Pokemon 101

Season 1-Kanto

Chapter 36-Rock Tunnel

"...I've got a question."

"Shoot."

"WHY are we walking everywhere when we can do this again?"

Anne folded her arms with a slight huff after this question, leaning from behind Demitri to look at Ranoku, who currently sat at the base of Salamence's neck. The foursome were currently suspended high in the air on the Dragon-type's back, currently leading them high above the roads they would otherwise be traversing. Demitri sighed lightly and shook his head, mumbling, "Even I know the answer to this..."

"Because then it would be too easy," Ranoku replied, taking a sip from his drink. "Flying everywhere, you'd miss the opportunity to train and catch new Pokemon."

The little girl began to frown slightly and sighed, hanging her head as Demitri leaned back to glance at her. "Knew it."

"Tch, alright, alright..." the girl mumbled with a pout, narrowing her gaze. "Then why ARE we flying if you want us to walk everywhere anyway?"

Ranoku began to smile slightly and crushed his now empty can in his hand. "'Cause it takes too long heading back to Cerulean. Wanna make good time."

A vein popped from Anne's head and she gave off a slight groan, hanging her head as Demitri looked down, furrowing his brow. "So basically, we're only going to fly if it involves skipping over places we've been before."

"Pretty much!" Ranoku remarked cheerily, reaching into his satchel and pulling forth another can, snapping it open. Before he could take a sip, however, he suddenly gave off a small gag and leaned bag, using his other hand to grab at his neck, giving a cough and grunt. "Gack!"

Demitri and Anne both looked up in surprise, watching as Ranoku tossed about, gagging and grunting. "What happened?" Anne asked in alarm, leaning forth with a cocnerned expression.

"Probably swallowed a bug," Demitri mumbled blankly, rubbing his eyes with a sigh. "Dumbass...shouldn't open his mouth that wide."

Ranoku continued to toss about with a gag and cough, Anne inching forth and grasping her arms around his waist, attempting to force whatever was causing him to cough out. "C'mon! Get it out!"

Demitri retained a stoic expression as the repeated squirms caused the duo to lose their balance, beginning to fall off the side of Salamence's back with a loud yelp. Demitri's unimpressed expression turned into surprise as he looked over the side, just in time to notice Salamence glance at the duo from the side of its eye, winding back its claw to snag Ranoku by the collar of his shirt, leaving the teen and Anne now dangling from below through the air, the girl clinging to his waist. "...morons."

A few more coughs and Ranoku cleared his throat, groaning and letting his tongue hang out. "Bleh...don't worry, I swallowed it."

"Ew," Anne mumbled blankly, looking down at the ground with the same unusually serious expression. "...now, can we please GET BACK DOWN SO WE DON'T GO SPLAT?"

"Alright, alright," Ranoku mumbled blankly, waving a hand about. "Salamence, take us in, we're at Cerulean anyway."

The Dragon-type obeyed and began to dive back down towards the ground, soon coming close enough that Anne and Ranoku were able to touch the ground, both dettaching and staggering to a halt while Salamence landed. Once it had come down, Demitri slid off with a stretch and grunt, closing his eyes and sighing. "Alright, we're here, now..."

"We go east," Ranoku replied, returning Salamence to its Ball and turning in the direction specified. "We need to arrive at Rock Tunnel, and from there, we go south into Lavender Town."

Demitri and Anne exchanged a glance and began to walk after Ranoku. It didn't take very long at all for the formerly uniform road to become considerably more uneven and rocky, the rock walls of a canyon making themselves known to the trio. "R-Rock...Tunnel...?" Anne echoed, giving a slight gulp and shiver. "Isn't it that one cave..."

"Darker than your average cave," Ranoku replied, glancing at Anne as the girl's eyes widened, a noticeably anxious expression overtaking her. "Unlike Mt. Moon, which sees a bit of exploration and excavation, Rock Tunnel is almost entirely untouched. People are working on fixing that, but until then..."

Anne meeped nervously and quivered, wincing and looking up at Ranoku slightly. "I g-guess...w-we can't fly over that, h-huh..."

"Nope!" the teen replied, hopping up a nearby outcropping and glancing at Demitri and Anne. "Now c'mon, pick up the slack you two! We wanna make it to Rock Tunnel before nighttime! I prepared for that on the schedule anyway, but it's interchangeable!"

Demitri grumbled lightly as he clambered up as well, noticeably slower. Anne hopped up as well and sighed, hanging her head in irritation. "He just has to make everything so much harder..."

"Hey, he's your teacher..." Demitri grumbled, panting and flopping onto the outcropping, standing back up with a groan.

"He's your teacher too now, ya know," Anne replied, glancing at Demitri with a slight frown. "If you don't wanna put up with him, then make like a banana and split!"

The teen glanced back at her with an annoyed expression, beginning to follow along the path Ranoku had left, Anne following after him. The duo looked up; Ranoku had gotten fairly far ahead of them, seemingly not noticing that they were lagging behind. "I don't have too much of a choice, I don't know my way around Kanto as well, and I'd rather not waste time being lost."

Anne folded her arms with a bit of a sigh and rolled her eyes, beginning to walk ahead of Demitri, nose in the air. "Hmph, you're sounding awfully incompetent right now..."

"What's your excuse?" Demitri suddenly asked, causing Anne to freeze in place, Demitri unable to see her suddenly blank expression. The teen approached her from behind, looking down at the top of her head with a serious gaze. "You're making yourself sound very competent, so why stick around with someone as infuriating as Ranoku?"

A few moments passed in silence, both remaining silent until Demitri closed his eyes, beginning to walk past Anne, back on the path. He began to climb up a nearby rock obstructing the path, mumbling lightly, "Thought as much. You're either not as confident as you say you are, or-"

"It's a very personal reason, jerkface," Anne suddenly remarked rather sharply, beginning to clamber onto the rock next to Demitri. The teen glanced at her, the two exchanging a moment of serious contemplation. "You wouldn't be able to appreciate it."

Demitri opened his mouth to speak, however, Anne promptly ignored him and began to clamber up the rock, leaving Demitri to look after her. Rather than argue the situation, he simply sighed and began to climb up after her, mumbling flatly, "Hmph...whatever..."

Further up ahead, Ranoku continued to walk, currently with his head buried in a magazine, humming to himself. Despite seemingly not paying attention to where he was headed, Ranoku expertly hopped over each crevice and onto each rock, as if he had memorized the path. "Hm?"

The teen came to a halt upon turning to the next page in his magazine, furrowing his brow in thoughtfulness. On the page was an image of four figures; a red-haired woman in glasses, a tall, dark-skinned, muscular man, a shorter, older woman in a purple dress, and a red-haired man in a black jumpsuit, a cape drooped over his shoulders. The top of the article read "Elite Four in Indigo League"; seemingly entranced by the contents of the page, Ranoku stopped his walking and leaned against a rock, not noticing Demitri and Anne beginning to approach, panting heavily.

"Gah...there you are..." the girl panted, finally staggering in front of Ranoku in annoyance. "Why'd you leave us there like that?"

She wound up a fist in preparation to smack Ranoku, however, the teen moved away from the rock, leaving Anne to swipe at nothing but thin air and topple onto her front with a dull thud. "Interesting..."

Demitri looked up with a faint pant and began to approach Ranoku, raising an eyebrow in curiosity. "You know, I never pegged you as the type to actually read..."

"Gotta keep up on what's going on somehow," Ranoku replied as-a-matter-of-factly, turning to Demitri. "In fact...this little tidbit happened to catch my attention."

The teen twirled his magazine around and showed off the article to Demitri, who leaned forth and shifted about his glasses to get a better look at it. "The Elite Four...? I've heard my parents mention them before..."

"Supposedly four of the most powerful Trainers in Kanto," Ranoku explained, twisting the magazine back to him and smacking it with the back of his fingers. "Awfully famous for their skill and power..."

Anne gave off a small cough and began to sit up, brushing some of the dirt off of her and looking up. "Doesn't...every major region have an Elite Four...?"

Ranoku nodded and glanced back at her, beginning to grin slightly. "Yup...and according to this article, this year's Indigo League is going to feature the Kanto Elite Four competing. The different Leagues sometimes feature that region's Elite Four amongst the ranks...fortunate for us that they happened to choose this one, mm?"

"How is that fortunate?" Demitri asked, raising an eyebrow. "If they're that good, then it decreases our chances of winning by quite a bit, methinks..."

This was met with a knowing chuckle from Ranoku, who moved a finger in Demitri's face and waggled it about. "Silly Demitri, being able to compete along the Elite Four is good enough! Besides, what have I said about-"

"Just a title, yeah, yeah, I know," Demitri mumbled, waving a hand about to try and move Ranoku's finger away from him. "Forget I asked."

"Forgetting!" Ranoku remarked, twisting around on one of his heels. "Now come on, we need to get moving!"

"Can't we rest for two minutes?" Anne groaned in annoyance, a vein popping from her head. "This place is hard to maneuver, we're gonna run ourselves ragged!"

Ranoku turned back to Anne once more, folding his arms with a sigh. "Anne, please, we need to hurry up, the afternoon's coming along fairly-"

The teen didn't get to finish his comment as a rather loud, rhythmic beeping noise that caused everyone to look at Ranoku. He quickly reached into his pocket and pulled out a small, yellow, oval-shaped device, a black clip on the back and a blinking blue light on the front. "A Pokenav...?" Demitri mumbled blankly, blinking. "That's a model all the way from Hoenn..."

Ranoku flipped open the upper half of the device, peering into the glowing screen. His formerly dopey expression immediately turned into seriousness, which went far from unnoticed by Demitri and Anne. "...I've gotta take this. Go ahead and rest up, we're almost out of the canyon."

The older of the two pupils went to speak up, however, Ranoku had hopped behind a nearby rock before he could say anything, leaving Anne and Demitri by themselves, an awkward silence reigning in the area. "...what do you think that was all about?" Demitri murmured, glancing at the shorter girl with an exasperated expression.

Anne only shrugged with a sigh, while Ranoku continued to squirm his way into an out-of-the-way hiding place, pressing a few buttons and placing the device to his ear. "Hello?"

"Ranoku. I assume you've seen the article in today's issue of Pokemon Insider, yes?"

The voice prompted Ranoku to look down at the folded up magazine in his grasp, and he slowly nodded. "Yeah...about the Elite Four?"

"We're having a meeting to discuss this turn of events...because you're more restricted in your travel methods for...obvious reasons, and based off of your current location, we've decided to hold it in the abandoned Power Plant down the river in Route 10. Think you can make it?"

Ranoku pursed his lips and slowly glanced in the direction of Demitri and Anne, the duo currently taking the time to rest up; the former was drinking from a water bottle, while the latter was currently using a feather duster to brush the dirt from her outfit. "...yeah, I think I can make it."

"Good. We're expecting you in an hour." With this comment, the voice abruptly cut off, leaving Ranoku to pull the Pokenav from his ear, staring at the now blank screen before flipping it closed and sliding it back in his satchel.

The teen stepped back into the clearing Demitri and Anne had been waiting in, both looking up at him as he approached. "There you are," the former mumbled, standing up and wiping his mouth of excess water. "What was that about?"

"Nothing," Ranoku replied rather bluntly, turning towards the pathway they were progressing along. "Schedule just encountered a little change. We need to get moving, NOW."

Anne stowed her feather duster back into her satchel, looking up at Ranoku with a raised eyebrow. "What? Why?"

"Doesn't concern you," Ranoku replied, now reaching into his satchel. "Now since we won't be able to make it in the time I'm looking at, we're going to fly again."

Demitri raised an eyebrow once more and stood up, beginning to approach Ranoku cautiously. "What happened to not-"

The teen didn't get to finish his question when Salamence was unleashed, the dragon snatching the unprepared Demitri and Anne up, Ranoku hopping onto its back as the creature shot through the air. "Hmmm..."

On a much higher portion of the cliff overlooking the canyon, the familiar, dark-haired figure of Ilohe lowered the pair of binoculars she was using to peer on the trio, raising an eyebrow in curiosity. "They're certainly leaving in a hurry..."

"See, if they can fly everywhere, why don't they just do that as opposed to walking everywhere?" This question came from Zack and Hayden behind her, the teen glancing back at them with an unimpressed expression.

"Ranoku's a real stickler for working hard, so he only resorts to flying when he has to get somewhere in a hurry, or in an emergency," Ilohe explained, glancing back at Zack and Hayden with a serious expression. "Which means something is up...and I have a feeling I know what it involves..."

The teen turned back towards the canyon, her gaze trailing to the satchel she had set on the rock in front of her; a copy of the exact same magazine Ranoku had been looking through rested in front of her, on the exact same article that had caught Ranoku's attention. "And if that's the case..." Ilohe began to smirk rather widely. "...then I think I know where he'll be."