"...nothing happened," the female Chikorita said with a breath of relief.
She and her Surskit friend, who was currently wrapped around her back, weren't really super excited to evolve just by simply touching the towering gem of rock under many layers of earth beneath a tall mountain. At first, it sounded...suspiscious, so they and their Eevee friend followed the evolved trio into the mountain with caution.
It would seem as though their efforts of being alert and cautious all fell for nothing. The evolved trio has guided them here without any trouble.
"Strange," one of the evolved trio, the Pidgeot, said with a confused frown. He rubbed his chin with his pollex in thought. "Why did the gem glowed from your friend's touch, yet nothing happened?"
His other comrades bore confused looks as well. All of them stood there and saw the Eevee touched the base of the massive gem with her paw, and almost instantly, if the seventeen seconds of nothing counts as 'almost instantly', the gem hummed and glowed. The female Eevee and her two friends gasped when it happened, but after only a few seconds of glowing, the gem dimmed and returned to 'normal.'
None of them evolved. That fact alone was a big disappointment for their small audience, who were already moving back to where they had come from.
"Bummer," Mew said in disappointment as she floated down until she sat on the ground near the Chikorita. She had arrived a day or two before they got there. The Eevee was pleasantly delighted to see her the first time, and Mew was more than happy to be friends with them. "I was looking forward to something cool..."
The Rapidash, one of the evolved trio, shook her head. She couldn't believe how carefree the legendary sounded. She also couldn't believe that nothing happened after the gem glowed.
"Though..." Mew continued, looking up at the gem. "I did felt something while that big rock-thingy glowed..."
"Oh?" the Pidgeot asked, quite intrigued. "Pray tell, dear Mew, what was it that you have felt?"
"I'm not..." Mew murmored, but stopped as she looked at the Pidgeot. "You talk like Ho-oh."
The Pidgeot blinked at that. "Um...thank you?"
"Ancient and boring," Mew nodded, to which the Pidgeot almost lost his balance and for the Scizor, a member of the evolved trio, to laugh at. Mew then shook her head, hopped to the air, and floated there as she stared at the gem. "It felt like how I change forms."
"Evolution," the Surskit muttered.
Mew nodded. "Yep! Changing my form is almost like evolution...I think. But something's weird..."
The Rapidash's eye twitched. She was starting to hate Mew for keeping them in the suspense, so to speak.
"Why?" the Scizor asked.
"It was like psychic, see," Mew explained as she darted her eyes to each one of them, waving her hands around as if to try and make her explanation clearer. "When I use psychic, I connect my mind to something, like a rock! And then I can lift that rock!"
"So..." the Rapidash deadpanned. "...you felt a rock."
Mew blinked at her.
"Well," the Scizor scratched his shoulder, trying his best not to show his dissatisfaction with Mew's 'new' information. "Uh...the gem kinda is a...rock, after all..."
Mew blinked again, and suddenly, she laughed. "Oh! No no no! That's not what I meant at all!"
"Ah," the Pidgeot exclaimed as his face brightened with a thought. "I believe I get what you mean now, my dear Mew. What you mea—"
"I'm not a deer," Mew frowned at him. "Unkie Xernie is a deer." She turned to the Rapidash. "Do I look like a deer?"
The Rapidash was about to respond, but bit her lip in annoyance. "...ask someone else."
"Ahem... If I may?" the Pidgeot said. "I believe what our d...what Mew is trying to tell us, is that she felt a 'link', to make things simple enough to understand, that linked the gem," he extended a wing, pointing at the dim evolution stone, "to another," he made circle motions with his other wing. He then folded both his wings back to his sides as he slowly shook his head. "To where, I do not know."
"So..." Scizor blinked. "...what does that mean?"
"Someone evolved," the Rapidash guessed. "But is that even possible?"
The Pidgeot looked down in thought. "Hm... If what that old Golem had told us earlier was true, then quite possibly, yes..."
The Rapidash felt angry at that recollection. "To think that a stupid Umbreon and Espeon were the cause of all this!"
As the Pidgeot tried to calm her down, the Scizor turned to the floating legendary. "So," he began, "someone evolved..." he waved a pincer at the dark tunnel, "...out there?"
Mew simply shrugged. "I dunno..." she turned and looked at the dark tunnel. "I can probably trace it." She shook her head. "But I dunno if I should follow it, or tell the others first."
"I think," the Chikorita voiced out, "that you should go and follow it. I may not be a psychic type, but I know that traces can disappear if left alone for too long." She turned and smiled at their Eevee friend. "Right, Krystal?" She blinked, her smile fading. "Krysie? Something wrong?"
The Eevee however, was still standing there, her paw still on the gem, her absent eyes locked on her paw.
"Krystal?" the Chikorita called once again, approaching her friend, making splashing noises as she walked through the shallow water that surrounded the gem. She was starting to get worried. "Hey," she said as she reached her, slightly poking her shoulder. "You okay?"
"Ruins," Krystal replied blankly, completely ignoring the voice that was coming from her earpiece.
Mew finally decided to approach them, confused at the whole scene. "Is she okay?" she asked, waving her tail in front of the Eevee's eyes. "Maybe not."
Everything was suddenly enveloped with a bright white light as the cavern was suddenly echoing with a loud humming noise.
Mew floated back in surprise. The Chikorita jumped back, and slipped. The evolution trio yelped as they shielded their eyes from the bright light.
Finally, after a few seconds, the evolution gem slowly dimmed.
"Poopie," Mew rubbed her eyes, as she ignored a series of splashing noises. "That hurts..."
"Kr-Krystal?!" the Chikorita called, unsure if she was seeing things.
"What the—?" the Scizor yelped in surprise.
"Who the—?" the Pidgeot blinked.
A quick purple blur just ran past them and headed towards the dark tunnel.
"It's her!" the Rapidash galloped after the blur. "She's one of them!"
"One of who?!" the Scizor asked, flying after the flaming horse.
The Pidgeot froze, not knowing what to do. He finally snapped back after he heard another series of splashes. Turning, he saw the frantic-looking Chikorita running after them. Taking a quick glance at the gem, he then flapped his wings and grabbed the grass-type with a talon, and then he flew up, flying through the hole above where the gem continued to tower.
The Chikorita yelped. "Wh-where are you going?!"
"The shortcut," the Pidgeot simply replied, as he tried to piece together what just happened.
Mew finally recovered her sight, and then she blinked, looking around her. "Hey!" her petite ears drooped. "Where'd everyone go?"
Suddenly, a hum.
"Huh?" Mew turned back, and saw the towering evolution gem, glowing and fading.
She wondered what was going on, but she then heard the Rapidash's voice that echoed from the tunnel. Looking back from the tunnel and the gem and back, she blinked and quietly hovered after the voice.
"Stop her!" the Rapidash shouted, who was still far away from the small and fleeing Espeon. "Stop her!"
The Pokémon living in the dark cavern were confused about what was going on, while some were too slow to move or to try to be a hindrance to the Espeon's path.
Suddenly, the earth started shaking. Geodudes and Golems up ahead suddenly created a massive wall of rock, but the Espeon kept on running towards it.
"Is she mad?!" the Rapidash shouted.
The Espeon glowed white, and vanished just before she could collide with the wall.
"...of course..." the Rapidash growled as she skidded to a stop.
"Pyra!" the Scizor called, stopping beside her. "What was that all about? What's going o—"
"Just break the Arceus-damn wall, already!" the Rapidash snarled, making the Scizor flinch.
Meanwhile, the cave-dwelling Pokémon were either unable to stop the escaping Espeon, or were having no idea what was going on to do anything. The latter became common as the Espeon was getting closer and closer to the surface. At one point, she finally took notice of the earpiece on her ear. She just simply used a flicker of psychic energy to pull it off and smashed it on the ground as she kept her pace.
Finally, she was out of the cave.
...but a large shadow loomed over her.
Giant talons suddenly appeared in front of her, and she gasped as she was caught in a split of a second.
The Pidgeot flapped his mighty wings as he headed straight into the cave once again. Looking at his catch, he noticed the Espeon glowed in white.
...and became a puff of white smoke.
"Wh-what?!" the Pidgeot gasped, losing his aerial balance as he tried to stop and control his surprise.
An explosion of dust and bubbles erupted meters away from the mouth of the cave, near the line of trees.
The Pidgeot awkwardly landed on the ground and turned to look.
The Espeon jumped back to avoid another series of bubbles that were aimed at her.
"Krystal!" the Surskit's partner shouted as she threw her head in a waving motion, throwing sharp leaves at the Espeon. "Or whoever you are! Stop!"
Both the Surskit and the Chikorita still couldn't believe what the Pidgeot had told them as they flew earlier. With the Eevee suddenly disappearing, and the Espeon suddenly appearing out of nowhere, then...
The Espeon suddenly glowed, and turned into a Jolteon with a snarl as jolts of electricity sparked around her, zapping the leaves in the process.
With a yelp, the Chikorita pushed the stunned Surskit out of the way as the Jolteon fired a bolt of electricity...behind her.
"Gah!" the Pidgeot's pained shout was almost completely drowned by the sounds of sparking electricity.
The earth shook beneath her, but the Jolteon needed a moment to recover. A Diglett emerged, headbutting the electric-type's belly, and sent her flying above.
The Scizor suddenly appeared, and jumped towards the Jolteon to attack as his pincers glowed. The Jolteon yelped, and the Scizor...hesitated. Instead, he grabbed her, or at least he tried to.
"Aaahhh!" the Scizor cried in pain as he suddenly found himself in flames.
"Scythe!" the Pidgeot cried, helplessly paralyzed.
A blackened and smoking Scizor landed on the ground with a dull thud as the Flareon landed on top of the unconscious bug, and continued her escape towards the trees.
The Chikorita called, but she yelped instead after strong and powerful hooves broke the ground beside her as the angry Rapidash dashed after the fleeing fire type.
Digletts and Dugtrios emerged from the ground, in hopes to stop or slow the Flareon, but the fire-type expertly avoided each one (and three) of them while still keeping her pace.
Pyra was now a Rapidash away from the fleeing Flareon.
...or five Flareons.
"Why you...!" Pyra growled, her horn glowed as she darted her eyes from every shadowy copy of the Flareon's double team ability. With a powerful kick, she jumped, and slammed all four hooves as sharp and spinning stars quickly flew out of her horn, hitting every Flareon in sight, including the real one, and exploded upon contact.
"Ahh—" the Flareon wasn't able to finish her shout as she lost her balance, and rolled painfully. Finally, she reached the trees, and she rolled towards a bush, and emerged on the other side, hurt and bruised, and landed on the ground with a painful thud. She tried getting up, but a strong hoof pinned her nape down.
Pyra leaned down and snarled into her ear. "Stay down!"
A violent wave of water suddenly pushed her off after the Flareon glowed, and the yelping Rapidash found herself being pushed against a tree with a mighty torrent of water pushing her there for a few seconds. When it stopped, she collapsed on the wet and grassy ground with a pained groan. She weakly glared at the Vaporeon, who was limply making her slow escape.
Mew suddenly floated in front of the Vaporeon, curiously blinking at her. She tilted her head as the Vaporeon prepared another water attack with her mouth.
"Weird," Mew muttered, blinking at the Vaporeon. "You're linked to the gem, too. I wonder..." she yawned, suddenly feeling quite sleepy after a soothing melody echoed around the forest. "...why..."
Mew's eyes slowly drooped, and so did her, and so did the Vaporeon.
After a moment, the Chikorita stopped whistling on her leaf with a frown. Pulling her leaf back, she slowly began to approach them, the Surskit on her back removed his two front legs from his ears.
"That went well," the Surskit whispered as the Chikorita finally reached the Eevee right next to the Mew, both in deep slumber.
"S-Shadow..." Krystal weakly whispered in her sleep as the Scizor limply reached them, the Rapidash slowly getting back on her hooves and the Pidgeot slowly landed.