c h a p t e r o n e [fun maze]

...x..x..x..x..

"It's freee~zing in here!" Haneul sobbed, hugging the thin winter jacket she bought while we were in Eterna city this morning.

The tiny pink and black jacket Haneul wore on top of her Lolita dress shouldn't even be called a winter jacket, it was so thin that it looked more like it should be worn on a rainy day. But of course, she had to pick something that matched and dismissed the whole purpose of buying the jacket in the first place.

"Oh come on, it's not that cold. Once we get out of here it's gonna be much colder." I noted, digging my hands deeper into the pockets of my black winter jacket.

"Be glad it isn't snowing in here." Aoi piped up, a small giggle bubbling from her which was rare from the quiet 17 year old.

Aoi liked winter and despite growing up in Lavender Town where snow only came when it was suppose to she seemed comfortable with the chilly air in Mt. Coronet. I guess to a degree you could say she was excited, but that was pushing it a bit. Aoi wasn't exactly the excitable energetic type. More like the nervous quiet bookworm type (even though she isn't exactly a bookworm) "But it's still cold! How can you guys stand it in here? How long are we going to be in this stupid mountain anyways? We've been walking for at least two hours!" the dark brunette stopped her ranting to take a deep breathe in, running out of air from her words. "And plus! I got only 8 hours of sleep!"

Haneul sported her puppy dog eyes to me, probably wanting to take a break from all the walking we've been doing. Aoi and I looked at each other with a 'R U SRS?' look before I glanced at my watch which read 12: 37 pm. To Haneul's disappointment we woke up quite early this morning, so early that we left Floaroma Town at about 6:20 am. The time pretty much put the 15 year old in a crappy mood which made her whine all the while to Eterna City. Especially when we went through Eterna Forest with all of those creepy Pokemon she hated (which thank god we did not get lost in). But we did have breakfast in Eterna City, so that made her quit. At least for the next hour or so anyways. "I'm surprised she's not complaining about the lighting..." I whispered over to Aoi as Haneul strode ahead of us by a few five or so steps.

The ebony haired girl merely nodded with a smile while we continued on our journey. "If you must Haneul, think of this as a... fun maze. Yeah, a fun maze." I spoke up, placing a hand on my hip.

She looked back towards me with a lit up face. "I like fun mazes! They're fun! But this is just a dirty old mountain full of Pokemon." She frown, giving me a displeased look.

"Well maybe you can catch a cute ice Pokemon." I mused.

And with that she had another lit up expression on her face. "Yeah, you're right!" She jumped and gave a twirl with a small squeal.

I laughed lightly at my companion and watch her skip along ahead, just at the rim of where our light shone from Aoi and my Pokemon. Mt. Coronet, if you aren't aware, is pretty much pitch black without lighting. That's why Aoi's Charizard and my Typhlosion were out of their pokeballs, lighting our way in the black insides of the mountain. My Raichu was also out, but my Raichu never liked being in it's pokeball, so ever since I got him as a Pichu, he's always walked around with me at my side. "So how much farther 'till we're our of this cave? We're not lost are we?" Haneul stopped, turning around to face Aoi and I.

I looked over to Aoi who usually kept track of this kind of stuff. Out of everyone here, Aoi was the brains of the group, being the most intelligent out of the three of us. Though it wasn't really surprising, she was the eldest, but that's far from it. She even found out about a small path for us to follow so we wouldn't get lost in the huge mountain. "Half way, more or less. Of we keep following the small trail we should get there within at least an hour, maybe sooner." she stated simply, hesitating before answering our question. "B-but I could be wrong."

She disliked it when Haneul and I would stare at her, it would make her all nervous and such. Which I thought was quite cute since she was a 17 year old girl who had a lot of talent and seemed almost perfect. I mean, she was smart, a great pokemon trainer, a good singer, great at making little gadgets, and of course she was very pretty. The only thing she lacked was some self confidence, sadly, but since Haneul and I were here, we could always help her with that. "Don't worry Aoi, we trust you. After all, you are the brains of the group!" I smiled towards her giving her a thumbs up.

"T-thanks Lakrymosa."

With that we started walking once again, the cave's temperature getting colder as we continued on. Luckily we had only run into a few weak Pokemon since we had entered the mountain. Though despite that, I wasn't about to take my guard down, I knew that a lot of strong pokemon could be lurking around. "Rai rai!" I looked down to Raichu who was nuzzling my leg, spreading his short arms out in a gesture for me to pick him up.

I smiled and grabbed onto the orange fluff ball of affection and held him against my chest, his feet dangling helplessly. Despite being furry, he wasn't warm, he was a bit cold but I wasn't surprised the least bit. Raichu were forest Pokemon, not mountain ones. "Hey! I just realized something!" Haneul suddenly shouted, grabbing all of our attention.

"H-haneul..! You shouldn't shout..." Aoi scolded quietly with a small blush on her cheeks. The outburst, to say the least, made her jump and she grew embarrassed from her actions. "We don't want to disturb any Pokemon and get ourselves in trouble."

"Ooo~h, okay!" Haneul whispered back exaggeratedly. "Well anyways, I realized that we haven't had lunch yet!"

I deadpanned at the petite girl who only seemed to have two things on her mind: sleep and food. Though this was Haneul, so we all merely nodded and continued on our journey. It was quiet for awhile and I liked that, I gazed around the trail at the amazing mountain, taking in its sharp jagged point and small holes that Pokemon had made homes in. To say the least it was quite beautiful. "Hey Aoi. Are you going to use the Ninetails you recently caught against the gym leader in Snowpoint?" I asked her, giving her another smile.

She looked towards me and and smiled lightly and looked down. "Do you think I should. I mean, I wouldn't want to push it, I just caught her and the Snowpoint gym leader I heard is quite strong. Do you think...?" she spoke quietly, a small smile still on her face.

"Of course! You need to bond with Ninetails, let her know you care about her, and if you choose her to be in such an important battle that'll let her know that you believe in her. Don't forget Aoi, you have used her in some battles. She's not useless."

She looked at me and back to her feet again, her smile bigger than before. "You're right, I should. Thanks again Lakrymosa."

"No problem!"

"Oh and Lakrymosa..." her facial expression turned to a confused yet slightly worried one.

"Yeah...?" I asked, raising my brow in confusion.

"Where's Haneul?"

"Haneul?" I looked around our surroundings of the small trail, now aware that the young brunette was not in site. "H-haneul? Where is she?"

"Haneul where are you?" Aoi called out quietly, trying not to disturb the Pokemon living in the mountain.

"Haneul? Haneul! Where are you?"

Charizard and Typhlosion tried to make the brightness of their flames extend as far as they could, but still no Haneul was in site. "Haneul? Han- !"

A little ahead of us a noise was heard, like something fallling. "Haneul?"

Aoi and I ran ahead to the noise followed by Charizard and Typhlosion. Around a small corner was Haneul on the ground along with some shiny items in her hands. "Haneul! What are you doing?" I asked her leaning down to make sure she was okay.

"Oh, hey guys! Look what I found!" Haneul jumped up and held out her hands.

Inside were a few pokeballs along with a few nuggets. I cocked a brow at this. "And I have some rare candies in pockets too! Isn't this lucky~!"

"Yeah, but where did you find them? And why were you on the ground?" I asked her, Aoi standing beside me patiently.

"Oh well you see, I found them up top there!" She pointed upwards onto a ledge. "And I was on the ground 'cause I fell obviously."

She began to laugh and I still had and eyebrow cocked while Aoi suddenly had a worried expression. "I think that was a Pokemon's nest you got those from Haneul..." Aoi spoke, a quiver in her voice slightly.

Haneul's face held a questionable look while mine turned grim. "Oh, really? Must has been a Clefairy or something like that." she laughed again, completely oblivious to the matter.

"Haneul, hate to burst your bubble but... Clefairy can't get up there. That's too high of a place for them to reach." I spoke, becoming worried a little bit.

"Then what kind of Pokemon do you think it was...?"

"Well it was probably- "

"Kewewewewewewewew!"

Haneul gave a yelp as a scared look came onto her face. Aoi and I turned around to face a huge Golbat, that looked very angry. "Uh-oh..." Aoi whispered, taking a step back.

"It's just a Golbat! Don't worry, we can take it!" I narrowed my eyes, about to tell my Typhlosion to attack it until a louder noise seemed to surround us.

"Uh... wh-what is that?" I asked now taking a step back myself, along with Charizard and Typhlosion.

"I-If I'm n-not mistaken..." Aoi started, her voice now quivering a bit. "Th-that would be... more Golbat."

Appearing in our view of light was hundreds of Golbat, all looking very angry. "W-what now you guys..?" Haneul whispered, shaking behind the two of us.

"Well I don't know about you... but I say we run." I whispered back, hoping to dear god the don't suddenly attack us before we even have time to finish our simple plan.

"Agreed." Aoi nodded, along with the our two fire Pokemon companions.

"Okay so on three. One, two- "

"Kyaaaaaaaaah!" Haneul rushed past us and ran into no particular direction I was guessing, anywhere but here that is.

"Haneul!" And so the rest of us ran with her, along with the tens of thousands of crazy Golbat chasing us.

"Aoi! A plan would be good now! Where's the exit?" Haneul cried out, running as fast as her short legs could carry her.

"I don't even know where we are now!" she replied, sounding somewhat like a sob.

"Aaaaaagggghhh!"

It was then that luck turned for us. In a bad way of course, it just had to be a bad way. "Agh! Dead end! We're doomed! End of the line! It's all oveeeer!" Haneul sobbed, crying against the stone wall which blocked our further escape from the angry bat pokemon. "I don't wanna be bat foooooooooood!"

"Th-th-this isn't the end!" I replied, stuttering a bit which was a bit out of character for me.

"It's been nice knowing you guys!" Haneul cried out again, tears at the corner of her eyes. "J-just so you know, y-you guys are the be-bestest friends I've ever h-haaaad!"

"Um.. u-uh, uhhh," I looked over to Aoi, who looked pretty freaked out as well. I gestured over to Charizard and Typhlosion, who looked pretty freaked out as well, but tried their best to look fierce. "T-typhlosion! Flame wheel, go!"

"Ch-charizard, F-fire spin!"

The two large fire pokemon then stood up tall and let out a roar. Backing up the Golbat a bit, they then used their moves on the flying Pokemon. Charizard let out a huge fire spin, aiming for the Golbat at the sides and the highest while Typhlosion aimed for the ones in front of us. "An opening! Quick! Run!" I yelled, all of running the way we had just came.

Running quickly we turned a sharp corner, taking a trail that led down a steep slope. "Oh no! A waterfall! We're trapped again!" Haneul cried, for about the hundredth time.

There in front of us was nothing pretty much. At our side was the river part of the waterfall which led downwards to our demise. "Quick, get on Charizard!" Aoi spoke, getting onto her Charizard.

"But they'll just catch us!" Haneul pointed out, the sound of wings flapping getting louder and louder by the second.

"We gotta jump in the water!" I shouted suddenly.

"What! Are you crazy Lakrymosa?"

"No she's right. But get on Charizard first, we'll jump when we reach the ground at the bottom so we won't hurt ourselves." Aoi said, taking charge of the situation which was rare, but not unheard of.

"Return Typhlosion!" I shouted, a red beam coming out from the pokeball I had just grabbed from my small Drifloon backpack.

Typhlosion disappeared into the pokeball and I put it back into my bag, jumping onto Aoi's Charizard we quickly took off. Charizard was fast which was good, quickly sending us across the lake the waterfall poured into. We landed, jumped off, and Aoi returned him into his pokeball quickly. "Ok quick, stay down as long as possible!" I shouted getting ready to jump into the ice cold water.

"But it's freezing! We'll die!" Haneul shouted back in protest.

"Would you rather be sucked out dry of your blood like a juice box?" I questioned, Haneul quickly shook her head.

"Okay, one, two, three!" We all jumped and dispersed into the freezing waters of Mt. Coronet.