Chapter 5: Dark Days!

Dear Kaorin,

So far so good. I got a cool new Butterfree, and I started out with a Squirtle who I nicknamed Bubbles. He's the best! I'll admit John, the first Gym Leader, was impossibly wacky, and also a little easy to beat, but it was still fun to battle. The money we had to start, and the other we got for defeating John, is lasting nicely, but we may end up taking odd jobs between Gym Leaders. I know you said you weren't going to go on an adventure of your own, but it is incredibly fun so far. Do you still like painting very much? If I become a champion you'll be the first to paint my victory portrait. By the time you write back I should be in Cerulean.

With Love,

Chihiro

P.S. I hear the Slateport Festival is coming around. Make sure to have loads of fun!

"Okay Osaka, let's get on the road," Chihiro said as she picked up her backpack and handed the letter to a boy with a Pelliper. It was common for people of different regions to send letters via highly trained Flying Pokemon, and the letter would reach Chihiro within days with this speedy bird. It would be dropped by the city, where a paperboy would finish delivery to the exact address. Chihiro would have to receive her letter at the post office in Cerulean. She then saw Osaka conversing with a shady man in the corner and receiving a small bag. She rushed to Osaka, "What did you just buy?" She exclaimed. "Knowing Osaka she could have spent her life-savings on pencil sharpeners..."

"Snuff." Osaka said. Chihiro face was full of surprise.

"What! Osa-"

"I mean, stuff."

"Oh, thank god, what kind of stuff?"

"A cool fish Pokemon, Magokarp, I think."

"Osaka, Magikarp are useless," Chihiro informed. "Snuff would have been a better investment..."

"'No refunds' He said."

"Whatever."

They set off through the cave, and within the hour found themselves in a state of semi-lost. They knew where the paths were, but not where any of the exits were or where they led. Zubat were in abundance, and this was nothing to comfort the girls. The shadows of other trainers were easily frightening. There were small, luminescent light fixtures littering the walls, some unusually close to the ground from where children were undoubtably allowed to help. Some areas carried on as small enclosed tunnels, others were more vast and expansive.

"Woohoo!" A strange, malnourished man with glasses exclaimed amongst a crowd of a few people. "You people better not be after my new fossils!" A pile containing dozens of fossils was littered on the floor behind the the man, and spanned the length of a small closing leading forward through the cavern

"We aren't, we're just trying to get through the cave sir," a young girl replied. The blond curls flowing down her pink dress would have melted icy hearts.

"I won't believe that one, anyone who gets near here is in for a beating!" He exclaimed.

Chihiro noticed the obstruction of course, some people just got on her nerves, and this was undoubtedly one "Hey let these people pass!" Chihiro yelled, "Nobody wants your crappy fossils anyway!"

"You're one of them! Come any closer and my Pokemon will destroy you," He let a Bellsprout and a Manky out of a Pokeball.

"Come on Osaka, let's kick his butt," Chihiro looked over to see Osaka had disappeared from sight, "I'll beat you myself then." She sent out Pidgy and Bubbles.

...

In the corner of the cave, Osaka saw a rather queer sight, a man in a an orange-yellow jumpsuit was slipping into a small crevice in the wall. This caught Osaka's eye, and she followed through the cave to investigate. She found herself coming upon a grand sight. There were glowing stones littered within the ceiling and walls of the cave, beyond Osaka's knowledge, they were the rare Moon Stones. Osaka saw that the man earlier mentioned was putting a small mechanical, black device with a red glowing middle into the wall. He began speaking to himself.

"Okay, this little thing is packed with enough explosives to bring the cave to the ground, but just under this floor should be exactly what we're looking for." He turned around to see Osaka staring at him. "Aw crap, you've seen a bit to much little girl, I'm afraid I'll have to take you into custody," He said, as he let his Pokemon, a Meowth, out of it's ball.

"Huh?" Osaka replied. The man didn't look like cop, in that jumpsuit he looked more like part of an underground organization to Osaka, and one that didn't have the brightest costume designer at that. If Osaka was to design the costume it would probably be black and dark green, kind of camoflou-

"I'm going to knock you out and take you back to boss, that's what!"

"Oh, go Salad!" Salad appeared from Osaka's Pokeball.

...

Bellspourt launched Razor Leaf onto Chihiro's Pokemon, the Pidgey used gust to deflect the offense, then Bubbles headed straight to the Bellspourt with Tackle, but was intercepted by Manky's Karate Chop. The Pidgey dived into a Peck, hitting the Mankey head on, Bellspourt was close enough and use Bind on the bird, but Bubbles saved it with a Tackle. Each Pokemon was damaged, and were about to go into the rumble again. Bellsprout and Bubbles clashed with Razor Leaf and Watar Gun, Pidgey released a Gust that harmed the Mankey, having no projectile. Bellsprout's offense overcame Bubbles'. Both Mankey and Squirtle fainted, and Pidgey finished Bellspourt off with a Peck.

The man sent out a Magnamite, which Thundershocked Pidgey into submission, and Chihiro let her Butterfree out.

"This isn't over by a long shot!" They said in unison.

...

The Meowth went past Salad, and aimed straight at Osaka, who was barely able to dodge it's slash by ducking.

"My Meowth is far too fast for a Pokemon as weak as yours," The man said with malice. The Mewoth launched at Osaka again, and Salad could do no more than throw itself in the way. A critical hit.

You don't need to do this Salad!

You're my trainer, I'll protect you.

You aren't strong enough though!

Salad launched Vine Whip, and both vines where easily evaded by Meowth. It hit Osaka in the stomach with it's claws, and her outfit showed a bit of blood in the wounds center, which was long enough to encompass her entire mid-section.

"Ah!" Osaka exclaimed.

Salad knew this shouldn't be happening, a Pokemon wasn't meant to attack humans! This Meowth was just a step above him though, forget about trainer skills, Salad wasn't up to the challenge.

"You know what, I change my mind!" The man shouted, "Finish her off!"

...

The Pokemon had been battling for a bit, each dodging the stronger hits.

This is one of the great things about being a trainer, beating down jerks like this guy. Blocking littles girls from making their way through a mountain cave! Wait... why is a little girl in a mountain cave? I guess that doesn't matter, a jerk is a jerk after all. Score! The Magnamite fainted! The exhileration of battle settled, and she found herself thinking of Osaka again.

"Oh, I hope Osaka is Okay," She mused aloud.

"Thank you miss," The young girl from earlier said, "That man was a jerk."

"Why, your welcome," She thought for a moment, "In return, do you know the way out of here?"

"Yeah, I have a map, it's fine though I have it memorized." She handed the paper containing said map to Chihiro.

"Thanks," She turned away, "Just where is Osaka though?" She knew the girl was likely to get into trouble without someone's help. She had forgotten her suspicion of this little girl. She certainly wasn't there for any normal reason anyway, Chihiro had that much right.

...

At this point a surge of energy was felt in both Osaka and Salad. A sudden, stunning glow encompassed the Pokemon and suddenly he was going through a change. The bud on the Pokemon's back flourished to a degree, it's limbs and body grew out, and both Pokemon and trainer were filled with a new energy.

"Gwoar!" Salad yelled out.

"Salad evolved into Ivysaur, congratulations!" The Pokedex spoke up.

Salad launched a Razor Leaf straight into the Meowth, and followed up with a devastating Take Down, smashing the now frail in comparison Pokemon into the wall. It then hit the bomb on the far wall with a single Leaf, severing a cord which connected the glowing red to the black around it, disarming it and causing the red glow to fade. Osaka's wound, although long, was relatively shallow, she got up.

"This is impossible!" The man yelled, "I'll kill you with my own two hands." Bulbasaur hit him with a Sleep Powder. Osaka walked over to the disarmed bomb, and tucked it into her bag. She intended to ask Chihiro about it, but that slipped her mind. Osaka returned Salad to his Pokeball, and made her way out of the cave within a cave.

"Hey Chihiro," She said, upon seeing the girl. The emotions that probably should have been filling her voice absent.

"Where did you get those scratches?" She asked, but knowing that Osaka was unlikely to make good sense, and probably tripped or something, continued, "We need to get to Cerulean right away, let's go."

Right away was definitely not the time they made, it was, however, still good time. The ending of the cave was not really that far away, and both girls were very tired. At that point Chihiro was strongly driven by a simple desire, a desire to not spend the night in a creepy cave, "There is no way in heck I am spending the night in here! We'd have to keep watch, and I could never trust Osaka." So the two didn't stop, despite Osaka's occasional complaint.

Osaka thoughts began in an orderly fashion, "What could that man have been doing? It looked like he was trying to blow the whole cave down! Like he was trying to get to something..." The thoughts wandered, "Boom boom pow, gotta get that. boom boom pow, gotta get that!" They turned to music for a bit, and eventually was lost to the godforsaken land of irrelevance.

Chihiro's were better composed at the least, "At least I showed that freak a thing or two, taking those fossils hasn't done a thing to my conscience, and why should it?" The irony of the situation made her giggle also, the fact that the man's defense of his fossils was the very thing to get them taken, "There are so many weirdos out here!" Thinking of John and the unnamed fossil collector. But what about that girl? She left as soon as she gave me the map, but someoe her age certianly shouldn't be out and about all alone in a cave at night.

They reached the cave's end, and was greeted by night, the glowing of light fixtures placed by those helping to make the journey of travellers easier being replaced by the light of the moon and stars. A rugged path pointed to the out of view city. Spearow rustled through the trees, and Ekans traversed the grasses lower on the slightly slanting hill.

"Sleep?" Osaka muttered, not being willed to make a larger effort of speech.

"Yes, Osaka," Chihiro was laying her own sleeping bag out. The distance between city's was large enough for days of travel to be spent, but starting from Pallet, they had avoided long travel until now, and this was still relatively short. Sleep befell the two of them. The only dangerous Pokemon were the Ekans, and they stayed much further down the path.

...

The nervous man stood before his boss and mustered the lie he had prepared, "I'm sorry to say that the search in Mt. Moon yielded no results. The underground path did not begin under the mountain. Two unnaturally large, sharp, oval eyes peered from the darkness. A stunning black blot making for an iris and pupil. They were almost feline. His voice was gritty and immensely deep.

"You have failed, and for that you shall die!" A voice yelled. the man screamed in anticipation of his fate.

"Just joking," the voice exclaimed. A pause ensured.

"We cool?" It asked.

"Uh, yes sir, we're, um, cool," The man managed.

"Like, I'm still invited to the bachelor party cool, that kind of cool?"

"Yes, of course sir," The man left.

"Good," the pupils looked up, "We're cool."

The still beyond view face took off the Darth Vader mask with gigantic eye holes that was distorting his voice.

Author's notes: Best chapter yet if you ask me, and probably pushed the story in the direction it needed to go, I may have to rewrite and omit chunks of 6 this way, but it goes to show that you need to make sure you're done before moving on. I really, really hope the fight scene wasn't confusing for anyone, if it is, I'll knock the fighting scenes down another notch on the priority list. No more two on two battles also, I don't know what I was thinking.

Thanks to anyone who actually read through five chapters of story, and doubles for commenting *ahem* "reviewing" on the way, triple for the gigantically, critically helpful revies(ones most aren't lucky enough to have.)

For any questioners, both the girl and the "jumpsuit man" will play large parts later on.