Lots and lots of foreshadowing here, along with Squirtle being a wiseass. Don't worry, the tunnel escapade will be over soon - hopefully.

Comments as usual please. Come on, I said please.

Episode Fourty-Two: Tunnel Life

"You never actually told me where Moron was, you realise that?" I said, leaning up against the rock wall.

"He went back towards the town, said he needed to get something," Squirtle sighed, I could picture the shrug that came with those words.

"Well, it looks like I'll be able to get some payback."

"When you get out of this."

"Yeah. It's nice to see someone else with a little optimism."

"Optimism my foot, you're practicaly invunerable. You survived an Onix blow to the ribs, poison, Hypno and several cave-ins."

"I see what you mean."

"This should be a piece of cake for you."

"Cake?"

"Human food, you'd love it."

"Right now, I'd love any food. When's Pika going to get back with lunch."

"Breakfast actually."

"Well sorry, I can't tell due to there being no night or day in here."

"Apolagy accepted, easy mistake to make. She probably won't be back for a while yet."

"Any luck with the tunneling?"

"Not yet, we could probably make a small hole underneath your wall but it wouldn't be big enough to get you out without endangering the diggers."

"Damn. What about going under the door, would that work?"

"No, we already thought of that. The door is rested on solid rock. We can't dig through it without more power, and that might cause your ceiling to collapse."

I cursed mentaly. I had been sure that we'd have been able to get out that way. Me and Alpha had been trapped in the cave for several days now, according to Squirtle. Many of the Pokémon I had saved had left to go on their seperate ways. Porygon and Bulbasaur had stayed, for Alpha. Both Hitmonchan and Scyther had stayed because they felt that they had a debt to repay. The Ryhorn had carved out the small tunnel that Squirtle was standing in and was busy trying to dig around our prison, in order to see if we could get out from another angle.

Unfortunatly, that was taking a large amount of time and I really didn't have the attention span. Alpha spent most of the time asleep, in order too let his injured legs heal better, leaving me on my own. I had taken to throwing pepples up in the air and trying to catch them. Unfortunatly, my claws were not build for throwing upwards and the pebbles usually clobbered me on the head on the way back down.

The rejection of my escape plan rattled me, but I wasn't going to give up on it.

"You said you'd need more power to get through the rock, what did you mean?"

"We'd need to bust our way in. But the vibrations that doing so would cause, might cause your cave to collapse."

"But what if you could weaken the rock without having to use so much force?" I asked, a plan forming in my mind.

"How? It's solid rock. There is no other way."

"For you, maybe. But for me, there is always a way."

"I'll humour you on this one, try whatever you want. Just be carefull."

"Aint I always?"

"Thats what I'm worried about."

I trundled over to the steel wall and began to dig a small grove infront of it, I still hadn't really though up a plan and was really just winging it. Soon, I had dug a small hole and finally reached the rockface. I'd also amassed a fairly large pile of dirt, making our little home even smaller. I was the only one who was mobile anyway, and I was going down instead of around in circles, so the dirt wouldn't affect us much.

I boosted myself out of the hole I had created and leaned on the pile, trying to figure out what I was going to do next.

"Are you so bored that you need to make a mess?" came the yawn from Alpha.

"No, I may have just found a way out of this hellhole," I replied with a grin.

"Through solid rock?"

"Yep."

"How? Smash it?"

"No. According to Squirtle, that'd kill us."

"So how are we going to get through solid rock?"

"We heat it up untill we can break our way through without killing ourselves."

Alpha looked at me like I had gone crazy. Then again, I probably had from boredom.

"How do you suggest we do that? Our fire isn't anywhere near hot enough," he said. I laughed and picked up one of the spicy berries.

"That's where these little buggers come in."

"What? We're going to lob berries at them?" Alpha said, looking at me like I was even crazier than he was.

"No! I found out that these things give you one heck of a flamethrower. I practicaly incinerated a tree after eating one of these. I'm pretty sure that the five we got here will provide enough juice to burn our way out."

"Right. And then we climb through your tiny hole?"

"It'll be bigger by then, you idiot."

Alpha was silent for a few seconds as he thought about my plan. I could see the thoughts bouncing around his head. Eventually, he nodded and turned to me, "So, what are the downsides of your plan? How might we get killed?"

"Well, the place could collapse. But it could do that right now, it's luck that we survived at all," I answered.

"So no more danger than us being alive then?"

"Well, it might get a little hot but that shouldn't be a problem for us."

Alpha stopped again, the thinkings coming back with a vengance. While he was so pre-occupied, I took the time to move the five berries onto a small rock pile I had made so I wouldn't lose them.

"Well, Flame. What are you waiting for? Lets dig us a hole!" Alpha cried out, finally. I dived back into the hole and began shoveling out the loose dirt with new strength. There was finally a light at the end of the tunnel, and I was going to be the cause of it.