Chapter 2 – Deadly Encounters

The moonlight was now the only means of sight she had. She knew she was dead tired, and that in turn was making her ears play tricks on her. For the past half and hour, Misty could have sworn she heard something breathing behind her. But she was confident she was just being paranoid.

" Hiiiimaaaallyyyyaa" (Him-ale-ya) Softly moaned through the darkness, and Misty jumped, spinning around to clarify there was absolutely no reason for the frantic beating of her heart.

"Ash did you…hear something?" She asked, reaching out for the dark-haired boy leading their trek. Ash, who was a few feet ahead of her, turned his head.

" No, did you?"

" I thought I did…maybe it’s just me."

" Well, keep quiet, if anything is out there we’ll hear it." Misty could hear the fabric of his shirt brush against Brock’s as they walked.

" Are you…really sure we shouldn’t stop? Who knows what lives here during the night…"

Jessie cocked and eyebrow.

" We also don’t know if anything lives here at all. You can stop, but personally I don’t want to be eaten."

" You just said nothing lives here, so why would you worry about being eaten?" Brock asked.

" Well, uh, you see, as members of Team Rocket we were all taught the ancient legends and things like that…"

" Yeah?" Ash folded his arms.

" And this place just happens to be one of them." James chimed in. Ash and Brock slapped their foreheads and breathed " Uh!!"

" WHY didn’t you inform us of this sooner? Like BEFORE we got lost?" Ash asked indignantly.

" You didn’t ask."

Ash rolled his eyes. " So? Tell us. It’s a little LATE but at least we’ll all be on the same page."

" Well, to make a long story short, we have a one in two hundred chance of making it out alive." James said.

Ash, Brock, Misty and Pikachu stood speechless.

" And you waited till NOW to tell us we were gonna die!?!?!" Ash yelled. Misty wrapped her arms around herself, and her heart and breath quickening as the moaning rang out again. Everyone froze.

" W..we’re being hunted…" Jessie stammered.

" RUN!!!!!" Brock cried. Everyone took off, running for dear life to the end of the corridor, and into a large, dome-shaped room, dimly lit by moonlight. Misty ran as fast as humanly possible down the corridor, the only one lagging behind, because of the heart-stopping sound of claws tapping the ground as her hunter ran behind her.

" Misty!!!!" Ash cried out into the room.

" I’m right here!" She yelled, terrified as she ran into the room.

The next three seconds felt like years to Ash. He saw her run into the open room. He saw the shadow of the beast leap up behind her. He saw it land its muzzle on her shoulder, and her saw her eyes open wide in pain as the weight of the beast threw her to the ground.

" NO!!!! Pikachu! Go!!! Full force attack!!" Ash cried.

" PikA…. CHU!!!!!" thunder exploded from Pikachu, as much as he possibly could, joined by Ekans’ bind and Koffing’s poison gas. They threw it all at the animal, but it didn’t as much as flinch.

" What do we do??" Brock cried.

" You leave this to the professionals." A voice said from above them.

" Dammit Himalya how many times do we have to beat the living daylights out of you to get you understand THAT YOUR KIND ARE EXILED FROM THIS PLACE???"

The creature looked up from Misty. The rest of them did too. Another voice called out.

" You just don’t learn, do you?"

And another.. " Oh well. More fun for us."

"AYA RAINBOW FORCE ATTACK!!" The first voice cried. Ash saw the shadow of a small figure leap into the air, and curl into a small ball. Suddenly the room was full of flashing lights and dancing bolts of lightning, flashing all the colors of the rainbow, coming from the creature hanging in the air. He could now see the large, red dragon-like animal perched over Misty, who was lying on her side in a pool of red liquid. Its broad muzzle was open in a loud, angry screech at the source of the powerful flashing lights, with a long forked black tongue and dozens of rows of jagged teeth. It had large blue eyes half-hidden by a wild yellow mane, which extended down its thick neck. Leathery wings sprouted from its shoulders and a long bladed tail swung at the attacker. Its four powerful limbs, wielding three talons at the tip, were decorated with thick golden bands, and kept the massive animal standing over Misty’s still form. Though no larger than a large Siberian tiger, it looked much more threatening.

Other creatures, the sources of the other voices, stood randomly around the room, none of which they could make out clearly. At the climax of the attack, a huge beam of white light shot down upon the dragon, causing it to roar in pain and leave Misty for a dark corridor. The lights disappeared, and the small shadow stood its two feet on the ground.

" Wa…what was that?" James said, now standing beside Ash. They all stood, stupefied by whatever had just taken place. The moon had now come out from behind the clouds, shining some desperately needed light into the cavern.

"Look out!!" A creature cried.

"Himalyaaa…. crristalllll punnnctuuurrrreereoarrr!!!!" (Spoken from the beast, Himalya crystal puncture, followed by a long roar)

The ground beneath their feet began to shake violently, and split in two, leaving an almost vertical ledge. Jessie screamed as she fell downward, and James reached out to grab her arm. He pulled her back up.

" Whew, that was a close one."

Ash looked at the shadowy creature standing next to him.

" What… are…" he stuttered.

" Allow me to shine some light on this situation." Another voice said.

In a strange version of ‘flash’, the room instantaneously illuminated, allowing everyone to see where they were. The Riachu next to him stood with her hands behind her, staring up at him with satisfaction. She was about two feet tall, with the normal Riachu features, except for her eyes and the fact her arms and legs were longer, more like a humans’, and she wore a black coat with a high collar. The coat was open in the front, revealing her white belly. Her legs were different including her feet, which were shorter and larger that a normal Riachu. But the Riachu trademark tail still waved proudly behind her.

" What kind of Pokemon are you?" Jessie the black and white Pidgeot perched on her shoulder. He was basically the same as a normal Pidgeot except for his black and white feathers.

" We’re Crystal Pokemon." He replied.

***

To be continued…

* Ooh. CRYSTAL Pokemon? Who are they? Is their help just a cover-up for their true flesh-eating nature? And what of Misty? Once again, if you care, read chapter 3. It’s just fulla suprises!