Me: Um... I don't really know what to say, again.

Torchix: You need to stop putting these things when you don't have anything to say!

Chapter 48- Trapped.

After walking down a dangerously thin path Ruby and Co. had camped out in a cave on the Cliffside, only to wake up with no exit. Now they head off down tunnels oblivious to a sin... sin... uh, Authoress? What does that say? ... Totally oblivious to a sinister force waiting at the other end. Gee woman, sort out your handwriting!

(Play theme)

Ruby walked with her ex-vampire friends, behind Gemma (Who was currently shaking due to the cold, not fear, no, definitely not fear.)

Walter walked ahead of the two girls, shining a torch into the darkness that was threatening to envelop them all in a dark blanket that they wouldn't be able to escape from. His green eyes were constantly darting around the passage, making sure nothing would be attacking.

A few Spinarak scuttled across the walls and floors, but Torchix would generally scare them off with her loud voice. All she had to do was speak and they were off.

"How long do you think this is?" Ruby asked the teen. He looked back.

"Truthfully I don't have a clue. It could be anything from one mile to a hundred miles." He replied. Ruby groaned, her shoulder's slumping down. Torchix walked by her side, biting her trouser leg to keep up.

"Great, just great!" Gemma said exasperatedly.

"What? You scared or something?" Ruby asked innocently. Gemma shook her head vigorously.

"S-scared? I'm not s-scared. Why would I be s-scared?" she said. Ruby smirked, she grabbed her own torch and hit it against the wall, Gemma jumped and hugged onto Walter's shoulder. The other three laughed. "Not funny!"

"Sorry, I just couldn't resist." Ruby giggled. Walter tensed. "What?"

"It's getting pretty dark up here, I'm not sure if it's safe." He replied.

"We don't have much of a choice." Gemma said as she clung tighter to his arm.

***

Pearl was hanging onto Leaf's arm in a similar fashion to the brunette in the other tunnel. Leaf walked with her, leaving Yellow to hold the torch and walk ahead.

"Gee, leave a defenceless girl to lead us, thanks guys!" The latter said sarcastically.

"Defenceless? You kiddin' me? You are one of the least defenceless of us!" Leaf said, making his twin sigh. Pearl kept on hugging tighter to Leaf, hearing noises that didn't exist. "I am starting to wonder if you are made for travelling with Ruby."

"Why?" Pearl asked.

"We always end up in situations like this." Leaf shrugged. Pearl nodded in agreement.

"Hey guys? It's getting pretty dark up here." Yellow called, the duo then noticed they had ended up very far back from their third member. They ran to catch up.

"We still have to go ahead." Leaf said. "Or we can't meet up with the others."

"Do we really have to?" Pearl asked nervously. Yellow nodded. "Damn."

The group walked on, having to go into single file half way down. They seemed to be walking for hours, when in reality it had barely been one.

Suddenly they found themselves in an open rocky area, it was a cave with no exit, just like where they had been, only this was slightly smaller. They looked around, and soon after they saw Gemma, Ruby and Walter walk into the cave with them.

"Where are we?" Ruby muttered. They also saw the other members of their group, running to meet them.

***

Ciaera smirked from behind her screen, watching the group talk to each other, all wondering where they were and how they got there. She snickered when they started to argue.

"I see they are all as hopeless as each other, that idiotic psychic hasn't even noticed the extra sets of thoughts!" she sniggered. She then heard someone in the booth behind her, turning she saw a Grunt. Her face hardened. "What do you want?"

"Mistress, the Pokémon are getting restless, they really want to get out there and fight them."
"Well let them out! Let's get this thing started!" Ciaera said, clapping her hands twice. The grunt nodded and ran out. The raven haired woman turned back to the scene with a smirk on her face. "See how you fare up against these Pokémon, Ruby, I can guarantee they are a lot stronger than those idiots so called Pokémon."

***

Gemma's head snapped around when she heard a creaking. After a moment she got annoyed by the arguing disrupting her hearing, so put her hands between her best friend and boyfriend to stop it. They froze.

"Shh! Listen!" she snapped. Everyone became silent, and Gemma could hear a distinct sound of metal, like something opening up into something. "This is a trap." She said in realisation.

"What?" Yellow said.

"A trap, guys! Hurry, get down the tunnels!" Gemma exclaimed. Everyone looked confused but did so; they ran toward them, only for a metal door to clamp over each one.

The opening sound stopped; instead they heard a loud bang and growling. Ruby reached for a Poké ball.

The growling got louder and suddenly a whole bunch of Houndour and Houndoom were surrounding the now two groups. They all backed off.

"What on earth!?" Ruby exclaimed. She threw her Poké ball and Croconaw was revealed.

The others followed her lead, Gemma releasing Blaze, Leaf his Pupitar, Pearl her Prinplup, Yellow her Wartortle and Walter his Alakazam.

"Use water gun Croconaw!" the water attack hit against one of the many Houndour, but within seconds it burst back through the water, barely harmed.

"OK, Blaze, try close combat!" Gemma ordered. The Blaziken's flames grew and he leapt forward, using the powerful fighting move on the dog Pokémon. It was thrown back, but that attack was not able to be used enough to face them all.

Leaf ordered his rock type to use magnitude, in a hope that it would knock not only the Pokémon facing his trio, but also the ones going against the others. It did, but the damage was very little.

"Do you really think that such a weak group of Pokémon will be able to defeat Team Rocket's best?" Came a loud voice.

"Use ember Torchix!" Ruby yelled. Walter shook his head.

"No! It'll only make them..." he started, but the Pokémon had already fired off an attack that really did not look like ember. "That's fire spin!"

"Yes! She learnt a new move at last!" Ruby cheered, only to be shot down when the attack did nothing.

"That's what I tried to tell you! Houndoom and Houndour have an ability called flash fire, all fire attacks are absorbed and make them stronger!" Walter snapped.

"Use bubble beam Prinplup!" Pearl called, the Pokémon fired off the bubbles, dealing out more damage to one of the weaker dark/fire types. "Metal Claw!"
"Wartortle use Water pulse!" Yellow instructed.

An hour or so later and most of the Houndour and Houndoom, much to Ciaera's surprise, were down. The few that were left ran off out of fear. Ciaera growled. She stormed from the booth and into the cave.

"Hello." She said in her sinister voice. Ruby looked at her, finding something strangely familiar about her.

"Who are you?" Gemma asked. The woman brushed the hair out of her face, revealing her black irises.

"I'm Ciaera, current leader of Team Rocket." She said. "My full name is Ciaera Ketchum."

"Ketchum?" Leaf said. Ruby looked less than surprised.

"So, you're my half-aunt?" she said. Ciaera smirked.

"Yes, and I'm afraid this won't be the last you see of me, you may have defeated my plan this time, but next time we meet you won't be so lucky."

The next thing they knew they were on a path outside of the rocky area of the path.

"What...?" Pearl muttered as she looked around.

"Hey, at least we're out!" Leaf said.

"I can't believe I have one of my own family going after me..." Ruby said with a shake of her head.

Suddenly they were interrupted by someone falling out of thin air and onto the ground.

***

Me: Hehe, I just can't wait to write the next chapter, I had a snap Idea, and hope it will be up tonight. It will span at least three chapters. R&R!