Chapter 35

Percy was awoken in the middle of the night by Jason and took up his night watch. He yawned and rubbed his eyes as he sat down on his chair around the fire.

He spread his aura around the camp and felt for foreign organisms. After finding nothing he stared into the fire. A few minutes later Aurora joined him and sat down next to him. She yawned before stretching and throwing her arms behind her. Percy watched her beautiful face and perfect body. A little bit of her shirt went up revealing a soft belly. Percy looked away shamefully and mentally hit himself.

He leaned back in his chair and looked up into the starry sky. An uncountable amount of stars shone in different colors and intensitys. He raised his hand and traced a Feraligatr constellation. Aurora sighed and looked up into the stars with Percy. They sat in silence for 15 minutes until Percy stopped staring at the stars.

A aura signature entered his aura field and he stood up quickly. He quickly walked toward the signature while telling Crash to be careful. "Where are you going?" Aurora asked. Percy ignored her and crouched down entering stealth mode. He neared the signature and signaled to Crash to blast it with Scald. He could tell that it wasn't human so he didn't worry about its safety.

Crash used Scald at the spot Percy pointed to and a Spinarack came leaping out of the long grass. It has already been burned badly by the Scald and it immediately tried to escape in the direction of the forest. 'If I let it escape it'll definitely bring more. I need to stop it.' Percy thought to himself. He leapt into the grass and grabbed the Spinarack by one of its legs.

He tossed the Spinarack as it struggled in his hand toward Crash. Crash had already prepared a move and his jaws became covered in dark energy. Crash used Crunch on the Spinarak and his jaws clamped over the smaller Pokémon. He viciously shook his head from side to side. After just shaking his head for several seconds the Spinarak was unconscious.

Crash dropped the unconscious body and Percy scratched his head in reward. Percy caught the Pokémon and returned to the fire. "Where were you." Aurora asked. "There was a Spinarak that I had to deal with. Nothing much." Aurora raised her eyebrows. "Oh ok." The camp descended back into silence.

Percy had no desire to start conversation so he enjoyed the silence. Aurora however, did not enjoy the silence. "So how did you remain so calm while those trainers had such terrible wounds." Aurora asked. Percy cocked his head in confusion. "What do you mean." "While Grace, Marcus and Kushida were throwing up from the smell and sight you didn't until you touched her leg. Nobody is able to remain calm like that and perform. Even I can't."

Percy remembered Auroras horrified look when she was treating them. "You seemed pretty shaken up back then." Percy commented. She nodded and her eyes softened. "The Nurse Joy training for the main branch is a little intense. I'm considered a disappointment in the main branch. It brought back memories since I haven't seen such horrendous wounds since then." "I'm sorry to hear that. Is there something I could do to help you."

Percy offered. "No. It's my problem I can fix it. I shouldn't rely on other people." Aurora whispered. "And Percy?" She asked. "Yeah." "I know you and Kai don't like each other but if you could please forgive him. I can feel his past isn't super forgiving." Percy became silent. Not once had Percy and Kais interactions been friendly.

The iron grip Kai seemed to have on Aurora made him even more distasteful. "I'm not asking you to become best friends, but please help him if he needs it." Percy uttered an unintelligible grunt which Aurora took as a yes. Percy and Aurora chatted for a little bit longer until she started getting tired and her eyelids became heavy. Percy and her sat right next to each other and her head rested on his shoulder.

Percys face was extremely tense and he remained as still as a statue. After a couple minutes of not breathing Percy couldn't stand it anymore and took a breath again. He strengthened his lungs with aura so he could hold his breath for longer. Percy noticed that Aurora had fallen asleep on his shoulder and didn't seem to wake.

He studied her peaceful and beautiful face before sighing. His aura spread out farther and he kept a watchful eye over the camp. An hour later the sun started to rise but Percy remained motionless. Once Percy noticed that some of the other Prodigies started waking he tried to wake Aurora up. She woke up with a little bit of prodding and rubbed her eyes. She sat up and realized she had been sleeping on Percys shoulder.

Her face started turning the same color as her hair and she covered her face. "I'm sorry about that. Yesterday was exhausting." She stood up and rushed to her tent with her hands over her face. Luna left her tent and saw Aurora go into her tent while covering face. She looked in the direction to see Percy looking at her. 'That bastard did something.' She stomped over to Percy and looked down on him. "What did you do. I shouldn't have let you be alone with a girl." Jasper came at just the right time and Luna stopped berating Percy. 'Why does she hate me so much.' Percy thought to himself. "How was the watch Percy." Jasper asked.

"I detected a single Spinarak and destroyed it before it could report back." Percy explained. "Nice. What should I do for breakfast today. Maybe some oats and yogurt would be good." "Sounds good." Percy stood up and turned to go to his tent. He hadn't changed and still had to. Suddenly he received a strong kick to the shins and stumbled. Luna looked at Percy in disgust and left. 'So violent and emotional.' Jasper didn't notice and continued to assemble 15 bowls of yogurt, berries and oats.

Percy changed and ate his breakfast quickly. The Prodigies set out again and this time at a faster pace. Instead of their normal form and positioning they went with a slightly different approach. They traveled in whatever felt most comfortable and would quickly assemble into the formation. For the first hour they were making relatively good progress. They were walking through the forest and kept a watchful eye on their surroundings. Percy was walking across the dirt when he thought he could feel it shift under him.

His eyes widened as he realized what was happening. He felt the ground beneath him sink and he pushed Ishigami who was standing next to Percy out of the way. The ground fell beneath Percy and he fell about 10 meters onto a stone floor. Rubble fell around Percy and he shielded his head with his arms. Some rocks hit his arms but he grunted in pain.

A scream pierced the air and the falling ground stopped. Percy coughed and waved his hand in front of his face to clear the dust and dirt. After the dust settled he looked around to see what had happened and he was shocked. It seemed he had fallen through a sinkhole into a cave. The cave was pretty small and some large boulders littered the ground. This particular part of the cave seemed to be a circular opening. Percy could just barely comfortably run and jump in a straight line. Nothing more.

He couldn't even stand shoulder to shoulder with himself. His eyes scanned his surroundings and he noticed a LOT of spider webs covering the walls and what used to be ceilings. He looked up to see the tree canopy and some heads looking down on him. He stood up carefully feeling his body for broken or injured parts. After finding nothing he looked around at the cave more. His previous mildly curious face turned into one of significant more seriousness. Luna, Zoe and Kai were down there with him.

Luna was in a pretty dire situation. She lay motionless on the ground as a pool of blood formed around her head. "Are you guys okay down there!" Ash called out from the surface. The dust hadn't completely cleared from their angle so they couldn't see what had happened. "Lunas hurt!" Zoe yelled back. She kneeled next to Luna and assessed the damage. Percy slid to a stop next to them and assessed the damage as well. Luna suffered a serious blow to the back of her head was bleeding pretty hard. She was completely unconscious and her eye lids fluttered.

Percy made sure the rest of her body was unharmed but was horrified at what he saw. A large boulder pinned Lunas left leg to the ground. The entire part of her leg beneath the knee couldn't be seen. "Oh shit." He whispered. "What what's wrong." Zoe asked before she saw the boulder. "Oh shit." She whispered. Finally the dust cleared and the people on the surface could see the situation. "Luna!" Grace cried. Luna remained unmoving. "I'm going to come down." Ash shouted.

Him and Jasper moved to jump into the hole but were stopped. "NO." Percy yelled they all went silent and Percy lowered his hand to the ground. He was concerned when he saw the large amount of webs but now he was certain. The Spinarak and Ariados colony hasn't been found by the Honey Gym trainers for a reason. It's because they've been underground the whole time. And if the estimated numbers of the Pokémon are only the ones on the surface then their numbers could be several times more.

Upwards of 1500 Pokémon could be in this cave system and the last thing they needed to do was jump into their nest. Percys hand touched the ground and he closed his eyes. At first it was too soft to perceive but he could feel it getting closer. The ground was rumbling. "Spinarak and Ariados are coming. We have to hurry!" He shouted. He could see the dots being connected in the others brains as their faces became more desperate. "I'll teleport Luna up." Marcus hurriedly suggested. Aurora immediately intervened. "You can't teleport someone with a brain injury. There's a chance it'll leave them braindead." "Let's remove the boulder first." Percy said. "Alright." Zoe replied.

She released her Growlithe and asked it to use Double Edge. "Wait!" Percy shouted. "There's a chance that'll explode the boulder into her and make things worse. We'll have to lift it." Zoe mentally hit herself and tried to help Percy lift the boulder. After about 30 seconds of trying their hardest to lift the boulder they only got it half a centimeter off the ground. "Kai! Help!" Percy ordered.

Kai who had just been watching seemed uncomfortable with taking the order but lined up next to Percy and tried lifting the rock. Again they were unsuccessful and Kai and Zoe fell back their muscles strained. Percy unwilling to give up released Fúria and tried again. This time he got slightly higher but Zoe and Kai were completely exhausted. He could feel the rumbling get closer and he started to become desperate.

He slammed his head into the boulder and wanted to make one final push. He summoned every ounce of energy, muscle and aura to lift the rock. His fingers imbedded into the rock and he gritted his teeth. 'Dammit. Have I always been this weak?' His anger manifested into his aura ability and he was able to lift the boulder off of Luna. Kai and Zoe watched in amazement as Percy lifted the rock himself.

They pulled Luna from under the rock and started applying medical care. The Prodigies on the ground have been trying to figure out a way to get Luna up without hurting her too much. "If we use all three of our Pidgeottos can we lift her stable enough." Jason asked. "Yeah that could work let's do it." Ash said eagerly. "Kai use your Pidgeotto to help lift Luna up with our Pidgeotto." Both Jason and Ash released their Pidgeottos and ordered them to carefully bring Luna up. Meanwhile Zoe has wrapped a bandage around Lunas head.

She assessed the damage in her leg and it didn't look good. Her leg had been completely crushed and almost all her bone had been shattered. Percy guided all the Pidgeotto on where to pick her up and they were able to successfully carry her. Now only Percy, Kai and Zoe remained in the cave. Percy could hear the clicking and tapping coming from down the cave.

The Pokémon have become alarmingly close. Percy predicted they would arrive in less then 10 seconds. Marcus couldn't teleport down and up in time as his Eggxecute had a 30 second timer on its teleport. If he teleported down he wouldn't be able to escape from the Spinarak. Percy bit his lip and decided that he'd try his hardest to bring attention away from the other Prodigies.

If the Pokémon saw them now they would be unable to escape from what Percy predicted to be at least 100 Pokémon. And Luna was seriously injured which made them significantly slower. Suddenly Jasper leaped into the sinkhole and touched the top of Zoe's head before disappearing before he hit the ground. Jasper fell to the ground above the cave with Zoe in his arms. He sent a seriously sad look down at Percy and Kai.

He did the calculations and decided it would be the best for him to save Zoe. "Wait, we aren't just leaving Percy." Jason protested. "But what about Percy." Misty pleaded. Jasper shook his head in solemn sacrifice. Ash tried to jump in but was held back by Haley. "L-Let's go. We have to get Luna back." Jasper choked on his words. Although extremely reluctantly they left and carried Luna on a stretcher that Aurora had packed. As they just left the top of the sinkhole they heard what must've been a hundred spiders burst through an opening of the cave.

All of the spiders went chasing something down there and the Prodigies quickened their pace. Tears streamed down a couple of their faces and they refused to look back.