PGO Round 4 - Part Two

The darkness of the maze shifted and moved around the Girafarig as she huddled in the shadows. Jenna whimpered quietly to herself, falling silent whenever someone passed by. She had ran in terror when that other trainer and her Pokémon had appeared so suddenly but in her panic, Jenna had become separated from Marcus and was now lost within the maze. Her tail growled at the wall adjacent to her as it buzzed, a small hole growing larger, signalling the maze changing once again.

"(Oh no.)" Jenna murmured. "(Marcus, please hurry…I'm scared…)"

---

"Why in Mewtwo's name did you wake up a horde of blinking ZUBATS!" Marcus asked angrily through heavy gasps. "Zubats, bad. Not hard to understand!" So far he wasn't impressed with his partner who had not only cause Jenna to run off (actually he saw that one coming, but still) but she was also the reason that they were now running for their lives!

"It's not my fault Zubat are light sleepers!" the woman replied matching Marcus's pace. "Just keep running!"

Floating just ahead of the two trainers Angel waved her multiple arms in panic. The flickering light of the Chandelure haphazardly illuminated the tunnel ahead and created a shadow abyss of the small irregularities of the stones surface along their way. Marcus stumbled but hurriedly regained his posture and ran back up beside his partner.

<I don't mean to alarm anyone, but the Zubats are catching up!> Sophie flapped her tiny wing furiously to keep up.

"Bwah!" Marcus exclaimed upon the voice entering his mind. "Gah!" he exclaimed again when his toe connected with a horribly placed rock. "Oof!" he finished, having connected bodily with the floor.

The artificial Zubats screeched in joy at their soon to be victim, cowering fearfully upon the ground before them.

---

"No!" Tatiana cried out, seeing her partner fall. She stumbled to a stop, skidding gracelessly into the curving wall of the tunnel. "Sophie!" she called, but the little Natu was already in motion.

Sophie wheeled around - having no issues maneuvering in the tight space with her short wings. Her eyes glowed briefly with the faint purple energy of her psychic power, then the energy began to gather. Each quick beat of her tiny wings drew what looked to be violet smoke from her own psychic aura. The energy rolled silently along her plumage to gather at her wingtips. Then, without warning, the Natu released the energy, sending a powerful Psychic attack rolling down the corridor. When the attack collided with the descending Zubat, they were thrown back from the helpless boy. Some managed to avoid the devastating attack and retreated back down the hall, but most of the swarm fell to the stone floor and flickered out of existence.

With her task complete, Sophie dropped to the ground, completely drained. Tatiana ran over and withdrew her exhausted Pokemon, murmuring uncharacteristic words of praise as she did so.

"Are you alright?" the scientist asked, turning to her partner. He was in the process of getting to his feet and checking himself over for injuries.

"Fine," he replied shortly. He sounded like he was still angry. "Why didn't you do that in the first place?!"

Tatiana looked a bit taken aback. "Sophie isn't much of a battler," she stated. "And besides, I didn't want to loose my map-maker if I could help it." She tucked Sophie's pokeball back into her pocket and stood up. "No matter. What's done is done and now we have to find the exit without her help." She looked critically at their surroundings, as though some clue might reveal itself if she tried hard enough.

"Hey, you had a psychic-type, didn't you?" Tatiana asked suddenly, turning back to Marcus. "Can she 'feel' her way to the exit?"

Marcus looked startled. "She ran off." Paying no attention to the grazes he had received from his fall Marcus delved into his bag and rummaged through the many items it somehow managed to contain, producing a pokeball. A tap of the central button caused it to double in size before splitting open with a crimson flash.

"Remi, we've lost Jenna," Marcus stated as he knelt down to the Riolu's height. "Do you think you can find her?"

"(I…I suppose.)" He shifted uneasily on his feet. Taking a deep breath he squeezed his eyes shut in concentration.

"Hang on-" Tatiana began.

"Sshh." Marcus put a finger up to his lips to signify that they should be quiet.

"He's trying to sense Jenna's Aura right?" She whispered. Marcus nodded. "According to Professor Oak's journals Riolu aren't capable of actually tracking using Aura."

"Well have you got any BETTER IDEAS?!" Marcus snapped. His sharp words bounced along the walls into the distance. "At the moment Remi is the best chance I've got to find Jenna in time after you came crashing through and scared her away."

"I was going to suggest that we go and look for her but seeing as Sophie's exhausted herself saving your butt, we'd probably just end up going around in circles till the round ends and we get kicked out of the tournament," Tatiana replied in an equally ticked off tone. She did not appreciate his accusatory tone. "One thing I do know that standing around here isn't going to help us get to the exit."

During the two trainers argument Remi had finished attempting to pinpoint his teammate's position, a task he had unfortunately failed at, and had instead sidled over towards the Chandelure.

Marcus simply ignored Tatiana's statement. "Any luck Remi?"

Remi uneasily shook his head, he could already tell how Marcus was going to react. "(There're just too many people all around…Marcus?)"

Marcus stayed depressingly silent for a moment before slowly rising to his feet and began to walk.

"Hey hang on a minute where are you going?" Tatiana quickly rushed over to Marcus, followed by her Chandelure.

"(Marcus.)" Remi hurried after Marcus.

"I'm going to find Jenna," he stated simply.

"Okay, just don't walk off so suddenly or we might get separated," Tatiana sighed.

And with that, the group fell into silence. Angel continued to float just ahead of the trainers to light the way. Left awkwardly with her own thoughts, Tatiana found it odd how Remi stayed closer to her than Marucs, bad trainer maybe? Then there was Marcus himself; before he had seemed so alive even though he was angry but now he just seemed completely drained.

"Hey Marcus-" The wall beside her buzzed anomalously making her jump back in surprise. Her eyes widened to match the size of the emerging hole in the wall as a new corridor opened up in front of her. "This maze changes!?" Well that brought the chances of finding the exit right down.