Chapter 6: Flushed Scares
by dust_scoutThe four of us were trapped in the middle of a vortex of Frillish and Jellicents. The walls of said vortex were slowly closing in, all the while the sounds of eerie chanting hit our ears. Not even the water could muffle these voices.
Upon Lucy mentioning the term “Monster Nest,” I was both perplexed and frightened. “A Monster Nest? Here?!?” I blurted out.
Kalea anxiously looked back at me and fledgling. “What? Lucy, how do you know about that?”
Unfortunately, we had no time to figure out what the youngling meant. As one of the Frillish charged at her from the tornado of floaters.
Kalea swung her tail with a series of three cold strikes on the Frillish (a Triple Axel), knocking it back to the edge of the twister.
It wasn’t long before some of the smaller fry followed suit and charged at the four of us. Kalea and Otto were holding their own with their own strikes. However, the sheer number of them was also overwhelming them. Several of them managed to sting and run. Even still, Lucy and I on the other hand were fairing far worse.
Lucy pulled me around, dodging the Frillish assaults that came our way. She tried to use what probably was a Gust attack, but it only merely pushed away the incoming ferals harmlessly.
The lack of significant damage frustrated me. I almost readied a hand for Thunderbolt, when Lucy stopped me with a desperate “No!”
I nearly forgot the reason why I let Grapploct take the charge stones. But then, I realized I was in trouble. I had my Electric attacks, Rain Dance, Mega Punch, and Scratch. If I couldn’t use Electric attacks, I was effectively dead-weight with no way of fighting these Ghost-Types.
To make matters worse, One of the Frillishes sharply swam by and popped my Bubble Shield with no warning. I was forced to let go of Lucy in a panic, accidentally separating myself from the moving fledgling.
Lucy immediately noticed her lightened movement and turned around with a panicked expression.
Before I had a chance to renew my bubble shield, my right arm was wrapped and stung fiercely by several Frillishes at once. The stings themselves burned like acid. I winced and growled under my limited breath as they started dragging me toward the wall of the Frillish twister.
“Brother!” the youngling cried trying to reach me. However, she got hit by a couple of stray attacks that forced her back.
I resorted to shaking my arm viciously in order to disorient the wild Frillishes or maybe force them to loosen the grip of veil-like tentacles. Unfortunately, this effort only invited an obsessive and most unwelcome stare from the ferals. The constant chanting was almost made louder just looking at the horror.
Before long, my other limbs were caught, legs, neck, and all. I was helpless, I couldn’t fight back with anything except the survival of resistance and keep a tight grip on the wallet in my left hand. For the first time in forever, I felt powerless and I hated every bit of it.
Some Jellicents in the crowd then struck with tentacles of their own. I felt my life force ebbing away despite my desperate struggle. The ferals pulled me closer and closer to the bottom of the twister. The feeling of the stings were lessening. The desperate screams of anguish from Lucy were deafened by the feral chanting. I knew I was getting close to death. I needed to spark, but I couldn’t. My consciousness pulled itself back. I lost control.
(I needed to spark. Just a small one…anything! I had that desperate thought. And somehow…I fired it off.)
A shock spread out from my body, and my consciousness shot back into perspective. I felt pain all over, but no pulling forces. In fact, I was up and away from the wall somehow. Or the wall opened up? (“Did I do that?”)
The wallet slipped out of my paw, spilling out the contents in front of me.
I hastily tried to grab the spilled items as my breath ran very low. I only managed to grab six of the remaining seeds when a stray Frillish charged at me once more.
Lucy slapped the feral with a hardened wing, a Steel Wing attack. (“Oh good, she actually knows how to defend herself. Would have been nice to know sooner.”)
I took the chance to renew my Bubble Shield. I coughed out some water as the bubble formed. “That…ack!…That was…too close! Thanks.”
Lucy was evidently confused, but it was clear that she had no time to think about it or the sting marks on her wings. She slapped another incoming Frillish.
I glanced below in time to see wallet and the rest of the seeds disappear within the twister below. So I tucked all of the seeds into my fur.
It was at this point Kalea swam up near us with a large glowing sphere in her flippers.
The sphere shined and scattered many fast shards of light all around us. The shards, for what they lacked in strength, more than made up for in numbers.
Eventually, the ever-closing wall of the twister was pushed back until the whole movement of the nest was disrupted.
The Jellicents and Frillishes bumped into each other when a chunk of them hit the actual wall of the dungeon. Once done, the real structure of the room was revealed. It was a large cylindrical hub filled to the brim with broken pipes. Several large pipes ran through the area, some of which barely held themselves together at their fragile openings.
Lucy glanced at one of the tunnels toward the bottom edge of our view and pointed. “There! That way!”
I tried to swim, but my drained body could barely cooperate. My movements were far too slow.
Thankfully, Lucy was quick to notice and got close. I grabbed on and the youngling immediately made haste for the tunnel. I was in no condition to fight at the moment.
Kalea and Otto swam ahead, quickly pushing away any nearby ferals in the way with Energy Ball and Octozooka respectively.
In time, we made our way into the tunnel as the hoard chased us. There was no time to think about where we were going. It was just hang on, swim, don’t look back, and pray we didn’t hit a dead end.
I held on tight as the corridors went by. Each turn threatened to tear me away from Lucy again. After a few turns, I held my paws together and let my claws practically pierce through them.
The only sounds that met my ears, apart from the water we rushed by, were my heavy breathing and the chilling cries of the feral horde behind us. (In some ways, these cries seemed more like screams of terror. However, no amount of curiosity was worth any forced attempt to look back.) The sound of missed Hex attacks certainly made me hang on tighter.
At one of the hallways, we ran into a group of Haunters, accompanied by some Ghastly.
We promptly turned around and swam the other way, narrowly dodging incoming attacks from the Jellicent horde.
On the way through one particular corridor, we found ourselves running straight into a series of closely-arranged pipes. We were effectively cornered.
“Kalea, we’re punching through!” Otto shouted.
The Primarina clearly wanted to protest, but there was no time for debate.
With no further delay, Kelea grabbed onto Otto and used what looked like Aqua Jet to speed ahead. The Fighting-Type twisted his right arms and prepared a powerful punch.
Just before reaching the area, Kalea launched Otto forward with a Water Gun.
A loud scream could be heard from the Fighting-Type as he punched in a large gap within the pipe set. With a new gap, the retainers made their way into the next room, while Lucy and I dashed through the narrow gap.
On the way out though, Lucy partially tripped over a low standing pipe, throwing us off-balance in the process.
As Lucy and I entered the small room, the retainers were already showing where to go next. However, that’s when an unfortunate attack happened.
A stream of bubbles and a dark glow appeared from within my fur. It was enough to slightly loosen my grip. One of the Breather Seeds moved forward on its own, as if possessed.
In the next moment, the seed exploded. Though the blast was harmless, it forced Lucy and I apart as we made the turn.
I glanced over to the horde for a moment and saw a nearby Jellicent giving off an odd aura. (It might have been the one to do the deed. It was hard to tell.) Just after, a force of sorts pulled me back from behind. I was unsure if it was a current or something else. Either way, I reached out desperately in my vulnerable state.
The others watched in shock as the force suddenly ripped me out of the room and into darkness.
I kept moving, faster and faster until I hit a wall. Then I was pulled downward and then sideways, all while unable to see where I was going. Wall after wall, I was pulled in far too many directions to count. Within mere moments, my bubble shield shattered, leaving me at the mercy of this unfortunate circumstance.
Catacomb Expressway:
???
After numerous turns and twists, the darkness spat me in a spiral, completely disoriented until I made a hard stop on a wall. The abrupt stop made me dizzy.
I hit the ground woozily. I still knew I was drowning, but I couldn’t tell what was what. (There was a Breather Seed near the paws, but everything was all divided and blurry. There were some failed attempts in grabbing it.)
Eventually, I grabbed and bit into the seed, allowing the shield to relieve me of breathing troubles.
My heavy breaths forced me to stay put, unable to move much.
After a while I noticed red in the nearby water around me. I glanced around until I saw cuts all over my right side. My paws, my leg, and even my shoulder had at least a couple of cuts. I even felt a sharp and burning pain at the back of my head. I didn’t dare try to find out what it was.
Further inspection showed that I tumbled out of one the pipes above, which was sealed by an old and brittle metal grate.
I waited for a little longer, expecting Lucy and the others to follow. I decided to check how many seeds I had left.
Unfortunately, it seemed like my tumbling trip caused me to lose a few more seeds. In general, I could only find one within my tufts of fur. One Breather Seed remained.
I had to make both my breaths count. (“You gotta be kidding me. I better find an air pocket and fast. Or better yet the seeds”)
After putting away the seed, I attempted to look around. But before I had a chance to search, I heard an attack coming my way.
I kicked off the ground and dodged the blast. The source of the attack was a Ghastly.
“Oh come on!” I remarked with gritted teeth, “Can’t I have a break?”
I wasted no time swimming away as fast as I could. My breathing intensified with each stroke and kick, unsure if the next would be my last. No, I had to survive. It would be too pathetic to lose now. I had too many unanswered questions.
During this “chase” through the corridor, the Ghastly was laughing at me. It clearly caught up to me and just reveled in my panicked misery. (It even went as far as to fall behind on purpose before catching back up…a few times.)
As I rushed into a new room, I saw a wavy aqua-blue wand on the ground. My mind was racing too fast to know what it was, but if it could affect the feral mockingly trailing behind me in some way, I figured I should take it.
So I quickly swam to the wand and grabbed it. I turned around to face the laughing ghoul. (“Point and shoot, point and shoot.”)
The water made it a little hard, but I waved the wand at the Ghastly nevertheless. The wand shot a small sphere at the feral afterwards.
Upon impact, a powerful current pushed the Ghost-Type back hard into the corridor it came from and far, far away at that. The wand deteriorated soon after.
“O-Okay…that was fine I guess,” I muttered under panting breath, “B-Better…move before the ghost comes back.”
With a new survival mindset in mind, I continued to cautiously swim through the dark corridors alone, unsure of where to go next. I tried to steady my breathing as I swam low to the ground, only sprinting when necessary. There was no way I was letting my breath and stamina run out at an inopportune time.
It was a painfully slow process wading through the waters like this. The heat from my breaths did not help either.
I eventually made way to a room that seemed empty until I heard an odd click. “…Crud.” I was suddenly forced upward before feeling a weightless sensation. (Good old Warp Traps at their finest, I still hate them.)
After a few short moments, I found myself spinning within an unfamiliar room. Once I regained control of myself, it wasn’t long before the unfair odds got even worse as a plethora of Ghost- and Water-Types appeared. (Oh yeah, a Monster House!)
“Oh great! Dumb old jerks beget even more dumb old jerks! Come on, world! Can it get any worse from here?”
Nothing else happened, other than some exchanged confused glances from among the crowd of ferals. “No? That’s it? Good!”
Several ferals charged at me with Tackles. I barely managed to move the bubble shield out of harm’s way, but my legs were not spared from getting grazed. A couple of Hex attacks also managed to hit some sour spots. I flinched from the pain as the crowd moved closer.
A thought came across my mind as I caught my breath. I wondered to myself out loud, “Wait, since Lucy and the others aren’t around, of course. What’s holding me back?” (“Stamina? That could be regained but what if-”) I shook my head adamantly. I had to try it. It was my best shot after all.
With no fear of friendly fire, I let loose with as many sparks as I could spare. With a big charge and a deep breath, I vented out my sheer frustration with a strong Discharge.
The blast enveloped the whole room, completely electrifying the water in the process. The electricity might have even hit through several corridors and rooms. Regardless, every wild pokemon in the room was either thoroughly knocked out, or in the case of living Water-Types, most certainly dead.
I was more than ecstatic until I noticed the bubble shield was gone. It was a good thing I took a deep breath beforehand. It was fair to assume that any of my Electric-Type attacks could easily pop the bubble shield from Breather Seeds. Perhaps it was because this breathing mechanism wasn’t designed with combat in mind or something like that.
I shrugged and grabbed the last seed. However, something was wrong, very wrong. The texture of the seed wasn’t quite right; it didn’t feel nearly as bulbous as before. If anything, it was…powdery.
My eyes widened as I took it out. The seed lost its shape and was smoking. It was charred and in mere moments, the seed fell apart in front of my eyes.
I briefly blew out some breath in a panic. (“AHHHHH! Now you’ve done it! Freaking move! Go! Go! Gooooo!”)
Without much thought, I began to swim quickly, searching for something, anything that could give me some air. A Breather seed, an air pocket, a pipe that was blowing bubbles, who cared at this point? I was dead feral meat if I didn’t get moving right away.
(My panicking self rushed through the next set of corridors with desperation, not caring about wounds or stamina.) My breath was only gonna get hotter with each moment wasted.
Nothing here, nothing there until I entered a peculiar room. It was a small room with a couple of exits and a pit at the center. Sadly, it wasn’t like the other floor exits with a whirlpool. So it was definitely not an exit. All of those features paled in comparison to the light shining from a tunnel on the ceiling.
I blew air from my nose, hoping that it would keep myself calm. (It didn’t really help too much.) With determination, I promptly kicked from the ground and gladly swam up. Once I reached the light…I realized the light was just some lamp.
My hope quickly turned into despair just as a chain wrapped itself around my leg. The chain quickly pulled me down from the ceiling.
Looking down, the source was a Dhelmise, an anchor-shaped pokemon that could drag its targets down with its Anchor Shot attack.
The wild pokemon forced me back down the tunnel. Despite my efforts to cling onto the wall with Scratch, the Dhelmise pulled me out of the tunnel.
I landed hard on the ground with a thud, nearly making me lose my breath in the process. The strain of holding my breath was starting to kick in at this point.
Before I knew it, the blasted anchor jumped into the pit, pulling at the chain and dragging me toward the pit in the process.
I grabbed onto a nearby pipe as the chain pulled at my leg. I clenched my teeth to hold back the pain and prevent my breath from dwindling faster. (And it only made it so much worse.)
As if it couldn’t get worse, a Misdreavus appeared before me.
With a chuckle, it started firing Psybeams at the pipe I was holding onto. Though the pipe managed to hold up, I felt it starting to loosen up.
With no way to fire off a Discharge, I resorted to a Thunder attack instead.
The attack unfortunately exploded where it fired from, making everything brighter. Unfortunately, it didn’t help very much. My breath was already strained enough as is.
I nearly lost my grip as the pipe shook even more. The chain pulled on my leg even harder in response. The Dhelmise must have noticed my resistance.
As for the Misdreavus, it was hit by the unintended blast. I wished I could have followed up with another attack, but I was holding on by my fingers at that point.
Now hanging on with both hands (sort of) and dealing with the strain on my chained leg, there was nothing I could really do to stop whatever happened next.
The Ghost-Type finally shook off the shock before firing a strong Hex attack at me.
The attack obviously landed a solid hit, knocking me away from the pipes and rendering me completely defenseless against Dhelmise’s pull.
Blowing out more of my breath, I slid against the ground, clawing at it and hoping to find anything else to grip. It was no use.
In mere moments, I was pulled into the dark pit.
I couldn’t muster enough strength for another Thunder attack, so I resorted to trying a Thunderbolt.
Unfortunately, I only managed to let loose a Thundershock. Not that it mattered much anyways.
The attack once again scattered and blew up in my face. (Sure, the electricity still hit the feral, thanks to both the chain and the waters. Too bad, there was very little effect it seemed.)
I tried to Scratch desperately at the chain, but to no avail. Of course it was a Ghost-Type.
My breath was starting to run low and I could feel the heat in my chest. I reached upward from the pit’s darkness, hoping someone, anyone would see me.
That was when a shadow swam into the pit. It went past me and slammed into the Dhelmise with a fierce flurry of attacks.
This caused the feral to loosen its grip and set me free.
Unfortunately, I could barely swim due to the inflicted strain on my leg.
At that point, the shadow then grabbed and pulled me out of the pit. It was Lucy.
She immediately propped me on top of herself. “Good gosh! Hang on!”
I held on tightly with barely any breath left as the fledgling dashed through the corridors with no sign of slowing down.
The turns were fast and rough. The sound of the water soon became inaudible, deafened by the sound of her beating heart. It was fast, incredibly fast.
I held my hands tightly and shut my eyes, solely focused on maintaining my breath. I was out of air to spare for blowing out and reliving my chest. As much as I hated to admit it, my life was in her hands now, again.
After a short while, I couldn’t take it anymore. The heat, strain, I couldn’t hold it any longer. And so my body let its breath go.
Just then, the weight of the water was lifted. That only meant one thing. Air!
Catacomb Expressway:
Some Abandoned Dock
There was air all around me, I immediately gasped and coughed. The overwhelming sensation caused me to fall off of Lucy and onto the ground.
There, I had a coughing fit, desperate to breath in air and get water out of my system. This lasted a while until my breathing slowly, but surely steadied itself.
Once done, I laid on my back and opened my eyes. There wasn’t very much light here since I could barely see the ceiling. Glancing around, I found out we were in some kind of station of sorts, with broken benches and debris scattered about. Parts of the area seemed to be caved-in as well.
Sadly, I could barely keep my eyes open. I felt tired…oh so tired. I needed to rest. My eyes dropped shut.
I eventually heard breaths beside my own after what seemed to be too much time. The source had to be Lucy, who was evidently exhausted from the sprint she did just to get me here.
I was…grateful. She saved my life. I was still annoyed at her antics, but when things got serious she (somehow) maintained a level head.
This left me wondering. If she was like this, then why did she just panic and make things worse when we first met? There was something off about her, it’s too sudden. But what? (Either way, she was yet another mystery to add to the list.)
Once I got enough strength, I shakily muttered to her, “Th-Thanks…”
The fledgling opened her eyes and smiled. “Y-Yeah. Don’t mention it.”
We just laid there for a long while until more splashes sounded out, a pair of them.
Kalea’s voice sounded from nearby. “Lucy, Zera!” The Primarina rushed over. “Lucy, are you-”
“I’m fine,” the fledgling interjected, “but Zera, he needs help, bad.”
I opened my eyes as the Water-Type turned around and noticed my injuries, “Oh gosh, no kidding. Hang in there.”
The Water-Type propped me up onto some nearby rubble and began some kind of operation. She then created a small, jelly-like light and touched one of my wounds with it.
Upon contact, I felt a sting before relief came over me. My cut slowly repaired itself, making it so the injury never happened. She then moved onto the next cut. I winced at the sting this time.
“Stay still,” Kalea said sternly, “I’m trying to disinfect and heal those wounds right now. The more you move, the more it’ll hurt.”
One by one, the Primarina slowly healed up my wounds mostly, including the cuts on my head. I still felt a bit drained, but it was at least a refresher from my sorry state earlier. As for the Frillish stings, much of the venom was diluted, but it still spread into my body and for far longer too.
As Kalea put it, we all needed some Pecha Berries. Though, Lucy and the others seemed well, I could see sting marks on the limbs. We were lucky, way too lucky.
After I had mostly recovered, I had to ask, “Kalea, what was that?”
“A combination of Life-Dew and Sparkling Aria,” the retainer answered, now giving Lucy some healing.
Something didn’t add up, that was five moves in total, including the Aqua Jet, Energy Ball, and Water Gun. “Wait a second, that means.”
Otto raised a brow. “Means what?”
“That would mean you guys can use Techs too,” I concluded.
The retainers glanced at one another before nodding to me.
Techs were a forbidden form of technique. Most pokemon can only use four moves at a time, forgetting one move in exchange for a new one. So everyone generally calls this phenomenon the Four-Move Rule.
Techs however, are of a different category. With the right utilization, it could lead to pokemon using techniques that are considered highly unnatural to them. Whether it would be a non-Water Grass-Type using something like Brine, an Electric-Type using Razor Leaf, or in an extreme hypothetical case, a Water-Type using Flamethrower.
Us Legendary Pokemon can more easily wield this type of power, mostly for having an arsenal of natural techniques we could fall back on, such as my Plasma Fists, Lugia’s Aeroblast attack, or Entei’s flames.
(However, I abused Techs. In fact, I’m among the reasons why the teaching of these abilities was abruptly stopped and made forbidden, even among us legendaries.)
I felt furious and confused upon learning about these retainers’ abilities. After thinking about it, it all clicked in my mind. (“How else did Itallo use Flamethrower using a Grapploct body? No wonder…”) Still, the thought left me terrified at the consequences. Even before they were banned, the higher-ups were particularly harsh to anyone that dared divulge any information to the existence of Techs at all.
(“What’s Lugia thinking? Doesn’t he already know the risks of doing…this?”) I didn’t understand. I wasn’t sure if it was to arm these folks with an extra means of defending the youngling or, more likely, he taught them some time before the new specific terms for banning Techs came to be.
While we all rested up, Lucy, and by proxy me, got an earful from Kalea. It was a typical lecture for younglings. Why one shouldn’t wander off, the fact the catacombs were dangerous, how the dungeon endangered my life multiple times, it was all sorts of typical guardian stuff.
I barely paid attention to the whole lecture and was more focused on resting. (It was really just sleeping.)
The sound of Otto’s voice caught my attention. My eyes opened up to see everyone else standing up.
I blinked for a moment. “Oh…I guess I was worn out.” I sat up, preparing to stand.
“You sure you want to get up?” the Grapploct asked with concern, “Those last few floors did a number on you.”
I ignored the question and got up anyway. After some stretching, I realized how cramped up I was. “Ah! Oh man, I forgot I didn’t stretch before doing this. Oh gosh…”
“Alright brother,” Lucy said. “Now that you’re done being a Komala, maybe we can get going?”
“I was resting my eyes, not sleeping,” I remarked.
“Sure, whatever you say, mister,” the fledgling responded, skipping up some stairs.
I shrugged before following the youngling and the retainers.
We climbed up the stairs and felt a familiar sensation.
After more stairs, we started hearing noise from the darkness. Before long, we entered a dark and run down shack. There was nothing here but old junk. Rotten trash, dust, and mold. We all winced at the odor this place gave off.
Grapploct opened the door and exited, with everyone else following.
On my way out, I noticed a particular book with a newspaper of sorts. I checked it out briefly. The headline said the following:
“100 Years Since Rift Calamity Collapsed Old Expressway Tunnels: Memorial For the Lives Lost”
Before I could read more, Lucy called out, “Brother, come on!”
“Yeah, yeah” I answered. I put down the article and glanced at the tunnel. Afterwards, I followed the others outside.
Fragment of Knowledge:
Monster Nest:
This rare variant of the Monster House is, hence the name, more akin to homes or nests of wild pokemon in mystery dungeons. Unlike Monster Houses, these places don’t just randomly appear as an ambush spot, but rather an abode of sorts. A nest will typically house hundreds of wild pokemon. Any unfortunate adventurer or group of adventurers that wanders into a nest would very likely be met with extremely volatile hostility resulting in discomfort, scars, or in almost all cases…casualties.
Special Thanks to TheSnapDragon for providing feedback and beta reading.
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