Wow, another Episode. And it's still a Flame Episode, because I promised myself to avoid doing another Squirt Episode. Anyway, Flame meets the team of Blues that he is going to be stuck with. One of Blue Seven offers to show him the ropes, although Flame doesn't stick to it for very long.

Comments are still wanted, and more hell will be let loose in the nexy few Episodes.

Episode 116: Crystal Clear

"Hey, he's waking up!" I heard a yell from somewhere to my left when I finally woke up. I opened my eyes and found several pairs of them staring right back.

"Can I help you?" I asked, my voice a little croaky as I tried to sit up but someone pushed me back down.

"Don't get up, we still don't know how injured you are," a bazare voice, deep yet silky, answered, "everyone, back off and let him breathe."

The other Pokémon moved away and I got a good look at where I was. I had been moved to a different cavern, a much smaller one. Another Pokémon was still holding me down, it's blue skin glinting in the light from its blue crystal. It looked similar to me, with a longer muzzle and many teeth. It was definatly reptilian in nature.

"Well, you seem okay to me. Looks like you got off with only a some bruising," it said, "which is good because the Greens'll kill you if you can't work."

"What the hell are you on about?" I asked, finally being allowed to sit up. It took a bit of shifting untill I was no longer crushing my tail underneath me.

"You attacked 'the great master' Bayleaf," the Pokémon said as he sat down beside me, "so you are not deemed worthy enough of being a Green. So you're a Blue. Well, welcome to hell."

"I am killing that bastard when I get a chance," I muttered as I pulled myself to my feet, "champion of shadow, my arse!"

"Bravado doesn't get you very far, only a good whipping," the other Pokémon said, pointing to massive red lines that covered it, "I've fought off Greens who were attacking sick Blues and this is what I got."

I sighed and sat back down again, "I knew I should have listened to my instincts and refused to come here."

"Well, you didn't. No use moping," the blue reptile said with a toothy grin as he offered his paw, "I'm Tate, the Totodile."

"Flame," I replied as I shook it, "now what the hell did you mean by work?"

"The Bayleaf must have told you," Tate sighed, "we are forced to work on expanding two huge caverns, the one you arrived in and a second one. We're worked untill we can no longer dig or carry dirt. Then, they kill us. Many of the grass type Blues never make it past a few days, thanks to the lack of sun. Fervo, who is in the pen across the tunnel, is the only one to last more than that since I arrived well over a moth ago."

I stared at the cavern's ceiling in silence for several seconds before turning back, "you've been here over a month and haven't escaped yet?"

"I've tried, been whipped almost to death every single time. By Bayleaf personally," Tate said, spitting on the floor as he did so, "The moment you leave this network, your crystal goes out and you can no longer see. Greens don't have that problem and can hunt you down."

"Well, I don't have that problem either," I smiled, "my tail flame won't go out on its own unless I get a blast of water to it, and I can just reignite it then."

Tate looked acrossed at me and frowned slightly, "you are treating this as though it is some kind of game."

"No, I've just busted out of an underground prison before. It was fairly easy, untill the caves started collapsing and a fire started."

"You're a trainer Pokémon then?" He asked, "no wild would be able to travel so far."

"Technicaly, yeah," I answered, "although he isn't a very good one. I usually end up surviving on my own."

"I used to have a trainer," he muttered, a small tear forming, "The two Onix killed her, I couldn't fight both."

"I've injured both," I said, giving the Tododile a small amount of comfort, "I destroyed an eye of one and lopped off the tip of the other's tail."

Totodile looked up and smiled, "you fought off both Onix?" I nodded a yes, "then we just might have a sliver of hope to escape."

"Now, let's not rush this," I said, "last time, that nearly got me killed. Besides, we want to save as many people as possible."

"Well, in around an hour or so's time we get summoned for another shift of work," Tate explained, "you can learn the ropes. Which reminds me-"

He cut off and turned to one of the other Pokémon that stood near the walls. The Pokémon was a blue Nidoran, looking incredibly skinny and covered in dirt.

"Cray, where did you put the crystal?" Tate asked and the Nido replied in a quiet voice that I didn't manage to make out.

Tate sighed and turned back to me.

"You're going to have to get up. Cray's gone an' buried it."

"Buried?" I asked as I stood up and moved to the side as Tate scratched away the soil and soon pulled out a blue crystal.

He wiped the dirt off of it and handed it to me before speaking, "never take that off when you are out of these sleeping caverns, the Greens will attack anyone without a crystal. Sometimes they'll attack for no reason, you're going to have to take that without complaint or you get it even worse."

"I'm stuck underground, making a cave for a delusional dickhead," I said as I took the crystal and hung is around my neck, "it can't get any worse."

"True," Tate chuckled, "welcome to Blue Seven."

So around an hour or so later, I found myself pulling a sled laden with dirt. Tate was straining alongside me.

"When you said work, you were not kidding," I muttered as we dragged the massive pile along a tunnel, the floor worn smooth from hundreds of sleds like this passing through. But it was still hard, mainly because of the sheer weight of the giant rocks the two of us had to pull.

"This is the easy stuff, wait untill you get stuck digging," Tate replied as we both dug in our claws and heaved the weight towards a huge crevice.

"Hey you two!" A tangled mess of vines with red feet, and a green crystal, yelled at us to, "stop talking and work."

"Sorry Sir," Tate replied as we both pulled even harder, "won't happen again."

"It had better not," the Green Tangela said, "I've got my eyes on you two."

I couldn't resist myself as we approached the crevice that we were meant to dump our cargo in. I must have been hanging around Squirt too long because I just burst out, "I didn't know you had eyes Sir, those stupid vines must hide them."

Tate glanced across at me and sighed, "idiot."

I flinched as a sudden stinging pain shot across my back. It almost made me drop the sled but I managed to hold on at the last second. I had to clench my jaw to stop myself crying out as I was whipped again and again. Tate keep whispering for me to stay silent and take it, but my anger was close to bursting out again as I glanced over my shoulder.

"You need to learn your place, Blue," the Tangela growled as it pulled back another vine and it lashed out towards me.

"You need to learn yours, dickhead," I replied as I let go of the sled with one paw and caught the vine in midair. I kept pulling the sled, with one paw, while dragging the Tangela with me.

We passed several other groups of Blues, all of whom stopped work to watch us pass. I guess it wasn't often that they saw one of their slavedrivers being dragged along behind a sled.

"We're so going to get beaten up for this," Tate muttered.

"Well enjoy the moment then," I replied, giving a nod to another sled group as we overtook them.

"Why the hell are we going so fast if we've caught a Green?" He asked after around a minutes pulling, "when we could slow down."

"We're showing the other Blues that we're not as weak as the Greens think," I muttered, "plus I want to get to that crevice and throw this bastard off."

The Tangela must have managed to get some grip on the floor with its stupid feet and managed to wrap a second vine around my throat, starting to choke me.

"Tate, I'll catch up with you," I managed to say before the vine tightened fully.

He looked at me as I let go of the sled and used my free paw to grab hold of the vine that was strangling me. I clenched my paw around it as tight as I could, my claws pressing against my scales in order to get underneath the vine and tear it off of me.

"I'm going weed killing," I growled as I turned to face the Tangela proper, leaving Tate to carry on his work solo.