Chapter Eleven
Dark Caves and Dangerous Opponents

Previously:
Before Tony could move, the orange haired boy stepped forwards, " Uncle, I'd like to fight that boy!" He said, pointing at Tony. Lt. Surge looked thoughtful, "Chad M'boy, ya know what? If he can beat you, I'll give him my badge as well."

Tony prepped himself for the unexpected challenge, but smirked at the opportunity anyways. He grabbed his pokeball and flung it into the air, and his Meowth was released, hissing.

Chad smirked as well, before the pale Eevee leapt out, hissing as well. Both pokemon stood across from each other, glaring their own personal death glares at each other, waiting for the first move. Chad raised his hand, ready to say the first words, when a sudden explosion rocked the gym. The electricity faltered and turned back on, and Tony was knocked off his feet.

"Tony! Lloyd's outside, let's check it out!" Johnny said, as he turned, and rushed outside. Tony stood up quickly, and stole on last glance at Chad, before Turning and following after his friend, the Meowth at his heels.

Chad stood silently, before growling and starting to run forwards. Lt. Surge suddenly grabbed him and pulled him back.

"Grr! Uncle! Let me Go!" Chad Yelled, as he strained against his uncles powerful arms.

"Not until you explain right now why you despise that young man so much?" Lt. surge said sternly.

Chad suddenly stopped struggling. He stood with his head down, before he quickly jerked free of his uncle's grip and walked to his room, the door slamming behind him.

Tony watched as the huge green creature wiggled through the sky in amazement. The creature resembled a large snake and it looked back at the city before flying on. When Tony finally tore his gaze from the giant serpent to the ground, he was surprised to half a dozen people racing through the town. They were dressed in red uniforms with a strange symbol on them. A dark red jeep suddenly drove directly in front of them, followed by a pack of a black dog-like pokemon of a breed Tony had never seen before. The group passed in front of them and Tony shook his head.

Johnny stood next to Tony with his arms crossed, while Lloyd stood on Tony's other side, his arms at his sides and his mouth wide open.

"What in god's name was that?" Tony asked.

Before Tony could get an answer, Johnny was suddenly pointing over in the direction the red-dressed fellows were running.

A man was running after the group in a comical fashion. He had his hand on his pants to keep them from falling down, as they were obviously too big. He wore a similar outfit to the other red dressed members, but his dark red vest was wide open, exposing his rather robust belly. He stopped in front of our heroes and put his hands on his knees, panting loudly, sweat dripping from his short brown hair.

"Uh…are you ok?" Lloyd asked.

The man suddenly opened his eyes, and peered at Tony, Lloyd and Johnny. He straightened up quickly as to try and cover up his previous weakness.

"Don't talk to me!" The man yelled, a little bit to loudly, as though he wanted to have people hear him, "I'm a Team Magma Admin! Your not worthy to talk to me!"

"Huh?" Johnny asked and the man shifted his glare to him.

"I'm a Team Magma Admin! I have power!" The man yelled again, pointing a large hand at Johnny.

"Huh?" Johnny asked again.

The mans eyebrow twitched in frustration, and he Jerked upright again, "Arg! Your stupid!"

"Hey! Those be fighting words!" Johnny growled, as the Man wiped sweat from his forehead.

"Shut up talking to me!" The large man shouted, grabbing a pokeball from his vest and flinging it into the air. Unfortunately, he lost his balance from the throw and tumbled to the ground. The newly emerged Cyndaquil squealed in alarm and rushed to his master's aid, trying to lift him up from the ground, but to no prevail.

Johnny laughed loudly at the mans screw up and one of the other red suited fellows shouted from ahead, "Frank! Get your Fatass over here! Now Damnit!"

The man, Frank, Snapped his eyes toward the guy who yelled, and got up, brushing off his pants. He recalled the Cyndaquil and gave our heroes a death glare, Before Trotting off to his comrades.

Tony stood Flabbergasted as Johnny was silently snickering. Tony suddenly turned towards Lloyd, "What happened to your eye?" Tony asked, pointing at the black eye Lloyd had somehow received.

After they rested up, our heroes decided they would head back to cerulean, to inspect the bushes they didn't cut. When the reached cerulean, after a uneventful trip, Lloyd said he was gonna go to the bike shop. When he returned to Johnny and Tony, he was carrying a collapsible bike.

"What the hell?" Johnny asked and Tony pointed an accusing finger, "How did you get enough money for that? Are a jewel Thief? Or some kind of millionaire?"

"What? No. I talked to the chairmen of the Pokemon fan club, and in exchange for showing him my Pikachu, he gave me this bike vouch." Lloyd said proudly, "Neat, huh?"

"…"

"…"

"Anyways," Lloyd continued, "I saw a funky tunnel down in vermillion and now that I have my bike, I'm gonna go check it out."

Lloyd set up the bike and got on it, "Wait here for me, ill be back soon enough." He said before speeding away back towards Vermillion on his bike.

Looking at each other, Johnny and Tony shrugged and proceeded down the trail east of Cerulean. They traveled through many trainers, Johnny and Tony both taking turns, before they finally emerged to a patch of grass next to a river. As they rounded they corner, they found a pokemon center nestled in the mountains before a cave.

They rented a room at the center and stayed in for the night. When Tony awoke in the morning, he found himself listening to pouring rain. Sitting up, he rubbed his eyes and got dressed, moving out into the lobby. He found Johnny already at the table, eating breakfast, and dropped himself across from him. Johnny glanced up and was about to say something when the front doors swung open.

Rain flew in and a wet, sodden figure walked into the room, looked around and spotted them. As he trudged towards them, water squishing at every step, he pulled down his hood to reveal Lloyd, who sat down with a wet "plop" next to them.

"Lloyd?"

"Where's your bike?" Johnny asked as Lloyd slowly turned to look at him.

"Well…I was just riding towards here when a flock of Spearows attacked me! Pikachu had to jump up and create a big electric blast using the storm to save us! But when he did that I lost control of the Bike and jumped off of it. It skidded into the River, so I lost it…On the Brightside I did find this HM, Flash, so now we can go into the cave up ahead without being lost!" Lloyd explained rather breathlessly.

"Um…sure…but you should get some new, preferably dry, cloths on first." Tony said, pointing at the Nurse, who was glaring angrily and Lloyd and his trail of water.

"Oh…Heh." Lloyd said, rubbing the back of his head.

The storm was still going strong when they left the center, and they wasted no time entering the dark abyss of the Rock Tunnel.

The dank smell of the cave water was immediately there, and the darkness closed around them. Tony jumped at the sudden loud moan, but calmed down when he realized it was Lloyd.

"I…Hate…Caves…" Lloyd said angrily, "Why a cave? Why?" Lloyd whined, as he released his Charmander, the tail flame temporarily blinding Tony, who covered his eyes.

"Stop complaining…" Johnny muttered, arms crossed.

The bright flame seemed to absorb the darkness around them, and dust fell from the ceiling around them. A Zubat was up in the corner, and it fluttered away angrily when the light cam forth. The flame seemed like nothing more than a candle because of the darkness around them. Growling, Lloyd recalled the Charmander, bathing them in darkness, before his Pikachu suddenly burst in white light.

The light actually made the narrow tunnel they were in seem like a lit hallway, and Lloyd congratulated his Pikachu, which jumped on his head. Following the Hallway, our heroes made small talk, while Pikachu few into a nap. The trip was surprisingly uneventful, and they seemed to have been walking for hours.

"I heard giant, huge, man-eating Onix Live down here…" Johnny whispered behind them, and Lloyd looked back at him.

"Shut up."

"I heard they have huge steel bodies, and Spikes on their sides, and big flat teeth too!" Johnny said louder.

"Shut up!"

"Really? I heard of a Onix Evolution described like that too!" Tony said as well, turning to glance back at Lloyd and Johnny.

"Will you both shut up! Onix Doesn't Evolve and they don't eat People!" Lloyd yelled, huffing loudly, and his Pikachu leapt up in fright, almost falling off his head.

Suddenly the silence was broken by a loud roar heard from deep with the cave, shaking a rock loose from around them, before slowly quieting down, an echo still left behind.

Lloyd shivered Visibly and they kept walking, at a slightly faster pace. The few trainers they found down in the Caves weren't very much of a challenge, leaving little more than a small cut on their significantly stronger pokemon. They spotted a light up ahead, and Lloyd jumped in the air, causing a flock of Zubat to fly past them, knocking Tony's hat off his head.

The open air had never felt so good, even though the rain was still pouring, perhaps even harder then before. Tony and Co. decided that they'd release all of their pokemon, give them some fresh air too. Tony watched through the rain as his Pidgey flew around Johnny's Ivysaurs bulb, While Lloyd's Pikachu was arguing with Johnny's Paras on who gets the largest Apple they had found. Tony's Butterfree was fluttering over Lloyd's Mankey, holding a apple just out of its reach. The Mankey was outraged, and was trying furiously to chop the butterfly, to no avail. Lloyd's Charmander was hiding itself under a tree, careful to keep its tail safe, while Magikarp lay next to it.

Johnny's Raticate was chasing its own tail in circles, before suddenly growling and tackling Tony's Meowth, who was cleaning herself on Wartortle shell. Despite the rain, the soothing scene put Tony, Johnny, and Lloyd into a nap, and they snoozed peacefully.

A huge, earsplitting roar awoke Tony suddenly. His pokemon rushed over towards him and he could see Johnny and Lloyd herding their own pokemon to them as well. Tony was covered with dirt, and there was a huge smoking crater a little of ways next to him, where lightning had struck. He quickly recalled all of his pokemon, and ran towards Lavender town, with Johnny and Lloyd at his heels. Soaked to the bone, Tony swore he could hear the loud cry of a bird as he ran into town.

The Town was solemn, only more so with the torrent of rain pouring down, and all three of them entered the Pokecenter.

"What the hell was that?" Johnny asked, as he shook himself off.

"I dunno, I was sleeping." Lloyd replied.

"Did you guys hear that sound as we ran? It sounded like a "caw" or something like that." Tony asked, rubbing his hands through his hair.

Johnny and Lloyd looked at each other for a second, then back at Tony, "What? I think you must've been listening to the rain." Lloyd said, as Johnny walked up to the nurse, and rented their rooms.

After they settled in, Tony had walked into the bathroom, and was surprised to find a large cut on his forehead where a rock must've flew into his head. Surprised at not noticing earlier, he quickly wrapped it up with bandages, before replacing his hat back on his head. AS he left the bathroom, Johnny and Lloyd walked in.

"Hey, so, whats on the agenda?" Johnny asked, plopping down on the bed.

"I dunno…" Tony responded, as Lloyd spoke up, "Well me and Johnny were talking, we're gonna go see Mr. Fuji."

"Yeah, I heard he's an expert on Pokemon, you in?" Johnny agreed, but frowned as Tony shook his head, "No, I'm gonna stay here, ill meet you guys when we get bored of this town."

"Your loss." Lloyd said simply, as he and Johnny left the room.

Tony sighed and sat down on the bed, releasing his Meowth. She jumped up on his chest as he started to search through it. The Meowth circled once or twice before curling up on Tony's belly. Tony continued to search, listening on every Bird-type pokemon he had encountered so far, hoping to hear anything resembling what he witnessed earlier. After around an hour of searching, Tony wearily recalled Meowth and got up. Getting dressed he entered the hall and began to leave, only to bump into Johnny and Lloyd.

"Oh, hey, how was Fuji?" Tony asked, and Johnny shook his head, "Sucked."

"It wasn't all bad, he's just mad because Fuji didn't want to talk about any fighting tips." Lloyd explained and Johnny glared at him, "Can it assface, that old man was bogus. Anyways, we're going down to the river to train, you coming?"

Once again Tony shook his head, "Sorry, I'm checking out the Pokemon tower, catch ya later." With that, Tony left Johnny and Lloyd to argue about what they should do next.

Tony approached the large Looming Tower, and shrugged, entering in nonchalantly. There was a few people mourning over lost pokemon, and Tony walked quietly after them to the next floor. When he opened up the double doors at the end of the stairs, he was surprised to find it all misty and Smokey. He coughed slightly, and took a few steps forwards before a shadow suddenly appeared in front of him. It emerged from the fog and took form of someone Tony knew.

"You? Didn't you get enough on the S.S Anne?" Tony asked Gary, who smirked, shaking his head, "Don't you wanna just skip the talk and get right to the battling? You know its gonna end up that way."

"Is that why you're stalking me? In hopes you'll beat me eventually? Man, Gary that's low, even for you." Tony sighed shaking his head.

"Just shut up and battle me!" Gary said, tossing a pokeball out.

"Gladly." Tony responded, his own pokeball bursting open only seconds after Gary's.

Gary's Pokeball burst open to reveal his Pidgeotto, while Tony's Magikarp flailed into the match.

"Magikarp huh?" Gary smirked, "Weak."

The Pidgeotto swooped in and nailed the fish sending it crashing through a tombstone, dust and chunks of Stone everywhere. Tony quickly recalled the already heavily wounded Fish and sent out another pokeball. His Wartortle Appeared and assumed a fighting stance. The Pidgeotto swooped again, but the Wartortle moved into its shell dodging the bird easily, before emerging facing the bird, hitting it with a blast of water.

The bird shook itself before flapping its wings, sending a gust of wind directly at The Wartortle, sending it spiraling into the air. The Wartortle spun through the air, before landing delicately on a tombstone. The turtle smirked, before the tombstone suddenly cracked, sending the turtle rolling to the ground in a clumsy display. The opposing bird cawed in a way similar to laughter, before an angry turtle unleashed a Critical Mega kick into the bird's stomach.

The bird wheezed, and fell over, Gary sent out his next Pokemon, who filled the room up enormously. The Gyarados Roared loudly, sending more dust falling from the ceiling, and Tony even shivered a little.

"See? I skipped training the pathetic Magikarp and caught one of these right away!" Gary boasted, holding his arms wide.

"You shouldn't be proud of that Gary." Tony said quietly, shielding his eyes from the dust.

"Watch, you'll see why I'm proud." Gary said again, pointing his finger at the Wartortle.

The gyarados roared again, rushing forwards, pummeling the Wartortle into the ground. It began to Bite vigorously, clamping the turtle in its mouth and tossing it into the air, before smacking it into the ground mid-air with its tail. Before the Turtle could even get up, the Dragon smashed into it again, and flung the turtle into the ceiling, And Tony could only watch as his Wartortle was whipped round again and again, until it landed in front of him, bruised and battered. Leaning down to the unconscious turtle, he whispered, "You did great." Before he recalled it.

Tony sent out his Meowth, who glanced questioningly at Tony when it saw its opponent.

The Dragon roared again, and the Meowth hissed in response.

"Whaddaya say Meowth? Want some fish?" Tony asked, but the Meowth was already running forwards toward the large menace.

END
AWESOME
WOOT