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Chance Chapter 3: Caves

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I couldn't sleep. There were too many unanswered questions popping up in my head, both ones I'd already had – How can I get Liana still? What do I name my chimchar? – and new ones – Where is Galactic at this point in time? Do they still have the same plans? Am I older than Dawn now? Cause I know she and Lucas and I were all born within a year of each other, but I've got almost half a year unaccounted for…

My chimchar was resting in the pokemon care unit downstairs. His concussion wasn't too bad, but he was spending the night just in case. Otherwise they'd put him through PRH (Pokemon Radiation Healing, the little machine you put your pokeballs on to make them all better) in the morning, and he'd be good to go.

I hoped I'd done okay, actingwise. It would be weird if people found out about the whole time travel thing. And since I wasn't especially demotivated or depressed before this day in September, I had to change quickly.

It would be even weirder having to talk to Megan and Tricia again, after not speaking to them for a month. When I started out we called each other constantly–

I flung the covers off and jammed my feet into my shoes. I forgot to vidcall them when I reached Sandgem.




"Heyyyy what took you so long?" Tricia sounded excited.

I smiled tiredly. "Sorry, I forgot when I reached Sandsto– I mean gem."

"Are Lucas and Dawn there?"

"No, they're in Sandgem still."

"Wait, so where are you?" Megan asked.

"Jubilife."

They both said a variation of "THAT FAR?"

"Yeah, I thought I could make it early enough."

"Wow, you're… wow."

"Good wow, or bad wow?"

"Impressed and kinda horrific," Tricia decided.

"Horrified? Me too," Megan said.

"What's wrong with two towns?"

"Just that you got there so late. You could have gotten hurt."

I laughed. Laughed harder and more honestly than I had in this new cycle. "Megan," I squeezed in between laughs, "I'm – a trainer. I'm gonna – get hurt at some – some point. It's a – an – an occupational hazard."

"But you can minimize it. Promise you'll do your best? Stay safe?"

My laughs died out slowly. I wasn't planning to stay safe. "I make no promises," I told her and Tricia, pretending it was funny. Back to pretending now.

"Evelyn–"

"What's there to argue?" I cut her off. "I'm a trainer, and I need to take risks. There is no hope for a trainer who doesn't. You've got to realize that before I go farther on this journey."

"There's some risks you don't have to take though," Tricia pointed out, more serious than usual. Megan had a strange expression, like she was trying to figure out something. Oops. I'd just sounded like an experienced trainer, even for someone who'd just gotten– Ah, I'll save that rant.

"I'm just trying to go fast," I said. "If I train quickly and get through the gyms, I'll have time to visit."

Not technically a lie. But would I visit.

"Oh, okay," Tricia said, cheerful again. "Then are you gonna catch another pokemon for the first gym? I hear there's grass types around where you are."

Megan frowned. "What's that have to do with…"

"You know. Cause she's got a fire type."

Ohhhhhhh Arceussssss.

The first gym was rock.

"I didn't think about that…" I groaned. "Wow, time to train like heck."

"You could catch a budew," Tricia suggested.

"Yeah, I… I might just… I kinda have some pokemon in mind to catch," I said vaguely.

"Oh, okay. Don't be afraid to change your mind," Tricia reminded me.

"Yeah." I scratched my neck.

Megan pounced. "What's that?"

Shoot. My right knuckles were bandaged.

"I fell."

Megan didn't push it, but she looked upset. "Evelyn…"

"I gotta go," I said, looking offscreen as though someone was there. "Heading out early. I'll call you at Oreburgh, okay?"

"Okay… See you."

"Bye~" I ended the call in the middle of Tricia's farewell. Urghh. Cheerfulness after a month as an emotionless rock was really hard.

Pun not intended.

Rock reference also not intended, but resented anyways.




My chimchar and I headed towards Oreburgh Gate in the morning. I'd just find Liana the next time I passed through Jubilife. It would be soon. Right after the Oreburgh gym.

"Hey, so –" He was on my shoulder as we entered. "We're facing off against rock types at the first gym. This is practice. Caves are rock-type havens."

He nodded. Bree would have chirped.

I brought out my flashlight to navigate the cave. My chimchar's tail wouldn't be enough for this. It was chillier than I remembered. I kept sweeping the surroundings, hearing noises all around me.

At one point I heard a flap, swung my flashlight, and found a zubat in my face.

"AAAARGH!" I shrieked, ducking and losing the flashlight in my hurry to cover my head. The dark lit up briefly with a whoosh, and the zubat squeaked. Another whoosh of embers and the zubat hit the ground.

Heart still pounding, I looked at my chimchar. He smiled and patted me on the arm.

You can do this, Evelyn. It's just a cave. Just a cave.

He beat up most of the zubats that came to bother us, eventually taking them down with one ember apiece. We came across a few psyducks, but ignored them for a while. When an angry one slapped my chimchar in the face, he danced around her and used scratch until she fell over. It took him ten seconds.

The only problem was, we hadn't seen any rock types.

He and I camped for a night in a fairly warm part of the cave, both of us curling up on the rock floor. In the morning, we found our first geodude. It took a little while, but my chimchar managed to beat him with just a few bruises. I potioned them away before we encountered a couple more. He had a tougher time with these two. The rest of the day passed with a number of psyduck and zubat encounters, but no geodudes.

The third day, I took the bandages off my knuckles – they hadn't bruised that badly – and we came across another trainer. It turned out we had pokemon of similar strength, so we battled. I only found out after my chimchar beat his croagunk that the guy had battled Roark already and won. Which should have meant my chimchar was ready to do the same, but since croagunks are fighting types – good against rock – I figured we still had some training to do.

There were a few hours without activity as we traversed the innermost part of Oreburgh Gate. I grew steadily more uncomfortable with the rock walls over time. My mind wandered towards Lucas.

Lucas. We only became friends six months before the journey, but we'd grown so much closer over the course of our travels. He was the warmest guy I knew; when I danced with him at Lake Valor's annual trainer ball – the main event was a tournament, but there was a dance that evening – his hands felt nearly feverish. Warm as the amber brown of his eyes.

I could pinpoint the day I fell for him. There was a huge New Year's Eve party in Twinleaf, within two blocks of where I lived. Megan got sick and Tricia went out of town last minute, so I ended up going alone. I drifted between groups of people I vaguely knew all night, and at some point I ended up with Claire, who was talking to someone I didn't know.

She was wearing a giant foam hat, and when the conversation slowed at my arrival, I pulled it over her head and ran away. His laugh rang out, surprising me because he was normally so serious, I didn't know he could laugh.

What really got me was when I said something to him later. Something little, something that didn't need to be said or heard. Not important enough for me to remember. It was the way he responded when I said it, because I talk so fast that people can't often understand me. Megan and Tricia took a few years to get used to my speech. My parents still bug me about it, loudly. And no one understands what I say 100% of the time. That night, New Year's Eve, the room was loud and made me even harder to understand, and Lucas didn't make a big deal of it. He just leaned forward in a way that said he was listening, could you say that again? his eyes steadily meeting mine.

Sometimes it felt like he was the only one who really, genuinely listened.

…Jeez, it had only been a few days, but I missed him already. Side effect of him being alive; knowing I could see him again made me miss him more.

"Hey, what's down that way?" I wondered, pointing my flashlight into a side cave. It sloped steeply downward, then leveled off.

"Wanna check it out?"

"Chim." The nod told me more than the vocal did.

He and I crept down the slope, walking carefully to avoid slipping. The cave grew tighter at the bottom, but beyond it–

"Whoaa."

A cavern. Narrow stalactites dripped from the ceiling everywhere, like melted chandeliers. Stalagmites rimmed the edges of a rocky room the size of a large gym. We walked towards the middle. I scanned the walls with my flashlight beam, finding only tunnels too small for me to fit through leading out of the cave. Too bad, I guess.

Something bothered me about the place.

My chimchar jumped onto my shoulder. His grip was already stronger, more assured, but not too tight. "Think we should head out?" I asked him.

"Chimm…" he said warily.

It hit me suddenly. Stalagmites and stalactites come in pairs. Why weren't there stalagmites beneath all the stalactites in the middle of the room?

Rumble…

I braced myself just before the rock floor started moving. I don't mean shaking, I mean moving. Cracks split the ground, boulders dislodging and starting to roll… correction, not boulders.

We were surrounded by geodudes within seconds. I knew ecology well enough to know how territorial geodudes could get.

Okay, options. Talk to them. Geodudes were not reasonable creatures. Fight them. Arceus no, my chimchar couldn't beat ten-plus rock types yet. Run away. Probably the best choice.

Without making any sudden movements, I turned around and started to step towards the entrance. The geodudes in front of us didn't move. I heard the ones behind us closing in.

The chimchar on my shoulder soundlessly climbed to the top of my head. That wasn't going to help him much if the geodudes attacked. Which looked likely.

Oh…. Acres.

He jumped suddenly, leaped up using my skull as a springboard. "CHAARRRR!" he screamed, hurling the largest ember attack I'd ever seen at the ceiling. They flew in all directions because he made himself spin, and they rocketed at the stalactites.

Cr-cr-crack!

I caught him and buried him in my arms – he shut off his tailflame – to protect him from the falling stalactites. But when the sound of collapsing rock ceased, we hadn't been hit.

Slowly, I relaxed my arms, and my chimchar relit his tailflame. The geodudes had been hit. Being rock themselves, none of them had been impaled by the falling stone spikes. That being said, each one was unconscious.

I studied the chimchar in my arms. His eyes shone in the warm light of his fire.

"We can beat that gym, can't we," I said to him. Not a question. I didn't doubt it anymore.

He giggled and started to glow.
Reference sheet for this chapter

Ooh little bit of backstory here.
So I think I'll be publishing on Sundays from here on out. I don't want to use up all my material at once. So, Sundays. Although today's a Saturday. Hm.

Previous: Chapter 2: Jubilife
Next: Chapter 4: Trust

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