Hello my readers of Although you rarely get thanked for all the praise and help you give me, I don't take the time to thank you. You are a huge part of why I write, although I realize my little time, if any, in the spotlight is over. Who cares! Write for the love of writing I always say, and I do love writing, although my god the ended of this dragged out. I swear to god I have nothing to do with the end. It is a long chapter, so maybe you're better of saving it and reading offline, or pitching over to my site at to see the illustrated version.
Also on that site I'm trying to get more privately owned websites dedicated to a single author or fanfiction on the net so if you pop on in to read the conditions, I will make you a site like Feathers that is easy to work.
Last but not least, the personal thankyous

BluebanglesYRP: Thankyou very much Bluebangles, its amazing to have you back and with such detailed reviews! So much praise, is it any wonder my head is bloated? The little old lady song is a book I remember from when I was young and I love repetitive songs and nursery rhymes. Maybe Topaz will get to the end. I hope you enjoy this chapter too!

General Failure: Thankyou again for tuning in General Failure, you too are one of those lovely people who give me really detailed reviews that push me into writing another chapter! And if you think reading it is repetitive, try writing it. Next chapter will involve mirrors and ghastly so I hope that will be a change of scenery. There is going to be romance, but that's not for a long way off until I get my bearings on it. cringes My last attempt was a disaster so I'm really going to try this time. Who with, whose to say? chuckles evilly

Miroku004: Oh, Miroku, you got rid of your fiction! There will be another one, right nudge nudge. Don't be discouraged by a first attempt, mine was horrendous, which can be laughed at at Feathers. I promise I'll give all the help you need!

The Mad Tortoise: Oh, the minute I upload this I'm jumping on your fiction like it was a mouse, and I like chasing mice feral grin PEOPLE! If you want a goddess of writing, look no further. I'm astonished that this girl, who began reading the first version of WoC didn't throw away her pen in fear! I'll work on Charlie, see if we can get her into the iridescent trainer of the last time round. One thing I am proud of in this chapter is that the Pokemon's personalities are really coming along. I'm really seeing them as other people this time!

Facia: I'm saving copies of your chapters this instant so I can read on my laptop once I'm done. Then I can enjoy it as slowly as I want! You're idea already interests me and it seems a new spin on the journey fiction!

Dilasc: Ahh, Dilasc, you don't know what your missing! Although that could be a good thing quirky eyebrow Although irritating, rewriting is really putting depth into my characters that would be required for later chapters.

tjal: Thankyou very much, hopefully I'll see you back soon!

RaNdOm TeXt: Thankyou random text for the praise, hopefully you'll enjoy this one as much as the other

Well, that's about it? As I said, I want to give you a website so you can fill it with bios and fanart and soundtracks and anything else your heart desires, I don't care if you like WOC or not, I don't care if its not an OT! I want to get you out into the world!

On the Wings of Council

Chapter4b

Oh gawd it hurt. My head felt heavy and foggy, all thoughts drowned in the soupy snippits of yesterday zipping about like swallows under a bridge. In fact their wings chafed my brain and were hammering their beaks against the temple looking for a way out. I moaned, unfurling my body from its hunched little foetal position on the floor, still slightly moist from collapsing in a dead faint. All over my muscles had cued up to protest, cramped and aching after cooling so quickly.

Like a burst of precognition I knew in a day or two I'd be having heavy, throaty coughing fits and a runny nose.

Swallowing hard, my drooping hand found my canteen, still pretty full. I was a girl forged by long car trips and remote camping areas with 'untouched crystal clear billabongs just like bottled water!' I don't know about you, but I've never seen bottled water with mozzie nymph's practically water skiing across it. Blindly turning the cap I tipped it to my mouth, slowly letting the first mouthful swirl around my mouth, washing away that icky aftertaste that had accumulated a small mountain. Swigging down more noisy gulps I forced myself to stop.

"Fury?" I whispered shakily, offering my cupped hand out to the darkness.

No answer. Finally I opened my eyes. They stuck, gummed by last night's frustrated heaves of pain and despair.

Reaching out a tentative finger to where my legs supposedly were I barely brushed it and the cramps and aches were replaced with fire and brimstone. The nerve endings were so sensitive I could barely stretch them out but the pain was fading, most I think due to blood backed up from bad sleeping position. Hmm, having your legs looking like popped egg yolk really wasn't something I wanted to dwell on.

Feeling my way around, my fingers finally met with the scruffy fur of a Quilava. Easing closer my fingers ran down her back in brisk strokes, partly to try and wake her up, partly as an anxious reaction. Simply the feel of her close made me feel better.

"Come on you lump, time to get up," I tried again louder, my voice sounding harsh, abrasive and still slightly nasal from the swelling in the echoing hallway. Suddenly my hand halted midstroke. The realisation she had fainted once again sunk in, and sunk my heart to my feet. Instead I lifted her dead weight onto my lap of my denim shorts.

A little way off came the muffled sound of a dust brush on wood and my head jerked towards it in alarm. My senses seemed to be jumping out of their sockets for any hint of danger now that my second pair of ears was gone.

My eyes were slowly adjusting again and I could just about make out an outline, or the twin outlines of the sentrets twined together for warmth. I thought I could see Talon, little more than a blot on that bloody pylon, the glint of misty beads clinging to his feathers and Javelin the spearow on another. Another noise drew my attention, but more reflective because as bizarre as it was I had a feeling it wasn't going to be out of the ordinary in my new life on the road, a voice like the sound of Donald Duck with a head cold.

"Fireworks…Nwoiiiiir! Prattle flute teddy…..Nwoir! Huston we have a problem….Nwoir!

I stared at him groggily. "Riiiiight."

The totodile had somehow waddled in his sleep to land flat out on his stomach with his snout squashed like an accordion and a squishy pinkish petal squeezed between two teeth. His tail wagged back and forth like a tattered surrender flag and it was all topped with an expression of enlightenment… or perhaps just the expression that comes with the saying 'ignorance is bliss.'

I craned my neck and squinted harder into the unyielding dark. With gummy eyes narrowed I willed it to part like the red sea, offering a welcoming lantern glow at the end of the corridor and the invitation of a mug of coffee and some bickies by a little monk saying it was all a joke played on newbie trainers.

I waited but unfortunately no opportunity presented itself. I sighed. It was also in this black glare I realised my new partner in crime was not in attendance, and after a longer pause so was her rodent Pokémon.

Nina, I thought muzzily.

"Nwoiiir Hairy oven tacklebox……..Nwoir! Is my shirt too bright?... Nwoir! Fuzzle cheese poof…..Nwoir!"

Again, that almost traitorous thought wriggled up from my subconscious.

He could have almost been mine. My eyes strayed to the dusky coloured lump, to Maverick the living bagpipes and twice as noisy. What if Tobias hadn't patronised Fury? I almost certainly wouldn't have felt the obligation to take her. I had my choice Charmander, or Mareep, or Mave. In face, almost certainly if Charlie hadn't I would have snapped him up in a second. Being from a place where drought was almost normal a water Pokémon had more than enough appeal, whether I continued my journey or not. What practicality did a fire type have other than a safer alternative to light a bonfire to my father?

She was hardly what I had expected in a companion Pokémon. But then again, what had I expected? For the past four years I had browsed the Pokénet, a world wide forum for trainers and those who wanted to be. Hundreds upon thousands had posted journals. A multitude had been late and given alternative staters as if to mimic the 'great' Ash Ketchum, from growlithe to eevee and to my disbelief dratini! Few recorded any personality to speak of. The bulbasaur in question's only duty it seemed was to nip at their heels or give a reassuring saur when required.

Fury! She had an opinion about everything! Or a complaint, or a dumb joke about it.

I looked at Maverick. Okay, he probably had an opinion on everything too, but his were about their multitude of tastes, ranging all along the spectrum from cwunchy to icky!

I sighed so heavily it could have anchored a ship as footsteps approached.

"Ay," I nodded to the darkness. The vaguest of outlines nodded back, with a little blob making soft chittering, nosing the air.

"Good morning," Charlie greeted, sounding both tired and cheerful at the same time, and then added gently, "Is she still Fainted?"

I winced. "Yeah," I snapped moodily before I could stop myself.

Charlie offered a sympathetic smile, sinking down beside me and gathered Maverick between her feet.

"NwooooirYou wanna piece of me? Noi- whuh?" His snout slithered up her knee, his cloudy red eyes blinking as if stepping into bright light lifting away the sleepy glaze. Watching the two as Charlie took the tail of his bandage dangling it in front of his face, I felt the guilt pangs keenly. Irritating she could be, but I couldn't question her loyalty. She had spoke of it sitting around the campfire with such reverence I could almost picture it like a physical blow.

Maverick swiped at the bandage with a toothy grin as Charlie eyed me thoughtfully in the gloom.

"Today isn't going to be any easier, I'm afraid," she admitted almost apologetically, "but if we can follow the banisters like yesterday, we can do it. I'm almost sure we were meant to cross the pylons, like a halfway marker or somethi-" Suddenly another voice spoke up, deep, rumbling and demanding. I looked at assumingly where her tummy was. Both our faces faulted and my own rallied in agreement, gurgling so loudly Maverick looked over with momentary interest before trying to snap at the bandage again with his teeth.

"This is getting us nowhere," I said quietly, staring at Fury with embarrassment, stroking her ears absently. "Gawd, I'm going to have to carry her, aren't I?"

I switched on the ultimate weapon of small people everywhere, a 100 watt beam and eyes as big as saucers, blinking pathetically. Unfortunately, the Adorable Stare of Doom was completely ineffectual where you can't see a foot in front of you. However, true to its name Charlie seemed to sense it.

"No," she said, and I detected a hint of discomfort. "But I do have something that will help."

There was a ruffle of material ridiculously amplified as she fossicked around her pockets and after a moment a milky white hand appeared under my nose. Pushing it away slightly, I noticed a faint gleam. A narrow, plastic box with a cork stopper with some inky blobs inside.

"What is it?" I took it between my thumb and fore finger with suspicion, holding it up to my eyes. My fumbling fingers worked the cork and I was slapped by a sharp, vinegary tang. I gagged, shooting it away from my body and smothered my nose into my shoulder. Involuntary my mind was filled with the images of the silage silos back home, wondering why that made it so familiar.

"Jeeze! Trying to knock me unconscious or something!" I woofed.

"Hadiha," her voice said with faint sarcasm. "They're for Fury."

"Fury's already unconscious."

"You're impossible, they're Berries."

Detecting the capitalization I carefully brought them back to my face. "You mean like Berries, Berries?" I tipped them onto the palm of my hand, four bluish green blots, and picked one up, rolling it between my fingers. "It's soft, and squishy, and I don't think they're meant to be that colour. What tree did you find them on? I don't remember seeing any."

I could feel the smugness of a bargain hunter rolling off her in waves. "Did you see that house on the fork? There was this guy practically giving them away!"

Oh yes, I remembered him, on the way to Mr Pokemon's, a scrawny, shrunken old dolt with a roosters wattle had tried to push his dodgy merchandise all at a low low price! "You actually bought some?"

"They were a bargain!" she retorted defensively. "And you should be thanking me, they'll wake Fury up and we'll find the staircase in no time!"

I stared at them sitting on my palm, the razor reek of them suffusing the moist air. "I don't really have a choice," I sighed.

"Excellent!" she chirped. "See, all you need to do is trust people, Topaz. That's your problem-"

"I don't care," I snapped, carefully lifting Fury free of my legs and placing her dubiously in Charlies lap. "Just don't let her choke or I'll choke you."

"Its okay, I volunteered down at the Goldenrod PokeCentre, I gave Pokemon their meds all the time!"

"Is there anything you don't do, Mother Teresa?" I squinted with fascination as she tenderly pushed the squishy blob to the back of the throat. I could see the throat reflexes trying to gag it back up either because of its size or its taste but she encouraged the swallowing reflex by stroking it down with her finger down her furry neck.

I stared anxiously, waiting for her to sit up, hack up a coughball and complain. Inky juice dribbled and stained her pale chin as the tense minutes wore on, dragging on every nerve. Without warning her chest hitched with a sick, phlegmy cough before settling it a deeper more regular breathing pattern. Every one of my crowded, beady features sagged and then stretched into an enormous grin. Relief didn't even begin to describe the emotion. Rendering your first Pokemon on the threshold of death has got to leave a black mark somewhere.

The expression lingered for a few seconds but Fury still lolled bonelessly across Charlie's leg.

"Is see gowna wake up?" Mave gurgled, tugging on her paw looking, a pale mourner at a deathbed by candle light. "More!"

Charlie shrugged and tried two more Berries, now with a livelier attempt to regurgitate them. Suddenly she jerked, limbs jolted and her face screwed into such a rictus of revolution it was painful!

"Fury!" I cried, petting her head vigorously that pulled her skin back from her skull.

FWOOSH!

A jet of flame tore up from her crest and her back spluttered like pyrotechnics out of control!

"Geyah!" We shot to our feet dumping Fury onto the floor screaming wildly, trying to beat out the flames that scotched our clothing looking like mad German slap dances. "Yeaaah! Geeeeohhhaaa! EEEEEYAAAH!"

I whirled away from Charlie, the flames wreathing and streaming out behind me! Back! I threw myself backwards as my foot kicked out into the air above the river. It glowed! A glittering blanket of molten gold and the temptation to leap into it was quickly quenched.

"What's happe- GEYAH!" The feathery body of Talon rocketed off his pylon, feathers loosed quickly caught a flame, zigging and zagging and hissing as they hit the water but other more were caught in the whirlwind updrafts of hammering wings and thrashing arms.

"TOOOOOOTOH!"The frigid water hit Charlie and I, freezing the screams in out throats and smashing us into the wall.

I collapsed groaning onto the floor dripping and shivering, and then Charlie flopped on top of me.

"Dear gawd! Lemme out!"

"Hey! I am not that fat… am I?" As I tried to claw myself out from under Charlie, unconcerned with whatever third degree burns she may have sustained, pinched her tummy with a whimper.

"Mwaoh."

Our yammering ceased in midsentence, sharing a quick that-wasn't-me glance and followed each others to the lump, shivering and moaning, lurching shakily to her feet like a bald rattata in the snow with parkinson's disease.

"What happened?" she slurred. Her eyes shone with an unhealthy gleam, red rimmed with almost no iris. "Wh-wheeram I? I.. OH MY G-WAWD! The wh-wall-es ah cah-rawling"

The Pokemon screeched, scrambling to her feet but each foot decided to escape in a different direction, twisting and fumbling under the other in a loping shuffle that made your eyes hurt, like an octopus with a limp. One quaking paw crumpled and her shaggy momentum made a complicated aerial assault and flipped her onto her chest. She watched the floor with unspeakable horror, whimpering and hiding her eyes behind her splayed paws.

I too watched, that indescribably recognition demanding to be listened to, despite the crisis at hand. It was right at the back of my brain, just out of reach and that alone meant it was desperately important, if I could just remember why it was familiar I could figure out what those berries had done to Fur…

"Oh no," I croaked. It clicked into place, her rheumy eyes, her slurred words and lack of coordination, the sharp stench of silage. "Oh my gawd Charlie! You got Fury drunk!"

"I DID WHAT!"

"The Berries! They were fermenting!" We gawped at her trying to figure out just what kind of monster we'd created. She lay on her side trying to gnaw at the woodwork with her yellowy canines, muttering gutturally and a pleased expression like a prince dining on fine delicacies. As she noticed we were staring she looked up with a toothy grin, splinters poking out between them. "Oh man, just what we need! Another Mave!"

"What'dya mean!" said Charlie and Mave in whiplash unison, eyes narrowed.

"I, um, er…Oh Fury!" I squeezed hurriedly under her legs, squatting beside Fury. My eyebrows shot up. Glancing down each way of the corridor I could see it bathed in a warm, cheery yellow glow, all the odd little shadows thrown by gnawed spars and worn plaster had been frightened away. But Fury had no flame, or none that I could see, only the slightest ripple, like distorted air or a trick where it was supposed to be. I had heard from the older Chem students back home that some atoms burnt invisibly, could alcohol be one of them? I was a bio student, I never touched chem with a tenfoot pole, but even so I was sure that if it burnt invisibly, it shouldn't light up anything.

Fury looked up at me with an ecstatic grin, her butt wagging as if there should have been a tail on the end. "Hi!"

"Uh, Fury?" I tried a hearty smile, but I felt like a 12 year old with botox injections. It didn't matter, the sloppy smile didn't even falter. Drawing on the experience of endless Metone Christmas get togethers, family barbeques and anything else that happened to involve my uncles on my mother's side, I hoped she knew who I was. "You know I'm your trainer, don't you?"

"How do I know y-your me-ma-my trainer? And you ain't just sayin'it?" She preened, she was a Sherlock Holmes in the making.

Complicated logic just didn't work on a drunk.

Logical logic didn't even work on a drunk.

"Because my hair's blue."

"Looks awfully black to me."

"No it doesn't."

Her brow folded together, two tectonic plates preparing to collide and at almost the same speed. Without a word she sat up, nodding sagely. Made sense. "Lesgo."

I followed her wobbly advance, and then said to Charlie, "We could really do with some of my Uncle Lyle's coffee."

Metonia wasn't the epicentre of Pokemon Masters so were known for far more notorious reasons if at all. In any other region in the world my Uncle would have been considered a raging alcoholic with all the restraint of a deranged camel, but was merely 'a festive drinker' back home. It needn't be said that he considered everyday 'a holy gift from the wassanames above, uh, yeah… whose round is it?'

While evolving a stomach lining that could probably eat away an apartment complex in a matter of hours, other methods had to be devised to cope with the morning after, and most the time staying drunk was not an option. Thus, the famous Metone Coffee had been brewed in, accordance to tradition, someone's shonky back shed when all other conventional ingredients for moonshine had run out.

It didn't just sober you up, it took you past sober and right out the other side. Any tourist ordering it in some quaint café on the coast was likely to have an enlightening and intimate conversation with a god of their choice.

Charlie the cosmopolitan who had probably sat in such sassy coffee shops stared at me shocked. "You'd do that to your Pokemon!"

"Oh dere wassa old man cawled Michael chinigen

He grew a whiskash on hish innigen

Wind camup and blew dem Finnigen

Poor old Micheal Finnigen, Begin again!"

"Stop! Three hours! Please make them stop!"

I heard this last muffled remark through cupped ears and a grimace like cracked, sunbaked soil. Talon, perched on my elbow, consoled himself by banging his head against my water canteen in hopes of becoming unconscious. Javelin, focusing a military grade laser glare, rode on Charlie's sentret's tail while Target lurched beside me with his tail in one ear and paw clamped over the other, an expression carefully blank. I had the feeling that behind that cute furry face was the word payback branded in bright red letters.

The last three members of our party skipped, or weaved, in the lead, singing brightly and out of tune, but of course accuracy wasn't really of any concern to a drunk, or to Charlie or Mave for that matter, singing up and down the tune but never actually hitting a correct note. The only good part was that they triggered the traps, and thus made better time. Charlie only had to unwedge her foot from the trap door or unhook it from the wire, I had to escape, curse, swear, cuss and complain of the injustice of it all.

However, time just seemed to ooze by, like water through a Celadon sewer pipe, if it happened to be filled with verse after verse of Knick knack Paddy-wack or Michael Finnigen.

"All of you just shutup!" The other members of the party rejoined like the cannons of a battlefield, and then we all threw ourselves to the ground as the sonic boom cannoned around the tight, stale aired, roof with enough force to bludgeon an ursaring into submission.

My eyes nailed shut squeezed tears at the corners as my nose was wallpapered to my face, tiny splinters sticking out at odd angles from my cheeks as if I'd suddenly decided to swallow an echidna from where I'd skidded across the wooden planks, dry and knotted, much like my stomach.

Slowly I climbed to my feet, the skin raked up like fish scales over my knees also bearing an array of wooden quills.

Okay, just chill. Take it easy. No worries eh?

That shrivelled wise old that had devised magical mantra of the Metonian had never encountered me. If he ever did he'd chuck whatever holy book he'd been scribbling in for the past millennia and get with reality.

"YOU STUPID- I- YOU- IF THERE WEREN'T WITNESSES YOU'D- NEEEEYARG!" My nails raked down my face in frustration. "THIS IS NOT FAIR!"

Charlie found herself backed against the wall, not because she was intimidated or anything, but if I kept creeping closer I'd have nowhere to go but vertical.

"You know Topaz," she began thoughtfully, "there's a few of those berries left. Just look how cheerful Fury is-"

"Neoh." That single, venomous word cut short everything else. "And as for you-" My glare, prepared to crash down on Fury like a bucket of cold water and chill her into sobriety just fell short of what I had intended.

Her ears perked sitting with a sloppy grin and bleary eyes.

"Yew love me, admit it. Yanno ya do," she purred contently, weaving between my legs and rubbing her neck against my ankle.

Anger melted away leaving that hollow empty feeling and my balled fist flopped to my sides.

"That's not fair," I whined. "That's playing dirty."

"Quirrrrrrr."

"Ladies and gentlepoke's, don't mean to break up your little lovey dovey moment, but I think we've got a something to think about."

Javelin mooched on a corner, head cocked and a predatory grin. Mind you he couldn't change it but it probably had a nifty affect on his prey if he got them into a corner. What he was staring at had an equally nifty affect on me, the kind that made me want to scramble backwards and yearned to be anywhere but there.

"Damnit."

Inching towards it like a slow kind of magnetism I knew I shouldn't have wasted that energy on anger. I should have conserved it to spend on misery.

The cool wash of air once again alerted us that the floor had again opened up but not to the completeness of the gulf we'd faced the day before. Instead it was like two rectangles had been neatly sawed away and framed against each wall, no more than a metre or so long and a couple of handspans across, giving the dank and oppressive tunnel a kind of aesthetic pleasure. On one side dug into the wall was a sort of window box, without the window and overlayed with more wood, only with deeply shadowed termite squiggles etched into it and down the corridor were soot dusted sconces, five on each side, all unlit.

It's all probably some elaborate reminder that yes, somewhere far above there was human civilization, I thought dourly, my fingers running over the scrolled wood absently. Moss clung to some of the rises and an orange fan of fungus had sprouted against one side. The cool of the slowly moving water emanated from below and its thick, mineral smell had been soaked up by the timber struts.

Charlie presently hunkered down over the other gap, trying industriously to refill her canteen. Quick thinking, medically inclined and fashion savvy she may have been, camping material she was not. She drank almost non-stop and listened to her city-kid urges to wash away the oily glaze of sweat that coated our skin as we had moved away from the water and back into the dry musty passages. I had endeavoured to preserve my tenuous supply, knowing that a magical water fountain with cherubs and gently splashing plumes was unlikely to appear at just the right moment. Charlie didn't like that.

What I had known would happen but resisted anyway was Fury.

Oh yes, as a biology student and an experienced Soarhire family member, I knew what alcohol not only did to the bladder but the brain. Chemicals released, urge to flush out the toxins, need to empty little stretchy bag. No amount of 'Ewww gross' could keep her from obeying whatever innate instincts come to quilavas in the wild. I also tried to water down whatever natural cocktail had come out of the fermented berries but it looked like it was all or nothing and would have to be slept off with a perfectly good meal tasted twice.

After a struggle and a grunt, Charlie's sentret was lowered towards the underground tributary by his tail and a pear shaped canteen clamped between its paws. A disembodied voice floated up peevishly that she should be holding tight, but not too tight. Charlie nodded with a vapid, 'life time guarantee!' smile worn by all second hand car salesmen you wouldn't trust as far the low milometer reading on their shoddy merchandise. After another squeeze and a slosh of water the Pokemon nervously emerged presenting the bottle like a sacrifice to an altar.

She offered cupped handfuls to her Pokemon, drinking their fill before slugging down half and using more to dribble over her dusty arms.

I eyed Target critically, lying sprawled on his back and his round ringed tummy bobbing up and down indicating just why we wouldn't be able to duplicate the act.

I unslung my own canteen, jangling it at the end of its black cord pensively. Almost half empty. Rolling my tongue along my teeth I figured I was alright and my Pokemon chorused back they were pretty good. Fury was too busy glaring at the fungus as if it had personally insulted her. And the gnawing squiggle wood. And insisting that the wall had bumped into her on purpose, challenging her erratically reeling shadow to a battle.

"Puddup your ducks!"

"Dukes."

She turned a poached egg eye onto Talon grinning beakily. "Wha."

"Dukes, you say put up your dukes."

Fury digested this. "No, ducks are easier."

I kept a lazy eye on Fury, noting that the brash yellow light filling every nook within a 4 metre radius was dimming and slow, translucent colour was melting back into her crest.

"So, what do you think this is for?" Charlie shuffled in beside me, peering in at the windowbox.

I kept my first opinion to myself. "Just a rest area."

"It is very pretty," said Charlie, agreeing with whatever tone she thought she heard. Her fingers traced the squiggles of the board absently like reading brail. I turned just in time to catch the O forming on her lips, leaning over running over the top edge. "There's letters, words!"

"Really? What?" I asked. Did I really want to know? I knew I didn't, but curiosity killed the cat and satisfaction brought him back.

This brought on the vision of me pulling a button that explicitly said, in bright red letters hanging beneath a skull and cross bones DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, NOT EVEN IF YOU ACCIDENTLY TRIP AND YOUR ELBOW SORT OF MUSHES IT IN, NOT EVEN IF THERE IS A REALLY BIG GUST OF WIND THAT JUST HAPPENED TO BLOW IT IN, NOT EVEN IF THE LATI SIBLINGS MAGICALLY APPEAR AND PRESS IT IN WHILE YOU WEREN'T LOOKING, NOT EVEN IF MEWTWO HIMSELF THREATENS YOU, PUSH THIS BUTTON!

It's not like I had a good track record with these kinds of things.

"'To make the way its best and brightest, you must send your least and lightest!'"

"You mean there's an exclamation mark?"

"Well, yeah, but-"

"Cos if there's an exclamation mark, there's no telling what trouble we'll be getting into!"

"You're overeacti-"

"Nothing good has ever come after an exclamation mark!"

"Now you're just being sil-"

"I bet the Morse Code sent to the St Titania ended with an exclamation mark!"

"Topa-"

"You just know the last hieroglyph read by the fella who opened Tutankhamahun tomb was actually an exclamation mark!"

"Hey, dere's a door."

"And there don't even think I've forgotten all those menus with little foreign names with an exclamation at the end! I was just asking for trouble!"

"Benef vis lil, lil- this smawl flap!" I felt a shuffle beside my legs but I had sunk my teeth into something and wasn't letting go. "I reckon I can fit."

"And then-"

Fwoom

The corridor lit up, pools of gold illuminating the area around the sconces.

"Help. I'm stuck. I-I'm stuck. I can't get- I'm stuck."

I blinked miserably trying to regain my vision, spots streaking back and forth. Nails scratched on wood from beneath the window box as Fury continued to stammer drunkenly and I sat down to steady myself. I can't say I was surprised to see Fury's violet butt wriggling at me trying to squeeze through a small door like a dog flap camouflaged with the stone and wood.

"Fury's found some kind of door," I told Charlie leaning over carved board rubbing her eyelids. "Small too."

"Hey, there's something in here! It's moving!" Muffled crunches floated up. "Mmm, munchy!"

My mouth fell open as what she had eaten suddenly occurred to me. Yeah, I knew quilava mostly insectivores, but the idea of a fat scurrying cockroach couldn't escape my imaginative mind.

"To make the way its best and brightest," she mused, slowly squatting beside me. "Well, what do we do with it?"

"Only one way to find out." Fury was tugged out like a cork from a stubborn wine bottle and the wood panel fell back into place, hinges a little squeaky. They too had been made to blend in. As I staggered back with Fury bent over beneath the armpits I bumped the board and it clattered to the floor, out of reach of even Charlie's quick reflexes. She paused over it, blinking in the light, then snatched it up triumphantly and read.

" 'Congratulations! You are obviously an observant trainer for few see other than what is directly in front of them. See beyond the realm of the certain and look for the possible. The first torch has enough powder to burn for ten minutes, the second torch has enough powder to burn for nine minutes, and so on respectively so this fleeting light will last for ten minutes. You will have also noticed the trap door, and on the other side is a labyrinth that is a replica of the one you now stand in, which is also engraved in the table which you hold, save for one small difference. At the end you will be rewarded with a torch, and if you are swift in foot and tongue, you may be in time to retrieve flame from the torches remaining alight, good luck for time flies!"

We gasped in unison.

"Small! Let's see," Charlie cried, snapping to action. "Nina!"

"Nina?" I screeched! "She couldn't find her way out of a paper bag!"

Suddenly two wings cuffed me on either side of the ear with a sharp rasping. "Keep you're mouth shut!" hissed Talon. "She's the smallest and the fastest and if you keep it up she'll be too knotted up to do anything. No time to argue!"

A split second later the first torch spluttered and died. Nine minutes left.

"Right, sorry Nina," I apologised meekly, rubbing my ear. "Just a little worked up, heh heh?"

"Is alwight Topaz," Nina mumbled from behind Charlie's ankle, her translator choosing the voice of a shy five year old girl with a lisp. "I do it."

"You're a champ Nina!" beamed her trainer, putting the board on the floor between me and her with ample light to make the termite paths visible. Also beaming drunkenly, Fury swept open the trap door with an exaggerated bow. "Time to scoot!"

Nina's ears flicked with a nervous smile as Fury helped the female Nidoran over the gap in the floor, and she was gone, the flap snapping down behind her.

"Charlie!"Her panicky voice seemed to fill the air around us.

"I can hear you, Nina. Can you hear us?"

"Yahhuh."

"We're in business. How were you at mazes when you were, lit-" Charlie checked herself mid-sentence. "I mean were you any good at mazes?"

"Yeah, loved em. Mum and dad gave me and Scotty puzzle books to keep us from whinging on long drives. What we need is a marker."

"I have lipgloss, it's sparkly so it should be visible in the light."

"I'm not even going to ask, give it here."

I quickly marked the exit and entrance, but which was which? It didn't matter. What people didn't realise that when doing those mazes, no matter how simple- or complicated as this one was, there was a trick that no one seemed to pick up. They always focused on one path at once, just drawing a line until they came to a Rockitile with snapping jaws or a dead end, and then just erase it and go back to the nearest choice. The trick was to get your eyes to unfocus, to see more then one path at once so you don't bother with it. Letting my eyes adjust and pick out the contrasts of the board, I noted the dead ends drew the line around them keeping an eye on the next three choices and their resolutions, all the while still muttering. "When we meet the boss of this place he's going to need a broom to clean out his ears by the time I'm done with 'im!"

With the tip of the gloss stick on the home straight, another torch evaporated, hissing and guttering before vanishing. Eight minutes left.

"Got it! Now we gotta figure which way is up. You alright Nina?

"Yes," answered the quavering but determined voice of a rodent.

"Move forward until you find the next turn off and say what side you're on," I tried to say as loudly and clearly as I dared, but the echoing of the room distorted it. Nether less Nina seemed to understand and a few moments later she squeaked, "Left! It's a left."

Spinning the board around to different angles but neither entrance nor exit turned left on the first go.

"Wait a minute," said Charlie, "It said there was a difference, what if this board is actually a mirror image?"

"We don't have time to remember that!" I protested, slamming my open palm down.

"'No worries, isn't that what you say? I've got a mirror."

"You've go- I'm going to give you a good ear bashing after this on what people mean when they say essential Charlie but until then, just move it!" I pushed the board over with a flustered bounce as another torch fluttered out. Seven minutes. Out of her pocket came a fairly large compact with some kind of powder makeup inside out of my knowledge but she held it up with brows furrowed in concentration.

"Alright," ordered Charlie, cleverly pitching her voice so that the echo was like a grumbled instead of the ear shattering bounces I made. "What's the next turn?"

"A T-Junction!"

"Got it! Turn right!"

Suddenly the orders flew on thick and fast, Charlie rapping out orders while the mumble of Nina's counting filtered through the wood and steadied with a firm 'Right!' for the next order to be fired back ready and waiting. Sometimes this machinegun barrage would be tripped as Nina would miss a turn in her haste and be forced to backtrack, each time I'd suck in a sharp breath and look towards the torches, quivering in their brackets.

I pace back and forth with such fretful intensity that I kept calling worried glances from Charlie. It was a horrible habit my mother constantly tried to wean me off. Often when I was left to wait I would walk in aimless circles or lengths, mumbling the steps inside my head but when I became agitated it was like listening to a train click over tracks with each quick and heavy footfall.

Something though something hit me in midstep. "Wait! Nina watch out! That one's like this one so it would have trap doors too!"

"I know," she said with composed confidence. Well didn't my words boomerang and hit me square! I looked on the rodent Pokemon with new respect and promised not to underestimate any Pokemon.

Fwoot

The fifth torch died reluctantly, hissing and spitting the last of its powder sending the golden halo around it throwing deep and dreary shadows over Charlie's board.

"Five minutes," I said quietly, trying to impress as much gravity as I could on those two words. She lifted her eyes from the board with a faint smile and raking her hair back.

"Take the third left and you're there."

We that were sober listened with baited breath. Claws scratched on wood and then "I'm here!" chirped ecstatically through the panelling.

"What did you find?" Charlie called with pride, shooting me a smug look. My jaw dropped indignantly.

"It's a horn, or a tor-chah," she pronounced the word foreign to a wild Pokemon.

"Do you remember the way Nina?" Charlie ventured, but was already placing the board back on the box. Nina agreed hesitantly she did and the sound of hasty scraping echoed down the hollow. One more torch extinguished, and we weren't too worried, but when a second extinguished, the Pokemon and I urged her on with pinched impatience, eyes drawn to the diminished light upheld by just three torches. Three minutes left!

"Come'n Nina!" Javelin the Spearow impelled in his harsh squawk. What was meant to be encouragement came out as a threat from one of Nidoran's main predator.

"I'm trying!" she squealed! "It's stuck on a corner!" Jerks and crumbling plaster gave way before her scared squeaks rose. "Help me! I can't get it undone! HELP ME!"

"Calm down Nina," soothed her trainer, leaning against the wall with frowning at the wall opposite on her hands. "Take the time."

"Take ti-" she cut my horrified bark clean off with a glance.

"You don't get anywhere by panicking. Look at Topaz," she said with suppressed smile and chuckles from Talon and the Sentrets.

"I resent that," I growled but I didn't mind half as much as I heard a clunk and a happy peep.

Fwoot

"Two minutes!" I hissed, whirling on the still smoking empty sconce. "Run Nina! Run!"

"NO!" Charlie snapped but it was too late. Frantic scampering nails and clonking of the horn as it bounced and choked around each corner. The bangs grew closer and more often. Clunks and crunches echoed around my room sending my heart into a gallop as the second last torch vanished in a helix of smoke, curling in the glow of the final guttering torch's feeble glow!

"I'm back! I'm back!" The trap door exploded open with a crash of rusting hinges. Too fast! Too excited to remember the gap in the floor leading to the inky mineral rich river below, her paws met with naught!

The torch flew from her teeth with a deafening screech used in battle to stun an opponent and the effect on the human ear was spectacular! Charlie and I were crippled as babes, throwing our bodies the floor and clutching our ears screaming. My ears rang and with a myriad of tones that actually made the gelatinous liquid of the middle ear vibrate so it was like being upside down, on a wall and standing on a steep hill all at once. The torch bounced and rolled towards the other gap spinning across the polished wood.

"Nina!" Charlie wailed reaching a crooked arm for her.

Nina back-pedalled frantically, and toppled through the gap!

A paw reached out languidly and snapped the Nidoran from the air. Like a gift the noise choked and my senses filtered back into focus. "No worries!" drawled Fury in a mock Metonian accent, dropping Nina onto the other side, climbing to her feet on shaking legs.

My balance recovered far more slowly.

"Torch!" I burbled, wiping away the tears with my shoulder and groping through vague luminance of the last sconce, stuttering like a strobe light. Every time the glow disappeared my heart was swallowed with it. Fingers flexed of their own accord with the feel of the sconce, granulated like it had been rolled in sand slipped my fingers around it.

"Topaz," Charlie moaned, hunched against the wall.

"Go- got it!" My fingers clenched around them with a vice grip, hauling myself to my feet and staggering and wobbling as my eyes rolled and balance swayed. I stood beneath the bracket of the last sconce alight, and jumped waving our smaller sconce to ignite it. I landed heavily, my ankle buckling under at awkward angle. Not even close. "I'm too short!" I snarled in frustration, hopping one leg still waving the sconce in wild swings!

"Give- give it to me!" Charlie gasped back, using the wall to balance.

"You are too!"

The flame swirled and sputtered!

"Give it here, humans!"

A cold wind like a razor rode in the wake of Javelin, talons thrust forward he seized the sconce from my flailing arm. Wings hammered like a hurricane past my ear as feathers clipped my cheek. A speed attack! The cheeky spearow swept up with the sconce dragging him down, hovering over the bracket laboriously for the sconce to catch alight!

"Onya!"

"Way to go!"

"Show off."

We cheered him on as his flinted eyes screwed up with effort, wings still pumping and feathers scorched in sudden licks of the flame but the fire still jumped uncertainly from one to the other.

Suddenly, Javelin grunted and the torch fell from his craggy claws, bounding over the wood end over end. The spearow sagged to the floor heaving and glaring at it. Everyone stared at the slowly centripetal circles of the cone silently, and then it flickered. A tiny tongue of pure yellow flame danced timidly before springing into a healthy glow. It seemed to magically reach into every corner, and I wondered at it. Collective sighs and looks of relief passed from person to Pokemon and back again.

I bent down for the torch, lifting the weight tentatively off my crook ankle and held it triumphantly aloft.

"You lil' battlers!" I gushed, lifting Javelin onto my outstretched arm and setting him down on guiding beam no longer needed. Kneeling beside Nina I offered a congratulatory hand. Her tiny paw sat in my own and I shook it gently. "You rose to the occasion mate."

"Aww," she blushed, crouching in front of Charlie.

"What about me?" Fury sat with her best impression of royalty and a huff. I grinned. "You! What about you?"

I flopped against the wall still holding the sconce as dearly as any child to an icecream cone beckoning her over and sitting her between my V'd legs, rubbing her between the ears. She purred, and then burped loudly. Oh well.

Charlie and I exchanged looks of pure exhaustion. No food, restricted water and this constant action. It was a miracle we could think and act so clearly and she was mulling over the same thing. We mirrored the same regretful smile.

"Do you reckon we're meant to take the board with us, or memorise it?"

I snorted. "Who cares? I'm taking it!"

"Then don't you think I should read the map?" she broached cautiously, smiling her most inoffensive smile. I shuffled uncomfortably feeling around for my discarded canteen. Yeah, I have all the sense of direction of a spinning top in a turnstile. Oh don't look so surprised, its human nature to be hypocritical!

"Let's get going," I said firmly, surprised at my own change of tune, ushering Fury out of my legs to stand up. "Now we have the map we can get to the end quicker, get a feed and then we'll be thinking better."

"You're grammar is atrocious, Topaz, but your right."

"Disturbing, isn't it?"

"Shutup Talon!" I grinned

Time flew as I once again fell back into my zen like stupor, plodding on after Charlie as her finger traced the board. Every now and again we'd be forced to backtrack but I didn't have the energy to complain. My stomach no longer grumbled, it didn't have the energy to complain and instead settled for making a nuisance of itself by turning into a black hole of nausea and lightheadedness.

Left foot, right foot. Left foot, right foot, my head sang on and on as I rocked back and forth. Noises were muffled and everything just a blur, unable to make the effort to focus. Fury was beginning to moan as the better effects of being drunk wore off. I watched her with vague interest, ticking off the symptoms one after the other worsening co-ordination, more incoherent dribble and heat radiating off her.

What people don't realise is that the body has two sets of veins, one near the surface and one deep for keeping the body the right temperature. When hot the blood is shunted to near the surface where heat can diffuse easily, when cold it goes deep to preserve heat. Drunks can't feel heat or cold so the blood continues to go to the surface, and before you know hypothermia is an inch away and they're still singing Pop goes the Weasel.

Again there a nebulous, insubstantial concern that couldn't be moulded into anything real. I kept looking at her thinking I should do something, but that was as far as it all went. It was like I was drunk.

Charlie stopped suddenly, swaying a little unsteadily herself. Peering around her wearily and holding out the torch, a room the size of a tennis court marked with faded lines, distinctly in the centre was a Pokeball, and a kid in his early twenties kneeling on a mat.

"Are we there yet?" My whiny voice trickled into the room, and my knees gave out, dumping my already knees skinned to the flesh onto the floor. Fury's head nuzzled under my limp arm and sat back nosed forward trying to get any scent on the man.

"Food, he's got food somewhere!"

Every ear perked.

"Give us the food!" Javelin threatened from Charlie's shoulder, beak opening and shutting menacingly.

Still the bloke stared at the ground in front of him fists resting in the knees of his hakama pants, the same as Kamikaze, or Kamuka, or whatever. A barely perceptible smirk could be seen beneath thick maroon hair bound in the same rat tail.

Torches in brackets along the walls suddenly ignited.

But that didn't hold our attention. Our eyes were riveted on the meal that sat innocently in the corner tantalising our tastebuds by the very smell that wafted across the room. I could see sandwiches with slices of red meat between them, ham or pepperoni. I could see salad, lettuce, cheese and potato. There were slices or roast beef simmering on a plate. Noodles coiled in golden snakes in a huge bowl with various bottles and shakers of condiments.

"Tsk tsk," he murmured without opening his eyes. "I am Nico, a student of the Belsprout Tower Labyrinth. If you wish to attain the food you must battle me."

"Screw that!" I snapped, and staggered forward, preparing to duck any attempts to catch me round the middle. As my knees ached against their scabs and blisters were like blobby egg yolks. One foot plonked sluggishly in front of the other but they were feeling much more limber with the promise of sustenance. Eyes followed me as I crossed the room but as I lurched just within reach in the blink of an eye the cross legs coiled like springs and shot the Sage to his feet. You'd think that the skirt-pants would have proved a nuisance but as fluid as a liquid one leg shot out and hooked my ankle, tugging it upwards while turning his body into a cartwheel kick, landing with legs equally spaced and looked ready to bow.

Of course, I viewed all this from midair, one leg kicked up the other followed dutifully! Turning frantically in midair I tried to brace myself against the impact. One palm spread against the floor but the whole of my weight was thrust upon it. Rolling over it I could feel muscles pinch and bones whine, bending at angles that would make an architect jealous. I screeched, smacking the floor with my shoulder but had the sense to roll with it.

With a brief scream I rolled across the floor, clutching my wrist to my body and rocking on my back. As I opened my eyes Charlie kneeled with an expression of concern that threatened to split it in half. Without speaking she took my hand and felt along the carpel and metacarpal bones that made up the wrist and the palm of my hand.

"You meanie!" she snarled a Niko who was looking in disarray, but his face struggled back into blankness that had obviously been drilled into him a million times before.

"It was accidental, I assure you, but none may pass until they have beaten me in a Pokemon battle."

Still clutching my hand to my chest and folding upright. My whole wrist felt as if it had taken a ride on a corkscrew. I scowled at him, fumbling along my braces for Pokeballs that weren't there when I realised Kumuza had taken them to "free our Pokemon from their confines."

"I'll battle you!" I snarled, stabbing a menacing finger at his chest.

"Wait Tez," Charlie whispered in my ear. "We should talk about this, which of our Pokem-"

"I ch- I chal I ch-ch. I …. Les fight!" To my horror Fury had wobbled into position of the white half of the Pokeball designated for the challenger.

"No!" Charlie and I both squawled, scrambling to the margin of the battle field and pressing against the wall.

A little flustered at being challenged by something that had trouble keeping all its limbs under control, he swallowed, walking purposefully towards the opponent's box. "Challenge accepted. It is two against two, the last Pokemon standing."

Creeping to the scuffed and worn markings of the challenger box, I swallowed with dread. All that crap about trusting your Pokemon and everything will be alright is for cartoons. Through sheer spite of that stupid Ash and Friends cartoon and had vowed that I would listen to logic first, and right now it was betting a 44 to 1 chance of her having her arse kicked inside out.

Too bloody late now.

"Alright." I said, feeling sick. My head felt heavy and lopsided, jerking from one side as if filled with lead weight. My eyes couldn't focus properly and I was blinking like a camera shudder. The past two days came crashing down on my shoulders. I had to guide Fury through this battle like this?

"When you're ready Ol'mate." His eyebrows rose, reaching inside his gi top and withdrew a Pokeball. He eyed it critically and then cast an evaluating eye on Fury. She was sitting down, with every movement as jolting as a puppet's. A grins surface hesitantly and he flicked a pokeball into the air. The red light crackled and the Pokeball returned to his hand.

Between us a Belsprout weaved like a serpent charmer's rope, its heavy bell yellow head snaked back and forth, beady eyes focused on Fury warily. Fair enough, because Fury's grin was pretty disconcerting, it looked like a jack-o-lanterns, wide and empty.

Fury lurched, suddenly gripping the ground very tightly with her claws. "Jus-just in case it ge-sah-way again. Tricky these, this floor you got. Sometimes it wansa be the ceiling or a wall, but issa a floor right?"

"You're Pokemon is drunk! You mock me!" he snarled in disbelief. I cringed, how bad did this look? Would they report me? I mean I ain't allowed alcohol, so how did she get some?

"Am not! You w-wouldn't call me drunk if I was shobre!"

"Bel. Belsprout?" it asked its trainer. Nico's mouth twisted, pulling into an arrogant smirk his Pokemon and I didn't much like the look of.

At least I had type advantage. Standing on the sidelines anxiously, Charlie had mysteriously scrounged a red and a green scarf from her pockets and brought the green one down with a flourish.

"Ember, Fury!" I snapped desperate for the first move. At least I had the type advantage all I needed was one hit to cripple the grass Pokemon.

Fury sucked in a raspy breath like a smokers cough, dancing on her toes as Belsprout advanced across the field at speed that was confounding, and hiccuped! Eyes bulged like peeled grapes as the trapped embers scorched her mouth, and escaped hissing through bared teeth! She gagged with a howl! The last of the embers whirled in a harmless curlicue around her. She staggered, puffing and panting and red rimmed eyes watering.

Belsprout's chance.

"Razor leaf!"

"Bel!" piped Belsprout, weaving in its oily way, with each curl hurling a razor edged leaf spinning like a ninja star at Fury. Still choking, the first slashed shoulder height and she jerked away, spinning around to face Belsprout. A moment later a thread fine red line drizzled down her coat. Already the second cut across her chest and third and forth down her back as she wheeled frantically with each paper thin slice. Reeling under the barrage she fought against it, one step forward and two steps back.

Nico chuckled haughtily. "What good a trainer are you! You're Pokemon is learning backwards, can't even walk!"

"Shut up!" I snarled, my tanned cheeks paling with furious embarrassment. "At least I'm not in a skirt, poof! Move it Fury! You're getting too close to the border!"

"Hurts," mumbled Fury, seeping from the onslaught and struggling to her feet, or finding all four feet.

"You got yourself into it Fury," I muttered back, squatting down beside her. Belsprout hesitated, any attack might hit me. "You got yourself into it, and I'm not pulling you out without damaging Belsprout!"

From the wall I saw Charlie's shocked expression and was preparing to switch to the red flag, for loss or surrender but I shot such a furious glare and flash of teeth like a Rockitile that she winced and glared back darkly.

"The battle will continue," she stated without emotion, staring at the floor. At my back I felt eyes with the same resentment.

Fury sagged, wobbling away from the challenger's box but stalked forward with the drunk's stubborn determination that was usually confined to who could pee the furthest.

Stubborn as you are! laughed Scotty's voice. It was the same voice that had claimed jokingly I wasn't meant to be a trainer and as I watched Belsprout consider the least painful way to get Fury out of the way, I couldn't find a comeback, and was angry, angry at a voice in my head!

"Tackle!" I snapped. If I couldn't use long distance attacks we'd have to take the battle to it! It was a grass types and they tended towards being slow. That tactic sounded about as right as one of my Nana's home remedies but Fury hurtled heedlessly at Belsprout limbs flying like washing in the wind! It squeaked as if caught in the headlights of a semitrailer and didn't know which way Fury would lunge.

She didn't, she just kept galloping and a wild paw brought a stunning blow to Belsprout's head as she passed, and kept going.

Bang!

Fury plastered herself against the wall and both Pokemon spun in drunken dazes around the floor!

"The walls are play'n tricks on meeeeee!"

"Buh-Beeeeeeel

"Quick Fury! Ember!" I crowed, eyes gleaming with a crazed light as I glimpsed Niko's shell-shocked expression and wanted to drive home a victory straight between his cocky teeth! With eyes crossed Fury inhaled again, her belly filling like a balloon and exhaled a fiery gust, tiny glowing ashes in as swirling tunnel at the Belsprout.

"Take it and Wrap it Bela!"

The ember attack blew crazily around Belsprout them both, scorching ash white spots across its leaves but it ignored it, its face contorted with determination as its roots swathed around Fury's waist, squeezing and severing the funnelling fire attack with a gasp.

"Come on Fury! Get out! You aren't even trying!" Fury struggled and writhed but each time she breathed in Belspout wound it vines tighter, hitching beneath her ribcage. "Ember Fury!"

Her answer was a sick gagging sound and my fist punched the air in frustration. Now Niko was chuckling softly, not a mean sound, but it was like a brick to the back of the head. "For gawds sake Fury! Do something-"

"I declare the match over! The match goes to Belsprout." Every pair of eyes whipped to face Charlie, standing with an expression of stony authority. "Recall Fury Topaz."

"She can battle!"

"Recall her." Her tone left no question and my whole face had flushed a waxy white with anger. I shot a furious look to Niko who was only smirking knowingly and Belsprout who had released Fury and patting her on the back with clear relief as she coughed and regained her breath. It caught me staring, its small black pebble eyes held mine with a tangible wave of disapproval and pity.

"Return Fury," I growled. I didn't need pity! "Talon, I choose you!"

"I ain't battling for you!"

My eyes widened and I wheeled to face the other Pokemon sitting with quiet amazement and even shock. "What do you mean! I am your trainer!"

"Yeah, you were Fury's trainer too and look what you did to her! You're meant to be her, our, friend!"

Through gritted teeth I said, "I am your trainer first."

"She was your first!" rallied Javelin, his fierce eyes now narrowed into seething slits. "It's an open sky, we protect and fight for you, and you do the same!"

My eyes scanned the growing rebellion. "Target."

"Sent!" The Pokemon was trying to hide itself amongst the bodies, looking timidly over Javelin's outstretched wing.

"No, I'll battle." A reassurance spread across the Pokemon as Charlie came behind me and placed a comforting hand on my shoulder and leaned into my ear. I recoiled and glared sullenly but she ignored it. "No you won't Topaz. You're tired, hungry and stressed. Yesterday was tough but I'm going to take over before you do anymore damage. Be a trainer and comfort Fury."

We looked to the centre. Belsprout returned to its side of the arena but Fury still sat with her mouth open with shallow pants. I tried to remember if quilavas were like dogs with no sweat pores and so moisture had to be lost through panting but I couldn't remember.

It was suddenly all to hot.

Fury glanced up and caught my eye and looked away, staring at the ground as she wobbled and fell down beside Charlie's Sentret in the entrance.

Meanwhile Charlie took up the challenger's box and she ushered Maverick onto the challenger's side.

Great, I fumed inwardly slamming my fist into the wall behind me. I slumped against a wall away from the others. No way we'll win now!

"You do realise that in order to win you have to beat both Belsprout and my second Pokemon?"

"Of course," she said with a bright smile. "Mave's up for it."

"To!" he agreed mindlessly, dancing on his toes. There was a pause as they waited for me to commence the match but I stared woodenly back. Niko rolled his eyes at me.

"Go Mave! Rage!" Charlie trumpeted and Mave lunged. Belsprout tried its slippery weaving but as soon as one hit the others came tumbling like an avalanche! The first strike ripped across its spindly waist, the second sliced a leaf clean off and the third dragged down its back as it spun to retreat!

"Razor Leaf!" commanded Niko. Leaves erupted from its uninjured limb but they fell away in ribbons between gleaming claws! Mave's eyes glowed like coals and waves of turquoise energy rolled off him. His lips were pulled back in a very un-Maverick like sneer.

"Mine," he growled low and menacing, advancing slow and purposefully.

"Bel?" Belsprout pleaded, edging backwards. Sap seeped from the slashes across

"Return Belsprout." He offered Charlie a brittle smile. "That came down quick. But now you are going to be sorry your friend lost her temper."

"Oi!"

"Maverick's at full Rage, his attack grew with every attack he landed and that would make three!" Charlie returned confidently, striking a peace sign. Oh gawd, how Ash and Friends could you get? "Better hope he doesn't reach five!"

"I choose Ectoparus."

It oozed from the wall a small, squat reddish purple creature leaving a pinkish slime bleeding from the walls as it emerged.

Slat, slat.

Two tentacles protruded and slapped the wall, dragging itself further from the knotted woodwork. A heavy bulbous head speckled with crimson dots and a ridge of red beads down the centre, a milky white eye as big as my fist and six more tentacles finally squatted on the wall, the eye seeming to roll sightlessly over the room as we gawked curiously back.

I could vaguely place its shape from an old documentary from the Dictioy region, east of the Janera. An octopus Pokemon. Slook, slook, slook. It dragged itself down the wall, its cherry pink suckers made popping sound every time they came loose. Eventually it came to rest and I saw that between its fore tentacles were the four keratin beaks of a squid and floating luxuriously as if on ocean currents was a set of frills much like a cuttlefish.

"You can't do that!" I suddenly protested. "This place is the Belsprout Monastary, therefore-" I added, bringing my ring and thumb finger like a fine wine connoisseur, "You should be using a Belsprout!"

"We don't know her, honestly."

"Be quiet Talon!"

Needless to say I was ignored. Mave shoulders still rose and fell as he twitched, waiting for his opponent to move, and Ectoparus squelched in a spreading puddle of goo.

"Let the match commence!" Mave lunged, swiping valiantly at Ectoparus who stared without interest. The razor sharp claws cleaved its body in two in Mave's wake, his paddle feet skidding away on a slick of slime! In front of me Charlie's lips moved in silent revelation and I could almost imagine she was swearing. I too had suddenly jumped to the realisation. Ectoparus was a ghost type! Physical attacks didn't work and to my growing dismay I couldn't recall the little 'dile ever using an elemental attack.

"Wrap Ectoparus!"

"Counter with leer!"

With the effects of the Rage wearing off, his eyes flashed and Ectoparus flinched.

"Dropping his defence won't do any good," laughed Niko, "if you can't attack!"

"Leer again!" This time its sloppy approach was only slowed.

"Run Mave!" she ordered desperately. Mave gurgled and darted to the left but a tentacle shot out, and coiled around Mave's ankle! It yanked him into the air, swinging and dangling! As he swung to face his opponent he Leered frantically in rapid blinks but all it did was make it move in jerks like a bad animation. Mave swiped again but there was still no effect. I buried my head in my hands, raking my fingers through my fringe.

Suddenly their came a gurgling and choking sound and Mave's chest bulged like there was something inside it!

"Come'on!" Charlie coaxed. "Watergun!"

Well, it was hardly the spectacular jet from cartoons that saved the day just in the nick of time, but it worked. A trickle akin to a stone cherub in a fountain squirted Ectoparus right in the eye! With a voice like tin sheets being wobbled it hurled Mave across the floor but the Totodile grinned and bore it, climbing to his feet and inhaled. Ectoparus was still scrubbing its eye with a tentacle and another thin spout arched over the room, pattering on his head.

Under normal circumstances it would hardly have been worth noticing but the repeated leers would have made a mosquito bite something to worry about. It staggered, shivering and making more wobbly moaning sounds.

"Mean Look!" shouted Niko as his Pokemon slobbered its way along, its beak opening and closing in harsh gasps. It spun and glared, lights glowing eerily from his eyes and it was like Mave had suddenly stuck his feet in cement! He jerked and swung but his feet remained frozen to the floor!

"Just one big splash, darl!" she urged. "Look how tired it is!"

"I'm tired too," he gurgled wearily, but he hitched his chest so that it swelled, growing and growing as Ectoparus slapped closer, slook slook slook. Finally it loomed above the totodile, rising to its full hight as if in an attempt to smother him beneath its bulk.

"NOW!"

Fwoot! Nothing could have compared either Pokemon! Ectoparus screeched like nails on tin as the blast caught its belly like a parachute and it almost splatted through the wall, narrowly missing its trainer and Mave, with the force of the water was shot backwards, accelerated by the drips of slime that and spattered in the course of the battle and just in time Charlie snapped her knees together and caught him like a soccer goalie! And he was still inside the challenger's side! Ectoparus was out for the count, and returned to his Pokeball as Niko stroked hits jelly like head.

"All you need to do is stand up and you've won!" whispered Charlie, with barely concealed delight.

His little blue brows knotted and one claw pushed him up, followed by the second and with a groan he was on his feet, swaying and grinning!

Cheers erupted from the Pokemon behind me as they rushed forward, crowding him and congratulating him, and then bulldozed him to the picnic in the corner.

Niko shook hands with Charlie, and then came to me with a sombre expression.

"I know a loss isn't easy, and from the sound of your friend you aren't normally like that."

"I've known her for two days, she doesn't know anything," I muttered into my chest as I picked up Fury, snoozing drunkenly.

"What I'm trying to say," the student of temple said with growing impatience. "Is do you see how counter productive it was to battle without considering your pokemon's limitations? I'm not going to ask how she got drunk, there's no way you obtained the alcohol legally and no trainer, no matter how irresponsible would let them drink in such circumstances. Sit and eat with us, I have potions to heal Fury, and I'm sure I can find some balm for yourself."

"I don't need your help."

"Need or not, you're going to get it." The teen took Fury from my arms, watching me suppress a cringe as the sores and scabs on my arms complained.

"How on earth did that happen? The temple was designed for beginning trainers. Which task did you do, the bridge or the maze?"

"What do you mean which, we did both!"

"Both! You can't have! That means you must have done one and backtracked to do the other!" laughed Niko, setting Fury down at the edge of the picnic and pouring us both drinks, mine in a glass and Fury in an ornate bowl. I coaxed her awake by kneading her neck and she stirred, silently began to lap, rubbing her temple.

"Charlie!" I growled, sculling the cup and handing it back for more but she grinned back with cheeks bulging and a salami roll clenched possessively in her fist.

Niko laughed wholeheartedly now, "Tell me all about it, I think you deserve help with how to tackle the second level!"

18th November 2004