It surprises me how dry the inside of the tunnel is. Not that I'm an expert on caves and such things, but every movie I've ever seen had me believing that places like this are soaking wet. I didn't mind the lack of moist, it just meant that the air wasn't humid enough to stick to me.

  A horde of blue-skinned eyeless bats flew around us a few times. They seemed awfully familiar and I was certain I saw them in the anime, but I couldn't remember the name.

  The other three seemed unbothered by them. It dawned on me that creatures like this are a natural occurance to them. They've probably been through this tunnel already, God knows how many times.

  Although Xander and Leo weren't my favourite people, I was more than happy to have them here right now.

  Sure, Leo dragged his feet along, constantly slowing down cause his head was burried into the pokedex, but at least he knew what he was doing.

  One thing you pick up in the army is being weary of your surrounding. Caves are nature's death traps. As if that was not enough, this world had rats that shot lightning. What other creatures out of my comprehension existed here, I had no clue.

  So far, only the bats greeted us.

  That didn't mean I felt more at ease.

  As we stepped forward, each footstep carried an echouh throughout the wide path encased in stones. At times, it sounded as if we were surrounded by people on all sides, even though we were the only ones in the tunnel.

  "The season officially starts in 8 days", Cassie says, mostly to herself, "not a lot of traffic".

  "Yeah, especially towards Verdanturf", Xander points out.

  Things like that simply don't matter to me. The less people I encounter along the way, the better. Tunnel talk is also not welcome in my book, as any word would just add to the already distracting echo ensemble.

  Cassie however, seems to have burned through her patience. As she walks in front of me I can see her hitting her left leg down on the pavement with every step, like some sort of a ritual that helps her get rid of the excess energy. Unfortunately, her ritual isn't effective enough.

  "You boys are so boring", she draws out, her voice carrying down the path in front of us. "Xander, say something for heaven's sake", she groans, "and Leo, are you seriously still doing research, be done with it already".

  "Hey, I'm seeing out my options here", Leo's the one who takes the bait, "I plan to succeed in this whole trainer thing, you know".

  "Well, your way of succeeding is boring", Cassie states, "to all of us".

  "What are you even researching?", I dare to ask Leo, as if to let him know I don't mind him staring at his pokedex all the time. Frankly, he creates the least noise out of the three, so, in the tunnel, he might be my favourite.

  "I'm thinking up the kind of pokemon team I want to have", Leo seems more than happy to share, "I need to cover my bases as soon as possible".

  "Eh, that sounds nice", I say, trying to come of as encouraging. In reality I had no idea what he meant by 'covering his bases'.

  "Come on, Leo", Cassie draws out, "you'll have time for that later, we're on a journey, let go, live a little".

  "I've been through this tunnel at least a 100 times", Leo says dismissively, "not much of a journey".

  "Still, you could talk to us instead of looking through that thing", Cassie scoffs, "what good does it do you to study right now anyways".

  "Actually, it does do me some good, Cas", Leo says knowingly, "there should be Sandshrews somewhere around this tunnel, so I might be able to catch one".

  "Seriously, you're ignoring all of us for a Sandshrew?", Cassie waves him off. I kind of feel sorry for Leo, since neither Xander and I have seriously engaged in a conversation, yet he's the only one taking the heat here.

  "Well, I have to decide if I actually want a Sandshrew", Leo says defensively, "and if I do, I need to check what places are the best to look for it".

  "Everything's a thousand questions game with you, isn't it Leo", Cassie sighs overdramatically, "it's simple, do you want a Sandshrew or not?".

  "Well, Sandshrew is a ground type and it develops relativivelu quickly, which are both pluses", Leo says to no one in particular, "I have only Piplup right now, who gains 2 different secondary typings throughout its evolutionary line, but keeps the water typing, so he's particularly vulnerable to electric types, which means a ground type like Sandshrew is a great asset to me".

  "Great, than get a Sandshrew", Cassie seems like she's about to scream.

  "Well, that's one side of the story", Leo continues, "the other problem is that I don't really want to go above a threshold of having 10 pokemon, I don't think I could train any more than that during this season, and I have no idea if Sandshrew is worth a slot, I mean, it isn't able to learn too many moves, and frankly there are much better ground types".

  Letting Leo talk is a grave mistake, as it turns out. He gets carried away as easily as a helium ballon.

  "Then don't get it, boy, you're overcomplicating this", Cassie retorts.

  "Then again, I don't know if I'll get a chance to get a better ground type", Leo ignores her, "and even if I do, it's a question of timing, maybe getting a Sandshrew now proves to be better, since I get to start training it immediately, plus, that means I can plan my team further".

  "Then catch it", Cassie yells out.

  "But then", Leo's voice starts to raise, but I catch another sound.

  A deep growl, and the very next moment I'm pushing them both to the ground behind me.

  If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  "Duck", I yell, as some monstrous creature appears from one of the side paths.

  Before I can think, I go through the usual motions. My arm reaches to my waist, looking for a gun that's not there.

  Then I do the next logical thing - deck the creature straight into its face.

  The purple monstrousity hangs back in shock, letting out a loud screech that gets the bats riled up as well.

  Rising my hands up to shield my face from the horde of the flying rats, I can see the purple thing straightening up, and I get ready to defend myslef.

  But it doesn't reach closer to me.

  Instead, it unveils its sizeable mouth, letting out a powerful screech. It must be some sort of sonic wave, because the blowback is more than enough to make me lose my balance and send me flying towards the ground.

  "Rowlet, Leafage, let's go", Xander's voice booms behind me, and I see a flash of blue light, followed by a charging owl.

  It lands the attack onto the purple monstrousity, but I'm too busy dealing with bats to pay too much attention. The very annoying creatures are addamant on surrounding me, flapping their wings so I'm forced to shield my eyes.

  I manage to grab one of them, squeezing its wings in my hand. Then I yeet it into the tunnel wall with as much strenght as I can muster. It ends up dazed on the floor, and I conclude this is a good tactic, so I grab another one. Seeing their second friend hit the wall, other bats decide I'm best left alone.

  I sit up, dusting myself off, and I can see Leo's already let Piplup in on the action as well. The purple skinned creature truly seems terryfing, it's body is square and sturdy looking, comlpleted with the pair of giant, satellite-looking ears.

  Rowlet and Piplup stand very little chance, as all of their blows don't seem to bother the creature too much.

  "Step back, you moron", Xander yells at me, noticing that I'm trying to stand up.

  But Xander is not my sargent, and besides, it's currently 1-1 between me and that purple beast.

  Keeping my head low, I rush forwards, aiming for the pokemon, and I aim the second punch straight between its eyes. It seems surprised to have recieved two punches, as it stumbles backwards from the blow.

  "You're insane", I hear Leo yell behind me.

  "Stop it, Rory", Cassie joins in. The creature stands firm again, and I aim the third punch, sure that I can neutralise it right here and now.

  That's when I feel a pair of arms wrap around me, as someone twists me and throws me onto the ground.

  "Down", Xander yells into my ear, as he falls over me. The next moment, another one of those sonic waves blows right above us.

  "Stop it, you moron", I am quick to shake myslef free and stand back again.

  Leaving Xander on the ground, I stare at the creature again.

  It can yell at me all it wants, I will prevail in the end. As it prepares to let out another screech, I rush in, latching onto it with my full body weight. I manage to bring it to the ground, as I quickly go through the motions of putting it into a lock. I spread my legs around it, keeping it still, sitting down on its abdomen, and pushing down against its forehead with one of my hands. The other one, I use to puch the creature repeatedly.

  "Stop it, Rory, you goddamn idiot", I hear Cassie screech at me, as her hand lands across my head the very next moment.

  "Hey, it attacked us", I say in protest, still holding the creature down, "why are you stopping me".

  "It's Loudred", Cassie whisper screams at me, "they are super sensitive to noise, it probably heard us, that's why it came out to the path".

  "To get rid of us", I nod in understanding.

  "No, to see what was causing the noise", Cassie slaps me again, "Loudred in these caves are used to people, they never attack the passerbys".

  "Well, why did Rowlet and Piplup battled it then", I say with a sigh.

  "Because you attacked it, you dimwit", Xander appears next to Cassie. "It was just defending itself, we had to stop it from crushing you".

  "Well, it's not my fault it appeared out of nowhere and jumpscared me", I note in dissatisfaction. I was just doing my job here.

  "Can't believe the first thought you had upon seeing a wild pokemon was to throw hands", Leo decides to join in.

  Actually, my first thought was to shoot, I want to say, but I keep it to myself. Instead, I look over at the creature. Loudred, I think, another one I've never heard of. It looks pretty weird, all things considered.

  "Sorry, big guy", I say to the pokemon, "I thought you were trying to attack, hope we can put this behind us".

  Loudred groans as I release it and immediately jumps up. It gives me what I take to be a judgemental look, before promptly turning around and stomping off down the side path.

  "Uh, that went well", I scratch my head, utterly confused by this world and its creatures.

  "Sure it did", Xander says, reaching his hand towards my face. I flinch, but he lands his fingers on my ear, softly tracing them. I find it slightly strange. The very next second, he's showing me there's blood on his fingertips.

  My blood, I realise, as I cover my ears only to find them warm and soaked in the sticky red liquid. My head starts feeling dizzy all of a sudden, as my body loosens up.

  "You took a full blown Echoed Voice", Xander states simply.

  The sonic thing, I realise, only now feling the full effects of it. My arms grow numb in an instant, as the adrenalline gets drained out of me, and I feel the urge to throw up.

  "Must be why the Zubats crowded you", Leo adds from behind him, "they thought you were a buffet".

  "Those things eat blood?", I lean onto the nearest wall. Something like that didn't occur to me, that pokemon could feed on blood. Weren't they like made up animals from a kid's cartoon.

  "Well, you dealt with them", Cassie rolls her eyes, and I can tell she's not too satisfied with my way of doing things.

  "Oh, leave the Zubats, Cas", Xander wraps his arm around her, "your friend here tried fistfighting a Loudred".

  "He jumped out at us", I rub my temples, feeling the pulse beneath my fingers.

  "Right, but here's a pro tip", Xander wags his finger in the air, "if a wild pokemon attacks you, you use your own pokemon to fight them off".

  "Yeah, and what exactly could Charmander do to that thing", I scoff, "your Rowlet didn't exactly help out much, you know".

  Rowlet hears me, instantly turning his head in dissatisfaction.

  "Alright, both of you shut up, what's done is done", Leo approaches me, digging through his backpack. Gauze and bandages appear in his hands, and the boy waves them in front of me: "sit down, let's wrap you up".

  I don't need to be told twice. My head spinning, I manage to find a smile pile of rocks along the way and sit down. From behind it, another creature pops up, gruntling in dissatisfaction.

  Of course, it's a floating rock that has arms of a bodybuilder and eyes of an anime character, but, for whatever reason, lacks legs. It gives me a judging stare before floating away. It seems familiar, but I don't care enough to try and remember what it's called.

  "Good, now just don't move", Leo quickly wipes the blood off of my ears, and a little trace that had rolled down to my cheecks. I wince as he presses the bandage against my skin, but thankfully, he's quick to wrap it around my head.

  "There, now just sit down for a bit", he states, standing up. Then, he immediately trails off, squinting his eyes at the tunnel wall behind me.

  "We should really get going", Xander says, "if we want to get out of here before sundown we can't take too many breaks".

  "Rory needs to stop for a second", Cassie scolds him.

  "I can go on, no worries", I say, my head still dizzy.

  "Guys, I think there are Donphan in thid cave", Leo says in a flat voice. He's crouched down and inspecting the wall.

  "Doesn't matter now Leo", Xander says dismissively.

  "It does, there were never Donphan in these tunnels", Leo doesn't pay too much attention to him.

  "Well, why do you say there are Donphan then", Xander crosses his arms.

  "Look over here, the walls are all caved in", Leo points out to the place he was inspecting.

  "So what?", Cassie leans in closer, looking at the spot. I turn around to look as well, but the wall just seems normal to me.

  "They are caved in and there are tusk marks", Leo points to a few small holes that don't run too deep, "Donphan have a habit of slamming into rocks, you know".

  That's a very weird habit to have, wondering what kind of creature a Donphan is. Leo said they have tusks, so I'd assume they are some sort of an elephant. It's just that I don't think an alephant could fit into this tunnel.

  "Again, why does that even matter", Cassie traces her hand across the wall, "there are many pokemon in the side tunnels why care about Donphan".

  "Three reasons", Leo sighs, "research, safety, and Phanpy".