Red could barely see through the dust cloud that had engulfed the center. He hacked and coughed, grabbing onto Ritchie to make sure he was still there. The situation gave him an annoying feeling of déjà vu- he wouldn’t have been surprised if those two Team Rocket guys and their talking Meowth showed up again.

“What’s- cough- what’s going on?” Ritchie asked.

“Why would I know that?”

Ritchie muttered something under his breath, then, a few seconds later, Red heard the telltale sound of a pokéball being opened.

He heard Ritchie yell, “Happy, use Gust!” and a blast of wind erupted from beside him, clearing away some of the dust.

“Thanks,” he said, breathing in the fresh air.

“No problem.”

“Now,” he muttered, “Time to figure out what’s going on here.”

Red walked towards the door, Ritchie following close behind. He heard some people outside the Pokécenter, most of which were in a general state of panic, but he did his best to ignore them. On the one hand, he was on the edge of panic too. On the other hand, he had already seen one explosion today, and odds were good the two were related, in which case, he had nothing to worry about. Maybe? He hoped so, anyways. That Phoenix girl looked like a lot of things, but a terrorist was not one of them.

It took a couple of minutes, but eventually he saw something that kind of looked like her. Ritchie was still following Red, though he was constantly pressing him for information, much to his annoyance. He promised him that he would explain later, but now wasn’t a good time.

As Red ran after the shadow, he noticed the dust grow thicker and thicker. The particles began to irritate his eyes, but he pressed onwards, shouting at the figure, which paused and looked back. Ritchie chose that moment to use Gust again, revealing a person who definitely was not Phoenix- Instead, he was face to face with one of Team Rocket’s goons. Red frowned, and prepared to question the man, but Ritchie beat him to it.

“Team Rocket?!” he yelled. “What are you doing here?”

The grunt laughed. “Ha! What gives you the right to be asking me questions?”

“What gives you the right to set off a bomb?” Ritchie asked.

“I don’t need a right for anything. Leave me alone and no one gets hurt, alright?”

Red wanted to point out the glaring contradiction in the man’s logic, but he had a feeling that they wouldn’t appreciate such an observation. Instead, he grimaced, and whispered to Ritchie, “Be careful. These guys don’t play fair.”

Ritchie shook his head. “I’m not going to fight him,” he said. “He won’t listen to me even if I win.”

‘Ah. So he’s fought them before. That saves me some trouble.’

Red looked back at the grunt, hoping to reason with him, only to find empty space where he had once been standing. ‘I really should have seen that coming,’ he thought, looking for some indication as to where Team Rocket’s lackey had gone.

A few minutes later, and he was still no closer to finding the source of the explosion- even after the dust clouds cleared away. Frustrated, he walked back to the Pokécenter, passing by the few shops and houses that had sprung up nearby. As he rounded a corner, looking down in thought, he didn’t notice the person in front of him until it was too late.

“Oh, it’s you-” he heard, as he ran straight into none other than the person he had initially been looking for- Phoenix.

Red quickly dusted himself off, then stepped backwards, glaring at the girl. “What are you doing here?” he asked.

She responded, an annoyed expression on her face. “Not your business, but no, I didn’t set off that bomb, if that’s what you were thinking.”

‘Then…’ he thought. ‘It must have been Team Rocket. Unless there’s another person involved- I hope not.’

“Who are you?” Ritchie, who had just turned around the corner, asked.

Phoenix looked over to him, clearly impatient. “I don’t have the time for this, alright? Just let me go,” she said quickly, trying to move past the two younger trainers. Ritchie stopped her, however.

“What do you mean you do bomb stuff?” he asked. “Were you the one who-”

“For fuck’s sake,” she muttered, glaring as she shoved Ritchie out of the way. Red was fed up- he wanted to know what on earth was going on. Frustrated, he reached forward, and grabbed Phoenix’s arm.

“Just explain what’s going on!” he yelled.

Phoenix groaned, and pulled out of his grasp. “Alright,” she said, grunting. “I’m looking for my Pineco. It got lost and I think those sweater guys grabbed it. Probably what caused the explosion, too- doesn’t take well to strangers.”

“Oh!” Ritchie said, red with embarrassment. “We’re sorry for getting in your way, then.” He bowed as he apologized to Phoenix, who was already starting to walk away again.

Red breathed a sigh of relief, glad that the situation was finally cleared up- he still had to retrieve his pokémon from the center. He was just about to turn around, however, when Ritchie shouted, “Wait!”

Phoenix didn’t turn around, but she did stop.

‘Please don’t-’

“We can help you!”

‘Oh Arceus, why?’ Red thought, groaning. Hadn’t he told him there was no need to get involved in everyone’s problems?

Phoenix looked at the two of them for a moment, then turned back around, speaking over her shoulder. “Fine. If you want.”

Red tried to protest, but it was futile- Ritchie was much too excited to listen to him. He reluctantly resigned himself to searching for the green, pinecone-shaped pokémon, lamenting the fact that he didn’t have his pokéballs.

“Pineco, Pineco, where are you?” he called. This earned him an annoyed expression from Phoenix, who told him to ‘shut up or I’ll do it for you’.

“How am I supposed to find him, then?”

She rolled her eyes, as if he was already supposed to know, and kept walking. Red sighed and walked in silence, scanning the streets for any signs of a Pineco- then, suddenly, he saw it. A small, gray-green shape darting around a corner.

“Over there!” he shouted. “I see it!”

The three of them dashed down the street, pursuing the pokémon. Red could feel the wind rushing past him as he ran, the shadow of Mt. Moon looming overhead. He could see the Pineco, heavily bruised, disappearing down the entrance to the cave, and stopped Ritchie and Phoenix.

“It went in there,” he said, pointing to the opening.

“Let’s go, then,” Phoenix responded, pushing past him.

“Why was it running away?” Ritchie asked. “It must have recognized you.”

“I only got it recently; some guy called Bill wanted me to take care of it for him. Must not trust me enough.”

‘Bill… Where have I heard that name before?’ Red thought, tapping his chin- he looked up again to see the other two trainers already walking towards the cave entrance, and called for them to stop.

Phoenix groaned. “Are you coming or not?”

He shook his head. “I’m not going in there without my pokémon.”

“Fine, go get them. Be back in ten minutes.”

Red turned around, and hurried back to the Pokécenter. He pushed open the double doors, and sighed, looking at the nurse.

“Are my pokémon ready yet?” he asked. The nurse looked over at her computer, pressing a few keys, then glanced up at him.

“A few more minutes, then they’ll be all set. It’s rather late to be heading out, though. You should stay here overnight.”

“Trust me, I would love to do that,” he muttered, setting himself down on a sofa while he waited. He began to let his mind wander, thinking about the events of the last hour in his head.

‘Ritchie, Professor Oak, the explosion, Team Rocket, Phoenix… Wait a moment! Professor Oak!’

Red got out of his seat with a start, walking back over to the counter. “Are there any packages for me?” he called over to the nurse, who was walking around in a back room. A few minutes later, and she came back out holding a brown cardboard box.

“Thanks,” he said, taking it from her. He ripped off the tape, opened it up, and pulled out a small red device shaped somewhat like a Game Boy cartridge. He took his pokédex out of his backpack, and noticed a slot shaped in such a way that allowed the add-on to be plugged in. After attaching the two devices, his pokédex screen lit up. Just as promised, he saw the new tracking functionality, though it was useless at the moment; he would need a pokémon to track first.

Red heard the nurse calling to him, and he looked up to see her holding his pokéballs, which he took and placed in his bag, along with the ‘dex and its add-on.

He headed back towards the exit, then paused, considering his options. He could just abandon Ritchie and Phoenix, and find his own way through the cave- they could almost certainly figure things out on their own, and he didn’t want to get caught it up in their troubles. But, on the other hand, Professor Oak was expecting him to go with Ritchie, and his conscience was getting the better of him. It wasn’t really fair to leave them like that- not when they were expecting him. He groaned- making decisions was hard.

Red took a deep breath. He was standing in front of the entrance to Mt. Moon Cave, and, much to his chagrin, was joined by Ritchie and Phoenix. The three trainers double checked their backpacks, making sure everything was present (something Red insisted on, after his experience in Viridian Forest), then took their first steps through the entrance.

“Wow…” Ritchie breathed. “It looks so much cooler in person.”

Phoenix shrugged. “I’ve seen better.”

“Come on,” Red said. “We haven’t got all day. Oh, but wait, it’s not even daytime anymore, is it?”

His two companions looked at him with equal amounts of annoyance. “You really need to lighten up, Red. Take some time to smell the roses.”

He ignored Ritchie, and moved deeper into the cavern, humming a short tune. Phoenix sighed disapprovingly, but the two of them followed suit regardless. Red turned on his pokédex, which he had taken out of his bag again, and accessed the tracking feature.

“Ah, Phoenix. I don’t think you know about this yet.” he said, showing her the screen. “It’s a new feature Professor Oak is developing for the pokédex. We should be able to track your Pineco with it.”

“Hm,” she responded, examining it. “You still need to lock onto Pineco’s signal, though.”

Right. He hadn’t considered that- he didn’t even know how the tracker worked, actually. The professor really should have given him more of an explanation, or even better, an instruction manual.

Phoenix read the look on his face rather easily, and sighed. “That’s no help, then.”

He shrugged. “It was worth a shot.”

“The cave doesn’t branch out a lot,” Ritchie added, “It shouldn’t be too hard to find your Pineco. It can’t keep running forever.”

“Neither can we,” Red pointed out. “Somethings bothering me, though…” He took his pokédex back from Phoenix, and looked up Pineco in its database.

Pineco, the bagworm pokémon.

“Why not pinecone? It was right there,” he muttered.

It hangs and waits for flying insect prey to come near. It does not move about much on its own.

Red thanked the heavens above for the little blurbs at the top of pokédex entries- it made things so much easier, especially if it just happened to be the thing you were looking for.

“The pokédex says Pineco doesn’t move around a lot- that thing looked pretty fast to me.”

Phoenix rolled her eyes. “Not every pokémon is the same.”

“Well, yeah, I suppose…”

“It’s a bit hot in here, isn’t it?” Ritchie observed.

Red paused at the non-sequitur, then realized that he was right; the cave was getting warmer by the second, which rang several alarm bells in his head as he realized a few things.

One, Mt. Moon had no volcanic activity to speak of- therefore, it was reasonable to assume this was not a natural occurrence.

Two, the use of fire-type moves in any non-regulated enclosed spaces was heavily restricted, since no ventilation meant things would get hot very quickly.

Three, given both of the above points, it was more likely than not that…

Actually, he didn’t even need to finish that thought. He could see a man wearing a now far too recognizable sweater standing in the passageway ahead of them- luckily, he was faced away from them, but there was only a matter of time before he turned around.

But of course, of course, that wasn’t all. Because that man was accompanied by a pokémon- and not just any pokémon.

He was riding a goddamn Pyroar.