Chapter XLVII- Cherry Grove City
After we were all saftely back from the tower, we decided to head to the Cherry
Grove pokemon center to try and continue our journey, which had been temporarily
diverted. I dropped our pokemon off at the pokemon center and sat down on the couch to
watch the morning news with Jarod while Erika and Noki were still sleeping. I sat down
eating the candy bar I had gotten from the vending machine. There wasn't really anything
intersting on the news that morning, and I had nearly fallen asleep again when Jarod
shook me a bit and said,
"Marcy! Look! On the news!" He sat me up and pointed out on the screen that there was a
hurricane heading this way. It was practicly right on the coast. I nearly fell off the couch
as nurse Joy shut down her computer. It made a loud kind of crashing noises thast startled
me.
"I'm sorry," She began, "but I'm going to have to close down the pokemon center. You'll
have to try and make it out of town as fast as you can." I stood up and finished off my
candy bar. I jumped promptly over the couch as Nurse Joy took some spare pokebals out
from underneath the counter. I ran over to the couch Erika was sleeping on and shook her
a bit.
".......mmm-mom! Let me sleep a little longer...." She mummbled, thinking we were at her
house already.
"Erika this is no time to be sleeping in!!! There is a hurricane heading this way, and we
have to leave now!" I shouted and she abruptly woke up with a start as thunder crashed
outside and it began to rain. "Where's Noki!?" I demanded and ran about searching for
her. I looked around and under the blanket she had been in just a few minutes before, but
couldn't find her.
"Uh! SHOOT!!" Erika suddenly shouted as she stared at where Noki had been.
"What?" I asked curiously; it was rare that Erika got so upset.
"I FORGOT!! She whispered to me while I was sleeping, she was going to go and look
around town!!" She said in dispair. The rain became harder and the wind picked up as she
said this, as if on Que.
"Jarod! What are we going to do!? We can't leave her out there! We don't even know
where she is!?" I shouted as I turned around, but as soon as I said this, it became apparent
to me that he was no longer there. "Jarod?" I asked curiously and looked about, finally
noticing rain on the rug of the entrance to the pokemo center. "He wouldn't....." I said as
the lightning began to pick up in frequency. I ran to the door with Erika following behind
me, Raichu still sleeping on the floor. (He can sleep through a tsunami()) It was raining
hard, and the wind was blowing the trees all around us.
"Do you see him!?" Erika shouted over the deafening roar of wind and rain.
"I can't.....see a thing!!" I shouted, bringing my arms to my eyes. Then suddenly, off in the
distance, a faint voice, "NOKI!!" It was Jarod. He gradually wandered back to us,
compleatly soaked.
"I can't find her....." He said. He looked like he was about to cry.
"Maybe she took cover in a nearby shop?" I suggested, realizing I was very very wet and
cold.
"Let's get back inside you guys, the wind is picking up!" Erika shouted as thunder crashed
nearby, shaking the ground. We all ran back inside, grabbing our things. Nurse Joy was
already gone in the basement, and was waiting for us to leave so she could lock
everything. Erika let out Ryu and shouted, "Ryu, Sunny day!" He ran outside and broke
through the storm a bit, causing a small patch of sunshine to emerge. We all ran out after
him with our stuff, Raichu saftely in his pokeball, still sleeping. We stepped into the
patch of sunlight, and Ryu created a barrier around us, keeping the rain out and giving our
clothes a chance to dry.
"We should probobly look for Noki as long as Ryu can hold out." Jarod said and looked
around Ryu's massive legs.
"NOKI!" I shouted, looking around as well.
"Mom! Dad!" A voice from behind us suddenly rang out. It was Noki, soaked, running in
the wind and rain twords us. "We have to get out of the rain! It's getting worse!" she
continued to shout as she ran.
"Ryu let Noki into the force field." Erika said, and he let it down for a second,
momentarily soaking us, then as soon as she was in, it went back up.
"What were you doing out there!" Jarod demanded.
"I'm sorry dad." Noki said still catching her breath. A little surprised yet proud, Jarod
blushed a tiny bit, then shook it off and continued,
"I was really worried about you." She stood up straight and began to say,
"I was looking for the pokemart. But, by the time I got there, it had already began to rain
and....." But was cut off when lightning struck a nearby tree, frightening Ryu, causing him
to drop his shield again.
"RYU!!" Erika shouted over the painful rain and wind.
"We have to find some way to get out of here!!!" I shouted and ran off to the right of the
town.
"Noki! You, come with me, we'll look north, Jarod and Ryu, you go look for a cave or
something!! Quick!!" I could hear Erika yell behind me. I kept running ahead and
stopped. In front of me, in the middle of the road was a sign.--- Road blocked by flooded
river, not passable--- In dispair I ran back to the place where everyone had been standing
to find no one. Then I heard Erika and Noki running back.
"No good. The road is blocked by several fallen trees." Noki said as the wind nearly
knocked all of us off our feet.
"Do you think we could fly?" I asked to no one in particular.
"I....don't know. Maybe?" Erika said not liking the sound of that idea. "I think it's too
windy."
"I think she's right." Noki added, not sure whose side to be on. Then, Jarod ran over, with
Ryu not to far behind him.
"You guys, there's a cave over there! We can stay in there for a little while!" He shouted
and stopped halfway to us, pointing behind him.
"Right. Let's go!" I shouted and we all ran twords him. By this time, branches and other
things were blowing through the air as we ran, a large stick hitting my arm. I fell over and
grabbed my arm, a huge cut where the branch had scathed me. Erika ans Noki continued
ahead, not hearing my 'ow' over the howling wind. I got up, and as soon as Jarod realized
I wasn't coming over, he ran over, telling Erika and Noki to get into the cave. He grabbed
my shoulders and picked me up off the ground carefully, then we ran together twords the
rock face. We ran into the well hidden cave after Ryu ran in.
It was considerably drier in there than outside, but my clothes were still soaked,
and my arm was still bleeding. I clutched it tightly as it bled through and around my
fingers.
"Mom!!! Oh my gosh!! How did....." Noki was shocked and scampered over, still
kneeling. She stopped, seeming to know the answer to the question.
"Marcy! Are you ok!? My gosh!" Erika came running over and took the bow out of her
hair. Jarod was still sitting next to me, where we had landed when we jumped into the
cave. "Here, I've got one more..." Jarod took off his back pack and handed me what
looked like a Full Cure.
"This is for pokemon.........isn't it?" I paused for a second while Erika pryed my right hand
off the left upper arm and slightly gasped. She took the ribbon and tied it around my arm,
tightening it. I squinched slightly when she did this and realized the full enomity of how
much it hurt.
"No, this on is for humans. It should help a little." he said and I went to take it with my
right hand when I realized it was covered in blood. I wasn't to sure how to get it off. I
couldn't wipe it on my shorts like you wipe water off, cause first of all they were soaked,
and secondly, it was blood--not water. I tried to move my left arm to get Leafeon's
pokeball, but I couldn't move it like I wanted.
"Just give it to me. And Erika, do me a favor, get Leviathin's pokeball?" I said and Jarod
made me drink the awful tasting mixture.
"Come on out Leviathin!" Erika said and tossed his pokeball on the ground. He came out
and I said to him,
"Leviathin, wash my hand off with a water gun, but not to hard." He sprayed my hand
with a stready stream of water, washing it off, and I called him back. I put his pokeball
back on my belt, and took out Hinoarashi's. Ryu was giving off light with his tail, just not
enough. We moved cautiously farther into the cave as the rain became harder and Ryu
couldn't hold the barrier up for any longer. As we got further from the entrance, it became
darker, and even with both Hionoarashi and Ryu, harder to see. I soon became fairly dizzy
after a while of sitting down, realzing the ribbon Erika had tied around my cut was now
compleatly red instead of it's normal light pink.
Erika was sleeping in her sleeping bag, and Noki was sleeping up against the rock
wall. I looked around, but couldn't find Jarod. I finally found him sitting farther back in
the cave, playing poker with Ryu. They had used different sized rocks to represent
different amounts of money. I have no idea where he found the cards. I pulled Raichu's
pokeball off it's chain and let him out over by them so he could play. Jarod turned around
to find me still awake. He came over and investigated my arm.
"Looks pretty bad." He said quietly.
"Yeah....I know; hurts like hell." I said and sat up a little more.
"I....a....think it might be broken." Jarod said.
"Let's hope not." I said and began to doze off.
"You ok?" He said, noticing me wobble a bit.
"Yeah.....Go!.....Go....play poker with Ryu and Raichu. They're waiting." I said and he
finally went back to them, sat down and continued to play. I looked back to the entrance
of the cave, far, far, far ahead of us, and dozed off.
After what seemed like a few minutes, but was really two hours, Jarod decided he
had found a cavern in the cave that we could stay in and make a fire. We all got up and
walked on, my left arm now covered in dried blood. We walked farther down the cave,
and Jarod stopped.
"What is it?" I asked him as he steped forward, realizing a wall was in his way.
"Well.......ya see.....the wall....this wall....wasn't here before." He stammered as he
realized we were either lost, or he was hallucinating.
"What do you mean!? A wall can't just appear in the middle......." Erika stopped short as
the wall suddenly vanished. Behind it was the cavern Jarod said with another passage he
hadn't mentioned before.
"I knew it!! It was an illusion. (A very good one at that)" he said as he pointed out the 'no-
longer-there' wall.
"How come you didn't mention the passage dad?" Noki looked across the room and there
at the end of it, was a long tunnel, as far as we could see.
"Uh.....well..." He began,
"Because he didn't know it was there." I finished, knowing he would make up some lame
lie. Erika by this time, walked to the other side to investigate the mysterious passage
further.
"I think we should explore this cave a little farther, just to see how far back it goes. we
may be able to find a way out sooner." Jarod suggested.
"I don't know. I think we shouldn't go any further. What do you think Noki?" I asked and
turned to her.
"I'll change the future if I say anything. Sorry, no comment." She stated and abrubtly
turned around.
"............" I just starred. Well at least she knows better than to say something I thought to
myself.
"Erika?" I asked where she had dissapeared into the darkness.
"AH!!!!!!......." I heard her scream, and Noki turned around, and ran past us.
"Noki! Wait!" I shouted to her, and chased after her to find Erika laying face down on the
ground, knocked out by something. Jarod followed in closely and he stopped as
something white swiftly flew past him, narrowly missing his head.
"What the.......!?" He shouted and backed away as it decided it's next target was Noki.
"Noki, duck!" I shouted, and she turned around just in time to dodge it's attack. As it flew
over her head, it suddenly dissapeared into the wall infront of us.
"Is.....is it gone?" I asked, placing my arm back at my side from it's place over my head.
"I think so." Noki said, kneeling next to Erika, looking around. "Is that another 'not-quite-
there' wall?" She asked, trying to move Erika around so she could pick her up. Jarod came
over and assisted her as I walked cautiously to the wall where it had dissapeared, afraid it
may pop out any second. I put my hand to the wall and carefully, smacked it. To my
surprise and fear, my hand didn't go through. I smacked it again, and again in a different
spot. It was perfectly solid.
"Oh shit........." I said fear came over me and nullified my surprise.
"What is it?" Jarod came over and asked, now with Erika on his back, thanks to the help
of Noki and Ryu.
"Hit it....hit it!" I said, half shocked, mostly scarred and sarcastic. He promptly hit it very
hard with his fist and to his great dismay, the wall was compleatly rock, which gave him a
few cuts on his knuckles. He stood for a moment, mouth wide open, not sure wether to
scream in pain, or shout in fear. He finally closed his mouth and managed to stutter out,
"Was......w-was it a-a g-ghost!?" Suddenly from above us, came a loud noise that
sounded like a book falling onto the floor. We all jumped in surprise; the noise coming
right after Jarod mentioning a ghost.
After we were all saftely back from the tower, we decided to head to the Cherry
Grove pokemon center to try and continue our journey, which had been temporarily
diverted. I dropped our pokemon off at the pokemon center and sat down on the couch to
watch the morning news with Jarod while Erika and Noki were still sleeping. I sat down
eating the candy bar I had gotten from the vending machine. There wasn't really anything
intersting on the news that morning, and I had nearly fallen asleep again when Jarod
shook me a bit and said,
"Marcy! Look! On the news!" He sat me up and pointed out on the screen that there was a
hurricane heading this way. It was practicly right on the coast. I nearly fell off the couch
as nurse Joy shut down her computer. It made a loud kind of crashing noises thast startled
me.
"I'm sorry," She began, "but I'm going to have to close down the pokemon center. You'll
have to try and make it out of town as fast as you can." I stood up and finished off my
candy bar. I jumped promptly over the couch as Nurse Joy took some spare pokebals out
from underneath the counter. I ran over to the couch Erika was sleeping on and shook her
a bit.
".......mmm-mom! Let me sleep a little longer...." She mummbled, thinking we were at her
house already.
"Erika this is no time to be sleeping in!!! There is a hurricane heading this way, and we
have to leave now!" I shouted and she abruptly woke up with a start as thunder crashed
outside and it began to rain. "Where's Noki!?" I demanded and ran about searching for
her. I looked around and under the blanket she had been in just a few minutes before, but
couldn't find her.
"Uh! SHOOT!!" Erika suddenly shouted as she stared at where Noki had been.
"What?" I asked curiously; it was rare that Erika got so upset.
"I FORGOT!! She whispered to me while I was sleeping, she was going to go and look
around town!!" She said in dispair. The rain became harder and the wind picked up as she
said this, as if on Que.
"Jarod! What are we going to do!? We can't leave her out there! We don't even know
where she is!?" I shouted as I turned around, but as soon as I said this, it became apparent
to me that he was no longer there. "Jarod?" I asked curiously and looked about, finally
noticing rain on the rug of the entrance to the pokemo center. "He wouldn't....." I said as
the lightning began to pick up in frequency. I ran to the door with Erika following behind
me, Raichu still sleeping on the floor. (He can sleep through a tsunami()) It was raining
hard, and the wind was blowing the trees all around us.
"Do you see him!?" Erika shouted over the deafening roar of wind and rain.
"I can't.....see a thing!!" I shouted, bringing my arms to my eyes. Then suddenly, off in the
distance, a faint voice, "NOKI!!" It was Jarod. He gradually wandered back to us,
compleatly soaked.
"I can't find her....." He said. He looked like he was about to cry.
"Maybe she took cover in a nearby shop?" I suggested, realizing I was very very wet and
cold.
"Let's get back inside you guys, the wind is picking up!" Erika shouted as thunder crashed
nearby, shaking the ground. We all ran back inside, grabbing our things. Nurse Joy was
already gone in the basement, and was waiting for us to leave so she could lock
everything. Erika let out Ryu and shouted, "Ryu, Sunny day!" He ran outside and broke
through the storm a bit, causing a small patch of sunshine to emerge. We all ran out after
him with our stuff, Raichu saftely in his pokeball, still sleeping. We stepped into the
patch of sunlight, and Ryu created a barrier around us, keeping the rain out and giving our
clothes a chance to dry.
"We should probobly look for Noki as long as Ryu can hold out." Jarod said and looked
around Ryu's massive legs.
"NOKI!" I shouted, looking around as well.
"Mom! Dad!" A voice from behind us suddenly rang out. It was Noki, soaked, running in
the wind and rain twords us. "We have to get out of the rain! It's getting worse!" she
continued to shout as she ran.
"Ryu let Noki into the force field." Erika said, and he let it down for a second,
momentarily soaking us, then as soon as she was in, it went back up.
"What were you doing out there!" Jarod demanded.
"I'm sorry dad." Noki said still catching her breath. A little surprised yet proud, Jarod
blushed a tiny bit, then shook it off and continued,
"I was really worried about you." She stood up straight and began to say,
"I was looking for the pokemart. But, by the time I got there, it had already began to rain
and....." But was cut off when lightning struck a nearby tree, frightening Ryu, causing him
to drop his shield again.
"RYU!!" Erika shouted over the painful rain and wind.
"We have to find some way to get out of here!!!" I shouted and ran off to the right of the
town.
"Noki! You, come with me, we'll look north, Jarod and Ryu, you go look for a cave or
something!! Quick!!" I could hear Erika yell behind me. I kept running ahead and
stopped. In front of me, in the middle of the road was a sign.--- Road blocked by flooded
river, not passable--- In dispair I ran back to the place where everyone had been standing
to find no one. Then I heard Erika and Noki running back.
"No good. The road is blocked by several fallen trees." Noki said as the wind nearly
knocked all of us off our feet.
"Do you think we could fly?" I asked to no one in particular.
"I....don't know. Maybe?" Erika said not liking the sound of that idea. "I think it's too
windy."
"I think she's right." Noki added, not sure whose side to be on. Then, Jarod ran over, with
Ryu not to far behind him.
"You guys, there's a cave over there! We can stay in there for a little while!" He shouted
and stopped halfway to us, pointing behind him.
"Right. Let's go!" I shouted and we all ran twords him. By this time, branches and other
things were blowing through the air as we ran, a large stick hitting my arm. I fell over and
grabbed my arm, a huge cut where the branch had scathed me. Erika ans Noki continued
ahead, not hearing my 'ow' over the howling wind. I got up, and as soon as Jarod realized
I wasn't coming over, he ran over, telling Erika and Noki to get into the cave. He grabbed
my shoulders and picked me up off the ground carefully, then we ran together twords the
rock face. We ran into the well hidden cave after Ryu ran in.
It was considerably drier in there than outside, but my clothes were still soaked,
and my arm was still bleeding. I clutched it tightly as it bled through and around my
fingers.
"Mom!!! Oh my gosh!! How did....." Noki was shocked and scampered over, still
kneeling. She stopped, seeming to know the answer to the question.
"Marcy! Are you ok!? My gosh!" Erika came running over and took the bow out of her
hair. Jarod was still sitting next to me, where we had landed when we jumped into the
cave. "Here, I've got one more..." Jarod took off his back pack and handed me what
looked like a Full Cure.
"This is for pokemon.........isn't it?" I paused for a second while Erika pryed my right hand
off the left upper arm and slightly gasped. She took the ribbon and tied it around my arm,
tightening it. I squinched slightly when she did this and realized the full enomity of how
much it hurt.
"No, this on is for humans. It should help a little." he said and I went to take it with my
right hand when I realized it was covered in blood. I wasn't to sure how to get it off. I
couldn't wipe it on my shorts like you wipe water off, cause first of all they were soaked,
and secondly, it was blood--not water. I tried to move my left arm to get Leafeon's
pokeball, but I couldn't move it like I wanted.
"Just give it to me. And Erika, do me a favor, get Leviathin's pokeball?" I said and Jarod
made me drink the awful tasting mixture.
"Come on out Leviathin!" Erika said and tossed his pokeball on the ground. He came out
and I said to him,
"Leviathin, wash my hand off with a water gun, but not to hard." He sprayed my hand
with a stready stream of water, washing it off, and I called him back. I put his pokeball
back on my belt, and took out Hinoarashi's. Ryu was giving off light with his tail, just not
enough. We moved cautiously farther into the cave as the rain became harder and Ryu
couldn't hold the barrier up for any longer. As we got further from the entrance, it became
darker, and even with both Hionoarashi and Ryu, harder to see. I soon became fairly dizzy
after a while of sitting down, realzing the ribbon Erika had tied around my cut was now
compleatly red instead of it's normal light pink.
Erika was sleeping in her sleeping bag, and Noki was sleeping up against the rock
wall. I looked around, but couldn't find Jarod. I finally found him sitting farther back in
the cave, playing poker with Ryu. They had used different sized rocks to represent
different amounts of money. I have no idea where he found the cards. I pulled Raichu's
pokeball off it's chain and let him out over by them so he could play. Jarod turned around
to find me still awake. He came over and investigated my arm.
"Looks pretty bad." He said quietly.
"Yeah....I know; hurts like hell." I said and sat up a little more.
"I....a....think it might be broken." Jarod said.
"Let's hope not." I said and began to doze off.
"You ok?" He said, noticing me wobble a bit.
"Yeah.....Go!.....Go....play poker with Ryu and Raichu. They're waiting." I said and he
finally went back to them, sat down and continued to play. I looked back to the entrance
of the cave, far, far, far ahead of us, and dozed off.
After what seemed like a few minutes, but was really two hours, Jarod decided he
had found a cavern in the cave that we could stay in and make a fire. We all got up and
walked on, my left arm now covered in dried blood. We walked farther down the cave,
and Jarod stopped.
"What is it?" I asked him as he steped forward, realizing a wall was in his way.
"Well.......ya see.....the wall....this wall....wasn't here before." He stammered as he
realized we were either lost, or he was hallucinating.
"What do you mean!? A wall can't just appear in the middle......." Erika stopped short as
the wall suddenly vanished. Behind it was the cavern Jarod said with another passage he
hadn't mentioned before.
"I knew it!! It was an illusion. (A very good one at that)" he said as he pointed out the 'no-
longer-there' wall.
"How come you didn't mention the passage dad?" Noki looked across the room and there
at the end of it, was a long tunnel, as far as we could see.
"Uh.....well..." He began,
"Because he didn't know it was there." I finished, knowing he would make up some lame
lie. Erika by this time, walked to the other side to investigate the mysterious passage
further.
"I think we should explore this cave a little farther, just to see how far back it goes. we
may be able to find a way out sooner." Jarod suggested.
"I don't know. I think we shouldn't go any further. What do you think Noki?" I asked and
turned to her.
"I'll change the future if I say anything. Sorry, no comment." She stated and abrubtly
turned around.
"............" I just starred. Well at least she knows better than to say something I thought to
myself.
"Erika?" I asked where she had dissapeared into the darkness.
"AH!!!!!!......." I heard her scream, and Noki turned around, and ran past us.
"Noki! Wait!" I shouted to her, and chased after her to find Erika laying face down on the
ground, knocked out by something. Jarod followed in closely and he stopped as
something white swiftly flew past him, narrowly missing his head.
"What the.......!?" He shouted and backed away as it decided it's next target was Noki.
"Noki, duck!" I shouted, and she turned around just in time to dodge it's attack. As it flew
over her head, it suddenly dissapeared into the wall infront of us.
"Is.....is it gone?" I asked, placing my arm back at my side from it's place over my head.
"I think so." Noki said, kneeling next to Erika, looking around. "Is that another 'not-quite-
there' wall?" She asked, trying to move Erika around so she could pick her up. Jarod came
over and assisted her as I walked cautiously to the wall where it had dissapeared, afraid it
may pop out any second. I put my hand to the wall and carefully, smacked it. To my
surprise and fear, my hand didn't go through. I smacked it again, and again in a different
spot. It was perfectly solid.
"Oh shit........." I said fear came over me and nullified my surprise.
"What is it?" Jarod came over and asked, now with Erika on his back, thanks to the help
of Noki and Ryu.
"Hit it....hit it!" I said, half shocked, mostly scarred and sarcastic. He promptly hit it very
hard with his fist and to his great dismay, the wall was compleatly rock, which gave him a
few cuts on his knuckles. He stood for a moment, mouth wide open, not sure wether to
scream in pain, or shout in fear. He finally closed his mouth and managed to stutter out,
"Was......w-was it a-a g-ghost!?" Suddenly from above us, came a loud noise that
sounded like a book falling onto the floor. We all jumped in surprise; the noise coming
right after Jarod mentioning a ghost.