-Chapter 4-
“Hidden Power!” Tara’s confident voice pierced the silence of the morning. T closed his single eye and concentrated; spheres of purple energy surrounded it. As soon as they had become about the size of volleyballs T re-opened his eye and the attack was unleashed. It ripped through the air and over the ground, kicking up a little dust and loose blades of grass in its wake.
“D-dodge it, Elvia!” Fida responded nervously; she had her left arm holding her right, her right hand up to her mouth in her anxiety. Elvia easily floated out of harm’s way, the Hidden Power hit a tree, making it shudder - a few leaves danced to the ground.
“Well, I think you have dodging Hidden Power down,” Tara put a hand to her hip. “But you need to try attacking more.”
Fida nodded. She thought to herself, trying to remember what Tara’s Pokédex said Elvia was capable of using. She had spent almost the entire day yesterday looking up pokémon on Tara’s Sinnoh PokéDex, she was fascinated with all the creatures that resided in that region.
“Elvia, u-use… Psybeam!” she recalled the name of the attack. Elvia nodded, her eyes filled with a mixture of colors briefly before multi-color beams shot from her eyes, they formed into one ray as they neared T.
“Dodge it and get in close, T.” The symbol did as he was told; he glided out of the way just in time and rushed in close to Elvia. “Hidden Power!” Again the spheres of power surrounded the unown and they were sent at Elvia. Elvia had no time to do anything and was hit with the attack. She wailed in pain as she was sent flying and hit a tree.
“Elvia!” Fida squealed as she rushed over. Elvia regained her senses and shook herself, she wasn’t done yet. Fida smiled in relief as her friend floated gracefully back onto the field.
“Excellent job, T,” Tara smiled. Unown floated up and down; glad to have his trainer’s appreciation. “Ready to try that again, Fida?”
Fida nodded again. “Psybeam again, Elvia!” she said more confidently. Again Elvia launched the psychic-type attack against T, who dodged and rushed in close to Elvia just as before. Elvia was ready for it this time though. “Elvia, use Protect!” a faintly purple bubble enveloped Elvia, just as the Hidden Power was about to hit. The attack made contact with the bubble and each sphere was snuffed out.
Tara clapped. “Thad’a girl.”
Fida’s tiny smile grew bigger. “N-now use Confuse Ray!” A tiny, bright orange-yellow ball appeared before Elvia. The attack made contact with T and sent him into a fit of spirals, too dizzy to do anything else. Elvia’s eyes flared up, as if she had made a huge discovery. She looked at Fida, who seemed to understand what Elvia was trying to say, nodded. Elvia turned to face T, her chain of red pearls glowed, turning completely purple. Shadows seemed to be called to her, strands of shadow came from everywhere, every shadow, and condensed into a ball that was forming before Elvia. Once it was at a considerable size Elvia sent the ghostly sphere at T. It pulsed with otherworldly power, dark energy that resembled lighting arced around it. T was helpless to do anything and was hit by Elvia’s attack. It whined in pain as it was sent rocketing through the air. Tara ran and caught T before he could collide into a rock. The force knocked Tara onto her rump as she caught T.
Slowly, she got up, wiping dust off her pants, T still in her arm. “Huh, so Elvia learned a new attack.” She turned, her grave look softened and she smiled. “That’s great.”
“R-really?” Fida asked. “What was it?” she was shocked at the attack’s power, as was Elvia, who glided over to be with Fida at her side.
Tara nodded. “Yes, that was Shadow Ball, and will be one of the strongest attacks Elvia will ever know,” she looked down at the black symbol in her arms, T was just regaining consciousness. “Too bad T had to be the one to witness just how powerful it is.” She giggled.
“Y-yeah, we’re sorry, T.” Fida looked down.
“No, don’t worry about it.” Tara returned the KO’d unown to its pokéball. “Now, T is rather new to my team, but you were able to beat him. You should be proud.” Muku stopped his dance routine and clapped for Fida.
Fida smiled again and hugged Elvia. “You were great!” she cried with glee. Elvia grinned and nuzzled back.
“Maybe next time I’ll sick Namoraw on you.” Tara taunted.
“O-oh… I could never beat him, or Muku.” Fida looked down, taking into account how ferocious that tentacruel looked and how Muku easily dealt with that Ariados the other day.
“Nah, it’d be tough at first,” Tara agreed. “But like I said, kido; battling isn’t about power as much as it’s about skill. And believe me, you seem to have a knack for battling. You got the skill.” Tara walked over to Fida and placed her hand on her shoulder. “Now we just gotta help you build it up.”
Fida smiled again. Tara thought she was good. Maybe she wouldn’t be a bad trainer after all.
Tara stretched. “We better get going.” They packed up camp and resumed their journey down route 32. They were close to the end now after a few days of walking, so close in fact that they found the Pokémon Center that marked the end of the route later that day
They walked into the center, their footsteps echoed on the pure white, reflective tiles and the white walls. The center just screamed the words clean and sanitary. Soft blue furniture was arranged on either side of the room, potted plants in the corners. Computers and telephones in the back as well as three mounted flat-screens completed the look.
Elvia chose to cloak herself: she was sure people would make a fuss if they saw her. Muku, however, garnered all their attention, dancing and spinning so smoothly and elegantly on the tile that it seemed like he was skating. He did this the whole way to the front desk, where he jumped up onto the counter, spun around to face the way he had come, and came to a bow. The pink-haired nurse giggled. “What an adorable Mime Jr.,” she patted Muku on the head.
“Oh, don’t encourage him, Nurse Joy.” Tara rolled her eyes. “He’s a big a show-off.” Muku stuck out his tongue at Tara and cart wheeled off the counter, resuming his tile-skating. Tara rolled her eyes again and then focused her attention on Nurse Joy. “I would like you to check up on these two, make sure they’re in good condition.” She held up two Pokéballs. “This one especially,” she wiggled T’s Pokéball with her fingers.
Nurse Joy nodded. “Sure,” she smiled kindly, the way all Nurse Joys did, and took the two Pokéballs. The girls rested in the lounge, watching news reports and other things on the flat-screen near them. Before long Nurse Joy called them up, telling them Tara’s pokémon were in perfect health. “You planning to go on ahead into Union Cave?” she asked. “You could probably get through the whole thing if you leave now. You’ll be out the other side by nightfall.”
Tara considered this. “What do you think, Fida? Up for it?” she turned to face the younger girl.
Fida was unsure, she’d never been in a cave before - didn’t sound safe either. Still, Tara would be with her, and it did sound pretty thrilling. “I’m ok with it…”
“Mm, me too.” She turned back to the Joy. “I guess we’ll go.”
“Go with caution then, lots of accidents happen to those who aren’t careful,” for once, instead of a smile there was a frown of concern. Tara nodded. “Do you two have enough supplies? Rope, healing items, medicine, food, water?”
“Yep, we have all that, miss. No worries,” she grinned to put the nurse at ease.
“All right then, just remember we’re open twenty-four seven!” she called to the duo as they left the center.
The two followed the path in the cave, a path that was forged by countless travelers that came before them, worn into the cave floor. It was fairly simple to stray from the trail if you wanted to, but the eerie and mysterious darkness called only to those who sought perilous adventure. Two flash lights were their guides, Tara and Fida each held one. Muku clung to Tara’s shoulder; Elvia circled around Fida constantly, her red and yellow eyes piercing through the abyss.
The whole trek was relatively silent, other than the occasional Zubat or Geodude they disturbed with their lights or footsteps. They occasionally saw other lights, which signified the presence of other trainers, and they even heard sounds from a battle.
Their journey turned a little creepy near the end. Haunting wails echoed throughout the whole cave, a call from deep within the mountain. The very sound sent chills down Fida’s spine. “T-think we’re close to the end, Tara?” she asked, looking up at her.
“I hope so,” the older girl frowned. She held her right arm that was holding the flash light with her left. They walked for another half an hour, and the wailing finally stopped, but something new had shown itself now. There were boulders blocking the path. They were massive and seemed immovable. Tara walked up and ran her hand across the smooth stones. She shined the flash light around. “Hm, well, that’s alright. You can handle a few boulders, right Muku?” she shifted her eyes to Muku. He nodded and jumped off her shoulder. He waved his arms and hands rhythmically in the air and was surrounded by a light blue aura. As he was about to use the attack he stopped.
“Mime,” he looked back at Tara, and shook his head.
“What? Why?” Tara thought for a moment.
“Elvia can help!” Fida offered excitedly. “Elvia, use Shadow Ball again.”
“N-no! Stop!” Tara yelled and waved at Elvia, Muku mimicked his trainer. It was too late however; the Shadow Ball attack flew at the boulders and made a terrific explosion of dark energy. The boulders shuddered and began to move, the sound of rock grinding against rock filled everyone’s ears, along with a rumble, that started low at first, but rose to a deafening roar. The boulders were moving, but not because they were falling, more like rising. Tara shined the light to their left and saw a giant head rising from the ground. It turned and faced them, roaring again. It appeared to be an enormous snake made entirely of rocks.
The creature looked at them and then raised its tail.
“OUT OF THE WAY!” Tara yelled. The girls dove off to the side as the tail slammed down to where they once stood. Rocks flew up everywhere, dirt and dust rained on the girls.
“W-what is it?!” Fida screamed over the noise. Elvia was so close she might as well have been attached to Fida.
“It’s an Onix!” Tara yelled back.
Fida blew it big time. She had just provoked an Onix to unleash its wrath upon them. She was a failure, and now they were doomed. Hot tears streamed down her face, more out of fear that moment than out of shame. There was another loud crash and the cave rumbled. Tara ran through the dirt cloud over to Fida. “Come on!” she shook Fida.
“W-hat d-do we do?” she whined.
“We have to either find a way around it or fight it off,” she paused, her breathing was heaving, her eyes wide and alert as she looked around and listened. “The latter is the only choice now,” she frowned at Fida. “Come on, don’t worry. It's alright,” Tara wiped Fida’s tears away with dusty hands. “I can’t fight it off without your help.”
Fida sniffed again and nodded. “A-alright.”
Tara nodded. “Good. Now, Muku, use Meditate!” Muku nodded and sat still, surrounded by an orange aura. The area around them still shook violently, the Onix was tearing up the cave to find the ants that disrupted its slumber.
Muku opened his eyes, which now glowed with the same orange for a moment, then it flickered away. “Right then.” Tara said. “Give it a good Brick Break.” Muku nodded. It jumped out from behind the rock they were all behind and faced the Onix. Then he jumped up, using his own psychic power to make his jump high enough, then he delivered a powerful punch right in-between the Onix’s eyes.
The rock snake reared back in pain, grumbling and shaking its head. Just as it regained its senses it was hit by a Psybeam attack from Elvia. Tara shot her gaze at Fida and gave a thumbs up. Fida nodded in response. The rock snake growled ferociously, the cave shuddered, stalactites cracked and fell, stalagmites shattered and crumbled. It was using Rock Throw, and it added to the chaos of the falling stones by smacking boulders at the girls with its massive tail. Elvia retreated back to Fida, touching the girl, causing the boulders to simply fly through her; Muku stood at Tara’s feet and created a Reflect.
No harm befell the girls, boulders simply bounced and rolled off of Muku's wall and phased right through Fida and Elvia. The onix grunted, its attack having been foiled. It decided to really test that barrier. It roared once more, the loudest so far. The cavern shook more violently than ever, the floor, the walls, the ceiling, everything cracked.
Tara’s eyes widened. “Earthquake!” she shouted. Instinctively Elvia took hold of Fida and hoisted her into the air. Muku focused all his will into the Reflect. The shaking continued, it seemed like forever, the moments ticked by slowly. Elvia and Fida fared well in the air, but Muku and Tara were having a rough time. The Reflect surrounded them completely, like a cube, but the Earthquake was ferocious, and cracks soon appeared in Muku’s walls of psychic power. They threatened to shatter, leaving both to feel the raw force of the quake.
Fida pointed at them and Elvia went into action. She surrounded herself and Fida in a Protect and moved their floating bubble over to Tara and Muku, enveloping them in it. This happened just in time: the Reflect broke into millions of shards, knocking Muku back. Elvia hoisted them in the air for the remainder of the attack.
Muku regained himself in the bubble. “Thanks, Fida,” Tara sighed in relief. “Fida, you think you can distract that thing for a bit?” Fida nodded. “Good.” She turned to Muku. “Let’s try a Calm Mind.” The Mime Jr. nodded and sat still, in deep concentration. The quake finally ended, the Onix saw its attempts were futile. Elvia gently set them all on the ground.
“E-Elvia, try a Confuse Ray!” Fida said unsurely. Elvia sent the orb of confusion at the titan-snake. Onix was hit, and immediately began swaying to and fro. It would have been the opportune moment to escape then, if it wasn’t for the fact that the Onix was wriggling and writhing around in a hazardous manner.
Fida looked over at Muku, noticing he was still not ready; the power he was looking for must have been deep. She had to keep distracting the serpent. “Psybeam again, Elvia!” Fida cried out to her friend. Elvia nodded and launched her attack. The multi-color ray again hit the desired target. Onix recoiled and mumbled, then shook its head. It looked from Elvia to Muku and dove straight for the immobile mime.
“No!” Fida yelled.
Tara ran out in front of Muku and held her arms out. “YOU GO THROUGH ME FIRST!” she yelled adamantly at the top of her lungs. Onix did not stop but continued moving forward like a train, and would probably hit the both of them with the force of one. Impact was only seconds away when, suddenly, from Tara’s left, came an incredibly large Shadow Ball attack. It tore through the air, close to the ground, leaving a huge scar in the floor. It knocked the Onix completely off-course, sending it rolling into a wall, the cave rumbled angrily in response.
Tara looked over at Fida and an incredibly serious looking Elvia. Color soon returned to Tara’s face; despite her braveness, such an experience would terrify anyone. “T-thanks,” she put her hands on her knees, gasping for air.
The onix, however, did not seem to want to go down. Groggily it rose again and glared at Elvia. It lunged forward at its new target. Fida, moved by Tara’s bravery, was in front of Elvia in an instant. Elvia let out a sharp cry and tried her best to push Fida out of the way.
“Enough!” Tara shouted. The onix stopped and leered at her. “This struggle is now over,” the teen stated very simply, but it seemed more like a fact, not her opinion. Beside her was Muku, floating in the air, eyes glowing furiously, his body burned with psychic energy. In one swift move of his arm the Psychic attack was launched. It was so powerful that the rocks and boulders in the immediate area began to float as gravity ceased to have an effect; Tara was lost in weightlessness as well. Even Fida herself, from her distance, felt a little light.
The onix soon found itself assaulted by tendrils of psychic power; they wrapped around and covered it completely. With another swift movement of the arm the onix was hurled through the air and into a wall on the far side of the cave. There was a terrific shudder, one that any living thing in the entire cave could hear and feel.
Tara flicked her head back, removing a stray strand from her eye, and then she caught Muku as he descended. He looked weak for a bit, but soon regained his composure.
“You did excellent,” Tara rubbed Muku against her cheek. Muku smiled and giggled in return.
Fida simply stood in amazement. So much power, from that little creature. Fida was in awe, she one day hoped for Elvia to be that powerful. Then she realized that Elvia was already fairly strong - that Shadow Ball was her best yet. “You were great too, Elvia,” Fida told and embraced her friend.
“Yes, she was,” Tara said. “She saved us,” Tara walked up closer and bowed, as did Muku. “Thank you, Elvia... and you too, Fida,” she added. “It wouldn’t of worked without you,” she pulled Fida close and embraced her. Fida gasped, blushing intensely. The hug was a bit strange and sudden, she received them very rarely, and the sensation was new. She felt safe in the arms of such a good person. Perhaps that’s what all hugs felt like.
“Now then!” Tara looked up ahead of them now that the way was clear, although a bit battle-scarred. The faint purple of a setting sun was visible up ahead. “Ah! And there it is, the exit,” she looked down at Fida. “I say we get the heck out of this god-forsaken cave.”
The two were out of the cave and into the cool evening air in only minutes. Something was there to greet them however. They both looked down at something that was immediately in their way. It cawed at them and leered at Fida with its eyes. Fida could simply not believe this bird was still stalking her. It had shown up the other day as well while they were training.
“Hey, look!” Tara pointed. “You’re starting to scare me, Fida,” she nodded. “Being followed by Murkrow is not normal, and causes bad luck.” She teased.
There was a low rumble. Murkrow cawed again and fluttered away. Tara watched it curiously as it flew away, then looked at the ground. Within seconds it erupted. Chunks of earth flew everywhere and there was a lot of dust. The four of them heard an all too familiar roar.
“Oh, gods,” Tara moaned as she gazed up at the onix. “Fida, do you mind?” she asked, pulling out a Pokéball, the strange one with the net pattern. “I see only one way to deal with it once and for all.” Fida understood and nodded silently, taking a step back with Elvia.
“Your battle is with me, beast!” she called out to it. She threw Namoraw’s ball into the air and released him. Though he looked a bit out of place on land, his tentacles supported him just fine.
The Onix roared mightily in response, accepting her challenge. “Let’s start out like always then,” she glared at the serpent. Namoraw nodded and lifted his two foremost tentacles into the air, waving them around in a rhythmic pattern. The red orbs in his head began to glow. Faster and faster the arms moved, flowing as if they were liquid through the air, until finally the silence was broken by the sound of thunder. Dark clouds rushed in from all sides and formed together. First there was one drop, then two, then one hundred, then thousands and thousands. The rain came in sheets, thoroughly soaking the ground.
Onix mumbled in annoyance, rain was not its most favorite weather. “Good,” Tara confirmed. “Now let’s make some noise!” Namoraw growled deeply and slammed his two tentacles into the ground. The growl was magnified many times; Fida had to cover her ears - her whole body vibrated with the sound. The Onix did its best to endure the Supersonic, but it couldn’t focus on anything else.
“Hydro Pump!” Tara commanded, pointing her arm at the snake. The Tentacruel opened his beak wide and an enormous jet of water issued forth, slamming into onix and making it slide back several feet. It moaned in pain and sought an escape. Onix was soon underground, and no one knew where it could pop up, though the best guess was right under Namoraw.
“Feel for the vibrations,” Tara told him. “and move out of the way once you’re sure where it will re-surface.” Namoraw grunted in response and did as he was told. As predicted, the Onix surfaced right under him, but he moved just in time. Using its tail, Onix slammed it into the ground, sending large chunks of rocks into the air, then it quickly brought its tail back up and slammed them at Namoraw.
“Barrier!” Tara said quickly. Tentacruel waved his arms around in a another pattern, all of the rain falling around the water-type began to follow the arms and formed into a wall of liquid. The jellyfish slowly lowered his arms, putting the wall under high pressure, making it as hard as any steel wall. The boulders slammed into the wall and crumbled, though Namoraw and his wall were pushed back by the sheer force.
Onix saw its chance and rushed up, hitting the wall head-on with its horn. The wall dispersed and the water splashed to the ground. Namoraw was knocked back into a tree and fell to the ground with a groan. Slowly, he pulled himself up and stood ready.
“Let’s try a Screech!” Again the tentacruel barraged the rock snake with sound waves, only instead of a dull rumble is was a piercing shriek. The Rock-type closed its eyes and shook its head, the sound was unbearable, more so for it.
“Water Pulse!” Tara said quickly. Namoraw reared his head and shot three rings of water, which also sent out sound waves. One by one each ring hit the onix, making a distinctive tone while doing so. The onix was thoroughly soaked now, and it disliked it greatly. It opened its mouth wide and a jet of green fire shout out, aimed at Namoraw. Dragonbreath hit dead on with the jellyfish Pokémon and he groaned in pain. Burns appeared on his flesh and he seemed unable to move.
“Paralyzed…” Tara spat, Muku looked on with a worried face. “Try to move!” Tara urged Namoraw. “Try an Ice Beam!” With great effort, he was able to get into a position for attacking. Slowly his beak opened and a blue spark flashed, faint at first, but then it grew into a light blue colored ball of energy. Three lightning-like strands of energy burst from the ball and hit the soaked, stone serpent. Ice formed quickly and soon covered the beast completely. It stood still, like a great sculpture of ice.
Namoraw stood shakily, trying his best to get used to his condition. There was the sound of cracking and shattering, onix was breaking free. “Quick! Get in close!” Tara ordered. Namoraw did so just, using the slick ground to slide over as Onix broke free of its icy casing. It was visibly weak, as was the dual Water/Poison-type, but Tara had her plan.
“Now!” she boomed. Before Onix could react Namoraw had jumped up onto it, near the base of the head, and wrapped his tentacles all around. Onix could shake all it liked, but Namoraw was latched on and wouldn’t come off. Then there was a brief flash of green. Tiny yellow balls of light emerged from onix’s body and were absorbed into his enemy’s tentacles. The more spheres absorbed, the weaker onix seemed to get, and the stronger the jellyfish Pokémon seemed to become. This went on for a couple minutes until finally the Onix collapsed.
“Finally,” Tara sighed in an exhausted manner. She pulled out a Pokéball and threw it at the Rock-type. The massive creature was converted into red energy and absorbed into the ball, miniscule in comparison. The ball fell to the ground and shook. Fida new this was a tense moment, and both girls waited for the familiar click. The seconds stretched into hours, sweat dripped down Tara’s already soaked face. Finally, the ball clicked and ceased movement.
Tara strode over to where the ball lay. The rain began to slow down, but she was soaked to the bone. She picked up her prize and examined it, as if the ball should now be any different than from before she threw it. “This one’s going to take some work…” she commented as she put the ball away. “Thank you, Namoraw.” He grunted and nodded as he was returned to his ball as well.
It was dark now, the sun had long gone over the horizon. The immediate area was completely soaked, thus not suitable for a good campsite. The girls walked on for a bit until they found where it was dry. Tara set their clothes to dry on a line and huddled around the fire. The older girl cooked up some instant noodles for dinner and it was silent other than for the sound of slurping.
After they were done Tara stretched and leaned back. “So, Fida. Thinking of catching anything else?” she inquired. “Or are you happy with just Elvia?”
Fida had been thinking about that actually. She kept replaying the incident with Onix in her head. Even though it could have been a potentially fatal encounter, Fida found it exciting as she watched Tara give orders and Namoraw execute them. Then there was the throwing of the ball itself, how exciting that must feel, though anxious as well.
Fida realized she could be totally happy with just Elvia, but she also liked the idea of being able to catch any new thing that she came across, something tiny, or something mighty. She could just imagine the face of the next person Tara battled. They would see Muku and think she had a bunch of Pokémon like him, only to have her summon that enormous Onix.
Fida giggled to herself. “Um… I’m not sure,” the girl twiddled her thumbs. “I mean… It’d be nice, and fun… and exciting….” she realized it was also dangerous. They were both in a very dangerous situation today, either of them could have lost their lives - Fida could have lost Tara. Tara was the only person so far who acted like a respectable adult in her life, aside from her teachers, and she wasn’t even an adult! What if she did lose Tara? Or Elvia? What would she do then?
Tara nodded her head slowly. “Yep, I remember my first capture… it was Namoraw in fact. He was just a Tentacool back then,” she broke Fida’s silence and then mused for a moment or two, recalling the events of that day years ago. Then her head snapped back and she looked at Fida. “First order of business when we find a town is to get you some trainer gear and supplies.”
Fida nodded after a moment; it sounded good enough to her. She hadn't lost Tara, that was something to be thankful for. Life on your own, on the road, was always dangerous. They just needed to take better care. She fell asleep that night excited about the next day, and happy that another day went by relatively well. She was getting used it.