"Uuuuugh..."
Flame lets out another stream of vomit from his mouth...From Pelipper's mouth. "EEERK- I SAID COULD YOU NOT?" Pelipper screamed out. "THIS IS WHY YOU DON'T DRINK ALCOHOL!" "Give him some slack, birdie. All you've been doing since we left was whine and bitch!" "I AM THE ONE WITH A SICK KID IN MY MOUTH, GIVE ME SOME SLACK! AAAARGH! I CAN'T EVEN VOMIT!"
Phantom takes a good look around. The trio are nearing a mountain north of happy town, a serpent trail going upward from the bottom all the way to a entrance, presumably the location of Rockstumble. "So...What should we know about that cave?" "PROMISE ME YOU'LL BE MORE RESPONSIBLE FIRST!" "Again?" "...But we said we'll be..." Whispered Flame, his two arms hanging from the bird's mouth while resting his head on the beak and ears completely flopped. "I DON'T CARE! I WANT YOU TWO TO BE MORE RESPONSIBLE! YOU THREW A BEER AT ME!" "Sorry..."
"For the fifth...Sixth...? Time? Sorry. But we'd appreciate some pointers on that cave, Kirlia's in danger, remember?" Phantom points out. "Erk...Fine. Rockstumble is a massive cave leading to the passerby town of step mountains. It's not as safe as the trade route eastern from here but it does the job. Words says you'll find lots of evolution stones in there, and many comes to excavate it. It's also a very important place for resources, but not many exploit it for that reason.. You should be able to find a sort of water lake in there, and I highly suggest bringing something that smells awful because of all the zubats living in there...Nasty things lives on blood and will bite at the first opportunity." Pelipper laughs. "ARK-AK AK! Your friend here will do the job!" Flame lets out a groan.
They arrived in front of the cave's entrance, Pelipper opened wide its beak as flame rolled away from it, and rubbed his head. "Phantom...How could you drink that stuff?" Phantom retrieved the third backpack from Pelipper's mouth. "Because I'm a ghost, this stuff's good for me." Lied the little ghost, Pelipper rolled his eyes, then chuckled.
"Anyway...Should I stick around or,...Are you two fine by going in there alone? Either way, others pokemons are coming here and...Between us three, I'm a very poor fighter...And I don't like caves. And-" "It's fine, birdie. You can go." Phantom says, Pelipper let out a sight of relief. "Good! Thank you! Well...Off I go now. Have a good one, you two." He rose his wings. "...Ah! And make sure to use the badges that are inside your backpacks. You should pin them to your special bands just in case!" As soon as he says that, Flame took off his own and looks inside of it. "Huh? It's empty..." "WHAT?" Pelipper shook itself. "...OH ARCEUS NO, DON'T TELL ME YOU DIDN'T TAKE THE BADGES FROM THE CRATE?" "Sorry..."
The Pelipper walked toward the cave's entrance while setting back his wings down...Then looks down. "Urk...I'm sorry, I can't go in there, I'm too much of a coward! Flying's my game, not walking! You two are on your own, okay?" He ask looking at the two, Flame looks pitiful still on the ground but nods alongside Phantom. "Okay! See you two, and good luck!" He took off while Flame leans over and set his head on his backpack, holding his stomach. "Phantom...Give me a minute..."
"Sure kid." Phantom let himself get on the ground, sitting behind Scorbunny's back and leans, letting the other backpack on the ground and then looks up at the sky.
Plenty of passing clouds up there, but the sun is shining down on both pokemons. A mild breeze pushed both pokemons, but not enough to make them move. Phantom looks back at the cave, but it is pitch black. It summons a stick and pokes at the ground waiting for his bud to get ready, thinking to itself.
...Then snoring noises. Phantom let out a sight, then let down its stick and its own backpack before heading inside of Flame...Who somehow was dreaming of sleeping in the same spot, with...A second Phantom sitting down in the same position. "But...How?" Phantom says while lifting his two hands toward the scene. "Shhh...He's sleeping." The other Phantom said while going next to the other one, pressing its hand on the other's mouth. Phantom just took a moment to look back and forth at the two.
With a yawn and a stretch, Flame awoken himself, looking at the two. "Oh! Hi Phantom! Hi Phantom!" He repeated happily, setting his two hands on his knees while sitting. "Hi!" Waved the fake Phantom, the other one moved back. "Hey kid, seems you're dreaming of real life. You might wanna wake up." As soon as Phantom said that, Flame awoken, looking around. "Hmrph..."
For a moment, Phantom controlled Flame's body, pressing his own head and groggily and rubbing his eyes with his other hand, sitting down before getting out of his body. "...Huh? What happened?" Flame quickly jumped, looking all around him. "Oh yeah, I forgot to mention...I can go into dreams and control people. Hope you don't mind, but I couldn't let you sleep...Kirlia's still waiting for us."
Flame puts his hands behind his back and looks down while looking at Phantom. "I'm sorry...I didn't mean to sleep...I feel sick..." "It's fine kid, I can go fetch her myself...I just don't want to let you alone and asleep, okay?" Flame nods. "I'm sorry..." He says while taking up the other backpack and putting it on his shoulder, and passing the other one to Phantom, who got it over his own back.
"I'll try not to sleep, I just needed a moment." "Don't worry, I don't mind it." Phantom says while picking up the stick he made earlier. "Here, spit a flame on that." Flame did so. "Here you go, we'll need that inside." Phantom says while giving it to him, then ask. "You'll be fine?" Flame nodded, giving a bright smile. "Yeah! I'll be fine!" Phantom smiles back and pat his shoulder before summoning its own stick, which Flame happily spewed a flame on it as they got inside the cave.
As soon as they step in, a bunch of blood curling screeches rang across the cave as a bunch of zubats flies over them. Both pokemons screamed out and waved their stick while heading back outside... "WAIT! IT'S WORKING!" Flame happily says while quickly going back inside. "PHANTOM! GET BACK IN! THEY'RE NOT INTERESTED IN ME!" Phantom looks back, then head next to Flame. "Hm? That's odd, so...There are pokemons who can't talk and will attack others?" The two began to walk inside the massive dark cave.
Flame tilts his head. "Huh? You don't know? Not everyone is civilized! Plus there is a sort of food chain...But pokemons ignores it because civilized pokemons doesn't like talking about it! I've learned all about it at school, and this is something every explorers must know!" "Really?" "Yeah! You know, a lot of the food pokemons buy...Meat, fish, all that stuff, they're already all cooked and ready to go but they're a necessity for most pokemons. Its creates inner problems since you strip lives in order to sustain civilized life but I'm lucky I'm part of the herbivore chain!
Flame stops, stopping Phantom too with one arm. "Look! Up there!" The scorbunny rose his torch upward, a bunch of zubats are looking down on them. "You know...These guys looking at us, they could talk to us if they want to but...They prefer not to at all since they love blood. For them, were just walking blood bags!" "You stink." One of the Zubats said, another one swings his wing at the talker's mouth. "Shhh, don't be stupid."
The bunny looks back to Phantom with a smile. "In general, its better to just avoid each others or fight for your life...But sometime you can make friends out of them! You just need the right words and right interaction!" Flame pats Phantom's back before continuing to walk. "But here, we're definitely in a fight or flee situation...But in my case, my vomit makes them go away so I don't have to fight!"
"Yeah, it stinks but it's not that bad." Phantom rubs its face. "If anything, my sense of smell seems pretty poor...I'm not sure why." Phantom then realized something. "Oh yeah, by the way...Are mystery dungeon pokemons different from those you find in the wild? I've seen a dog bark at me at the forest temple and couldn't talk one bit." "Hmhm!" Replied Flame.
"These pokemons are said to be created as guardians, and not naturally born! It's like a defense system for the dungeon, a way to protect what it keeps inside...But at the same time, there are so many things you can find, and so many things to do in there! Nobody knows why this is that way, but they're a great source to tap into! There is also a theory that these pokemons developed their own speech patterns so secrets are kept between each others too!"
"That's pretty neat actually...Just strange how that goes. You could just live next to one and your life is pretty much set." "Yeah, but life in general is strange! You're a Phantom, I'm a Scorbunny, and all the stuff we can do is just strange when you think about it!" "Yeah."
Phantom and Flame continued their way into the large cave, and making way. The scorbunny's ears twitched, then tapped Phantom's arm while making a shh, then follow me sign. The two of them turned right toward some sort of tunnel that lowered itself into the ground, then pass another one and...There she was. Alice, eyes shut and floating on water.
Phantom floated over to her and pushed her to safety, darting around for someone or something. Flame did the same. "This is odd...Show yourself?" The bunny ask, unsure what's going on. Meanwhile Phantom took off his bag and went inside of her.
A pitch black area, absolutely nothing in sight...Except for Kirlia, her back toward Phantom. "Alice?" The little ghost ask, going near her..."DON'T TOUCH ME!" She quickly turned, punching with a strong pink aura around her hand to the face of Phantom, who got launched away and...Out of her body. "ACK-!"
Phantom's hearing cut off for a moment, a strong noise filling its ears as it shook itself, feeling weaker. "Urk..." It rubbed off it face. "PHANTOM!" Flame shouts and hugs Phantom. "Are you okay?" He ask while looking around. "Yeah...She's fine, just shaken. We need to take her out, just not sure what happened..." Phantom says while looking around. Meanwhile Flame let down his torch before trying to lift Kirlia. Phantom allowed its tail to hold its torch while helping Flame before making their way out.
Luckily for the duo, nobody tried to stop them, and they made it out safe and sound. They let Kirlia down before Flame tried to wake her up. "Come on, wake up!" He keep shaking her. "...Flame, my man, I doubt Kirlia wants to be awake at the moment. She looks pretty pissed." "Huh? Look at her smile! She's not!" He points at it...Alice did indeed sport a smile. Phantom invaded the body once more...Then got out. "Still sleeping and looking pissed." The spirit confirmed. "Aww..."
Phantom took its position to lift her up again. "Well, no point in staying here, let's bring her home." "Right!" Flame said, taking his part, then moving down the mountain.
