Episode 4: Dunsparce Man
After the meeting with Mr. Pokémon, where JJ received a baby chikorita and Niko got helpful advice about battling and life, the group continued northwest towards Violet City. There, Niko and Fay would challenge Falkner, the first gym leader in Johto. One day, they found themselves caught in a heavy rain, and sought a small cave entrance for shelter. Walking inside, JJ commanded growlithe to use ember to provide some light (and warmth) while the group settled down for the rest of the day.
Sitting down on a nearby rock, Niko looked out and watched the rain. Back at home, it didn't rain much, neither in Vermilion nor in Pallet, so it wasn't often that he got to appreciate the serenity of the falling drops of water. Fay, who grew up in the same environment, also found the rain to be calming, and sent out cyndaquil to watch it. The fire type didn't seem nearly as scared of water as it was of fire, but that didn't mean much, considering the fire mouse backed away at first.
"Guys, this cave…it doesn't seem to end!" JJ said, his voice echoing on the cave walls. He walked back, growlithe at his side, but it took a while for the rest of the group to see them.
"How far down does it go?" Niko asked.
"No idea, it's hard to see, even with light. Not sure it's worth exploring, to be honest."
"Agreed. Let's just wait out the rain and get back on the road. We're about a day's walk from Violet, anyways," Brittany added, laying down on her sleeping bag.
As they all began to rest, they heard something running towards them, through the dark. It was a large, yellow rattlesnake with small white wings on the side of its body. It tried leaping through the air a couple of times, but failed to fly and instead crashed back into the ground. Nevertheless, it slithered and jumped towards the entrance of the cave and, incidentally, the group.
"What the hell is that?" Fay said, immediately getting up and grabbing cyndaquil.
"No idea…" Niko said as the rattlesnake approached. "Looks like a yellow…snake? But it's too big to be one…hm," He pulled out his pokédex:
"Dunsparce, the land snake pokémon. Normal type. It hides deep inside caves where no light ever reaches it and remains virtually motionless there."
"If it hides deep in caves, then why is it coming outside?"
The dunsparce looked up at the group, with an expression of panic resting on its face. It started fidgeting on the ground, as if it wanted something. Cyndaquil, who was already out of its pokéball, jumped out of Fay's arms and walked over to it. The two communicated for a moment before walking into the darkness.
"Cyndaquil!" Fay said, running after his starter pokémon. "Where're you going?"
The fire mouse pointed in the direction that JJ had come from earlier. Fay looked confused, but ultimately followed his pokémon's judgment, and walked with the dunsparce. JJ and growlithe followed, leaving Niko and Brittany to watch their stuff.
JJ and Fay followed the dunsparce through the dark cave for what seemed like eternity. Eventually they reached a much larger cavern that was dimly lit. The path they took declined slightly and led them to a trainer sitting at the edge of a large body of water. Dunsparce slithered over to what Fay and JJ presumed to be its trainer.
"Are you okay sir?" Fay asked as he jogged over, cyndaquil by his side. The trainer was a young man, roughly the same age as Fay and JJ. He had short black hair, glasses, and wore a light grey hoodie with baggy jeans. He seemed to be gripping his knee, and had a pained look on his face. He finally noticed Fay and JJ looking down at him, and nodded in response.
"Fay, looks like he hurt his knee. Should we get him some help?"
Fay nodded as he got down to help lift the young man up. As he did so, he heard something approaching him from behind. Slowly turning around, he saw the shadow of what seemed to be a large creature. As the shadow got closer, it was revealed to be a small bear cub, staring at the group of trainers and pokémon.
"What is that?" Fay wondered, quickly pulling out his pokédex:
"Teddiursa, the little bear pokémon. Normal type. It always licks honey. Its palm tastes sweet because of all the honey it has absorbed."
"It looks cute…" JJ noted, "Wonder what it's up to."
"No idea. Anyways, let's go and get this guy back to our campsite first. Can we help you?" Fay asked. The young man nodded as he tried to stand up, and succeeded with the help of Fay and JJ, who both threw his arms over their shoulders. They walked back up the small incline and through the tunnel back to their campsite.
Niko and Brittany immediately sat back up as they saw their friends carrying a wounded man over their shoulders. "What's going on?"
"No idea, the dunsparce took us to a cavern where this trainer was sitting on the ground. Something must have happened to his knee," Fay said, "We figured it'd be best to bring him here first, and then go out looking for help."
"No worries, we'll think of something…" Niko said, and looked out to the forest that they had come from. The rain had stopped. He then got an idea. "Alright, hoothoot and I will go out and find someone. Now that the rain has stopped it won't be too difficult. Hoothoot can fly and I can run, so I don't think we'll be long."
JJ pulled out a pokéball and summoned beedrill. "Take beedrill with you, too. It'll help narrow down your search. Beedrill, we're looking for someone who can help this trainer. Can you go with Niko and hoothoot?"
The poison bee pokémon nodded, and then joined Niko and hoothoot as the three rushed back out towards route 30. Fay and Brittany then started to help out the injured trainer. Brittany grabbed some bandages that she had decided to bring with her, in the case of an injury. Meanwhile, Fay was cutting apart the jeans to reveal the wider cut.
"Oh my god…dude, what happened?" Fay asked as he examined the injury. It looked like the knee bone was broken in several places, as was his shin. Fay speculated in his mind that this trainer must have fallen from a high place and landed on this particular knee, but he didn't know for sure. The trainer pulled out a small notebook and began to write in it. He then showed the notebook to Fay.
"Your name is…Dunsparce Man?" Fay said, reading the notebook. Dunsparce Man then wrote in it again. "Ah, you don't want to tell me your real name. That's fine. How did you get this injury?" He waited for the man to respond in his notebook. "You got in a fight? Damn…did you get thrown around or something?" Dunsparce Man nodded, and continued writing.
The two kept up the exchange for a bit while Brittany helped patch up the wound. As Dunsparce Man began to stand up again, he shrieked out loud and fell back onto the ground. His dunsparce slithered over to his side in comfort. Brittany, feeling a little frustrated, unwrapped the bandages and tried again.
As this moment, she noticed something glowing in the distance, from the cave. Moments later, the teddiursa that Fay and JJ had seen earlier was back, this time with honey on its paws.
"What the…?" Brittany said out loud, confused by the appearance of the little bear.
"That's a teddiursa. We saw it in the same cavern with Dunsparce Man. We weren't sure what it was doing there, and still not quite sure why it's here," JJ replied. The teddiursa continued walking up to them, its paws covered in amber-colored honey.
That's when Fay got an idea. "Wait guys…this little guy might be on to something."
Brittany immediately caught on. "Honey can be used to heal wounds! Sure, it won't repair the bones, but it can at least soothe the knee and help stop any infections!" She then motioned the teddiursa over to them. "Hey, may we use some of that honey to heal our friend?"
The little bear nodded, walking up to Dunsparce Man and rubbing the honey on the knee. Brittany then wrapped several layers of bandage over the honey. They then laid Dunsparce Man down on Fay's sleeping bag to let him rest. His dunsparce lay next to him on the cold ground of the cave, both quickly falling asleep.
"I wonder why he doesn't talk…" Brittany wondered as they watched the trainer and pokémon resting.
"No idea, but hey, everyone has something unique, right? This is just his…" Fay responded. He then looked over at the teddiursa. "By the way, thanks for helping out. We really appreciate it," The normal type smiled in return, slightly infecting Fay with its adorable face. "My name is Fay, by the way. And this is my cyndaquil. We're traveling through the Johto region," He reached his hand out to shake teddiursa's. The bear responded, returning the handshake with its sticky paw. Fay chuckled a little as he tried to let go of the sticky paw.
"You like the teddiursa, don't you Fay?" Brittany said.
"I guess so. It's pretty adorable, that's for sure. I wonder how good it would be in battle," That's when he got the idea to catch teddiursa. "Say, would you like to join us? Cyndaquil and I would like to see you battle."
The little bear looked up at Fay as he stood up and walked out of the cave, cyndaquil running behind him. For a moment, the teddiursa looked unsure, but eventually followed Fay, accepting the challenge to battle.
"Alright cyndaquil, let's use tackle!" Fay commanded. The fire mouse, albeit a little reluctantly, rushed towards teddiursa. The little bear responded with a rather devastating scratch attack, slashing at its opponent and sending it a few feet to the side. Cyndaquil got up, looking very hurt, and rushed again at teddiursa. This time, the normal type dodged the tackle and slammed into the fire mouse, sending both of them into the wet grass.
It was at this time that Fay decided to throw out a pokéball, realizing that cyndaquil wasn't going to do too much damage to teddiursa anyways. The little bear went into the pokéball, wiggling around a few times before ultimately clicking. Fay walked over and picked up the pokéball. Looking down at cyndaquil, he smiled.
"Great job buddy, you helped me catch a pokémon!" Cyndaquil, who looked a little ashamed of its battle performance, smiled meekly. Fay then picked up the fire mouse and walked back to the cave entrance.
"You caught it?" JJ asked, only to see Fay nod in response. "That's awesome! The battle looked intense. Teddiursa seems to be a strong pokémon for sure!"
Fay nodded as he released teddiursa so that cyndaquil and the rest of the group could meet it. A couple hours later, Niko, hoothoot, and beedrill returned with an Officer Jenny from a nearby center. As it turns out, there are police outposts on long routes all throughout the Johto Region. Officer Jenny—with the help of Fay and JJ—picked up Dunsparce Man and carried him to the sidecar of her motorcycle.
"Thank you for patching him up…" Officer Jenny said. "I'll take him to Violet City, that's the nearest pokémon center. Also…is there…honey in this bandage?"
Brittany laughed out loud. "Yeah! Fay's teddiursa helped provide the honey. We figured since it has healing benefits, it would help stop any possible infections."
"Well, that's quite innovative of you kids. I'll tell Nurse Joy about this. Anyways, I'll be off!" She said as Dunsparce Man wrote a quick "thank you" in his notebook and, after returning his dunsparce to its pokéball, waved goodbye as he rode away with Officer Jenny.
Back in the cave, Niko exchanged stories with the rest of the group. It took a while to find anyone remotely close to the cave due to the rain. Hoothoot had eventually found the police outpost and the rest was history. However, he seemed more interested in what had happened at the cave.
"So wait…this 'Dunsparce Man' doesn't talk? At all?" Fay nodded. "How odd…wonder why…also, did you actually catch a teddiursa?" Fay nodded again, pointing to the little bear sleeping next to cyndaquil on his sleeping bag. "Wow! It's adorable!"
"That's what I said!" Fay responded cheerily. "Anyways, we should make some food now. It's getting pretty late, and we have a lot of walking to do tomorrow."
"That's true," JJ added, "If we walk most of the day, we'll make it to Violet City in the afternoon!"
The group then got to work cooking up food for the night while their pokémon rested. It had been another long day for them. With a few new friends, one of them permanent, the group of trainers continued their journey the following day, with Niko and Fay's first gym battle on their minds.
