Flame's mental state is starting to slip, maybe having to kill the Hypno had a bigger effect on him than he first thought.

Episode Sixty: Moral Dilemma

I would tell you what happened at the gravesite but I did end up promising not to tell anyone and it isn't wise to tick off ghosts, they can hold a grudge for a long time. Besides, nothing really exciting happened anyway. So we headed back, Spiral seemed to have cheered up which I took as a good sign. We had headed back into Cerulean City.

"You know, I hate it when you are cranky,"I said, as I navigated my way through the streets.

"How come?"

"I don't like the compition. Although we are both cranky for similar reasons, I bet."

"I doubt it, you didn't see you mother die."

"True, I never saw my mother at all," I sighed, "but I looked up to my older sister. And I saw her perish, that was about three years ago. You just have to move on and enjoy what you have."

"I'll keep that in mind. When did you become so wise anyway?" Spiral laughed.

"I could become stupid if you want," I said with a grin.

"That won't be needed."

I spotted the bush and headed over to it. Spiral looked puzzled as I climbed over it, untill she saw the tunnel entrance behind it.

"You'd think that they would make the sewer entrance a little more obvious."

"Actually, this leads to the lake,"I said.

"That explains the smell."

"No, I think a Human came through here recently."

"How so?"

"Call it a hunch," I said, looking down at a footprint.

I began to head inside, Spiral following behind.

"What if the Human is that Frank person?" she asked.

"Then I may just end up setting his face on fire this time."

"He can't look any uglier, I guess."

"You definatly come from my side of the family," I laughed, reaching the vertical drop.

I lept down and nearly fell over, when Spiral landed ontop of me and I did end up on the floor..

"Sorry 'bout that," she said.

"No worries," I muttered, "can you get off of my face now?"

"Oh right, I forgot about that."

"How could you forget?" I yelled, pushing her off of me, "you were sitting on me! I think I have a hairball now."

"I really did not need to know that."

"Of course you did. Instead of shouting, I use sheer weirdness to keep order around here. It's suprisingly effective."

We finally moved on, there was definatly someone around. Unless Vapor had lit another fire for no apparent reason.

I dimmed my tail flame as much as I dared and snuck forward, peeking over the boulders.

"There was this Charmander, I don't know how it did it but it swam!" Came the voice of the Gym Leader

I could see Vapor listening, ovbiously news was hard to come by there so it was all interesting to him. I saw his eyes flicker over to my position and I waved.

"Miss me?" I said, stepping out into the open. The Human looked as though she'd had a heart attack.

"You again!" She said, untill Vapor trotted up to me.

"I was wondering if you'd show up again," it laughed.

"I was busy learning to swim."

"I presume this isn't a simple 'pop in and say hi' thing. What's the catch?" Vapor asked, suddenly becomming serious.

I looked back towards the tunnel and Spiral stepped into the light, Vapor seemed stunned.

"Not bad," it said after a bit of thought, "a little skinny, but I'd say that you did a fine job."

I let those two get aquainted and turned back towards the tunnel. I guess I was a little jealous right then.

'Well, this little adventure turned out okay in the end,' I thought to myself, 'time to move onto the next.'

I had been thinking ever since I met Vapor, the kits really didn't need me around anymore. I could tell that Moron was getting fed up of hanging around too, so I decided there and then to leave the kits behind.

'Then, they won't end up dead,' I thought to myself, 'but if they do get attacked again, then I would not be around to stop it.'

I stopped in my tracks, stuck in the most difficult choice I ever had to make. All of the thinking was giving me a headache.

'Sod it,' I mentaly cursed, 'they can look after themselves.'

I headed back down the tunnel, shot up the vertical slope as fast as I could. There was the sound of yells coming from below as someone tried to follow me but they couldn't move fast enough and I left the sounds behind. I left the tunnel and headed towards the Pokémon Center.

True to form, Squirtle was waiting for me.

"Where's Spiral?" He asked, as I approached.

"I dropped her off at a friends house," I muttered, not looking him in the eye.

"What do you mean?"

"We're packing up. I don't want to hang around any longer."

"What?" He cried, "have you completely lost your mind?"

"You know what happens when I stay in one place too long?" I said, "people get hurt. I attract danger like a Magneton."

"So you want to abandon them?"

"They were nearly killed because that thing followed me back to the center!" I yelled, "you want more deaths on your hands? Because that is what will happen!"

My shouting had attracted Scout and Blacky's attention.

"What's going on?" Scout asked.

"Flame's gone insane. He wants to leave."

"Really?" Blacky said, "lets go then."

"No," I muttered, turning to look after my shoulder, "you and Spiral are staying here."

"Why?" he asked, tears forming.

"I'm no Uncle. I'm no family, my family ended up dead. I don't want to go through that again," I said, turning away from all three of them and heading towards Moron.

"Hey!" Came a yell from behind. I turned round and spotted the Gym Leader right behind me, Pokéball in hand. She threw the ball to the ground and Spiral formed.

"I can't believe you left her behind!" The Gym Leader said, glaring at me.

Spiral looked ready to kill, so did everyone else, but I was staring at the Pokéball that was laying on the floor. I shot fowards and grabbed the orb before dashing out of the door, everyone was too shocked at my behaviour to react.

"They said I'd gone insane," I laughed as I ran though the city streets, "they were wrong, I already am insane."