Mew wrapped his tail around Jill's waist as she hopped up to her Lapras's back. She turned to offer a hand to the others, only to find that they had jumped up easily. She grinned.
"I'd advise you to sit, and probably hang on to one of the bumps on Windrunner's shell." She paused. "Everyone on board?"
Claire and Craig showed no reaction to her question, having seen Mewtwo and Mew appear from nowhere before. Sarah, however, had not yet been informed, and raised her eyebrows questioningly. Jill gave her no answer, merely nodding, and darting forwards to stand just behind her Lapras's neck.
"Okay then!" She pointed dramatically, grinning slightly. "Full speed ahead to Seafoam Islands, Windrunner!"
The Lapras promptly started swimming, giving everyone on board a slight jolt backwards. Jill managed to keep her balance, with a little help from Mew, and then they were well on their way, at quite a fast pace.
Time passed slowly, even though the distance disappeared quickly. Claire and Sunshine seemed to be asleep, although Jill didn't venture closer to find out. Craig was lying flat on his stomach, and kept trying to catch the fish pokémon that Lapras passed. Jill had long ago sat down on one of the humps of Windrunner's shell, but only now she noticed that Sarah was leaning against one at the back, and busily sketching in a notepad. Jill picked her way over, and casually sneaked a glance at the picture.
"Wow! That's good!"
Sarah's head snapped up, and then she smiled, slightly self-consciously. "It's not finished yet. And it isn't that good."
Jill grinned, looking down at the black and white image of herself standing and looking the way Lapras was heading, Craig desperately trying to catch a fish, and Claire and Sunshine supposedly asleep.
As Jill examined the picture, Mew appeared in front of Sarah's eyes, gazing curiously at the drawing. Sarah jumped, and the notebook flew up into the air, turning over lazily as it fell back towards the water. Sarah's eyes widened drastically, and she leapt up, making a frantic grab at the book. Amazingly, she managed to catch it, but the movement threw her off balance, and her free hand windmilled as she tried to stop herself from falling in. Jill grabbed her arm, pulling her round sideways, and Mew wrapped his tail round Sarah's waist. The two of them pulled her back, and she promptly sat down, still clutching the notepad. And staring at Mew. The pink psychic smiled broadly.
"Mew!"
"Nice catch," Jill said with a grin, although Sarah couldn't be sure if she or Mew were being complimented. Sarah shook her head sharply.
"What sort of pokémon is that?"
Jill's grin only widened, and Mewtwo appeared out of thin air as well.
"Sarah, Mew, Mew, Sarah. Mewtwo, Sarah, Sarah, Mewtwo," she introduced.
Sarah nodded slowly. "Oh…"
Jill smiled. "They're legendaries."
Windrunner let out a cry, and Jill whirled around.
"Seafoam Islands! At last!"
Her shout attracted the attention of Claire and Craig, who looked up sharply in the direction she pointed. The shore was getting closer rapidly, so Craig scrambled upright again, and Jill resumed her position by her Lapras's neck.
There was another jolt to those on board as the water-type arrived at the beach, and came to an abrupt halt. Windrunner pulled herself further onto the beach, so that her passengers could jump off without ending up soaked to the waist. Jill jumped down first, quickly followed by the others. As Jill returned Windrunner to her pokéball, Sarah released her Hypno from his, and Craig released his Alakazam.
There was a brief pause, and then, with a grin, Jill released Pawa and Ankh, and the others returned the smile, letting out most of their pokémon. Jill bobbed an odd hop-skip dance, and then span her way to the entrance. Craig blinked.
"What are you doing?"
She stopped, and grinned again. "Oh, nothing. Just sometimes I get overcome with joy at being in the world."
Claire and Sarah smiled, but Craig just shrugged. "Whatever."
Jill happily led the way into the caves. The first cavern was empty except for Blaine, the fire pokémon Gym Leader, and a ladder at the back. Sarah and Craig were fully prepared to stop and battle, but when Jill headed unswervingly for the ladder, they had to follow. Jill waved cheerily at Blaine as the group wandered past.
"Hi Blaine! We'll stop by on our way out, 'kay?"
The bemused Gym Leader cautiously returned the wave as they all trooped past and climbed down the ladder to the lower level.
The cave system below Seafoam Islands was dark, and water dripped from the walls and ceiling. Mewtwo kept an invisible shield around the group, so although they saw many pokémon, they weren't challenged. Confidently, Jill led them through the caves and caverns – up steps and down a ladder, then down steps, turning left and up steps and down steps and down a ladder, and then up more steps and into a maze of tunnels, so similar that none of the others could tell if they were going in circles. Mew bobbed ahead, glowing faintly, and Claire frowned at what she could see as she looked around.
"I've never been in this part of Seafoam before."
Jill turned slightly to flash a grin at the others, and continued on, turning left with a flourish.
"After the volcano, a while back, they reopened some of the old passages, and made some more besides. Apparently they also stumbled across some really old tunnels that were hundreds of years old, too. But… I've never been in this part of Seafoam before either."
The four trainers came to a sudden halt, three of them with exclamations of shock and dismay, and one with a yelp of delight. Jill's eyes were widely innocent as she pointed at a thin, dark opening in the right wall.
"We have to go in here! Come on!" she said with a grin, disappearing into the passage before anyone could say, "Why?"
They followed. They had little choice. After a brief hesitation and the feline equivalent of a shrug, Jill's Espeon led the other pokémon after their trainers.
The tunnel twisted and turned, always leading slightly upwards, and they were all moving in darkness except Jill, as Mew had darted in ahead of her. Finally, Jill popped out into a cavern of a similar size to the one Blaine waited in by the entrance. The others appeared quickly, and looked around as the boy sitting with his head on his arms glanced up. He stared blankly at them for a moment, as Ankh strolled in ahead of the other pokémon. Suddenly the boy leapt up with a yell.
"Don't move!"
But it was too late, and Mewtwo, the last pokémon, had already entered the cave. A slightly desperate sob from the boy surprised them all as he threw himself at the opening they had entered by, and hammered on the rock wall. Again, three trainers gasped in horror. There was no longer an opening in the wall. Jill was absorbed in staring happily at the other three walls, until Sarah coughed pointedly, and poked her shoulder. Jill glanced around, blinking as though she had only just noticed the others in the cave.
"What? Oh, that! That doesn't matter. Just look at these walls, will you? They're covered in real Unown glyphs! Isn't it fantastic?" She wandered vaguely to the left, apparently the first, wall, and stared at the pictures. "Unown are cute," she muttered, and then said nothing more.
Mew floated over to sit on her shoulder and wrap his tail around her waist. The four pokémon trainers stared at her in stunned confusion until it was perfectly clear that she wasn't going to say any more for a while. Claire blinked slowly and then turned to the stranger, who was gazing at Mewtwo and then Mew, completely baffled. Claire shrugged slightly.
"Well, it doesn't look as if Jill," she nodded in the correct direction, "is doing the introductions. The small pink thing on her shoulder is Mew, and that is Mewtwo. They're legendary pokémon."
Mewtwo gave Claire a long stare for such a disrespectful introduction, and she gulped, then remembered that Jill always ignored any similar objections from her pokémon – when directed at her, anyway – and nothing ever happened to her.
"I'm Claire," she continued, " and these are Sarah and Craig."
The boy nodded glumly. "I'm Andrew. What's the matter with your friend?"
He sat down, and the others followed suit, aware that they could be in the cavern for a while.
"She doesn't normally behave like this," Claire began, glancing over at Jill, who was now a quarter of the way through the first wall, and obviously concentrating hard.
"How long have you known her?" Andrew asked, and Claire cringed, before holding up a finger and nodding decisively.
"Good point."
Sarah sighed slightly, and turned her head to look at Mewtwo. "How long now?"
The psychic blinked slowly. "Twenty-three seconds more that when you last asked."
The four trainers leaning against the wall in a row all sighed.
"And how long does that make the total?" Sarah persisted in asking.
Mewtwo watched Jill blowing dust from some of the symbols on the other walls.
"We have been in this particular cavern for thirty-six minutes and three… four seconds."
Craig rolled his eyes to look at Andrew. "How long have you been in here, then?"
Andrew glanced vaguely at his watch. "About… four or five hours."
Craig closed his eyes. "And no way out, right?"
Andrew let the question go unanswered. They all knew the answer anyway. Claire sighed deeply again, and stared at the ceiling.
"Mewtwo? How long to high tide?"
The reply was less than encouraging.
"We will be unable to make our way through the tunnels if we delay our leaving any longer than another fifteen minutes. Water will start to enter this cavern in five, and it will also be entirely flooded in thirty-nine minutes, at full high tide."
The four of them groaned in unison.
Close to three minutes later, Jill blinked and smiled.
"I know what these walls say, now! Paper? Pencil? Hurry!"
Aware of the approaching deadline, the other four trainers scrambled up, and Sarah ripped a blank piece of paper from her drawing pad. Claire peered at the first wall of inscriptions.
"You mean you can read these, Jill?"
The younger girl nodded, writing hurriedly on the piece of paper. "It's easy when you know how."
Andrew pointed to a group of pictures. "I think that says fear."
Jill tapped the third symbol, and smiled oddly at her Espeon. "Yes, it does. That there is the Alpha Unown."
Sarah looked at the roof for
patience. "Ahem! Can you get on with this, please? We don't have much time…"
Jill nodded, and touched certain symbols in the border around the second wall,
muttering something under her breath. Then she hurried back to the first wall
and continued her writing.
"You can go now. I'll catch you up. Oh, but put your pokémon away before you go." She promptly paused to return her Umbreon and Espeon to their pokéballs, and then resumed her hasty scribble.
Andrew instantly turned to look, and the opening had returned. Sarah and Craig put their pokémon inside their pokéballs, and Craig was halfway to following Andrew as Claire moved to stand beside Jill.
"If we leave, you'll become so involved in writing all this down that you'll forget to follow until it's too late, won't you?"
Jill grinned briefly at the wall. "Mmhmm. You'll get wet if you stay."
The remaining three trainers shrugged, as Jill neared the end of the first wall. Craig turned to Claire.
"I'll keep an eye on the water level in the tunnels."
Claire nodded. "Take Sunshine with you. She'll provide some light."
The boy and the Espeon disappeared down the reopened tunnel.
Andrew fidgeted slightly,
watching Jill start copying down the Unown script from the second wall. "Look,
I'm really grateful for you coming and opening the tunnel again and everything,
but I don't know any of you, really, and I don't see a reason for me to stay…"
Claire smiled and nodded. "You can leave, don't worry."
Jill whirled around with a forceful revelation. "No! You'd never find your way through the tunnels, and neither Mew or Mewtwo will guide you alone. Quite frankly, they'd guide all of you if Claire went, and none if not. You must wait with us."
She whirled back to face the wall, and desperately tried to find her place. Claire blinked in surprise. Sarah was practically jumping up and down in anxiety.
"Why can't we just leave now,
and come back after high tide has gone down? This place'll still be here, after
all."
Jill stamped her foot, hard. "No! It won't! I'll explain afterwards, but for
now, will you just let me write?!"
There was silence in the cave for another minute or so, and then Andrew yelped, "There's water coming in!"
Mewtwo disdainfully levitated above the water level. "We have less than ten minutes in which to reach a higher level of these caves."
Jill nodded vigorously, turning onto the back of the paper, almost at the end of the second wall. "Just a few more minutes!"
Craig waded in, carrying Sunshine. "I'm up to my knees out there, and it's rising fast! We have to go!"
Jill dashed to the third wall, sending splashes of water everywhere. "Almost done! Give me two more minutes, and put Sunshine safely away!"
Mewtwo eyed the water in the cavern, and gestured for the four trainers to get outside. "Adjust to the water, and if you have any pokémon that can swim and are small enough to help you through the tunnels, let them out."
As Jill desperately scribbled down the meaning of the walls, Sarah led the way through the tunnel, in silence.
The water was more than halfway to Jill's knees by the time she'd finished. Quickly, she re-released her Espeon into her arms and gave her the folded paper to Hold, before putting her back in her pokéball. Then finally, with a last longing glance at the Unown script, she picked her feet up high and ran out of the tunnel. Mewtwo turned swiftly as she hurried out, and pulled her psychically to the front of the waiting group. Jill was waist deep in water and nearly fell, but Mew held her up.
"Come on! We haven't much time. You should have gone ahead with Mewtwo!"
She swept ahead forcefully, aware that the water was rising fast. Mew curled his tail around her wrist to lead her and she followed him through the tunnels, yelling a question back to the four struggling after her.
"What water pokémon have you got?"
Answers were called from the others, and she managed to work out that Craig and Andrew both had Blastoises, Claire had a Slowpoke, and Sarah a Starmie. Jill winced slightly. "Keep the Slowpoke and the Blastoises away, but let the Starmie out…"
Mew tugged urgently on her wrist, and as she rounded the next corner, she stopped talking for a moment. The empty cave they had crossed to reach the maze was underwater. The ladder at the other side was more than half submerged, and there was no way to descend the steps leading down from their side. There was certainly no way they could cross the cave without swimming.
"Right! Craig, Andrew, let your Blastoises out," she ordered, recovering her wits. "Craig, your Blastoise is big enough to take two, so Claire, go with him. Sarah, you'll have to hang on tight to your Starmie, and go that way."
Sarah frowned. "What about my drawings?"
Jill nodded sharply. "Give the pad to one of your pokémon to Hold, and then get yourself to that ladder!"
Andrew had already set off, but Claire, now that the end was in sight, was wearing a similar frown to Sarah's. "My Slowpoke can swim, you know."
Jill rolled her eyes. "It wouldn't understand what you were asking it to do until you started drowning. That's why they never use Slowpokes to swim with in the cart-" She broke off suddenly, blinked, and restarted on another track entirely. "Look, we don't have time to argue! Just go! Mew will take me."
And Mew could take you all too, she thought slowly, except that you have to learn to trust your pokémon entirely, and known how to defeat unorthodox situations with their help. Like in the cartoons, which you haven't had the benefit of watching.
Mew impatiently pulled at her arm, and Mewtwo gave her a psychic shove for her delay. She took a deep breath and plunged into the water, eyes closed.
