The Road to Indigo (Pokemon RP (Closed): Chapter 7: Dead Living On The Radio...)

[LunaSocks]

"I-I'll come with you Fary." Terinth stammered, stumbling to her feet and running over to the nearest exit to the cave. "Do you want to start going through this one?" She asked, mumbling, "It's the only one lit up with the lamps." afterwards. She reached the entrance, waiting for her pokemon and Fary to catch up.

 

[Lambi]

After standing back up, Aeris made her way back to the others. Seemed like Fary and Terinth were going to look for Rochelle. If only I had seen where they took her... She couldn't help but blame herself for not taking better notice of it. Stupid Geodude that she tripped over.

"Wait, you two! I'll go with you!" Aeris called to Fary and Terinth and ran to them, Blaze close behind with her tailfire back double bright.

 

[Mookie_Magnus]

Mika followed after the girls, of course. With a snap of his fingers, Bones followed besides him, keeping his snout to the cave floor, trying to detect any notion of Rochelle nearby.

"I really hope she's okay... If she slipped and fell down one of the cave walls, she might've fallen a long way... or worse if she made some Pokemon angry, and it knocked her out cold..." Mika said aloud, being nudged by his Pokemon. "Y-yeah, you're right... probably not the best thing to say." He said, catching up to Fary, Terinth, and Aeris.

 

[RBMidknight]

Shadow gave a startled whine when Geist vanished. The action startled Simon as well but he gave no outward sign of his disturbance.

"He'll get used to Shadow, I'm sure," Tyler said.

Simon nodded silently. 'Perhaps.' he thought. Soon after Tyler left Simon knelt down next to his confused Pokémon. "It's okay bud, it's not your fault." he said reassuringly.

"Chee..." Shadow shook his head rapidly, the action carrying down his body. When the Pokémon settled one of his ears was flipped down. Simon grinned and watched the Poochyena move forward to where Tyler had been standing. "Chee? the Pokemon questioned as he slowly circled the area. He began to paw at the ground, sweeping small rocks and dirt aside.

'What's wrong?' Simon wondered. Shadow began to sniff the ground and the trainer realized what the problem could be.

"Geist is an Abra. He teleported." Simon said. "He's off hiding somewhere." With a quiet grunt Simon rose to his feet. He snapped his fingers to get Shadow's attention. With Tyler gone off to find his lost Pokémon Simon was able to see that he'd strayed a bit from the group. Simon and his Pokémon walked towards the group in time to in time to hear that someone had gone missing. 'Rochelle.'. After a few seconds Simon placed the girl. She was one of the few people he had actually spoken to during this trip.

People seemed anxious to find the missing girl since part of the group had already started moving to look around. Simon glanced briefly in the direction Tyler had gone before hefting his pack. "Let's go." he said quietly to Shadow. "Chee!" the Pokémon agreed.

 

[NeoAC]

"Here, I can follow too," Jordan said, joining up with the forming search party. "Maybe we can, like, use Vicky or something to find her."

"Zubit Zubit bit." I have no idea who you're talking about.

"Anyway, yeah, let's do it." Jordan followed after the group, not noticing that someone else from the group had a head start.

[hr]

Meanwhile, in the temporary Rocket office...

"...so she's locked up in the closet right now." Damian finished reporting to the head of the Mt. Moon expedition, a tall, skinny man by the name of Jean-Simon. The black-haired man sat at his desk in the make shift office that had been partitioned off from the rest of the riff-raff, his fingers pent up in contemplation.

"Zis is a troubling development, but you deed well doing wat you deed," he told Damian. "Ze girl shall be kept in the cell until we can assure transport to ze Sevii Islands. She will make a fine test subject. Until zen, make sure she does not alert any others. We do not need any unwanted attention."

"Of course sir." Damian nodded and left to reluctantly rejoin his partner. Jean-Simon remained in his chair. Leaning back he looked up at the sky. "Sometimes I wonder why you test me so," he said to no one in particular. "Zen I remember you are a deeck." With that he returned to his paperwork, getting ready to update the head honcho as to what was going on in the mountain.

[hr]

The light was growing stronger as Tyler made his may through the caverns. Eventually he got to a clearing, and could see just how large the operation in Mt. Moon was. The whirr of giant machines drilling into massive cavern walls was omnipresent, especially this close. From his vantage point, he could see dozens of workers, hauling rocks and sifting through debris. Whether or not they were they on their own accord was hard to tell. Off to the side, several storage facilities could be seen.

 

[CounterAttack]

Curled up in a corner of her closet prison, Rochelle's crying had subsided a bit; it was silent now save for the occasional sniff or rustle of clothing. Her hands started shaking whenever they weren't clasped together or wrapped around herself to try and generate a bit of warmth. "Okay..." she said quietly to herself in a quivering voice, trying to stay focused on things other than the fact that she had no idea what was going to happen to her if the Rockets came back.

For the first time, Rochelle noticed a strange sense of lightness about her left wrist. Specifically, the feeling of absence: she usually wore her Pokégear on that arm, and only took it off when she slept or had contact with water. The Rockets had taken that too. If only she had it... then she could call someone and explain it all. But thinking of things that could happen if she had it was pointless: Rochelle's time on the roads had taught her that she always had to make do with what she had. But what she had right now was nothing, not even a way out to find her possessions.

Anger began to seep into Rochelle's mind at that: she wasn't one to hate easily, but she hated her position now. She didn't like it in her stuffy cell, and she wanted to get out, out of her hole, out from under the mountain, and breathe fresh air, and feel the sun shine down on her face... the thought that she might never see the sun again gave her a fresh shock, sending her straight back into her sobbing, terrified state, occasionally banging a hand against a wall or the door. She didn't care if the Rockets came and checked on her as a result of the noise she was making. If they did she would try to overpower them and either make a run for it, or demand to know where her property had been stashed.

 

[socialtangent]

As Tyler rounded the corner, he caught a glimpse of what had to be some kind of massive digging operation. The sounds of the loud and powerful drilling machines that lay in the distance echoed through the empty space of the cave. What is going on here? he asked himself as he watched distant figures walking about throughout the complex.

When the initial shock wore off, Tyler immediately pressed himself against the cave wall. It was apparent that he wasn't supposed to be here. That much was certain. While he was debating his next move, Geist silently caught up to his Trainer and peeked from behind his leg. Tyler pushed Geist back behind him.

"Careful...we're gonna be in trouble if we get seen," he told Geist in a hushed voice. "I think we need to get out of here".

Cautiously, Tyler turned around and crept against the wall, hoping that he wasn't seen at all. The chances of being seen from this far away were slim, but he didn't want to leave anything to-

BANG!

Tyler nearly jumped out of his skin when the banging started. He froze in place and looked around him. It sounded like the banging came from somewhere nearby, but there was nobody near him...so what caused it? It didn't sound like any of the machinery. In fact, it sounded like someone pounding their fist against something...

BANG!

There it was again. Although the acoustics of the cave made it hard to be precise, it appeared that the banging came from one of the side tunnels that he passed on his way up. But which one?

BANG!

The next banging sound helped narrow the source down to a nearby tunnel to his left. Tyler carefully entered the tunnel, with Geist following right behind him. It led to what looked like a storage room of some kind, the only distinguishing feature being the metal door of a closet. I wonder if...

BANG!

Another sudden bang confirmed his suspicions. Whoever was in here had to be the source of the blood he found earlier near the abandoned dig site...and thankfully this person was still alive. Well, alive enough to be banging on a door with considerable strength. That was good, at least.

"Hello?" Tyler called tentatively. "Is someone in there?"

 

[CounterAttack]

"Let me out... I wanna go home... let me out..." Rochelle mumbled to herself in between sobs as she pounded futilely on the door. Her nose felt blocked as a result of the crying, and her eyes had begun to sting. Something was slowly trickling down the side of her head: a quick dab at the source with a finger, held up to the meagre light, revealed the sight of blood. Maybe the Rockets had hit her with something to keep her unconscious for longer. With that in mind she redoubled her attempts to get someone's attention, her strength driven by fear.

The loud noises she was making were reverberating a little in the small space, making her ears ring. Nonetheless, Rochelle continued unabated... until she heard a voice.

"Hello?"

She instantly stopped her assault on the door, listening hard in case the person spoke again. The voice was familiar - male - cutting through the mild haze in her ears brought on by the noises she was making. He spoke again, and this time she heard him clearly.

"Is someone in there?"

It took all of a split-second for Rochelle to recognise the voice... it was Tyler. Somehow he had found his way down to the dig site, and made his way here. Her saviour had arrived to free her from the clutches of the Rockets. Smiling for the first time since she had been knocked out - though not at the obvious cliché that had formed in her mind - she shuffled over to the gap between the door and its frame.

"Tyler? Is that you? Get me out of here!" she answered the voice, desperation obvious in her tone at the possibility of freedom from the confining closet. "Please, for the love of God, let me out..."

 

[socialtangent]

Although the voice was muffled through the metal door, it was familiar. It sounded just like-

"Rochelle?" Tyler replied incredulously. What was she doing here? How did she get here? More importantly, who brought her here? Those questions would be answered later, but first he had to get her out of that closet. Grabbing the handle and trying to push down on it did nothing; the door was locked. With no key in sight, Tyler had to take a bit more of a direct approach. He withdrew Tank's Pokeball from his belt and released him.

"Tank, I need you to Double Kick that door, but be careful. There's a Trainer on the other side of that door, and I don't think you want to hurt her," he instructed his Nidoran.

Tank acknowledged Tyler's command with a short "Ran".

"Rochelle, you're gonna want to back up as close to the wall as you can," Tyler warned Rochelle. "We're gonna have to bust you out. Okay, Tank, Double Kick!"

The diminutive Pokemon backed up a short distance from the door, then took off on its hind legs. After picking up enough speed, Tank leaped forward feet-first and impacted the center of the door with a loud, metal-rending crash. The force of the attack broke the lock and sent the door swinging wide open, revealing a seemingly terrified Rochelle hiding in the far corner of the closet. Tyler could only imagine how long she had spent in there while the rest of the group was exploring the cave.

"Okay, we should get moving," he said to the freshly liberated Trainer.

 

[CounterAttack]

Rochelle blinked a few times at the light streaming into the closet, adjusting to the suddenly brighter surroundings when compared to the almost pitch-black of the closet. Tyler stood in the tunnel beyond with Tank, his Nidoran, at his feet. It was kind of surprising, that the strength of the little purple Pokémon was enough to smash open a locked door of solid steel.

"Okay, we should get moving," Tyler cautioned.

"Oh, thank God..." she murmured, carefully climbing out of her cell. Without even thinking about it, she gave Tyler a hug which could be described as a bit more than friendly, but it was justified under the circumstances. Rochelle let go of her rescuer after a few seconds when Tyler's warning reached the part of her brain that had not been completely shell-shocked.

"Yes, you're right. But... the guys that locked me up, Team Rocket... they took all of my things, my pack, my - my Pokémon. I gotta find them," she pleaded, holding her pants up with one hand since her belt was missing.

 

[Lambi]

Aeris peeked around a corner to see any sign of Rochelle. None were in sight. She sighed and continued along the path. She didn't seem to find any trace of her. She hoped anyone from their group had found her, or at the very least that she was alright.

Blaze lit up the cave for the ones that had gone with Fary so they'd have an easier time looking around.

 

[socialtangent]

Um...

Tyler felt somewhat awkward, for a lack of a better word. He hadn't expected the hug and didn't know how exactly to react. The only thing he could do was let Rochelle's hug work its course, which it did after a few seconds. A brief awkward silence followed as Tyler tried to nonchalantly downplay the mild redness in his cheeks. Hopefully, the dull light of the cave hid his blushing. He shoved his hands into his pockets and looked off into space, wishing that the moment would just blow over.

Then something suddenly clicked.

"Wait...did you say Team Rocket?" Tyler asked incredulously. "As in...the Team Rocket?" If the infamous Team Rocket was responsible for Rochelle being shoved into a storage closet, then it was safe to assume that they were the ones in charge of the massive digging operation here in Mt. Moon...but why? What would the notoriously ruthless Pokemon crime syndicate want in a dark cave such as this?

Tyler drew a deep breath in an attempt to calm himself. The breath came out slowly in an elongated sigh. "Shit...if they're here, then all of us are in trouble," he finally said. "If we're gonna get your stuff back, then we're gonna have to find the others. Just the two of us against Team Rocket is a great way to lose our Pokemon and get killed". If Team Rocket was willing to not only take Rochelle's belongings, but leave her to die in a closet as well, it was obvious that they were as nasty as the urban legends said.

 

[CounterAttack]

"Yeah... yeah, of course," Rochelle said quietly, taking a small step back from Tyler to avoid making the situation any more awkward than it already was. The quick thinker in her had returned, and with it her initial panic and fear had subsided... but it was still there. She cast a wary eye about herself, taking in the surrounding cavern. There was very little else to speak of: just rocky walls, the ruined closet, and one way out. Presumably that had been the way Tyler had come in.

Wiping her face a couple of times with her free hand to clear the dried-up rivers of tears, ignoring the small blood trail down the side of her head, Rochelle looked to Tyler for guidance. "Um, I have no idea where we are, so... you lead the way," she quietly suggested, gesturing to the exit. She made a mental note to somehow repay Tyler for busting her out when - if - they got out of Mt. Moon and back to civilisation. What that repayment would entail, she didn't know.

 

[NeoAC]

Spoiler: OOC

Terinth's part was written up by keelzbunny, also Level update won't be coming until we're out of the cave, so be ready for some jumps.

Damian looked up towards the entrances as he thought he heard something. A thud or something similar.

"Damian! What are you doing! I want to go get some lunch!" Kimmy was not interested in anything that didn't involve getting some food.

"I thought I heard something near the entrance," he answered. "Come on, we better go make sure that girl isn't trying anything stupid." He headed off towards the storage facilities.

Kimmy knew this meant no food. Rocket members were supposed to be on the buddy system at all times, and although she flaunted it when out in the field, despite her grumbling stomach, she wasn't going to do it right under the bosses eyes. "Dang it! Wait up!" she called as she chased after Damian.

[hr]

As the group continued down the tunnel, Terinth surveyed the cave walls. They were very odd, and looked different from before, almost as if they had entered a different mountain. The walls were smooth, with weird grooves in them. It almost looked as if....

?Hey guys? Has anyone else noticed the weird arrows on the walls?? She asked, recognizing the shape of the grooves.

Jordan looked over at the walls. "Uh, they just look like rocks and stuff to me Blondie," he noted. He did however hear a low whirr in the far distance, like that of a motorboat. "But, I dunno, maybe like there is something down here."

 

[Mookie_Magnus]

Mika looked up at the walls and nodded, running his hands over the indentations. "Huh... Maybe it was done by the same people who put up the lights..." He shrugged, lifting his ears in the direction of the faint sound. "Anyone else hear that?"

It doesn't sound natural... And there's the residual odor of people... Bones commented to his Trainer, sniffing a bit in the dark cave.

"I hope the others didn't get lost..." He mutters softly, nervously popping the knuckles of his left hand.

 

[socialtangent]

"Uh...right," Tyler replied after a moment. "I think I remember the way. Geist, I'm sure you remember too".

Geist nodded.

"Well, that's settled. I think we should get moving..." he added, stepping timidly away from Rochelle and turning to exit the closet. Now that he knew that Team Rocket was in the immediate area, Tyler was more than eager to put as much distance between him and the dig site as possible. At least, until they could come back in bigger numbers. He wouldn't be able to live with himself if he just let the Rockets take Rochelle's Pokemon without a fight.

Geist's head tilted to the side, as if he had heard something. "Abra!", he called out to Tyler, tugging on his pant leg.

Tyler looked confused for a second. "Geist, what's wro-" He paused mid-sentence. Whatever it was that Geist heard, he could hear it now. Footsteps. Fast footsteps. And they were getting closer. Guessing from where the echoes were coming from, the sound's origin had to be from the direction of the Rocket's dig site. "[small]Shit[/small], they must have heard Tank break down that door. We have to get going. Now".

Taking Rochelle by the hand, Tyler took off as fast as he could in the uneven terrain of the cave, with Geist and Tank flanking behind them. The Nidoran nimbly maneuvered himself around the rocks that appeared in his path, jumping off a few to preserve his forward momentum. Geist, on the other hand, had opted with using his Psychic power to levitate himself about an inch or so from the ground. Using this method, Geist was easily able to keep up with his fellow Pokemon and the two Trainers.

 

[NeoAC]

Damian kept pushing forward until he reached the storage facilities. He could see one of the door has been kicked in from the outside, the damaged metal not doing it's job. Just as he feared, it was the last one, the makeshift jail cell. "Damn it! Damn it all to pus-coated blood spilling hell! That girl is loose! See what you've done, Kimmy! Now we know there are other people in here!"

"Whatever," Kimmy complained. She didn't appreciate the full brunt of the blame that Damian was tossing at her. "Can't we just like, go after them?"

"We don't know how many we're going to be dealing with here. It could be a veritable army of trainers. But I suppose we have no choice in order to try and contain this."

"OK, well then let's just do it, and get it over with, so we can eat and stuff." Kimmy dashed ahead, eager to get this inconvenience taken care of so she could retrieve her lunch.

"Bloody hell." Damian reached into his pocket and pulled out a small communicator. "Jean-Simon, we have a major breach in the entry. Backup will more than likely be necessary.....of course. We will go after them....What?....OH! Right, yes, 'ze minions' yes...OK." He returned the device to his pocket. "Bloody frog."

[hr]

Jordan nodded at Mika's statement. He didn't want to spend any more time in this cave than was necessary. Getting lost was not a good option. But the sounds were starting to grow louder. And there were more. "Uh, does anyone hear, like, running, or something? Cause it's not me."

 

[Mookie_Magnus]

Mika went a little pale as he heard what Jordan did... footsteps... and they were moving quickly and growing louder. Bones began to growl protectively and stood in front of Mika.

"Someone's coming towards us... and if Bones is right, they're not interested in guiding us through the mountain." Mika commented, pulling out a pokeball and sending out Claw to stand besides Bones. "This does not look good..."

 

[CounterAttack]

Things were happening a little too quickly for Rochelle. She had only picked up the sound of footsteps after Tyler had heard them. The next thing she knew, he was pulling her along by the hand and she was trying to keep up, the faint footsteps in the background drowned out by the footfalls of Tyler, Tank and herself as they dashed through the tunnels. Completely lost, Rochelle had to trust Tyler's sense of direction and memory of the path he had taken.

As they rounded a corner, Rochelle felt her foot catch on part of the rough floor; a budding stalagmite or something similar. Regardless, it was enough to make her footing unstable, and she tripped over the rock formation, letting go of Tyler's hand to try to cushion the fall that ensued. She landed heavily on her hand and forearm with a grunt of pain, and carefully got back to her feet. Thankfully Tyler had stopped to help her up.

Rochelle briefly examined her arm: no doubt there would be some form of bruising later. "S-Sorry, I didn't see that rock," she explained, looking to Tyler to take the lead again... but his Abra had its ears perked up, and it was facing the path behind them. Before either of the humans could make a comment, the sounds of footsteps reached their ears as well. Whoever was moving through the tunnels, they were running, presumably to catch up to Rochelle and Tyler. And the footsteps were loud, which meant they were close.

Her heart sank at the thought that it could be the Rockets from earlier. Given the fact that Tyler and Geist had heard footsteps before they all started running, that was most likely the case. "I... I'm so sorry, Tyler," Rochelle stammered, making to step past him in case their pursuers wanted to grab her again. "That could be them... the Rockets. If - if we get out of this, I owe you."

 

[socialtangent]

"That could be them... the Rockets. If - if we get out of this, I owe you."

Tyler gulped involuntarily. If we get through this. If. Not the most encouraging words. "We're gonna be fine," he said sternly, more to himself than Rochelle. "Now let's go!" He pulled her by the arm again and took off as fast as he could, hoping to put as much distance between them and the footsteps as possible. Judging from their volume, they were steadily losing this race. If the Rockets got ahold of them, there was no telling what they'd-

No.

He wouldn't think about that. The only thing Tyler needed to do was put one foot in front of the other. Get to the others. To safety.