W00t! I went on a writing spree today and finished chapter 34!
This is a very morbid chapter, just so you know, so if you have heart attacks when you read about innocent Pokémon getting killed, this is not the chapter for you. I actually rather like the outcome - of course there are bits I especially like and bits I don't like so much, but it's nowhere near as awful as I was foreseeing it would become for a period of time. Now, hopefully it won't take too long to write chapter 35; it's a fun chapter and I've got it planned, so it shouldn't be too hard.
This is also the second-longest chapter ever of the fic; it's 20 pages, just beating chapter 26's 19, although it is still vastly overshadowed by chapter 32's 26 pages. See? I have an excuse for taking so long. Somewhat.
Chapter 34: Return to Cleanwater
They were on their way back to Stormy Town to get their Pokémon healed when they met Sparky on the road.
He looked at them with one of his amused grins. His silver shades were now appropriate for the first time: the sun was shining brightly, and nothing indicated that the town had before been eternally plagued by thunderstorms.
“Lovely weather, isn’t it?” Sparky said when none of the kids were saying anything.
“Um, yeah, I guess,” Mark replied awkwardly. Sparky raised an eyebrow, grinning even more.
“Oh, come on,” he chuckled. “We all know you had something to do with it. Or at least you can tell me why our beloved Mount Flash has lost a few of its meters above sea level since yesterday, since you happened to be positioned so close to it. I daresay all the evidence suggests that the explosions that woke up the whole town were connected to that.”
Mark looked quickly back at the mountain. Loose rocks and pebbles were still rolling down the slope, leaving behind a trail of swirling dust.
“Eh, well…”
“Or perhaps,” Sparky suggested, “you know something about the peculiar cloud formation I eyed through my window earlier? Or the intense Pokémon battle that appeared to be taking place in mid-air?”
“Oh f… crap,” Chaletwo groaned.
What should I tell him? Mark thought desperately.
“I don’t think he’d buy anything but the truth,” Chaletwo sighed.
“He knows too much already, and if it’s true you woke up all the people in town… You know which bits to make up.”
Mark took a deep breath. “Well, see, we came here this morning to do some training…” He suddenly realized this wasn’t working out in an area devoid of wild Pokémon and quickly added: “…just against one another, I mean – more space here, you know – and then suddenly the mountain exploded and out came this electric dragon thing that attacked our Pokémon so we let them attack it back and finally defeated it.”
Sparky raised an eyebrow and looked around. “I don’t see a dragon anywhere. You didn’t catch it, did you?”
“We did,” Mark replied, not sure how else he could explain the dragon’s absence; he had after all already said they had defeated it, and then saying it had flown away would not make any sense. “And when we had caught it, the thunderstorm stopped, so we were thinking maybe the dragon was causing it all this time.”
Sparky surveyed him with interest. “Well, that’s strange.” Looking at Alan, he continued: “I thought your father had come here along with a team of researchers to do measurements in Thunderclap Cave, exactly because people suspected that sort of thing, and concluded that there was no sign of the presence of an Electric Pokémon powerful enough to be a cause for this kind of constant storm?”
“Well, he was wrong for once, then,” Alan said loudly. “Because you see, that thing nearly killed seventeen Pokémon, and if that’s powerful enough for you, we’d very much like to be able to get them to Nurse Joy as soon as possible, if you don’t mind.”
“Oh, of course – how very inconsiderate of me,” Sparky replied apologetically, got out of the way and then walked along by Mark’s side. “So, say, is there any way I could see this dragon you speak of?”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Mark said unsurely. “I mean, it might attack us or something…”
Sparky nodded. “Shame as it is, that does seem to make sense. Well, let’s not waste any more time on that for now, and instead let’s get your Pokémon under care.”
They hurried on the road back towards the city.
Once they entered Stormy Town, they saw something quite unusual for the town: there were people outdoors. The few remaining inhabitants all seemed to be standing on the streets, stretching their arms towards the beautiful sky in wondrous astonishment. Sparky only smiled as he watched them look questioningly at him, but strode confidently towards the Pokémon Center, the kids following his example. As they entered the familiar building once again, May handed her Pokéballs faintly to Mark and then collapsed into one of the waiting chairs.
He hadn’t really paid any particular attention to her from the end of the battle until now for some reason, but now he could see that she looked awfully pale and distraught. She sort of stared forward at nothing in particular with a blank expression on her face, like a guy in a movie Mark had seen once whose brain had been taken over by a group of evil Psychic Pokémon. He couldn’t help smiling slightly at the thought for a second, but forced it off his face, handed the Pokéballs quickly to the concerned-looking Alan and sat down beside May.
“Are you all right?”
“What?” she asked distractedly, snapping out of a trance. She looked at Mark. “Yes… yes, I’m fine…”
“You don’t look fine.”
“Well, I am,” May insisted. Mark sighed and decided not to bother her further; instead he just folded his arms on his chair and waited. May looked at Alan a couple of times, but Alan was too busy to pacing around by the counter to notice it, occasionally running his hand in distress through his messy hair while he waited for Sparky to get Nurse Joy.
“Alan, you know your Pokémon’s state is stable for as long as they’re in their Pokéballs,” Mark pointed out. “There’s no need to feel pressed for time.”
Alan abruptly looked at him. “Yeah, I know, but I’d still prefer to get my Pokémon under the hands of Nurse Joy as soon as… oh, speak of the devil.”
Sparky and Joy entered the room, both giggling at something they had been talking about. Alan looked even more frustrated at the fact Nurse Joy didn’t seem to be in a hurry at all. He thrust the eighteen minimized Pokéballs at her and she took them, still giggling. “Any that need special treatment?”
Alan looked blankly at her. “I… I think they’re all pretty severely injured, actually,” he said in a weird, high-pitched voice.
“Oh, dear,” the nurse said, rubbing her eyes. “Better get to work, then, I guess…”
She looked apologetically at Sparky, quickly organized the Pokéballs on trays and carried them into the back room.
“Don’t worry, she’ll fix them up in no time if they’re not dead already,” Sparky said cheerfully to Alan as he opened his mouth. Alan closed it again and now suddenly looked over at May.
“My God, are you okay?” he asked, hurrying over to her.
“I’m fine,” she emphasized. “That battle was just… a little haunting.”
She wiped her face quickly with her sleeve and shook her head.
“I… Do you think Lapras is going to be all right?” she murmured after a pause.
Alan sighed, knelt down in front of her chair and took her hand in his. “Of course she’ll be all right,” he said. “You heard Sparky. Nurse Joy can fix them up.”
May shook her head. “No, I mean… is she going to stay with me?”
Alan inhaled deeply. “I… I really can’t say. That’s Lapras’s own decision. Don’t think about that.”
“I need a Water and Ice Pokémon in my team,” May muttered. “There are Fire and Dragon Pokémon all over the League and…”
Alan let go off her hand, stood up, turned around and grabbed his hair with his fingers again. “Oh, my God…” he groaned before abruptly turning back again.
“Look, May… stop thinking about your team for once. Stop thinking about type-matchups and statistics and technicalities. Never mind all that. It’s trivial. Didn’t you ever read… or learn… at school… God, why don’t you get it? You’re not supposed to be concerned because you need a Water or Ice Pokémon in your team! You’re supposed to be concerned because of Lapras’s feelings!”
May didn’t really react at all; she was too busy staring intently at her fingernails. Alan ranted a little more in the same direction; he looked as if he were about to have a nervous breakdown over it, but Mark couldn’t help feeling that in fact May’s Water and Ice Pokémon remark had been more of an attempt to rationalize her feelings to herself. In a distant way he could identify with her – in his mind’s eye he saw Miss Taintor sneer at his eight-year-old self’s drawings and recalled the feeling of that horrifying realization of being imperfect, of being criticized for the first time after years of blissfully believing he had nothing to be despised for, of desperately wondering just why no one had ever told him before.
Despite feeling a little sorry for her, he smiled: it was only after that, after all, that he had finally become a good artist.
And even if May seemed unredeemable, Mark was certain that Lapras had done both her and her Pokémon a big favour.
“I’m starving,” May suddenly muttered, looking up as Alan stopped to breathe. “Sparky, do you serve breakfast?”
Sparky, who had been absent-mindedly examining his own Gym poster, turned innocently around. “Oh? …Oh, yes, we do! Let’s come over to the restaurant, shall we?”
Alan stopped tearing his hair out and nodded, taking a few deep breaths. “Okay. Breakfast. Sounds good.”
Mark was just realizing how hungry he was as well.
-------
They ate a nice cooked breakfast at the Gym before returning to the Pokémon Center to wait for Nurse Joy to bring their Pokémon back. Alan appeared to have calmed down after having taken his frustration out on May earlier, and she indeed looked subtly grateful for that. They just hung around and talked half-heartedly for a couple of hours before finally the nurse walked out of the back room with the Pokéball trays.
Alan sprang up immediately. “Are they all okay?”
“Not quite,” Nurse Joy admitted. “The Scyther and one of the Charizard are in quite a serious state – they seem to have fallen down from a great height after major electric shocks from what I can see, which is a nasty combination – and Butterfree is of course a frail Pokémon and is in a pretty bad state after similar levels of electric shock although she seems not to have fallen from such a great height or to have been recalled while still in the air. I think the Vaporeon is just barely conscious; I wouldn’t really advise her to battle very seriously for a couple of days. And God, that Skarmory is pretty bad off – half of him seems slightly melted and the other half bent. I think the Sandslash broke a bone, but you know how Pokémon are – it heals at absolutely amazing speed, so he is technically okay although he’s going to have a bit of a limp today. Oh, and that Jolteon seems to be in slight shock, but physically he’s all right. I think that’s all.”
Alan stared at her in horror.
“I’ve seen much worse than that,” Joy said helpfully. “And as I said, you know how Pokémon are – they’ll all be fine by tomorrow, I should think.”
Mark quickly went over the Pokémon in his head. This meant he had Charizard (assuming Nurse Joy had meant Charlie when she mentioned “one of the Charizard”), Jolteon (if he was willing to battle), Sandslash (albeit with a limp), Letal, Dragonair and Gyarados. May had Raichu, Pupitar, Spirit and – well, did she or did she not have Lapras? And Alan had Racko, Vicky, Diamond and Pamela – and technically Mist, but she was being advised not to battle.
“Well, that’s okay,” he said when no one else said anything. “We’ll just head out on our way, then, won’t we? You can transfer the Pokémon to other Pokémon Centers, right?”
Sparky nodded and smiled. “All right, then! It’s truly been great knowing you, and I sincerely hope we will meet again and that you will be bringers of more such fortune as what you have now brought to Stormy Town. No more thunderstorms! Who would have thought?”
Mark smiled slightly. “It’s been nice knowing you, too. Thanks for the birthday party.”
“Goodbye, then,” Nurse Joy said pleasantly. “Just ask the nurse wherever you’re heading to ring up the Stormy Town Pokémon Center sometime tomorrow and I’ll update you on the status of your Pokémon and send them over, all right?”
“Goodbye, both of you,” May said. “Thanks for the badge, Sparky.”
“Bye, and uh, I hope I’ll see you again sometime,” Alan said in an attempt to be cheerful.
“I hope so too,” Sparky replied. “Unless we’re going to be too busy with all the new business we’re going to get now that the town’s weather conditions aren’t as unattractive anymore.” He grinned widely under his shades.
The kids picked up their bags and Pokéballs. “Well, bye, then,” Mark said awkwardly as they turned to exit. As they left, he looked over his shoulder and could see Sparky waving enthusiastically.
-------
Chaletwo? Mark thought once they were walking southwest on the road that went towards Crater Town.
Where do we go now?
Chaletwo’s ever-present voice sighed.
“Suicune,” he said.
“Go through Thunderclap Cave, and then take the Route 217 shortcut to Cleanwater City. You should easily make it before nightfall.”
Mark was taken aback.
But we can’t battle another legendary now! he protested.
At least four of our Pokémon are seriously injured!
“No matter,” Chaletwo replied.
“You can still try. Suicune is different. He won’t kill you if you don’t beat him. He’ll just run for it and return the next evening as usual. I know what he’s like.”
Mark was a little sceptical, but did not reply.
“All right, Chaletwo says we should go to Cleanwater City to fight Suicune,” he said aloud. Yet again, May and Alan were walking ahead of him; Alan turned around.
“Huh?” he asked quizzically. “With half of our Pokémon still recovering from the last legendary battle at a Pokémon Center? Is he nuts?”
“I’m perfectly sane, thank you,” Chaletwo said coldly.
“I just happen to realize that if there is any chance we manage to get Suicune tonight, then we should get Suicune tonight. As I was saying to Mark, Suicune won’t kill you if he defeats your Pokémon, he won’t kill them, and he will still return tomorrow evening, guaranteed.”
Alan looked every bit as sceptical as Mark, but did not protest. May said nothing.
So Mark had no choice but to say what they were probably all thinking himself: “Eh, just how sure are you of that?”
“Absolutely sure!” Chaletwo replied, irritated.
“Suicune is one of the traditionalist legendaries. He follows Mew like a sheep. As far as he’s concerned, cleaning the lake is what he is ‘meant’ to do, and if it is his ‘fate’ to be caught while doing so, so be it. Suicune isn’t the type to kill anybody.”
Gyarados would beg to differ, Mark couldn’t help thinking.
“Well, he doesn’t look dead to me, does he?” Chaletwo snapped.
“Just do it! You already agreed to take part in it. Now trust me and do as I say. Go through Thunderclap Cave; it’s a shortcut.”
Mark couldn’t help thinking he hadn’t really agreed to do anything and Chaletwo had never presented this as a choice of any kind, but if Chaletwo picked that up from his mind at all, he didn’t respond.
“Cleanwater City sounds fine to me,” May muttered at last. “I caught Lapras at the Lake of Purity. It would be a nice place to talk to her.”
Mark looked at her. “Well, okay, I guess,” he said. “Let’s go, then.”
They walked on back towards Mount Flash on the same road as they had that morning, but this time the sun was shining brightly and there was hardly a cloud to be seen. May’s mood seemed to be getting better as well. She had released Spirit, who was now trotting along with them, and her presence seemed to cheer her trainer up considerably.
“I should really get to catching some more Pokémon,” May said randomly. “I’ve only got six, after all, and it’s always nice to have some backup, right? You need six for the League, don’t you? I’d better get a few more…”
Alan just smiled awkwardly. “Well, don’t… I mean, don’t treat them as replaceable or anything. If Lapras goes, then… having another Pokémon in her stead doesn’t just fix it.”
“I don’t think it does!” she replied defensively. “I – I just… I want a decent number of Pokémon, that’s all!”
“Stop bickering,” Mark said and sighed. “You’re like a married couple.”
“We’re not!” May shouted, her face beet red, and strode ahead of the boys in frustration. Spirit smirked and galloped after her.
Mark couldn’t help giggling.
“Oh, shut up,” Alan said and elbowed Mark loosely before hurrying to catch up with May again. Mark just shook his head, grinning, and kept on walking. He didn’t mind so much that he was last anymore. Bizarrely, he was also feeling much more at ease about the upcoming Suicune battle than he had about Thunderyu, even though reason told him he should be very concerned about the considerably reduced numbers of Pokémon they had to fight it with. In fact, he felt even mildly excited.
Feelings, he concluded, were insane.
They climbed the mountain at a steady pace and it was not long before they reached the entrance to Thunderclap Cave in roughly the middle of the hillside. The mouth of the cave was a large crack that was wide at the bottom but narrowed to nothing a few meters up the cliff. The darkness inside was decidedly eerie.
“Okay, who knows Flash?” Alan asked, looking at May.
She shook her head. “It’s an awful move,” she just said.
“Mark?”
He looked blankly at Alan and shook his head, but then realized, “Well, Charizard’s tail flame should do the trick.”
Alan slapped his forehead. “Oh, yeah,” he muttered. “I forgot your Charizard was still okay.”
Mark somehow felt a little bit guilty that Charizard had recovered but Charlie had not, but said nothing. He just took out Charizard’s Pokéball and dropped it onto the ground so that the dragon emerged. He looked around quickly, but then at Mark and smiled awkwardly.
“Nurse Joy told me you caught Thunderyu, so congratulations, I guess.” He paused for a second. “Why did you send me out?”
Alan pointed at the cave entrance. “We were just hoping your tail flame would be able to light up the interior of the ca…”
He stopped dead as a loud, threatening bark sounded from the shadowy insides of the cave. A sudden flash of light lit up the dark cave so that momentarily they could see the tunnel sloping down into total darkness; the source of the light and the bark was a small, green, doglike Pokémon with an oddly cone-shaped head and ears, which had just flashed with electric light for a second to illuminate its surroundings.
“Trike!” it barked again from the darkness and growled.
“Let me handle it,” Charizard just said and stepped towards the mouth of the cave. He let out a quiet, frightening growl before breathing a tongue of fire straight forward. The orange light illuminated the cave again; they saw the little Electrike yelp and recoil in fear before its head sparkled with electricity and a bolt of lightning rushed towards Charizard. The dragon roared in pain, his fire clearing away and leaving the cave in darkness again before he angrily fired a Flamethrower at random into the crack. The fire lit up the rocks; the Electrike appeared to have fled.
Charizard growled in annoyance but climbed into the cave, swung his tail flame to his side so that it would light up the surroundings, and led the way in.
The descent was slow; numerous times, Charizard was forced to wait with his tail flame over some particularly rough terrain while the kids attempted to cross it. Occasionally they saw a flash of light from deeper within the cave, illuminating the tunnel for a brief moment.
“Dad told me that in Thunderclap Cave, the Electric Pokémon have evolved to know Flash from birth and use it to see around,” Alan told them. “If they get lost, they just use Flash for a quick look at their surroundings, go however far that allowed them to see, and then Flash again. They have also evolved a photographic memory to save energy between individual uses of the move. Then many other Pokémon in the cave have evolved to depend entirely upon waiting for an Electric Pokémon when they need to see. It’s pretty amazing.”
“Really?” May asked with interest. “Then what sort of Pokémon are the others? Just the typical cave stuff, or…”
She recoiled backwards after realizing she had stepped on something too smooth to be a rock. Charizard quickly swung his tail forward to reveal a startled little Pokémon. It looked like a bug with a brown shell and a massive round head which May had apparently stepped on; it screwed its shiny black eyes shut at the light of the fire while snapping randomly at the air with its jagged mouth.
“A Trapinch!” May exclaimed in delight. “I’m catching it! Go, Butterfree, and use a Sleep Powder before it gets away!”
She threw a Pokéball, and her butterfly emerged in a bright shower of light.
“Piiiinch!” the Pokémon screamed and ran for it into the cave.
“Charizard, follow so Butterfree can see!” May hissed, running after the Trapinch with her two Pokémon. Charizard clumsily dashed after them, his legs not made for running; the boys followed hesitantly.
They were in luck: the Trapinch, without an Electric Pokémon’s Flash to guide it, had stumbled into a dead end, bumped into the wall and was cornered when Charizard’s tail flame illuminated the scene.
“Piiiinch!” the Pokémon shrieked and ran at May’s leg, clamping its powerful jaws around her ankle.
“Youch!” May’s mouth curled into an expression of disgust as she attempted wildly but unsuccessfully to shake the Trapinch off her. When she realized it was holding on strongly as ever, she changed her strategy and began to kick at the cave wall, smashing the Trapinch repeatedly into it.
“Stop it! You’re hurting it!” Alan shouted, horrified.
“It’s hurting me too, isn’t it?” May snapped, but stopped it anyway. “Butterfree, Sleep Powder! And don’t get any on me!”
She held her leg out, and the butterfly Pokémon flapped her wings while May turned in the other direction and held her breath. Sparkly, green dust sprinkled over the horrified antlion Pokémon, and within seconds it was fast asleep, its eyes peacefully shut and its legs limp.
“Oh, damn it,” May muttered as she recalled Butterfree. “Its jaws aren’t loosening.”
“We’ll have to pry it off, I guess,” Alan said, sounding a little worried. “Mark, help me with this.”
The boys knelt down and grabbed the Trapinch’s jaws to try to force them apart, but they wouldn’t budge. May’s leg was bleeding a little underneath the jagged edges of its mouth.
She slapped her forehead. “Oh, of course. This is a much easier way. I should have thought of it before.”
And she plucked a Pokéball off her necklace and dropped it at the Trapinch so that it dissolved into red energy and was absorbed into the ball.
She cringed in pain and examined the bleeding teeth marks on her ankle as the ball wobbled on the ground and stilled with a soft ping. “Nasty. Hey, Alan, will you get some bandages out of my bag?”
She reached for the Pokéball with Trapinch, minimized it and reattached it to her necklace while Alan opened the blue bag slung over her shoulder and browsed through its contents. He quickly found a box of bandages and applied a few to May’s ankle while Mark looked around in the light of Charizard’s flame. Spirit was standing there calmly as usual, looking at her trainer with an inscrutable expression; behind her, the path split into two tunnels and at least one of them, he could see in the short-ranged light of Charizard’s flame, split again.
“This place is like a maze,” he said. “How are we going to know which way to go?”
“Easy enough,” Spirit said and smirked before turning semitransparent and dashing into the nearest wall.
“You show-off,” May said and smiled as she stood up. “Thanks, Alan.”
“Don’t mention it, but uh…” Alan asked hesitantly, “exactly what is Spirit doing?”
“Oh, she likes to do that when people get lost. She just runs through the walls to find the exit and then tries to trace the way back in solid form. It’s not
that efficient – back home, we were once stuck in Ilex Forest for two hours even with her running around back and forth between Goldenrod and me. In the end she got so exhausted from keeping herself in spirit form that we needed somebody else to help me.”
But just as May was giggling at the thought, Spirit reappeared in one of the tunnels; Mark couldn’t help thinking she looked slightly offended that May had actually told them that story.
“The way out is not long,” she said. “Follow me.”
They followed Spirit and Charizard ahead in silence; they saw the occasional flash of electricity, but the Pokémon appeared to have mostly noticed their presence by now and reached the general consensus that they were best left alone. They walked on in silence for a while.
May sighed. “Well, I got that Trapinch,” she said in an attempt to start a conversation. “It won’t be of much use against Suicune, though…”
“A Pokémon’s value isn’t measured in…” Alan began.
“Yes, I get it already!” May snapped, interrupting him. “Love your Pokémon and all that! No need to beat it into my head! I’m just trying to say that Trapinch isn’t going to be a big help in that battle, okay? And don’t say any Pokémon can beat any Pokémon, because that’s not how it works and you know it. Stop being so politically correct, will you?”
Alan opened his mouth, but closed it again in defeat.
“Thank you,” May said shortly, but was just turning around when a sudden flash of bright electrical light momentarily illuminated the entirety of room they were in. She gasped in astonishment: they had just entered a gigantic chamber full of magnificent stalactites and stalagmites, often joined into great columns of many meters tall reaching from floor to ceiling.
“That’s awesome,” Alan breathed in the darkness. “Dad told me about this, but I never saw it for myself.”
Charizard swung his tail quickly towards one of the columns and the source of the previous flash of electricity was revealed: a Manectric stood beside it, bared its fangs at them and growled, its pyramid-shaped mane sparkling with electricity.
“Spirit, Flamethrower!” May yelled.
The Ninetales leapt out in front of them, opened her mouth and breathed out a swirling tongue of flames, but the blue dog quickly shielded itself behind the column while charging up electricity. Just as Spirit stopped to breathe, it jumped out again and fired a bolt of electricity at her. She growled in pain as the electricity singed her fur, but quickly shook the ash off; flames formed in her mouth as she leapt around the column and breathed a blast of flames straight at the Manectric. It yelped in pain as it was scorched by the fire, but shook it off quickly and countered with a Thunder Wave before leaping to the other end of the column again to growl at Charizard.
Spirit tried to jump after it, but the paralysis made her clumsy and instead she crashed harshly into the column of rock. The Manectric used the opportunity to turn quickly around and fire a powerful Thunderbolt at her.
Spirit lay there weakly and didn’t move; Mark wasn’t sure if she was on the verge of fainting or just fully paralyzed, and had no time to think about it before Charizard shot a Flamethrower at the dog Pokémon. It leapt quickly out of the way and the fire instead engulfed Spirit; Mark was worried for a second, but then looked at May and saw she looked perfectly calm.
“She has the Flash Fire ability,” she said to Mark as Spirit, unharmed but glowing with an orange aura, rose painfully up. “Fire just powers her up…”
The tired Manectric crouched down, growled and leapt at her, but miscalculated the jump by an inch and landed right on the column, where it dropped back down to the cave floor. It stood up, but just as it got to its feet, Charizard swung his tail with a roar, smashing it into the dog Pokémon’s body and, at the same time, the column.
It wasn’t a particularly strong column. It had been hit by blasts of fire and electricity and rammed powerfully by three different Pokémon, and now it cracked.
As Charizard’s tail passed, it took the column with it. Mark watched in panic as it collapsed and some of the ceiling with it; the kids and the Pokémon scattered in disorganization around the chamber while chunks of rock smashed into the floor. It took a little while after the last pieces had settled before anyone dared to move.