Caves of Being
B6F
Pain still wracked Arden's body as he approached the stairs, his fellow explorers none the wiser of his mood. The Pecha had stopped anything worse from happening, but it was no Oran. Yet as his chest burned from the past poisoning, the Quilava continued on, getting only a sad look from a knowing May.
He'd been through worse, he figured he'd walk it off as per usual.
His main concern as of now was not how bad he was hurting, but rather whatever awaited further down. This dungeon had already firmly established itself as abnormal, and even the seasoned Quilava explorer couldn't help but fear that something awful was awaiting them in this dungeon's deepest reaches.
But even with his encounter with the Weezing in mind, Arden's rational side tried its best to retain control of the situation. This wasn't novel for a dungeon; he had seen many nightmares with underwhelming bosses; Bewilder Forest with its vivid personal illusions and measly pack of Zoroarks came to mind. Perhaps these caves were no different; perhaps they were building up to a tame conclusion. While yes, this would not provide any answers the Quilava suspected Arcanine was here for, it wouldn't be pointless. What they'd recorded so far would have already made this outing a success, if only in giving the Societies some good data to begin their deeper research in understanding this place.
No matter the case, Arden stayed reassured of one thing: if Beck were to run into anything, he would be able to see and find what was happening for himself. The situation with the human-turned-Oshawott had been hectic for Arden, but he felt that once his fears and uncertainty of the situation were quelled, he would come out of this stronger and resolute.
'...ugh, enough about yourself, asshole. You've got work to do. Eyes on the road, 'mon, come on.'
Shaking his head and glancing back at Team Reach, Arden adjusted his book of horrors under his arm, its pages ready for ever more notetaking, and stepped down the stairs.
Though he for sure didn't show it, for once he hoped that the dungeon ahead would be predictable.
Caves of Being
B7F
I missed the sun already.
Now, if I remember correctly, summers in Unova could get pretty brutal, if the literal desert in the middle of the country didn't get it across. That applied to Gray Proper as well; my guess was that it was some time in June by this point, and it showed. If I had to guess, it was about thirty degrees out on the way here; that'd be ninety for those weird Unovans still using Fahrenheit, I'm sure there were dozens of them. Being stuck in my apparently thermophobic Water-type meat suit, I couldn't help but dread what was coming for the rest of the summer.
Despite this, I already felt like I could take my chances with the heat. The caves were getting to me, even with the full moon outside beginning to pleasantly tug at my core, though I kept trudging along. We'd all made it this far, and we were gonna see it through as a team. Or something like that.
Our party crowded down the stairs as I waddled after them, immediately looking around to check for whatever this floor's anomaly would be. It looked normal; too normal.
"Treecko, check the walls," Krookodile directed. With a hurried nod, Rye rubbed his Sun Stone and hurried over to one of the cave walls, Treecko-climbing up and hanging there for a moment.
"I-it's normal," he said. Arden chuckled a bit.
"Looks like we're catching a break here, huh? With me, Krook," he said. Krookodile grumbled a bit, most likely about the nickname, and tromped alongside the Quilava as they led our party down the corridor.
By this point, I didn't buy how normal the floor was looking for a second. Yes, it looked like sunshine, daisies, and long repetitive tunnels, but... okay, I might be repeating myself, but... yeah. Needless to say, this really wasn't helping with the idea that I might have to meet some... thing at the end of all this.
Trying to shake off my nerve at this, I turned my attention back to the dungeon as Arden preemptively Flamethrowered a Koffing ahead, its falling to the ground revealing a fork in the path. With a quick glance, Arden and May huddled up for a few quick games of fire-water-grass, then pulled back.
"We'll go left first. Doesn't really matter, but you know?" he asked. Krookodile rumbled in agreement as Rye shakily nodded, so holding their lanterns tight, the three team leaders led us into the agreed-upon path, the scribbling of notebooks backing us as Mavy sighed.
"Back to borin'-ass walkin, ah reckon," he complained.
"Maffy, camahn-" I groaned as we took a sharp right turn.
"You see any cool rocks? Might could start a rock collection, get that all filled up while we got the chance," the Zigzagoon suggested. "Oh, how 'bout this? Say this three times fast. She sells seashells by the seashore."
"Fack yeh," I sighed.
"I can't hear ya," Mavy grinned, watching as I sulked back and groaned at the ceiling.
"Sheh seh shesha phsha-aah," I tried, my face going hot as Mavy cackled. Before he could pressure me further, the two of us stopped. Ahead of us, the others had stopped, many of the more experienced explorers looking around confusedly.
"Wh-what? What's wrong?" Rye asked. May's eyes narrowed before she turned tail and started back, leaving us to hurry after her as she ran back to the fork in the paths. As my teammates kept trying to demand some answers, the Leafeon ran into the cave on the right, only to emerge a moment later, looking sufficiently stumped.
"The left tunnel took a right turn, it should be cutting straight through this tunnel. There's nothing through there, either," she said. We exchanged a confused glance.
"Wh-what's that mean?" Rye asked. May hung her head for a moment, thinking for a moment before fishing a charcoal pen out of her bag and holding it in a vine as she drew a square on the stone floor.
"This would be this room we're in," she gestured as she added a couple lines branching out, the right one turning right and jutting through the left. "The two paths should be intersecting into each other as so, but they just... don't. It's like both just pretend the other doesn't exist. Humans had a word for this, I think. Non-euclidean, right?"
As Rye and I glanced at each other concernedly, Mavy scoffed.
"That just don't make no sense. Y'all're overreacting, methinks. Here, watch," he said, snatching Rye's orb lantern in his mouth and zigzagging up one tunnel, then circling back to go up the other. After a minute, he returned, his confident smirk replaced with very evident confusion. As he silently gave Rye his light back, Arden glanced down at his Book of Horrors. Apparently, he'd been mapping out the dungeon's floors along the way, and now it seemed like he was faced with a bit of an issue in this practice.
"Okay... this is fine. We'll just keep going. Can't be too hard, all we have to do is find the stairs, then we can get whatever data from there," the Quilava tried to reassure us. "It'll be fine."
The screech of ferals ahead quickly assured me this wouldn't be the case.
As we went back on track, the already established overlapping hallways became more and more spastic and tangled, and it wasn't long before rooms started appearing where they shouldn't. Despite this, it took a good while before Arden seemed to give up on mapping the floor out, with his chart by now looking more like spaghetti than a cohesive map.
"What the fuck. I... swear, we've been this way before. L-look, three paths out of this room, and there's that long corridor with those two gems sticking from the ceiling, this..." he said.
"That can't be right, we've been going away from there the entire time, haven't we?" Krookodile asked.
"We have, but no, this place probably doesn't give a shit. We should've hit the wall, like, a mile ago. Damn it, it's like the whole place is randomly generated, and its only common factor is to piss me off," the Quilava grumbled as he finally tore the map out and crumpled it up.
"Well, there's gotta be stairs somewhere," Hitmontop pointed out behind us.
"With this place? Hah, we probably passed them, it's just down some super precise sequence of caves we just missed," Arden shook his head.
"No, no, we'll find them. Right, Rye?" May called back.
"Y-yeah, we have to!" Rye said, only getting a heavy sigh from Arden.
"Well, if shit comes to shit, someone here probably has a failsafe. You know, Pure Seed or something. I'm not that desperate, though, so looks like-" he began.
The telltale screech of a rapidly approaching feral abruptly cut him off, and the Rhyhorn that'd produced it almost immediately barreled into the room and attempted to lunge at Arden.
"Shit! May-!" he grunted as he jumped out of the way, his side getting clipped as the feral charged past him and towards the three of us. As Mavy first swore profusely then shrilly screamed beside me, I panickedly backed away. I wasn't ready for a fight, not with this thing!
"Rye, shaah!" I yelled. Whether this was some sort of instruction or panicked plea, I wasn't sure, but it did something. At the cry of another feral, the Rhyhorn seemed to pause for a second, just long enough for me to get my bearings and fire an Ice Beam aimed at its face. The thing screeched as it clawed at the frost on its face, though it wasn't long before the crack of a Vine Whip took it down.
Panting, May stared the unconscious feral down, giving us a moment to breathe as I gave Rye and Mavy a glance to check if they were alright. As Rye loosened up from that scare, he managed a small laugh.
"Th-that technique's really helping out, huh?" he asked as we started for a different door.
"Y-yeah," I nodded.
"Uh, you should use it more often, I think, if there's a lot of Ground-types here, then a ranged attack might, uh, y-you know. I-it's effective, I think," the Treecko said as Mavy caught up to us, visibly shook but still at it.
"Ice against ground, that don't make no sense. Like, drop a block of ice on the ground, it don't beat the ground, it just shatters. How's that work?" Mavy asked.
"It, uh... doesn't work like th-" Rye began.
"Wait, stop! Stop!" Arden yelled.
He'd spoken too late, and those behind us watched in horror as Rye stumbled, a section of floor below his foot sinking down and clicking. As some sort of gas began to hiss from the edges of the square depression, Rye gasped and took me by the paw, dragging me along as fast as he could manage as the others ran past us for their lives.
"Run! Run! M-Mavy, hurry, it's gonna-!" he screamed.
A spark clicked from behind.
I saw the flash shine from behind fus irst. Then came the heat, then the loud boom, then the shockwave hit me. The entire cave quaked around us as I heard Rye scream, so much so that I began to think that the cave might collapse. Indeed, no sooner than the explosion behind me had erupted did the ceiling above begin to crack and crumble onto us. At this point, I didn't need Rye's hand, I just ran. I ran as fast as my little legs could carry me, sprinting until I tripped and somersaulted forward. The roar of the collapsing cave rang out around me for what seemed like forever until it finally quieted, leaving nothing but dust hanging in the air.
I just laid there for a bit, not even daring to move in case the worst had come to pass. Eventually, prying my eyes open and noting I hadn't been crushed, I coughed until I could manage out a word.
"H-hey! Shah!" I squeaked.
"I-I'm here!" Rye's voice called.
"Rocky! Kawa! Can you hear me?" Krookodile called.
"Arden! Arden, where's Arden?" came May's voice. A pained groan echoed in response.
"H-here! I... fuck, someone get me...!" he said, apparently through his teeth.
"Ah gotcha!" Mavy called.
"Someone better!" Arden demanded as I pushed myself off the cave floor.
Hissing as pain shot up one of my legs, I watched through the slowly settling clouds of dust as orb-lantern lights rose from the floor, slowly revealing the damage for us all to see. I'd managed to run a good ten feet clear of the worst of the collapse, and it seemed most of the others had as well. As the air cleared, it became apparent that what most of us had sustained was some nasty bruises and scrapes, a few limbs banged up, and a pretty decent coating of dust. We hadn't gotten away scot-free, though, given that Golduck had gotten a nasty bleeder on his arm and Arden... well.
"Mr. Arden! I-I'm sorry, I-I didn't see it, and-" Rye stammered out.
"Save it," the Quilava panted.
"A-are you okay, at least?" Rye asked. Arden let out something between a laugh and a gasp for air.
"W-well, my arm's been fucking pulverized, but... agh, y-yeah, just peachy, how're you?" he growled. As everyone gathered around him, frantic clamoring arose as our eyes fell on the enormous hunk of stone resting on Arden's shattered foreleg.
"Sh-shaah?!" I called as May ran up to him and started giving him the deep breaths routine.
"D-don't worry, I'm fine, kid, just-" he said, pausing to let out a yelp of pain as May strained to lift the rock off with firm vines. Even moving it a bit, however, started a small avalanche of rock, forcing May to stop before she sent the whole thing down on us.
"Shit... o-okay, just hold still, alright? We're gonna get you out," May tried to reassure him before glancing back at us. "Alright, help me out here! We're getting this off, careful you don't disturb anything else!"
Nodding hurriedly and tearing my eyes from Arden's crushed foreleg, I ran up and waved Rye over, with Mavy just watching as we started lifting rocks to throw aside. As May and Krookodile tried to clear the way for the big rock on Arden's arm, a powerful gust of dry wind suddenly blew over us, whistling loudly as the dungeon rumbled and creaked. Even in limited light and through the dust coating, I could see most everyone pale as they recognized what this entailed: we didn't have long before the dungeon took us.
"...damn it, DAMN IT!" Arden managed out. My ears flattening against my head, I glanced to May for help.
"Wh-wha nah?" I squeaked.
"I..." May said, her face falling as she came to an unclear conclusion.
"...ugh, fuck... May, Contingency Rock-and-a-Hard-Place," he said, as if to confirm her uncertain fears. "Pike's not here to do it, but... d-damn it, do we have any metal?"
Confused, I nodded and dug my bag out of the debris, fishing out the Ice Beam TM still sitting inside. Upon seeing the TM taken from his team's collection, Arden paused to narrow his eyes at me, though a cringe of pain seemed to convince him to not pursue this any further and just take the machine. I just became more confused as Arden popped its metal cover up and hit it with a prolonged Flamethrower as May wrapped a vine around his trapped arm's shoulder. With this, the Quilava gave a sigh.
"I'll never get fucking used to this," he said through gritted teeth as May extended a vine in front of his face. As he bit down on the firm plant, I realized a bit too late what was happening, though before I could stop it, May raised a Leaf Blade and swung it hard into Arden's shoulder.
I staggered back in shock as he stifled a scream, and as May started prying her blade out of his shoulder for another swing, I hurriedly averted my eyes from seeing any more of the gruesome scene. The others around me could do nothing but look away or watch in shock as I heard more hits land.
Shlk. Crack. Kshlk.
Arden fell to the floor, gasping and groaning as his severed arm stuck limply out of the rock. Without too much hesitation, though, he rolled his stump onto the hot metal cover, finally letting out a muffled scream as a quiet sizzle hissed. All of this happening over the course of ten seconds, Arden moaned and got to his feet, wincing as May wrapped a mass of vines around him and his cauterized stump. At this point, the stunned silence finally broke as Rye choked out a guttural noise.
"Problem?" Arden panted, managing something between a smile and a pained grimace.
"Y... y-your arm!" Rye managed.
"Hah... hah... t-tis but a flesh wound," Arden replied.
"W-we have a Reviver seed handy," May hurriedly explained, wiping blood off her face. "His arm'll get regenerated if we use it. If he doesn't bite it before we're done, then I'll... yeah."
As she led the dazed Quilava away from the wall of stones, I hung my head, my eyes still wide. We weren't getting out of this floor at this pace with Arden like that, especially with such little time...
Pulling myself out of my stupor and running up to May, I tore open her bag and started digging, squinting as I prodding at each and every orb I could find, the sting of psychic energy from each of them whispering in my head as I dug.
'Foe-Hold Orb, Spurn Orb, Itemizer- come on! Stairs- stairs? Okay, sure, that sounds promising.'
Whipping the orb out, I got as close as I could to the others and held it up.
"Shak-ta-fah! Hhak-te-fay-teh!" I tried. His eyes widening as he realized what I was doing, Rye took the orb from my paws.
"Activate!" he yelled. By the time anyone realized what we were doing, the orb had gone off, and in the blink of an eye our entire party was standing in a new room, the stairs sitting just before us and the dungeon rumbling behind us, some time apparently having passed. Realizing what had happened, Krookodile's eye twitched.
"Are you insane, Treecko? That should have been a last resort, for emergencies only!" she demanded, earning a hard wince from Rye.
"Ah, yes, because this isn't an emergency?!" Arden defended him, gesturing to his wrapped stump.
"We had a while, we could've found the stairs without the orb! Now that's one less failsafe for whatever's up next! You think the next floor's gonna be any better, huh? How about the next one? Or the one after that?" Krookodile asked back.
"Okay, look, don't pull that shit. Dungeon gets pissy, it goes after you whenever it wants and, hmm, what was the other-? Oh right, my motherfucking arm is off, how about that, huh?!" Arden replied.
I could only watch as the two argued back and forth, continuing until the cave around us trembled, the scraping of stone beginning to pick up behind us. With a quick glance at each other, the two team leaders decided to save it and hurry down the stairs. Rye and Mavy, still shaken from what they'd just seen, both stuck close as we followed them down.
"B-Beck, w-we'll... be okay, right?" Rye asked. I hesitated for a moment before forcing a smile.
"Y-yeah, Rye, yeah," I reassured him. Mavy thankfully didn't interject, only giving a hollow chuckle as we descended, uncertainty haunting us now more than ever.
Caves of Being
B8F
A hiss of pain sounded from behind us as we cautiously walked through the familiar yet menacing corridors, Arden lagging behind as he cringed from the pain his stump was clearly causing him. As he hurriedly hobbled back up, insisting he was fine, I exchanged a concerned glance with Rye. Clearly the Quilava wasn't in any sort of fighting shape, and the idea that we might not have him and May helping out only made traversing the calm passageways that much more tense.
That was the thing, though. Even as we headed deep into the hallway we'd initially encountered, the dungeon was calm and quiet; a far cry from what it'd established as normal. That didn't stop me from clutching my scalchop tight and sticking close to my teammates as we followed Team Fraternity, our eyes peeled for any sign of discrepancy.
The first sign of such was a sinking feeling in my gut as we went deeper, one I quickly took as a bad sign.
I didn't have much time to imagine what horrors this might be warning me of before I glanced back by chance, blinking as something caught my eye. Squinting, I caught a fleeting glimpse of another Pokémon behind our group walking to the left and out of view. I tried to rub my eyes, only to remember my arms were too short for such, so I was left questioning myself. I could have sworn I'd seen a Quilava back there, not unlike Arden.
...maybe I just needed some fresh air. A lot of it.
This in mind, I kept quietly following for a bit, noting there hadn't been any splits in the path up to this point. As a difference finally seemed to show itself in the form of a cave ahead, my ears stuck up as a light suddenly blinked from inside.
Pausing for a moment, Krookodile cautiously led us in and shined the lantern in her claws around, though quickly dropped the thing (thankfully not detonating the orb) as she stumbled back. Pushing past her and looking inside, I gaped at what I saw.
It was... well, another scruffy Oshawott, gaping right back at me.
It took me a second to recognize that I was, in fact, staring at an exact carbon copy of myself, complete with another Krookodile staring at us at a loss, heads poking out from behind her and recoiling in shock as the two lanterns on the ground illuminated the cave.
As I clutched my scalchop tight, trembling at this development, I waited for a bit before raising my free arm, which my double did in exact sync. I waved said arm, the copy did the same. I waved it again, the same happened. Again, though suddenly pausing, not a single bit of hesitation in its copying me.
"Sh-shaah," I tried, my confusion mounting as my double did the same at the exact same time. Stepping back, I glanced to my teammates for help here, though they didn't seem to have any better of an idea as to what to do now. A moment's hesitation between the two parties before Krookodile picked her lantern up and slowly stepped forward, she and her double approaching one another. The two still copying each other's every move, they momentarily reached to touch one another, though quickly decided against it and headed for the other side of the room. Glancing back, Krookodile was quiet for a moment before clearing her throat.
"I-I don't... don't think they're gonna attack? I... think it's best we leave them alone," her two voices said.
I glanced between her and my double, eventually giving a shudder and starting across the cave with the others, giving the other Beck a glance as it passed. Two entrances laid before us, one of which the copies had emerged from. Likely out of fear of what we'd find in that one, we crowded through the other, leaving me at least reassured that I wasn't alone in getting mindfucked here.
"Please tell me you all saw that and it wasn't just blood loss," Arden said.
"No, we... you're still fine, by the looks of it," May reassured him. "For now, at least."
From that encounter on, I got the feeling I'd figured out this floor's thing, and sure enough, the floor didn't give too many surprises for once. It started out small after the initial two encounters, with a couple more passing glances of doubles slowly becoming sightings long enough for eye contact, though as we kept down the single tunnel the floor had given us, the encounters became less distant. Through a hole in the wall, we'd see a double group passing and staring back at us. In a particularly spacious corridor, there'd be a group on the ceiling evoking flashbacks of a few floors ago as I watched my double mimic my movements on the ceiling. Weird instances like that.
By the time our adventure in this floor had hit the half-hour mark, I was seeing... well, a bit more than double. As I glanced through yet another opening in the wall, I found yet another double, though this one looking at not a solid wall, but another opening at another double, who was staring through another opening at another, who was staring at another, who was staring at another, who was-
I tore my eyes away before I could give myself too bad of a headache. As Rye kept close, clutching our lantern tight, I found myself wondering about this floor. What were these doubles? Were they just projections? Actual flesh-and-blood clones? Different versions of us from other universes? Were... we just someone else's doubles? All bets were off with this place, and the more I thought about it, the more certain I became I probably shouldn't be thinking about this for my own sake.
I kept quiet as to not inspire any existential crises as we crossed through the tunnel, peering ahead as our lanternlight showed a room ahead. Leading the way, Rye headed in first, looking around for any discrepancies.
"O-okay, there's no ferals or, uh, others in here, I think. There's a... s-some kind of slab, and... uh, I'm... not sure what this is? I-it looks like stairs, but it's really small," he relayed to us. A murmur arose between our teams as we crowded into the cave, gathering around where Rye was crouching. Sure enough, there was a depression in the floor with stairs leading down, though there was only one problem. It was tiny, so much so that even a Cutiefly would've had trouble fitting inside.
His eye twitching, Arden squatted down, trying to force the arm he had left through the hole before pulling it out and slamming a balled-up paw on the floor.
"Dammit!" he swore. "Fuck... this can't be it. There has to be some other room."
"There was only one hallway and it doesn't look like there's any other way out. This-" Krookodile started before trailing off, Arden starting to chuckle to himself.
"Yeah, because of course... hah! Because why not?" he said, a vein bulging on his temple. Seeing this, May stepped up.
"A-Ardie, it'll be okay, we'll find a way out. Like always," she said. Arden only laid there, his vents sparking a bit before he gritted his teeth, giving Krookodile a look as she disapprovingly watched.
"Like this place gives a damn. Might as well... fuckin'... spite it while I can," he sighed.
Pulling his paw out and pushing himself up with his single forepaw, Arden joined the others as they started to examine the floor for any sort of way to get down the tiny stairs, my partners and I splitting off to try and make our own discoveries.
"So... wut's the plan, Rye? Yer the boss, yer the plans 'mon, right?" Mavy asked.
"P-please, just... I need a moment to think," Rye said, glancing around at the room. The first thing I noticed was that a circular piece of the ceiling was missing over the middle of the room, though looking up into it revealed only darkness. Aside from that, the stairs, and that odd slab on the ground, nothing much else was different about the cavern. Going off of process of elimination, I waddled over to the cuboid shape in the center of the room.
As we gathered around the slab, I examined it closely for any ancient writing or something along those lines, though what I found instead was a small indentation on the top of it. It was better than nothing, so with a glance at Rye, I tried sticking my paw in and pressing against the bottom to see if that would trigger any sort of secret mechanism, but it gave in once I applied pressure to it, sending my paw an inch deep into it. So it was hollow...
My investigation was suddenly interrupted by sudden panicked clamoring around me, numerous "what is thats" and "the fucks" sounding out as Rye shook my shoulder.
"B-Beck?" he asked, pointing up. I looked up and behind me to see what was wrong, only to seize up. Through the circular hole in the ceiling, what looked to be a giant white paw had stuck through, its position like my own. I instinctively stumbled back in fear, though as I tried to support myself on the slab, the thing gave under my weight. As it did, the ceiling on the other side of the wall collapsed, the cloud of dust quickly clearing to reveal what must have been that paw's owner: a fittingly giant Oshawott, staring wide-eyed at what I could only assume was an even larger wott.
'Guess we know how those copies factor into this one...'
As the others panicked around me, understandably perturbed at this sudden turn of events, I reluctantly peered into what I understood now was just a smaller version of this very room elevated over the floor. Sure enough, among a crowd of panicking little doubles, there sat a tiny version of me over a smaller room, in which sat an even smaller me over a smaller room, in which-
"Get away! Stop touching it!" Arden yelled, apparently having figured out what was happening as he wrested me away from that spiral into infinity. Now cramped into one side of the room, everyone else remained silent as they tried to wrap their heads around this; it seemed not even Mavy had a comment. As I laid there, though, I blinked, grabbing Rye's lantern and shining it at the new hole in the wall. I glanced over at my partners to see if they had the same stupid idea I'd had, though this seemed to be the case for neither. Arden, however, seemed to be one of the few others who did, as he noted the glint in my eye and nodded.
"Yeah, okay, okay, uh... put your paw in there, palm up," he instructed. I took a moment to understand what he was getting at, but eventually nodded and did so. Several yelped as my double reached in in sync and rested his massive paw behind us, though Arden gave me a flance and limped over to rest on it. Feeling something warm on my paw, I pulled it out and waddled over to the tiny staircase, resting it so that the appropriately sized double of Arden I'd picked up could climb off.
Arden's smaller double tried to yell up at us, though I didn't pay him much mind, as it seemed everyone else had understood. As Rye gave an "ah" and Mavy glanced back and forth between the hole in the wall and the smaller room, apparently having trouble processing this, Krookodile straightened up.
"I'll get everyone else to the stairs. Get against the wall and get on my hand," she instructed, walking over to the smaller room.
"Hold on, no, don't do this whole "I gotta stay behind for the good of the mission" shtick, you-" Arden's double yelled up, though shrunk back as the far larger Krookodile gave a Look down at him.
"I can Dig, you know," she said flatly, reaching into the smaller room and watching as her own double's larger hand reached in behind her.
Within minutes, we had all been lowered into the larger room outside, peering down the stairs now our size as Krookodile burst out of the wall we'd been lowered from. As we started down, Rye and Mavy exchanged a look.
"That was..." Mavy tried.
"Yeah," Rye said. "I... a-are you sure we'll be okay, Beck? This... i-if there's more ahead, how bad is it gonna get from here?"
I didn't answer.
Caves of Being
B9F
The moment we descended the stairs and I saw the floor of the next room over rippling like water, I knew we were in for a bad time.
This dungeon had established a theme in that it didn't give a damn about the laws of space or physics, and we quickly found that it wasn't relenting anytime soon as we looked down the very first hallway to find it twisting like a screw, its floor keeping us bound to it by some mockery of gravity that probably had Newton spinning in his grave like a racing tire. Or... whoever that was, my memory wasn't about to let me know.
Exiting the corkscrew hallway to find ourselves in a room with walls rippling like standing water, we all shared a worried glance. Whatever was coming was clearly not going to be a good time.
It seemed the dungeon had run out of floors to show off its disregard for anything normal and had just chosen to throw it all into one floor; every room was different in some strange new way. To describe them all would be a sheer test of my endurance, but... well, it spoke for itself, really.
"SHIT, GET IT OFF, GET-" Mavy screamed before the Omastar attacking him wrapped him in its tentacles. Though perturbed at the sight of an extinct 'mon in the wild, that didn't stop Rye and I from jumping onto its shell, attacking at its soft spots as Mavy shot Pin Missiles every whichway. With a couple hitting, the feral gave up on Mavy and began to retreat, though an attack from Arden stopped it in its tracks. Or rather, an attempted attack, as the Quilava only fell to the ground as he attempted to inflict it, the missing weight of his arm not helping. The angered Omastar moved to attack him while he was down, but Krookodile jumped in and swung at it with her tail, sending it flying into the wall. The rock splashed like water as the Omastar sank in, though as it settled, it became clear the feral wasn't coming back out, as it seemed it was embedded into the rock, regardless of how it'd gotten in.
Gritting his teeth, Arden pushed himself up, giving the feral a quick glance before continuing on, trying his best not to look at the walls. Sometimes they'd ripple like water, sometimes they'd shine like gold in the light, sometimes they'd behave beyond logical description, and nobody dared to even touch them. The darkness ahead wasn't even darkness for certain, with flashes of light and color periodically bursting from the distance like lightning. Not even light obeyed the laws of physics down here...
This wasn't a research expedition anymore, we were just chancing our luck more and more as we descended ever further into the abyss.
A room yielded two exits, and hoping for the best, I waddled towards one, though the door suddenly winked out of existence as I tried it, as if it'd been nothing more than a trick of my peripheral vision. Scrambling back as to not touch the pulsing wall any further, I looked back at the others, many of whom glanced worriedly back and forth between me and the other door. As Arden and May started towards it to test our luck, however, where my door had been violently burst outwards like some chemical reaction gone wrong, nearly engulfing me. I screamed and dove away, just barely seeing the walls pulsing from the explosion. As Rye caught me, the ceiling gave a low groan before some massive object phased through the stone and smashed into the cave floor. We didn't stick around to find out what it was, as I scrambled to my feet and ran after my teammates through the door, the sound of something massive scraping against stone growing fainter as we fled.
Though I ran as fast as my little legs could carry me, I found myself slowing as if I were trying to sprint through a pit of molasses, though this thankfully didn't last long. Although brief, that anomaly stopped our group in its tracks, everyone taking a moment to consider its ramifications. I could feel the dread rising by the second, and when someone did break, it was Mavy, his breath shaking as he put a paw on his head.
"Ah didn't want this, I-I came fer... y'know, a nice lil exploration, not... th-this!" he said. "Dammit, I shoulda just... shoulda just stayed up there, a Zigzagoon shouldn't got nothing to do with this... fuckin' place."
As Mavy shuddered, seemingly fresh out of snark to give, Arden and May exchanged a look.
"Zigzagoon, just... it's okay. Shouldn't be long now. All we have to do is stick together, have each other's backs, and we'll be out in no time, alright?" May asked. Instead of the desired effect of inspiring some hope, a couple dry laughs sounded from Team Fraternity.
"Yeah, great. Instead of a quick death, we've got you and the schlemiel who wouldn't even stay to... protect..." Krookodile began. She stopped herself quickly, her eyes widening as Arden tensed up, his eye twitching as he slowly looked over.
"...finish that sentence," he seethed, his eyes burning. "Finish that fucking sentence."
"Q-Quilava, she didn't mean it, l-let's please just save it for-" Hitmontop interrupted, jumping between them. It didn't last, as Arden only shoved him aside with his remaining foreleg, ignoring May as she mouthed a quiet plea for peace to him.
"Do you think I wanted them to die? Do you think I even had a choice?" he asked. "Have you ever had to watch everything you know and love die in front of you? Or, wait, were you just tucked away all nice and cozy, not even knowing h... wh-what the fuck a Tyranitar was?"
"Don't you even-" Krookodile fumed, only for Arden's vents to explode into white-hot blaze as we all backed away in a panic.
"I'm not fucking finished!" he roared. "Do not give me that protection Tauros-shit, I just did what Otto wanted, he'd've ended up six feet under anyways! They all would've, and you know whose fault it was? No one's! Was just circumstance, but of FUCKING course people like you can't let me forget, right? And you know what? I'm glad you did, because I've been waiting to say this since my arm went. Oh, yeah, my fucking arm's gone, because you clearly don't give a damn! I'd sooner get my ass iced by Kyurem again than spend another fucking floor in here with your prissy ass, and if I have to hear you acting like you're all high and mighty one more fucking time...! Fuck you, eat shit, and live to tell your friends about it!"
Silence hung in the air, the only reprieve being Arden's flaming vents and the ambiance of the dungeon around us as Krookodile's face twitched.
"...you asked for it," she growled, her tail flicking behind her as she bared her claws.
"Okay. Okay, you wanna fucking-?" Arden asked, getting into stance as the others started trying to reason with him and Krookodile.
"You're at the type disadvantage and your foreleg's off," she reminded him. Arden only gave a pained smirk.
"Good, this'll be a fair fight, then," he said.
With that, a wave of fire roared, a large wedge of stone erupted from the ground, the two glared each other down, panting from the damage they'd sustained from those attacks... and then a plume of indigo just missed them, exploding against the anomalous wall behind them.
"ENOUGH!" Rye yelled, his eyes glowing with Dragon-type energy casting dim indigo light onto his face. Caught off guard, Arden and Krookodile gaped at him.
"Rye, what the fuck are you d-" the Quilava began.
"Shut up, for once in your life, shut up!" Rye demanded, his glare only deepening. "Now, both of you, what is this gonna accomplish? What are you trying to prove? This'll just get someone hurt, and for what? Just so one of you can say you're better? If you two want us to make it out of here alive, you're going to shut it and save it, do you understand?!"
Both of the seasoned team leaders flinching as the little Treecko yelled at them, neither apparently expecting such from him, they hurriedly nodded. As they shakily stepped over the mess they'd managed to make and quietly led us forward, Mavy and I stared at Rye, unsure of quite what to say. The Treecko stomped on alongside us, fuming until the draconic energy in his eyes subsided, his expression becoming one of horror.
"...I... M-Ms. Krookodile, Mr. Arden, I... didn't mean..." he tried. He looked at me for help for a moment before staring down regretfully as we kept along, the stone floor squishing like mud under our feet.
The room ahead, thankfully, had something different, these being the oh-so-glorious stairs leading downwards, beckoning to us as we all stared down into them. Despite their allure, we hesitated.
"...we sure we want to know what's down there? We could always turn back now and say we tried," Golduck suggested.
I saw a good few heads start to nod in agreement, though they quickly seemed to change their mind as footsteps started ringing from the hall. I only got a glimpse of some thing walking towards us before I hopped down after everyone else, already regretting my haste.
'...okay, so far, so good. Maybe we may not get it so bad this t-'
Caves of Being
B10F
…
I didn't even know what to tell myself. My eyes and my body saw and felt, and yet I couldn't even scrounge up a word to describe it.
Everything was blindingly bright and pitch dark at once, and anything I could see was wrong. It looked right at first glance, but looking at it for a second... I just couldn't process it, it was like my brain was desperately trying to fill in the blanks in real time.
Even taking a step made me want to scream. My body felt like it was ready to tear itself apart atom by atom, and yet it held together. No pain. Just... wrong.
Despite everything, I tried to trudge forward blindly, every last sense of my body screaming at me. Ahead, I thought I saw the stairs, but it just kept changing as light kept bending. A wall, a crystal, Mavy, the back of my own head...
"R-Rye!"
The sound that came out of my own mouth... I couldn't even confidently call it sound. Sensation would be more accurate. As the sensation left my lips, a hundred others joined it, all my own voice.
"Maffy!"
"Ah-den!"
"Kitaro!"
"Dill!"
"Shlink!"
"Gen!"
"Rai!"
As the cacophony of voices echoed, a scream met my ears, one it took a moment to recognize as my own. Desperately waving my arms around, I grabbed for something, anything to help me. I didn't know if it was a second or an hour of agonizing nothingness before a hand tightly clutched a paw, then another. And another. And another. And
Too many. I was being pulled, crushed, grabbed at, t
…
no
it's not r
e
...
I clutched the hands I could tell were real tightly, tears welling up in my eyes from sheer overwhelm. Managing to wrest myself free of what I could only conclude was my brain trying to comprehend what it was feeling, I took an agonizing step forward, then another. And another. And another. My eyes trained on a shape ahead, I held on as tightly as I could to whoever I was holding. My body an island in a sea it was never meant to sit in, I walked, trembling as my very being screamed in agony. Everything was wrong, but as if on autopilot, I willed my body forward.
So close.
Just
another
few
steps...
…
I flopped onto the floor, shivering violently. My paw still wrapped tightly around my teammates' own, I braved a quick peek up.
Much to my relief, everything made sense again. We'd ended up in a sizable cavern, a large gaping exit just opposite us. Large crystals on the ceiling cast light onto the floor along with our lanterns, illuminating a small spring of water and a weathered statue of a Kangaskhan. A relieved laugh sounded from behind me.
"Fuck, f-finally!" Arden said, limping over to the statue. As I kept lying on the floor, I did a quick headcount of the others as they scattered throughout the cave; everyone was here, thankfully. As bags were checked, canteens were filled, and the odd statue examined, I finally pushed myself up, followed first by Mavy then by Rye, and with a quiet, horrified glance at each other, we shakily headed to the Kangaskhan statue for comfort. Something about it calmed me, as if it were letting off some kind of aura. Whatever the case, Arden and May were both in front of it, the Leafeon reaching a vine into an indentation in its chest, one that looked only big enough for a single seed.
"You ever wonder why it's always a Kangaskhan?" she eventually asked, evidently trying to move on from... that. As Arden watched his teammate produce a seed from the statue, he gave a sniff.
"Don't know. Guess it just makes sense to the dungeon," he said.
Both waited for each other to keep up the conversation, though the Snorlax in the room was just too apparent. As our attentions all turned towards the exit, presumably to a deeper part of the dungeon, we all glanced first at Arden's stump, then back from where we'd come, then at each other.
No words were needed for the agreement we all made there.
As the two veteran teams started repacking their things to leave this damned place, Rye and I started to do the same, though before I could get too far into it, a memory from what seemed like days ago stopped me.
"Once we reach a lull in the dungeon where spacetime lies more stable, keep a watchful eye. There will likely be a sign to guide you."
...well, if this wasn't stable spacetime...
"You two just stay put once we're out, I guess, we'll get a medic," Krookodile said as Hitmontop and Golduck got their bags packed.
"No, no, you three go on ahead. We'll be a while, and... well, this won't be pretty," May said, holding up the seed. Krookodile gave a nod, though Rye wasn't as sure.
"W-will Escape orbs work here? Mr. Arcanine said badges wouldn't, right?" he asked.
"We've brought them down here, they've already got a link to the outside going. We'll meet you up there," Krookodile said before holding an orb from her bag up. "Activate!"
Team Fraternity disappeared in a flash and a rush of wind. As May sighed and led Arden to a more hidden area, watching us as they stepped behind a wall of stone, I stepped away from Rye and Mavy to look around.
"Hey, uh, Beck? Wh-what're you...?" Rye asked. I kept examining the room, my eyes narrowing until I stopped on a particular point. Many of the crystals on the ceiling were sticking out in such a way that they shone their light onto a specific spot. It was dim, but just noticeable enough for a connection to come to mind.
'Follow the light...'
"You alright there?" Mavy asked.
"Huh? Er, shaa," I nodded, my brow furrowing as I waddled over to the lit spot. As my teammates stepped up beside me, evidently unsure as to what was going on, a square wall suddenly sunk in. As we watched in astonishment, the square indentation opened like an elaborate door, revealing a previously unseen hallway. I stared down it for a minute, hesitating before glancing at Rye, who now seemed to understand.
"...I... i-if this is what your vision said... ugh... w-we better do it, huh?" the Treecko gulped. I gave a little nod, glancing over at Mavy for his blessing here.
"Don't look at me. Ah'm... honestly, I ain't waitin' up there fer y'all. Feels safer comin' with, if that makes any sense," he said.
With this decided, Rye glanced back at the stone Arden and May were behind, seeming to consider something for a bit until the sound of a hard blow rang from the formation, followed by the crack of a seed. The Treecko cringed, his eyes wide as he muttered to himself.
"No... h-his arm... he'd just... they can't, can they? Surely it wouldn't make it too hard if we...? ...not worth it, anyways..." he told himself. He thought for another moment before pulling my notebook out of his bag and tearing a page out, hurriedly writing a note and setting it down where the two could see it. With this, he gave a gulp before turning back to the hall, shaky but with a hint of determination in his eyes. "Okay... alright. L-let's do this. Let's find this Pokémon, a-and let's beat the Phoenixes!" he declared.
And with that, we stepped through, the light from the room behind snuffing out as the door closed behind us, leaving nothing but our lantern to light our way into the unknown.
All I could do was pray that we weren't in over our heads here.
Razor Leaf wasn't by any means an effective means of carrying out a Reviver contingency, not against either of May's two friends. But in the absence of Pike, it was the best she had. It was painful, she was sure, but Arden had been through worse.
A cracked Reviver seed letting out golden wisps at Arden's feet, he panted and prodded at his newly regenerated arm as it hung limply at his side.
"Fuck, pins and needles... that was two or three floors with the thing gone, so how long is that, half an hour before I can use it again? Boy, oh boy, won't this be fun," the Quilava groaned. May put a paw on his shoulder.
"Hey, that's a nice excuse for some time alone in here, right? You know, once Rye and Beck head out. Not like the dungeon'll stop us," she said.
"Right. Here, let's head for the statue, maybe that'll help," Arden nodded, getting to his three good paws and limping out from behind their hiding place, immediately noting the absence of Team Reach. An anomaly was left on the floor, however, in the form of a folded piece of parchment, one which Arden picked up and opened to read.
"What? What is that?" May asked. Arden was silent, his mouth opening as his eyes narrowed.
Mr. Arden, we're going down a secret passage we found, Guildmaster's orders. Let your leg recover, send help if we don't come back soon. Rye.
The Quilava stared at the note for a while, his vents sparking as he thought this over.
Team Reach. Going down a secret passage. Under the Guildmaster's orders.
Arden knew something was up when he saw it.
"...I need a minute," Arden said simply, singe marks forming on the parchment as he held it. With this, he took a seat against the Kangaskhan statue, his brown eyes staring at the crystals above as he rubbed at his limp arm and mulled this over, already debating how to approach Arcanine on this. May stared at him for a moment before sighing and joining him, her tail flicking as she waited. And so it was; the two veterans sat alone and silent in the wake of the statue, waiting for their cue to leave and with the problem recruits once more on their minds.
What neither of them in that moment was a figure standing in the shadows by the door, standing still for a moment before slinking back out, the telltale whoosh of an Escape orb's activation echoing faintly through the opening mere moments later.
And as such, it was known.