PKMN-A A Mystery of Mines

“Go Adelram, go Drika!” Connor threw out two pokeballs and summoned his Larvitar and Sandygast. Other trainers in the cavern were summoning their own escorts and heading into the vast network of tunnels as well, and Connor didn’t want to be one of the last groups in. “Do you have any ideas which tunnel we should pick Keres?”

Keres gave a heavy sigh, already regretting coming when the Professor called them--she really wasn’t one for trekking through caves. Glancing at Connor, she tossed out two pokeballs, as well. Her impish Misdreavus starter, Morrigan, and her newest addition to the team, Mycena--a glowing Echo Variant of Petilil. Caves tended to be dark, so having a living nightlight seemed like a safe bet. “Hmmmm...” She looked around at the various groups going into different paths and made a face. Finally seeing one that no one else seemed keen to go down, Keres gestured towards it. “Let’s start that way--I don’t want to deal with anyone else getting into our way as we go.” She gave him a grin and mock bowed, “Would the brave Bug Boy like to go first?”

Morrigan gave a small laugh as the little ghost pokemon flew over to orbit around the young man’s head. Meanwhile, Keres picked Mycena and put it on her shoulder. “Lili!” The little pokemon chirped, snuggling a leaf-covered head against its’ trainers face and trilling in happiness.

“A glowing pokemon, what a smart idea!” Connor smiled and reached out to pet the ghost orbiting him. Drika began to flow up his legs and arm to get in the way, annoyed that he was paying attention to a different ghost type. “And I’m not actually using any bugs right now. Alderam! Lead the way! Hit anything that moves!” The Larvitar strolled forward, quite comfortable in the gloom of the caves, and he kicked aside debris as went. Connor followed behind, looking every which way, the light of his headlamp illuminating whatever he looked at. Drika was mostly amassed on his back, trying to form armor between him and Morrigan.

The 6 of them descended into the dark of the tunnel, Connor humming softly and admiring Mycena’s light. “Do you have any ideas on how to get Drika to be friendly?” With one hand he was stroking the Sandygast, thankful that she had learned to stay out of his clothes when she clung to him.

Keres gave a side-ways grin at him, gently petting the dark-type Petilil as she nodded. “It is quite nice for dark places--and gives an amusingly eerie light, hehe.” The Petilil chirped again, moving its mushroom stalks around in the air happily.

Meanwhile, Morrigan was flitting around Drika, giggling maniacally as she tried to harass the Sandygast. She kept flying around to areas of Connor that weren’t covered by the sandcastle pokemon--constantly keeping her moving for her amusement.

Keres rolled her eyes and sighed at her starter, shaking her head. “Honestly? I doubt there is anything you can do to make her more friendly. It seems like she specifically has issues with other Ghost types--but that could also just be because Morrigan is a menace.” She skewered her pokemon with a pointed look--causing the small blue and pink pokemon to float over and nuzzle her hair--before returning to harass Drika more.

Connor giggled, and put his hand in front of one of Drika’s tendrils before it could poke the Misdreavus again. “She’s always had a problem with ghost types, you're right. Bad experience with a Haunter. Remind me to tell you about it sometime.”

Keres gave Connor a ‘See what I mean?’ look, before sighing and looking around the cave tunnel they were in. Suddenly, she felt a chill run up her spine, and stopped suddenly, looking around them. “Hm...” There was an odd rumbling noise--she couldn’t quite place where it was coming from. “Do you hear that?”

Connor looked around, saw nothing, and closed his eyes to focus on hearing. “It sounds like fighting? I think it’s in a tunnel above us?” His eyes snapped open. “Drika, rise and support!” The Sandygast flowed upward quickly, messing up his headband in the process. She spread her body across the ceiling above them, and immediately began hissing. Parts of her were darkening, getting stronger as they absorbed water, which there shouldn’t be in a dry underground tunnel.

“I think the ceiling is about to-” He was interrupted by a cracking sound above him, and Drika started to wail. “Run!” Connor took off down the tunnel, scooping up the confused Larvitar as he went.

“Shit-” Keres dives forward--a giant pile of rocks landing a hairbreadth behind her--narrowingly avoiding being crushed. Mycena whimpered, its mushrooms wrapping around her throat to keep from falling. Keres grimaced, dragging herself up from the ground as fast as she could as rocks continued to rain down around them--accompanied by a flood of water. She ran after Connor, trying to ignore the sharp pain lancing through her knee with each and every step.

Morrigan, knowing this was trouble, flew over to her trainer and let herself be cradled in Keres’s arms as the green-haired girl struggled to splash through the now waist-high water. “What do we do?!” She had just reached Connor when she let out a scream of pain--strong sharp teeth latching around her already injured calf.

Conor spun on the wet stone at the sound of his friend’s scream. A pokemon was latched onto her ankle. In a panic, he threw something at it. In even more of a panic, he realized he had just thrown a rock/ground type pokemon at a water type pokemon. “Ah, tackle! Dri, engulf then harden!” Frantically he looked about, realizing that he didn’t even know if Drika was still ok. But the Sandygast seemed to be thriving in the wet environment. Adelram headbutted the large fish, and Drika immediately started to flow into its mouth, spreading wide and forcing it open.

Morrigan used Confusion on the Mutant Barraskewda, trying to help free her trainer as well.

It was some sort of mutated Barraskewda, and Connor wished it had only skewered Keres’ leg instead of biting her, it would have been better for both of them. He splashed forward and supported his fellow trainer as the Barraskeda was forced to let go. And then watched in horror as Drika continued to expand, snapping bones in the fish’s jaw. The fish was thrashing in pain, sending jets of water and Alderam and Drika both, with drastically different effects. Alderam’s skin was starting to crack, and Drika’s was compacting.

“Alderam, return!” He pointed his ball and withdrew the wounded Larvitar, but before he could do the same for the Sandygast, she had ripped the lower jaw off the Barasweda. An awful lot of blood was mixing with the rising water. He frantically looked around, and saw a branching tunnel that went up. “Drika, carry Keres that way! Good girl.” The Sandygast flowed out of the fish and around Keres, forming into a pseudo crutch and carrying her out of the flooding tunnel.

Keres was ashen as Drika helped carry her away from the flooded tunnel, still limping heavily from pain in both her knee and calf. Once she was seated on drier ground, Mycena crawled off of her shoulder and inspected the wound. Luckily, the mutant pokemon hadn’t done too much damage--there was a circle of deep punctures, and blood was openly weeping from them.

Morrigan flew into Connor’s side pouch, flying back out with a collection of bandaids and dropping them in Keres’s lap. Connor blinked in surprise at the control the Misdreavous had in undoing the straps.

The young woman gave a shaky laugh, and pulled out a clean cloth to try and dry and clean the wounds as best she could, before putting the bandages on them. She grimaced and looked up at Connor. “Thanks--are Drika and Alderam both okay?” As she spoke, she pulled three Hyper Potions from her bag, and handed two to Connor for his pokemon. With another grimace, she uncapped the third and dumped the thick, syrupy liquid down her throat with a shudder. The blood that had been flowing slowed to a stop, as the punctures became shallower.

Connor glanced at his Sandygast. She had swelled to nearly twice her size and was dripping water. She was also staring at the Misdreavus. “Drika’s doing great, I might withdraw her though, just to keep Morrigan safe. She’s in a feisty mood after that.” He pulled his pokedex out of a pocket, (thank Arceus for waterproof pockets) and examined Alderam’s pokeball. “Crap, he fainted before I withdrew him. Stable though. I’ll need to buy a revive off another trainer. We should rest here for a little bit, until your leg heals up and Drika calms down.”

Keres nods, before absent-mindedly pulling a revive out of her bag and tossing it to Connor. “Morrigan gets into trouble a lot, so I keep a heavy supply of them.” She gave him a pained smile, stroking the top of her Petilil’s head as Morrigan continued to circle her in worry. “That sounds like a good idea.”