Chapter Four - Sharp Edge

At 6 o' clock the next morning, Ash lazily dragged his bag along the ground as he, Rick, Pikachu, Raichu and Misty left the Pokémon Center. The streets were empty and silent.

Ash held a Pokéball in his hand, which kept shaking violently. "Stop it Ho-oh" Ash said to the Pokéball. "We're nearly out of Goldenrod"

When they reached the outskirts of Goldenrod City, Ash held out the Pokéball and Ho-oh appeared.

Ho-oh spread it's wings and streched. "How can Pokémon live in those things, it's awfully cramped"

"Ya, whatever" Ash yawned. "Look, can we just get going to Celadon City? The sooner this is over the sooner I'll be able to get a good nights sleep" He shivered from the cold. "And the sooner it will actually be warm around here. Without the sun's heat we'll eventually turn into icicals"

"I agree with Ash" Rick yawned and took out two Pokéballs, realeasing his larger than average Charizard and Pidgeot.

Ash sighed and walked over to Ho-oh. "Well, here we go again"

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As Celadon came into view a few hours, so did the second building containing two more Orbs of Darkness.

Ash, Rick, Misty, Pikachu, Ho-oh and Raichu stand in front of the huge doors into the building. "Wonder if it's anything like the last building" Ash said.

Pikachu, who was sitting on his shoulder, grinned and whispered. "Pika pika cha pika pikachu pika?" [Hope your gonna nearly drown again?]

Ash glared at Pikachu. "Are you ever gonna let me live that down?"

Pikachu thought for a while. "Pi....Pika" [Um....Nope] Pikachu's grin grew wider and he jumped of Ash's shoulder and down beside Raichu, who had heard them and was sniggering.

Ash frowned and shook his head. He looked at the door and then back at Ho-oh. "Would you do the honours?"

"Certainly" Ho-oh grinned and drew back, before realeasing a fire blast on the large door. Within two minutes they were entering the building.

This building was a little scarier the last. Were the torches used to be, their were statues of Moltres and Lugia, who's eyes lit up red, lighting the corridor was they walked.

Ash looked at the staues. "Ok, three guesses which of the two Dark Legandaries Orbs are stored away in here"

"Uh...Ho-oh and Lugia?" Rick said.

Ash gave him a strange look.

"I was kidding" Rick said and shook his head. "Come on, the sooner we get the Orbs the sooner we can leave"

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After around half an hour of walking Misty stopped and looked around. "We've been here before! Twice!" Misty looked at Rick, who was the one leading them. "Now I know were Ash gets his bad sence of direction"

"Well if your so great, why don't you go in front?" Ash asked. He knew Misty didn't want to go first in case of any traps, and when this was confirmed with no reply from Misty, Ash smirked.

Ho-oh shook it's head. "We're never going to get the Orbs if we don't get through this maze"

"Well then lets get going" Ash turned and began to walk down the path.

"He's going to get himself hurt again" Misty thought to herself. Little did she know that's exactually what Rick, Raichu and Pikachu were thinking.

Ho-oh, on the other hand, followed Ash on, looking almost as comfordent as Ash.

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Unfortunately, confidence didn't get them anywere and within an hour they had passed the same placed at least seven times.

Ash stopped and looked at the famillier statues along the wall. He scratched the back of his head. "Uh..."

"I'm exhausted" Misty moaned sitting down. "Thanks to Mister Walkalot over there" She said looking at Ash.

"Well what do we do now?" Rick asked. "We've been following the only path through this place and we keep ending up back here, now we can't even find an exit"

Ash looked along the walls. "Maybe there's secret entrance or something"

Ho-oh looked at the walls angrily. "Heres your secret entrance!" Ho-oh reared up and shot a Fire Blast at the wall, blasting threw it.

When the smoke cleared, it showed a hollow area.

Ho-oh looked at the new path, a little shocked. "It actually worked?"

Ash grinned. "Alright, way to go Ho-oh!" He stepped forward into the new path.

It looked just like the others, staues of Lugia and Moltres lighting the way, the same dark walls that looked like they were made of marble but if you touched them, felt like slime was on them.

Ash watched the staues light up along the path before continuing on.

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Unlike the route they had been taking before, this passage was a complete maze. Paths crossing eachother, and at some time's they'd come to a place with five different routes.

Pikachu was the one who usually decided the direction, because the others kept fighting on which way they should go, though a few times they agreed to Ho-oh's idea when it glared at them.

"Hey, I think we're out" Ash said as he noticed the single passage in front of them.

"Finnally" Moaned Misty.

"Would you quiet moanin'?" Ash said as he headed down the path.

The others followed, but everyone stopped in their tracks when they heard a grinding noise. They looked back and saw Ho-oh was stuck in the entrance to the passage and trying to wriggle itself free.

"Uh Ho-oh, I don't think your gonna fit" Ash stated.

"Really? What makes you think that?" Ho-oh asked in a sarcastic tone as it struggled to pull itself out, but it was stuck either way.

Ash took out a Pokéball. "Guess it's back to the Pokéball with you"

Ho-oh groaned and stopped struggling.

"And be quiet this time" Ash held up and returned the giant bird to the Pokéball. He put the Pokéball in his pocket and headed down the path.

Pikachu trotted happily beaide Ash and looked around. He stopped sudenly when he saw the ground. "Pikapi pikachu" Pikachu said to his trainer as he pointed to the ground.

"Hm?" Ash turned around. "What's the matter Pikachu?"

"Pikachu" Pikachu repeated, pointing at the ground.

Ash gave Pikachu a quzzical look and knelt down beside him. Then he saw what Pikachu was talking about. The ground was scratched badly, like something had been dragged across it. Vertical and diagonal lines covered the ground. "How did those get there?" He asked as Rick, Misty and Raichu stopped behind them.

As if to answer his question, two giant slabs fell out of the roof, landing on either side of the passage. Spikes about a foot long shot out from the slabs and slowly the walls began to move towards them.

"Another trap!" Ash said jumping up.

"Well spotted genius!" Misty yelled. "Now what?"

Pikachu looked from one wall to the other and began to panic. Without thinking, he charged up and realeased a Thunderbolt on the walls.

When the Thunderbolt hit, it rebonded off the wall and shot out again. Pretty soon Ash, Rick and Misty were jumping from side to side trying to didge the Thunderbolt that kept bouncing from one wall to the other.

Raichu found it amusing, but when he saw the walls closing in a little more, he decided to help. He used a Thundershock as the Thunderbolt headed towards him. The attacks met and were both shot up towards the roof, causing some of rock from the stone ceiling to fall down. Luckily none of the pieces were too big, but Ash got a cut down the side of his face and a large rock hit his forearm while Misty got one on her arm and Rick got one of the larger rocks landing on his foot.

Ash looked up and noticed there was a hollow in the ceiling. "Hey guys, a way out!"

Rick stopped hopping around from when the rock landed on his foot and looked up. "All right! I'll just get Charizard and..."

"You can't" Ash butted in. "Charizard's to big, if you let it out it's most likely going to get hurt by the spikes"

"Well then what do we do?" Misty asked, bumping into Ash as she steped away from the spikes which were slowly closing in.

Ash looked around and then noticed that the spikes were pretty well spaced out at that moment. "It's like a ladder" Ash said in a voice barely loud enough to hear.

"What did you say? What about a ladder?" Misty asked.

Ash walked towards the spikes, slipped between some and grabbed onto one. They were pretty strong, stronger than he'd expected. He put his foot on one that was near the bottom and put his weight on it. It was strong enough to surport him. He looked at the other. "Let's climb it, I think it's strong enough" He looked up and grabbed on of the spikes above him and pulled himself up.

Misty walked over and nervously began to climb. After her came Pikachu, then Raichu and finnally Rick.

After about a minute of careful but nervous climbing, Ash reached the ceiling and climbed out. He sighed with relief and looked down. There was still alot of room to go before the spikes on either sie of the walls would meet the oppisite side so it look like they would be ok. But he didn't want to take chances. "Hurry up guys"

Pikachu jumped from one spike to the other. Being so small it was easy enough for him and soon he jumped up beside Ash.

Misty climbed up a minute later and Rick after that. Unfortunately, Rick had a few scratchs because by the time he was near the top the spikes were starting to get a bit close.

They sighed and stood up. This passage was a little different. There were no statues by the walls, but the ceiling had spots that glowed, which was now their guide in the dark pasageway.

Ash looked curiously around. He shrugged and walked on down the passageway.

Pikachu and the others followed. It was quiet and the light was dim.

Well, it was quiet for a while.

Ash suddenly heard a slashing sound coming from behind them. Him and Pikachu turned at the same time and saw that coming towards them at a high speed, were hundreds of spikes.

Spikes shot out from the wall, driving into the oppisite side of the passage, and these spikes left no room to escape.

"Run!" Ash turned and began to run the opposite way to the spikes. Pikachu followed him and Raichu, who had seen the spikes, ran after them.

Rick and Misty looked at eachother and then back, when they saw the spikes they turned and ran as fast as they could after Ash, Raichu and Pikachu.

As he ran, Ash noticed that the wall was covered in black and red bricks. Looking back he also saw that the spikes were shooting out of the red ones. He turned to look ahead of him and saw that the red bricks seemed to stop at the end of the passage.

Misty was running to hard and tripped over her own foot. She cursed her stupidity and knew she wouldn't be able to get up fast enough to get away from the approaching spikes.

The next thing she knew she felt someone pull her too her feet. "Run God damn it!" Rick yelled and began pushed Misty forward as they began to run again.

Ash reached the end of the passage and looked back."Come on! Run faster!" The spikes were getting pretty close to Misty and Rick now.

Misty was a little ahead of Rick now and as she reached the edge of the passage, she didn't stop and ran into Ash, knocking him down.

Rick was just near the edge when the spike caught up. He had been turned to the side a little as he dodge one of the spikes when another shot out and drove into the pame of his hand. He gasped in pain as he heard a sickening crack and a sharpe pain in his hand. Luckily that was the last spike in the passage. Unfortunately the spike had driven right through Rick's hand and was sticking into the wall.

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To Be Continued

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Well there ya go, part 4. I know it was pretty boring at the begining but whacha gonna do? I'm gonna start work on chappy 5 as soon as I can but now that I'm back to school it's probably gonna take a while. Well, see ya,
Bay Bay!
Bayleef
adorable_chickorita@hotmail.com