Arc 1~ An Unlikely Beggining
Chapter 2- A Cave to Die in
Dirt Crevice BF 7
Darkness surrounded me. I couldn't even see my own paws in front of my face, it was so dark. Oh, wait. My eyes were closed…Heh-heh… Let's start over.
Struggling against my throbbing headache, I slowly opened my eyes… only to see a gigantic fanged bat staring back at me. Really it was huge! About two times my size. The dumb thing was just staring at me. It had a massive frozen-in-place mouth that oddly fitted its large body. If it could grin when I started screaming and swatting it away, I'm sure it would have.
"Aww, what's wrong? Is the Charmander afraid of little old' Golbat?"
I stopped my screeching and looked over to where the voice came from. It sounded really familiar…Oh, it was that Squirtle. For some reason, I didn't notice him here. He looked really smug too. I wouldn't mind wiping it off that blue little face of his.
"Ah, Squirtle. I forgot you'd be here too. I should have known, we were hit by the same rock and fell in the same hole in the ground and all…"
It was then I felt the natural urge to look behind me. So, I obeyed and quickly faced the darkness that was the rest of the cave.
"What are you doing?" He asked.
"Preparing myself," I answered. "After what happed today, there really might be a Persian out there, ready to eat me or something like that." The Squirtle simply laughed. Maybe he thought I was joking? I made perfect sense to me. Really, just think about it. I said he should fall down a pit, it happened and I came along for a joy ride. If the pit thing happened to both of us, who's to say that Persian or Snorlax thing will too? Go ahead, call me paranoid, superstitious even. I'd love to see your face when I get killed, but I'd be dead.
"Well, considering the fact that we've been here for more than an hour and we haven't been killed yet, I'd second-guess that."
There was that smug look again. If it wasn't for that near death- hold on. Memory check. We were hit by a gigantic rock, and said rock was the thing that pushed us through that crack right? So, right now, we should be crushed bloody pancakes under that rock. So, why aren't we? I looked up to what could only assume was the crack that we fell through. There was something stuck in it, and it was blocking the afternoon sunlight. The rock. Mercies of Mew! The rock got stuck during mid fall! I'm not dead! Ha-ha! Hold-on, if rock is stuck there, that means we are also stuck… down here; in the dark; alone.
"With the faces you're making, I can only guess you figured out the situation here. We're stuck and we only have two options. Wait, or go through the dungeon." The dungeon? So, that's what the darkness further in must be. I've only been in one dungeon before, and that was when I was a youngling, about a year or so after I hatched. I remember I was scared. There were weird Pokemon looking at me. The hungry eyes, I could never forget the hungry eyes. In all truth, I simply stumbled in it and I cried my little heart out until my mother rescued me a minute later. But still, it was a tragic moment for me at that age.
"You know," Squirtle began, "I tried to go through the dungeon alone. I went up about four floors too; but…but the Pokemon were too tough… I fainted a-and ended up back here. Look Charmander, I know you don't like me, and I don't really like you that much, heck we just met each other, but…this dungeon…it's tough. We wouldn't be able to make it out separately. We need to team up. That's the only way we'll be able to make it out alive."
I stood there, unfazed by what he said. I knew it was true, Squirtle's has unnaturally hard heads so, it would make sense that he wasn't that hurt by the fall and would wake up before me. I just wanted to see if there was a way to do this by myself. Yes, that's right; I want to stick to my stubborn Charmander ways.
Completing ignoring what he said, I set out to scour the dungeon for the main exit. With, unfortunately, two tagalongs right behind me.
"W-wait! Holdup!" Squirtle cried out. "Were are you going? Didn't you hear me?" I sighed. Did body language and actions mean anything to this dolt?
"Yeah, I heard you…"
"Then come on. I think we should go-"
"But, I'm not going to team up with you. I'm doing this alone. Just like how I've done everything else in the past. You want to team up? Then go with Mr. blood-sucker over there. I'm getting out of here by myself."
"Are you crazy? There's no way you can make it! I've already seen a bunch of the rabid Pokeémon that live down here, and most of them have a type advantage over you! You're just doing this because you're still upset I called you a jerk, aren't you? Can't you forget about that? I don't-"
"No," I interrupted angrily, "I'm not mad about that. You want to know what I'm mad about? I'm mad at you! If it weren't for you, I wouldn't be stuck down here! If it weren't for you, I would be asleep or eating right now! I wouldn't be stuck in this stupid dungeon with a stupid bat, and a stupid know-it-all Squirtle! If it weren't for you-"
"If it weren't for me, you wouldn't even have a chance of getting out of this dungeon because the earthquake would have still happened, and no one would have been around to help you, and you would be all alone and lost or even dead by now! Is that how you want it?"
That thunderstruck me, but I quickly got over it and gritted my teeth. I hadn't though of that in the mist of my rant. But, so what? I'm sure I would've made it out okay, just like how I'll do now…
"Just leave me alone Squirtle, I…I want to do this myself. Got it? I've been taking care of myself so far, this will be just the same. I doubt anything bad will happen." Those words were more of a reassurance for me. Words to lift up my morale and stuff. Just to say, they weren't working.
I looked over to Squirtle there and saw he had the most stupid look on his face. He was looking at me like he just ate a really sour berry and, at the same time, was trying to yell 'O'. Really, it was hilarious and I would've laughed my tail off if I hadn't seen the shadow that covered over mine. Putting two and two together, I jumped forward…
…right on time to avoid a slash that would have, without doubt, cut my head off. I looked over to size up my attacker: it was a bipedal Pokemon but it also had the muscles to travel quado-style, a yellow body, and two arms, both equipped with small, but sharp claws. Mew dang-it! A Psyduck; another water type to deal with!
"This Sandshrew's territory! You trespass!" It cried out in broken speech.
Oh…a Sandshrew …This would be hard. Can't say I fought one before, though. The name 'Sand' shrew obviously gives away the fact that it was a ground or rock type. So this would be pretty hard to beat with their ground attacks and all. This guy probably was pretty strong too. How could I tell? Well, the fact that it was little taller than me and had obviously large and built muscles helped a little.
"Sandshrew kill you all!" He exclaimed. He prepared him self for an attack, but I beat him to it.
"Not on my watch!" I grinned I fired a well-aimed Ember at his face. But, my grin fell as I saw that it didn't even faze him-at all. It did annoy him though. In an instant, grunted in irritation and began to dig into the ground, flinging the sand and dirt towards me and my poor eyes. I did my best to cover them, but of course, I was unsuccessful and had to rub my eyes to remove the irritating dirt from them.
By the time I could open my eyes with out pain again and looked up, the Sandshrew was gone and in his place was a hole in the…
"Oh no…." Dig. The worst possible move he could use. Any second now, the Sandshrew could pop up and use a ground-enhanced attack. Did I ever say that I hate surprises? Stupid surprising things being unexpected and all.
As expected, the Sandshrew popped out of the ground a little distance away and sent hurling rocks toward me with Rock Throw. Then, using Quick Attack, he rocketed towards me and jabbed his clawed paw into my stomach, which sent me flying into the air above him. That, friends, was Sky Uppercut. And let me tell you, If there was a sky, I'd be in it. But, since there wasn't, I simply crashed tail first in to the ceiling of the dungeon. My tail, showing its dislike in being crushed, sent a jolt of pain throughout the rest of my body. As if that was enough, the Sandshrew used Rock Throw again just for the heck of it.
I fell to the ground, mauled and in a heap of pain. I took a glance at my flame on my tail. It was a lot smaller than I was used to seeing it. I know it sounds weird, I mean, even I was thinking it sounded weird, but it sort of comforted me knowing that even my flame was feeling my pain. A knew resolution was formed inside of me. A determination to help my flame-to protect it. This feeling…it gave me courage and energy, and power. I felt like I could beat anything. …and my tail flame, it was growing! This feeling…it was giving it energy too!
I looked at the Sandshrew with a smirk. If it wasn't for the fact that I wanted to take down the Sandshrew, I'd slap myself for putting on the same cocky smirk that that Squirtle has. Anyway, I was smirking at the Sandshrew; If I do go down I'm defiantly taking this poor excuse for a rat with me! He seemed to take my new resolve as a challenge. In a sense, I guess it was.
He readied his small claws- which didn't look so deadly anymore; mine were probably bigger- and bolted towards me. I could see he was going for a slash attack, and I quickly avoided it… only to be shocked when I felt something cold run down the side of my cheek. Blood. How did he do it? I know he didn't touch me. He couldn't have, he was several feet away!
Like any other small cut, I ignored the pain and pressed forward. I charged the Sandshrew, who for some reason was just standing there, arms in the air and all. I didn't know what he was doing, and I sure as Mew didn't care! Or, I didn't care until the ground began shaking. It was just a tremor, but it was still strong enough to make rocks fall from the ceiling, which was happing right now by the way.
Well, the Sandshrew was smirking at me, and I finally knew what move he was using. There was only one attack it could be: Rock Tomb. Really deadly on my part. I've only heard about this attack though. It would crush it's foe under giant boulders and could possible kill. But, the attack was really hard to aim, so chances of getting out in time were pretty good. Unfortunately, you shouldn't leave things to luck and chance all the time, evidence of that? The giant boulder of death that's heading straight for me currently.
Out of the blue (no pun intended), I saw the Squirtle heading for the boulder, in fact, he was running towards it! At the last second, he jumped into the air in the path of the rock. What he was doing? I sure as Mew didn't care. It's not my fault if the idiot has a death wish.
I would have turned around to run if I hadn't seen him Headbutt the thing. The boulder, right where he smashed into it, literary cracked in half! I should've expected this; I did say they have hard heads, didn't I? He landed on the ground with a little wobble, but other than that, he was fine. He then looked over and gave me his smug smirk. I did my best to ignore it, actually, I was forced to because the Sandshrew whizzed by me with his odd Slash attack. This time, I didn't even have time to dodge and took a direct hit to my chest and collapsed on the ground.
Now, for those of you who have never had a giant gash across your torso, It hurts like hell. Though, the pain didn't even register into my body until a bunch of seconds after the fact. The gash was constantly gushing blood; There was already a big puddle of the red stuff under me. The blood loss was too much; I was loosing consciousness, probably even life. I looked up at the Squirtle. He was staring at me, eyes glazed over-too focused to see several boulders from the ceiling heading straight for him. I would've screamed out or warned him but, it was then that a creeping darkness covered my vision. I lost all feeling that I had and was completely physically drained. If you're a stupid person for simple words, I blacked out- again.
