Grampa Canyon lies within the vast expanse between the Safari Zone in Fuchsia City and Cinnabar Island. After Pokémon fossils were unearthed here, a wave of fossil hunting swept through the area, drawing plenty of people who came hoping to dig up fossils of their own.
Back then, Ash and Team Rocket had accidentally wandered into the cavern where the Fossil Pokémon slept. Their intrusion even caused an Aerodactyl to burst out of the cavern and reveal itself to the world.
In the end, though, the whole incident was brought to a close when Jigglypuff sang its song. After everyone fell asleep, they simply took it for a dream when they woke up, and no one gave it much thought.
Besides, digging for fossils was simply too tedious, and the odds of actually finding one were low. Once the initial excitement died down, Grampa Canyon became a place nobody paid much attention to. Only a handful of die-hard fossil enthusiasts still kept watch there.
"According to the navigation system, Grampa Canyon should be just ahead. Dragonair, let's head over."
High in the sky, Caster rode on Dragonair's back, circling repeatedly above Grampa Canyon.
After obtaining the Volcano Badge, Caster and Ash's group spent another day resting at the villa.
After that, Ash and the others continued their journey, taking a ferry back to the Kanto region.
According to the anime's storyline, they should first return to Cerulean City to help Misty finish her performance, then head to Viridian City to challenge the Viridian Gym.
As for Caster, he rode Dragonair straight to Grampa Canyon, planning to come here and fish for Fossil Pokémon.
"I remember that the cavern where the Fossil Pokémon lived was beneath a low-lying part of Grampa Canyon. Thanks to Team Rocket's brilliant handiwork, a hole was blasted through the cavern ceiling. The large opening was later sealed up again, but the damage wouldn't have been hidden so quickly."
Riding on Dragonair's back, Caster swept his eyes constantly across every part of Grampa Canyon as he searched for the cavern entrance. "If I remember correctly, the entrance was surrounded by large broken rocks."
"Dra~"
Dragonair swayed its head and tail as it searched under Caster's direction.
Grampa Canyon covered an enormous area, spanning dozens of miles in every direction. Even with such a clear target in mind, Caster still had a difficult time searching for it.
Fortunately, perseverance paid off. After more than an hour of careful searching, Caster finally discovered the cavern entrance.
The entrance was formed from a pile of collapsed rocks. The stones were visibly fresh, their color completely different from the rocks around them. Clearly, they had been piled up only recently.
And its location was exactly where the canyon floor came closest to the cliff wall, the very spot where Team Rocket had blasted through in the anime.
"Dra~"
Dragonair landed.
Caster took another careful look. Once he was certain he'd found the right place, he quickly patted Pikachu on its little backside, pointed at a solid slab of rock nearby, and shouted, "Pikachu, Dig!"
"Pika?"
A huge question mark seemed to appear over Pikachu's tiny head. It crouched down and tapped the ground with its paws, producing a crisp ringing sound.
"Pika-pi!!!"
Pikachu was furious. It planted its paws on its hips and glared indignantly.
Trainer, are you seriously treating me like a Rattata?
This is rock! And you want me to dig through it?
With my head?
I'm an Electric Mouse, not an Excadrill!
"Hahaha! I was just kidding. Don't take it seriously!"
Caster realized his mistake as well. He gave an awkward laugh and quickly tried to brush it off.
Then his eyes shifted to the sturdy Dragonair and the hard, razor-sharp horn atop its head.
"Dragonair, your Horn Drill should be able to break through rock, right?"
"Dra~"
Dragonair immediately nodded.
Dragonair's Horn Drill could even punch through Tyranitar's rocky armor. Against ordinary rock like this, it was child's play.
Vrrrr!
The shrill sound of a spinning drill rang out. Dragonair suddenly leaped into the air, its body straightening like a spear before it came crashing down onto the rocky layer below.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
In the face of Dragonair's Horn Drill, the rocks of Grampa Canyon might as well have been made of tofu, shattering instantly.
In the blink of an eye, Dragonair had disappeared beneath the ground.
On the surface, a pitch-black hole had appeared at some point, more than large enough for Caster to pass through.
"Dra~"
Dragonair's cry came from the other side of the hole, signaling that there was no danger inside.
Caster nodded, but before entering the cavern, he released Shellder as well and instructed it, "Shellder, stay here and don't move. Keep watch over the cavern entrance. If anyone approaches, use Supersonic on the cavern. I'll know immediately from inside."
"Shel~"
Shellder stuck out its pink tongue and nodded.
Once he'd arranged for a Pokémon to stand guard, Caster scooped up Pikachu and jumped through the opening.
The cavern was roughly a dozen meters deep. Caster slid straight down, while Dragonair caught him at the other end to keep him from falling to his death.
"It's pitch-black. I can't see a thing. Pikachu, use Flash!"
"Pika~"
Pikachu nodded. The black tips of its ears began to emit a soft glow, illuminating the entire cavern like a lightbulb.
As far as the naked eye could tell, Caster couldn't see any sign of the Fossil Pokémon, nor could he hear a single sound.
"So quiet. Looks like the Fossil Pokémon in this cavern haven't been disturbed yet."
Caster breathed a sigh of relief. He called Dragonair down, then released Slowpoke and had it use Confusion to keep watch.
"There are no signs of life within a 165-foot radius!"
Slowpoke communicated with Caster through telepathy, providing a constant stream of updates.
"This cavern is huge, but as far as I know, there aren't actually that many Fossil Pokémon living here. Let's look around."
Caster glanced around and discovered two branching passages. He could only pick one at random and head down it.
Caster walked very slowly, afraid that too much noise might anger the Fossil Pokémon and cause them to swarm him the way they'd swarmed Ash and Team Rocket.
He'd come here to fish quietly, not to start shooting!
After walking several hundred feet, Caster found that the narrow cavern suddenly opened up, and a massive pool appeared before him.
The pool covered a large area, but the water wasn't deep. In fact, it was so shallow that Caster could see all sorts of things beneath the surface even from a distance.
Several different kinds of Pokémon were fast asleep throughout the pool, snoring away without the slightest awareness that an unexpected visitor had arrived.
"That's an Omanyte! And that one's an Omastar!"
Caster immediately spotted a nearby Pokémon that looked remarkably like a snail, while also resembling the ancient ammonite-like creatures from prehistoric times. A massive shell covered its back.
Not far from the Omanyte were two Pokémon that looked almost identical to it, except that their shells were lined with a row of sharp spikes.
Although they were both curled up inside their shells, Caster was absolutely certain of their identities. They were Omastar, the evolved form of Omanyte!
Deeper in the pool, Kabuto and Kabutops were also sleeping soundly, their snores rumbling like thunder.
"So many Fossil Pokémon! How is this even possible?"
Caster's face flushed with excitement as he pulled his fishing gear from his backpack. "There are way more of them than I imagined!"
In the anime, only nine Fossil Pokémon appeared. Aside from one Aerodactyl, there were two Omanyte, two Omastar, two Kabuto, and two Kabutops.
But here, there were more than twenty Fossil Pokémon, several times the number seen in the anime. For Caster, that was obviously a good thing.
"Let's start fishing, let's start fishing!"
After attaching the bait to the hook, Caster immediately lowered it to the mouth of a Kabuto.