Sorry this chapter's late! I'll try to get the next one up on Saturday.
Denial
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"So the gastly's good?"
"Great!" said Anthony. "How'd you get it, anyway?"
"Someone…gave it to me," Elliot said vaguely.
"Really? Well, thanks again, this is awesome!"
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Elliot was training Discord as the food cooked. A rattata – stupid, aggressive, or maybe just hungry – had approached.
"Sing, Discord!" Elliot ordered. Discord looked confused. Uncertainly, he opened his mouth and began a warped and somewhat quieter version of his uproar attack.
"No, Discord, sing," Elliot said. "Put it to sleep." Discord looked baffled.
((Those ones can't sing,)) Prowler said mildly, watching the spectacle with amusement.
Caw stared at her. ((Jigglypuff sing.))
Prowler ignored the pointed look. ((Not that kind. They're not the same thing. The singers can't hit or yell. His kind can.))
((Jigglypuff sing,)) Caw repeated firmly.
Prowler snorted. After a moment she said, ((Elliot, the water.))
"What? Oh!" The soup was bubbling over. Elliot rushed to take the pot off the fire. The rattata took advantage of the distraction and tackled Discord, who pounded it into a faint.
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"Wow…" Elliot said.
Rock Tunnel was a passageway carved through a hulking, unnamed mountain. The stone was bare and cragged, shooting upward to a point Elliot couldn't see. It looked scary, cursed, with spiky juts of rock and nothing growing. He said as much to Prowler.
((That's what it's supposed to look like,)) Prowler said.
"It doesn't look anything like the mountain range I caught you in."
Prowler growled derisively. ((Those were dirt hills, not mountains. This is not quite a real mountain, but it is close.))
"What's wrong with it?"
((Too small.))
"Um…" Elliot said. He peered inside the cave.
It was dark. Even just a few feet in it was pure blackness. How was he supposed to get through? He backed up. He was supposed to use a pokemon for light, wasn't he? "Howler!" he said, and the growlithe ran to his side, Prowler disgustedly getting out of the way. "Can you make some light?"
Howler barked, releasing a sudden burst of white flame. He looked at Elliot uncertainly.
"Like that, but light that stays. You know, that keeps going, like a campfire, but moving?"
Howler looked perplexed. After a moment, he barked again, releasing a bright fireball that hovered for an instant before vanishing. The next one lasted perhaps ten seconds.
The growlithe seemed to be concentrating. Elliot thought he might have been glowing very faintly, but couldn't tell if that was just his imagination.
Howler opened his mouth again and a ghostly blue-white ball appeared. It hovered in the air, bobbling and weaving as if alive. The growlithe sat back, tail wagging satisfiedly.
Prowler stared at in, looking entranced. She leaned forward until her nose was almost touching it, but then pulled back.
Elliot reached out as well.
((Don't touch it,)) Prowler warned.
Elliot withdrew his hand. "Why not?"
((That's spirit fire.))
((No, it isn't,)) Caw interrupted.
((Stupid Bird.)) She looked at Elliot. ((Well, go. You wanted light.))
"Oh, um, yeah," Elliot stammered, startled out of his trance. He stepped forward, into the cave, the flame bobbing ahead of him.
They walked in silence for a time. It was dark and the flame only illuminated a few feet of area. Elliot was glad for his pokemon's company.
The fireball bobbed. Elliot watched it. It was constantly changing, the surface rippling…
"Ah!" Elliot yelled, tripping and falling. He grabbed the wall and caught himself. "Hey," he said, looking at his smarting hand and then the wall. "Why's it so sharp?"
((Because it is rock?)) Discord suggested, sounding confused.
"Rock's not like that. Rocks are smooth and rounded."
((Rocks against water are round,)) Prowler said. ((But here they are not, so you see them as they were when the one who made this first broke through.))
"That doesn't make any sense. Rocks don't break like this."
Prowler lurched to the side, smashing into the wall. A chuck broke off. She swatted it to Elliot's feet. Elliot picked it up.
((Rocks break sharp,)) Prowler said. ((See?))
Elliot turned it over in his hand, baffled. After a little while he dropped it and continued on.
A zubat dove out of the blackness. It flew through the flame, then screeched, plummeting. Howler quickly jumped it, crunching it between his jaws.
The growlithe gagged and spat it out, holding his mouth open and whining.
((What happened?)) Din asked.
((Stupid thing tried to eat a zubat. They're poisonous,)) Prowler said disdainfully.
The fire flickered for a few moments, then returned to normal. The group continued on, Howler whimpering every few minutes.
Elliot started watching the flame again. It was almost hypnotic, how the surface rippled upward endlessly yet the ball never seemed to lose substance at the bottom, and how bobbed up and down…
"Ah!" Elliot yelled again. This time his flailing arms didn't find the wall and he fell painfully, the large rock he'd tripped over scrapping his shin badly and his whole body landing awkwardly, one foot stuck behind him by the stone.
Which suddenly moved and grumbled to itself, two arms detaching from the main round body.
"Oh, just a geodude," Elliot said, relieved. He'd been really startled. The geodude rolled backward, then started to spin towards him. Caw knocked it off course with a sudden icy wind. The geodude groaned and unrolled, lying limply on the ground.
The group continued on.
By the time they made it out, Elliot's legs were badly bruised. Prowler had seen how clumsy he was being and made an effort to grab him, but she'd been distracted by cave pokemon much of the time. He flopped down on the grass directly outside.
"We'll camp here," he said.
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Elliot woke up in the black of night, the ground writhing under him. He opened his eyes to see the silhouette of something gigantic against the moon.
His pokemon had already woken. Elliot felt a chill and realized Caw was using the same move he had earlier against the geodude. It didn't have much effect on the behemoth. Prowler slashed at the body, claws shining in the moonlight, and the onix let out a deep scream as she carved out chunks of rock. Its body thrashed. Prowler ducked the swinging tail but Howler wasn't so lucky. The growlithe was slammed into the side of the mountain.
Elliot scrambled for his pokebelt, pulling Howler's Greatball off and recalling him. The onix's tail smashed the ground and the shock tossed Elliot off his feet. The pokebelt flew out of his hands. When it hit the ground, the pokeballs were thrown in all directions.
Caw sent another icy wind at the onix. It shuddered, stilling somewhat, and Prowler used the opportunity to run up its back. She dug her claws into the rock on its head, gouging out pieces the size of Sono. The onix roared, shaking its head frantically but failed to dislodge her. Finally, its head plummeted down, Prowler barely jumping off in time, and it tunneled rapidly into the ground and escaped.
Prowler fell onto her side. Her paws were bloody, the claws broken, and she couldn't stand on them.
Elliot couldn't recall her either. Her Ultraball, along with Sono's pokeball, had been crushed by the onix's body.
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By the next morning Prowler had healed somewhat. Elliot had sprayed her with potions and her skin seemed to be sealing over naturally. She walked gingerly, limping, but rebuffed Elliot's inquiries, insisting she was fine.
Elliot, perhaps not the most wisely, was training Sono against the grass types who showed up along the path. This continued without problem until they ran into a vileplume.
Elliot didn't remember the lesson he learned in Celadon. Sono wound up paralyzed badly enough to be unable to move. The vileplume wasn't willing to stop the battle there, either. When Elliot tried to retrieve Sono, he narrowly avoided an acid attack.
Prowler attacked it, biting it below its petals deeply enough to draw a gout of ichor. The vileplume's petals shook, releasing a purple powder. Prowler ignored this and bit it again and again, until the grass type slumped down against the ground.
Elliot was spraying a paralyze heal over Sono. Within moments, the spearow was back to normal. He turned to Prowler, who was stumbling slightly. Elliot checked his pokedex, which reported poisoning, and administered an antidote.
They continued along the path until Prowler collapsed.
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Prowler's breathing was ragged, and her legs kept twitching, as if she was trying to move. Her eyes looked strange, the pupils huge, the blackness filling her iris almost like an eclipse. Elliot remembered when Howler was sick once, how his mother had noticed that and said it was a sign, and they'd taken him to the Pokemon Center. He could feel the heat too, even though her fur. Din was licking her worriedly.
He didn't know what to do. With her Ultraball smashed, he couldn't bring her to the Center. He didn't have any other pokeballs either, he'd left them in storage. He had to deal with this himself.
The pokedex hadn't given him much help, containing only a short note that some grass and poison moves could result in an allergic reaction. He'd tried giving her another antidote, but she didn't get better.
What was he supposed to do? His mother had covered him in blankets when he had a fever, but she'd also kept cold, wet cloths on his forehead. Was he supposed to try to cool Prowler down or warm her up?
((Where are they?)) Prowler said suddenly. She started to try to stand, but her legs didn't hold.
((Where are who?)) Din asked.
((Where…)) Prowler stood, swaying, and took a step. She crumpled back down. She started to stand again.
Din tried to push her down. ((Prowler, I don't understand!)) the mightyena said, sounding upset.
((Where are they? I have to…they're making too much noise. I can't…))
((Who is? Prowler!))
"It's okay Prowler," Elliot said nervously.
((No!)) she snarled. ((Where are they? They have to…it's bad luck she said so, too many.))
((What do you mean? Prowler, what are you talking about?))
((She's delirious, it doesn't have any meaning,)) Caw said flatly. ((See if you can knock her out. This shouldn't last long.))
((Where are they?)) Prowler struggled. Din lay on top of her, trying to keep her from getting up. It worked for a few moments, then the mightyena was shoved off. ((They're making too much noise I have to make them quiet!)) She forced herself to her feet, looking around frantically, the rapid movement of her head almost making her lose her balance. ((I have to make them quiet!))
"Discord, try to sing, put her to sleep!"
Discord tried. His voice was harsh but seemed to follow some sort of melody, and the noise mellowed and strengthened somewhat as he continued.
It did not have the desired affect. Prowler screamed, slashing Din's side open as the mightyena tried to restrain her, and lunged sloppily at the jigglypuff. Her legs didn't respond properly and she fell hard, but pulled herself back up.
Caw flew in front of her. His eyes glowed. For a moment, nothing happened. Prowler stared at him with fury and undisguised hatred. But then her eyes started to close and she sank to the ground.
"What did you do?" Elliot asked. "Was that hypnosis?"
((No,)) Caw said.
She didn't wake up for hours. At one point her breathing stopped, but then it started again, ragged and irregular. Slowly that improved and her fever dropped. It was almost night by the time she awoke.
She limped off, her paws reopened by the struggle, for a drink. Din followed her. When she returned, she flopped wordlessly by the fire.
"Prowler," Elliot said. The persian looked at him. "You said some stuff earlier." She didn't respond. "It didn't really make any sense. You kept talking about noise. That something was making noise."
((I don't know.))
"Really? It seemed really important to you."
((I don't know.))
"You said you had to make something quiet. You were really upset."
((I don't know.))
Next chapter: Misty's gone?
Yeah, she eloped!
With Bill.
No, Koga!
That's ridiculous, everyone knows she left with Lorelei.
You guys are nuts. It's obvious she was abducted by a flying saucer filled with clefairy.
No, she eloped with a clefairy!