New Generations
Chapter Five

Rattata merrily paces alongside Toad's feet as they continued their journey. They were definitly lost, but they weren't going to let this get to them. An earlier lunch of peanut butter and jelly sandwhiches had provided a surprisingly good energy source. The area they were currently in was mountainous, crawling with many more strange creatures. As they marched forward in the heat of the friendly sun, an odd and disgusting odor overcame them. Soon the area was filled with a thick, black smoke.

"Wha-what is this?" Toad asked aloud, trying to see through the smog.

"I'm not sure but it's nasty." Birdo answered, and started coughing from inhaling too much smoke at once.

Rattata's eyes began to water and sting. It wasn't long before Toad's and Birdo's eyes also stung and became red. Rubbing their eyes, and walking blindly, the trio didn't see the slope infront of them until it was too late. First went Rattata, who was in the front, closely followed by Toad and Birdo. Their screams echoed around as they slid down the rocky slope.

Dirt and rocks scratched against their skin. The smoke filled their lungs. It seemed like it was over, they couldn't breathe, they were gaining multiple cuts and bruises, and they couldn't see. It was almost safe to assume that they were gone...but just then Toad took a deep breath. He thought his last, but to his surprise it wasn't filled with the muck in the air. His gasp filled his lungs with fresh, clean air. He opened his eyes, and they soon stopped watering. Not long after the three reached the bottem of the slope.

"Is..is it over?" Birdo asked, rubbing remnants of smog from her eyes.

Toad looked around. They were sitting on a ledge that overlooked a plain area of rock and dirt. In the middle of this area was a factory, this factory was what produced all the smog that was posioning the air around them.

"What's a factory doing out here in the middle of nowhere?" Toad asked, climbing to his feet and walking towards the edge of the ledge.

"Should we check it out?" Birdo asked, helping a dizzied Rattata to his four feet.

"I think we'd better." Toad said, and began making his way down the small cliff, creating foot holes for the others.

It didn't take long to reach the bottem, and the mushroom head stepped onto solid ground. He waited for his two companions to climb down the rock wall before walking over to the large doors of the factory. The doors read; "DO NOT ENTER." But our heroes didn't listen to the doors, and shoved them open anyway. As soon as they entered an over powering and disgusting stench filled their noses.

Reluctantly they walked into the darkness, following the loud clanking of machinery, and avoiding the stench at all means possible.

When they reached the source of the noise, they discovered the wierdest contraption ever seen. There was a conveyer belt that dragged poke'balls into a box, and when they came out from the other side, they were strange purple and blocky creatures, and from the top of the box a mechanical claw picked up the poke'balls and dropped them into a pile with a sign above it that read "Empty."

"This is...horrible! What are they doing to the poor creatures of this world?" Birdo asked, watching more of the purple creatures leave from the box.

"They're...morphing them..." Toad answered, studying one of the creatures.

"Rrrattata!" growled the rodent. He was posed in a defensive stance and stared into the black.

"What is it?" Birdo asks, walking over to the rat.

From the darkness appeared many pairs of eyes. All glaring mischeviously at the group. Suddenly a creature slid out of the shadows. The creature was small and grey and looked like a blob of ooze.

"Grimer!" the creature chanted cheerfully.

"Eeew! It smells really bad!" Birdo shuttered.

More of the creatures appeared, all chanting their name.

"They seem harmless." Toad said, now watching the slimeballs.

The creatures did seem harmless, if a little playfully rough, but they didn't mean anything. Just as the group began to relax a larger pair of eyes appeared in the darkness and a low, rumbling sound echoed around the room.

"Muuuuuk!" was the groan.

"Th-that doesn't sound friendly though!" Toad stammered.

Rattata returned to his defensive stance and the Grimer's scattered in different directions. The new creature slid slowly out of the darkness. It's form was a much larger sludge pile. The creature towered over the trio, who were on the verge of wetting themselves at the site of it.

"Muuuk! Uck!" The creature shouted, and took a swing at Birdo with an arm of sludge.

Birdo dodged easily and spat many of eggs at the new creature, but they were all abosrbed into the pile of pollution. The "Muk" slowly stalked forward, menacingly approaching the three of them. Toad backed up in fright, and accidentally fell into the pile of empty poke'balls. One of the spheres flew through the air, landing square on Muk's head. It uttered a low moan as it was absorbed into the ball. The three waited for the ball to stop shaking, and finally they picked it up.

"Wierd..." Toad said, pocketing the poke'ball, along with several empty ones.

"I think we should figure out a way to shut this thing down.." Birdo squaked, and tried to find a lever of some sort to turn off the device.

-

The air became dark and thick. The pink cat flew speedily though the air, it new it was nearing it's destination.

"Mew." it said gently.

-

It seemed that there was no possible way to shut the device down. They figured the least they could do was knock the poke'balls off the conveyer belt and let the Poke'mon run free before they became a purple creature. They were unaware of the three pairs of eyes watching them, preparing to strike.