Has anyone else noticed that the Episodes are getting progessively longer. That can only be a good thing, right?

re they ever going to get out of that Rocket base? Flame is starting to get a little annoyed, and who can blame him? Throw in a few awkward situations and you have a ToF Episode. Comments please.

Episode Thirty-Five: Lucky-ish

I had never really noticed how far away the exit was from where I had freed Alpha, but I was definatly aware of it now. The half molten rock, while not hurting me, was slowing me down. (I'd liken it to trying to run as fast as possible through a wet muddy field, while having huge boulders lobbed at you)

Needless to say, the pressure was definatly building. I started to curse my heroism and my awfull luck. Moron too, even though he'd never directly caused me any harm. I wasn't even sure why I had suddenly remembered Moron, seeing as my mind should have been more focused on getting the rest of me out of the danger zone in one piece.

Then I noticed a high, shrill voice that stood out from the rest of those that guided me. A voice that usually gave me a headache after a while. Pika's voice. Looks like my friends finally decided to show up.

"Better nearly too late then never, I guess," I muttered as a dodged around a boulder.

Suddenly, the yells of encouragement turned to screams which were rapidly drowned out by a loud crash as boulders fell all around me. I moved so that I was nearer the steel door, as the cave was a little sturdier there. Unfortunatly, that didn't help me much. The constant barrage of rock seemed to home in on me. More than once did I have to skid to a halt and have a stupidly large rock land where I would have been had I kept going.

"If we get out of this alive, you owe me big time," I told the still unconsious Alpha as I climbed over the rock and continued my mad sprint. I could just make out slivers of light through the dust cloud, I was close. My guide friends were not in sight, I guessed that they had moved clear.

Again, I stopped in order to avoid being crushed and a huge boulder landed just behind me too. The shockwave nearly knocked me to the ground, but I managed to stay on my feet. I was about to move around the first boulder when a third blocked the way around. The cave-in had sped up a notch.

"Bugger," was the first word that sprang to my tounge, which was suprising considering the ruder ones in my vocabulary. I heard a large crack from above and looked up to see a boulder falling down, strait towards me.

This time, I used words that are considered taboo by many Humans and Pokémon alike. Not exactly my choice of last words, but they fitted the circumstances well.

I didn't have time to save myself and was too tired to throw Alpha clear. Besides, even if I could, he was still unconsious and would be unable to save himself anyway.

"Mew! Now would be a good time!" I yelled as the boulder shot ever closer to my very squishable head.

However, my luck returned and the boulder became wedged ontop of the three that surrounded me. Unfortunatly, my luck wasn't enough to allow me a way to climb out. Kept me alive, yes, but also trapped. I was really getting pissed off with these near death situations.

'I'll consider that, half a victory.'

There was just enough room for me to plonk Alpha on the floor and slump down myself.

"Sods law really, I freed everyone else except myself and the ringleader who gave me the escape plan," I said to myself, staring at the 'ceiling'

"It could be worse, you could be dying alone," came a cough from infront of me. I nearly had a heart attack.

"Alpha! Don't do that," I said, "but you have a point. That'd really suck. Out of curiosity, how long have you been awake?"

"When that last boulder came down, but its only just now that my voice decided to work," Alpha wheezed. He must have inhaled a fair bit of dust.

"You okay?" I asked, which was a stupid question really. Seeing as we were trapped in a cave-in and we probably didn't have much air. My tail flame was not helping that much either, although the light did help us a little.

"Well I can't feel my legs, but I'm alive for the time being. Lucky me"

With the light my tail flame produced, I could see Alpha's legs, and I was glad that he couldn't feel them. One was bent the wrong way, being hit by large rocks does that. Alpha was right about the lucky part, that slab that had bust his legs had only just missed his torso and head.

He saw me grimance and sighed, "it's that bad, huh?"

"Yeah. Limbs are not supposed to bend that way," I said, looking away. The sight of them made me want to throw up and there wasn't enough room. I'm pretty sure Alpha wouldn't appreciate being thrown up on.

"Ah well, when we get out of here, I'll get Porygon to take a looksie. He and Bulbasaur, between them, can probably fix it."

"If we get out of here," I said, throwing my head back with a sigh which turned into a curse as my skull bashed up against one of our cage's walls.

As I swore, I realised something about the wall I had been clobbered by. It was smooth, and shiney. We were trapped against the steel door. I held my ear up against it . Alpha was looking at me, quizzicaly, but I wasn't paying attention to him. I was using all my focus listening through the steel.

I could hear faint voices on the other side, obviously of the other Pokémon. I could make out someone sobbing too.

"Alpha, looks like our death has upset a couple of people," I said as I began to pound on the steel and yell out as loud as possible.

Soon, there was knocking from the other side and Pika's voice called back, "Flame?"

"No, it's Nurse Joy. Of course it's me," I replied sarcasticaly.

"Nice too see your sense of humour hasn't changed. Listen, Moron and Joanne will be here in a bit. They'll know how to get you out."

"You are not filling me with confidence here, but its the only chance we've got," I sighed.

"Flame?" A second voice piped up, "Is Alpha okay?"

I had to think for a few seconds for a way to phrase that.

"I'd let you ask him yourself, but it is probably a bad idea to move him. His legs are a little bit buggered up. But apart from that, he's fine considering the circumstances," I said, trying the long winded aproach. I think he took it fairly well, as there was only a small choked back sob. Although I'm pretty sure that Pika helped prevent any more crying by threating using a few thousand volts of electisity.