Riley.

Inside Mt. Coronet.

"Anyone wanna explain why little bit's feeling up the wall...?"

"He grew up on a rockier Mossdeep City, now hush up, Mark."

Lee tried to keep everyone quiet while I navigated us through the inside of the mountain. I slid my hand lightly against the wall as I walked, focusing very intently on the area around us.

If I extend my focus backwards, I can practically feel the snow outside...but it's just plain rock ahead...how can we possibly find our way north...?

I grit my teeth and grimaced. I absolutely hated being lost.

"How long have we been in here?" My voice echoed through the narrow cavern as I spoke.

"Umm...half hour," Amber answered immediately.

I stopped walking and curled my fingers into a tight fist, and slammed it against the solid rock. My knuckles stung after that.

Someone(presumably Lee) crashed into me as I stood, and the rest followed like a line of dominoes. Thankfully, we didn't fall over like dominoes.

"Hey!" Dee barked loudly. "Watch it, Riley!"

"What's wrong?" Astro asked. "Are you alright?"

"Dammit!" I struck the wall again, grunting in pain. "The rock is a lot like on Iron Island, but I can't...there's nothing to distinguish a damn path! We're lost!"

As I raised my fist a third time, thick fingers wrapped around my wrist and held me back. His thumb knuckle sat poised at a pressure point on my veins.

"Stop. Riley." Mark's voice was firm. "All you're doing is hurting yourself, and that helps nobody. Take a deep breath. Jesus, what a temper on this one..."

He kept his hold on my wrist. I stood there, petrified, too nervous to fight that iron grip.

Someone cleared their throat. "What...did Riley...?" It was Amber.

"Still angry?" Mark kept the rigid tone. When I hesitated, he impatiently added, "Riley?"

I nodded. "N-no. Please...let go." I didn't like how tightly he had been holding my wrist.

Almost as soon as I said it, Mark released my hand. I heard the loud "smack!" of something hitting his head.

"Oww! Lee!"

"Don't you dare lay a hand on these three, do you understand?" I closed my eyes, and saw a gray Lee-shaped aura smack a green Mark-shaped one again.

Angry, Mark shoved Lee into a wall, and held him there. "You're talking about not touching them, but you'll hit me? I'll give you a reason to fight me, you little shit!"

The girls-no pun intended-were completely in the dark. Dee stomped her boot, howling, "You guys! What is going on?"

Sounding more concerned, Amber asked, "Is Riley okay?"

"I'm fine," I immediately told her.

Lee and Mark shoved each other around in the dark, slamming into the walls of the narrow tunnel. Astro reached up and grabbed Amber's hand, tugging her backwards to avoid them.

"Guys, stop...!" His tinny little voice sounded pained. I knew that most conflicts gave him bad migraines. I pitied the poor little guy, because they didn't hear him. "Seriously, stop it!"

In a way, it was pretty flattering to think that Lee would fight his best friend to defend me. But, on the other hand, he was willing to fight Marcus Lowe, a 19 year old the size of a football linebacker, which was an awful idea. Especially because Lee had the constitution of a daffodil.

"I SAID TO CUT IT OUT!"

They only continued for another few seconds, before Astro intervened. With no warning, his baby blue aura turned blood-red for a second, then my whole vision went red behind my eyes. The color literally screamed bloody murder at me, and made my head swim in pain.

Lee and Mark smacked into opposite walls, grunting loudly. Like me and Flint, when he'd tried to pick a fight at the tag team tournament...

"Astro!" Amber squeaked.

"What the holy hell was that?" Dee demanded, in awe. "Lee? Mark?!"

"Ohhh..." The only repeatable answer was a groan from Lee. "Goddamn, that smarts..."

I had a feeling we could all feel Astro glowering. He hated other people fighting, but man, he could get seriously mad.

"What the {expletive deleted} did that little {expletive deleted} do?!" Mark growled.

"I told you idiots to shut the hell up!" Astro barked back. "Don't call me names just because you're too dumb to act like grown ups! Jesus God, I hate you!"

Strong words from such a small speaker. I cleared my throat nervously, hoping to stop another brawl.

"L-Lee, how...*ahem*I mean, could Strawberry maybe-?"

"No." Lee's voice is firm. "His light would be too strong, blind all fi-...six of us. Mark, could Gardevo-?"

"Not unless you wanna scan 'er moves," Mark interrupted. "I don't even know if she remembers the move."

Lee sighed. "Of course."

"What move?" I asked. I didn't like when they just started talking between themselves. "What can Gardevoir do?"

They waited so long to answer, I thought I was being ignored. Then, Lee slowly answered, "Uh...Flash. She can light the tunnels for us, 'cause, uh...psychic stuff, I guess?"

Mark groaned. "'Psychic stuff'? Idiot. If you're gonna wait so long..."

I heard Mark grunt and heft something to the ground. I closed my eyes, and saw the outline of his aura. Mark was...sifting through his backpack?

"What's going on?" Amber asked.

"Who's doing what?" Dee echoed. "Why?"

"Would you girls shut your traps for five seconds so I can find my Pokedex?!" Mark barked at them. "My God, Riley, I don't know how you could accomplish earning even one badge with these two noisy things around."

"Don't call Amber a 'noisy thing'!" Astro, always defensive, was quick to defend his trainer.

Mark flipped his Pokedex open, and scanned a pokeball with it. His face was lit up, and he was biting his bottom lip.

"Gardevoir, the Embrace pokemon," It warbled. "Gardevoir is a vigilant and loyal companion that guards its trainer with its life. It can also see into the future. Gardevoir's current attacks are Psychic, Psyshock, Double Team, Teleport, Flash-"

The Pokedex was flipped shut again. "That's all I needed. Gardevoir, c'mon out."

He tossed the pokeball in the air, and Gardevoir came out in a bright flash of light.

"Gaarrr," She purred.

"Riley, Amber, Deadra. Close your eyes, you'll blind yourselves if you-"

"What about Lee? If we'd blind our se-!"

"Idiots don't blind that easy. If you want to lose your vision...Gardevoir, sweetie, please use Flash."

One of the more scarring events of my teenage life was hearing Mark Lowe use such an endearing term as "sweetie". I closed my eyes, and covered them with my forearm. My new jacket already smelled like sweat and social anxiety.

"Gaaaaarrrr..." The area around my peripheral vision glowed a little. "Gardevoir!"

It was another second before Mark gave us the okay to look. Gardevoir was standing beside me, glowing either brightly or dimly white. It wasn't a dazzling light, but we couldall clearly see the path ahead.

I glanced behind me, at the girls. Their arms were linked at the elbow so they wouldn't lose each other...how cute. And Astro was standing at Amber's feet...glowering. His attitude was really giving me the heebie-jeebies.

[You are such a drama queen...I wasn't that bad as a Riolu.]

I'm the drama queen?! Which one of us shoved people into walls to stop arguments? Besides, you're still kinda creepy.