1-2

Boulder​

A trainer's starter is special. — Professor Samuel Oak​

The hallway was dark. It smelled like sweat and blood, crude reminders of what it had taken to reach this point. There was no noise of the crowd, no searing lights for the cameras, just an old loudspeaker that crackled and fizzed as it spat out its call.

"Challenger to the field!"

I stepped forward, my hand dropping to the belt on my side. I only had two balls there, only two pokemon for this battle, but I hoped to all hell that they'd be enough.

I didn't have the luxury of time. There would be no second challenge if I failed here. I'd blown through every scrap of my meagre savings and then more than half a starter training loan in pursuit of this dream. Failure meant crawling back to the smallest speck on the map and staying there for the rest of my life. I'd do what my father wanted, take over the farm, marry a girl of his choosing. Failure meant living the rest of my life in a dreary little village with every second of my life arranged by my father.

I hardened my expression. Like hell I was going back there as anything other than champion. Not after why I had left. Not after what Pa and I said to each other. I'd prove to him that I could do what I wanted. I'd be who I wanted to be.

Yucca village was a small farming community, not even on most maps unless you bought a local regional map from the northern gate of Saffron City and managed to find the smallest dot on it. Our proudest moment was when the hamlet of a half dozen families got mentioned on the evening news one time nearly twelve years back for naming our village after the cash crop we were most known for. Nobody new every came. Nobody ever left. Except for me.

I stepped onto my platform, heart pounding in my chest. I was surprised by the few spectators in the stands clapping for me. I was a nobody, a bumpkin from a tiny stinking backwater that didn't even rate a mention on any local travel guides. I'd be lucky if I even earned a slot in the evening league recaps for my first attempt at a gym challenge. Unless I did something spectacular, of course.

I hoped that it was recorded. I wanted at least some record of this, for my own sense of selfish pride and vindication. I wanted some record of the validation that I was looking for. Maybe I could even pay Brock for a copy of the tape, to send back to my Pa so he could see I wasn't completely full of shit and could actually be a real trainer. For a brief moment, I contemplated if he would even watch something like that, before forcing my mind away from my messy family life to the battle at hand.

The platform jolted and rose towards the hole in the ceiling. I rose above the field, blocking out the stadium lights as my eyes adjusted to the sudden glare. I nervously tapped my fingers against the pair of balls on my belt.

The battlefield was a mess of rocks and sandy dunes, with a single massive rock that had been hollowed out serving as the arena's centrepiece. Many a challenger had attempted to use the hollow network of tunnels and chambers to their advantage and found themselves outclassed by an enemy that knew every corner of the arena as if it were their homes.

Brock was already waiting, standing implacably atop his command platform. He had forgone a shirt, his arms crossed over his chest and clearly flexing to show off his impressive muscles. I wasn't afraid of the bravado, I knew it was for show. He wanted me off balance, fretting over appearances while he picked away at at my team.

I was a novice, but that didn't mean I was an idiot. I'd watched enough of Brock's battles to know his basic tactics. I'd devoured the footage of every single novice challenge to Brock that I'd been able to find. He liked to play direct, while he heckled you to keep you off balance.

Brock was an elite-level trainer, one of Kanto's Gym Leaders. He'd been Pewter's Leader for almost fifteen years, after his father before him. He was a powerful trainer, placing in the top twenty in last year's Pokemon World Tournament and consistently rating in the top five of Indigo's combined circuit.

He was also the traditional first gym of the Kanto gym circuit, a bar that every serious Kantoan trainer had to clear. Maybe Erika would have been an easier first gym challenge for me, but it was probably better if I got Brock out of the way early on. He had a reputation of being one of the tougher intermediate and elite gym challenges.

The referee's voice boomed out through the loudspeakers and I flinched. It was louder than I'd expected. "This will be a novice-level challenge to the Pewter City Gym leader by trainer Marcus Wright, of Yucca Village. Leader Brock will use two novice-ranked pokemon, with no substitutions. The challenger may use as many pokemon as he is able to, with two substitutions. The battle will end when twenty minutes has elapsed or one of the participants is unable to continue the battle."

I nodded, remaining silent and keeping my expression calm. I wasn't giving Brock a damn thing, not false confidence, no boasting bravado. I was a novice, a beginner who hadn't earned a single badge let alone even challenged a gym yet. I hadn't earned any confidence yet, even if I privately thought I had a damn good chance. Brock could have a cocky smirk from me once I'd earned one.

Brock nodded and raised his first ball. I knew it was a geodude before he even reached for the ball. His novice teams were pretty consistent, usually just a geodude and an onix. Sometimes he replaced the geodude with a graveler, but that was usually reserved for higher level novices. Beginners like me didn't warrant that kind of effort, something that I was counting on. He tossed the ball into the air. Sure enough, the little floating rock appeared from the flash of red light.

I lifted my first ball and set my stance. I would start strong, and give Brock a taste of what I was made of. I may have been a novice, but I was absolutely not a pushover. It was important to show that, something Pa taught me on the farm. You couldn't let people push you around. I may not have agreed with my Pa about many things, but he had a point about that.

I tossed my first ball into the air with a firm expression. My starter appeared in a flash of red light. A little vulpine pokemon growled menacingly at the rock opposite it, flaring her tails aggressively. Her opponent had the type advantage, but I had learned the hard way never to count Luna out of the fight.

My vulpix was a tenacious little monster, well used to fighting unorthodox battles in environments that favoured our opponents. Our month spent making agonizingly slow progress westward over the roughshod path that traversed Mount Moon had paid impressive dividends. A geodude should be no problem for her.

"Your move, rookie!" Brock shouted. "Challengers first!"

I nodded. I knew that, of course. I'd been studying training almost my whole life. It had been my dream since the very first Indigo Conference I'd ever watched. So what if it had taken me longer than most trainers to start my journey? So what if I wasn't a fresh faced thirteen year old? I was ready now, there was no backing down.

"Alright Luna, lets get started. Confuse-wisp!"

I saw Brock's eyebrow raise from across the field. He hadn't expected a combo move, not from a novice like myself. Heck, I hadn't expected to have a combo move ready yet either but Luna was a tenacious learner and had proven me wrong to master the combo.

"Don't let it set up!" Brock shouted. "Get in close!"

Luna barked, a burning ball of eerie blue flame erupting out of her mouth. With a flash of her eyes, the flame soared into the air. Wisps of supernatural light followed the flame, dancing across the battlefield towards our opponent.

The geodude wasn't idle, for its part. But there wasn't much it could do. Luna was quick. It was very definitely the exact opposite of quick. It tucked its arms into its body and threw itself into a rollout, a vain attempt to dodge the attack and close the distance between them.

The wispy flame slammed into the geodude mid-roll, doing nothing to affect its momentum but still painting it a glowing red. That hadn't been the intent though. Luna would probably never be able to outright stop a geodude mid-roll, not even once she evolved into a ninetales. Creative evasion and distruption were our only real hopes at breaking through its defence.

"Now, quick attack!" I ordered.

Luna shot off like a rocket, darting out of the geodude's path with practiced ease. The rock type attempted to compensate and follow, but careened off course. It plowed into one of the hundred boulders dotting the arena and cracked the gigantic stone in half as easily as I could crack an egg. I grimaced internally. That would hurt if it landed. Luna needed to be perfect, and the geodude only had to land one solid blow. It was a recipe for disaster.

However, reality proved far less pessimistic than I was. Luna kept up the assault, painting the geodude with eerie wisps of flame and forcing it to fight an uneven battle as we whittled it down. It wasn't the boldest strategy, or the flashiest. Hell, it wasn't even a particularly brave tactic.

That didn't matter to me. It limited how much damage Luna would take. My entire gym challenge hinged on her doing the heavy lifting in this battle and clearing plenty of time off the clock with the first battle. Slow and steady suited us just fine.

The geodude changed tactics, slamming into another boulder and smashing it into pebbles. It didn't look like it had taken much damage at all, but rock types were like that sometimes. Something to do with their heavy outer carapace or something makes them more resistant to physical damage. I wasn't really an expert, so I don't know for sure.

Resistant however, did not mean immune. It had plowed through at least half a dozen of those boulders chasing after Luna as well as taken so many of Luna's wisps that the rock pokemon was glowing bright red. It had to at least be feeling something at this point.

I spotted the opening I had been hoping for. The geodude wobbled slightly and shook the confusion from its eyes. It dug both hands into the ground, tearing loose a slab of rock that had been hidden under the sand and raising it above its head.

"Another confuse ray!"

Another spinning helix of eerie lights erupted from my vulpix. They sank into the geodude's eyes and I nodded knowingly as a slack expression crossed the rock type's face. It's arms wavered and bent as the slab of rock dipped dangerously back towards it.

"Toss it away! Now!" Brock was shouting, realizing the threat. It was too late though.

His geodude attempted to pitch the slab as hard as it could. But its dizzied confusion had already taken a toll. The stone slab slipped free of the geodude's hands as it fumbled the throw. It crashed down on top of the little rock, utterly crushing it and pinning it beneath.

My eager grin probably burned into Brock's mind permanently. I pointed forward with a simple, decisive order. "Incinerate!"

Luna leapt atop the cracked stone slab, hunting for a suitable crack. She found one within seconds, all while we could hear the geodude angrily struggling to break free. She puffed her chest out and inhaled deeply. A torrent of flame poured from my little vulpix, superheating the slab of rock and melting the sand beneath.

Now, I knew that the fire itself wouldn't do much to the geodude. They were practically immune to pain and they'd take more heat to melt than Luna could produce. But that wasn't the point of the attack. I didn't have anything that could hit them effectively. Given time, Luna may have been able to whittle it down, but we had to at least take out one of Brock's pokemon. My only choice was to trap it, so that Brock would be forced to concede his geodude. It was an unorthodox tactic, to say the least, but I didn't have the strength to stand up in a straight up brawl yet.

As the sand beneath the slab melted further, I looked over at Brock. His arms were held calmly at his side. His hands were clenched into tight fists, betraying his outwardly calm expression. He had seconds before the molten sand hardened into a tomb of glass, seconds before his geodude was trapped and I won this round. "Rollout!"

I grimaced as I played it out in my mind. It could work. "Get clear of it!" I shouted, too late to make a real difference.

The geodude rocketed through the glowing sand, emerging from the ground several meters away. It was bright red, dripping with liquid glass and burning with heat. We had it on the ropes, but now the little ball of rock was gonna try to turn the tables on us.

Luna leapt away from the geodude's attack, barely rolling out of the way as the glowing rock barrelled past. It crashed through another boulder and barely slowed down as pebbles showered down on the battlefield.

"Get inside the big rock!" I ordered, hoping that Luna had enough left to keep the speed up until the geodude ran out of steam.

She turned on her tail and bolted, sand kicking up in her wake. The geodude was coming around, still gaining speed as it looped around the arena.

I saw it coming. Luna wouldn't be quick enough to avoid the geodude. It would smash into her side and the battle would be over.

"Incinerate!" I shouted again. "Melt the sand in its path!"

Luna, bless her little soul, knew exactly what to do. She planted her feet as the geodude rounded the arena and bore down on her. She puffed her chest out and sucked in a quick breath. It wasn't as powerful as the last one, but the jet of flame that she spat was still enough to melt a patch of sand several feet wide into a pool of sludgy liquid glass.

The geodude plowed into the puddle, spewing globs of red hot magma in its wake. Luna dove for the side, too slowly to avoid the geodude. They collided and Luna yelped something fierce as the scorching hot ball of rock tossed her like a flailing rag doll and crashed face-first into the central boulder.

I raised her ball, ready for the end of the round. She'd done enough, and I needed her for Brock's second pokemon. The geodude had to be—.

"Leader Brock's first pokemon has been defeated. The challenger has taken the first round."

I leapt nearly a foot in the air, not expecting the referee's voice to come so soon. I forced down the feeling of elation and recalled my starter, knowing that the easy part of the battle was done. What came next would be immeasurably harder.

Brock smirked and nodded to himself. "You're good, better than I expected for a novice." Now it was Brock's turn to wear the shit-eating grin and he knew it. "Still, this isn't over and we both know that." He lifted another ball off the pedestal on his platform and tossed it into the air. "Let's see how you handle Shale!"

Brock's prized onix appeared with and earthshaking roar. She tossed back her pale green tinted head and screeched a defiant challenge as she stretched up to her full height. I knew what to expect. Shale was Brock's pride and joy, bred from the titanic onix that fought on Brock's championship team. She was a pale green, almost twelve feet long, with flecks of silver metal running through the boulders that made up her serpentine body.

It was a side effect of her parentage, something to do with being the offspring of Brock's first onix and Galar's Raihan's prized duraludon. She would be a monster in a few years, but right now she was just a baby. I was relying on that youth for my plan.

It made for a damn impressive showing. I knew my second pokemon would look downright feeble compared to it, but that's what I expected at this point. It was common practice for Gym Leaders to use at least one pokemon that outclassed anything you could throw at it. Helped you think on your feet and formulate strategies that played to the strengths of your pokemon. It also made the Pokemon League into a true challenge that was not for the faint of heart.

Unfortunately, my second pokemon didn't have many strengths for me to play to. She was nearly useless in battle, even when she did decide to listen to me. It was absolutely hopeless. She just didn't have a violent bone in her body. Even if she could have lifted things fifty times her size, she would never use that strength in a violent way.

But if I presented the battle as playtime? It could work to buy me some more time off the clock. Time that we didn't stand a chance in outright battle. Maybe it was a little unethical, but sometimes League battles involved sneaky technicalities.

I raised my second pokeball and grinned with anticipation. Now I'd earned the right to some confidence. Brock had seen my strength. Now he would see my smarts.

"Play time, Curie!"

My two-foot tall, ball of pink joy materialized on the field and I felt our momentum come to a crashing halt as my precious happiny goo-gooed adorably at the terrifying onix.

Brock couldn't help the burst of laughter that came forth. His rock snake mirrored him, shaking the entire arena with deep rumbling laughter.

Now, Curie might not be a violent soul but she can stall a battle somewhat effectively if she's coaxed into it the right way. She was a baby. All she really wanted to do was play, and if I could present the battle as a game then she'd cooperate for the most part. At least as long as her attention span held out and her opponent was willing to go along with it. I figured Shale just might be young enough to engage in some impromptu play.

So I did the only thing I could. I blatantly lied to my little baby. I got down on one knee, looking down at Curie with a happy smile on my face. "Hey, Curie!" I shouted.

She looked up at the sound of my voice and started hopping happily at the sight of me. It melted my damn heart.

I pointed over at Shale, putting on my playful voice. "See that big mean looking onix?" I asked. "She wants to play!"

Curie hopped up and down on the spot, looking back and forth between Shale and I. She squealed happily and bounded towards the onix without waiting for my command.

Brock stopped his laughing and raised an eyebrow. "Defence curl!" He ordered. Shale rumbled a response and coiled herself around a boulder. My little happiny wouldn't be able to do a single thing to hurt the onix, which was fine by me. That was never the plan anyways.

We had a timer with twelve minutes left on it. All we had to do was run out the clock. I still had two conscious pokemon left to Brock's one. I'd win if Curie could change the terms of the battle itself.

Curie bounded over to the coiled onix, giggling madly. She bounded up Shale's coils and made her way towards the massive serpent's head. She puckered her lips and planted a sopping wet kiss on Shale's nose.

Now it was time for Brock to learn the hard way why I still had confidence that I could pull off a win. Curie might not have had a hope in hell at actually defeating Shale in battle, but she was a charming little angel. Once she sunk her adorable little claws into you, you were completely at her mercy.

Shale raised her head, studying the little ball of joy on her coils. Curie cooed at the terrifying rock monster, melting that stone heart as easily as she did mine. Shale rumbled softly and nudged her opponent with her nose.

"Shale! Knock it off!"

The onix looked back at her trainer and whined, something I had never heard from an onix before or since. She shook her head and looked back down at my gibbering happiny with a fond rumble.

Curie pulled the small, smooth stone from her pouch and held it up towards Shale. The onix rumbled again, low and slow. Shale lowered her head and nuzzled my Curie affectionately.

Brock was absolutely livid at the ploy. He was booming out commands, his face bright red. Shale was completely ignoring his frantic commands, enamoured with Curie's adorable antics. She was nuzzling Curie with her snout and laughing deeply when the little happiny planted another kiss on her.

As I had been expecting, Shale was not immune to Curie's adorable charm. She was a monstrous serpent, a titanic mass of solid stone and yet she was at the mercy of a two foot tall pink blob. Curie had succeeded in changing the terms of the battle entirely.

Minutes passed. The clock ticked down as Brock repeated his commands over and over. There was a small murmur in the minuscule crowd as we passed six minutes left on the clock and Curie started a game of peek-a-boo.

Then, disaster struck at the two minute mark. Shale must have shifted as she laughed, because Curie stumbled on the uneven footing and flopped onto her back. Hard. I winced, knowing that we were all in very deep shit.

Curie's little rock, the one she had offered to Shale, bounced off the onix's coils and rolled into the sand as Curie watched on in abject horror. I plugged my ears with two fingers, waiting for the inevitable outburst.

Curie absolutely exploded with sound, wailing at the top of her infantile lungs. Shale recoiled from the noise, wincing and shutting her eyes. They were across the arena from me, still at Shale's starting position. Curie's agonized wail was still ear-piercing at this distance. I could scarcely imagine the discomfort that Brock was feeling, let alone the punishment Shale's eardrums were enduring.

Shale lashed out, flinging Curie across the arena with a flick of her tail. Curie bounced twice and came to a crashing halt against the hollow boulder in the centre of the arena.

I sucked in a sharp breath, fearing for nothing as my happiny bounced to the ground unharmed. She slumped to the floor and slammed her little feet with a furious tantrum as she screamed at the top of her lungs.

"Curie! Hide and seek!" I shouted, hoping desperately that she would forget the little round stone she had dropped and stop wailing long enough to hear me.

I had no such luck. She just wailed harder, mourning her lost rock with all the fury of a confused infant. With a grim scowl, I lifted her ball off my belt and returned my happiny to her ball. I was proud of my baby girl, but at the same time my entire gambit was now at risk.

I needed Luna to be perfect now, needed my vulpix to run down the rest of the clock. I glanced up. Three minutes left. Three minutes of Luna evading a twelve foot rock serpent in an enclosed arena.

That had been the crux of my whole strategy. Neither Curie nor Luna had anywhere near the strength to bring down Shale. Our only hope at victory was a prayer that we could win on a technicality. If I could outlast Brock, run the clock out without Luna going down, then I would win the match. I still had two conscious pokemon to Brock's one. I would win by virtue of outlasting a titanic onix that I couldn't even scratch.

I lifted Luna's ball and mouthed a silent prayer. There were no more substitutions. It was just me against Brock, Luna against Shale, raging fire against stoic stone. I tossed Luna's ball and breathed deeply as my confidence came flooding back. We could do this.

"Alright Luna, remember the plan." I nodded and looked up at Shale, trying to project some confidence. "Use your strengths and keep her confused. Be fast, be smart, be strong."

My vulpix looked up at me, eerie light already flickering behind her eyes. She knew exactly what she had to do, what I expected of her. She snorted a puff of smoke at me, as if outrunning a 4 ton rock serpent was beneath her.

Brock took the first move, ordering Shale into pursuit of Luna. His onix didn't even wait for him to finish, lunging forward in an attempt to end the battle quickly.

Luna was gone in a flash, bounding out of Shale's path faster than the onix could turn. A barrage of levitating blue flames slammed into Shale's side, superheating the stones and drawing a rumble of annoyance from the onix. It wouldn't do much, but there was a chance it would slow Shale down.

"Quick attack!" I shouted as Shale pivoted on the centre of her body. She swung a bladed tail through the sand, wiping away a pair of small boulders that had the misfortune of standing in the wrong spot. Luna was a rust-coloured blur, dashing out of the way of Shale's tail in a spray of sand.

She was quick, but Shale was faster than a gigantic rock monster had any right to be. Fortunately, we had a way to slow the massive onix down. We just had to land it.

"Confuse wisp!" I shouted.

Luna skidded to a halt, eerie wisps of burning ghostly light conjuring from nothingness. They spun off towards Shale as Luna dashed away from the Onix's descending tail. It slammed into the ground, throwing sand into the air with the impact.

I swore under my breath. Brock had covered his ass well and trained Shale very effectively. Luna was faster, but not by enough for me to get comfortable. The battle was going to come right down to the wire.

"Get clear!" I shouted. "Long range barrage now, confuse wisp!"

Luna scrambled away from the thrashing serpent, kicking up a spray of sand behind her as she went. She skidded to a halt halfway across the arena and spun to face the onix.

Before she could cough out a single wisp a boulder slammed into the ground not three feet away from her. Luna yelped in surprise and dashed away, barely avoiding the second boulder that crashed down where she had been standing mere moments before.

"Top speed quick attack!" I shouted, knowing that Shale held damn near every advantage without confusion muddying her mind. "Find cover!"

Luna turned in a blur, weaving through the barrage of rocks that Shale was pitching at her with ease. She ducked and weaved, cutting and turning just in time to avoid each incoming rock. I felt my pride swell in my chest as my precious little vulpix motored at speeds that would have even impressed an agility boosted mon.

She dashed in as Shale went long, abandoning the confuse wisp for a faster and simpler confuse ray. The spinning helix of ghostly lights sank into Shale's head and the Onix's eyes went dim. Luna doubled back as her opponent launched another barrage of earth, simply scraping up a layer of dirt and sand and flinging it at Luna.

My vulpix retreated beyond the range of Shale's tail and spat an ember of flame that smacked harmlessly against the onix's carapace. She dashed away as Brock ordered another barrage of rocks.

Shale roared in frustration as her last boulder sailed just wide and crashed harmlessly into the sand. She surged forwards as the clock ticked down to the last twenty seconds.

Luna turned as the onix gave chase, cutting close to the massive hollow structure in the centre of the arena. It was a gambit, banking on Shale moving too quickly to turn easily. Shale slammed into the base of the boulder when she cut too closely, shaking the entire damn arena.

Luna was gone, disappeared into the rock. Less than fifteen seconds was left on the clock, but our greatest advantage was nullified in close quarters. All Shale had to do was twitch the wrong way and Luna would be crushed up against the wall.

Ten seconds left as Shale disappeared into the boulder.

Seven seconds left and the arena shook as Shale found her prey inside the rock.

Five seconds left and the arena shook violently with a titanic impact.

Three seconds left and Luna peeked out of the top of the rock.

Two seconds and Shale was following her onto the top of the rock.

One second left and Luna was out of space. There was nowhere to go. Shale was raising herself to her full height. My precious starter was trapped and we were out of options.

The horn blared and I exhaled the breath that I hadn't realized I was holding. I unclenched my fists, breathing calmly as my heart pounded in my chest. It was over.

The referee's voice crackled over the loudspeakers, sounding sweeter than I had ever imagined a bored teen sounding. "After expiry of the timer, the challenger has two pokemon left to Leader Brock's one. Challenger Marcus Wright, of Yucca Village, has been declared the winner!"

I didn't hear the small smattering of cheers from the stands. I didn't hear the referee continue to drone on about my victory. I had won, I had beaten Brock. My eyes found Luna and I didn't care to hide the tears of joy that fell freely. I was a trainer now. For real. And there wasn't a damn thing anybody could do to change that.

Pokédex Entry #95: Onix

Onix are large, serpentine pokemon that are native to nearly all mountain ranges in the Kan-Jo supercontinent. They serve as the region's supreme apex predator, capable of going toe to toe against any landlocked opponent.

Nearly fifty feet long when fully grown, most onix resemble titanic serpents made from a series of connecting boulders. A few specimens have been comprised of darker, harder boulders. This is possibly a result of the aging process.

Unfortunately, study opportunities are exceedingly limited due to the species' aggressive nature. Most specimens succumb to battle wounds long before they age to maturity, and even fewer survive to old age. Legends persist of an ancient onix comprised of solid diamond, but few credible sources can confirm this with any reliability.

Novice Trainer, KT#07966101, Marcus Wright

Luna, Vulpix

Curie, Happiny

2

Wilderness​

Sometimes the biggest dangers to a trainer come from unexpected sources. That's why it's always a good idea to travel in groups. Trainers help each other. — Professor Augustine Sycamore​

It was nearly dusk when we finally made camp. I'd walked as far eastwards from Pewter as I could in a day and still barely covered a quarter of the distance to Mount Moon. If I'd had the money to pay for a teleport back to Cerulean, I would have. Unfortunately, what little prize money I earned for beating Brock went into some much needed supplies for our journey. Between enough of Curie's specialized formula to last until Cerulean and a few emergency rations for myself, I barely had enough left over to cover the cost of the three empty poke balls that sat at the bottom of my heavy travel bag.

Fortunately, Luna and I were excellent hunters. She'd already brought me a pair of pidgey while I dug a small fire pit and dragged some kindling into the hole. I'd shot a third from a tree with my bow when it had come to investigate our presence.

By the time the sun was setting, we had a fire crackling and I was halfway through mixing Curie's specialized formula with some of the oran berries that Luna had sniffed out for us. Technically I wasn't supposed to mix the formula with anything but boiled water, but when I'd researched how to stretch the formula longer I found dozens of training articles that recommended mixing with some crushed oran berries and water to stretch my supply just a little bit longer.

I handed Curie the bottle of pale purple liquid with a smile. She gently deposited her precious rock back into her pouch and eagerly took the bottle from me. My baby cooed and leaned back in the makeshift nest she had made in the top of my pack, pounding back the formula as though she had never eaten before.

I set back to work on the trio of pidgey, removing the unwanted innards and skewering them on my hastily carved spit. I left them leaning over the fire and turned back to the cuttings. I lifted the flat rock that I'd found to use as my cutting board and offered the scraps to Luna. She turned her nose up at me and I couldn't help but sigh in frustration. She was a snob with her food since she had joined me. If it wasn't prepared specially for her, she wouldn't even sniff it. She could cook her own food to be clear when needed. She just didn't want to. Why do something for yourself when you have a perfectly good human to do it, I guess.

Most trainers balked at eating meat from pokemon, something that I simply did not have the option of. Most trainers were far more well off than I had been. My family had never had the luxury of affording a vegetarian lifestyle, but with me off on my own? I was broke to say the least. I couldn't afford more than a few emergency rations, let alone a full supply of vegetarian meals for the trip.

Hunting for our food was by far the cheapest option, so with a lack of funds compared to the sponsored trainers of the world, meat was the only option. I supplemented that with berries that I recognized and had managed to find at least something most of the nights since I had departed home, even if I was a little bored with eating hunted pidgey.

I set down the scraps and turned back to back to the fire. I froze. A little tan pokemon was sitting patiently at the edge of the firelight. It sat back on its hind legs, sniffing cautiously at the air.

Luna growled suddenly, following my gaze to the minuscule sandshrew watching our meal. I hissed at her to be quiet, hoping she wouldn't launch at our guest and spook him. A sandslash could be a powerful member of our team. Perhaps the wild pokemon could be enticed to join us.

I reached down, grabbing a handful of the cuttings. The sandshrew's tongue flitted out and it looked nervously between me and the meat in my hand. I tossed the scraps towards the sandshrew and it disappeared into the night as the meat landed harmlessly in the dirt.

I sat down by the fire, dunking my hands in my small pot of warm water and scrubbing the viscera from them. By the time I looked back up, the meat was gone and the sandshrew was looking at me from the other side of the fire. It licked its chops and looked down at the rest of my cuttings expectantly.

I smiled and turned the trio of skewered pidgey over. I got to my feet and picked up the flat rock full of cuttings. I walked over to the sandshrew. He ran as I approached, but not out of the firelight this time. He watched me put the rock down and walk back to my side of the fire. Only when I had taken my seat and gone back to roasting the skinned pidgey did the sandshrew move back into the light.

It was smaller than I had expected, probably the runt of the litter or a lonely outcast. The smell of fresh meat cooking had drawn it in, overriding its natural fear of humans. It was hungry, likely malnourished if its size was anything to go by. I wondered for a moment about it, watching the sandshrew inch closer to the food.

It stole a bite from the rock, eyes never leaving me. I went back to my fire, checking the pidgey to be sure I didn't burn it. The sandshrew abandoned all pretences, scarfing down the feast of scraps that I had left for it.

I smiled happily as I pulled my meal off the fire. It was maybe a little blackened, but it was still edible. Luna whined as I tore off a leg and presented her a charred chunk of pidgey.

"Come on, I'm getting better but you knew I was a bad cook before we even started this." I waved the burnt pidgey at her and left it in front of her, knowing that she was gonna refuse it until she was damn near starving. "If you don't like it, then cook your own food next time."

I sighed as Luna sniffed at the pidgey cautiously and turned her nose up at it. "Fine, starve yourself." I tore a chunk off my own meal and ate it as noisily as I could. It was dry and bland, but I hadn't eaten anything that day since the few handfuls of the berries we'd scavenged along the way. It was the best damn meal I could have wished for after a long day of travel.

I reached for the second pidgey as I finished the first. My hand brushed something hard and smooth and I damn near jumped out of my own skin. The sandshrew squeaked madly and scampered off into the night, my second pidgey clutched in its little jaws.

I swore and leapt to my feet. My hand went into my bag for a ball, whipping it uselessly off into the night. I made it two steps after the sandshrew before I realized that it was futile.

"Little bastard!" I shouted as I shook my fist. "That was mine!"

A high pitched yipping erupted behind me. I turned and locked my eyes on my starter. Luna was yipping madly, her meal of berries forgotten in the dirt. I thought she was choking for a half-panicked moment, and then it hit me. Luna was laughing. My own starter was laughing mercilessly at my misfortune.

I frowned and sighed angrily. As if it wasn't enough to lose most of my dinner to a damn sandshrew, my own starter was laughing at me. I sat down in a huff, leaning back against my oversized pack. I pulled out the bag of berries that we had scavenged, resigned to my meagre dinner.

Then Luna took that moment to decide that my lap looked more comfortable than the ground. She curled up on my lap, lounging her head on her tails and looking up at me with her big brown eyes. I scratched under her neck and smiled as my frustration faded away.

"Y'know," I started as I ripped off another leg off of the remaining pidgey. I tossed it towards Luna and reached for the berries. "Good thing you're cute. Cuz I don't know how else I'd put up with your stubborn tails."

I lifted a berry up to my mouth and opened it to toss it in. Luna whined loudly. I sighed heavily and divided the berries between us. I shoved her half of the berries and the rest of her pidgey towards her and leaned back into my bedroll to look at the stars.

The next two days went by relatively smoothly. Both nights, we set up camp and hosted the same sandshrew. Both nights, it scampered off and left Luna and I after a small meal. On the third night, I butchered and cooked an extra pidgey for the little pokemon. It gladly devoured the fowl and disappeared into the night. I never saw it again.

Our days were spent battling against wild pokemon that challenged the strangers traipsing through their territory. Once, just below the tree line on Mount Moon, we did spot a fearow looking for an easy meal. It soared overhead, effortlessly coasting on massive wings. Luna and I kept quiet in the trees while we waited for it to pass, simply watching the mid-day clouds drift by.

We didn't run into any trainers, save for a five-badge intermediate rank that wasn't interested in conversation with a novice like myself. His flareon growled at us as we passed and I could feel the temperature rise several degrees.

Luna growled at the provocation, but I shut her down quickly. We didn't need to pick fights with trainers that could accidentally maim us without trying. As much as Luna wanted to, my vulpix was nothing compared to anyone above a novice level. She just didn't have the raw strength yet to battle at that level, even if she had the temperament for it.

I often let Luna loose while we walked along the trail. I'd done much the same on our way through to Pewter and felt comfortable enough to do so again. I had my bow and my knife if anything troubled me, and Luna was always within earshot. I had to scare off an enterprising rattata once, but other than that I didn't run into anything aggressive.

Luna bounded ahead on the trail, scouting out the path ahead like a natural. Every so often we'd come around a bend and Luna would be sitting there with a smug look. I'd see signs of a struggle, scorch marks on the ground or claw marks on one of the tree trunks. My vulpix would always be sitting there, grooming her tails and acting like nothing had happened.

Curie sat on the top of my hiking bag, tucked into the nest she'd made. She kept reaching up at the tree branches and trying to grab on as we went by. More than once, I felt her tip too far and scrabble for a hold on the lip of the bag.

It was still early spring and the route was still fairly muddy from the snowmelt off Mount Moon. There weren't many other trainers taking the scenic route this early in the season, which . They'd all be ten miles south, travelling along the much larger thoroughfare that followed the coast and skirted the rougher terrain of the mountain itself.

The League maintained the thoroughfare, defending the fortified motorways from aggressive wild pokemon and repairing damage when needed. Trainers tended to cluster along these routes, challenging each other in lieu of the powerful wild pokemon that could be found in the wilds. It made for a hellish gauntlet of battle, one that could help a starting trainer build their record or sink their dream before it had even begun.

I simply couldn't afford to take the risk of losing. With next to no cash left, I'd be wiped out by even a single loss. I just didn't have the time or money to spare. I might have chanced it if I had a sponsor backing me, but without that financial security I didn't dare.

Of course, I'd have probably taken the scenic route anyway. I preferred the solitude of nature and wanted to run Luna up against Mount Moon again anyways. Maybe this time I'd actually take the tunnel, rather than hike over the lowest of the mountain passes like I had on my way to Pewter.

There was one time on the fourth day, where Luna came bounding back with her tails between her legs. She was limping slightly and blood was leaking from a wound on her left flank.

I nearly crapped myself when I saw the violet coloured liquid oozing from the wound. I emptied one of the two antidotes that I'd bought into the wound and wrapped it as best I could with one of the bandages. It had to have been a nidorino judging by the size of the hole. That worried me. A nido wouldn't have been alone.

I pulled my bow out of its travel sock and restrung it, keeping it ready in case I needed it. It wasn't much, but it might scare off a nido scout long enough for me to get away.

Nidos always travelled in packs. They didn't usually come this far east of Pewter though. They preferred the drier plains north and south of Viridian Forest. I hadn't counted on encountering anything like that and briefly considered turning south at the fork in the trail we had passed a mile back.

This was one of the risks of taking the wilderness path. Far away from the League maintained Route, there was a risk of running into stronger wild pokemon. The further out you went, the stronger the pokemon. There were some small exceptions, but novice trainers avoided the heavy wilds for the most part.

I didn't let Luna out of sight after that, and Curie stayed in her ball until we made camp beside a small stream that night. She wouldn't be happy with me for that, but I wasn't taking any chances with a nido pack on the prowl.

This time, Luna brought me a few spearow while I built the camp. There were more of the leaner birds here on Mount Moon than there were pidgey. We didn't get any visitors that night, so I actually managed to focus on cooking the whole time. I still burnt it to a crisp, but it was at least slightly less dry than my last few attempts.

Luna took one look at the meal and stalked off into the night. She reappeared maybe half an hour later, licking her chops and sprawled herself out in front of the fire. I didn't mind because it meant that I got a halfway decent meal compared to the day before.

I scraped the bones into the fire and plodded over to the stream. I scrubbed my hands off, splashing water on my face as I wiped my mouth off. My shifting reflection gazed back at me from the calm stream, ragged and dirty brown hair falling down into my thin and dirt covered face. My brown eyes were dark in the late evening gloom and shadows obscured my face.

My hair had been short when I left home two months ago, cropped close to my head. Maybe I'd get it cut once I arrived in Cerulean, but for now it was an overgrown tangle. I dunked my whole head in the stream, scrubbing frantically and slicking it back. I came back up, looking at least slightly refreshed even if I was a greasy mess.

My mind wandered back to food as I lay back and watched the stars. My dinner had been enough to keep me going, but my mind couldn't help itself. I dreamt of flame-grilled tauros steaks, sweet yucca casserole, and a tall glass of Saffron-brewed iced lemonade. They taunted me from beyond a line of trees that I couldn't cross.

We woke with the sunrise, same as the days before. I silently packed the camp and doused the embers of my fire with some water from the stream. The smoke billowed out, creating a long grey pillar that slowly rose into the sky.

Luna woke as I lifted my bag and strapped Curie in. She stretched and yawned as I lifted my oversized hiking bag onto my back. I felt her nestle herself deeper into my pack and knew that she would likely sleep half the morning in her makeshift nest. It was heavy with Curie's added weight, but I didn't mind. It had proven good exercise on the way to Pewter, at least good enough to move me from frail weakling into a somewhat respectable shape.

We were relatively close to the mountain, having made fantastic time the day before. It wasn't long before the gradual rolling hills made way into a rocky path that snaked its way up the mountainside. We'd gotten close enough that you could see where Mount Moon split in three from where an ancient meteor had impacted the earth.

No wild pokemon bothered us that day. We came across a few geodude picking through the loose rocks covering the path, but none of them even bothered to spare us glances. I gave them a wide berth anyways. You never knew when you'd accidentally provoke a wild pokemon. Geodude were known to be temperamental at times, so I wasn't taking any unnecessary chances. I never did need to get my bow out of its sock though, nor did Luna and I need to fight our way through.

After two more such detours around other groups of geodude, we finally began to come up on the view I'd been waiting for. About halfway along the overland path over Mt Moon, there's a narrow corridor through the pass that looks down on both Pewter and Cerulean. I'd made camp there for half a week while Luna and I trained for our battle with Brock. Even though it was barely even mid-day, I fully intended to stop and train for at least the rest of the day if not longer.

Imagine my surprise when I reached the top of the pass and looked down onto a pile of rubble that stretched halfway down the mountain. I swore and looked up at the wall of loose stones in frustration. It was too loose for me to safely climb down and I could still hear the rocks shifting as they settled into place.

"Luna, check it out. See if there's a path I could climb through."

She leapt up atop the rubble and scanned the path ahead. She disappeared for a moment, then looked My vulpix looked back down at me and shook her head.

I sighed. "Double back a bit then. Maybe there's another path through the pass further back."

She chirped an agreement and disappeared over the barricade of rubble. I caught a glimpse of her a few moments later, leaping deftly up a steep path.

"I don't think I can follow that!" I called up to her.

She gestured back the way we had came and I followed her gaze. There, I saw it. A small outpost carved into the mouth of a tunnel, what looked like a waystation for miners traversing Mount Moon. I could see some rope hanging down to a lower point, maybe I could have used it to climb up.

I cupped my hands over my mouth. "Find me a path up there and we can cut through the tunnel."

Luna disappeared as I began walking back towards the outcrop. I wasn't really in great shape, but a life spent slacking off on the farm was still a relatively healthy lifestyle. I thought I had a decent chance at making it up that rope if I needed to.

Then the ground began to shake and I heard the rumble of rolling thunder storming down the mountain at me.

I looked up, confused by the sound. There wasn't a rain cloud in the sky today, and the ground was dry as a bone.

"Luna!" I boomed over the thunder. I felt the vibration of the sound in my chest and knew that something dangerous was happening. "Get back here!"

Then I saw them. An avalanche of rubble was racing down the mountain towards me, knocked loose by the pair of graveller rolling down the mountain. They were locked in a race, seeing who could get to the bottom of the hill first.

Luna was barely a half-step in front of them. She motored downhill at an impressive speed, keeping her footing like she'd been born in the rocky terrain of Mount Moon rather than the dense forests around Saffron. Even still, gravity would have the pair of graveller outrunning her before long.

Humanity learned long ago what happened when you built towns right at the base of mountains. Some dumb-as-a-rock graveller would decide that it would be fun to use the shiny new town at the bottom of the hill as the finish line for their race.

I returned Curie to her ball as I turned and ran, pointing and shouting for Luna to follow. The avalanche of rubble bore down on the mountain, the thunder growing until the unending storm of stone was right on top of me. I hugged as closely to the wall of the pass as I could, avoiding a rock the size of a pokeball as it smashed into the ground beside me.

Luna hit the ground beside me, dashing ahead as the first of the graveller thundered by. A torrent of stones poured over the cliff from above, shaking me to my bones as they landed at my heels. One of them glanced off my side and split when it hit the ground, landing heavily mere inches away from me.

I saw the opening in the pass wall and made my decision. I was never going to outrun an avalanche of stone, and I knew that the tunnel network under Mount Moon was one of the most extensive in the world. Half of the mountain was hollow, dug out by miners in the ages past. It was our only chance out of this mess.

I dove for the cave opening just as the rest of the deluge crashed down and blocked the opening. I felt and heard the second graveller roll past us and watched as the rocks pouring into the cave opening shifted with the second avalanche of stones.

For a brief moment, a crack of light shone through the blocked cave entrance. Then what sounded like half the mountain rumbled past and Luna and I were plunged into complete darkness.

Thank goodness that I was as prepared as I was. I hadn't really intended for travel underground, but I had trained Luna to control her wisps well enough that we could use them for light. The blue ball of ghost fire levitated behind us, casting the cave in cold blue light. Even if it wasn't a warm, safe light, it was still fending off the dark.

Food however, would an issue even if it wasn't an immediate one. I only had three emergency rations, and nothing specific for Luna to eat. I had intended to have her hunt most of our food, but underground that wouldn't be an option. Theoretically I could scavenge some of the mushrooms that I might find, but I didn't trust my knowledge of edible fungi enough to risk it.

My bow had been smashed inside of its sock. The carefully carved and treated wood was splintered and cracked, a large divot driven into the wood. I thought back, vaguely remembering the impact on my side. It must have hit my bow and snapped it. I cursed silently, mourning the loss of something so vital in such a careless way.

Curie could remain in her ball until we were safe, but I couldn't keep her in there forever. We had to move quickly and get back above ground at the first possible point. I trusted that the tunnel network was extensive enough to get us back above ground relatively soon.

So that's what we did. I pointed us eastwards with my compass and kept us moving slowly towards Cerulean, knowing that eventually I'd find a tunnel that led back up to the surface or at the very least one of the larger tunnels that the Takeshi mining company maintained. At least there, I'd have some light and probably a better sense of direction.

Luna and I wandered for what seemed like hours. It probably was hours. I couldn't tell. With no light other than the wisp at my shoulder and no clock to speak of, I had no idea how much time had passed.

Wild zubat harried us more and more often as we moved deeper into the caves. Luna dispatched them all with ease, though I was worried that she'd run out of stamina before the cave ran out of zubat. I found myself desperately wishing that I had a second battle capable pokemon but Luna met every challenge with gusto. Even still, she had limits. I kept her from instigating battles, but it still felt like we were fighting off a new group of zubat every few minutes.

Exhaustion was setting in and we were starting to make mistakes. My eyes fooled me more than once when reading the compass. We'd have to double back every now and then, erasing my idiotic mistakes at the cost of precious time. Then there were the dead ends that compounded my mistakes. At one point, the tunnel we had been following for over an hour simply narrowed until I couldn't go any further. I sent Luna ahead to see if it led anywhere, but she returned less than a minute later. It was simply a dead end.

Finally, after having burned through my second emergency ration on what felt like the second day underground, I heard a voice. It wasn't one of the far-off echoes that I'd thought I'd heard, it was a real human voice. I forged on, ignoring the aching pain in my ankles and the exhaustion in my bones.

I stepped into a cavern that stretched nearly fifty feet across. A thin beam of moonlight shone down from a crack in the cave roof, illuminating a rough, pockmarked stone in the centre of the cavern.

I glanced back at Luna. "More light," I ordered.

I felt a pit in my stomach as the . Scat and bones lined the cavern floor like some macabre carpet. All around me were signs of pokemon, warning signs that I was standing somewhere I absolutely shouldn't be.

I glanced down at Luna, confirming my fears. Her ears were flat against the sides of her head and her tails flicked back and forth aggressively. She knew this was not a welcoming place.

I swept my gaze across the cave wall, searching for another exit. It was covered in little alcoves and small passageways. Whatever this place was, I didn't want to stay for long. If it had Luna spooked the I sure as hell didn't want any part of whatever called this place home.

Then I heard it. The same voice as before, chanting and singing. A dozen more voices joined it, adding to the eerie chorus.

Light began to glow from the tunnel Luna and I had come from. We turned to run and I stopped dead in my tracks. A second cave mouth was glowing, the chanting voices growing louder and stronger with every second.

Luna growled and I returned her to her ball unceremoniously. She was brave, but this was not a situation we could fight our way out of. I crammed myself into one of the alcoves on the cave wall. The wisp of blue light disappeared and I pressed myself into the cave wall as far as I could go, praying that I was damn near invisible.

They came by the dozens, little pink creatures still chanting in some strange arcane language. I shrunk back as I fearfully realized what I was watching.

There are some theories about the origins of the clefairy of Mount Moon on the fringes of the scientific community. They're mostly the work of conspiracy theorists and online whack jobs, but unlike most other theories this one had at least a few major supporters, Professor Samuel Oak chief among them.

Clefairy are rare. So rare that Mount Moon houses the only known population. So when people suggested that these strange pink creatures could have originated somewhere other than earth, it made at least a little sense. Watching them dance and worship a meteorite, I couldn't decide if the whack jobs were right or if the clefairy were just nuts.

The meteorite seemed to respond to the strange ritual around it. It lit up like some kind of messed up beacon, filling the cavern with blinding light. I covered my eyes and shrank back into the alcove as deeply as I could.

The light faded and I cautiously uncovered my eyes. I could still see spots, misshapen figures dancing around the edge of my vision. I rubbed my eyes and prayed that they were telling me lies.

The clefable twirled and sang, clearly overjoyed by the evolution. I shrunk back in fear, I knew the reputation of the fae was a false one. They were not the simple, happy creatures that weekend cartoons painted them as. Fairies were cruel, sadistic and capable of intelligent thought. They wouldn't hesitate to punish the dumb little human for accidentally stumbling into their den.

I didn't dare to move a muscle. My only hope was that the psychotic little monsters didn't notice my presence.

Something touched the back of my neck. I nearly leapt to my feet screaming, but the threat of certain death stopped me. I shimmied, trying to peek over my shoulder to see what it was. I heard a panicked squeak and felt something crawl down the back of my jacket.

That did it for me. I clamped my hand over my mouth, stifling a scream of terror that nearly gave me away. I fought with everything I could to remain motionless, ignoring every instinct in my body to run screaming from whatever creepy crawly had taken refuge in my clothes.

The squirming lump struggled around my torso, crawling over onto my stomach and digging into my body with too many sharp points. It was a bug of some kind and my mind leapt to fearful conclusions. I swatted at the lump, trying to shoo the pokemon away without drawing the attention of the murderous fairies.

The lump seemed to turn around. It oriented itself towards my head and began inching up my chest. I could do nothing but watch in terrified silence as the little lump slowly crawled towards my head.

My jacket parted as a pair of claws worked the zipper open. A small set of beady black eyes looked up at me with the same fear I was feeling. Then it sneezed a cocktail of spores directly into my face.

I tried to get to my feet, crawl away, do anything at all but my legs refused to move. I felt my eyes grow heavy and shut. Then I felt nothing at all.

I sucked in a breath of cold, damp air and choked on the saliva pooling in my mouth. I rolled out of the alcove and sat up, hacking my lungs out into the darkness.

The fairies were gone, something that probably saved my life. I heard legs skittering away and shrieked as I felt the pool of sticky warm liquid under my hand.

I felt the pain as my senses slowly came back to me. I coughed madly, hacking up a congealed paste of spores that gagged me as I spat it out. My head was spinning and pain throbbed with every heartbeat. I felt at my aching ear and pulled my hand away in horror. Blood covered my hand, more of the sticky red caking my neck.

I stared dumbfounded at my bloody hand, looking back down at the pool of blood behind me. "My ear." I said dumbly. "It ate my ear."

I rolled away from the alcove and got to my feet, dumbly looking around the cavern. It was bright, with a ray of sunshine beaming in through the crack in the mountainside. The paras chattered at me from behind, bringing me back to the present, and my hand dropped to my belt.

Luna was out in a flash of light. She growled instinctively as I mumbled a string of garbled words. The smell of my blood was thick in the air and she could tell that something was very wrong. My vulpix lunged forward, tearing into the little bug with reckless abandon. All my little girl knew was that I was hurt and that the paras was responsible.

I didn't wait for her to finish eviscerating the paras. I steadied myself on the meteorite in the centre of the room, dropping my pack heavily to the floor. It landed in pokemon scat and shattered bones, but at that moment I could have cared less. I poured half my remaining water over my ear, washing away the freshest of the blood but doing nothing for the caked and dried mud and blood running down my neck.

I pulled out my bandage and carefully wrapped my head. It wouldn't do much, but I hoped it would hold until I could reach Cerulean. I tipped back my water bottle and drained the rest in two long gulps. My empty stomach protested as I eagerly drank my water and I glanced down at my last ration.

I couldn't resist. I tore open the packaging, devouring half the ration in moments. I offered Luna the dried tauros jerky and she reluctantly gulped down the remnants of my ration.

I dug back into my bag and pulled out my compass and. I glanced down at the compass and oriented us eastwards. The other tunnel into the cavern led off to the southeast, sloping slightly down as it went.

"Only one choice," I said. "Not enough supplies to go back."

Luna nodded and trotted towards the tunnel. I smiled and lifted my pack onto my back. At least my starter had confidence enough for both of us.

The tunnel narrowed considerably as we continued down it. All over the walls and ceiling there were little holes and alcoves like the one I had hidden in. I didn't spot any more paras, but I gave them all as wide a berth as I could. The last thing I needed was another face full of spores when I was weak and extremely low on supplies.

We didn't run into a single pokemon down that tunnel. I found that eerie, though I didn't dwell on it. I didn't have the energy.

I didn't even see the dead end coming in the dimming light of Luna's wisp. Walked right into the cave wall and smacked my face off the smooth stone. I stepped back, looking at the wall dumbfounded.

"Where the hell do I go then?" I asked to nobody in particular. I glanced around the tunnel and closed my eyes in frustration. It was a dead end. There had been no forks in the tunnel. It just simply ran into a dead end. "Where the hell do I go!" I shouted.

"Hello?" Asked a muffled voice.

I nearly fell over in shock. "Hello?" I half shouted, not sure if my sleep deprived mind was playing tricks on me. "Is someone there? I'm stuck at a dead end and I have no food or water left. Please help me!"

I heard a scratching at the wall of the tunnel and banged my fists against the spot.

"I think you're behind the wall," the voice said. "Step back and whatever you do, don't freak out. Domitian doesn't really like that."

I opened my mouth to ask who or what Domitian was. The wall of the cave shook and I realized that I didn't really care. I stepped back from the end of the tunnel as a grey skinned arm blasted through the stone. Impossibly powerful muscles tore through the tunnel wall with ease. They ripped away at the stone and cleared more space. A second arm appeared, forcing the opening larger, then a third, then a fourth.

The machamp forced its way into the tunnel with a grunt. It turned its head to look at me with a happy grumble. Luna growled at him, her tails flaring and her hair standing on end. I returned her to her ball before she could start a battle that she had no hope of winning.

"Domitian, let him out," said the voice. It was a woman's voice, a smile in her tone.

The machamp nodded and lumbered back out of the hole he had made. I stepped through the hole and into the light. I heard the woman gasp as I blocked the sun out with my arm.

"You look like hell, honey."

I brushed my fingers against the patchwork of scratches on the left side of my face. "Paras got me," I responded. "Think he got some of my ear," I added as I gingerly poked at the exposed skin.

I looked at her as my eyes adjusted to the sunlight. She was pretty, in a rugged sort of way. Her brown hair was up in a messy bun and her face was covered in a network of fading scars. She was older than I was, likely a veteran trainer if her gear was any indication.

"You're lucky it was only a paras. One of the big ones wouldn't have left enough for you to walk away." She peered at my wrapping and gently poked at the bloody bandage. "Name's Gemma. Mind if I take a look at that?"

I was too tired to protest, simply grunting in pain when she peeled the bandage away and began to rewrap it with a fresh bandage from her own pack.

She whistled appreciatively. "Gonna leave a hell of a scar, kid. I'm almost jealous."

I raised my eyebrow. "Jealous?" I asked.

She smirked knowingly. "Hell of a way to get your first real training scar." She lifted up her shirt, showing me the faint trio of lines that ran across her stomach. "Got my first one from a persian that thought I was an easy meal. Domitian got it though, back when he was still just a machop!"

I raised my eyebrow. "Do you expose yourself to every trainer you meet?"

"Just the handsome ones," she said with a wink. She looked down at my bag and grinned at my ragged state. My clothes were caked in scat and dried blood and I had an exhausted scowl on my face. "Where you headed, novice?"

"Cerulean," I started.

She raised a ball and returned her machamp. "It's the opposite way I was heading, but I'm not due for a few days. I can give you a lift to Cerulean. That cut could use some proper attention before it gets infected." She smirked again and I felt a twinge of annoyance at her cheery demeanour. "You seem like you're entertaining too, to say the least." She glanced up at my bandaged head. "Who gets themselves snacked on by a paras and lives to tell the tale?"

I didn't protest the help. I was bone tired, my stomach was burning and my head was pounding. I'd be dead if it weren't for Gemma.

She raised another ball and shot me a look. "Lilith is a little skittish, so just don't make any sudden movements and she won't peck your eyes out." She narrowed her eyes and seemed unsure of herself for a moment. "Probably," she added suddenly.

My eyes widened. "That's not very-"

She tapped the release on the ball before I could even finish. Lilith stretched her neck up to the sky and unfurled her wings. She stretched, enjoying the evening sun on her feathers. Then she saw me.

I froze. She froze. Gemma froze. Then the fearow screeched and I felt my stomach drop. I saw my life flash before my eyes as the fearow lunged with a beak that could skewer me in a flash.

Gemma was faster though. Somehow, she got an arm around Lilith's neck and stopped her from killing me. She pulled her fearow down to the ground, petting the murderous pokemon's neck all while she struggled to impale me with a three foot-long beak.

I stepped back, heart pounding and eyes wide. "I'm supposed to ride that?" I asked incredulously.

"Hey," Gemma started. "It's that or have her carry you."

I took one look at Lilith's wicked talons and instantly made up my mind. "On second thought, I'm fine with riding."

Gemma shot me a devious smile and released her chokehold on her murderous fearow. She straightened out and dusted herself off. "Best get on our way then. The light's dying and Lilith here gets real ornery at night."

I looked up at Lilith in fear as the fearow eyeballed me murderously. If this was her calm, then I really didn't want to know what ornery was. Unfortunately for me, I had a sinking feeling that I was sure to find out.

The tall man stood over the shorter man's desk, a grim scowl borne on his face.

"It's never a good thing when you come visit my lab," said the short man. "What did Blaine have to say?"

"He refused our latest proposal, as was expected. He called it daring fate."

"Then perhaps he is compromised, as I suggested. Surge could have gotten through to him."

"I doubt that," he replied. "his distaste for the Ranger outweighs his sense of duty." The tall man took a seat opposite the shorter man. "He is an unknown, whatever the case. What do you suggest now?"

"That we simply allow events to unfold. We have spent years setting the board and rigging the game for this moment." He shook his head. "The boys have departed for their journey. We can influence the board no longer. It is simply time to gather our strength and wait. Our time will come."

The tall man scowled. "I detest waiting."

"As do I," came the short man's reply. "However, our captive was clear enough and Lance has not cleared further direct action. The gods have begun to stir in their sleep. The timeline still matches up with what he knows and yet we have no counter for destruction."

The tall man contemplated for a moment. "I wish to speak with him again."

"Impossible," replied the shorter man. "he is lost to us, unless Lance deems it necessary." He scowled. "The champion's paranoia knows no bounds as of late."

"Then I shall petition him," the tall man said. "We require more information, more insight. Lance has never refused me yet."

The shorter man smirked. "That man is mad," he said. "lost in the universe and lost in himself. He will provide clear insight no more than Lance will allow us to speak with him."

The tall man scowled. "Then we must wait," he said. "Or I must move against Lance myself and retrieve him."

"We wait," the short man confirmed. "No sense in rash action yet."

The tall man's scowl deepened. "Even a rash action is better than no action at all, old friend."

Pokédex Entry # 46: Paras

Paras are most commonly found on the foothills of Mount Moon as well as under the mountain itself. Some reports of unique colonies of the species across the Orange Islands have been reported, raising questions as to how this landlocked pokemon managed to cross an ocean.

Paras are small, segmented insects. They have three pairs of legs, with the forelegs possessing a set of rather sharp claws. Paras are not traditionally dangerous, though trainers should take caution not to become trapped in close quarters with them. The small mushrooms on the backs of the paras secrete spores that can induce sleep or paralysis in large doses.

Paras and parasect spores have a multitude of medical uses and have become a staple among Kanto farmers for the many uses of their spores. The species' timid nature and lack of aggression has made the domestication process surprisingly smooth.

Novice Trainer, KT#07996101, Marcus Wright, Current Roster

Luna, Vulpix

Curie, Happiny