Pokemon Adventures: Soul Ch10 A True Leader!

Chapter 10: A True Leader!

It was a bright day, and the wind gently blew by. In order to get to Veilstone city, We had to go through Mt. Coronet, and pass Solacean town. During the travel, we encountered many wild pokemon and Trainers having fun with their pokemon partners, and tough trainers working hard. Most of the wild pokemon were weak, so I didn't bother catching any. Spirit frolicked about mingling with other trainers and happily playing with every pokemon we passed. We continued down Route 206, Spirit was reading the map and giving directions.

"Ok Soul!" she exclaimed happily, leading the way with the map in front of her face, "We need to get to Route 207, that's where the nearest entrance to Mt. Coronet is!" Budew was skipping by her side happily, screeching about happily. I sighed, "Anyway you can possibly put a muzzle on that deathtrap you call a pokemon?" I said coldly. Spirit folded up the map and whacked me on my head. "Hey! OW! What the hell?" I growled. Spirit puffed up her cheeks, and turned with her hands on her hips, "Hmph! That'll teach you some manners! Right Budew?" she said sweetly, looking back at the map.

"kah!" Budew squealed happily and continued to follow her. Emperor reached out and tapped my shoulder, "Soul…We are being followed…What are your plans of action?" he said quietly. I looked over my shoulder and saw a man shadowing us, quite some distance away. "He won't make his move now…he will do so at the mountain…So let's be patient…" I said quietly, and we continued walking.

As we neared Route 207, a boy and a girl came running toward us frantically. "HEY! HEY!" screamed the boy, "Help us!" he exclaimed. The boy and the girl caught up to us, and they keeled over huffing and puffing. "What's wrong? What's the matter!?" said Spirit walking over to the duo. "Hmph…" I grunted, "My name is Mikail, and this is my, uh, my girl friend Sharah," said the boy wheezing, "We- *cough* someone tried to *cough* we need" stuttered the boy. Spirit grew impatient, "Slow down! Catch your breath and talk!" she said sternly. Mikail finally caught his breath and stood up.

"We were walking into the mountain when we were attacked by some people; it was still pretty dark, even after my Luxio used flash, so we couldn't see who it was exactly!" Mikail started, "When we were attacked, I could see them wearing grayish masks! They wound up stealing Luxio and sealing off that part of the cave! Can you help us dig through? My Sandshrew can't do it all alone since it's still so young!" Sharah finished.

Spirit turned to me, "Soul! We have to help them!" she said with her eyes glowing. I could tell that she had read their souls to check if they were lying. "Like hell…They are pokemon trainers, it's their own faults for letting someone get the jump on them. Handle your own damn problems…" I said coldly, as Emperor and I began to walk on.

Spirit ran over to me and grabbed my arm, "Soul, I know they aren't lying, and they need our help!" she said sternly as her eyes began to glow a bright blue. I pulled my arm away from her, and glared at her, "Think of the damage you'll cause if we do help them! By helping them they learn nothing, they don't struggle! They should have been wiser to their surroundings! If we help them with this now, who will help them with their next little problem in the future? They need to learn to defend what's theirs on their own." I said.

Spirit shook her head. "You're wrong Soul! As fellow trainers it's our duty to help other people in need! We set examples for other trainers to follow, so that way unity among each other can be forged! Do you want to wake up one day realizing that there is no one around you to help you? To help stop the pain!" she protested, tears forming in her eyes. I turned around ready to walk off, "Welcome to my entire childhood…" I said coldly. Before I walked off, Spirit said something that cut me deeper than any knife ever could; "If you turn your back on your own brethren, then you are no better than the Syndicate Thugs themselves! How could you comfortably sit there and do nothing?" she said with disappointment in her voice.

I stopped moving forward, I thought about what she said, and grit my teeth. "Fine, whatever I'll help!" I growled. Spirit smiled happily, "Yes! Ok! Mikail, Sharah! Lead the way!" she said to them. Mikail and Sharah smiled happily, and lead the way to Mt. Coronet's entrance.

-Inside , at the Sealed Corridor-

"This is where it all happened…" said Mikail. I examined the sealed entrance, using the light from Budew's flash and my flash light. I moved some rocks around, and looked for a weak link. "Here…Have Sandshrew dig through right here." I said calmly. We all backed up a few feet, and let Sandshrew dig through. Like a chain reaction, the rocks began crumbling and falling down, revealing a new path. I glared at the two trainers, "You honestly couldn't do that on your own? And you call yourselves trainers? Pathetic…" I said angrily. Mikail and Sharah bowed their heads in embarrassment. Spirit whacked me on the head with the map again, "Okay, what the fuck Spirit!?" I growled. Spirit walked over to them, "Ignore him; he's a bit of a dumb ass. Now then, shall we go deeper into the mountain?" she asked in a sweet voice. Both trainers nodded as they lead the way deeper into the mountain.

We followed a path of stairs deeper into the mountain, and it grew darker and darker. I opened up Nightwing's pokeball, and with a puff of smoke he appeared. I turned to face the trainers. "Unlike you two, my pokemon are trained in stealth and infiltration, as yours should have been. Nightwing!" I turned to him, "I'm sending you further in on your own, Use your high pitch sound waves as a bio sonar to map out the safest route down, and find out where Syndicate is Hiding!" I demanded.

"Wee! kee! Keee!" he screeched in reply. It seems our link isn't established yet, I thought to myself. "I'm counting on you Nightwing, Don't fail us!" I said to him, "Godspeed, friend…" Emperor said, bowing his head to Nightwing. Nightwing disappeared into the darkness, as his screeching grew fainter and fainter. "Now what?" asked Mikail in a worried tone, "We wait for Nightwing's signal, then Spirit and I will go in and get your pokemon." I replied.

"Hey! What about us? It's our pokemon!" Sharah declared. I turned my back on them, "Sorry, but I'd much prefer someone with at least some kind of skill to follow me into enemy territory. Spirit and I have trained together; you both will just get in our way. The fewer the numbers, the less chances of us getting caught, besides, she has the light and is not as completely useless as you two." I said coldly. Sharah got annoyed "Hey you need to watch yourself kid!" she said loudly.

I rushed up on her, covering her mouth and pushing her against a nearby wall. Mikail was stunned at how quickly I moved, and Spirit rushed in behind me trying to yank me off. "THIS is why I don't like amateurs! Keep your fucking voice down; are you trying to get us found out? Syndicate is an elite group of villains! They find us, they kill us, no questions asked!" I growled at Sharah. I finally let go of her, and I turned away. Sharah glared at Mikail, who sat by watching idly. He finally snapped out of his trance and he turned his attention to me. "Hey man! I understand that we messed up, and we got you into our problems, but you've taken it too far! I thank you for your help but you're a complete jerk bro!" he said angrily, approaching me.

Emperor stood over him before he could reach me, and glared down at him. Mikail got intimidated and stepped back a little, "Hey, at least apologize! You can't go around doing things like that to girls!" he said angrily. I sighed and turned to Sharah, "Look, you really need to stay quiet…you guys wait here, Spirit and I will move on. And if we come back yelling "Go, Go" do not hesitate and move, understand?" I said coolly. Mikail and Sharah nodded, as I turned to leave Mikail called to me, "Take this!" he said tossing a pokeball to me, "That's Luxio's ball, you might need it!" I nodded to them, then Spirit and I walked off.

We walked deeper into the cave, and Budew was beginning to lose her energy. "Hold on Soul…" spirit whispered to me. We stopped and huddled by a nearby boulder. Spirit pulled out a bottle of water, and began to feed it to budew. As she cradled budew in her arms like a child, Spirit looked at me. I looked back at her, and we just stared at each other. "What?" I said in annoyed tone. "You need to treat people better…" she said softly. "Oh here we go! Look those assholes don't understand…what they got themselves into…" I began, but as I said those words I thought about Psyche, and our conversation outside the Oreburgh City Gym.

"Sound familiar, right?" Spirit said, as she stared at me with her glowing eyes. I nodded, "Yea…Psyche said that to me- wait a minute…how did you know I heard that before…?" I questioned. Spirit's face turned bright red, "Uh! Umm I uh, lucky guess? Ha ha" she stammered. Before I could question further, we heard thousands of screeching zubat and Golbat passing by. "Emperor, is Nightwing among them…?" I asked Emperor quietly. Emperor shook his head, "No but they want us to follow…What should we do Soul?" he asked.

I thought about the guy who was trailing us earlier, and decided to take a countermeasure. "Emperor…You take Spirit with you and go down the right path, and I will walk down the tunnel on the left. we will rendezvous at the camp they have set up." Emperor nodded, "Wait, why are you going alone? I can handle myself!" Spirit claimed.

I sighed, "I know Spirit, but Budew is still too young for severe combat, so you'll need to put her away and use Emperor." I started drawing on the dirt with my finger, "Huntress will be with me, and don't forget i have Nightwing on stand by. Judging by the pitch of Zubat's squeals, I can tell we are near a very large opening, and that both paths will take us to opposite sides of this opening. We'll surround them, and I will have Huntress cause some chaos. I'll go in find the Luxio, and get the hell out of their quickly. You'll have Emperor keep that entrance safe for me so we can peel, got it?" I asked. Emperor and Spirit nodded.

"You have to rest now Budew…" Spirit said softly to her pokemon, putting the bottle away and returning Budew to its pokeball. I gave the others a nod, and we moved swiftly and silently like ninjas. "Emperor, keep your head up…" I whispered as we separated, "Godspeed, Soul…" he whispered back. The horde of zubat and golbat split up and lead each of us down our respective paths. I opened up Huntress' pokeball, and with a puff of smoke she appeared. "You heard all that right?" I asked her as I dashed down the path. "Yeap! I got it all memorized!" Huntress said in a cutesy voice, drifting beside me.

-Syndicate camp zone, 10 minutes later-

I walked up to a wide opening. It was incredibly bright, and I could see everything perfectly. There were only a couple of tents set up, and some men were working on opening a chest. "The boss wants this jewel, so hurry it up maggots!" said one of the men. There were only four of them, and luxio was nearby one of them, using flash to help with the lighting. They were trying to break into this chest, which was proving to be a hard task. "This luxio sure came in handy; I can still barely see anything! We'll register it to a darkball when we get back to HQ and im gonna ask one of the captains to let me keep it!" laughed the leader of the group.

Okay, I thought, this mission was meant to be an in and out…there isn't a lot of them, and even better Luxio wasn't registered to a dark ball…Which means this is way easier than I thought it would be…I signaled to Huntress. I waved my hands in code, letting her know to advance. We crept in closer, hiding behind rocks. As we got closer, I could see Emperor and Spirit in stand-by on the opposite side of the cavern. "Huntress…when I say now, come out using will-o-wisps and force them back into the wall…I'll nab Luxio and we'll dip out. I said, flipping up my hood.

As I said that, the men finally cracked open the chest, and pulled out what looked like a Crystal Flute. "We got it boys, Mission accomplished, let's move-" I walked out of my hiding spot, clapping my hands. The four of them turned to me in shock to see me. "Well, well! What have we here? Looks like the monkeys finally cracked the nut!" I laughed mockingly. The men became enraged, just as planned. "And who the hell are you?" said the leader. "My name? Oh please! You don't deserve such an honor! Now," I changed from a mocking tone to a serious one. "How about you give me that luxio, and I'll let you guys continue as you were, in fact, why don't you hand over that flute too?…" my words seemed useless, the men already called out their pokemon ready to attack, they each had a golem with them.

So that's how these guys got down here? I thought to myself, the entrances and paths seemed carved out somehow, usually time and decay does that on its own, but the Golem's combined earthquakes shaped the pathways that lead us here, which means they are pretty strong, but not strong enough. "You know what kid, you were right! Your name isn't important! Because you're gonna be under 600 feet of rubble! Earthquake 'im boys!" said the leader. That was my cue, "Huntress, NOW! The trainers take 'em out!" Huntress seemingly teleported in front me, using her will-o-wisp attack to propel the men backwards and into the wall as planned causing the leader to drop the crystal flute.

The Golems' attack began to split up the earth, flinging the flute to toward the entrance by Spirit. "Emperor! Get Spirit and the others out! NOW!" I bellowed, rushing forward, toward Luxio. Without hesitation, Emperor scooped Spirit up, Blastin the floor with his ice beam and proppelling himself forward like a jet penguin, fleeing the cave. The men finally freed themselves from Huntress' barrage of wisps, as the cave was starting to collapse. "Time to go men!" cried the leader, "But boss the flute!" said another, "Fuck the flute! We are gonna get buried alive!" he replied, and they made their escape.

I returned Huntress to her ball, simultaneously throwing and catching Luxio with its pokeball. I tried to make a run for it, but the floor caved from under me, and I was about to plummet down into infinite darkness. Suddenly a hand came out and grabbed mine. "Psyche!" I exclaimed as he pulled me up. We began sprinting towards the exit, "When the hell did you get here!?" I said to him. "Right when you started showing off, I could tell things were gonna get ugly, good call getting Emperor out of here with Spirit!" he replied. We dashed toward the exit, as he snagged the flute from off the ground.

The earth was crumbling at our heels, and the ceiling was caving in behind us, "PUSH YOURSELF! PUSH YOURSELF!" Psyche bellowed, as we sprinted for our lives. Psyche led me to the other side of , leading toward Solacean town, "There's the light! GO GO GO!" he screamed. We jumped out the cave exit, as it caved in behind us. We both rolled to a stop on the ground. "Soul! Psyche! Are you guys ok!" said Spirit rushing to our side. We slowly stood up, and looked each other in the eye. We burst out laughing, "Oh man! You're a friggin boss Soul! You even saved the pokemon!" Psyche said laughing to tears.

"Yea! Oh man thanks for the save! You're a real life saver!" I snorted. We began laughing harder. Spirit and the others looked at us confused. Why wouldn't we laugh? We just narrowly escaped death, for what? For a flute and the life of a pokemon that wasn't even ours? It was pretty funny. We finally shook off the laughter after a while. Emperor and Nightwing came to me, "Good work you two…You led the group out to safety on your own, and were able to take leadership without me being around. Good work" I said to them proudly. Emperor bowed his head, "I was going to turn back for you, but Psyche told us to leave, he said he had your back. Turns out he was the one following us after all," Psyche nodded. "I didn't want to blow my cover, so I had to stay to myself, sorry." He replied.

Psyche walked over to me, "You did good work today…You devised a plan, Got people to safety with your pokemon and even saved a few lifes. Not to mention you prevented them from getting this flute. In my book, you are a hero, so will you accept my offer to join PEACE now?" he asked, holding out his hand. I shook my head, "No, I'm no hero; I didn't even want to get involved. I just believe in finishing what I start." I said coolly. Psyche nodded, "That's okay, but I know what i saw though. Your decisions and the way you carried out that plan, i didn't even bother stepping in. Those are the actions of a leader, and your time to step up will come someday" he said with a smile.

I walked over to Mikail and Sharah, and handed them their pokeball. "Take better care of your pokemon, and be more alert..." I said to them. They nodded to me, "Thank you guys so much," began Mikail, "Hey listen, it's getting really late, and Solacean is close by, do you guys want to spend the night at our place? We have rooms for you and food?" he offered. Psyche began walking off, placing the flute in his bag, "I'm out; I have to report to HQ to drop off this item. Thanks for the fun, Soul" he said, walking off.

Spirit looked at me, "It is pretty late, and Nightwing needs some rest, so should we stay with them?" she asked. She seemed like she really wanted to. "Yea sure whatever…"I said coldly. "Ungrateful son of a-" began Sharah, but spirit stopped her from finishing, "He's actually very appreciative! He's just REALLY bad at showing it! So, lead the way please!" she said happily. So we followed Mikail, Sharah to Solacean town. We spent the night there and rested up for the next day, as our adventure continues.