The escape operation continues, although there are a few 'slight' difficalties. Reviews are very much appreciated.

Episode Thirty-One: Halfway Through Hell

All of the Pokémon around me were backing away from the smoke. Even I could feel the heat slowly rising. (It's ironic really, setting off the fire alarm before the fire even starts.) I spotted small licks of fire starting to come round the corner.

"Porygon, hurry up. We need to get moving, now!" Bulbasaur yelled, there was sweat (or dew, I couldn't tell) on the plant Pokémon's forehead.

There was no responce from the Porygon for several agonizing seconds. Just as the other Pokémon were about to flee in random directions, Porygon finally said, "this way," and began floating down the corridoor. The freed Pokémon followed while me and Alpha took up the rear.

We had been moving through the maze of tunnels and corridoors, I had never realised just how big the Rocket's base was, for only a few minutes when I heard the roar of the flames. I looked back and saw it rushing up behind us, we were going through a newer tunnel that had wooden floorboards.

Everyone broke into a sprint (exept Porygon, who just speeding up his floating) as we raced against the blaze. The smoke was starting to affect us, we were slowly being sapped of energy. The stronger Pokémon were carrying the weaker and slower ones on their backs.

"In here!" Porygon yelled as he shot down a side alley.

We all shot in and each of us felt a sudden chill as we ran under some holes in the ceiling, I could spot something spinning behind the grills. The smoke was sucked into these air vents and away from us, plus the stone floor prevented the flames from being able to reach us.

"Catch your breath as fast as possible, we're only about half way there," Porygon said in its usual emotionless voice. It wasn't even breathing heavily. Hell, I'm not entirely sure it was breathing at all.

"Only half way? And this was to the nearest exit from where we were?" A scyther asked, panting.

"The nearest one that wouldn't get us incinerated within minutes," came Porygon's reply. If its voice wasn't so empty, I'm sure there would have been sarcasm in it.

Anyway, Porygon moved further down the tunnel we were in. I suddenly noticed that we were in a dead end.

"Uh Porygon? You do realise we are in a dead end, right?"

"We are not in a dead end at all."

I thought the weird floating Pokémon had gone crazy when I heard something in the walls and the end of the corridoor suddenly opened up into another tunnel. It led further down but even so, we had no other option. The stone floor below us was heating up from the fire that still blazed away behind us and many of the Pokémon looked ready to pass out from heat exaustion.

While Hitmonchan and another Vulpix herded the others down the new passageway, I noticed that the stone nearest the flames was starting to melt and the small flow of molten rock was gaining on Alpha. Alpha was slowing down with every step, I could see that his right hind-leg was swollen.

"Crap! Alpha!" I yelled as I sprinted towards the fellow Rebel. The roof above us was also starting to melt as was close to collapsing. The ground was becoming increasingly fragmented as cracks in the floor grew wider. I found myself leaping from one plate to another.

Eventually, I reached Alpha. He looked up at me and grinned.

"I thought you'd buggered off without me."

"Me? Nah, I only do that to complete prats," I laughed as I grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and pretty much hurled him in the direction of the others. The other Vulpix helping him up and took him down after the others while Hitmonchan waited for me.

As I shot off once more, the whole rock face shook and I nearly fell over. A steady stream of small pebbles were falling from the cracks in the ceiling as I lept over the larger cracks. There was a huge roar as the place where we were standing was crushed beneath a tonne or so of rock as a cave in started.

The wave of dust and debris gave me a little extra boost of speed but the cave in was catching up and, unlike fire, I wasn't impervoius to being crushed. I gulped in as much air as I could and shot over a large crack in the floor without even breaking my stride. The one after it however, caught me out.

"Crap!" I yelled as I tumbled to the floor. I had only been meters away from the safety of the passageway too. I mentaly wondered how much being crushed would hurt, but I luckily didn't find out. Hitmonchan hauled me to my feet and we both started running for our lives.

We both dived through the doorway just in the nick of time. Literally as I hit the floor, the entrance was burried under the rubble. I slowly got back to my feet, shaking like I had been in freezing water for too long, and let out a sigh of relief.

"They are going to need to redecorate in there," I managed to say, causing small chuckles from the crowd of Pokémon.

"We can't hang around, lets keep moving," Porygon said from the front, snapping us all back to reality.