Here it is, chapter 6. I'm sorry for the lateness, but it took me a while to get right, and it took me a good time to get ahold of my beta reader, who was sick for a little while.
Chapter 6
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Darkness surrounded Luke as he fell, clouding his vision of everything; all he felt or saw was the sensation of falling; and it was a scary one.
As he fell, his mind felt as if it was going as black as the darkness around him, and he entered a kind of subconscious state. The two personas Luke had been shifting between seemed to almost appear in his mind, although not physically- he could only 'feel' them. One battling for his want for more power, disregarding his pokemon's friendship and wishing for the death of his father; one fighting for the want to forget about team rocket, and his father, and just go home and live quietly. The two ideals wrestled for control over his mind, his physical body twisting this way and that as he fell.
The battle within him continued as he fell, and within a couple of seconds he painfully smashed into the ground. The sudden jerk and the surprise made his mind snap into place, his more careful and worrying side suddenly gaining full dominance over his mind.
This was bad given the situation.
Before he could even say anything however, he was crushed under the weight of his pokemon, who landed one by one in quick succession; Woop, then Kenshin, then Magikarp, and Luke uttered a small "Oh no" under his breathe as Miltank fell towards him, but soon gave a hearty sigh of relief as he was missed by a few very small inches, the ground beside him crushed beneath miltank's weight.
He pushed himself up awkwardly, inspecting his surroundings. The ground, walls and ceiling were all rock, like a cave. Luke wiped his hand on the wall to find that it was very damp and soaked, and his shoes found themselves in an ankle-deep puddle. Water had collected on various parts of the ground, it seemed. The lighting was very poor, as the sun was too low in the sky to provide any brightness for the dark, dank well.
Fear grasped his body, and he gave a shiver. If he had been under his own control a moment ago, he'd never be here, but now he was stuck in this well for… well, he didn't want to think about it. He tried to remember what had driven him to jump into this thing, but the memory only added to his shock; he was trapped in a well with one, maybe more members of team rocket.
This was a nightmare, truly.
As he shivered, Kenshin growled at him angrily. Moments ago he felt proud of his master, who had for once in his life stood up for himself. But now, he was this sniveling, hopeless wimp again. Kenshin tried to grasp what Luke was going through but it couldn't; the only conclusion it could reach was that Luke was incapable of any strength.
Woop and Miltank, on the contrary, tried to comfort him as best they could, but they couldn't help showing they were afraid too; they had been depending on Luke's outburst of energy earlier to survive. Magikarp flopped on the ground helplessly, moaning sadly.
Kenshin frowned at the lot of them. If they were going to sit so hopelessly, he didn't want to be a part of it. He bravely marched forward, deeper into the well.
Screw those guys, he thought.
Luke however, sadly stood up and meekly followed him, clinging to the only one who seemed to have any mind in his head at the moment. Kenshin growled back at him, but decided that weak company was better than no company in this place, so it left its growl as a simple warning and lead the way deeper in, the other pokemon following as well.
As they trekked deeper in the light got dimmer, and soon the traveling partners were enshrouded in complete darkness. They cautiously followed a couple bends in the well, coming to a part which had openings in the rocky roof.
The openings were small, but through them spilled blessed moonlight, which reflected off the puddles in the floor to fill the dungeon with a dim blue glow. It was a magnificent scene, but the team's awe was interrupted by a yell from deeper in the well.
It was difficult to determine whether it was a yell of anger, or fear, but whatever the emotion was it terribly frightened the group of Luke and his pokemon; even Kenshin felt a hint of anxiety, although he didn't show it. However, he led the way deeper in, quietly approaching the source of the yell.
They went around another bend in the cave, coming upon a lit chamber in the well, torches lined along the side. The companions could only see one end of the room, and that end was empty, but from where they were they heard a terrifying screech, followed by a terrifying sight.
Out from the corner of their view came something; it was twirling through the air in a fashion that made it hard to discern. Whatever it was, it must have been a living being, because blood rained out from the twirling thing as it flew across the room. It smacked against the wall in a pitiful, painful heap, revealing its still form to be a zubat. It peeled off the wall, leaving a mark of red blood where it hit, but before it hit the ground it was caught by a red beam and yanked out of view.
Luke was terrified, but his interest was caught; he couldn't help but lean closer in, expecting the worst. There was some mumbled dark speaking from somewhere far off. It seemed to be getting closer, and it was; a man dressed in black, a member of Team Rocket, backed up into view, his face pale and cold and his hands raised cautiously in the air.
He continued to back up, mumbling fearfully and apparently begging for his life. Eventually his back was against the wall, pressed up against the red smear on it. Luke gulped, his face sweating and his body shaking. What kind of demonic guy could do something so horrific?
His question was given an answer as the culprit walked into view. Luke gave a gasp and muttered under his breathe "Oh, no. Not him again."
By 'him,' Luke was referring to the red-haired, piercingly cold eyed boy who had walked into view. He was recognized immediately as the red-haired boy from a few days ago, who had given away magikarp and spoke of pokemon weakness being a good reason for it. A small blue crocodile-like being on two legs was at his side as well, barely reaching a height above his knees, a totodile. The little totodile's eyes were as cold and mean as its masters; no doubt this thing was the mean kid's pokemon. His long, bloody red hair seemed on end with excitement as he stared down the groveling rocket member, until he heard Luke's loud breathing, and turned to see him watching.
"Oh." He said, frowning, "It's you. How did you get down here?"
The red-haired boy's eyes, now focused on Luke were almost horrifying, striking fear into the deepest parts of Luke's consciousness. Luke would rather have been anywhere right now other than in this kid's presence.
"I, uh… I jumped?" Luke was unsure of how to answer, and his nervous feeling didn't help him at all in his task of forming a coherent answer.
"Dim-witted and annoyingly weak, as always." The kid said, his tone matter-of-fact.
Luke couldn't do anything except nod, forcing a weak laugh from his red-haired counterpart.
Luke, forcing himself to look instead at red hair's victim and away from red hair, recognized the gasping rocket immediately as the guy in the trench coat from earlier. As he lay gasping on the floor, he seemed to be mumbling "It's just one demonic kid after another today, I swear…"
"Were you planning to fight Team Rocket too?" Red hair asked, his eyes less powerful and hateful as earlier.
"Ummm, well I don't seem to have a choice anymore." Luke said, trying to put it simply.
Red hair gave another light laugh, turning around and leaving Luke, whom was frozen in place.
"I'll be honest… you've gained a very small bit of respect from me if you came down here after Team Rocket. If you want, we can go deeper in… together." The first part was cool and controlled, but his mention of their travel together seemed a little forced. Still, it was enough for Luke, dashing after red hair and huddling close behind him. From the looks of things he wouldn't even have to fight with red hair on his side.
They continued deeper in, going through passageways lit only by weak moonlight. Eventually they came to another lit room, the same as before. In this one was one lone man who wore a team rocket uniform for the most part, although he lacked the black Rocket hat, revealing pointy dark hair above cool blue eyes.
"Hey." Red hair said, looking at Luke.
"Uh… what?"
"I want to see what you're made of. Fight that guy."
"Y-you want me to fight?!"
"Yeah."
"I… I don't want to!" Luke said, fearfully backing away.
Red hair gave a soft laugh, saying coolly "Once weak, always weak, it seems. I guess you'll never evolve past the pathetic species you are now- after all, you're way too cowardly to even be human…"
Luke was insulted by this comment, and if only to prove himself gave a frown of defiance, standing up for himself- his "true" self- for the first time in five years. He proudly marched forward, eying red-hair as he passed by.
He stood in front of the Rocket, who after a few moments glanced up and saw Luke.
"Ah, you must be the demon kid everyone's been talking about." The rocket majestically said as he stood up as proudly as Luke was standing now.
"You could say that." Luke said, his voice not quite as proud as his opponent's but still surprisingly powerful for Luke.
"They say you've been beating everyone here. I suppose I'm next, eh?" The rocket said, dramatically wielding a pokeball from his belt.
"Um… yes!" Luke said.
"Well, I'm afraid that won't happen. I am a new recruit to team rocket, but I'll be rising through the ranks soon, being known as the legendary master of blades among members of team rocket!"
"… 'Master of Blades?'" Luke said inquisitively, a little doubtful.
"Yes, that's right." He replied, "And you shall be the end receiver of my very first victory as a member of Team Rocket. Be proud!"
As he yelled the last sentence, he thrust forward his pokeball, revealing a large green praying-mantis like pokemon, with sharpened scythe blades for arms. The scyther stood tall and proud, a wide grin spread across its face and a cool, calm look in its eyes.
Before Luke could give any command, Kenshin leaped forward to take on the scyther; nobody was gonna call themselves a 'master of blades' without beating him first!
"Scyther, let's finish this quickly! Move in and use slash!"
Scyther nodded, then ran forward, running at a surprising speed and landing a quick slash on Kenshin, who gritted his teeth and endured the blow, counter attacking in a single swift blow from a suddenly drawn grass blade.
Scyther leapt back in surprise, not expecting Kenshin to be a fellow blade-user. From the looks of things, however, scyther was superior in overall power, based on the first exchange.
"Scyther, we may not have finished it one blow but we know that we're more powerful- use fury cutter!"
It gave a nod, whirling around one of its arms in a quick, powerful slash, although it was too far from Kenshin to make any contact. Rather than move in, however it followed the first slash with another, and another, each increasingly fast.
As it built up its speed, Luke took the chance to yell some advice to Kenshin; "Kenshin, you've got less power, but we may be the superior one in speed; use that to your advantage!"
Luke's command, however, was met with a pure angry glare from Kenshin, who snarled and growled. Luke took a surprised step back; he remembered Kenshin wanted to be commanded in his last battle, but maybe now he was different? Either way, Luke figured that Kenshin could fight without commands well enough.
Scyther's sudden thrust forward marked the beginning of round two. By now his arms had formed some kind of impenetrable, invisible shield, as its arms were moving at invisible speed in every area around its body; the only sign of their existence being the sound of their insanely fast slashing. Even Luke was intimidated by the powerful attack, taking a step back, but Kenshin remained cool and calm, holding his ground firmly and holding his sword at the ready, preparing to take on the fury cutter.
Just as scyther drew within range, however, Kenshin gave a brave leap up into the air, reaching a peak at twice scyther's height. It bent back, yanking the sword as far behind it as it could, then as it accelerated downward it swung the sword down, meeting scyther at the peak of its speed and power.
Scyther, who was swinging his weight around sporadically, was very easily knocked off-balance by Kenshin's attack, slipping and crashing into the ground. Kenshin, however, was repelled by the shield in an instant, being blown across the dungeon and his back smacking into a wall. He awkwardly landed, trembling as he fought his way back onto his feet. His eyes widened, however, when his sword suddenly burst apart, being unable to endure the force form scyther's attack.
He angrily stood up, thrusting his arm forward. It grabbed its own arm and yanked it forward, but instead of yanking its arm it steadily pulled another grass blade out from its wrist, from where it was able to spawn grasses and leaves.
"Kenshin…" Luke said, disappointed, "I thought you were going to use your speed. Why did you try to overpower it when you know it's stronger?"
His remark was met with an equally raging glare, and it finally dawned on Luke; He, who recently had been showing weakness of the highest kind to Kenshin, was unworthy to the green lizard to even give him commands. In fact, Kenshin did the wrong moves in battle jus for the sake of contradicting Luke's advice. It seemed that if he wanted to see any smart battling from Kenshin, he'd have to reprieve from giving any commands; something which he was actually totally fine with.
Kenshin, in obvious pain readied his sword and stared carefully into his opponent's eyes. Scyther too brought its arms at the ready, and two stared at each other in a silent standoff.
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End Chapter 6
