Chapter 35: Caved In
The three young adventurers having made their way south of Violet City after Tia claimed her first Johto League gym badge are now posed with a new challenge ahead.
"Isn't there a way we could just go around it?" Tia whines.
"It's the Union Cave. What's the big deal?" Tom asks her confused by her sudden disliking of caves.
"Bad things always happen in caves." She tells him oh so matter-of-factly.
Tom rolls his eyes, "And where did you get this statistic from?"
"Remember Mt. Moon? Team Rocket invaded and we had to fight them off all alone." She points out, remembering that was also the first time she'd seen Tom as Mysterious Trainer X.
Anna speaks up to hopefully alleviate some of Tia's paranoia. "I've been through plenty of caves in my time and not once have I had some kind of freak accident. Trust me, after eight years I know."
"See?" Tom looks confident in Anna's stance, but something caught his attention. "Wait, you're eighteen?" Tom stares in shock.
"Yeah, it's kind of frustrating when everyone thinks I look sixteen." She explains which further flustering Tom.
"So you're older than me?" It seems to take Tom a second to process this.
"What's the big deal? I turned seventeen before leaving for Johto." Tia doesn't seem to surprised that Anna is older than she looks and isn't self-conscious if her own age either.
"What, you're older than me too?" Tom looks on in dismay as he realizes he's the youngest one in the group. "I refuse to accept this!"
"Not much you can do about it." Tia then gives him a cheesy smile and pinches his cheek. "You're the baby of the group." Tia teases.
He smacks her hand away and pouts, "I'm not a baby! I am mature and responsible." He crosses his arms defiantly.
"Aw, someone need a nap?" Tia says with a condescending look.
"I don't take naps!" He shouts back.
"Someone's having a temper tantrum. I bet you need your bottle." Tia just continues to poke the bear. Though Anna's starting to think this might not end well.
"Tia maybe you stop teasing him. I mean he definitely doesn't like being talk down to." She whispers in her ear while Tom glares.
"Oh come on when do I ever get the chance to rattle his cage?" She smirks.
Tom starts getting antsier trying to control himself. Tia begins to open her mouth, "Tia, one more joke about my age and I swear to god!" He groans in a fit of anger.
She raises her hands defensively, "Fine, fine let's go then." She surrenders. She takes her first steps into Union Cave.
Tom and Anna step in close behind and look around the dark, stank tunnels. "Well, we're in. Was that so hard?" He asks obnoxiously.
Tia ignores him and continues walking. The paths are filled with the usual fair of Zubat and Geodude minding their own business. The three cautiously continue forward doing their best to avoid any rocks that would cause them to have a very unpleasant meeting with the cave floor. Out of nowhere the cave begins to shake and bits of the ceiling start to crumble.
"What's going on?" Anna is immediately alarmed as she dodges small fragments of falling rock. All of a sudden Onyx start charging past in a panicked rush, knocking boulders around and further unsettling the cave around them.
"Oh no," Tom notice loose rocks above them. "Anna watch out!" He leaps forward and dives, grabbing her and tackling her to the ground before the rocks fall on her.
Tia on the other end of the fall runs forward to avoid the cave in and once the dust settles reveals she'd been completely caved in with no sign of Tom or Anna.
On the other end of the newly formed wall was Tom and Anna still dazed and on the ground. Anna shakes her head trying to collect her thoughts and sees Tom on top of her. "Oh my god, Tom, you saved my life!"
He smirks, "Of course," he then cringes seeing his leg caught under a loose rock. Anna scrambles to move the sizable piece of earth. Tom begins walking until her grits his teeth and lets out a repressed growl. "I don't think it's broken, but the rocks definitely jacked it up pretty good." The pain is intense as he moves his leg, but he can tell it's still in one piece.
Anna quickly takes off his shoe and looks at the wound. The bruising was pretty apparent so she reaches into her bag and grabs some bandages and quickly wraps his ankle tightly. "It's a temporary fix, but it should help a little. At least until we get out of here." She says diligently.
Tom looks a little surprised. "Thanks Anna, I'd probably be screwed right now if it weren't for you." He laughs. She reaches under his arms and helps lift him. He limps in tandem with her down an off shoot tunnel. "We need to find Tia." He cautions.
Tia herself was relatively unscathed, but definitely lost due to all the various caved in paths. She groans turning down another dead end. "Nothing bad ever happens in caves, he says. Let's go inside the cave, he says!" She grumbles. She quickly calls out her Cyndaquil. "Cyndaquil I need your fire to light the path." She then calls out Heracross, "Heracross, I need you to fly on ahead and scout out exits. Make sure to keep an eye out for Tom and Anna." She emphasizes. She sighs trying to keep her mind busy so the impending sense of dread doesn't set in too quickly. This certainly isn't helping Tia's paranoia, but freaking out now will only cause more issues for her.
Back with Anna and Tom, they manage to stay relatively calm, "Don't panic, we'll find a way out of here." Tom takes a deep breath to stay calm and avoids any use of his foot.
"Do you have any Pokémon that could get us out of here?" Anna asks worried about running into more dead ends and being trapped.
Tom mulls it over in his head, "None on me. Cleffa, Elekid, Arcanine, Flygon, Luxray, and Lucario won't be any use to us here." He feels like an idiot for not being more prepared. The two continue slowly onward until a second series of rumblings begins. "Oh no," he looks up. "Incoming!" The two try to run as fast as they can, but it was all around them.
Anna panics and a Pokeball of her belt opens of its own accord. The two had expected to be crushed by the rocks, but instead a tall shadow loomed over them. A series of beeps catch their attention.
Tom looks up awestruck. "No way, R…Regigigas!" Tom is absolutely speechless looking up at the legendary titan in person. "Anna, how and where did you catch a legendary Pokémon?" He asks urgently.
She sighs, "I didn't want anyone to know," she looks up at the golem and smiles nostalgically. "He's my guardian." This makes Tom all the more confused.
She goes on to explain. "When I was a little girl growing up in Snowpoint my sister and I would always play near the temple. One day Candice dared me to go in there; foolishly I did. It wasn't anything too special so I kept walking until I slipped and fell down a chasm in the temple. I woke up on the very bottom. I was freezing so I kept walking hoping to find my way out. What I didn't expect to find was this sleeping giant. All I did was touch his arm and instantly Regigigas came to life. He looked down on me and picked me up. Even though he was down there for god knows how long he was still warm and he protected me from the cold. He carefully escorted me out of the temple where everyone in town had gathered. People were awestruck that he'd finally awaken. I was just grateful he saved me. He set me down and I thanked him, but he continued to stare at me. So I ask him, 'do you want to be my Pokémon?' He stood there and I extended out my hand with a Pokeball. To my complete amazement, as well as everyone else's, he stretched out his hand and pressed the button allowing himself to be captured. That's why he's my guardian."
Tom is still in shock by her story. He remembers his Rayquaza being far less welcoming. "I never thought I'd see the day that a legend would just pop up right in front of my face." He's humbled by this experience. "I want a battle one of these days." He smirks.
Anna smiles back, "Sure, but first we need to grab Tia and get out of here." Regigigas lifts them both on its shoulders and proceeds to plow through all the rocks, carving its own tunnel out.
Tia continues along through the tunnels as hopeless at it might seem to her at this point. Heracross returns failing to find a way out, further worrying Tia. More tremors arise as thankfully it was only an Onyx plowing through rocks.
Tia suddenly gets an idea. "I know, Heracross use Brick Brick!" she instructs her Pokémon who wastes no time wailing on the Onyx. The Onyx taken aback by the sudden assault and charges forward. "Heracross grab it by the horn." She orders. Heracross flies up and grabs onto the irate Onyx and it tries to shake it off. During the struggle Tia jumps on its back as Onyx dives forward. Tia climbs up the head and grabs the horn using it to direct Onyx as it turned through the cave. Before long she sees an open cavern with a light at the end of the tunnel. Tia guides the Onyx out of the cave and into the light.
She jumps off on the Onyx and cheers, "We did it!"
Suddenly next to the entrance a giant golem of a Pokémon bursts out. "Okay we found a way out!" Anna cheers.
Tia looks over in amazement. "What Pokémon is that?" She asks not too familiar with the legendary Pokémon in front of her.
Tom looks over, "Oh hey it's Tia. Did you ride that Onyx over there?" He laughs. The Onyx grumbles and slithers away not wanting to deal with the young trainer anymore.
"Yeah, but more importantly what is that Pokémon?" She asks.
Regigigas lets the trainers down gently and Anna returns him to the ball. "That's Regigigas, he's the first Pokémon I ever caught." She says beaming with pride. She walks over helps support Tom.
"I've never heard of Regigigas before?" Tia says more confused than before.
Tom explains, "Regigigas is a legendary Pokémon like my Rayquaza or Sabrina's Meloetta."
Tia looks baffled, "Anna, I never knew you had a legendary Pokémon." She makes no attempt to hide her complete amazement.
"That was kind of the plan, I didn't want people to know, since that'd make me a walking target." Anna walks over to Tom and helps keep him on his feet. "Now we need to get Tom to the Pokémon center."
Tia gasps, "That's right, we happened to your leg?"
He brushes it off, "It's fine, just got stuck between a rock and hard place when the rocks came down." He puts up the tough guy routine.
"That's horrible, is it broken?" Tia panics.
"I don't know, frankly I just want to fix it up before it gets worse." He says as he limps along to Azalea Town. As he is limping along his looks at his X-transceiver that managed to reestablish its connection. A single message reads: Zapdos and Moltres are causing problems outside of Violet City. Tom immediately assumes that the cave in was no natural occurrence.
Thank you all for reading and i hope you all enjoyed. Please don't forget to leave a review with you thoughts this chapter and the series as a whole. Your feedback is always appreciated. So we discover yet another trainer with a legendary Pokemon. And if anyone is wondering, yes the cave phobia will be a running gag from now on as well. I just saw way too many potential jokes I could get out of it so I had to address this.