Chapter Three:
It honestly felt like we were going nowhere. Only the rocks around us would change, but it was never ending water.
"Where are we?" I finally asked.
"According to my PokeNav, Route 127 still..."
I groaned, but at least now the sun was up and counteracting the cold sea water that kept splashing up. Since Swampert was just following Brendan, I let my mind wander. I've never really thought about the Elite Four before. But now that I was going there, it just didn't seem real...
"Okay, now we're in Route 128!" Brendan called.
"Great! Then we should probably slow down!" We had been going pretty fast, and we were coming up on a mountain. Finally we lost some momentum and began looking for an entrance.
"Do you think we're close?" Brendan said looking up the large cliff.
"We have to be, what else could this be?" But then I saw it.
The entrance to Ever Grande City was a gigantic waterfall. It was so beautiful! I couldn't stop staring at it.
"Hey, look at all the Wingulls!" Brendan said. However, as we got closer I realized they weren't Wingulls. They were Luvdiscs, connected with their mates flying up the waterfall.
"Brendan, they're Luvdiscs!"
At the base of the waterfall we were completely surrounded by Luvdiscs. I was completely amazed at how beautiful it was.
"Are you still ready, May?" Brendan called.
"Yeah..." I was still distracted by the hundreds of Luvdiscs. They gave a whole new definition to the term "Heart Fluttering".
Brendan and I used Waterfall to scale the entrance. Finally we jumped off our pokemon and onto dry land. I returned Swampert to his pokeball. Then I continued to watch the ascending Luvdiscs.
"May, come on!" Brendan called and pulled on my arm. I didn't have time to be easily distracted. Brendan pulled me all the way to the pokemon center.
After our pokemon were healed and our bags were full, we headed toward Victory Road's entrance.
"I don't know about this..." I said quietly.
"Come on, don't be a wuss!"
"Brendan, what if we don't make it?"
"Don't be like that, let's go!"
The next thing I knew, I was in a pitch black cave. I couldn't see anything in front of me. But, a real trainer always has a trick up their sleeve... Or I guess in their bag... I dug in mine until I found the pokeball I wanted.
"Sableye! Use Flash!" I shouted as I threw Sableye's ball in the air. Suddenly it was much easier to see. Sableye's bright eyes were illuminating like flashlights. "Good job, buddy!" I encouraged. Sableye didn't get out very much, and even if he did he just slept... I think. But anyway, he began to crawl around and explore.
Brendan and I followed him.
"Do you think he knows where he's going?" Brendan asked after a few minutes.
"No, but do we?"
"Point taken."
Sableye continued to feel his way around until he got to a hole. Then he looked up at me with his bright eyes and held up his little hands like a toddler begging to be picked up. I scooped him up and looked over at Brendan, who obviously read my look.
"I'll go if you go," he said.
"Fine," I was always the one who took the risks while we were traveling. There was a ladder, but it looked a little rickety... I decided it would be better to risk the ladder then to risk the jump. Sableye clutched to my back pack while I climbed down into the darkness.
I could hear Brendan climbing down after me, but I couldn't see him. I didn't want to look up, or down. I kept my eyes on my hands. Finally I hit a solid surface that made my heart skip a beat. I climbed off the ladder and waited for Brendan to make it down.
"I was hoping it would get brighter as we went down." He said, obviously not realizing how stupid he sounded.
"Yeah, cause that made sense." I laughed and let Sableye down. He continued crawling around for about five minutes before stopping dead in his tacks and turning off his bright lights.
"What's up?" Brendan said loudly.
"Shhh!"
There were just about fifty sleeping pokemon all over the place. I couldn't tell what all of them were. But I saw a few Arons, so I figured there had to be Lairons... I didn't exactly feel like being chased out of here. But I didn't know where to go from here...
"May," Brendan whispered. "Look!"
Across the room, through all the pokemon, I saw the light shining through a hole in the ceiling. I wsa postive that it wasn't where we came from. I glanced to Brendan, who nodded. Then I picked up Sableye and we slowly crept through the room. It was like walking through a mine field.
Finally I walked into the ladder. I practically dove through the hole and was in the much brighter room above us. I returned Sableye to his ball and scanned the new environment. I could see the exit! But it was so far!
"Brendan! Look, there's the way out!"
"How can you tell?"
"I don't know... But I bet we could make it from here!"
We began to climb and jump toward the entrance. I urged Brendan to stay on the pathway that was beaten into the rock. Obviously we weren't the first to be here, and obviously people have made it out.
"Oh come on, May. A short cut would be way easier!"
"No, there's no short cut in life." I teased.
"Fine..."
Eventually we got to two gigantic rocks that were blocking our path. I instinctively got out Flygon's pokeball. "Flygon! Use Rock Smash!"
My beautiful Flygon emerged from his ball to completely obliterate the rocks. Then he landed next to me so I could return him.
I looked over to Brendan, "Shall we?"
"Ladies first," he motioned me onward. So to humor him, I walked forward to the now open path. However, things never go as you expect.
The floor crumbled under my weight and I fell straight through. I screamed as I ripped through the cold air. It felt like forever, and all I could imagine was smashing my skull on the rocks below.
But I didn't. Freezing cold, dark water broke my fall. It took a while for my brain to recover and comprehend what happened. Finally I surfaced and began to tred water. I was terrified.
As if on cue, my traveling companion jumped into the hole right after me and splashed in. When his head came above the water, I splashed him.
"Ladies first!" I mocked.
"Look on the bright side. There's water!"
I resisted the urge to punch him in the face. Instead I released Swampert and crawled in his back. Brendan got out his Kingdra and clung to him.
"Sableye! Use Flash!" I called out as I threw Sableye's ball in the air. He landed on my back and created a light source. I scanned the cave to try and find a way out. Finally I saw a glisten of a silver ladder.
"Brendan, l-l-lets g-go," I was starting o freeze to death. Swampert sped off toward the ladder while Brendan followed me. I lept form Swampert and returned him to his ball. t was incredibly hard to climb the ladder, but I managed. When I got to the top, I laid on the rock with Sableye sitting on my back.
"May, are you okay?"
"Yeah. I'm fine." I got up and faced him. "What about you?"
"I'm okay, I just want to get out of this place!"
Sableye began to be our guide again. I was slowly drying off, and I felt like we were making progress. This may had been some of the most miserable minutes of my life, but things were starting to look up. The entrance was right in front of us.