9. A Spark in the Darkness

It took the two boys and their teams quite some time, but they finally managed to reach the entrance to Mt. Moon and it was a sight to behold. Mt. Moon wasn't the largest mountain ever, but standing right before it made the boys dizzy when looking up.

"That was quite the walk," Richard sighed.

The group had travelled nonstop since their last encounter with Marcel, although they did take a quick rest during the evening.

Both boys, or mostly Danny, were too excited to sleep. Not only was Mt. Moon a great grinding place and the perfect spot to capture some other species of Pokémon, it was also the last stop before Cerulean City and its gym.

"I could really go for a small break," Richard announced.

Even though Danny wanted to keep going, something in Richard's voice told Danny that it wasn't a question and that the break was in fact happening.

"Okay fine, let's settle down here for a few minutes. Ten, or maybe five."

Richard started to laugh. "You are kidding right? We're staying here for at least half an hour."

Danny sighed and dropped his baggage to the ground. While he had enough energy to climb Mt. Moon instead of passing through, discussing with Richard was a bit too much for the sleep deprived young man.

"Don't worry, Cerulean won't run away," Richard smiled as he too sat down.

The teams were happily dropping to the ground. Danny let Abra out of his ball considering the Psychic-type had fallen asleep during their walk. Beedrill found himself a quiet place in a tree, far away from Bellsprout who had woken up with a bit of a temper again.

They were camping on a grassy field, but nearby the ground became more sandy. Sandshrew ran towards it and directly dug in, enjoying the sand on his skin.

Meanwhile, Krabby still felt a bit out of place. This team was still new and while he did spend time with them the past few days, it was hard to feel included.

Beedrill and Bellsprout always had something they could fight about and Charmander had his paws full with breaking them up, while Danny had to step in occasionally as well. Sandshrew was fun to hang out with, but not his own team. And now Sandshrew was in the sand, Krabby had no place to really go to.

Charmander noticed and walked up to the River Crab Pokémon. They talked for a bit while the other Pokémon were relaxing.

Meanwhile, Richard had quickly fallen asleep. Danny, on the other hand, was sitting on the ground and watching Charmander and Krabby interact. He realised the latter hadn't done much battling yet.

"Hey Richard."

"What?" Richard reacted annoyed, without opening his eyes.

"Can we do a quick battle? I want to see what Krabby can do."

"I'm sleeping."

"Don't pretend you are asleep."

"Not pretending," Richard reacted a few seconds later as he turned around to face away from Danny.

Danny remained silent for a few seconds, before Richard opened his eyes.

"What?"

"Ah, so you woke up?"

Richard was smart enough not to react and continued his question.

"What did you want to ask?"

"Do you think it is possible to have a small little friendly battle? I want to give Krabby some battle experience."

Richard let out a large sigh, waited a few seconds and got back up.

"Fine, but remember, this means our break is on hold. Sandshrew, you want to do some battling?"

The Ground-type's head appeared above the sand and quickly jumped out.

"Krabby, lets go!"

Krabby crawled towards his trainer, leaving Charmander behind who sat next to the sleeping Abra.

The two trainers were patiently waiting for the duo to be ready for the battle. When they were, Danny was the first to issue a command.

"Attack with Bubble!"

"Sandshrew, counter it with Scratch!"

The Water-type was faster than Sandshrew and his bubbles hit the Mouse Pokémon onto the head, causing him to fall down. The latter wasn't ready to throw in the towel yet.

"Rollout," Richard ordered.

"Krabby, dodge it!"

Sandshrew curled up and started rolling, gaining more and more speed as he rolled. The Ground-type had complete control over its movement and used small hills, rocks and trees to change direction.

All of this was going too fast for Krabby to keep track off.

"Attack with Bubble!"

Krabby's bubbles hit Sandshrew but did rarely any damage while Sandshrew hit Krabby hard in the centre.

Using a rock Sandshrew turned back and hit Krabby in the back before the Water-type had recovered from the first hit.

Krabby fell down face first to the ground, while Sandshrew kept going. Danny quickly realised he wasn't going to win this, Krabby's responses weren't quick enough. Meanwhile, he felt like Krabby didn't deserve to get a beating like this.

"Stop the match," Danny said.

Richard looked up. "But no-one won yet?" He looked confused, Danny always went for the win.

"I don't think Krabby is ready to face you and Sandshrew yet," Danny responded.

Sure, Richard and Sandshrew hadn't battled together before either, but where Sandshrew had some experience in this department, Krabby had none.

"Okay. Sandshrew, you're off the hook. Good job buddy!"

Sandshrew nodded and ran back towards the sand, where Squirtle was waiting to play.

Danny knelt down besides Krabby, who was a bit dizzy.

"Don't worry about it Krabby, we'll train some more in Mt. Moon. You'll be stronger in no time."

Krabby nodded, although he was visibly disappointed to have lost the match.

"So, let's continue with our break. Where was IAAAHH!" Richard suddenly shouted, as he turned around to suddenly be face to face with a Geodude, floating in the air.

"Can anyone tell me why there is a Geodude this close to my face?" He asked while trying to make no sudden movements that could set the rock type off. Geodude was just floating there, looking in Richard's eyes with an interested look on his face.

"I'm sorry, Geodude, back down a bit."

A man walked towards the two of them. He seemed to be in his late 20's. He was shaven and wore shorts and a brown t-shirt. He had a large backpack, which he now placed on the ground.

"Sorry for my Geodude, he can be a bit, how do I say it.., addicted to humans."

Richard, who was relieved he didn't get a punch in the face, waved the apologies away.

"I'm Raider by the way, I'm here to clear Mt. Moon. My guess is that you two are trainers on their way towards Cerulean City?"

"Yes that's right. I'm going to challenge the Cerulean Gym Leader," Danny said. "I'm Danny by the way and my friend is Richard."

Raider's happy expression cooled down. "I'm afraid I have some bad news for you. There has been a collapse somewhere in Mt. Moon and the entrance is blocked a little while in."

Danny scratched his head. "So you are saying we can't go through Mt. Moon?"

"I'm afraid not. At least not right now."

That was a bummer for Danny. He had hoped they would've arrived in Cerulean during the evening so he could challenge the gym leader tomorrow. A day hadn't gone by that he hadn't taken the Boulder Badge into his hands and rubbed it until it sparkled, he couldn't wait for a second badge to get the same treatment.

"Well it is nice meeting you guys, but duty calls. If I were you I would travel back towards Pewter City, you'll get there by tomorrow evening. There's no way I'm going to get this done without the back-up I requested."

"Wait I think you are mistaken. We just came from Pewter City but it has been at least ten days. Granted, some of those days we made no progress but still," Richard said, completely puzzled.

"Yeah if you take the main road. I know a side road that will get you there much, much faster. Not many people know about it though, I bet it isn't even on the map," Raider reacted.

While they were discussing how long it would take to get to Pewter, Danny had other thoughts.

"You know what, we don't have anything better to do. What would you say if we would help you?"

Raider looked up, pleasantly surprised. "I would say that I would be really thankful, but I can't ask you guys to do that. Besides, I don't think you are up for these tasks, no offense."

Danny waved his comment away. "Sure we are! Nothing beats a good workout and I'm sure my team feels the same, right guys?"

The entire team nodded. Charmander quickly shook Abra awake who put a thumbs up, not knowing what he was agreeing too.

"So I guess breaktime is officially done now?" Richard asked softly.

"Don't worry, you can sleep in Cerulean City," Danny answered with a wink, after which he followed Raider into Mt. Moon.

"Ah okay…" Richard walked towards the mountain and swallowed.

There were candles on the walls to make sure people could see where they were walking, but it was still dark.

Squirtle noticed Richard's hesitation and jumped forward, happily waving Richard to follow. Seeing Squirtle entering gave Richard some courage and he stepped forward into the dark.

The little group had to walk for a solid five minutes before they found the blockade: the ceiling hadn't collapsed, but there were cracks that allowed multiple boulders to fall through. All and all it wasn't as terrible as Raider had thought.

He was about to tell the guys he might have this problem fixed, when he saw beyond the first boulders. A little further down the road the ceiling had collapsed and massive rocks were blocking the path.

"Well, it seems like we got a larger roadblock up ahead, that is going to take a while," Raider sighed. "But we can start here if you guys are up for it."

Richard felt his stomach turn when he heard Raider's conclusion, but tried to breath slower to control his heart beat, which only helped for a bit.

"We'll help, right Richard?" Danny asked. Richard had told Danny vaguely about his fear of closed rooms, but it barely came up so Danny hadn't thought about it.

It wasn't like the duo talked about anything deep, it was mostly the shallow stuff that came up.

"I think we should keep our voices down, because I don't know how strong this ceiling is," Raider whispered.

The two boys nodded, while Richard started to quiver. The three humans and their Pokémon, Raider had let out another Geodude to help, worked hard to get the rocks away. The first pile was easy. It didn't lean onto the ceiling and was pushed aside in no time.

They barely talked because they feared the ceiling might come down, so Richard was left alone with his thoughts. He kept looking up to the ceiling, which seemed to close in on him every time he checked it out. At the same time he feared it would come down and bury them all in the mountain. He felt he started to quiver more.

"Are you alright Richard?" Danny asked. He noticed Richard looked a bit pale.

"Yeah, sure. I'm fine."

"I've got a gnawing feeling, like I know what's wrong," Danny thought to himself, but couldn't find out what was the actual problem.

Meanwhile, Raider started investigating the next pile, which did seem to support the ceiling.

"I can't start with this until I have some constructions in place. If we pull the wrong rock, the entire thing might come down"

The two boys nodded, it seemed like they were done for now. Disappointed and, in Richard's case, they made their way towards the exit.

All but Bellsprout, who hated losing. He looked up to the large pile and thought to himself: I am a Grass type. These are rocks. I have the type advantage so I should win.

He released two vines and started taking away rocks.

"Hey, don't do that!" Raider shouted as he ran back.

Danny looked around and saw what Bellsprout was doing.

"Stop it Bellsprout!"

Bellsprout pulled another rock away before hearing his trainer and finally accepting defeat.

"Good, I think it will stay intact," Raider said.

"I don't think so!" Richard suddenly screamed, as dust came down from the ceiling. It sounded like the mountain was roaring.

"Run!" Raider shouted, resulting in him coughing due to the dust.

They ran as fast as they could, but the ceiling was too damaged and way before them rocks started to come down.

Raider was the first to realise they weren't going to make it.

"It's going too fast. Get down on the ground!"

Everyone dropped to the ground, worried about what might come next.

"Geodude, keep these rocks from crushing us!"

In the air, the Geodude started breaking rocks that were on their way to hit the humans, or redirected them, but things started falling down fast.

"I think you two should re-call your Pokémon."

Danny and Richard nodded, but Bellsprout refused. He felt guilty that his ego had brought them in this position and jumped up, trying to help once again.

This time, however, it seemed to work. His vines smashed away rocks that the two Geodude missed.

While Squirtle was recalled, Sandshrew had decided to help out as well. Being a Ground-type, the rocks that fell on him didn't hurt as much and he had dealt with stuff like this before.

The three humans were lying there for a good ten minutes, living on the edge of hope and fear. Meanwhile, the four Pokémon were doing their absolute best to keep the rocks away from them. They were doing an amazing job, because not a single rock made its way towards the three trainers.

After a while, the avalanche of rocks started to slow down, less rocks started falling until it completely stopped.

All that time, they had been partly holding their breath, expecting a large boulder to hit them any second, but none did.

Well, one did. A tiny boulder hit Raider's ankle, which he was rubbing when he asked if Danny and Richard were okay.

"We're fine, but are you?"

Raider nodded. "It's just a bruise."

One of the Geodude looked a bit ashamed, but Raider directly made sure those feelings were gone.

"You guys did amazing. I have no idea how many rocks and stuff fell down and you stopped all of them from hitting us."

Geodude instantly felt better.

Who wasn't feeling good, was Richard. He was now sitting in a corner, all curled up. Tears were silently running down his face.

Danny saw and immediately ran forward.

"Richard, are you hit?"

Suddenly, Danny realised why Richard had been afraid all this time.

"Rocky Mountains, five years ago."

It was something that happened in the real world. Something Danny had completely ruled out right now, but it seemed like trauma's passed on into this world as well.

"Is this about what happened five years ago?"

Richard slowly nodded.

Raider noticed and well and asked what happened back then. Richard wiped away his tears, being a bit embarrassed by them, and started explaining as well as he could.

"W-well, it was five years ago. I was in Mt. Moon with my dad and mom and then something happened, and a few rocks came down. My parents and I were separated, they were on the side with the exit, and I was locked into the Mountain. I was stuck for two hours, it was the most terrible hours of my entire life."

"You don't need to worry now, okay? You are not alone this time," Danny reacted, placing his hand on Richard's shoulder.

Richard nodded and smiled. "Thanks Danny."

Raider decided to say nothing, this was an important moment for the two friends it seemed.

After a few seconds, he decided he should tell the boys the whole story.

"Listen up, this is our situation right now. I won't be sugar-coating it and it won't be fun, are you two up for it?" Raider asked, the last part mostly directed at Richard, who nodded.

"Good. The oxygen level here will drop quickly, so we can't stay in here for long. I noticed that there is a giant rock right above up, only supported by the wall of rocks around us right now. If we pull out the wrong rock, it will come down on us. It is too heavy for my Geodude to smash or catch, so would be our end."

"You weren't kidding when you said you wouldn't sugar-coat it," Danny said with a faint smile. Dark rooms never bothered him but this was scary as hell. In fact, they were in serious danger.

Richard had another question: "How big is the chance we will survive this? And tell it to me straight, I can take it."

Raider scratched his hairless chin. "I don't know, I've never been in a situation like this before. I do know we should talk as little as possible and breathe carefully."

The two boys nodded.

"Don't make moves you don't need to. For now, I think it is best we start to take down this wall between us and the exit, but be careful which rock you pull! Maybe we can create a small exit that will allow us to escape while also keeping that boulder up there."

They walked up to the wall, but as it was pitch black inside, they could hardly see what boulder they could and couldn't push.

"Danny, could you send your Charmander out again?"

"Are you sure?" Richard asked. "Charmander's flame will consume even more oxygen."

Raider nodded. "I know, but if we can't see anything we might pick the wrong boulder and be done with as well. We need the light."

Danny let Charmander out, who directly noticed the dire situation they were in. Meanwhile, Danny noticed Bellsprout was standing in the corner, feeling guilty.

"Hey," Danny whispered. "Don't beat yourself up, okay? People and Pokémon make mistakes, it is part of life. You tried your best, you didn't know the consequences."

Danny hugged with Bellsprout, who felt a bit more relieved. For himself, he made a vow he would never do something this reckless again.

The duo quickly joined Raider, Richard and their Pokémon in slowly tearing down the wall. The smaller rocks laid loosely onto some larger rocks and could easily be taken away. But that didn't help them a bit. Meanwhile, Raider felt what rock was actually supporting the wall and large boulder up top. The ones that didn't he pulled out, holding his breath every time he pulled one away.

However, with oxygen running short, they were quickly left on the ground. Too exhausted and oxygen deprived to work.

"This.. isn't… good," Raider panted. "If we don't work… We won't be able to… get yout."

Danny nodded, sitting down with his back against the wall.

"You said your friend…. was coming right?"

"Yes… but I don't know if he…. will make it in time."

Danny wanted to answer but couldn't muster the strength to do so, instead he just nodded.

Meanwhile, Richard was staring at the ceiling, the large boulder was lying there, ready to crush them. He thought back to the incident a few years ago.

He remembered bits and pieces but one thing that he did remember as clear as day was how scared he was. That fear had kept him from going into another mountain ever again. The entire reason he wanted to take that large break was because he was too afraid to enter the mountain again and yet here he was, stuck again.

This time, however, the room was even smaller. 5 years ago he could wander through the entire mountain. That's how the authorities found him, they went in on the Cerulean entrance.

Now, all hope was lost.

Sandshrew had stopped moving the rocks away as well. Not that he was in desperate need of oxygen, he was used to having less, but he didn't know which rocks he could take away. He seemed to feel his trainer's fear and curled up beside him.

They slowly closed their eyes, as they were about to fade away into a dream they wouldn't wake up from, when they heard a sound coming from outside.

"Is anyone in here? Hello?" A familiar voice shouted.

Danny opened his eyes.

"That's Brock!" He said in a cracked voice.

"Brock, we are here!" Danny tried to shout, but couldn't.

Raider tried as well, but not much more than a crack came out of his mouth.

Meanwhile, Brock had kept calling out. With no reactions, he shrugged his shoulders and turned around to face his Onix.

"It seems like Raider isn't here and no other travellers have been caught in the accident. Let's slowly start taking down this wall."

Onix nodded and made itself ready to smash its horn into the wall, when Brock suddenly yelled 'Wait'.

He stepped forward and squinted his eyes.

"Do you see that?"

Onix didn't react.

"There's a light in there, throughout the rocks. There are people inside!"

Inside, they could barely hear Brock. They heard him yell, but nothing after. Until they did.

"I know you are in there. Onix and I will try to get you out!" Brock yelled, causing the three humans to sigh in relief.

Their brains didn't function to the fullest anymore and their eyes actually hurt when small bits of light poured into the cave.

Brock and Onix were working extremely careful. Onix used its size to keep the wall in place, while Brock took away some large rocks.

Within a minute, Brock took away the last rock that was between the outside world and the people trapped inside. He could now also see the trio.

Not that they cared, they could finally breathe again.

"Slow down," Brock warned. "Don't take in a lot of air at once or your lungs won't be able to take it."

Raider, who knew this and was doing this, slowly nodded. Brock looked at the two other faces and recognized both.

"Is that you Danny?"

Danny looked up and slowly nodded. "We were about to cross Mt. Moon." He was happy to hear his voice didn't sound as cracked up as before.

Raider realised this as well. "We need to work slowly Brock, or we will be crushed."

Brock looked inside a bit better and noticed the large rock above them. He whistled.

"Yeah that might be a problem. To make this hole larger I need to take away quite a few rocks, I don't think this wall will last, even with Onix keeping it up."

"Maybe Geodude can keep it in place from this side?" Danny asked.

"That might not be such a bad idea," Raider answered and he nodded towards the Geodude, who immediately started supporting the weaker spots.

Meanwhile, Brock and Raider started taking out rock after rock, while Danny and Richard were watching from the side. The wall started to shake and dust came down, but the three Rock-types managed to keep it in place.

The hole became larger and larger and the first Pokémon managed to slip out. After them, the three humans crawled out. It was tight, but Brock helped pull them towards the exit. They noticed they were actually right near the entrance.

"I will recall my Geodude now, step away cause this boulder will start another avalanche."

Everyone stepped closer towards the forest's edge as Raider returned both Geodude into the Pokéballs. With a loud roar, the large boulder fell down, causing a lot of dust to blow out of the mountain.

Richard didn't even notice it and was on his knees, kissing the crass beneath him.

"Someone is happy to be out," Brock said with a smile. But he also realised that if he had come a little while later, he would be carrying out three bodies.

"So Richard, where will we go now?"

Richard looked up and saw Danny looking serious.

"I mean, we don't have to go through Mt. Moon again, there might be another place we can travel to instead."

Richard realised the sacrifice Danny was willing to make here. He was willing to delay his next gym challenge by weeks, maybe months. That would quite possibly mean he wouldn't even be in time for the grand tournament.

He didn't want Danny to make such a sacrifice.

"No we'll go through the mountain, but only after Brock and Raider can guarantee it is safe," Richard said, before adding: "but after that I'm never entering a mountain again in this lifetime."

That was an agreement Danny could live with.

Brock, Raider and their teams worked tirelessly throughout the night to clear the entrance, as it was still a dangerous situation considering people coming from Cerulean wouldn't even know about this collapse and might walk into a bear trap.

The large rock had split into four pieces upon hitting the ground. Onix managed to get all four parts out of the mountain in no time.

After the tunnel was cleared, they built support bars around the entrance and further into the tunnel, making sure the tunnel wouldn't collapse anytime soon.

"It seems like it was only the entrance part that collapsed. We didn't go too deep into the mountain, but it seems fine," Raider said while they were enjoying the breakfast Richard made. "These toasts are great by the way."

"I think it is safe, what do you say Brock?"

The Gym Leader slowly nodded. He had bags under his eyes, so did Raider, but he was still filled with energy.

"I think so, the rest of Mt. Moon was unharmed and the bars we made are strong enough to keep things in place, although most of the ceiling didn't come down, only the middle part.

Danny looked at Richard. "So what do you say, do you want to go through it?"

Richard nodded. "If Brock and Raider say it's okay, then I trust them."

Brock and Raider both nodded.

After breakfast was done, both men were getting ready to get some sleep. Brock told the two trainers he had left Forrest in charge of the gym.

"Thanks a lot for saving our lives," Danny said, but Brock waved his thank you away.

"You saved my brother, remember? The way I see it we are even."

"Well I won't forget this, thank you," Richard said seriously.

They didn't want to keep the two up any longer and quickly waved goodbye, before entering Mt. Moon once again. Back into the Entrance of Horror. As soon as they were inside, Richard started running.

"Where are you going?" Danny asked, confused.

"Getting as fast as I possibly can out of this entrance."

Danny laughed and ran after them. Their teams were in their Pokéballs so they didn't have to worry about small feet not being able to keep up. Soon, they were swallowed by the dark, but away from the entrance. On the way to Cerulean.