Maniacal laughter echoed off the walls and bounced around the inside of her ears, making her shudder with annoyance. But just as abruptly as it had begun, the laughter suddenly turned into a shrill screams. A multitude of prolonged and agonised screams, the piercing volume also translated into Lyra's agony as well. What the hell?!
Peeping round the corner of the corridor where she had found herself, Lyra came across a strange sight. This corridor led to a dead end and was filled with people, mostly young ones around her age. Some were running in circles, others lying on the floor and still others banging their heads on the wall. All were clutching their heads or clawing at their faces, screaming in torment. At the end of this hallway, an old woman sat behind a counter with her back to the wall, silently observing the spectacle with a neutral expression. A lopsided smile suddenly broke across her face and her head tilted sideways like a broken lampshade towards the direction of where Lyra believed herself to be concealed. "Hello Lyra, I can see you there!" Her squeaky voice, which sounded like an unoiled door hinge, could strangely be heard above the din being made. "SILENCE!" the old woman suddenly boomed in a deep masculine voice and with that, all the tormented souls in the corridor suddenly ceased their screams and crashed twitching onto the ground. Obviously, this woman was not normal at all.
"Oh don't worry sweetie. Come over here!" the old woman crooned, assuming her unoiled-hinge voice once more. She lifted a wrinkled hand and beckoned Lyra towards her. To Lyra, this old woman looked somewhat familiar.
"Do I know you? And what happened to all these… people?" Lyra hesitated, moving around the corner but refusing to go any nearer to the sinister hag smiling at her.
"Oh I gave them my herbs. These are very good medicine!" The old woman motioned at the people convulsing on the ground and Lyra noticed that they were fully conscious, eyes bloodshot and foaming slightly at the mouths. "EnergyPowder is good for you!" the old woman creaked, opening the palm of her other hand to reveal a heap of suspicious white powder. With a flick of her arm, she scattered the white powder across the room, as though she were throwing confetti. This had the effect of making the people on the floor start giggling uncontrollably. To Lyra however, the foul substance made her eyes water and burn while causing her to gag.
"Erm… N-No thanks…" Lyra managed to choke out while rubbing furiously at her eyes. She then covered her nose and mouth with her hand and inched away quickly. "By the way, do you happen to know who was behind whatever happened downstairs?"
"Try this Revival Herb, my dear. It will wake you up real good!" the woman's lopsided head turned even more until it was parallel to the ground. She pulled out a dirty and shrivelled bunch of long green leaves from under the counter and waved them at Lyra, completely ignoring the latter's question. Then suddenly, the creepy smile disappeared off her face and was replaced with a stern glare. Her head straightened in one swift motion, sudden enough, Lyra was sure, to cause whiplash. "TAKE THESE HERBS!" the woman screamed and hurled the bunch of leaves at Lyra. They fell to the floor a few metres short of where she was standing. Upon hitting the floor, the bunch of leaves burst into sparks and dissolved into what Lyra thought to be a large pile of soot. But she immediately realised that it was not soot because the black pile of debris starting moving rapidly towards her with an ominous scratching sound.
"KEKEKEKEKEKEKEKEKE! SPIDERS!" The old woman was cackling, waving her gnarled arms in the air. Lyra took this as her cue to run and she quickly turned the corner and bolted in the opposite direction from which she had come, the swarm of soot-like spiders rushing after her. "Come back here, young lady, and take your medicine!" the old woman's voice rang out deafeningly across the Underground Tunnel while Lyra raced desperately towards the Tunnel exit, not wanting to find out what the spiders wanted with her or what they were capable of.
She had been fully exhausted from running away, first from the debacle at the Department Store, then the scare in the Basement, and now this. But the adrenaline rush gave her a new burst of speed and she persevered, determined to make it out from here alive.
She had thoroughly explored the Goldenrod Underground before and still thought that she vaguely remembered where the exit would be, that is, until she ran into another dead end. This time two identical-looking young men sat behind a counter, staring vacantly. "… Haircut?" asked one, cocking his head and focusing his stare onto her.
"Sorry, no thanks!" Lyra said quickly while backing out of the corridor to get her bearings. Thankfully, the spiders were slower than her and this gave her some time to pause and think.
"I just need to get my scissors!" the guy called from behind her.
"I'm sorry, I'm in a rush!"
"No, here we go!" A monstrous snapping sound caught Lyra's attention and she whipped round to see the young man standing behind her with… a pair of Scizors. "Cut! X-Scissor!" the man commanded, pointing at Lyra's head.
Clacking their wickedly-sharp pincers, the two bug Pokémon dashed toward Lyra, ready to cut all her hair off, and probably her head off her neck as well. She couldn't take any chances on this one.
"Banette! Will-O-Wisp!" she ordered, while whipping out the marionette Pokémon's Poké Ball in a flash. Upon being called out, Banette sent a stream of blue flames towards its fast-advancing adversaries while Lyra quickly stepped to the side to avoid their barbering attempts. "Now use Shadow Ball!"
The two Pincer Pokémon had just been hit by the Will-O-Wisp attack and were thrashing in agony when a huge orb of dark energy knocked both of them back into their Trainer. Hearing the scratching noises getting louder, Lyra turned and saw that the spiders were now only half a metre away from her and she recalled Banette back into its ball. Sprinting down another corridor, she prayed that this time she'd get her directions right.
Now as she racked her brains while running, this part of the Goldenrod Underground seemed more familiar. It was probably somewhere near here that she had battled a few trainers and viewed the underground photo exhibition. The part of the tunnel that she was now in was becoming more straightforward, with fewer corridors branching off at the sides. This meant that the exit must probably be near! This thought helped her to keep going and she raced forward, her pursuers hot on her heels.
Bingo! Rounding yet another corner, she saw a flight of stairs leading upwards to ground-level. But just then, the pair of Scizors raced past her using Agility before whirling around and baring their gleaming metallic pincers at her, blocking her way to the exit. Behind her, the scratching sound told her that the swarm of spiders were getting closer. And this time, the path in front of her was a straight one, with no other corridors to turn and run off into. Perhaps the only thing worse than being trapped between Scylla and Charybdis was being caught between Scizors and arachnids.
Just when she thought she was going to be ripped apart by either, a sudden Hydro Pump attack coming from behind her knocked aside the two steel Pokémon in front of her. Quickly turning to see who had saved her, she saw a boy stooping down over the spiders while opening a pink, heart-shaped box and placing it on the ground behind them. The spiders immediately halted their pursuit of Lyra, performing a u-turn and swarming into the box instead.
Lyra however did not turn and run for the stairs. Nor did she walk up to the boy and thank him for saving her. She simply stared dumbly at him.
That unmistakable smile. His signature black and gold cap, with his fringe peeking out from under it. The Azumarill bouncing happily next to him. Though she had not seen him in a long time, she immediately recognised him.
It was Ethan.