Crisis - Amourshipping

Chapter 21 - Basement

CHAPTER 21 - Basement

THIRD PERSON

The wooden floorboards creaked as each step was taken. Glimpses of moonlight seeped through the multiple openings in the broken roof and the cracked windows. Stringy cobwebs stuck to corners of the shack. The place was bare. Some parts of the walls were missing, revealing the outside. Serena's Braixen provided the group with a reliable source of light from the fire on its twig.

"W-what is this place?" Serena shuddered. The placed exerted a menacing mood.

"This place must have been abandoned for decades," Diantha stated.

They searched the shack with their eyes, only to find a book-less bookshelf, placed in the far corner of the room.

"Gardevoir, could you please check if there is anything else in the room?" Diantha asked her Pokemon. The Embrace Pokemon agreed as its eyes started to glow with a blue outline. From its interior looks, there is nothing special about the shack, but Gardevoir's psychic powers allowed it to spot the trapdoor that was underneath the bookshelf. The Pokemon pointed in the direction of the bookshelf, notifying the group about the hidden trapdoor.

"Using the bookshelf to hide it, I see. Gardevoir, use Psychic and destroy it." The bookshelf's outline glowed blue before it shattered into several pieces of wood, which Gardevoir controlled into one neat pile, revealing the wooden contraption with a metal ring to open it.

"It's a trapdoor," Gary said, looking surprised by the fact that a trapdoor existed in this kind of place.

"Do you think they took Ash down there?" Serena worriedly asked, concerned about Ash's well being.

"Possibly. We've searched the entire area to find no signs of Team Aqua, so this must be where they are," Steven stated.

"Then that means the occupants of the jet we found must be down here," Serena concluded.

"That's right," Diantha confirmed, "We have to go down there, but be careful at the same time. We never know if they're just waiting for us."

They all agreed on Diantha's statement as Steven walked over to the trapdoor. He noticed the metal ring was covered in rust, but some parts of the ring were not, resembling a hand had already pulled on it recently.

"They're definitely down here. Look," Steven pointed out the ring.

"It's guaranteed, then. Let's go," Diantha said as she was the first one, with Gardevoir, to walked down the flight of wooden steps which connected to the trapdoor. The others followed after as quietly as possible.

At the end of the stairs, there was a hallway, dully lit by flickering bulbs. The hallway would go pitch black every so often because of the lights, so Serena asked Braixen to provide the group with better light. The group of four continued down the hallway, without making any possible noise, to find the hallway diverged into two other ways.

"Looks like we might have to split up again," Gary suggested with a whisper.

"No, we can't," Diantha contested, "We can't split up in a place like this with so few numbers. Like I said before, there's no telling where Team Aqua are and what they're up to. So we must stick together as four."

"She's right," Steven agreed with the Kalos Champion.

"Let's take a wild guess which way we should go. Left or right?" Gary asked. Whilst the selection was occurring, Serena smiled as she thought about how Clemont would come up with a wacky invention that may or may not help in the situation. But he wasn't there for the invention to blow up in the face. The group decided on going through the right split which led them another hallway of doors, all locked by a numbered code.