AN: This story can also be found on Archive of Our Own under the same name (account: PreRagnarok), I'm reposting it to to see how it'll do here.
This is a story I've had bouncing around in my head for a while. (Despite what some have thought, it's not based off the Maze Runner.) I have no idea how long it'll be, but it'll be divided into three parts.
Two quick warnings before we begin. One: This fic contains gore. I'm not saying you'll be seeing blood and guts each chapter, but there is quite a bit at times. Two: The pacing will be relatively slow in this first part. The pace will quicken in the second and third parts as the plot thickens, but this is just a quick heads up for people who aren't huge fans of slow-paced adventure stories.
So now that that's out of the way, enjoy!
Part One: Chapter One
The first thing Flame heard was a soft buzzing sound like radio static. It cut through the pleasant darkness of his vision, making him twitch with annoyance at his peace being disturbed. He rolled over, expecting to be met with the familiar comfort of his soft mattress beneath him but instead found only cold, hard stone.
Somebody had been talking, their voice growing steadily clearer as he was dragged into consciousness. A girl's voice, high and concerned. Flame blearily forced his eyes open to see a girl about his age leaning over him, her light brown hair unpleasantly tickling his face.
"Do you know where we are?" Was her first question. Flame hesitantly glanced around, unsure how to answer.
Wherever they were, it's wasn't in his home in Pallet Town. They were in a square shaped room, it's only exit a few metres to his left was a doorway that looked like it had been cut out of one of the high grey walls made from cool stone surrounded them. The walls stretched up to the ceiling where flickering fluorescent lights lit up the room they were in. Flame stumbled to his feet and peeked out of the exit only to be met with a hallway of more stone that split into yet more halls.
"It's a maze." The girl stated when he didn't reply, "I'm not sure how I got here, I just woke up about an hour ago and wandered around until I found you." She looked at him expectantly, waiting for a response. He mentally cursed himself, realising that she wasn't aware of his disability and fumbled for his notebook and pen that he kept in his red jacket pocket to scribble a reply.
'Do you know how to get out?'
It was a stupid question, he knew. But he couldn't think up anything else to say.
"If I did, I wouldn't be here." The girl said with a sigh, running a hand with long painted nails through her shiny hair and getting to her feet, "But it can't be far. If we managed to get in here, there must be a way out." She made her way over to him and they both lingered by the room's exit, the two of them a tad unwilling to step into the unknown.
Flame observed her. She looked about eleven, her clothes appeared brand new in stark contrast to Flame's scruffy hand-me-downs from the second-hand clothing shop. The way she carried herself, despite looking uncertain, she held an indescribable grace from the breezy way she walked to the way she clasped her manicured hands together. This girl no doubt had a wealthy, coddled upbringing.
What was a person like her doing in this dirty maze?
What were either of them doing here?
Together, they stepped out into the hall and simultaneously glanced left and right. For the first time, Flame started to wonder whether or not there were wild pokemon loitering in here. He almost groaned in exasperation, in just a few days he was going to receive his training license and starter pokemon from the Professor. He'd been looking forward to this event for years and now it would never happen because some maniac decided to stick him inside a maze without a way to defend himself.
He tried to reassure himself that this was a man-made structure and appeared to be rather well kept. Nobody in their right mind would let wild pokemon stay, right? As well as that, if this place was maintained by people, somebody should find them sooner or later.
Unless of course, those were the very people who put them here in the first place.
The almost silent buzzing punctuated by his and the girl's footsteps echoing off the walls were the only sound to be heard. At least if they were attacked by something, they'd be able to hear it coming.
To his right, the girl shifted uncomfortably, hugging her bare arms as she kept glancing behind them as if she expected somebody to be following them. She chewed her lip and finally broke the silence.
"My name's Leaf." She blurted out, her voice agonisingly loud, "What's yours?"
Flame wrote his name down in his sketchbook and held it out without looking at her. He kept his eyes fixed straight ahead at the twisting and splitting path.
Left, left, right, straight, right, left. They had no idea where they were going. Every turn was a guess that, for all they knew, could be leading the further and further away from their intended destination.
Leaf, obviously put off by the awkward silence Flame carried kept trying to break it at every opportunity with one-sided conversations and the occasional question.
"Do you think anybody else is here? No, that can't be right. We would have run into them by now. How big do you think this maze is? I say, we're rather lucky to not have run into a dead end yet- Ah, never mind. Looks like we'll have to turn around." They walked wordlessly for a few more minutes before she continued, "So where are you from?"
'Pallet Town'
"Oh, down south. That explains your poor appeara... Um, I mean, your unique sense of fashion." She coughed, trying to hide her embarrassment, "Well, I'm from Saffron City."
Of course she'd be from the wealthiest city, Flame was hardly surprised. She looked like she'd never once stepped a toe outdoors.
Figuring he might as well keep the conversation going, Flame wrote, 'I have a cousin in Saffron'.
"Really?" she didn't sound as if she believed him and he felt his face burn slightly as she cast a scrutinising stare in his direction. If only she knew just who that cousin was... "You have a-"
That was when they rounded a corner and came face-to-face with a snarling rhyhorn.
Flame had only seen pokemon like that on TV. He'd never imagined that they grew this big. It towered over the two of them, drool dangling from its rocky maw as it surveyed them with its beady eyes.
Leaf shrieked, spinning on her heel and sprinting back the way they came, Flame close behind her. The ground rumbled and shook as the pokemon gave chase.
They charged through the unfamiliar corridors, Flame blindly following Leaf as she darted wherever her adrenaline took her. He could feel the rhyhorn's hot breath on the back of his neck and something brush against him as he forced himself to run faster.
Its deep growls filled his ears, almost as loud as its thundering footfalls as it got closer and closer and closer...
And then just as suddenly as it had appeared, it was gone. The two of them slowed down to a halt, doubled over and panting. They stared back the way they came as Flame sank to the floor, exhausted. He couldn't believe a sheltered girl like Leaf could run that fast.
"I... Think we lost it!" Leaf gasped, wiping sweat from her forehead and grimacing in disgust as she wiped it on her skirt, "I can't believe this, what kind of place is this anyway?"
An endless maze, wild pokemon, no other people in sight... What was going on? Flame groaned and drew his knees up to his chest, the last thing he remembered that night was going to sleep back in his room and then he woke up here. But as much as he wished it was, this couldn't be a dream. Everything was too vivid and detailed for that to be possible. What he would give to see a familiar face in this nightmare, though...
Just as he thought that, a voice sounded from behind them, "What was that all about?"
Flame turned his head to see Rain Oak; his next-door neighbour, the grandson of Professor Oak, and most importantly: Flame's lifelong rival standing with folded arms and his famous insufferable smirk plastered across his face.