"Alright, let's see how far we are from the next gym," I said to no one in particular as I checked my map. Pinpointing our exact location on the map, I checked to see how much farther we had to walk. I sighed. "Sorry guys, looks like we've still got at least two more days till we make it to the Fortee gym. Winona is said to specialize in bird type pokemon, so we'll have to devise a plan depending on what pokemon she brings out. Damn, she might actually be pretty tough."

"Flaaff, flaaffy." Venus, my flaaffy, said. I could only guess she said something along the lines of, 'We'll be fine if we just stay calm.' Then again, I could be totally wrong. I could ask my Meowstic, James, to translate, but at this point, it's probably too much effort for such a small thing.

"Well, no use worrying about it right now. We might want to set up camp soon. What do you guys think? I don't mind walking a bit farther, but if you guys are tired, I can stop. I guess there's a third option, though, and that is I can put you in your pokeball and carry you while you rest," I stated. "Doesn't bother me, up to you guys," I stopped as I turned to my party of pokemon.

I was never one for keeping my pokemon trapped in their pokeballs unless it was absolutely necessary, or they wanted to go in themselves. I generally just followed the golden rule when it came to pokemon - Treat others the way you want to be treated. Well, I definitely would hate to be trapped in a ball all day, and only really come out to battle or eat. That kind of life is… depressing, to say the least. I didn't even capture my pokemon in the conventional way, instead opting for a more sincere and kinder approach. Rather than beating a wild pokemon into submission, I would ask if they would like to accompany me on a journey to get gym badges and explore the world. Needless to say, it was rather hard to get anyone to join at first. Somehow, however, we managed to get a team going, and defeated the first 5 gyms of Hoenn.

The only one who was with me from the start was my Blaziken, Feeny, who was given to me as my starter pokemon. Feeny, who at the time was a torchic, wanted to go out and see the world, or at least that's what I seemed to understand from her behavior. I offered her the option to leave if she didn't want to go with me, but she seemed even more fired up than me to go out and explore the world. We bonded closely after that, camping together and going through multiple routes.

"Blaziken," Feeny simply said as she pointed towards my pokeball. Venus and Foley (my breloom) also nodded. That's three for chilling in the pokeball. I looked at my other 3 pokemon. They shook their head.

"Alright, I'll call you out when it's time for dinner," I promised. One by one, I sent those Foley, Venus, and Feeny back into their pokeballs. That left Julia, Drake, and James left to walk with me. Julia was my Ninetales, who had this motherly air about her. She always made sure I was safe, or not doing anything dangerous. It was rather annoying sometimes, but I appreciated it nonetheless. Drake was my flygon, and the newest member of our team. We found him after the 4th gym when he was still a Vibrava. As luck would have it, he evolved right before we fought Norman. He's very mischievous, friendly, and a bit of a trickster. He was, however, very loyal. Before we even made it a quarter of the way to Petalburg city, he was following us, watching our moves. I think he wanted to feel a part of something, and that's why he joined us.

That just leaves James, my meowstic. He was the third one to join our group. It was really strange that a pokemon from Kalos was in Hoenn. Because he was a psychic, he could telepathically talk to me if he wanted to. He also served as the group translator for anything important. James was a rather serious pokemon, instead opting to be more strong willed and adult-like. Him and Julia were the 'parents' of the group.

When I tried to ask him about why he was here, he would simply respond 'I was brought here.' After the third or fourth time of asking, he barked 'I was brought here on a ship, away from where I was born! Coming here wasn't my choice, but I'm here now! Drop it, right now.' After that, I didn't dare ask again. Not while it was such a touchy subject.

The sun began to set, painting the sky to be what I presume a bright orange. A few pidgeys and tailows flew over us, more likely than not attempting to get back to their nests before dark. A rattata ran in front of us, looked at us, and continued to run to my right. The fall breeze brushed past me, causing me to zip up my jacket and pull out my beanie from my backpack.

I was pretty unequipped for the fall and soon to be winter nights. All I wore was a short sleeved shirt, jeans, some boots, and a jacket, along with a beanie. My jacket wasn't even that heavy, instead more of a light sports jacket. Not only that, but my jeans were ripped, so that didn't really help. Thankfully I had some money left over from the last few gyms and trainer battles, so I should be able to get some new clothes when I arrived at Petalburg city.

I kept walking down the dirt path that many pokemon trainers before me had walked, with James to my side. Julia and Drake were behind us, talking about god knows what. Probably about the next gym. At least, that's what I imagined Julia was talking about. Drake was probably just making jokes with her.

"Nine, tai Ninetales tail ni," Julia blurted rather quickly.

"Fly. Fly gon gon," Drake chuckled.

"Hmmm?" I added. Whatever Drake asked before then seemed to have caught Julia by surprise. James looked up at me, before he and I noticed Julia glaring at him. A small grin escaped James' normally stoic face before he looked back at me.

"Ninetales!" Julia shouted quickly. James sighed before he nodded at her.

"What's this all about?" I asked, finally letting my curiosity get to me.

I felt James' voice in my head. "They want to know when we're going to make camp for the night."

I shook my head. "That doesn't sound right. Julia was rather quick to reply to Drake, so something tells me it was something embarrassing," I grinned. "C'mon, spill the beans." I turned to look at Julia, who in turn quickly looked away, clearly embarrassed. A small blush appeared on her normally white face. I chuckled. "You really shouldn't be embarrassed over whatever it is. I've showered with you guys. Twice. I doubt whatever you said could be worse than that."

"Ninetales, Nine nine." Julia whispered with her head lowered.

"She said she doesn't want to talk about it," James said. Julia said something else. "Oh, and she said you were the one who suggested to shower together."

"Look, you might not know this, but a pokemon hotel is expensive. And when you pay by the hour, and they bill you for water, you try to save as much money as you can," I responded. "It's too bad I couldn't save my dignity though…" I whispered that last part.

Drake flew above me and went to look at a tree he found interesting. A caterpie came out, looked at him, and quickly went back into the hole in the tree. "Leave them alone, Drake. We're gonna be eating soon anyways."

The sun was completely gone now, leaving us in complete darkness. "Yeah, we should probably stop." I left the path to walk near the mountain next to us. There was no way we could go up it at this angle, but we could at least- Hey! No way! What luck! In front of us was a small opening in the mountain, small enough that no big pokemon would hide in there, but big enough for me and my pokemon to take shelter in. "This should be good."

I released Feeny, Foley, and Venus from their pokeballs. "We're gonna stop here for tonight. I'm too tired to keep going, and it's dark. If possible, can a few of you to help look for some berries? I won't have enough to make a filling meal without them."

"Bre! Breloom!" Foley started. Drake also piped up. "Alright you two, we need a decent amount of oran berries, and some leppa berries. A figy berry would be great too, but if you can't find any, that's fine. I'd help you but uh," I pointed to my eyes, "Arceus dealt me this hand, and I have to play it." Foley and Drake nodded, and began searching for the berries I asked for.

The clearing next to us had no fallen branches, so I walked farther away from the cave and towards the trees to my left. Sticks littered the ground in a random order, leaving themselves vulnerable to be picked by bird pokemon for their nests. I crouched down, grabbing the bigger pieces of wood for the fire. I managed to grab 4, and a few smaller ones. As I was about to grab my 5th one, a furry hand grabbed it from me. "Blaze," Feeny said as she put the stick into her pile. She was carrying much more than I was, and even a few leaves to help kindle the fire.

"Well, it seems like you beat me," I laughed. Feeny smiled as she nodded. "Let's get back then, we should have enough." We walked in silence the short way back to our campsite. Arriving back at the campsite, I could see Venus and Julia sitting down and talking, while James looked off in the distance. "You guys okay? I'll start cooking as soon as Drake and Foley come back from looking for berries." Julia and Venus voiced what I assumed to be an 'okay', while James said nothing. I noticed a small pile of stones nearby, and presumed that Julia and/or Venus gathered them. The drill was the same as always, everyone contributed to gathering supplies when we were out of towns, and into the wild. Drake and Foley usually were the ones to go gather berries if we needed it. I'm more certain than not that they only wanted that job so they could sneak off a few berries for themselves. Those two were troublemakers, always playing pranks on each other, and sometimes the rest of the group. Surprisingly, the only one they haven't messed with so far has been James. That probably has something to do with the glare he gives them when they do their pranks.

I stacked the sticks in the middle and encircled the rocks around them. "Feeny or Julia, could you go ahead and start the fire?" I asked. Julia was about to stand up when Feeny shook her head, and got closer to the stick pile. She took a deep breath, and began to breathe out a small stream of fire. The fire took hold, and after some tending to it, the fire became tamed and strong.

No one said anything as the fire crackled. I started to pull out my cooking tools and pot, and arranged it so the pot began to get warm. My stomach began to growl slightly, although no one seemed to notice. Jeez, I hope they're okay.

"Where did you learn to cook anyways?" James asked as his voice rang in my head.

"When I was in the orphanage. A lot of the time I was bored, and would rather read than hang out with the other kids"

"Wasn't it lonely? I mean you're only, 11?"

"12, actually. I turn 13 in a few months. And to answer your question, I bonded with the pokemon at the orphanage, so it wasn't too lonely." Venus started talking to James, clearly wanting to be included in the conversation.

"Venus says you cook really well, except for that one time you tried to make spelon berry cupcakes."

"Are you going to hold that over my head for the rest of my life? I said I was sorry, damn.," I complained. I remembered the thought of me cooking cupcakes for my team over their victory at one of the gyms, I can't remember which one. I shuddered at the aftermath of those terrible cupcakes. No one would eat my food for the next few days after that, so I had to buy packaged food. "I got better at cooking, didn't I?"

Feeny spoke up, "Blaziken, Blaze."

Julia responded to that, "Nine. Ninetales tail, nine."

"Feeny said she couldn't move after eating it for a day, and Julia said it wasn't that bad," James translated.

I shook my head. "Feeny, I know you're over exaggerating. Julia, however, is under exaggerating. They were pretty bad. I'm sorry, but at least it was a learning experience. Hell, I think we could use that as a lethal weapon if we're ever under attack by a wild pokemon."

"You think you could cook those death muffins that quickly?" James grinned.

"Who knows. You keep them back from me while I cook, and I can paralyze them after 15-30 minutes of cooling," I paused as I heard the soft sound of wing flapping and leaves crunching. I turned to see Drake and Foley carrying a decent amount berries. "Took your time, did you?" I asked.

"Fly, Flygon Flygon," Drake responded as he handed me his berries, before Foley did the same. I placed them in a pile near my backpack as I fished out my utensils. I looked at a berry, holding it closely to my eye, as I began to look and see any difference between that berry and another berry.

"Hey uh, what color is this? Is this the oran berry?" I asked. Being unable to see what color anything was was not something I cherished.

"That's mostly yellow, with a few orange spots," James helped.

"Oh, so it's the figy berry I asked for! Thanks, you guys!" I thanked Drake and Foley.

"B-Breloom," Foley waved it off, slightly embarrassed about being thanked.

"Alright, let me get started on this food," I stated before I started to pull out the ingredients needed to make the food. I began to dice the berries needed, and split the figy berry in 6 different slices. Next, I grabbed some of the meat I had in my bag, still preserved. I laid the meat in the pot, and put in the berries. "Wait, hold on. This might take a bit longer than I thought."

I heard groans in response.

After 25 minutes, I managed to whip up makeshift tacos for my pokemon. Making food with only the small amount of ingredients wasn't really that easy, and I wanted to make something with everything we had left. Tomorrow, however, we were gonna have to scavenge for food, or get some fresh meat from a magikarp. Well, that's future me's problem. Next time, I'll remember to get more food for the long haul.

"Soups on, baby! Come and get it," I said as I put down the plates for everyone. I grabbed one for myself, and began to chow down, watching the rest of my pokemon do the same. "Could use some hot sauce, buuuuut I suppose this will have to do." I recalled the cookbook I read to make these tacos, 'Food for you and your pokemon: How to cook easy meals for your journey.' Man, that was a good one. I'll need to pick up another next time I go to a bookstore.

I took a sip of water from my bottle as I looked at my watch. The time was 10:57 PM. I didn't expect my cooking to take that long. After a full stomach, I could feel the fatigue of the day hitting me like a truck. I stifled a yawn, as I stretched. "We good to sleep?" I asked. My response was affirmations. "Alright then, I'm gonna go ahead and put my sleeping bag in the cave. Make yourself comfortable everyone. I'll set my alarm for… 8:30. Should be enough time to get some good sleep in."

Foley, Drake, Venus, and James walked into the cave, while the two fire-types waited for me to grab my sleeping bag before following behind me. I set my backpack near the entrance of the cave, and removed my shoes. Laying the sleeping bag on the floor, I couldn't help but notice that Julia and Feeny were waiting for me to lie down before they did. I sighed, knowing how those two acted. Feeny had a big sister type of personality, always being defensive of me and usually taking my side if there was a debate. So when her and Julia were together on my ass about something, there was no winning, and especially no escape. Having her and Julia baby me around was sort of annoying, but at the same time I also appreciated it. Still, whenever it came to camping, Julia refused to sleep away from me, and so did Feeny. When I asked James why they were acting like that, he said 'They said something about worrying for your body temperature.'

Naturally, they didn't even realize that while I was warm, I woke up drenched in sweat every morning. That's not to say it was their fault, entirely. No, usually when I woke up, somehow all the rest of my pokemon were huddled together, with me being at the middle. I smiled at the thought. Julia noticed and cocked her head slightly. "Don't worry about it, J."

I slid into my sleeping bag, getting cozy. As if on queue, Julia lied on the ground where my head would go, letting me use her as a pillow. Feeny lied down parallel to me, and Venus and Drake lied to my other side and feet, respectively. Foley lied down next to Venus. The only one who wasn't lying down next to me was James, who had his back against the rocky interior of the cave. "You doing alright, James?" I asked.

"I'm fine, not too tired right now. I'll lay down in a few minutes." He said telepathically.

"If you say so, just don't stay up too late, okay? I'd prefer if we were all well rested when we wake up." Setting my alarm on my watch for 8:30 am, I slowly nuzzled into my ninetail's soft fur, dreaming of the sleep to come.

I began to count mareep jumping over a fence. 1...2...3...4...5… What am I doing, this stupid trick never works. 6...7…

I woke up to the sound of something rustling outside. I lazily rubbed the sleepiness away from my eyes, but to no avail. After looking around, I couldn't see anything out of the ordinary. So what was that noise? I looked over to see James sleeping against the wall where I saw him last. Maybe I just imagined the noise? Nightmares weren't uncommon for me, so maybe I heard it in my mind and just thought I-

-There. It was only for a second, but I noticed a shadow outside. I quickly got up, fear now overtaking any sleepiness I had early. It could be just a wild pokemon, which I wouldn't be afraid of. Alternatively, it could have been a person, probably here to rob me, or kidnap me. Stories of trainers being abducted in the night by a mysterious group weren't uncommon. But to think something like that could happen to me? You never expect these things to happen to you, and you're invincible. Yet, that isn't the case. I should've been more careful, I should've decided to keep going, or find a more secluded spot to camp. I shook my head, and some of the thoughts went away. Calm down, you're getting ahead of yourself. It's probably just a pokemon. Still, better to check it out. If I don't, I'll never be able to go back to sleep.

I shakily walked over Drake, making sure not to wake up my team. I didn't want to wake them up simply because I was scared, more likely than not caused by my overactive imagination. Stepping out of the cave, the first thing I noticed was how cold it was outside, with the wind blowing the hair out of my eyes. I shivered, wanting to go back inside and cuddle with my warm team. I soldiered on though, looking for the shadow. Just as I was about to give up, I noticed my backpack was missing. "Oh no," I whispered. That bag had all the essentials I needed to live out here. It was my lifeline, and to lose it would deal a heavy blow in my journey.

I heard the sound of fabric ripping not too far off to my right. Quickly, I ran to the noise, assuming it coming from my backpack, I ran past the bushes, and next to a tree before I saw the cause of the noise. A teddiursa was in the process of trying to tear open my bag.

"Shoo, go away. Go!" I whispered harshly at it. The teddiursa didn't notice me at first, and was startled. Quickly, it stood up and ran away, leaving behind the backpack. I sighed as I walked over to my backpack to see if everything was still in their spots. There was a long vertical gash on the side of the backpack, meaning I could see into it without having to unzip it. Fuck me, I'm gonna have to get another one. Everythings going to fall out if I don't position it in a certain way. I looked into my bag. I know I had duct tape somewhere, and while it wasn't going to fix the backpack, it could salvage it for another couple nights before I managed to get another.

I heard the bushes rustle again from where the teddiursa ran away, "I said shoo, go away," I repeated without looking at it. What greeted me instead was a snarl as the pokemon in question came out of the brush and into view. "Y-you're not a teddiursa," I stuttered.

An ursaring stood in front of me, with a very angry look on its face. I watched in horror as another 2 came out from behind it, with the little shitstain that was the teddiursa following close behind. The whole family was here, and I was about become part of their dinner. "Woah, hold on. B-be cool. You want the backpack? Y-you can take it man. I-I just n-need my wallet," I bargained. The ursaring roared in response to my bargaining. I fell flat on my ass as I attempted to scramble away. Air quickly flew in my direction, as I suspected the ursaring attempted to swipe in my direction.

Fear enveloped my body, and I turned around and dashed back to my campsite. Without even needing to turn back, I could hear them hot on my trail. "Guys!" I yelled, hoping my team would wake up. I realized I was still carrying the backpack, and decided to drop it, hoping it would cause the ursarings to leave me alone.

It didn't.

They were still on my ass. I saw a familiar blue shape running towards me. James!

"Damn, I knew I sensed something else nearby. I can't believe I fell asleep." I heard his voice in my head.

"James, use psybeam, please for the love of Arceus," I pleaded as I ran towards him.. He simply nodded as his ears went up, revealing a pair of eyes underneath it. A quick beam shot past me, and hit one of the ursarings, but that didn't seem to stop him. "Use confusion!" I ordered as I ran past him. I saw Foley and Julia run out and get into battle positions. I finally turned around and faced alongside with them, no longer as scared now that I had my team with me. "Foley, use force palm, and Julia, use quick attack!" They nodded as they began to do as they were told.

Feeny ran out next to me, and began to charge a flamethrower. "NO!" I commanded. She stopped abruptly. After being startled, she gave me a look that said 'Why the hell not?' "We don't want to set the forest on fire. If we do that, we're done for, physically and legally." I answered her question. "Use sand attack instead, help out everyone else."

Foley was in the process of taking on an ursaring all by himself, while James and Julia tag teamed another. The third ursaring must have been confused, because it was swinging wildly at air, and turning around multiple times. The teddiursa was nowhere to be found, probably watching the fight from a distance. I had no doubt my team could take care of the threat, but I was still worried for their safety. "Actually, go get the others, we might need the rest of them to take care of this quickly." Feeny nodded as she ran back into the cave. How they weren't awake already, I wasn't sure. I could have sworn my yelling was loud enough.

The fighting continued as my team started to overpower the other pokemon. But something didn't feel right. It was almost like… I noticed in the corner of my eye, 2 houndooms eyeing us cautiously, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. Venus ran out right next to me. I quickly pointed in the houndooms direction, and said "Thunder wave, then use an electro ball!"

She quickly nodded before she began to attack. After using electro ball, the houndooms scampered away. "You need to go help Foley, he's fighting one on his own, and that confusion for the other one won't last much- What the hell!?"

A pink flash of light lit up the sky. Everyone, and I mean everyone, stopped fighting to look up. It looked like a spear, the way the light was. The light was almost as bright as the sun, causing me to have to squint and cover my eyes. Without any warning, the light shot past me and into the mountain, causing it to explode in dust and debris. Rumbling ensued, and I heard the tell-tale signs of a rockslide starting. "RUN, GET AWAY FROM THE MOUNTAIN!" I yelled. It seemed like the ursarings had the same idea, as they began to run away. I quickly looked up, noticing a boulder tumbling down and about to land on Venus. I dove into her and picked her up, pushing her out of the immediate danger, but landing us back into the cave. Feeny and Drake were about to rush out before I forcefully pushed them back to the edge of the cave. "Don't go." I yelled over the sounds of the rockslide.

I covered my eyes as dust began to invade it. Slowly, the sounds began to fade out, but not the rumblings. I wiped my eyes and coughed, before I opened them. It was pitch black. There was no hint of the moonlight at all. "Is everyone okay?" I asked. I got quiet affirmations as I set Venus down on the ground. I forgot I was still sheltering her for a second.

"We're gonna be okay. Don't worry everybody. They'll get us, or they'll get help. We'll be fine," I assured everyone. However, I wasn't sure if I was trying to comfort them, or myself. "I'd estimate we'll be out of here within the hour… Two or three at most. What was that anyways? Everything was really bright pink in the sky, and then-" I was cut off by the sounds of rumbling again. Was there another rockslide going on outside!? I hope the other half of my team was okay, I prayed to Arceus to protect them from any harm that would come their way.

I heard the sound of cracking. I looked down to see - and feel- the ground beneath us giving way. There's another cave under us!? I tried to get to the edges of the cave before it collapsed, so I could stay up, but the ground opened up beneath us just as I was about to move.

Everyone in the cave screamed as we fall into the black abyss.