Chapter 14: Rough Waters Ahead.

"Come on. Break out of your shell already! You're almost there!" Bolt called out towards the shaking egg on a pillow.

The whole family of three had been looking at the egg ever since Bolt told them that it was cracking, as whenever the Shinx came back from school, he'd do his homework right next to his soon-to-be brother/sister just to make sure that he gave himself the best chance to watch it hatch.

He just couldn't wait to teach it everything he knew about fighting all by himself. After his parents first showed him the egg, he was told that it would still take about three more weeks for it to hatch. And it has been three weeks, so today could be that long awaited day.

So now, the whole family was all inside the newly finished nursery, waiting for the little guy to come out from it's shell.

"Come on, you little man, you got this." Dad encouraged, which earned a glare from his wife. The pinkish egg leaned to one side ever so slightly, then moved straight up again.

Bolt sighed as his ears went down. At this rate, it seemed like this was going to take forever for the egg to hatch. "Why is it taking so long?" Bolt groaned.

"He's hatching Bolt, it's the first time it's using its body this much." His mother said.

"Well, don't you remember how fast Bolt came out Lina?" His Dad asked his wife.

Bolt's ears went up. "I came out fast?" He asked.

His mother turned away from the egg and looked towards Bolt. "Yes, you came out after twenty days actually. And you were perfectly fine too." '

The small lion took in all of his newfound facts. "Wow..." He gasped.

*crack* *crack*

"Hey, hey. I think this might be it." Devin said with a smile. Bolt then looked towards the egg. His Dad could be right! The egg was shaking much more now!

"Shinx, Shinx, Shinx." Bolt thought in his mind as the egg tilted more and more towards each side.

*Crack* *CRACK* The egg started to glow white. Bolt started to get really excited now. Devin was moving up and down, and Lina was the most calm, but she had a smile across her face.

*crack* *POP!*

Suddenly, the bright white light expanded across Bolt's version, and he, along with everymon else, looked away for a moment. Bolt then turned back towards the pillow. And saw some sort of shape.

It looked like a roundish half circle that was laying down. "It's a Shinx?" Bolt let out as he looked at the shape. He started to have a daydream of having another Shinx in the family, but then two big ears came up.

No big deal, Shinx have big ears, but these looked a little-

A pointy tail came into view, but it didn't have a star at the end. And as the while light dimed down, he could see the small mouse-like yellow body come into view.

"Yes! It's a Pichu. I told you it that's what he was going to be." Dad exclaimed quietly, to make sure he didn't scare the newborn.

The Pichu slowly opened its eyes, and saw everymon. The Pichu them stretched out and began to whine.

"Chuuuu. Chuuuu!" It cried out. Lina then walked closer to her newborn and laid down next to it.

"Hello little one." She said softly. The Pichu looked at its mom. Lina then had a small electric spark on her paw and touched the baby's check, causing the electric to go into the Pichu.

Suddenly, it laughed, as the sparks were tickling the tiny mouse, and gestured towards it's mother for more.

Bolt just sat still, just watching the scene play out. Bolt's checks went red, he spoke and thought WAY too soon. He should have kept his mouth shut! Dang it! All of those daydreams of having another Shinx in the family were gone. Bolt's ears went down.

He then remembered something, what gender was it?! Bolt started to panic. He was starting to get his hopes up for a little brother, but at the same time, he didn't want to get his hopes up, due to what just happened!

Bolt was about to ask about if it was a boy or a girl when his dad pointed that out for him.

"It's a boy." He said as he looked at the tail. Bolt sighed, at least that one was right. He then looked toward his new brother, who was greeted with his new dad.

The Shinx's ears were still down. Sure, it was a boy and that was cool, but...he couldn't get over how he thought so wrong and said that out loud. He felt a little...let down and embarrassed.

Bolt's mom started laughing.

"What?" Dad said.

"Nothing," The Luxray said as she looked away from the Pichu, who was now playing with her daggling tail. "It's just that you seem very excited about this."

The Raichu let out a small laugh. "Well, he IS a Pichu after all. And a real soft one too." He said as he brushed his paw across the Pichu's head, making the baby giggle.

Dad smiled. "Besides, I think Bolt may be more excited about him then me. Right kido?" He said as the two parents looked toward Bolt.

The small lion then stood up straight, making sure none of them saw him being sad, and looked at the two of them. He then made eye contact with the Pichu, the mouse smiled.

"Pichu!" He said happily towards Bolt.

"Yes, that's your big brother." Mom said to the Pichu, who was reaching his tiny paws towards Bolt. "I think he wants you to come closer Bolt." Lina said.

Bolt looked away from his brother's eyes and towards his mom's, then back at his brother's. Bolt smiled.

You know what, it didn't matter whether it was a Shinx or not! It's still his new little brother, and he was still going to teach him everything he knew! He shouldn't feel sad!

Bolt smiled again as he got closer his brother.

"Hey there little guy." He said as he reached out towards the baby's face. The Pichu looked at it and started touching Bolt's paw, making the Shinx let out a laugh.

"So, what was the name again?" Bolt asked as he lowered his paw down and looked to his parents.

"Well," his Dad started. "If it was a girl, we were going to do Glimer. But, now that we know it's a boy..." He petted on top of the Pichu's head. "His name's Sparks."

The lion cub looked at his brother as he looked toward him too. "Sparks...That's a great name!" Bolt joined his dad and put his paw on Sparks' head.

"Welcome to the family...Sparks..."

"Sparks...Sparks, wake up!" A female voice called out. The Pichu opened up his eyes and pulled his face off the wooden floor. He looked around and reminded himself of where he was as he brushed off some grasses of hay from his check.

Gator's ship, he must have somehow fallen asleep after Gator told him his plans for him and Melody, and while the two of them were also held as prisoners. Wait...but if somemon was telling him to get up...then.

He looked toward where Melody was, and thankfully, she was still there.

"Hey Melody, are we there yet?" He asked as he let out a yawn. Melody didn't say anything, but nodded. Sparks' ears went down from seeing his friend so sad.

"Scared?" He asked. The Lapras nodded again. Sparks looked down at his own chained leg, and walked over towards her.

"What are you scared about?" Sparks asked.

Melody frowned. "I'm scared about you. You can try and escape, Gator just wants me." Sparks was about to answer back, when he heard heavy footsteps come towards the door, followed by the door handle shaking.

*Eeee* Out came the Feraligatr, as he walked toward his prisoners. He looked down at the small mouse, then looked towards the turtle.

"Good to see that you two are awake." He said rather calmly towards them. "You have a dangerous ride into Red Currents, I'll do what I can to-"

"Shut up!" Melody cried out towards the captain, who just stared at her in disbelief. Suddenly, Melody started to yell as the sound of chains grew louder and louder, Sparks looked through his window(?) and saw that Melody was being taken away by the sailors. But Melody wasn't having it and was trying to stay put.

Sparks quickly ran up towards her, only for his one leg to stop in place and for him to fall into his face. He was chained too, he should've known that. Sparks then got up and yelled towards Melody.

"Melody stop moving! They're just taking you to...get ready for the Red Currents!"

"But I do not want to go there!" She pleaded. "Red Currents is bad!" She cried out as she started splashing and shaking the ship.

Sparks tried to say upright and yelled back. "I'll figure something out! I got an idea! You need to go with them! Trust me!"

The ship started to calm down as Melody stopped splashing so much. The sound of the chains then went farther and farther away. Sparks let out a sigh from that, but then Gator came towards Sparks' door.

"You're not planning in breaking out again are you? Because if you are, I just bought something that'll change you mind." Gator said as he held the key to the cell.

Sparks turned around, and walked towards the captain, he took in a deep breath. "How many stones do you want us to get for you?" He asked. Gator raised an eyebrow, he was interested to see where this was going to go. So, he decided to play along with Sparks' plan.

"Just ten...maybe a dozen would do, but just get as much as you can." Gator looked at the Pichu then came clean.

"Alright kid, I have your key right in my claw, and you've already broke out my Lapras, so what do you want?"

Sparks looked at the huge Pokemon's eyes. "I want to know how much I need to have so that you let Melody go!" He stated. "You can't just keep her like this, she doesn't deserve any of this!"

Gator turned his body towards Sparks and slowly put his claw on the bars. "I didn't deserve to have my family killed by some wild Laprases either! Whether that Wild Pokemon was there or not, I need to set the score right with somemon." Gator said in a cold tone.

"But she can change and learn things just as well as we can! You just heard what she said towards you, she got that from you! My Dad's the mayor of my town, and I'm sure that he'd agree-"

"SHUT UP!" Gator roared at Sparks. He then stared at the Pichu with a cold look, and saw some fear come out from the mouse, Gator looked away as he sighed and rethought both the question, and what he had just said.

"Look kid... I'd enjoy just to whip the two of you for the damage you've given me, then call it a day, but I can't, because you two have the most chance at getting those evolution stones than any of us, so why waste an opportunity to have you pay me back for my troubles."

He turned towards the cell and put the key into the lock. "Just make sure to get as many stones as you can, and then, we'll see what happens after that." He said as he opened the door.

Sparks looked at the opening, then towards Gator's face. Sparks looked away and made his way to the door. He didn't really believe what Gator said, but, he could at least tell that he was getting somewhere with him.

Sparks heard Gator step forward to follow him. "When we come outside, you have to do exactly what I say, or else the Lapras gets whipped, understand?"

Sparks looked down. "Yes, sir." He said.

Gator then grabbed the door handle, and opened the door. The two then walked out from the doorway and for the first time, Sparks finally saw where he was at.

He looked up past the ship's sails and saw the dark sky, with the even darker clouds mostly covering it, followed by a towering mountain with a small opening were some of the cold, dark, and icky water went down.

Sparks notice that the ship had lowered its anchor and was sitting still, the mouse looked over the side and saw Melody being taken down towards the opening. Sparks gulped, he really didn't like the way this place looked. And a part of him wished this was some sort of a bad dream he could try to wake up from.

"That's where I'm taking you now." Gator said as he pointed at the opening. "Once we get there, you'll go on that wild Pokemon, and I'll explain what to do from there."

"Okay." Sparks said.

Gator led the tiny mouse across his ship, Sparks looked to his side and saw a Wartortle looking across the waters, probably trying to spot anymon from following them. The turtle looked at Sparks, and for a moment, the Pichu saw a sign of regret in the sailor's face, but that quickly faded from his face as he turned away from Sparks.

Sparks and Gator kept on walking as the Electric-Type started to wonder about Bolt as he took a small view of the dark horizon.

"Gator-" Sparks asked.

"Don't ask questions unless I tell you that you can." Gator interrupted. But Sparks didn't like that one bit.

"Where's my brother?!" He exclaimed. Gator was about to yell back at the Pichu, but then thought better than that.

"Your brother," he started. "Should be okay. I give you my word that he's alright and not dead. But, as for where he is, I don't know.

"Bolt, Bolt...Bolt! Wake up!" A female voice cried out to him. The Luxio blinked, then started to see two other eyes that were staring right at him. Bolt panicked.

"Ah!" The Popplio panicked too. "Ah! Oh my goodness! Are you okay? Did something in your body hurt?" Bolt looked at the Sea Lion Pokemon, and then at what he was sitting on. A kind of soft purple fish with a light in front of him and who was also looking at the lion, a Lanturn.

Bolt suddenly started to feel dumb. "No, it's nothing. I'm just...not used to being with you guys." He said as he looked around and started to remember everything. He was surfing across the dark blue sea on top of the Lanturn with a young shiny Popplio following them a little off to the side. Bolt looked up to see the almost black clouds covering almost the whole sky and the moon, leaving just the only source of light to be the two lights hanging from the light Pokemon's antenna.

The Luxio groan at the thought of him being up so late. Or, would it be early? Wait, what time was it?

"Can I just, go back to sleep for a bit?" He said as he yawned. The seal shook her head.

"Sorry, but Wally told me to wake you up. He said that we're almost to the Red Currents!"

"And if we're going there, that means you've got to be awake enough to survive through it!" Wally stated.

Bolt rolled his eyes. Survive? That seems a little too much for a baby Pokemon to be taken there. Bolt then looked to his left and saw Karah staring right at him again.

"She better not keep doing this." Bolt thought. "What? What's wrong?" He asked.

The Popplio got little closer. "Well...it's just that, I haven't seen Melody in so long, I wanted to ask you how she's doing."

Bolt looked at her, and Karah blinked. "Well, how was she doing. Did she seem okay? Did she like having you two as company."

"Well, if "like" is using Ice Beam on me, then she loves me." Bolt said full of sass. "She absolutely hates me, I don't even know how many time she yelled at me, or froze me."

Bolt's nose started twitching. "A-CHOOO!" He sneezed.

Karah started to get confused. "That's weird, she's normally very protective towards her friends."

Bolt chuckled. "Well, she was to Sparks! Seriously, I don't know how it all happened, but apparently for Sparks, all it took was one look at her, and he suddenly wants to risk everything in his life for her and break her out from Gator's ship. I just don't get that part! But why should I even question it? He's practically right all the time!"

"But weren't you also helping her breakout from there?" Wally asked. Bolt was about to answer, when he realized what it was.

"...no, Sparks was the one who did it." He said half-hearted.

There was a small break in talking as the two Water-Types looked at each other. Karah then swam up to Bolt. "But, you helped plan it, right?" She asked.

Bolt started to feel guilty. "No, that was all my brother."

Karah started to go back and forth. "So then...you told Sparks about her?" Stop it.

"No."

"...You at least, knew about it...right?"

Bolt sighed. "Sparks again."

Karah blinked, but then remembered something. "Hold on! We found you after you were frozen by Gator! Weren't you helping her there?"

Would she just shut up?! "No. I wasn't, okay?! I was just at the wrong place, at the wrong time!"

He turned his head away from the two Pokemon.

Karah went over to the other side. "But, he's your brother. Wouldn't he have told you about Melody? You could've helped him in so many ways!"

Bolt then felt a bit of anger rush through him. "No, I wouldn't, okay! Just because he's my brother doesn't mean we get along!" He roared at the seal. "I didn't know about it, and I didn't care about it. All I wanted to do, was to have a nice, summer vacation. Without Sparks ruining anything for me!"

The shiny Pokemon backed away from Bolt and just looked at him with a sad face. She was about to ask Bolt something else, when she looked at Wally, who seemed to shake his head. He then cleared his throat. "You may be unaware about this, but Melody isn't the only Pokemon to be treated like a slave." He started, but Bolt tried to ignore him.

"Pokemon sometimes seem to think that Wild Pokemon like Melody and Karah are unable to be like us because of where they came from and how they were raised. Because they're not 'us', some Pokemon like to take advantage of that."

Bolt closed his eyes, and hoped that he'd be able to fall back asleep and skip all of this, but it didn't seem like it. "In reality, Wild Pokemon are just like us, and can even learn how to talk just like us. And believe me, Karah's not the only Wild Pokemon I've met."

"But if that's true, then why do they do it?" Karah asked.

Wally let out a sigh. "They could just be that they believe Pokemon like you are dangerous and need to be stopped, could be also their greed, or maybe some deeper purpose they may have. The point is that they don't see you as 'us.' They see you as lower than us, therefore, they think they're above you and it's okay to do the terrible things they do because 'Arceus made them too 'wild' to fight back, or even think. And they're just meant to be under us.'"

Bolt was still awake. And was starting to think that Wally knew everything going on in his mind. "So Bolt, if you didn't help your younger brother or Melody. Then, what were you doing going up against Gator's crew?" Wally asked.

Bolt pulled on his ears with his two front paws. Could they just stop asking these kind of questions?! But Bolt looked down at Wally and saw the look on his face, and it looked like it would come from his own parents. Which meant he knew he couldn't get out from answering this question.

"I woke up this, or last morning, and saw Sparks gone, so I..." He paused as he looked at the two Pokemon. "Went to Gator to get some help to find him, he told me to go down a certain current and then I eventually ran into both Sparks and Melody. We went down the current, and then Melody sang a song to put me and Sparks asleep, she then kidnapped Sparks I ran after her-"

"Wait what?" Karah exclaimed. "Kidnapped? Are you sure about that?"

"110% sure." Bolt said, finally feeling that things were looking up for him. However, that was about to come crashing down when Wally spoke again. "Well Karah, you said that Melody protects her friends. And from the way Bolt described it, it seems that she my have seen Sparks as somemon to protect, where as Bolt, somemon who was dangerous and could hurt Sparks or even herself."

He stopped swimming and looked at Bolt. "Do you think that's how she saw you?" Wally asked.

Bolt put his head down. As he remembered the one time he saw her out of control.

"GATOR KIDNAPPED ME FROM MY HOME! AND I'M SAVING SPARKS FROM HIS HOME! You are going to tell Pokémon what Sparks did for me, and he will be put in cage for that! I don't want Sparks to be like me!"

And even when Bolt said that he wouldn't tell on him. She roared back at him; "Liar! You hate your brother! You stubborn! You care for yourself and not him! And you WILL tell other Pokémon!"

"Ya..." He sighed. "She did see me like that. And..." He looked at Wally. "She was right too."

There was an even longer amount of silence between all of them, not even Karah wanted to say anything after that, and Bolt was certain that Wally wasn't expecting an answer like that. But finally, after what seemed like minutes, he spoke up. "Bolt, are you saying that you were the whole reason she was captured again?"

Suddenly, Bolt felt very sick in his stomach, as he knew that answer. "Y-ya. I guess I am."

Suddenly, it felt like the world stopped, nomon was talking or even looking at Bolt. He was starting to get the feeling that he should jump off before something bad happened.

But more time pasted and nothing happened. It was probably because Wally was thinking of something to say next.

"So...do you care about what happens to Melody?" Wally asked. Bolt started to feel very bad, as he was right next too Melody's friend, best friend maybe. So he decided to kind of not answer the question.

"Look, all of this stuff just happened two days ago tops. I didn't even see Melody until in the middle of the day when she was trying to breakout of the ship. And then when Sparks went missing the next morning, I had no idea that Melody was with him and I only really knew her for a few hours. I didn't know Gator was going to follow me, and I had no idea that he was going to kidnap Sparks too!"

Bolt then felt a little relieved getting these things off his chest. "It's true that me and my brother don't get along all the time, but Sparks made me promise him that I couldn't let anything happen to Melody. No attacking or telling on her."

He then thought back to his conversation with his mom. "Besides, my mom wanted me to get along with Sparks again. I didn't want any of this to happen."

"But do you care about them? Or is it just you that you care about?" Karah asked.

Bolt groaned. "Look, could we just please stop asking questions like this? I've already told you, I made a promise to him, okay?" He said stressed out.

Karah looked at Wally again, and he nodded his head, and the two then started moving again. Wally started to slow down. "We're sorry for asking you those personal questions, but we just wanted to know if we could trust you to help us." He said.

Bolt sighed. "Look, after what Gator did to me, I'm not going to be on his side, but I'm doing this mostly for Sparks if that's what you want to know."

"Well, I would hope so." Wally said. "Because these currents are known to be very deadly to many Pokemon where I'm from. It has just about everything that's dangerous! Sharp rocks, fast currents, and Dark-Types. You have to be strong willed if you want to go through there."

Bolt let all of that sink in, Gator was just going to take Sparks, a BABY Pokemon, there?! Sure, Sparks was smart and Melody might help him, but there was no way he could see them getting past the Dark-Types.

But then again, Sparks was able to be friends with Melody. Bolt let that thought sink in too, his eyes rolled. "Sure, why not." He thought.

He then turned his head towards Karah, who looked like she was shaking. Bolt then started to feel bad for her. His Shinx self came back in him. It wanted to make sure that she was okay.

"Hey, you alright?" Bolt asked.

Karah turned her head towards Bolt, and then sighed. "It's just that it's been so long since I've seen her, but now she's in big trouble. I'm scared that she'll get hurt...or worse."

Bolt felt bad for her as he looked down towards the water. "Well, look. I know I said that I don't really care for Melody as much as you would want. But..."

Karah looked back at Bolt. "You are helping me save Sparks, and you already helped me too, so I'll do as much as I can to help you back."

Karah had a huge amount for excitement return into her as she want up to Bolt. "Really?" She asked with gleaming eyes.

Bolt sighed as her face reminded him of Sparks whenever he got that excited. It made him feel...mixed. "Ya, now could you kind of back away from me?" Bolt asked.

"Oh! Of course!" She said happily.

"Well, at least she actually listens to me." Bolt thought with a small smile.

Suddenly, Wally's light died down and he stopped. He then turned to Karah and looked at Bolt. "Karah, how long has it been since I used soak on Bolt?" He asked.

The seal thought for a moment. "About two hours ago maybe? Somewhere around that."

"Okay then." He then started to go under the water leaving Bolt to start going down too. "Hop off." He said to the lion.

Bolt slid off, and for the first time this whole trip, he started swimming. He started to kick all four of his legs, fortunately, the water wasn't rough at all, to be honest, it was as flat as glass.

"What's up?" Bolt said as he started to get used to swimming.

Wally's body came out of the water. "I think we're getting close to the currents, and if what you say is right, the that where Gator will be too. I'm going to use Soak on you again, because we're going to be going the rest of the way underwater."

Bolt started to feel nervous about doing that, but he already knew that Soak really did turn him into a Water-Type. "Okay then." Bolt said.

Wally then took a breath in, and spit out a light coat of blue sparkly mist into Bolt. When it landed into him, he felt a weird feeling in his chest, probably related to the Water-Type transformation. Wally then swam back up towards him and went under him.

"Hop back on." He said, so Bolt started to dip under the water to grab onto him. Bolt watched his last air bubbles leave his mouth and escape to the surface.

Normally, any Pokemon who wasn't a Water-Type would start to freak out, but Bolt trusted them that it would work. Besides, he was already breathing underwater when he first met the two Pokemon. But he had just one question. "So, how long does Soak last?" He asked.

Wally didn't look back but he did answer. "Because I'm a Water-Type and don't need Soak, I'm not exactly sure how long it lasts. But I do know that it will last for maybe an hour if my move worked all the way." Bolt started to feel scared. "A...what do you mean 'worked all the way?"

"You remember how when I used Soak, there was all this blue mist? Depending on how much of that gets on you, the longer it'll last."

Bolt tried not to think about what he said too much. "So, how do I know when I'm running out of time?"

"When you stop breathing."

Bolt's eyes shrank. "T-that's it!? Just 'when I stop breathing,' there's no sign or anything?!"

"Like I said, because I'm a Water-Type and don't need Soak, I'm not exactly sure how long it lasts. I also don't know how it feels either." Wally said in a slightly worried tone.

Bolt started to feel sick after thinking about if it did happen. Karah saw this and swam to Bolt's left side. "Maybe the sign is when you feel something weird going on in your chest, that's when it stops working." She said in her most helpful tone.

But Bolt was already starting to feel something in his chest, fear. Karah saw that her idea may have only made Bolt feel worse. "Well don't worry! We'll be right with you. So if it runs out, we can just do it again, or help you reach the surface!"

Bolt looked back at her, and saw the face of somemon who wanted to help him out, even if she did just met him. He could only imagine it was a face like that Sparks had went he first met Melody.

"Thanks." He said as his chest started to feel better.

Karah shook her head. "No, thank you. You're helping us too remember?" Bolt had a small smile go up his face as he started to soften up towards the two Water-Types, it was a strange feeling, but it felt, nice.

He just wondered how Sparks was doing.

"We're here." Gator told Sparks, as they were walking along the shore of the towering mountains and were almost at a current. Sparks looked over and saw a small current leading inside of mountains, and looked over to his left and saw Melody being led by some ropes towards a little closer to the mountains than Sparks. He felt a huge sense of relief by seeing her.

"Melody!" He called out to her. Melody turned her head, and saw Sparks, but she didn't say anything to him due to the sailors around her. Gator then took Sparks up towards her as the two started to go into the cold waters, however, while it was at Gator's feet, at was at Sparks' chest.

Gator looked down and picked up the mouse with one of his huge claws. which frighten the Small Mouse Pokemon, but he remained calm as the two of them went up to Melody, who was just getting her mask taken off.

She narrowed her eyes at Gator. "Let go of Sparks." She said.

"Easy there, I'm just holding him up so he doesn't get swept away by the currents." He assured the Lapras as he came closer to her.

Melody looked at Sparks, who gave her a nod, and then she looked back at her surroundings. While there was the whole open sea behind her, it was mostly blocked off by the huge ship, not to mention the amount of sailors that were there to make sure she didn't try anything, but she knew Sparks would have a plan.

"Here you are, hop off." Gator said. Sparks looked back at the Feraligatr and then took in a huge breath as he looked at Melody, he then jumped off Gator's claw and went onto Melody.

The two friends were happy to be riding together, but it was just under these means that made it a bit sour.

"Here, take this." Gator said as he held a bag to Sparks. While Melody didn't want to take it, Sparks went ahead, and grabbed it.

"Thanks, what's in it?"

"It has everything and more that you'll need, Oran Berries, Reviver Seeds, a water proof paper, and even a small compass to go with you." Gator said as he turned away and swam to his ship.

Sparks was about to say thank you, but then Gator went under the water, so Melody took this moment to ask Sparks something.

"So what is your plan?" She asked.

Sparks looked at her. "To get as many stones as we can."

Melody blinked, but then saw a flaw. "W-wait, you are not trusting Gator, are you?"

"We have to."

"N-no we don't. You thought of how we could get out before, so what now?"

"Melody," Sparks said. "We're going to get as many stones as we can, so then maybe they'll just let both of us go after we're done."

"If we make it through." Melody said. "And Gator would never let me go. He's mean!"

"But it's our best shot. I don't think Gator will let you out either, but he definitely won't if we try to fight our way out of this Melody. We just need to beat them at their own game, and hope for the best."

"Alright Sparks!" Gator yelled through his bag, suddenly Sparks remembered about the compass. He went into the bag and pulled it out. He then looked at it, a bit confused about how it worked.

"Touch the small stone on the top!" Gator ordered Sparks. Sparks looked around, and found the stone. He then touched it and felt a strange charge go into him.

"A...Like this?" Sparks asked.

"Yes."

Sparks blinked. "Wow, that amazing. How does it-"

"I don't fully know, but that's not the point." Gator said. "Look, I'm going to help you as you go along the current. If you just listen to me, everything should be alright, okay?"

"Yes, right." Melody said as she rolled her eyes.

"Okay." Sparks said.

"And if you get any ideas in there, and even try to get away from us. Look to the ship."

Sparks and Melody looked at each other, wondering what he meant and turn to the ship, and suddenly became horrified as they saw a huge, dark, cannon on the ship's deck.

"Like it?" Gator said. "I just bought it last morning. Just so I could have a much easier time in my arguments." Sparks and Melody were still looking at the cannon.

"If you do anything, and I mean ANYTHING. I will not hesitate to fire this thing at either one of you. But let's hope it doesn't come to that, shall we?"

"O-okay." Sparks said.

"Good, now start moving! That's an order!" Sparks then looked at Melody.

"You still want to fight our way out?" He joked.

Melody just shook her head. "Sparks?" She asked.

The Pichu looked at her, as they started to go into the mountains. "Promise me that we'll both be okay. And that you won't leave me, okay?" She said filled with fear.

Sparks the looked across the dark river, and felt a small sense of fear hit him. "We help those...we help those..." He said as he regained his confidence.

"Melody," He started. "I promise that not only will we both be okay, but I'll make sure you're a free Pokemon after this."

The two Pokemon then went into the mountain, unaware if they'd even make it back.