A Narrow Escape

Dark�s brow furrowed as she looked around. A pokemon in the room must�ve used Flash, because the dreary cave room came to life with light. Dark got a good look at the situation. There were about eighty angry Clefable around her. She smirked. No problem, she had pokemon.

"Okay," she said in an undertone. "So they�ve got ground powers, do they�then I know where to go. Kadabra! Drowzee!"

Her pokemon appeared in a flash of red light on the stone floor before her. "Kadabra, Psywave, Drowzee, Confu-" Neither of them were listening to her at all. They stood where they had first appeared, dazed. Dark flipped out her rarely used pokedex to check it out.

A computer voice explained everything to her. "Clefable. These pokemon are �Ground- and �Normal- types." Lucky for her, the newest version of the pokedex ran a scan on the individual pokemon. It went on, "Disable attack can render a pokemon helpless to fight."

"That�s what it was!" Dark gritted her teeth angrily.

"Sing can put a pokemon to sleep." She looked up, confused. One of the Clefable moved its mouth, only nothing came out. "Some pokemon have the ability to sing only to other pokemon. This keeps any persons from being affected."

"Now I�m stuck�without teleport�and my pokemon won�t do any good." She called back Kadabra and Drowzee. "I�ll get them to a PokeCenter later."

All at once, the crowd of Clefable lit up�well, their eyes did. An odd blue glow came from them, and their hands slowly began to move back and forth�gaining speed�

Dark heard the pokedex announce: "Metronome hypnotizes the opponent into submission before releasing a random attack at them." But Dark couldn�t do anything. She told her legs to move, for the first time in her life, to run away. But she couldn�t. She was helpless, and it seemed that the Clefable were nearing the peak of the attack.

The waving hands ceased to move, and all of the pink pokemon opened their mouths wide�

Dark slammed into the ground just as eighty Hyper Beam attacks shot past. The Clefable were definitely toast from that, but what had saved her�?

"Kaumi..?" Dark was dazed.

Kaumi stood up, brushing himself off. He had knocked her down moments before a certain end. He didn�t seem to notice her addressing him.

She still sat on the ground, surprised. "You�saved me..?"

Kaumi reached out a hand and pulled her up. "Yeah. You would�ve been fried."

"But�what I did�"

"You mean earlier? Nah. Don�t worry about it, I told you I�d prove myself, that�s all I�m doing." Dark looked down and blushed a bit, something she would never do. She was getting emotions that were stronger than she used too have�she knew that the pokemon journey may just change her life. Kaumi caught her pink face and changed the subject. "So, are you gonna catch a Clefable?"

"No�I can�t. I don�t think I�ll be able to handle one of those."

"What if one was a normal Clefable?"

"I guess."

Kaumi ran from pokemon to pokemon, checking their pulse and other odd trials. "This one doesn�t have any ground characteristics."

"How can you tell..?"

He winked. "I can."

Dark tossed an Ultra Ball that Cass had given her a few weeks before. "Go!" The capture was easy. When she picked it up, she noticed Kaumi holding a pokeball. "What�s that?"

"You think I�d just let a special pokemon like this go? No way!"

Dark followed Kaumi as they made their way out of the cave. "So�how did you find me?"

"Instinct. When I saw Cass alone, I knew it wouldn�t be long before something happened to you. I�ve been here before, as you know, and I know how dangerous it is."

Dark nodded. Inside, she still debated whether or not to trust Kaumi. �He saved me�Only to gain my trust to trick me later�He really seemed to care about me�He�s using me�� She was split. �I guess I�ll have to wait and see which way this goes��

They met Cass outside the cave. She was smiling all over.

"What is it?" Kaumi looked around.

"Prof. Utsugi gave me a clue of where to find this stone�a Primeape Stone! You know I love monkey-pokemon!"

Dark knew right away that they had to get it. "Really�"

"Yeah! He said, �Where fire sleeps and scrapes the sky, the Primeape Stone shall be nearby��He said it was a single verse from some really long poem, but that�s the only part he�s ever heard." She shrugged, then began to giggle. The two looked at her blankly. "So, you found my cous, Kaumi? It seems as if you two have gotten to�uh�how to put it��tolerate� each other." She laughed.

Kaumi looked at her with a brow raised. Dark grew angry, but blushed a bit again. Cass knew not to keep on, so she calmed herself down. "Hey, let�s find the Primeape Stone."

Dark was halfway in the cave unfolding her sleeping bag. "Let�s sleep first. It�s getting dark out and we�ll need the rest."

Soon they were all sitting on their sleeping bags around a campfire. Cass looked across the way to Kaumi. "So, where�re you from?" Kaumi smiled and began his story.