Eight Easy Steps has returned for another batch! Hopefully the wait hasnt been too long and the short breaks won't be too long either before the next Galactic! A new arc has begun, so let us rejoin Alaska and Sandy.

Chapter Thirty Three: Oh the Analogies

"You know what Alaska: I find this situation a wee bit ironic!"

"What situation?" Alaska replied in a bored tone, not knowing what would come of this.

"Well, just the other day you were complaining about how I was walking too slowly and told me to catch up, but now you're the one lagging behind and I am the one in the lead!" Sandy seemed pretty pleased at herself and found this rather funny. However, Alaska came to a halt and glared towards her: if it hadn't been dark, Sandy would have received one of the ugliest and angriest looks she had ever received, but instead she simply stopped and tried to see why Alaska wasn't moving.

"Sandy, are you forgetting about my leg?" Alaska said bitterly, wincing as she raised her cane up and dangled in for Sandy to see. Sandy stared at it and gasped in her usual dramatic manner, clasping her hands to her mouth and acting as if someone had just been brutally slaughtered before her.

"Oh my god Alaska, I am sooo sorry, I keep forgetting!" She said, rushing forwards and giving her a tight apologetic hug before Alaska got a chance to object. "It's just that your head suddenly healed and we've left the hospital, and I keep thinking you're fully healed, I am so sorry!"

"It is fine," Alaska grunted, "I was merely pointing it out. Now please let go of me before you snap my back in two!" Sandy let go, looking even more apologetic, and Alaska merely brushed the situation aside as she walked forwards, trying to make out a way to go in the strange tunnel they had entered.

It had been three days since the Vermillion harbour had exploded and no one officially knew who or what was responsible, but Alaska knew that it simply had to be Gideon: just like with the nuclear bomb, there was no one else that would possibly do such a thing, even if no one knew why. Alaska had wanted to help but had been forced to stay in hospital under doctor's orders, claiming that they had to wait and see in case her head injury got worse but secretly the doctors wanted to know how it had happened. Alaska didn't want to reveal that a mysterious Pokemon had saved her, and she didn't want to draw any attention towards herself and knew that having a strangely powerful Pokemon following her was going to stir something up. Instead, she just said her family had a history of healing quickly and kept her secret to herself, not even telling Sandy or her Pokemon: it would merely cause them worry, and Alaska didn't need anything else to disturb them.

Steven had lingered around and Alaska had heard Red had been around, though she never personally saw him. The ex-Hoenn champion was unwilling to discuss the explosion, and Alaska felt rather annoyed to suddenly be shunned asides when he had appeared so open towards helping her. It could just be the fact he was busy, but Alaska found him asking too many questions about her to counter the ones she asked him, and had a feeling the champion had changed his mind and now wanted her to assist with putting a stop to Gideon. She couldn't be sure, but also didn't want to have them following her and try to pull her towards any dramas, so she gave them a false lead as to where they were going: hopefully Alaska would manage a brief amount of time to focus on training and her journey as she travelled through Diglett's Cave.

It seemed like a brilliant idea at the time, and as soon as the doctor said she could go, warning her about not stressing her leg out too much, Alaska had led Sandy towards the cave, tucked away in the city's surrounding cliffs. However, it had now been nearly two hours of wandering around and Alaska had no idea where she was going. Sandy had brought a torch at a shop near the hospital and it provided a narrow beam of light, but it wasn't enough to fully distinguish things. There were a lot of sharp corners that turned rather suddenly in their dim lighting, and Alaska was getting annoyed as she had hoped to have made more progress. Instead, her leg caused her to hobble along and she could barely follow Sandy and the dim amount of light they had. It might have been fine if they had seen a Pokemon, but not a single Pokemon that they could possibly train against had shown up.

"This is getting boring," Sandy said, almost in a summary to Alaska's thoughts as they turned another bend. The light reflecting off the ways showed this passage was a lot wider and straighter, but it still didn't look very exciting.

"For once I agree with you," Alaska thought with a sigh, rubbing her leg painfully. "Shall we sit down and see if the Pokemon want to come out?"

"Oooh yes, that sounds fun!" Sandy said excitably and leapt down towards a rock. Alaska began lowering herself down just as Sandy screamed and leapt up, clutching her rear. The torch spun through the air and Alaska quickly caught it, wondering what Sandy was screaming about. The beam of light caught something right where she had been about to sit: a Diglett, with its curved body and red nose, had pushed its way through the ground in the exact place Sandy had been about to sit.

"Digle Dig Digle Dig," the Diglett said cheerfully, but suddenly ducked as Sandy swung her leg over its head.

"Silly thing, you nearly hit me!" Sandy huffed, but turned around as there was a thud. She gasped as she saw Alaska had fallen to the ground and was about to rush over and see if she was alright, but Sandy was stunned to see Alaska was laughing. It wasn't quiet and reserved, instead the exact opposite: her laugh echoed around the cave and sounded like a foghorn that had swallowed some canned laughter. It was rather strange to see Alaska, who usual showed her humour in snappy comebacks and kept the rest of her emotions and thoughts to herself, roaring with laughter on the floor of the cave.

"Why exactly are you laughing about?" A confused Sandy asked, looking around to try and see what had set her friend off. Alaska tried to silence herself in order to answer properly, but her laughter simply pushed through.

"You nearly… sat… on a… Diglett!" Alaska explained breathlessly, clutching her sides and unable to contain herself. Saying it aloud set of another chain of laughter, and Alaska continued to laugh until tears streamed down her face, the pain in her leg rising up her back and her cane prodding into her side. It was immature and relatively an overreaction, but Alaska was unable to contain herself.

"What is so funny about that?" Sandy asked indignantly, nearly setting Alaska off again. Sandy stared down at the Diglett to try and see why it was amusing, only to find the Pokemon looked rather confused at the situation itself.

"Can't you see what a Diglett may look like and see why I may find it hilarious you nearly sat on it with that particular area?" Saying this caused Alaska to burst into a fit of giggles she tried to contain by covering her mouth, staring at Sandy's confused look. The blonde stared down at the Diglett, examining every inch of it in the dim light from the torch, trying to work out what Alaska was on about, when suddenly she remembered something from a R-rated comedy she'd seen a bit of on TV.

"Oh my god Alaska, that's sick!" Sandy gasped, looking down at her friend in horror and disgust. Alaska found the reaction hilarious and burst into laughing again, rolling onto her back as her roar echoed, but didn't notice as Sandy snatched the torch and moved briskly away. "You stay here and be immature, I'll try and find where to go next!" And without another word, Sandy thumped away, leaving Alaska in the dark.

"Come on Sandy, it was just teasing!" Alaska called but got no form of response. "Damnit!" She cursed under her breath and grabbed her cane, beginning to push herself up. Her laughter had been brought on by several days of seriousness with little humour, and having a piece of comedy gold thrust upon her was something Alaska simply couldn't resist after dealing with all the past dreariness. However, it seemed Sandy hadn't seen it that way, and Alaska didn't want her friend to be angry with her.

"Wait up, I can't move quickly!" Alaska called, limping after Sandy with more pain than before from rolling on the ground. Sandy seemed to have found a natural staircase leading up towards another level and was proceeding up there, leaving Alaska to feel her way in the dark. "This is really unsafe you now," she called out, having to prod each step with her cane so she knew where it was. "I could easily fall over in this dark!"

"You should have thought of that before you laughed at me!" Sandy retorted. Alaska rolled her eyes as she tried to feel her way, the light getting further away.

"Why are you overreacting to this?" She called back. "I didn't mean to upset you, but I just thought it was funny! We quite clearly have different senses of humour, but there's no need to run off!" Sandy didn't reply to this one, and she was getting too far away. Alaska wasn't going to apologise if she was just walking away and had to do something, and reached into her pocket for a PokeBall.
"Paige, I need you to stop her!" Alaska said, the red light briefly lighting up her path and allowing her to climb the last two steps with clear vision. The light disappeared as Paige formed, barely visible in the dark but had received her order.

"Pidge Pidge Pidgey!" She called, and took off towards the torch beam, which seemed to have stopped moving. Alaska wondered if Sandy had decided to stop and discuss things, and at the same time was simply glad to get a chance to move forwards, but was taken aback as another burst of red light appeared near her.

"Butterfree, Confusion!" Sandy said with a slight huff.

"Free Free," Butterfree said, not able to know who she was truly attacking in the darkness. Her Compoundeyes revealed something before her and gave better vision, but she had no way of knowing it was her friend as her eyes flashed pink.

"OTTO!" Paige gasped, crashing into something nearby. Alaska gasped and hobbled forwards as fast as she could, her cane catching Paige as she fell down from the roof.

"Paige, are you alright?" Alaska asked, unable to bend down due to her knee but staring sympathetically and curiously down. Butterfree hovered over, looking confused and shocked at what had happened, but Paige was thankfully alright, quickly getting up. Alaska smiled in relief, but quickly turned angrily towards Sandy. "What was that for? Paige could have been seriously hurt?"

"What was that for?" Sandy snapped back. "I should ask you the same thing! You didn't seem to think if I would get hurt as you just laughed at me for about five minutes!"

"Sandy, it was only a joke, and I was more laughing at the situation that you," Alaska tried to explain, her tone getting a bit exasperated, but Sandy simply sniffed.

"I am sure that'll make you feel better!" She whimpered. "That's exactly what people use to say to me! Oh Sandy, we weren't really laughing at you, I promise!, Oh Sandy dear, your just overreacting, I am sure that wasn't what happened! Oh Sandy, just take a few deep breathes and calm down! Well, I am not going to take that from you!" She said with a tone that was both thunderous and emotional at the same time. "I've had people mocking me for the way I think and the way I act for too long! Just because I'm airy and don't grasp things straight away people just label me stupid and use it as a chance to take the mickey out of me! I had accepted getting it from them, but I never expected it from you!"

"Sandy, I never knew!" Alaska gasped, shocked and taken aback by this sudden revelation, suddenly feeling guilt building up in her.

"The thing is Alaska, I think you do just think I'm stupid and silly and weird!" Sandy huffed, her voice cracking slightly. "You never seem to want to discuss things with me and never want to just talk! You just spent the past few days in hospital and you ignored all my attempts to start a conversation, even though I was the one who practically told you to use Metal Claw on Voltorb, and I can see your eyes flashing whenever I suggest something you haven't thought of! I know you don't really want to focus about all this drama and just focus on the journey, but I also know that you are trying to piece things together in your mind and trying to work all of this out. If you just put a little bit more trust in me and shared your thoughts than we could try and work out what is going on together, but if you just think I'm stupid and airy than this friendship isn't going to work!" Alaska was shocked, completely taken aback by the sudden outburst: she had always seen Sandy as a bit airy, over dramatic and annoying at times and had secretly found it a bit silly and amusing, but had no idea that this was offending her. Had she really been ignoring her and shunning her away from trying to solve the mysteries around them?

"Sandy, I had no idea you felt this way and I had no idea you wanted to help!" Alaska said quietly, taking a step forwards and trying to look sympathetic, but Sandy turned away with tears in her eyes.

"Don't bother, I don't need sympathy from you!" She said. "I am happy with how I act, now you just need to feel the same!" And without another word, the blonde marched to the side. Alaska thought she was going to jump down into the path below, but saw Sandy was instead heading for a bridge hidden in the dark. Alaska glanced at Paige and saw she was equally as shocked, but Butterfree was moving quickly over to Sandy to console her.

"This is intense!" Alaska whispered to her Pidgeotto. "I had no idea she was this serious about things, did you?" Paige shook her head, and Alaska watched the torchlight as it moved further away, wondering why Sandy had never mentioned being bullied for her airy nature before. Guilt was wrapped around her, and Alaska had no idea quite what to do or say, still thrown by what Sandy had said and trying to work out the times that she may have offended her friend.

"Pidge Pidgey Otto Otto Pidge," Paige whispered, urging Alaska forwards with her wing. It seemed the light had stopped moving, and sniffles and sobbing could be heard from a distance. Alaska couldn't just ignore her friend in this time of need, and knew that sitting down and talking about this, while a bit too girly and serious for her liking, could be an easy way to clear the air now.

"Sandy, do you want to talk about this?" Alaska asked kindly, smiling as she advanced forwards, but Sandy hastily sniffed and swivelled around, almost as if trying to find her way forwards.

"Not right now Alaska, I need some time to myself!" Sandy huffed, sobbing more than before. Alaska had never had to deal with a close human friend before, but had a feeling that Sandy did really want to talk and continued forwards, trying to seem sensitive, but it seemed to only annoy Sandy more. "Are you even listening to me? This is exactly what I am talking about Alaska, you never listen! I DON'T want to talk right now!" Sandy yelled, stamping her foot down on the 'don't'. However, as soon as she did, a crack echoed throughout the tunnel. Everyone froze, not quite sure what this meant, but than several more cracks occurred. No one knew what to do, everyone simply looking around in shock and trying to think of a solution.

"Sandy, stay – ," Alaska began, but it was too late: she gasped as there was the loudest crack of all, and suddenly Sandy was screaming, light spinning around as the torch fell down to the path below. "NO!" Alaska yelled, and leaned over the side as the torch landed on the ground, shattering and taking all the light with it. She clutched at her chest in shock as she stared down into the darkness, no way of knowing what had happened to Sandy…


Originally this was going to be a discussion about all the events that had occured, but I decided to save that for another point in the next arc as I wanted to focus on Alaska and Sandy's friendship, both with revealing a bit about Sandy and getting Alaska to confront how she mocks Sandy a bit. However, all of Sandy's backstory won't be revealed for a little while yet and this will set up some new aspects in their friendship. I also hope to try and squeeze some more Pokemon development in that this chapter didn't really allow for, as I think Pokemon like Nadia and Bellsprout need more personality. However, let's just wait and see what happens next :)