I woke up feeling pleasantly rested, even if I was a bit confused for a moment after opening my eyes. The sleeping bag was extremely comfortable, but for a second, the artificial corridor lighting of Mt. Moon threw me off. It looked like everyone else was still asleep. Only my internal clock was preset more precisely, so after rolling around for a bit, I got up. My team woke up immediately at my movement. Houndour opened his maw wide and yawned, while Squirtle poked his head out of his shell and rubbed his sleepy eyes.
After a moment, Poliwhirl woke up to our movement too, immediately nudging Bran. With a slow yawn and a wide smile, Bran began to push himself up from the ground.
"Good morning, what a beautiful day we have!" he announced immediately.
"How do you know? We're under artificial light."
"Are we alive? We're alive!" he smirked contentedly. "Shall we have breakfast and keep going?" he asked, immediately stretching and then squeezing his chest muscles with satisfaction.
"Yes, let's have breakfast and keep going," I nodded. "We should exit Mt. Moon directly onto Route 4 by this evening."
We quickly got ourselves together, ate, and fed our team. We shook the stiffness out of our muscles and were ready to continue our journey. The mountain was relatively quiet in this area, and I didn't feel the same dampness anymore; we had distanced ourselves quite a bit from that place. Every now and then, I heard some unidentifiable cry, impact, thud, or screech echoing from the depths of the cave.
After a few minutes of peaceful walking, Bran broke the silence.
"What about that Machop, why didn't you catch him?" he asked curiously. "It looked like you two got along great. That's not common with Pokémon you don't own, so I would have taken it as fate—that you simply belong together."
"He said he had some duties..." I replied thoughtfully. "I didn't want to force him away from them. If he wanted to, I would have taken him onto the team, but he clearly had other plans. And since he came to our camp on his own, I didn't want to betray his trust." I paused for a moment and admitted honestly: "I never really thought much about Machop before... but if he had wanted to back then, I would have taken him."
"And is there any Pokémon you specifically want on your team?"
"Not really, I guess," I replied with a shrug. "Originally I wanted a Charmander, but Haunter is great. Houndour is Fire-type too, so I don't plan on Charmander anymore. On top of that, Squirtle is an excellent Water-type... So I'm happy for now, and we'll see in the future what exactly we'll need."
"Hmm, I got the feeling you had every single team member planned out to the finest detail," Bran admitted after a moment of quiet walking.
"Then you must have been wrong," I smirked at him. "And what about you? Where did you get Poliwhirl? Did you fish him out of a lake somewhere?"
"No," he shook his head, and for a moment, his ever-present smile vanished from his face. "It was a gift from my father. He's the son of my father's Poliwrath, and we've actually been together since we were kids."
Bran looked quite sad, so I decided not to pry deeper into what exactly had happened. We continued in a brief silence, when he spoke up again: "My father was a ranger."
"My parents are dead too," I shrugged. "We're definitely not the only orphans in Kanto."
Bran nodded understandingly and then asked hesitantly, "And siblings? Do you have any?"
"No, I don't know of any... But theoretically, I could, it's just... I grew up in an orphanage."
"Ah," he sighed. "We ended up in orphanages later too... Except my siblings are scattered all over Kanto, in different places," he added, a faint, bitter-amused smirk appearing on his face.
Before I could think of a reply, I heard a high-pitched screeching and squeaking. Although it sounded muffled and distant, I immediately began to feel an unpleasant pressure in my ears. Among survival tips, this was a clear sign that a flock of Zubats was approaching us. Their echolocation assaulted our eardrums even before we could properly hear them, especially as it reverberated directly through the enclosed space of the cave.
Bran was just about to say something aloud when I stopped him firmly with a raised hand. In that exact second, the frantic flapping and slapping of leathery wings joined the screeching and squeaking. The entire flock was flying at full speed in our direction.
"Zubats are heading this way, and judging by the distance and strength of the echolocation, it's a smaller flock," I announced to everyone immediately, reaching for my sword. "Haunter, Shadow Ball! Houndour, Ember! Squirtle, Water Gun! Aim for the largest cluster and fire as fast and hard as you can!" I started barking out battle commands.
"Poliwhirl, you too, Bubble!" Bran ordered mechanically, his eyes darting frantically across the dark space ahead of us.
"Calm down," I said to him in a raised, firm voice, giving him a hard slap on the shoulder. "We can handle this."
Bran only nodded tensely, but kept his eyes locked on the corridor ahead. The sounds and the wild crashing of wings against the walls echoed louder and louder.
"Start preparing your moves! Put as much power as you can into that opening strike!" I issued the final order, certain that they would burst from the darkness straight at us in a few seconds.
One, two, three, four... and there they were, the flying flock right in front of us. Looking at the frantically rushing Zubats, I realized instantly that even though they must have seen us on their natural radar, they weren't slowing down at all. Something back there must have attacked them. Something that was definitely scarier than us standing in the corridor. They didn't look like they wanted to attack us; they just wanted to fly past us in panic. But by then, they were hit full-force by our Pokémon's attacks.
There were probably about ten Zubats in total. They ranged in size, from half a meter to the largest ones, which were close to a meter. There was no Golbat among them, and overall they looked pretty battered. Haunter, however, couldn't have cared less. His Shadow Ball hit dead-center of the flock with surgical precision. I saw the dark energy literally erase one Zubat's head and rip the wings off the others.
Haunter's lack of hesitation immediately spurred the others. Houndour followed up with a fierce Ember straight into the middle. A disgusting smell of burning flesh instantly joined the painful squeals and screeches. That finally woke up Squirtle and Poliwhirl. The high-pressure stream of Water Gun swept away the rest of the cloud, and Poliwhirl's Bubble altered the remaining bats' flight paths with every popping bubble, sending them crashing to the ground.
Only the painful, terrified squeaking of the survivors echoed from the cave floor. Maybe three survived our team's onslaught.
"They... they just wanted to fly past," Bran gasped in horror, his face as pale as a sheet. "They weren't attacking."
I nodded solemnly.
"Something attacked their flock beforehand. There were too few of them for a Mt. Moon flock," I spoke over the continuous squeaking. I looked at a Zubat on the ground. It was painfully trying to move one wing; the other was completely torn off, and half of its face was burned to a cinder. In a fraction of a second, I put it out of its misery. I ran my sword straight through its open mouth, skewering it, and immediately moved on to the next one.
With dilated pupils and looking completely pale, Bran watched me in silence. But when I stopped over the second injured creature, it gave one last weak squeak, stiffened, and lay dead.
Only the last Zubat remained making noise on the ground. It slowly shook its wings as if trying to take off, but it was visibly wet, disoriented, and shaken. In the cave's light, I couldn't see any visible injuries or burns on it.
"This one is fine," I told Bran. "Do you want it?" I asked, sword still raised in my hand.
Only a fraction of a second later did I realize how menacing that must have looked right then. I didn't plan on killing the Zubat, but Bran took it deadly seriously.
"No, no, wait!" he gasped in terror. "I'll take it!"
He immediately began scrambling frantically at his belt. He pulled out an empty Pokéball, but due to his trembling fingers, it fell onto the hard rock with a dull click and began to roll away.
"Fuck," he blurted out, immediately lunging for it on the ground as if he were pressed for time. When he finally grabbed it, his hand shaking, he ran closer to us and threw the ball at the lying Pokémon from close range.
The Pokéball opened, sucked the wet Zubat inside, hit the ground, and the red light blinked only once before turning off for good.
A graveyard silence fell. Bran stood frozen, staring blankly at the catch lying on the ground.
"You know I would have let it live, right?" I broke the tense silence.
"Sure," he nodded, somewhat absently. My question, however, successfully snapped him out of his trance. He quickly walked over, snatched the Pokéball from the ground, and clipped it to his belt with a look of relief.
Before I could speak, a distant, barely audible roar echoed. It created a rumbling vibration that rapidly gained strength. For a moment, we just stood there frozen, listening to the sound. After a few seconds, though, the echo faded, and a deathly silence took over.
"We're stopping here for a moment," I broke the silence in a whisper. "There's something extremely dangerous ahead that decimated that flock," I said, pointing at the Zubat corpses on the ground.
"Do you think it won't head our way?" a terrified Bran whispered.
I shook my head with utter seriousness: "I hope so."
Because if it did head our way, it would be a massive problem. In the worst-case scenario, it would simply collapse the entire mountain on top of us. We didn't have any Pokémon with us that could maintain the stability of the corridor above our heads. In an open area, I would have felt much more confident, even if that roar came from a Tyranitar itself.
"What are we going to do?" Bran interrupted my thoughts.
"Absolutely nothing, we wait a few minutes," I shrugged. "If you want, you can prep a couple of the Zubats for the road. Their meat is actually quite alright, once you get past the wings."
Before my memories merged, I would have chopped those Zubats into meat without the slightest hesitation. But now, I could clearly picture in my mind how, in another world, some bats spread deadly diseases. Even though there was no such risk in this world, psychologically it was more than enough to make me prefer not to even touch them.
"No, thank you," Bran shook his head. "I have enough food to get me to Cerulean, and besides, I'm not very good at preparing wild Pokémon."
I watched as a bead of sweat dripped from his forehead. It ran down his cheek and splattered onto the rock with a soft splash. My Pokémon were also incredibly tense. The only exception was Haunter, who was looking around with a chilling grin. I, too, was calm. The entire time, I had been subconsciously waiting for everything to go completely to shit, and so far, fortunately, things were holding together.
We waited in silence for a few minutes. I slid down to the ground, sitting in the dust and leaning my back against the cool rock. Houndour comfortably lay down right next to me. Haunter amusedly watched our surroundings, occasionally vanishing into the darkness between the rocks, but returning to my shadow every other moment. Squirtle, on the other hand, was just as tense as Poliwhirl and Bran.
Though we had been taught in school that Water and Grass-type Pokémon are usually completely chill, these two didn't have much experience. While I sat there carelessly, Bran was nervously pacing on the spot, flinching at every louder sound. I started to tease him a bit, occasionally throwing a small stone deep into the darkness of the cave with Haunter's help. I masked my laughter with my hand, while Haunter chillingly enjoyed it.
When the usual cave bustle of Pokémon—alternating rumbles and faint thuds—began to echo from the depths of the mountain again, I was sure that the apex predator which had attacked the Zubat flock had already moved deeper into the recesses.
"We can go," I announced to the others. I got up from the ground and started brushing off my pants. My butt was a bit cold from the rock, but it was nothing a few minutes of brisk walking wouldn't fix.
"Are you sure?" Bran asked uncertainly.
"Of course," I replied with a straight face, immediately adding in my mind: like hell I am.
How could I be sure anyway? We were in the fucking wilderness, after all.
We didn't run into anything dangerous until nightfall. Every now and then, something flickered in the shadows, making Bran flinch instantly, but he had Poliwhirl right by his side, giving him the reassurance he needed. Even though the Pokémon was tense too, he was still a Fighting-type, ready for immediate action.
I knew we were making relatively good time. Though we had been delayed in Mt. Moon by that forced stop in the corridor because of the predator, as evening approached, I thought about pushing on right after eating, so we could get outside as soon as possible. I was starting to feel quite claustrophobic, and I really didn't want something collapsing the ceiling on top of us.
"How about we keep moving after dinner?" I suggested to Bran. "We should be out soon anyway, and it'll be much safer to camp in the forest than here, in the bowels of Mt. Moon."
"We don't need to stop for dinner, we can easily last another hour," Bran replied determinedly, though I got the feeling that Mt. Moon was literally terrifying him by now.
"What about the rest of you? Can you hold out a few more hours without food?" I asked, looking mainly at my team.
Both Squirtle and Houndour nodded without any fuss. They might have been greedy little things, but they handled it with no problem. I nodded with a smile, and I think I looked quite proud of my partners.
So, we walked on determinedly. Since the artificial lighting of the corridors still accompanied us, keeping up the pace wasn't an issue. However, with every distant rumble, muffled roar, thud, or screech, Bran subconsciously quickened his step.
"Slow down," I told him calmly. "We'll be out in a moment."
"Right, right," he blurted out, immediately letting off the gas so we could catch up.
We kept walking, when suddenly I felt a sudden draft of fresh air and a gentle breeze on my face.
"Do you feel that?" I said with a smile. "We're out."
"Yes, finally!" Bran gasped. His smile in that second no longer resembled some horror movie with wax figures. His shoulders visibly dropped, relaxing, and his whole face came alive.
We were finally out of the depths of Mt. Moon. The white sign welcoming us to Route 4 was illuminated only by the stars and a bright moon. I took a deep breath of the fresh, cool night air.
"Dinner and camp," I said, standing beneath the sign.
"Dinner and camp," Bran repeated with an enthusiastic smile.
We continued down the dusty road, but after barely ten minutes of walking, we stumbled upon the perfect spot for a camp. A fire pit was already dug here, completely lined with stones. Clearly, some trainers before us had done exactly what we did—pushed through the evening until they found themselves outside, stopping at the first safe clearing. The only thing missing was gathered wood.
"Haunter, you know what to do," I said aloud as soon as I dropped my backpack to the ground.
With an approving, quiet cry, he immediately vanished into the surrounding darkness.
Without delay, I began setting up the tent, sleeping bag, and necessary gear. I poured fresh water into the bowls straight away, took a good drink myself, and got the pans ready for the food, which I immediately started pouring into them.
"Poliwhirl, go gather some wood. Just be careful and stay safe," Bran ordered mechanically.
"I already sent Haunter," I said to him calmly while preparing the ingredients.
"Then we'll have more," Bran shrugged. "We don't really need anything else for now anyway, right?" he asked.
I simply shook my head and kept setting things up until everything was completely finished. Then I sat down on the blanket next to a drooling Houndour, who was practically hypnotizing the pan of food.
"It'll taste much better when it's hot," I reminded him when his snout started inching suspiciously close to it. Squirtle watched us in amusement, sitting a short distance away on the opposite side of the blanket.
"Hound, Houndour!" he answered hopefully, his tail wagging eagerly from side to side.
"Your Ember is definitely great, and it would cook this even without a campfire, but... I don't want you to get too used to holding back your attacks. It could be bad for battles in the future," I explained to him calmly. "In the future, when you're a powerful Houndoom, it certainly won't be an issue. But right now, when we need every single advantage..." I shook my head in amusement and gently scratched him behind the ears. "And besides, we're practicing patience, you little glutton."
Houndour groaned dramatically, but thankfully stopped nudging his snout closer to the pan.
When Haunter reappeared with a load of wood, Houndour let out an excited, though slightly quieter, howl. Right behind him came Poliwhirl, proudly carrying a similar pile to the ghost's. Haunter winked at me amusedly when I raised an eyebrow inquiringly at him.
Without me having to say a word, both Pokémon, under Haunter's lead, dutifully stacked the wood into the fire pit. Houndour eagerly lit it with an Ember and immediately turned back to the pan.
With an amused chuckle, I placed it over the fire on the prepared tripod and waited for the food to finish.
Meanwhile, Bran, with a blank stare, kept spinning the newly filled Pokéball in his hand. His Poliwhirl had to nudge him in the side to finally snap him out of his thoughts and get him to start preparing dinner for them too.
After dinner—during which Houndour stuffed himself with nearly double his usual portion—we decided on a well-deserved rest. It was far too late for evening training; besides, it would needlessly disrupt our sleep schedule. And so, with a final command for night watch, I crawled into the tent along with Houndour.
Squirtle stayed safely retracted in his shell outside, as did Haunter and Poliwhirl. The camp was more than adequately secured. With a cuddly, warm Houndour by my side, I fell asleep practically the same second I pulled off his clothes and slipped into my sleeping bag.
Sometime in the middle of the night, I woke up to Haunter prodding me with his claw.
"Haunt, Haunt!" he tapped his claws eagerly right on my head. "Haunter, Haunt, haunt, haunter!"
"What?" I gasped, almost completely awake in a split second. "What kind of Pokémon group is approaching us?!"
I quickly threw on my clothes and, now fully alert, stepped out of the tent with Houndour. There, a ready Squirtle was already waiting vigilantly in a battle stance, joined by an equally tense Poliwhirl.
Bran was just coming out of his tent, half-asleep, wearing only his boxers, and I couldn't help but notice once again the comical sight of his massive biceps and absolutely non-existent chest muscles. This time, however, it didn't bring even a hint of a laugh. I was incredibly tense about what was heading our way.
"What's coming, and from where?" I asked Haunter again, who was watching me with an amused expression, his tongue sticking out.
Without a word, he pointed a long claw toward Mt. Moon, which we had left just a few hours ago.
On the dark clearing, illuminated only by the dying embers of the campfire and the pale moonlight, I tensely watched the access path. After a moment of dead silence, I heard it too—the faint rustling of leaves and the snapping of twigs, as something relentlessly marched straight toward our camp.
***
Author's note:
We are finally out of the claustrophobic depths of Mt. Moon, but Route 4 at night has its own atmosphere, and our duo is still on high alert after everything they've just been through.
The relief of stepping out into the fresh night air was quickly interrupted by the sound of approaching footsteps. Who do you think is coming out of the mountain after them?
***
Step into the Restricted Section
The shadows are shifting, and the story goes much deeper... If you can't wait for the next update, Advanced Chapters are already waiting for you.
Enter the Restricted Section here: you-know-what/PatrikWriter
Upcoming Chapters – Already Written(13):
30. Heavy Metal and Sudden Growth
31. A Clash of Auras
32. Houndour: The Strength of the Pack
33. Above Average
34. Of Eggs and Iron
35. The Road to Cerulean
36. Boiled Lobsters and Double Beds
37. Cerulean After Hours
38. Shadows, Sparks, and the Bro Code – 18+
39. The Cost of Power
40. Of Iron and Fists
41. No Mercy
42. The Girl in the Pink Cap
Join the Inner Circle - tgdTNZYVKt (Discord)
(Vote on plot | Dark FF recs | Chat with the Author)
Support the craft and keep the darkness spreading. Your support directly allows me to dedicate more time to crafting this world.