I wake up, my back feeling odd as I had slept on my stomach all night. I’m a bit surprised at how they managed to make sleeping on your belly comfortable enough. But the oddity of the sensation lasts long enough to make me feel a bit unrested.
Today we go back to the caves and make some actual progress. Geodude is going to be our bodyguard as he should be tough enough to handle any Electric, Rock, or Steel types. The only thing we’d have to worry about is a cave-dwelling fighting type like a Meditite... Are those native to Otaria? I need to check that out.
I take my éTech’s Pokédex and look up the pokémon reported local to the Crevasse Village Caves. The results are mainly Aron and Sparkite as well as their evolved forms, general cave fare like Zubat and Woobat though the latter is a bit rarer. No Meditite in Otaria at all, so no chance of those, though there are various sightings of ‘scientifically interesting Onix and Geodude specimens, including a rumor of a Crystal Onix with magnetic properties. A few Gible and Gabite sightings, too.
That’s supposed to be much further into the caves, though, and much further down in the chasm. Y’know... I wonder if there’s something like a tram that goes deeper into the crevasse, and if so, how much does it cost?
A minute of research later, and I find there is, in fact, one such tour, but it only runs evenings and nights, to let the local bat-pokemon populations run down. We eventually decided to take that one later
“Alright, everyone ready?” I ask, turning to the girls. Rarity keeps clamoring about the view last night, how wonderful it was. “Yeah, we saw it, there were some interesting formations.”
Twilight finally breaks off from the conversation, nodding enthusiastically. “Alright, let’s get moving, I acquired a map from a Ranger who said there were a few hidden caves deeper in. Also, apparently the Granectric shouldn’t be there today - it tends to migrate, it seems.”
“That’s good, but as usual, we have Geodude to get us out of a pinch. Anyways, we spent most of last evening sitting around, I want to make up for that by getting an early start.”
“Just give us a few minutes for our morning routines.” Rarity bargains, and I decide that an unprepared and unhappy pair of young women would be a pain to carry around so I wait for them.
Once everyone is ‘fresh’ and ready, we head off, going down from the Center and past the same sign we saw first, taking the same entrance. Apparently there’s more than one, but they aren’t ‘official’ entrances and some are actually repurposed exits.
After dragging a spellbound Rarity past the immense gem in the main entrance again, I give my two cents on the matter. “Cutie Mark overdose or not, whatever it is, I say we get Rarity some blinders.”
“Ew, no!” Twilight says, looking genuinely disgusted. “That’s really rude of you, Anthony!” she says, and Rarity just looks like she’s too angry to speak.
“Well, if she gets all dopey every time we go by a particularly big gemstone, how else do we keep her on track? I doubt a blindfold would be high on your list of suggestions.”
“At least it’s better than blinders.” Rarity says with an unnecessary amount of vitriol in her words.
“What’s the problem with- Wait... oh, this is like the whole underwear thing isn’t it? Don’t tell me, to a race of sentient ponies, blinders are, like, BDSM gear or something, right?”
“What? No! They’re- it’s a- ergh... it’s a... negative thing from before the Unification of the Three Tribes. Earth ponies had blinders put on using magic to make sure they didn’t look at stallions that were, ah, ‘above their station’ while working.” Rarity says. “It’s a brutish and barbaric custom, and was rightly stamped out.”
“Yeah well unless you can resist the gems this time, despite showing little self-control any other times, even the first cave we ever went inside, we need to have some way to keep you looking forward.”
“Well, if the sign by the stone is accurate, there aren’t any others that size and power level anywhere in the recorded parts of the chasm.” Twilight rationalizes.
“Fine, we stick to the mapped-out sections. Not gonna risk carrying one of you home in a bodybag because you thought with your cutie-marks and not your brains.” I reason, and the girls do admit that they wouldn’t like that outcome. “So if I recall, and I could be wrong as I was panicking at the time, over there is where we met the Granectric.”
“There’s a new tunnel where it came through.” Rarity says, peering into it. “Oh my... Anthony, take a look at this.” she waves me over, “You too, Twilight, you may find this interesting as well.”
We both come over to the new tunnel entrance, and look inside. The rock on every side is perfectly smooth, except at the entrance and exit, where the rock is buckled, cracked, and broken. A quick hand-swipe clears the thin layer of dust from the tunnel wall, revealing numerous layers of the material, a rosy, glass-like layer, then a smooth brown, then a sparkling green.
I take a picture and then start inspecting it physically, running my hand along it. Totally smooth. There’s a razor-thin layer of blue crystal, and it carries just enough of a charge in it to make my fingers tingle.
I keep touching the cave wall to see if it makes my hair stand up. It doesn’t, but it’s still pretty neat. Either way, we continue the unprofessional inspection but eventually can’t really find anything more interesting about it than what we can see and touch.
Moving on, I thumb Geodude’s shrunken ball on my belt, ready to call him out in a split second if he’s needed. Figures my starter would be my vanguard but it’s still amazing how dependable he’s become.
Something in the darkness on the other side of the tunnel sparkles gently, the glimmer catching my eye. I grab the ball in a cautious reflex but steel my nerves enough to not enlarge it. After a bit of waiting, granted it’s only two seconds, I advance on the glimmer.
The tunnel is angled, and I slide easily down, without being in danger of catching anything on anything, and stop at the lip on the far side, looking at the spot that had glimmered. I pull out my éTech and use the flashlight functions and feel my jaw drop at what I see. A huge cavern stretches out in every direction, wobbling and weaving in every direction, the sides smoothed off in many places. There’s small clusters of crystal everywhere, and looking at where my feet rest, I realize that it’s right between two long pieces of the blue magnetic crystal. Thinking back, I remember the other side of the tunnel being between two as well...
The Granectric must be using them to navigate by when there’s no light and it’s tunneling!
I have no idea what that information will be good for, but it’s still pretty cool, now that I know. They must see electro-magnetic fields or something.
“Watch your step.” I call to the girls. “But it’s pretty safe.”
Being the adventurous girl she is, Twilight slides down next and immediately begins snapping pictures to send back, and she even tries to pick up a crystal for more inspection, but can’t pull them out so she’s forced to bend over and... admittedly that’s a really nice view. Now if only she were someone else, because I don’t want to think anymore about how cute those little blue-and-whites are on her.
Next comes Rarity, taking careful steps and only sliding a little. She looks around and tries to take some crystals herself but also fails. “These would look fascinating on a skirt... And the tingle, maybe I could find a use for that, too.”
I shrug. “Any girl could find a use for an oblong shape that tingles.” I point out, earning a look of confusion, then rage, and a slap in the face. “I deserved that.”
Moving on from the immediate surroundings, I take a better look around. As far as exits go, there’s the way I came, and three others, two of which are Granectric holes. I head towards the first Granectric hole I saw, but before I make it far, I trip, falling flat on my face and nearly losing an ear to a shard of blue crystal.
The thing I’d tripped on is an uneven lump of rock with a small, hair-like carpet of tiny crystals, and it quickly reveals itself to be a Geodude, as it rips itself free of the ground below, looking at me with a pair of literally flinty eyes.
“Uh, sorry, just passing through.” I hope that works. This is technically a new tunnel and as such, it’s doubtful many trainers come this way so this Geodude is not likely to give intruders a pass. The Geodude grumbles, flips me the bird, and starts walking off on its hands, muttering what are probably obscenities in its language. Well, that’s as much of a ‘pass’ as I expected I suppose.
About to sigh in relief, I turn and trip over a less forgiving Graveler.
“Lerrrr!” the pokemon lifts all four of its arms, and shows itself to be about a quarter-again the usual size, and covered in short, blue crystals with tiny arcs of electricity going between them, and a strange... well, on a more fleshy pokemon, I’d call it a birthmark, but I’m not sure how that applies here. The Graveler has a strange discoloration of darker stone circling one eye, and making a weird lightning bolt shape going up from it.
“I’m willing to bet you are much grumpier than your friend...” I say, reaching for my belt of Pokéballs in preparation, bracing myself for whatever reaction the Graveler may have.
The Graveler shouts in fury, and spreads its four arms menacingly, letting loose crackling arcs of electricity that connect to all the nearby yellow crystals, but arc away from the blue ones.
I figure Geodude would probably be a disadvantage in a fight like this against his evolved and much angrier form, so I decide to go the ‘bigger fish’ route and reach for Gulpar’s ball- wait, it’s got Electric affected moves, doesn’t it? Better safe than sorry, and the safest I can get against a Ground/Rock type with Electricity is “Bellsprout, Petal Dance!”
The command made, I hurl the ball past the Graveler and Bellsprout appears behind the strangely-typed pokémon and immediately begins the whirling petal storm, launching it at the boulder-like pokémon, the white-spotted petals striking... and flying off the crystals, shredded. The larger pokemon turns around and roars again, slamming all four limbs into the floor and tearing out a huge chunk of polished rock and throwing it viciously at Bellsprout, who immediately dodges by grabbing a crystal spur with Vine Whip and getting the hell out of there.
Well if we can’t hit him with physical effects... “Solarbeam!” I follow the command by sending out Geodude to back up Bellsprout. He should be able to give Bellsprout enough time to charge it up, though I expect a long charge-time this far underground. “Geodude, Rock Smash!”
Geodude, spawning from the red light of his Premiere ball leaps towards the Graveler and delivers a flying fist straight at the second piece of crystal-and-rock it was tearing up, smashing it to a thousand, shimmering, tiny crystal shards that honestly wouldn’t be out of place during a contest tourney.
The pokemon doesn’t seem happy about it, and reaches two hands for a chunk of wall, the other two going for the floor, evidently getting the idea to try two attacks at once.
Smart... I see Bellsprout charging up, the back of his head and the inside of his mouth glowing a faint yellow. He’ll need another good five minutes at this rate... damn lack of sun access. “Geodude, Magnitude!”
Luck seems to be against me as the result seems to be about a three, and the Graveler’s high defense eating up the Super-Effective attack like nothing. Geodude attempts again, this time giving the Graveler a hard time standing, and it rolls backward. It yells, angry more than hurt, and finishes the roll, coming back to its feet. Friggen round pokemon...
It reaches for the ground and tears up two chunks of stone, chucking them in a one-two shot at Geodude. A chill fills the room as a freezing wind tears through the cave, coming from Twilight’s Spheal. God, I keep forgetting how awesome backup is.
That said, the Special attack getting through the Graveler’s high Defense stat coupled with the Ice-beats-Ground typing, she admittedly does more damage than I did with a Double-super effective.
Said damage is quickly ignored though, the Graveler only stalled, hurling a second chunk of rock at Spheal. That’s Rock on an Ice-type. If that hits... “Geodude, Rock Smash!”
Geodude attempts what he did earlier and goes to send a flying fist through the rock but misjudges his own speed and gets hit by the rock... and shakes it off like nothing as the crystal chunks break apart, shedding blue sparks. I know Geodude is tough, but even a Rock-on-Rock attack should have done something... I’m calling shenanigans. Something’s funky with this Graveler.
My thoughts are interrupted by hearing a piercing squeal. Spheal tried to fire a Water Gun at Twilight’s command, only to have the Graveler send an Electric current through the water stream, leading straight to Spheal for a super-effective blast that knocks Spheal back several meters. Those crystals all over him have got to be messing with his typing.
I scan the strange pokémon with my éTech but just get general Graveler information. Damnit, this isn’t helping. But if that’s true that his base typing is off... Solarbeam won’t be nearly as effective as I thought. We’re in for a longer fight than I thought.
As if to accentuate my point, Bellsprout launches a beam of bright light that envelops Graveler and the light refracts against all the crystals in the room, filling the place with a bright light, brighter than the initial beam, again, a trick I’d expect to see during a Contest. And the Graveler comes out of it in pretty decent shape as I thought. We’re gonna need more help than just Spheal, and we can’t risk Water types any more. Chantlette is in no shape to handle that thing, Litwick would just get stomped... It’s up to Twilight.
She gets the look I give her and sends out... Pignite. That was either really smart or really stupid. Hard to tell at this point. A Fire Charge later and while it did more damage than I expect it to on a normal Graveler, it still shakes off the physical attack with relative ease. Twilight ponders for a moment, likely going through move options.
Graveler take the opening to hurl a chunk of Rock at Pignite that does about as much damage as I expect for once, Pignite able to get up fairly easily. Twilight orders an Arm Thrust and the Graveler roars at each of our Pokémon, very angry now. “Bellsprout, Vine Whip, Geodude, Rollout!”
My pokémon stop moving and just turn to talk to each other before running into one of the tunnels. They just left? What the fuck?
Pignite’s Arm Thrust lands and, strangely but expected at this point, merely send the Graveler back a bit. Okay, at this point, he’s guaranteed not a Rock type, and he shows off Electrical powers. As far as I can tell, it’s Ground and Electric... That makes only a small bit of sense though. The how swimming through my head and distracting me from any solutions.
My thoughts are interrupted by a speeding boulder that cannonballs right into the Graveler. Geodude uncurls and uses the bounce of the impact to launch himself back, where Bellsprout is waiting, Vine Whip being used to grab Geodude and launch him again, though with significantly less force than before. They must have needed prep time and more space.
The second impact ends with Graveler stumbling a second time and roaring in absolute rage, but still not in danger of losing. We need to keep pressure on him somehow, keep him off balance. I relay the information to my pokémon and the girls, Rarity tossing out Freyjaloof and Glorious, Twilight sending Lichengst to back up Pignite. I already ruled out three other of my pokémon, and Gheistowl doesn’t have room to really do much in these caves... I’m stuck with just my two.
That said, once Lichengst manages to get a literal drop on Graveler, the strangely-typed pokémon is held down by Lichengst’s weight, random shocks and punches seeming to not bother the weighty Grass type. That said, with Lichengst in the way, I don’t have any truly damaging moves that wouldn’t also hit Twilight’s pokémon.
Rarity seems to be looking through movelists again, but settles on a good choice. Glorious complies, using Metal Sound. The lower Graveler’s special defense the better chance we have. Freyjaloof runs in and swipes out Graveler’s feet from under, getting rid of the last of the pokemon’s leverage, now on its face with Lichengst sitting grumpily on its back.
With Graveler almost entirely under Lichengst, it’s in a prime position for a powerful attack from below. “Geodude, Dig!”
My pokémon digs under the ground and after a few moments, I see what’s visible of Graveler fall away, as if... Geodude just dug a hole under him and, rather than attacking, sent the Graveler plummeting down the hole. Do I have smart Pokémon or what?
I hear a frustrated series of grunts, then the sound of stone hammering stone for several seconds, then silence. Twilight, Rarity and I wait with bated breath, until a stony hand reaches up from the hole, broken crystal chunks embedded in the knuckles as my Geodude hauls himself from the hole, dragging up the Graveler, who is unconscious and sporting an impressive, concrete-colored black eye.
“Aw yeah!” I cry, jumping in the air. “Way to show ‘em evolution and type isn’t everything!” I ponder giving Geodude a fist-bump but realize how much that would hurt so I just settle for giving him some extra food or a special treat when we get back. We get the Graveler settled into a nook to sleep off the concussion, then we recall our Pokémon and keep going.
“That was... a very odd battle.” Twilight says, making the understatement of the month.
“Yeah, no kidding. Whatever that was, it was not a normal Graveler.” I agree. “It had definite electric properties, and any Rock-Ground type would have been destroyed by that many grass, Ground and Fighting attacks. That thing was some strange alternate type.”
“How, though?” Twilight asks, very confused and interested.
“I honestly have no idea, it could be the environment. Geodude and their line are what they eat after all and maybe eating those electricity generating gems all the time altered that Graveler on a deeper level than just physical appearance.”
“So your Geodude could become like that if he just ate from this cave?”
“Theoretically speaking? Yes.”
“Fascinating... what other effects does this cave have on various species, I wonder.”
“Same, but I’m glad we managed to get out of that situation without having to run away this time.”
“That was not running away.” Rarity says. “That was a tactical retreat. We were heavily outmatched and confused as well.”
I nod. “Yeah, exactly. Anyways... nice work team, now let’s hope we don’t have to do that again.”
“I would have liked to capture that pokémon for further study...” Twilight says, looking back where we left the Graveler. “It’s just so... interesting.”
“Agreed.” I reply. “But catching an unconscious pokémon is illegal and I doubt he’d be happy to come with when he comes to so we’ll just have to do research.” That word alone seems to put a happy grin on Twilight’s face, Rarity and I sharing a grin of our own as we walk along, deeper into the caves. We decided to take the more normal-looking path, as we didn’t want to potentially run into another Granectric this soon after an encounter like that.
We follow the natural path, and find another large cavern, with thin, looping tunnels heading out from there, and an Onix, moving slowly as it chews into the rock face, moves like a massive earthworm into the stone. The pokemon has a definite blue coloration to it, and it’s not made of solid stone sections, instead having pitted sections revealing blue, electrically charged crystals like the caves around it.
Twilight and I take a moment to watch the spectacle, mentally taking notes. Sure I already knew this was how Onix moved, but seeing it first-hand, along with seeing the actual motions required was new enough to warrant a stop, even if it wasn’t for its odd body. Rarity doesn’t find it ‘pretty’ enough or whatever to watch and just sighs and waits for Twilight and I to get back to spelunking.
Several pictures taken later, we move on to the next room, a dead-end with a back wall spiderwebbed with cracks. Heh, if only this were the Legend of Zelda universe. Any wall like that in Hyrule would be bombable, and this deep into an optional cave is definitely either a Silver Rupee or a Piece of Heart.
Hmmm.... I do have a pokemon with Rock Smash...I call out Geodude again. “Alright, think you can break this wall the rest of the way?”
He gives an affirmative nod and charges at the wall, fists ready to break through, aiming for the biggest crack available. His fist connects and goes right through it, to both his and my surprise, Geodude pulling his hand back and peering at the drywall-thin layer of stone, simply reaching out and breaking off chunks like piece of stale bread until it’s big enough to walk through, and it’s evident from the other side that the ‘wall’ was just a runoff of ancient stone deposits, an incredible but evidently quite fragile formation. And inside...
The hell is that?
A stone monolith, about four feet high, with a series of Unown letters covering its surface, like a tablet fused to its stand. The glyphs are perfectly intact and so crisp-edged it takes me a moment to realize they’re barely deeper than the thickness of rice paper, and ever so slightly darker to make them stand out.
I take out my éTech and try to make a call, but like before, no connection down here. “Dr. Franklin would probably love to see this.” I say as I take pictures.
“We can just tell him it’s here and he can come by on his own.” Twilight points out. “But this is really odd. They look like letters, but with eyes.”
I nod. “They’re pokémon. Unown.” I find a decently-connected string of them and read it aloud. “Antiquitus maris Titan dedit pluviam mania vitam protulit. Tempore, cum Titan aure coacta furorem maris, terram eiectus puer aquarum dormiret somnium...”
“What?” is all the response I get from Rarity.
“It sounds like Latin.” I say. “Let’s see... this is going to be rough but... Tempore, like temporal maybe... titan is obvious, terram sounds like it comes from the root ‘terra’ or ‘earth’... aquarum seems to be aqua or water... dormiret could be ‘dormant’ and somnium is definitely related to sleep.”
Twilight just looks at me dumbfounded. Rarity does too but for very different reasons.
I continue. “So time, titan, earth or ground, water, and ‘dormant slumber’. Dunno about you but aside from the singular titan and the ‘time’ relation, that sounds like Groudon and Kyogre.”
Twilight stares at me with intrigue. “You know Romane? Like, know it know it? That’s... interesting.”
I shake my head. “Not Romane, Latin. Although it’s likely just a different name for the same language like how griffon is German to me.” I take some more pictures and decide to send them to Dr. Franklin as well as give him a call when we get out of here. “Either way, there’s lots more cave to explore, so let’s get t-”
Before I can finish talking, the cave suddenly rumbles, and a piece of milky, waxy-looking stone falls from the ceiling.
“Move!” I yell, and grab the girls, dragging them out of the little cave inlet as it collapses inward, almost leaving us trapped under or behind a cave-in, but thankfully the rest of the cavern does not break. “We okay?” I ask, checking in with Twilight and Rarity to make sure we didn’t lose anything in our hasty retreat.
“Yes, we’re okay.” Twilight says, though Rarity is making distressed noises about her now dust-covered dress.
“We can get it cleaned later, for now, we should just check out what the rest of these caves have to offer.” I look back to the caved-in area. “Ah well, I’m sure Franklin could dig through this, and if not we have pictures to send.”
Twilight nods. “Yeah, I guess it’ll have to do.”
We figure dwelling on the potential disaster doesn’t do us any good so we leave the area, passing back through the tunnel where we found the Onix. Eventually we backtrack to the place where we fought the strange Graveler and take a different path, the one that looks like a Granectric had been through.
“So, where should we go next?” Twilight asks.
“Back to the Pokémon Center, I want to change out of this before it stains.” Rarity pleads.
“Since when can dust stain?” I ask in disbelief. “It’ll just wash out.”
“I don’t want to be the first to have a dress ruined from dust.” She replies, but doesn’t split off from us.
“It’ll be fine, Rarity. As for where to explore next, I think we might want to do one of the other areas, actually. There’s apparently a staircase all the way down to a much lower level of the chasm.”
“Alright then, let’s take that one.” I say, having another question unanswered. “Hey Twilight, is there a word for a hypochondriac but with clothes?”
“Yes, fashionable.” She replies with a small smile, though Rarity doesn’t look amused.
I laugh. “So where’s the staircase exactly?”
“We’d have to head back to the town, cross to the other side, and then head down. That set of stairs goes down the other wall of the chasm.”
I shrug. “Alright, that works I suppose. Better than spending another entire afternoon in the Center like last time.”
“As much fun as reading all day was, I have to agree. Especially since the other one has actual tour guides, and they’ll lead us past some interesting crystal formations.”
“Okay, a tour would be nice. As cool as blazing new trails is, I’m afraid we may not be so lucky with the next cave-in.”
“Yeah.”
We make our way back out, blinking at the rays of sunlight reaching through the tangled mess of supports above.
