Tabitha stepped off the helicopter, keeping his head low until he'd cleared the blades. He looked back to see Courtney signaling to the pilot before sliding out herself, clutching onto her hood in the wind created by the propellers. The helicopter lifted off as she joined Tabitha's side, shielding her eyes from the dust that kicked up.
"They'll return at...1900 hours...to pick us up," Courtney told Tabitha when the dust settled.
Nodding, Tabitha took in a deep breath of fresh air and looked around. They were on a newly discovered island southeast of Ever Grande City. Before them stretched approximately three kilometers of rocky land, sparsely populated by a few ferns and grasses. It was mostly flat land, with few geological features. The one thing this island did have, however, and the reason for this mission, was a vast network of caves that plunged deep into the land.
Team Aqua had actually been the ones to discover the island, and they had even explored it initially, which is how they had come to know about the cave system. Of course, a group of pirates weren't the most equipped to scientifically analyze this island, and so they left it up to Team Magma to do the dirty work.
And Maxie, in his wisdom, deemed his two admins best for the job. Courtney was a scientist, with experience in natural science and environmental analysis. While Tabitha was more of an engineer, he did have scientific knowledge and, above all, discretion.
Courtney hefted a heavy pack onto her shoulder, heading up the coast toward the open cave mouth about half a kilometer from their landing site. The pack was full of equipment they had deemed necessary to the mission: sample collecting tools and devices to scan for various compounds as well as basic necessities like food rations, water, first aid and flashlights.
"Shall I carry that?" Tabitha offered, already knowing Courtney would shake her head in response. He made the offer out of politeness more than anything; he was perfectly content not to carry such a heavy pack, especially in this warm air.
They didn't see the entrance to the cave until they were almost on top of it. It yawned out of the ground like a great hippopotas mouth, opening up to a dark throat.
"Well, it certainly looks cooler in there," Tabitha observed, standing just before the opening.
"Correct," Courtney responded. "I predict about...twenty degrees cooler. Perhaps...more." She cocked her head to the side, as she often did when thinking. "It...should be comfortable...for you."
Tabitha highly doubted this mission would be anything close to comfortable, but he laughed at Courtney's comment. "It certainly will!" he declared. "If it's cooler than headquarters, I'll be happy as a clampearl."
"...Are clampearl particularly happy?"
"It's just a saying."
"Not a...very good one." She shifted the pack again and headed inside the cave. With a sigh, Tabitha followed.
The light from outside illuminated the cavern only enough to see the cave split into two distinct paths that branched in opposite directions. The air was indeed cooler than outside and distinctly still, like an abandoned house boarded up. There wasn't any evidence of life in that cavern, not even any zubat or woobat droppings. Courtney pulled two flashlights from her pack and handed one to Tabitha.
"We will...progress more efficiently...if we split up," she said, her clear, bell-like voice echoing off the rocky walls.
"Split up?" Tabitha questioned, putting on a smirk. "Someone's eager to get rid of me."
Courtney turned to him suddenly. "No, I...didn't mean...that," she said, her brows furrowing adorably like she usually did she became distressed. "I...only wish...to increase our...productivity."
"Relax," Tabitha said with a chuckle and wave of his hand. "I'm just teasing you."
"...Oh," she said and turned away from him again. Feeling a little bad, Tabitha opened his mouth to say, well, something, but Courtney spoke again, "You're using...humor...to deflect...your fear of darkness."
"My—what?" Tabitha scoffed at the very idea. "I, Tabitha, a Team Magma Admin, am not afraid of something as intangible, inconsequential as darkness! I am no child! I'm an—"
"—Adult," Courtney finished for him. He glowered at her, but saw that she was biting her lower lip and...was she holding back a smile? "Relax...I'm just...teasing you," she said, repeating his own words in her deadpan tone.
For a moment, he was flabbergasted, but then he just fell into his usual booming laughter. Courtney was teasing him! That was certainly new!
"Since you are...clearly...unafraid," Courtney said when Tabitha's laughter passed, "then we will...proceed as planned." Courtney may have been quiet, but she was very commanding when she wanted to be. "The current time...is 1436 hours," she said, checking her pokenav. "We will rendezvous...here...no later than 1700 hours."
"Sounds reasonable," Tabitha said calmly. Inside his gloves, however, his palms began to sweat. Two and a half hours alone in the dark? Not that he was afraid, of course, but that was a long time to be alone.
In the dark.
"You can call...my pokenav...if you need," Courtney said, heading towards the right hand path.
"I will," Tabitha agreed. "But I doubt I'll need to." He watched as she disappeared into the pitch black tunnel and stayed until he couldn't even make out her flashlight bouncing off the walls. Then he sighed, turned on his own flashlight and made his way down into the inky blackness of the left hand path.
Courtney wasn't so deep into the cave that she didn't hear Tabitha yell out.
She took out her pokenav to call him. He sounded distressed, but it was very possible that he had simply spooked himself. He was a very expressive person, after all. Loud. Very loud.
That was when she discovered that the pokenav's communication signal was far too weak to make any calls. Curious. There must have been some sort of compound in the stone that was dampening the communication function of the pokenav.
She sighed. She would like to keep working, but...it was her responsibility to make sure Tabitha was uninjured.
She turned around carefully and made her way back through the tunnel she'd just come from. She passed their meeting point and continued through the other path, and darkness only greeted her. She didn't see Tabitha's light. She did, however, hear him groan.
"Tabitha...?" she called out.
"Courtney!" he called back, and she locked onto his position. "I tried to call you, but these damn pokenavs have the audacity to not function!" A pokenav can't have audacity, she thought as her light illuminated the red of Tabitha's coat. "Come, give me hand. I'm stuck."
"Stuck?" she asked, her beam of light on him. He stood in a large, open clearing, almost like a room in the cavern, with a large limestone wall behind him. "You don't...appear stuck."
"My foot is stuck," he explained in a breathy voice, and Courtney walked over to his side. As she got closer, she saw his face was drenched in sweat, his hair plastered to his forehead. "I-I slipped and dropped my flashlight. Damn thing must have broken. The light went out. And I'm—oh!—stuck. Very stuck. " He was speaking quickly, and his voice had a tremble to it. Courtney wasn't the most adept that detecting emotions in people, but she could be certain that Tabitha was absolutely terrified.
She shined her light down Tabitha's large body and revealed the source of the problem: a white, opaque crystal seemed to have encased Tabitha's left foot up to the knee.
"And just what is that?" he asked, bending forward to see.
"Analyzing…" Courtney responded, kneeling down. She took off one of her gloves and felt the crystal. It was cool to the touch like quartz, smooth and solid. She observed that the crystal wasn't entirely white, but had some pink hues glittering through. Overall it was a pretty crystal and otherwise unremarkable if it hadn't somehow entrapped Tabitha.
That was the thing. It wasn't as if Tabitha had stepped into a hole that happened to have this crystal growing in it. It rose from the floor and clung to Tabitha's leg as if it had formed there itself over thousands of years.
"Analysis complete," Courtney said, getting to her feet. She shined her flashlight upwards so that they could see each other. "It appears to be…some sort of…quartz."
"Quartz?" Tabitha repeated. "As in, crystal? As in, rock?"
"Affirmative…kind of," Courtney responded. "From my observation…it seems to have…grown over your leg."
"That's impossible, isn't it?" Tabitha asked. "Rocks take ages to do anything! I don't suppose you have an explanation for this, hmm, miss scientist?"
Narrowing her eyes at him, she responded coldly, "Analysis...inconclusive."
Tabitha let out a frustrated sigh. "Well I'm not waiting forever for it to move on!" he declared, and he took a pokeball out of his pocket. He released a numel, which took up what remaining space in that small room there was.
"Wait, what are you—" Courtney started, but Tabitha had already commanded his numel to use Ember on the crystal. She tried to stop him, foreseeing burns in Tabitha's near future. But while Courtney expected injury, and Tabitha expected victory, neither party could have seen what was going to happen.
As soon as the hot embers hit the crystal's surface, it grew. It surged up Tabitha's leg to his mid-thigh and even spread to his right leg, doubling in size. "STOP! STOP!" Tabitha cried out to his numel, and the pokemon, startled, ceased its attack.
The pair were frozen for a moment, their minds trying to process what they'd both just observed. Courtney reached out and felt the crystal again, expecting it to feel warm from the Ember attack, and found it as cool as it been before.
"Wh-what do we do now?" Tabitha asked, the panic in his tone matching the panic welling up inside Courtney's chest.
"I…I have to…call Maxie," Courtney said, unable to think of anything else.
"The pokenavs don't work in here," Tabitha pointed out.
"I'll…go outside."
"And what can Maxie do?!" Tabitha snapped, his voice booming off the stone walls. "You need to do something, Courtney! You're a scientist!"
"I'm not a geologist," Courtney snapped back. She turned away from Tabitha and shined her light back the way she'd come. "I'm going to update Maxie on our status," she said, speaking much more quickly than normally. "I'll be right back."
But she felt Tabitha's hand clamp down on her upper arm, holding her in place. She looked back in him, almost ready to hit him, when he said, "Court-Courtney, please, don't. I mean, if you tell the boss…That's really embarrassing for me, you know? The great Tabitha, stopped by some stupid rock."
Courtney listened to him, and she understood what was going on. He was too proud to admit it, but Tabitha didn't want to be stuck there, alone and in the dark, any longer. The terror on his face was so plain, even Courtney could see it. She took a few breaths to calm herself down.
She set down her flashlight so that it reflected off the stone wall behind them, illuminating the room. "Fine," she said, kneeling down, digging into her pack and pulling out all of her equipment. "Let's see…what I…can do."
It was getting harder to breathe.
Tabitha didn't say anything about it, though. He stood there, unable to feel below his hips. The crystal had gradually grown up and around his belly and was making its way up his chest. The pressure the crystal exerted was almost too much to bear.
"According to…my calculations," Courtney said, her voice its usual cold and matter-of-fact tone, "the crystal must be…growing at a…rate of approximately…three millimeters per minute."
"That's faster than, oh, plants or something," Tabitha responded. "Is this thing alive?"
"I…don't know," Courtney responded honestly. "I've never…seen anything…like this."
Over the past couple of hours, Courtney had been attempting to take a sample of the crystal, but every time she tried to cut or chip a piece of the crystal, it had grown ever more. Without samples, she was unable to really test the crystal at all with her limited resources.
"The only thing…I can hypothesize…is that it grows…when we feed it energy," she said, her head cocked to the side.
"Feed it energy?" Tabitha repeated.
"Yes…like your numel's Ember…and my attempts to cut into it…any energy expended on it…gets absorbed…"
"Sounds pretty alive to me," Tabitha snorted. "And if that's the case, I would like it to know that I demand it remove itself from my body immediately." He tried to wiggle a little bit, but the crystal held onto him so tightly that no movement could be made.
"Absorbing…" Courtney said to herself. She was quiet for a moment, then said, "Oh! The light!"
And it went dark.
"Courtney!" Tabitha snapped, a cold chill running down his spine. "Turn that back on!"
"No, the crystal…if it absorbs energy…it must be absorbing the light," Courtney explained somewhere in the darkness. "This will buy us…more time."
"And how will that help us?" he demanded. "I can't see anything. You can't see anything. If you can't see anything, you can't do anything!"
Courtney's face was illuminated momentarily by her pokenav. "It is 1650 hours. The helicopter…is scheduled to…pick us up…soon."
"1900 hours," Tabitha said, recalling what Courtney had told him.
"Affirmative."
Tabitha felt the crystal at his chest. At the rate this thing was going, he wasn't sure he'd make it another two hours. He felt a gentle squeeze on his left arm, and Courtney's assured voice was in his ear: "I'm going to call Maxie."
"But—" he started, but felt Courtney's cold, ungloved hand over his lips for an all-too brief moment.
"I can't…do anything," she said, the calm in her voice ebbing. "I've tried…everything I can think of. I have to…I have to call Maxie. If I don't…" Her words ended there.
Tabitha took a deep breath that took effort to draw in. "I understand," he said, trying to keep the tremble out of his voice. "Go on, then."
She gave his arm another squeeze and let go. "I'll be back…in a few minutes," she said. "Don't…go anywhere."
Despite everything, Tabitha couldn't help but chuckle. He must be in real trouble is Courtney was resorting to humor. "Don't take all day, you hear me? I know how chatty you get."
There was silence, and Tabitha thought she'd gone. But then her voice rose from just a short distance, "Is that…more teasing?"
Courtney walked back into the cave, pocketing her pokenav with a sigh. She'd been able to contact Maxie, and he assured her he was on the way…but a tropical storm had moved in over Mossdeep City, where the helicopter was grounded, and they were unable to fly out. Goodness knows how long it would be before they could get out there.
The gnawing feeling in her gut turned into a sharp pain. She hurried back into the tunnel, using her flashlight to illuminate her path. When she found Tabitha again, she almost lost it.
In the mere ten minutes she'd been gone, the crystal had crawled all the way up Tabitha's chest and all but circled his neck. His labored breathing was a telltale sign of the pressure on his chest.
"Court…ney…?" he breathed, hardly able to speak above a whisper.
"I'm here," she replied, turning out the light.
"No, please…" he said. "Please keep the light on. I can't stand the dark anymore."
She wanted to protest, but she realized that the crystal was going to grow no matter what she did. Her hands shaking, she turned the light on again and set it against the wall once again so that there was plenty of light to see. His face was discolored.
"I…called Maxie," she told him. "He'll be here…soon."
Tabitha made a weak coughing sound that may have been an attempt to chuckle. "My dear…I don't think I'll see him."
Courtney couldn't hold in her tears any longer. They stream down her face, and she let them. "Tabitha…I'm…so sorry."
"What are you sorry for?" he whispered.
"I have… failed you."
"Nonsense."
"You were…depending on me…" A sob ripped its way out of her throat.
"Now you listen to me, my friend," Tabitha said, trying to make his voice stronger. Courtney stilled her tears to listen. "I saw you try everything you could. There was no way to foresee this…situation." He took a moment to drag in a few more breaths. "You know, this isn't the first time I've stared death in the face."
"No…" Courtney cried. "Don't…say that."
But he just smiled. Of all the times to smile. "The first time, I wasn't afraid to die. I'd made peace with it. I lived without regrets."
"Save your oxygen," Courtney pleaded.
"No, Courtney," he insisted. "This time, it's different. I need to tell…to tell you, Courtney." His eyes closed them, and Courtney's stomach dropped.
"Tabitha, no!"
"Courtney, I…I, Tabitha…am…I'm in…"
He couldn't finish the sentence before he lost all consciousness.
The scream that ripped its way out of Courtney's throat was inhuman. Reacting without thinking, despair the only thing in her mind, Courtney balled up her hands into fists and slammed it into the crystal as hard as she could, sending a sharp surge of pain up her arm. She'd probably broken a finger or two, but that didn't phase her. She continued to beat the crystal that had claimed her partner, confidant, friend. She wailed on the thing until she had exhausted herself and then collapsed against it, weeping.
Then it shifted.
Startled at the movement, Courtney backed away and picked up the flashlight, shining it on the crystal. It was moving. Shifting. Stretching. The top layer of the crystal seemed to tremble, and then it started to…melt. That was the best way to describe it. The hard crystal melted into a gelatinous substance still maintaining the same general shape.
Still not thinking, Courtney reached her hand out and touched the substance. It felt warm, alive. It was alive. It was alive.
The gelatinous substance then surged onto her arm and hardened into crystal again. She pulled and pulled until she'd nearly dislocated her shoulder, but the crystal held fast. The crystal started to make its way up her arm, and she swore. Loudly. She beat on the crystal with her free hand desperately.
"'Aye! I heard somethin' this way!" she heard a deep voice down in the cave. "Courtney! Tabitha! Your ol' friend Matt's here to rescue you!"
"In here!" Courtney cried as loud as she could. She heard the boot steps approach, counting at least three pairs, and before long, she saw the beams of their flashlights.
"Shit, it's got her too," she heard Matt say.
"It's alive," she cried, and she repeated those words over and over, rocking on her heels.
"I got you, Courtney," Matt said. " I'mma get you and Makuhita Man outta there.'Ey Shelly! Bring me that tranq!"
Everything hurt. Tabitha was aware of that first and foremost, before he even opened his eyes. He felt like he'd been hit by a train.
He gradually became aware of sound. Mostly a very regular beeping. Opening his eyes took effort, and the image he saw didn't make sense for several minutes. He was in a room bathed in sterile fluorescent light. He first saw the white tiles in the ceiling and, conjuring up as much energy as he could, he managed to turn his head to survey his surroundings.
There was a window, currently shaded by those hideous thick vertical blinds. He could see some sunlight peeking through the cracks, so it must be daytime. His eyes traveled over the room, to the tray next to him that held a small, clear plastic cup of water and a half-eaten granola bar, to the door in the center of the wall in front of him, closed, and finally to the chair on the other side of the room.
On that chair he saw Courtney, contorted into a ball. Her head leaned against the wall, her eyes closed. She was fast asleep. He noticed she cradled her right hand close to her body, and that it was covered in bandaging.
"She has not left this room," said a voice, and Tabitha looked back to the doorway. He hadn't heard it open, but Maxie walked in, silently closing the door behind him.
"Boss," Tabitha tried to say, but it came out in a pathetic choking whisper.
Maxie held up his hand. "Don't try to speak," he said. "You're going to fine. You only suffered from mild hypoxia."
Tabitha nodded, trying to recall his last memory. The crystal. The darkness. It all seemed like it had happened at once.
"I know you must be exhausted, but I did want to congratulate you," Maxie said. "You discovered a new pokemon."
That made Tabitha raise his eyebrows. That thing had been a pokemon, of all things? The very audacity.
"It's a very long story," Maxie said. "Focus on recovery, for now. I know Courtney will be happy to fill you in on the details as soon as you're ready." Tabitha nodded, and Maxie left the room.
He turned his head again to look at Courtney's sleeping form. I told you, he thought, letting his eyes fall closed again. I knew you wouldn't fail.