Chapter Sixteen: This Place Needs a Sweep

"So…. This is Mt Moon... boooooriiiing."

Alaska giggled to herself as her voice echoed around the cavern, but as that faded away, she was left standing alone in the semi darkness, staring around at what she could see of Mt Moon, and was highly unimpressed.

It had been two days since winning the Boulder Badge and leaving Pewter City. Alaska had quickly been in a high over her win, and was tempted to find the reality stars and rub her win in their faces, possibly getting Paige to re-enact hitting Onix in the eye with Chloe. However, after moving along Route 3, Alaska began to feel her spirits lessen. Yes, she was extremely glad to have proved herself and won the first badge, but there were still seven more badges to collect: Cascade, Thunder, Rainbow, Soul, Marsh, Volcano and Earth . Completing this task wasn't going to be easy, and Alaska needed to train harder, get some more Pokemon and do her best to keep her goal going, rather than build up from one relatively easy win and expect the other leaders to fall at her feet.

However, Alaska had at least hoped for something a bit more interesting than this.

Mt Moon looked extraordinary from the outside: a tall, beautiful peak that was about the size of a six storey office building. It's brown rock with foliage dotted around made for a picturesque setting, but it was simply a mask over what the inside held.

Alaska had heard that half of the mountain had caved in back in 2008 due to an incident involving Team Rocket, but she had hoped that things would be fixed by then. Instead lamps were positioned around, casting dim yellow light over signs reading "WARNING: ROCKS FALL WITHOUT WARNING" and "STAY TO THE DESIGNATED PATH", with an arrow pointed towards a path formed by wooden barriers leading past the fallen rocks. Mot of the rocks had been cleared away, but still huge piles of the stuff formed threatening figures all around the area, and half of the cave was still inaccessible. The strict path would take Alaska away from exploring any part of the mountain, and, more importantly, removed a chance of catching any more Pokemon.

"I doubt there are even any more rocks to fall," Alaska grumbled as she stepped gingerly forwards, peering upwards as far as she could with the dim light at her disposal. "What sort of rock takes five years to fall down!" As she spoke, there was a crunching sound, and Alaska had only a second to move before a stalactite crashed into the spot where she had just been standing, the pointed rock shattered to rubble. "Alright… I guess that one then…," Alaska muttered, clutching her heart. She stared back towards the white and red striped safety barriers marking out the safest route, and suddenly found it looking a lot more attractive.

"I can always catch a Pokemon on Route 4. I doubt any of the Pokemon in here would be good for the Cerulean Gym anyway," Alaska reassured herself, and began heading down the barriers. Alaska may do stupid things and break the rules from time to time, but she wasn't going to walk through an unstable environment and risk getting her head crushed by a falling rock.

"Chloe could walk through here with peace of mind, I doubt falling rocks would do anything to her," Alaska said aloud, and begin to laugh to herself as she headed towards a carved tunnel. Her laughter echoed around once more, and Alaska realised that if someone else was in this mountain, they would definitely be making noise. "HELLOOOO, IS ANYONE THERE!" She called out, and listened as her voice echoed in the silence. Alaska laughed and leaned against the barriers, thinking she could have a bit of fun with this. "My name is AH-LASS-KAH AC-AH-VE-DOH!" She shouted, and heard the mountain send it straight back to her. "This mountain isn't very interesting! Hmmm… I need something funny… oooh! LIVE FROM VIRIDIAN CITY, IT'S SATURDAY –"

"AAAAAAAHHH!"
The scream was louder than anything Alaska had heard, and she turned around to try and find the source of the noise. The scream sounded again and again, and Alaska quickly realised it was coming from behind the piles of rubble in front of her. A roar sounded up from behind them, followed by a crash that caused dust to trickle down from the ceiling.

"Oh shit," Alaska said, and quickly leapt over the barriers. More dust trickled down, and another series of rocks smashed into the ground only a few metres away. Alaska looked upwards, knowing it was extremely dangerous to go charging into something dangerous in such a dangerous environment, but as the scream sounded again, she knew she had to help. Scrambling up the miniature mountain of rocks, which slipped away beneath her feet, Alaska pulled her PokeBalls out, ready to defend whoever was screaming. But as she reached the top, small cuts on her hands and a tear in her jeans, Alaska wasn't expecting what she saw.

An Onix was staring directly at her.

Now, Alaska had never seen Onix as being particularly frightening Pokemon. She had always seen it as a moving pile of rocks that wouldn't do much harm to a girl, and she had always viewed it as a bit of a challenge as a child to try and scale its rocky surface. And after defeating Brock's Onix, Alaska didn't think that one would ever cause her to become frightened.

However, this one was not an ordinary Onix. As it moved backwards, leering down at her, Alaska saw that its head was nearly touching the cave roof, yet half of its body was still touching the ground. This was an Onix supersized: its body was the width of three skyscrapers and the length of two piled on top of each other, with a face so big you could probably land an airplane on their. Alaska looked down at her two PokeBalls and knew that this Onix could probably gobble them up without even having to open its enormous mouth fully. The Rock Snake sneered down at Alaska before letting out another roar, which was much more powerful up close, and Alaska had to clung to a large boulder to stop herself flying backwards.

"I don't want to hurt you!" Alaska yelled, her heart racing. "I'll just go now, leave you to eat whoever that was screaming. Maybe it was your girlfriend or maybe your mother, forget to clean the dishes eh? Naughty boy… ha ha… whoever it is, I probably don't know them and it doesn't even matter!"

"Alaska? Is that Alaska? OI, ALASKA, HI!" A voice yelled out, and Alaska, who had been about to turn around and jump off the rubble, froze in her movements. She let out an angry sigh and glanced back around, wishing she could just ignore who it was and leave them to battle against this large freak of a Pokemon, but Alaska couldn't bring herself to do it and cursed her big heart and general kindness to those who helped her escape from gigantic robotic Pokemon.

"Hi Sandy," Alaska called, and tried to spot the blonde haired girl, but she was nowhere to be spotted. But than the Onix swivelled its body, and Alaska's jaw dropped as she finally spotted her: Sandy was sitting on Onix's body, waving brightly up at Alaska.

"What the hell are you doing there?"

"Battling of course, you big silly!" Sandy laughed. There was a fluttering nearby, and Alaska turned in time to see Butterfree flying past, diving straight towards Onix. It looked as if she was colliding with it, but Onix let out a sudden roar and tipped backwards, much to Alaska's surprise.

"Brilliant Bug Bite!" Sandy shouted, and Alaska was even more shocked: how was the bug move doing any harm to the Onix? "Confusion again, I think we nearly have it!" Butterfree nodded back, and Alaska could see her eyes light up across the dark cave. Onix let out another roar as his body quivered, and he suddenly began smashing his head into the wall.

"Frankly, I'm confused," Alaska grumbled, and went to sit down on the boulder to watch the proceedings. However, the rocks beneath her feet didn't seem willing to hold her up: she screamed as there was suddenly nothing beneath her feet, and Alaska began sliding down the hill of rocks, unable to stop herself. Her feet smashed into the solid ground, and Alaska flew upwards before sprawling forwards, her hands being scraped along the ground as she tried to save herself.

"Oh my goodness, are you alright?" Sandy screeched, and Alaska raised a bloody thumbs up to her and rolled onto her back, reflecting on how things could have gone much better if she had just walked through the tunnel rather than try to have a laugh. She looked up to see Onix was roaring right above her, and realised that a rock could very easily fall down and crush her and she wouldn't even bother moving.

"Move aside Butterfree, it is catching time!" Sandy shouted, and Alaska glanced around as a Great Ball soared through the air. There was no way such a tiny thing would be able to hold a beast as tall and wide as this, but Alaska watched as Onix's final roar was cut off, his body turning blue and being sucked inside. The Great Ball fell down, and Alaska realised too late it would land on her. It managed to wind her as it hit her stomach, and Alaska gasped for breath as it rolled on her stomach.

"OH MY GOD, I'M SO SORRY!" Sandy screeched, rushing forwards and grabbing the Great Ball as it clicked, signalling a successful capture. "I feel so terrible! You must have heard me scream and come to my rescue, didn't you? Oh, your such a good person, and I'm so awful, and –"

"Sandy, just shut up," Alaska groaned as she got to her feet, examining the blood oozing from her hands as she put them to her stomach. "It's not your fault, it's all mine for trying to play the hero. Next time I hear someone screaming, I'm just going to walk away and alert the police, cause frankly, I don't want to nearly get blown up or fall down any more rock hills again."

"Blown up?" Sandy asked curiously, but Alaska simply shook her head.

"Don't worry about it," she said, and put a smile on her face. "Congratulations on your capture, but what on earth gave you the urge to battle such a large Pokemon?" Sandy exchanged a sheepish look with Butterfree before looking back guiltily.

"Well, I didn't know it was an Onix…," she said, and Alaska let out another laugh that echoed around the chamber, realising she should have expected an answer like this. "I've just been travelling around for a few hours and felt like a rest, so I sat down on what I thought was some sort of designer bench! However, Onix then roared, I screamed and sent Butterfree out in an instant, and, well, it seemed like a good idea at the time to battle him, so Butterfree sent out a few Confusions and a Bug Bite. He may look tough, but I think he's just a bit of a baby at heart."

"Just what the world needs: a giant, immature Onix at your faithful hands," Alaska said with a smile, and Sandy and Butterfree both giggled. "Well, once again, good on you for capturing it! Now, I really need to focus on stopping this bleeding… you wouldn't happen to have any bandages, would you?"

"OH MY GOD, PRETTY!"

"I guess not then," Alaska sighed, but Sandy wasn't focusing, instead turning away from Alaska and focusing on something else. Alaska glanced around to see what it was: a trio of pink Clefairy, skipping off into the distance. "How cute. Now, about my hands…"

"I want one!" Sandy said, speaking more to Butterfree than Alaska.

"Free Free," Butterfree responded, staring pointedly at Alaska, but Sandy didn't pick up on the hint.

"Yes, of course their free," Sandy said, rolling her eyes. She replaced her new Great Ball with an empty one, and quickly ran after them. Butterfree gave Alaska an apologetic look, and she simply nodded, having expected this sort of airy behaviour from Sandy after their last meeting.

"We might as well make sure nothing happens to her," Alaska said, and she and Butterfree hurried after her. However, it took less than half a minute to catch up, as they found Sandy standing at a large hole, clearly some sort of entrance.

"They all ran up here," Sandy said, sounding disappointed, and Alaska and Butterfree stared up to see the hole lead to a large circular tunnel, moving upwards to a small amount of light in the distance. Sandy sighed, looking extremely dejected, and Alaska couldn't help but feel sorry for her, and mentally sighed as her voicebox acted before her brain did.

"Why don't we head up, see where they went to?" She suggested, and Sandy's face instantly lit up. Butterfree gave Alaska a look that she interpreted to be the bug version of saying 'Stuff you', but Alaska simply shrugged back as Sandy quickly dived in.

"Come on then, let's get going!" She called. Alaska sighed and nodded, and climbed in after Butterfree. Her stomach and hands still hurt, and her jeans were torn in several places and weren't particularly good for climbing, but Alaska simply decided to persevere, secretly interested to see what other Pokemon might be waiting at the end of the tunnel.