The Dead's Pathway

"Finally!"

A dirt encrusted boy crawled out of a hole in the ground and watched in satisfaction as it disappeared.

"That was a deep Hole Trap…" He panted to himself as he continued onward. "I wonder if that means I'm getting closer…"

The boy dashed off down the dark corridors at an alarming speed, whipping his head from side to side as he rapidly scanned the dirt walls. Turning a sharp left he nearly collided with a hiker who happened to be standing in the middle of the path.

"Hey, watch where you're going!" The bearded man yelled at him angrily. "You kids run around like you own this place!"

Well why are you standing in the middle of the path, The boy fumed to himself. Get out the way you idiot.

Distracted by these thoughts, the boy did not see that the path he was running down led to a dead end and he instead discovered this by colliding with the earthen wall, Spheres and Fossils flying left and right.

"Dammit!" The boy growled, bending over to scoop up his possessions.

There had been many objects in his loot bag before the collision and so it was a minute before he was able to get his treasures under control again, mentally vowing to move some to his regular bag when he got a chance. Reaching out to grab one last Root Fossil, the boy jumped in surprise when his hand brushed against something soft.

"An Escape Rope?" The boy asked himself as he pried the object out of the ground. It was indeed an Escape Rope and from the looks of things, it had been buried there for quite a while, just waiting for him to come along.

"This almost makes up for the lost time," He commented, placing the Escape Rope in his treasure pocket.

Bending down to feel the walls, the boy tapped his radar device to make sure there wasn't anything else lying around. The device pinged once but showed no response so he turned around and ran off in the direction he had come from, determined to make up for the wasted time.

Whirling around corners and kicking up the dust, the boy was heading eastward when he ran into the second trap.

It was nothing more than a leaf trap, something that only gets beginners worked up, and the boy soon had it blown away. The trap excited him however, and a grin crept onto his face as he brushed a stray leave off of his shoulder. Tapping his radar device, he was able to locate and disarm two more leaf traps.

After double checking that the corridor was clear, the boy walked up and down it twice, his grin slowly fading as he realized there were no tell-tale circles of shadow on the walls.

Grunting in frustration the boy took off again, continuing eastward whenever he could. He didn't run into anymore traps along the way and was he was beginning to grow tired of searching as well, no longer as vigilant as he had been a half hour ago.

After a several right turns, the boy ran into another dead end.

"At least…I saw it…this time…" He panted, catching his breath. Without bothering to give the dead end another glance, he turned around and would have left if it had not been for the dark spot in his peripheral vision.

Not even daring to hope, the boy slowly faced the wall again and was rewarded with the sight of a gaping hole in the dirt wall, partially camouflaged by the crisscrossing shadows and the general tunnel dimness.

"YES!" The boy yelled, his voice echoing through the empty tunnel. He stepped forward and crawled into his opponent's Secret Base.

To the surprise of the boy, it was a fairly ordinary secret base. There was a Piplup doll sitting next to a vase of Pretty Flowers as well as a crate. It was extremely strange to see a secret base that was this under decorated. But then again, the boy laughed to himself, it must be pretty hard to decorate if you still had trouble removing rocks.

Still chuckling at this, he stepped across the room and snatched up the flag that stood next to the sleeping PC. It was a Bronze Flag, and the boy considered it to be slightly offensive to someone of his rank. He had run around looking for the base a great deal and expected a Gold Flag at the very least.

Stowing the flag under his arm, the boy crawled out of the small room and remerged in the tunnels once more. The boy consulted his radar and after determining the shortest path back to his own Secret Base, started running once more.

Rounding a corner halfway there, the boy paused for a moment to tap his radar lightly, scanning for more traps. The device emitted a shrill beep and refused to cooperate, showing the boy only a screen of static.

"Oh not again!" The boy shouted in exasperation. "This thing has been acting up ever since I modified it!"

The boy had half a mind to resurface immediately and repair his radar, but he sternly reminded himself that he was in the middle of a capture the flag game, and that he had never surrendered before.

Besides it wasn't like there should be any more traps around here, the boy told himself optimistically.

Right as he stepped into another hole trap.

"NO!" He yelled in frustration, watching in horror as the flag disappeared right before his very eyes.

The boy punched the dirt ground in frustration, too angry to even try getting out of the trap.

His bad day had all started that morning, when he had visited the Underground Man's house in Eterna City. There had been a strange trainer inside, who had challenged him to a Pokemon battle that had been so easy to win that it was painful. And then the strange trainer, after discovering that the boy was the reigning champ of the underground, had challenged him to a game of capture the flag. Which the boy had accepted, expecting the trainer's underground strategy to be as poor as that of his in battle.

But it was apparently better than he had thought.

The boy had been searching for that secret base for the better part of an hour and now he could only vaguely remember where it had been.

His radar buzzed for a moment and then came back to life, making the boy laugh bitterly. It also didn't help that his radar had been on the fritz ever since he had modified it. His radar now read trap types and origins, but with the side effect of it only working half the time.

Dusting himself off and picking up his pride, the boy set out to where he vaguely remembered the strange trainer's secret base to be. He walked slowly this time, worn out from racing around earlier.

It took several long minutes before the boy found his way back to the strange trainer's secret base. He smiled weakly, his hand hovering above his opponent's flag, and he considered for a moment how odd it was that his opponent hadn't found his secret base already and beaten him. Pushing that discouraging thought out of his mind, he snatched up the strange trainer's Bronze flag, left the secret base and ran like there was a rapid Houndoom on his heels.

Remembering his blunder last time, the boy used his radar left and right to scan for traps. As he got to the spot where he ran into trouble last time, it seemed like this game was finally over.

But, in reality, his hardships were only beginning.

As the boy took several steps forward, his radar turned to static again, cause him to freeze where he was standing.

"Please," The boy pleaded, hitting it softly. "Please just work this once."

To his surprise, the static turned red and then faded away, leaving just a little white static behind which had the uncanny effect of making his radar look like it was filled with mist.
There was a pulsing red dot visible on the screen now, meaning there was a trap close by the boy. He carefully maneuvered his way over to it, holding out his modified radar so that he could get a reading on what kind of a trap it was.

"A…a High Warp Trap?" The boy asked himself in confusion.

He looked around to make sure that he was really alone.

"What…What is that?" He wondered aloud, embarrassed to find a trap he didn't know existed. "I'm the reigning underground champion, why haven't I ever run into a High Warp Trap before now?

According to his radar, the trap had been placed there by his opponent. How could someone with only a Bronze flag have something like this hidden in his bag?

And then suddenly, before he could stop himself, the boy asked the question that he would later regret.

"I wonder what it does…"

He thought for a moment.

"It would be stupid to squander an opportunity like this over winning one game of capture the flag"

The boy was so close to his own secret base that it seemed foolish to stop now. But if he did win the game, then all of the strange trainer's traps would disappear and he would most likely never get another chance to solve the mystery that had presented itself here.

Steeling himself, the boy stepped onto the High Warp Trap and watched the flag disappear.

From father down the hallway emerged the boy's opponent, who watched with horror as he saw what was happening.

"No!" The strange trainer yelled. "You don't understand what that-"

But he was already too late.

The boy's eyes were filled with static as he stood frozen on the trap. As more static started to emerge around his head, he dropped his radar and clapped his hands over his ears, in an attempt to stop the horrible buzzing that had began there. And then, with a blinding flash of black and white, he was gone from that world.

Experiencing a sensation similar to when he had his Alakazam teleport him places, the boy had the breath knocked out of him when he landed hard on a stony floor.

Gasping for air, he looked around with wide eyes. There were walls all around him and if they hadn't been made out of stone, the boy might have been able to convince himself that he was still in the underground. Pulling himself into a crouching position uncertainly, the boy searched around for his radar device before remembering that he had dropped it before.

Standing up, the boy leaned against a stone wall for support before pulling his hand back with a hiss as he discovered that the wall was sickly warm.

"That's not right…"The boy said to himself, squinting into the distance. "This place isn't right…"

He took a few unsteady steps forward, as there appeared to be faint light coming from that direction.

"The light at the end of the tunnel, huh?" He asked himself, freezing for a moment. "But it's not like I have much of a choice in the matter."

The boy resumed moving forward again and after a while it became more evident  that there was not only light up ahead but mist as well, which became thicker and thicker as the boy continued onward.

Finally the boy emerged into the light and gasped at what he saw.

There was a huge stone tunnel filled with mist radiating light. But that wasn't the strangest thing about the tunnel. There were figures moving through the fog, and looking closer, the boy realized they were Pokemon.

All of the Pokemon seemed strange though, oddly translucent as they walked through the tunnel. There were huge masses of them, all different species and types, but they all walked the same way; slowly and as if broken.


"Hey!" The boy shouted, running out into the tunnel. But none of the Pokemon paid him any heed.

He glanced around for a friendly looking Pokemon to approach before deciding on a pale Charizard that was wearing a scarf. The Charizard had to belong to a trainer, the boy reasoned, since it was wearing a scarf.

The boy ran out into the group of Pokemon, being careful not to bump into any of them as he made his way over to the Charizard.

"Hello," He said politely to it. "I don't know where I am, can you help me…"

The boy broke off abruptly as he took a closer look at the Charizard and saw that it was not a scarf wrapped around it's neck; but some sort of a wire or rope.

"What's wrong with you?" The boy asked in horror, reaching out to touch the Charizard.

Out of nowhere came a black ball of energy that knocked him off his feet.

The boy looked up to see a Dusknoir floating over him. It emitted an angry buzzing noise and shook its fists at him angrily.  

From past the Dusknoir, the Charizard that the boy had approached looked at him with mournful eyes and resumed its slow walk.

Making another angry buzzing sound, the Dusknoir floated away from the boy, who continued to sit on the ground, stunned.

"Just what the hell was that about?" The boy asked. "And just where am I?"

The boy got up and started walking again, going in the direction that all the Pokemon were coming from. He could now see that there were Dusknoir standing everywhere, like sentries, and so he made sure to keep away from them.

The Dusknoir turned their heads to watch the boy pass, threatening him with distorted noises, but letting him pass all the same.

Walking slowly, the boy studied the passing Pokemon out of the corner of his eye. There seemed to be something wrong with all of them, small things like wounds or scars or gouged out eyes. It was in watching the Pokemon this way that the boy realized that one of them was watching him as well.

No, the boy thought as he turned. It wasn't a Pokemon- it was a Pokemon trainer just like him. The trainer looked out at him with wide eyes and stared intently, as if trying to say something.

None of the Dusknoir were looking so the boy raced into the moving Pokemon and over to the trainer. But with each step closer, the boy's feet became slower. There was something horribly wrong with the Pokemon Trainer. His face appeared to be bleeding and his body was entirely bleached off color, lacking several limbs as well.

"What are you?!" The boy asked frantically, somehow sensing that he didn't have much time.

"I'm dead." The trainer told him in a hoarse and pained voice.

The dead trainer laughed once, short and bitter.

"This is the path of the dead, a road that everyone walks eventually. I though that I would never have to walk it though. I was the Champion of Jouhto, sole defeater of Trainer Red. I was better than everyone else; surely death could make an exception for me!"

The trainer shook his head angrily.

"But no, death comes for everyone eventually. And then you find out that you're not so special after all, that you're just like everyone else."

"Wait," The boy protested. "What do you mean?"

"I mean that we all end up walking the same road in the end," The trainer told him. He pointed over the boy's shoulder. "It's just a matter of deciding whether you're content with going early."

The boy whirled around to see a Dusknoir aiming a Shadow Punch at him. He jumped out of the way and took off running. The Dusknoir called to its companions and they all started floating toward the boy. But he wasn't going down without a fight.

Running through the mass of moving Pokemon, the boy raced off along one of the side tunnels, like he had been doing earlier in the day. All of the Dusknoir followed suit but the boy was able to keep ahead of them, atleast for the present.

He ran through the tunnels, panting wildly, running faster than he had ever run before, until finally, he couldn't run anymore.

Staring down the wall in front of him, the boy realized he had run into a dead end as his legs collapsed from underneath him. He leaned against the wall, breathing heavily, and tried to remember the strange twist of events that had eventually led to him running for his life. It had involved a dead end not unlike this one. But there was something different about that dead end…

The boy could hear the Dusknoir as they followed his scent. They were getting closer.
He struggled to remember something that kept slipping out of his grasp.

The Dusknoir were nearly there now. But the boy almost had a hold on the thought evading him.

"Of course!" He yelled in triumph as the pack of Dusknoir floated down toward him "I have an Escape Rope!"

Reaching into his bag, he grabbed it. By the time the Dusknoir got close enough to fire off Shadow Ball attacks, he was already gone.

*********

"Umm…Hello," The girl said as she greeted the out of place trainer. She hoped that he might have an item to give her, like so many out of place trainers already had.

But the trainer simply stood there in shock, this was the first person he had seen in a while and he had so much to say. He could sense that this person was about to leave though, so he burst forth with the first thing that came to his mind.

"Gates are placed at the border of one space and another space." The trainer told the girl truthfully, having passed through a few of them himself.

"In other words, gates mean that the world beyond here is a different world." The trainer said, speaking bitterly as he knew the meaning of  those words well.

"Excuse me?" The girl asked, still waiting for him to give her an item.

"It does feel like every time you pass through a gate, you're going to a different world. And you remember the Gym Leader who gave you the badge at the same time…"

As the trainer said this he looked the girl in the eyes and willed her to see the hidden meanings there.

"But without the Quake Badge you cannot proceed," He informed the girl quietly, with a bit of a tremor in his voice.

The girl left, having decided that this trainer was a waste of her time and so she didn't hear what he said next.

"But without the Insect Badge you cannot leave either…" The trainer said, this time with a loud tremor in his voice.

He glanced uncertainly at the piece of foreign technology that he stood upon.

"Why won't they take my badges?" The trainer asked himself quietly. "I have all eight of the badges, why won't they let me leave?"

If the trainer had a mirror to look into, he might have seen that he had blue hair now and been able to laugh bitterly at the impossibility of it all. But all he had to look into were his memories and they were dark and unsettling ones.

"I guess this is my punishment…" The trainer said softly to the empty sky. "For stepping foot on ground that mortals are forbidden to walk upon."

Two tears slid down the trainer's cheek.

"I do know one thing for certain…" The trainer whispered to himself. He had been slowly putting the pieces together all these years.

"I may not have any roads to walk on right now, but I will be free of this place eventually."

The dead have a pathway after all. And everyone walks on it eventually, no matter who they are.