Hard Enough - Chapter 213 - Spelunking into sleepy situations! (Patreon)

“Ohhhhh you!” growled Ash towards his rival. His fist clenched around a pokeball and he raised it up, his mouth opening to no doubt demand a challenge. 

Only for Misty’s hand to lash out and grab him by the back of his shirt and shake him. “What do you think you’re trying to do? We’re next to a canyon! Do you not remember the last time you got into a fight in terrain like this!?” she snarled. 

I quirked an eyebrow. That sounded like quite the story. 

Gary for his part only smirked harder. “Hoh? What’s this? Ashy boy not paying attention? I seem to recall several classes where you were the same! Remember Ashy Boy?” he said, leaning in to put the screws to his rival.

Mia put her hand on his shoulder. “Gary, you’re not much better. Remember that time you used an electric attack with your Jolteon when we were standing in ankle-deep water?” she said with a very fixed smile. 

Gary stiffened. “I thought we were never going to talk about that!” 

Mia, and I noted the cheerleaders all shot Gary an extremely flat look. “We agreed to no such deal,” Mia said, acting as the group’s spokeswoman. The cheerleaders nodded their heads in solidarity. 

Misty looked over at them. “You girls as well? Ash does that sometimes when he get—” 

Ash’s hand flapped up into her face. “Misty! Not in front of Gary!” he said with a whine.

“Yeah! What Ash said!” You’re ruining my reputation!” said Gary. 

Forrest sighed. “Just give it up guys, they’re going to do it anyway. I find it helps to just have a thicker skin,” he said with a shrug. 

Misty shot him a smile and a nod which Forrest huffed at before turning back to me. A steely glint entered his gaze. “That said, it was not cool of you making Erika trick us like that Brock!” he said, shooting his finger out to point it right in my face. 

I smirked. “Ho? What’s this?” I said playfully. 

“You! You made her demand that Ash and I fight her in dresses! The girls there called me Frou-frou!” 

“I was called Ashley!” said Ash in despair. Gary snickered at him. 

“Really dresses? You guys are such chumps! No way I’d get caught in a dress like that!” he said. 

Mia gained a glint in her eyes and the Cheerleaders tittered. Gary, demonstrating amazing self-awareness, shot them all a worried look. 

I raised a hand. “Alright, alright girls stop beating up on the boys. We get it, they’ve made some mistakes.” I raised a single finger. “But I’m sure we can all recall some of our own mistakes which were equally as poorly thought out, no?” I said, doing my best to give off the vibes of a man preaching to a church. I tried to embody the idea of cast only a rock ye who have not sinned.

The boys looked at me in relief while the girls nodded contritely. Or at least they did for a few seconds before the Cheerleaders shared a wink. I decided to ignore them. They were not my problem and too old and therefore set in their ways.

Not that I was going to voice that.

I gave Forrest a look. “Sorry for setting up that trap,” I said only for my lips to twitch at the unfortunate, if Freudian slip. 

Forrest glared at me and in doing so gave up that he’d probably gone a little too deep on the pokenet. 

I repressed my amusement in the face of his ire. “Big Brother prerogative?” I suggested.

Forrest raised a clenched fist in front of his face. “Mark my words, brother, I will have my vengeance for that embarrassment! It might not be today, but it will come! It will be swift! It will be bold! It! will! be! Legendary!” he stipulated with his fist held up to the heavens. 

I coughed and decided to kill his vibe by clapping politely. “Cool story,” I said. 

Forrest growled at me. Ash decided to add his own two cents. “Make sure you get him back for the underwear as well!” 

Everyone paused. I frowned. “Uhm… underwear?” I said. 

Ash nodded. “Yeah! The girls included underwear with the dresses! Said they’d be able to tell if I wore something else!” 

Forrest put his hands together in front of his face. “Ash… they were lying, those dresses had so many frills you could hide anything under there! Please tell me you didn’t wear the frilly girl underwear the girls left.”

Ash blinked slowly only to smile. “I did not wear the underwear! He said. 

Pikachu, who’d been riding his shoulder, made a face and refused to look at his trainer. 

Forrest opened his mouth to a question no doubt burning on the tip of his tongue, but he shut his mouth realising he really didn’t want to know the answer. He turned away. “Yeah! That too!” he said pointing at me.

I coughed. “Uhmmm, I think you might need to take that up with the girls of the Celadon Gym. I said trick them into wearing a dress, and get some pictures,” I said raising up my Xtransciver to showcase a pair of pictures with a furiously blushing but pleased Forrest holding up a Rainbow badge while Ash did the same in the next picture. 

A final picture showed off Misty standing between the boys with her own Rainbow badge, her smile huge while the boys blushed in their dresses. 

“I even told them not to push it if you said no,” I said. “The underwear thing… that was the girls,” I said. I could only conclude that the underwear had been one of the trainers going above and beyond… or being particularly mean. 

It struck me as something Erika would be too shy to do.

I felt my stomach rumble and I coughed before waving the group to follow. “Let’s grab some lunch!” I said leading the group back to the cafeteria tent I’d seen earlier. 

As we moved Gary slunk up next to Ash. “You went commando, didn’t you?” 

I walked a little faster, not wanting to hear the answer to that question. I felt like I already knew too much. 

Damn, Celadon girls, that was cruel. I sped up. I didn’t want to truly know the answer. If I could keep even a smidgen of ignorance, I’d cling to it harder than a naked man would cling to a towel. 

Lunch proved to be a suitable distraction with our group claiming a full table. 

“So? How’s it been going for you?” I asked. “I heard you were having to train up for Kong and Sabrina?” I prompted. 

Forrest and Ash grimaced. “We have to work on our strategy,” Forrest said. “Kong was more than ready to deal with my Metang.”

I paused. “Oh? You got it to evolve? Good work. Have you…” I paused realising I was about to encroach. I coughed. “What are you doing for him and your other pokemon?” I said, adjusting my words quickly. 

Forrest perked up. “Well it’s really interesting having a Psychic pokemon on my team! I have Metang working on building up the power of his attacks and his control, while others are building up their defence!” 

I nodded along happy to listen even as I found myself having to bite down the urge to make some suggestions. I didn’t need to step in and ‘fix his methods’ he could learn, or he could ask for them if he wanted to. He had access to the Gym’s training methodology for various pokemon after all. I could tell that he’d built a good program from it already, it just wasn’t eking out the full potential. 

I glanced about at the others and spotted something. Ash was sulking, which wasn’t odd considering how Gary was taking the chance to needle him, while Misty was happily bouncing in her seat. 

“I take it Misty won her match?” I said, causing Forrest to perk up and begin singing Misty’s praises much to the girl’s delight. 

“I’ll say! She had it worked out really well with her Starmie! And oh! Just this week her Wartortle evolved after beating the Battle Club President! It was awesome! Now we have Misty’s Blastoise and Ash’s Charizard! It’s so cool!”

The cheerleaders, who’d claimed their own table glanced over and giggled as they shot Misty and Forrest teasing looks that had Misty blushing further while Forrest didn’t spot them.

I swallowed the mouthful of sandwich I had. “So, does that mean you’re going to get a Bulbasaur?” I said teasingly. 

“What? No! I think I like Steel and Rock Type pokemon!” Forrest said firmly. He then waved a hand towards Ash. “Ash has a Bulbasaur anyway.”

Gary choked on his sandwich and Mia helpfully swatted his back a few times to help clear his airways. “Urk! You? Ashy boy have two of the Kanto starter pokemon?” raged Gary.

Ash blinked. “Uhmmm no? I have all three? I have Squirtle, Bulbasaur and Charizard,” he said cluelessly. 

Everyone within earshot turned and shot him a look of disbelief that quickly morphed into envy. Ash wiped at his face? “What? It wasn’t that hard,” he said. 

Gary put his head in his hands. “Not that hard he says! Argh! My rival is a stupid lucky idiot!” he said. 

Forrest and Misty both nodded. Ash growled only to notice them. “Hey! That’s not true! I’m smart!” 

I chuckled as the others pretended to not meet his gaze as though he’d just said something embarrassing. Ash turned watery eyes towards me, fishing for a compliment. I laughed and rolled my eyes. “At pokemon battling you have some great instincts. I think the issue isn’t one of intelligence but rather wisdom which will come with experience,” I said easily. 

Ash considered this for a moment before tilting his head. “What’s the difference?”

I grinned. “Intelligence is knowing that a Tomato is a fruit, but wisdom is knowing not to put it in a fruit salad,” I said.  

Forrest, unable to stop himself completed the quote, “And charisma is being able to sell a tomato fruit salad!” he said with a grin. 

I paused. That… actually fit the Team Rocket trio to a tee. 

“What’s this new nerdery?” Gary said, affecting a cool attitude as he cleaned his ear. 

Forrest scoffed. “You’re not fooling anyone! It’s this game that you can play called pokemon mystery dungeons! You can play as a variety of different pokemon and go on adventures with—” 

“Laaaaaaaaaaaammmmmmmmeee!” said Gary only for Mia to swat him on the head.

“It’s not lame! We had a ton of the boxes and rulebooks in the orphanage! We used to play and the matrons would come around with jugs of drink and treats!” she said. “It was kinda fun! I played as a Munchlax!” 

I held in a small laugh. The matrons gave out treats to reinforce the good behaviour of the kids doing something quiet… for a given value of quiet. 

Forrest perked up. “Oh sweet! I was part of the club for a while in school until… well I really enjoyed it anyway! The situations were super cool and useful for life I found!” 

Mia agreed with a no while Silly Mouse chittered happily on Mia’s shoulder.

Flint decided to weigh in. “I’ve never heard of this game before?” 

“That’s cause it’s a young person game dad! You’d have never played it, talk to Salvadore, I know he said he’s joining a club for it after school!” Forrest said. 

Flint nodded this, looking like he’d do just that. He then glanced at his watch. “Oh my! Look at the time! If we’re going to do some spelunking Brock we’ll need to get going!” he said. 

“Spelunking?!” said Ash, Forrest, and Gary all at once. 

I nodded, standing up. “Yeah, we’re going to head down into the part of the canyon where I found my pokemon years ago and see if there isn’t anything more down there.” The kids all straightened up at that. 

Ash was the first off the mark. “Can we come?” 

I paused, having not considered that. I shared a look with Flint and he shrugged. I shrugged back. “Sure, but you’ll need to follow Flint and I’s lead on this cause we are going to be underground.” I gave Gary and Ash a pointed look. “That means no big pokemon moves or damaging the walls.”

“YES!” cheered the boys. 

Misty coughed. “I’d like to just work at one of the aboveground sites if it’s all the same Ash?” Mia agreed with a nod herself. 

Ash stared at her., “You’re not interested in Kabuto, or Omanyte?” he said with a gasp. 

Misty wavered only to shake her head. “I saw some interesting rock formations back in the desert that I want to look into. Now that I know what’s going on, I might scoop them up!” she said. 

Ash tilted his head. “I don’t remember seeing that?” 

Forrest glanced to the side. “You like to powerwalk and keep your head forwards. You don’t really take in your surroundings,” he said. 

Ash nodded. “Like a true champion,” he said. 

Gary scoffed. “Only if you don’t want to know where you’re going or miss a lot of things.”

“What was that?” said Ash, his eyes narrowing and snapping to his rival. 

I clapped my hands to stop any fights from breaking out. I could already tell this was going to be an interesting trip. “Let’s get our gear and head out hey?” I said with a faint smile. 

I might have leaked a bit of dark energy as the boys stiffened and saluted me. “Yes sir!” they said together. Flint led us to another tent where we were given a pack for traversing into a cave. 

The old man that handed out the packs gave us each a critical look over and a quick criticism on how to have our packs set, or wear a hip harness for any abseiling we decided to set ourselves up for. He gave Flint and I a grunt that might have passed for approval when we didn’t need any adjustment. 

When he finished teaching Humphrey how to connect his safety cord, he surveyed the younger boys. “Heading down into the depths are we?” he said as a cruel glint entered his eyes. 

The boys nodded with Gary grinning. “You know it!” he said. 

“Heh! Be careful laddies! There be more down there than just rocks! Sometimes there be things that will take bites of you! You won’t even see them! Just hear them echoing and playing tricks on you before they strike!” 

“Alright there Jasper, No need to scare the young ones now!” Flint admonished. 

‘Jasper’ scoffed. “You’re too soft on the young ones these days! I had the poop scared out of me when I was a youngster! It helped to keep me honest and on my toes down there! It’s how I made it to this age.” He adopted a pose that saw him curling in on himself. “Unlike so many other good men…” he said, hiding his eyes. 

Flint snorted. “Most of your generation died due to pickled livers, not rockslides,” he said. 

Jasper dropped the act and grinned. “Damn straight we did! We knew how to party!”

“You also didn’t have legal drinking ages!” said Flint as he waved for our group to follow him. Flint then looked at me. “Alright, time for you to show us the way,” he said. 

I nodded and took a moment to look over the landscape. I’d given it a glance earlier but now I had to recall exactly where I’d gone. Back when I was younger I’d been able to come here and spend a week looking through caves to find them. I had taken a number of pictures which I drew up on my Xtransciever. 

“Oh that’s that rock formation!” Ash said pointing at the picture and the spire of rock off to the side. He started jogging towards it only for me to grab his shirt. 

“That was a picture of a cave that didn’t have pokemon,” I said. I then began flicking through the pictures until I got to the final picture. A large cave that was more of an opening in a flat area, looking more like a sinkhole staring back.

I showed the picture to Selene and she inspected it before nodding and floating up into the air. 

She took a few minutes to drift, inspecting the area from her elevated position before trilling when she had something. Like a compass pointing north she turned herself and directed us towards the cave I’d been seeking out. 

We walked over to it and when we reached the edge, Flint could only whistle in surprise. “You abseiled this when you were eleven?” he said. “That was ambitious of you,” he said, eying the drop.

I merely shrugged. “The payoff was worth it,” I said. I made a sign and Selene dropped down to prepare herself as our safety net. 

Flint pulled out a pokeball of his own and released a Shuckle of all things. “Torch set up, Shuckle,” he said and the shell pokemon began to glow a powerful light out of the exposed body parts. Flint picked it up and attached it to his shoulder. He shot us a smile. “Shuckle make great torch lights.” 

I nodded and donned my own headlight so I could be hands-free. “I prefer to use the red light feature on torches these days. It seems to help keep Zubat from getting startled,” I said. 

The kids copied me with their not having a pokemon that could use Flash. 

Flint shrugged. “As long as it isn’t a strobing flash, or too bright it shouldn’t matter.”

From there we set our anchor points and abseiled to the bottom of the hole. I dredged up memories of how the cave system had been. “There should be a tunnel that will branch off into a trio of forks, but there should be the sound of some water that we can follow to reach an underground grotto where I found the pokemon, stay quiet and listen for running water,” I said. 

Flint hummed. “That’s if the land has shifted. Boys remember to watch your step and to not put all your weight down straight away,” he said. 

Gotcha,” said Forrest while the others nodded along.

We moved along the tunnel and sure enough, we found the trio of branches that I’d come down years ago. I paused near a wall and smiled at a carving I’d made. Forrest stepped up next to me. “Brock was here, remember me well if I don’t return?” he said, reading the carving aloud. 

I blushed having forgotten about this. Flint came over and a flicker of something showed on his face. “Why’d you leave this message,” he asked seriously. 

I shrugged casually. “I heard the water and thought there might be pokemon. I did it mostly out of whimsy,” I said casually. 

Flint grimaced and opened his mouth before shaking his head as he noticed the boy’s attention on him. “It’s nothing,” he said, dismissing it as nothing but I got the impression it was gnawing at him. The boys all shared a look before glancing at me and Flint. They wisely chose not to say anything. 

Flint took the lead from there, his Schuckle lighting up the tunnel after he’d marked it with a bright yellow paint that glowed even after we’d stopped shining lights on it. “Method of keeping track of where you’ve been. It will fade in a few days so it’s safe for the environment,” he said at Humphrey’s curious look. 

As we moved I heard the sound of running water and the boys all perked up. From there, it was only a few minutes walk before the tunnel opened onto the cavern with a small pond in the middle. 

Forrest and Flint blinked. “This is… like the cave system we have in the reserve?” Forrest said. 

I nodded. “I copied much of this from memory so they would feel comfortable,” I said. Taking in the cavern. 

I’d found Shin and Helix here when I’d first arrived. I’d fought them and taken them down only for Chou and Shelly to launch out of the water at me. I’d fought them too and the sounds of our battle had drawn Don in. 

I rubbed a hand over the top of my head, recalling how I’d had to duck when he’d gone for my head from ambush.

I smirked and nodded. That had been a scrappy fight that had been far bloodier than I’d been used to, but from it, I’d secured a number of powerful and rare pokemon.

“This is it,” I said. I then pointed out the water. “Might be worth sending some pokemon down there to investigate. I had Chou and Shelly leap out of them. There’s no guarantee there weren’t other pokemon down there,” I said. I doubted it but it didn’t pay to be lax. 

The boys nodded at this and Ash released his Squirtle. Gary smirked and released a Blastoise causing Squirtle to stiffen when the much more powerful pokemon shot him a smirk. Squirtle responded by pulling out some shades and adopting a cool expression.

Balstoise looked a bit jealous until Humprhey started laughing, drawing everyone’s attention. “Hehehe! It’s just! He’s wearing shades in a cave?” he said.

Squirtle, realising how redundant if not outright counterproductive it was. He whipped the shades off and didn’t meet Blastoise’s eyes as he hopped into the pond. Ash squatted at the side of the pond, his eyes hidden in shadow while Pikachu matched his stare into the pond.

I watched him. It hadn’t happened in the anime, but I got the feeling that with Misty advancing with her pokemon and Gary showing off, Ash was suddenly rethinking a few things about how his pokemon grow.

I left him to it, sending out Shin and Chou myself. Both of them appeared only to stiffen in surprise. “Hey guys, “ I said, greeting them with a smile. “We’re back in the caves I found you doing some exploring? Want to show us around?” I asked. 

Shin perked up and did just that. He began walking around, gesturing with his sycthe at various alcoves, miming sleeping and eating actions. When he reached the pond he gestured and waved his scythe in a complicated action that I couldn’t work out. 

I shook my head and Shin shrugged, unable to convey what he meant. I released Titan and he appeared with a giant yawn and a shudder. 

I twitched. And started to copy him only to break it off. “Oh, don’t start that bud, I’m already tired,” I said. Titan shot me a look before inspecting his surroundings. 

“Ty?” he said, his head cocking to the side as he took in our surroundings, noting their familiarity. When he saw Forrest he stopped looking over the cave and instead stalked over to rub my little brother’s head. 

Forrest squawked at the attention but hugged the larger pokemon back. “Hey to you as well, big guy,” he said. 

Gary took the moment to sneak up next to Titan and take a selfie. Titan, spotting this, adopted a low stalking pose before his fingers shot up into a V. Gary cackled at how cool it looked. Shin, deciding to get in on the action, moved up next to Titan and Gary happily took another few shots. 

Flint let it go for a few moments before coughing. “As nice as it is to see you enjoying yourself, I would ask you to stop using a flash,” Flint said. 

Gary stiffened, his gaze snapping up just as a flock of Zubat began to flutter towards him. Titan swept his tail and knocked them all out without even giving them a look. Gary stared for a moment at the casual display of power, before coughing and ducking his head. “Sorry about that!” 

Ash snickered and shot his rival a smirk, finally having something to tease Gary about.

I shook my head and directed Titan and Shin to work with us. Shin repeated himself about the pond and Titan listened before turning to me and waving his hands in a flowing pattern. “There’s an underground river?” I asked. 

Titan nodded slowly. And continued to weave his hands. I tilted my head. “It goes for a long way?” 

Titan glanced at Shin who nodded. I grunted. “Anything else down there? Pokemon? Other fossil pokemon or fossils themselves?” I asked. 

Shin shook his head for the note about pokemon before shrugging. I opened up my Xtransicever and showed him what I was looking for. Before long he was diving into the depths and looking for anything on the list that I complied with Flint. I turned back to find what everyone else was up to.

The boys were now examining the walls and alcoves and Flint was approaching with a serious look on his face. “Something up?” I asked.

Flint nodded. “The message back at the forks. The one you made when you were eleven?” 

He worked his jaw. “It’s not uncommon to find messages like that when you explore caves.” he said, his eyes moving to lock with mine. “Those sorts of messages are made by men who know they’re going into danger,” he said. 

I didn’t say anything. He was right. I had known I was coming into a dangerous cave. I had as soon as I started exploring the caves all those years ago. I also hadn’t had as many safety measures like Selene or my much stronger pokemon such as a Tyranitar back then. 

It had been Guybro, Dwayne, Titan and Bertha, albeit much younger and nowhere near as powerful. Don had been extremely feral back then which made it tougher than a normal fight, especially with how I hadn’t wanted to cripple him. 

“Yeah,” I said, settling for the one word answer. “It worked out,” I said. 

Flint’s jaw clenched, not liking the answer. He inhaled and exhaled. “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised considering you’d wandered into Mt Silver all those years ago… You really were a lot more reckless back then.” he said leaning back to sit on his haunches. “Guess I just don’t like finding out how much I missed back then.”

I didn’t know what to say. It had been a risk, a big one back then, but there had been sizable pay off. I stayed silent and didn’t say anything. I wasn’t going to say it was a bad call. In fact, it was one that I didn’t regret and would make again if I had my time over. 

That wasn’t the answer that would placate Flint though. Not that he’d like any answer I could truthfully give. 

When the kids called out they’d found a pair of tunnels leading out, I clapped him on the shoulder and squeezed for lack of anything else to say. 

“Let’s see what you’ve got?” I said to the others leaving Flint to stare into the past.

The tunnels weren’t that impressive, roughly my height and only just barely could two people walk shoulder to shoulder down the first. With how it had been tucked into a wall it was rather easy to overlook unless you inspected the full circumference of the cavern.

This tunnel, when inspected, led to a dead end roughly fifty metres along itself. I ran my hands over the sides and noted a number of geodes. “Hey Flint! We might have something here!” I called back. 

Flint shook off the ghosts of the past and trudged up. His shuckle arced its head this way and that casting the walls in and out of light with the motions. He paused at a few sights and tapped his fingers, ran his hands, or in one very concerning moment licked the wall. 

The boys all grimaced at this while I raised an eyebrow. 

“Chalky,” said Flint. “This section is m’ He then led the boys back to various points. “These points here are worth digging at. I think there are some gem deposits here.”

That had Gary, Forrest and Humphrey to perk up. “Can we start digging now?” they asked. 

Flint waved a hand. “Woah there boys, we need to set up secure walls first,” he said.

“What about my tunnel?” whined Ash. 

I clapped him on the shoulder when Flint glanced in my direction. “How about I look it over?” I suggested. 

Ash happily led me to his find. Much weaker and newer than everything else around it. This tunnel might only be a few weeks old.

The second tunnel was much like the first with how it tucked into the wall subtly. What made it different was that it was much smaller. 

You’d need to crawl on your hands and feet, smaller. 

I nodded to myself, releasing Izumi. She appeared, took in her surroundings and nodded. Then she rolled into the tunnel without complaint. Ash fidgetted. “Should we.. go after her?” 

“She’ll check the tunnel, make sure it’s not about to collapse on us. Tight tunnels like this can be a problem due to having potential narrowings where we’d get stuck,” I explained. 

Ash accepted that with a nod, deciding to run his hands through Pikachu’s fur. In doing so his own hair began to stick up in places that were almost iconic for him. Huh, was his spiky hair caused by his grooming Pikachu?

I’d never thought of that before. Neat.

It took a few minutes for Izumi to come back. When she did she was dusty, but that didn’t stop her from grinning at us and firing a thumbs up. 

She tapped the ground and mapped out the tunnel showing that it was a rather long tunnel but that it led to another cavern which was sizable. It also had a lot more openings leading into it. 

I whistled. “Looks like you’ve found something,” I said to Ash, causing him to pump his fist. 

I relayed the information to the others and they wavered. The boys were obviously weighing up further adventure against potential gains in this tunnel while Flint wanted to secure this site. 

“I can go with Ash and check out the tunnel,” I said feeling nostalgic. 

After all, Brock and Ash were an iconic set of friends. 

Flint’s head jerked and he let us be, I had a feeling he was still feeling it from the message I’d left last time, but I wasn’t going to touch that here and now. Instead, I led Ash into the tunnel with me leading the way

Or I was until Pikachu raced ahead of me. 

I chuckled as a small fluffy tail was what I had to look at for a few minutes until the tunnel opened up. When I reached the cavern, I whistled as I found a number of exposed geodes of gems. 

“This… is a much bigger find,” I said. Izumi, who’d been next to me glanced at the geodes before shrugging. Ah, that’s right they wouldn’t matter to a pokemon too much. 

Ash and I happily took some pictures before we began to inspect the other branching tunnels, a few of them seemed to tuck around back in on themselves creating a maze of sorts. One had another cavern that looked promising with the crystals lodged in the walls.

Ash paused to inspect a particularly large crystal just as I stepped into another tunnel, marking it off with the glow in the dark paint as I did so. 

I walked in a little ways and found a small cave with a raised platform. It reminded me of Titan’s den with the softer earth being used as a bed. 

That had me stiffening up, only to pause when a soft voice chirped up. “Jiggly?” 

I blinked as a Jigglypuff hopped up onto the raised bed of rock. “Oh, hello there?” I said.

Jigglypuff smiled and waved, in its off-hand a red… pen with a fluffy lid was held. Something about that sparked a memory. 

It wasn’t until it raised the small red pen to its lips and began to Sing, that I remembered why Jigglypuff with a pen was a menace. I reached up to stuff my ears but a yawn ripped through me causing me to shudder. 

Damn Mewtwo, I thought to myself as I slumped down next to Izumi to fall asleep to a gentle lullaby. I was too tired to resist and so slumber claimed me.

What was the harm in a little nap after all?

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A.N. Thanks go to my patreons for your continued support! 

Thanks also goes to Twmmy for proofreading this chapter!