Uncontained

When Florence woke up, we set out. Mt. Moon loomed, craggy and formidable, but as soon as I set foot inside, I found the trail. A distinct path made of lamps and ropes were nailed along the sides of the wall for travelers. There was even a specific "tourist path" that veered away from the one I was on. I wondered if there was anything scenic in here. So far, I saw nothing but rocks.

We walked for a long while and were scared by a couple of zubats. They were vicious. Some we really had to fight off because they were literally out for our blood. The convenient thing was that Florence could shoot them down in a single strike of lightning. That is, if they didn't scare her to tears first. I bet there weren't any wild Pokemon on the tourist trail.

I made sure to praise Florence whenever she beat a Pokemon. If I was going to beat this Team Rocket, she needed to fight well, and I was worried about the future. I knew Czeslaw wouldn't be able to handle all my battles and I would have to depend on Florence. I wanted her to be strong. At this time, I would have to go slow. Plus I needed some practice telling them what to do. Being a pseudo-trainer ending up being really fucking hard.

After a while, my eyelids grew heavy, and I checked the time. 10:30. I hadn't realized we'd walked so long. Without the sun, it was impossible to tell time. "All right, time to set camp," I said and dumped my stuff onto the ground. "We need to keep our strength up."

But after we fell asleep, I was woken to an unpleasant surprise.

---

"Don't move, or I'll shoot," a low voice said next to my ear.

I wanted to flinch, but I held it back and went rigid. A cold, unforgiving circle of metal pressed against my temple and deep in my heart I knew it was a gun. I couldn't even swallow. When my vision shook into view, I saw two men standing over me and I could feel that another was behind my head. One man was thin and wiry with a hawk nose and the other was large with a barrel chest. They all wore black, and their shirts bore a red "R" on the front. One of those purple water-mines was floating by their heads. An ekans was coiled around something. It was Florence.

I sucked in a gasp.

"Don't you move or the rat gets it," the man by my ear hissed. He had the same gravelly voice I'd heard before from the fields. I didn't dare breathe. My fear burned into rage. I'd just gotten caught by the people I was chasing after!

I darted my gaze around and saw the thin man going through my things. The man pulled out my wallet. My god damn prize money! He plucked it out and shoved it in his pocket. Some photos I had in there fluttered out. Me and Malachi playing basketball. Me, him, and Laura goofing around at Viridian. Me and my mom at our favorite ice cream store...

The man scrutinized them, grinned sourly when he saw me in panic, and ripped them up in front of my eyes.

That was when I lost it.

I was tangled up in my sleeping bag, but that didn't stop me from flinging my arm out and slamming the man's gun down. A deafening blast exploded from the barrel and the ricochet zinged into the cave. Florence screamed. All of the sudden I was face-to-face with the young man that had the gun and I didn't stop to converse. I threw my fist into his face, my knuckles crunched into his nose, and I scrambled to my feet. Then light streaked past my eyes.

Florence had let loose a bolt of electricity that smote the two other men and made them drop like bowling pins. The ekans around her shrieked and writhed away, scorched. Florence sobbed. I dashed over to her, scooped her up, grabbed my money from the man's pocket and my backpack, and ran. I hadn't hit the guy with the gun hard enough to knock him out, he was just clutching his nose and swearing. He would go after me and I had to get out.

But where was Czeslaw? And wait, wasn't there a fourth Rocket?

"Beau!"

I snapped my head around and saw Spirit plunging through the tunnel of another path toward me. She had Czeslaw in her arms and her face was panicked. Before I could speak she pushed me down an unmarked trail. "This way, hurry!" And together, we tore down the rocky path.

"You need to run," she gasped. "They'll kill you."

She was wearing a white shirt, dark jeans, and her strawberry blonde hair was streaking out of her cap like a shooting star. "What about you?" I demanded. "How did you even get here?"

"I was going to Cerulean," she panted. "I saw them coming for you and grabbed Czeslaw and hid. I was going to try to get them from behind until you woke up. We need to split up. It'll make it easier for us to get away."

"There's a fourth Rocket out there and they could be anywhere," I said. Suddenly a strange emotion surged in my chest. "I'm not leaving you alone."

Spirit glanced at me and tears welled up in her eyes. I was startled. So many emotions crossed her face I had no idea what my words meant to her. The only thing I knew was that I wasn't going to let the Rockets take her.

I grabbed her arm, pulled her into a crevice in the wall, and stopped her before she could say anything. "Stay with me," I breathed. "I'll get us out of here."

But she only pushed Czeslaw in my arms. His spikes probed me. "I'll be fine," she insisted. "I have six Pokemon and I'm pretty sure you only have two. You're worse off than I am and we need to keep going. Hurry, Beau-"

"No," I said.

Tears rolled down her cheeks and shimmered in the lamplight. "Beau, we need to go," she pleaded. "They'll catch us if we're together. If we split up they won't know which way to go. I want a better chance for you to get out of here."

"Spirit-"

"Take this." I had no choice but to let her plunge the object into my palm since I had both arms full of Pokemon, and Spirit ran. I couldn't react fast enough. A sharp cry tore from my throat but she was already meters away. My legs unfroze. I lurched forward.

But the last thing I saw of her was her long, strawberry blonde hair streaming behind her as she plunged into darkness.