The sound of small wings flapping could be heard as Viola fluttered about Mount Moon aimlessly, ears twitching in an effort to pick up something peculiar via echolocation. She was rather small, even for a Zubat, and her fur was oddly ruffled and shaggy on the top of her little head and back; she'd spent a good amount of time rubbing her head all over various surfaces to make it ruffled to her liking. The few other Zubat in this part of the cave simply flew by without giving her a word of greeting, as if they didn't want to have anything to do with her.

Viola was used to this treatment, and didn't give it a second thought. She was, as the other Zubat put it, "naive natured." Trusting in others and usually very perky, she acted a little out of of place in such a dim and dank cave. This and her daily searching of the mountain sort of made her the odd one of the Mount Moon Zubat collective. This little issue primarily stemmed from a conversation she had a year or two back with a Paras while his trainer was busy recovering from an unfortunate encounter with a sociopathic Geodude. The Paras had mentioned his worry for his trainer; this confused Viola, as at that point in time she knew nothing of them. But upon hearing the experiences the trainers and pokemon went through together…everything changed. She heard of traveling to distant towns, working with all manner of different pokemon, intense battles with opposing trainers, and the teamwork of the trainer and his pokemon….it all sounded very romantic to her. Swept up in the romanticism of tales of combat and friendship, Viola began to idolize pokemon trainers. Every day she hoped that her sweet trainer prince would sweep her away from her parasitic lifestyle in Mount Moon and take her on a romantic and touching adventure of her own.

Of course, she didn't take into account the fact that she was a runt in a colony of possibly the most readily available pokemon species in all of Kanto. She didn't take into account the fact that most of her fellow Zubats regularly got beaten down in droves by random trainers passing through Mount Moon. She also didn't give much thought to the fact that she'd been waiting for her sweet trainer prince for somewhere around a year and a half now and had been ignored in favor of one of those fluffy little butterball Clefairies almost every time one came by. Armed with her ruffly hairstyle and Supersonic, she was certain in her mind that she would be unique and helpful enough to charter a spot on a fresh new trainer's team. With this enthusiasm, she had been patrolling the area near the Mount Moon entrance, constantly listening for the sound of a trainer entering to head through to the next city. She had always found at least one person heading through each day, but it was already almost dinnertime, and there hadn't been one new arrival. Come to think of it, even those trainers who had an odd tendency of hanging out in the deeper recesses of Mount Moon and challenging random other trainers to battles had been missing lately. Viola was starting to feel somewhat disconcerted by this turn of events, evidenced by the grimace her large, fanged mouth was screwed up in. Tired of her constant air patrol, she decided to give it a rest and fluttered down to a nearby rock ledge, stopping her fluttering a couple of inches above it and letting herself flop awkwardly forward onto a bed of moss that was growing on it. A Clefairy staring down from the edge of the rock twitched and instantly whipped around, but released a sigh of relief upon seeing that it was only a Zubat. It then turned back to the edge, watching whatever was down there with the steely patience of a Slowbro.

It was after only about five minutes of rest that Viola became curious of what the silent Clefairy was staring at so intently, and got up off the mossbed and silently crawled over to it on all fours. "Hey, whatcha looking at?" she asked politely, giving the Clefairy a hearty pat on the back with her wing that was enough to make it spaz out in fright again and nearly fall off the edge.

"J-G-Don't surprise me like that!" The Clefairy whispered in an unusually harsh tone of voice, one of its saucer-sized eyes twitching slightly. It also became evident from its voice that the candy-colored fluffball also happened to be one of the few male clefairies. Viola backed away a bit, wings raised in a defensive gesture. The Clefairy took in a deep breath and tried to calm down. Viola cocked her head at him curiously.

"Um, so, like I was saying, what were you looking at?" She asked again, this time a little more hesitantly. The Clefairy shot her an odd look, but figured it couldn't do any harm and gestured her to come over. She followed, and peered down, trying to see what could be so interesting.

"I've been keeping a close watch on that ladder, see?" the fluffy, pink creature said, pointing to a hole with a ladder in it that led down to a closer level of the cave. Viola nodded vaguely. "I know that someone will be coming up from it sooner or later, and when he does, I'll have to know so I can warn the other Clefairies. We're sort of trying to avoid him." Viola's interest piqued at this. Someone was coming through the cave from the opposite direction? Who would the Clefairies be desperately trying to avoid? She felt as if she had found herself at a cliffhanger, but then remembered that all she needed to do was ask.

"Who is he?" she inquired excitedly, looking away from the ladder to look up at him. He wasn't very tall in actuality, but from this angle the fairy pokemon seemed to tower over her in an (almost) ominous fashion. There was a moment of tense silence before the Clefairy uttered a single word.

"Oak."

Another, more awkward moment of silence and Viola giving him a blank look followed, prompting him to continue. "He's a professor. One of the most well known in his field, to tell the truth. He's been researching pokemon for years, and also sets up newbie trainers with their own pokemon and pokedexes, and sometimes even sends them out to do his dirty work for him. Though I guess this time, he decided to do it himself and is here catching pokemon for his research. And guess which rare pokemon happens to reside in this mountain that he would be eager to do some research on?" he said, with a tinge of bitterness in his voice.

"….Clefairies?" Viola replied nervously, somewhat taken aback by his sudden change in attitude.

"You got it. The guy's already captured 'bout three of our guys already. We've gotta hide from him, we don't have any idea what he'd do with us! He might dissect us or stab us with pointy needles or make us some Ditto's sex slave just to get some more Clefairy eggs!" the Clefairy rambled wildly, out of both fear and spite. Viola twitched a bit on the last one. "Er, kay." She responded uncomfortably, "I guess I'll tell you if I see him or something." The Clefairy relaxed a bit, mumbled an awkward "thanks," then noticed he had been distracted from his duty and immediately went back to watching the ladder even more intently than before, staring at it as if it would somehow telekinetically set everyone on fire.

Viola, meanwhile, had meandered back over to her bed of moss, the gears of her

mind working away excitedly. It wasn't a handsome trainer prince, but it was a very promising-sounding concept. A famous professor, heading through here to catch pokemon for research! More than that, he even gave pokemon to new trainers! Maybe if she got him to catch her somehow, then a whole new world would open up. Even if she didn't get to be a trainer pokemon maybe she could be like a lab assistant! She could find herself in battles too and-

"SNAPS AND DAMN, HERE HE COMES!" the Clefairy nearly screamed in a hysterical shrill before leaping off the edge and dashing into the depths of the cavern as fast. Viola instantly perked up and scrabbled madly over to the edge to see, her little heart pounding madly away, eager to meet her savior. Her savior happened to have been a middle-aged man in a lab coat who just finished pulling himself and his rather large bag up the ladder, and was sitting on the ground next to it panting profusely and swearing something under his breath about his Aide and mushroom spores. Viola, however, was undeterred; in fact, she was absolutely delighted nontheless. Unable to wait long enough for him to finish his break, she lunged off the ledge, broke into a divebomb, and beelined directly at him while squealing "Caaaaatch meeeeeeeeee!" which of course, to Oak, just sounded like "ZOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOB!"

Even still, he jerked around to see the oncoming threat and, still sitting, quickly reached into his bag and forcefully hurled the first pokeball he got his hands on directly into Viola's path, hitting her in the chest and knocking her out of the sky. The Pokeball then hit a wall and abruptly tumbled to the ground with the small bat still clung to its outside, causing her to hit the ground with the weight of the ball still on top of her, and even then, it took almost a full three seconds of the pokeball pressing down on her on her for it to finally open and suck her in before shutting soundly with a definitive click, followed closely by a microwave-like "ding!" to indicate a successful capture.

Oak rubbed his head nervously. He'd definitely have to get the Zubat some medical treatment, but hey, whatever works. Hefting his bag back up, he walked over, picked up the ball, and casually dropped it in before picking up the pace and heading straight for the exit as fast as he could.

Viola's ball jostled around inside the bag.Her ribs hurt, the ride was getting increasingly bumpy, and every now and then another ball would knock into hers, which resulted in a sensation similar to what a hamster in a ball accidentally being used in a game of billiards would probably feel. But overall, she was ecstatic, optimistic, and couldn't have a care in the world.

Because she had been captured.

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A/N: I wasn't going to upload this until I had finished the chapter with actual action in it, but I was impatient and curious as to what people would think of it. I know that I'll at least manage to get that one up. Also, yes, I am aware that in the anime Brock discovered Crobat.
Any kinds of reviews are highly welcome.