Chapter 28 – "Shock Waves"
Part 1: An Old Friend
We followed the long route that led to the Lake of Rage, May riding her Ponyta, me riding Tauros, and both of us accompanied by our fire foxes. I really liked having the company. I didn't usually have much human contact during our long travels. Anyway, we reached the lake after several hours of travel, and when we arrived, someone was standing on the beach overlooking the lake – a man with brown hair, a black stetson hat, and he stood next to a Rapidash. "It couldn't be…" I loudly said. "What is it?" May asked. I sped Tauros up and he ran us ahead. As Tauros galloped forward, the man turned around. "Trevor?" I asked. "Hi Joe!" he answered. I was quite taken by surprise! "What are you doing here?" I asked him. He answered, "Well, Rapidash and I are taking a little break from the racing circuit! But I still want to keep him in strong racing shape, so we've been riding all over Johto. Since I was in Mahogany Town, I just had to come see the Lake of Rage!" I said, "Oh, well, it's good to see you guys again! Seen any Gyarados yet?" He answered, "No, actually! That seems a little strange!" Then Fierymane came galloping over, with May on her back. I introduced them, "Trevor, this is my friend, May. May, meet Trevor! He's a Pokemon racer!" Trevor tipped his hat, and said, "It's a pleasure!" May exclaimed, "I LOVE your Rapidash!" and she climbed off Fierymane to go pet Rapidash. He replied, "Thanks! Your Ponyta is looking good, too! She reminds me of Rapidash before I evolved him. Are you planning to evolve your Ponyta?" May looked at him and answered, "No way! I don't ever want Fierymane to evolve! I love her just the way she is!" and she ran back over to Fierymane to give her a big hug. All of a sudden, in the lake, I saw a Gyarados leap out of the water and dive back in. "Hey, I saw one!" I shouted. May and Trevor both looked, as did the fire foxes and fire horses. Another of the large water snakes shot into the air from the water and dove back in! We all watched, and soon, there were a whole bunch of Gyarados leaping in and out of the water. It was such an incredible spectacle to see! "It's a good thing these Gyarados are used to people – otherwise, this could be pretty dangerous" Trevor said. Suddenly, I heard a very faint, high pitched sound. "What is that?" I asked. "What's what?" May asked me. "That sound – it's like a high pitched whistle or something" I said. Trevor said, "You know, I thought I heard something, too. It was very faint." May said, "I think you guys are just hearing things" and she continued to pet Fierymane and Amber. All of a sudden, there was an explosion, and we all fell to the ground. "What was that?" May asked. "I'm not sure" I replied. Suddenly, a Gyarados launched a hyper beam at us, which caused an explosion in the ground nearby. "The Gyarados! They're attacking us!" Trevor shouted. "I guess you were wrong about the Gyarados being friendly!" May said. The other Gyardos kept launching hyper beams at us, and I shouted, "Run!" Amber hopped up on May's back and May galloped off on Fierymane, Trevor jumped up on Rapidash and they galloped off, and I released Tauros from his pokeball, got Flamefox up on my shoulders, and we galloped off on Tauros, accompanied by Firestorm. The Gyarados launched hyper beams at us, which kept exploding in the ground behind us. "Must go faster!" I shouted to Tauros. We all managed to outrun the hyper beams, and then we slowed down as we got closer to Mahogany Town. "Why did those Gyarados attack us?" May asked. "I don't know!" I replied. Trevor said, "I'll bet it had something to do with that sound we heard. They started to act up right after we heard it." "I wonder where that sound came from?" I asked. May said, "I hear it now! A high pitched whistle, right?" I said, "Yeah!" Trevor said, "Quiet, you guys! Let's see if we can hear where it's coming from". We sat there, mounted on our Pokemon, and listened. "Mahogany Town! It's coming from the direction of the town!" May exclaimed. Trevor said, "I say we go check it out!"
We rode our Pokemon into town and then recalled them to their pokeballs, except for May's and my fire foxes. The three of us walked through town with Flamefox, Firestorm, and Amber, but something just didn't seem right. There were a lot of mysterious people hanging around. "Stay close together, guys. I don't like this" Trevor said. I said, "We should look for Officer Jenny." Trevor said, "And tell her what? That some Gyarados started hyper beaming us after we all heard a mysterious high pitched sound that came from here? She'd think we're all nuts!" May asked him, "Then what do you suggest?" He said, "I say we look for the source of that sound, ourselves!" I said, "I don't know. I still think we should leave it to the proper authorities…" May said, "Aw, loosen up a little! Trevor's idea sounds like fun to me!" Trevor said to her, "That's the spirit!" I still felt uncomfortable with the idea.
After walking around town for a while, we stopped in front of a Pokemart. "Listen" I said. The sound was definitely coming from this building! It wasn't as faint as it had been before. It was more pronounced now, and seemed to be coming from a satellite dish on the roof. Trevor, May, Amber, Flamefox, Firestorm, and I entered the mart. We walked around inside and looked around. A man asked, "Can I help you?" Trevor said, "Maybe. There seems to be a high pitched sound coming from the satellite dish on your roof. It's really bothering my ears. I know a little about satellite dish repair – maybe I can look at it." The man's face stiffened, as if he had something to hide. He said, "Uh, it must be a bad connection! Yeah, that's it! A bad connection! Excuse me!" and he hurried off. "Now that was odd!" May said. "Ssshhh! Listen you guys!" Trevor said. The high pitched sound grew slightly louder. We followed the sound, and found ourselves in front of a closed door at the back of the mart. "This is no bad satellite TV connection causing that sound! There's more going on here than we're seeing!" Trevor said to us. I asked, "Yeah, but what can we do?" Trevor looked around, then turned the doorknob. "It's not locked!" he said. "We can't just go barging in there!" May said to him. Trevor said, "Come on, where's your sense of adventure? You were the one who said looking for the source of the sound ourselves sounded fun!" She replied, "That was before it involved breaking and entering!" I said, "May is right! If something is going on, we can't just walk right in there!" He said, "Suit youselves!" and slipped inside the opened door. "Your friend is nuts!" May told me. "I know. But I'm not gonna let him do this himself. I'm following him. Are you in?" I asked her. She looked at me, let out a deep breath, and reluctantly said, "Okay." The 3 of us snuck into a hallway on the other side of the door, accompanied by Flamefox, Amber, and Firestorm. We walked ahead, and the hallway turned left, and ahead was another corridor, lined with Pokemon statues on pedastals. May and I started to follow Trevor when he held out his arm for us to stop. "Wait a minute, guys! Look there, at the statues!" he said. Below each statue was a surveilance camera. "Okay, I guess we can't go any further! Let's go back!" I said, when Trevor went down on his arms and knees, and crawled across the floor, below view of the cameras. I looked at May, shrugged, and we followed suit, accompanied by our fire foxes, who didn't have to duck! "I can't believe we're doing this!" I said, as we crawled. "But why would a little Pokemart like this need so many security cameras in the back room?" May asked. "Something doesn't add up! Hey, I found something!" Trevor exclaimed. On the last statue, there was a large throw switch. "Think it's the main switch for the cameras?" Trevor asked. "No way! They wouldn't make it that obvious!" I answered him. The next thing I knew, Trevor threw the switch. All of the cameras stopped moving. I said, "On the other hand…" Suddenly, a secret passage opened. There was another corridor on the other side. This one was dark. That high pitched sound emanated from the other end of this corridor. May released Fierymane and Trevor released Rapidash. "The light from their manes and tails will help us to see!" May exclaimed. The three of us walked ahead, with our fire foxes and fire horses ever at our sides. When we reached the end of this hallway, there was a door leading to another corridor. "This is ridiculous!" I exclaimed. Trevor walked alongside Rapidash, ahead of us. All of a sudden, a trap door opened under both of them, which they fell into! "Trevor, Rapidash!" I shouted. The trap door closed. They were gone! "May, we have to get out of here!" I shouted to her. "Right!" she said, and began to walk back the way we came, with Amber and Fierymane. Suddenly, I heard May scream, Amber yell "Vullll!" and Ponyta whinny as they fell into another trap door! "May!" I shouted. Now it was pretty dark. I started to run ahead, when I felt myself falling! Flamefox, Firestorm, and I fell down into a pit. I opened my eyes to see 2 Voltorbs! "Oh, no, no no…" I said, as the Voltorbs lit up. The last thing I remember before passing out were the 2 Voltorbs using self-destruct.