I think the only time I actually think about my stories is when I study, which is odd because it's seriously distracting me. I spent all day brainstorming this chapter out and working on it, even rewriting the basic plot for the rest of the story. It was really intense. My mom even came in my room and ranted for an hour about how I was wasting my precious study day on this bullshit. Her words, not mine. I didn't react to her words and waited for her to leave before throwing a few books in frustration. But hey, what's an author without some haters, amiright?

I also tried to make this chapter longer than usual since it's been so long that I updated. But I guess I still didn't fulfill that since I wanted to get at least 10 thousand words in, but I only managed an approximate 8 thousand. I'm sorry! I promise I can do better!

I hope you enjoy this chapter! R&R if you'd please as well! Feedback is appreciated!

The Blatant Disregard of a Pokémon Trainer v2

Mother a contest champion. Father a famous photographer. What will she do to get away from all the criticizing and all the skepticism? Join the rebellion! Become a Pokémon trainer.

I try to stay out of trouble all the time. But it's not my fault! My mouth can't shut up to save its life! It's almost like a bad habit, one that won't go away no matter what I try to do. I feel really bad for my friends, since they have to put up with me as I go on my journey to become a Pokémon Master.

005. A step away.

I decided to test the waters first. "Spyk, tackle!"

Forrest matched our pace. "Steelix, use tackle as well!"

I watched them go. The steelix was way bigger and way faster than my pichu. Heck, with a simple tackle, he could even take us down! I had to move and fast.

"Spyk, to the right!" I called a few seconds before impact. Spyk swerved in perfect tempo to the direction I told him, even having enough time to land a good smack on the steel type's side with his tail, before running behind him, keeping short distance between them.

"Follow it!" Forrest continued following my lead, clearly not taking me that seriously. The steelix turned its large body and tried to reach my tiny pokémon. Spyk's reason for sticking close was clearer now, wanting to hinder the rock type's movement, trying to bend him at an angle that was near impossible. Forrest furrowed his eyebrows at the scene, expression undecipherable.

"To the left!" I cried when I saw the opportunity knock on our door. The steelix's face was hovering nearby, snaking his boy around, but there was a good spot, to the left, where Spyk could squeak through him to make a perfect knot. "With thunder wave!"

"Pichu!" Spyk saw what I saw and dove for the spot, glowing with electricity. As he went through, there was a spark, and I swear I saw electricity pass through the steel snake's body, before Spyk faithfully returned to his spot in front of me.

"Good job, Spyk!"

"Pichu-pi!"

"So what?" Forrest sneered as his Pokémon straightened up, not at all bothered that it almost became a living bowtie.

I shrugged. "It was worth a try."

With a roll of his eyes (I think that was his eyes? They're awfully narrow…) he pointed at us, "Go, tackle!"

"Wait for it…" I told my Pokémon, taking a defensive stance along with him. The steel type flew at us at the speed of light, and I swear I was quaking in fear of getting hit too. "Wait for it…" It was right in our faces. "Take it back now y'all!" I yelled like the world was going to end. Spyk did a fabulous backflip and slid out of sight, down into the previous hole that the steelix had created (the one with the battle against the Squirtle). Said steel Pokémon flew above the hiding spot and stopped, looking wildly about and not realizing where my electric mouse had gone. It shot me an accusative look, but I held up my hands in defense to show that I had nothing to do with it. Of course, I had to continue my song: "One hop this time!"

Something collided with Steelix's tail from the spot that Spyk was hidden. There was a release of electricity, though I doubt it did anything, and the steelix whirled on the spot, his face facing the hole. Forrest knew what that meant, "Steelix, dig!"

"One hop this time!" I continued the song, trying not to let my anxiety show. Spyk hadn't shown up, and I could see Forrest twitch every time I said a lyric, getting irritated with me. I was starting to worry.

"Pi-pi-pi!" Spyk chirped as he jumped out of the ground from the other end of the tunnel. I let out the breath I was holding in relief and smiled. But the smile vanished when I started to feel the ground shake underneath my feet, and the steelix came out right after Spyk, flying high in the sky and looking like it was going to land on my little mouse.

"Slide to the left!"

Almost comically, Spyk took one large step to the side and slid further in that direction. The steelix landed face-first on the ground, but it shook itself off and dived back into the ground at the command of its trainer, leaving us to dread to incoming invasions to hit our butts. I looked wildly around but I knew that no matter what we did, it would make its way underneath us. There was no way it could miss. I had to think of a way out before Spyk got hurt.

Speaking of Spyk, I was just now noticing how much he was panting. We had never battled or had him run for such a long time. He wasn't used to battle, and I could tell he needed a nap soon—he was still just a baby after all. Maybe it was a bad idea to get him involved. Maybe if I had chosen Lily instead, even if she wasn't mine, then—

"Now Steelix!"

"Slide to the right!"

Forrest twitched as my last second of thinking worked. Spyk tumble-rolled out of the way (and to the right) just as the earth started to crumble beneath his feet. I heard a few surprised gasps and cheers from above suddenly, and as I watched the steel type fly up near the balcony and wink at the crowd (omg, not again) I spotted Forrest's brother mouthing the words "kick his butt!" It gave me the confidence boost I needed, even if it was just a small gesture that meant nothing, making me think that I had a chance to win this battle.

"Criss cross!" I called to Spyk as Steelix landed and nearly sent an earthquake through the room.

"Stop that pichu!" Forrest retaliated with a roar from the other side of the field. Steelix thrust himself in our direction, and, as I commanded, Spyk zigzagged from left to right, using a quick attack to help him out. My clever little boy was clever. Moma's impressed, oh yes she is!

Then the thunder wave finally took effect. The steelix froze completely, shocks running through his body, and Spyk was coming to him at the speed of a bullet, not slowing down. I cheered him on, throwing my fists in the air when they actually collided. Spyk butted him hard in the head, but it barely affected his enemy, only making him flinch in surprise. I mentally swore in surprise, not expecting us to be so weak in comparison. I should've actually thought about our skills before taking on this gym.

"Criss—" I was about to repeat, just as the song entailed, but Forrest cut me off while the doubt was still fresh in my mind. His irritation got taken over by arrogance, understanding the same thing I had about our Pokémon's level differences.

"Iron tail, let's go!" Steelix roared in agreement as the tip of its tail started to glow with energy.

"Dodge it!" But Spyk was disoriented from throwing his tiny body against the giant steel type. Like a wingull flying face first into a glass door, he trembled with an aftershock, looked around, and could barely get his bearings straight. "Spyk!"

The steelix charged at us—but since he was so huge he didn't really have to move that much—and whipped his body around when he personally deemed he was close enough. His flashing tail took the spot of his front and it lashed out in our direction. I gaped as the attack knocked Spyk right off his feet, forcing him to fly past me at a speed I could barely register, and making him collide with the wall behind me. I snapped back from my horrified stupor and ran after him. Spyk barely let out a weak cry of pain before he closed his eyes and was instantly out cold. I picked him up from the floor gingerly and cradled him against me, finally choosing to call him back to his ball for a much needed rest (I think I'm going to need one too soon).

"And the winner is Forrest!" Yolanda yelled the obvious tidbit of information, holding an arm up in Forrest's direction.

"You did a good job, Spyk," I whispered to the Pokéball, unable to stop the disappointment from seeping through my voice. It wasn't his fault—it was mine for challenging the gym leader—but I still felt the urge to blame it all on him, that he hadn't been strong enough, that we should've trained more instead of pranking trainers, that we should've thought about it before issuing the challenge. I looked like such a fool now.

"Good battle!" A voice suddenly jolted me from my worry.

I started in surprise and turned to face the speaker. My expression turned solemn when I realized it was only Forrest. He was here to gloat, I see. "Sure. But I bet you say that to all the trainers you happen to pummel into the ground—excuse the pun." I still had some bite in me, for someone who just humiliated herself and her Pokémon by being cocky enough to believe that an electric type actually had a chance against a ground type. It can't be as bad as being instantly KO-d though, I have to admit.

He smirked and crossed his arms over his chest, looking super smug, "Well, you lasted longer than I expected, I'll give you that."

"Only because you were going easy on me." I returned, striking my own better-than-thou pose.

He opened his mouth to retort again, but his sister came skipping over, so he closed it and returned to his waiting steelix, leaving the two of us to converse. The two siblings had such an odd relationship with each other, and it was hard to understand just by looking at it like I was, as an outsider. Were they not allowed to talk to the same person together or what? I wanted to see some siblings squabbling, if you know what I mean. Wink wink.

"Cool battle Maia!" She grabbed my hand and yanked it towards her, forcing me to share a proper handshake with her, "I never saw a trainer use a song to battle!"

"It just came to me," I replied with a shrug, making sure to sound Mary Sue. Because that's what I happened to be right now, super cliché and fake-happy for losing. "So anyway," I lowered my voice, not wanting anyone else to actually hear what a noob I actually am, "this is my first time losing to a gym leader so do I have to pay or…?" Not that I wanted to. I had to buy myself some boating tickets after all, but I was still new to this whole gym leader battling thing.

She shook her head, the question not fazing her, "Nope. Other gym leaders, yes. But us, no."

That took me for a loop. "Why not?"

"Because losing money is often what disheartens most trainers," She said matter-of-factly, "So if you take that risk away, many more trainers would be willing to try out and start the League challenge." She nodded up to the crowd watching above, and I looked up in time to catch the wave of excitement as a new trainer started skipping down the stairs to my side of the field, to battle against Forrest too. "Money isn't the only thing that's hard for trainers to get, so we try to eliminate that option, being the first—well, not officially—gym."

I wanted to stay and chat though, so I kept the conversation going. "You guys are the first gym?"

She shook her head. "No, but since many rookies start near here, we're often labeled as the first gym of the league challenge, even if there's not really an order to get the badges."

"So I could get the Viridian badge first and it wouldn't matter?"

"Viridian is known for not taking it easy on trainers, going all out and not caring a bit about the outcome of the weaker Pokémon. That gym is known to be a power house, and is often recommended to battle last."

I nodded, the information sinking in. I was not going to try my skills in that gym any time soon, that's for sure. If I can't even beat this Pewter gym, which happens to be the rookie gym, then I had no chance against the one from my own city of birth, a cruel palace guaranteed to bring pain.

Actually, now that I think about it, I didn't have to worry about it. I was going to Hoenn. It didn't matter what I learned about the gyms here or not, I was never coming back, unless to visit, which I doubt because my parents can be cruel pain in the butts. But speaking of family and royal pains in the butts, it's been a week (I haven't actually looked at a calendar lately so I might be wrong) that I haven't spoken with Alyson. I had to call her soon before she thinks I've been kidnapped or something. I kinda have been, but that's not really the point.

"Oh, and here's our gym's number," Yolanda passed me a tiny slip of paper—which also happened to be a business card up close—after a few seconds of searching through her pockets. "If you need tips, help, advice, just someone to talk to, cheats—" She whispered this one with a wink and added: "I know many ways to cheat the system, believe me." She returned to her normal tone of voice. "Anyway, I think that's it! You can also schedule another gym battle if you'd like, though as you probably guessed, we also take trainers first come first serve on certain days, so feel free to come by our gym again!" She smiled, not bright like Ivey or warm like that dude Roy. Just friendlily, if that's an actual word. I followed her gaze and realized why she was hinting at me to leave; the challenger finally arrived at us.

I blinked at the person. "Ivey? What are you doing here?"

"I should ask the same thing of you, Maia!" The girl replied with a grin, putting her hands on her hips with attitude. "And why did you let some random stranger baby sit Lily? I asked you to do that!" And just because she could, Lily stepped away from her trainer's side and smacked me in the face with her leaf. It's also at this point that I realized that the reason it took them a while to get down the stairs was because of said aforementioned Pokémon.

"Well, I wanted to battle," I swatted the leaf away from my face as it came again, "And technically, you shouldn't have just dumped your Pokémon with me. I'm not trustworthy, as you can tell."

"Oh whatever," Ivey rolled her eyes and stuck out her hand to Yolanda for a shake, "I'll be challenging the gym leader next."

Forrest's sister nodded, shook her hand, and waved at her brother to get ready. The male nodded and withdrew his Pokémon, walking over to his side of the field and waiting. Yolanda yanked me by my sleeve when she realized I didn't plan to move and forced me to sit on the side bench as she silenced the crowd.

"Ladies and gentlemen!" She once again called, raising her arms above her head, "The one-on-one battle between Challenger Ivey and the Pewter City Gym Leader Forrest will now begin!"

Maybe it was because he wanted to rest his steelix, or because he wanted to take it easy, or because he knew he was going to lose, or even because he was confident enough to win, he called out a golem. Ivey couldn't help but grin and called her bayleef onto the field. The Pokémon strutted out, gave one glance at her opponent, harrumphed, and looked away haughtily. I raised my eyebrows at the attitude. I was about to call out to Ivey that the Pokémon was going to rebel and disobey her, but I shut my mouth when I heard her say "Crush him!" with a dark ominous gloom around her as lightning struck in the background (even though we were indoors and it obviously wasn't Spyk using the opportunity to scare people).

In less than two minutes (no joke), the battle was over and the poor golem's fear stricken face was beaten up until he fell unconscious. Forrest looked as frightened for his life as I was, which was saying something since he's the gym leader here.

"Awesome!" Ivey squealed, literally jumping for joy as Yolanda handed her the badge, some money, and a TM. She hugged her Pokémon a few times, twirled, danced, and did a bunch of embarrassing things. I really hoped I wouldn't do that when it would be my turn to win a badge. I would emotionally scar everyone for life.

"Okay, let's go," I looped my arm in hers and started dragging her out, feeling sour. Ivey won against the gym leader, but that squirtle trainer and I couldn't? And it was totally unfair that he had changed his Pokémon! If she had been facing that steelix like we had, she would've never won! Why would that gym leader take it easy on Ivey of all people? Uggh!

"Bye bye!" Ivey waved to everyone over my shoulder as I stormed out, Lily trotting pompously behind us, proud of her easy victory. It still wasn't fair. Ivey turned to stare at me, "Are you jealous that I won?"

"Well, yeah!" I hissed once we were outside, instantly letting go of her and throwing my arms out. "That steelix that I faced was so much stronger than that golem and—"

"He would've been pummelled too." She replied nonchalantly, putting a hand on her hip. "Give me some credit Maia! Did you not see my Pokémon? They're all badasses! I've trained them to be strong and great! I may not be doing the League Challenge like I know for a fact that you will, but I do go against gyms and collect random badges for fun!"

"Can you even do that? Don't you have to sign up to be allowed to battle—" I cut myself off, realizing that I was wrong. I had just faced the gym without even bothering to sign up or make an appointment or even thinking about doing the League Challenge. It had been first come first serve.

"You had to before, twenty years ago, when there was a mass outbreak of criminal activity. Not many trainers could be trusted to train Pokémon and battle against gym leaders, since most tried to cause a rebellion like that, so the rules were put up. You had a special gym-access card that only let one trainer pass at a time. I actually like that system, hearing about it now, but witnesses say it wasn't fun at all, that it was like going through airport security. I guess I should be happy that everything went back down a notch to this, where just about anyone can be a trainer and battle gyms," She shrugged like it wasn't a big deal. I just blinked at the sudden wave of information, having a hard time wrapping my mind around the criminal activity part. Was she talking about that time in modern history where Team Plasma and Cipher banded together and tried to merge Unova and Orre together into a new region? Or was it when Team Rocket's Giovanni tried to take over Team Plasma and got his butt kicked instead? Those had to be the craziest event I've heard about. It sounds pretty farfetched and crazy, so I'm really glad I wasn't born at that time and had the ability to tell if it was true or not. "Wish I'd been there though. I love revolutions," When she caught my disbelief-raised eyebrows, she backtracked, "N-not from the bad guys! I just mean that I would love to lead a group and get people inspired and cause a riot!"

"That doesn't surprise me,"

"Didn't think so,"

"Oh hey, where's Samantha?" I asked, realizing that she was the one person that Ivey had ditched me for, and seeing that she wasn't around was kind of suspicious.

Ivey shrugged and pulled out a Pokéball from her pocket, recalling Lily as we had a silent agreement to head for the Pokémon Center to heal our Pokémon. "She got a call from her brother. Apparently he got lost in Diglett's Cave again."

My jaw dropped and I stared at her long and hard, not believing what she just said. "You're kidding."

"Nope!"

"You're an idiot!" I grabbed her by the shoulders and started shaking her wildly, knowing it wasn't really the nicest thing to do to get my message through. "If she goes in Diglett's Cave, then she can easily lead us through it as she searches for her brother!"

Her blue eyes got wide and her mouth dropped like mine had a few minutes ago. "Oh my Arceus! You're right! She knows the entire place by butt!"

"…you mean heart."

"…whatever!

It took us all of the next three seconds to scream "AFTER HER!" and bolt to the Pokémon Center, get our stuff, heal our Pokémon as fast as we possibly can (we tried to get Nurse Joy to toss them to us when she was done so we could catch and run out at the same time, but she scolded us instead), and find Diglett's Cave. Obviously, because we're idiots, we didn't actually know where it was, and took twenty minutes running through town and random patches of grass to find it. When we finally did find it, we just wanted to drop dead on the ground and crawl back in bed.

"There's no way we can catch up to her now,"

"Don't worry! I'm sure she's just on the other side of those stairs!"

I stopped dead in my tracks, "What stairs?"

"Those." She pointed.

My eyebrows shot up in surprise. I didn't really think stairs could exist in caves, but hey, there was no way that I'd imagined them up. We slowly made our way down, keeping our eyes peeled in the semi-darkness. We literally spotted thousands of digletts passing and poking their heads through the ground to stare at us curiously. We talked to a few near the entrance—well, Lily did and Ivey translated—and some decided it was cool to hang with us. We kept along the wall as we went, the little digletts trailing behind us like little ducklett and sometimes urging us to go in certain directions. I hadn't let out Spyk from his Pokémon ever since he had fainted, not really sure what to say to him now that I had let him down with the gym battle. I wouldn't be surprised if he hated me now. Though having his Pokéball with me, I found it was an odd concept to be the one empowered in our relationship. I mean, I was dragging him all over the place and he had no say in it. What if he wanted to go elsewhere, but because of my idiocy, I led us somewhere completely unreasonable? Like this cave for instance, type wise, I mean?

"Let's take a break!" Ivey pulled her bag off her shoulder and plopped down on an oddly comfortable looking rock that the diglett had shown us to. When we patted their heads in thanks, they wiggled around happily and blushed, watching us in what seemed like admiration. The cave was no longer scary to me, and the digletts were really nice to let us pass through their home like this. They were friendly too, which put my mind at ease. Spyk and I would have no chance against a colony of pissed off ground types. Though I think Ivey could. Remind me to stay on her good side.

"We might have to sleep here," The girl sighed, pulling her phone from her pocket, "it might not feel like it since the trail so far has been pretty great and fun due to these super cute diglett—" She shot the pokémon a charming grin. The blushed and bopped around in their little ground holes faster. "—but we need our rest if we're going to keep going. You can have the first watch—" I gave her a sour look. She pretended not to see it. "—and Lily and I'll take the next one. In about four hours."

"We haven't found Samantha yet though," I reminded her as she started digging through her backpack. "We should keep going for a bit longer. She's getting further away from us as we speak."

"I doubt it!" Ivey shoved her phone in my face, the bright sudden light making me flinch and squint my eyes to adjust to it. "Look, it's already 10 PM! If she had any common sense, she'd be looking around for shelter or somewhere to sleep."

"You think she already found her way out?"

"We wasted most of the morning battling and running around, so she'd be hours ahead of us by now. This cave takes about three days or more to get through, two if you don't stop and you walk pretty fast or even run." She shook her head and magically pulled out a blanket. "No matter what we do, we can't catch up to her. Remember, she had to find her lost brother, and that motive is more than enough to get her to run through a cave in a hurry."

"I guess you're right," I mumbled back, pulling my backpack off my shoulders and dropping it at my feet. I watched as Ivey curled herself in her blanket and slid off her rock, using it as a headrest instead. I dropped my chin in my hand, instantly bored now that my companion and her pokémon were going to bed. I wasn't going to risk letting out Spyk from his pokéball until I was sure we were both over the gym incident. It was my fault we had lost, so I didn't deserve to be in his presence or have his help. He'd have to stay in there just a bit longer. When we get to the next Pokémon Center, then I'll let him out. I just need more time.

The diglett were leaving, I realised a second too late. Now that we were safely in one spot and not doing much of anything, the little ground types found us boring and left. Or maybe they only stayed because they easily fell head over heels in love with Ivey and wanted her attention. Now that she's asleep, there would be no reason for them to stay with me of all people. That actually made way more sense than I'd hoped.

Now I was all alone though, I had to figure out a way to keep myself busy for four long hours. I got ready to call my sister and have another one of our destined phone-chats, but then I realized that I had to be quiet for Ivey and changed my mind. I didn't want to move away from our spot and risk getting lost and, a bonus, my phone didn't even have any service bars in here. I'm so impressed with technology right now. Uggh! There had to be something I can do to keep myself entertained!

I thought about making a fire of some sort to keep us warm, but as our body heat reflected off the walls of the cave, we were fine. Ivey wasn't shivering or anything—I'm surprised she fell asleep so easily considering we're in a cave—and I felt like peeling off my jacket, but thankfully kept it on just in case. I don't know how I could've made a fire anyway; there weren't any branches or logs or even paper around here. I have some emergency matches for cases like there—Spyk isn't a fire type, so I had to remind myself that warmth was a necessary thing when I was throwing them in my bag—but it seemed wasteful now that I was sitting here doing nothing.

I pulled out my flashlight (now that night was pulling in, the semi-light in the cave was fading away to darkness) and traced sideways eight infinity symbols on the wall, pouting. This was going to be longer than I thought it would. Four hours. I knew I should've packed my portable game player—heck, even some cards would've sufficed!

I drifted to my personal thoughts. I had a pretty rough first few days. Trainers ended up chasing me around for battles, Ivey begged me to travel with her, I got a hat from a random stranger—which I carefully packed in my bag so I didn't lose it—and battled against a gym I had no chance against. That's got to be some crazy accomplishment, if any. Maybe I can get the most-dangerous-person-to-be-with award? That would be neat! Not that I'm gloating or something. Danger is something to avoid at all costs, but I think it would be fun to get into a little bit more trouble while I'm still in Kanto. But it's not like I can just shout and something crazy would come running at me. That's kind of impossible.

"Hey!" Someone cried when I started waving my flashlight around in random directions, trying to find something interesting that could be seen on the wall. I started considering writing something on it, but I had realized that I had nothing to write with and started a mental checklist for the next time I chose to go shopping. "There's someone over there! Look!"

Someone else said something, but it was too far for me to decipher. I heard the shuffling of feet as it came louder. I waited patiently, keeping the spot near me alighted to help them with their path towards me. I spotted their feet before their bodies stretched into view, and I craned my neck up to look at the trio above me. I instantly felt uncomfortable when I realized they were all guys.

"Can I help you?" I inched back when they got too close.

"Yeah!" The tallest one jumped at the chance to speak. "We're looking for the exit, but we can't find it."

"It's that way…" I pointed back with my flashlight to the route where I came from with Ivey. Speaking of which, it doesn't look like they've noticed her yet. I expertly kept my flashlight away from her direction to avoid troubling her. "Are the digletts sleeping?"

"Digletts? Why?" The leader was speaking again, the other two staying silent, sending each other odd looks instead. It was a bit unnerving.

I tilted my head to the side, wondering how come the diglett weren't leading them like they had with us. Then I realized that the reason that they were friendly was because of Lily, and the trio had no Pokémon outside of their pokéballs. "If you call out a pokémon, the digletts will come out and great you, and even lead the way out if you're nice. Our pokémon are kinda like mediators."

"Jul?" The main talker guy turned to look over his shoulder at the two guys, addressing the one that was rather to the right and hidden from my sights.

The guy nodded, pulled out a pokéball from his belt, and called out his pokémon. After the bright flash of red light faded and we could all see again, a dull gray body was standing next to him. It had small arms, puffy dark pink pants and a matching hat, with yellow highlights here and there. "Medicham!" It chirped, raising a paw (if I can call it that) in greeting.

"A Hoenn pokemon!" I gasped, on the verge of squealing my face off. This had to be a dream! I crawled closer, still on the floor, and clasped the creature's hand in mine. It looked incredibly creeped out, as did the guys. "It's so cool!"

"…thanks, I think?" Its owner mumbled (I think the guy called him Jul?), looking as uncomfortable as I was before. Before I had a chance to retort though, something rumbled through the ground nearby and a little head popped out. I heard a few more along with "Diglett!" cries echoing as they appeared as well, circling us. I let go of the fighting pokémon and flashed my light at the ground types, and the guys nearly jumped when they noticed the dozens of digletts surrounding us.

"Hello again, diglett!" I greeted the nearest one and it bobbed its head happily at me. I patted its head and it cooed. I looked back up at my late night visitors. "See! They showed up!"

"W-what do we do?" Jul squeaked, squatting to hide behind his pokémon. I resisted shaking my head at him. He must be a scaredy cat.

"You just—" I attempted to say, finally pushing myself to me feet.

Another bright red light flashed temporally blinded us and I rubbed my eyes before turning to stare at the newcomer. It was a large creature, almost the same height as its trainer (the one that hadn't spoken yet) and it was this odd light blue colour. It was devoid of much distinctive details, but there was a purple pattern on his back that went down to its large blue tail fin. "Quag!"

I felt the air pressure thicken as its large mouth open for an intake of breath. I instantly knew an attack was going to be on its way.

"Stop!" I pounced on the pokémon's owner, but it was too late. I felt water splash on me as it hit the walls and reached for every crevice of this place as possible. I was pale in horror as I laid my flashlight's light on the continuously flowing water and the mess it was creating, it being sprayed in every direction: the ceiling, walls, floor, everything! The ground was becoming moist and sticky and muddy, the walls were starting to shake, and fainted digletts were being swept up and away. This was a very sudden and horrible turn of events!

"Lily, stop that water with magical leaf!" The voice of my very faithful not-sleeping-anymore partner cried as I heard her feet squish over in my direction, flashlight soon snapping on as she tried to find me. "Maia!"

"Over here, Ivey!" I waved my own flashlight around, purposely shoving the quagsire owner as I did it.

"What happened while I was sleeping?" She cried, leaping into my arms. I wrapped my arms around her too as my insides squirmed uncomfortably, scared with what's going on. I just needed someone to cling to for a few seconds and I'd be fine. But right now, this was really freaky.

"These guys showed up and I told them to call out a Pokémon for the diglett to show up and show them out, but the next thing I know there's water everywhere!" I waved an arm out to the guys around us. The first one who liked to talk was scolding the quagsire trainer, and the medicham was hovering like a badass over the mess, its trainer clinging to him like a baby. A little bit further, you could see Lily growling and hissing at a knocked over quagsire, who looked like it also wanted to pummel the grass pokémon right into the ground.

Another rumble shook the cave, the ground shifting and the walls grumbling. Without having to look at each other or even just speak, we all knew what was happening. Or what was about to happen anyway.

"It's caving in!" Sir Talks A Lot yelled, and Ivey screamed and clung to me tighter when it finally registered in her mind. If she kept clinging to me like this, I swear I was going to be claustrophobic for the rest of my young life.

"We have to get out of here!" Jul screamed above us.

"Which way is the fastest way out?" I shoved Ivey aside just as a part of the ceiling decided to collapse and fall on us. I managed to move aside as well and it missed me, though not without dirtying my clothes to the brink of never coming back to its original state. I was absolutely covered with mud and dirt now.

"This way!" The leader of the boys bolted back in the direction they came from, waving an arm. I was happy we were heading towards Vermilion and that I would be one step closer to reaching Hoenn, but this wasn't the way I was hoping it would happen. I ran back to Ivey and I's camp and yanked my backpack onto my shoulders, grabbing Ivey's stuff while I was at it. I tossed it to her when I saw her and she wrapped herself back into the safety of her blanket the second she had it.

"Come on, Lily!" Without wasting a second, we were running. Running in a direction we didn't know, running underground at a place we had no idea lead, running for salvation that was one a day away. This wasn't going to end well, we all knew it. I glanced at the owner of the quagsire when he passed me—damn his long legs—and I didn't feel a single wave or regret or remorse coming from him. He was completely unfazed by this. Doesn't he realize that he's the one destroying the only way for non-flying trainers to reach the other side of Kanto?

As soon as I started thinking dangerous things about him, he turned sharply in my direction and glared. Hard. I gulped and tried to send it back, but it was hard considering his look was the epitome of evil itself. I was nearly pissing myself just looking at him. He sneered at me when he caught my feeble attempt and sped up to run next to Jul. For the while, I gave freaky looks at his back, though I could tell that every time he was looking over his shoulder to check on us was just to silence my face. I stuck out my tongue out at him immaturely and he rolled his eyes. When my legs started shaking and feeling sore, he stopped running abruptly, and I didn't see it coming so I accidentally slammed my face into him. That must've been revenge for all the faces I did at him, I realized as I rubbed my poor nose.

There was a final heavy nearby quake, and when I glanced back, our route was completely obliterated. Rocks and dirt and mud littered the entire road we were just in, reaching up to the ceiling and closing it tight. There was no way we could ever return to that path. We were now literally facing a dead end.

"Ah man!" Leader (that's what I'm calling him now, until proven otherwise) dropped to the new dry ground, letting out a moan and using his hands to cover his face. "There goes our chance of meeting the professor!" He was trying to keep the conversation light though. "I guess we're going to have to call him?"

"I-is this what they call an erosion?" Jul was still clinging to his medicham, even if they were still on the ground. The pokémon was patting his back and trying to soothe him though. No one answered him, because not a second later, I was all up in the water trainer's face (speaking of said person, he just called back his quagsire).

"Why would you do that?" I hissed, feeling the urge to stab him in the chest. "How are you supposed to travel? How are we supposed to travel? How is anyone supposed to travel? Everyone uses this cavern! How can you just destroy it?" He wasn't looking at me though. He was just looking to the side nonchalantly and it was pissing me off. "What? You hate digletts that much?"

"Stop it, it's useless." Leader cut in, waving a hand at me although he was still just lying down on the ground like an idiot. "Andrew does this anti-hero thing that's meant to look bad when it actually saves our lives." I blinked and looked back at the Andrew fellow, but he was still just looking so nonchalant and passive. He was still making me angry. "So there must've been something at the end of the cave that made him react that way." There was a shrug. "It must've been something pretty big to cave in this place though."

I narrowed my eyes at him. "And he can't say this himself?"

Leader plopped himself on his elbows and gave Andrew a questioning look.

He nodded back.

Leader gave me a meaningful look. "He's mute."

My look fell. "Oh." How do you even handle a mute? How do you know what he needs?

Andrew was glaring at me again. It was weird, since most of the time it seemed as if he was reacting to my inner thoughts. Maybe he's a mind reading vampire like in those weird knock off books. Oh no, what if that's true? I have to test it! Hey, Andrew, if you can hear this, laugh or something!

Andrew smirked and then scoffed mockingly in my direction.

I turned and gave Ivey a horrified look. "He's a mind reader!"

Leader snickered into the palm of his hand.

Ivey just looked at me as if I was growing two heads.

"I-I'm not joking!" I hissed back, pointing my flashlight wildly at the man.

"You have no proof!" She hissed back.

"Fine!" I whirled to stare evenly back into Andrew's eyes. He was still smirking his face off. "From one to ten—" He only has ten fingers to prove it. "—what number am I thinking of?"

I was thinking of the number two.

He held up two fingers.

"SEE?"

She shook her head at me. "Still not good enough."

"Oh come on!"

Leader waved at her to let it go. "Give it a rest, Ivey."

The girl froze. "H-how did you know my name?"

"Maia thinks of your name when she talks to you—" He slapped a hand over his own mouth, realizing what he just said. "—oops."

"Maia!" Ivey was clinging to me again. "This is freaking me out! They really can read minds!"

She changed opinions pretty fast. "Calm down, Ivey…" I was getting pretty spooked myself, but I wasn't going to admit that. I had to be strong in this situation or we'd both burst into tears. "They're not psychic… they can't read our minds…"

"You don't really believe that, now do you, Maia?" Jul started floating up in midair, hovering closer in our direction. We cowered away, huddling by the cave wall. The other lifted their hands and did curling motions with their fingers, reminding me of when people would pretend to be banettes for Halloween, and crept closer as well. Ivey was squealing and hiding her face in my arm, and I swear I was losing my mind with what was going on.

Just as one of their hands was an inch away from touching my face, they stopped completely.

"Just kidding!" Leader chirped, backing up and laughing at the two of us. "We're not psychic!"

Ivey sighed in relief.

Too bad I was seething.

"Let me beat him up!" I growled when she held me back by my shirt, surprised by how strong she actually was. "That was cruel and mean and they deserve punishment!"

"C-calm down…" Jul was looking as if he was seriously reconsidering having teased us, catching the evil look I sent at him. He gulped in fear and tried again. "M-medicham was the one who read your mind. It held up fingers behind your backs." He mentioned to the Pokémon next to him, who was waving its hands up and down, having fun moving his trainer in crazy directions in midair. It couldn't be good for him since he was slowly starting to turn green.

"That doesn't explain how you know my name!" Ivey hissed like a skitty, hiding behind me. It looks like she wasn't going to trust them any time soon. That's just great, especially since we have to deal with these boys for another day or so in this cave. I could feel the beautiful friendship forming—full of tears and romance and bloodshed.

"Maia said it when the cave was collapsing." Leader cackled, not even fazed when I turned my look on him. He must be immune to people hating on him for doing stuff like this. The meanie!

With a yank that threw Ivey off balance, I jerked away from her grip and pounced on the unsuspecting Leader. He jolted in surprise and I pushed him against the wall, pulling back my arm for a hit. I froze when I felt the power of simply pushing him against the rocks reverberate in the walls and floors and just about everywhere else. The sound of rumbling was slowly growing again, and it was coming from all around us.

"Because of the last cave-in, the cave is sensitive to anything now!" Leader realized, grabbing the back of my head with his hand and shoving it to his chest as he spun us around. He took my previous spot and braced himself against the falling debris, moving his arms to hold himself against the unsteady wall. I dropped dead to the floor under him.

Everything started collapsing once again.

And this time, I wasn't as lucky as I was with the first one.