Three done. Two to go. This is the first one that has more importance storywise. This one takes place after Red and Blue's encounter with Team Rocket at Mount Moon. I'm not sure if I properly conveyed how complicated the cave system was in that chapter, what with Green being very close to them at that time.
Recommended music: Flip Flappers Ending. (It's just that feeling of a couple of friends together on a peaceful adventure)
Pokemon Tales: Red Side Story 3: B-Side Part 3.
8.5
"Can't you do something?"
"Calm down. Your eyes will get used to the darkness soon."
Red's words weren't enough to get rid of Blue's worries. It was their third day in caves of Mount Moon and she was slowly beginning to realize that they may have been lost. She left the choice of their path up to Red since his survival knowledge proved useful in the past, but the result was the same as if a blind person were to lead her. Probably even worse.
The tunnel they walked into recently grew darker as they went on until they weren't able to see anything. After the fall she miraculously survived a couple days ago, she was worried about the danger of falling into any more holes. Even after she could see some things, she still couldn't stand the eerie atmosphere surrounding the place. As if, at any given moment, hundreds of eyes were following their every movement.
"Doesn't your Pikachu know Flash?" she asked while trying not to stutter out of nervousness.
"Why would it know Flash? I mean... I guess there are some tactics that it could be useful in but..."
Not interested in his digressions about Pokemon battles, Blue decided to get the boy back to the matter at hand "But... Couldn't you have it use electricity to light the place up?"
"Do you seriously think that Pikachu has an infinite amount of electricity it can use to light us the way?" he asked, his tone suggesting that what she said was the most inane idea he ever heard.
"It doesn't?" she asked since she wasn't sure if his question was a rhetorical one.
"No idea."
"Wha-?" she stopped, dumbfounded by his answer "Then what was that about?!"
"Just trying to lighten up the situation with a joke." he responded.
She was sure that if she could see him, he would be wearing that annoying smile he had whenever he had her tricked with his words, and it was already making her angry. Not at him. At herself, for not getting used to their conversations turning out in such ways. Even then, she felt slightly hypocritical, since she would treat him in a similar way while taking pleasure from his sulking expression.
"Oh. It seems that we've reached it." Red said after noticing some glimpse of light in front of him.
"Yeaaah, I'm not getting my hopes up." Blue answered in a sarcastic voice.
After about half a minute of avoiding stalagmites, they reached a part of the cave which had walls, and most of the floor covered and ceiling, covered in bioluminescent mushrooms. Their light was faint but it still was better than complete darkness, and when Blue gave it a couple seconds, she came to realize just how beautiful this place looked.
Red also stopped to take in the view even though he knew that they should get a move on, since resting in such a place would be difficult. While looking around to see each of the colors the mushrooms were glowing in, he thought he noticed some kind of gas flowing from somewhere below. He carefully approached the place while covering his mouth, to make sure it wasn't some kind of protective measure used by the plants but the gas looked more like steam. It was coming from a hole which was hard to notice among the mushrooms. He walked closer to analyze it, while making sure not to slip on the moist fungi.
Blue was so focused on admiring the beauty of the place that she didn't notice the boy's actions. In fact, she was so absorbed by it all, that she let her guard down which allowed one of the mushrooms to move in her direction and to lightly tap her leg. She glanced in the direction where Red was standing to make sure that this wasn't another prank, before she looked down to see what was it that interrupted her. When she noticed an enormous mushroom who was somehow staring at her, basic instincts took over and she immediately ran away from it, tripping midway and accidentally throwing herself and Red down the hole. Parasect slowly walked over to the hole and peered down inside but since it couldn't see the teenagers anymore, it left in disappointment.
Blue completely forgot about the mushroom which approached her as soon as she realized she was riding on Red's back, through some natural slide. It was even scarier than the railway they fell off a couple days earlier since they didn't know if they would slam into a wall or get suddenly pierced by some spike. Red was thankful that the walls his belly was sliding on were fairly smooth but he still felt like he wouldn't be able to take much more without getting at least some scratches.
Their road down lasted a lot shorter than it seemed to them. In couple second, they shot out of a wall in a big chamber filled with steam. They separated midair and had and equally unpleasant landing. Red got on both knees while massaging his belly to ease the pain. Blue got up quicker than him and had to hit her skirt to get rid of dust. Both of them soon noticed how hot it was in the place. Using their eyes to search their surroundings they found out that the room they landed in had some kind of underground hot spring. Additionally, an opening in the ceiling, which went up several meters high acted like a skylight. After looking into it for a while, they saw the Moon appearing from behind clouds and showering the cave with its light. Apart from that, the cave had some kind of moss which seemed to be able to store light and shine even brighter, specifically in shades of orange.
"I think I see an exit." announced Red.
Blue was so busy with admiring the beauty of the place that his voice felt like if someone woke her up from a deep sleep. She looked at him and saw that he was pointing towards a corridor that was big enough for them to walk through. She felt disappointed by the fact that they had to leave this room so quick. After putting her hand up to her chin and focusing on that thought for a couple seconds, she arrived at the conclusion that there really was no reason for them to hurry. When they were inside the mountain, it made no difference if it was day or night. She was getting slightly tired of walking around but maybe this place would prove the solution for that problem, especially since they didn't know what was ahead of them.
Red looked like he was getting impatient while waiting for any response from her. She thought that it was a good time to joke around with him. Without saying anything, she took of her hat and bag and placed them neatly together in a place free from moss. The boy was watching her movements with a confused face, possibly trying to decipher what it was she planned to do. It seemed like he started realizing what she was doing when she got rid of her shoes and socks but it wasn't until she started lifting her shirt that he ran towards her and grabbed her hands before she could go any higher than her belly. If he wouldn't do that, she was planning to stop at that point anyway. But seeing how flustered he looked, made her want to play around some more, without realizing how dangerous such thoughts were. Instead, the situation turned around when Red spoke up.
"Alright, alright!" he said "We can take a break! But just..."
He looked around before grabbing the biggest boulder he could lift and tossing it into the hot spring. He repeated that action a couple times. Finally, the boulders were stacked in a stable way.
"I'll look away. You can get undressed and sit with your back against the barrier I created. Then I'm going to do the same and sit on the other side. Then there won't be a problem, yeah?"
She was too stupefied by his reason to say anything beyond "Y-yeah."
A couple minutes later, both of them were completely naked and relaxing in the hot water on opposite sides of the handmade, boulder wall. Although, the world "relaxed" couldn't really apply to Blue who, for a reason unknown to her, was more bothered by the situation than Red, even though he was the one who would always get easily defeated by her playful nature. She tried not to think about it too hard since it would be too much effort and her brain could get fried. After they spent some time there and dried off, they went on their way. The path was lighted up by more moss, but instead of marveling at the sights, Blue's eyes were fixed on the back of the boy who was walking a couple steps ahead of her. She put one of her hands to her forehead. It was hot.
"Probably too much time in that water..." she whispered, trying to stay reasonable.
You know how you sometimes go into something and it turns into something completely different than expected? This was supposed to be another meaningless, fun, lil' story but then I got into it too much. I should really feel ashamed. But then again, this was probably the only good place for such things, considering where the next one will take us. Also, I'm not sure how do categories here work. I know that there's no 18+, but there's two, naked, underage characters in this side story. Like, is that stuff okay as long as there's no R-rated stuff? Like, for example if I wanted to describe how Blue looks in clothes that would be okay, but describing how she looked naked probably wouldn't, yeah? Even if in both instances I could state her breast size, in one of them it would seem wrong. I don't know if I just didn't see them, but I would feel safer if there were some clearer guidelines. Can somebody tell me if I'm worrying too much about this stuff? I never really planned for any explicit content, just wanted to make sure.
