Chapter Nine
Emily
I did a double take when I heard Max's voice calling to us from high ground. We hadn't seen him since the incident with the monster in the Forbidden Cave and had consequently given him up as lost. But apparently not.
"Max!" You're alive!" I called as I hurried up the slope.
I led Max to safety and the others were so relieved to see him alive that we decided to through a party at the camp and broke open a bottle of berry juice which Jane had made. Then, just as things were beginning to warm up, Faye came running up to us, babbling something about some tunnels she'd found. "You guys gotta come see this!" she told us.
Faye
I led everyone to the hole. "Flaaffy disappeared down there," I told them.
So you're going to risk our lives for your Pokemon?" Marle asked before I could say anything else.
"No," I said with my hands on my hips. "But there's other stuff down there and it's something . . . Well, we have to find out what it is because it's important!"
Marle scoffed. "Your psychic powers tell you this?"
"Partly - they . . ."
"How do we know you're not lying?"
"Lying? Why would I . . .?" I began but quickly stopped. "Marle, you have to accept . . ."
"Me? Accept this?" She said with a laugh. "You're the one who hasn't accepted anything you've been told, always finding out there's something more. Why should we trust your word?"
Marle
Sensing my emotions as usual, Ninetales appeared at my side, growling and bristling. So it all came down to this. This would determine our futures and they didn't look too promising if the others decided to follow Faye and her delusions. I only hoped they would see the light and realise what a liar Faye was.
"You see?" I shouted. "No answer! You've been lying to us all along!" I turned my back on Faye to face everyone else. "I told you before! She's a fraud! Are you going to listen to her propaganda and lies? She could be leading us all to our deaths! Now, make your choice: follow me or her!"
Emily
"No!" I told Marle firmly. "We've got to stick together! I know you don't trust Faye, but something tells me what she's been saying is true. So . . ."
"Not you as well, Emily!" Marle scoffed. "I thought you'd have more sense than to swallow her tripe!"
"Like that stuff about me being an alien?" I shot back. "Was that tripe? You saw what happened the other day, how I scorched that tree. And how could I have done that if I wasn't a Fire Valdasian like Faye said?"
Marle looked as if she was about to argue some more, but, before she could say anything, Jack grabbed her by the sleeve and dragged her along with the rest of us.
It was cold in that cave and so dark that Faye had to use her flashlight to light the way. I shivered slightly, pulled my jacket tight round my shoulders and checked Meowth and Eevee were all right before following after the others.
As we progressed deeper underground, I began to notice things, little things that I wouldn't have paid attention to normally but which seemed out of place in this alien cave. In fact, there was something artificial about the place, as if someone had hollowed it out. But who (or what) could have done it and where were they now?
Faye
I held my flashlight in front of me. It was blinking and I hoped the battery wouldn't burn out. Supposedly, this flashlight wasn't charged by solar energy or batteries but had all the energy it needed. This confused me no end, but I had until now accepted it as a matter of fact. "Crud!" I muttered as I realised that, if the flashlight went out, we'd be stranded in the dark.
"Don't tell me your flashlight is gonna go out," said one of the others.
I nodded.
"That's brilliant!" Jack exclaimed. "We'll be in a darn good scrape if that happens! But, maybe, we'll lose the Wobbuffet . . . In that case, why don't you just turn that flashlight off?"
I rolled my eyes and wondered why we didn't just use DS's Charmander's tail; it would probably be helpful in this situation.
We kept walking silently, hoping my flashlight wouldn't suddenly burn out. I wished I still had my Flaaffy instead of this flashlight. The thought of her made tears come to my eyes and I knew I had to find her. But I also knew I couldn't risk my new friends, especially after what Marle had said. It made me feel like the spotlight was on me; one wrong move and I'd be in serious trouble. I was glad Emily and most of the others had stood up for me. None of us had gotten ourselves into this on purpose - there was no way we would have wanted to - but now the only thing we could do was move ahead.
Emily
As we continued to move deeper underground, I wondered just what secrets this world we called Terranova still had to reveal.
Faye told me about how her Flaaffy had fallen into this cave and I understood how she must be feeling. It would have been the same for me if I'd lost Meowth or Eevee. It's funny how you get attached to your Pokemon to the point where you would protect them at all costs. I guess that's why Marle gave her Espeon to Jane rather than leaving her behind to die on Earth.
Talking of Marle, she was following us with a rather sullen expression on her face, having only come down here because we'd insisted on it. It had been obvious from the start that she and Faye were not going to get along; for one thing, their personalities were too different . . .
A sudden commotion up ahead jolted me out of my reverie and I dashed forward to see that the floor had collapsed and Vicky was dangling perilously over a gaping chasm, one so dark that we had no way of telling where the bottom was. "Vicky! Hang on!" I yelled as I tried to reach forward and pull her to safety. Unfortunately, my weight proved too much and the next thing I knew I was tumbling through empty space. I closed my eyes, bracing myself for the end, but, just when all seemed lost, I heard Max's voice telling his Abra to Teleport us to safety.
Once Vicky and I stood on the edge of the hole once again, both of us shaken but unhurt, we began to speculate about what (if anything) lay at the bottom of that chasm.
"Faye, shine your flashlight down there," Ken instructed.
Faye tried, but the beam didn't reach far enough and all we could make out were some vague shapes. "So much for that idea," she said, turning to the rest of us. "Does anyone have a Pokemon that knows Flash?"
Jack
"Let's throw Wobbuffet down there," somebody suggested. I realised it had been me.
Wobbuffet threw me a hurt look and made a point of not dignifying my comment with a reply. Actually, he was just spacing out again. I prodded him with the toe of my shoe.
"Wobb?"
"Wobbuffet," I said in my most sincere tone of voice, "would you mind being so awfully kind and using Flash for me?"
I ignored everyone else's coughs of embarrassment and smiled at Wobbuffet. Sure he couldn't actually perform the required move - I was willing to bet Max's Abra could though - but I really felt that, down here in these dingy subterreanean caverns, we had made a connection. I smacked him round the head for his incompetence, but he knew I didn't mean it.
Faye
"I could've sworn someone had a Charmander," I muttered.
"I do!" DS immediately exclaimed. "I've got a Charmander - duh!"
I blinked. "Well, why can't we use it? Its tail is better than a flashlight?"
"That took you a while," Marle muttered as she shoved past to get to the front. "We still need a Pokemon to go down there."
Hey! This is not a cave exploration; we don't need to see all the passages," I shot back. "Let's just find the main passage."
Marle
I was so tempted to throw Faye into the chasm that I actually felt my fingers twitching in anticipation.
This was pure insanity! How could I have let myself be dragged into these dark caves filled with who knew what? Why hadn't I turned right back around and gone back to the camp on my own?Then I realised I was afraid, afraid to leave the group, of abandoning my friends, of being alone on this strange world. Somewhere deep inside, I realised that I couldn't survive on my own on this planet and I'd need all the friends I could get.
"No," I whispered. "I'm not going to do it. Faye has some purpose yet, but whether for good or evil I don't know. In the big picture, everyone has some purpose and we cannot decide the fates of others."
Emily
We were still no nearer to solving the problem of finding out what was at the bottom of the chasm - the only Pokemon any of us had that knew Flash was Faye's Flaaffy and she was missing - when I saw an amazing sight.
Two humanoid figures emerged from the chasm, flying towards us on magnificent white wings. They appeared to be female (at least they had long hair) and quite young, probably around my age. And one of them was carrying Faye's Flaaffy in her arms as she swooped down and landed in our midst. Most of us did not know what to make of them; the idea of winged people went against all that was natural and verged on the paranormal, the supernatural. But, then again, I wasn't exactly normal myself since (as I had recently discovered) I had the power to control fire.
One of the two strangers handed Faye her Flaaffy and spoke to us in an English so perfect that it belied her obviously alien origins. "There you are, safe and sound," she said in a light voice, looking at us as we stared at her speechlessly.
Max was the first to break the silence. "H - how do you . . .?" he stammered, unable to take his eyes off the two alien girls.
"Know your language? We pick up its meaning via telepathy," the other girl replied. "By the way, my name's Henclu and my companion is Zorral. And what, may I ask, are you doing on Valdas?"
My heart seemed to jump in my chest at Henclu's words and the impact of them sent me reeling. I knew precious little about the world my ancestors had come from and to find out that this planet we called Terranova was that world was beyond shocking. It was totally unexpected, a contradiction of all we had held to be true ever since we arrived.
Marle, however, was suspicious. "How do we know you're telling the truth?" she demanded. "Are you sure this isn't some trap to lure us into your clutches?"
Zorral laughed lightly. "If you want proof that this is Valdas, look over there," she said, pointing to me. "She had Valdasian blood; I sensed this from the moment you entered this cavern."
"So?" I wondered where all this was leading.
Henclu came and put her arm round me. "Emily," she said, having evidently learned my name via some sort of telepathy, "I'm sure you've been wondering why your powers didn't show up until now. Well, it was basically because Earth's magnetic field suppressed them and you had be on Valdas for them to start to emerge."
At length, Ken cut in to remind us that we still had the matter of the chasm to deal with.
It was Zorral who provided the solution. "Not to worry. We can carry you over in the wind," she said. "Henclu and I are Air Valdasians; that's why we've got wings."
Vicky
I was really freaked out by flying. I'd never like travelling by plane back on Earth, but being carried in the wind was too weird.
I screamed to be let down, but, as soon as I reached the ground, I was fine again.
Jack
"That does it! I'm not even going to try and deal with this any more - any of it!" I snapped at Henclu and Zorral. "You there, girls with wings, did you hear me?! I'm not planning on sticking around and listening to your crazy myths. And I'm certainly not going to believe all of us fit together like some handy jigsaw puzzle! You may look like angels, but you just want to use us!"
"And, before you get into the whole "life story" bit, I'd like to remind you that we are not the saviours of humanity. And I don't care what you call this place in your own language. To me, it's Terranova."
"And do you know what humans did to colonise their home planet? Well, they destroyed all opposition by hunting it to extinction. So don't even bother crawling out of this pit we found you in, because, the minute you do, somebody'll point a gun at your heads and pull the trigger!"
"And, if they don't, I will! Consider this a friendly welcome from the real face of humanity!"
Emily
"Jack, stop it!" I pleaded, as he continued to threaten Henclu and Zorral. "Remember what happened on Earth when explorers came across other races? Remember how loads of tribes got wiped out because someone thought their way of life was wrong? We mustn't go down that path!"
Jack just laughed at me. "I figured you might say that, seeing as you're of their stock," he told me shortly. "I still say they're up to something."
I was about to say that that wasn't the case, that prejudice was wrong no matter who the target was, but Zorral cut me short.
"Listen," she said in a firm voice, "there's something all of you need to know about this world. So pay attention because it's very important."
"And what exactly do we need to know?" asked Trent.
Zorral heaved a long sigh and began, gazing round at us as we sat in the mysterious cavern into which she and Henclu had taken us. Actually, it was beginning to look less like a cavern and more like - I searched for the right words - a bunker with vast orbs lighting it. "It's a long story," she said. "But it all started many centuries ago, when the Valdasians were among the most technologically advanced races in the galaxy. Our people prospered, but there were tensions between us and wars broke out as different tribes fought for supremacy. Then came the terrible day when a device called a Doomsday was unleashed; it killed literally millions and turned our planet to a wasteland, much the same as yours after the comet hit it."
"Some of our people took shelter underground,in this very cavern, while others, like Emily's ancestors, fled into space to find new homes on other planets. Many decades passed before our world began to recover and, just when we were about to recolonise the surface, you came along. Our leaders would have had you all killed if it wasn't for Emily."
"Me?" I asked. "But why should I have made such a difference?"
"Because," Zorral said with a smile, "after the Doomsday, we drew up a creed that said: Valdasian shall not kill Valdasian."
Ken
"Wise words?" I muttered. "But, this Doomsday . . . What was it? A bomb of some sort?"
"It was . . ." Henclu paused as if she was thinking " . . . a device beyond your imagination, vastly different to whatever weapons you might be familiar with."
I considered challenging her to try me, but, from the expression on Henclu's face, I could tell I had touched on a sensitive subject. I decided to let it rest for the time being.
"Well, I guess we should be grateful you're not going to kill us," Jane remarked. "You two really are good company."
"Looks like there's a lot more to this than just getting off Earth and populating another planet," I said, glancing at Faye and wondering how this contact with the Valdasians would end up figuring with the other colonists.
"So this is the sort of place your race lived in for years," added Marle. "Where's everyone else?"
"Ah!" Zorral replied. "You'll meet them soon enough."
A look of worry momentarily crossed Jack's face.
