Luck Like A Broken Mirror

Cinder was surprised and flustered, at this. To have Korrina the blonde friend from Kalos kissing him on the cheek was a shocker. Cinder wanted to push her away to run away but found that he couldn't. One side of himself wanted to run and forget this while the other wanted to enjoy this feeling.

After Korrina got away from him, Cinder finally got the strength to step back. Staring at Korrina with astonishment, while his hand touched the place she kissed with her lips.

"W-what did you do that for!?"

Korrina doesn't seem to mind what she had done, nevertheless, she was having an inner turmoil of emotions inside. 'Yeah! What did I do that for? I-I-I-I...' Quickly thinking of something, she spoke after a minute. "What are you so flustered about? It was just a kiss on the cheek, our people in Kalos often do that with each other..." They often do that, but only in greeting, not to mention they only do that with the same gender or someone close to them, but, some things are better left unsaid.

"But!"

"Ughh! I'm so tired." Korrina cut him off as she slumped on a rock, leaning backwards to rest her body on a wall.

Fatigue clashes with self preservation. Exhaustion grows in the face of waning adrenaline. Cinder also realized this as he felt his body gasping for air. For the moment, he decided to let this abnormal matter slide, for now...

Eyeing Korrina, he wondered if she was in similar turmoil. The normally childish girl had her usual liveliness in her mannerisms, but her breathing was just as hard as his, and there was a hint of paleness in her face.

Storm looked like he could still run. He was used to this. Alpha(Riolu) and Starly both seemed to be on their last reserves, however.

He couldn't hear any grunts or pokemon at the moment, so they should be safe. But for how long? They could come bursting in at any minute. Right now, they were near the entry point to one of the many branching tunnels in the caverns.

Forcing himself to start moving again, Cinder pushed himself off of the wall and eyed the group with him as he tried to calm himself.

"We should really go. If we don't they could quickly catch up to us, with more people."

"Yeah, yeah, I know." Korrina said but still continues on sitting on the rock. "Once we get out of here and contact the authorities, I'm taking a shower."

Talking about what she was going to do after escaping from the mountain was Korrina's way of trying to reassure herself that she would ever be escaping the mountain, period. And Cinder picked up on that, he let her be, since that would only do them good.

Suddenly, Storm's ears erected upwards, and he let out a cry as something burst through the entrance to the tunnel.

"GAH! What's that?!" Korrina cried out in shock.

Stepping out of the shadows was the same Machop that had chased them before. It crossed its arms in an attempt to appear authoritative as it sized the group up, a neutral expression on its face that conveyed no happiness or anger. As though it didn't care which side it was on.

Storm growled as he rushed forward and placed himself in between Machop and the group, wools sparking madly as the young sheep grinded his teeth.

Sinking into a fighting stance, Machop prepared itself.

Cinder grimaced. They would have to fight after all. Oh well, he should just end this quick. At least, it seemed like it was only the fighting-type, and no more.

"Storm, let's end this quickly!"

Nodding at his trainer, Storm shot forward towards his opponent, applying Agility to boost his speed.

Machop responded in kind.

The electric sheep was clearly faster, striking at the fighting-type pokemon with a metallic tail just before his opponent could react.

Machop reeled from the blow as it skidded backwards, glaring at Storm as it managed to stay upright before charging forward again.

Storm leapt over a kick from the fighting-type before delivering a well-delivered Focus Punch to his opponent's cheek, prompting Machop to stumble forward. A second Iron Tail was met with a mighty punch that pushed Storm back towards the group, the sheep sinking down onto all fours as he snarled at his adversary, wools sparking in an effort to look as intimidating as possible.

Cinder and Korrina immediately distanced themselves from the fighting as Starly and Alpha both took their places besides Storm, although the young sheep remained slightly in front.

"Korrina," Cinder said quickly, slightly turning his head in her direction, while still attempting to keep his eyes on the pokemon. Korrina responded in kind. "Storm should be fast enough to engage Machop directly. Starly can give him cover from a distance. You think Alpha can alternate between close-combat and distance?"

A quick nod from Korrina. "We'll try to keep it on the defensive." She replied.

Both trainers turned their attention completely back to the battle, where Machop was already getting ready for its next move.

Cinder and Korrina both blinked rapidly as Machop's body suddenly glowed a deep orange. Letting out a low, ominous rumble from its throat, the fighting-type raised its arms outwards as its muscles suddenly bulged, pulsating with power across its entire body.

Bulk Up. A move that bolstered the power of a pokemon's muscles, the boost to the pokemon's brute strength being a massive boon for their offense and durability. Which meant that Machop had just become a hell of a lot more difficult to put down.

But that just raised the question of whether or not Machop could maintain the technique for long before needing to drop it. There was a reason why moves that powered up the user weren't universally used in battles, despite the obvious boons that they granted for the user. Almost all of them had some sort of drawback or strain to them, powering up the user to levels that their body was not actually at yet.

Making good use of its new leg strength, Machop rushed forward, raising a glowing, purple fist as it barreled over towards Storm.

Locking onto the young sheep with Poison Jab, the fighting-type pokemon was most certainly putting its newfound strength to good use. But Storm quickly leapt away as his adversary attempted to sock him, leaving the Machop wide open to an Air Slash from Starly, which sent the bulky opponent staggering backwards as the watery barrage hit it the face, grunting irritably as the attack painfully pelted it. Alpha followed up with a Force Palm on its stomach, smacking the daylights out of the fighting-type.

"Alpha!" Korrina called out. "Support Storm from close range! Attack in coordination!"

"Support from behind long range, Starly!" Cinder declared. "Use Air Slash!"

Just as Machop was upright again, Starly's blades of air pelted against its chest. As the fighting-type staggered backwards, Storm was with Alpha in tandem as they were upon it again, Zap Tail at the ready as he struck Machop clean on the head, Alpha had crossed its top two arms to form an 'X' and its arms start to glow orange. It then strikes the Machop with the crossed arms. Both Zap Tail and what seemed to be, Cross Chop, landed on the fighting-type in quick succession.

Machop wailed in agony to resist as hard as the fighting-type could, but Alpha relentlessly pushed with crossed arms, firmly against its body, the impact from the attack being driven into Machop's body further and further as the young canine kept up his assault.

Not wanting to give Machop a chance at recovery, Cinder quickly followed up. "Air Slash!"

As Alpha gave Machop one final, rough push that sent the fighting-type staggering away, Starly took aim at the opponent as it struggled to maintain its flight. The transparent, green blades of fierce wind that formed in between the avian's wings were flung towards Machop at full force, slashing against the bulky adversary and knocking it clean off of its feet.

Machop screamed in pain, not just from the strength of the Cross Chop but from the sudden bombardment of attacks.

As the attack subsided, Storm exhaled deeply, and Cinder could see his starter pokemon breathing slightly differently.

They looked over to their opponent, who was not getting up.

A wide grin developed on Cinder and Korrina's face momentarily before the latter suddenly returned to her nervous, uneasy expression.

"Cinder, we need to get out of here. We don't know if this battle attracted any of their attention or not."

Cinder quickly nodded in understanding.

...

Storm had been fed a quick oran berry before the group took off again, the young sheep's stamina rejuvenated. Machop's unconscious body was left at the sight of the battle, and thankfully, no other grunts or pokemon had arrived to attack them before they could make their escape.

Cinder and Korrina were both still fighting against exhaustion, but had mercifully decided to stick to jogging. It was still taxing in their fatigue states, but wasn't nearly as immediately excruciating as a full blown sprint would have been.

The group had no idea where they were going. No idea where the main path was, how deep they were in the caverns, or even what level that they were currently at in general. All of that had been completely lost in the sheer pressure from the initial chase, and Cinder cursed himself for not paying attention.

He didn't know it, but Korrina was currently feeling the same exact way as well.

Although he tried to convince himself that it couldn't be helped, and that they were both bound to lose their focus in the chase, the repercussions of such still certainly didn't bode well for any of them.

The group of five were lost in the tunnels, and who knew when they'd run into somebody next? And whether or not it would be even stronger than that Machop?

Although he kept an eye out for soldiers and pokemon, Cinder wasn't too sure how vigilant he could be while simultaneously trying to move.

What's more, the boy found his growing exhaustion clashing with said efforts to be vigilant, his mind constantly shifting focus to how much his body wanted to stop moving.

The boy told himself to keep running, but how long could he keep that mindset up?

It all felt so hopeless.

Even so, an optimistic voice in his brain wanted to tell him that it was over. And that they had gotten away.

Nevertheless, he knew that was too good to be true for sure.

The tunnels in this mountain were seemingly endless. Cinder didn't know if it was the paranoia of Team Rocket lurking within the caverns and probably searching for them, or just the simple fact that there was still no end in sight, but he felt as though he was completely closed off from the world. As though Mt. Moon was an entirely different place from the world that he lived in.

And that might have added to the hopelessness that he was feeling. Not even in Viridian Forest had he ever felt this separated from civilization.

Slightly ahead of him was Korrina, as he had begun to slow down a tiny bit in an attempt to hopefully conserve energy.

"Cinder, I think the tunnel is opening up into a room up ahead-"

The group skidded to a halt at the entrance to the room, a group of Team Rocket soldiers standing in front of them.

The soldier in front of the rest seemed quite irritated, and stressed.

"Damnit…" said Com. "So they stumbled they're way here, now."

Korrina's face was pale as she stepped backwards, at Cinder's side now, while Storm uneasily glared at the soldiers in front of them, wools sparking mad with lightning.

"So… we walked right into their camp…" Korrina whimpered out.

Cinder felt like he might curse Mew himself. This whole time, he had been desperate to escape from the caverns of Mt. Moon, and now, they had just done the opposite.

They had effectively just delivered themselves right to Team Rocket. He felt truly sick.

Standing in front of the soldiers, Com glowered uneasily at the duo of trainers.

"Well, you two made it easy for us, and you're clearly tired of running. Are you ready to cooperate yet?"

Cinder did his best to snarl. "No way!" As he stammered with a combination of fear and rage, his hand shot to his belt. "You bastards are just going to strip away our pokemon and use us as hostages when the authorities get here! I'm not some bargaining tool!"

"You really don't know what you two are getting yourselves into, kids." Com's hand reached for his own belt as he allowed his gaze at them to even. If only you knew what our squad leader was like, you'd be jumping to become a prisoner in place of the alternative." The pokeball that he removed from his belt enlarged as he gripped it firmly in his palm. "Quite frankly, I don't care if you get hurt or not. My condition is what's going to be critical if she ends up being dissatisfied. I'm not letting my own well being go to risk just because a couple of brats decided to do things the hard way."

Cinder's eyes narrowed at that. Squad leader? This guy sounded scared of whoever was leading the operation. Speaking of which…

"What are you even doing here?" Cinder blurted out with a demanding tone of voice.

*So guys, the release of chapters per day, as of now, will depend on the Power Stone Ranking of this Fanfiction.

° Top <150 - A chapter everyday, except Sunday.

° Top <70 - Two chapters per day, except Sunday.

° Top <25 - Three chapters per day, except Sunday.

° Top <3 - Four chapters per day, except Saturday and Sunday. (If you think I am bluffing, you can check that I had even dropped 5 chapters in one day.)

*So if you enjoyed reading it thus far and had some spare Power Stones. Gimme those rocks ^=^*