Revised: May 11th, 2009
Chapter 3: Storm Canyon
Rita and Lloyd rounded the corner the hospital, both wondering who would be waiting for Lloyd. There awaiting for them was a Raticate.
"Ha! There you are! You're coming with me!" The Raticate was obviously not friendly.
"What do you want?"
Raticate laughed. "I'm here for your friend. My boss is looking for him!"
Rita turned to Lloyd, "I'm guessing you don't know how to fight." He shook his head.
Rita checked out Raticate. "Perhaps you should sit this one out, I'll show you how its done." Right then, Raticate launched itself at Lloyd, mouth open ready for a bite attack, but Rita knocked him away with a tackle.
"Grr, don't get in my way!" Raticate started charging for Rita. Rita was still a bit dazed from the impact of her tackle attack, she wasn't ready. Raticate didn't use his fangs as she had thought, instead it batted her across the face with its whip like tail. Rita was worried she wasn't strong enough to beat the Raticate.
"You're done for now girl!" Raticate opened its mouth to deliver a devastating bite attack. But suddenly Raticate stopped, it looked like someone was using an electric attack on the Raticate.
An electric attack? Could it be...? The person she thought of was indeed the person using the attack. It was Lloyd.
Raticate was weak, so Rita attacked with her Razor Leaf, hitting Raticate in the forehead.
"No... I can't lose!" But he did, after all the abuse, Raticate finally lost consciousness and fell over in a big furry heap.
"We did it!" Rita was so excited, nothing was better then a good battle. "I thought you didn't know how to battle?"
Lloyd didn't look like her knew either. "I'm not sure what happened, I just saw that you were in danger and it just came out like that."
Rita gave him a quick kiss to the cheek, "My hero!" Rita looked to the far end of town. "Lets get out of here incase more come." Lloyd nodded, and they both left together, leaving the Raticate behind.
---
Raticate had no idea how long he was passed out, it was still daylight outside, but was it the same day?
He wasted no time and got out his radio.
"Zar, I... failed." This is gonna get a whole lot worse. Why me?
"I figured you'd screw up again. You're in big trouble. Now tell me, where are they? Gastly is close enough he might just catch them."
Raticate tried to stand, but he was still too hurt from the battle. "They left town, I don't know how long ago though, they knocked me out cold."
"As soon as you're able to leave, I want you to follow them. We can't lose them now or we might not find them again, this clear?"
"Yes master Zar."
---
Location: The Wasteland (on route to Havok City)
Rita still was feeling good from the battle. "I can't believe you're so strong! You took that raticate out with almost one shot!"
"Well you finished him off, plus if he hadn't have been interrupted by your tackle, he could of beat me right then at the beginning. You're the one who's so tough!" Rita laughed.
"I guess you and me make a good team huh?"
Lloyd nodded in agreement. "Yeah. So... not to change the subject, but how long till we get to the city?"
"Gimme a sec I'll check." She pulled out a map fro her bag and looked at it. "It says here we gotta go through a mystery dungeon about half a day from here, once we come out the back of that, Havok City is only an hour or two away. If things go well in the mystery dungeon, it should take exactly a day."
"What's a mystery dungeon?" Rita again forgot about his memory problem.
"Places where wild pokemon live, which are typically enormous mazes. You go in, and its usually impossible to get out unless you get to the end or use certain items. Most of the time the goal of going in is to find treasure, or find a lost pokemon. But in our case, the mystery dungeon is like a big, complicated tunnel that we need to get through, it's the fasted way to Havok City. We could go around, but that would take days and I don't have enough supplies for the trip."
"So basically it's a lair for wild pokemon right? Are they tough?"
"According to my map, no. Its full of weak water and flying types. Flying I would usually be worried about, because I'm a grass type, but thanks to you and your electric attacks, there's no problem. And you and I both can take care of the water types easily enough."
"What if another pokemon comes looking for me though? I doubt that Raticate was the last pokemon hunting me."
"Don't worry, Raticate was no problem for us once we teamed up. I bet if we stick together, we can take on anything!"
Lloyd smiled. "Right... Ok! I think we can do this."
"That's good, because there it is. Storm Canyon is what its called. Here we go!" Rita ran in.
"Hey wait up!"
Rita ran towards the entrance of Storm Canyon, Lloyd running behind to catch up. They were about to go in their first of many mystery dungeons together.
---
Watching Rita and Lloyd from a short distance away was Gastly, who was hiding behind a rock to avoid detection.
"Master Zar, I have tracked them successfully and they just went into Storm Canyon. I'm going to go above the place and meet them on the other side."
"Good, great to have someone who's at least somewhat useful. Raticate is on his way to Havok City, taking the long route around. If you fail as well, our only choice is to take the both of them on as a group. But if you can take them out by yourself, its double pay, as usual."
"I shall try master Zar. On my way now."
---
Location: Storm Canyon, 1st floor.
"Wow its cold in here." Rita was shivering.
"Haven't you been here before?"
"No, I usually take the long route, I try to avoid mystery dungeons unless there's potentially treasure or food inside, or I have no other choice. This place is just cold air, damp, stone walls and wild pokemon."
As the two of them were talking, a pokemon came out of a hallway, a polliwag, it didn't seem to notice them right away.
"Oh great, already got wild pokemon harassing us. You ready Lloyd?"
"Yup, lets do it!"
The Polliwag didn't know what hit it, as soon as it turned around and noticed the two, both unleashed two separate attacks. Polliwag was simultaneously hit with both a razor leaf and thunder shock. It was out for sure.
"Good job Lloyd, lets keep going."
They traveled down the same hallway the polliwag came out of, down it was an empty room. They went straight through the room into another hall to the left. This time the room at the end contained two pokemon, another polliwag and a pidgey.
"You get the Pidgey before it notices us, I can't stand flying types."
Lloyd did so, he charged up and unleashed a thunder shock, directly hitting and fainting the Pidgey. The polliwag heard the thunder shock and noticed the two of them, it immediately fired off a water gun in Lloyd's direction.
"Careful!" Yelled Rita, but it was too late, the power of the water gun swept Lloyd off his feet and he fell a foot back. Rita retaliated with a razor leaf, polliwag was too distracted attacked Lloyd to dodge, so the razor leaf hit it in its side, fainting him as well.
"Watch yourself Lloyd. These guys are tiny, but their water gun attack can still hurt like crazy."
"Got it." Said Lloyd, getting up and brushing himself off. He noticed something. "Hey what's that?" Lloyd pointed at a shiny object located near where polliwag once stood.
"Ooooh, I think that's an orb! Good eye Lloyd!"
"What's an orb?"
"It's a small blue ball that contains a power similar to a pokemon's attacks. It's usually engraved on it what it does. They're pretty useful but you only can use them once, and they are expensive to buy."
Lloyd went over and picked it up, he read the engraving on the side. "Its hard to read, kinda faded."
Rita came over and looked at it, "Hmm, oh wow! That's an escape orb! Not rare, but really useful."
"What's it do?"
"It creates a portal that can be used to instantly escape any Mystery Dungeon, useful in any situation where its impossible to defeat or escape a certain pokemon, and want to avoid a beating. You'd better hold onto that."
"Ok."
"The stairs down are here too. According to the map this place is eight floors, so we only got seven more to go."
"So far so good. Lets go, this is fun!"
---
Location: Storm Canyon, 5th floor
They had no problems for much of the dungeon, no items were found, but they did find a bit of poke that they could spend later in Havok City.
"So how far are we down now Rita?"
"We're on the fifth floor by my count. We're lucky so far, nothing in this place has come even close to defeating us!"
"Don't speak to soon, I think I see some pokemon coming."
Lloyd was right, there were three, two Pidgey that they have seen all over the dungeon so far, and one they haven't seen yet, a mudkip.
"I got them Rita, don't worry!"
Lloyd targeted the Mudkip, powered up, and unleashed his thunder shock. But the Mudkip leapt out of the way, completely avoiding the attack.
Lloyd tried to power up another thunder shock, but it was too late. Mudkip shot a water gun, launching Lloyd across the room. Rita attacked it with razor leaf, Mudkip's double weakness to grass type attacks thanks to the water and ground combination caused the attack to be very effective, easily fainting it.
But the fight wasn't over, the Pidgey were given plenty of time to take flight. Both of them went after Rita, hovering just above, occasionally swooping in for a peak attack.
"Ahh! Lloyd help!"
Lloyd got up and charged another thunder shock, aiming for the two bird pokemon.
"No Lloyd! Not..."
But it was too late, Lloyd released the energy, it not only hit both Pidgeys, but also Rita.
"Ahhhh! Lloyd, watch your aim! Owwww!"
Lloyd stopped his attack, both Pidgeys were defeated. Rita was fine, but not happy.
Rita glared at Lloyd. "Next time, wait until I get away BEFORE you send any electric attacks in my direction."
Lloyd smiled. "Hehe, sorry."
---
Location: Storm Canyon, 7th floor
They now wander the seventh floor, unable to find the last set of stairs, they can't decide how to proceed.
"Should we split up?" Asked Lloyd.
"That's not a good idea. If either of us gets lost, it might be impossible to find each other again."
"So then... now what?"
"Lets just... I don't know... take a break I guess."
Rita opened the bag that she kept the apples she bought in, but when she looked inside, all but one of the apples was gone.
"Oh no! All my apples!" She looked closly at the bag and found a huge rip on the bottom. "A hole got torn in the bag..."
"There's none left?"
Rita pulled out the last remaining apple.
"Just one left that didn't fallout. I guess we gotta split it."
Lloyd shook his head. "Don't worry about it, they're your apples, and I'm not hungry."
"Wow Lloyd, thanks a lot!"
They both sat down in the room, one of the many rooms they have already explored trying to find the stairs. Rita bit into the apple.
"So I guess this means we cant carry any more items with us huh? What about the money?"
Rita swallowed. "I keep it in a separate pouch, its all there." She detached a small pouch from around her waist, and gave it to Lloyd. "Here, count it while we're stopped, I have no idea how much we've collected so far."
Lloyd emptied the pouch on the ground. About two dozen coins spilled out. "How much is each worth?" Rita pointed to a small coin with the letter 'P' engraved on one side. "These are worth 10 poke." Then she pointed to a larger, slightly different looking coin, also engraved with the letter 'P' on one side. "These are worth 100 poke." She took another bite out of the apple.
Lloyd counted each coin. 17... 18... 19 little ones. 1... 2... 3 big ones.
"So how much we got?"
"If my math is correct... four hundred and ninety poke... I think."
Rita took one last bite of the Apple, chewed, swallowed, and threw the core away into a dusty corner of the room. "That should be enough for some more supplies and maybe another bag to replace this one. Hurry up and gather up the money, we should keep going."
Lloyd stood up and began picking up the coins, putting each one in the pouch again. He picked up the last coin, one of the big ones, but dropped it on the ground. It started to roll away.
"Oh no! Get it Lloyd!"
Lloyd chased after it, the coin rolled along towards the far wall and finally fell on a soft patch of dirt.
"Don't worry I got it."
"NO LLOYD! STOP!"
Lloyd stepped forward. Rita got up and made a mad dash towards him. The Lloyd realized the problem. The ground was soft because it wasn't solid ground at all, it was a trap of some kind.
The ground beneath Lloyd disappeared, nothing but a deep pit was below him. Rita tried to grab him before he fell, but it was too late, Lloyd fell down the hole, the darkness below keeping him out of sight.
"Lloyd!"
Thump! Rita heard him land. She was happy to hear the sound so soon, it meant the pit wasn't that deep.
"Are you ok?!"
A moment of silence, then a small moan.
"Uhhhh, I guess so... just fell a little awkwardly. Hey, I think I'm on the last floor! Jump down, you should be fine if you land properly!"
"Ok, coming on down!"
Rita took two steps back, then ran forward and jumped into the hole. A short drop, and she was at the bottom next to Lloyd.
"Pretty lucky huh Rita?"
"Yeah, but next time, lets be a little more careful. I forgot to tell you about traps. Some of the smarter wild pokemon set traps for any intruders, they are usually easy to spot so just don't run off anymore and we'll be fine."
"Ok, lets go, we're almost out."
"Right."
---
"Gastly, have you reached the other end yet?"
"Yes master Zar, I'm waiting to ambush the target right now."
"Good, don't fail me now."
"I wont master Zar, see you with that pokemon soon."
---
Location: Storm Canyon, Basement
Lloyd and Rita finally reached the last floor, the exit already in sight, only a short distance away.
"Whew, finally." Rita was glad to be nearly out, she wasn't used to the moist, cold air that was in this place. "Lets get out of here."
"Hold it right there!" Said an unknown voice.
Rita and Lloyd both called out. "Who's there?" But moments passed, and they got no answer.
"Be careful Lloyd, this guy isn't a wild pokemon, he could be dangerous."
"Why don't we just make a run for it?"
"Without knowing where this guy is? No, lets just wait until he comes out."
The room became silent. Nothing could be heard except the faint breathing of Lloyd and Rita.
Suddenly, a beam of orange light came at Rita, she tried to dodge it but it came to fast.
Rita got up, "That was strange, that didn't hurt at… AHHH!"
Suddenly, beside her was something she hated more then anything, A giant pokemon called Ariados, arched slightly as if preparing to attack. Rita couldn't move from the fear, she hated spider pokemon, she HATED them.
"Ahhhh! Get away! GET AWAY!" Rita violently threw razor leaf after razor leaf in its direction, not aiming at all, she was panicking too much to be able to aim properly. "SOMEBODY HELP! HELP!!!"
The Ariados sounded like it was trying to say something, but it just came out as screeching and slobbering. Yeah I know what you're trying to say, you wanna eat me!
Rita was backed into a corner, she was exhausted and frightened. All she could do was stand against the wall, trembling in fear.
She looked up one last time, but she didn't see the spider. It was gone, instead Lloyd was there, standing over her.
"Rita, what's going on?"
"What? What's going on?"
"You got hit by some orange beam thing, and you started going crazy, every time I got close you freaked out!"
Rita realized what was going on. "I know what's attacking us, it must ghost type pokemon. It must have confused me with one of its attacks."
"Ghost pokemon?"
"They're really strange, really creepy, really scary pokemon. They don't usually attack out in the open, they prefer to be sneaky."
"So how do we beat it?"
"Well, like this... we run like crazy to the exit because we are completely doomed if we stay."
"… Great plan."
With no other choice, they ran as fast as they could to the exit, hoping they could get away in time.
"Hold it right there!"
The ghost pokemon finally revealed himself, he came out of the wall by the exit. It looked like a purple cloud with big white eyes.
Rita recognized it. She whispered in Lloyds ear so the ghost pokemon couldn't hear. "It's a Gastly. Hit it with your electric attack, normal attacks don't work like tackle and stuff. Hurry before it hides again!"
"Seeing you scared like that, it was so fun, so satisfying. You ready to feel it again? Confuse ray is such a fun little move…" Gastly wasted no time. He began to conjure another of his 'confuse rays', but forgot to hide again, it was completely exposed.
Rita and Pikachu attacked first, both using their signature attacks, both direct hits. The incomplete confuse ray backfired from the sudden attack, confusing Gastly instead of either Rita or Lloyd.
"Ehhhh, not good."
"Nighty night ghosty." Rita used razor leaf three times in a row, each struck the already weakened and very confused Gastly.
"Going down…" Gastly stopped floating and fell to the ground. He stayed there, laying on the ground, for a moment, then sank into the ground. It had escaped.
Rita and Lloyd stood there for a moment, absorbing everything that just happened, Lloyd finally broke the silence.
"So... you're afraid of spiders huh?"
"… Shut up."
Rita stomped ahead, Lloyd giggled quietly to himself then ran after her.
"Hey, come on, wait up!"
---
Gastly fled outside of Storm Canyon, still confused from his backfired attack. He pulled out his radio and tuned in Zar's frequency.
"Master Zar, I lost, they got me good."
"Grr! You idiot! You're just as useless as that Raticate! Get your butt over here NOW! They can not reach Havok City!"
"Master?"
"What?"
"I love you!"
Zar hung up immediately.
Gastly groaned, "Wait master it was... Gah! Stupid confuse ray…"
Gastly laid down to rest, he needed as much strength as he could if he was gonna beat those two, even with Zar's help.
---
Location: On route to Havok City
"Listen, if you want to talk about it I'm here, everybody is afraid of something!"
"I told you! Shut up about it!"
"Why? What's wrong?"
Rita turned around and kicked him in the shin. "I don't wanna talk about it!" She continued on, leaving Lloyd hoping up and down holding his leg.
"Come on, don't leave me here!"
Rita turned around. "I won't if you shut up about that!"
"Fine, fine…"
Lloyd ran after her.
---
Havok City was finally in sight. Only another 15 minutes and they could finally rest somewhere, buy some food and go look for the Brotherhood.
"Hold it right there."
"You gotta be kidding me!" Rita and Lloyd yelled at the same time, they knew what was coming,
From around a rock he was hiding behind came yet another pokemon hunting Lloyd, a Charmander this time.
"Look what we got here, two little weaklings on there first real adventure."
"Who are you freaks? Why are you chasing after Lloyd?"
"Lloyd? Oh, you must mean little the little yellow rat! We want him because our boss wants him, he hired us to capture him!"
"Us? Who's us?"
Revealing themselves, the Raticate and Gastly who attacked them before came out of hiding as well, one on each side of Rita and Lloyd, they were surrounded.
Rita was worried. We can't take them all on at once!
"I'm going to beat you extra hard for what you did in Restown!" Yelled the Raticate.
"Me too... making me confused by my own attack, you will pay for that."
"So," said Zar, "You gonna come quietly, or do with have to hurt you and your little girlfriend?"
Eww, girlfriend? "You'll have to beat us to get him, he's not going with you!"
"Ok then, get ready for some pain. Raticate, Gastly, get them!"
"HOLD IT RIGHT THERE!"
A new voice called out from behind Zar, coming from the direction Havok City was in. It was a group of three pokemon coming out of Havok City.
"You three are coming with us, you're wanted by the Brotherhood for multiple crimes, so we're here to arrest you!"
Raticate was panicking. "Master, we gotta get out of here!"
Zar was angry with the sudden interruption, he knew the three of them had to run. "You got away this time, but remember, we will always know where you are, as soon as you let your guard down. You're coming with us eventually, and your little rescuer, she's DEAD!"
Zar, Raticate and Gastly all ran off. The Brotherhood members all ran after them except for one, a Marshtomp, who instead came up to Rita and Lloyd.
"Listen you two, you're gonna have to come with me for questioning."
"That's fine, me and Lloyd were going to the Brotherhood anyways."
Zar, Gastly and Raticate were now gone. Rita and Lloyd followed the pokemon that saved them into the city.
---
Location: Hidden in the Wasteland
"Master Zar, what are we going to do?"
Zar was out of breath from the running, he wasn't used to running so fast so far.
"I'm calling the Boss. Go keep watch you two."
Raticate and Gastly left, both finding locations nearby where they could safely scout around. Zar pulled out his radio.
"Boss, we had them, but the Brotherhood got in our way, and we got Brotherhood members chasing us down."
"It seems you're stuck then, I'm rather disappointed with your progress."
"Please Boss! Send me the stone! I need all the power I can get if I'm going to defeat them!"
"You think me for an IDIOT? No, I am not sending you the stone. But perhaps I can give you something else. Yes…"
"What Boss? What is it?"
"I have created an experimental stone recently. It does the same as a normal stone, but only works for a short while, that way you don't take it and run away on me. I'll have it sent via Spearow immediately."
"Thank you Boss. Thank you for putting so much trust in me, I'm…"
"This is your last chance, fail me again and you're finished. I hope you understand that."
Zar gulped. "Y-y-yes boss."