Alright, this'll be my first chapter written as a 17 year old. Somehow, I doubt it will make a difference in my writing, but you know, if it sounds more mature, you'll know why (itstotallynotgonnahappen)

Also, I sat down yesterday and outlined the next two arcs of the story so expect an update sooner rather than later!

We are fast approaching the climax of this arc!

1st arc: Discovery and New World chapters 1-10

2nd arc: Boulder 11-14

3rd arc: Mount Moon 15-?

It had been nearly ten minutes since the battle had begun.

I was tired.

I was frustrated.

And we were losing.

It had really become apparent the last few minutes, as the clefairy started to push us further back and our bodies had begun to slow down while the waves of clefairy would either heal themselves or simply be replaced with a new one. Even Gold was taking a beating.

In the short instances that I had to recharge between moves, I looked around at the rest of my team. Their faces showed hopelessness.

Then I realized something, glancing over at Gold, who had stopped punching and was now on defense, doing his best to block oncoming attacks, his mouth set in a grim line.

What he couldn't do. I had been depending on him to make a call for this battle but now I realized that my teammate could not admit defeat. He was not able to say the words we all so desperately needed to hear.

So I did.

...

"Run! Everyone, retreat and scatter!" I yelled at the top of my lungs. Instantaneously, all of us moved with the feeble stores of energy we had left, for the closest tunnel. From surveying the area before, I knew there were three, discluding the passage to where Sam and the others were, so I took the first one available.

Darting through it, I heard a commanding voice ordering some of her clefairy to chase after me. Wonderful, Luna thinks I'm the leader. Panting hard, I followed the shrinking, dark tunnel through disorienting twists and turns. Focusing and pointing my large ears behind me, I guessed that I had more than two clefairy but no more than four following me. Irritatingly, the tunnel thinned, but never got too small for the pursuing clefairy. The only thing I had going for me was my speed, I was faster than them, but I was tiring while their ambling pace stayed exactly the same.

I approached a jagged ninety-degree turn, unable to risk slowing, inched over so I was running in the sloped corner between the cave floor and arched wall, helping me turn.

By now, my feet ached, I was miserable, and I honestly just wanted to curl up somewhere with Sam.

Up ahead was a small cavern with a fork in the road. Panicked, I skid to a stop, hating decision making. I anxiously shuffled in front of them, I had less than fifteen seconds before the Clefairy caught up to me. Then I saw a thick crack where the floor met the wall, about seven or eight inches wide and it appeared relatively deep. Wasting no time, I wriggled inside, managing to tuck my tail in beside my cramped body just as the Clefairy reached the cavern.

They too paused momentarily.

"Which way?" Chirped one.

"Hnnn..."

I stopped breathing, knowing their hearing was superior even to mine.

"Let's go left, there are a few paw prints in front of it and I believe I can hear a faint scrape of rocks," the second clefairy responded. I knew the paw prints were mine but I wondered in fear if another of my teammates were in that tunnel somehow. I had no idea where I was, so it might have been close to the moon cavern.

I guessed they would only take half a minute to decide that I hadn't come through that way and reappear, so seconds after their paw steps faded, I squeezed out of the crack and sprinted towards the right fork. As I moved as fast as my small, inexperienced legs could carry me, I heard high-pitched squeaks of protest as they no doubt heard me. Panicked, I pushed myself faster and faster to the point I was nearly using quick attack and started taking turns through the veined tunnels at random.

I checked behind me again, still running numbly, vaguely wondering if I would ever find my way back.

SMACK!

Wh-whoaaa.

A couple seconds after the world tilted its usually steady axis, I realized that I had probably just hit something, pretty hard too. It must have been sharp, I realized, disoriented, bringing a paw up to my shoulder that had made contact with something pointier than a cave wall. A few drops of blood dribbled lazily off my paw. Thankfully, it wasn't a bad injury. "Hey, are you okay?" A voice said.

Startled, I jumped, swiveling my head to the direction of the voice from where I lay in an awkward heap on the floor.

The voice was not just a voice, but a body. Belonging to a purple-brown, spiky rodent.

"Y-yeah, I'm fine. But...did I just run into you?" I asked, pulled myself up.

"Yes. You ran smack dab, straight into me," The Pokemon replied, sitting up and shaking himself, righting his spines, "I'm Nidoran. Male. The distinction is very important in our species."

"Oh. I'm Nova, an eevee." I told him, my brain still trying to catch up with what was occurring.

"Nice to me you, Nova the Eevee. So why were in such a rush back there?" Nidoran further inquired.

Instantly, I was reminded of everything. I needed to find my team! "Oh, I'm sorry, but I really have to go, I need to find my friends, they're in danger!" I told in running off.

Unfortunately, I only made it a couple of steps before I realized I was running on numb legs and a woozy feeling.

Had I collided with Nidoran harder than I thought?

I hit the floor with no resistance. A few seconds later, Nidoran appeared in front of me, crouching low so I could see him. He looked flustered.

"Mad Murkrow! You're poisoned! I poisoned you! Well, I didn't, you ran into me but you must have hit one of my spikes!" He chattered, ears stick-straight. He gently pushed me to my side.

"There it is! It drew blood, that's how you got poisoned!" He returned to my sight range, face extremely close to mine. "Why didn't you tell me I got you?" He asked as if I was stupid.

Focusing, I formed coherent speech. "I didn't know you were poisonous."

Nidoran just scoffed. "Well, at any rate, it's fine. My poison is a relatively ineffectual poison compared to others. I totally can fix this." He told me, refocusing on my wounded shoulder.

"Alright, tha-Hey what are you doing?!" I exclaimed at the frozen Nidoran, eyeing me, tongue sticking out, poised to lick my cut. His face would have been completely hilarious if I hadn't been so confused.

Nidoran brought his tongue back in his mouth. "I was trying to give you the anti-venom."

"It's on your tongue?"

"It's my saliva. I eat toxic plants so I have to be able to digest it too." Nidoran explained returning to my shoulder. "Just sit tight for a minute so I can fix this."

I sighed and let him treat me. Then a thought hit me. "Wait, you said there were several types of poison?"

"Yeah. Fourteen types to be exact. Each poison Pokemon can have a different one but it really depends on the Pokemon's species, personality, age, and level. A couple of them are fatal if left untreated but most are not harmful and a Pokemon can recover with a few days of rest and the right berries and stuff." He replied easily.

"Fatal?"

"Yep, but you'd have to go get impaled by a Nidoqueen or something to get one of the deadly ones and even then, many Pokemon prefer to avoid the deadly types."

"You can have more than one type?" I inquired, trying to get a hold of this concept.

"Definitely, I once knew a Nidoking with mastery over twelve poisons. Not me though, you can tell by my horn how potent my poison is." I looked at his horn, now that I looked closer, I realized it was relatively small and dull, only coming out about two inches.

"In fact," he continued, "it probably only affected you because you're so small and your blood was pumping so fast, it usually just causes disorientation. Alright, I'm done." He told her, standing up.

"Thanks, Nidoran." I dipped my head towards him in respect and turned away towards the direction I had come. "But I really need to go find my teammates. They-"

"-might be in danger." Nidoran finished plaintively. "Yes, you already said that but how are you gonna get back? Do you know these tunnels?"

I sagged my ears in defeat. "I- I'm completely lost. I'm just planning to start trying them at random." I admitted.

"Heh. Not to worry. I'll help you out. I know this place like I know my spikes."

TUNNEL 2:

"Where are we?" Gold growled furiously.

"Ah...we seem to be...moving in circles..." Came Missile's quiet response and he floated next to the raging sandshrew.

"So ya pick right now to speak up? We've been walking for ten minutes!" Gold exclaimed. "Aw, jeez. Why'd I have to get stuck with the bug?"

"...You picked the tunnel after I did..."

"Not on purpose!"

It was quiet for a few seconds before:

"We've made a complete circle again..."

Gold screamed in frustration. Why me? He thought, he hated being underground.

TUNNEL 1:

"You said you ran through here?"

"Yes, I can't remember which tunnel I originally came through though. I did a lot of doubling back..." Nova replied, watching as the Nidoran sniffed the cave floor.

"Awesome! I found your scent! Jeez, that's strong. You must have been pretty freaked."

"You can smell...emotions?" Nova asked, not following.

Nidoran laughed a strange, squeaky laugh. "Well, sort of. There are slight differences in smell when a Pokemon is scared, excited, or calm, I'm just reading off that. Above ground, I'm nowhere near as good as scenting, but down here where the scents linger because there's no wind, I can easily track a scent."

"Huh. That's really cool. You'll have to show me how sometime." Nova told him.

Nidoran blushed and looked away. "Yeah, maybe."

The two Pokemon continued up through the tunnel, Nidoran leading the way, rabbit-like nose to the ground, dutifully snuffling, body pressed low enough to the ground that his discolored eevee companion nearly stood as tall as him.

"So, I was wondering, well, why didn't you try to attack me? When you realized I was poisoned, that is. Why did you help me out?"

"I'm not a very violent Pokemon, you might have noticed. I guess I'm a lover, not a fighter." Nidoran told as if it was the simplest thing in the world. "I do enjoy battles but I don't like hurting Pokemon who I don't have a problem with."

Nova nodded, realizing with a pang that if Sam had ordered her to, she would have unhesitatingly attacked Nidoran.

"Hey, I think we're here." Nidoran informed Nova, crouching just under the cover of a shadow cast by the tunnel, shading him from the bright glow of the moon.

"Yep, that's them all right." Nova confirmed quietly.

Nidoran winced. "You forgot to mention that you were going against the Clefairy tribe when you mentioned 'trouble'."

"They are the trouble. The want to blow this place up." The eevee informed him grimly.

"What? They're usually so peaceful..." Nidoran shook his head in confusion.

"Shh!" Nova hissed sharply. Pushing herself further down onto the cave floor. Luna approached the explosive device, hand reaching out towards the newly repaired button. Her army stood behind her, all visibly prepared to enter the moonstone the second she hit the button.

Nova, terrified, burst out of her hiding place and stood in front of the tribe of Clefairy.

Sam, Gold, Missile, Rae, Kurt, Igglybuff, Cleffa, Azurill, Abra...

"Don't you dare press that button! Everyone I care about is in this cave!" She growled ferociously, hackles rising.

Luna wore an expression that was half amused and half pained as she lowered her hand from the explosive and studied the angry eevee.

"...You...and what Pokemon?" Luna inquired quietly but with deadly seriousness.

Just me, Nova thought, chills running down her spine. Nidoran told me he doesn't like to fight. And I can't involve him in a fight that would ruin his standings with his neighbors. That's not fair. It's just me...maybe I can hold them off?

I'll...

I'll try.

"Jeez...," A strong, familiar voice came from across the group of clefairy. Startled, they parted revealing Gold, arms crossed and tail swishing, backed by Missile, who was holding his stingers up in front of him, ready to fight. "I really hate clichés. Can we try that entrance again?

Gold and his entrances, huh?