own flashlight and Misty trailing behind him.

But we're in a cave, there's nothing even remotely pleasant.

I reluctantly followed them, grumbling quietly about the ordeal. Though I wouldn't admit it out loud, Brock was right. Rushing doesn't make progress go faster, it just gives it a lower quality.

I walked using only the sound of their footsteps, sulking all the while. Considering these two lived on either side of the mountain, at least one of them was bound to know the route, so I didn't have much of a need to use my map.

Our trek had barely lasted 10 minutes before Brock stopped us, "Ash, check this out."

I saw him observing the wall of a perpendicularly connected cave, "It's another cave wall. Great. Let's move on."

Brock looked at me with amusement, silently basking in his higher skill, "Tell me Ash, what do you notice about this wall?"

I wanted to ignore him in spite, but I ignored such a petty thought, and looked at the newly appeared wall anyways. Shock soon made its way onto my face, "It's...smooth."

Misty looked at us unknowingly, "Umm, so what?"

I gave her a glance before walking to the intersection of the walls, "Look at the walls of the cave we were just walking through. They're jagged and rough, a stark contrast to the relative smoothness of these."

"Umm, I still don't get it."

I sighed, "Tell me, Misty, why would one cave be rough, whilst the other is smooth?"

She scrunched her eyebrows cutely, "One was dug by scientists?"

I winced slightly, "Almost. It means these were man-made. Digging was quickly outlawed here because of suspected traces of moonstone contained in the walls, with the exception of taking samples. In other words, that man's warning probably held some merit."

Brock chuckled, "Ahh, but you're missing something, Ash. What else have you noticed in these caves?"

Dammit, how does he always know something I don't?

I glared at him, "This is the only abnormality."

"What are the clefairy catch rates?"

My eyes widened, "There aren't enough pokemon!"

Misty, ever the oblivious girl, glanced between us once again "Will you guys please fill me in?"

Taking the lead once more, I explained, "Clefairy, whilst uncommon, aren't classified as rare. In fact, the only thing making them uncommon is people's unwillingness to come into the mountain. We should have at least heard, if not seen one by now."

Brock finished the evaluation, "The people who dug here probably took all of the pokemon without registering them. That way they could sell the clefairy, making the catch rates seem normal, without people realizing the clefairy were being taken. Hell, I'd put money on saying they took the moonstone too."

I looked back down to sulk again, "Why can't I do anything without running into drama?"

Brock flashed me a winning smile, "You're travelling with a genius, Ash!"

I stopped and looked at him, "Actually, why are you travelling with us? Don't you have a gym to lead? Ya'know, as a Gym Leader?"

Brock looked at me with legitimate shock, "Why would I leave you on your own? I didn't pop up 5 years ago as a prank, I'm here to help progress your training."

"That….makes sense."

Misty looked at me with even more shock than Brock, "Hold on, Brock tagged along without you even realizing? How does that even work?"

"Well, I….Umm...I actually don't know. It just felt...natural."

Brock knelt to the ground with fake tears in his eyes, "You accepted me without a second thought! This is everything I've ever wanted!"

Why does it have to be him to continue my training? I don't need another condescending asshole.

Without seeing a change in position, I saw Brock continue into the newly appeared cave as if nothing had happened.

Or a show off. Can't forget about that...

Though I knew there would likely be incriminating evidence within the new tunnel, I was very tempted to just continue on the path we were headed in. This was not a place I wanted to stay in for any longer than I had to. Despite my hesitation, I ultimately went into the new cave.

I looked at my map and swore, "Shit. These tunnels aren't documented. We're going in blind. Ugh."

Brock looked back at me, "Wow, the illegally created caves aren't documented? What a discovery!"

Ugh.

The extra time spent in the mountain turned out to be worth our while. We found bits a scrap metal littered throughout, which we assumed to be broken off from the machinery used to tunnel. Brock and Misty had very different reactions to these findings. Misty looked surprised and scared at the operation that had run here. Brock, however, lacked any shock whatsoever. In fact, he seemed to be more focused on continually one-upping me.

I dragged my feet across the rocky floor and asked for the umpteenth time, "Are we done yet? Can we leave?"

I hate mountains.

"Hold on," Brock held out his arm to stop me.

I looked at him in confusion, then to where we were going. The tunnel we were in opened up into a large room containing a sizable white rock with a faint yellow glow.

Misty looked on in awe, "...The Moonstone."

I looked back down and continued to drag my feet, "No, it's fake. It doesn't have the aura of the moonstone."

Brock knelt down onto the floor, and ran his hand against some loose dirt, "...What the hell happened?"

Brock's demeanor was always carefree and cocky, so the change in attitude gave him my attention immediately, "What'd you find?"

He turned to me, "Bones. I think from a clefairy."

"Why would they kill the clefairy if they wanted to sell them?"

I reached down to my belt, and threw Pidgeotto's pokeball, releasing her with a flash of light.

"Pidgeotto, push the dust to the wall using Gust."

Wind picked up in the room from the powerful flaps of the wings, removing the dirt that had impeded our vision. All three of us looked on with wide eyes at what was revealed: bones. Everywhere.

Misty screamed, and jumped at me with the intent of being held. Not willing to be her plush toy, I stepped to the side and let her fall onto the ground with a crack.

Oh yeah, the bones. Whoops.

Without a second thought, I immediately knelt onto the ground to examine the carnage.

"These bo-"

"-Ash!" Misty interrupted, "What are you doing?! Let's leave!"

I didn't even bother looking at her, "I'm examining the bones, what else? We can leave after I'm finished."

I resumed my work on examination before continuing my assessment, "These bones are the result of decay, not destruction of skin."

Brock gave me a deadpanned look, "No shit. Who the hell would bother destroying the skin?"

Yes! I'm finally the one who knows more!

I turned to face him, looking very pleased with myself, "Time. I had assumed, and I think you had too, that this had been done fairly recently - within the last year or so - but a body can take as long as eight to twelve years to decay."

Misty took her turn to notice the inconsistency, "But you guys were talking about the catch rates earlier! Wouldn't they have gone down a lot after so long?"

I looked at her approvingly, "You're very close, but the effect to the catch rates would be very subtle. There are two ways to obtain pokemon legally: catching, and trading - whether that trade be through currency or another pokemon. However, let's make the assumption that whoever took these clefairy used unregistered pokeballs. If a trainer traded one of their pokemon, let's say a caterpie, for the clefairy, the pokemon would essentially switch registrations. The Clefairy become registered, and the caterpie would become unregistered. So the drop rate there wouldn't be to the clefairy, but to a single caterpie. Though, this would also require them to have access to unregistered pokeballs that are identical to regular ones, which is an extremely difficult task. Alternatively, they could just occasionally catch one of their unregistered clefairy, and give it to someone for money, which would work just as well, but the selling of clefairy would be relatively easy to spot. In other words, there's no easy method of doing this subtly, but something is clearly happening."

Brock looked at me with doubt, "Are you implying that these people are working with Silph Co.? I find it hard to believe that such a big compan-"

"-I'm telling you, I heard someone over here! Stop complaining!" a man behind us in the cave spoke.

I met Brock's gaze, "We should go."

"Yeah."

After grabbing a few bones for further examination, we jogged out of the cave through the other connected tunnel. The people must've found what they were looking for, as the tunnel led straight out of the mountain (much to my relief).

As the light of the sun came into view, I looked out at the city that lay before us. It was Pewter.

"Are you F#*&ng kidding me?! We have to go back in?!"

Brock just stared at me in disbelief, "Is that seriously what you're worried about right now?"

I knelt down to the ground to sulk, "I hate caves…"

Now in a much worse mood than I had started with, we walked back to the entrance of the mountain. The old man was gone, which saved me from hearing the dreaded 'I told you so'.

The walk through back through the mountain was surprisingly easy despite the voice we had heard. To be frank, I entirely expected someone to come up and question us about why we were there. Though it wouldn't be hard to explain our reasons for using the only passage between the two cities, I suspected they didn't care much for our intended reason.

Regardless of the lack of questioning, the half hour of walking through the cave was easily one of the worst half hours of my life. I really. Hate. Caves.

Alas, we left the cave, allowing me to collapse onto the grass, "We're finally out. The nightmare is over. Ugghhhh."

"Ash...?" Brock's voice sounded.

I looked up at the city below the mountain. Several police helicopters were swarming around buildings, and the city itself seemed to be in something of a panic.

"...What the hell is going on?"

Notes

Mt. Moon:

Various pieces of evidence seem to suggest an illegal operation having been run at least 8 years ago based on body (and illegal) tunneling and scrap metal indicate machinery being used. The "Moonstone" is fake, as shown by its lack of aura, meaning it was taken. The lack of clefairy coupled with no visible change in catch rates indicates unofficial capture. Because the clefairy catch rates haven't changed, there are no (or very little) clefairy in the mountain, and how long ago I believe this to have happened, I think whoever did this has access to unregistered pokeballs. They either learned how to make them (most likely), or have access to Silph Co.