Chapter 29: Trapped

"Lloyd?"

"Hey Lloyd, say something so we can find you!"

Isaac and Regal got no response. The whole cave was eerily silent.

"Why isn't he saying anything Regal?"

"Like I know! Lets just look around, last we saw him he wasn't far from the entrance."

Isaac and Regal walked cautiously down the halls of echo cavern. The whole place felt different somehow, but neither Isaac nor Regal could figure out why.

"Look, over here Regal!" Isaac waved him over to a certain spot by the wall. When Regal got there, Isaac pointed out a large scorch mark in the wall. "Lloyd must have fought those psychic guys here!"

"Well, where is he now?"

Isaac just shrugged. "He couldn't have gone far, lets look around for him."

They both heard a crash echo through the cave.

"What was that?!" Asked Regal, startled by the noise.

"Hello?!" Called Isaac, hoping that it was Lloyd. "Come on Lloyd, this isn't funny!"

Another loud crash, this time closer. It sounded like something was smashing up the inside of the cave. They turned towards the sound.

"I don't think that's Lloyd making that noise Isaac."

Isaac rolled his eyes. "Gee, you really think so Re..." Isaac tried to say.

But suddenly, the wall behind them exploded out, showering them both with large chunks of rock and filled the whole room with dust. Neither of them could see what came through the wall, and both of them began to panic.

Something came straight for Isaac, he couldn't see what it was but he knew it was dangerous, so he dived away before whatever was attacking them got close.

Regal, unfortunately, lacked the same amount of reflexes as Isaac, and could do nothing but wait for the attack to hit him.

Isaac aimed at Regal and fired a bubble attack right at him. Without a second to spare the bubble hit Regal, sending him flying across the room, while a black figure flew right by the spot where Regal once was.

Regal got up off the ground, only slightly dazed by Isaacs attack. "Thank you Isaac!"

"Don't mention it."

The dust began to settle, Isaac and Regal finally saw who they were fighting.

The pokemon was very strange, like none either had ever seen before. It was at least twice the height of Isaac, with a long tail and long ears, and its entire body was covered in a black smoke, almost as if it burning up in a dark flame.

They saw that the strange pokemon wasn't moving from the wall, it just stood there moving back and forth. Both Isaac and Regal slowly walked to the side so they could see what the dark pokemon was doing. From what both could tell, it had its entire right hand stuck in the wall, it must have done that when it missed Regal.

Good thing Isaac got me away from him, if it has enough strength to punch through the wall like that I could only imagine what would have happened to me! Thought Regal.

"Wait a second!" Said Isaac. "This looks a lot like that pokemon Lloyd evolved into!"

"Wait, what?" Regal was rather confused about how Lloyd evolved into such a large pokemon when he was half its size last time he saw Lloyd.

"Awhile ago, before Lloyd and Rita went to Oasis Island, Lloyd evolved into a pokemon called Raichu. It was the same size, and had the same ears and tail, but Lloyd was mostly orange."

The beastly pokemon turned to them, and stared at them with its blood red eyes. "Oh, you two have no idea do you?" He pulled his arm right out of the wall, sending debris flying in all directions. "Some friend Lloyd is, keeping such a big secret from all his friends."

"What are you talking about? How do you know Lloyd?"

"Oh, I know Lloyd very well, we're like brothers him in I. Very close indeed!" The dark pokemon laughed. "It's a pleasure to meet you both."

Unexpectedly, the pokemon gave a slight bow.

Isaac and Regal didn't lower their guard for even a second, thinking this pokemon was trying to trick them into giving it the perfect opportunity to attack.

"My name is Shadow. Not that it matters, since you're both going to die very soon..." Shadow laughed, and slowly walked towards Isaac and Regal. They both backed away just as slowly, but it wasn't long till they had to stop, as they just bumped up against what they now realized was a dead end. They had no way to escape from this new threat.

Isaac managed to remain fairly calm, but he saw Regal was shaking like mad, his eyes wide with fear. "Don't worry." Isaac began. "It's gonna be..."

Suddenly, Regal shot out a white thread from his mouth. A sticky string shot that was one of the bug pokemons most well know attacks. The string shot hit Shadow right in his glowing red eyes, blinding him. Isaac couldn't tell if Regal meant to do that, but he was glad he did.

"Oh, that always happens when I get startled..."

"It's a good thing too! Now come on, lets get out of here!"

While Shadow desperately tried to clean the gunk of his face, Isaac and Regal both bolted passed him towards the hallway that led out of Echo Caves.

"Not so fast! You're not getting away from me!" Cried Shadow. Just before Isaac and Regal reached the tunnel towards freedom, Shadow unleashed an enormous thunder bolt, which barely missed both of them and struck the ceiling above their destination.

Isaac and Regal stopped, barely avoiding the small cave in that would have crushed them both, and thanks to that cave in, had lost their quickest route out.

They turned towards the only other hallway, but Shadow had managed to clear out his eyes enough to see that they were trying to escape, and fired another thunderbolt at the second tunnel before either could even start running towards it.

Both exits were now sealed and Isaac and Regal were trapped in the tight spaced room with Shadow.

The whole room was now pitch black, the only thing that illuminated the room was the occasional spark of electricity escaping Shadow, harmlessly hitting the floor.

"I guess I underestimated you both." Said Shadow. "Nobodies ever gotten so close to escaping before. Kudos to you both." Shadow mockingly applauded them both as he walked towards them. "Its just to bad it has to end here."

Shadow suddenly leapt forward, right at Isaac. His arm suddenly glowed bright with electricity, Shadow was about to use a super powered version of thunder punch. Isaac got ready to defend the blow, his wings raised in front of his face, but he knew it was pointless to do so.

"Now die!" Yelled Shadow.

Isaac closed his eyes and waiting for the attack to hit.

But suddenly, Regal leapt towards Shadow with an un characteristic level of courage. He lowered his head and crashed into the unsuspecting Shadow, knocking him out of the air.

Shadow spun in mid-air and swung his electric charged fist at Regal, hitting him square in the face. Both Regal and Shadow crashed, each hitting the walls at each end of the cavern.

"Regal!" Cried Isaac, running over to the fallen Caterpie. "Are you hurt?"

Regal just moaned.

"Come on, you gotta get up!" Isaac tried to gently shake Regal awake, but he didn't move a muscle. "Regal, come on, I need your help!"

Isaac looked over his shoulder, still shaking Regal to wake him. He saw Shadow slowly get up off the ground from where he fell, it wouldn't be long before Shadow would attack again.

I have to think of something... Quickly. Isaac looked around the room, he couldn't see much because of the darkness.

Shadow was now standing, and looking right at Isaac. "You're really starting to make me angry!" Yelled Shadow. Large sparks flew off his body, flying in every direction, the whole room smelled like the air after of huge thunderstorm.

Shadow leapt forward and shot at Isaac like a torpedo, barely missing Isaac who managed to duck underneath. Shadow punched the wall with so much force that the entire room vibrated, causing dirt to fall from the ceiling.

Before Isaac could get up, Shadow slammed a fist down where Isaacs head was. Isaac once again barely managed to avoid the attack, rolling to side. The room once again vibrated from the blow, even more dirt rained down.

After missing twice, Shadow was filled with rage. "This ends here!" Shadow stood in the middle of the cavern and began to charge what Isaac figured was going to be a devastating attack. Isaac knew this electric attack would probably kill him, so he prepared himself to jump, hoping he could leap out of the way of the attack. He stood there, body tense, waiting for the right moment.

With a yell as loud as the thunder he unleashed, Shadow fired a beam of electricity at Isaac. The room filled with so much light that neither Isaac nor Shadow could see anything.

Before Shadow could look and see if he had hit his target, the cave began fill with heavy rocks, the ceiling was caving in on all three of them thanks to Shadows deadly thunder. Soon what used to be a dark, sealed off section of Echo Cavern became nothing but dirt, dust and rocks.

---

Rita and Sakura continued to battle, both looked extremely exhausted, but neither looked ready to give in.

Both had visible damage done to each other. Rita had a large hole burned in the leaf on her head, which would take weeks to heal, while Sakura was covered in small cuts caused by Ritas razor leaf, the worst was on her leg which slowed Sakura down quite a bit.

Just before they attacked once again, both heard a loud rumble and looked to their left, towards the sound.

"What was that?" Asked Rita.

"It came from around the academy, sounds like one of the caves collapsed."

"What?! No! But all my friends are in their!" Rita started to run out, but Sakura jumped ahead and stopped her.

"What about our fight?"

Rita just shoved her out of the way and ran right by. "We'll finish later!" She yelled back as she ran.

Sakura shook her head and ran after Rita.

---

"Everyone get inside and search the cave, their might be people hurt in there!" Edward, the old Nidoking who ran the academy, stood outside the cave issuing orders to a large group of pokemon.

Just as Rita and Sakura arrived, everyone had gone in.

Edward looked in their direction. "Sakura!" He yelled. "Thank goodness you're safe! I thought you had gone with them or something!"

"No Sir, I was with this girl, doing... something else." Said Sakura, not mentioning the fight. Rita figured that their battle was against one of the academys rules or something. "What happened?" Sakura finally asked.

"We don't know yet, all we know is that one of the caves have collapsed. One of the students, came out, but the team we sent to rescue him didn't, and not long ago there was a cave in. We don't know if those Brotherhood members are ok or not, so I've sent in whatever teachers we're free to search the place."

After Edward finished explaining the situation, Rita ran inside without a word or second glance.

"Wait!" Yelled Edward. "You can't go in there!" But it was too late, Rita was gone.

Sakura suddenly ran inside as well.

"Sakura, stop!" But, like Rita, Sakura was already long gone and inside Echo Cavern."

Edward sighed. "Why does nobody listen to me anymore? Kids these days..."

---

Sakura found Rita, who had stopped in front of a split path. She looked frantically between the two, obviously not knowing the correct path.

"Hey, wait." Began Sakura. "You can't just run through here without knowing where you're going, you'll just get lost."

"I don't care." Said Rita, not even looking at Sakura. "My friends might be in trouble right now and I have to help!"

Sakura saw no point in arguing. "That's fine, but at least let me lead the way."

Rita turned to face Sakura. "Why would you help me? Why don't you just go back to the academy or something?"

"Because I don't want to put other pokemon at risk because of our silly little fight!"

Rita suddenly looked thoughtful, what Sakura just said definitely had impact. "You're right... I'm sorry. Please, help me get to them, help me get them out in one piece."

Sakura was surprised that Rita gave up so quickly, before Rita would fight to the death her right to argue everything with that came out of Sakuras mouth. "Ah... All right then."

Sakura stepped ahead of Rita. She looked down both paths, and smelled the air. "Left... Yeah, definitely left."

"How can you tell?"

"Cave ins make the air smell thick and give it a very distinct earthy scent. It shouldn't be hard to find where the cave in happened, the smell will get stronger as we get closer."

"You can smell the cave in?" Asked Rita, surprised.

"Vulpix are one of the many species pokemon with above average senses, not nearly as good as say a growlithe or arcanine, but still better then most pokemon. Now come on, lets hurry."

"Right, and... Sakura?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks a lot for doing this..."

Once again, Ritas words surprised Sakura, she stared at Rita with her mouth slightly open. "Umm, yeah, its no problem."

Wow, Ritas changed herself quite a bit, I barely even recognize her anymore.

Both Sakura and Rita ran down the hall, towards the cave in, hoping to get their in time to rescue Lloyd, Isaac and Regal.