Dear Guest who reviewed this on my last chapter:
:You know what your little 'rant' at the beginning reminds me of?
"I have... things. I have a lot of them... but I don't have them all.
"I am... something. ...But then again, I might not be - I might be something
else."
Should I be offended? Maybe. Probably not. I don't get offended that easily. And also, what do I recognize this from? Some trainer I battled and rode the ferris wheel with in Nimbasa who then started talking about their miserable life? Huh.
I don't own Pokemon.
Chapter 11: The Tunnel's Light
We'd been walking for a while now, and I was carrying Electra to prevent any more fighting between her and Elekid. Elekid and Chimchar were walking out in front to light the way.
"How much longer do you think it'll take to get out of here?" I asked Shinji, looking around the tunnel.
"Longer if you don't shut your trap."
"Hm," I crossed my arms. "Well we wouldn't even be in this situation if you had controlled your Elekid."
"If I had controlled Elekid? How about if you had controlled your Shinx?" Shinji turned around to face me.
"Electra was only defending herself, Elekid is the one who made such a big deal out of it!" Shinji narrowed his eyes at me, then took a couple steps forward, getting right in my face.
"What's your deal Troublesome?" My already red face became even redder, and I struggled to reply.
"I, uh... Wha-what do you mean?" He cocked his head, getting even closer while I took a step back.
"Most women either stupidly fall head over heels for me, or avoid me altogether. Why are you so different?" Different. I hated that word. I'd been called that word more often than any other. I didn't want to be different. I would do anything to be just like any other person.
"I... I'm not!" I shakily replied. "Just leave me alone!" Reflexes kicked in, and I pushed him away. Suddenly though, Shinji shoved me up against the tunnel wall, holding my arms in place and not allowing me to move. I struggled, but Shinji was a lot stronger than I anticipated. "Le-let me go!"
Shinji's POV
I stared intently at the girl struggling before me. I needed to find out what her deal was. I didn't like not knowing. I began moving in, never taking my eyes off of her ocean blue ones.
"What are you doing?! Let me go!" She continued to struggle. Troublesome had been stronger than I first thought she'd be, so I had to shift my grip on her arms slightly. I heard her Shinx trying to get at me behind us, but Elekid and Chimchar did their job and prevented it from getting anywhere near me. Our lips were growing closer and closer. "S-stop it..." Her voice was getting quieter. I knew it. She's no different from any other girl. She'll either let me do it out of fear, or out of some sort of crush she has for me. And then I really won't want anything to do with her ever again.
Hikari's POV
I was frozen. I didn't know what to do. All I could do was muster up parts of words, stutter, and stare into the onyx eyes that were boring into my very soul. Finally it hit me. Shinji was going to kiss me. I didn't know why. I just knew that he was going to do it. Please tell me that this is just some sort of Valentine's Day nightmare. Please. What am I supposed to do if this is actually happening? Then, of all times, I fell into a vision.
I saw the silhouette of a man, though I couldn't quite see who it was. He was doing things with me. Battling, helping, even protecting me a few times. The last time I saw him, a single part of his face was lit up. He was smiling, no, grinning at me. That was it. Again I was face to face with Shinji, moving closer and closer to me.
Suddenly I felt his grip on me soften. I acted immediately, kneeing his leg, causing him to have to step backwards. Then, I slapped him.
"What the hell is wrong with you?!" I screamed at him. Shinji slowly brought his hand to his right hand to his right cheek, red from the slap, his hair hiding his eyes from view. He obviously was not expecting that at all. "What made you think that that was okay?!" I then backed away, never taking my eyes off of the man who was a few inches taller than me, and far stronger.
Shinji's POV
I stood there in shock. Did she just... slap me? No one had ever dared to do that to me before, and it stung. Finally I got over the shock, smiling as little as possible.
"You sure are somethin' Troublesome." I guess you really are different from the rest.
Hikari's POV
Again I was frozen. How he had just completely dismissed being slapped like that, I thought he would've been furious. Shinji only walked past me, with barely a smile on his face, even putting his hand on my shoulder as he walked by. His Pokemon followed suit, taking their places out in front. Electra made her way towards me, obviously just as confused and shocked as I was.
"You comin' or what?" I only picked up Electra and ran up behind Shinji, shoving my face into her small black mane, my face still flushed. Half an hour later, no more words said the entire time, we saw daylight.
"Finally!" I suddenly yelled, Electra jumped out of my arms and ran out with me into the snow that thinly covered the ground. Smiling, I stretched my arms out to the sky, bathing in the unusually warm sunlight for this season.
"Having fun?" I turned around and saw Shinji who had returned his Pokemon to their Pokeballs. His face was blank, showing no signs of what had happened earlier. So I decided to pretend that it had never happened as well.
"Yeah, it's nice to get out of that tunnel." My stomach growled just then. "I suppose it's time for lunch then! And after that we'll find our way back to Oreburgh City for my Gym Battle!"
"Shiinx!" I smiled at Electra.
"You have lunch, I'm going to walk around, find out where exactly we even are." With his hands shoved in his pockets, Shinji stalked off into the sparse woods. I released Mazey and somehow managed to start a fire and made chicken noodle soup for the Pokemon and I, for once allowing them to eat human food because of the tunnel inconvenience and cold. Once we were done I returned the Pokemon and waited for Shinji to return. After a while I looked at my iPod to see that it was almost two o'clock.
"I don't have time for this..." I mumbled, getting up and following his tracks in the snow. I really wanted to have my Gym Battle today, I didn't want to wait any longer.
"Shinji!" I called out into the empty woods. The only sound returned was of light wind. "I hope he didn't go too far..." I checked my Pokedex to see if it could tell me where I was.
"No signal." I sighed.
"So at any point in time you can give me information on any Pokemon, but you can't tell me where I am." To my surprise the Pokedex actually continued on.
"Last recorded location: South of Oreburgh City."
"Really?" I yelled at the device. I sighed again before continuing to follow Shinji's prints in the snow. About fifteen feet or so later, the prints suddenly stopped. I looked around to see if Shinji was close by.
"Shinji! Shiiiinjiiiii!" Again, all I heard was the wind. Weird, if his tracks stop here then he should be around somewhere... I looked up into the trees. Nothing. I had been about to head off, but took one last look at the tree closest to where his prints stopped. I narrowed my eyes. Some of the snow on one of the tree branches was displaced. Like, in the shape of a footprint. He must not just train his Pokemon, but himself as well if he's able to climb like that. I began following the trees with prints on them. Eventually, I came to a point. The drop below it was probably around 100 feet. I walked out to the very edge, I could see the entire city of Oreburgh from there!
"Wow. It's beautiful!" I stretched out my arms to the side, standing on my tiptoes and feeling the wind, which was stronger here than other places, run by me and through my long, navy blue hair.
"You ready to head out?" I turned around, slightly surprised, and saw Shinji standing on a large branch on the tree closest to me. He was leaning up against the trunk of it.
"Shinji... Uh, yeah! I want to get to the Gym as fast as possible." Shinji nodded and jumped down with Pokemon like abilities. We found a narrow ledge that led down the cliff and soon enough we were back in Oreburgh. We left the Pokemon Center after making sure our Pokemon were healed.
"Well, thanks for helping me get back here Shinji. Not thanks for everything else."
"Hn. Be up early tomorrow." Shinji had turned around and began walking away.
"Uh, why?" He stopped to turn around.
"You want a battle don't you?"
"Uh... I... Yeah but..."
"Come on, spit it out."
"Why did you change your mind?"
"Hm." Shinji didn't respond, only turning back around and walking away. I decided to leave it be and head to the gym. Once inside I battled and beat the two trainers inside. Roark was waiting for me.
"I see you made it out of the tunnel alright Hikari!"
"Yep! Safe and sound!" Roark nodded.
"Well, welcome to the Oreburgh City Pokemon Gym! As you know, I proudly walk alongside rock type Pokemon! And as the Gym Leader, I need to see your potential as a trainer, along with the toughness of your Pokemon! Now good luck Hikari!" We made our ways to our spots on the field. The ref stated the rules.
"It will be a three on three-"
"Actually I only have two Pokemon." I nervously laughed, rubbing the back of my head.
"Okay, then it will be a two on two battle! No items allowed! Only the challenger may substitute their Pokemon! And begin!"
"Onix!" Roark released a huge snake like Pokemon, and I quickly got out my Pokedex.
"Onix, the rock snake Pokemon. It burrows through the ground at a speed of 50 mph while feeding on large boulders."
"Okay then... Electra, spotlight!" The electric type appeared on the field.
"Challenger gets the first move." Roark told me.
"Electra use Charge and then Spark!" Electra obeyed and soon was running at Onix. I immediately knew that something was wrong. Roark didn't do a thing. Electra hit Onix, who was far larger than she was, but absolutely nothing happened. Electra looked up at the large menacing Pokemon who glared at her, before hurrying back towards me. Roark made that weird clicking sound with his tongue, shaking his head and finger at me.
"Hikari, Hikari, Hikari, I thought that you'd be smarter than this!"
"What do you mean!?"
"Isn't it obvious? Onix is a rock and ground type." I suddenly became very nervous. My eyes widened. How could I be so damn stupid?! My hand went up to my forehead, pushing up my bangs past the pink hair clips I was wearing (not my other yellow ones), while simultaneously wiping away a bead of sweat.
"Onix, use Stealth Rock!" Several glowing rocks came from Onix and towards Electra who flipped out. She was terrified of the rock and ground type Pokemon.
"Electra, calm down, that won't do anything to you!" The rocks dug themselves into the ground around Electra, who refused to step out of the now underground ring of rocks. "Calm down and use Charge again!" Thankfully Electra did as I told, and used the attack to raise her special defense. "Bite!" My Shinx got over her fear of the rocks beneath her, and jumped onto Onix, biting his left side.
"Hang on Electra!"
"Get it off Onix!" Onix began running it's side into the walls and some of the larger boulders on the field. It completely destroyed a large rock that was close to me, some of the pieces hit me, none very big though. Crap. The attack alone barely did anything, and this is hurting her. "Screech Onix!" A light blue beam came from the rock and ground type's mouth, hitting Electra and causing her to lose her grip and fall to the ground.
"Now finish it up with Double Edge!" Onix started glowing silver and gold before ramming into Electra knocking her all the way across the field. I knew even before the dust cleared that she had fainted.
"You did great Electra." I lightly kissed her Pokeball before returning it into my pocket. "Mazey, let's do this!" Mazey appeared on the boulder covered field, quiet as ever. Only to be immediately hurt by the rocks underneath the ground.
"Onix, Screech!"
"Withdraw!" The two attacks canceled each other out, so basically nothing happened. "Now use Razor Leaf!" The grass type attack hit head on. But, I was still worried. Mazey might have had a type advantage over Roark's Pokemon, but Onix had defeated Electra, obtaining almost no damage whatsoever to itself. If his first Pokemon was this strong, how powerful were the rest of his Pokemon?
"Slam!"
"Dodge it!" Mazey hadn't been fast enough and was hit by Onix's attack. "Absorb followed by another Razor Leaf!"
"Rooon!" The huge beast fell to the ground, unconscious after the two attacks.
"Onix, return! You did great big guy... Now Geodude, you're up!" In a flash of blue, a much smaller Pokemon appeared. My Pokedex then explained to me what this new Pokemon was.
"Geodude, the rock Pokemon. At rest, it looks just like a rock. Carelessly stepping on it will make it swing its fists angrily." I remembered when Azumarill had battled Geodude when Shinji had challenged Roark. I knew this Pokemon was powerful, it had defeated another Pokemon when it itself had a huge type disadvantage, so I knew I had to be careful with this one. And besides that, I had a bad feeling about this battle, I mean, Roark had chosen to not even use his most powerful Pokemon.
"Mazey, use Withdraw again!"
"Rollout!"
"Dodge it!" Mazey had been unable to complete her attack.
"Hidden Power!"
"Wig!" Mazey cried when she was hit.
"Rollout!"
"Mazey!" Again she was hit with Geodude's attack, Roark not allowing any time for our own attacks or counters. My only chance would be to use a super effective attack and hopefully end this in one move. "Use Leaf Sphere!" Mazey started to use Withdraw to help build up power for the attack, but was immediately stopped.
"Rollout!" I had to somehow stop Geodude for at least a little while. This would be so much easier if Electra could use Thunder Wave.
"Mazey, jump up and use Tackle as hard as you can on Geodude!" She did as I told, and totally ran Geodude into the ground, giving us a minute or two to figure out what to do next. "Use Leaf Sphere, but forget about using Withdraw!" Mazey concentrated her Absorb, turning it into a yellow orb, then covered it with leaves from Razor Leaf.
"Geodude, get out of there!" Geodude then pried itself out of the ground, just in time to see Leaf Sphere barreling towards it. Roark looked really nervous at this point. If Geodude was hit with that attack, they would be done for. "SEISMIC TOSS!" Roark commanded, in a last ditch effort to counter the attack. Geodude grabbed Leaf Sphere, but was unable to do anything more. Both were pushing up against the other, before Leaf Sphere began pushing Geodude backwards.
"Alright! We're gonna win this for sure Mazey!"
"Tur!"
"I wouldn't be so sure about that Hikari!" Suddenly Geodude gained a burst of strength, pushing Leaf Sphere back. A look of disbelief crossed my face. Then, Geodude was able to completely wrap it's arms around the attack, and jumped up into the air, right above Mazey. Spinning, it fell towards her, finally hitting and driving her into the ground with unbelievable force both from our own attack and Seismic Toss.
"MAZEY!" Nobody could see anything, a huge dirt cloud obscured our view. Then, the small grass type became visible.
"Turtwig is unable to battle, so the winner is Roark, the Gym Leader!" I returned Mazey to her Pokeball.
"I guess we needed more training, huh Mazey." I sighed at the red and white ball. "But you and Electra did as wonderfully as you possibly could, and you both shined like shooting stars."
"That they did." I looked up and saw red headed Roark looking down at me. I smiled.
"Thank you. And rest assured Roark, we will challenge you again, and we will win next time." I had a determined look on my face, Roark laughed.
"I'm looking forward to it."
So sad, she lost her first Gym Battle. Anyways, a lot happened in this chapter, huh. Yep. Anyways, I'm starting a FerrisWheelShipping story, and I kind of need help with what to name it. Ideas? Also, I'm starting another Pokemon story, but it's kind of hard to explain, so just check em' out!