Rick walked through a lengthy, and somewhat narrow pathway, before he reached a new ladder going up. He spoted a few Zubats along the way, perched in the ceiling, but they didn't jump him like the first ones did. Maybe the lower lighting compared to the higher floor made them less irritable? Either way, Rick went down the ladder to reach what could be described as a small room. "Meh... dead end. This is a developed cave, who thought about this layout?" He said to himself. He then spoted a small, dark rock, different from the others, on the floor. He grabed it, and upon close inspection he realized it was a Moon Stone. "Huh... neat. Guess I could make some profit out of it." He said. He was about to put the stone in his belt pocket, when a male voice talked to him from behind. "I wouldn't be so sure."
Upon hearing this, Rick took a side glance over his shoulder, before fully turning to the man. "I must say... I like your style. Save for the cap." Rick said, with a bit of sarcasm. The man, wearing a mostly black outfit with a big red R on his shirt, gave out a smirk before replying. "Heh... thanks. Yours isn't bad either. And since we're having such a good start, why not making this easy and hand over that Moon Stone?" The man said. Rick huffed. "Hmph... and here I thought we could get along. So disapointing." He said, with arms crossed and eyes closed. Based on the information and the picture he had been shown in Pewter, he knew this was the infamous Team Rocket. He walked to the grunt, with the Moon Stone in hand. "You want this? Here, take it!" Rick tossed the stone up into the air. As the grunt looked up, Rick sweeped his legs and triped him over, grabing the Moon Stone and running towards the ladder. "Don't keep your eyes on the prize until it's yours!" He said, before climbing up. "Why you... get back here!" The grunt shouted as he got up to run after the trainer.
Meanwhile, on Iris' side, things weren't much different. She spoted a ladder leading down to a pathway, just the same as her trainer (not that she used the ladder itself). Except the pathway she got was a much shorter one. Other than that, she also reached a dead end. Or at least it would've been a dead end, for a human. There was an upper level on this floor that she could jump to. While she was focused looking up, a whip wraped around her neck. She gasped briefly and pulled a few times before another Rocket grunt speaked. "Heh! Might not be a fossil, but a fully evolved pokémon means profit regardless." He said. The mare stared at the grunt for a second, before biting and forcefuly pulling the whip's string, along with the grunt, who met Iris' hooves for not letting go the handle.
After the whip unwrapped itself from her neck, she leaped back, and let out a high pitch whinny that echoed through the cave as a form of alarm. The commotion also alerted yet another grunt that was on the upper level of the floor, who looked down to check. "What the crud is happening down there?" He asked. Almost as soon as Iris spotted him, she fired off a stream of flames from her mane up towards the grunt, who barely had time to dive away. As the grunt who attacked her first started to get up, the mare jumped to the upper level, then dashed to the nearby ladder and headed towards the first floor. The two grunts climbed up the ladders to give chase.
