The Longest Journey

Gem Archipelago

Chapter 9: The Sapphire Caverns

"You need six Pokémon to enter?" Hiiro asked curiously of the blonde girl who was happily nomming on her breakfast; which was a small stack of pancakes covered in sugar.

"Hmhmm!" Amalia chirped, before she swallowed the bite she had in her mouth. "You have to beat all of Io-san's Pokémon to get the badge, so he made it a rule to have 6 Pokémon with you before coming in."

Nodding to that as he took a sip of coffee, and coughing a bit after he gulped it down, the silverhead cleared his throat a bit "So, Hiiro an Kitten will need ta make another side trip, wheres tha nearest batch of wilds usually at?"

"There should be some fields just outside the city to look around," Hiiro said as he took a sip from his drink. "Plus there's a cave a little further down the road with a few Rock and/or Ground types lurking about. It used to be a prime mining spot for sapphires a long time ago. It was exhausted about 20 years ago, though."

"Twenty years huh…"

"Yeah, most of them were eventually used for the Memorial Tower, and the spares were placed along the road, as you saw yesterday," Hiiro said, before taking a bite from his sandwich.

"I see, tha works out a bit then…if kitten ever comes back soon tha is…"

"I suppose… So what are you doing next, Amalia?" Hiiro asked finally.

"I'm heading to Crystal to challenge mom… I'm prolly not gonna win on the first try, though…" Amalia admitted with a small pout.

"Heh, definitely so if Z's even half as good as she used ta be," TJ chuckled, reaching over to ruffle the girls head. "When cha see her, tell 'er ta expect 'the old ninetails' soon."

The small girl blinked curiously, before she nodded. "Kay. If you say so."

"She'll understand don' worry."

Amalia cocked her head, before shaking it off and hopping off of her seat. "Well, I better go. Oh, and you might want to get a good Water type, too. There's no ferry to Crystal Island from here."

"Ah, okay. Thanks for the tip," Hiiro said with a smile.

"Ja ne!" she chirped, hurrying off with a wave.

Waving back, the older adventurer sighed, blowing some steam from his cup before finishing the last of his coffee. "Aachk…smooth."

"You okay?"

"Yeah, coffee's my favorite type so it's a lill hard ta swallow for some."

"If you say so…" Hiiro said with a shrug, finishing off his drink. "…Hmm…"

Looking to the boy questioningly, TJ muttered out "Somethen on cha mind?"

"Just curious about whether the Mewtwo made it…" the boy confessed. "They probably had a lot of little ones with them, after all, so I'm a bit worried it might have been too much of a trip for them."

"Mewtwo's power is devastaten, even when young," the silverhead muttered, looking the window in thought. "I doubt there's much ta worry about for em…"

"Still…"

"Still for me though, Hiiro" TJ added quickly, looking to the boy "is it common ta see Pokémon tha didn't exist tha long ago flourishen for tha past few decades?"

"Huh? I don't… oh, look. Ketlin's back."

"Imma fraid ta look…"

Walking a bit, looking a bit of a mess through the doorway, Ketlin looked up to where her father and traveling companion sat, blowing her bangs from her face, along with a few scraps of leaves and grass from their tip as she walked over "Ugh…food" without much else to say, the girl leaned down, quickly taking a bite of the pancake from Hiiro's fork.

"You alright, Ketlin?"

Sighing, the girl slumped down next to her father looking to the ceiling. "I'm a lot better now"

"Okay…" After a moment of thought, he said: "Oh, um… apparently we need 6 Pokémon for the next Gym."

"Oh you got to be…"

Shaking his head, the girl's father chuckled "Fraid not kitten"

Shrugging his shoulders a bit, Hiiro added: "Well, we can find some outside of the city in the fields. And we can also check the caverns."

"Ami suggested we snag a water type too, no ferries to Crystal after this."

Frowning, the girl sighed rubbing her head. "I should have stayed wild…"

"Huh?"

"Nothing"

The fields outside of the city appeared to be basic enough, with the exception of the occasional blue leafed tree. At certain parts, even the grass was dyed blue. If you paid close attention, you could hear the numerous Pokémon scurrying about in the area, and sometimes you could catch a glimpse of them in the grass.

Further off, the grass suddenly stopped, leading out to the mouth of a cave entrance, the depths a pitch black and not the least bit inviting.

"Good thing I bought a flashlight before coming out here…" Hiiro murmured absently.

"Scared of tha dark, Hiiry?" Ketlin giggled, hopping from a stone to glance around "Hm, guess I could use the help of a water type…where's those corals…"

Shaking his head, the silverhead gave Hiiro's back a pat. "Well cha choices gonna be plenty in there kid, wha cha looken for?"

Humming in thought, Hiiro pulled out his flashlight and tapped it against his cheek. "Well, thus far I have Dark, Normal, Flying, Water, Ground… I guess either Grass of Fire… but I'm not sure if those are around here…"

"Might have a Torcoal in there," Ketlin pointed out, kicking a pebble to bounce against the cave wall.

"Maybe…" Looking to Ketlin, he asked: "You going to look out here, then?"

"Yeah, without Marine I don't have a water type and would balance my team a little bit," the girl shrugged, before glancing a bit to Hiiro, narrowing her eyes. "That, and…"

"Huh…?"

Rearing her arm back, the girl swung, narrowly avoiding hitting Hiiro's cheek, but seemed to gain a 'yelp' from something behind the boy. "These guys are still following me." She sighed, holding the tongue of a purple specter Pokémon, shaped like a spiked triangle with two three pronged clawed hands floating about

"Haauuuuuunt!"

"Wh-wha?"

Yanking the Haunter to look it in the eyes, Ketlin growled out "Leave, me, alone!" before releasing its tongue. Watching the ghost type rub its pink appendage before floating away, fading from visibility.

"Why did…?"

"They can sense her sensitivity," TJ said simply, patting Hiiro's shoulder and nodding to the cave "Come'on, let's go."

"Huh? Oh, right…" Hiiro nodded and followed after.

Once inside the caverns, it became very obvious why Hiiro was glad to have brought a flashlight; because there was no other source of light at all. Cables hung overhead that may have once served to power lamps or other light sources, but they'd been disconnected in the most crude way; by cutting the cable. The place was dark, damp, and it gave off a rather spooky aura.

"So dark and damp…" Hiiro murmured, lightly moving his flashlight and casting its beam of light about them. "Fighting a wild Pokémon in here is going to be difficult…"

"Other Trainers would sometimes use these cases as a tactical advantage," the silverhead said, reaching up to feel a bit along the cables hanging overhead. "It's a good way ta train too, helps cha understand what Pokémon who get blinded go through an helps cha an them overcome it."

"I suppose so… but this can get a bit dangerous…" the boy mumbled. "If I remember correctly, there's several gaps around from the actual excavation days… and they lead out to the sea."

"Hm, shoulda told kitten tha…" TJ sighed rubbing his head as he looked around. "Great…guess I might need ta have Oni out…"

Hiiro blinked a little, but chose not to respond and started moving forward slowly.

To say that it was quiet was the understatement of the year. The only sound in the caverns was their own steps as they moved about slowly.

"Ugh, haven been in a cave this quiet since I was six…" the silverhead sighed out, hissing a bit after bonking his head into a low lamp light as he snarled "Grr…Oni come out…"

With the rustle of TJ's bag, a beam of red light shot out like a chaotic thunderbolt before zipping back for the bags owner, materializing just in time to smack into his face. The Pokémon, small and light purple, near pink, appeared a cross between a scorpion and a flying squirrel, a tongue hanging out loosely from its lips in a cheeky grin. "Gligar!"

"Whuh?"

Growling, the silverhead snatched the Gligar's tail, effectively plucking the combination Pokémon off his face as he sighed "Hiiro, Oni."

Waving its little pincer, the ground flying type gave a snirky little 'gli' in greetings.

"Um… hi?"

"Never seen a Gligar before?"

"Not one that pounces its Trainer like that, no," Hiiro admitted.

"Yeah well he really likes to surprise people by glompen their face, even more than most, tha's why I call em Oni."

Grinning at that, the Gligar snatched onto his Trainer's wrist, freeing his tail and crawling his way up onto his shoulder. "Gligar gli!"

"Ah. I see."

Before TJ or Oni could say anything, though, a massive explosion shook the cave, the rumbling ground sending both Trainers to the ground with yowls of surprise.

"What the?"

"Ugh my tail…" the silverhead hissed out looking around "Tha hell was…"

"I'm not… sure…" Climbing back to his feet, Hiiro seemed to think, before he paled and ducked, just as a flurry of motion rushed by over his head with terrified squeals. "But whatever it was… it definitely has the Zubat spooked."

Keeping his head low enough to avoid the Zubat swarm, the silverhead snatched at Hiiro's shoulder, helping the boy up as Oni climbed to the top of his head "Better have a look though"

"Yeah…"

Moving along the cave's passage, there was very little to see (mostly because it was so dark), but the little they could see was not too pretty. Several stalactites had dropped down from the their perch on the ceiling. Numerous Geodude were scattered around the floor, knocked off from their own perches because of the shock. The only reason they could be seen was because they were groaning and

rubbing their heads with pained expressions on their faces.

"Jeez wha a mess…" The silverhead sighed, slowing down a bit to give a look over the knocked down head like stone types "wonder tha tunnels are still standing"

"No kid-"

KABOOM!

"Ack!"

Steadying himself and the boy, TJ snarled out looking around. "…Systematic…this isn' looken natural someone's blasten down here"

"Yeah… but for what? This place was exhausted from minerals long ago…"

Frowning, TJ began to walk ahead, giving a small whistle, causing Oni to give a confirmation before the ground type began to glide between the still hanging stalactites to look ahead "a few possible reasons come ta mind…"

Hiiro blinked a bit, before moving ahead again. "I'm not sure I want to find the source, but we don't have much choice, do we?"

"If it keeps up all tha Pokémon in here will be seriously hurt"

"Yeah, I figured…

"Gligar gli!"

"Hm?"

"He's found somethen," TJ said simply, moving a bit quicker towards where Oni had flown off

"Wait for me!" Hiiro called out, hurrying after.

"Da hell's wrong wit you idiots!" shouted a pissed off man to the masked people that were now huddling in fright at his screamed words. "Ya tryin' ta get us all killed before we get dat damn orb? Wha if ya blew up the damn ting with ya damn bombs!"

"B-but s-sir… it was y-your…"

"Shaddap and git back ta work! We need dat damn orb!" the man roared, causing the men to yowl and rush back to their spots.

Crouching low besides some stones and stalagmites, TJ moved his arm up, catching Oni as the Ground/Flying type landed back on it to scuttle onto his shoulder. "These guys…?"

Hiiro looked out from behind the rocks as well and frowned. "Team Aether… what are they doing here?"

Oni gave a growl, tucking his tongue away as he glared to the masked men. "Gligar gli gar gli…"

"Orb?" TJ blinked out, looking to his Pokémon curiously. "Wha kinda orb?"

"Orb?"

"Gligar," was the purple Pokémon's response, shrugging his shoulder wings simply.

The admin that was commanding the squad of Team Aether goons was almost twice as bulky as the admin they had seen in Amethyst. His coat had a fur-lined collar and the mask on his face covered half of his face, and a scytheblade jutted from the side similar to the one on an Absol's head. His shoulder length hair was a dark color, though the exact color was hard to determine in the darkness of the cave.

"Grrr… Bossman's gonna skin our hides if we mess dis up…" the man grumbled, clenching a fist briefly - right before punching sideways, drilling his arm elbow-deep into the wall with the force of the punch.

"Erk!" Hiiro choked out.

Holding Hiiro's shoulder to calm him, the silverhead grumbled as he frowned out "Guy's as strong as an old friend of mine from tha elite four back in Kanto…ugh least their steadyen off tha bombs for now…"

"What do we…?"

But before Hiiro could finish…

"SABLE! SABLEYE!" came a shout from behind them.

"Gah!"

The admin's head snapped up before he whipped around toward the sound. "Who's dere!"

"…slag…" the silverhead growled out lowly, frowning in thought as he tried to think of something quick.

But before he could, a sudden force slammed into his and Hiiro's back, sending them skidding forward with surprised cries, even as the Pokémon responsible for that dashed to stand beside the admin, grinning at them evilly, its gem-like eyes glittering; a Sableye.

"Uugh, sneaken little…" TJ hissed out, picking up Oni and helping Hiiro to his own feet again as he pulled his own self back up. "Wha's tha big idea of blowen a part tha inside of these caves?"

The admin took his time to answer, seeming to measure up the duo for a moment, before a grin just as menacing as the Sableye's nearly split his face in half. "I dun tink I hafta ansa dat. In fact, I tink you're da ones who should be explainin' why ya here. We got permission ta excavate here, after all."

"Excavate? But there's nothing here!" Hiiro cried out. "This place has been emptied out years ago!"

"Uh-huh, sure sure," the admin yawned out.

Clearly, he was quickly losing interest in them.

"I doubt cha'd have much permission if the ones who 'gave' it too cha knew cha are seriously hurten tha Pokémon around here…"

"Ah shaddap, ya old man," the admin quipped with a wave of his hand. "Why don' ya jus' get goin' before ya hurt yaself tumblin' over rocks?"

"Old…man," the silverhead snarled out for a moment, his eyebrow twitching before he scuffed a bit with a grin, shrugging his shoulders dismissively to the admin. "Well, if I'm tha old man, guess tha makes cha tha two bit third rate gangster punk wannabe huh punky? Oh, wait guess tha means cha warning me about trippen over tha stones in cha skull then thanks for tha warnen"

"…You tink ya funny?" the admin growled out slowly, before his grin returned. "Well den… why dun we settle dis right now an' be done wit it?"

"Erk! TJ… maybe we should just-"

"Sure thing," the silverhead frowned out, putting his bag down as he gave Oni a nod, the Ground/Flying type hopping off easily "Been a while since I've been a teacher, I'll try to school cha in manors, but cha'll probably have more F's then a stutteren Fearow"

"TJ, no!" Hiiro hissed out, trying to pull the older Trainer back. "We should-"

"Hiiro…" TJ said quietly, his eyes locking with the admin sternly as he spoke "They're gonna hurt tha Pokémon in here, I can' leave with them in danger…"

"But…"

"Finished?" the admin chuckled out icily.

The admin's Sableye chuckled as well, skittering forward with its own grin seeming to radiate pure white in the darkness.

"Hiiro, cha never asked wha "jack-mac" meant," TJ said simply, nodding as Oni took flight landing in front of the grinning Dark and Ghost type with a snarl. "Let's rock, pebblebrains."

"Heehehehehehehehehe!" the admin laughed out, which, apparently, was more than enough for the Sableye as it rushed forward before the Gligar could respond, smashing its paws into the side of Oni's head.

"Gli!" The ground/flying type yelped out, stumbling a bit as its body twitched from the aftereffects of the attack "gaarrr"

Sableye chortled as Oni stumbled like that, grinning evilly.

"Jee I'm impressed tha two bits Pokémon can use moves that aren its default elements. Oni, kick up tha beat."

Shaking out of the flinching effects, Oni kicked off the ground, spiraling through the air sharply as he passed the Sableye, snagging its neck with his tail as he flipped, knocking the Dark/Ghost type into the floor below head first. "GLI!"

However, the Sableye merely yanked its head back up, smacking its own head to recover from getting his head 'flattened', looking back up to the Gligar. The grin that appeared on its face seemed almost creepier than usual as a light blue energy began to form around its fist, along with steam. But Oni wasn't given the chance to respond as Sableye leaped forward and smashed its fist forward, the Ice energy surrounding it rushing outward toward the Ground/Flying type.

"Tunnel!"

Just as the attack was in reach, Oni's claw smashed into the ground kicking up dirt and rock, as it cleared the only thing in the Ice punch's effect range was bits of stone an rubble, frozen besides a hole along the ground.

"Pff… please. You tink tha'll help?"

Sableye looked at the hole for a moment, before leaping down after Oni.

The silverhead crossed his arms, giving a few light whistles under his breath, watching as Oni began to burst out of the ground, up into the ceiling with the Sableye gaining on its stinger, before repeating the process by smashing back into the ground.

Hiiro bit his lip as he watched the two Pokémon go back and forth.

"GLI!" the ground/flying type shouted as it was knocked up out of the earth again, the Sableye finally catching up to the other duel type in its last dive as he stumble along the ground to shake it off. "Garrr!"

Growling a bit himself, the silverhead tightened his grip on his arm frowning. "Dammit…"

Sableye screeched as it smashed down on Oni's back, keeping the other Pokémon grounded, cackling ominously while using its claw to shove Oni's head into the ground.

"Figures cha Pokémon is as savage a brute as cha, so much for cha guys being all about being peaceful," TJ snarled out, sighing as he shut his eyes "Oni…?"

Growling himself, the Gligar managed to move his head enough to look over to his Trainer snarling. "Gl-gligar…gli…gar gli…"

"…guess well haveta make this count then" TJ growled out "Poison sting."

Hearing that, the ground types tail whipped up for Sableye's back quickly as it glowed venomously.

However, Sableye saw it coming and jumped out of the way, spinning in midair and clinging to the wall, cackling.

Smirking at that, the Ground/Flying type rushed to the air again, quickly circling around

"Guillotine max power!"

Crossing his claws, Oni came rushing down for Sableye as energy began to bulk up the flying dual type's pincers. "GLIIIIII!"

"Oh really? Let's up the Gravity, shall we?" the admin laughed out.

As soon as he said that, Sableye's eyes glowed and Oni was sent back down to the ground.

With a massive impact, the Ground/Flying type smashed into a bit of the ground creating a crater, as the ghost dark type looked with its eyes, it saw Oni look up as he struggled under the impact, but gave a grin as it said in a singsong tone "Gaarrr", with a cheeky grin, which the other Pokémon understood as 'thanks'.

Before the Sableye could react, a lasso wrapped around the fallen duel type, whipping Oni quickly back to his trainers shoulders as the silverhead waved along to the admin and his people pulling Hiiro along. "Nice meeten cha guys we should have another lesson after this"

"E-eh?" Hiiro managed to get out in surprise.

"'EY! GIT BACK HERE!" the admin bellowed out, before snarling as the duo disappeared from sight. "Why those lil-"

"Lord Eclipse! W-we found it!" one of the grunts suddenly shouted, making the admin blink, before whipping around in surprise.

"Say wha!"

As they got out of sight, the silverhead's voice echoed behind him as the cave walls about Team Aether began to crack and rumble "SHONEN LESSON FOR TADAY, HOW THOSE POKEMON FELT WITH THEIR CAVE FALLEN ON THEIR HEADS!"

Eclipse blinked, before he choked. "Uh-oh…"

As if waiting for those words, the ground and ceiling all about the blasting site began to fall apart right around Eclipse and his men, the first batch of rocks sealing off the way the silverhead and boy went off.

"D-don't do that… so suddenly…" Hiiro panted, sitting on his knees with a hand to his chest to try and still the rapidly beating organ.

"Sorry Hiiro, Oni didn have enough time to make tha weakenen tunnels a bit more safely for us," the silverhead shrugged out, rubbing at the boy's back to help him steady his breathing and heart again.

"You could've warned me!" Hiiro exclaimed, a tad angry at the whole situation.

"I couldn' without warning them Hiiro, Oni understood me cause we have better history I couldn tip cha off without tippen them."

Hiiro remained silent as he managed to recover, getting back to his feet shakily. "Ugh… now what, though?"

"We look around again" TJ said simply, rubbing Oni's head on his shoulder as he muttered "I wanna give a checkup on tha Pokémon in tha cave, tha cave in we made shook tha place up only a lill out of tha cave in range, but tha earlier blasts woulda had a few hurt specially none Rock types."

"…Yeah, guess so…"

"Agh! Bright!" Hiiro hissed, pulling down his cap to protect his eyes from the glaring rays of the sun.

"Yeah, it happens" The silverhead chuckled squining a bit, a little thankfull Oni was on his head using his wings to sheild him, an invertedly his trainers eyes from the rays as the older adventurer added the last bandage to a young zubats leg "There cha go, try sleepen on cha stomach for a while on a tree till it heals" He chuckled, tossing the nocturnal pokemon to the air to fly away

Sighing a bit, Hiiro moved his cap up again once he had gotten used to the light. "…What were they looking for in there?"

"My guess a relic of some kind, orbs are rarely natrual forming an even so with all the gear they were usen an manpower its unlikely it was anythen for jus monetary value alone…"

"Hmm…"

"FIREEEE!"

"Huh?"

As Hiiro turned to look, the boy came to get hit face first by a blast of water. As he stuttered from the blast, he could hear Ketlin's voice giggling as he got a view of her holding something in her arms. "Heheh bull's-eye!"

Hiiro blinked a few times, water dripping from his bangs and cap, before smiling and pulling out his Dex for a moment, aiming it at the Pokémon Ketlin was holding.

"Corsola, the Coral Pokémon. Corsola's branches glitter very beautifully in seven colors when they catch sunlight. If a branch breaks off this Pokémon grows it back in just one night. They live in clutters within crisp clean ocean waters as they are unable to live in polluted water."

"So you found one, huh?" he asked with a small chuckle.

Ketlin giggled a little, snuggling the rather small pink Pokémon in her grasp as she blinked to her father and travel companion. "Wow looks like the cave fell on you both, you're so dirty"

"Kinda did kitten,"

"Yeah…"

"Huh? What the heck happen you make another Voltorb angry?"

Growling at that, the silverhead barked "Ey tha wasn my fault tha time kitten sides somethen else did it this time"

"Aether happened…"

Blinking at that, Ketlin growled out a bit, the little Corsola whining a bit before she settled her grip again. "What happened?"

Seeming to think, Hiiro looked over to TJ. "Can you explain? I'm still a little confused on the matter…"

"They were searchen for somethen they figured valuable, an they obviously didn care much if anythen happened to the Pokémon tha inhabit tha caverns…" The silverhead frowned out, crossing his arms a bit "Probably found it too…"

Glaring at that, the girl hissed out a bit, looking to the cave as she growled "Next time, I'm stampen them…"

The silverhead said nothing, before nodding. "Jus make sure ta henshin first."

"Gladly."

A sudden rumble echoed through the earth, before several dozen bursts of light shot out from behind the cave, shooting off into the sky before disappearing. Whatever they had been, it didn't really take a genius to figure out who was responsible for it.

"…What were those?"

"Some kinda air bike devices it looked like…" TJ grumbled out, sighing as he crossed his arms. "Tha jus confirms they weren looken for anythen worth money…"

"Dangit, papa you should have gone real jack-mac on them an whooped them to the hospital!"

"Ketlin… the 'leader' there was strong enough to bury his arm up to the elbow into the cave's wall," Hiiro said with a sigh. "You really think we could've stood up against someone like that?"

The girl looked to Hiiro blankly for a moment, before quickly putting her newest Pokémon in his arms with a 'hold her', before walking off a bit.

"…?"

After a bit, the girl turned about, crouching down as she seem to focus, before rushing top speed right for the boy, before she had much distance between them, she kicked off the ground, tuck and rolled through the air before kicking out, smashing her foot into a large stone beside the boy before landing from the kick, turning, she took a posture as she muttered out "Ride Kick". Without a second glance, Ketlin plucked her Pokémon, walking off calmly to leave the boy to blink in wonder, before he was answered as the stone cracked right at the center where Ketlin's foot landed. "That's all I gotta say on thats"

Hiiro silently watched her go for a moment, before sighing softly. "I still doubt that would've helped any…" he mumbled, before adjusting his cap again. "What am I gonna do about my sixth Pokémon, though?"

"We can try around tha forest still if cha want, maybe do some more fishen might find someone part electric type if cha lucky," TJ shrugged out, patting the boys shoulder "common lets rest for now though, we have plenty of time."

"That, or you can go a little past eh east side of the cave," came a familiar voice, making the duo look over. Rachel merely stood leaning against the side of the cave, arms crossed over her chest and one foot placed against the wall.

"…You show up everywhere, don't you?" Hiiro quipped.

"…Coincidence," was all he got in reply.

"Only coincidence is on a Meowth's head," The silverhead said with a small frown.

"…Think what you want," Rachel said simply, before pushing off from the cave wall and moving away from them.

Frowning some more at her response, the older adventurer called out "Ey where cha go…ing? Hiiro where tha heck are 'cha' goen?" TJ muttered out a bit surprised, watching as the boy began to follow the girl without notice.

"I'm just going to see what Pokémon are over there. Is that a problem?" Hiiro asked in return.

"Well no jus worried cause we did kinda have a tasken time jus now…"

"I won't be long. You can head on back to the Center and I'll meet you two there later, okay?" the boy quipped, waving briefly before he hurried after Rachel.

Frowning a little, the silverhead chuckled before shaking it off with a wave "Alright jus take it easy, see cha at tha center then."

Eclipse is copyrighted to Red "Sinder" Chaos Mage.