Chapter three- Spiders and Scorpions

Seth

Seth Rourke cleared away the moss and tree litter, perspiring heavily. He'd climbed over halfway up the mountain at the center of his island this morning, but that wasn't what had him sweating. In his three months on the island this was probably the scariest place he'd been, and the one most likely to kill him.

"Someone remind me why I'm going in again..." he complained. But of course, there was no reply, just a breeze and some wingull cries in the distance

Almost like a trapdoor there was a pit here among the moss, barely noticeable until some jackass of a human stumbled into it and widened the entrance. That had been a few weeks ago, when Seth first checked this part of the mountain. It held little but some mushroom pokemon (one of which were delicious, the other of which gave him the runs) and some mossy rocks in the first 'room'.

Was it his imagination, or was the pit in question the exact size and shape of an open grave? It was covered not only by fallen leaves and moss, but also a layer of spiderwebs below that. The blond remembered his first voyage in there vividly.

"Well..." he gulped mid-sentence, "If there's anything in there that can help you it'd be pretty silly to stay on this island any longer without checking it out, right?" Wishing he had a shirt (his own torn to hell and now a pile of dirty rags lying in his cave) Seth crouched by the totally-not-a-grave and dug. Using a large branch he quickly scooped up most of the webs and moss, sweeping it from side to side as it stuck to the wood like the world's largest and most disgusting cotton candy stick. He spent the next chunk of the morning setting it ablaze with a camp he'd prepared yesterday, but even now he wasn't exactly the best at starting fires. Then he had to hang around impatiently as it cooled down- it wouldn't do to leave a fire roaring while he was underground and set the whole damn place ablaze. As the blonde had hoped, the disgusting branch worked perfectly as a makeshift torch. Holding it up high, cobwebs steadily burning, he leaned over the edge, teetering between potential danger and curiosity. It was a small pit, about as tall as he was, but almost impenetrable to his eyes considering the gloom above surface. He let his breath out in one big sigh, not even realising it had pent up. Then the soft soil gave way, making his choice for him. He landed ass-first on the rocky floor, wincing. By some small miracle the fire didn't go out with the impact.

"Well, the sooner the better I guess..." he mumbled half-heartedly. He pressed on, squeezing between the rocks ahead. There was only one way to go- a natural cleft between two walls of rock- and it was tight. But he made it, thinking happy thoughts the entire time as he made it as far as he had last time, into the next room of the caves. And the spiders were still there, great. Specifically, there was three types of spider pokemon he could make out- in order of size, green, pink and yellow varieties. Swell. They reacted predictably, scurrying away frantically at his entrance, retreating further into the darkness, all the while clicking and making spitting noises. He hadn't met a pokemon used to fire of any kind on the island, especially in the dark, something he used shamelessly to his advantage every day.

Seth surveyed the cave, sweeping his flickering light source slowly across it all. The cave was all one kind of rock, but embedded in that rock were what looked like shiny blue gems. Interesting. If they were worth anything he could be rich, whenever he did manage to leave. In the corner were some huddled mushroom pokemon which seemed to be sleeping. They were unimportant though, he had better tasting food and actual mushrooms growing much closer to home. There was little else to look at, just a fuckton of webs coating every surface as if competing with each other. Taking care not to walk through any he checked out his options from a distance- path one was a corridor leading out of this main hub. Path two was a curving passage that was completely blocked by a large pink spider, its eyes following his every movement slowly.

"I'm not gonna hurt you, easy there," he murmured softly. It seemed scared of him for now, but who knew when it might attack. He decided on path one and continued, descending slightly as the earth angled down. There was little to report for the length of the path, which curved and shifted roughly from time to time. The surfaces seemed smoothened out by the constant tread of pokemon, most of which were spiders judging by the pale slime. Seth counted the blue gems shining from within the walls to pass the time, the only feature on the walls. He heard strange rustling noises from time to time, but no spiders were in sight. At his thirty-third gem the path finally split into three, a fork. He eyed the new paths with suspicion. Apart from a scared little green spider he hadn't seen a single pokemon this whole time. Which one was the right path to take?

"Eenie Meenie Miney Mo, catch a diglett by the toe..." he ended up heading left, all the while muttering about how stupid that rhyme was, and how diglett didn't even have toes did they? No they did not. Probably.

If you had asked Seth that morning what the top three things he wanted to find down here were, he would have said, in order: a way off the island, other people to share his misery, or lastly a ton of food, tools or anything similar that could make his stay a little more bearable. If you'd asked what he wanted to find the least in the caverns, the answer would have been simple- to get his punk-ass killed for being too curious. Naturally, life wasn't simple or straight-froward enough to give him any of these, but he sure did come close to three out of four. Sort of.

The chest had been his first discovery. Sitting there at the end of the next dead end, a wooden trunk almost as high as his knees. One that could only have been designed by people. Seth would have done a happy dance if his torch wasn't starting to die . He ran to the box and poured over the craftsmanship, admiring the metal on the hinges and lock, the strange bird pokemon engraved on one side. He'd be lucky if an antique store even glanced at it with the condition it was now in, but to Seth it was worth more than the starmie jewel in the Queen's crown. There could be anything in there! He quickly glanced around, but noticed little else of value in the room. There was the remains of what had once probably been a chair, but nothing on the walls or floor to suggest anyone had been here in a long, long time. Hefting the chest under his free arm with a little bit of effort, he backed out of the dead end and back to the cross-roads when he ran into his second discovery of the day: electric spiders.

If he believed in such a thing as intelligent design, then whichever god had designed these electric spider pokemon were dicks. They were hairy, bright yellow and purple, with spiky tendrils of some sort below their eyes twitching curiously in his direction. He hated them instantly. There was also three of them and they were all covered in electricity, leaping and jumping across their fur in little arcs. Seth stared for a moment, unable to breathe. The only sound he could hear was the twin cracklings of the fire on his torch and the lightning on the pokemon's bodies. The three pokemon were covering the path he had come in through, sticking to the walls and ceiling as easily as if it were the ground. Seth let out his breath slowly. They perked up at that, but made no move.

"Easy there..." Seth whispered, not sure if he was talking to them or himself. "I'm just passing through, I won't eat anything or take your blue rocks." They continued to stare blankly. Admittedly, he hadn't really expected they would understand English. Holding the torch out in front of him like a talisman, Seth took one step forward. The front spider reacted by rearing up on its hind legs and screaming.

"Ah, ah! Shit!" Seth took a few more steps to the side, away from the spiders by reaction. Moving slowly probably would have been the smarter thing to do- his quick movements must have seemed like an attack to the spiders, which jumped at him and started yelling.

"Gal! Gal! Tula!" Well, he was in the fire now. Seth hot-footed it as quickly as he could, racing down the new tunnel, pursued by his new friends. Gooey web shot past him, coating the wall by a near miss. If that got him he was a goner for sure. He took turns at random, not sure if he was heading deeper into the caves or not. A left here, a right there. The chest was getting heavy and slowing him down, the practical side of him argued- but it was his only link to other humans in the last three months, his emotional side argued back. He wasn't going down here for nothing, no way would he leave his new treasure chest behind.

"Vantulaaaa!" The gigantic spider roared as he took his latest turn. Oh hell. Seth had run into a dead end. He quickly backed up, the torch braced in front of him. The spiders halted to a stop in front of him, webs flying out of their gross mouths, coating his leg. Seth flailed, using the fire to burn it off before it set. The web prickled like static electricity, but didn't seem to be a proper attack. Yet another fired webs at him, this time narrowly hitting his shoulder as he ducked.

"Cut that out, would you!" Seth yelled back. Amazingly, that seemed to work.

The spiders suddenly halted, cautiously watching him. Hm.

"That's better," he said half-heartedly. Somehow, the spiders backing away made him more nervous. They knew they could take him, so what could make them retreat, he wondered? Seth had a bad feeling he would find out if he looked behind him. But if he didn't look back, the danger didn't become real. Nope, he'd just stare forward and glare at the gigantic spider pokemon. He continued to watch them, taking baby steps forward. Trusty torch was going to die soon. He'd have to make a break for it or he had a date with web tonight. They seemed to flinch slightly if he pushed the fire closer. Good, good. Now if only he could get them to step backwards properly, so he could get past them. Then he heard the tiny scratching noise. Nope, not looking back, he was working on his escape plan. Go away noises. He heard it again, like the sound a fingernail makes on cloth. Not going to look back, not going to look back-

He looked back.

Hundreds of baby spiders were crawling out of the mass of webs covering the walls. This wasn't a dead end at all- the middle of the next passage way was simply covered and coated in web, and filled to the brim with spider eggs. All of which had been disturbed by the movement, or noise he'd made, or the fire-light, or maybe they just had fan-fucking-tastic timing and he had nothing to do with it at all, but either way they were all shaking and hatching right now.

"Did I piss off a spider god or something?" Seth dead-panned. These guys really had it out for him.

Meanwhile, in a far away city in the heart of the Sinnoh region...

The man spotted his prey. Between winding alleys and across busy roads, he followed. He followed his target underneath the tangle of buildings and power lines that marked the skies, hidden from sight the entire time. He knew just how to move so he wasn't spotted. Pulling his hood down further he knew he was invisible, just another face in the crowd. His target- a light-haired boy with a wide, innocent face- cut through a deserted alley. A short cut for him maybe, but also a death sentence.

The man speed up and within seconds they were alone against the bricks, his arm raised up and pressed against the boy's neck.

"Gimme all your money, and be quick about it," he whispered. He saw the fear in the boy's eyes and knew he'd chosen the right mark. This would be over in ten seconds and he could get outta this dump.

Poof! A flash of light at the boys side- he'd managed to release a pokemon. Shit, a trainer? He hadn't seen a pokeball or belt on this one; it must have been in his pocket. Backing away quickly he released his own, and laughed at the result. He'd pulled out a drapion, a wicked-looking scorpion pokemon as tall as he was with a large tail raised menacingly. His mark had chosen a chatot, a tiny bird type as large as his fist. Known for their musical abilities, not their battling ones.

"Haha, what a tough match this'll be. Sting, slice it's throat," he commanded. The boy cried out as his poison-type advanced.

"No, please don't!" The purple mass of spikes and fangs stopped right in its tracks, suddenly still as a statue. The man paused. What the hell?

"Sting, don't listen to the boy, go attack now!" But his pokemon was rooted to the spot, attacking jack shit. What was going on here?

"Um, um," the boy quivered, but seemed to make a decision, and stood a little taller. "Sting, please attack your master." And Sting obeyed.

"Hey, Sting, buddy, what the hell are you playin' at?" he told the purple scorpion, which was rapidly advancing on him, a blank look in its eyes. He ducked, barely avoiding an outstretched claw, dripping with poison. "Wha-what?" A note of fear entered his voice for the first time- he really was trying to attack his trainer! The man tried to find his small knife, fumbled and dropped it, and turned and ran. "Sting, cut it out! We're partners! Remember?" He looked back as he exited the alley, and saw his pokemon right behind him, rearing back with its tail. And that was the last thing he ever saw.

Coughing up blood, face down into the pavement, the man had one final thought cross through his mind.

"Shit, guess we didn't pick the right mark after all..."

He coughed a few more times and died then and there, just another nameless, faceless member of the crowd. The younger boy took one look at what had happened and threw up.

"Him or us... him or us," he muttered to himself, as the chatot pressed close against his side. The youth managed to get back up on shaky legs, wiping his eyes as the drapion turned to face him once more.

"Thank you. Um, please go back into your pokeball now. Okay?" It obeyed without a moment's hesitation. The boy turned to his pokemon, a weak grin on his face as he walked away from his would-be mugger. "Good thing he used a pokemon against us, isn't it? For a moment I thought he'd just use his knife, heh. Then we'd be screwed." The bird cooed and nuzzled against him, sharing his sentiments.

Seth

Seth spun between danger on all sides, the gigantic electric spiders growling at him from the front, hundreds of baby spider pokemon hatching from behind. He attempted to run back, but the gigantic spiders- mummy and daddy spider, he assumed- hissed threateningly and stood their ground. Great. He backed away slowly from them. They weren't firing at least, presumably in case they hit an infant spider. He risked a look back- there was a large tear through the web wall now, and a veritable army of tiny pale green spiders were advancing on him. Death by baby spiders, or big ones? What kind of choice was that? Just when he thought it couldn't possibly get any worse, the torch ran out.

"Oh hell."

There was a moment then when Seth though he was truly done for, a moment of pitch-dark hell where the spiders could be miles away or right next to him. Not even being able to see the floor or walls gave him a sense of vertigo, of floating in a strange void, lost to the world already. Then the moment passed with the light. A crackling blue something ahead of him- a light! Seth saw his chance and ran. It wasn't until he was already moving Seth realised where he was headed- directly through the wall of web. Arms flailing like a drunken kung fu master he flicked off the baby spiders now rapidly coating his arms, to no avail. He felt one land on the back of his neck and only barely managed to suppress a shudder and continue running with a monumental effort of will. Somehow he made it through the tear in wall, but was coated in the sticky stuff in a heartbeat.

Then suddenly, just like that the voices got quieter. The clicking and hissing and cries of 'Tula!' from the spiders behind him fell off, barely audible from the other side of the web. Taking this as a good sign Seth continued to run, arms aching from the weight of the chest. He could only just see that blue crackling that had saved his life- it seemed to stay ahead of him no matter how far he ran, like one of those optical illusions. At one point it disappeared behind a corner, but was waiting for him when he turned the corner himself. Seth chased that crackling blue light through the twists and turns of the tunnel for what felt like hours, but before he knew it he was free and out of the caves.

"Sweet sweet sun!" He stumbled out, momentarily blinded as he tried to figure out where he was. The blonde seemed to be underneath a large rocky overhang - this cave led directly out to the beach, hidden from view from the shore. "Wow..." He tore through the shrubbery and bushes, taking in the sights with awe. The sunlight reflecting off the water was one of the most beautiful things he'd ever seen.

"Tik, joltik!" Seth spun around, heart jumping like a jack hammer, only to meet the smallest pokemon he'd ever seen in his life.

"Not another spider! Go on, shoo," he dismissed it, "let me enjoy being alive in peace."

"Tiktik!" it insisted, hopping up and down. Seth raised an eyebrow, not sure exactly what the fun-size spider was after. It crackled blue in response, static electricity sending its fur out in a spiky puff.

"Oh, you were my rescuer! Um, cheers little dude." He thought it smiled at that, but it was hard to tell when the little ball of yellow fur was practically the size of his thumb. Seth waved bye to it and started to slog through the waves, keen to return to his camp.

"Tik?" A small voice said from behind his ear. Frowning, Seth reached back and flicked the pokemon off the back of his head. It made a small dunking noise as it landed in the water, which was up to his ankles.

"I thanked you already. Now go on, don't you guys belong in your caves? I thought you all hated the sunlight." The last thing he needed was for the spiders to all start roaming his island in the afternoon. It was hard to believe it was only the afternoon; Seth felt like he'd been in those caves all day. He reached the sand and fell down on it soon after, stretching his tired limbs. He let the mysterious chest fall in the sand next to him. Whatever was in it better be good after all that.

"Jol!" The bug type jumped up and down on the chest excitedly, scurrying around on it.

"How did you even get out of the water?" Seth wondered idly. He'd sort of been hoping the water would carry it away or drown it. "Look, I'm thankful, um, Joltik? Tikjol? I don't really know how they decide on pokemon names, or what order the sounds go in. Anyway, I'm super grateful, but I don't like pokemon."

"Tik?" It stopped its scurrying for once and eyed him, head tilted to the side. Now that it was still he saw it had four legs and two big blue eyes, and possibly two more in its forehead. That or they were tiny blue markings.

"So I'd be really bad company. I'm grouchy, and just wanna get out of this place. Also I won't share my food." The pokemon continued to stare at him with no change of expression whatsoever. "You have no idea what I'm saying do you."

"Joltik!" It leaped at him, hugging Seth's face. He slapped away at it, but he only managed to smack himself in the nose. He could feel it spinning around, burrowing or making a nest out of his hair, all the while making gleeful noises. Yup, it didn't understand a word he'd said. Great.

If you had asked Seth that morning what the top three things he wanted to find down in those caves were, he would have said, in order: a way off the island, other people to share his misery, or lastly a ton of food, tools or anything similar that could make his stay a little more bearable. Well he was still stuck on the island. He'd found some kind of tools, but as it turned out later nothing in that box would ever be even remotely useful for his escape. But he had found someone to share his misery with! Admittedly that someone was a four inch spider currently trying to eat his hair, who was stalking him against his will, but hey. He wasn't in a place to be picky about his companions.

Seth groaned as he marched back to camp, not sure what he'd hoped to find in that cave. He could only ask, "Why another spider?"

A/N: Thanks for reading! We finally have a hint of the main plot happening over in Sinnoh, ooh. Let us know what you think of that! Next chapter will be Brian-centric to keep things balanced, we haven't forgotten him. Until next time~