Ash felt something move in his pocket and put his hand in. He pulled out the Pokéball containing Ho-oh, which was shaking. He had a look around and thought that this place was big enough for Ho-oh to fit, so he dropped the Pokéball, releasing the giant legendary bird.

Ho-oh shook it's head and stretched a little when it got out. "What happened? My wing hurts" It noticed the bandage of Ash's arm. "What have I missed now?"

Ash sighed and began explaining everything to Ho-oh about the spikes and the closing in walls.

Ho-oh walked slowly behind the three humans and their Pokémon. The path was empty and no sign of traps or anything of the sort.

"Don't let your guard down guys" Ash warned. "Remember what happened last time"

The others nodded and looked around. Pikachu and Raichu stood by their masters sides and watched the path in front of them, like a Charizard eyeing it's prey.

The group walked on in silence, apart from an occasional yawn from Ho-oh, who was finding it rather annoying that they had entered this place six hours ago and still hadn't found anything.

The came to a point were the path slide down like a skateboarding ramp. Ash gave it a strange look before shrugging and sitting down at the edge.

"Ash, what are you doing?" Misty asked.

"I'm goin' down" He said grinning. He pushed himself off the edge and slide down the ramp like a slide. A very tall slide.

"Pikapi! Pi ka chu!" [Ash! Wait for me!] Pikachu jumped down after his trainer.

Misty looked down. "Well, here goes nothing" She took a deep breath and jumped off the edge.

Rick and Raichu looked at each other and grinned before jumping down also.

Ho-oh watched them leave. It frowned when it saw that there was no way it could fit, so it perched itself on the ledge and moaned."Just tell me what's down there"

Ash slide to the center of the 'ramp' laughing. That was definitely the more fun part of this quest so far. He looked back and saw Pikachu sliding towards him. He reached out and picked up the little electric Pokémon. "Hey that was fun wasn't it?" He said turning his back away from were he and Pikachu had slid down.

"Pika" Pikachu said happily. He looked behind Ash. "Pikachu!" He cried pointing back.

"Huh?" Ash looked behind him and saw Misty sliding down and stopping just beside him. "Hey, have fun?"

Misty was breathing heavily and glared at him.

"Oops, I forgot you don't like fast moving rides" Ash said scratching the back of his head.

"Get out of the way!"

Ash looked up and saw that Rick, unlike Misty, didn't know how to stop. He didn't have time to move and Rick slammed right into him.

Misty sniggered as she looked at the two sit up and rub their heads. It was very amusing to watch the two do the exact same actions. "Like father like son" She said.

Ash and Rick looked at Misty and then at each other, then back to Misty. "What do you mean?" Ash asked.

Misty shook her head. "Never mind, lets go"

They all stood up and looked around. In front of them they saw that the 'ramp' led up the other side.

"Oh man" Ash moaned. "How are we supposed to get up that thing?"

Before the others could answer, there was a loud rumbling sound.

Ash frowned and looked around. "Not again, this place has traps all over" He was getting a little fed up with all the traps that kept popping up.

Sure enough, at the opposite side of the ramp, a large bolder fell and rolled down the side, shooting towards them.

Ash and the others quickly ran out of the way and the boulder flew past them.

"Well that wasn't so hard" Ash thought.

Ho-oh yawned again and straight ahead. Suddenly a large boulder came up in front of it before falling back down the ramp. Ho-oh shook his head and looked again. When it saw there was nothing in front of it, it sighed. "I'm sleep deprived"

The boulder rolled back down the ramp and shot towards the others again, this time picking up speed.

Ash looked back the boulder. "It's coming back!"

Pikachu turned and faced the approaching boulder, eyes narrowed. "Pika..." He said as he began to charge up the electricity stored within him.

Raichu looked at Pikachu and nodded. He stepped beside the smaller mouse Pokémon and his cheeks sparked too.

The two little Pokémon released two powerful beams of electricity shot forward and combined into one. The beam shot the rolling boulder in the centre and, as it rolled, cut right through it, splitting the boulder in half.

Each half of the boulder went in different and smashed into the walls at either side of Ash and the others.

Ash sighed. "Man that was close" He looked at Pikachu, who had walked back over beside him. "Thanks Pikachu"

Pikachu smiled happily and gave him a thumbs up.

"You too Raichu" Rick said patting the Pokémon on the head.

Ash looks up and notices something in the centre of the boulder. "Hey, what's that?" He walked over to one half of the boulder. There were two small dust-covered objects in the centre. He knelt down beside them and brushed off some of the dust. "It's the two orbs!" He picked up the two 'Orbs of Darkness' which lay in the centre.

"The sneaks! They hid them in the boulder thinking we wouldn't find it" Misty said.

"Pretty smart, but we were smarter" Ash said standing up.

"Ya, that's kinda hard to believe" Misty said grinning.

"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?!" Ash yells.

"That it's hard to believe your smarter than someone" Misty said simply.

Ash turned and faced her. "You take that back!"

There were many comments said and arguing in the next few minutes, and Rick just stood at the side grinning at the two's pointless fighting.

By now the two had forgotten what they were fighting about, but being so stubborn Ash wouldn't give up a fight, and Misty never gave up an argument.

Finally Ash said the one thing that always resulted with a whack in the head. "Scrawny witch!"

"Why you...!" Misty clenched her hands into a fist.

Ash knew at once that he had gone to far. He glanced at Rick for a little help.

Rick folded his arms, but raised one arm and pointed at one of his eyes.

Ash gave him a strange look and then he remembered.

It was about a week previously, before they had set out in search of the 'Orbs of Darkness'. Ash and Misty had gotton into an argument and Ash had gone to far when he called her ugly.

Ash rubbed his head as Misty stormed off.

Rick looked up from the Pokémon, who he was feeding, and shook his head. "That girls got some temper huh?"

Ash groaned and got up off the ground. His head was pounding so he sat in one of the chairs.

"I used to get in trouble like that too, except with some girls with worse tempers, but I found away around it" Rick said.

"How?" Ash said looking up.

"Two words" Rick said sitting on the chair next to him. "Eevee eyes"

"Eevee eyes?" Ash repeated.

"Yup, all girls fall for it. Ever wonder why little kids can get away with murder when they give their parents that weird look. Well, that's were Eevee's eyes come from"

"I still don't get it" Ash said scratching his head.

"You know the way girls seem to completely change when they're around Eevee? It's coz of the way they look at 'em" Rick said leaning back.

"So I gotta make myself look like an Eevee?" Ash asked.

"To put it simple..." Rick said. "...Give 'em a big eye's kinda look, like when someone's about to cry or something. Gets 'em every time"

Ash thought this was as good a time as any to try the old 'Eevee Eye's' trick. Last time He got an awful giving out to by Ho-oh for letting Misty hurt him, and he didn't want a giant, fire-breathing legendary Pokémon yelling at him again.

Ash looked up at Misty, who now had her fist raised. He sighed and looked down a little, still keeping his eyes and Misty's connected. "I'm sorry Misty" He said in a child-like voice.

Misty's eyes softened a little. Why did she feel so strange all of a sudden? It was like the feeling she got when she looked into a cute Pokémon's eyes when it was scared.

Rick looked at Ash, a little surprised.

Misty lowered her fist. "Alright, I'll let you off, but just this once!" She walked past Ash and towards the edge of the ramp.

Rick walked over to Ash. "You might be even better than I am"

Ash looked up and grinned. "I can't believe that actually worked"

Misty looked back. "What are you two talking about?"

"Nothing" Ash and Rick said in an amused tone.

Misty shrugged and began walking to the area were the wall curved up.

Ash and Rick looked at each other and grinned before following Misty.

Pikachu looked at Raichu. "Pika pikachu?" He asked confused. What exactly had just happened?

Raichu smiled and began to explain to Pikachu about Rick's 'technique' for dodging trouble.

Rick took out two Pokéballs and released Charizard and Pidgeot. Ash and Misty were sent up first with Pikachu sitting on Charizards head.

After Rick had got up, Ho-oh frowned. "You got the orbs without me again?"

Ash looked down at the orb in his hand and then at the one Rick had. "Uh...sorry Ho-oh"

Ho-oh sighed. "It's ok, it's just I keep missing everything"

Misty looked around. "How do we get out of here?"

Ho-oh looked at the roof and smiled. "Why don't we take the short cut?" Ho-oh reared back and released a Fire Blast, causing a hole to appear in the roof.

Some of the rubble from the ceiling fell down and one of the rocks landed on Rick's foot.

Rick jumped up and down. "Not again" He groaned.

Ash grinned and walked over to Ho-oh. "Let's get outta here" He climbed up onto Ho-oh's back. Pikachu jumped up after him.

Misty went over and patted Pidgeot before climbing on.

Rick climbed onto Charizard's back, still groaning. His hand was beginning to hurt again, which was no surprise to him.

The three flying Pokémon flew out of the hole in the roof, which Ho-oh had made a little bigger, not wanting to get stuck.

After Ho-oh, Pikachu, Charizard and Raichu had reduced the building to rubble, they Pokémon flew back towards Celadon City.

After Ash had finally forced Ho-oh into it's 'undersize' Pokéball, they headed to the hospital to get Rick's hand checked out. Stubborn as he was, Rick wouldn't let the doctors keep him in overnight, so the stitched it up and then he left, not even coming close to asking their questions about were he'd got the injury.

"Stupid doctors" Rick said as they left. "They're so nosey"

The group headed to the Pokémon Center and handed in their Pokémon before setting themselves up for a well needed rest.

Tomorrow they would be heading to Silver Cave, and the last Orb of Darkness.