Chapter 18 Awakening first the next morning, Misty stretched herself within her sleeping bag and gazed up at the sky. It must have been quite early still as the light was just tingeing the tops of the trees and dew still hung heavy on the stalks of grass and the heads of flowers that surrounded them. Rolling over onto her side again, she noticed that Ash was lying half on his back, and half on his side towards her, less than an arm length away from her. Pikachu had nestled himself in his sleeping bag just under Ash’s chin and under his arm so that he was fully protected from any attempts to remove the electric rodent, as well as keeping warm and dry away from the dew. A few droplets hung on the tips of his fringe, falling to the ground when he shook his head gently in his sleep and settled down to his dreams. ‘He really is cute when he’s asleep’ she found herself contemplating. Poking out a hand to look at the watch on her pokenav from her back, she shivered at the cold air and cursed lightly when the dew had got into all her clothes and belongings, making them damp to the touch. Retreating to her sleeping bag again, her arm soon warmed up and the idea of getting up was delayed further by the coldness of the air. Setting her eyes on Ash once again, she started to become lost in his features. Slowly, Ash could feel himself being drawn back, out of the lake of dreams to the surface of reality. Slowly, he let his eyelids lift up to reveal the morning before him and blinked a few times in the light. Their eyes caught the other again and the two remained locked until Pikachu also awoke and stood up with a little shake, breaking their eye contact. Coming back to herself with a jolt, Misty sat up and began to busy herself with the zip to her sleeping bag that thankfully was on her side that was opposite to Ash, giving her the opportunity to hide her fiercely burning face. She could hear movement behind her that gave evidence that Ash was also getting out of his bag and ready for the day. Glancing round at him, she had to hide her face yet again when she realised he’d taken off his jumper and trousers for bed and still had yet to put them on. Grabbing a few things for her morning rituals and headed off up the steam again to prepare for the day ahead. Frowning at her sudden disappearance, Ash also got dressed before releasing Phanpy and Swellow for a little morning exercise. Watching Swellow soar through the skies and Pikachu give Phanpy little shocks of electricity for fun, the little pokemon’s joyful reaction brought a smile across his face and lifted his spirits. Taking in a deep breath before exhaling, he felt full of enthusiasm and confidence for his up coming gym battle against Koga for the Soul Badge. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ “Look Misty, is that the Gym?” Asked Ash as he pointed to the top of a building in the next valley that was barely visible while nestled within the forest of trees designed to keep all bar the most determined from finding where the Soul Badge could be gained. “I think you could be right. We should be there around lunch time and we can then either have lunch before or after you have your battle.” She replied calmly and took the first few steps into the valley. Making steady progress down the path that led right up to the Gym, Ash soon found his enthusiasm building and the damn holding it in cracked and crumbled once the gym came into view directly in front of them. Letting out a loud whoop of joy and excitement, Ash ran forwards towards the Gym, Pikachu bounding along side him. BA-A-A-A-ANG! Misty looked up from watching the path in front of her to see Ash and Pikachu, spread eagled while smacked into mid air. Slowly the pair slid down to the ground with a soft bump and lay there, slightly twitching before any real signs of life could return. Standing over the pair, Misty gave a slight frown and put her hand out in front of her and was surprised to find a physical barrier preventing them from entering the Gym. Running her hand along the physical barrier, Misty got to the side and found it to abruptly disappear. At this moment, Ash and Pikachu were just beginning to sit up and inspect the barrier in front of them. “Hey Misty, look at this, what do you think it is? Misty? Mist?” searching all around where he was sitting, he became increasingly worried when Misty could not be seen anywhere. Getting to his feet, he began calling out louder and louder, turning around and around while searching for the red head. “What?” Spinning around to face the Gym again, Ash let out a yelp of shock and surprise when Misty’s head and top half appeared to be floating in mid air with a sharp line directly down the left side of her body, cutting off the rest of her body. Walking forward, the rest of Misty’s body came into view while Ash backed away, completely freaked out. Taking in his reaction, Misty began to laugh and giggle and walked back again, disappearing and reappearing again as her humour increased when taking in Ash’s and Pikachu’s reaction. “Come on, I’ll show you what it is!” she giggled, taking Ash’s hand while Pikachu quickly bounded onto his trainer’s shoulder. Leading him off the path to the gym, Ash was astonished to see the front of the gym begin to distort and gaped in amazement when the Gym appeared again a few metres in front of where he had been previously been standing. Scratching his head in wonder he listened as Misty explained what had prevented him from entering the gym on the original path. “You see, there is a panel here,” she placed her hand on a screen that appeared a steely grey from behind, “is an image of the Gym that appears invisible is viewed form down the road. It’s quite clever really, therefore it’s not that surprising you couldn’t work it out!” “Hey!” he tried to protest, still scratching his head, clearly not understanding the trick, even once it had been explained to him. “Come on then…” sighed Misty, getting fed up of waiting for him to understand the mirage and grasped him firmly by the scruff of his jumper and pulled him towards the gym. Swinging the door open on its hinges, the group entered the main corridor of the gym and debated whether to take the corridor on the left, the corridor on the right or the corridor that led into darkness ahead of them. Glancing at their three options, they agreed to try the way on their left first as the sparse lighting stretched further down the corridor than either of the other options. What lighting there was came from a series of old fashioned braziers that sat on the wooden walls, burning merrily and sending the light to flicker along the corridor so shadows were never really shadows and light was never really light. Treading carefully on the old wooden floors, Ash and Misty kept close to each other while Pikachu remained on his trainer’s shoulder and Azurill rested happily in her mother’s arms. Pikachu’s ears suddenly flew upwards and he spun around to glare into the darkness behind them. Strangely, as they had progressed down the corridor, every time they had passed a source of light, the light had soon been extinguished. Pressing on along the corridor now that there was no way of knowing what lay behind them, they continued down their chosen path. A left turn. A right turn. Another left turn and still there was no sign of Koga, pokemon or any other form of life at all. A scurrying could be heard every so often of unknown creatures making their own way in their own little worlds on whatever task was to be carried out. Extraordinarily, the corridor began to grow narrower, forcing Misty to tread in Ash’s footsteps before the floor and ceiling joined in on the closing together of two opposite sides. Soon the corridor was less than three feet high and no more than two foot wide. Crawling forward another inch, Ash’s outstretched hand touched on a solid barrier to their progression which was not fashioned of wood as the rest of their surroundings, but out of a stone that was warm to the touch and smoother than glass. Curiously a tiny handle had been set into the barrier on the right hand side and Ash wasted no time in pressing down on the leaver. On a set of old and minute hinges, the barrier, that was now a door began to swing open away from Ash and a light filled their tunnel. Squinting, Ash now found that it was possible to walk forwards into the next room as there was space above and along where he was standing. Stepping into the new surroundings, Ash and Misty turned to examine the hole they had emerged from and still found the height to be less than three feet wide and no more than two feet across yet their size had not been altered, neither had the opening. Deciding to leave this odd occurrence behind them, they took stock of the room they had entered. Stone tiling now covered the floors and the walls were made of a type of granite neither had seen before as the surface was a uniform grey until touched when black and grey would swirl on the surface where it had been disturbed and returning back to the uniform grey to match the rest of the room. The ceiling was truly amazing and Misty gave a gasp of surprise when water swirled above their heads, as though the ocean had been turned upside down yet was still being prevented from falling to the floor. SLAM! The door they had entered by had swung shut and the black lines of the door melted into grey. Frantically they ran their hands along the walls, dismayed and terrified to discover that the door had well and truly disappeared. Taking another look around the room, they walked forwards to where three leavers had appeared in the wall, one green, one red and one yellow. A plaque hung above these leavers and words began to form over the golden surface. “Whoever you may be who hast entered this chamber, are you true in heart and soul to take this trial?” Ash read aloud before these words vanished to be replaced by more. “If you can pass this simple test, advance you shall go to further reach your goal. However if you shall fail in this puzzle, you will never again breath the breath of life, and your quest shall fail.” Facing Misty again, they shared a bemused look before continuing on with the riddle. “Now can you tell me this,” said Misty as she took over from reading the plaque, “When darkness is all around and there is nowhere to turn, do you a) turn on a light, b) turn on your Pikachu or do you c) turn to the one you need most to light your way.” The three levers had changed shape from the perfect spheres they had previously been. Like putty being remoulded by invisible hands, the green knob on the left became an A, the red knob in the middle became a B and the yellow knob on the right became a C. Looking at each other, the two scratched their heads and pondered the answer to the question. “I recon it’s going to be A. If you’re in the dark you want to turn on a light, how you turn on a Pikachu I don’t know,” he glanced at his pokemon on his shoulder who exchanged a similar look of confusion before facing Misty again. “And how can a person provide a light?” “Well, I think it is C. Just because it says “darkness is all around” doesn’t mean it’s going to be the dark with no light, it could mean in another way.” She tried to explain but stopped when noticing Ash’s increased look of confusion. Azurill began whimpering in her arms as she continued to stare up at the ceiling as the waters shifted and flowed under and over each other. Reassuring the pokemon, Misty decided that perhaps the best place for her would be in her pokeball and swiftly recalled her, placing the ball with the other pokeballs in her bag. “Well, this is your Gym challenge, you decide.” She said with a shrug and watched as he placed his hand on the first lever, gave her a final look and pulled it down. “Fools!” read the plaque, “You have answered incorrectly and now you shall pay the price!” A low rumble began to increase to a crescendo as their surrounding began to shake and vibrate. The uniform slate grey of the walls began to swirl black with dangerous streaks of white momentarily flying along the wall to be swallowed by the black. The water above their heads churned and the waves increased in size, soaking Ash, Misty and Pikachu who clung together in the mayhem. A wave directly in front of them hit the floor in its inverted rise from the surface and immediately the flood of water from above fell, released from whatever mystical force had held it in place. The strong currents forced their way around the little group, tearing at each member trying to grasp each one for their own pleasure to do whatever they wished. Thrashing madly in the water, the group struggled for breath as the oxygen in their lungs was soon depleted and each kicked out together to rise to the surface in a search for air and the chance to live. The currents around their bodies intensified with every foot they rose up through the water. Ash could feel his grasp on Misty loosening so he grasped her with his other hand, tucking Pikachu firmly under his arm. Another strong surge of water shot between his back and bag, tearing the straps apart and he could do nothing other than watch his green bag disappear into the swirling depths as it was carried off by an unseen menace. Turning his attention back to Misty, he watched as her bag too was ripped from her arm and he had to take another firm grasp on her arm as she attempted to shake him off to pursue her bag and pokemon that she had lost for the second time in a week to a power she loved the most. Kicking their way up to the surface again, Ash never noticed when five red and white balls trailed away from him to follow his bag to the depths. Their kicks became weaker and water began to trickle into their mouths as their bodies cried desperately for air. As his vision began to cloud over, Ash kept his eyes on Misty until he lost consciousness and blackness overtook his body. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~