Journey into the Darkness

[aloraskye]

Shina carefully walked through the underground tunnels, weary of anything that could harm her or her majestic Umbreon who was currently perched upon her shoulder. She scanned the dark corridors with her flashlight, jogging down the tunnel as she did so. Upon her belt was a spare flashlight, and batteries for both of them. The spare was so she would have light to change the batteries of the main one if need be. She had to find whatever it was that ran down here. She knew it wasn't human, but it didn't look like a Pokemon either.

She came to a stop when she heard running water, weary of slipping on the stone below her feet. She walked slowly and carefully for a while until she felt her foot dip in something wet. She immediately moved her flashlight down, only to find herself in water. She figured this was the case, but it never hurt to be cautious. She kept on walking thought he water until she realized that the liquid she treaded in was thicker than water... She looked down once again, focusing the flashlight on the liquid that flowed through the cave, only to find it had now darkened.

It quickly dawned on her that she was no longer walking in water, but a thin black sludge. The part she hated the most was she had no idea what she was stepping in...

[DBZGTPokeDigiStar17]

"Mega!" (Aah!)

"Calm down, Meganium. I'm sure it won't kill you, no matter how is feels, not to mention smells..." Silver said, after journeying quite a ways into the Underground Tunnels...

"I got a message on my PokeGear saying something was going on down here, and apparently, something is, considering this gucky, goo stuff. I wonder what it is."

[aloraskye]

Shina perked up at the loud roar of the meganium and the voices echoing down the tunnel. Considering that they were talking about the same thing she was walking in, and the sound of the voice, they were close. Shina doubted they were what she was looking for since they were talking about PokeGear, but if they were down here they weren't ordinary trainers either. She turned around, careful not to slip on the mucky surface, and sure enough she saw another beam of light which was most likely coming from a flash light.

She didn't want to risk giving away her position to whatever she was chasing by shouting, but there was strength in numbers. And if the mystery trainer turned out to be a foe, fighting on this surface with a blade would not be an easy task. She decided to turn her current flashlight off and switch to her smaller one so as to be less noticeable, and continued along her path.

The water got thicker rapidly as she went on, and the stream was wide. She prayed it was only sewage instead of something she'd have to worry about, but considering it didn't smell like sewage that was highley unlikely. It didn't bother her that she was walking in this goo, what bothered her is she didn't know WHAT the goo was. She hated not knowing. She could tell her Umbreon grew worried as well.

Suddenly she stepped on something solid and slimiy, but kind of squishy under her feet. She felt aroudn it for a bit, and focused her beam of light on the mystery object. It was a dark blue... She stepped on it more firmly this time, before drawing both feet on top of the object. She had to work very hard not to slip, since the surface was covered in thick slime.

She looked back to see the beam of light growing closer to her position, and as she did so the ground beneath her began to move as she heard a giant roar. She wobbled back and forth, struggling to keep her balance.

"Whoa!" She called out as the ground moved even more and began to rise in a vertical slant. Umbreon hopped off it's master's shoulder right before she came crashing to the ground. She maintained her iron grip ont he flashlight out of sheer will, but then she realized that she had gone far underground and this cave went a lot deeper than she had initially thought. The creature beneath her was decending at a rapid rate, and due to the fact that it was slanted, she began to fall down the creatures back like a slide, Umbreon not far behind her.

[DBZGTPokeDigiStar17]

Silver perked his head up as he heard a shout from nearby in the tunnel. He turned his head around, looking to see if anyone was there. He had a small flashlight in his hand, and while bouncing the light around the wallks of the tunnel it caught a glimpse of something slanted a ways away from them. Instantly growing curious, he started to walk towards it.

Meganium obviously forgot about how much she loathed the slime, for she was running towards whatever this thing was. Coming up to it, she peered down it, realizing it was some kind of slide. Silver came up behind her, and he shined his flashlight down the hole, seeing nothing but darkness.

"We have to go down there Meganium. I have a feeling someone else is down here trying to see what's going on, and they might've fallen down there." He suddenly smiled, and looking up he widened his smile into a grin and said, "This'll be fun!"

"Mega me.." (Here we go again..)

With that, Silver turned his flashlight off, and stuffing it in his pocket, he jumped into the air, and cannon-balled down the vertical passageway, all the while exclaiming, "Wheee!" Meganium followed him immediately after he had disappeared, but little did she know she was being followed herself...

[aloraskye]

Shina looked around on the wet ground for her flashlight, but stopped when she heard conversation from above her. She listened closely before coming to a horrific realization.

"He wouldn't..." She muttered as she found her flashlight burried under the mud. Suddenly she heard a shout that was coming closer to her.

'Grraawwll' (He would) Umbreon said sarcastically as it ran out fot he way. Her master was not so lucky however. As Shina scrambled up she was kinocked back down by Silver landing on top of her. She was both irritated, and thankful that the meganium hadn't landed on her instead. She squirmed around int he mud in an attempt to free herself from underneath the young man who was nearly twice her size. Not that out-sizing the tiny Shina Masurao was hard to do, but being as small as she was definatley had it's disadvantages.

"Get off me!" She excamed, still struggling underneath the his weight. Umbreon made an odd sound, and Shina could have sworn her beloved pokemon was laughing.

[DBZGTPokeDigiStar17]

Silver ed his head to the side, looking under him and suddenly realizing he was sitting on Shina.

"Oh, that's why the ground was so lumpy." He said with a chuckle as he hurriedly stood up, only to be knocked back down to the ground a few moments later by his best friend.

"Meganium, you've gained weight! You weren't nearly this heavy the last time you fell on me!"

"Mega?!" (What?!) Meganium felt insulted, not budging an inch from where she sat.

Silver had a look of helplessness as he pleaded, "Come on, , you know that was a joke! You're probably even lighter than Blade!"

Faced with this sudden change of invents, Meganium stood up, relieving Silver of being crushed into mud.

Silver happily got back on his feet, attempting to clean himself off by wiping some of the guck off with his hands, which didn't get him very far, so he decided to stop, only to be once again sat on by another person falling from above.

"Not again!" He wailed, as Meganium sat by laughing to herself and muttering, "Mega Mega..." (What am I going to do with you...)

Silver heard what she said, and bewildered, he replied, "What did I do?!"

Meganium then looked up to see who had sat on Silver, and she exclaimed, "Mega?!" (Joey?!)

Silver widened his eyes as he saw Meganium's expression, and then looked up for himself after he heard what she said. Nevertheless, it was indeed Joey.

Silver grinned and shouted, "Joey! I never would've expected to see you here!"

Joey, still sitting on top of Silver, replied, "Why should I let you have all the fun?"

Silver answered abruptly, "Well, we're not going to have a lot of fun you sit on me all day."

Joey perked up as she realized Silver was still pinned to the ground, and the sheepishly stood up, saying, "Oh, right, ehehe.."

[aloraskye]

After being sat on by two men and a meganium, to say Shina was glad to get up out of the mud was an understatement. She stood up, half temped to disembowl every human in the room other than herself, but she kept her temper under control nonetheless. She started to wipe the mud that covered the front half of her tuynic with her hands, but thought better of it. The neat bun she once had her hair in was a mess and her tunic was ruined. She sighed before adressing the youths.

"Alright, now that we're all covered in mud and stuck in this tunnel, would you mind telling me who you two are, what you're doing here, and who's bright idea it was to send a Meganium jumping down a sludge-filled shaft?" She said impatiently.

[DBZGTPokeDigiStar17]

(I know you had no way of knowing, so for future references, Joey is a female.=))

"Sorry about that. My name is Silver Kamiya, and Meganium is my first Pokemon, and best friend, so wherever I go, she goes. This is one of my greatest friends, Joey Latiena."

Joey continued, "Silver and I each got an urgent message saying something was going on down here, so we came to check it out. We didn't know that we were going to find each other here, or you, until a few minutes ago, that is."

Silver was looking over Shina while Joey was talking, and he thought she looked familiar, in a sense... He suddenly realized who she was. "Oh! I know you! You're Shina Masurao, one of Slyfera's friends, right? Joey, she's the leader of the Elite Four!"

Joey replied, "Eh?" She then took a closer look at Shina, and after seeing her Umbreon behind her, she said, "Oh yeah, you're right. What a surprise!"

[aloraskye]

(Sorry. Joey is usually a nickname for Joesph so that's what threw me off.)

"Yes, quite a surprise indeed. I didn't think I was recognizable through this mud. Well it is nice to meet you, but we may want to save the chit-chat for later as it is already cold down here and I would not want to be here by nightfall." She said matter-of-factly. She picked up her once-again fallen flashlight and motioned for her Umbreon to come. The Umbreon happily complied, hopping on her shoulder as it always did. Though how such a small creature could leap so far was a mystery. She scanned the area with her flashlight, careful not to shine it in Silver or Joey's eyes.

"Just as I thought, no way to climb up. And even if there were proper handholds there's no telling how far up that is and with everything so wet we might slip. Well, guess we'd better start walking then. Whatever dug this tunnel had to create some way to get fresh air down here, otherwise the shaft would become poisonous with carbon dioxide." She explained. But what she left out was that there was definatley something down here, as she had noticed a broken terricotta pottery shard in the mud earlier. She doubted the others knew though, and while the two seemed trustworthy she wasn't sure they would be so noble if they found a whole stash of anceint treasure.

But what made her even more curious is how was this place built? It was obviously very deep and that slide was mechanical. It had to be old, since terricotta is no longer used to construct glass-ware on a mass-scale. Even now it would be a feat, but to dig this by hand seemed impossible.

[DBZGTPokeDigiStar17]

(Yeah, I know. I just thought having a female character named Joey would be really cool.=))

It appeared Joey still had to have one more ounce of fun before she got serious and down to business, because she could sense Shina was still pretty upset about being covered in mud, and she had the answer. "I can take care of the mud for ya'll! Swampert, let's go!" She threw a Pokeball into the air, and her Swampert appeared out of a white light. When he landed in the mud, he looked like a little child in a sandbox, but Joey had something else in mind. "Swampy, can you use Surf to wash us all off?" Swampert looked up at her and with a grin from ear to ear, he replied, "Swam!" A moment later a huge tidal wave almost completely filled that area of the tunnel, drenching everyone in the room. It dissipated a few minutes later, and everyone was clean as a whistle; the only problem now was that they were soaked from head-to-toe.

"Well, at least that's better then being covered in mud..." Joey said after recalling her Swampert and thanking him.

"I can have Arcanine dry us off, if you want." Silver chimed in, half playing and half serious.

"No, that's ok..." Joey replied, a little nervous since she knew how Arcanine could get when he tries to help with his Flamethrower.

"Yeah, we should get down to business and figure out how this place was made, and why... I think we should just keep walking and see if we get anywhere. Maybe there's a hidden passage in the walls or something..."

[aloraskye]

"Well, thank you for washing us off..." She said gratefully, although she wasn't sure it was such a good idea to make the ground even more damp than it already was. She gave up on her bun, and pulled the pins out of her hair. Her black hair fell gracefully to the middle of her back as she stuffed the clips into the small pouch attacked to her belt.

"Perhaps. Let's just keep moving." She said, and started walking down the shaft, her black boots sinking deep into the mud.

[DBZGTPokeDigiStar17]

Silver and Meganium silently walked on after Shina, but Joey asked, "So, Shina, do you have any idea about what this tunnel might be for?"

[aloraskye]

"Well, it could have been a mine, or possibly an extention to the irrigation tunnel that was never finished. Although it seems a little large for that. It could have been a headquarters for espionage and sabatoge work, which is what I find the most likely, or it could have been an escape route for the human slaves of the era, but that's highley unlikely." She replied matter-of-factly.

[DBZGTPokeDigiStar17]

Joey was flat out blown away. "Woah, that's more then what I expected, heh.."

"If you had to ask me, I'd say it was like what Shina mentioned, the whole espionage thing. Or at least some kind of hideout for evil-doers, like team Zershia.." Silver replied grimly.

[aloraskye]

"Well I know this: Whatever it was for, it's very old. You can tell by the sedement." She said, not wanting to tell them about the shard "If it is being used for a base by team Zershia, then they would have likely sent a team to attack us by now. Or worse, have set a trap for us. Either way, they'd know we were here. Perhaps a hideout during more anceint times. If anyone has walked in these tunnels recently, we'd see their footprints. Odds are, no one human has been here for a very long time."