Here's Chapter 29! Nothing to say other than that I hope you enjoy the read!
"You're late!" Gary hollered at Ash, leaning over the rim of the motorboat. Ash had a horrible case of bed-hair that anyone could see despite his cap. The young trainer jogged to the port, his partner Pikachu in tow. Leaf didn't say anything, but snickered as she saw Ash's wild bed-hair close up. Ash threw himself onto the nearest seat and laid back, breathing heavily. Pikachu fell at its trainer's feet and curled up to sleep.
Professor Oak didn't comment on Ash's unruly appearance. "Are we ready to leave?"
"Yeah!" Gary energetically responded for the three of them.
To Ash's surprise, Professor Oak was in the driver's seat. "Professor, you can drive a boat?"
The professor gave Ash a rare smirk, and revved the engine. It was intimidatingly loud, but the boat didn't even move since it was in neutral.
"Sit down, you three. We're heading out now. " Professor Oak said. Ash had just sat on the wooden seat as Professor Oak revved the engine again, and the boat took off.
It was only a few minutes after leaving that Ash could see the Seafoam islands. Professor Oak slowed down the boat near the rocky terrain, but it didn't take long for them to pull up on the island shore.
The maw of the dark cave was open wide as though it was going to swallow the boat. Professor Oak gave Ash, Gary, and Leaf each a hiker's bag. "In these bags you'll find a flashlight, food, Pokémon food, water bottles, potions, and a sleeping bag. You probably won't need the sleeping bag, but it's better to be safe than sorry."
Gary, Ash, and Leaf took the bags gratefully. Leaf stepped off the boat first, and Gary followed, landing directly on a small wave that lapped at the shore, splashing water onto himself and Leaf. "Damnit!" Professor Oak gave his grandson a 'parental' look but didn't comment on the rough language.
Leaf roughly punched Gary on the arm as he walked onto the dry shore. Gary didn't show emotion but Ash, from years of experience, knew his childhood friend was just putting on a tough face. Ash was about to follow Leaf and Gary off the boat, but Professor Oak put an arm on Ash's shoulder.
Ash turned around and the Professor handed him a device. It was black and looked like a flip-phone, except for the rubber button in the middle. "Just press the button if you're in danger. I would give you a phone or walkie-talkie, but we won't be able to establish even a half-decent connection from the cave. I don't expect there to be anything dangerous, but, again, better safe than sorry."
Ash nodded and pocketed the device. He jumped off the boat onto the shore and waved at Professor Oak. "We'll see you soon!" Gary and Leaf both waved at the Professor as well as he pulled out of the shore and onto the open sea.
"Ladies first." Gary 'respectfully' told Leaf. She snorted and brought out her Venusaur.
"Once we get in the cave, I want you to use Flash, alright?" Leaf told the hulking grass-type. Venusaur led the way into the cave. Gary followed with his Magneton to use Flash as well and Ash brought out his Magnemite, following his friends.
Ash took a glance back at the sea and saw little air bubbles float up to the surface. It was strange, but he thought nothing of it at the time.
"You coming, Ash?"
"Yeah!" Ash dashed after his friends, kicking up sand while Magnemite floated behind its trainer.
Right after Ash and his friends had gone into the cave, a black semicircle with goggles popped up. "Clear. Wave 2, Deploy."
As soon as the trio had entered the caves of the Seafoam Islands, they were shivering. Gary brought out his Growlithe, and Leaf brought out a new addition of hers, Ponyta. Ash brought out his Charizard, who was still using its regular fire. Ash didn't want to get Charizard started on the expectedly long process of learning a whole new type of fire right before they went on an expedition. The dragon was warming itself and its trainer, but had to regularly breathe flames to do so.
The scenery inside the cave really was impressive, which Gary and Leaf were enjoying to the fullest(Ash's mind was on other matters). The cave, while completely black without a flashlight, or better, a Pokémon with Flash, was beautiful with light. Ice and rock stalactites hung from the roof, rain droplets occasionally falling. The ground was thankfully almost clear of stalagmites, so the trainers could walk easily. The light generated from the Pokémon was reflected off the icy stalagmites, and it was beautiful in a way that couldn't be put in words.
Gary had moved to the front of the group as soon as he could see what was in front of him. His Growlithe and Magneton had followed suit, and lit up the way for the three young trainers. Charizard lurked at the back of the group, often looking over its shoulder to make sure there weren't any wild Pokémon approaching.
They walked on for a bit more, but their hike came to an abrupt stop after Gary's Magneton's Flash lit up a part of the cake that no one would have noticed otherwise.
"What happened?" Ash breathlessly asked. Even Leaf, who would usually have hit back with a snarky retort, was quiet.
Tens of wild Pokémon including Geodude, Krabby, Zubat, Golbat, and Graveler were laying in a pile, all knocked out. Wild Pokémon weren't extremely threatening, but knocking out this many took some serious skill. If it was only one trainer, anyway. There were no clues Ash could see as to whether it was a group who had come through or a single trainer. And why would they go through the effort of hiding all the fainted Pokémon bodies?
"What do we do?" Leaf asked the question they were all thinking. Even together, the three trainers didn't have enough revives to bring back a significant amount of Pokémon.
Ash sighed. "I think we move on. It's unfortunate, but we can't really do anything about it." It hurt him just as much as the next guy, probably more, to see Pokémon powerless.
Gary grunted. "I agree with Ashy boy here. It sucks that we can't do anything, but what can we do? Besides, they'll recover in time. Just be on guard. If there are trainers willing to do this, we've got to watch out." Gary followed by bringing his Blastoise out.
Ash brought out his Hitmonlee, and Leaf her Vulpix. Leaf's Vulpix was almost as large as some Ninetales Ash had seen before, and wondered when Leaf was going to get a Fire Stone for it. The nine tail stubs of Vulpix rubbed together nervously, which led to sparks and embers flying.
"Watch it!" Gary yelped as an ember fell on his pants and he kicked his leg wildly in response. He struck a stone and sent it tumbling down the cave, clattering down loudly the whole way. "That's deep down." Gary commented to break the silence.
Ash had brought out Hitmonlee partly because it had an advantage against the rock-types that were common in caves and, more importantly, because Ash felt like he had been neglecting Hitmonlee. He always knew that he hadn't been spending as much time with Hitmonlee compared to the rest of his Pokémon.
At that point, Ash's thought process was along the lines of, "HItmonlee's a fully grown Pokémon. He should be able to handle himself." Ash hadn't been wrong, considering Hitmonlee got along fairly well with most of the team, and has a especially good bond with Sceptile. The two Pokémon were fairly similar in fighting style and had similar habits.
But, the issue Ash had realized was that he wasn't training Hitmonlee as much as the others. He had devised fairly detailed "development plans" for most of his Pokémon, but Hitmonlee wasn't one of them. Charizard was working on the concept of "true fire", Sceptile was working on closing or opening space between opponents, Gabite was working on its ability to attack from long-range, and Cranidos had been practicing a unique attack that Ash had come up with. Magnemite, Exeggutor, Eevee, and Honedge also had training plans. Hitmonlee, however, was diligently training itself for the most part. Ash had fleeting ideas of what to do, but nothing concrete that he felt was ready to be put into action.
That was his fault. Ash knew he should put more time into working with Hitmonlee to prepare the Pokémon for battle. What would be the point of having a Hitmonlee if he couldn't battle with it because he didn't know about HItmonlee? Thankfully, the fighting type hadn't complained about it. Though, that was no reason to further neglect Hitmonlee's training. Simply put, Ash would be a bad trainer if he didn't train Hitmonlee.
Right now, Hitmonlee was walking at the back of the group, occasionally stretching its legs down the pit of the cave. The fighting-type was listening to something Charizard was saying and nodding its body(It didn't have a defined head). On further notice, Ash realized almost all the Pokémon were at the back, except for the Flash users ,who were distributed evenly between the three trainers, and Leaf's Vulpix, who was too scared to leave its trainer. The fire-type was practically glued to its trainer's legs.
"Lunch break?" Ash asked his fellow trainers. Gary and Leaf both nodded.
"Sure, why not? I don't think we're going to get there anytime soon. " Leaf commented.
The ground was dusty and rocky, but it was just mildly uncomfortable to sit on. Ash took off his hiking bag and took out the poke food and his food. He distributed the poke food to the Pokémon, and took a bite out of the pre-made sandwich Professor Oak had given him. It was a lumpy thing with not much flavor, but it wasn't bad either.
Ash was halfway through his sandwich when Leaf broke the silence. "So what do you think we're going to find down there?"
"Ideally, Articuno. Probably nothing though. Gramps has the habit of exaggerating things. He really wants to find something big so he looks at anything interesting that comes up." Gary responded.
Ash turned his head. Three tall men were approaching them wearing the familiar grey and blue of league officials.
"You're not supposed to be here. Leave now and we will not report this." One man said. He was wearing sunglasses and had a flashlight in his hand, which he shined directly in Ash's eyes, rather rudely. The other two men weren't wearing sunglasses but had the same build. Ash looked in their eyes and the young trainer could swear he had seen them before.
Gary stood up angrily. "Wait a minute! You guys aren't league officials, you guys are from Team Rocket! Ash, these are the guys from the Celadon base!"
The 'league officials' looked at each other for a second before sending out their Pokémon. "Weezing, eliminate these punks."
"Pidgeot, come on! Use Whirlwind and blow them away!" Gary sent out his avian, which flapped its powerful, wide wings, sending Weezing and the Team Rocket grunts into the wall.
"Arbok! Come on out and crush these kids!"
"Beedrill, attack!"
Ash and Leaf both had a hand on their poke balls but clearly didn't need too. Hitmonlee's right foot extended over twenty feet, nailing Arbok in the face. The snake reeled back and Hitmonlee took off after it. Even Ash was impressed with how fast the fighting-type could cover distance by extending its legs and pulling itself like its legs were rubber bands.
Leaf's Vulpix had lunged on the Beedrill as soon as it came in range. The fire-type jumped onto the bug and was ruthlessly biting and kicking it, not even using its fire-type abilities.
Ash looked at his Hitmonlee again, who had finished Arbok without even needing commands from Ash. Gary's Pidgeot had properly knocked out Weezing and its trainer, both of which were laying flat on the ground.
Ash moved to the two other men and called his Charizard over. Charizard stood behind Ash, intimidating the men to keep them from trying anything drastic. "Why are you here?"
One of the men started to speak, but the other elbowed him and shook his head. "Do you know what'll happen to us if we tell these kids?"
Charizard rumbled and a puff of smoke trickled out of its right nostril. "Do you want to rethink that sentence?" Ash offered.
"Team Rocket's going to capture Articuno!" The first man claimed. When his friend glared at him, he shrugged. "Anyways, it's not like these kids can stop the whole group."
Ash pulled out the SOS button Professor Oak had given him and hit it. Then, he started moving down the cave at a much faster pace than before. He knew he would need help, but no good trainer would sit still in Ash's position.
There's Chapter 29! As always, I sporadically update, but I will try to be more consistent through August. I plan to get up two chapters in the month. I have also been thinking of starting a new story based around the up-and-coming game Pokémon Legends, so let me know what you think of that. Thanks for reading!