Part 1: The Test of Courage

Chapter 1: The Portal and Behind It

Zeke was returning home from his friend's house after spending the night there. He was quite pleased with himself after entertaining his friend's family with his childhood experiences. After he reached home, he saw the clock and it read 7:15 PM. He decided to have a wander around the forest that was nearby, so he asked his mother if it was all right, she said yes, so long as he was back by 9:00 PM. Zeke agreed.

He walked out of the house, made his way out of town, and into the surrounding forest. Zeke had a fascination for forests, and any similar type of landscape. The incident regarding Zeke when he was three years of age, did not stop him from enjoying walks through the forest now and then. However, he does not fully understand the meaning behind danger. He knows it is real, but he did not seem to feel afraid of it most of the time. In fact, he often interprets it in a different way. He sees danger as a challenge, a game of sorts, even if his life was at risk. While this gave him the confidence and the nerve to try stunts that no one would dare to do, once again, he would often be unaware of the fact that his life could be in danger.

As a Lucario, Zeke noticed that he did not scare the pokemon in the forest nearly as much as humans did, but they were surprised at his capability of oral speech. They also noticed that Zeke did not seem to know how to use aura. That is because he was never taught. Eventually, he met another Lucario, but he felt something was not quite right. He remembered catching a glimpse of a pokedex that a trainer had, and it said that most Lucarios were usually around four feet tall. During his last visit to a special kind of doctor, his last reading was five-foot-six-inches.

The other Lucario stared at Zeke, surprised at the body language he was expressing. Zeke was in a thinking position and then shrugged. Then he mumbled,

"Why am I five-foot-six, when the normal height for someone like me is three-foot-eleven?"

The other Lucario leaned forward in interest.

"Are you looking for something?" asked Zeke. The other Lucario looked to the corner of its eyes, half-fascinated, half-worried. Zeke then said,

"I'll bet you're wondering how I became a Lucario"

The other Lucario stared at Zeke in amazement.

Zeke told his story, which spanned a good thirty minutes, but by then, the other Lucario had left while in the middle of it. Zeke wondered where he went, and shrugged again. Then he continued on his way through the forest. Something eventually caught his eye. It seemed to be glowing. Zeke walked over to the glowing object, and discovered that it was much larger than he thought. It seemed to be at least three times taller than Zeke was. It seemed to be a portal of some kind, but where it lead, he had no clue. But he could not resist the urge to see where it would lead, so he stepped inside, and the portal closed behind him.

The portal opened and deposited Zeke near the base of a mountain with an entrance to what looked like a mine, with cart tracks leading out of it. It was still as dark here are it was before Zeke entered that portal, only that the sky was a slightly different color. Plus, the moon was full, whereas a minute ago, only half of it was visible. Zeke could hear a faint crackling sound coming from the inside of the mine.

As he approached the mine, a small boulder rolled down the mountain, landing only a few feet away from him. Zeke then tightened his lips, raised the top of his eyes, and looked in another direction. His curiosity seemed impossible to resist, so he ventured into the mine. Then, Zeke heard a faint rumble, then thumping sounds, and before Zeke had a chance to escape, huge boulders piled up at the entrance. He was trapped inside.

It took a while for Zeke to stop staring at the now blocked entrance to the mines. After he was done, he noticed that the inside of the mine was lit by some kind of flickering light. It seemed to be a fire. He took a few steps deeper into the mine and discovered that there was a campfire in the center of the room. Only there was a shocking characteristic about the room that Zeke was in. There were several patches of pitch-black darkness on the walls, on the ceiling, and on the floor, even one next to the campfire.

This instantly grabbed Zeke's attention, and he raised the top of his eyes. He looked around the room nervously for a moment, and then approached the campfire. He sat down on one of the small green carpets that surrounded the fire. Then he began to stare at the closest dark spot next to him, taking note of the fact that the light from the fire should be revealing what was in that dark spot, but for some reason it was not. Zeke slowly turned his head away from it, but still uneasy.

Then he heard a sound from the dark spot. Zeke quickly turned his head toward the sound. He began to feel afraid and his heart was starting to beat faster. He was trying to figure out where exactly the sound came from, when he saw something move. Zeke gasped silently. What looked to be a piece of black clothing was moving slightly, and Zeke felt his heart begin to pound.

He was caught between two decisions, ask for identity, or walk away. His mind leaned towards running away rather than walking. He slowly rose to his feet, and looked around for an exit. The gate at the end of the room was no use, since the figure was in front of it. To Zeke's relief, he found an alternate path, so he decided to take that route. What he was not aware of was that something had already been here.

As Zeke entered the passage and took a few steps, he noticed two gray points jutting out of the walls. Zeke began to feel terrified.

"Someone doesn't want me here" he murmured to himself. He then remembered a theory that he began to think about when he was still a Riolu. He edged closer to one of the menacing objects in the walls, put his paw underneath it, and a spear zoomed past him. His theory seemed to be true. All physical traps have some type of mechanism. He placed his paw underneath the second pointy object and another spear shot out of the wall. Zeke was relieved to find that these traps were navigable. These ones anyway.

Zeke saw a rather primitive-looking door at the end of the passage. He began to calm down, and feel better. He began to walk toward the door and had almost reached it, when three spears shot out of the ground, nearly catching Zeke in the chest, and then receded. The shock and the lack of warning about the traps caused Zeke to stumble and fall on his back.

Zeke began to feel terrified again. He realized that he would not be likely to survive in a place like this without knowing where the traps are. He decided to take one of the spears that was on the ground from the previous trap and use it as a trigger for the traps. Obviously, these traps detected motion, but Zeke wondered how they could sense nearby objects. Then he dismissed the thought, and grabbed a spear. It felt awkward trying to hold it, due to the shape of his paws.

He managed to make the spear stable by holding one area between his paws and holding it that way. He slowly made his way toward the door, waving the spear about. When he made it to the door, he waved the spear again, activating two separate spear traps. Seizing the opportunity, Zeke opened the door and rushed through, dropping the spear as he went inside.

He found himself inside what looked to be a small storage area. Crates were stacked up to heights nearing the ceiling. But the thing that caught his eye was a rather powerful, although confined glow. Then he realized that the entire room, the trapped hallway, even the outside of the mine was not shrouded by darkness, even though there was no apparent light other than that room. He wondered if he could see in the dark, then decided to see whatever was glowing. He found a little, highly-decorated bottle. It was full of liquid that seemed to have all of the characteristics of water, but Zeke sensed that it was different. He decided to take the bottle with him, thinking that he might need it later.

As he brushed aside a few cobwebs, he saw the entrance to another room. When he reached the end, he did not like what he saw, more dark spots. But then he saw a gate, with a door in the center, very similar to the one Zeke had opened recently. He hugged the right wall, trying to avoid slipping and falling into the largest dark spot in the center of the room, his heart beating rapidly. He reached for the door, but upon trying to open it, realized that it was locked.

Normally, Zeke would not be aware of the possible danger that he faced, but due to recent circumstances, the traps, the dark spots, and the figure, he felt ready to faint. He saw a key that seemed to match the keyhole in the door behind him, but it was on the border between light and the dark spot in the middle. Zeke broke into a cold sweat. Then he saw the same piece of clothing in the dark spot as the one that belonged to the figure that Zeke had feared so much.

As he reached for the key, he could feel his consciousness dwindling, his vision started to become blurry, he began to pant a little, and when he finally touched the key, a hand grabbed his arm. Zeke lost all strength, moaned faintly, and collapsed dropping the bottle he was holding.