From floor to ceiling there were cages. Stacks and stacks of cages. Heron gasped as she walked in, seeing pokemon trapped inside. Many were resting; or at least, not moving. Oblivious to Mirus's whispered protests, she walked up to the nearest cage, which contained a raichu.
Mirus, knowing about gadgets and things, tried to stop her. "Dont! It's..."
Too late- Heron slid the bolt open, and a mixture of wailing alarm bells replaced the music. Mirus grabbed Heron's arm as the raichu stumbled out, but that didn't stop her sliding open other locks instead of running away.
"Heron, someone'll be here--"
"You go then," she snapped. "I just can't leave them like this..."
The alarms filled Mirus's ears, and, heart in his mouth, he pulled Heron away and they ran after Grim, sprinting down the corridor. Mirus felt certain they were lost, but he kept on following the frightened dog. The alarm suddenly shut off, leaving a familiar ringing in his ears.
Suddenly they heard voices, and Heron, snapping back, grabbed Mirus's arm and pulled him down a dead-end corridor. A bench was lined up with the wall at right angles to this one, so between the bench's legs Mirus could loook around the wall and see two people talking. One was a man, but he had his back to the trainers. The other was Lydia.
She looked furious, frown lines creasing her perfect face- except that instead of smooth white skin, a quantity of ugly scratches were scattered down her neck and cheeks.
"Those darn rati.." she was saying.
"If those pokemon escaped, then everything will be..."
Their voices dropped to whispers, and Mirus strained his ears desperatly to hear what was being said. He caugh the words "raichu", "faulty" and "clean" among several others. Suddenly they began talking almost normally again.
"...and the cages couldn't have swung open on their own?"
"No, Miss Lydia; I designed them myself."
"Which makes everything perfect, does it?" she snapped.
"No, Miss Lydia. Somebody must have found the room..."
"But thirteen cages opened- you said sixteen pokemon are missing?"
"That's right."
"Loss indeed! So the culprits must be around here somewhere."
"Don't worry. We can frame them for stealing gym pokemon."
Lydia clapped her hands in delight. "Perfect! Let's get looking, then."
Mirus felt Heron pull him back, and saw that she had opened a door and Grim was running insaide. He rushed in after, and saw that it was the battle arena.
"Come on, we've got to go..."
"What about those pokemon?"
"We don't know the full story... it might be completely different to what we think." But after the converstaion he had heard, Mirus doubted that, and Heron knew it.
"Who keeps pokemon in cages?"
"Listen, if you're worried, call the TSPCP or something."
Heron grabbed Mirus by the shoulders. "Those pokemon reminded me of me."
"I'm sorry?"
"Me, on the run from my dad. Kept locked up for all these years, then I had a chance to escape, but always with someone after me."
Mirus felt uncomfortable. "I just don't want to get involved."
"Fine." Heron let go, and started towards the door they'd exited by before. She started shouting. "Fine, if that's how you'll be, I'll go by myself." And she ran off, leaving Mirus and Grim alone in the battle arena.
Confused and afraid, he made for the door they'd entered by the first time. Grim followed him loyally, but he was whining and kept looking at the door from which Heron had left by.
"We can't do anything about it, Grim," Mirus told him.
The poochyena whined back. Yes, we can.
Heron, pokeball in hand, creapt back through the doors she and Mirus had been through earlier, lodging them open by dragging a bench in front. She couldn't believe him! Alright, so he was a bit of a wimp, but this was ridiculas. Didn't he even try to understand?
She looked around to make sure the coast was clear. Nobody was about. Still trying to be as quiet as possible, Heron made her way to the cage room. It was empty, but Heron didn't take any chances. She picked up a bolt that had presumably come off one of the cages, and threw it into the room. Nothing.
Still uncertain, Heron crept into the cage room. Nobody was there except the frightened pokemon in their cages.
This time, Heron wasn't going to be foolish enough to set off the alarm. She pressed the button on Ekans's pokeball, and the snake burst out.
"Ekans, I need you to use Acid on the bars of these cages," she told him. "Be very careful and quiet though."
The snake was no doubt ocnfused, but he trusted Heron and spat poison onto the bars, where they immediatly melted, leaving a large and gaping hole. Heron held her breath. No alarms. Relieved that her idea had worked, she whispered for Ekans to free the otehrs, and reached into the first cage. It was a large one.
"Chuu!" said a voice, startled, and a jolt of electricity flowed up Heron's arm. She was wearing rubber-soled trainers, but since tthe pokemon was standing on the iron floor of its cage, it still stung.
"Shh!" Heron told it. "Trust me. I'll have you out of here. Please, just stay quiet."
The pikachu cocked its head on one side, confused. It was in bad shape- Heron guessed that its attack was weak due to this. Carefully, she lifted up the mouse and pulled out out of the bars. It was light- much lighter than a normal pikachu should be. Its bones were showing through. Heron was disgusted.
"Run for it, but be very careful," Heron told it. "The double doors should be open; sneak through and then wait by the exit. Be quiet, though."
Still wondering whether that was a good idea, Heron set the pokemon down, where it stumbled out into the corridor. Heron reached into the next cage, which contained a rattata, who bit her.
The next cage was filled by two marril. They seemed to trust Heron, or else they were too scared to object. Working faster and faster, Heron freed a sandshrew, now a raticate, now an eevee- possibly the only non-rodent there.
Finally, when all the cages were empty, Heron recalled Ekans, prasising him for his work, picked up the last pokemon (a cyndaquil, too weak to walk) and made for the exit, once again checking for anyone there.
To her amazement, nobody was near the escaped pokemon, and they all were waiting for her. She looked them over quickly- eevee, several rattatas and marril, two sandshrew, large number of chus, sandslash...
Heron stopped, confused. Did she release a sandslash? Before she could think about this, however, the pokemon jumped up and attacked her, slashing her across the face. Then, she sudenly recognised it- the sandslash from the gym battle!
Heron staggered back, almost dropping the small, terrified cyndaquil. Quickly she reached for a pokeball- Vineslice's would be best.
"Fight that sandslash, but don't hurt any other pokemon!" Heron said. Leaving her to it, she pushed the handle down on the exit, and jumped out of her skin at the sound of alarm bells.
"Go! Go!" Heron said to the frightened pokemon. "Run, and find somewhere safe!"
All of them left, except for a raichu who offered to take the small cyndaquil on its back. It gave a tiny "cynda" of thanks to both of them, before the raichu bounded away and out of sight.
"Vineslice, let's go!" Heron called to her, but the pokemon was too involved in the battling, and the sandslash blocked off her escape route.
"Dodge it! We have to leave!" she roared over the sound of the alarm.
Before Vineslice could, however, multiple footsteps were heard, and Lydia and several other people arrived, pokeballs in fists.
"Good work, Sandslash," Lydia said, surveying the battle. The trainers behind her threw pokeballs, and out of them came a quilava, raichu and furret, whic all started to attack Vineslice. Heron reached for her own pokeball, and tried to call back Vineslice, but there were too many pokemon in the way.
"Sleep powder now!" Heron shouted on impulse, and her pokemon spun out such a large amount of the attack that Heron began to feel sleepy herself. The opponent's pokemon started to relax, the sandslash releasing its hold of Vineslice.
Quickly, Heron recalled Vineslice, and, aware of footsteps chasing her, dashed out of the building. She took a left and ran straight into Mirus, along with the escaped pokemon and a large amount of police officers.
I know this chapter's a little shorter than most, but I hope you liked it. Please review! I'll give you another chapter... probably a bit longer.
Keleri: Umbreon's a rabbit, which is a rodent, so... you know. And this is only the first gym, so a sandslash actually isn't that strong... I think :P
Er, I own the TSPCP- which, if you must know, stands for Tyoke Society of the Prevention of Cruelty to Pokemon. Oh, and those pokemon I stated (save for eevee) I count as rodents- mice, rabbits, rats, gerbils, ferrets... you get the picure. Cyndaquil looks like a mouse to me, as does a quilava. Not sure about typhlosions though. Oh, and I broke the tradition and followed Heron for a while instead of Mirus, as you might have noticed. I wanted to give her a chance to shine- can't have one person stealing the glory and all that.
And I know 13 is unlucky for some... Rubbish. I've never found 13 unlucky in my... (falls down plothole)