A/N: Welcome,dear readers, to the first edited episode of Darkness of the Unown Part 4: The Silver Saga. For a while I've been getting the feeling that I'm losing potential readership due to poor early chapters. So, while I'm in a state of writer's block for new chapters, I've decide to edit the early chapters. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon. All I own is the two times I had to edit this.
Episode 0:
Goldenrod Seismic Station-
A door burst open and a young graduate student raced out of it and down the tiled hall. He was just barely able to skid to a stop and turn at the end, and continued his breathless dash to the lounge room. He shoved open the door and stumbled in.
"Director! Mt Silver...monitor...off the charts..."
The director, a man in his late thirties with hair already graying due to his work, rose from his seat at a coffee table. He approached the young man and placed a large hand on his shoulder.
"Kid! Calm down!" he ordered, "Now, what's going on?"
The student caught his breath.
"The Mt. silver monitors just went crazy, sir. Massive tremors are emanating from deep within the mountain. The patterns are pointing towards an eruption within the next hour..."
Silence descended on the room for a moment. Finally, the director spoke again.
"Show me."
Mt. Silver-
Inside the Pokemon Center, a phone added its beeping to the general noise. The secretary on duty picked it up and held it to her ear with a shoulder, so that she could continue working on her computer.
All her activity halted when the voice on the other side began.
"I see. Yes. I understand. Evacuation will commence immediately."
She replaced the phone on its cradle, and pushed a button on the speakerphone. Her voice was amplified and projected all throughout the Center and the surrounding area.
"Attention! The Goldenrod Seismic Center has predicted that there will be an eruption in less than an hour. All visitors and staff must evacuate immediately. I repeat, all visitors and staff must evacuate immediately..."
Most of the visitors left at once, riding out on bikes or Pokemon, but a number of the rowdier ones stayed, not beleiving the report. A series of tremors that removed a good chunk of the mountainside soon sent them packing, though.
With all of the visitors gone, the staff of the Pokemon Center began leaving as well. The secretary who had given the original report stopped and gazed at the entrance to the mountain's interior.
The logs say nobody's in there, but...
Another violent tremor shook the earth, and the Pokemon Center began to fall apart. The secretary abandoned her thoughts and fled with the rest.
Silver Cave-
Deep inside the mountain, on a small ledge down in the main shaft below the crater, a single Trainer stood with his eyes closed. Allen Takenouchi had none of his Pokemon with him, having released them outside. They would return in a few hours, presumably at the same time he finished the meditation his kendo sensai had ordered him to do.
At first he ignored the tremors, but then a strong one caused him to lose his balance and fall, staring straight down the shaft. The sight made his eyes grow to the size of Pokeballs. A huge column of glowing magma was boiling up towards him.
Just my luck for the mountain to erupt while Destaka's gone...
But it didn't really matter. Allen was confident he could escape the mountain in time. He quickly latched onto the rock wall and began climbing. In a scant minute, he had made it up to the gap in the shaft's wall that led to the exit. The magma was still far below. In a burst of arrogance, he knelt by the edge and watched the magma slowly rise.
Then another violent tremor rocked the mountain. As if in response to Allen's taunting, the magma increased its speed fourfold and rushed upwards at a terrible speed. A few choice words fell from Allen's mouth as he leapt up and began running for the exit.
He reached the top of the steps in the room where numerous waterfalls fell from subterranean rivers. Already, the heat was beginning to make them steam.
Allen's foot fell into a crack formed by the tremors, and he went down, flopping hard down the steps. He landed in a heap at the bottom, and spit up blood. He tried to force himself up, but a terrible pain in his chest foced him down again.
He shakily turned back to where he had come from. A torrent of molten rock cascaded over the slope and crashed into his already broken body with the force of a diesal train.
Allen opened his eyes. Around him was nothing but blackness. Above, below, and all around. And yet, he could still see. And he seemed to be lying on some sort of invisible floor. He slowly stood up, holding his head. Then it dawned on him.
My head doesn't hurt...
Neither did his chest, or his ankle, or anything.
"I guess...I'm dead."
He wandered through the blank landscape for a while. He had no idea how long it was. There was nothing in the place to tell time by.
Finally, he asked the question, "Why am I here...?"
((TO DECIDE YOUR FATE.))
"What the...?"
He looked around for the source of the metallic voice. Then he looked down. Something, no, a lot of somethings, were rising up from below. As they got closer, he could see what they were.
"Unown..."
They rose up around him in a giant cylinder shape. And they didn't stop moving. Thousands upon millions upon billions moved about around him in a thousand interlocking layers, each one moving in a different direction.
What! What do they want...?
His mental question was answered by the same metallic voice as before
((WE WANT YOU))
"What do you mean?"
((WE WANT YOU))
"For what?"
((WE NEED AN AGENT AMONG HUMANKIND))
"Why...why me?"
((YOU HAVE BEEN CHOSEN))
"W-why?"
((YOU ARE MOST LIKELY TO SERVE US WELL))
"Wha...what do you want me to do?"
((WHATEVER YOU ARE INSTRUCTED TO DO))
He pondered for a moment.
"For how long?"
((FOREVER))
He was starting to feel the cold grip of panic.
"But what's in it for me?"
((LIFE))
His mind raced at a fever pitch. He figured he had already died. So why return. The answer came to him as quickly as the question. He closed his eyes.
Naoko...Though I may be selling my soul to the devil...
"I'll do it..."
A/N: WHEW! I finally finished the editing. Gosh, that was hard. Halfway through, I lost all I had doen and had to start over. But that doesn't matter now. It's done. It's good...
Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed the revamped version of this chapter, and I hope any new readers will stick around. Although the next two chapters have yet to be edited and are still not-very-good, it gets better later. I promise.