AN: Hello everyone, 92 back again bringing you another installment in Stepping out from a Shadow series. Quick recap Cynthia's learnt about Red and a trainer that can be found at the top of Mt Silver and she's decided to see if he's real or not. Oh and before I forget, I don't own Pokemon.

Cynthia's journey from Viridian to Silver town was uneventful, there were no local trainers and she barely saw let alone battle any wild Pokémon. But when she reached the small town, things began to change.

It was the height of summer and yet she had started to feel cold, she had experienced worse, Sinnoh was renowned for being the coldest region of the four and on reflection many towns and cities in Sinnoh were colder than here during summer. What got her though was the difference in temperature between Viridian and Silver, the two towns were relatively close together and yet the temperature differences were huge. In viridian she was sweating and yet here she was close to shivering.

She reached the local Pokémon centre where she began to plan her journey. She had still two to three hours before midday meaning she had ample time to start the climb later that day. What she really needed though was some supplies, she needed to stock up on food and drink and perhaps some rope in case she got herself into a sticky situation. She needed to get a sleeping bag of some sort as well; she doubted she needed a tent as surely there would be some warm caves along the way. Next she thought about a map, it would make the first part of the journey much easier following a pre-planned route but then where was the fun in that. After all she had been around ruins and caves most of her life, she had a great sense of direction and the adventure would be half of the fun. Finally she thought about medicines and other healing items for her Pokémon, surely she wouldn't need them. She was the champion of Sinnoh after all and though she had been warned about the crazy strong wild Pokémon, they couldn't bee a match for a champion's team, no of course they couldn't. Satisfied she went up to the counter to heal her Pokémon and to ask where the equipment shop was.

"I would strongly recommend against climbing Mt Silver for the next couple of weeks Miss." The nurse responded after Cynthia had asked her for the location of the equipment shop.

"And why is that?" she asked with a confused look.

"Well uhm... It's just a feeling really, it's just something we know, uhm… Something is going to happen." The nurse said rather sheepishly. By now Cynthia was frustrated as well as confused. How could someone know about 'something happening' based on a feeling, it just wasn't logical.

"Well OK, could you tell me where the equipment shop is anyway. I need to get some supplies anyway?" The nurse reluctantly told Cynthia and handed over the fully healed Pokémon about a minute later. Afterwards she walked the short distance to the shop and handed over to the vendor a list of the things that she needed.

"You're not planning on climbing Mt Silver are you?"

"Yes, why do you ask?"

"Well for starters you could do with a few more things and well call weird but something's not quite right about going up today."

"You're the second person to say something along those lines to me today. The nurse at the Pokémon centre said something similar."

"Hmm, it's a local thing I guess, we just know when something is up." For the first time Cynthia began to question herself. Two different people had told her not to go attempt the climb, she should follow their advice. But both of them seemed a bit, not right in the head. She knew it was wrong to think like that but seriously, it couldn't much worse than Mt Coronet.

"So are you sure just want these items? If you do intend to climb the mountain I really do recommend that you take a full camo tent, at least 5 hot water bottles, triple-strength and length rope, you'd probably want some first grade medicines as well, not to mention some heavy duty repels." Cynthia was unsure of the vendor's tone, she could sense that he trying to force her to buy these things but there was another part that seemed as though he was genuinely concerned. She thought for a moment but then perhaps he was putting on the tone so that she might be fooled into thinking that she needed these things when the reality was that she didn't.

"No thanks, just the items on the list please."

"Very well then." She picked up his disappointed tone mentally smiling, it was clear to her now that he had been trying to rip her of. She could have afforded the items but she hated the fact that being champion meant that people would try to sell you things for a greater than average price. He gathered the items that she had requested and put them on the counter, she handed over the money which still was quite a large amount before she took them and carefully placed them in her now rather full bag.

She left the shop and took the road that led up to the mountain, she could see a short distance from her what looked like a small house on the right hand side of the road. When she reached it, a small sign in front of the building read, "Route 28, Mt Silver ahead. Please have your passes and trainer cards ready." Cynthia took her pass and her trainer card out from her bag and continued until she was parallel with the building. She looked to her right to see and elderly man behind a glass panel looking at her.

"Trainer card and Mt Silver pass please." He then directed to a slit at the bottom of the panel. She complied by slipping the two items through them. The old man picked them up inspecting them thoroughly.

"Everything checks out, you are free to pass. Good luck." He then slipped her pass and her trainer card back the slot.

"Thank you." She replied while scooping up her things and then placing them in her bag.

"No seriously, you'll need all the luck you can get on that mountain." She looked up at him to check if he was joking. The stare that met her indicated that he was fully serious.

"Thank you again. I'll keep that in mind." She said hastily, and quickly walked away towards the mountain. She could still feel the old man's stare at her back but she dared not turn back to check.

Before too long she was in sight of first cave that led up the mountain, and the last Pokémon centre before the mountain itself. When she reached it, she fleeted with the notion of going inside but decided against it, if the nurse in charge of this centre had said anything like what the vender or the nurse from Silver town had said she would definitely loose her resolve now. She continued and entered the cave.

After entering the first cave, she noticed a lake and waterfall to her left and a rock face right in front of her that she thought she could climb up. She pondered her first decision slightly shivering from a chill that had crept up on her.

"Milotic lets go!" She summoned her large serpentine water Pokémon which leapt into the lake, swimming around for a while before swimming back toward Cynthia. She got on telling her to swim up that waterfall. Milotic did so with ease, to which Cynthia smiled, not many Pokémon in the world could do what her Milotic had just done. They say a small landing up ahead, to which Milotic swam towards. Cynthia jumped of returning Milotic in the process. She looked around noticing yet another cave entrance. A cave within a cave, how strange she thought to herself. She entered only to find that most of it had collapsed in on itself. Then she heard a shriek.

"Shit!" she said out loud. She'd just stumbled on a Golbat nest. There seemed to be between ten and twenty of them, all seeming angry that their slumber had been disturbed. A couple of them a beeline for her.

"Lucario battle dance!" A bluish, (with yellow and black patches) bipedal, canine looking with a spike coming out of the back of its hand and a single spike sprouting from its chest, emerged from her Pokéball. She knew it had a type disadvantage, it being a fighting type (although the Golbat's poison attacks would be ineffective as it was part steel), but she felt that her Lucario was at high enough level to counter this.

"Use Psychic" Lucario complied doing significant damage to one of the Golbat, which fell to the floor, unable to get up. This seemed to enrage the rest of the flock, it was not long before the rest of them were attacking Lucario. Despite his formidable power, she realised that Lucario would not be able to keep up with the sheer numbers.

"Garchomp, Togekiss, Spiritomb, Roserade, Milotic get ready." It did not take long after this. Her six Pokémon were all much higher levels than the Golbats and thus were not fazed by the numbers problem.

When all the Golbat were unconscious on the floor, she recalled all but her Milotic. She would need her soon to get back down the waterfall. She smiled to herself, she had taken a wrong turn but that always happened on an adventure. Those Golbats didn't seem that strong, it was odd for them to all attack at once but there were probably young near by. They must have been protecting them. Anyhow all the people that had told her she would come across crazy strong Pokémon were clearly just exaggerating.

She was back where she had started but now knowing she had to climb this rock face. There seemed to be a small section where there were dents and groves, possibly made by other trainers who had come this route. They seemed to be too well placed for where your hands and feet should go to be just coincidence.

She started to climb, she had done similar things studying ancient ruins in Sinnoh but after 10 minutes she realised why Mt Silver had got a reputation. The dents and groves on this section of the face had suddenly disappeared. She looked around, noticing some groves to her left and slightly above her. She tried to reach out for them, but she could only get fingertips to them. 'Fuck' she said to herself, she looked down, she could easily survive a drop down, but she could do some dame to herself. 'No, I'm not a quitter. Just have to chance my arm a bit.' She moved her legs up the highest possible groves at her position.

She extended her legs and moved to her left at the same time, she grabbed onto a ledge with both her hands but her feet were treading air. Desperately she tried to find a foot hole, while clinging on onto the ledge with all her strength. Finally she found a grove for her right foot. She used it as leverage to move herself up, she knew from experience that you should not dwell at a place when your arms were under pressure, they would tire out making it harder to complete the climb.

Five minutes later she reached a platform. She heaved herself onto it and laid on her back. She laughed. 'Oh dear Cynthia. What's happened? You used to find this cave exploring thing easy.' She rested for a few minutes, thankful that there were no wild Pokémon around. She got on her knees and took stock of her surroundings. There was an opening a few meters ahead of her where light was coming through and on her left side was a near vertical rock face ('Another one' she thought to herself) which looked as though it was impossible to scale. She placed her left hand down on the ground to push her up but immediately took it back when she felt heat from the rock that she had just touched.

She carefully placed her hand down again, the rock wasn't too hot. It had just caught her by surprise the first time. She felt around and found that a region from the far left of the rock face to where she had initially found the heated rock all had rocks or dirt that felt warmer than they should be. 'Hot springs perhaps.' It wasn't unusual for there to be hot springs inside mountains, you normally find them near volcanoes and to her knowledge Mt Silver wasn't volcanic. But then maybe Mt Silver was plate boundary. She tried to think back to her Geography classes back in her school day. 'Useless subject, no where near as interesting as history' she kept thinking to herself. 'There is obviously water near or under the mountain, and if it is on a plate boundary then there is likely to be magma deep underneath which would heat up the water, which in turn could heat up these rocks if they are directly over the water.' Satisfied with her answer she continued to the opening, another chill reaching her as she got close to the exit.

As she got outside she felt snow gently fall onto her head and felt wind rushing against her face. She looked up there were quite a few clouds right above her but they were wispy, not menacing at all. She looked over her right, the direction from where the wind was blowing from. There she saw huge black clouds and lighting crackle in between them. She grimaced, judging by the wind speed that storm would hit here in a few hours. She looked around. They were rocks everywhere she looked. Sharp, jagged and jutting out at odd angles. The path ahead would not be easy. The boulders seemed to go on as far as she could see, but there were more caves above and below her. She could see now why Mt Silver had gained its reputation. Even with a map it would be very tricky to navigate. She checked her watch to find that it was still only 6.30. There were two choices that she had. She could go back into the small cave with the warm rocks and set up for the night or she could press onwards towards her goal.

She had gotten her last decision wrong but this one she needed to get right. Going back into the cave would seem the safe choice, she would defiantly avoid the storm that was coming towards her but then she figured that perhaps so would the local Pokémon and they go into that cave as well, plus tomorrow this place could be covered in snow making the trip a hell of a lot harder. If she pressed on now, getting as high up as possible, find a cave and stay in there tonight then she would have an easier time of it tomorrow. She liked her reasoning and figuring that she would have around four hours before the storm hit her, she decided that she would continue up until nine, when she would find a nice cave to stay the night.

The rock path was as difficult as Professor Oak said it would. Every so often she would lose her footing as loose rock sediment gave away under her pressure. She was lucky to only suffer a few grazes to her legs so far. She reached a small landing where she decided to rest a bit. After a few minutes she heard footsteps coming from another path. She readied a Pokéball in anticipation but relaxed in when she saw a Teddiursa approach her. Teddiursa were generally peaceful Pokémon so she relaxed, it surely wouldn't attack her.

"TEDDIURRRR-SAAA!" it screamed as ran towards her. She barely had time release Garchomp as it attempted to slash at her. It turned to face Garchomp, clearly not afraid of it all. Its speed impressed her; Garchomp was barely able to dodge its slash attacks.

"Brick Break Garchomp!" she cried. Garchomp connected. She smiled expecting it to be a KO. She gasped as the Teddiursa was able to get up from her attack, now she knew that the wild Pokémon here truly were strong.

"URSAAA!" Cynthia frowned when she saw the massive Ursaring come up from the path that the Teddiursa had appeared from. It was probably the Teddiursa's parent and if the Teddiursa was anything to go by, this Ursaring was going to be extremely though. The Teddiursa meanwhile had run back behind the Ursaring while Garchomp and it stared each other down. It seemed as though it was about to attack when it suddenly looked up, its face now contorted in fear. It picked up the Teddiursa and ran back from where it had come.

To say that Cynthia was confused would be an understatement. Ursarings hardly ever got scared and it was unheard of that one would run from a fight. Its face that it made scared her though, this creature was clearly strong yet it seemed in terror of something genuinely afraid for its well being. She looked up trying to see what it was looking at.

Nothing.

The clouds might have been darker and the snow dropping a bit heavier but that was the only change in the weather from about an hour ago. She looked back down and recalled Garchomp. She looked towards the storm, the wind speed had picked up and it was gaining on her, time to find shelter she thought.

She was in darkness for a second.

She looked up just as the normal lighting returned. She'd missed it, whatever it was. It could have been a freak cloud but she doubted it. It moved to fast to be a cloud and surely a darker cloud would cool the temperature around her more. No, it had to be a Pokémon. It must have been the thing that had startled the Ursaring. It made sense that another Pokémon scared it. She began to think about the power this Pokémon could have. First it had made a very powerful Ursaring scared to its wits end and secondly it was flying incredibly high to cast such a shadow. But how? The winds here at this level were quick enough, anymore and she would be struggling with her balance. At that height she couldn't imagine how quick and strong they were.

She felt chill go down the back of her neck. For the first time on this journey she felt genuine fear. It was time to find shelter.

Fast.

AN: and so ends another chapter. I will try and get the next one done tomorrow. I'm starting work Monday so there won't be much time for me to write as much afterwards. :( And please Review. I would really appreciate some feedback on what is and what is not working and any errors as well.

Cheers 92 out.