My teeth clenched together as I heard that. So, there was somebody who was hostile behind this rock slab. I began to get nervous as Sasuke pulled my arm. I looked to see he was getting everybody in a circle and thus began to make a plan.

"All right, Sasuke, what do we do?" Naruto asked.

"Well… we first need to determine what kind of Pokémon it is," Sasuke said and turned to Batsu, "Can you tell at all?"

"Yes… it looks like an male Ariados. A big one," Batsu told him, "We'll need to exercise caution against it."

"All right, here's what we're gonna do," Sasuke said to us, grabbing our attention, "The first plan is this. I'm going to go out first by myself."

"WHAT!?" Naruto said as we all gasped, "Sasuke, you can't go out there by yourself!"

"Listen, we don't need to try to fight Ariados immediately. If we can talk to him reasonably, then maybe we can get out of here and bring Caterpie with us," he replied calmly.

I didn't like the idea at all. Sasuke going by himself alone? That was CERTAINLY gonna work…. Enter sarcasm here. I didn't like it at all. That was way too risky and way too shady for it to work. I then got the idea that everybody agreed with me.

"Listen, Sasuke," Zev said, "I'm not part of the team, but that's suicide. You darn well know that Ariados is most likely going to attack you."

"I know, but we have to try," Sasuke nodded and replied, "If we can just get Caterpie and then get out without a confrontation that could cause injuries, then that's the best path. So, here's what will happen. I will go outside and say that I'm here for Caterpie and try to talk him down. If that fails, we'll have no choice but to fight. Here's how we'll do it."

He looked over at Batsu and said, "Batsu, most likely this Ariados is going to be on a web of some kind and will prefer to attack from long range. So, I'm giving you the option of doing one of two things. Either try to get up close and kept attacking, or make stronger long-range attacks so that he can't get one off because he has to dodge or block yours."

"I'll do what I can depending on the situation, Sasuke," Batsu nodded.

"All right... Zev," Sasuke said, looking over to the Grovyle, "I want you to be careful."

"Don't tell me what to do; I'm not part of your team," Zev said.

Oh, man. That was not a good thing to say or do. Right now, we needed to rescue a child in danger. The last thing we needed was an argument amongst ourselves. But surprisingly, I was kind of proud of how my older brother handled the situation. He calmly smiled and shook his head.

"No, I'm not going to give you an order," he said, "I'm just asking you to be careful. Ariados is a bug and poison type; a big weakness, since you're a grass type. He's a bad enemy for you, so please be careful."

Sasuke then turned to King, who smirked, and said, "King, we're actually going to rely on you the most here. You're a fire type which means your attacks will do the most damage here. Since you can do whatever you want, I'd though suggest you play it safe and not put yourself at risk by fighting up close."

King smirked and nodded, stretching his arms out. It was then that Batsu got his attention by placing a paw to show he wanted to speak.

"I'd though would like to advise King to use extreme caution. If Ariados sees that a fire-type is present, he may try to take you out first. If that's the case, you can't afford to be reckless. You'll need to play it smart," he said.

I was pretty sure that King wasn't so thrilled in getting instruction like that. I'm pretty sure he wanted to run wild if there was a battle. But nevertheless, he… well… kinda agreed to it with a slow nod.

"What about me?" I asked, oblivious to that at the time.

"Your job is to get Caterpie and get him to this entrance. Once you do, everybody will fall back and escape this place. Don't worry; Naruto is gonna back you up," Sasuke said.

I then felt a gentle nudge from a cold wet nose as I smiled. Naruto rubbed his face against me and wagged his tail smiling.

"Don't worry about a thing, Thomas!" he said cheerfully, "I'll protect you no matter what!"

I smiled and felt reassured as he said that. But… I knew that Caterpie needed protection the most.

"Actually," I told Naruto who blinked in surprise, "Caterpie comes first. If Ariados attacks him, forget about me. You go after him first, okay?"

Naruto nodded and snuggled into me, saying, "Just be safe, okay?"

I nodded and Sasuke said, "All right… here I go."

With that and still holding onto the bag, he signaled us to be stay in our positions as he slowly went to the edge of the rock slab. He quietly got to the end and then slowly walked sideways across the room. He then widened his eyes as he took a deep breath.

"That's one huge spider," he muttered under his breath.

I blinked in response to that; he was huge? How big was he? Ariados are not that big to begin with... Does that mean the Pokemon here can be totally different size than in the human world?

With that, he kept his cool and kept going towards Caterpie. Suddenly, we all heard a roar and then were about to charge. But Sasuke's paw signaled us to stop where we were as he faced where the spider was.

"Hello," he said peacefully, "Please let me speak. My name is Sasuke and I was sent here with a few friends to rescue Caterpie here."

He kept stepping closer to Caterpie in baby steps, hoping he could get there. He slowly gulped and spoke again.

"Listen, I understand if you and the other Pokémon near here are angry about what happened with the fissure. But you need to know; it's not Caterpie or his mother's fault. It was a natural disaster," he explained.

After another roar, he continued, "I promise, once we get Caterpie out of here, we'll leave. We mean you no harm. Please let Caterpie go; he's just a child."

We heard another roar as Sasuke continued to reason with this Ariados. At first, I didn't understand it. I mean, don't get me wrong. I was a Pokémon and such… but maybe I wasn't used to Pokélanguage just yet. So maybe that's why I couldn't understand, but at the time, I didn't know that even if Pokémon roar, that's still a way of speaking. Because of this fact, Sasuke could understand him and keep talking. However, King was starting to get impatient. Really bad.

"Grr… He's taking way too dang long," he said, "We should go in and get Caterpie all ready."

He began to stand up and try to run over, but a paw from Batsu stopped him. He turned to look at the serious face of the Riolu holding him back.

"King, your orders were to stay here. Do not disobey Sasuke; you'll put him and Caterpie in danger," he said.

"Don't tell me what to do!" King yanked his arm free.

"King, listen to us," Naruto said, "If you go out there, Ariados is most likely going to attack. You need to listen to Sasuke right now and-"

"Rghh! I've had it! Stop telling me what to do! I'm going in to get that Caterpie, whether you or Sasuke like it or not!" King yelled as he charged over to where Sasuke was.

"Ugh… he's such an idiot, he doesn't even know how much danger he put Caterpie and all of us in," Zev said, shaking his head.

I gasped as I saw him run out into the field of view. Suddenly, there was a huge roar that sounded angry and chaotic. Sasuke immediately looked around to see if anything had ticked the Ariados off. Once he saw King, his eyes widened and Caterpie started to cry again.

"King! What are you doing!? I told you to stay back!" he yelled, startling the Charmeleon.

Suddenly, the whole area shook from a humongous roar that almost sent me off my feet. It was so surprising, that I wasn't expecting it. Suddenly, both King and Sasuke flinched as they saw something coming from Ariados' direction. I then realized it was an attack as both dodged out of the way safely. Batsu then stood up.

"I guess we have no choice now. Let's get out there and help! Remember your jobs!" Batsu said.

With that, my heart started to beat louder as I stood up and looked towards Caterpie. I watched as the others ran to face Ariados. I nodded as I could feel the adrenaline rush through my body. I was faced with a fight-or-flight feeling, but I knew I couldn't run away. Not now. Not ever again.

I thus ran as fast as I could over to Caterpie. I surprisingly did well for running on all fours, since this was my first time in doing so. I got a chance to see that although King had disobeyed Sasuke, he was doing his job of keep Ariados distracted with the others long enough for me to get over to Caterpie while Naruto protected me. He was shaking in terror as I approached him.

"Hey, it's okay. I'm here now," I tried to comfort him.

"Please… help me… I want my mommy…" Caterpie cried.

Suddenly, he clutched into my chest, hugging me. I felt so honored that he needed me, that he wanted my help. I wouldn't let him get hurt. I slowly wrapped my arms around him and rubbed his back.

"Shh, it's gonna be okay," I said with a smile, "Okay, Caterpie, what I need you to do is to walk calmly with me by my side. Can you do that?"

He slowly nodded his little head and began to walk with me back towards the slab. I didn't pay attention to the battle, but I kept notice of Naruto guarding me. I remember feeling Caterpie shaking and clutching to me. I felt so chilling yet honored. Is this what it felt to be a Rescue Team member? To rescue someone like this… it felt wonderful.

It wasn't too long that I was finally able to get Caterpie over to the rock slab. Then, Sasuke turned to see me and Naruto there. The puppy nodded to our older brother. Then, Sasuke turned to the others.

"Guys, we got Caterpie! Let's get going!" he ordered.

With that, the group started to head over to the rock slab. I didn't get a chance to look behind me, but I could see the others start to run behind me. I continued to hold onto Caterpie as we got a fair distance from the entrance and stopped. We all started to take a breather as we looked at Caterpie.

"Caterpie, are you okay?" Sasuke asked. "You're not hurt, are you?"

"N-No, I'm fine…" Caterpie said, starting to become happy.

We all smiled as Naruto said, "Good, we're happy to see you unhurt."

He gave a special little lick to the child, making him laugh. I smiled that he was happy and okay. It was then Sasuke nodded to us.

"Okay, then, let's get out of here and help Caterpie to his mom," he said smiling.

We all started to walk back calmly. Phew, I was glad that was over. I felt like I did good on that mission. I may not have fought, but to rescue Caterpie was a good feeling. This team was a bit shaky, but we did good. The five of us really pulled through and… wait a minute… FIVE? … Uh-oh…

"Guys?" I asked nervously, "Where's Zev?"

All of them stopped to look among us. Zev wasn't with us. This was bad. We all tried scanning the area, but to no avail. The Grovyle was nowhere to be seen. King then growled a bit.

"That stupid idiot," he muttered, "He probably ran off with our stuff."

"Impossible," Batsu said, "Sasuke has been holding the bag the whole time through the fight."

True enough, Sasuke was clutching right onto the bag, which hung over his right shoulder. King blinked in surprise as we looked around. Then where was Zev if he didn't steal our stuff already?

"Batsu, is he nearby? Can you sense his aura?" Sasuke asked.

Batsu did a quick scan and shook his head, "No. He never came this way. His aura isn't here."

"But that can't be right," King said, pointing back to the area, "The guy was right behind me when we were running to safety."

All of a sudden, our faces turned to dread. Sweat ran down my face as I felt scared and cold. We all slowly looked back to the entrance.

"D-Does that mean… Zev didn't make it?" Caterpie asked fearfully.

"You mean he's still back there!?" I yelled in shock.

"No… Ariados must've captured him!" Naruto said, whining in concern, "Sasuke, we have to go back! He's in trouble!"

"No, that's not a good idea," Batsu told Sasuke, "We got Caterpie. That was the mission; we need to get him out of here and back to his mother before he gets hurt."

I just looked at him with disbelief. Was this guy serious? Did nothing of what I promised Zev mean nothing to him? He wanted my brother to order us to leave Zev behind, where he could get extremely injured, and he has the guts to act like it's no big deal! I couldn't believe him!

"Look, Sasuke," Batsu said again, "We need to worry about Caterpie right now. He's our top priority."

…

No.

"But we can't leave Zev back there like that!" Naruto defended, "If he even gets hit with even one poison or bug type attack, he'll be done for!"

"Geez, just leave Zev behind," King said with a scoff, "He had this coming anyways. Besides, I'm pretty sure another team can come rescue him."

No.

"You know that's a lie!" Caterpie tried to assist Naruto, "Almost all of Pokémon Square hates Zev! There's no way any team would take that request! Look, I'm one you're trying to rescue, and I say you guys go back and help him!"

"… As much as I want to agree with Naruto and you, Caterpie, you were the one we were told to rescue," Sasuke said, taking a deep breath, "All right, we're going back to Pokémon Square. We'll immediately put up a notice that Zev is in trouble and he needs help."

As Caterpie and Naruto looked down in worry, Batsu nodded with agreement as King shrugged and said, "I got nothing personal against the guy, but that's what it's gonna be."

"No."

Everybody was surprised as they turned to me. I had my face down where the shadows covered my serious look. I was shaking with determination and had my fists clenched. It was then Caterpie widened his eyes and slowly, without me noticing at the time, started to admire me.

"What? What did you say?" he asked me.

It was then I gave a serious and noble look as I said, "I made Zev a promise. I AM NOT LEAVING UNTIL I RESCUE HIM."

-