First of all, I have to apologize extremely hard to all of my dedicated fans (and new fans, too, which I am happy to see). I am so ashamed and embarrassed as all get-out that it has been months since I posted the last chapter. Not that anyone is looking for excuses, but school has been Absol-utely killer. I hope that you can understand that, and please forgive me (even though I can't forgive myself yet). For those who e-mailed me (which I horrendously never got back to and I'm extremely sorry beyond all reason), I appreciate your concern about my stories and your offer to help out. (I never had time to write another story, gladdecease. I can barely keep up with this one!) If I need some help another time, I'll definitely e-mail 'ya! Also, if anyone is wondering, this story is a bit over halfway done now. Anyway, the congratulations goes to Sparklewolf, Kuwabara Shizuru, J.C. the Wabbit, Alex Warlorn, and bluejolteon459, who got Chapter Seven's title right. The line "… what happens to our souls?…" comes from the song To Know The Unknown from the Pokémon 3: The Ultimate Soundtrack CD. On with the book!
CHAPTER 8: …Big Trouble's Gonna Follow You…
The hysterical shouting coming down the snowy cavern hallway soon grew progressively louder. Ash and Misty floated, with a kind of ghostly bated breath, high in the air, waiting and watching the tunnel to their left for the owners of the voices to appear. Ash felt Misty glide over close beside him to his right, and he glanced at her with an anxious look. She returned the same kind of look. They were both extremely curious and wary about who could be coming down the hall, and what they were trying to escape from.
"WE'RE GOING TO DIE! WE'RE GOING TO DIE! WE'RE GOING TO DIE!" one voice kept screaming rapidly in a high pitch.
"SHUT UP AND KEEP RUNNING!" another voice screamed in response.
"BUT WE'RE GOING TO DIE!" the first replied again.
"That's weird," Ash muttered quietly, "Those voices… I feel like I've heard them all before…" Misty nodded in agreement. They sounded quite familiar, and the instant before two people came in sight, she realized who it had to be.
"Ash! It's Team Rocket!"
The two human members of the official Pikachu Stalking Gang were just barely visible from where the pale blue spirits of Ash and Misty were floating. They were running hard, and the closer they got to Ash and Misty, the more it was plain to see that no one else was with them. Somehow, Ash wasn't really surprised that it was them. They always seemed to turn up at critical moments, either unintentionally or on purpose. "Yeah, it's Jesse and James alright," Ash replied, then added, "but where's Meowth?"
Misty shrugged. "And what are they doing all of the way down here?"
"And what are they running from? …There's nothing behind them…"
Soon, Jesse and James were almost underneath the spirits of Ash and Misty. James suddenly tripped and fell flat on his face in the snow. Jesse quickly grabbed his hand from out of the flurries and gave a great tug. "Come on, James!" she shrieked, "That-" She stopped as she looked back at the way they had come and saw that the only thing behind them was snow. Her shoulders drooped incredulously and she dropped James hand limply. James hadn't moved an inch, but it sounded as if he was sobbing into the snow. After a stunned moment, Jesse glanced over at James, got an irritated look on her face, and gave his leg a light kick. "Get up!"
The answer was somewhat incoherent from the flurries. "But that Sneasel-"
"It's not even here, James!" Jesse muttered very tetchily. After a moment's pause, James sat up in the snow and glanced behind him, which was Sneasel-free.
"…Where'd it go?"
The reasonable question earned James a smack on the head. "Where do you think? It didn't even follow us down here through that hole, stupid!"
Rather mournfully, James said the only think he could think of. "…Oh." Unfortunately, Jesse was very embarrassed about finding out that she had been fleeing from nothing, and took her anger-disguised humiliation out on James once more, by hitting him on the head again. He took the abuse without comment, though his emerald eyes looked quite dull. He stood up, brushing some snow off of his white Team Rocket uniform.
Jesse seemed unsure about what she would decide for her and James to do next. Her arms were crossed and she was glancing around gravely. James stood still and waited, head down, silently adjusting the straps of the backpack he was wearing. Finally, Jesse commented, "Well, these caves could go on forever, and there doesn't seem to be anything decent here to look at… or steal," at this, Ash and Misty exchanged contemptuous looks, "so we ought to head back the way we came."
"What if that Sneasel is waiting to attack us?"
Her sapphire eyes narrowed and James gulped slightly. "Then we'll battle it. You should have sent your Cacnea out the first time, and then we wouldn't even be down here, and we could get out easier."
"You didn't send out Seviper or Dustox or Wobbuffet, ei-" James rubbed his head where Jesse had hit him again.
"Well, it doesn't matter now, does it?! Now, James, how many Escape Ropes do we have?"
"Uh, let me check." He slipped the backpack off and set it on the snowy ground, then knelt down beside it. He opened it up. Ash glided a little closer, trying to get a better view as James rummaged around for the Escape Ropes. "I wasn't counting when I was sorting everything a little while ago, but let's see… some Oran berries… some Potions, some Super Potions… some- oh, here we go… one… two… three, four, five… six… we have six Escape Ropes, I think."
"Well, good. We only need two anyway. Come on." Jesse waited authoritatively while James tried to repack the backpack with the items he had set out on the snow. Some of the items didn't seem to want to go back in so it would zip closed. After a moment or two of watching him struggle, she gave a rather exasperated sigh and knelt down beside him to help him out. James glanced over at her, smiling happily, but her face remained mostly impassive. When James looked back down at the backpack, Ash and Misty noticed that the skin below her eyes was somewhat pink.
"What'll we do, Ash?" Misty asked suddenly, surprising him, "Should we just let Team Rocket leave, or should we get their attention?"
"Maybe… maybe they can help us!" Ash began to try to formulate a plan in his head, "If we can tell Team Rocket what happened to us, maybe they can think of a solution, or go find Brock and May and Max! They're probably our only hope, don't you think? They also have a Super Potion, so maybe we can give it to Sableye, so he will heal!" Ash turned his attention to Team Rocket as James was getting the backpack back on. "HEY, TEAM ROCKET! JESSE! JAMES! UP HERE!" He began waving his hands up and down. They showed not even the slightest sign of hearing him.
"Ash!" Misty quickly reached over and grabbed his flailing arm to stop him. Ash looked over at her in surprise. "They're not going to hear you, Ash! Remember the poem?" She glanced back at the engravings father up on the wall to their right. "See, it says, 'aside from spirits like yourself, none will see you, or will hear'. There's no way they'll hear you or see you." With a sigh, Ash nodded, glancing thoughtfully back down at Jesse and James. Wait… Misty thought a moment later, not realizing that her right hand was still holding onto Ash's left wrist, if no one can hear a ghost besides other ghosts… then how did I hear Ash talking when we were in Lavender Town…?
"How are we going to get their attention then? Write our problem in the snow?" Ash absentmindedly slipped his hand into Misty's in place of his wrist. Misty glanced down at their interlocked fingers, something that was becoming a common but thrilling image. She was beginning to think harder than ever that maybe, just maybe… But there was no time for these thoughts at the moment; she had to answer Ash's question.
"That would certainly take a long time, and we have less than an hour, and what if Team Rocket didn't read it or believe when we did?"
"Well, what are we going to do?" Ash's thoughts were on the Lavender Town incident, as Misty's had been a moment ago. "Pick them up?" He chuckled, until he saw how wide Misty's eyes had become in contemplation.
Jesse hadn't taken ten steps in the direction they had come from when she felt a light touch on the back of her neck. She was about scream at James for spooking her, when she noticed that James was walking right beside her. It wasn't him…? She was about to mention the bizarre event when James' eyes grew wide and he stopped dead in his tracks. He whipped his head around to look behind himself, and one of his hands cautiously touched the back of his neck. Jesse stopped walking, too. They were still for a moment, and their eyes connected, both realizing that the other had felt the same thing as they had.
Everything was tense for a moment, when suddenly James gave a loud shriek. Jesse froze as James lifted both of his arms up, glancing back and forth wildly and panicky, as if something was underneath his arms. It was soon apparent that something really was holding him underneath his arms when Jesse realized that James was being pulled up by some strange force, away from the powdery ground, for his feet were no longer touching the snow. He began to kick the air and swing his hands riotously. "HELP! IT'S GOT ME! HELP!" He was slowly being pulled upwards and backwards by an invisible power.
Anger overcame Jesse's shock in a heartbeat. "Hey!" She yelled indignantly, taking a couple of steps forward, even though she had no idea in her mind what she could be up against, "Put him down, whatever you are! He's not yours! You have no right to- AH!" Her demand was cut short by the feel of something light under her own arms. Before she had a chance to even think of retaliation, she found the lightness gripping her firmly and pulling her right off the ground. She shrieked again, and tried to wiggle out of the something's grasp, but it was in vain. She couldn't see what was holding her, so she had no idea where to try to hit or kick.
"Ah! They got you, too!" James yelped, realizing that Jesse was now in the same predicament as he was. They were now about four feet off of the ground and seven feet away from their last footsteps. He reached out a hand to her, and she did the same, but before they could make contact, Jesse was quickly dragged higher up and farther away. Yelling illogically, she kept searching for what was holding onto her, but couldn't see it no matter what she did. James continued to simply thrash back and forth wildly, like a Ninetales with its foot caught in a trap.
"Oh, great," Misty called dully to Ash, trying to keep a firm grip on her captive, "I got the live one."
Ash chuckled as James continued to writhe away, trying to escape Misty's grip under his arms. "Well, at least we got their attention!"
"Yeah, and what was that you said again, Jesse?" Misty asked as she turned her attention to Ash's hostage, but Jesse remained completely deaf to the ghost girl's rather jeering questions, "What did you say? 'He's not yours'? What does that mean? That he's yours?" Ash chuckled along with Misty, despite the fact that he missed her connotation almost completely. He gave a glance behind himself, to make sure that he wouldn't glide into anything as he floated backwards, his captive trailing through the air.
"It's a good thing that they don't weigh much to us right now, or else there's no way we'll be able to carry them very far."
"We're going to have to go fast. We don't have a lot of time, don't forget!" Misty paused for a moment as James tried to kick off of the wall that she had glided too close to on accident. "I wish he wasn't so jumpy."
"NOW WE'RE REALLY GOING TO DIE!" James began shrieking repeatedly, whipping back and forth as much as he could while in the firm hold something undetectable had under his arms.
Despite her continuing panic, Jesse tried to think logically now. "This isn't any psychic-like attack…" she muttered, still trying to twist around and see what was holding on to her, "because Confusion and Disable control the whole body… This can't be an invisible Pokémon, I don't think… the only common Pokémon that could do that would be a Kecleon… but they have those red zigzag stripes, and they can't fly anyway…" Suddenly, Jesse sucked in a nervous breath, and after a pause, "…so that means that the only thing left… would be that… these things are…"
"GHOSTS!" James yelped shrilly, "THEY'RE GOING TO KILL US!"
Seeing how gently and smoothly they were being carted backwards through the cold cavern air, Jesse gave him an irritated glance. "Even though these must be ghosts, why would they kill us, James? If they were going to, why didn't they just do it when they found us?"
After a rather thoughtful pause for one so horrified, he gave his answer. "TORTURE! TORTURE, TORTURE, TORTURE! THEY'LL TORTURE US FIRST!" Suddenly, James was obviously being shaken back and forth by the invisible force. He screamed, his voice at a high octave.
"Yeah, I'll show you torture," Misty was muttering gravely under her breath, swinging James back and forth as they continued gliding backwards, "Try not being able to get back into your own body." Ash gave her a rather withering glance, though he smiled too, and she stopped her 'torture'. Ash saw that her pale blue face had deepened in its color under her nose, a ghostly kind of blush at Ash's reprisal.
" 'S okay," Ash smiled, "If we scare them much more though, they might not help us." Misty nodded in understanding, but kept her eyes reverted. Ash slowly realized that Misty seemed to care very much about what he thought of her. He cared an enormous amount about what Misty thought of him, but he hadn't thought that she would be the same. I wonder why… "Hey, Mist." She looked at him in the eyes. Ash suddenly lost what he had been going to say. After a moment, he shook his head with nothing to speak about. Misty laughed, and seeing her smile made Ash grin, too.
Seconds began to tick by as Ash and Misty glided along the passageway, carting the two Team Rocket humans. Now that their souls were adjusted to the weight of their cargo, Ash and Misty stopped gliding backwards and floated forwards instead, to make better time. James was still completely freaking out, lashing about wildly. Jesse had completely given up on trying to get loose of the ghostly grip and was hanging limply in midair. Watching James in a Magikarp-like Flail, she muttered tiredly, "James, give it up. You're not going to get loose. Let's just wait and see where these ghost things are taking us, okay?"
He stopped in mid-thrash and went slack like Jesse. "Well, fine. When they torture us and kill us, don't tell me I didn't warn you." Jesse rolled her eyes, but she was smiling just a little bit. It was when she reached over and patted James' right shoulder in mock reassurance that the two ghost souls realized how close they had drifted. However, neither Ash nor Misty dragged their captives away from one another. After all, Jesse and James weren't trying to escape anymore anyway.
Up ahead, Ash saw the hole in the ground that he and Misty had fallen through to get to the third cavern. He nodded at it. "There it is." Misty nodded, too, and they glided over to it.
Once Jesse and James saw the hole in the snow, they both stiffened anxiously, wondering what was going to happen. "Uh, oh," Jesse mumbled cautiously. James' eyes grew wide in anticipation.
"Down you go," Misty commanded to her unhearing captive, as she unceremoniously let go of James' arms and he fell, with a small scream, through the hole. A second later, after they heard a slight 'oof' from below, Ash let go of Jesse, and she plunged through the hole after her partner, also with a cry of alarm. The two souls couldn't resist a small chuckle at the strange situation that they and Team Rocket were in, and they glided down through the gap in the snowy floor, too.
After a moment or two of gaining back their breath, Jesse and James struggled to gather themselves up out of the deep snow they were in. Jesse finally got her feet on the ground and was shaking flurries off of herself when she felt a jolt at her back and thought the 'ghosts' were picking her up again. However, it turned out to only be James, who had thrown himself at her and was clinging to her for dear life. "Are they gone?!" he said urgently, looking at her annoyed face over her shoulder, "Do you think the ghosts have left, Jess?"
Trying to shrug him off, Jesse answered forcefully, "I don't know, James, but get a hold of yourself! You were calm just a second ago."
"I know, but now we're free! …Or are we free?"
Jesse tried again to wiggle herself out of his death grip, but it didn't work. "I don't kn…" Jesse trailed off as she finally saw the place that they had been dropped into. "Look where we are, James!" she said in a hushed whisper, "This place is so huge, and white!" Both Team Rocket members suddenly stood still in awe at the circular cavern of snow below them, very different from the tunnels above in its own way, with its dripping stalactites and vast emptiness. Jesse unconsciously leaned back into James for a moment, resting against him, and they both forgot what they were talking about before.
Perhaps it was a good thing that neither could hear the ghostly girl, who was floating nearby, whisper to herself, "Awe. How sweet." They were about to be disturbed enough anyway.
Out of the blue, as they studied the wintry grotto from the cliff they were on, Jesse felt a sharp jab in her side. Of course, her first thoughts were that it was James, but that was quickly disproved by the fact that his arms were still around her neck. A second later, the first jab was followed up by a second, and Jesse said quickly, "Those ghosts aren't gone yet, J- ah!" The third jab was more like a push, and Jesse tripped sideways, and then fell over into the snow when James let go over her in fright.
"They're back!" James squealed, retracting his hands to his chest quickly and trying to look small and unimportant.
"I don't think they ever left," Jesse muttered sullenly, pushing herself up out of the white flurries.
James felt a hard prod in his side now, and with a yelp, ran away from the direction that the prod had come from. He ran right past Jesse, and then paused to look back at her, still getting up from her fall. Despite his fear of the 'ghosts', James was about to go back and help Jesse up, when he was knocked down backwards by a thump on his chest. The wind was about knocked out of him, as the backpack that had miraculously stayed on now jabbed into his back when he fell. He lay panting, unthinking, for a moment, until he saw, out of the corner of his eyes, Jesse running the way that he had been going. Luckily for him, she reached down and grabbed his hand as she went past, dragging him to his feet.
We must look ridiculous, Jesse thought, falling and jerking and flopping about for no apparent reason. Good thing no one we know can see us right now. It's not very dignified-looking for the great and powerful Team Rocket to look like a pair of drunken Spinda.
"Why won't they go in the direction that we're trying to get them to go in?" Misty muttered, as she and Ash gliding along quickly behind the retreating 'villains'.
"Well, at least they're headed towards the snow slide, now," Ash observed, "but it's like rounding up a flock of Mareep without a Growlithe."
"Yawh!" Misty exclaimed for Ash's enjoyment, pretending to crack a whip at Jesse and James as they continued their fast trudge through the snow. Ash chuckled. The two runners remained oblivious to the identity of the 'ghosts', and were only a foot or so from the edge when they finally saw the precipice. Both immediately ground their heels into the thick snow to stop, which they did just in time. James clutched Jesse's hand harder, almost cutting her circulation off.
"How do we get down?!"
Jesse was at a loss. The cliff was extremely steep and very far away from the bottom of the cavern, so, of course, jumping was not a desirable option. Then, she spotted the slide. The strange curve that ran along the wall was only half covered in snow, as if someone had already scrapped part of it off. Jesse quickly pointed it out. "Over there, James!" She pulled him to the edge of the slide. "This is the only way down."
"Are you sure it's safe?" James questioned anxiously. Ash could only watch as an impatient Misty glided over and gave James a slight shove, knocking him into Jesse, who had nothing to fall into herself. Instead, she fell over the edge, James loosing his balance and falling over, too, and both began to slide down the snowy slide on their stomachs.
Their frightened screams filled the cavern, growing a bit softer the farther down they slid. Ash and Misty floated side by side at the top of the cliff, just watching them slide down. Ash gave Misty a questioning look, but Misty went ahead and explained gravely, "We don't have a second more to waste. There's no telling how long we've been down here already, or how much of an hour we have left." Ash nodded.
"Misty," he murmured.
"…What?"
Ash was about to say, 'Don't worry', but then realized that this huge situation probably was something to worry about. Instead, he muttered the only reassurance he was one hundred percent positive was true. "I'm here."
Jesse was getting tired of ending up face down in flurries, as much as she loved snow. Her cheeks were beginning to sting from the freezing rub of iciness that she kept landing in. However tired she was getting, though, it didn't stop her from getting back up again. She gave a small shiver at the temperature, then looked down at James, who had stayed where he had slid to a stop. He was staring up at her staring down at him. Both of them blinked for a moment, then James said, before Jesse could inquire, "I think I hit my arm on something. It's rather sore, and the hurt makes it hard to sit up."
With a sigh, Jesse reached down and helped him to his feet, avoiding unwanted contact with his left wrist, which he had indicated. Then, yet a moment later, she carefully took his wrist in both of her hands and gently began to touch it in several places. James winced several times, too, but kept his eyes fixed on a smooth rock situated against the cliff wall, so as to not concentrate on the tenderness in his wrist. His stare rather startled Ash and Misty, who both thought that James had seen them, for they had just alighted on the rock (the one they had slept on the previous night). After a tense moment, they realized he wasn't really looking at them and became calm again.
"It's not broken," Jesse muttered her final analysis of his throbbing wrist, "or twisted or pulled or anything. You just hit it against a rock or something. You'll be okay, if you just hold some of this snow on it so it doesn't swell. The hurt'll go away in a minute or two."
"Thanks, Jesse," James murmured mildly, taking her suggestion and gathering a lump of snow to apply to his wrist. Especially since she had been nice acting for a moment, he knew she wouldn't accept his gratitude. She didn't.
"Don't thank me. Thank Ho-Oh, or something." Her tone quickly became her 'normal' one: harsh. "Let's go, James."
"…Where?"
She cuffed his head, though it was a lighter cuff than usual. "Wherever those footprints go, stupid!" James just then noticed the two sets of foot tracks in the snow, leading away to the other side of the cavern. Ash and Misty had just noticed them, too, and realized that although some Ice- Type Pokémon had created snow to cover their tracks in the other caverns, a Pokémon hadn't covered their tracks in this third cavern.
"Do ghosts make footprints?" James suddenly questioned.
Jesse shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe they're not footprints from those ghosts that brought us here, but they are shoe-prints, so there must be at least two people down here. They might be able to get us past the ghosts, and that Sneasel, so we can get out of here. Let's find them."
"And hurry before the ghosts come back!" her partner added quickly, rubbing the snow onto his wrist.
The two souls watched Team Rocket (minus Meowth) sprint through the snow, following their old footprints out of the current cavern they were in and onward to the ice-floored caverns. Suddenly, Misty had a horrible sinking feeling.
"Ash! What if Team Rocket does end up finding our bodies? I know we can get a Super Potion out of James' bag to give to Sableye, and I know that Team Rocket might somehow be able to help us, but what if Haunter sneaks up on them, and catches them, and makes them into ghosts, too?!"
Ash's eyes grew wide. "Shoot! I hadn't thought of that!" He considered possibilities fast. "Let's keep up with them. That's all we can do, and if it looks like things are going to turn out bad, they could probably use their Pokémon to battle… I guess. But let's get going, too." Misty nodded, and they soared off across the cavern to follow the two Rocket members.
When they finally reached Jesse and James again, the two had made it onto the ice and were attempting to cross the floor to the next cavern… emphasis on 'attempt'. Jesse was about halfway across, but was now almost sitting on the ice, clutching nervously onto a stalagmite. James, having found it necessary to abandon his cold compress, was out in the middle of the ice, too, except that he was on his stomach on the ice and was try to get back up again. He had ended up in an area where there were no stalagmites for several feet in all directions, and the ice was, of course, impossible to hold onto, so he was essentially stranded.
If I thought that looking like a drunken Spinda was bad, Jesse thought, it's nothing compared to how pathetic we look now. We look like a pair of incompetent Caterpie. She reached out a hand to James, but he was too far away to grab a hold of it.
Then, for no apparent reason, the completely stationary James suddenly began to slide across the ice again. He didn't notice that he was moving, though, and didn't realize something had happened until he had slid up to a stalagmite and bumped his head on it. Jesse's eyes were wide. She had seen his backpack twitch, as if something had been pulling on it. Those ghosts are still here… Jesse thought in amazement, watching James grab onto the stalagmite and sit up, …and they helped James out…
Jesse put forth another effort to get to her feet, which she somehow managed, and then slid across to James' stalagmite. She saw that he hadn't realized that the ghosts were still nearby, for which she was grateful. He would probably freak out again. The more Jesse thought about it, the more she considered that, though their prodding was sometimes painful, these ghosts might be only peaceful. James stood up, as she had, but quickly grabbed onto Jesse's arm to prevent himself from falling down again. Jesse gave him a suspicious look, and the skin beneath James' emerald eyes grew pink.
"The ice is slippery," James said timidly as an excuse, which was a rather pathetic though true one at that. Jesse gave a snort of skepticism, but didn't choose to physically hurt him this time, and James vaguely wondered why. Then, as if they hadn't been dragged around enough for one day, Jesse felt the strange lightness of the ghosts again, pushing her by the shoulders, away from the stalagmite. Jesse quickly let go of the icy cone and let herself be pushed along the ice without fuss. Because he was still holding onto her arm, James was pulled away from the stalagmite, too, and he gave a shriek.
"It's okay, James," Jesse muttered quietly, not wanting to disturb the possibly friendly ghosts at their continuing work of taking the two people wherever they needed to go. James seemed about to retort, or at least ask why this troublesome situation would be okay, when Jesse slipped pulled her arm out of James' grasp, and put her hand in his instead. James instantly swallowed his words, and reluctantly let the vaporous touch on his back push him along the ice next to Jesse. The push was slow at first, though quickly gained speed, and the ghosts let them lean backwards into the push, so that they wouldn't fall forward onto the ice. Side by side, Jesse and James were hauled across the ice room and to the left, which brought them to another cavern.
Both Jesse and James immediately gasped as they beheld the magnificent sight of a million colored crystals, stacked in the huge, arching crystalfall. They, like the two that were pushing them, had never seen so many colors in all of their lives, and they didn't immediately get over the shock of the color scheme change. Both were completely speechless, and neither could tear their eyes away. Jesse suddenly noticed that the ghosts were pushing them right up towards the crystalfall, and she wondered if the ghosts had been trying to bring them to this place the whole time. If so, I don't mind a bit. Jesse and James were pushed straight under the arch, so that crystals were to their left and above them. They gazed about, breathless, as the glimmer of the colors shone down on them like a cathedral stained-glass window. Then, as suddenly as they had seen the millions of colors, they were pushed out from under the arch and on towards the other side of the cavern. Jesse felt rather disappointed deep inside, and James craned his neck slightly to look back, but they had already gone around the next bend.
The next few caverns that the ghosts hastily pushed them through were like the first ice-floored cavern: all ice, stalagmites, and stalactites. The speed they were traveling at now was fast enough that their hair blew backwards, and Jesse prayed that the ghosts wouldn't let go of them, or they'd surely go smashing right into the wall or get impaled by a stalagmite at the swift rate.
As they went speedily along, James began to notice a strange thing. The light in the cavern, which neither had given any thought to before, was slowly growing dimmer. He had begun to get a bit spooked, when the surreal invisible hands pushing him suddenly let go, and a split second later grabbed him under the arms. He gave a startled cry, almost falling to the floor before the hands could get a good grip again. A moment later, James could tell, by the weird jerk Jesse made, that the same thing had happened to her, too. They were both forced to let go of each other's hands when the ghosts suddenly jerked them off of the ice and began to glide them forward, a few feet above the floor at the same fast pace. Both Jesse and James gave each other horrified looks, then, glancing down, each gave a horrified gasp at the icy floor. Straight below them, the ice had sloped very steeply down, and was dotted with sharp lethal stalagmites. "Oh, please don't drop us, please, please, please," James whimpered pitifully.
After a tense moment, the icy floor below them leveled off and the ghosts slowly lowered the frightened pair back onto the ice, prodding them forward firmly. Before giving herself a swift push off of a stalagmite to head where the ghosts had directed, Jesse paused, realizing how eerily and whisperingly silent the cavern had become, and how dim the light had gotten. She glanced forward, where a leftward bend in the cavern wasn't far off, and had a strange feeling that they were finally coming to their destination.
When Jesse and James finally slid to the bend and went through the opening, they gasped in amazement and incredulousness. This last cavern, the farthest underground, the darkest, was a mess. The floor was scattered hazardously with broken stalactites, and also some stalactites that were still intact but were jabbed forcefully through the icy floor. The ice was cracked everywhere, creating a delicate situation that was dangerous to disturb. The walls at the rounded back of the grotto were full of holes, a few big, a bunch small. Above the frigid black water at the back, the airspace was filled with small violet Shuppets, whispering and gliding about as if nothing unusual had happened in their home in the past while, though the whispering was actually quieter than before.
Glancing from the Shuppets back to the floor, James commented quietly, "This place looks like the Ice Field at Indigo Plateau after the finals."
Jesse nodded. "And the things that brought us here definitely have to be ghosts of some kind. Look at all of those little ones up there." She noticed one of the Shuppets that was far away from the main group, and rather close to her, was staring at her with a frown on its face. Jesse was tempted to yell and ask it what exactly it was staring at, when the Shuppet's three-colored striped eyes shifted from her to the floor far to Jesse's left. In curiosity, Jesse looked around her partner at what the Shuppet was staring at.
"JAMES!" Jesse shrieked in horror, grabbing onto his arm with one hand and pointing at the appalling sight with the other. James quickly gazed over and, though he had grabbed onto the stalagmite they were near, almost fell over in aghast astonishment.
"The Twerps!" he whispered. The two pale bodies of 'the Main Twerp' and 'the Main Female Twerp' were lying side by side on the ice near the wall. Jesse and James where completely staggered, and couldn't think or speak, but after a moment, James swiftly pushed off of the stalagmite towards the bodies. Jesse, still in shock, stayed behind, squatting down beside the stalagmite and holding tightly onto it. When James slid to a stop next to Ash and Misty, and gazed down at their expressionless faces, he felt an awful chill in his chest that had nothing to do with the cavern temperature. He bent closer to them, and then kneeled beside them on the ice, but even still, James couldn't hear the slightest sound of breath from either one or see the small rise and fall of their chests. They were completely still and silent, deadly still and silent, and their skin was the milkiest translucent white he had ever seen. James began to shake involuntarily, and had to put a gloved hand to his eye to brush away an unbelieving tear.
"James…" Jesse whispered through her ragged breath, her eyes choked with moisture threatening to fall. His back was to her, and she couldn't see what he was doing. She felt scared, very scared, and she desperately wanted to hear James say that the two main twerps were all right. What she feared the most at the moment was that he would say just the opposite, but she wasn't sure if she would want to know if it was true. Jesse saw, yet again, that against all of the rivalry between the two groups, Team Rocket was fond of the twerps, and for some reason, it was something that never changed, even if it was very hidden at times. What she feared had happened was so awful that she wouldn't have wished it on her worst enemy, which was, in fact, the twerps (though Cassidy could be an exception). She did not want to hear James say that they were lost beyond hope, but she wanted him to at least do something and not just sit there. They can't be gone… not those two… From her position, Jesse could just barely see the two hands that were resting limply on each other. Not those two… not the Main-… not Ash and Misty… James is so convinced that you two are in love that he bet a bunch of money with Meowth, and I see what he's saying about that, too, so it just can't… you two can't be…
"Jess," James murmured finally, "I think… I think… I think they're d-"
"Sableye," a hoarse voice interrupted, and James and Jesse twitched in fright, glancing over at the violet Pokémon that had been watching them the entire time. The two Team Rocket members had been so stunned at seeing the two motionless bodies on the ice that they hadn't noticed the Darkness Pokémon only a few feet from them. Sableye was lying on his stomach on the ground, with his paws curled up under his body like a Delcatty, his back arch stiffly from the pain in his spinal vertebras. He slowly licked at the dried blood on his lower lip and stared at James dully. So, these must be some of their friends. They must have brought them down here to help or something, but I don't know how they can unless they have really strong Pokémon. Otherwise, they better get out of here soon, before HE notices them. There's no way I could battle HIM again right now. Everything hurts so badly. Sableye could see Ash's and Misty's souls floating just above the two devastated older trainers, and saw Ash gliding toward the boy that the girl had called James.
James was about to furiously inquire to the Pokémon if he was the one that had slain the two motionless people, when he felt a tug on his backpack and heard the zipper unzip. James had almost forgotten all about the two ghosts that had brought them here until he felt something being pulled out of his backpack, and the zipper being closed back up. Both Jesse and James now had a chance to see how strange it looked to be carried by ghosts as they watched a Super Potion float its way over to the aching Sableye. Sableye glanced up in amazement at the saffron-and-orange spray bottle, but both of the people watching felt that the Pokémon was more amazed to see the bottle than to see it floating. Sableye gave a weak, but joyous cry of, "Sable!" as the trigger on the potion container pushed in and he felt the healing spray touch his weary violet skin. It sank in, giving almost instant relief to the same amount of pain that had taken weeks to go away naturally from his last severe battle. He hadn't had the beautiful soothing feeling of a trainer's item since Haunter had taken his master away from him, and he basked in it as the Super Potion brought back his strength and energy.
Jesse and James watched, cheeks slightly tear-stained now, as the spray bottle kept spraying and spraying until the potion container was almost empty. James was feeling angrily wary. If the Sableye was the one who had done the dastardly act to Ash and Misty, then it was a bad thing that he was being healed. Yet, then, James wondered, what if the Sableye was a harmless bystander, or had even tried to save the two people? The Darkness Pokémon had seemed to be almost watching over them, and could have gotten injured by whatever it was that had left the two humans' bodies stationary. That would explain why one of the ghosts was healing him, James realized, but then a new thought came to him. He and Jesse had figured out that what had picked them up had been ghosts, but…
Who are the ghosts?
When the container was completely empty, the invisible spirit set the bottle down lightly on the ice. Sableye slowly stood up, and charily tried to stretch out his back. The pain had diminished to almost nothing. Sableye almost laughed, and caught a glimpse out of the corner of his eye of the expressionless Shuppet. He glanced up at it and smiled. The Shuppet did nothing except blink once, but that was enough of a response to make Sableye happy. Sableye then smiled up at the two floating souls smiling down at him, and murmured a short, "Sable," in thanks. The ghostly Ash gave him the 'thumbs up' sign, and the ghostly Misty clasped her hands together gladly.
Sableye's attention suddenly swung back to the Shuppet as it made a sharp movement that immediately caught one of Sableye's hexagonal eyes. It was staring at the other Shuppets that were milling about in their regular routine. Sableye stared at them, too, waiting, sensing that the two humans and the two souls were also intently staring. A very long moment passed, and Sableye was about to reluctantly dismiss the action as nothing, when all of the Shuppet seemed to stop in mid-movement, then rush into a flurry of commotion. They began to quickly return to their homes in the holes in the wall. Sableye breathed in quickly, a breath that he was fortunate to have be a strong breath.
HE's coming back.
Sableye could hear the ghostly voices of the two souls gasp in realization of the repeated event, and sense the anxiety of the two humans that knew not what was happening. Sableye glanced at Shuppet. The first time, the fleeing of its fellow kind had not disturbed it in the least bit, and nor had Haunter. Now, Shuppet had known that Haunter was coming out of his den a long time before the others had, though they were closer to where Haunter's den was. Sableye was beginning to think that perhaps the taciturn Shuppet was not only serious and astute as he was, but perhaps knew a lot more about everything that was going on and everything in general than its brethren, which sounded even more like Sableye.
Shuppet glanced down at Sableye, and blinked once.
The temperature of the cavern began to drop unnaturally, and a slight movement in the hole in the center of the back wall quickly shifted Sableye's mind back to his self-appointed job: stop Haunter from taking the souls of people to kill them, and returning the souls of the Ash and Misty people to their bodies. The last item on his list was making Sableye anxious. He had a pretty good perception of time, and he sensed that the hour the two souls had to return was quickly running out. This encounter with HIM may be their last chance to stop him and get back into their bodies.
Jesse and James felt as if they were in a strange nightmare. First, they had found the lifeless bodies of the two main twerps that had been missing. Now, it seemed that whatever it was that had taken Ash and Misty's lives was about to come out of the hole in the wall that the Sableye and the Shuppet were staring at. Jesse slid across the ice to where James was kneeling next to the two bodies. Without discretion, Jesse held onto his arm for strength, though she knew that James was as scared as she, if not more.
The Evil One now appeared again out of the hole in the wall, his gray-tinted lavender body beginning to materialize first, then his disembodied hands, and then vermilion-rimmed eyes with the deep black vertical scar across the left eye. The ghostly Ash and Misty both thought at once that Haunter looked a lot more surprised to see people at this moment than he had been when he had seen themselves first. The surprised look on his face increased as he saw that Sableye was no longer bent over double in pain. The expression, however, lasted only a split second for each surprise, then was replaced by an aggressive smile.
Gliding over the black water, Haunter glanced around at the silent crowd, from the frightened Jesse and James, to the uneasy spirits of Ash and Misty, to the lone Shuppet frowning up at him. His eyes came to rest on Sableye glaring fiercely up at him, and Haunter's eyes danced in amusement. He began to speak in his debonair voice, and Sableye was disgusted to see that he talked as if Sableye had never shown his hatred for him. "Why, Sableye! My good friend, you've brought more people for company? How simply magnificent! I can't believe it; four in one day? And you brought back my two new friends, too! Very pleasant to see them again, also. I wonder, are they going to join your master pretty soon? They all might get along well. …So, Sableye, I see you're feeling better! That's very good. It's not nice to have pain linger on for a long time, eh?" Haunter stared obviously into Sableye's eyes, taunting him. "I'd hate to have anyone in pain for a long time. It's much better to get it over and done with in an instant…"
Sableye knew that Haunter was enticing him to attack, bringing up the long pain that Sableye had suffered in his own heart and the short pain that his master had received as Haunter had taken his soul out of his body. Sableye braced himself. He would not attack yet. The pain in his body was gone, but it was taking a while for the Super Potion to get him back to his full strength. He glared up at Haunter in defiance.
Haunter only waited a moment more before resuming his suave words. "Well, I suppose it's time for you to step out of the way, Sableye, because, yet again, I have business to attend-"
"Send us back to our bodies!" the spirit Ash interrupted, yelling at Haunter. He and Misty had been watching Haunter talk in his Pokémon language to Sableye and both could feel that they were a part of the conversation. Ash knew that Haunter wasn't going to do it, but he wanted to let him know his demand.
Jesse and James watched in fearful curiosity as Haunter stopped talking and seemed to look over at thin air. Jesse tightened her grip on his arm, two quick times in a row, their team signal for a silent retreat when the bad situation allowed the chance. James gave a faint nod, glancing at the two bodies of the twerps without moving his head and trying not to let tears form in his eyes again, torn as he was between the grief and fear in their situation. He was positive by now that the twerps were long gone, even though something about the ghosts that had brought them here made him think that something was up. Besides that, though he had discarded many of the high-class etiquette customs of the home he had run away from, the gentlemanly side of his mind was pleading with him that he needed to take their bodies to the other twerps, or he would never feel at peace.
Though he knew, of course, that the two spirits couldn't understand his next words, Haunter knew they would understand his antagonistic laughter. "What? Send you back? You are my victims. You're ghosts, now. And you will always be forever, in a short bit of time now. You will join this Sableye's master in eternal spiritness and walk the air of my caverns with him until you fade away to nothing."
"Send them back!" Sableye screeched. He caught a peek of the Shuppet's skirt billowing out harder for a moment, though Sableye couldn't be sure if the action had any meaning at all.
Haunter, interestingly enough, just rolled his eyes at Sableye's words. "Och, Sableye! That is all you ever say! Don't be so repetitive. It gets quite monotonous." His vermilion-rimmed eyes shifted to stare point blank at Jesse and James. The two people flinched, more frightened then ever. Though he knew that Haunter like to brag and talk, Sableye could tell that Haunter was growing restless, with his two next victims fixed to their spots as if paralyzed, in a way almost begging for him to rip the souls out of them. Sableye had no more time to waste. Ash and Misty's clock was ticking still.
"RUN!" Sableye suddenly whipped around and commanded the Team Rocket members, as he had yelled at Ash and Misty a bit less than an hour ago. Jesse and James understood his message as he flung his paw at them, hastily shooing them. Jesse immediately rose and managed to start across the delicate ice for the exit all in the same movement, though James paused in indecision for a moment, his emerald eyes returning to the twerps' bodies. Jesse did the smallest backtrack, grabbing his hand, screaming something unintelligible, and yanking him away, before James could so much as think again about taking the bodies with them.
Haunter wasted no time in starting after his fleeing targets. As Haunter was about to swoop passed him in pursuit, Sableye tensed his muscles to give a Faint Attack leap at his enemy. However, something gently bumped into him, which became just enough movement to make his paw buckle, and he stumbled instead of leaping. Haunter continued to purse his prey, and Sableye glanced back to see Shuppet hovering very close by, looking at him emotionlessly. His immediate thought was, of course, that Shuppet was trying to stop him from getting to Haunter, and something about that thought made Sableye excruciatingly upset. Then, as Sableye was quickly trying to turn to keep his eyes on where Haunter was, he felt his arm shake unsteadily where he had his claws latched onto the ice. He recognized that the Super Potion was still in the process of healing him, and that he was still too weak to attack anything. Then, Sableye realized that Shuppet had stopped him from attacking Haunter for the reason that one Faint Attack might have sucked all of the energy out of him and not even hit Haunter, or worse, rebound upon himself, which would in no way help anyone in the situation.
Haunter, all too eager to commit a third and fourth separation of souls for the day, was completely surprised when something came right up in front of him, blocking him from the retreating Jesse and James. His black-banded pupils almost crossed to see the thing that was only inches away from his face.
It was Ash. His pale blue arms were stretched out wide on both sides to block Haunter, and his face was set in a resolute fury, eyes blazing silently. He gazed intently into Haunter's red-rimmed eyes, but his gaze seemed to flicker automatically to the vicious vertical scar across Haunter's left eye. From the up-close view that Ash now had, he saw that the black-scabbed gash was very deep in the Pokémon's lavender skin, and enough to make anyone want to look away or flinch. Ash did not, nevertheless, look away or flinch. He was becoming increasingly more upset, anxious, and angry, not so much about what Haunter had done to him, but about the fact that Haunter had dared to hurt Misty, and take her soul away from her body, too.
"You let those people go!" he shouted bravely, putting forth the air of confidence that he usually had, but didn't have at the moment. "And you let us back in our bodies, too! Now!
Haunter had a furious look one moment, as he thought of his potential victims getting away, but it changed to distain as he considered what Ash has demanded. Instead of answering or just going around him, Haunter balled his left detached hand into a fist, and smacked the boy spirit out of his way, exactly as he had done to Sableye at the last encounter. Ash went flying backwards into the silver-marble cavern wall, hit it, and did a strange ghostly slide down the wall.
"ASH!" Misty screamed, horrified, and literally flew from where Ash had left her to face Haunter to his soul lying prostrate and rather dazed, but seemingly uninjured, on the ice. She landed beside him, gasping in air that did ghostly lungs no good, and thoughtlessly placed her hand on his face gently to see if he was okay. He gazed up at her, wide-eyed and blinking in bewilderment.
Haunter rushed to the mouth of the dim cavern to follow the two humans that had retreated. They had already left, however, and there was no trace of them, save for a fading echo of their shouts. He paused, staring out blankly into the ice-floored tunnel, and some thought seemed to come to his mind and help him decide what he was going to do next, with his two would-be victims completely out of sight. He stayed still for a moment longer, staring at the tunnel, his eyes now narrowed but not livid. Slowly, he turned around in the cold cavern air and started back the way he come, from his den in the wall, gliding faster as he settled into his resolve. The expression on his face was almost unreadable, though not quite like the Shuppet, in the sense that he was obviously thinking, but no emotion of anger or disappointment was being shown.
Jesse dragged James across the ice as fast as she possibly could slide. He was slowing her down every time he glanced backwards towards the bend in the tunnel that led to the last cavern. "The Twerps," he whispered grimly, "Ash and Misty. …We shouldn't have left them there, Jess… We shouldn't have left them."
"I know," Jesse snapped suddenly, her voice unbreakable but shaky, as they slid to a stop in front of the icy slide that two ghosts had hauled them over only minutes ago. "You think I don't know that, James? Well, you're wrong. We should have taken their bodies with us, because they're gone… they're dead, they're dead, and the other little twerps will want to see it for themselves, because they would never believe us if we told them. But James, what the heck could we do? That scarred-up Haunter must have been the one that killed them, and it was getting ready to kill us, didn't you see? Besides, that Sableye told us to go… so there." She finished, her voice finally cracking a slight bit, and glanced at James to see if he had noticed. There were tears running from his emerald eyes down to his solemn frown.
Jesse quickly looked away from him, but placed a hand on his shoulder, though only on the pretence that she needed to keep her balance while taking out one of her Pokéballs. "Dustox, I choose you!" The colorful Poison Moth Pokémon burst out of his Pokéball in a flutter of dusty wings and, after a moment of confusion as to where they were, he turned his attention to his master, whom he was again confused to see have tear streaks on her face. "Dustox, fire a line of your String Shot up at that stalagmite way up there, the one hanging just over the top of this rise! Make it extra thick, too, the strongest you can make!" Dustox unquestioningly obeyed, focusing in on the stalactite that she had indicated but misnamed, then forming the most durable mass of the stick substance he could make in his mouth. He shot a thick line of it almost straight up in the air, and it arced as he had calculated, wrapping around the hanging stalactite. Jesse grabbed the end of the solid String Shot and pulled it taunt, rather proud of the Pokémon that she had raised from a Wurmple. "Good job, Dustox. Return."
She gave the String Shot a few more quick tests, then placed her feet a certain length a part on the ice so that she could pull herself up and James could pull himself to the top of the icy slope. She looked back at James. He was staring back at the leftward bend in the icy tunnel behind them. Jesse couldn't read his expression exactly, but she knew what he was feeling… she felt it herself. He suddenly spoke up. "Those ghosts, the ones that brought us here… they…" His emerald eyes abruptly looked straight into her sapphire ones. James could always get his point across to Jesse, and this time was no exception. Jesse nodded slowly. She had figured out the identity of the mysterious ghosts, too.
Sableye was crouched on the ice where he had stayed, bemused by the strange sight of the soul Ash challenging a frightening lethal Pokémon of such a high level, and also confused as to why Haunter had not followed the two people out of the dim last cavern. Besides the people that had just left, the only people that had come down in the cavern during the time that Sableye had been here were Ash and Misty. …And my master… Why didn't HE pursue those others any farther? HE has no reason not to… Sableye suddenly felt a spark inside of him, and realized that the Super Potion had just completed its full effect of curing him. He gritted his sharp razor teeth, resentful that he had not been able to battle when he had needed to. Maybe I can battle the Evil One now, and restore Ash and Misty to their bodies… their hour is close to completion, but not yet up. Haunter, however, was ignoring Sableye entirely, and the expressionless Shuppet was floating at Sableye's shoulder in a way almost to prevent him from moving. Sableye briefly wondered if Shuppet was stopping him from battling Haunter again, even though the Super Potion was finished healing, but he couldn't figure a reason why it would now. Maybe… it knows something that I don't… but I know that Ash and Misty only have an hour and it's diminishing quickly; they don't have eternity to defeat Haunter... does it know that?
Haunter was gliding past the souls of Ash and Misty when he heard a yell, "HEY, YOU! Don't you DARE get near him again, GOT IT?!" Haunter glanced over in slight astonishment at the screaming soul Misty, who seemed to care less whom she was addressing. She was a sight to behold, standing firmly on the ice, her fists clenched at her sides, her arms and legs stiff, her shoulders hunched, her face completely livid and enraged. She gave off the impression of a very sensitive Jigglypuff that had unintentionally put its audience to sleep and was offended to the core by their snoring. Misty was completely bushed, and Sableye gazed at her in awe, almost thinking that she could perform some Ghost- Type attack like Shadow Punch, despite being a person-ghost and not a Pokémon ghost. She's at least using Mean Look… Ash, propped up by his elbows, was gaping at her in bewilderment, though not in a dazed bewilderment, but an astonished one. She continued screaming, "You hear that! Don't you DARE touch him again, you… you… SCUM!"
The lavender ghost stared at her for a moment, and a smile played upon his face. Feisty. Seeing her standing in front of the boy spirit the way she was, and remembering how the boy had tried to protect her before they were separated from their bodies, and remembering watching from his den as she had clung to the boy when she didn't understand that they were spirits, Haunter laughed coldly, shaking his head the tiniest bit, amused. 'Hope that boy can handle a girlfriend like her for eternity. Haunter continued to laugh until he had disappeared into his den in the wall, pursuing and pursued by no one.
"Misty…?" Ash managed to sputter. She was standing still, exhaling a breath that wasn't an existent one. She quickly turned to face him, kneeling beside him and helping him to sit up.
"Are you okay, Ash?" Misty said quickly.
"Yeah." Ash answered, then questioned of her outburst at Haunter, "Are you?"
Misty didn't hear the innuendo of his words. "Of course I'm okay! He didn't hit me; he hit you! Are you hurt anywhere?!"
"No," Ash said, still gazing strangely at her, "Being a soul made hitting the wall not so bad. It was kind of good that I was out of my body for that."
"It's not going to be a good thing for long," Misty sighed. They were both quiet for a moment. Then, a small scratch of paws sounded behind them, and they looked around to see Sableye standing before them on his two back paws. Shuppet was hovering close near his left shoulder, but Sableye hadn't noticed. The ghostly Ash and Misty quickly stood up, too, noticing that Sableye's body condition looked even better and stronger than before the time he had battled Haunter to keep the Gaseous Pokémon from taking out their souls. His back was straighter, and his head was raised higher.
"Are you okay now, Sableye?" Ash asked, even though, of course, he knew the answer. Sableye nodded. "We were worried about you." Sableye smiled a bit at that.
"Sableye, we went and saw the writing on the wall that you told us to read, the poem," Misty said, remembering what she and Ash had been doing when they had found Jesse and James. Sableye quickly perked up. "It said that…" Misty was suddenly surprised; she could remember the poem word for word, and she quickly translated the main points of the poem into her own words. "…we should have turned back, or else the 'Evil One's skill' could kill us, but we would be able to reverse what the 'Evil One' had done if we defeated him. The 'Evil One' has to be Haunter, and his 'skill' must be taking people's souls out of their bodies. The poem said that to reverse the 'spell', we'd have to return to our bodies by defeating him in only one hour after it had happened, or else… we're ghosts forever, right?" Sableye had been nodding through Misty's whole explanation, and nodded especially hard at the last question.
Ash quickly spoke up, saying what was on both his and Misty's minds. "Sableye, do you know how much time we have left to defeat Haunter?" Sableye, for a moment, considered not telling Ash and Misty, for now that Haunter had come and gone again, he couldn't see that Haunter would come out again until their hour was up. Also, to go into HIS den to attack would be potential suicide, even now for the half Ghost- type… not that Sableye really cared about what happened to himself at the moment. Finally, Sableye measured out a small inch or so between two of his claws on his left paw, in estimation of the length of time. Ash and Misty both gasped. They knew that a lot of time had been wasted, but didn't know that that much of their hour was gone. After a very long stunned and horrified silence, Ash got the courage to speak again. "What do you think… we should do now, Sableye?" Sableye could see nothing else that they could do. I… they're going to end up exactly like my master… oh, why, oh, why… He mildly gestured back through the cavern towards the exit tunnel, not being able to think of anything else at all.
"We can go wait and see if someone else might come along and help," Ash mumbled, now with barely any conviction at all, "Maybe… maybe Team Rocket… might… might come back." Sableye guessed that the 'Team Rocket' Ash referred to must have been the two people that had gotten away from Haunter. "…Come on, Mist. Let's go and wait out there. …It's the best we can do." Misty nodded, glancing miserably over at her and Ash's bodies lying completely motionless across the ice from them.
"Thanks for all you've tried to do to help save us, Sableye," Misty acknowledged quietly. Sableye nodded very sadly, though the tiniest bit pleased at the praise. He hadn't heard much real praise since his master had given it to him last. Ash jerked his head towards the tunnel, signaling that they should go and wait, and both forlorn spirits floated off, waving to Sableye that they would come back if anything occurred that could help, and waving to the Shuppet that Sableye still hadn't noticed was floating by his shoulder. They both guessed, in their minds, that the two Ghost- Types were very close friends… like they were themselves. The souls of Ash and Misty glided out of the last cavern, their pale blue hair ruffled by the ghostly breeze they made.
The sweet afternoon breeze ruffled Noctowl's shiny brown feathers pleasantly as he winged his way across the light blue sky, Wingull soaring along with him a couple of yards away. The bright sun was warm on his feathers, though too warm for comfort, in fact, for a nocturnal bird like the owl was. Wingull wasn't completely free from complaint, either, as she was used to crisp, salty breezes that came in from the ocean near Slateport. However, both birds had a silent agreement that their discomforts weren't important enough to send them any closer to the treetops, which would only allow them to see less of the forest of Route 119 at one time.
Noctowl had his bright amber eyes open as wide as he could open them, scanning the ground through the treetops for the smallest movement that might be his master, Ash. He had caught sight of thirteen Rattata, eleven Zigzagoon, eight Sentret, five Oddish, four Venonat, two Caterpie, and a Teddiursa, but no Ash and no Misty. He had asked Wingull a moment or two ago what she had seen, and the answer had been about the same, except for her spotting of two Stantler that Noctowl hadn't seen because he was watching the cluster of Venonat running around for no apparent reason. Noctowl was anxious about the two humans, though he knew they could probably take care of themselves, because they had been gone so long. Noctowl had a feeling that Ash might need him, but he didn't say anything about it to Wingull. She would probably say one of her scathing remarks about how he had begged Ash to let him travel with the group again, a lot like the way Misty would say something scathing to Ash, though she was really just playing with him.
"Anything?" He called out hopefully to Wingull. Flapping her paper-thin wings to steer herself closer to Noctowl, she shook her head, adding a loud call of annoyed distress.
Noctowl let the thermal he was riding on take him in a spiral path in the sky. The forest far below was an ever-repeating pattern of unbroken green. Wingull took the thermal below him and they continued on, the sun's rays growing hotter. After a while, Noctowl began to get anxious for a different reason. They had lost sight of the grounded search party a long time ago, but Noctowl was sure that he and the blue-and-white bird were flying too far away from the area that they were searching in. They might get lost, even high up the way they were now, and the last thing the group needed was for more of the members to be missing. However, Noctowl also considered, the reason that the group couldn't find Ash and Misty was that the two trainers were so far away from the group, that they were basically headed in opposite directions, therefore the only way to find them would be from the sky.
Wingull flapped her wings harder, escaping her thermal and gliding up beside Noctowl. He saw that she was about to speak, when suddenly, Noctowl spotted an interesting area of the forest far below. Wingull stilled her beak immediately at Noctowl's fierce twitch of his head. She gave a hard stare at the area the Noctowl was examining, but her black eyes couldn't see as well from the height they were flying at. Noctowl focused his eyes in hard at the small clearing he had sighted, but his gaze wasn't yet strong enough for what he wanted to see. Dipping a bit lower down and continuing to spiral, Wingull followed the concentrating Noctowl as he focused harder by using one of his attacks. Noctowl's eyes glowed red as he held onto his Foresight attack, the technique that helped him identify an unknown opponent and made a Ghost- type vulnerable to Normal- and Fighting- type attacks and unable to disappear. Like a camera lens, his eyes zoomed in to three times the normal sight range. What he identified gave him such a shock that he hooted in surprise.
"Noctowl! What is it?" Wingull quickly chirped.
"It's Meowth… the Meowth! That cat from Team Rocket's down there, sitting in that clearing, all by himself."
Wingull shared the owl's surprise. "What's he doing by himself? Where's that Jesse and James, or where's Wobbuffet, Dustox, Cacnea, and Seviper?"
"I don't know. It's just him. He's sitting right there in the middle of the clearing, all by himself. He's sitting next to… some hole in the ground or something. "
Wingull's black eyes narrowed horizontally in suspicion as the two birds glanced at each other. "Sound's fishy to me..." After a pause, she added, "Magikarp-fishy… well, maybe Feebas-fish-"
Noctowl cut her off before she could continue her oceanic-rooted ramble, and muttered, "Do you think that maybe Team Rocket could have dug that hole?"
She gave an extra flap of her wings in a shrug. "Does it look very deep?"
"I can't tell. It could be."
"I bet that if Meowth is sitting by the edge, that those two humans are probably in that hole." Eyes suddenly wide, she added, "What if Team Rocket has captured our Ash and Misty and has them in that hole! Let's go get 'em!" Her claws clutched the air fiercely in a rebellious manner. With a light tap of his wing, Noctowl stayed her from plunging down to the Earth and attacking the vulnerable furball that could have helped harm her master.
"We need to go find the search party and bring them here. Besides we don't know for certain that Ash and Misty are there," Noctowl reasoned, though he was quite positive they must be, and both birds knew it.
"Oh, come on, Nocty! Me and you can take 'em on! One Water Gun and one Confusion, then BOOM!" Her words were completely serious, though her tone was playful as she swooped above him and gave a talon-swipe at Noctowl's V-shaped plume, ruffling it. She dipped around, going in her quick rotations and revolving around Noctowl as he rode the thermal, like the Earth around the Sun.
Noctowl rolled his eyes, his Foresight long since evaporated, but her teasing didn't truly bother him. "It's not that we probably couldn't beat them in battle, but what if Ash and Misty are hurt? They would need Brock's medical skills. Let's go back and get the group. They need to know what we've found, you know." Wingull leveled off next to Noctowl and they flapped their wings hard, escaping the thermal and finding another one headed back the way they had come. Noctowl, who was only able to give the sun the briefest of glances, noted their angle to the sun so that they would be able to find their way back using the angle, like an astrolabe. As Wingull pulled ahead of Noctowl, he called up to her, "…And don't call me Nocty!"
Wingull gave off a throaty, purring giggle, and the two birds, the owl and the seagull, veered off into the sky to find the search party on the ground, who had passed the meadow, where Meowth was waiting next to the hole, quite a while ago.
TO BE CONTINUED…
If I possibly have the time, between getting ready for the holidays and finishing schoolwork up, I will try to have Chapter Nine posted before Christmas, as a gift to everyone. But that is not a promise, okay?! There's an extremely high possibility that it won't! If I don't get to post again before that, I will try before New Year's. If I don't get it then, well, it's definitely not gonna be two months this time. I'm back on a roll! Happy holidays, everybody!
(One more thing: does anyone know a good website where I could easily make a free website? I want to make a site for this story, which would have a lot of cool info that I can't put in these pages. Also, I'd like to put in links so I can have multiple pages and I'd like to post the many pictures that I have drawn for this story, and the cover to the book, too. If you know a website that is easy to use and can let me do all of these things, could you please suggest it with your review of this chap? I am most appreciative. Thanks!)
NOTE: Every chapter title is a line from a song, and all of the songs are songs from one of the many Pokémon CD's. If you have identified the song that Chapter 8's title is from, review and let me know, and I'll post your name with the correct title on my next chapter. :)