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Chapter 7 – Hollow World
by acti_nerdingtonCRASH!!!
“GOOD MORNING!”
These rise-and-shines were beginning to shave years of their lifespan, they swear.
“IT’S MORNING! WAKE UP! TIME TO GET UP, BUCKAROOS!”
Loudred’s footsteps stomp back out into the hall, each step making the guild rumble slightly all around them.
“Uurrgghhh… Morning, Lexxi.”
“Good morning, Rickety.”
“And… Three! Smiles go for miles!”
“Okay, Pokemon!~ Time to get to work!”
“Hooray!”
“Seems like the outlaw board’s updated again.” Rickety observes, eyebrows furrowing as he leans in closer to the board to get a better look.”
Lexxi’s tail flicks from side to side as she glances up at the board, before glancing back over to Rickety. “You think it’s a good idea to be going after another outlaw so soon? Drowzee did throw us for a little bit of a loop.”
Rickety shrugs as smiles. “I mean, I think we could handle it! Yesterday might’ve been confusing as all heck, but I dunno, I’m feeling pretty confident we could take another outlaw or two down today.” He looks back at the board, his smile turning into a much more confused expression as his eyes dart from poster to poster. “…Why are they all Chinglings?”
“Huh?” Lexxi’s attention turns back to the board as her eyes sweep over it from left to right. Almost every single wanted poster pinned to the board was a Chingling, all having committed various crimes. “Are we sure these aren’t all the same Pokemon? This has to be some sort of mistake, right?”
“No, they’re all different, look.” Rickety points a paw at each of the posters. “Last seen in Beach Cave, last seen in the Drenched Bluff, last seen at Mount Bristle, these are all completely different Pokemon.”
Lexxi’s brow furrows as her muzzle scrunches up. “Is there some sort of Chingling crime syndicate we don’t know about? I know time going out of whack has bad Pokemon cropping up all over the place but this seems… Too strange.”
The two of them glance back at the guild’s Chimeco, sitting by herself over at the assembly desk. She turns to face the two of them, exchanging a mildly confused glance with them. “Why are you both staring at me like that?”
Heading back to Mount Bristle was a rather odd feeling. The two had been in such a rush to capture Drowzee that they hadn’t given themselves enough time to explore. Which, for an exploration team, is quite a fair bit embarrassing. Of course, they mustn’t dawdle for too long, they’ve still got outlaws to catch.
Speaking of…
As soon as they’re finished descending one of the many staircases within the Mystery Dungeon, they can spot an outlaw just beginning to make his way around a corner! The Chingling!- Well, one of the Chinglings, anyway! “Hey, you there!” Lexxi calls out to them, as she and Rickety quickly run up close to the Chingling. “You’re coming with us!”
“Eh?” The Chingling’s attention is caught, but he seems rather nonchalant about the whole situation. “Oh no. Whatever shall I do.” He says, his voice flat, monotone and even bored sounding. Then, he smirks, and starts jumping and bouncing around, causing the chimes on his head to jingle. “Come on out, boys!”
Rickety and Lexxi stare confused briefly, but then, one by one, a number of Pokemon begin to descend from the ceiling, all surrounding them. It’s a Monster House! The Skitty and the Riolu stand back to back with each other, trying to keep their sides covered. This is bad. This is really, really bad.
“I know Zorora said fighting builds strength, but…” Rickety mumbles, his body tensing as his eyes dart to all the different Pokemon. “Don’t these Pokemon all count as outlaws too? Or apprentices? They could overpower us!”
“We’ll think of a way out of this!” Lexxi tries to reassure him, but her ears droop, tail puffing up and twitching anxiously. “Maybe…”
“Not so tough now that you’re outnumbered, eh?” The Chingling chuckles, smirking maliciously at the duo as he hops closer to them. “Nobody jingles the Chingling’s jangles.” He hops ever so closer. “Tell ya what, though. You two surrender, give me, mmm… Everything you have and maybe I’ll consider letting you go. Huh? How ’bout that?”
Rickety scoffs with a scowl, his stance planting more firmly on the ground. “You’re out of your mind if you think we’re gonna be willing to follow along with a criminal!”
“Issat so?” He chuckles softly, hopping even closer to them. “Well, in that case, it looks like we ain’t got any other choice than to-“
KRRRRZZZZZZZZZZZZTTT!!
A strikingly loud crackling noise could be heard coming from the other end of the room as the whole dungeon begins to vibrate violently.
Lexxi’s tail twitches as her body grows more tense, feeling some kind of wind blowing at her fur. “…Anyone else feel a breeze?”
“We’re deep in a cave! There ain’t s’posed to be any sorta wind blowin’ this far down!” One of the apprentices shouts. The wind seems to get stronger. Much, MUCH stronger, to the point where it’s actively starting to push the Pokemon in the room. Or more accurately, pull them.
“What in the name of Arceus’ arms is THAT?!” Another one of the apprentices cries out as they point to the other end of the room. It appears as there’s some sort of… Crack floating in the air, a tear in the open space itself. And it seems to be getting bigger. Sparks of electricity crackle out from it as it grows in size, and in a sudden surge of growth, the ‘breeze’ suddenly becomes more intense, as a considerable number of Pokemon begin to get sucked into the rift.
Rickety and Lexxi panic in a frenzy, attempting to scramble away from the rift but the pull of it is far too strong. The two of them manage to grab onto a stalagmite jutting up from the ground and hold onto it for dear life. “Rickety! What’s happening?!”
“I-I don’t know! I’ve never read anything about this happening before!”
The rest of the Pokemon slowly, one by one, begin to get sucked into the rift. All of them seem to make desperate pleas and cries for help, struggling to fight back against the relentless pull, but none of them are successful. The one to go is the Chingling outlaw, reaching for Team Void as a last resort. “GRAB ME GRAB ME GRAB ME-!” But that too is all in vain as he is sucked into the rift as well.
The Skitty and the Riolu stare in horror as the rift seems to be getting bigger and bigger, the electricity crackling from it becoming more violent as its pull becomes almost impossible to fight back against the relentless force.
The stalagmite that they’d so tightly clinging onto tears off from the ground. As the two of them yelp and cry out in fear, Rickety grabs ahold of Lexxi and holds onto her as tightly as he possibly can as the two of them finally fall into the tear.
And only just a few seconds after they’re sucked in, the rift collapses in on itself and vanishes with a pop, as if it were never there to begin with.
“..xi, Lexxi! Wake up!”
“Mnnwuuuuggghhh…?” Oooogghh, whole body hurty all over. “I feel like I got hit by a Rhydon… Rickety?- Oop!”
“Oh thank gosh you’re alright.” Rickety hugs Lexxi tightly as he wraps his arms around her, his whole body trembling as he holds her close to him. “I-I don’t know how long we’ve been here or how long we were out, b-but when I saw that you were still unconscious I thought-“
“R-Rickety, take it easy, I’m alright.” She tries to wrap her stubby little limbs around Rickety and is only mildly successful in her attempts to hug him back. “I’m here, okay? I’m right here.”
Rickety’s shaky breaths slowly become steadier, his grip on Lexxi loosening as he finally lets her go and sighs, rubbing his head. “S-Sorry, I… I just didn’t wanna be left alone here. Wherever here is.”
Here?
Lexxi’s attention turns away from Rickety to focus on their surroundings. This place, it looked familiar. The grassy fields, the dirt path, the sound of a roaring waterfall, the Duskull shaped shop-
“Wait a minute… Are we in Treasure Town?”
“I don’t know…” Rickety says, his voice wavering as he stays seated on the ground next to Lexxi. “It looks like Treasure Town, but there’s something very, very wrong. Just, sit still for a moment, just watch and listen.”
Lexxi does as he says, not entirely sure what he’s talking about just yet. Slowly but surely, though, she comes to understand. The normally bustling streets were eerily empty, not a Pokemon in sight. On top of that, the area was uncomfortably quiet, the only sound being the running water of the waterfall and the accompanying river.
“…There’s no one here.” Lexxi’s eyes sweep the area, taking a few steps around to find some sort of life or anybody else at all, but there’s nobody to be found. They’re completely alone. “Should we take a look around and figure out what’s going on?”
“Do we want to?” Rickety says nervously, shuffling in place. “I mean… Just because there’s nobody here doesn’t mean there’s anybody else out there. Whole place gives me the creeps. It’s like somebody made a completely lifelike replica of Treasure Town, but forgot to add the people to it.”
“Or that everybody just got up and left at the same time.” Lexxi adds, her fur standing on end, tail twitching as it hangs up in the air, puffing out. “We’re not gonna find anything if we just sit around, though. We gotta move, whether we want to or not.”
“Right. Right yeah, gotta move.” Rickety gulps nervously, rubbing his head a bit. “Okay. Let’s- Let’s get going.”
The further the two walked away from the waterfall, the more imposing the complete and total silence became. No longer comforted by the sound of running water, the two were left in silence, only accompanied by the sound of their own breathing. Not even the wind was blowing. All of the shops were empty and unoccupied. They still seemed to be in stock, but nobody was at the helm.
Rickety’s eyes constantly dart back and forth, every step he takes leaving him feeling completely on edge, constantly looking behind him to check if anybody were following them. He has to take deep breaths to keep himself even remotely calm, his heart racing a mile a minute in his chest. “I hate this I hate this I freaking hate this.”
Snap!
The two of them suddely jump, fur standing on end as their eyes quickly dart to and fro trying to find the source. “Y-You hear that too, Lexxi?”
“Yeah… You didn’t step on anything, did you, Rickety?”
“No, did you?”
Lexxi shakes her head in response, trying to look around for the source… Further up, just down the road, they can see a Shinx walking along the path. There’s someone else here! If only they could feel any semblance of relief or excitement.
Rickety glances down at Lexxi, his body still shaking and trembling. “Okay, alright, someone else is here, what do we do?”
“M-Maybe we could call out to them? They could be friendly.”
“Yeah, but what if they’re not? What if they’re really dangerous?”
“Then we’ll deal with it! It’s only one Pokemon and the two of us, just like any other Mystery Dungeon we’ve been in.”
Rickety lets out a shaky sigh and nods in response, still tense. “Right, right, okay.” He turns towards the Shinx and begins to shout to them, jumping in place and waving his hands in the air. “Hey! Over there! Can you help us?!”
The Shinx immediately stops in its tracks as its big ears flick at the sound of Rickety’s voice. After that, it doesn’t seem to move. At all. It just stays locked in place as if it turned into a statue. Rickety and Lexxi share a confused glance with each other. “Maybe they’re just… Paralyzed in fear?” Lexxi suggests.
“I guess? It’s not like there’s anybody else here but us. Maybe they-“
And then without warning the Shinx suddenly and abruptly turns around and starts running towards them at rapid pace. Rickety and Lexxi feel their hearts skip a beat, stricken with an overwhelmingly intense feeling of fear and dread when they see the Shinx’s face.
Or rather, the lack thereof.
“MOVE!” They both shout to each other at the same time, just barely jumping out of the way as the faceless Shinx casts a thundershock as it slams its paws into the ground. It doesn’t take time to let itself recover, it just immediately goes back to trying to attack the two of them. Its movements are twitchy and unnatural, its head snapping practically instantly in Rickety’s direction.
The Shinx chases after Rickety persistently, winding its tail back before swinging it back and forth, unleashing a Swift attack, pelting Rickety with a barrage of tiny little stars that sends him crashing to the ground.
As the Shinx tries to catch up to Rickety, Lexxi slams her tail against the back of its head with impeccable force, sending it too crashing to the ground, and it skidding through the grass. Its body twitches some more before it eventually goes limp.
Taking a moment to recover, Lexxi offers Rickety grab ahold of her tail, pulling him to help him back up onto his feet. “You okay?”
“I-I think so…” Rickety stammers, his breaths incredibly shaky. “W-What the heck was that? What’s going on here?!”
“Look, we’ll… We’ll figure this out, somehow. Let’s just- Let’s just try to figure out what’s going on. Time- Time’s been acting strange, has anybody else mentioned anything like this happening along with anything else?”
Rickety shakes his head. “Not that I can think of, no. I-It’d make sense if this is why Pokemon keep disappearing, though…” Rickety suddenly looks more tense than before, worry crossing his face. “I-I don’t wanna be stuck here, Lexxi! There’s gotta be a way out somewhere!”
“We don’t even know where to look, though! We-” She pauses. A familiar sensation washes over her. “W-We don’t… Nnnhh…” She stumbles back a bit, eyes scrunching shut.
“L-Lexxi?!” Rickety quickly rushes over to her, doing her best to keep her still. “What’s happening?!”
“F-Feeling another… Dizzy spell hitting…”
Her mind blanks for a moment, everything goes white, another vision fades into view.
She sees a Shinx and a Totodile. The two of them seem to be arguing. The surrounding area is a bit blurry, but she thinks she recognizes it. Big torches, unlit, chests scattered across the room, a giant mural of Wigglytuff painted onto the wall. The wall itself seems fuzzy, its surface rippling.
“What do you mean you’re not coming with?!”
“Trent, how do we know that’s the way out, huh? For all we know it could just lead us another layer deeper into this mess!”
“It’s the only chance we have and you’re telling me you’re not gonna take it?!”
“There’s gotta be a better alternative than going through a WALL! If you wanna take that chance, feel free! But I’m gonna try and find a different way out!
“Hmph. Fine. Suit yourself, Rex.” The Totodile leans in close to the wall and his hand seems to phase through it as if it isn’t there. He takes a brief step back and jumps right through it.
The Shinx, huffing, turns around and walks out through the Guildmaster’s door. He’s about to climb the ladder to the way out, but just as he’s about to climb out, he notices a faceless Charmander running straight at him.
The vision fades.
Lexxi gasps as she’s pulled from the vision, her mind reeling as she scrunches her eyes shut. Her head is pounding a lot more than the last few times this has happened, her body trembling a bit from the pain as she breathes heavily. “Urrghhh…”
“Rickety looks down at her, keeping ahold of her for a little while longer. “What’d you see this time?”
Lexxi look up at Rickety as she stumbles out of his arms, regaining her balance. “W-We need to get the guild! There should be an exit through Wigglytuff’s chambers! We need to go through the wall!”
Rickety blinks. “I’m not even sure how that correlates but I’ll take it.”
“It makes sense in context… I think.” Lexxi’s ears flick as she hears some kind of… Sizzling sound. Her gaze turns back to the Shinx she’d knocked out, only to yelp in fear as she sees its body disintegrating before her eyes. Its particle fade into nothing until eventually, it’s gone, as if it never existed.
Rickety’s body tenses, his sense of unease creeping in once again. “It’s, uh… It’s gone, isn’t it? Don’t have to, uh, worry about it anymore, o-on the bright side, at least…” He shakes his head and takes a deep breath, trying to get ahold of himself.
Something catches his attention in the corner of his eye. Glancing towards the mountainside, he spots two other Pokemon standing completely still as they face in their direction. A Pikachu and a Torchic. Their faces too are completely absent, though he could still feel their piercing gazes pointed directly at them.
“Let’s get a move-on before we attract any more company.”
As the two begin to make their way back through the ghostly version of Treasure Town, more faceless Pokemon begin to crop up. Squirtles and Mudkips slowly tread in the waters, Bulbasaurs and Chikoritas wander aimlessly in the grass. They all seem to be directionless, walking and moving without any rhyme or reason- At least, that’s what it seems, but every now and again, they’ll catch a few Pokemon standing completely still, their faceless features following their every move.
Rickety and Lexxi tread carefully, being absolutely careful not to make any sudden loud noises or movements.
“Are they not inherently hostile?” Lexxi whisper to Rickety, keeping her voice on the downlow.
“Maybe they only attack if they’re provoked. The Shinx didn’t seem to notice us or care about us until I started shouting at it.”
The faceless Pokemon continue to linger their gazes on the duo, some of them even turning to follow them as the two of them spoke. None of them take any steps closer or make any attempt to fight or follow them, though. They seem to simply let them be. For now, anyway.
As they finally make it to the entrance to Wigglytuff’s Guild, they notice the amount of faceless Pokemon seems to have decreased in number. There are very few at the entrance, only a Vulpix and a Meowth. Neither of them seem to take note of Lexxi or Rickety.
The torches aren’t lit, the wood once used to light them having long since decayed and rotted beyond recognizeable measure. The door’s wide open.
The two walk over the grate and make their way inside, Rickety kneeling down and allowing Lexxi to hold onto his back. He descends down the ladder. It’s a little more creaky than it’s supposed to, but it should be-
CRACK!
One of the steps breaks and it causes Rickety to lose his grip. “Waaaahh!” He falls onto his back, smushing Lexxi a bit, body squishing underneath him.
“Mmnnffrkiyyy… Mnnbloy fffoff?”
“S-Sorry Lexxi!” He quickly rolls off of her and helps her back onto her fours. The Guild is equally empty and as equally quiet as when they first woke up in Treasure Town. But it doesn’t stay that way for long.
The sound of the ladder breaking seems to have captured the attention of the Pokemon outside, and they can hear the rapid, frantic footsteps of all of them approaching.
“Uh- Okay come on! We don’t have any time to climb down, let’s just jump down!” Rickety stammers. Before Lexxi can protest, Rickety scoops her up into his arms again and hops down the hole to the lower floor. His knees buckle a little bit as he lands, but he seems to be fine. Looking up through the hole, he can see the blank faces of a Munchlax and a Bulbasaur staring down at the two of them.
“The door’s right there! We’re almost out!”
“R-Right!” Tearing his gaze away from the Pokemon, Rickety makes a mad dash for the Guildmaster’s door. He breaks right through, hearing the scampering of the Pokemon behind him ready to strike. He doesn’t even hesitate, just jumping straight into the wall and hoping for the best as he holds onto Lexxi tightly.
The two lay there, motionless on the ground after- Well, having jumped through a wall in blind faith. Can’t say that’s something you do every day.
“Burrrghghh… Lexxi, did we make it?”
“Mmnnfffhnnfff.” Lexxi muffles out, face still buried in rocky ground. She lifts her head up, staring ahead at a Shellos, who also seems to be staring back at them.
Staring back at them. With eyes- And a face! Lexxi chuckles weakly, letting herself go limp as the Shellos slithers away. “We made it, we’re freeeeeeeeeeee.”
Rickety lets out a long sigh of relief, laughing weakly to himself. “I’m really looking forward to not being able to sleep tonight.” He groans as he gets back on his feet, brushing bits of his fur out of his face as he takes in the surrounding area. “But where the heck are we now? This isn’t Mount Bristle.”
Lexxi pushes herself back onto her fours, glancing around. She reaches for the Wonder Map, squinting at it. “I dunno… Doesn’t look like any place I can immediately think of. Let’s just try to find a way out of here.”
After some time wandering, the two eventually find a place unlike anything they’d ever seen before. A giant open cave area covered in gemstones growing out from the ground. And at the very end of the room, a giant purple gem wedged between a rock and a hard place. Literally.
“On one hand,” Rickety starts. “It’s a dead end. On the other, this almost makes for everything we had to get through to get here. Almost.”
“Well, where do we go from here, though? Do we just, go back?”
“Before we go back…” Rickety eyes the giant gem sitting at the end of the room. “Maybe we could bring that with us? I mean,” He shrugs. “We kinda weren’t able to complete any of our jobs and I’d rather we not get chewed out by Chatot when we get back, sooooo…”
Lexxi arches an eyebrow, glancing back at the gem. “Well, I suppose. May as well have something to bring back with us.” Lexxi walks over to the gem and wraps her tail around it as best as she can. “Hrrrrrrrrrrrrrgggghhhh!” She scrunches her eyes shut and tries her best to pull the gemstone out. “Ggrrhhkk… Won’t budge.”
“Really? Lemme try real quick.” Rickety allows Lexxi to step aside as he starts trying his best to pull.
…
There it is again.
That dizziness.
That fuzziness.
Lexxi can’t help it. Before she knows it, her vision goes blank again.
She can see the shadow of a tall Pokemon wandering into the room. Its shape looks familiar, but she can’t quite place it at the moment. The shadow walks up to the gem, and rather than trying to pull it out, it pushes the gem.
A clicking sound can be heard as the gem is pushed forward.
The cave begins to rumble, and soon enough, the shadow is swept away by an oncoming flood.
…Wait a minute, isn’t that Wigglytuff?
The vision fades.
Lexxi’s vision returns and she quickly faces Rickety, who’s still trying to pull the gem out.
“Grrrrghhhh! Uggh, sheesh, this thing is really wedged in tight. Hmm… Maybe if I just,”
BAD BAD BAD BAD BAD
“Rickety wait, no! Don’t-“
Click!
“Push it…”
“Huh?” Rickety glances back, then turns back to the gem, slowly pulling his paws away from it. “I just did something I wasn’t supposed to, didn’t I?” The cave begins to rumble loudly, knocking the both of them to the ground. “Yep! Definitely shouldn’t have done that!”
The two don’t have any time to run. By the time they manage to get back up, the flood is already approaching. Lexxi catches Rickety’s expression growing grim as he tuightly clenches his eyes shut and curls up in fear, the two of them being swept away by the tide.
The two of them are thrust out into the air, propelled by an intense force of water. This only goes on for so long, though, as when the water stops pouring, the two of them eventually fall down, making a big splash in a body of water.
“RBBGLAHBGHGBALHG- BUWWAAHHH! HEELLP! I CAN’T SWIM! I can’t-! I can’t-” Rickety bursts through the surface, initially panicking, but he falls still when he notices the gaze of at least half a dozen Pokemon all staring at him. Lexxi included, who was just floating on her back in the water. “…Swim.” Rickety’s cheeks flush a deep shade of red, casually lowering himself back down into the water in embarrassment.
“Are the two of you okay?” The Teddiursa asks, waddling toward them through the water. “The two of you just up and plopped down out of nowhere!”
“We’re fine, physically. Maybe not mentally and emotionally, though.” Lexxi says, still letting herself float on her back. “Can somebody tell us where we are? We’re a little lost, to put it lightly.”
“You’re in the Hot Springs, little ones.” The Torkal sitting atop one of the stony platforms says, a warm smile across his face. Possibly literally.
“Hot Springs?” Rickety and Lexxi say together, though in Rickety’s case, it sounds more like “Hrblglot Sprblingbls?”
“Of course. Many Pokemon often come to visit here to relax from their weariness and unwind. Do either of you have a map?”
“Yeah, we do, hold on.” Lexxi swims over to Rickety and opens the backpack, pulling out a rather soggy map as she holds it up to the Torkal.
“This here is the Hot Springs’ location.” The Torkal points it out on the map, Lexxi’s eyes following.
“That can’t be right. We were in Mount Bristle, up here.” She taps at the map a few times. The place was as dry as a bone, we couldn’t have gotten here from there.”
“Hmm… Perhaps the currents of the waterfall carried you, then:? It’s not too far from here.” Another tap on the map, revealing the waterfall that they’d supposedly came from.
“Really?” The Torkal inquires with a hint of confusion in his voice. “How peculiar… Either way, it seems like your journey has been quite the long one, if you’ve been everywhere you say you have. Why don’t you two go ahead and relax? Let the Hot Springs wash away your fatigue before you make your way home.”
Lexxi chuckles softly. “You have no idea how true that statement is. We’ll stick around for a while. Thanks a bunch.” As the Torkal nods and relaxes in his spot, Lexxi swims back over to Rickety, letting out a long, tired sigh. “I never thought I’d say anything like this, but I’m so glad to be surrounded by Pokemon with faces again.”
“Yblou’reblg tbleingbl- Hrkgbl!” Okay, he spent too long in the water. Rickety pokes his head back out, spitting any water that might’ve gotten into his mouth. “Bblaghk! You’re telling me. I thought we’d never make it out of there.”
Lexxi sighs as she lets herself drift a little. Gosh, the water is so warm, and nice. They REALLY needed this, badly. “Let’s just forget about whatever that was for a while. Could use a little R&R for a while. And I don’t think I’d mind staying here another hour or so.”
Rickety shuffles in the water a bit, before sighing and leaning back against the edge of the Hot Springs, just relaxing and letting himself cool down. Yeah. Might be best to just take it easy. Just let everything wash away.
At least the worst of it is over.
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