Adventures Beyond!

Chapter 19: Crystal Chaos

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Nine Years Ago, Forest Grotto

Leah had made it out of the cave just before it had collapsed. She also managed to accomplish A.J's final wish, to get the crystal out of the cave and split it between them. But Lenny and possibly A.J were dead, so maybe she could split it between her and Denise?

Denise!

Leah quickly turned back to the opening in the ground that led to the inside of the cave, and she wasn't coming out. Leah touched the rocks that had crumbled in front of the opening that Denise's mother had created, and it felt stable.

She knew what she had to do. Denise was her friend, the only one she had left in this world.

"I'll get her out of there..." Leah dived into the hole leading into the cave, but before she could surface on the other side, her head hit a large boulder. She groaned a bit as she came out of the hole, rubbing her head.

It was blocked, but she had another tedious plan. She turned to the other opening that Denise's mother had made, which was still blocked by rocks and boulders.

She ran over and pulled a rock out before throwing it to the side. The rock was a bit sharp, so she was careful to not hurt herself. She began throwing rocks to the side.

But after she touched a rock that seemed to be holding up a bunch of other rocks, some of the larger rocks collapsed. One rock in particular landed on her paws, which made her scream.

She struggled to get her paws out, but once she did, her paws had various scrapes on them.

"Ow, ow..." The Aipom whimpered as she heard various footsteps behind her.

She turned around to see a few grown Pokémon walking up. They all seemed to be Pokémon that were more oriented towards strength but one thing was clear, these were Grotto rangers.

"W-What are you guys doin here?" Leah asked shakily, having a few ideas of where they were going with this.

"We have to take the cave down." A Rhyperior answered. "Our sources tell us that there are more than one aggressive Pokémon under there, so we have to make sure that nothing could get in or out."

"I can't let you do that." Leah backed up.

"This might put all of the Pokémon in the Grotto in danger." One of the rangers tried to reason with her. "We have to do this."

"No! You can't!" She shouted loudly.

The Rhyperior stepped forward. "I'm sorry kid." He got into a position to begin running. Leah held her injured paws out, gritting her teeth.

"I'll protect Denise, her mom, and A.J's crystal." Tears pricked the corners of her eyes. "His crystal!"

She looked behind her to see a Lopunny approaching A.J's crystal, and she screamed at her, telling her to stay still. But what now? She was at a standstill, looking between the Grotto Rangers and the Lopunny that seemed to be after the crystal.

"Why do you want that?" The Aipom asked loudly at the Lopunny.

"I'm sorry, hon..." She spoke with a gentle southern accent. "But the GR has considered this do-hickey evidence..."

Leah let out an agitated shout before running over and grabbing the crystal. "This is ours!" She shouted, spinning around and using Swift on the Lopunny. "And you can't take that away from us!"

Leah took one last glance to the cave before shaking her head and running off with the crystal.

Soon enough, Leah ended up in a mad chase, her tail holding the large crystal tightly as she jumped from branch to branch. She knew that they would eventually catch up to her, and she couldn't keep running either way.