OK, here it is everyone. Hope you like it. We get to meet a new friend here. Enjoy.
Chapter 7
The first thing Ember noticed when they stepped into the cave was that it wasn't that dark. Somehow, the entrance gave them all enough light to see far back into the cave.
Grady turned to Brandt. "Get Sledge out, we can ride him through the cave. He'll know the quickest way to the end anyway."
"Alright, just stand back everyone." He told them and pulled out Sledge's pokeball. "We need you Sledge, come on out!" He yelled and threw it. Sledge came roaring out then went quiet when he looked around and realized he was in his old home.
"Hey Sledge, would it be alright if we rode on your back through the cave?" Brandt asked.
Sledge just grunted and lowered his head down so they could all step up. Ember hopped up and moved to the back of Sledge's head as Flare followed him. He heard Grady asking Pidge if she wanted to go back into her poke ball.
"Yes please, I kinda don't like the whole cave thing; it makes me feel trapped since I can't fly." She told him. Ember watched as Grady pulled her poke ball out and returned her.
"I'll bring you back out when we get out girl." He then set the ball securely in his pocket and zipped it up. He then turned to Flare and Ember. "What about you two? Stay or go up?"
"I'll stay out; I've always wanted to see a cave bigger then my family's den." Ember told him. Grady smiled and then turned to Flare.
"What about you, Flare?" He asked.
She shook her head. "No thanks, I'll stay out too."
"OK, if you want," He told her and turned to Brandt. "Hey, would it be alright if you also got Striker out, that way we can use his tail for some light."
"OK, good idea man, hopefully he'll respect me enough now to listen." Brandt got Striker's ball out and tossed onto Sledge's head and soon they were all bathed in an orange light.
Grady smiled. "Oh that's better." He commented.
Brandt and Striker exchanged looks. "So, we cool now Striker?" he asked. Striker thought for a moment then nodded. "Oh thank gosh. So can you stay in the middle of us so we can just be able to stay warm in the cool cave?" Brandt asked.
Striker nodded again and curled up with his tail on his back so they could all be bathed in its light. Brandt tapped Sledge's head. "We're ready now."
Striker lifted his head and started moving through the cave. They all hung on in silence for a while. Kia looked at Striker. "Wow, he looks healthy and strong." She commented.
Brandt looked at her. "Yeah, he was my starter. He was awesome as a charmander, and now he's even cooler as a charmeleon. I can't wait to watch him fight in a gym battle." He smiled and patted Striker's head which to everyone's surprise, Striker just smiled a little.
"Wow, he didn't snap at you. Now that's a surprise." Grady commented.
Brandt nodded then leaned against Sledge's head spike. "Well, I'm gonna take a nap, wake me when we're halfway through guys." He said and closed his eyes. They soon heard soft snoring come from him.
Grady chuckled and lay down on his back. Ember lay by him. Kia shuffled a little and looked at Brandt and then back at Grady. Grady noticed and looked at her. "Something wrong, Kia?"
Kia jumped a little but calmed down quickly. Ember cocked his head at her. "Well umm…would he be able to sleep through us talking?" She asked nodding over to Brandt.
Grady chuckled a little. "Him, it would take fifteen Tauros to even make him stir a little."
Kia giggled a little. "Well, can I talk to you?"
Grady shrugged his shoulders and got up into a sitting position and turned to her. "Don't see why not, what do you wanna talk about?"
"Do you think Brandt likes me?" She said with a blush.
Grady smiled. "Kia, I think more than likes you, if you know what I mean." He said with a wink which caused her to blush brighter red. After a few more hours passed, Sledge came to a stop. Grady nudge Brandt awake. "Hey man, halfway mark, time to make something to eat." He said and jumped down off Sledge. Ember soon followed and walked with Grady to a huge platform where they could set up camp.
"So what are we going to use to make the fire?" Kia asked. Grady walked over to some rocks and gather some up and brought them back over and set the in the center of the circle. "Umm...Grady, rocks aren't flammable." She told him.
"Well, until you do this." He said and pulled out a bottle of liquid and squirted it on the rocks. "Ember, use ember on those rocks now." He ordered.
Ember did so and the rocks burst into flames. Ember almost laughed. Brandt chuckled at Grady. "Yep, you always did like lighting stuff on fire." Grady just grinned and got some food out.
"Yep, I still have some of the scars to prove it." He said.
Ember cocked his head. Grady rolled up the legs of his pants and everyone but Brandt gasped as they saw a huge burn scar. "How'd that happen?" Kia asked worried.
"Well, let's just say, when you drop a lit match on the carpet, carpets are very flammable." He chuckled.
Flare walked over and licked his scar. "Does it still hurt?" She asked.
Grady patted her head. "Not anymore, but when I got when I was five years old, it hurt like hell then." He told her. Ember sat down by Grady.
"So you can feed us now right?" He asked.
Grady busted up laughing. "Yes we can." He told Ember and got some of the food out and started cooking. Ember sat down by Flare as they waited for Grady to finish.
"Hey Brandt, get Flora out and I'll get Pidge, that way they can eat something too."
"Alright, Flora will be glad to come out. Hey Kia, you can get any pokemon you have come out too. That way everyone will get to know each other."
"Good idea," Kia commented smiling as she pulled a poke ball out. "Come on out Nina, time to make some new friends." She said and threw the ball into the air. There was a burst of light and a charizard landed on the ground. Striker's jaw dropped as he looked at the beautiful charizard in front of him.
Nina smiled at everyone around her. Grady and Brandt both released Flora and Pidge who joined the circle of pokemon and humans around the small rock fire. Striker moved closer to sit by Nina who smiled at him. When Grady was done he handed Brandt and Kia some. Then he gave all the pokemon some pokemon food and sat himself down and ate some of his food.
When Nina had emptied her bowl, Ember saw Striker push his bowl over to her and couldn't help but bite his lip to hold back a laugh. Flare saw this as well and giggled a little. Nina smiled at Striker and ate the rest of his food.
When they were all finished Grady cleaned up everything and rolled out his sleeping bag. "We better get some sleep; we've got longer way to travel tomorrow." He yawned.
Ember and Flare lay on each side of him as Pidge perched on an overhanging rock. Kia looked around with a bundle of pajamas in her hand. "Ummm, where can I change?" She asked. Sledge looked down at her and wrapped his tail in a circle around her, blocking her from everyone's view, and looked away.
"Thank you Sledge," She told him and changed fast. When she was finished he uncurled around her and lay his head down and closed his eyes.
When Kia had gotten in her sleeping bag Nina came over and curled up by her. Striker walked over and lay by Nina making Ember chuckle again. Flare curled up closer to Ember as she went to sleep. Ember was too tired to move so he just closed his eyes and went to sleep.
(A few hours later)
Ember jumped as an explosion shook the ground under him. He looked around and saw everyone else was also up.
"What the hell was that?" Grady and Brandt both yelled. The ground shook again as rocks fell from the ceiling. A huge one was about to crush them until Sledge roared and batted it away.
"Come on! Let's go see what it is!" Grady yelled and ran down a tunnel. Ember ran after him with everyone else right on their tail. They soon entered a chamber which had a whole bunch of tunnels leading out of it. In the center of a room were two members of Team Rocket blasting at the walls with two black dog pokemon.
"Hey stop it! Pokemon live here! You're destroying their home!" Brandt yelled. The two grunts turned to him and laughed.
"Or what baby? You gonna attack us!" One of them laughed. Striker growled and stepped forward.
Ember stepped up next to him. "You go for the one on the left; I'll go for the one on the right, deal?" Ember muttered.
Striker nodded and waited for Brandt's orders. "Striker go and use flamethrower now!"
"You too Ember! Burn them to a crisp!" Grady growled.
Ember and Striker both let loose ferocious flamethrower attacks. The grunts dodged as did their pokemon. "Houndour, use glare on that Flareon!" the one on the right yelled. The Houndour glared at Ember with red eyes. Ember glared right back not affected.
"Houndour, use take down on that charmeleon!" The grunt on the left yelled.
"Get ready to dodge it Striker, then use Slash!" Brandt yelled.
The Houndour ran at Striker and at the last second Striker dodged to the side and slashed the Houndour in the side. The Houndour went flying and hit the wall. It lay there unmoving then.
"Ember, use quick attack on that Houndour now!" Grady yelled and Ember went at a very fast speed and tackled into the last standing Houndour who joined its partner on the ground. The grunts returned their pokemon and ran into one of the tunnels.
Ember saw one of them turn around and pull out something round and pressed a button. "See you in hell suckers!" He laughed as dynamite erupted around them.
"Let's get out of here now!" Kia screamed and ran back where they came from. Everyone else followed but Ember wasn't fast enough and soon huge boulders separated him from everyone else.
"Ember! Are you alright?" Grady yelled as the dust began to settle and the rocks stopped falling.
Ember struggled to his feet and didn't find any major injuries. Only small bruises. He turned to the sound of Grady's voice and saw huge boulders stacked in front of him. "Yeah, but we've been separated!"
"I see that, I don't see any way around or through all this, do you think you can find your way to the end of this cave by yourself!" Grady asked.
"Yeah sure, which way should I go?" Ember called.
"Head east and if you'll see light when your close. We'll meet you there! Try to stay out of trouble!" Grady called.
Ember smiled. "Oh darn, now you've taken all the fun away!" He laughed. He could hear small chuckling on the other side.
"Ember be careful!" He heard Flare yelled.
"I'll try! See you guys at the exit!" He yelled and started heading down the first tunnel he saw. He walked along it as it started getting darker, but not too dark were he couldn't see. He could still see a few feet in front of him but that was it.
He walked along until he heard screaming ahead of him and he ran toward it. When he found where it was coming from, he saw a big black dog like before but with horns pinning down an Eevee.
"Shhh, just let it happen little bitch." He growled. As he moved on top of her.
Ember growled and charged at the big pokemon and tackled it off the little Eevee. Ember crouched in front of the Eevee as the dark pokemon got back up and growled at him. The Eevee looked between her savior and the male pokemon who was about to rape her. Ember used a powerful flamethrower at the dark pokemon who dodged it.
"Ahhh, you've postponed our fun, well, after I've finished with you, I'll get back to what I was about to do to that little bitch." He laughed evilly.
Ember growled and used quick attack on the pokemon and threw it against the opposite wall. When the Houndoom got up one of its horns broke off and fell. "Get away from here now!" Ember growled baring his fangs. His fangs slowly started to glow orange like fire as his eyes did the same.
The Houndoom glared at Ember but then turned tail and ran down a tunnel. Ember started to calm down and turned to the Eevee who was staring at him. "Are you okay?" He asked calmly.
The Eevee nodded slowly. "Yeah, he didn't mate with me. So now that you've saved me, is that what you're going to ask from me? To have sex with you?" She asked as she looked down and tears dropped.
Ember felt horrified that anyone would even think that. "No way, all I wanna know is if you're alright." She slowly looked up at him and he noticed her eyes were tinted a light blue.
"I'm Snow. Thanks for saving me." She said as she dried her tears.
Ember nodded and sat down. "I'm Ember, and no thanks necessary. Happy to help. Now hold on one second, got an itch behind this one ear." He told her making her giggle as he scratched his ear with his paw.
"So Ember, are you wild or tamed?" Snow asked.
Ember thought of a joke and almost laughed but held it in, "Well, my mom and dad say I'm always going to be wild. But my trainer agrees too." He laughed. Snow couldn't help but giggle again as what had just been about to happen was pushed out of her mind.
"Yay! I made you smile!" Ember cheered. Snow smiled and shivered a little as the ground she was laying on was cold. Ember slowly walked over to her and lay by her. "You cold?" He asked.
Snow nodded. "A little, but don't you need to get back to your trainer?" She asked.
Ember shrugged his shoulders. "He can wait ten minutes while I help you. If not, he knows that I can go tell my mom that he left me alone in a cave. She'll take care of him fast." Ember chuckled.
Snow smiled and shuffled her paws a little. "Ummm, do you think he would take me as a pokemon? I've always wanted to fight in pokemon battles with someone."
"Sure, though he will be a little mad about it." Ember told her.
Snow's face drooped. "Oh, why?" She asked.
"Oh don't be sad, it's just that right now, he and I are the only guys on his team." He told her which got her tail to wag a little.
"Oh, I thought you meant he might not want someone as small as me." She told him.
"Oh no way, he'll take anyone in."
"Well, let's go, I can help lead you to the exit if that's what you want." She said getting up.
Ember stood up next to her. "OK thanks, let's go." He said and they started walking down a different tunnel. They walked in silence for a while.
Snow looked over at Ember. "So, you said something earlier about your mother, what's she like?" She asked.
Ember smiled shyly a little. "Well, let's just say, I grew up knowing she was the boss. Not my dad. Which he is awesome, he was always willing to wrestle and play with me when we were together. My mom said that's how she fell in love with him. He was always playing with little pokemon and never used his power to bully others." Ember told her and remembered all those summer days were his mom and dad would just decide to take him to the pond and they would all laugh and play together when they were there. Then at the end of the day, he would yawn and his dad would pick him up in his mouth and carry him back to the den were they would curl up with each other and sleep dreaming of what they would do the next day.
Ember shook out of his thoughts as he heard Snow saying his name. "Oh sorry, I was daydreaming. So what are your parents like?" He asked.
Snow's face dropped. "My parents are dead." She said as tears started forming in her eyes.
Ember instantly hated himself. "I'm so sorry; I didn't mean to hurt you." He said and nuzzled her.
"Thanks, please don't ask me how it happened, I don't wanna talk about it." She whimpered a little.
"OK I won't. So why were you in this cave?" He asked.
"Well, my friend told me to meet her here so we could hang out. But she never came, then that Houndoom walked over and said it wanted to fuck me. I said no but he wouldn't take "no" for an answer and would've raped me if you hadn't shown up and saved me. Thank you." Snow said and licked Ember's cheek.
Ember blushed a little then noticed an opening in front of them with sunlight coming through. "Finally…sunlight!" He yelled and ran to it with Snow running to keep up.
When he ran out he was almost blinded by the sun's rays but also felt warmer and stronger again. He did not like caves. Snow ran out next to him and sighed happily. "It's good to feel sunlight again." She said happily.
Ember nodded then looked around and didn't see Grady and everyone else. "I guess we beat them out." He muttered and lay down by the cave opening. Snow lay by him and put her head on her paws.
"I'm going to take a small nap while we wait." She told him and closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep soon.
Ember watched her sleep for a while then lay his head down and went to sleep as well. He didn't sense the eyes watching him from the bushes as they backed away and disappeared.
End of Chapter 7
Sorry if it seemed we went through Mt. Moon pretty fast. I just got really excited and wanted to get the end. 7 down, 30 or 40 to go. Haven't decided yet. Just to foreshadow, Snow is going to be a very important character in this story. And we'll be seeing that Houndoom again.
