Plummeting through the endless pitfall, my mind was filled with a total of two things, a constant stream of I'm gonna die I'm gonna die I'm gonna die, and a stream of prayers to every god, demon, or deity I could think of to spare me from becoming a red streak on the walls of this pitfall, or the ground.
Wind whistling in my ears, I was stuck there in the fetal position as I kept falling…
And falling…
And falling…
After falling for quite a while and having not yet reached ground, I started calming down somewhat. my brain being liberated from its sudden bout of piousness by the fact that I wasn't dead yet. Looking around a bit, I saw little specks of different colored lights fly past me, various reds, blues, greens, and yellows slinging past my head, giving me the barest hints of the edges of the hole. Suddenly, however, electric blue veins started showing up in the edges of the rock, first only about as common as the other glowing dots, but quickly starting to overtake the other colored glows.
My freefall somewhat forgotten, I wondered just what exactly I had fallen into, as every environment I've seen so far has been weird in at least one way. First it was the mirror hellscape, then it was the strange mine, I could only imagine what this blue place was. Just as I was starting to picture what strange place I was in now, I felt something heavy collide with my back. Gasping for air, another blow connected with the back of my head, making me see stars, not even feeling the third strike catch my backpack and arrest my fall.
Dazed, I tried picking myself up off the ground to gain my bearings. Not succeeding, I tried again. Once again, I couldn't find the ground to pick myself up. Looking down, I tried to figure out why the... ground? Where's the ground? Swinging my hands and feet, there was no ground within reach. My eyesight finally working fully once more, I saw that indeed, I wasn't on the ground. Rather, I was dangling from my backpack, it stuck to something.
Gaining a sense of my surroundings, I saw what exactly I was stuck to, and it wasn't the most delightful image. Crisscrossed amongst the heights of the expansive cavern I found myself in, it strewn with veins of electric blue veins in the walls and acting as little bridges between floating blue crystals, was a massive spider web. The webs themselves were bright yellow, with arcs of electricity jumping from web to web occasionally. I bet if I hit those with an arm or a leg I wouldn't be worrying about how to get down, or functioning in general to be honest.
Looking behind myself, I had to acknowledge that it was quite the stroke of luck that I hadn't ended up fried by the webs, my ugly backpack having thrown itself into the line of duty for my safety. I assume that whatever collided with my skull was either a particularly soft rock, or one of these webs that was disconnected from the massive electric trap.
There were only two options for me to escape from this web. The first one was a complete non-option, that being slipping off my backpack and running off. The issue with that plan being that I abandon what little food I have, and would probably end with me dropping dead from lack of thirst. The other option I had was to try and chop the web I was stuck to with my axe, and then try to run away before whatever built this web comes to investigate.
Setting forth on my meticulous two step plan, I pulled the axe off it's holding place on my duster, and started trying to swing behind me with enough force to sever the web, but not my legs.
The first swing nearly doomed the entire plan, as the momentum from my swing caused the axe to almost fly out of my hand, just barely staying in my grip. After that catastrophe was prevented, my slow chopping away at the web went along much more smoothly, with my axe colliding with the web after only a few more tries.
The web shaking violently from the hit, I swung again, the web shaking further. On the third solid hit, I heard a sound like a bridge cable snapping, and found myself swinging towards the nearby wall face first.
Hugging my mattock, I turned in the air, shifting so that my poor backpack would once again take the brunt of the blow. Smacking into the wall, the web stuck there, the stickiness of the web preventing even the full weight of my body and bag from pulling it downwards.
Turning the axe to the flat end, I tucked my head down to my right, and swung it next to my left ear. Not hearing the sound of metal on stone, I swung again, and finally felt something behind me give way. Tossing my axe away, I tumbled to the ground, the bit of web still stuck on my pack gripping the ground every rotation. Picking my axe back up, I looked up and around, making sure nothing was about to pounce on me from above. While searching my surroundings, I noticed a web sac that must have been connected to the same web as I was. The yellow silk sac was about three feet long, with the squirming telling me whatever poor prey caught in it was still living.
Tapping the mystery sac with the front of my mattock, it thankfully didn't burst into a swarm of spiders, it just started squirming more violently from my prodding. The sac didn't stick to my axe, meaning which meant that I could carry it off without it sticking to me.
Figuring that I might as well save the poor pokemon stuck inside, I hooked my mattock's flat end around a silk strand, and carried it off towards a cavern entrance I spotted when I was hanging.
The sac, along with whatever was in it was quite light, which was pretty surprising considering it was a three foot egg of silk and something.
I lost my flashlight during the fall, so the only light around was the yellow glow of the webs, and the weird blue mineral attached to the walls, floor, ceiling, and concentrated on the floating rocks.
Speaking of strange blue rocks, I once again stumbled upon the damn mirror that put me down this hole in the first place, it's handle leaning on my flashlight, them both somehow not shattering from the massive drop.
I picked up my flashlight with my right hand, and set down my silk-covered cargo on a nearby stalagmite. Grabbing the cursed mirror, I looked it over with my flashlight, trying to figure out what's causing it to track me down and give me hell. Sadly though, it looked pretty much exactly the same as when I first found it in the mirror shop, with the exception of a huge yellow bug of some sorts nuzzling the blue jewel on the mirror.
"Is that a damn joltik?"
The joltik looked up at me as I identified it, the little bug looking up at me with its four eyes.
"Jol!" The thing nodded at me, then went back to rubbing itself all over the jewel.
"Well, off with you! I'm busy leaving your death trap of a home, now shoo!"
Trying to wave the pest off my personal curse, it refused with a short, defiant "jo", and crouched onto the jewel, letting off tiny sparks in a defensive display more cute than intimidating.
"That's it, you're leaving. I gotta go before your mother turns me into soup in a bag."
Flicking at the joltik, the only thing I received was a small static shock, while the pest stayed anchored right where it was.
Just as I was about to scrape it off with a rock, I saw the little pest take a deep inhale, ballooning up a bit before letting loose an ear piercing squeak.
Clutching at my ears, I tried to do something to lessen the sound that the tiny monster just unleashed at me. A couple seconds of blinding pain later, the sound dissipated, leaving only a haze of tinnitus buzzing through my head. Looking up around me, I saw that the little bastard's yell had woken up its parents, along with whoever else lived in this cave, the webs above my head bouncing up and down as some creatures scuttled along it towards my position.
"Well I gotta go now, and that mirror will probably kill the both of us anyways, so looks like you're stuck with me!"
Shoving the mirror into my pocket with a little squeak of protest, I scooped up the egg-holding mattock and my flashlight and ran for the hole in the ground.
Running full speed, I focused on nothing but the opening in the side of the cavern, afraid that turning around would reveal a two foot spider launching electric silk at my face. Reaching the path down, I jumped down the strangely round tunnel, not even taking a moment to check whether I was jumping into the nest of something hungrier and harder to escape.
Luckily, instead of more spiders or worse, the cave was simply empty, no creatures inhabiting the path at the moment, or those that did had scurried away upon my loud and bright entry.
I continued running down the cave until I came across a small pond nestled in a corner, stalactites letting the occasional drop down into the pool. Sliding around the edge of it, I collapsed next to the wall, dead tired from the events of the past day. Sliding off to sleep, I wondered just what the hell I'd have to deal with next.
I woke up to an electric shock on my arm, the tingling sensation growing into a jolt pulling me back into the waking world. Peeling back my sleeve to discover the culprit, I discovered it was the same joltik as the day prior. The one who nearly got me turned into soup by its parents.
"Your name is Pest now, as that's all you seem to be. I might as well learn something about you now that you look to be attached to my mirror. Are you a girl?"
The newly named Pest responded with a confirmation of "jol" to my question.
"Wrong, you're a Pest, but it seems you're a female one. Anyways, why the hell were you shocking me? Couldn't I just sleep?"
Almost as if waiting for me to ask, Pest pointed her stubby legs at the giant web sac still attached to my axe.
"The web sac?"
As if responding to its name, the sac in question started thrashing about even more, as if my voice made it think that its death was near.
"Might as well finally free whatever pokemon got trapped in your parent's web. I mean what else am I going to do with it?"
Picking the mattock back up, I slid the sac off and onto the ground. Planting one foot on its edge, I carefully lined up a chop with the horizontal end so as to not kill whatever was inside. Swinging with as much power as I dared to put into it, I managed to cut the silk bindings in one blow, the strands weakened by the pokemon's constant struggle.
The silk finally broken, I peeled the layers of it off with the same blade, opening the cocoon to reveal an extremely tired, two foot long eel of some sort.
"T-ty"
With a feeble call, the tynamo turned its head to face me, visibly struggling to even do that. Trying to fight off what it perceived as a predator, the tynamo tried charging up some sort of attack, a small yellow light growing to the size of a pinprick in its mouth before dissipating, the eel's head fell back down into the silk, too tired to even move.
Slipping off my backpack, I pulled out one of the somehow unscathed ration bricks. Ripping open the paper and then the foil, the ration seemed to be some weird cross between a biscuit and cracker, having the consistency of stale bread. Looking at the tynamo's lack of teeth, I unscrewed my water bottle's cap and scooped it into the pool. Breaking a chunk off the bar, I crumbled it into the cap, and started stirring it with my finger until it was a mushy paste of ration bar and water. Cup in hand, I crouched down next to the eel and started stroking its side with one hand while bringing the cup near its mouth, trying to calm it down and get it to eat. The tynamo felt exactly as slimy as I had expected, but I continued to run my hand across it nonetheless, not wanting to have gone through all the trouble of hauling the pokemon out for it to die on me.
After a moment or so, the tynamo finally made a move forward, trying to wrap its lamprey-like mouth around the cup. Tilting it downwards, the eel quickly ate its fill of the paste, emptying the cup quickly. It ended up being full after eating another cup full of the ration bar paste, passing out after eating it. Watching the little eel eat seemed to remind of the fact that it too needed food, as it quickly started demanding that I eat. Picking up the other ration bar from the package, I sniffed it, checking to see if it smelt even remotely edible. Surprisingly, it didn't smell like anything at all, just a brick of vague nutrients and possible magikarp. Steeling my nerves, I bit down on the ration bar, expecting the worst.
Surprisingly, it wasn't as horrifying as I expected. Sure, it definitely wasn't anywhere near the realm of something I'd willingly eat, but I could imagine myself surviving off it for a while. The worst bit was the last bite of the bar, as I hit something that tasted like a super bitter peanut. Trying to get the taste out of my mouth, I started scooping water out of the pond and gulping it down as fast as I could.
"What the hell was in that last bite? Isn't this supposed to be something near edible?"
The ungodly taste gone, I looked over to the tynamo again, checking to see if it was still asleep. Walking over to it seemed to have woken it up once more, as it opened its eyes to look at me. Seeing that I had its attention, I started to talk to it.
"Hey there, how'd you end up stuck in that web back there? You get lost from your family or something?"
Lifting its head to face me, the tynamo just barely nodded, devastated just from thinking about its family.
"Hey, don't worry, I'm just as lost as you! We could be lost together! How's that sound?"
"na?"
Judging from the sound, I must have piqued its interest, so I continued,
"Yeah, we can travel around the world, getting stronger, meeting interesting people and pokemon, and never ending up in a situation where we were as powerless as we were against those galvantula ever again! How does that sound? Wanna join me in figuring out where we belong?"
"Nam!"
With a joyful shout, tynamo seemed to accept my proposal, starting to levitate off the ground then sliding into my arms as I kept talking.
"That's great! Now, a strong creature deserves an even stronger name, and I have the perfect one for you. This name originated from a creature that ruled the seas of myth and legend. It was a mighty beast, consuming all those who even dared to oppose it."
Pulling a pokeball off my chest, I enlarged it and held it right in front of tynamo's head.
"I give you the name Leviathan, and may neither of us never have to run again."
Leviathan surged forward, slamming into the pokeball, which engulfed him in a flash of red light. Closing once more, the pokeball shook once, then twice, then clicked with the most beautiful sound I've ever heard. Pressing the ball once again, Leviathan reappeared, resting around my neck.
"Let's go then Leviathan. You too Pest, since you wanted that mirror so badly."
Picking my belongings up, I resumed my journey lost in the world of pokemon. Only now, I'm not alone.
AN: So the starter finally shows up, along with a hanger-on! Hope you're all enjoying it so far, and sorry that it took a while for Jules to get his starter, it just felt right to have those three chapters first.