Making the tough trek through Route 206 with a sprained ankle is just not feasible, even for a hyperactive buffoon, so Barry rents a Ponyta Walk to act as his crutch.

It'd double as his light source if he finds Wayward Cave, so that was another plus.

"Hmm? You want some of the Honey?" he asks, holding out the brush in Ponyta's direction, letting it take a lick of the condiment before it's plastered upon the bark of the tree.

The thing about Ponyta Ride-- they were friendly, required little supervision (just don't let kids near its hooves), but it wasn't too capable in a battle situation. It was mostly used as an escort, or a way to have a helper on a short trip-- but trainers don't usually bring it to dangerous places like caves and forests.

Well, to be fair, he would've rented a Luxray Flash if he had enough qualifications for it. But hey, those things were three-badge-only for a reason, after all. He didn't want to get mauled by a Ride Pokemon today.

So Barry has to take care of and protect this Ponyta while they make it through the cavern. Well, it shouldn't be too tough. He's careful, unlike Luce.

"Hey, wait!" he whirls back to find the Ponyta digging its head through the entire canister of honey in his bag. "Wait! I said some! Some honey! Stop it you flaming glutton! Hey!"

If he thought Ponytas were all well-behaved and would listen to commands, well, he was dead wrong.

One hour in and this naive little dunderhead walked right into three bug nests, tried to eat every berry it came across (and then cried because Rawst berries were too bitter for its liking), then nearly fell into some very clearly marked Skorupi tunnels.

Barry wants a refund. Or a headache pill, whichever.

Finally coming across a travelers camp with some Joggers, Hikers, Campers and Picnickers, Barry joins them.

"Seriously, how is watching over this Ponyta harder than our trip down from Eterna?" he whines, watching Starly ride on Ponyta's back as they scamper around. Apparently, the Pokemon were engaged in a piggyback race, because a Machop runs along Ponyta with a Cherubi on its head, followed sluggishly by a Shellos carrying a sleepy Hoothoot.

The Hiker laughs. "I suppose you're here to explore, rather than train?"

"Well, both's fine," Barry chuckles, "don't wanna get too far because of my leg, but I really wanted to get a look here."

"You really should stay off this path when your leg's like that," says a Camper, "there's been quite some cave-ins recently. You won't wanna get trapped on the other side."

Barry grimaces. "Yeah, I definitely don't," he says, knowing instantly that's some tower-tier foreshadow right there. "Oh well. If I die, I guess you guys can call a rescue team or something."

"Haha! Fate-tester, aren't cha?" the Jogger hums, amused, "gutsy, I like that."

"At least tie an escape rope with you so we can drag your body out when you die," the Camper adds dryly.

"What am I, a priest entering the Hall of Origin?" Barry retorts, "you guys are ominous!"

When they laugh at his misery, Barry sighs fondly.

"Here you go!" a picnicker comes up with a careful pouch of cookies in her hands, "they're just done baking! Just in case you take a little longer inside."

"Ohh! Thanks, they smell awesome," Barry beams at her.

"Try getting out before dark, kid! You won't wanna camp inside there!"

"We'll still be out here, so just holler if you need help, yeah?"

"Got it, got it!" Barry says, waving dismissively. Seriously, sometimes the rate at which people were nice baffles him.

Barry calls Ponyta and Starly back to his side, hitches up his crutch, and bids them a short goodbye before heading into the main entrance of Wayward Cave.

-

Tap, tap, and then Barry claps his hands quickly twice.

Starly whirls around and takes a sharp nosedive, gleaming white in its wave of Wing Attack. The Geodude is struck back by surprise, rolls a feet away-- and collapses, unable to get up.

"Yes!" Barry cheers, pumping a fist, "that was perfect, Sergeant!"

Huffing in an 'of course' manner, the Starly lands on Barry's arm, earning a pleased smile from his owner.

"We're starting to get it down. Next time we fight a Multi with Luce, you'll be able to keep up just as well as Admiral, huh?" Barry says, and Starly puffs up his chest proudly.

After all, Starly was quite miffed that he had to sit out in the match with Gardenia in favour of Prinplup. Well, hopefully all this new motivation drives it to get stronger here.

Ponyta chews on Barry's scarf, and Barry has to tug it away. It proceeded to chew on his arm instead, gnawing happily as the boy tried not to lose his mind. He wondered if they sold chew toys in the Poke Mart.

They ventured into the cave-- and though the first couple turns were lined with signs, marks, and torches along the path-- the further ins were not.

It was pitch black here in the clearly 'marked as unventured' portion of the cavern. It's not as if it was closed or anything-- it was just labeled for trainers to go in at their own risk. Well, Ponyta was a decent light source and Zubat-warder in one, so Barry guessed this was good enough.

With the Escape Rope tied at his bag strap and his arm covered in Ponyta slobber, Barry came to another dead end ahead.

He checks the time.

"It's almost sunset, so we should start heading back," Barry decides.

With an arm around Ponyta, he reached behind himself for the edge of the Escape Rope-- but Ponyta startlingly marches on forward, disregarding Barry's reliant slump on its figure as it trots on, undeterred by Barry's surprise shriek.

"What the wHOAH!" he clings on for dear life, "Ponyta! Ponyta warn me before you start walking! Dude! I can't balance well without you--!" but the pony doesn't respond, sniffing curiously at the ground and dragging an unwilling Barry along as they meander further into the darkness.

Clambering halfway back onto his good feet, trying to catch up-- Barry is shot with a sharp sting of pain, ramming hot and angry into his skull. He winces sharply-- but Ponyta doesn't notice.

When Barry trips, lands harshly on his sprained foot, and then collapses with a pained yelp-- Ponyta simply takes brief notice, and then grabs him by the edge of the scarf, and continues pulling him along.

"PonytaAAAhhhecking. Heatran up my arse! I swear when I get back to the rental you are getting it you glorified gallop bunny--!!"

Ponyta drops him before meandering a little further forward-- and in the pitch darkness of the inner crests of the cave-- Ponyta noses something gently.

"Eeeek!!" there's the shriek of a little girl, then violent swatting, "don't touch me! DON'T TOUCH ME! Get away from me, NOO!"

Barry lifts his face in alarm, wincing at the skids of rock near his nose but awfully confused at the sudden blaring volume that made Ponyta leap back and curl right back to Barry's side. What the-- was someone getting assaulted in here?!

"Hey, are you okay?" Barry leaps to his feet, reaching for his torchlight and shining forward. Ponyta blazes a little stronger, carefully illuminating forward-- to the figure of a young girl, curled into a corner and shivering in fear.

(Briefly, he realized the headache was gone.)

(And then, he remembered he felt something like this too, in the Eterna Galactic Building.)

(Something like a psychic wave.)

The young girl had magenta hair, tied into mismatched twintails. She couldn't have been too much older than the Picnickers outside-- but the nonconformity in her clothing suggested she wasn't as much a trainer as she was a traveller.

"Who-- who're you-- oh," she looks up, hopeful, "you're a trainer! Thank goodness!" She stands up quickly, hurrying to his side and wrapping him in a desperate hug near his waist. "I had Kadabra send out a distress signal, but I didn't think anyone would actually respond! Thank you!"

(Distress signal? Ah-- was that what the headache was?)

(And a Kadabra. Of course it was another Arcy-so-damned Kadabra.)

Barry grumbles moodily, but sets his hand on the girl's shoulder. "Let me guess... you came all the way in, got lost, and then got desperate?"

The girl gives him a shaky nod.

Barry sighs, patting Ponyta on the head. "Well then, this should teach you to go in the dangerous area without a guide or an Escape Rope."

"It wasn't my fault!" the girl complained, "I came in and then the way I went caved in! Kadabra could use flash, but eventually we ran out of PP and..."

"Cave-in?" Barry asks.

The routes he came by were a little shoddy, but there were no signs or piles of dangerous rubble of any sort to indicate a nearby cave-in.

Must be in a different direction, then.

"Alright, alright," Barry mutters, reaching behind him, "I was just on my way out too, so we can follow my Escape Rope out..."

He trails off.

The rope, which was tied to his bag-- was in his hand-- and when he lifted it, he sees exactly where it ends. Crooked and chopped apart shoddily as if it was yanked off with a hacksaw-- the rope only went as far as his foot.

"...Huh?"

Then he turns around-- and a ruby red glint shone in the distance. Barry hurriedly points the flashlight in that direction, to catch the tail end of a purple foot escape to the next turning.

"Sableye!" Mira identifies. "That was a--! Hey, those are rare!"

And that's when Barry realized the rest of his rope was nowhere to be found, nowhere in his current path, at least.

And he pales immediately.

"Oh Krabbycakes, Kinglers claw me apart," Barry curses something else under his breath, looking back and forth his cut rope and their current situation. "That little menace sabotaged my Escape Rope!"

That had the girl gawking in horror, "wait-- then you're lost too?! What the point of you saving me if you're just lost child number two now?!"

Barry squawks, "you've got no room to talk, lost child number one!" he snaps, then, "okay." A breath. "Okay. Calm down. It's all okay."

"It is not," she remarks, dryly.

Barry snaps back explosively. "Be quiet when I'm tryna be calm!"

"But you're not!"

"You're not helping!"

The girl throws her hands down in defeat while Barry throws his hands up in exasperation.

Ponyta tilts its head slightly to the side in confusion, and Starly closes his eyes. Barry might even have heard a soft groan rumble through the irritated bird.

Barry relents. He can imagine how terrifying it was, to be stuck down here after a cave-in on the other end, and then losing your only source of light. Who knows how long she's been stuck here?

"I'm Barry. You?"

She sniffles. "Mira."

Barry sighs deeply. No sense worrying about it all now, probably. This would definitely be easier if he had a Pokemon that could use Flash now-- but alas, his decision to take a Ponyta instead is biting him in the arse.

But this isn't a high-danger dungeon or anything (well, minor landslides and rockfalls aside,) so getting out of here is feasible.

If luck has it, they might even last long enough to get a rescue team called on them.

"I've got an Ether," Barry says, leaning heavily on the Ponyta to rest his sprained ankle while maneuvering his bag with his free arms. He finds the cookies from the Picnicker outside-- a little crushed now, but it's fine-- and tosses her one of his Fresh Waters. "Conserve your energy, calm down, and we'll have to think our way out of this."

Mira takes the items gratefully, though the tears are evidently in her eyes. She opens the bottle of water and gulps it down greedily.

They'll figure out how to go about it after they've calmed down.

-

The very next moment finds Barry and Mira screeching as they run toward the far corner, fleets of Zubat hot on their heels.

"I told you not to shine that flashlight there!"

"Be more specific next time maybe!"

Barry clings really hard to Ponyta as he hopped as quickly as he could, Mira scampering forward and Starly leading the escape.

Barry fumbles around his bag for Prinplup's Poke Ball.

"Can't you Teleport us out of here?"

"To where? Into a wall? We need to know where we're going to Teleport out of the battle!"

"GAH! When I get out of here I'm fining you ten million I swear!"

"Yeah you can get it from my grave, you Hoothoot!" 

"We can't fight all of them!" Mira insists, though she was already reaching for her own Pokemon, "do you have a plan?"

"I'd say go for super effectives, but I don't think that'll help!" Barry grumbles, "does your Pokemon know any fighting type attacks?"

"Yes, but we're facing a flying type here-- ow!" a Golbat dives at her fangfirst, not quite nicking a serious wound, but one of her pigtails broke loose. "What the-- it stole my ribbon! Give that back, Riley gave me that!"

"And that is why you don't wear pretty ribbons with gems on them when you go into a cave where mons tend to like shiny things."

"Quiet, blondie! Trainers get to wear whatever the hell they want!"

Not entertaining her with a response, Barry whirls back, throwing Prinplup's Poke Ball forward. "Admiral, Bubblebeam!" he orders, "Sergeant, Thief it back!"

With a renewed determination, Mira sent out a Starmie. "Bubblebeam too!"

Starly crashes into the Golbat, barely avoiding a slash of a sharp wing. He hovered back and tried again, but a flood of Zubat came to it with a horrific wave of Screech, and Starly faltered, pelted by crowds of Zubat as it honed in and sank their fangs in.

"Oh no. Sarge, come back!" Barry orders, but in the chaos, it couldn't.

Luckily with the attacks thus far, the Zubat have put a distance between them. Unluckily, they've back themselves into a corner of high rocks, and the only way out is toward the horde of murder teeth.

(Lord Arceus, is it because I swore in your name like twice? Please forgive me, this is already the second time I'm going to be Zubat chow this week.)

"Don't you got an ice move on your Prinplup?" Mira asks.

(Ah, ice. That's right. Mira's pokemon were good for Zubats. The only problem now was how crowded they were. And Starly, being stuck in the middle of it all.)

He'll have to go save his Starly, first.

(Man, this is going to sound like a Luce plan.)

"No, I don't! But do it anyway," Barry hollers, climbing onto Ponyta in a hurry. "Hey buddy. Get me in there," he directs it toward the horde of bat Pokemon, and Pokemon gives him a horrified look. "Yes, yes, I'm sure."

"What?!" Mira yelps, but she doesn't catch him before he'd rushed forward, presumably to save his Starly. "You-- if you get hit, it ain't my fault! "

Then she steps toward Prinplup, crouching down and pointing forward.

"Uhm. Prinplup! Watch closely," she says, then nods toward Starmie. "Ice Beam, don't hit the Starly!"

Barry charges in on Ponyta's back, mindful of the way Ponyta covered against a Zubat that came too close-- but Barry rubbed its mane soothingly, collapsible crutch in one hand, swatting away the offenders.

He cringes when a pair of fangs sink into his forearm, but he clambers onto Ponyta's back-- and once he was close enough, he launched himself from the horse, leaping to grab his Starly right out of the horde.

"Now!" Barry shouts, as Ponyta lunges forward to cushion his fall.

"Alright, Prinplup! Bubblebeam!" Mira knows what she has to do. The bats are soaked thoroughly in alarm, screeching in frustration-- and that's when Mira raises her arm in declaration, "and finish it, Starmie! Blizzard!"

Barry clings hard to Ponyta's neck, Starly around his other arm as they dashed through the bottom of the crowd, staying as close to the ground as they could, desperately getting out of the way, past the horde, and all the way to the other end.

"I'm clear!" Barry shouts. "Get over here, Mira!"

Immediately, Mira returns Starmie and lets her Kadabra out, grabbing onto Prinplup. "Alright, Teleport!"

With a whizz they were gone, reemerging behind the horde of bats so they could start running all over again.

-

They find themselves in a clearing before collapsing in an exhausted heap, sprawling unceremoniously on the ground and breathing heavily.

"Never. Doing that again," Mira declares, and Barry agrees vehemently.

"Second time being horde-Leech Life'd this week," Barry mutters, "is this going to be detrimental to my physical health in the long term? Cause if so my mom's never letting me hear the end of it."

"I'd say yes but," Mira pushes herself up, "better than dying, dude."

Reaching into her bag, Mira takes out a bottle of Full Restore, spraying Prinplup with a dose before aiming for Starly, still laid prone in Barry's lap.

The bird Pokemon groaned, stretching in a strained, effortful manner before flapping his wings strongly.

"All better?" Mira asks, crawling forward. When Starly nods, Mira nods back. "That's great!"

Starly wordlessly raises a talon, the claws clinging tightly to a bejeweled red ribbon.

And Mira swoons, reaching over to grab him out of Barry's lap for a nuzzle, "oh, you're a sweetie, I love you!" she squeals, "thanks, Starly! You actually got it back! You're so awesome! Unlike your owner."

"HEY!" Barry snaps, "and stop that, he's gonna get a big head and I've dealt with enough of those--"

Barry trails off, leaning back to consider Ponyta, currently breathing heavily and resting on its elbows.

"Oh! You're tired too, huh," he caressed the flaming mane. "Sorry to put you through that. You're not trained for it, but you sure had some tenacity to make it through like that! Thanks for the help. Mira, you still got some of that Fresh Water?"

Ponyta responds with a hearty chomp to Barry's head.

"Oh come on!"

Mira laughs, and then Kadabra joins in. Starly is giving Barry a sneering look, enjoying the attention he's getting in Mira's arms.

Taking Ponyta by the snout and smiling warmly, he sighs.

-

They had decided to rest in the clearing instead of trying to get out again (mainly because Ponyta was too exhausted and Barry really couldn't walk on that foot anymore), so they set up a fire and conserved their energy.

Now Prinplup was trying to learn Ice Beam with Starmie's guidance.

It was strangely easy to get a hang of, and by the end of their third try, Barry was cheering so loudly they might've agitated another Zubat crew if Mira didn't tell Kadabra to disable his mouth shut.

"Look! It's a Technical Machine dispenser!" Mira cheers.

A random urge to use Flash finally allowed them to see the size of the space they were in-- and Mira immediately catches sight of the symbol of the Pokemon Association carved into the wall.

Clinging onto Ponyta, Barry hurries over to check it out as well. "What the-- this is it! This is what my dad told me to find! Geez, what a way to get here..."

Mira brushes away the dust, exposing the square shape of the compartment, finding a button near the edge that opened up, revealing a scanner.

"One use per trainer, that's the rule," Barry says with a sigh, taking out his trainer card. "Do you know what TM's in there?"

"I do!" Mira beams, scanning her ID and receiving the carefully boxed technical machine that dispensed from a CD-like slot. "It's Earthquake!"

Barry yelps when his Technical Machine dispenses, and he almost drops it in horror.

"What the hell is a crazy move like that doing here?!"

Mira only grins, "hey, you gotta admit, it's not easy to get!" she shrugs, "I came here to get it, actually. This and I was actually looking for a King's Rock, but oh well, can't be a chooser."

"King's Rock, huh... you could've just bought that at a specialized store."

"With what money?"

"...point taken."

Mira takes out a Magneton to help charge up an electric portable cooker, and they had a meal together with the berries and rice in Barry's bag.

"You know, I heard people outside Sinnoh actually eat Pokemon meat," she says. "On the daily, no less."

Barry hums, "people in Sinnoh do to, you know, it's just kinda rare here in the West side, not that it's too common in the East either..." he says, "my dad actually treated me to fried Magikarp and--"

"You cruel murderer!" Mira gasps in disbelief. "They won't even taste good!"

"Don't be dramatic," Barry immediately says, "Sinnoh doesn't have many Pokemon meat dishes, but we are famous for Cherubi gruel--"

"I'm not listening! I'm not listening!"

"Drama queen-- wait. If you knew fried Magikarp wouldn't taste good, then wouldn't that mean..." Barry gives Mira a sympathetic side-eye as her entire expression crumbles around her mouthful of Aspear and rice.

"Agh, shut up! Shut up!" Mira wails, "it was this dumb guy in the place I stay, okay, he just--" she makes a strangling motion, "he goes to Johto and Hoenn a lot! And each time he comes by, there's mystery meat on the dinner table!"

Barry groans, sympathetic. "My dad does that too."

"I hope they never meet," Mira mutters grimly.

"Don't jinx it," Barry says. "Where are you from, anyways?"

"Battle Zone on the outskirts," Mira says, "that guy I talked about is coming back for the week, so we all ran for an impromptu vacation to avoid him. None of us really like meat." She then laughs, "he's gonna be so crushed when he sees no one home!"

Barry snorts, "you guys are cruel!"

"Blame him for not having any awareness in himself!"

Just then, Prinplup spews a jet of freezing cold "At-choo!" in their faces, and everyone screams. Kadabra, bolting awake from its nap, immediately disables both their mouths shut.

The two humans turned slowly to see Prinplup huffing as Starmie spins cheerfully, proud of the jet of Ice Beam Prinplup managed to do this time.

Mira swallows her mouthful of food and instantly feels better.

"Thank god we're eating Aspear berries," Barry mutters, "I did not want to die by deadly sneeze today."

"Same," Mira says, shakily taking another mouthful when Kadabra un-disabled her.

Kadabra gives them an annoyed lecture that, though was incoherent in language, its annoyed, very angry gesticulating spoke the message well enough.

Barry and Mira eventually turn back to their food, deciding to finish their meal in silence--

--only to see a Sableye, licking a bowl clean while making faces at Ponyta, who whines at its stolen bowl of gruel. It even had a foot on the pony's poor head, pinning it to the ground.

Barry and Mira froze the same moment Sableye stops short in its run.

Then, collective chaos erupted.

"That's the-- THAT'S THE ONE! You cut my Escape Rope, you bastard!" Barry yelled, who cares about Zubat anyways, "QUIT bullying Ponyta you MENACE!"

"Kadabra, Shock Wave! Shock Wave!"

"Admiral, Ice Beam! Don't let it escape, Ice Beam!"

-

They're found by the search team, about an hour later.

Barry returned Starly and Prinplup to their Poke Balls, leaving only Ponyta for warmth and Kadabra to sense for any nearby presences.

"Mira! MIRA!" someone yells, and Mira jumps to her feet. "WHERE ARE YOU?"

"Buck?" she heads to the mouth of the clearing, and grabs Barry's flashlight, pointing forward. "BUCK, I'M IN HERE!"

With a churn and whirl of earth, a hole opens up near her feet, startling her enough to step back. Out from the Dig came the head of a Shuckle, who looks around, spots Mira, and cheers.

"Shuckle!" Mira brightens immediately. She crouches down to receive it in a hug, "go tell Bucky we're here!"

The Shuckle hustles away as quickly as it came, and Barry breathes out in relief, tightening the cloth bandage around the bite wound on his arm.

"Help?" he questions.

"Yeah! We got separated from the cave-in. Looks like he found me first!"

"Huh." That was a relief, then, the other person was safe too. "You said you came in from a hidden entrance a little west of here?"

Mira nods. She had been surprised to hear they were connected after all. Maybe this extra entrance was just for accessibility, then? "There were tons of Gible in it."

It took another while for the red-haired boy and his Claydol to find his way in, rushing toward Mira to hurriedly check for injuries.

"Really? No concussion? No sprains? You're not a zombie walking dead?"

"They don't exist, Bucky!" Mira insists, then raising her arms, "but I want a piggyback!"

"Don't push your luck!" he scolds, "I was worried, you know! Do you know how badly I would get murdered if I didn't find you? I demolished half the cave looking for you!"

"For the sake of the structure of the Cycling Road please don't do that."

Buck lifts Mira to his back anyways, sighing in relief. 

He's quickly followed in by a Hiker, a Backpacker, and a Picnicker holding an oil lamp, both of which call out in relief as they spot Barry sitting by his Ponyta.

"Barry!" they exclaim, "we thought you were dead when we pulled out the Escape Rope and you weren't on the other end, you idiot!"

Barry chuckles. "Well, there's a very good reason for that..."

"Hey, buddy!" Buck calls out, "thanks for taking care of this one. I'm sure she was a handful," he gestures toward Mira, who pulls at his cheek in retaliation.

Barry shrugs, "she sure was," he says, ignoring Mira's yelp of protest. "But well, I guess we're even now." 

They share a quiet laugh.