Chapter 20

I came to a crashing halt when I realized that Wes had refused to let go. He hung over the side of the massive ravine, Duking and Silva holding each of his legs in a crushing grip. Both his hands were on my arm, the crushing grip nearly painful. As all four of us stilled, the look of relief on his face made my heart skip a beat.

"Thank the god pokemon," he whispered. Gently, he held out the hand that had a looser grip on me. "Give me your other hand. I can't hold just one with these gloves on."

"R-right." Our hands firmly locked, Silva and Duking started pulling us back to safety. The dirt scratched at my legs and made my eyes water, but I was thankful for it. There was no way I'd like the dirt at the bottom any more than the dirt right here. It was almost tempting to kiss it.

Wes took me into my arms and pulled me close to him. His grip was crushing, but not enough so to where I couldn't breathe or talk. I didn't do either, though. The suddenness of it all had already halted both of those functions. He didn't seem to be breathing until I took a breath myself. He pulled away and cupped both my cheeks.

"Are you alright?" he asked. His eyes were masked from behind his reflective goggles, so there was no real way to assess whether he was concerned or just asking to make sure I hadn't had a heart attack.

"Just fine." It was new, sitting this close to Wes. I could feel his breath on my face. He didn't chew gum, as least not from what I had seen, but it smelt like cinnamon. Both his hands made it hard to turn left or right. If he leaned just a little closer he might've even- and now I'm blushing.

"Good," he said. "Sorry to put you in that situation." He hugged me once more, a sigh escaping him, and then stood up. His hand never left mine, even as we were both on our feet. Silva and Duking had been smiling in our direction, but as soon as they had been spotted, their kissers were wiped clean. Espeon hopped up onto my shoulder, nudging my cheek with her forehead.

The new station had been abandoned. Cameras had been overturned, papers scattered here and there, even the desk, which was once a stone figure that had been seemingly carved out of the ground, had been broken and tossed aside. Then again, that could've been during my battle with Suicune. It had gone by in such a flash, it was hard to recall every detail. The stage lights had been left on. If it wasn't for the fact that every camera had been shattered, then I would've felt like we were on the air.

"She's still here," Wes said. He had showed me to the other side of the room, where a staircase traveled under the wall. Using his free hand, he knelt down beside it and picked up what I thought was a shattered piece of a camera. Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be tip of Lady Venus' brass moon. "She didn't leave the under, she's heading downwards. There's going to be others."

"How do you know?" Duking asked.

"Wherever she goes, she needs people to go with so she can boss somebody around. Or she just wants people to admire her." umbreon broke out of his pokeball at the words. I instinctively unsheathed my sword.

"What are we gonna fight with?" Silva was trembling from elation.

"You get to stand by and watch us fight." Duking clapped his hand on Silva's head. "Out of all of us, you have been kidnapped the most. So if you so much as leave my side, I'm going to have to bring you back up to the surface myself. Got it?"

Silva suddenly didn't look so excited.

The stairs lead to an underground room that had a lot of walls in disarray here and there, as if they were separated to rooms. They were, but to get to these rooms, you had to go through maze upon maze to explore each one. Great, it was Pyrite's crappy hideout all over again. Luckily, Wes had a pass that allowed us past all those rooms and down a hallway that automatically lead downwards again.

This time, I wasn't disappointed. I was completely awestruck when the four of us had to step out onto creaky metal grates and look down maybe six stories to a mess of stairs, hard concrete, sewage, and four trainers. All of them looked up at us and automatically knew we were intruders. Naturally, four Shadow Pokemon appeared and trailed behind them, hooting a war cry.

"I got the trainers," Duking announced, charging after them. The metal grate shuddered dangerously as stomped towards them.

"I'll take the normal pokemon," Wes said.

"That leaves me the Shadows."

"And I'lll… sit right here." Silva dropped to his butt on the foot of the stairs and half-heartedly waved us on, a sour look on his face.

Duking had already cornered the trainers when we came across our first set of pokemon. Turns out Wes didn't really need to get any normal pokemon, because all there was were Shadows. Gligar, Sneasel, Piloswine, and Stantler. We were about halfway down the second set of stairs so there was no real way to take them on other than one at a time.

That sure as hell didn't stop the gligar. When I thrust to hit Sneasel in the stomach, he jabbed a poisonous tail at me. I had been attacked by a Shadow Pokemon before, a dunsparce, and it hadn't been pleasant. That accident was about to happen again, and even though I covered my head with my hands, I didn't feel ready to be cut open again.

A snag ball fell on my head a moment later, an angered Shadow Pokemon squealing from the inside. Oh, thank Arceus. Wes could still catch them. I threw him a look of gratitude before slashing diagonally across Sneasel's stomach. Now that she was purified, she waved her claws at me almost menacingly before taking off like a spider monkey down the stairs and out a door almost too far down for me to see.

Stantler wasn't handling well on the grates with his hooves. I considered taking him on now while he was weak, but Piloswine was already aiming a double-edge in my direction. Just as he leapt, almost so far that if I hadn't stopped him with my sword, he would've knocked me right over the edge. He dropped to the grates, a ripple of trembling following before he came to a halt. He looked left, right, then up to me.

"Swine?" he pondered. This pokemon didn't seem to have any idea where he was. Regardless, he was still a trainer's pokemon, so Wes had no choice but to catch him there and find a place to release him later. Stantler was almost willing to be purified so he could get off his feet. One swipe, one pokeball, and we were done.

"Thank god," I whispered. The staircase took a slight jerk to the left. Wes and my hands automatically gripped the railing. One story below us, Duking had just drop kicked a trainer. He fell down a full set of stairs before hitting the railing at the bottom, giving the entire structure another jerk. One more trainer stood up to the bodybuilder. Though he was a giant as well, he seemed nervous to go up to our comrade.

"Duking," Wes started, "you might want to be careful with the-"

Blatantly ignoring him, Duking swung a hook at his foe. The man took the hit to his left cheek, sputtering from the hit. The force of the blow knocked him over the railing and down to the story below, where he hit the next railing. Each time the gargantuan trainer hit the railing, it would only flip him onto the one below, and the one after that, and the one after that until he hit the cement at the bottom, unconscious. The others must've done the same, because the three other foes were stacked on the floor as well. They were unconscious, but only a few bruised ribs seemed to be the worst of their injuries. The flimsy stairs were now dented and broken in places from his fight. When he threw his fists up in the air, it gave a sickening drop when one of the stairs collapsed.

All three of us were frozen in place. These stairs were going to fall. We had to get back to the top, where Espeon could easily help us down, like she had with the ravine. But even lifting a foot seemed to upset the poorly-built arrangement. We were stuck.

"Finally," Silva said, standing up. "We can finally-"

"Silva, no!" Duking's cry came too late. As soon as his foot touched the grate, the entire staircase whined in protest. The metallic snapping of metal preluded before the skeleton of sharp, dangerous metal folded downwards like an accordion.

Instinct took over. I spread my arms out to the sides. A burst of powerful energy left me through my extended fingers, striking Wes and Duking right in the chest. When the ground was taken out from under me I somehow remained levitating. Wes and Duking had their hands over their head, eyes squeezed shut. Yet, as if I had allowed them a bit of my power, they remained levitating. Silva pushed off the grate and back into the staircase, where he remained untouched by golden light as it enveloped my comrades in bubbles.

Now the staircase was toppling into the pond of sewage. The bolts keeping it in place from the bottom snapped and fell with it. The trainers on the cement were doused with bright green waste, jolting them in their sleep. We were just high enough to avoid being soaked. It came to an abrupt halt on the waste before giving in under its' own weight. The staircase was once a flimsy structure, but now it was an uneven pile of broken and twisted metal.

"What did you do, Rui?" Silva was sitting on the edge of what used to be the top of the stairs. It took me a while to realize what he was talking about. Duking, Wes and I were hovering. In golden bubbles. That I had somehow made. "And why didn't you do it to me?! C'mon, man! I'm bored as hell over here and you gotta give me the cold shoulder?"

"No doubt about it," Duking called, his voice muffled by the bubble. "Rui's leveled up her Light powers." He kicked his legs. Instead of sitting on the bottom of the bubble like the laws of physics suggested, he instead hovered in the center. He tried swimming but it didn't seem to want to budge.

"Try popping it!" Silva called.

"Do you have a death wish?" I asked.

"Nevermind that," Wes interrupted. "Can you get us down?"

"Um. Yeah, I guess." We started descending. At first I thought it was because I had thought about trying to get down, but it was actually happening because I was looking at the ground. Whenever I looked at something else, say Silva, I started approaching him like a lazy bumblebee. The others attempted the same but I was in full control of it.

The bubbles popped as soon as we touched ground. Duking and I had a hard time landing on our feet, but Wes had already mastered the technique. Silva started waving at us.

"Think you can get me down there, oh mighty bubble lord?" I looked at my hands front of back. Maybe if I just pointed at said bubble-

A surge of golden energy flowed from my torso and out through my fingers, hitting Silva right in the chest. The golden bubble wrapped around him, thin as saran wrap yet strong enough to lodge itself in the tiny archway to the next level and slip out, sending the young boy spinning inside. He seemed to be out of control of him flipping, but the lad was laughing like a child.

Turns out I didn't need to say bubble.

"Awesome!" Silva called. He was still spinning when the bubble hit the ground and popped, dropping him like a fish on a pier. He held two thumbs up in the air, eyes still whirling. "Better than any ride I've ever been on."

"If it wasn't for you, we wouldn't need the bubbles," Duking muttered, kicking him in the shoulder. "Get up. You're not here to lay around."

"You'll need to keep that in mind next time we're in trouble," Wes said in a low voice, probably so Silva didn't get so excited about being able to ride in it again. "It could come in handy for keeping enemies in place as well."

"No doubt," I replied. The cement floor we had landed on was cracked from the fall. Luckily the four trainers Duking had knocked unconscious had been out of the way, or else we would've gotten in some real trouble. As we passed them and across the room where the only exit was placed, the smell of gasoline started to fill the air. My first thought was that the sewage contained it, but when we went through the archway and into the other room, we saw that a train on the other side had been filled up in a hurry and still dripped from one of the many tanks. Though soaked, they looked fully operable.

The train looked like it could go either right or left. The portal to the right read EXIT in large red letters on a sign above the track. The one on the left read LAB. As we boarded, Wes helping me once again, I took a gander at the inside. It was a segmented vehicle. Each end piece was a small control room large enough for maybe five people. The center segment was filled with empty and beat up cages. Yep, this is where they hauled off Shadow Pokemon. The though of cramming pokemon in those cages made my stomach twist in pity. What poor creatures…

"To the lab then," Wes said, pressing a few buttons on the side of the train that faced left. "I can only imagine what we're going to find there." I could. Serenity. It was only a matter of time before I saw her again and had to purify her. But how? With this blade? The blade that had nearly shattered when I tried last time? Maybe I had to get stronger. That's it. If there was any chance of saving her, it was to get better. Make this blade stronger. There was no other option.

The train came to life, sputtering and coughing like an old man. It jerked forward then started picking up pace until we were under the portal and into the tunnel, which brightened with several dusty, broken, or flickering bulbs. The front of the train had both headlights functional but of different brilliance.

There was little time to make for idle conversation. The train slowed just as soon as it had made it to max speed. Before too long, the tunnel opened and we found ourselves back in a room that resembled the one left behind. This one had an exit also labeled LAB. We stepped onto the platform.

"There you are." Lady Venus stepped out into the open. Behind her a group of ten or more thugs dressed in black power ranger costumes emerged in an orderly fashion. When Lady Venus came to a stop in front of us, her men saluted and held still, soldiers ready for combat. We stepped back, ready to board the train, but others had snuck behind us and blocked the way. "Good to see the famous intruders back to meddle some more."

"You better step back before I cut you down," I threatened, adjusting my grip on my sword.

"As if you can," she taunted. "We don't need to talk much further. I'm going to need you to hand over the sword and come with us, dear."

"Me." She didn't want Wes this time? I know that having the Light as a prisoner would come in handy, by why not capture her sweetheart as well?

"Yes, you. We won't be needing the others." She held her hand out. "Now be a good little girl and do as I say." I narrowed my eyes dangerously.

"Make me." The look on her face turned bored.

"Oh. It has to be that way, then?" She waved her hand towards the train. As if rehearsed, the minions behind Wes, Duking, and Silva lurched forward and secured a grip around them. It took only one for Wes and Silva, but four for Duking. After a moment of stuggle, it became clear that we weren't going anywhere soon. All of them had their wrists bound by strong ropes and heavy knots. I started to turn back to them, but I heard a gun cock in Venus' direction. She had a pistol aimed between my eyes. "You may be able to change our pokemon, but you can't attack us. Good thing guns are still around. Makes it more interesting when situations like this happen." I faced her.

"Fight like a man," I snapped.

"We're not men." She stepped forward. "What does that make you? The referee? I don't think so." She jerked her hand out again. "The sword, if you will."

"Don't give them shit!" Duking shouted.

"Quiet!" Venus hissed. "You are in the presence of royalty! You will speak when spoken to!" She lowered the barrel and shot at his feet. He jumped out of the way just in time before his leg was punctured.

"Stop," I hissed, standing between me and them.

"Only you can make this stop, godchild." Godchild? "The sword, or their lives." The men behind me shifted. Each of them pulled out a knife the size of my hand and pressed it to their hostage's throat. The three of them had to lift their chins and lean backwards to avoid being cut. Silva made the slightest movement of struggle and was sliced slightly. A bead of blood ran down his throat.

"Hold on, please." Panic started to set in. "I'll go with you, but I keep the sword on me. IT's not like I can harm any of you anyway."

"Don't reason with them!" Wes shouted. "Don't worry about us!"

"You keep your mouth shut," Lady Venus snapped, aiming the pistol at him. "Out of all of the people here, you are easily the worst! Betraying me for some kid! There's a good chance she doesn't have the experience I do with men!"

"I keep the sword on me," I continued, "you set them free."

"How about you give me the sword and come with me, or I kill all of them?"

"We're negotiating. If you give me a moment-" She shot at Wes, cutting open his cheek as it grazed past. My heart nearly burst from fear I held my hands up in the air, the sword in them. "Fuck if I care!" I threw it at her. The golden blade shimmered before clattering to the floor, stopping at Venus' feet colored metallic silver.

"I said don't worry about me!" Wes shouted. "I don't care! Don't go with them!" I didn't have the heart to look back at him. As Lady Venus picked up the sword, she looked at it front and back, a smile creeping up her lips.

"Good girl, keeping your honey safe." She pointed my blade at me. "Get her." I didn't even try to resist when two burly minions grabbed me by the arms and pinioned them behind my back. They pushed me right in front of Venus, who leaned down to sneer in my face. "How's it feel to be the helpless one now?"

"I did my part," I reasoned. "Now, keep yours."

"You don't know how this goes, do you?" She turned to the men that kept my friends captive. "Get them on the train! I have no need for them anymore."

"Don't take her!" I heard Wes shout. The panic in his voice was growing. "I'm the one who has the snag sleeve! Take me instead of her!" The sound of struggle was behind me. I looked back and saw that Wes was being held back by two more men, each of which was struggling to keep him in place. Silva and Duking watching with sorrowful eyes.

"Get them out of my sight." The men pushed the three of them on the train. Only Wes was unwilling to comply. It took a couple seconds and a lot of struggling, but finally, all of them had been boarded. Venus' men stuck a crowbar in both doors of the train so it wouldn't open. I could hear my friends trying to open them from the inside, still bound at their wrists. "Get the train going, I want them to have a running start."

"What-" As one of her minions pressed buttons on a keypad, setting the train into motion, Venus pulled a match from her dress and lit it. "NO!" I kicked at her but my captors were stronger. They pulled me away and slammed me into the cold cement, where I felt them bounding my wrists with handcuffs. "DON'T!" I shouted at her from my awkward angle on the floor. "I'LL DO ANYTHING! DON'T KILL THEM!" The train set in motion and took off down the tracks, but they were still trapped inside.

Lady Venus dropped the match onto the tracks, which caught on fire before launching towards the tunnel, where they illuminated the darkness. I heard the sound of metal clashing and the engine whining before stray debris struck me in the temple and I fell unconscious.

Rui Used Bubble!

Rui's Team Has Been Protected!

Venus Used Ember!

It's Super Effective!

Saving Game…

Game Saved!