Dungeon 9 – Not all that shines: Part 1

A little Aron played in front of his house, bouncing a ball with his head. Despite being all alone, the Pokémon was having fun.

“Son! Playtime is over,” a female voice said, the Aron turning at her direction.

“Victoria, the boy has to play a little, it can’t be training all day…” another voice commented.

In front of him were two Pokémon; a Nidoking with a large smile on his face, and a female Aggron, who was just staring at the boy without any emotion at all.

“Father, Mother!” the little Aron said, approaching them.

“Atlas, it’s time for your training! Your father is too soft, I don’t know how he got this job…” she said, looking at the explorer’s crest on her chest.

“Clearly because I am good at it!” The Nidoking laughed, putting his hand on his gray belly.

“But I was going to call Napoleon to come here…” Atlas lowered his head.

Victoria grumbled in response. “That boy is a terrible influence on you, his father is addicted to gambling”.

“It’s okay…” His voice became weaker, he left the ball outside and entered the house before heading to the back of it, where his training area parents followed him in silence.

The boy reached the place, his parents going in right behind him. It was a wide room—the stone floor barely reflected the light coming from the sun. Atlas then went to the left end, waiting to see what his parents had planned for the training.

“Well, Atlas, today we will do things a little differently…” Victoria said, a slight smile on her face.

“Honey, I…” the Nidoking tried to talk.

“Quiet, Nate,” she said, snarling at the Nidoking. “The boy needs to face all sorts of difficulties if he’s going to become a decent explorer!”

“Alright… I’ll get him at the police station…” with a sigh, Nidoking left the place.

“Get who? At the police station?” the little Aron questioned, shaking his head.

“Today you’re going to have a practical class… but unlike the other times, you’re not going to face me or your father. We caught a criminal, he’s an Infernape and his name is… Wukong…”

---

The two Steel-type Pokémon waited for half an hour until Atlas’ father came back, bringing with him an Infernape, handcuffed and staring directly at Atlas with an evil grin.

“Is the deal we made still standing?” Wukong said, analyzing the place before looking at Victoria.

“Yes…” she then looked at her son. – this Infernape is a very famous bandit… he killed many Pokémon and we made a deal with him. You two will face each other and… your job is to knock him out, or he will kill you, do you understand?”

Hearing that, Aron widened his blue eyes. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. His own mother had made a bargain that could cause his death! Trembling with fear, he began to recoil slowly. His mother, seeing this, frowned, angry with the boy.

“If you give up without even trying, I’ll let him go immediately…”

“I… accept the challenge…” the boy said, swallowing dryly as he looked down.

The Nidoking known as Nate sighed, taking the cuffs off the Infernape. After being released, he smiled, his flames burning with more intensity than before. He then ran towards Atlas, his fist shining in a blue tone as he punched the Aron’s face with so much strength that the steel armor started to crack, throwing him against the wall.

“That’s it! Sorry kid, but Mach Punch is a move with priority…” he spoke, shaking his tail and smiling at the Aron.

Atlas stood up after the impact, but his vision was blurry, he could barely stand up. In his head dripped blood from Infernape’s blow. Even with all his injuries, he began to walk back slowly. It was a matter of life or death for the boy.

“Sorry, kid, but I don’t want to spend my life behind bars!” the monkey’s body was surrounded with flames, he ran to finish the child.

Atlas was paralyzed with fear, he didn’t know what to do. Ever since he was little, his parents made him go through intense training so that he could be like them. The boy had always imagined he had to fulfill their expectations, but not this time. Giving himself completely, he closed his eyes. For a few moments, he didn’t hear anything. Until a drill noise appeared in the air.

---

“Take this!” the voice came from Nidoking, his horn was spinning fast, he hit Infernape, which immediately fell to the ground, fainted.

“What do you think you are doing?” Victoria was screaming, snorting, and approaching her husband. “I said let it happen!”

“Are you an idiot by any chance, woman?! It’s one thing to train the Atlas, but it’s another to send him to his death since he’s 15 years old! Boys his age should have fun with friends, not go through situations like this!”

Aron sighed. On one hand, he was happy to survive that. On the other hand, he was worried about what his parents would do now. Such fights were already beginning to become common in the boy’s home.

“I’m sick of it… I’m sick of you!” Still snorting, the female Aggron left the place banging her feet on the ground so hard it was causing small tremors.

The Nidoking then turned to his son, looking at him firmly. Even if these Pokémon didn’t have eyebrows, he seemed to be tired of all the fights he had with his wife.

“Is Mommy leaving?” the boy said before falling to the ground, exhausted from the fight.

“I don’t know, but I’ll stay here with you… we have to take you to the hospital and… and leave Wukong in jail.”

“Alright…” nodding, Atlas thought about what was ahead. He had to be strong, for himself and for his father.

---

One day later, a Piplup was lying on a bed staring at the ceiling.. One of its eyes was swollen purple, but he kept it locked on the roof, not feeling well enough to do anything else.

“Napoleon! Your friend is here!” a male voice said and it was possible to hear the sound of the footsteps of its owner as he distanced himself.

“Atlas! You can come in!” the boy said in a loud voice, waiting for his friend.

The Aron entered his friend’s room in silence, looking directly at him. He had a band in his head from where his armor had cracked the day before.

“Hey, man.” the penguin said, sitting on his bed.

Atlas interrupted him “What happened to your eye? Was it your father again?”

“I ask the same about your face…” he said, staring at his friend’s bandages.

“My mother made me face a criminal and he almost killed me…” the boy said, his voice carrying a tone of sadness.

“A toast… to dysfunctional families…” Napoleon let out a sarcastic laugh, rolling his eyes.

“I wanted to do something away from them, do you want to walk around?”

“Oreshard is not exactly a big city, but I’ll take it. Anything to stay away from my crazy father!” he jumped out of bed.

---

After the kids left Piplup’s house, they began walking around the city. It was located in a mountainous region, with an old, abandoned mine near the end of the road. Most of the houses were made of metal, particularly steel. White ivory peaks towering over the rushing white streams falling into the abyss as the mountains were as tall as their eyes could see.

“You know, you’re the water type, and you still live in a place that has most of the steel, ground, or rock types.” Atlas said, giving him a laugh.

“Well, my evolution is part steel.” he said, shrugging.

“Ah, I want to show you where we are going today!” he pointed to a house on a hill, but unlike the others, it seemed bigger, like a mansion.

“Wait, are we going to break into the richest family’s house here?!” Napoleon questioned his friend, suddenly raising his voice..

“Honestly I just wanted to see what it’s like, to stay away from my family even if only for today?” he kept his head down.

“Curiosity killed the Meowth…” sighing, he walked next to Aron.

The walk along the hill was done in silence, Atlas had a lot to think about. His mother hadn’t come home yet after the last fight she had with Aron’s father and he was starting to worry.

“Hey, Atlas, will we get in?” The Piplup forced a smile, trying to bring up the subject with his friend.

“I wanted to at least take a look at this mansion… man, it must be nice to live in a place like that!”

---

When they arrived at the top, they saw that the house had a huge fence in front. A guard Pokémon standing in front of it, a Sandslash. However, it had a blue body with what appeared to be icicles on its back. Seeing that, Napoleon then ran towards them as fast as he could.

“What do you want, kids?” the blue Sandslash spoke, turning around to face them, his spikes emitting an icy noise.

“I’ve never seen a Sandslash like this before, where are you from?” the Piplup asked, his eyes shining with excitement.

“He’s from another continent… my parents told me some Pokémon have variations,” Atlas arrived, panting from all that walking.

“You did not answer my question. If you came to talk to this family, which I doubt considering you’re children, you’ll have to wait. They traveled.”

“We just wanted to see the place!” Aron spoke, walking away slowly.

“Then you already did. Get out of here! Before I throw you both out myself!”

“They are my guests,” the three of them heard a voice.

Behind the gate was a Pawniard, a teenager like the other two. He stared at the Sandslash, waiting for him to open the gate.

“O-Of course, Mr. Flint! Excuse my intrusion!” When he said that, he opened the door for the boys, who entered the place.

The garden they were in was wide, the house itself was still at the bottom and the place had an artificial lake. Waving to Atlas and Napoleon, Flint kept on walking, calling them. The two friends then followed the Pawniard.

“So, what brings you here? I’m used to having visitors, but never from Pokémon my age.”

“Ah, we just wanted to see what it was like here,” the Aron said, his face turning red with shame.

“Hm, you were going to get hurt pretty bad, that Sandslash isn’t usually what you would call nice… or has he already done that to you, Piplup?” he said pointing to Napoleon’s purple eye.

“Thanks for helping us and no, I was already with that from earlier today,” he sighed, he didn’t want to tell Pawniard the complete truth.

“Well, it was my pleasure. As I said, it’s rare to see Pokémon my age. My parents insist that I should deal only with ‘nobility’. My name is Flint, and yours?” he asked with a smile.

“I am Atlas.”

“Napoleon! I’m glad to meet you!” the penguin extended his fin to Flint.

“My parents are traveling, so I can see you until the day they return. Business trip, so it may take a while,” he greeted Piplup with a wave so as to not hurt him with his blades.

The newly formed trio of friends entered the residence, wanting to talk and get to know themselves better. For the rest of the day, they could forget about the family problems they had, relaxing and playing, like the teenagers they were.