This is where, in this narrative, there's a rather interesting break in tradition.
Three narratives will happen in the natural timeframe.
Two, however, will also occur in an accelerated timeframe of two hours plus. Think "time-splitting" on this one, and no I have never played one of the games. FPS? Please. They annoy me.
I'm sorry this chapter is a lot shorter, but heck life is difficult. Finals are two weeks away, and Thanksgiving break didn't help me- I had to study like mad over the five-day weekend too.
Whatever- Happy reading to all!!
Ziri was not happy.
Now, if there was one thing Ziri did not like, hated, abhorred, despised, and would reject with all demonic amounts obstinacy that he could muster, it was what was in front of him.
Water. Cold, rushing, freezing water that filled the air and his ears with the sound of liquids crashing over rock.
This is where his last hope led to?
The cave's light, while pathetic, gave him an idea of the direction of where the water ran to. From where he stood, at the end of the tunnel he'd been going to for the last thirty or so minutes, it ran from left to right. The stream turned away from where he stood as it went on, so as he craned his head he could see the rest of the stream as it flowed to wherever.
First, an experiment.
He went to the very edge of the water, knelt down, and tentatively dipped in his middle finger-
With a howl of surprise he threw himself backwards, clutching said finger.
That stuff was so cold that it hurt!
He glared angrily at the water.
He'd entertained the idea of jumping in, but the temperature he had just felt sealed the case for the resounding "No."
He'd get hypothermia in ten seconds in there, and he had no doubt that the water was fast- Who knew what he'd slam against?
Synthia was not happy- Especially after the events of the last fifteen minutes and pretty much the entire day.
It was still August, so the sun wasn't going to disappear anytime soon. And it was hot- Depressingly so, causing the group still going south to grudgingly call a consensus of an early, much needed stop. Under the shade, unlike where the trek had gone most of the day.
It was seven thirty when, mostly settled in and halfway to Union Cave, the Growlithe that had been set to the side and mostly forgotten woke up.
Hannah, having taken care of it for most of the day (And having aching arms to pay for it) was both first to notice and first to feel its incoherent wrath, when it bounded on her and bit her arm.
Being unconscious for the last eight to nine hours, however, did much to weaken its bite so Hannah, yelping and nowhere near having Ziri-esque strength, was capable of flinging it right into Gale, who in his surprise sent it flying dead into Ragnarok in the odd parody of pass-the-living-and-violent-parcel.
The curiously-colored Beldum took that without much difficulty.
What was difficult was the Ember that the Puppy Pokemon blindly spat out in the direction of where it had bounced off of.
The Iron Ball Pokemon thrashed violently in midair, to the point where it slammed into the tree in a spot right above (Conveniently) where Synthia's head was as she lay back against it for the sake of rest and relaxation.
Funny where the course of events now led...
Screaming, she immediately rolled away as Ragnarok, head stuck in the trunk of the tree simply quivered there; Urya ran over, intending to pull his best friend out of its predicament-
Ragnarok zoomed backwards having finally freed himself, the claws narrowly avoiding slicing open Urya's chest. He fell over in surprise- And no and behold, on the Growlithe that had started this mess.
For a second, nobody knew what to do as they stared at the wriggling mass underneath the twelve year-old.
Said twelve year-old solved the problem a few seconds later by rolling off.
The Growlithe bounded up, quite angered by its former role as a cushy, but had no more stamina to back it up- With a pitiful whimper, it trembled before it dropped to the side.
Hannah was the first one to run over- The rest of them were too repulsed to come over, judging from their near death experiences concerning this thing. Alex, who was currently missing from the clearing, didn't count- How could she get frightened of something that she couldn't see? Unless you were clairvoyant, but discounting that…
She gingerly picked it up, while it opened one eye and stared at her beadily, no doubt watching for any violent movements.
Now, where were some stupid berry trees. No doubt, if Ziri was here, he'd zoom away and come back in seconds toting an armful- But, mentally beating herself up for repeating the point far too many times that day, he wasn't.
"Will that thing ever stop?" Gale grumbled as he discretely began to scoot away from said Growlithe.
In response, the Puppy Pokemon spat an Ember at it, but just like at noontime the flames burned out before they got a foot from its nose.
"I don't think so," Hannah deadpanned, before this time she placed it in the middle of a thicket. It didn't have any thorns- She wasn't a sadist. Rather, it was for their own comfort that she placed it within the leaves and branches.
Did anyone want to be bushwhacked every ten minutes? At least this would hold the thing off before, Hannah knew, it got back enough of its strength to burn down the bush…
The Beta Squad was not happy.
They had come into the cave to mop up and bring back Demetri Koslov's body. Okay.
But then they were dealing with an insane Onix, second. First up was the violent Zubat that gave them so much hell and high water.
Thankfully, the second issue resolved the first, mainly by sending it flying to god knew where…
But then the second issue immediately expanded and filled the slot of the first, because in the angry thrashing of the Rock Snake the cave began to pretty much completely disintegrate in that area.
The four members, plus Jonathan's Abra who floated around in its sleep, were busy dodging ever crag of rock that would turn them into a paste if contact was made; which wasn't too hard, considering that only a few chunks were coming down every thirty seconds.
What was a problem was how big those stupid pieces were, big enough to cause the ground to rumble and in turn actually cause more of them to fall. Talk about a domino effect, except these dominoes were lethal.
Hugh had a solution- "Machop, Rock Smash!"
The Superpower Pokemon, though small of stature, jumped up and smashed an oncoming boulder with a glowing fist- Strong enough to shatter it in much smaller pieces. The one problem- Those pieces blasted out in a radial pattern, prompting the rest of the squad to yell abuse.
"Stop doing that, ya damn nitwit!"
That was Michel- A foul-mouthed, but mostly silent member of the Beta Squad. He was not one to waste words- But, obviously, when he wanted to speak he did so… Shall we say, colorfully?
By all means he was worse than Ziri's foul mouth, but it wasn't know very much, given how much he seemed mute most of the time, save in battle.
But now, when death seemed a little too close for comfort, nobody cared save Hugh. "Can't you see I'm saving our necks here-" he began angrily-
It was at that point a rock slammed into the ground no further than a foot away, causing him to scurry away behind his furiously Rock Smashing-Machop. "Quick, cover me-"
"Quit doing that!" Jackson yelled, rather frightened, "You'll kill us while you save yourself!"
Ironic that usually he'd be saying some old proverb about karma and how death would come to him if he caused death to come to them, if he had slightly more courage than his already small amount.
Despite his bulky frame, he was rather timid, to say the least…
"Aww, man up already! Those pieces are nowhere big enough to kill us-"
As he said it, a Rock Smash sent a rather sharp fragment flying right towards Hugh's head- Which barely missed.
The world literally stopped as everyone stared at the quivering shard of stone embedded in the wall- And went back to normal speed when a chunk of the former ceiling smashed into the ground on the other side of this particular cavern.
They could still hear the fury of the Onix in the opening right behind them, still sending tremors rolling through the cave-
Jonathan decided to act before they died and had nothing to act with. "Abra, Teleport us out of here!"
The Psi Pokemon only needed a second to think of a place in space-time before all the living beings there- Pokemon and humans- disappeared in a bright flash of light.
Demetri was not happy.
Being forced to babysit Ziri's Pokemon was the least of his troubles- Rather, it was the heat that forced him to take off both coat and mask and get under the cover a tree to the side of the road. At least, if anyone came through, they wouldn't see him…
And that wasn't the worst of it.
It was more like the internal turmoil that was going on inside. Had he done right in letting Ziri remain in the cave? He could have ordered one of his Pokemon to rip through the barrier of rock that separated them, two hours ago or so.
He could have ordered Gardevior to teleport through it, and then bring him over. That would have been much safer…
Except that there was one exceptional problem- Ziri had left far faster than thinking could catch up with Demetri.
Since he had done nothing, had he just consigned the boy to his death?
An hour more, Demetri decided, And I'm going back inside.
The boy was not happy. Well, more with himself than with his surroundings or anything else, but it still signified unhappiness.
He reached the entrance of the cave at eight o'clock, at night. Well, not really night, but the sun was half-way down beneath the horizon.
He had been pressing himself all day, to the point where he felt that every bone in his body was aching from exhaustion, nothing more and nothing less. Nor had he gotten any food to eat…
Starvation was good. The more you did so, the more hunger afterwards you could take.
His Pokemon- He'd simply let them out on the short, ten minutes breaks he'd taken throughout the day and let them forage for themselves. No need for him to be a babysitter, who coddled and fostered weakness.
In the back of his mind, though, he wondered If he was unconsciously but deliberately fostering a paradox.
If babysitting a Pokemon made it weak, then why did he always lose to Ziri… And by extension, Hannah? Besides, the last person was a coordinator, not a battler- He wondered if there was some hitch to his methods.
The boy knew it- Though he hated Ziri, the other teen was stronger than him.
He sat down- Hard. He knew he'd never be able to get to Union Cave in dim light, making the report shadows even more intensely black.
"Get out of find your own food," he said coldly to his two Pokemon, who immediately complied, not wanting to find out what happened if they didn't.
In the meantime, he sat there and figured out the various possibilities that the gym battle in Azalea Town would hold for him.
Apparently, this… Bugsy person as per his name was one who fanatically followed the bug-type.
Gastlys were both of the ghost and poison-type, both with resistances. Therefore, if he tried using any bug-type moves, the boy was confident of, he'd find that they would have little to no effect whatsoever.
What else was there…?
He might attempt to use some sort of psychic-type move- The boy was not stupid in guessing what moves a Pokemon could learn. Several bug-types could have a psychic-type move up their sleeve- But then he'd simply send in his Totodile and let it whale away, being the physical fighter that it was.
He'd had it all down, until another variable showed up. Fifteen minutes later.
Ziri was debating quite heavily whether to take his chances and jump or go back and find another way out.
When, however, fate decided for him.
Suddenly he heard a strange sound behind him- And a flash of blinding light.
Slowly, he turned around, and if anything his heart instantly felt a sickening sensation.
Not them…
Ziri was brave, but he wasn't stupid. He was knowledgeable and wise, which was a rare combination.
So, when he saw the Beta Squad, he realized that he had two choices.
One- Get captured by Team Rocket. Not his cup of tea.
Two- Jump into the water.
Now that was well and truly insane. He'd felt the water, and it had been so cold that it had hurt.
But he got the feeling that if he jumped in, he'd feel a lot less pain than becoming a captive of Team Rocket.
So, he whirled around, and backed up a few steps; before any of the four could open their mouths (They had been shocked to see him as well), Ziri had taken the leap of faith into the water.
It was a loud splash that was both loud and huge, to the point where it actually drenched the Abra that had gotten the Beta Squad here. By now, the Team Rocket members simultaneously yelled "Wait!"
One problem.
The current had swept Ziri off to the unknowns of the cave.
They all stood there, the remaining four, all staring at each other in openmouthed-ness.
Finally, Jackson broke the silence.
"Did… Did he just-?"
"Yeah he did, blindass," Michel snapped as he got over to the bank of the stream. "This is underground, so the water's got to be cold as he-"
He then screamed the moment his fingertip touched the water.
Ignoring the stream of profanities, Jonathan took that as a sign that the water was beyond cold. More than likely frozen…
"How's he going to survive?" he voiced out loud.
"I don't think he will," Hugh said.
Silence as they all contemplated, with a slightly sick feeling, what might happen to the teen…