Alright bubsies, time to get SERIOUS MODE

time for BATTLES and also maybe something else that is currently a secret

Once again to OMG, thanks for your continued support! It means a lot C:
Also thanks to AshxMay ROCKS for padding my review count, now I look slightly more popular hahahaha. Keep reviewing and maybe I'll get to 10 one of these days.

Chapter 3: What's Mine Is Lost

The sunken sensation of darkness gathers amongst us, a shadowy cloak, a nefarious hand clutching beneath our heads, yanking us ever-further into the recesses of a labyrinthine mayhem. I stumble consistently, and eventually just go ahead and grab Lucaro around his slim arm, struggling to keep his own balance rather than giving into my own.

Layke was wrong. There are lanterns strung up in the cavern ceiling, and another decorates our vision with a tantalizing light in frequent enough bursts that I do not fear the bleak darkness. The path slopes painstakingly downward, steadily at first, then faster, faster, to the point where I am one slightly poor decision away from landing on my butt and skidding all the way into the dizzying blackness of the beyond.

As the lights grow sparser and sparser, it is in my gut that perhaps Layke was not entirely wrong. I wish my piplup glowed in the dark; he would be quite useful, if only.

Oh, is that all I'm good for? the piplup in question chirrups from his poke ball.

Well... it's all you would be good for, if you did. But he doesn't, and that's all there is to it.

He smirks in that weird piplup way of his, his beak turned up and twisted. So you're saying I am good for nothing. Me, your one and only pokemon.

I mean, yes. Then while I'm not paying attention to the ground, I skid and slide, into harrowing black. All that keeps me company are the pinpricks of rocks under my butt, chewing through my skin as I tumble farther. I land on my side when the path finally evens out much later than I would have appreciated.

Lup finds this a perfect moment to add, I am also good for distracting you enough to ruin your day.

Oh, shut up. My entire underside freaking stings. If only I had one hundred band-aids, but I do not even own one. Gritting my teeth, I don't bother to get up and try to wait out the dull waves of seething pain that float in and out of my periphery like my surroundings. Maybe I'll just die and never have to partake in this stupid mine shaft looking gym.

Footsteps alert me of the presences behind. I hastily pick myself up and stand in such a way that the entire front of my body faces Lucaro when he reaches me. "A-Are you alright, Niri? I would have come down sooner, but I feared... what if I fell, as well, and then I fell atop you? And what if it hurt a great deal?" He draws a paw along his face, his gaze struggling to picture me in the dizzying half-light.

I've gotten used to it. The only reason I can't see is because my eyes are definitely not tearing up from the pain. "No, I'm f-f-fine, just a little uhhh... I'm alright."

"Well that is wonderful!" His paw addresses my shoulder, and for a second I can't shake the feeling that he's actually a human in a lucario's body. "It alleviates my fears, to know that you were largely unscathed!" But he can't be a human... can he? How would that even work? "Niri, what are you looking at? I don't see anything behind us."

"Oh—Uh." I wipe a discreet sleeve to dab my eyes. "Nothing, nothing." Then Layke rounds the bend and gently skids his feet down over to us in the most stupidly perfect way possible, and I seethe. "Oh, it's just Layke. His shadow was bouncing around back there, and I got confused, I guess."

Lucaro moves aside to make room for my stupid best friend, who affectionately punches my shoulder like I did not just skid down the entire downward slope. "Hey Niri! You ready to take on the dude? What was his name... uhhhhhh... do you remember?"

I sputter. "You never told me his name!"

"Well..." He hesitates, covering his mouth with a hand as he thinks. "He's got a name. I'm sure of that much."

"Fantastic. If only we knew it." With that out of the way, I sidestep and allow the other two to move in front of me before I claim the back of the group. The blood is trickling down my legs, and I am doing my very best not to swipe at it every two seconds.

Zubats live in creepy, dank spaces like these, right? They aren't... attracted to blood, right?

As if in aggravation, Lup explodes from his poke ball and addresses my legs with a nasty spew of bubbles, smearing more than cleating the disaster zone, causing an ever more confusing ensemble of red.

"Hey, what's—" Layke zips back to face me. "What's Lup doing out? He should really conserve his energy for the gym leader, you know?"

"I—ohhhh gee... ahh..." The weakest laugh spills out of my mouth, and I fan my hot, blustery face. "Yeah you're definitely right. He's just being an idiot. Lup, you should get back into your poke ball... uh, like right now."

My piplup hisses. You are a horrible liar.

It'll dry eventually. Just leave it, dude.

No thanks or anything, uh? What an ungrateful trainer you are. As he waddles back over to his ball and a white light engulfs him, transporting him into his little poke home, he continues to prattle. I decide of my own free will to try and clean up your great mistake, and who gets the blame? Oh, yes, me. Just tell them you're a clumsy fool already, would you? This is getting pathetic.

I pluck his warm poke ball from the ground and glare into it. Okay, thanks for trying. Now be good. It's too late to tell them. I'll make it too awkward, because, like, why did you hide the fact that you're bleeding out, Niri? Uggghhh.

Well, hey, at least they care about you.

I wouldn't be friends with them if they didn't care about me. I care about myself at least that much, right?

While I'm glaring into the poke ball, Layke's hand brushes by my face. Blush explodes across my cheeks as he tilts my head towards him. "Hey, you okay? Looked like a bad fall, and all."

"I-I-I-I—FRICK, uh..."

He glances carefully around me. A wince fills his mouth. "Yeah, that looks bad. Sorry, dude. You gotta take better care of yourself, yeah?"

His hand pats at my head, and with a cheeky grin, he turns around. I don't have much else to do other than follow.

You're in love.

Leave me alone, Lup.

We move on, filing into a massive entrance. Rocks line our surroundings in an almost perfectly immaculate barrier, large and smooth, yet grooved and just rough enough to dissuade straying too close to the efface. Once again, I sense a minor explosion in my pocket as Lup erupts from his poke ball and lands in front of me, waggling his flippers outward.

Layke watches, brow furrowing. Then his hands steadily reach for his belt, where he taps the little release buttons on his poke balls, and out come Turt and Geodudette. Lucaro oversees without actually looking our way; a minor storm of sorrow versus truth fights for worth in his gaze.

It's the poke balls his eyes waver over. Sweet Lucaro.

We stand together, searching the dimly-lit stadium for its guardian. I catch the sound of a switch churning, then bars ascend from a hatch I hadn't even noticed across the way, and into our sight strides a man not all that much older than us. I open my mouth to retort; then I scowl and shut it. He's a gym leader for a reason. If I say something stupid, he'll come after me harder than the others.

My best friend, however, does not think so quickly: "Whoa! How old are you anyways?"

The man approaches us, his burgundy hair rippling in the faint light. A hard hat crowns his head, and he knocks his fist against it once; the bulb burns on. We have to squint to face him; Lucaro decides to just close his eyes. "My age is not of your concern." Coughing into a fist, the gym leader searches for a stoic expression, then plasters it across his face. I wince; his eyes sharpen, blistering mauve. "All that matters is my strength, which has gifted me this position as gym leader of Oreburgh City.

"My name is Roark, and"—his voice cracks—"you must face me if you seek the Coal badge!" His cheeks flush, and he drags up the flaps on the sides of his outfit, gray mining slacks.

His boots click against the stones below as he comes nearer; with each step, my heart shudders. Something about the ferocity unleashed within his gaze and the drawn snarl in his lip...

If he's our age, he must've done something incredible to win this position. And I don't know what it is, but I am about to find out, and I am terrified.

Roark knocks on his helmet one-two-three times, and then all lights go out save the one affixed to his head.

"But tell me, can you still fight without sight?"

His words send chills down my throat, and I call out for Lup immediately.

Hey, chill out! I'm still at your feet. Wait what's—

Something swings down on my piplup, and then his presence is gone. I catch a faint grumble of geodude and squeal, darting back, my hands scrabbling for purchase on any one thing in the everlasting darkness. Roark's light cuts like a blade as he steps closer, then farther, calling out to his geodudes and his onix and the other rock monsters of the cavern.

Then I sense the flit-flat of wings in the air.

LUP THERE ARE ZUBATS WHERE ARE YOU?

No freaking response. This is what I get for only using one pokemon. It was a stupid geodude too. Where in the world did my piplup go?

The hiss of poison-bat wings whisk overhead, and with a shriek, I duck, crouching into the ground, searching fitfully through the rocky darkness for my stupid stupid pokemon. Rocks sink into my hands; the darkness beckons. Roark's blade of light slices outwards, glistening farther and farther away from me, and ever less light penetrates through my senses. Lup, I growl, if you're just sitting around, having a good time while I worry my bum off for your stupid sake...

Of course not. Of course that's not how it is. The thought glides down my back with a scythe-like shiver, frigid, hitching something indescribably thick and ugly into my throat. I struggle to breathe—close my eyes—struggle to breathe—Roark's still way over there—struggle to breathe—can't find my one pokemon—don't have any sort of defense—just want to freaking breathe... and it all goes wheezing out of me.

"Layke," I try, but my voice comes out weak, quiet, unsure. "Layke," I try again, and it's worse, weaker, quieter, questionable. "Layke, where are..." but at this point, my words are whispers of the wind.

D-Drat. I... I bet Roark went after him.

I stand, my rain boots fitfully clacking on stone, and that is when I sense the shaking of the very rocks holding me up. The chatter of zubats overhead again, but their screeches are now accompanied by a voice's sharp hiss.

"Maybe we should've gone for the other mine. I think this one's abandoned, Commander."

That is decidedly not Layke. Nor Lucaro. If only it was Lucar—

"LUCARO!"

And immediately his paw is on my shoulder. Through panted breaths, he asks, "What is it, Niri?"

"I—did you hear—"

Then he shushes me, and our silence eclipses the foul sputter of sinister overhead sound.

"It's too late to do that, you idiot. We'll just have to see what we can find in this one. There must be something—or someone—to equip to our cause."

Lucaro's paw tightens about my shoulder. "I don't like that," he utters, his voice more aura than spoken.

"Y-Yeah..." I laugh weakly. "Me neither... T-Too bad I can't find my stupid piplup..." Drawing a stream of hair behind an ear, I gaze at him, the only one I could find who came for me when I called.

The lucario stiffens, his amber eyes sharpening. The aura in his paws illuminates his presence a stark cobalt. "Lup? He is on the ground just over there."

"Oh, great..." I follow the gesture of Lucaro's paw, and there my idiot penguin lies, his head jammed against the spiked wall within an unfortunate crevice. If I draw him back into his poke ball now, I'll be disqualified, but if I leave him to rot with his head stuck in the efface... well I guess there's no reason not to leave him there for now. Maybe I can convince Roark to give me a badge out of sheer determination.

"Niri, why are you hesitating? We must tell Roark about what we have just heard."

I shake myself. "You—Oh—Right. Right..." What a kind lucario. He's kinder than me and Layke Layke was here... well, whatever. He's not. Probably out there somewhere, in the dark with his pokemon, demolishing the creatures of this cave in easy, affable waves of his stupid soft hands that I definitely don't want to hold right now.

Lucaro's paw slides down and tightens around my wrist. He leads me through the darkened carnage, our cage of rock, his glowing aura closing in upon the light that streams from Roark's head. The burst of gold lights his pale face and the dark rims of his glasses, his eyes practically glowing.

Panting, the gym leader faces the lucario. "Wh-What are you still doing here? You've greatly weakened my assault. I'm surprised you've taken nary a hit. D-Didn't I tell you to go and I'd meet you outside with the gym badge?" No—Wait. He's not facing Lucaro; he's facing the girl behind Lucaro. Frick, that's me.

"Did you say..?" I squeak.

"Yes! Your lucario's a beast! I told him to let you go!"

"Well—uh—"

I let Lucaro cut me off. "I have more pressing matters to alert you to, gym leader! I must, I..." He releases a breath, and Roark fills it.

"YOU CAN TALK?!"

Lucaro drags a paw down his snout. "Now is not the time to react to my speaking ability! Your gym is in danger! Niri and I heard someone speaking in a greatly ominous tone about taking things for their own gain! I do not know what they seek, but I fear we are about to find out!"

I look up in the light of Roark's helmet, and then—a shadow arcs along the ceiling, crushing to the ground beside us, followed by an absolute fleet of nasty azure bats, their sinister purple wings shuddering with poisonous intent.

"IT IS TIME TO FALL TO THE WRATH OF TEAM GALACTIC!"

A ball of fire explodes at our feet, and I watch it morph into the chimchar. The—The stolen chimchar.

Oh my goodness.

In the light of Roark's helmet, I make out the brown face, the weird diagonally-cut white hair, the sharp eyes, the angry moue at her lips, the clothes claimed with a G-shaped insignia.

"It's you!" I cry, and I tap Lucaro to attack her. He misunderstands and instead punts the chimchar across the room. "No—Lucaro—Go for the stupid girl!"

He looks up from his puntage to shake his head roughly. "I refuse to harm a defenseless human, Niri."

Now the girl flinches from the lucario speaking, and I think we need to start hiding the fact that he can talk, because this is ridiculous. No wonder the poor guy was happy to join our team, to find himself a group that wouldn't do this upon his every little word.

While she's distracted, I pick up a rock and chuck it at her face. Lucky me, my aim sails true and smacks her in the forehead, to which she collapses.

I am not a pokemon; I have zero qualms about rocking a fellow defenseless human to the face.

Roark watches all of this with the fakest attempt at a resolute complexion that I have ever seen in my entire life. Finally it shatters and he shrieks, outright shrieks, "I THINK THE MINE IS COLLAPSING!"

Both my head and Lucaro's flit sharply into his direction. "WHAT?"

My yell overshadows his, and the gym leader decidedly does not take another second to react to the lucario's speakage. "Y-Y-YEAH! I HEAR IT SHIFTING EVER SO SLIGHTLY! WE NEED TO GET OUT OF HERE BEFORE IT STARTS TO FALL APART!"

"IF ITS SHIFTING EVER SO SLIGHTLY IS ENOUGH TO MAKE IT BLOW TO SMITHEREENS AROUND US, THEN WHY IN THE WORLD DID YOU MAKE THIS YOUR GYM, YOU FREAKING LOSER?" I spew out before I can stop myself. Behind me, I sense Lucaro shifting through the rocks and plucking the girl I beaned to her feet. Blood dribbles down her face in a tear-like motion; then I have to stop looking at her. I can't take the sleep-like emotion captured within her face, worn down with exhaustion and crippling failure.

He even goes out of his way to search out the poke ball and let the chimchar back in, equipping the ball to the unrightful owner's belt.

"IT'S NOT THAT THE GYM IS WEAK!" Roark shouts back, hoarse, "IT'S THAT THEY ARE USING SOME FORM OF EXPLOSIVE OR EXTREMELY POWERFUL POKEMON TO RESHAPE THE CHEMISTRY OF THE VERY EARTH WE ARE SOON TO BE TRAPPED INSIDE! NOW MOVE!"

He shoves me backwards, and, blindly, I begin to run. His light dances over the earth in jagged swings, and in each lurch I search for blue hair, a tatty tee, a stupid smile, his bright green turtwig. And in each swing there is nothing, no indication of him.

"Layke?" I try, and I force it louder. "LAAYYYKE, WE HAVE TO GO! THE MINE IS CLOSING DOWN ON US!"

And... nothing. Lucaro, with the chimchar-stealer tossed over his shoulder, glances back, his gaze lined in bright aura. "I... do not see him, Niri."

"WH-WHAT? WHERE ELSE WOULD HE BE?"

Then her voice.

The chimchar-stealer mumbles through her pain, "You stupid girl, he probably found us and is trying to stop the mine from collapsing. I can't believe you threw a rock at me, urrgghhhhh..."

"L-Lucaro, don't let go of her."

"Wasn't planning on it."

We near the entrance, and I draw out my poke ball, tugging Lup into safety. I guess we'll have to visit the pokemon center here. I hope she's not creepy like... Morrow...
But now isn't the time to be worrying about that, now is it.

While her eyes fade in and out, I ask her, "You—You chimchar-stealer, what do you mean, he's probably fighting you? Who is he fighting?"

She manages to draw her head up enough to glare into my face. The blood dribbles from the spot in her forehead, down her cheek, down her chin, dripping onto the earth so quietly I can't even hear it. "My name is Keebae, okay, not chimchar-stealer, so shut up about that crap. Also, the chimchar would be rotting in a poke ball in that lousy professor's lab, so... a-again, just, just shhhut up about that crap. Okay.

"He's fighting Team Galactic, obviously. Can't read my shirt, now can you?"

"I..." I sputter. "I mean, I read the G on it, but I had no idea what it stood for..."

Up the sloping pathway, with Lucaro's assistance, we make it into stark daylight. I cover my face with my hands and groan. Lucaro huddles beside me, and I can hear Roark counting us, coming up with me, muttering, "There was definitely one other person in there..."

Don't... Don't tell me he mistook Lucaro's voice for Layke's. Don't tell me he heard two human voices and decided that he definitely didn't hear the lucario, then just assumed it meant Layke was with us.

Hopefully, I draw my hands aside and glance about the area, but there is no blue-haired idiot strolling around and waiting for us. There is no best friend hanging out in my periphery, asking with his soft eyes for me to say his name, to dart over there and hug him and ask him where he was.

The resound rumble of rock shuddering begins behind us, first softly, then harder, then horrid crackling and screeching as rubble crunches against rubble and further reduces itself to pebbles asunder.

I watch wreckage fill the hole that we just exited, and I swallow the hard knot of rock-like intensity in my throat.

"Keebae, h-he wouldn't have fought Team Galactic, though... he's terrified of human interaction..."

"Well, that's his problem for being a wuss," she smirks, her tongue darting over her lip and catching the slightest edge of blood. A grimace pockmarks her stupid smug face. "Maybe he didn't fight us at all. Maybe he froze in place. Maybe he surrendered and let us take him. Maybe we knocked him out and threw him in a bag. Maybe we even left him to die. Or mmmmmaybe... we took him in.

"No idea~"

As my heart climbs the lethal staircase up my throat and into my mouth, I uselessly pluck a rock from the pile of rubbish from the heart of the cavern and throw it at her face.

And again I don't miss, and finally she goes silent—

And Lucaro gives me this horrible, emotional, despondent look, his amber eyes twinkling with the residue of starlike tears. "N-Niri, stop throwing rocks at her. Now we'll have to wait even longer before we can get any information out of her."

"I don't care," I mutter, slouching into myself, balling my hands into my pockets, "I don't care, I don't care, I don't care..."

Between me and Lucaro, the gym leader watches. Then, very slowly, he pulls a small pouch out of his pocket and hands one of its contents to Lucaro while he eyes me. "S-So your lucario can speak."

I release a long breath. "Sure."

"Ah... sorry about that. I must've confused his voice with your friend's. I... I thought he was with us."

I drag my sleeve across my face. "Yeah, okay." Just lost my best friend in your death cave of everlasting darkness.

I lack the strength to yell at him. To throw some more rocks, to sic my stupid weak piplup on him, to...

They took Layke... they took Layke and now he's gone...

"Uhh. Sorry about that, again.

He awkwardly draws out my palm and places another tiny badge into my hand, a little twinkling black promise. "Uh. Give that to your friend when you see him again. He won it for sure. His geodude and turtwig were a great combination."

And like that, he strolls off in the same leisurely manner that Layke would've if he was here and unharmed.