"Come on Titus, there's nothing we can do now." Brandon told him as he passed by. Titus didn't move, and a single teardrop hit the ground, right where Brandon planted the seed. A single sprout came up from the ground and stayed there. Titus looked up at the rubble, and walked away.
...
…
…
"So, what's your story about what happened in the cave?" The policeman asked me for the fifth time.
"I already told you and all the other people who asked! I'm tired of people who are deaf asking me things they already know! Magma was using the cave as a base, and when we fought them, it collapsed!
"Yes, you have said that, many times. But we need your eye witness account of what happened. A, play-by-play, if you will. Once we get that, we will let you go."
"Fine, but I want something done after this. I want Magma to be fought by everyone. They killed pokemon down there for no reason!"
"No, they deserved everything they got down there."
"What did you just say?"
"You heard me. Hell, if Ruby hadn't contacted us, you, and all your little 'friends' would be in prison. You Pokémon would have been shot, and you would never see daylight ever again."
"Your one of those anti-Pokémon assholes I keep meeting. You bastards are the reason why the Legendaries keep killing us! If it wasn't for you, Humans wouldn't be nearly extinct here!"
"Hey, all we did is crush their souls, use them as slaves, and lynch them without anything against them! Why they attack us, they're just animals!"
I stood up and slammed my hand on the table. "YOU WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT! THEY ATTACK YOU BECAUSE YOU KILLED THEM FIRST! AND YOU SAY YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHY?! IF I WASN'T IN HANDCUFFS, I'D KILL YOU MYSELF!"
"Listen here you little stain! If it wasn't for us, you wouldn't even have your 'precious Pokémon'. So you should shut the hell up, otherwise you won't be walking out of this room. Now, tell me what happened in the cave."
"Fine, but after this, your damn head is going on the wall. We had just entered the cave…"
…
…
…
"Jesus, it's dark in here." I muttered to myself.
"Yeah, you can say that again. Wish we brought a flashlight, huh?" Zack replied, somewhere over to my left.
"I second that." Brandon muttered from my head.
"Speak for yourself; I got myself some 'night' vision over here." Night's raspy chuckle came from ahead.
"Night, your puns are bad and you should feel bad." Xavier said from behind.
"Yes, yes they are." I agreed.
We kept walking further and further into the cave, with no light source of any kind. It was darker than an Umbreon without his stripes in the middle of night, in the shadows. The only thing that I could find was the wall, and we all kept it to our lefts.
"Oof! What the, hey, Jack, come over here!" Xavier called from afar.
"What did you find?"
"I found a ladder going down into the cave. And I see something down there. Looks like a light or something!"
"Finally. Everyone, follow Xavier's voice!"
After a few minutes of bumping around and running into each other, we found the ladder going down.
"Wow, how deep is it?"
I kicked down a rock into the hole. Seconds passed by, minutes passed by, then we heard it hit.
"It's a long way down. Everyone, go down, biggest first, smallest last. Ele, you're going in your ball. Sorry, but you don't exactly have arms yet."
We all started to climb down the ladder and, it took a hell of a long time to do it. I was starting to thing there wasn't an exit. Then the rung that my foot was on snapped in two like a twig. I fell down a long way, screaming my head off, trying to numb the cut on my leg that hurt like a bitch. Then I hit the ground. I got real lucky. The bottom was designed to drop into, so I was fine, save for the gash on my leg.
"Jack, are you ok!?" I heard Zack yell from above.
"Yeah, I'm fine. There's a ten-foot pile of foam down here, so you guys can jump!"
"Alright, coming down!"
I jumped of the mat, and waited for the screams. And there they were, slowly getting louder and louder, then thud! Zack, Xav, Brandon, and Ele hit the ground. Night just flew down like a bitch.
"Jesus Christ, what the hell happened to your leg, man?" Zack asked me, smile on his face.
"Ladder cut me as I fell. Got any bandages?"
"Yeah, here." He opened his pack, and tossed me some gin and a roll of bandages.
"Man, am I ever glad that you have a backpack with anything we need."
"Yeah, everything except a portal home and some flash lights."
"Yeah, that would be nice."
"Uh, guys, you may want to come see this."
"What did you this time, Xavier?"
"Just come see this."
I hobbled over to where Xavier was, and he was looking trough a small cut in the stone.
"What do I need to see now?"
"Look through this." He motioned to the hole.
I looked through the hole and my eyes shot open like dinner plates.
It was a massive factory, all completely underground. It was the size of Oldale Town, but just under five hundred feet of earth. There was an insignia on the side of one of the buildings. It was a red 'M' with markings inside of it. I never saw it before, but something told me it wasn't good.
"Zack!" I yelled. "Any chance you have some binoculars in that bag?"
"Here you go man."
"You know, you take to much stuff."
"I like to think that I would rather have something I don't need, rather than need something I don't have."
"Yeah, yeah, shut up and let me focus."
I looked through the binoculars and saw lines of people with crates filled with Pokémon, loading them onto a truck, and truck driving into the factory. Every so often, one of the Pokémon would try and escape, only to have multiple guards run after it and stun it. I almost threw up.
"Jesus, is it that bad?" Zack asked me.
"It's worse than the new Robocop."
"Shit. What's going on down there?"
"A bunch of people are carrying Pokémon around in cages and carting them off to some sort of a factory. I can't see any farther than that, but whatever this is, it cannot be good."
"What do you think we should do?" Brandon asked.
I reached into my sweatshirt pocket and put on a pair of jet black sunglasses. "We figure out what the hell this is, and we stop it."
"But we could get killed." Night reasoned.
"Well, that is something we may have to risk. It is our lives for hundreds, perhaps thousands, of others. Now, are you going the join me, or stay here and pretend none of this affected you?" I shouted.
Every except Zack toke a step forward, although some were hesitant.
"Zack, will you join me, to hell and back?" I extended my hand towards him. He looked up and took it.
"To the depths of hell and to the height of the heavens. I will stand by your side, Jack." I smiled at that.
"Look, no need to get all heroic on me. But we need to get into the factory, so does anyone have an idea?
"Uh, one problem that I can with all of this." Brandon whispered.
"And what would that be?" I replied.
"How are all of us, *points to everyone* going to fit in that hole?" *points to the small crack in the wall.*
I raised my finger to respond, but had no idea what I would say. "Huh, good point. I got it! We go down the rest of the cavern, and hopefully find a way into the factory."
"Really? That's your best plan. Walk around and find an entrance?" Zack questioned.
"Oh, sorry. Does anyone have a better idea to sneak into the factory? Anyone, no? Then shut up and let's go ahead and look around." I barked to all of them.
We continued down the dark, dripping cavern. Brandon and Xavier on my shoulder, and Night on my head. Zack was holding Ele in his arms, and placed her pokeball in his jacket pocket. We continued down the hallway, the occasional drip of water hitting us, and whenever it hit Ele, a little sizzling sound resonated around the cave. Eventually a slight glow shined at the turn ahead. I turned around at Zack and did the quiet motion, and recalled my Pokémon. He did the same.
"Zack, stay quiet, not a sound. I have a feeling that we might not be alone." We crouched and slowly walked forward. There were two guards walking around. Both had 2 pokeballs on their belts, and one of them had a strange orange and green ball. The two were talking about something, but neither of us could understand what they were saying. I looked at Zack and held out Brandon's pokeball, ready to engage. Zack eyes slightly grew, and he nodded. We both stood up and charged the two. They turned around and looked us in the eye.
"Hey, what are you to kids doing down here? This is a dangerous place. This place had been sealed off due to the mining operations down in this section." The one with the strange ball yelled at us.
"Really, I thought this section was open 24/7 to the public. Why is this area different to that?" I asked.
"None of your business, shithead! This place was supposed to be sealed off for our mining operation!" The other guy yelled. "Now, get the fuck outta here!"
The one with the strange ball glared at him. "Now, now, let's not be mean here." He turned back over to us. "I'll tell you two kids something. If you can beat myself and my compatriot here, you can continue down the tunnel and continue exploring. If you lose, give us your Pokémon and leave this place."
"What? What if we refuse to give you our Pokémon if we lose?!" I exclaimed in shock.
He smiled, sinisterly. "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. Now, do you wish to battle, or run?"
Zack took a step forward and brought out Ele's pokeball. I smiled, and brought out Xavier's ball and was ready to throw. "We accept your offer, and let's battle!" I shouted, nervous at my first tag-team battle, but excited all the same.
All in unison, all four of us shouted "Let's fight!"
And that's that! Chapter 9 is completed, only another something number to go! It took me about 3 friggin' weeks to write this, school is bending me over and kicking my ass with work. It really is true about sophomore year; It is hell with hot sauce. So, I must say goodbye, farewell, aloha, au revoir! And see ya later!
