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I Don't Know What's Ahead

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A girl and her Pokemon walked under the sun.

Well, the girl walked. The Pokemon slithered.

"How about Poison Rose?" Ruby asked, spreading her arms out above her head with her thumbs and forefingers extended as though she were drawing a billboard with them.

Seviper mulled over the name for a moment before tapping his tail against the ground twice.

"No? Drat, I thought that was going to be a winner," Ruby said, snapping her fingers.

Ruby usually walked with Crescent Rose but the sun was warm enough to let Seviper out without worrying about his temperature. It was a good time to bond with her first capture and address a very important issue.

His nickname.

Nicknames were a very important part of becoming a member of Team Ruby.

Vital even.

Granted, Seviper was the first Pokemon she and Crescent Rose had recruited into Team Ruby but still!

So far she and Seviper had gone through seven different possibilities all of which had been suggested by her. Seviper had tapped his tail against the ground twice at every single one of them. That was their code for no, and not a single one of those no's had been Seviper liking one of her awesome suggestions so much he had said yes twice.

Ruby had checked.

Four times.

"It's okay. We will find you a name eventually," Ruby said with a bright and encouraging smile.

Seviper could not say he shared his trainer's enthusiasm.

He didn't really get the point of it. He was Seviper. When among other Sevipers, he was Long Fang due to the length of his fangs when compared to the others of his kind but that was not the case here and now. He was the only Seviper of this group, thus Seviper more than sufficed. Maybe it was a human thing. His mother had warned him humans were an odd bunch back when he had been a hatchling, and so far he had seen nothing to disprove her words.

After all, his human was called Ruby which made little sense to Seviper. Silver-Eyes suited her much better. Something similar could be said of the Scyther, Crescent Rose. Every member of this pack was different yet, for some reason, his human insisted on individual names. He had talked to Scyther about the issue, but she had failed to find anything odd about it. A bit more prodding had revealed the Scyther had been with their human since she had hatched from her egg.

Obviously, she had never learned the proper way of things.

Still, Seviper couldn't complain.

His human... Ruby, as she was called, was strong. There was no mistaking that. Thanks to her, he had been able to wound the shadow beast. That was not something he would ever forget. As long as he stayed with her, he would grow strong.

Plus, she had the best cookies.

"Look we are almost there," Ruby said, pointing up ahead.

A large mountain waited for them. The duo had been able to see it for a long time now. It was impossible not to. The mountain was so big it stretched into the clouds. However, now they could also see the entrance at the foot of the mountain. It was but thirty yards away.

"That's Mountain Glenn," Ruby explained. "Inside there is a series of caves that lead all the way to the top. There is a city there that's also called Mountain Glenn which is a bit weird but don't tell anyone there that. The important thing is there is a Gym there, and that's where we are going to get our first badge!"

Seviper didn't really get it, but his human was happy so it had to be good.

"Seviper!" He said, showing his support.

"That's the spirit," Ruby said with a smile on her face.

Sure, most people started with Vale's Gym, but Ruby felt her Pokemon were a bit too high-levelled for that, especially Crescent Rose. It would be a bit too cheap for her tastes. It was better to challenge Vale after she had a couple of badges to force the Gym Leader to use a stronger team.

As the two got closer to the entrance, they became able to better appreciate its size. Mountain Glenn's main gate was so big even a Steelix could pass through with little trouble, and it was only one of five gates located on different sides of the mountain.

As Ruby understood it, the tunnels needed to be at least that big. Otherwise, lots of heavy machinery wouldn't have been able to pass through while they were building the city. Many considered the tunnels to be an attraction all on their own, a feat of architectural prowess. Indeed, Ruby and Seviper took a moment to admire the massive structure.

That was when the entrance collapsed.

Before she could even make her way inside, the ceiling of the cave came crashing down. Ruby and Seviper hurriedly backed away as a thick cloud of dust rose up. When it faded, the cave had been completely sealed up.

Ruby only had one thing to say.

"What?"

"Gible!"

Pokemon and human looked up as one. Standing on top of the pile of rocks blocking the entrance, there was a Pokemon. It was a cute little thing, no taller than two feet. Its body was blue save for its red underbelly. Its limbs were very short and it had a big mouth filled with teeth. On top of its head, there was a shark-like dorsal fin. It had two small horns growing on the sides of its head that weirdly enough resembled jet engines.

Ruby recognized the Pokemon immediately. She didn't even need to take out her Pokedex.

It was Gible, the Land Shark Pokemon.

"Gible!" The Pokemon shouted, waving its small stubby arms around. "Gible! Gib! Gible! Gib! Gib!

Having said its piece, the Pokemon jumped and sank into the rocks as though they were water, vanishing back inside the mountain.

"Seviper," Ruby said.

"Per?"

"Change of plans," Ruby said, with a huge grin on her face. "We are still going to the gym, but first, we are going to get a new friend!"

They had a dragon to catch.

xXx

There were certain things you could always count on.

The Elite Four would always be impossibly strong. Raising a Magikarp would never be easy. And there would always be a helpful Nurse Joy in any Pokemon Center.

"So it has happened before?" Ruby asked Nurse Joy.

After failing to find another way inside the mountain, Ruby had chosen to go to a Pokemon Center. There was one stationed near each of Mountain Glenn's five main gates. Trainers who were going in and out of Mountain Glenn could rest and treat their Pokemon there. Pokemon Centers were also very useful for getting information. Her uncle had been the one to teach her that. Nurse Joys knew just about everything important that was happening in their area.

Her uncle had also taught her seedy bars were even better for information gathering purposes but she was a bit too young for that.

"I am afraid so," Nurse Joy said. "I have received calls from the other Pokemon Centers around Mountain Glenn. That Gible has been sealing off all the entrances."

Ruby blinked. That was weird. While it was true that certain Pokemon liked to stir up trouble, what exactly had prompted this Gible to suddenly block off access to Mountain Glenn? That sounded like a lot of work for a simple prank.

The idea that the Gible could be malicious wasn't even considered in Ruby's mind. If the Gible had wanted to harm her and Seviper, all it would have needed to do was wait a few yards. It could have trapped them inside the cave or even dropped the ceiling on them.

Gible hadn't done that so there had to be a reason.

"Wait," Ruby said as she thought of something. "What about the Trainers? Are there any left inside the mountain?"

Nurse Joy nodded sadly. "I am afraid so. Traveling through Mountain Glenn takes time. Many of the Trainers that went in before Gible started doing this have not yet come out. We have been unable to communicate with them so far. The League has already dispatched one of their agents so help will soon arrive, but..."

Ruby frowned as Nurse Joy trailed off. She did not need to finish that sentence. Even if a League official was coming, there was no guarantee he or she would get to Mountain Glenn fast enough. The mountain was huge. There was no way finding all the trainers locked up inside the mountain would be an easy task.

"Is there another way inside the mountain?" Ruby asked. "I mean, it is a big mountain. There has to be another way in besides the five main entrances."

"There are a few," Nurse Joy said, looking at her dubiously. "There are older paths that have fallen into disuse. However, those are not safe. Unlike the main roads, those paths are not meant for normal trainers to travel. Only a Hiker or a skilled trainer would be able to make their way safely across them."

Ruby did not quite pout even though she could already see where this was going.

"They are certainly not safe places for a little girl."

Yep, there it was.

Fifteen. She was fifteen. Not ten or thirteen. Fifteen. That was old enough to be considered an adult. Why did people always assume she was a little kid?

Maybe she wasn't drinking enough milk?

No, that couldn't be it.

Still, faced with Nurse's Joy clear doubt, Ruby did the only thing she could think of.

She took out her Pokedex. The red device glinted under the artificial lights of the Pokemon Center.

"Oh," Nurse Joy said, bringing a hand to her lips. "I am sorry. I did not realize you were a Pokedex Holder."

"It is fine," Ruby said, waving her off. "It happens."

Unfortunately.

Thankfully, Ruby had never been the type to dwell too much on the negative. She put a grin on her face, stood on the tips of her toes, and leaned against the counter. "Now, you were saying something about there being other ways inside?"

xXx

The mountain was dark.

Really dark.

"I really wish we had a better flashlight," Ruby said as she and Crescent Rose slowly and carefully made their way deeper into the mountain.

Yang had once told her the main paths of Mountain Glenn were all well-lit. That made sense. Trainers were expected to use those and stepping outside the path was highly discouraged.

Ruby was starting to understand why.

Nurse Joy had given her flashlight and downloaded a map of the caves to her Pokedex but even with those Ruby was starting to wonder if maybe she hadn't jumped the gun a little. Against the cave's overpowering darkness, her flashlight only managed to illuminate the road up to ten feet ahead of her.

An Electric-Type Pokemon would be really handy at the moment.

On the plus side, the path was in relatively decent shape for something that didn't see much use, and there were no rocks blocking this one.

"Scy," Crescent Rose said.

Ruby nodded. "Yeah, it'd be great if you could learn Flash."

As she spoke, she took out her Pokedex and looked the map Nurse Joy had given her once more. "Okay, so, we are supposed to go left here."

She hoped.

"If all goes well, we'll be in the main path in a few minutes. There will be better lighting there."

Best of all, no more Zubats. Being the only source of light around meant the bat Pokemon were prone to panicking and flying wildly whenever she unknowingly approached them. It had been a bit scary the first couple of times. Now, it was just reall annoying. Zubats weren't exactly strong, but fighting them was a pain since Crescent Rose couldn't move too far away from her. Otherwise, the Pokemon wouldn't be able to see a thing in the cave's darkness.

Crescent Rose seemed to consider something for a moment. "Scyther?"

"I am actually not sure if Seviper can learn Flash or not." Ruby furrowed her brow as she tried to remember that piece of information. His tail did glow when he used Poison moves, so maybe? "Well, even if he could, I don't have the TM."

Crescent Rose blinked as she caught something in Ruby's words. "'ther?"

"We are still working on a nickname," Ruby admitted. "He rejected some really cool ones today, but don't worry! He'll come around soon."

"Scyther!"

"I know, right?" Ruby said, nodding emphatically. She had just known Crescent Rose would understand the importance of it.

Crescent Rose got her.

"Maybe you should talk to him about it? Maybe even offer some suggestions?"

"Scyther."

"Oh, that's a good one," Ruby said. "Why didn't I think of-Wait, do you hear that?"

It was faint, very faint, but it had sounded almost like... voices? The sounds were not coming from far away but the echo was distorting them a little. Ruby leaned forward and put a hand around her ear.

"...-ost...nant, not going...-ppy."

"...-ind...-ang...-dy."

"Those have to be the Trainers!" Ruby said, almost jumping in place. "Let's go."

Pokemon and human rushed towards the source of the voices. A smile spread across Ruby's face as she was able to make out two shapes moving in the darkness. Ruby raised her flashlight to aim ahead.

"Hey!" She shouted, waving at them. "Over here! We are here to... help..."

Ruby trailed off as she realized just who her flashlight was shining its light on.

They were Trainers alright.

They were also White Fang Grunts.

"Oh."

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I Don't Know What's Ahead - End

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AN: Well this took a long time to post. Anyway, stuff happened and all that. However, the important thing is this:

Ren and Nora!

Soon!

Till next time and don't forget to review!