Nice long chapter for all my readers! :) sorry it took so long. Hope you enjoy! Please read and comment!
A scyther's reaction time wouldn't have been fast enough to put out that spark after we realized its purpose.
"Dive!" Erik yelled, and all four of the dodrio dove to the left, just in time. The blast was earth shattering: literally.
BOOM! The walls of the cave shook and the floor literally caved. So did the ceiling. Rocks seemed to come from nowhere as they fell around us, sealing us in a stone tomb.
The blast had thrown me from my dodrio into the wall of the cave. Cali landed beside me; dazed, but alive. Rocks began to fall all around us, sealing us in. I had no idea where Erik, Jamie, or the dodrio had gone. I just held Cali tight and cried as the world collapsed around us.
Then, after what seemed like an eternity, there was silence.
I tried carefully to stand, but my head hit something when I reached a squat. I stuck my arms out in front of me and took a step forward. Then another. Then one more, and my hands touched something rough. We were in a space about the size of a jail cell; but shorter. I turned and felt my way back, striking tears from my cheeks as I went.
"Cali," I whimpered. "Are you okay?"
I heard a sniffle, then "Yeah, I'm fine. Just terrified."
"That makes two of us." My foot hit something soft, and I sat on the ground next to my best friend again. "Do you have your bag?"
"Yeah, you?"
I felt my shoulders and found the straps. "Yeah. At least our pokemon are okay." I closed my eyes, but I might as well have kept them open. There was no difference in the inky blackness. Then I had an idea.
"Cali, call Flare out. We could use the light on her tail right now." I felt her nodding beside me, and then some shifting as she fiddled through her bag. Then a light flashed and a bright flame appeared in front of us.
"Charma… Char?" Flare hesitated in mid-sentence as she processed the scene. Once my eyes adjusted to the new light, I could see how hopeless our situation was.
There was absolutely no way out. The rocks formed solid walls around us on all sides. There was just enough room for both of us to lay stretched out. Neither of us could stand up all the way. I stifled a sob. Cali wasn't so calm.
"Allora! Al, we're gonna die!" she wailed. I hugged her close and closed my eyes.
"Don't freak out. We need to stay positive, and think," I said, but I felt as if I was trying to convince myself more than her.
"There's… there's no… way out!" she cried between sobs. I looked around our cell. The situation really looked hopeless. Flare walked over to Cali and sat in her lap, snuggling into her chest. Cali's sobs slowed, but didn't stop.
I could feel the tears welling up in my eyes and I blinked them away. If I lost it, Cali would be absolutely gone. I looked for hope; I looked hard.
"Jamie and Erik could still be out there, they could be okay…" I trailed off. There were voices coming from outside!
"Do you hear that Cali?" I asked. I felt her stiffen and sit up.
"Here! We're here! We're- mmph! Mmph?" I clamped my hand over her mouth and listened harder. That was definitely not Erik or Jamie. It was a man with a deep voice and a woman.
"Listen!" I hissed, and we both fell silent.
"That should have done it. Now let's cart these rocks out to the lab, we don't want the boss getting annoyed," the female voice said.
"Yeah. What does she need these for again?" said the male.
"Something about rare candies. I didn't understand what for but hey. I wasn't going to backtalk her. You know how she gets."
"Yeah. You saw what happened to Caleb right? Before he got two words out BAM! That machoke hit him so hard he didn't know what… Hey Kristen. Over here. See that light?" Shit.
"What light?" the female voice asked.
"Get your zubat to turn its flashlight off for a sec and come look at this." Cali and I exchanged panicked glances and I motioned to the pokeball. There was a flash of red and then darkness again. Well, almost. In the bottom left hand corner of the cell there was a tiny crack. For a second we saw a white light but then it was off.
"What light are you talking about Drew?" the woman asked again, obviously annoyed.
"I swear to Arceus, under these rocks, I just saw a glow, then a flash, then nothing!" the man said, obviously bewildered.
"Well I didn't see- oof!" There was a thud and then a muffle, like a body crumpling to the ground. Cali and I sat in stony silence.
"Kristen? Uh, Kristen? Zubat, use flash!" The light erupted from the corner again. "What the?"
"Onix, use constrict!" yelled a familiar voice. Erik.
"What? No!" Outside of our tomb we heard the sounds of a struggle.
"Onix! On… ix!" a pokemon roared.
"Zubat!" another pokemon cried. There was another small thud. Then a sound like the earth itself moving.
"Please… let, me go!" the man gasped.
"Where did you see that light?" Silence. "I said where scumbag!" Jamie. Interrogating just like a cop. His mom would be proud.
Silence again, then: "Onix, use dig! Get those rocks out of the way!" Seconds later, the rocks in the front of our tomb were cast aside, and I was blinking from the dazzling light coming from Zap. A giant rocky snake was coiled in front of us, and just behind it, I saw a man running away.
"Don't let them escape!" I yelled. I saw two dodrio leap for the man, Drew. But before they could reach him:
"Koffing, use smokescreen!" he yelled shrilly, clearly terrified. Then the cave was once again pitch black, but this time it smelled awful. Not even the light from Zap penetrated this new darkness.
"Go, Vuela! Use gust!" Jamie saved the day.
"Pidgey!" trilled a pokemon, then once again the cave was lit.
But the two were gone.
"Arceus!" Erik cursed. He pounded his fist on a rock, and the air seemed to vibrate with his anger. But suddenly, he relaxed. "Lowly grunts, not who I'm after," he muttered. His sudden outburst was so unlike him, it scared me.
He turned and approached me. "Al… are you okay?" There was genuine concern in his voice. His face was very close to mine, and I blushed.
"Yeah… I'm fine. It's Cali who you should be comforting…" As I said the words, I turned to her, then quickly wished I hadn't.
Jamie and Cali were kissing passionately against a rock. I guess it really takes a near death experience to bring people together. I rolled my eyes and looked back at Erik. He was staring, confused, at Cali and Jamie.
"What are they doing?" he asked. I laughed.
"Obviously expressing their feelings." He still looked confused. "Most people kiss in normal settings, but I guess stress does that to people." I watched Erik closely. He looked on for a few more seconds, then shook his head, clearing his mind of some thought I guess.
I coughed, loudly. "Um, guys." No response. "GUYS!" They finally broke apart, grinning stupidly at each other. "I don't know about you two, but I wanna get the HELL out of this cave."
"Yes!" Cali ran up to me and gave me a huge hug. "Let's get out of here."
We resumed our formation and prepared to leave when I had a thought. I grabbed one of the pieces of rock that was in some of the wheelbarrows around the blast zone. It had some sort of blue glisten on its underside, where the blast had broken it from the cave wall. After I picked it up, I noticed something strange about the rock beneath it. This second rock was amber in color, and glistened brightly, even in the dim lighting.
I grabbed that one too, and we headed out.
"Air! Fresh air! Freedom!" Cali screamed as she rode her dodrio out of the cave. She jumped off and dropped to the grass, kissing it and looking at the setting sun.
"We made good time, even with our… roadblock," Erik observed. We three dismounted the dodrio and Erik collected them again.
"Pewter is over that hill." Jamie pointed over to our right. "It's only a few miles from here. We can make it by dark even if we walk. We can rest at the pokemon center for the night."
I nodded and stretched my arms out over my head. The air was colder than by Viridian; Pewter is much further north. I managed to calm Cali down enough for us to get on our way, and we headed over the hill.
After we reached the top, an amazing sight was laid out before us. The city of Pewter was shone out beneath us, sparkling in the dim light of the receding sun.
"Look! Over there!" Cali pointed across my body to the left, at the museum. Pewter is famous for its pioneering research in extracting pokemon from fossils. Its museum/laboratory is by far the most advanced in the five regions. It shone brightly with spotlights, and I could clearly make out the gigantic statues of kabuto and omanyte in the courtyard; the first two pokemon ever extracted from fossils.
We headed straight into the heart of the city, towards the crimson roof of the pokemon center. It was almost nine when we staggered through the revolving doors and into a booth. We ordered and devoured our fair shares of a pokemon center buffet.
It was nearly eleven before we crashed into our rented rooms. I brushed my teeth and flopped down in bed next to Cali. I was asleep before my head hit the pillow.
"She has not yet proven herself worthy to us," said a deep male voice. It rang with sadness and echoed in the silence.
"The two must become stronger and earn our trust," said another, a woman. The voice seemed to be warm and glowing. "Only then will the connection be complete, and our plans become reality."
"Knowing is not enough. Do not make yourself known."
"We misread the signs. It is up to us, and to time. Hopefully their flaws will subside."
"Only they two can stop him. They can find it. I've seen it."
Suddenly, a third, seemingly familiar voice spoke. "As you command it, your majesties."
I woke, head fuzzy and misty. Another weird dream? I shook my head to clear it of the mystical, sad voices, and rolled out of bed to get dressed.
We headed out of the pokemon center, refreshed and energized. "So, what do we want to do now?" Cali asked. Everyone turned expectantly to me.
I stared back, confused. "What?"
"Well duh!" Cali threw her hands up in the air. "Don't you wanna challenge the gym today?" Oh. Right.
Pewter City Gym. Rock types. The late gym leader Brock had given up the gym to his son recently and gone into retirement, and the new guy was supposed to be tough. His name was Itone, and he learned a lot from his dad.
"I guess so, but can't we do that later? I want to walk around the city first," I whined. There had been too much excitement for me the day before; I just wanted to relax. Cali mumbled some kind of agreement. Jamie and Erik looked at each other and grinned, speaking in silent guy-talk. Arceus.
We ended up taking a tour of the museum. Boy am I glad we did. I would never have met a dear friend of mine if we hadn't.
We took the five-buck tour and followed closely behind our over-enthusiastic guide as he talked about the various fossils, and the pokemon that can be extracted from each, for a fee of course.
"Now, because trainers have been finding fossils more and more often, and extracting is a much more exact science than twenty years ago, you can get your fossils converted for a fee of only fifty dollars! Unless…" he paused for effect. "It is THIS fossil." He gestured over to another glass case. I glanced at it for a second, looked back at Cali, then did a double take. Is that…
The fossil in the case was an amber colored stone. It glistened in the artificial light of the museum, and captured the eye of everyone who passed by. Especially mine. I swallowed, my mouth dry.
"Sir?" I raised my hand.
"Yes darling!" Our guide said way too enthusiastically. I was probably the first person to ever ask a question while on a tour. And probably the last.
"How much would it cost to get that fossil extracted?" I gestured towards the case.
"Well! I'm glad you asked. You see…" he started talking.
"Why did you have to-" Cali whisper-groaned. I shushed her harshly and listened to what the guide said.
"… fossil of aerodactyl, an exceptional pokemon indeed! Very few aerodactyl fossils have been brought to the museum, so we would actually extract the pokemon for one free of charge! The opportunity to study the genetic makeup of such a fossil would be payment in itself for any aspiring scientist! Now moving on, in this next case..."
Oh my.
I gave Cali a look, and her jaw dropped. "No you don't"
"I think I do."
"How the eff did you, Al?"
"The cave, during the collapse… I…"
"What are you guys whispering about?" Jamie butted in-between us. "Well?"
Cali rolled her eyes. "Don't worry Jamie, you'll find out soon enough."
I glanced at Erik. He grinned knowingly and shook his head, rolling his eyes to the ceiling.
"Oh my. Oh my goodness! Wow! This is quite astonishing! I believe you have yourself an Old Amber Fossil! This is quite the specimen!"
After the tour, I pulled our guide aside and showed him the rock that I had snagged from Diglett's Cave. He about had a heart attack, and immediately took us to an elevator, where we were whisked almost two miles straight down into a fantastic underground laboratory.
We stood now in a pearly white office with four old scientists oogling over my rock. Erik looked uninterested, as usual, but Jamie and Cali were standing with their mouths open, looking at the stone.
"So… you're saying you can create a pokemon from the DNA in the amber?" I asked hesitantly.
"Oh! Young lady, I am so sorry for our curiosity. We haven't even introduced ourselves. I'm Herb," said the youngest looking of the scientists. He had black, nearly graying hair, and wore a white labcoat.
The others introduced themselves in turn, then allowed Herb to explain. "Your specimen is so perfect, we could extract a couple aerodactyl from here!" Herb grinned triumphantly, his bushy mustache bouncing up with his cheekbones. "Why, possibly even of separate genders!"
"Um, sir, if you don't mind me asking, what is the specimen of, exactly?" Jamie, always curious about science.
"Oh! Why, young fellow, that is very simple. This, my good friends, happens to be a very potent sample of fossilized aerodactyl urine!" The four scientists nodded their heads and burst into conversation again. Cali, Jamie, and I stared at each other for a few moments, speechless, until Jamie started cracking up.
"HAHA so you're telling me that Al was carrying around fossilized dinosaur piss in her bag? Mew that is hysterical hahahaha!" If it would have been socially acceptable, he would have been rolling on the floor.
I rolled my eyes and asked another question. "So, the tour guide said the extraction would be free… is that true?"
"Of course dear!" Herb said ecstatic. "This sample is so perfect that it would be payment in itself just to extract the ancient pokemon from within! It is so large that you have to wonder if more than one set of DNA could be encased!"
"Excellent!"
"Wonderful!"
"Amazing!"
"So, how long does extraction take?" I asked. Suddenly I was eager to receive my new pokemon; a rare extinct dinosaur!
"Well, you youngsters could actually stay in my office for the entire process! It shouldn't take more than an hour; and that's only because I want our top scientists examining the fossil to determine if there is more than one set of DNA!" Herb opened the door and gestured for the other three scientists to leave. One of them put on a pair of rubber gloves and gingerly picked up the stone. The three carefully and eagerly headed over to a strange looking machine in the lab and started work. Herb closed the door to his office again and sat down at his desk.
"Now, if you don't mind me asking, do you mind reciting the tale as to how you came upon such a stone?"
So Jamie and I recited the story of our trip through Diglett's Cave, with occasional interjections from Cali and Erik. Jamie told of how Erik's Onix dug through their rocky tomb and freed them, and how they overheard the Rocket's talking about the dim glow coming from the avalanche. Erik had used his Onix to knock out the woman, and constrict the man until he revealed the location of the glow.
I talked about what I had heard the two talking about, when I remembered the other rock I had taken from the site. After we finished the story, I produced the stone. "And I picked this rock up, and the fossil was underneath it."
I placed the stone on the desk. Most of it seemed to be a regular rock, but one of the sides was a shiny light blue; it almost looked wet. Herb's eyes darkened.
"Ah, that is Levinium. A rare element only found in the deepest recesses of Diglett's Cave. Half a century ago, my wife, bless her soul, and I were partnered with another couple and we discovered this element. We used digletts to dig around the site of discovery and continued to find more and more. We hired thousands of diglett to help us dig for the element. My associate and I discovered a way to harness the element into a way to quickly level up pokemon. We processed the stone into candies, and made a great deal of profit from aspiring trainers. We created an underground tunnel from Viridian to Pewter for the easy transport from the refinement lab to the ports in Viridian for shipment.
However, some people wanted to use Levinium for their own personal gain. Especially the group Team Rocket. So, before things could get out of hand, my wife destroyed our lab with her electrode." Herb had tears welling up in his eyes. I was shocked at this display of emotion from the excitable scientist.
"The creation of what then became known as Rare Candies was finished. My wife… was trapped in the lab and sacrificed her life for the good of Kanto. The diglett escaped and now reside as wild in what is now known as Diglett's Cave." Herb wiped his eye with a tissue and blinked. He stared at the tissue for a second, then shook his head as if clearing his head. "But now you say Team Rocket is trying to harvest Levinium again?"
"Well," I began. "It looked as if they were just seeing if there was any still left. I mean, they only sent two lowly grunts."
"Ah, but there will be more." He reached into his pocket and pulled out his Pokell. "I'll send an email to the police departments in Pewter and Viridian to have them set up a guard around Diglett's Cave. Who knows what kind of ruckus Rocket is trying to pull with the Levinium. All I know is: they must not have it!"
Herb typed and sent his email, then addressed us once more. "Now, enough time has passed! Let us go and check on our extraction!" He stood and led the four of us out of his office into the laboratory.
In the center of the laboratory was what looked like a CAT scanner. The lights were blinking and several more scientists had joined the previous group of three. To the left of the scanner were two rows of large glass tubes filled with a glowing blue liquid. The tubes went from floor to ceiling, looked as if three large men could fit in each, and there were about ten in all. Cali, Jamie, and I stared in awe at the machines in the center of the lab. Erik seemed bored.
I studied the tubes as we followed Herb to them. Within four of the tubes, I could see small life forms. They were no bigger than a pidgey, but seeming to grow at a rapid rate. I watched and tried to discern their forms through the cloudy blue water.
"Dr. Cedar! Dr. Cedar!" A young scientist that was not previously in the office with us ran up to Herb in excitement. "You're not going to believe this sir."
"What is it son?"
"There were four separate sets of DNA within the Old Amber Fossil, sir," the young man said proudly.
Herb was overjoyed. "Excellent! When will they be ready for hands on examination?"
"We are performing the final vital signs check now sir, then they will be in the examination room. Sir, there's two females!" The young scientist was nearly jumping with joy. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes.
We reached the computers at the base of one of the tubes, and the younger scientist started pushing some buttons as Herb watched. Suddenly, a red light shone brightly at the top of each of the tubes. It travelled from the top of each to the bottom and back, and then, just as quick. as it had come, it was gone.
"Vital signs look normal on four."
"Two's lookin' good, doc.
"One's lookin fine," said the young scientist at my right. There was silence. "Hey three! What's up?"
"Dr. Cedar! Come look at this." Herb practically ran to the station to my left, nearly knocking Erik down in the process. The two scientists mumbled at each other, making obscure hand gestures and frantically pushing buttons. Then Herb suddenly turned back to us and stalked over to our station.
"Three is acting up. We're gonna keep her in and pump some extra vitamins in to settle her stats, but she should be fine. However, the other three are ready for transfer Dr. Burnt," Herb said authoritatively. The younger scientist, Dr. Burnt, quickly nodded his head and turned back to the computer. He pushed a few buttons, and there was a KER-CHUNK. Then, three of the tubes began to drain, including the one right in front of me. The floating pokemon was sucked down into the bottom along with the strange blue fluid, and then it was all gone.
"Follow me," Herb said. He turned to the right and started walking. Dr. Burnt started following him too, and the rest of us soon after. We passed the giant CAT scan machine and went through another door. The door was the furthest right of three. The other two were labeled kabuto and omanyte. This one was labeled aerodactyl, and looked rusty and underused.
This room was way different than the others. It was set up like a zoo enclosure, with rocks and an artificial river and everything. There were cliff faces with jagged caves cut into the sides of them, and pine trees growing along the ground. Directly to the left of the doorway were ten holes in the wall with small metal pools in front of each. There was blue liquid pouring from the first, second, and fourth holes and filling up the pools in the ground. However, the water flow was petering out, and I could see the three baby aerodactyl laying in the shallow water.
Three scientists rushed over to the pools, gently picked up each pokemon, and carried them over to an examination table. They quickly dried them off and injected them in the wing with something red.
The aerodactyl on two started to move, followed soon after by one and four. They opened their eyes and glanced around the room, stretching their wings and sitting up on their hind legs.
"Now, you may choose which one you wish to have," said Herb. He led me over to the examination tables.
The pokemon on one snapped at my fingers as soon as I reached out towards it. I jerked my hand back. "That's the other female," Herb said. "They're usually meaner than the males, its instinctual to protect their eggs." I looked it over again before moving to the next table. I could see Herb physically relax; I could tell he really wanted me to take a male.
The one on two stared into my eyes as I approached it. I gingerly reached my hand out towards it, guiding my fingertips towards its nostrils. He sniffed my hand cautiously, and he must have decided I was okay because he pushed his snout into my palm. I smiled and rubbed his surprisingly soft nose.
"I'll take two," I told Herb confidently. The scientist smiled and clapped me on the shoulder.
"Good choice my dear." He immediately launched into a speech about the proper care of aerodactyl; what they eat, dental care, training, ect. I listened to him as I took in the appearance of my new pokemon.
He was about the size of a large dog, though Herb said that they grow to be over five times that size. He walked towards me on the table on four legs, with his wings folded into his side. His forelegs attached to his purple wings, and his long spear-like tail slid along the metal behind him. Once he reached me at the end of the table he carefully stood onto his hind legs, wobbling slightly before becoming balanced. In this position he could look me in the eye. His eyes were a deep gray, but held a spark of life.
I grinned, and he seemed to grin back, baring his teeth as if mirroring me. But could mostly see the smile in his eyes.
Have a suggestion for a name for the latest member of Al's team? Leave it in a review!