Part Twelve, Chapter One
Characters: Janet Harris, Sand-Cloud Pluff, Gelby Chu, Luke Smytheson
In the three weeks it took us to get to Gem Village, to my joy Bybee did evolve! With my newly-evolved raticate trained well, I entered the small village determined to win my next badge.
The Pokémon Centre was a very tiny building. There were hardly any trainers inside; PokéCentres were usually crowded buildings. But what with Gem Village being such a small place, it was understandable that the Pokémon Centre was also small. I had to wonder if Gem Village would even have a Pokémon Centre if it wasn't compulsory that all towns (or villages!) with gyms had to have Pokémon Centres.
'Hi Nurse Joy,' I smiled. 'Can you heal my pokémon for me!'
'Certainly,' said Joy, taking my five pokéballs and Tailz from me. Luke also gave her his pokéballs and Jigglypuff. The four of us then sat down to wait for our pokémon to be healed.
'Hey, look at this,' said Sand-Cloud. She picked up a brochure off the table. 'This place has some really good caves where you can find all sorts of rare pokémon!'
'Dugtrios!' exclaimed Luke. Everyone looked at him. 'Um, anyway..'
I laughed. Sand-Cloud flicked through the brochure some more.
'Wow, listen to this!' she said. 'Apparently fossils of extinct pokémon were found in there! According to this, some scientists have found ways to actually bring fossils back to life so that trainers can train extinct pokémon!'
'Woah..' I breathed. 'That's so cool! Maybe I can find an omanyte in there!'
Sand-Cloud laughed. 'Well, you never know. It says that the caves are open to visitors, and if you find any pokémon - including fossils - you're allowed to keep them!'
'This just keeps getting better!' I said. Sand-Cloud smiled.
'Guess what?' Luke asked, picking up a different brochure. 'So much for your raticate, this place's gym leader is a rock-type trainer!'
'Oh no!' I moaned. I'd really wanted to use Bybee! But it'd be useless against rock types! 'Oh, I should have guessed, I mean.. the place is called GEM Town!'
Luke laughed. 'What's more, this means I don't have a badge to earn here.'
'Huh?' I asked, confused.
'I already won a rock badge,' said Luke. 'I guess the gym must have moved since then.'
'Oh,' I said. 'Like how the electric gym got moved. I wonder why this one moved.'
'Who knows,' said Sand-Cloud. 'What's important is that you beat that gym leader. Make sure you choose the best pokémon to take. Remember, grass and water types are best against rock.'
I nodded. 'I already know which ones to take.'
'Janet, Luke, your pokémon are ready!' Nurse Joy called. We got up and collected our pokémon. I went over to the PC and rearranged my team. The six pokémon I ended up taking with me were Raus, Seaworth, Evy, Knotty, Catafree and Tailz. I was going to take Fern instead of Catafree, but since I hadn't actually battled with it I decided not to. And besides, although grass types were strong against rock types, taking three grass types with me was pretty unbalanced. So I just took the pokémon I'd decided on, and with my friends at my side, entered the gym.
~Janet~
Part Twelve, Chapter Two
Characters: Janet Harris, Sand-Cloud Pluff, Gelby Chu, Luke Smytheson, Knotty the tangela, Seaworth the seel, Evy the vaporeon
'My name's Janet from Team Yellow, and I'm here to earn a badge!'
'Yeah, I kind of guessed,' said the guy at the other side of the battlefield. 'Er, the part about the badge, that is.'
I laughed. 'Yeah, I didn't think I was that famous.'
'Well my name's James,' said the guy. 'I'm the gym leader of Gem Village. You look like an experienced trainer, I take it you know all the rules?'
'Yeah,' I nodded.
'Then we might as well start,' said James. 'I choose.. Rhyhorn!'
'Alright.. Knotty, I choose you!' I said, throwing a pokéball.
'Wow, a tangela,' said James. 'No one uses tangelas!'
'I know!' I moaned. 'But that's because they don't understand their power! Knotty, vine whip!'
'Tan!' said Knotty, slapping Rhyhorn with its vines. Being a grass attack, it did a lot of damage to the rock pokémon. But neither Rhyhorn or James were giving up.
'Rhyhorn, horn attack!' said James.
'Rhy!' said Rhyhorn. It charged at Knotty and stabbed it with its horn.
'Knotty, absorb!' I said. My tangela began to suck Rhyhorn's energy. Absorb wasn't normally a very powerful attack, but against a rock type it was amazing.
'Rhyhorn, tackle now!' said James. His rhyhorn slammed into Knotty and knocked off the damage that it had gained from its previous move.
'Knotty, absorb that energy back!' I said.
'Ahhh!' moaned James as Knotty's health was almost completely restored. 'This is useless, Rhyhorn just use your horn drill!'
'Rhyhorn!' said his pokémon. The horn on its head started spinning around. I knew this move all too well by now. Knotty was in trouble.
'Tangelaaaa!' Knotty squealed as the move connected. It collapsed on the ground in one hit.
'Knotty return,' I called with a sigh. 'Alright Seaworth, it's your turn!'
'A seel?' James asked. 'Interesting choice. Rhyhorn, horn attack!'
'That's no match for you, Seaworth!' I said. 'Aurora beam!'
'Seeel!' said Seaworth, shooting out a colourful beam. Rhyhorn fainted!
'Rhyhorn return,' said James. 'That seel is stronger than I expected. But that's no problem for my next pokémon! Go Graveler!'
'Seaworth, keep up that aurora beam!' I said. 'Ice moves will knock down these rock pokémon easily!'
Seaworth nodded and fired another aurora beam. Graveler took a lot of damage.
'Graveler, rock throw!' said James.
'Seel!' cried Seaworth.
'Seaworth, use aurora beam again!' I said. Seaworth's attack hit Graveler and again hurt it a lot. But that rock pokémon was tough.
'Graveler, earthquake!' said James.
'Yeah!' I heard Luke cheer. I looked at him. 'Er, I mean, oh no!'
I couldn't help smiling. But when I turned back to my pokémon, the smile faded from my face. Graveler had done a lot of damage to my little seel. But, it had also lost a lot of health from Seaworth's previous attacks. It wouldn't take much more to knock it out.
'Seaworth, aurora beam!' I said.
'OK Graveler, it's time,' said James. 'Explosion!'
'Gravel graveler!' said his pokémon. It concentrated all its energy, and there was an enormous explosion.
~Janet~
Part Twelve, Chapter Three
Characters: Janet Harris, Sand-Cloud Pluff, Gelby Chu, Luke Smytheson, Seaworth the seel, Evy the vaporeon, Raus the venusaur, James the pokémon leader of rock
Seaworth was passed out on the ground, its energy completely wiped out.
'Oh no!' I exclaimed. 'Seaworth, you poor thing! Return now!'
As the rest of the smoke from Graveler's explosion cleared, I saw that Graveler had fainted too.
'Graveler return!' called James. 'Onix, I choose you!'
'Alright,' I said. 'Evy, your turn!'
'OK Onix, slam attack now! Squash that vaporeon!' said James.
'Oooonix!' said Onix. It crashed to the ground, knocking a lot of HP off Evy.
'Evy, hang in there,' I said. 'Aurora beam!'
Evy fired its own version of the attack Seaworth had used to take most of Graveler's energy away. Evy wasn't at as high a level as Seaworth, but as an evolved pokémon its attack power was higher.. so its aurora beam was about the same strength as Seaworth's. It hurt onix a lot.
'Onix, rock throw!' said James.
'Evy, you know what to do!' I said. 'Aurora beam!'
'Poreon!' said Evy.
'Alright Onix, let's wrap this up,' smiled James. 'Bind attack now!'
Onix coiled itself around my vaporeon and squeezed it, crushing it and draining its power rapidly. Evy wasn't doing too well here..
'Evy return!' I called. My vaporeon still needed a lot of training. 'OK Raus, I choose you!'
'Oops, bad move,' smiled James. 'Earthquake!'
'Oops is right,' I muttered. How could I have forgotten that Raus was a poison-type as well as a grass-type? If Onix kept using that earthquake attack, Raus would faint in no time. But not if Raus knocked out that onix first!
'Raus, razor leaf!' I said.
'Saur!' said Raus. Onix cried out as my pokémon's sharp leaves cut into its rock-hard skin.
'Onix, earthquake!' said James. Raus was really hurt by Onix's attack, but I knew my venusaur wouldn't give up.
'Raus, razor leaf again!' I said. This time, Onix couldn't handle the power of the grass attack. It fainted. I smiled. 'Great work Raus!'
'Venusaur,' smiled Raus.
'Onix return!' called James. 'OK, now you're in for it, Venusaur. I guess you thought you could get through with grass attacks because all rock types are also ground types, right? Well, I'm afraid you're very wrong. Time to unleash the real power of rock pokémon! May I present, the champion of all rock pokémon, an ancient beast not trained by regular trainers for hundreds of years! I choose... Aerodactyl!!!'
~Janet~
Part Twelve, Chapter Four
Characters: Janet Harris, Sand-Cloud Pluff, Gelby Chu, Luke Smytheson, Raus the venusaur, James the pokémon leader of rock
'Well, this doesn't look good,' I commented. James laughed. Raus glared up at the huge rock bird. This was going to be tricky. If Aerodactyl was a flying type, Raus's grass attacks would be almost useless against it. If only I'd thought of that earlier, I wouldn't have saved Seaworth or Evy for their aurora beams. But there was nothing I could do about that. Raus had to be able to win this, somehow.
'Raus, razor leaf!' I said.
'You'll have to do better than that,' said James. 'Aerodactyl, wing attack!'
Raus cried out as Aerodactyl hit it with its rock-hard wings.
'Raus, leech seed!' I said. That would at least guarantee some damage, as well as keep Raus in there longer. I smiled as Aerodactyl was seeded.
'Don't let that bother you Aerodactyl,' said James. 'Take down now!'
'Aeeeero!' screeched Aerodactyl. It swooped down to Raus and knocked it over. Raus angrily threw it off, managing to take off a few of its health points. But Aerodactyl had drained a lot of Raus's energy, and it was getting weak.
'Raus, razor leaf!' I said.
'Let's wipe this venusaur out,' said James. 'Hyper beam attack!'
I gasped. Hyper beam!? This was going to hurt..
Aerodactyl let out a huge explosion of power, knocking Raus right out of the battlefield. I ran over to my venusaur.
'Raus!' I exclaimed. 'Raus, are you OK?'
'Saur,' it said. It pulled itself up. 'Venusaur!'
'Raus, you can't battle anymore,' I said. 'Don't worry, Catafree can do it. Come on, back in your pokéball.'
I held out my pokéball to recall Raus. My venusaur stubbornly resisted the beam.
'Raus, I mean it,' I said. 'You're too weak, you'll only get yourself hurt. Catafree can beat that Aerodactyl, don't worry about it.'
'Saur!' said Raus, shaking its head. It started running back into the arena. I sighed.
'Janet, you've got to be careful about using Raus,' Sand-Cloud reminded me. 'You know it refuses to give up.'
I nodded. And now there was nothing I could do but wait for Aerodactyl to knock Raus out. I didn't want that to be the way I had to do things, but I had no other choice.
'You've got to learn when to give up, Venusaur,' said James. I wondered why his aerodactyl wasn't attacking yet, then remembered that after using hyper beam, a pokémon had to recharge its energy. Maybe there was still hope for Raus, then..
'Ve.. nu.. saur...' Raus puffed, trying to gather all its energy to attack. Suddenly I thought I saw a kind of glow coming from the middle of the flower on its back. What was going on? I blinked and looked closer. Sure enough, there was some kind of light gathering on that flower. I didn't understand.. what was happening?
Then I remembered a venusaur I'd seen a few months ago. My friend Allin had been battling another trainer named Dave, who had ordered his venusaur to use solar beam. When it had charged up its attack, it looked just like the light that was gathering on Raus's back now. Was it possible that Raus had learnt solar beam?
'Janet..' breathed Gelby. 'You know what that is..'
'It's solar beam!' I smiled. It really was. I was so happy, my venusaur had learnt the most powerful of all grass-type attacks! With a move that strong against it, Aerodactyl's flying type would mean nothing. All that mattered now was, which pokémon would finish charging their energy first? I knew that aerodactyls were very speedy pokémon, but could they gather all their energy faster than venusaurs could charge solar beams?
'Aerodactyl!' said James. 'Hurry up, that thing's gonna use solar beam!'
I smiled, looking at Raus. It was nearly done..
'Venu..' it said, looking up at Aerodactyl. 'Venu venu venu...'
'Oh no,' said James. His aerodactyl opened its eyes wide as it saw the beam of light blast out from the flower on Raus's back. It soared through the air at an incredible speed and hit Aerodactyl, knocking it right to the other side of the gym. It fell to the ground, defeated.
'Yeah!' I cheered. 'Go Raus! You're the best!'
'Venusaur,' smiled Raus. James just stared at his fainted aerodactyl, shocked. He held out a pokéball.
'Aerodactyl return,' he called. He sighed and looked at me. 'Well, I guess you win.'
'Oh,' I said simply. I'd expected him to have more pokémon than that. I couldn't believe I'd won only using four of my six pokémon! James walked over and handed me a badge.
'Well done,' he said. 'You sure know how to use rock pokémon's weaknesses to your advantage.'
'Thanks,' I smiled. 'But I never could have done it without my venusaur!'
'Saur,' smiled Raus.
James nodded. 'Well while you're here in Gem Village, I recommend you visit the Gem Caverns. There's lots of rock pokémon in there, as well as other types. You might even get lucky and find some really rare ones. That's where I found Aerodactyl.'
'Really?' I asked. 'Cool! We'd better go there then!'
'Good luck,' said James.
'Thanks,' I said, and left for the Pokémon Centre. After healing my pokémon, I took Raus out of its pokéball. 'Hey Raus, I'm sorry I tried to make you retreat when you knew you could still win. I was just worried about you getting hurt, you know that right?'
'Venusaur,' nodded Raus. I smiled.
'Thanks for what you did back there,' I said. 'That solar beam must have taken up a lot of energy. I'm really proud of you.' I turned to my friends. 'Now let's get to those caves, and catch some pokémon!'
~Janet~
Part Twelve, Chapter Five
Characters: Janet Harris, Sand-Cloud Pluff, Gelby Chu, Luke Smytheson, Chazz the charizard, Seaworth the seel
I decided to change my pokémon team around a bit since it wouldn't be very smart to carry around mainly grass and water pokémon. So I switched Evy for Chazz and Knotty for Bybee. After asking Nurse Joy for directions, we found our way to the Gem Caverns. Trainers were allowed to go exploring in there freely, but there were paths laid out to follow so no one got lost. However, there were no lights as they disturbed the pokémon who lived there. I sure felt relieved that I'd brought Chazz with me! I took it out of its pokéball and we followed the light on its tail.
'I hope we can find digletts in here!' said Luke.
'Why?' Sand-Cloud asked. 'You already have a dugtrio.'
'You can't ever have too many digletts!' said Luke.
'Um, OK...' I said. 'Anyway, I hope we can find some fossils!'
'Yeah,' said Luke. 'That'd be better.. just.'
I rolled my eyes and kept walking. Pretty soon, we stumbled across a wild geodude.
'Wow, a geodude!' said Luke.
'Don't you already have one?' I asked. Luke sighed.
'Remember, it evolved and I traded it,' he said.
'Oh yeah..' I said. I remembered that incident now. Luke had traded his graveler for Simone's psyduck.. a trade he regretted immediately, when Graveler evolved into Golem.
'But catching another one would bring back too many bad memories,' said Luke. 'You catch it, Janet.'
I laughed. 'OK then. Seaworth, I choose you!'
'Geo! Geodude!' said Geodude, backing away from my seel.
'Seaworth, use your aurora beam!' I said.
'SEEL!' said Seaworth, attacking Geodude. The rock pokémon was sent flying. It fell to the ground, but then ran off before I could even take out a pokéball!
'Aww, no fair,' I said.
'Don't worry about it,' said Sand-Cloud. 'This is a cave, there's bound to be plenty more geodudes in here.'
'Yeah, I guess so,' I said. 'Seaworth, return.'
I recalled my seel and we kept moving. After only a minute or two, we felt the earth shake, and a loud cry was heard.
'GOOOOOOLEM!!!'
~Janet~
Part Twelve, Chapter Six
Characters: Janet Harris, Sand-Cloud Pluff, Gelby Chu, Luke Smytheson, Tailz the vulpix, Chazz the charizard
A huge golem rolled into our view. It stood up on its back legs and thumped the ground, causing it to shake again. It didn't look very happy.
'Uh, guys..' said Sand-Cloud. 'Now would be a good time to RUN.'
I nodded. We started running for our lives. Who knows what a wild golem could do to us! I didn't think even Raus could fight that thing off. Especially not in this cave, where it couldn't use solar beam.
After a few minutes of running, I suddenly realised that we weren't even being chased. I came to a stop, and so did Sand-Cloud, Gelby, Tailz and Chazz. We all slumped down puffing, trying to get our breath back. Hang on a moment. Sand-Cloud, Gelby, Tailz and Chazz. Someone was missing.
'Oh no!' I exclaimed. 'Where's Luke!?'
Everyone looked around, but he was nowhere in sight.
'Did he run on ahead?' Sand-Cloud asked.
'No,' said Gelby, shaking her head. 'We would have seen him.'
'Then that must mean..' I started. I didn't even have to finish. I grabbed my pokéballs, got up and started heading back the way we came.
'Wait, Janet!' Sand-Cloud called, running after me. 'That golem could destroy you!'
'It could also destroy Luke,' I pointed out. Sand-Cloud sighed.
'Alright, let's go,' she nodded. I smiled, then turned to Gelby and my two pokémon. Gelby and Tailz were both really tired out, they wouldn't be able to go much further. But I couldn't just leave them there.
'Hey Chazz,' I said. 'Can you carry them for me?'
Chazz paused, then nodded. It bent down and picked up Gelby. It placed her on its back, between its wings. Gelby thankfully put her arms around Chazz's neck to hold on. Then Chazz pulled Tailz into its arms.
'Thanks a lot buddy,' I smiled. With Chazz carrying Tailz and Gelby, we all headed back the way we came. About ten minutes later, we made it back to the spot where Golem had attacked. And there was Luke. He didn't look too happy. It was understandable really, considering he was being surrounded by at least ten golems. Why did he always get himself into messes like this?
~Janet~
Part Twelve, Chapter Seven
Characters: Janet Harris, Sand-Cloud Pluff, Gelby Chu, Luke Smytheson, Raus the venusaur, Chazz the charizard, Tailz the vulpix
'Janet...' said Luke nervously, looking around at the giant rock pokémon that were surrounding him. 'By any chance do you think you could help me out?'
I sighed and opened up the pokéball containing Raus. My big venusaur appeared.
'Raus,' I said quietly, not wanting the golems to hear me. 'Can you try and razor leaf as many of those golems as possible?'
'Saur,' nodded Raus. It gathered up all the leaves it could find from the flower on its back, and sent them flying into the group of golems.
'Aaaahh!' I heard Luke cry. Oops.
'Um..' I said. Maybe that hadn't been the best tactic. Not only had I managed to get Luke hurt, I'd gotten the golems angry. And they knew I was there now. And well, they didn't look very friendly.
'Well done,' said Sand-Cloud.
'Sorry..' it was all I could say. And then I couldn't say anything more, because the golems were curling themselves into balls and rolling towards us at light speed. Sand-Cloud and I turned to run as Raus tried to fight them off with another razor leaf attack. It was no use, there were too many of them and they were too strong.
Just as I thought we were about to get crushed, I felt myself get pulled into the air from the back of my shirt. Freaked out, I looked down and saw the whole group of golems roll straight underneath me and out of sight. With a sigh of relief, I looked back and realised that Chazz had grabbed me my the shirt and flown into the air, lifting me out of the golems' reach. As my charizard landed again, I saw that it had also saved Sand-Cloud by pulling her into its arms and lifting her up too.
Chazz put everyone down and sat on the ground, puffing. It must have taken a lot of effort to lift me, Sand-Cloud, Tailz and Gelby! I gave my charizard a grateful hug.
'Thanks so much Chazz,' I said. 'If it wasn't for you those golems could have killed us!'
'And if it wasn't for you your venusaur wouldn't have nearly killed me!'
I suddenly remembered Luke, and rushed over to him. He was covered in cuts from the razor leaf attack Raus had used.
'Oh Luke,' I sighed. 'I'm so sorry!'
'It's OK,' he said. 'You were just trying to help.'
I gave him an apologetic smile, then pulled him up. 'Are you OK?'
'Yeah,' he said, but was probably lying. I hugged him.
'We'd better get out of this cave,' I said.
'No way, we've still got pokémon to catch!' said Luke. I laughed. Even after being accidentally attacked by Raus, he was still as determined as ever to catch pokémon! 'Are you OK Jigglypuff?'
I'd completely forgotten about Luke's jigglypuff. He bent down and picked it up. Luckily, it didn't seem to have been hurt by Raus's attack.
'Jiggly jiggly!' it said. It smiled and tried to hug Luke with its little arms. I smiled, then turned to the others.
'Come on, let's keep looking for some pokémon!' I said. I held out a pokéball and returned Raus, then we started moving again.
~Janet~
Part Twelve, Chapter Eight
Characters: Janet Harris, Sand-Cloud Pluff, Gelby Chu, Luke Smytheson, Chazz the charizard
We continued to search deeper into the Gem Caverns. We saw plenty of zubats but they always flew away whenever we came near. Luckily, we didn't find any more golems.
'It's not fair,' complained Luke. 'I didn't even get to catch one of those golems!'
'I thought they'd bring too many bad memories,' I smiled.
'No, a geodude would,' said Luke. 'Because even if it evolved to a graveler, I wouldn't be able to evolve it again without trading it, and it'd just be like my old graveler. But if I caught a wild golem it'd be different.'
'Oh OK,' I said. I paused. 'Hang on Luke, do you mean that you tried to catch that first golem we saw?'
'Er...' said Luke innocently. 'Maybe..'
'And we thought we were rescuing you from some crazy wild pokémon!' I said. 'We didn't realise it was your fault they were attacking you!'
'That's not the point,' smiled Luke. 'Come on, aren't we meant to be catching pokémon?'
I sighed and we kept looking around for more pokémon. As we got deeper into the caves it got so dark that even Chazz's tail flame hardly helped us to see. I wasn't sure we should be going that far into the caves.. what if we got lost?
'Hey guys,' said Gelby. 'Do you really think we should go much further?'
I loved it when people said exactly what I'd been thinking.
'Of course,' said Luke. 'All the rare pokémon will be deeper into the caves were most trainers don't go.'
'But it's getting late,' said Gelby. 'It's been a hard day, shouldn't we get some rest soon?'
'Hey, you're the one that got carried by a charizard for most of the time,' said Luke. 'I endured a razor leaf attack, and I'm still eager to keep going!'
'Oh be quiet Luke,' said Sand-Cloud. 'Gelby, the thing is, if we head back now, it's going to take forever to get out of here.. so we're going to have to spend the night in here.'
Gelby sighed. 'Yeah, I guess you're right.'
'We might as well set up camp then,' I said. 'We can keep going tomorrow after we've had a good rest.'
'Yeah, good idea,' smiled Gelby.
'Fine then, let all the good pokémon get taken,' said Luke.
'I thought I told you to be quiet,' said Sand-Cloud.
'Then don't blame me when all the aerodactyls get captured by trainers who thought training was more important than sleeping..' said Luke.
'Luke?' I said. 'Just shut up.'
Luke rolled his eyes.
'Besides, we're not stopping you from going further,' said Sand-Cloud. 'You're not part of the team, remember? You can go on ahead without us.'
'Aww, but I'll get scared without you Sand-Cloud,' said Luke sarcastically.
'Will everyone just be quiet and get some sleep!' said Gelby. We all laughed and within another ten minutes, we were all lying down trying to go to sleep. It was hard trying to sleep in the middle of a dark carve, on a hard cold surface when we didn't even know what time it was.
As I finally did feel myself drifting into sleep, I was sure I heard a strange scratching sound, and some kind of voices..
~Janet~
Part Twelve, Chapter Nine
Characters: Janet Harris, Sand-Cloud Pluff, Gelby Chu, Luke Smytheson, Shovel the dugtrio, Chazz the charizard, Slash the sandshrew
I woke up after a strange dream about kabutos and omanytes coming to life out of fossils and running around the cave. As I looked around, I saw that everyone else was awake.. well, everyone except Gelby, but that was expected.
'Hey Janet,' said Luke.
'Any idea what time it is?' I asked. Luke pressed a button on his watch and a small light came on.
'It's seven thirty in the morning,' he said.
'Oh, no wonder Gelby's still asleep,' I said. 'She doesn't get up in the AM hours.'
Sand-Cloud laughed.
'Come on, can't we start looking for some pokémon now?' Luke asked. I sighed and shook Gelby.
'Hey Gelby, wake up,' I said. Slowly, she opened her eyes and sat up.
'What time is it?' she yawned.
'Um.. nine thirty,' said Luke. I laughed.
'I know you're lying, but I'm awake now so I might as well get up,' said Gelby. After another few minutes, we all started travelling deeper into the Gem Caverns. Strangely, we didn't see any pokémon for hours!
We came to a large chamber which appeared to be a dead-end. The whole place was covered in rocks with strange designs carved into them. There were two dominant designs that appeared all over the chamber: one was a spiral shape, and the other was a circle with two small spots at one end.
'What is this place?' I asked, bewildered. Everyone walked around the chamber, studying the strange carvings. I'd seen them somewhere before, but where?
'These shapes look familiar,' said Luke.
'I know,' I said. I ran my hand over one of the spiral-shaped patterns, and suddenly I realised. 'Omanyte!'
'What?' Sand-Cloud asked.
'It's omanyte!' I said, pointing to the spiral. 'Look at it, this spiral represents the spiral on the side of an omanyte.'
'And the other shape is Kabuto!' said Luke. 'The circle is its shell, and the two spots are its false eyes.'
'You're right,' I said, looking at the shape.
'Do you think this means, that there are omanytes and kabutos in here?' Sand-Cloud asked.
'I don't know,' I said. 'Remember, they are classed as extinct pokémon. These carvings could have been made by some kind of ancient race, back when omanytes and kabutos were common.'
'Maybe,' said Sand-Cloud. 'But you know what that means..'
'What?' I asked.
'There must be fossils in here!' said Sand-Cloud. 'If omanytes and kabutos used to live here, their fossils must be around here somewhere.'
'I hope so,' I said. 'Hey, I know. Let's get our pokémon to help look for them!'
'Good idea!' said Luke. He took out a pokéball. 'Shovel, I choose you!'
'I don't have any pokémon that can dig,' I said, thinking through the pokémon I had with me. 'But I can get Chazz to help everyone see.'
'Char,' nodded Chazz.
'Hang on,' said Sand-Cloud. 'I have a pokémon that can dig!'
'Oh yeah!' I said. I'd almost forgotten about Sand-Cloud's pokémon! She took out her single pokéball.
'Slash, come out!' she said. Her sandshrew appeared.
'Now that we've got two ground pokémon to help dig, let's find those fossils!' I said.
~Janet~
Part Twelve, Chapter Ten
Characters: Janet Harris, Sand-Cloud Pluff, Gelby Chu, Luke Smytheson, Shovel the dugtrio, Slash the sandshrew
Shovel and Slash started to dig around, looking for any fossils they could find.
'Are you sure it's a good idea to just have them dig anywhere?' Gelby asked. 'We don't know where the fossils are.'
'Shrew!'
'Oh, don't we?' Sand-Cloud smiled. I gasped as I saw that a strange- looking rock was coming into view where Slash was digging.
'Hey Shovel, hurry it up!' said Luke. 'Try and find one before Slash does!'
I laughed, and turned back to watch Slash. After another few minutes of digging, it pulled out the strange rock.
'Sandshrew!' it said triumphantly.
'Wow,' I said. 'Do you think that's a fossil?'
'It could be,' said Sand-Cloud. 'Here Slash, show it to me.'
Slash handed the rock to Sand-Cloud. I walked over and looked at it with her. We brushed the dirt off together and pretty soon we could see a shape forming. Just then, we heard Luke call out.
'Yeah!' he said. 'Shovel, you're the coolest!'
I turned and saw that Shovel too had uncovered something. It looked a bit different to the thing Slash had found, but still looked like a fossil. Luke and got to work cleaning up the rock, and I turned back to the one Slash had found.
'I think it's a kabuto!' I said.
'I think so too,' said Sand-Cloud.
'Aww, I wish it was an omanyte,' I said. Sand-Cloud laughed.
'Don't complain, it's better than nothing,' she said. 'And that's only if we can find one of those scientists who can revive the fossils, anyway!'
'Oh yeah,' I said. I turned to Luke and saw that his fossil had a clear spiral shape on it. 'Looks like an omanyte.'
Luke nodded. 'I wanted a kabuto, but I'm satisfied.'
I laughed. 'Well come on, we'd better find a way out of this cave now!'
'Don't you want to look for more fossils?' Gelby asked.
'No,' I said. 'It's not fair on the other trainers and besides, we could be here for hours.'
'Fair enough,' said Gelby.
'Come on, let's get going,' I said. We all got up and started to head out of the cave.
Hours later, we trudged into the Pokémon Centre back at Gem Village. We were so tired after travelling through those caves all day! I happily gave my pokéballs to Nurse Joy and sat down for a rest.
'I hope we can find someone who can revive the fossils,' said Luke.
'So do I,' I said. 'Seeing an ancient pokémon brought to life would be so cool!'
'I know!' said Luke. 'I hope they're not going to be hard to train, though.'
'You and Sand-Cloud will handle it,' I said.
'What!?' Sand-Cloud exclaimed. I looked at her. 'You don't think I'm going to train that thing, do you?'
'Er, well it was Slash who found it..' I said. 'Who else is going to train it?'
'You are,' said Sand-Cloud.
'I am?' I asked.
'Yes!' Sand-Cloud laughed. 'I can barely train one pokémon Janet, I don't need another one, and especially an extinct one!' I smiled. 'Besides, the reason we went into those caves was to find pokémon for you! So you can have the fossil, I don't care.'
'Aww, thanks Sand-Cloud,' I smiled. I was even more excited about this fossil now!
~Janet~
Part Twelve, Chapter Eleven
Characters: Janet Harris, Sand-Cloud Pluff, Gelby Chu, Luke Smytheson
When Nurse Joy returned our pokémon, we asked her who we could talk to about the fossils we'd discovered. She told us that the best person to talk to was the gym leader of Gem Village. It was getting late, so we stayed at the centre for the night, and headed back to the gym to see James the next day. Luckily for us, he wasn't in the middle of a battle or training.
'Hi,' he said when he saw us. 'Didn't you lot come here the other day?'
'Yeah,' I nodded. 'We came to talk to you about some fossils we found.'
'Oh, so you visited the Gem Caverns?' James asked. 'And found some fossils? Well done!'
'Thanks,' I said. 'So, um, can you tell us what they are?'
'Hopefully,' said James. 'Let's have a look at them.'
Luke and I each took out our fossils and showed them to James.
'Yep, these are real fossils alright,' he said. He looked at my fossil. 'This one's a dome fossil.. and this one's a helix fossil.'
'Oh, that really helped,' said Luke.
'OK,' laughed James. 'For those of you who haven't studied rock pokémon, a dome fossil is a kabuto fossil, and a helix fossil is an omanyte fossil.'
'We thought that's what they were,' I smiled.
'See, you didn't even need my help!' said James.
'Well, we did,' I said. 'Because that's not the main reason we came here. We were wondering, where do you go to get these fossils revived?'
'Well it's tricky,' said James. 'Not many pokémon scientists have the technology to revive pokémon fossils, so you have to go to someone who specialises in ancient pokémon. And unfortunately, there aren't any of them around here anymore. The man who revived my aerodactyl moved to another continent..'
'Another continent!?' I exclaimed.
'Yeah,' said James. 'Well, I can give you his details in case you ever happen to go there.'
I laughed. 'Might as well.'
James gave as the scientist's name and address. I was really disappointed that we wouldn't be able to revive our ancient pokémon.. at least not for a long time! Still, I guess I had more important things to think about, like finding the next gym and earning my next badge!
We thanked James for his help and left the gym. We weren't really sure where we were headed, but we left the village and kept walking. After we'd been travelling for a few hours, Luke suddenly turned to me.
'I just thought of something!' he said.
'What?' I asked.
'If you wanted an omanyte, and I wanted a kabuto..' he said. 'And you got a dome fossil and I got a helix fossil...'
'You want to trade fossils?' I smiled.
'Yeah,' said Luke.
'Sounds good to me,' I said. I took out my fossil, and swapped it with Luke's. I now had a helix fossil, which would some day be an omanyte!
'Cool,' said Luke. 'It's like trading pokémon, but not.'
'Um, yeah Luke..' I said. 'Let's just keep going now.'
'Good idea,' said Sand-Cloud. We started moving again, still not sure where we would end up.
~Janet~
END OF PART TWELVE
Characters: Janet Harris, Sand-Cloud Pluff, Gelby Chu, Luke Smytheson
In the three weeks it took us to get to Gem Village, to my joy Bybee did evolve! With my newly-evolved raticate trained well, I entered the small village determined to win my next badge.
The Pokémon Centre was a very tiny building. There were hardly any trainers inside; PokéCentres were usually crowded buildings. But what with Gem Village being such a small place, it was understandable that the Pokémon Centre was also small. I had to wonder if Gem Village would even have a Pokémon Centre if it wasn't compulsory that all towns (or villages!) with gyms had to have Pokémon Centres.
'Hi Nurse Joy,' I smiled. 'Can you heal my pokémon for me!'
'Certainly,' said Joy, taking my five pokéballs and Tailz from me. Luke also gave her his pokéballs and Jigglypuff. The four of us then sat down to wait for our pokémon to be healed.
'Hey, look at this,' said Sand-Cloud. She picked up a brochure off the table. 'This place has some really good caves where you can find all sorts of rare pokémon!'
'Dugtrios!' exclaimed Luke. Everyone looked at him. 'Um, anyway..'
I laughed. Sand-Cloud flicked through the brochure some more.
'Wow, listen to this!' she said. 'Apparently fossils of extinct pokémon were found in there! According to this, some scientists have found ways to actually bring fossils back to life so that trainers can train extinct pokémon!'
'Woah..' I breathed. 'That's so cool! Maybe I can find an omanyte in there!'
Sand-Cloud laughed. 'Well, you never know. It says that the caves are open to visitors, and if you find any pokémon - including fossils - you're allowed to keep them!'
'This just keeps getting better!' I said. Sand-Cloud smiled.
'Guess what?' Luke asked, picking up a different brochure. 'So much for your raticate, this place's gym leader is a rock-type trainer!'
'Oh no!' I moaned. I'd really wanted to use Bybee! But it'd be useless against rock types! 'Oh, I should have guessed, I mean.. the place is called GEM Town!'
Luke laughed. 'What's more, this means I don't have a badge to earn here.'
'Huh?' I asked, confused.
'I already won a rock badge,' said Luke. 'I guess the gym must have moved since then.'
'Oh,' I said. 'Like how the electric gym got moved. I wonder why this one moved.'
'Who knows,' said Sand-Cloud. 'What's important is that you beat that gym leader. Make sure you choose the best pokémon to take. Remember, grass and water types are best against rock.'
I nodded. 'I already know which ones to take.'
'Janet, Luke, your pokémon are ready!' Nurse Joy called. We got up and collected our pokémon. I went over to the PC and rearranged my team. The six pokémon I ended up taking with me were Raus, Seaworth, Evy, Knotty, Catafree and Tailz. I was going to take Fern instead of Catafree, but since I hadn't actually battled with it I decided not to. And besides, although grass types were strong against rock types, taking three grass types with me was pretty unbalanced. So I just took the pokémon I'd decided on, and with my friends at my side, entered the gym.
~Janet~
Part Twelve, Chapter Two
Characters: Janet Harris, Sand-Cloud Pluff, Gelby Chu, Luke Smytheson, Knotty the tangela, Seaworth the seel, Evy the vaporeon
'My name's Janet from Team Yellow, and I'm here to earn a badge!'
'Yeah, I kind of guessed,' said the guy at the other side of the battlefield. 'Er, the part about the badge, that is.'
I laughed. 'Yeah, I didn't think I was that famous.'
'Well my name's James,' said the guy. 'I'm the gym leader of Gem Village. You look like an experienced trainer, I take it you know all the rules?'
'Yeah,' I nodded.
'Then we might as well start,' said James. 'I choose.. Rhyhorn!'
'Alright.. Knotty, I choose you!' I said, throwing a pokéball.
'Wow, a tangela,' said James. 'No one uses tangelas!'
'I know!' I moaned. 'But that's because they don't understand their power! Knotty, vine whip!'
'Tan!' said Knotty, slapping Rhyhorn with its vines. Being a grass attack, it did a lot of damage to the rock pokémon. But neither Rhyhorn or James were giving up.
'Rhyhorn, horn attack!' said James.
'Rhy!' said Rhyhorn. It charged at Knotty and stabbed it with its horn.
'Knotty, absorb!' I said. My tangela began to suck Rhyhorn's energy. Absorb wasn't normally a very powerful attack, but against a rock type it was amazing.
'Rhyhorn, tackle now!' said James. His rhyhorn slammed into Knotty and knocked off the damage that it had gained from its previous move.
'Knotty, absorb that energy back!' I said.
'Ahhh!' moaned James as Knotty's health was almost completely restored. 'This is useless, Rhyhorn just use your horn drill!'
'Rhyhorn!' said his pokémon. The horn on its head started spinning around. I knew this move all too well by now. Knotty was in trouble.
'Tangelaaaa!' Knotty squealed as the move connected. It collapsed on the ground in one hit.
'Knotty return,' I called with a sigh. 'Alright Seaworth, it's your turn!'
'A seel?' James asked. 'Interesting choice. Rhyhorn, horn attack!'
'That's no match for you, Seaworth!' I said. 'Aurora beam!'
'Seeel!' said Seaworth, shooting out a colourful beam. Rhyhorn fainted!
'Rhyhorn return,' said James. 'That seel is stronger than I expected. But that's no problem for my next pokémon! Go Graveler!'
'Seaworth, keep up that aurora beam!' I said. 'Ice moves will knock down these rock pokémon easily!'
Seaworth nodded and fired another aurora beam. Graveler took a lot of damage.
'Graveler, rock throw!' said James.
'Seel!' cried Seaworth.
'Seaworth, use aurora beam again!' I said. Seaworth's attack hit Graveler and again hurt it a lot. But that rock pokémon was tough.
'Graveler, earthquake!' said James.
'Yeah!' I heard Luke cheer. I looked at him. 'Er, I mean, oh no!'
I couldn't help smiling. But when I turned back to my pokémon, the smile faded from my face. Graveler had done a lot of damage to my little seel. But, it had also lost a lot of health from Seaworth's previous attacks. It wouldn't take much more to knock it out.
'Seaworth, aurora beam!' I said.
'OK Graveler, it's time,' said James. 'Explosion!'
'Gravel graveler!' said his pokémon. It concentrated all its energy, and there was an enormous explosion.
~Janet~
Part Twelve, Chapter Three
Characters: Janet Harris, Sand-Cloud Pluff, Gelby Chu, Luke Smytheson, Seaworth the seel, Evy the vaporeon, Raus the venusaur, James the pokémon leader of rock
Seaworth was passed out on the ground, its energy completely wiped out.
'Oh no!' I exclaimed. 'Seaworth, you poor thing! Return now!'
As the rest of the smoke from Graveler's explosion cleared, I saw that Graveler had fainted too.
'Graveler return!' called James. 'Onix, I choose you!'
'Alright,' I said. 'Evy, your turn!'
'OK Onix, slam attack now! Squash that vaporeon!' said James.
'Oooonix!' said Onix. It crashed to the ground, knocking a lot of HP off Evy.
'Evy, hang in there,' I said. 'Aurora beam!'
Evy fired its own version of the attack Seaworth had used to take most of Graveler's energy away. Evy wasn't at as high a level as Seaworth, but as an evolved pokémon its attack power was higher.. so its aurora beam was about the same strength as Seaworth's. It hurt onix a lot.
'Onix, rock throw!' said James.
'Evy, you know what to do!' I said. 'Aurora beam!'
'Poreon!' said Evy.
'Alright Onix, let's wrap this up,' smiled James. 'Bind attack now!'
Onix coiled itself around my vaporeon and squeezed it, crushing it and draining its power rapidly. Evy wasn't doing too well here..
'Evy return!' I called. My vaporeon still needed a lot of training. 'OK Raus, I choose you!'
'Oops, bad move,' smiled James. 'Earthquake!'
'Oops is right,' I muttered. How could I have forgotten that Raus was a poison-type as well as a grass-type? If Onix kept using that earthquake attack, Raus would faint in no time. But not if Raus knocked out that onix first!
'Raus, razor leaf!' I said.
'Saur!' said Raus. Onix cried out as my pokémon's sharp leaves cut into its rock-hard skin.
'Onix, earthquake!' said James. Raus was really hurt by Onix's attack, but I knew my venusaur wouldn't give up.
'Raus, razor leaf again!' I said. This time, Onix couldn't handle the power of the grass attack. It fainted. I smiled. 'Great work Raus!'
'Venusaur,' smiled Raus.
'Onix return!' called James. 'OK, now you're in for it, Venusaur. I guess you thought you could get through with grass attacks because all rock types are also ground types, right? Well, I'm afraid you're very wrong. Time to unleash the real power of rock pokémon! May I present, the champion of all rock pokémon, an ancient beast not trained by regular trainers for hundreds of years! I choose... Aerodactyl!!!'
~Janet~
Part Twelve, Chapter Four
Characters: Janet Harris, Sand-Cloud Pluff, Gelby Chu, Luke Smytheson, Raus the venusaur, James the pokémon leader of rock
'Well, this doesn't look good,' I commented. James laughed. Raus glared up at the huge rock bird. This was going to be tricky. If Aerodactyl was a flying type, Raus's grass attacks would be almost useless against it. If only I'd thought of that earlier, I wouldn't have saved Seaworth or Evy for their aurora beams. But there was nothing I could do about that. Raus had to be able to win this, somehow.
'Raus, razor leaf!' I said.
'You'll have to do better than that,' said James. 'Aerodactyl, wing attack!'
Raus cried out as Aerodactyl hit it with its rock-hard wings.
'Raus, leech seed!' I said. That would at least guarantee some damage, as well as keep Raus in there longer. I smiled as Aerodactyl was seeded.
'Don't let that bother you Aerodactyl,' said James. 'Take down now!'
'Aeeeero!' screeched Aerodactyl. It swooped down to Raus and knocked it over. Raus angrily threw it off, managing to take off a few of its health points. But Aerodactyl had drained a lot of Raus's energy, and it was getting weak.
'Raus, razor leaf!' I said.
'Let's wipe this venusaur out,' said James. 'Hyper beam attack!'
I gasped. Hyper beam!? This was going to hurt..
Aerodactyl let out a huge explosion of power, knocking Raus right out of the battlefield. I ran over to my venusaur.
'Raus!' I exclaimed. 'Raus, are you OK?'
'Saur,' it said. It pulled itself up. 'Venusaur!'
'Raus, you can't battle anymore,' I said. 'Don't worry, Catafree can do it. Come on, back in your pokéball.'
I held out my pokéball to recall Raus. My venusaur stubbornly resisted the beam.
'Raus, I mean it,' I said. 'You're too weak, you'll only get yourself hurt. Catafree can beat that Aerodactyl, don't worry about it.'
'Saur!' said Raus, shaking its head. It started running back into the arena. I sighed.
'Janet, you've got to be careful about using Raus,' Sand-Cloud reminded me. 'You know it refuses to give up.'
I nodded. And now there was nothing I could do but wait for Aerodactyl to knock Raus out. I didn't want that to be the way I had to do things, but I had no other choice.
'You've got to learn when to give up, Venusaur,' said James. I wondered why his aerodactyl wasn't attacking yet, then remembered that after using hyper beam, a pokémon had to recharge its energy. Maybe there was still hope for Raus, then..
'Ve.. nu.. saur...' Raus puffed, trying to gather all its energy to attack. Suddenly I thought I saw a kind of glow coming from the middle of the flower on its back. What was going on? I blinked and looked closer. Sure enough, there was some kind of light gathering on that flower. I didn't understand.. what was happening?
Then I remembered a venusaur I'd seen a few months ago. My friend Allin had been battling another trainer named Dave, who had ordered his venusaur to use solar beam. When it had charged up its attack, it looked just like the light that was gathering on Raus's back now. Was it possible that Raus had learnt solar beam?
'Janet..' breathed Gelby. 'You know what that is..'
'It's solar beam!' I smiled. It really was. I was so happy, my venusaur had learnt the most powerful of all grass-type attacks! With a move that strong against it, Aerodactyl's flying type would mean nothing. All that mattered now was, which pokémon would finish charging their energy first? I knew that aerodactyls were very speedy pokémon, but could they gather all their energy faster than venusaurs could charge solar beams?
'Aerodactyl!' said James. 'Hurry up, that thing's gonna use solar beam!'
I smiled, looking at Raus. It was nearly done..
'Venu..' it said, looking up at Aerodactyl. 'Venu venu venu...'
'Oh no,' said James. His aerodactyl opened its eyes wide as it saw the beam of light blast out from the flower on Raus's back. It soared through the air at an incredible speed and hit Aerodactyl, knocking it right to the other side of the gym. It fell to the ground, defeated.
'Yeah!' I cheered. 'Go Raus! You're the best!'
'Venusaur,' smiled Raus. James just stared at his fainted aerodactyl, shocked. He held out a pokéball.
'Aerodactyl return,' he called. He sighed and looked at me. 'Well, I guess you win.'
'Oh,' I said simply. I'd expected him to have more pokémon than that. I couldn't believe I'd won only using four of my six pokémon! James walked over and handed me a badge.
'Well done,' he said. 'You sure know how to use rock pokémon's weaknesses to your advantage.'
'Thanks,' I smiled. 'But I never could have done it without my venusaur!'
'Saur,' smiled Raus.
James nodded. 'Well while you're here in Gem Village, I recommend you visit the Gem Caverns. There's lots of rock pokémon in there, as well as other types. You might even get lucky and find some really rare ones. That's where I found Aerodactyl.'
'Really?' I asked. 'Cool! We'd better go there then!'
'Good luck,' said James.
'Thanks,' I said, and left for the Pokémon Centre. After healing my pokémon, I took Raus out of its pokéball. 'Hey Raus, I'm sorry I tried to make you retreat when you knew you could still win. I was just worried about you getting hurt, you know that right?'
'Venusaur,' nodded Raus. I smiled.
'Thanks for what you did back there,' I said. 'That solar beam must have taken up a lot of energy. I'm really proud of you.' I turned to my friends. 'Now let's get to those caves, and catch some pokémon!'
~Janet~
Part Twelve, Chapter Five
Characters: Janet Harris, Sand-Cloud Pluff, Gelby Chu, Luke Smytheson, Chazz the charizard, Seaworth the seel
I decided to change my pokémon team around a bit since it wouldn't be very smart to carry around mainly grass and water pokémon. So I switched Evy for Chazz and Knotty for Bybee. After asking Nurse Joy for directions, we found our way to the Gem Caverns. Trainers were allowed to go exploring in there freely, but there were paths laid out to follow so no one got lost. However, there were no lights as they disturbed the pokémon who lived there. I sure felt relieved that I'd brought Chazz with me! I took it out of its pokéball and we followed the light on its tail.
'I hope we can find digletts in here!' said Luke.
'Why?' Sand-Cloud asked. 'You already have a dugtrio.'
'You can't ever have too many digletts!' said Luke.
'Um, OK...' I said. 'Anyway, I hope we can find some fossils!'
'Yeah,' said Luke. 'That'd be better.. just.'
I rolled my eyes and kept walking. Pretty soon, we stumbled across a wild geodude.
'Wow, a geodude!' said Luke.
'Don't you already have one?' I asked. Luke sighed.
'Remember, it evolved and I traded it,' he said.
'Oh yeah..' I said. I remembered that incident now. Luke had traded his graveler for Simone's psyduck.. a trade he regretted immediately, when Graveler evolved into Golem.
'But catching another one would bring back too many bad memories,' said Luke. 'You catch it, Janet.'
I laughed. 'OK then. Seaworth, I choose you!'
'Geo! Geodude!' said Geodude, backing away from my seel.
'Seaworth, use your aurora beam!' I said.
'SEEL!' said Seaworth, attacking Geodude. The rock pokémon was sent flying. It fell to the ground, but then ran off before I could even take out a pokéball!
'Aww, no fair,' I said.
'Don't worry about it,' said Sand-Cloud. 'This is a cave, there's bound to be plenty more geodudes in here.'
'Yeah, I guess so,' I said. 'Seaworth, return.'
I recalled my seel and we kept moving. After only a minute or two, we felt the earth shake, and a loud cry was heard.
'GOOOOOOLEM!!!'
~Janet~
Part Twelve, Chapter Six
Characters: Janet Harris, Sand-Cloud Pluff, Gelby Chu, Luke Smytheson, Tailz the vulpix, Chazz the charizard
A huge golem rolled into our view. It stood up on its back legs and thumped the ground, causing it to shake again. It didn't look very happy.
'Uh, guys..' said Sand-Cloud. 'Now would be a good time to RUN.'
I nodded. We started running for our lives. Who knows what a wild golem could do to us! I didn't think even Raus could fight that thing off. Especially not in this cave, where it couldn't use solar beam.
After a few minutes of running, I suddenly realised that we weren't even being chased. I came to a stop, and so did Sand-Cloud, Gelby, Tailz and Chazz. We all slumped down puffing, trying to get our breath back. Hang on a moment. Sand-Cloud, Gelby, Tailz and Chazz. Someone was missing.
'Oh no!' I exclaimed. 'Where's Luke!?'
Everyone looked around, but he was nowhere in sight.
'Did he run on ahead?' Sand-Cloud asked.
'No,' said Gelby, shaking her head. 'We would have seen him.'
'Then that must mean..' I started. I didn't even have to finish. I grabbed my pokéballs, got up and started heading back the way we came.
'Wait, Janet!' Sand-Cloud called, running after me. 'That golem could destroy you!'
'It could also destroy Luke,' I pointed out. Sand-Cloud sighed.
'Alright, let's go,' she nodded. I smiled, then turned to Gelby and my two pokémon. Gelby and Tailz were both really tired out, they wouldn't be able to go much further. But I couldn't just leave them there.
'Hey Chazz,' I said. 'Can you carry them for me?'
Chazz paused, then nodded. It bent down and picked up Gelby. It placed her on its back, between its wings. Gelby thankfully put her arms around Chazz's neck to hold on. Then Chazz pulled Tailz into its arms.
'Thanks a lot buddy,' I smiled. With Chazz carrying Tailz and Gelby, we all headed back the way we came. About ten minutes later, we made it back to the spot where Golem had attacked. And there was Luke. He didn't look too happy. It was understandable really, considering he was being surrounded by at least ten golems. Why did he always get himself into messes like this?
~Janet~
Part Twelve, Chapter Seven
Characters: Janet Harris, Sand-Cloud Pluff, Gelby Chu, Luke Smytheson, Raus the venusaur, Chazz the charizard, Tailz the vulpix
'Janet...' said Luke nervously, looking around at the giant rock pokémon that were surrounding him. 'By any chance do you think you could help me out?'
I sighed and opened up the pokéball containing Raus. My big venusaur appeared.
'Raus,' I said quietly, not wanting the golems to hear me. 'Can you try and razor leaf as many of those golems as possible?'
'Saur,' nodded Raus. It gathered up all the leaves it could find from the flower on its back, and sent them flying into the group of golems.
'Aaaahh!' I heard Luke cry. Oops.
'Um..' I said. Maybe that hadn't been the best tactic. Not only had I managed to get Luke hurt, I'd gotten the golems angry. And they knew I was there now. And well, they didn't look very friendly.
'Well done,' said Sand-Cloud.
'Sorry..' it was all I could say. And then I couldn't say anything more, because the golems were curling themselves into balls and rolling towards us at light speed. Sand-Cloud and I turned to run as Raus tried to fight them off with another razor leaf attack. It was no use, there were too many of them and they were too strong.
Just as I thought we were about to get crushed, I felt myself get pulled into the air from the back of my shirt. Freaked out, I looked down and saw the whole group of golems roll straight underneath me and out of sight. With a sigh of relief, I looked back and realised that Chazz had grabbed me my the shirt and flown into the air, lifting me out of the golems' reach. As my charizard landed again, I saw that it had also saved Sand-Cloud by pulling her into its arms and lifting her up too.
Chazz put everyone down and sat on the ground, puffing. It must have taken a lot of effort to lift me, Sand-Cloud, Tailz and Gelby! I gave my charizard a grateful hug.
'Thanks so much Chazz,' I said. 'If it wasn't for you those golems could have killed us!'
'And if it wasn't for you your venusaur wouldn't have nearly killed me!'
I suddenly remembered Luke, and rushed over to him. He was covered in cuts from the razor leaf attack Raus had used.
'Oh Luke,' I sighed. 'I'm so sorry!'
'It's OK,' he said. 'You were just trying to help.'
I gave him an apologetic smile, then pulled him up. 'Are you OK?'
'Yeah,' he said, but was probably lying. I hugged him.
'We'd better get out of this cave,' I said.
'No way, we've still got pokémon to catch!' said Luke. I laughed. Even after being accidentally attacked by Raus, he was still as determined as ever to catch pokémon! 'Are you OK Jigglypuff?'
I'd completely forgotten about Luke's jigglypuff. He bent down and picked it up. Luckily, it didn't seem to have been hurt by Raus's attack.
'Jiggly jiggly!' it said. It smiled and tried to hug Luke with its little arms. I smiled, then turned to the others.
'Come on, let's keep looking for some pokémon!' I said. I held out a pokéball and returned Raus, then we started moving again.
~Janet~
Part Twelve, Chapter Eight
Characters: Janet Harris, Sand-Cloud Pluff, Gelby Chu, Luke Smytheson, Chazz the charizard
We continued to search deeper into the Gem Caverns. We saw plenty of zubats but they always flew away whenever we came near. Luckily, we didn't find any more golems.
'It's not fair,' complained Luke. 'I didn't even get to catch one of those golems!'
'I thought they'd bring too many bad memories,' I smiled.
'No, a geodude would,' said Luke. 'Because even if it evolved to a graveler, I wouldn't be able to evolve it again without trading it, and it'd just be like my old graveler. But if I caught a wild golem it'd be different.'
'Oh OK,' I said. I paused. 'Hang on Luke, do you mean that you tried to catch that first golem we saw?'
'Er...' said Luke innocently. 'Maybe..'
'And we thought we were rescuing you from some crazy wild pokémon!' I said. 'We didn't realise it was your fault they were attacking you!'
'That's not the point,' smiled Luke. 'Come on, aren't we meant to be catching pokémon?'
I sighed and we kept looking around for more pokémon. As we got deeper into the caves it got so dark that even Chazz's tail flame hardly helped us to see. I wasn't sure we should be going that far into the caves.. what if we got lost?
'Hey guys,' said Gelby. 'Do you really think we should go much further?'
I loved it when people said exactly what I'd been thinking.
'Of course,' said Luke. 'All the rare pokémon will be deeper into the caves were most trainers don't go.'
'But it's getting late,' said Gelby. 'It's been a hard day, shouldn't we get some rest soon?'
'Hey, you're the one that got carried by a charizard for most of the time,' said Luke. 'I endured a razor leaf attack, and I'm still eager to keep going!'
'Oh be quiet Luke,' said Sand-Cloud. 'Gelby, the thing is, if we head back now, it's going to take forever to get out of here.. so we're going to have to spend the night in here.'
Gelby sighed. 'Yeah, I guess you're right.'
'We might as well set up camp then,' I said. 'We can keep going tomorrow after we've had a good rest.'
'Yeah, good idea,' smiled Gelby.
'Fine then, let all the good pokémon get taken,' said Luke.
'I thought I told you to be quiet,' said Sand-Cloud.
'Then don't blame me when all the aerodactyls get captured by trainers who thought training was more important than sleeping..' said Luke.
'Luke?' I said. 'Just shut up.'
Luke rolled his eyes.
'Besides, we're not stopping you from going further,' said Sand-Cloud. 'You're not part of the team, remember? You can go on ahead without us.'
'Aww, but I'll get scared without you Sand-Cloud,' said Luke sarcastically.
'Will everyone just be quiet and get some sleep!' said Gelby. We all laughed and within another ten minutes, we were all lying down trying to go to sleep. It was hard trying to sleep in the middle of a dark carve, on a hard cold surface when we didn't even know what time it was.
As I finally did feel myself drifting into sleep, I was sure I heard a strange scratching sound, and some kind of voices..
~Janet~
Part Twelve, Chapter Nine
Characters: Janet Harris, Sand-Cloud Pluff, Gelby Chu, Luke Smytheson, Shovel the dugtrio, Chazz the charizard, Slash the sandshrew
I woke up after a strange dream about kabutos and omanytes coming to life out of fossils and running around the cave. As I looked around, I saw that everyone else was awake.. well, everyone except Gelby, but that was expected.
'Hey Janet,' said Luke.
'Any idea what time it is?' I asked. Luke pressed a button on his watch and a small light came on.
'It's seven thirty in the morning,' he said.
'Oh, no wonder Gelby's still asleep,' I said. 'She doesn't get up in the AM hours.'
Sand-Cloud laughed.
'Come on, can't we start looking for some pokémon now?' Luke asked. I sighed and shook Gelby.
'Hey Gelby, wake up,' I said. Slowly, she opened her eyes and sat up.
'What time is it?' she yawned.
'Um.. nine thirty,' said Luke. I laughed.
'I know you're lying, but I'm awake now so I might as well get up,' said Gelby. After another few minutes, we all started travelling deeper into the Gem Caverns. Strangely, we didn't see any pokémon for hours!
We came to a large chamber which appeared to be a dead-end. The whole place was covered in rocks with strange designs carved into them. There were two dominant designs that appeared all over the chamber: one was a spiral shape, and the other was a circle with two small spots at one end.
'What is this place?' I asked, bewildered. Everyone walked around the chamber, studying the strange carvings. I'd seen them somewhere before, but where?
'These shapes look familiar,' said Luke.
'I know,' I said. I ran my hand over one of the spiral-shaped patterns, and suddenly I realised. 'Omanyte!'
'What?' Sand-Cloud asked.
'It's omanyte!' I said, pointing to the spiral. 'Look at it, this spiral represents the spiral on the side of an omanyte.'
'And the other shape is Kabuto!' said Luke. 'The circle is its shell, and the two spots are its false eyes.'
'You're right,' I said, looking at the shape.
'Do you think this means, that there are omanytes and kabutos in here?' Sand-Cloud asked.
'I don't know,' I said. 'Remember, they are classed as extinct pokémon. These carvings could have been made by some kind of ancient race, back when omanytes and kabutos were common.'
'Maybe,' said Sand-Cloud. 'But you know what that means..'
'What?' I asked.
'There must be fossils in here!' said Sand-Cloud. 'If omanytes and kabutos used to live here, their fossils must be around here somewhere.'
'I hope so,' I said. 'Hey, I know. Let's get our pokémon to help look for them!'
'Good idea!' said Luke. He took out a pokéball. 'Shovel, I choose you!'
'I don't have any pokémon that can dig,' I said, thinking through the pokémon I had with me. 'But I can get Chazz to help everyone see.'
'Char,' nodded Chazz.
'Hang on,' said Sand-Cloud. 'I have a pokémon that can dig!'
'Oh yeah!' I said. I'd almost forgotten about Sand-Cloud's pokémon! She took out her single pokéball.
'Slash, come out!' she said. Her sandshrew appeared.
'Now that we've got two ground pokémon to help dig, let's find those fossils!' I said.
~Janet~
Part Twelve, Chapter Ten
Characters: Janet Harris, Sand-Cloud Pluff, Gelby Chu, Luke Smytheson, Shovel the dugtrio, Slash the sandshrew
Shovel and Slash started to dig around, looking for any fossils they could find.
'Are you sure it's a good idea to just have them dig anywhere?' Gelby asked. 'We don't know where the fossils are.'
'Shrew!'
'Oh, don't we?' Sand-Cloud smiled. I gasped as I saw that a strange- looking rock was coming into view where Slash was digging.
'Hey Shovel, hurry it up!' said Luke. 'Try and find one before Slash does!'
I laughed, and turned back to watch Slash. After another few minutes of digging, it pulled out the strange rock.
'Sandshrew!' it said triumphantly.
'Wow,' I said. 'Do you think that's a fossil?'
'It could be,' said Sand-Cloud. 'Here Slash, show it to me.'
Slash handed the rock to Sand-Cloud. I walked over and looked at it with her. We brushed the dirt off together and pretty soon we could see a shape forming. Just then, we heard Luke call out.
'Yeah!' he said. 'Shovel, you're the coolest!'
I turned and saw that Shovel too had uncovered something. It looked a bit different to the thing Slash had found, but still looked like a fossil. Luke and got to work cleaning up the rock, and I turned back to the one Slash had found.
'I think it's a kabuto!' I said.
'I think so too,' said Sand-Cloud.
'Aww, I wish it was an omanyte,' I said. Sand-Cloud laughed.
'Don't complain, it's better than nothing,' she said. 'And that's only if we can find one of those scientists who can revive the fossils, anyway!'
'Oh yeah,' I said. I turned to Luke and saw that his fossil had a clear spiral shape on it. 'Looks like an omanyte.'
Luke nodded. 'I wanted a kabuto, but I'm satisfied.'
I laughed. 'Well come on, we'd better find a way out of this cave now!'
'Don't you want to look for more fossils?' Gelby asked.
'No,' I said. 'It's not fair on the other trainers and besides, we could be here for hours.'
'Fair enough,' said Gelby.
'Come on, let's get going,' I said. We all got up and started to head out of the cave.
Hours later, we trudged into the Pokémon Centre back at Gem Village. We were so tired after travelling through those caves all day! I happily gave my pokéballs to Nurse Joy and sat down for a rest.
'I hope we can find someone who can revive the fossils,' said Luke.
'So do I,' I said. 'Seeing an ancient pokémon brought to life would be so cool!'
'I know!' said Luke. 'I hope they're not going to be hard to train, though.'
'You and Sand-Cloud will handle it,' I said.
'What!?' Sand-Cloud exclaimed. I looked at her. 'You don't think I'm going to train that thing, do you?'
'Er, well it was Slash who found it..' I said. 'Who else is going to train it?'
'You are,' said Sand-Cloud.
'I am?' I asked.
'Yes!' Sand-Cloud laughed. 'I can barely train one pokémon Janet, I don't need another one, and especially an extinct one!' I smiled. 'Besides, the reason we went into those caves was to find pokémon for you! So you can have the fossil, I don't care.'
'Aww, thanks Sand-Cloud,' I smiled. I was even more excited about this fossil now!
~Janet~
Part Twelve, Chapter Eleven
Characters: Janet Harris, Sand-Cloud Pluff, Gelby Chu, Luke Smytheson
When Nurse Joy returned our pokémon, we asked her who we could talk to about the fossils we'd discovered. She told us that the best person to talk to was the gym leader of Gem Village. It was getting late, so we stayed at the centre for the night, and headed back to the gym to see James the next day. Luckily for us, he wasn't in the middle of a battle or training.
'Hi,' he said when he saw us. 'Didn't you lot come here the other day?'
'Yeah,' I nodded. 'We came to talk to you about some fossils we found.'
'Oh, so you visited the Gem Caverns?' James asked. 'And found some fossils? Well done!'
'Thanks,' I said. 'So, um, can you tell us what they are?'
'Hopefully,' said James. 'Let's have a look at them.'
Luke and I each took out our fossils and showed them to James.
'Yep, these are real fossils alright,' he said. He looked at my fossil. 'This one's a dome fossil.. and this one's a helix fossil.'
'Oh, that really helped,' said Luke.
'OK,' laughed James. 'For those of you who haven't studied rock pokémon, a dome fossil is a kabuto fossil, and a helix fossil is an omanyte fossil.'
'We thought that's what they were,' I smiled.
'See, you didn't even need my help!' said James.
'Well, we did,' I said. 'Because that's not the main reason we came here. We were wondering, where do you go to get these fossils revived?'
'Well it's tricky,' said James. 'Not many pokémon scientists have the technology to revive pokémon fossils, so you have to go to someone who specialises in ancient pokémon. And unfortunately, there aren't any of them around here anymore. The man who revived my aerodactyl moved to another continent..'
'Another continent!?' I exclaimed.
'Yeah,' said James. 'Well, I can give you his details in case you ever happen to go there.'
I laughed. 'Might as well.'
James gave as the scientist's name and address. I was really disappointed that we wouldn't be able to revive our ancient pokémon.. at least not for a long time! Still, I guess I had more important things to think about, like finding the next gym and earning my next badge!
We thanked James for his help and left the gym. We weren't really sure where we were headed, but we left the village and kept walking. After we'd been travelling for a few hours, Luke suddenly turned to me.
'I just thought of something!' he said.
'What?' I asked.
'If you wanted an omanyte, and I wanted a kabuto..' he said. 'And you got a dome fossil and I got a helix fossil...'
'You want to trade fossils?' I smiled.
'Yeah,' said Luke.
'Sounds good to me,' I said. I took out my fossil, and swapped it with Luke's. I now had a helix fossil, which would some day be an omanyte!
'Cool,' said Luke. 'It's like trading pokémon, but not.'
'Um, yeah Luke..' I said. 'Let's just keep going now.'
'Good idea,' said Sand-Cloud. We started moving again, still not sure where we would end up.
~Janet~
END OF PART TWELVE