[X] My Assistant

[Xal]

It wasn't a cruise liner but it would do. The small metal boat bobbed up and down in the sea like a cork and if anyone were foolish enough to climb up on deck (if the small area of space around the room housing the captain and the stairs below deck could generously be considered a deck, anyway) they would almost certainly be thrown into the raging sea. The captain pulled on his beard as the rain lashed against the window, making it almost impossible to see ahead. Everything seemed fine when they'd left Port Barley. The sun was shining, the weather was perfectly mild and the sea was calm without even a ripple in sight. However, things had taken a turn for the worse a few hours before they were supposed to reach the island. A storm and large waves appeared almost as soon as the volcano of Charizard Isle came into sight. That was what he called it anyway, the island was yet to be officially named. A group of sailors had only recently discovered it when they followed a lone Charizard flying in the sky apparently hundreds of miles from land.


Below deck a few dozen people were sat at their wooden tables. They couldn't have been comfortable, there was no padding on the chairs or benches and virtually no room between the seats. They were surrounded by windows on all side but rains and waves made it impossible to see very far.

"Your attention please everyone, we'll soon be arriving at our destination. Our apologies for the bumpy ride, there were some unexpected weather cond..."

Govannon tuned out as the captain's voice droned over the intercom. He was too busy trying not to vomit, he got sea sickness at the best of times and this particular trip was far from pleasant. In fact the entire trip to Furoh hadn't been what he expected at all. He almost considered himself a leading researcher, heading to a far off land to study a new strain of pokémon. Instead he ended up being a glorified babysitter. He had a brief chat with the boy who ended up being his old Pichu's trainer but before he realised what was happening he was stuck to him like a limpet. He was looking after the Charmander egg though, and on this roller coaster of a boat he was grateful to not have to worry about flinging it to the floor.


Malcolm clutched the egg to his chest as tightly as he could. The pokémon were safe in their pokéballs but the egg didn't have that luxury. It looked about half the size it should be and was slipping from his grip. Malcolm felt as if it was his own, although it was still technically Govannon's. There was no doubt in his mind that he would become its owner soon though, he just couldn't see Govannon wandering off with the egg back to Kanto (or the Charmander, if it hatched by then) when he knew Malcolm wanted it so badly. This wasn't just a Charmander, this was a mini little baby Charmander thing. It was special, and Malcolm wanted to be able to say that he'd owned at least one pokémon for its whole life. He'd never seen a baby pokémon before. Well, there was Togepi and Pichu but baby was just a type of their classification. They weren't newborn.


After a short while the boat started to slow and eventually stopped. Govannon, Malcolm and several others looked up, not wanting to hope that they were there in case they were wrong.

"Right, let's go." Govannon said, jumping to his feet as the captain welcomed everyone to the island over the speakers. He needed to get some fresh air, and not only that but he was excited to finally see this island.
Malcolm was eager to get out and see it too. He wondered what it would be like but had an idea of it in his head already. There were miles of golden beaches with cute mini pokémon playing, and just behind that there would be lush forests. The massive trees and healthy green leaves would, of course, be home to even more pokémon. After all this and off in the distance there would be the silhouette of the volcano, perhaps with smoke gently flowing from the peak.

"Great, come on!" Malcolm said, holding the egg under his arm. Govannon followed behind, joining the queue of people leaving the boat and climbing out onto the dock. The wooden panels creaked slightly as Malcolm jumped off the boat, landing on the rickety walkway leading to the beach. At the end there were a few small buildings. Most of them were wooden but a few were made of bricks and mortar. Most notably was a pokémon centre, the only real sign that there was any modern civilisation here.

"This... isn't what I expected. Are we sure this is the right place?" Malcolm asked, scratching the top of his head.

"Yep, this is the one. What did you think it was going to be like?" Govannon asked, but truth be told he wasn't expecting it to be like this either.

"It doesn't matter." Malcolm sighed. There weren't any pokémon in sight at all, let alone an abundance of them playing on the golden beaches. There wasn't a golden beach at all. The sand was a shiny black colour, attractive in its own way but hardly luxurious.

"Volcanic sand." Govannon mumbled as he scooped some into his hand when he climbed off the walkway, letting it run between his fingers and back onto the beach.

"I guess they've chosen to build port away from all the pokémon. I can see why, I suppose." Govannon said, looking towards the volcano. The beach ran along a tall cliff edge which seemed to run on for miles in one direction. He could see the end of the other though, where lots of trees seemed to be growing. The island's edge curved inwards so he couldn't see if it was a full forest, but it seemed as if Malcolm was right about at least one thing.


"A'right everyone. Head over there to get into the woods. Head over there," The captain said, pointing in the opposite direction down the beach "to get to the caves. You'll find yer fire types over there. Take your time. We won't be leaving until this here storm passes. There are rooms here if we're stayin' the night though, so don't you worry about that."

"Well, we're here now so we may as well do what we came to." Govannon said, getting out his clipboard and a pen to scrawl down notes. The pair of them joined the group of people heading towards the caves. Malcolm looked down to his pokéballs. If there were going to be pokémon they might need protection.

"Hi Pikachu. Sorry it's not the resort we were expecting." He said as he let Pikachu out of her pokéball, the same pokémon that used to be Govannon's.

"And yet it's still a tourist destination..." Govannon grumbled. He hadn't been expecting so many people to be going there. All it needed now was someone in a weird uniform to guide them around, giving them 'facts' regurgitated from the guidebook that was on sale outside the 'Cave of Mysteries'. Knowing his luck Malcolm would probably start talking to some other kids, too.

[PinkiePie]

Vincent had only just arrived in Furoh about two hours ago and he was already unhappy. His friend, Lanette, had inquired as to his plans while they had been sailing to Furoh, and he had made it very clear he was going strictly to challenge the league and add to his already extensive badge collection. Although she had said contest ribbons were her ambition, Lanette was determined to see the sights as well. Thus, because Lanette was a pretty girl, and Vincent was a gentleman, he gave in when she asked to take a detour.

The poor boy hadn't even asked where they were going. All he knew was there was no gym there, and it irked him, though he didn't show it. Now, looking back, all Vincent could do was run scenarios through his head, most good ones of how things could've gone better, others not as good like what kind of torture this tourist trap would be, as the ocean breeze above him and the undulating deck below him made an attempt to pierce his thoughts with enthralling diversions therein. The sea held nothing for him, and neither did the sky, so none of it got through to Vincent.

Nothing short of Lanette's voice would.

"Vincent!"

Of course.

"Yes?" asked Lanette, irked that his thoughts had been disrupted by the only thing capable of doing so.

"Whatcha thinking about?" she asked sweetly.

"If you must know," Vincent began slowly, "I was thinking about how your voice would've been the only thing that could disrupt my thoughts."

"What?....Never mind, actually, I don't wanna know."

"Exactly."

The boat came to a stop and everyone began funneling off onto the shore. Beauty and majesty all around them, the two friends began taking in the sights, as Lanette had wanted. She was completely enthralled by every detail of the new island, like the black beach and the beautiful sky, whereas Vincent noticed the less obvious things, like how ineffective the sand would be for a battle and the lack of pokemon in the vicinity.

"Lanette?"

"Yes?"

"I don't like it here," he said ruefully.

"Oh, hush, we'll have fun! You'll see."

Her voice was so strikingly melodic and sweet, Vincent couldn't reply with anything more than "Yeah...."

This post has been edited by Vincent Lance: Apr 26 2010, 04:09 PM

[ShinyTyphlosion]

Paul had been travelling around Furoh for very little time now. Not really just going anywhere, just travelling. When he heard something about an island filled with fire types, he had to find out more about. Soon after he found out that it was currently called Charizard Isle, though it wasn't the official name, and that a boat was leaving from Barley Town to it soon. When he found it out, he went to Barley to get on the boat.


Well, here he was, sitting on the boat with Cyndaquil on his shoulder and Chikorita sleeping on his lap. Then a wave hit the boat and he nearly fell over. "Yikes." he said as Chikorita woke up. "Oh, sorry. Wanna go back to sleep in your Pokeball? There isn't much to see out here." The Chikorita nodded, so took out it's Pokeball and called it back.

Paul looked at the sky to see some dark grey coulds forming over head. "I hope we get to the island before that storm strikes." he told his Cyndaquil while petting it.

The Cyndaquil jumped off Paul's shoulder and pointed to the front of the boat. "Quil!" There it was, the island. It looked like it had a volcano on it with smoke coming out of it.

"How else would the fire types like it so much." Paul told himself. "Come here Cyndaquil, before another wave hits the boat and you go flying off." The Cyndaquil did as it was told and jumped on Paul's lap.

About an hour later they arrived at the island. Paul and many others got off the boat and stretched their arms and legs. "Alright, we're here." Paul said as he threw Chikorita's Pokeball in the air. In a white light, Chikorita appeared.

Paul and his Pokemon looked around only to see very few things on the island, a shining black beach, a small bunch a buildings, a forest and the volcano towering above them. Paul looked at his Pokemon still looking around, "So, what do you guys say we explore the island?" then the Chikorita ran off over to the forest. "I'll take that as a yes."

[Xal]

The wind was starting to pick up and the sand stung Malcolm's ankles as it blew up the hem of his jeans.

"Here we are then." Govannon said, staring up at the entrance to the cave. It must have been about thirty feet tall and just as wide, and certainly gave off an ominous feel. This wasn't helped by the fact that the wind was making it give off a quiet howl, and Malcolm wasn't sure he was entirely comfortable going inside caves on the side of a volcano. Something about it, specifically the glowing molten rock, made him uneasy. The cave was nearly pitch black, but this was less to do with a lack of light than it was due to the rock of the cliff being a dark grey. Every few seconds it would light up faintly before returning to darkness.

"That must be the pokémon. There must be fire types not far from here. Let's go." Govannon said, stepping into it and unclipping a torch from his belt. Bright light spilled out of it and illuminated the cave, causing a few Zubat to stir and flutter deeper in.

"Is it safe in there then?" Malcolm asked, slightly wary that they might get caught miles underground facing off against dangerous pokémon.

"As safe as anywhere else." Govannon said, apparently not too concerned about the threat. All the same he pulled Charmeleon's pokéball from his belt and released him. If the pokémon here really were miniature then they probably wouldn't want to battle a Charmeleon who was, relative to them, a pretty strong giant. Malcolm was still carrying the small egg under his arm, and if they were lucky the pokémon wouldn't want to attack someone taking care of an egg that clearly came from their own island. Then again, they might try and take the egg back.

"Stop worrying and let's go." Govannon said, starting to get annoyed with Malcolm being so worried about the cave. He'd been following Govannon around since they met just so he could come here, and now it seemed as if he was deliberately trying to ruin it.

Malcolm still wasn't that comfortable though. The pair of them and their pokémon would be an easy target, and although he was sure he was just being paranoid he would still rather have some other people with him for peace of mind. Behind him he saw a pair of trainers near the dock. One of them had shiny blue hair and didn't look that happy to be there, and the other was a red haired girl who looked much more excited.

"Hi, you two!" Malcolm called out.

Govannon grimaced. Yep, he was gathering a little club. Again. He always knew that this was going to happen, but was somewhat impressed with the speed he'd done it with this time. They'd barely been off the boat five minutes.

Malcolm jogged over to the pair, waving his arms to get their attention.

"Hey, are you going into the caves? It'll be saf... more fun if we go in a group." Malcolm said, not wanting to let on that he really just wanted a bit of back up if a battle took place.

[Cilalic]

Frosty had just gotten off, her long black hair was waving under the wind, and those lips were freshly coated in lipstick. Frowning, she put her hair into a small ponytail, and checked if everything was in place, things were in jumbled inside her backpack, but they were okay. The pokeballs in her belt were fine, with Mareep and Sentret in them. She overheard a conversation, a boy was inviting those pair of trainers over. A devious smile plastered against her face, walking up between them, she turned to him,

"I'll go! I want to catch another pokemon."

That was the only reason she had wanted to go in the first place, to catch another pokemon. Looking down at him, she noticed a orange egg, presumably a Charmander one. A little thought came to her mind while looking at it for a second, They might take it back if you aren't careful! It was a sidetracked thought, almost saying it out loud. None the less, she gave a warm smile, even though the wind played with her hair, flipping it all over the place. Frosty noticed a volcano in the background, smoking? Oh no, the girl hoped it wouldn't erupt, for that would mean disaster. More the less, a contribution to global warming, even though she was kinda selfish, herself.

A cave would do, yes, it would. It would provide protection from the winds, and Frosty could still catch a pokemon, preferably a fire-type one. Even if it wasn't a fire-type, she'd still get burned somewhere one place or the other. The storm over the seas were still brewing, and it looked very big, she knew they wouldn't get off for a while. A sagged look was her style today, tediously woken up fro her nap by the large waves that shook the ship so. Yet still, she was in a happy mood, happy-go-lucky for some reason. Well, for a good reason. People had always considered her a optimist.

[ShinyTyphlosion]

Paul walked over to Chikorita who was wating in front of the forest for Paul. As he walked over he saw a Flamethrower coming out of the volcano. "Maybe it would be best if we stayed with the group." He thought aloud. "We dunno what is on this island." Paul looked back at the group to see them talking. "Come on, Chikorita." He turned around and walked over to the group.

When he got the the group he stayed just far enough away that none of them tried talking to him. "Well, you guys are probably hungry after the long trip anyways." Paul said to his Pokemon. Paul sat down and took a couple of expandable food dishes from his pockets and poured some Pokemon food into them. "Here you guys go." He said as he set the food dishes down.

Darn, I can't come up with anything... My mind is a blank slate and I know I need to post now if I want my character to stay with the group...

[PinkiePie]

Vincent had been observing the surrounding nature when a young man inquired about his plans for the day. At first, the trainer wasn't sure what to think; the kid was a perfect stranger asking about personal details. Was that normal here? Did it matter? But Lanette was looking off into the distance, as though that seemed to be he plan anyway. Though, he still wasn't sold on the idea of traveling with this kid.

"Umm, I'm not sure. Lanette?" he asked.

"Yes?"

"We going to the cave?"

"Of course, hun. Why else would we be here?"

"Just checking." He turned back to the kid. "Yeah, we'll go with you. I'm new to this place, though, so you lead the way, alright?"

Lanette seemed unhappy with that response, and tapped Vincent on the shoulder. "Hun, who is he?"

"Not sure," he replied, "probably just another tourist."

"He's a perfect stranger!"

"That's what I said. But, hey, you're the one who wants to go to the cave."

"Still," she considered, "it may not be the best idea to trust these people. We don't know what they're like, after all."

"C'mon, Lanette," Vincent replied. "What's the worst that could happen today?"

So they started off together, hand in hand, like any teenage couple would.

This post has been edited by Vincent Lance: Apr 29 2010, 05:26 PM

[Xal]

"Sure, ok." Malcolm replied to the trainer and the girl who'd walked over to the three of them. He hadn't been to the caves before either but he wasn't going to cause a fuss. Govannon rolled his eyes as he walked back over, who must have seen he was going to be accompanied by four kids now.

"Come on then." He sighed as Malcolm made his way back over to him.

Malcolm looked around at everyone else on the island. Most people besides the ones he'd spoken to had mad either way elsewhere, either down along the beach or towards the woods. There was one other person though, a boy with a Chikorita and a Cyndaquil. He seemed as if he wanted to be left alone though and was keeping his distance from everyone else, but still hovering fairly near by. Malcolm turned his attention away from him and back to the cave. As he walked inside it somehow felt colder than it did on the beach. It hadn't been particularly warm then either, there were probably clouds blocking the sun but the fog made it impossible to see that far. The wind hadn't helped much either.

"What was that?" Govannon asked.

"What do you mean?" Malcolm said. He had no idea what he was talking about.

"Nothing..." Govannon said quietly after a moment of silence, but still looked around him as if he was searching for something. "It must have been my imagination."

He pointed the torch back down into the cave, lighting up the way for them. There was a turn ahead and beyond that... who knew? As the beach got further and further away Malcolm couldn't help but feel a little uncomfortable. There were two ways to go, further into the caves or back to the beach. Going into the heart of this volcano was starting to appeal to him less and less, but he wasn't keen on going back and missing the opportunity to explore either. He just carried on walking, clutching the egg to his side and carried on walking. The dank cave was quickly losing its appeal, and the damp rock underfoot was starting to get difficult to walk on. Hopefully they'd see a change of environment soon, somewhere a little less dark and ominous. The stalagmites and stalactites were making it feel almost as if they were walking inside the huge gaping mouth of a titanic monster. There were no signs of pokémon though, if there were any in the cave with the Zubat they must have vanished further in as well, so for the moment they were safe from any creatures. That served as something of a comfort, but Malcolm noticed the irony that looking for pokémon was the very reason he came here. Now that he was here he'd seen that it was nowhere near as nice as he expected and he could easily see the same being true for the pokémon. He was starting to realise that his idea of them being miniature and sweet was naïve. Just because they were small it wouldn't mean they weren't aggressive.

[Cilalic]

Frosty simply did nothing put steer ahead for a long time, she was at the very back. The save had been more colder than she though t it was, considering it was on Charizard Island. It would probably get warmer, since it was a volcano. Her thoughts are steered to the boy and the others ahead of him, holding a egg. It'd be awkward if the pokemon here didn't react to it, since it was a Charmander by the looks of it. Goosebumps had started to form on the skin of her forearm. It was lucky she had a jacket, Frost had quickly took it from her backpack and hung on those sagged shoulders.

She hasn't spoken a thing since Frosty had walked into the cave, and the girl was kinda glad, since she had always seemed to have the worst luck. She had brought enough pokeballs, ten in her pocket. It wasn't very much though. Her head was blank. She couldn't help but feel slightly scared, since Frosty had never been to a volcano before,

"Do you think there are even pokemon deep inside this cave?"

Frosty asked echoed in the cave. She was content on how it sounded. For some reason, she had always been annoyed at how she talked. None the less, she kept going, only to find that the terrain is getting harder and harder to walk on. She wasn't used to a volcano island, even more, she wasn't used to being so close to a volcano either.

[Xal]

"There it is again." Govannon said with no time to answer the girl's question. He'd felt something earlier but had decided it was all in his head, but this time it was stronger and clearly there.

"What are you talking about?" Malcolm asked, starting to get a little bit concerned. It wasn't like Govannon to be phased by anything, and although he wasn't panicking it was easy to tell that some was wrong from his posture.

"It's the ground." Govannon knelt down and rested his fingertips upon the floor of the cave. "It's moving."

He stood up quickly and wiped the slime from the damp rock on his jacket, twirling on his heel towards the far off light of the exit to the cave.

"Stay calm, and we'll be fine. We just need to get out of here in case it gets too bad." Govannon said, trying to take control of the situation. There were a few people around him, and if anyone starting panicking there would be chaos. By now the vibrations were strong enough to be felt by anyone and an occasional small chip of rock would fall from the ceiling. With a strong sense of purpose they started to make their way out of the cave, careful not to slip on the wet rocks.

It was when they were almost half way back, when it seemed as if they would be all right despite the growing intensity of the tremors, that things became disastrous. The end of the shaking was marked by a huge jolt, strong enough to knock Malcolm off his feet. As he slammed into the ground he cut his lip on the jagged surface of the cave wall, causing a metallic taste of blood to slowly creep into his mouth. He wiped it off and looked towards the exit of the cave, but the light had disappeared. Charmeleon's tail was the only source of light now, and for a terrible moment he realised he'd dropped the egg and couldn't see it.

There was a sound of rocks knocking against each other, and Malcolm turned to the source of it. Govannon was trying to pull rocks from a large pile of them, but wasn't having much success.

"A cave in..." He sighed, stepping backwards away from the wall of rocks that blocked their path. "There's no way we'll be able to move all of this, and even if we could we'd be risking setting off another cave in. And that's not to mention the fact that there's a massive amount of rocks here to the end of the cave, even if we could move them all we'd have nowhere to put them."

"So what are we going to do?" Malcolm asked as worry wrapped around his heart like a vice. This wasn't the first time he'd been in this situation, everything he'd learnt at Castle Vonmoto was starting to kick in. There, he'd been trapped in a falling down castle by an avalanche. It looked as if something very similar was happening here. He'd survived that though, and he'd survive this. It couldn't be too difficult, and it wasn't as if they'd been hit by any falling rocks. They were lucky to escape being crushed by the cave in. If worst came to worst they'd just have to wait for rescue. As they were, they were fine.

Govannon turned and looked around, waving his arm out and pointing the way they'd just come, apparently not feeling the same way about waiting as Malcolm did.

"We'll have to go that way. We've seen pokémon down there, so we know that the cave leads somewhere. It'll need to connect to other caves, so we'll go out through one of them." He explained. He wasn't as sure of their wellbeing as he was making out but he wasn't about to start a riot, not here. He and Charmeleon started walking deeper into the cave, but Govannon was flat on his face in no time.

"Ah! I wondered where that had got to." Malcolm said, picking up the egg Govannon had tripped on. "Carry on, let's go."

[PinkiePie]

This was totally normal.

"Vincent?...."

"Uh huh?"

"I'm scared."

A huge rumbling had taken out the only exit from this cave!

"Yeah?" he replied to Lanette casually.

"Aren't you worried?" she replied worriedly.

"I'm terrified. But freaking out won't get us anywhere."

Lanette tried to compose herself. Vincent turned to look at everyone in the little group that had formed; a little boy and a few teenagers, ranging in age in quite a few ways. There didn't seem to be much hope for escape, but one young man was sure he could find a way, and Vincent was too lazy to do it himself, though he knew he could.

"Lanette, let's just follow these guys. They appear to know what to do."

"I, uh...."

"C'mon....we followed them in. We might as well."

"Sure," she replied, unsure, "I guess."

So the proceeded on, hand in hand still, into the dark unknown.

[Cilalic]

The girl sighed, no exit out, only going in. This was going to eventually turn up to be a bad thing, or else she thought. Being stuck with some kids, the more the merrier? The rule never help her. She had been pushed when the rumble made the cave blocked with no exit. Being pushed into a wall, she had nearly missed a rock jutting out from the cave walls, thank goodness that she didn't hit it. They had wondered into the cave for some time now, Frosty would've thought that it would be more warm, but yet, every minute, it had seemed that her arms would have more goosebumps than she checked before.

Being one of the only girls, next to this girl, which she observed, which seemed to be 'Lanette', it seemed a little uncomfortable. An idea sudden;y had struck her, maybe her Mareep could help, being a electric type. Might as well ask them, she didn't want to be yelled at,

"Mind if I send my Mareep out for light?"

Whispering, afraid if she would wake any zubat if her voice was any louder. At anytime, she had expected it for the cave to collapse, dying in her own deathbed, with about four other people around her. Luckily, it hadn't. At least maybe not yet. She wouldn't know. The girl just walked on, her question still eager to be answered.

[Xal]

"As long as it can keep up. We can't dawdle, the tremors have stopped but there's no knowing if or when they'll start again." Govannon said as he strode down the cave. His jacket still had some slime on from the floor when he fell and his knee was hurting, but that wasn't going to slow him down. They needed to get out of there, and quickly.

Malcolm kept stumbling and skidding as he tried to keep up. He could see the need for walking so quickly but couldn't think of a way to make Govannon understand that he was limited by physical possibility. There was just no way he could keep up that pace on this terrain, and he had no idea how Govannon was faring so well.

"What's that?" Malcolm said, seeing something flutter ahead of him, near the cave's ceiling about a dozen feet above them. He pulled out the pokédex Govannon had given him and pointed it at the movement, hoping that maybe they'd see some pokémon at long last.

"Pidgey." The pokédex crackled, showing a flickering image of the bird. It looked a lot like his Pidgey, except that one now wore the rainbow feather on his head between his eyes, the one they'd got from the Ho-Oh at Castle Vonmoto.
"A flying pokémon. Among all-" Malcolm slammed it shut as a Zubat flew towards them, illuminated by the light from Charmeleon.

"I need to get another one when we're back to the mainland..." He sighed. He didn't want to seem ungrateful but he preferred not having one at all. At least that way it didn't irritate him whenever he tried to use it. It did work most of the time though, even if it was a little faulty.

They continued walking for another few minutes, and just as Malcolm thought he couldn't walk for any longer he was greeted by the sight of an enormous cavern. There was a gigantic room made of rock, and although he couldn't say for certain it looked as if it was a mile across. They were atop a plateau, showing off the entire landscape of small sand hills and cliffs. The ground here was much better than it had been in the cave, as they left it they stepped onto fine sand.
Not only that but there were so many fire types that the room was lit up. It was hardly as bright as daylight, but there was still adequate light to see most things reasonably clearly. They were mostly Charmanders and Charmeleons, but there were plenty of other types too, not all of them fire types. A single Charizard, the only one Malcolm could see, sat at the top of what looked like a small mountain in the centre of the room. Around this there was a river. It lead into the room from a small cave beneath their plateau, split in two and went around the hill, and then exited at the opposite side of the cavern. Malcolm guessed that from above the cave would look almost like a pokéball.

"That'll be our way out then. The water's running so it must be heading for the sea. I can't see any other caves, so unless there's some hidden it'll be the only way we can go." Govannon said. As he was saying this a curious looking Cyndaquil made its way towards them, tilting its head to the side. In all likelihood it had never seen humans before, or not many anyway. People didn't come to this island all that often and it wasn't particularly likely that those who did found this particular cave and went in deep enough to discover this place. Malcolm just had to smile at the little thing taking such an interest in them, but its small stature reminded him of something he'd been meaning to ask.

"Aren't lots of pokémon smaller than normal? What's so special about these ones?" He asked Govannon, who'd come from Kanto to see why they were like that.

"Nothing really." Came the disappointing reply. "It's not like normal variance within a species though. Normal pokémon have an average size for each species, and the average size for the ones found here is about two thirds scale size of normal. I'd like to find out if there's something inherent within them that makes them little or if it's something to do with what they eat, or maybe they're just malnourished. But really, this isn't anything all that special. It's interesting, which is why I decided to come on a trip here to find out, but I don't expect there's going to be some kind of magnificent revelation from this."

Malcolm couldn't help but feel a little wounded by this. He'd been excited about this for quite a while, and now it was as if the magic had been taken from it. He had to smile when he looked down at the puzzled Cyndaquil though, who was now looking at the Charmander egg with great interest.

[Cilalic]

The girl shrugged, she guessed that their would be no more light, since they were soon ending in front of a cave with fire pokemon. The Charmander family lines mostly, to be specific. None the less, Frosty was going to send out her Mareep. She grabbed a small pokeball out of her belt, clicked on the little white button. Expanding, the pokeball was thrown into the air, as Frosty said nothing yet. The Mareep, apperently named, 'Soul' shook, stiff from it's slumber.

The sheep pokemon gave a confused look at Frosty, she shrugged,
"Welcome to Volcano Island."
The Mareep stared at the smallish pokemon in front of him, making him more confused than he had been before. He finally had jerked around and 'baaaed', staring at Frosty again. She had simply replied back,
"Hey, I'm just as confused as everybody else is."
Soul sat down, with no orders, he did nothing yet. His tail illuminated the cave even more so, and his sheep-like hide was getting all frizzy and fluffed because of the electricity and the cave dampness. The girl's legs were starting to get tired, she never really liked standing for long. Sitting beside her Mareep, she observed the Cyndaquil study another teen's egg.

[Xal]

There was a rocky path that lead to the bottom of the cavern. It was an area of rock that jutted out from the wall and zigzagged in front of the plateau, and would take them near the river - exactly where they wanted to go. It was only a couple of feet wide so everyone would have to go down single file, and noticing the the expression on Malcolm's face Govannon volunteered to go first. Charmeleon followed behind, and once they'd started to make their way down Malcolm joined them. He started to carefully make his way downwards one step at a time. His stomach lurched and he suddenly froze as a small rock fell of the path, falling to the ground and rattling against the rock face on its way. He gathered himself and started moving again, although at a more hurried pace just so he could get to the safety of the sand below. It was only about a thirty foot drop, but that was still too high for comfort.

"This'll be our way out then." Govannon said when Malcolm ran onto the sand. He nodded towards the cave on the far side of the room, which lead outside. From this perspective it was easy to see the light pouring through it, meaning that it couldn't be too far to the beach (or whatever there was outside).

Whilst Malcolm was thinking about that four Charmander had made their way over. They, like the Cyndaquil, were interested in the egg but were paying much more attention to Govannon's Charmeleon. He must have been a giant to them, they were a similar size to Malcolm's Togepi, maybe a little taller, and Charmeleon was pretty large even by normal standards. He didn't seem to like the attention though, and started edging away from them. It was a strange thing to see. Charmeleon was always Govannon's tough guy sidekick who appeared when they needed protection or even intimidation. It was almost unsettling to see him so uncomfortable and embarrassed. Malcolm guessed he was just used to pokémon feeling threatened by him and avoiding him.
The Charmander looked a bit taken aback. They weren't used to that kind of response, and looked over towards a group of pokémon for help. There were another two Charmander, a Charmeleon, a couple of Ponyta and a Rapidash. The larger pokémon didn't look happy with having guests and starting walking over.

"We should really get going, I don't see things turning out well if we stay longer than necessary." Govannon said, an air of worry in his voice. He nervously reached for his pokéballs, holding one in each hand. His Pikachu and Raichu appeared in a flash of light, taking a moment to look around them.
"Now, let's go." He demanded, more forceful this time.

"Wait, look!" Malcolm said, looking down at the Charmander egg. The pokémon around, wild or not, had all stopped to look at it. It was starting to glow, and Malcolm could feel the warmth of it in his hands as he held it out in front of thim.

[PinkiePie]

Vincent hated this so much. Blocked off, in a cave, with complete strangers! As though his quest for badges wouldn't have been hard enough, now he had to lose a day trying to get off this Arceus-forsaken island. With Lanette talking to the girl behind him, Vincent trudged on, staying for the most part completely silent the majority of the trip. The terrain inside the cavern was treacherous, but at the same time there was an inherent beauty to it.

The deeper they went, the more pokemon Vincent began to see. And they were tiny. What was with that?

"Vincent," Lanette whispered to him.

"Hmm?" he replied.

"Look." She pointed over his shoulder at an egg, red in texture, just....right there.

"Mm, a Charmander egg."

"And pokemon all around," Lanette commented.

One of the young men in the cave suggested they move on.

"I agree," Vincent said, taking notice of the slight hostility he was feeling from the pokemon around him.

Then light began shining from the egg. Vincent gulped. No escape now.

[Xal]

The glowing subsided and Malcolm was left holding a Charmander in his hands, similar to the ones that were standing just a few feet from him. The newborn pokémon blinked a bit and looked around with wide eyes. It seemed natural that it would be born here, on the island it came from even after being sent so far away. He wriggled through Malcolm's hands and fell to the floor and was instantly grabbed by the group of native Charmander. They tried to guide him away from Malcolm, but when he resisted they started being more forceful. Charmander gritted his teeth and dug his heels into the ground, making it clear that he was happy just where he was.
The mood of the nearby pokémon changed from unhappy to furious in an instant. They lived on an island miles from anywhere, there'd only been a small amount of humans that had found this place in all the time they'd been here. No pokémon had ever left the island permanently except when an egg was stolen a few months earlier, but right before them that newborn had been corrupted and chosen these intruders over them.

The Rapidash marched forwards, pounding its hooves into the ground.
"Charmander, go with them." Govannon said, his voice sounding ever more worried. He was starting to realise that neither he nor Malcolm had any pokémon that would be much help if all these pokémon turned on them, so was desperate to avoid that at all costs.
"No! Stay with me Charmer. You don't have to go somewhere you don't want to." Malcolm said, giving Charmander the name he'd been considering for a while now.
"Charmander, don't listen to him. He's not even your trainer, I am. Just go with them. Go back to your own kind." Govannon said, clearly stressed and irritated by Malcolm's foolishness.

Charmer looked between the two trainers and the group of pokémon, all of whom were scaring him at this point. The look of distress on his face was clear for all to see, which just angered the fire types even more. None of this chaos would have happened if nobody had broken into their home. The group of Charmander looked towards Malcolm, took a deep breath and started launching Ember attacks at him.

"Raichu, Pikachu, Thundershock!" Govannon shouted as Malcolm dived out of the way. The two pokémon obediently sent bolts of lightning towards the fire types, giving enough time for Govannon to shout his commands.
"Are you happy now? Everyone, out. Head for that cave, swim through the river and get out of here! Make sure you have your pokémon out as protection." He said, pointing at approaching pokémon for Charmeleon to use ember on.

By this point there were over a dozen pokémon attacking them from all directions, but their pokémon's attacks were keeping them at bay. The original group of Ponyta, Charmander, Charmeleon and Rapidash were joined by four Magby, two Magmar and a Quilava. Malcolm had sent out all his pokémon besides Fishy the Magikarp, and they were doing a reasonably good job at battling. They didn't need to defeat the pokémon, which was just as well because they probably didn't stand a chance, just hold them off until they could reach the exit.

"Everyone, stay in a tight group and fight outwards. Keep heading towards that cave..." Govannon ordered, the stress in his voice heavily obvious. The Rapidash took this moment to charge forwards, its horn aimed straight at everyone.

"Toge-pi" Togepi sang, waving her arms around. It was Metronome, the move Govannon had told Malcolm she must know. For a moment nothing happened and Rapidash kept charging. But then, not a moment too soon, the move took effect and Rapidash was suddenly met by a blast of water in the face, knocking it backwards to the floor.

"Ha, well done!" Malcolm said, congratulating her on the attack. Rapidash stood up quickly though, and it soon became clear that there hadn't been much damage done. It prepared itself for another attack, but instead of charging again it started launching embers towards them.

"Pidgey! Use gust!" Malcolm shouted, and with majestic grace Pidgey swooped forwards and hovered in the air, showing off its rainbow feather on his forehead. Malcolm was a little worried that someone might ask where it came from, but he'd told Govannon it was just a family heirloom and he seemed to believe it.
Pidgey started batting his wings with all the strength he could muster, and blew most of the embers off course. Rapidash's attack was quite powerful though, and even though the accuracy of the attack wasn't perfect it still hit Govannon's Pikachu and Togepi. The pair were clearly hurt by the ember, especially Togepi, but still looked able to battle. Pidgey responded to this with a Quick Attack, colliding with Rapidash head on and stopping its attacks for just a little while longer whilst the group tried to make their way to the exit.

This post has been edited by Xal: May 22 2010, 07:20 AM

[Cilalic]

Frosty hadn't really noticed the commotion until the Rapidash started battling. Quickly, she looked at her Mareep, who was anxious to battle. He looked a little weak though, being only a level 10 pokemon. Shrugging, she turned to the battle, she wanted to help. More the reason, battle too. As she stayed and looked to see the group running for an exit, she turned back to the Rapidash, unaware of her approaching. Opening her mouth to speak, she was unintentionally cut off by the flurries of battle, but she spoke anyway, asking
"I'll help if you don't mind."
Chuckling a bit, Frosty sent her Mareep into battle,
"Soul! Use Thundershock!"
Obeying immediately, Soul aimed a electricity full attack right at the Rapidash. Sure, it was three to one, but it was fair. The enemy looked muscular, strong, and proud. Even though small, it looked more and more menacing as it kept attacking. She had a feeling that her Sentret would be coming out soon, but kept it back in case she wasn't needed.

[PinkiePie]

Vincent looked around as casually as he could, determining his pokemon would be quite useless against all these fire types. Whatever commotion that had started this mess was none of his concern; he only wanted off this island. At this point, he thought Lanette wanted nothing more herself, as made obvious by her wide eyes and confused expression. She was clinging to his arm rather tightly, and it made his feel loved. At the same time he knew they were not helping just standing there.

"Lanette, it's time we made our exit," he said calmly.

"Uh....y-yeah, let's go," she replied shakily.

They both corralled behind the group of trainers they had been traveling with and slowly made there way back, keeping an eye on the pokemon attacking them. Vincent would've offered to help, but he refused to throw his pokemon into harm's way if he couldn't win. He loved them too much to just sacrifice them, in a sense. Both Lanette and Vincent knew they would be fine without having to waste the energy of Beautifly, Burmy, Snover and Nincada in the process. It was a gamble though, not helping. What happened if those Rapidash got past these other trainers?

Vincent didn't want to know. He just kept heading toward the exit.

[Xal]

The Quilava started to glare towards the group, unsure how to carry on. It was the only one without other members of its evolutionary family joining in the battle. All the other pokémon were sticking alongside their (pre)evolutions and letting their most evolved member do most of the battling. The Magby, Charmander and (especially) the Ponyta were joining in the battle a bit, but more as support than anything major. The other pokémon around the cavern didn't seem too bothered in joining in, either they weren't as aggressive as the ones attacking or they thought they would be able to handle it on their own. Malcolm suspected it was the first though since everyone was nearly at the cave. they were walking alongside the river at this point, which had forced the enemy pokémon to crown around in a semi-circle instead of surrounding them. They were doing pretty well, he thought. They'd be out in no time, right? He'd probably even be able to take Govannon's Charmander with them, it probably wouldn't feel welcome here anymore. For the whole battle it had stood behind Malcolm, looking terrified and not wanting to battle. Malcolm could understand that, and it wasn't as if they were in dire need of its help.

Malcolm's optimism instantly evaporated at the sight of a group of Wartortle floating in the river, blocking the exit. Surely they didn't share this fiery home? No, they most likely lived in the water outside and had come in to see what all the fuss was about. They'd be a welcome help against all the fire types, but it looked much more like they were ready to battle the group instead.

"War!" One shouted, and the rest confirmed Malcolm's assumption by launching Water Gun at Govannon's Charmeleon.

"Argh..." He grumbled, having to recall the severely injured pokémon. "Raichu, do what you can about those Wartortle." He ordered. This latest turn about had left them extremely vulnerable. Charmeleon and Raichu were the strongest pokémon on their side. Without them keeping the fire pokémon at bay, things weren't going to be easy at all.

"Fishy, you go and help. Try to drive them off." Malcolm said, letting the Magikarp out into the water. He knew it was desperate, and if Raichu's thundershock's weren't going to get rid of them then a Magikarp wouldn't make a great deal of difference, but it was a desperate situation. Magmar and the Magby took advantage of this. They looked up at Pidgey, who'd been using gust at the attacking pokémon but was being little more than a minor irritation. They drew their heads back, took a breath and fired embers at him. Before Pidgey had a chance to react he was hit square on, plummeting to the ground at Malcolm's side. He hurriedly withdrew him, vowing to get him to a pokémon centre as soon as possible but not having any time to waste being upset. They still needed to get out of there.

"Pikachu." Govannon said. Malcolm expected him to be talking to his own pokémon, but he was looking towards Malcolm's.
"Do you remember that attack I tried to teach you? If you could pull it off now, that would be a great help..."

Years earlier when Pikachu was a Pichu in Govannon's care he'd tried to teach her Volt Tackle. She'd been bred so that she would know it but despite Govannon's training had never managed to pull it off. If she'd become strong enough to use it now though they might be saved.

She nodded and looked around, focussing on the Rapidash. That pokémon had been the main source of the attacks and had had a lot of attacks directed its way. She could probably beat it quite easily now, even thought the attacks she'd suffered herself would make it difficult.

"Pika!" She yelled, sprinting forwards surrounded by a yellow glow.




Meanwhile, Fishy and Raichu were battling off the Wartortle. The group was right by the cave now, which was just as well because Raichu wouldn't have been able to get past the Quilava blocking the way. She took a moment every now and then to hit it with thundershock, which it responded to with tackles, but for the most part she focussed the attacks on the group of Wartortle. Fishy felt that some of her attacks were too close to comfort, but there was no helping that. The water pokémon seemed to have decided Raichu was too strong for them, so were hiding from most of her attacks and fighting Magikarp instead. This was, at best, annoying. What was he going to do against all of them? Tackle them? He did, and with a huge amount of dedication, but one Magikarp against four Wartortle wasn't a particularly even match. In his rage and frustration he started to see white, almost feeling warmer and more powerful. Wasn't he meant to see red? As the glow intensified he just kept on attacking, doing his best to force them into retreat.



Pikachu slammed into the Rapidash, causing it to roar and fall to the ground. As it climbed to its feet Pikachu ran back to Malcolm, watching as Rapidash and the Ponyta considered their options. For a moment it looked as if they were going to start attacking with even more fury, but thought better of it and ran away. One Ponyta remained though, still ready to fight.

"Great work Pikachu!" Malcolm called out, extremely impressed by that performance. "Now, can you do the same on Charmeleon?"

Pikachu hesitated for a moment. She'd taken a lot of damage already and using the Volt Tackle had left her with even more. The Charmeleon took this moment to start calling out, but as for why Malcolm didn't know.

"Charrrrrr" It droned as loud as it could. It wasn't attacking and the other pokémon had stopped too.

"What's going... look!" Malcolm shouted, pointing to the top of the hill in the centre of the room. The Charizard was looking towards them, listening to Charmeleon. It stood up, started flapping its wings and jumped.

"Pikachu, Raichu... everyone, get it!" Govannon ordered, his eyes wider then they'd ever been before. A Charizard flying towards you was a fairly intimidating site. For a moment everyone just stood there waiting, waiting for the Charizard to get close enough for the pokémon to do whatever damage they could to try to keep it away. It wasn't going to work, of course, but there didn't seem to be any better options.
This tense moment was somewhat ruined by the four Warortle desperately swimming into the cavern, clearly terrified by something. The Charizard? No, they seemed to be on the same side, and were heading towards it as if for protection. Then what? Malcolm looked behind him to the exit where they'd come from. There was nothing there - the way was clear! Could they try to escape and get away before the Charizard reached them? He looked back towards the Charizard heading towards them. He doubted it, it would be on top of them in a matter of moments, but it couldn't hurt to try...
Behind them there was a sound of crashing water, as if something huge was climbing out of it. Malcolm, Govannon, their pokémon and even the Charizard looked towards the sound of the noise. As if the sight of the Charizard bearing down upon them wasn't bad it seemed another pokémon had decided to join in the battle, this time a Gyarados.

"How could this possibly get any worse now?" Govannon shouted, losing his resolve for the first time since Malcolm had met him.
"Everyone, do what you can... Charizard, Gyarados, whatever." He sighed, accepting the hopelessness of the situation. Malcolm was about to admit defeat too, but something just didn't add up. He felt ridiculous thinking about it considering the severity of the situation, but he just couldn't help but be confused. Something wasn't right.
"Why were the Wartortle running away? I don't see why they'd be threatened by it if it was helping them..." He thought aloud. "Unless it's helping us... but why? Why would it do... Fishy?" Malcolm gasped, the truth suddenly dawning on him as everything fit into place. Fishy had been getting stronger, but he'd never thought for a moment that he was going to evolve. At this crucial moment he wasn't going to worry about that though, just take advantage of this turn around.

"Fishy! Use... something! On Charizard!" He shouted desperately. The Gyarados drew its head back, a ball of water forming its mouth. Even as a Gyarados there was going to be a significant gap in strength between Charizard and Fishy, but hopefully the type difference would make up for it and buy them enough time to escape.
Fishy threw its head forward, launching the Water Pulse towards Charizard. It tried to swerve out of the way but still got hit on the side, causing it to falter in the air. Whilst it fell Gyarados came alongside the river edge, letting everyone climb on.

"Everyone, quickly. I don't know how much time we have..." Govannon said, jumping on Fishy's back and being joined by his pokémon. Malcolm, Pikachu, Charmander and Togepi did the same, and Togepi looked more excited than worried about the whole thing. She'd had a fun battle, although she'd ended up hurt, and was now getting a ride on a Gyarados. Govannon looked towards the other fire types, who were about to make their escape. A grin danced across his face as he noticed the weakened Ponyta trying to run off. It was limping. Easy target. That Charmander was going to stick to Malcolm like glue, and he still needed a pokémon to study to find out what made them small (although, they'd noticed, no less fierce or powerful). He pulled a heal ball from his belt and threw it forward, which captured the Ponyta easily. He jumped off the Gyarados and scooped the ball up, before climbing back on.

"Now go!" He shouted. Malcolm was a little shocked by Govannon's capture. It hardly seemed fair to take a pokémon away from such a tightly knit group against its will, especially not in that weakened state. He couldn't do anything about it though, and it was the Ponyta and other pokémon who started the fight. It left a bitter taste in his mouth, but he wasn't going to complain.

Govannon caught a level 15 Ponyta.

Malcolm's Magikarp evolved into Gyarados.

Volt Tackle was approved from Pikachu's (then Pichu's) mid-teens in Malcolm's profile approval.

This post has been edited by Xal: May 27 2010, 10:01 AM