Author's Note: The early parts of Brine Cave didn't really get covered in the main fic, so I figured I could write it out here. There are some minor differences from canon here, what with everyone coming along, therefore having to split the party, and thus slightly altering Team Skull's appearance. Good stuff to establish here.
Brine Cave
Claire was admittedly nervous as they made their way through Brine Cave. The dungeon itself wasn't too bad, but she couldn't stop thinking about the supposedly-vicious Pokémon Chatot had mentioned. She knew worrying wouldn't help, but not knowing what the Pokémon even were was scary in its own way.
Well, at least Chatot was handling himself well, Claire thought. Maybe that meant he'd be fine when they encountered the…whatever the Pokémon were. Even Felix was doing okay, despite the Type disadvantage he had against most of the cave's residents. He'd been compensating with Thunder Punch as often as he could, and Claire had assisted with Thunderbolt. She could only hope that Rin, Iris, and Bruce were fine, too.
When they reached a point fairly deep in the dungeon, Chatot allowed them to take a break. Claire sighed in relief as she sat down and dug through her bag. She had a couple of berries and apples in her bag, and she really needed the energy. Felix smiled and sat down beside her, pulling an Oran Berry out of his own bag.
"Oh, hey! There you guys are!"
Claire blinked when she heard Iris's voice. She'd just arrived in the small chamber with Rin and Bruce in tow. She swallowed the last bite of her apple before tossing the core aside, and then Claire stood up to meet them.
"Hey, yourself," she replied, grinning. "Have you guys been doing okay?"
"Well…for the most part, yes." Rin frowned. "You haven't seen Team Skull, have you?"
"Team Skull?" Chatot repeated, blinking. "Our allies from the expedition? Why would they be here?"
Rin, Bruce, and Iris exchanged glances. Claire blinked as well; of course, she knew that calling Team Skull 'allies' was extremely charitable, but she wondered what they were thinking about. Fortunately, Bruce spoke up a second later.
"Um, I guess that's a no, then," he replied. "Well, we ran into them a little while ago, and…they were looking for Felix? They said something about wanting to take his Relic Fragment."
"W-what?" Felix sputtered. "But we need that! We can't get to the Hidden Land without it."
"Yeah, we tried to tell them that, but…" Iris frowned, crossing her arms. "They just got mad and said we were trying to confuse them. Since, you know, we had to split groups. Zubat just kept insisting we'd split up to make you harder to find."
Chatot waved a wing dismissively at her. "Please, Cacnea! Team Skull would never do anything like that. You must be mistaken!"
"Not this again," Iris grumbled.
"Well…if you haven't seen them yet…" Rin went on, probably trying to divert Iris's attention. "…maybe they got ahead of us? If we run into them again, then we can find out."
"Yeah…" Claire frowned. "Well, if everyone's ready, then I guess we should get going?"
Everyone nodded, and they all broke into the proper groups again. Claire couldn't help getting more nervous as they went along. Why would Team Skull be so determined to take the Relic Fragment that they'd chase them all the way here? Sure, they'd tried to steal it once before, but that had been a long time ago.
Unless…had they somehow found out how valuable it was? But that didn't make sense, either. Why would they take it in that case? Didn't they know the world was in danger, and they couldn't fix things without it? Unless they didn't know why Team Shadow was going to the Hidden Land, but…
Claire shook her head. Her thoughts had carried her a good way through the lower part of Brine Cave. They'd encountered a few more of the cave's inhabitants, and she couldn't get distracted now.
Finally, they arrived in a long, wide hallway that was dark at the far end. Claire glanced over at Chatot; he seemed more on edge now. Maybe the part with the "vicious bandits" was coming up soon?
"Wait, do you see something up there?" Felix asked, pointing at something in the distance.
Claire squinted. "Yeah, I…think so?"
There were three vague silhouettes ahead of them, and everyone advanced cautiously. Finally, the shapes became clear; the three members of Team Skull were sprawled out awkwardly on the ground. They were all soaking wet and covered in deep gashes, and Claire gasped as she looked them over.
"Hey…you wimps…" Skuntank wheezed. "It's you Team Shadow losers…isn't it?"
"Y-yeah…what about it?" Felix asked nervously. "And…what happened?"
"What…do you think, idiot?" Skuntank paused, coughing out some water before going on. "We got wrecked by those morons up ahead…chaw-haw… They really tore us a new one."
Chatot squawked. "Those bandits did that to you? And why are you talking like this now? What happened to your polite attitudes?!"
"We tried to tell you, Chatot!" Iris protested. "Still, we probably should've warned them. Even if they were probably waiting here for Felix…"
"So you wimps knew about that, huh?" Koffing groaned. "Yeah…sure would've been nice…before you let us run off like that."
"Are you going to be okay?" Claire asked uncertainly. "We can try to heal you up a bit if you want…"
Zubat weakly shook her head. "I doubt there's much you can do…heh… Besides…we're not gonna take pity from you now!"
Claire bit her lip. "But…"
"Hey…shut up a minute, cat." Skuntank coughed again before looking at Rin and Felix. "Listen…bonehead…and you, the biggest wimp…I gotta tell you…you two in particular better be careful up there."
Felix and Rin exchanged glances before nervously looking back at him.
"Um…thanks, I guess?" Felix blinked. "But, still…you need to…"
"We're gonna get out of here if we need to crawl," Skuntank growled. "So that means you all better survive, too! 'Cause if not…us getting beat up like that…it ain't gonna be worth it, you hear? So get out of here! Go on! Chaw-haw!"
Was that…encouragement? It almost sounded like encouragement. Claire felt bad about leaving them behind, but…they did need to go. And she was kind of impressed that Skuntank seemed concerned. She nodded, looking at all of her teammates before going on.
"Right! You guys be careful. We're going on ahead! Okay, everyone?"
They nodded in return, though Claire couldn't help but notice the glare on Chatot's face. He hopped towards Team Skull, and Claire's jaw dropped when he started yelling at them.
"You absolute fools! You can't sit here and tell us to be careful after getting yourselves into danger like that!" he squawked. "If you had just listened to our apprentices earlier, you could've left without getting into this mess. But, fine—if you wish for us to leave you here, we will! Everyone! Hurry up!"
With that, Chatot fluttered away towards the chamber up ahead. Team Shadow stared at him for a few seconds, dumbfounded. Claire knew he had a problem with being proved wrong, but…it still seemed harsh. However, if those bandits were up ahead, they couldn't let Chatot take them on alone, either.
Claire swallowed, waved at her teammates, and darted on ahead. She gave one last glance at Team Skull as they ran. She really did hope they got out safely, but she couldn't stop now.
Finally, they caught up with Chatot. He was perched in the middle of the chamber, trembling slightly and shaking his head. There was something wrong here; Claire could tell. She nervously squeezed the strap of her bag as she looked around the room. Where were—
"They're…above us!"
Claire yelped at Chatot's cry, and the next thing she knew, a massive tidal wave had dropped down from seemingly nowhere.
