21. A Diglett Day Out.
"How about we practice your Flamethrower?" Danny asked his Charmander, who nodded enthusiastic.
With Vermillion City behind them, they were back on the road, towards the next city. Even though they hadn't figured quite out which city that would be. According to the map, north of Vermillion City laid Saffron City, they could go there. Another option was to go to Celadon City, which was way more to the west, and quite the walk.
Danny had put out three targets made of wood and put them in the middle of the field.
"Okay, try to use Flamethrower on the left target." He commanded. Charmander nodded, and tried to re-create that burning feeling inside him when he had fought Raichu, bit it didn't come.
He tried again, but he couldn't get it. Charmander looked sad up to Danny, and slowly shook his head as in 'I can't do it'. Danny slowly smiled, and petted Charmander on his head.
"That doesn't matter buddy, we keep trying." Danny said. "Try to think back at that feeling you had when Raichu was charging at you. Try to copy that feeling." Charmander nodded, and tried again, without result.
On a small hill behind Danny & Charmander, Richard and Janine had just finished building up a small camp. Even though it was still near the beginning of the afternoon, they had decided to take the afternoon off and train a little.
Richard sat down on a the soft grass, and took his Voltorb onto his lap, while Eevee lied directly next to him. Eevee liked having Voltorb on the team, but she didn't like the attention it got, while she got less. Of course, she didn't, but she just felt that way. Even when Sandshrew invited her to play along with him, Squirtle and Bellsprout, she refused.
"How do you feel Voltorb?" Richard petted the Ball Pokémon on its head, and the last one made a happy noise, confirming that it felt well. This all made Eevee really irritating, and she started to give heads to Richard's leg, but he was still busy with Richard, so she decided to step up and see what the others were doing.
"Here you go Koffing." Janine had unpacked some Pokémon food and gave some to her Koffing, who was happy to receive it. Venonat was now pulling her wide black pants. She started to laugh.
"Of course you get some to. I know you love food." She gave something to her Venonat, and it directly ran off to eat it, only to return a minute later to get some new.
"Okay, let's try this out." Danny sat down and took a piece of paper out of his bag, together with a small pen. He drew something that had to represent a Raichu, to give Charmander that extra spirit again. Charmander looked with his trainer, and he raised on of his eyebrows, so clearly that even Janine saw it and she started to laugh, before running down.
"What on earth is that?" She asked before she bursted out in a laugh.
"That is a Raichu." Danny said. Not that it looked like a Raichu, it had two rather small ears, one eye opened and one eye seemed to be closed. It's body was quite short in comparison to its head and the tail was three times as long as its entire body.
"I'm not sure. I think you might have made a drawing of a currently unknown Pokémon." Janine said, before laughing again, Charmander happily laughed along.
"Come on, it is a Raichu, what else can it be?" "You tell me, you drew it." Janine almost fell on the ground from laughter. "It is a Raichu, now Charmander, let's get back to training." He walked away with a look on his face like his feelings where hurt. Charmander decided it was best to just follow his trainer.
"Now I put this Raichu drawing on here, and it is charging at you. Do you think you can unleash that fire again?" Danny asked. Charmander nodded, and walked back a few steps.
Too bad, once again the fire wasn't coming, how hard Charmander tried to think the bad drawing was an actual Raichu, he couldn't get that fire back. He shook his head in disappointment.
"Don't blame yourself Charmander, that drawing doesn't resemble a Raichu, so it didn't work." Janine said, getting another smile on her face. Danny decided to let that one go, and focus on Charmander.
"It doesn't matter Charmander, we'll just continue training." Danny said, trying to cheer Charmander up. If he knew one thing about his friend, it was that he didn't like to not being able to succeed.
"Why don't you two take a break?" Janine asked. "I mean, you can't train on an empty stomach." That was an argument that fell very strong with Danny, he hadn't eaten since breakfast.
"Okay, a small pause might do." He walked up the small hill and sat down next to Richard, who was still busy with Voltorb.
Seeing that his trainer was now back on the hill, Krabby went from his small hiding place towards him, but when seeing that Bellsprout, Beedrill, Abra and Pidgey were on their way to their trainer as well, it decided to stay back a little, since all of them had fought and defeated a gym leader, and he still didn't. Little to say, Krabby felt like he was the weakest and thus the least important member of the team. Little did he know that Danny thought all of his Pokémon where equally important, and that it didn't matter if a Pokémon was strong or weak.
When Danny saw his Pokémon coming up to him, he could already fell a tension between two of his team members: Bellsprout and Beedrill. Even though their rivalry had been cooled down a bit after Bellsprout had beaten Misty's Starmie, sometimes they still fought over the smallest things. Danny was curious what it would be about this time, and the bomb quickly exploded:
Janine happened to give the last piece of Pokémon food of the first tin of Pokémon to Beedrill, and Bellsprout had wanted that piece as well, so the fight was one. Pidgey had sat down and enjoyed the show.
Of course did Janine try to appease both of them, but when they fought, neither Beedrill nor Bellsprout could listen to a voice of reason. And besides that, they even seemed to like to fight.
"How is training going?" Richard asked at Danny, while still petting Voltorb.
"Not too well, but that doesn't matter. Charmander and I need to work on Charmander's fire inside. Right now, where focusing on using it against Raichu, but in the end, he will be able to use it against any other opponent." Charmander nodded heavily.
"Well, don't overdo it, I mean, you can't expect that Charmander can handle a Flamethrower perfectly just yet." Richard couldn't have said anything worse. Charmander never had a problem with Richard, but right now, he had. He looked angry at the 15 year old, as in 'I can handle anything'.
"Easy Charmander." Charmander's expression hadn't escaped Danny's sight either. "Richard is right, even though you really want to, I can't expect you to master such a powerful attack directly. But we'll work at it."
Only than Danny realized Krabby wasn't with him, and he started to look around, only to find the Water type still taking shelter in between two of their bags.
"Hey Krabby, why don't you come sit over here?" Krabby slowly got out of its small hiding place and made his way towards his trainer. Needless to say, the group made room for the newcomer, which made Krabby feel welcome.
"I kind a wonder where Eevee went." Richard said, as Squirtle and Sandshrew weren't playing anymore, and Eevee wasn't with them."
"That's strange, I'm sure she was still there when Charmander and I stopped training." Danny answered.
Richard put Voltorb down and stood up. As he looked over the small valley underneath them, there wasn't a sign of the small Evolution Pokémon.
"Where can she have gone." Richard slowly started to walk down, now also focusing on the forest, maybe a small brown creature had walked in there, but from what he could see, which was quite much since the forest wasn't too thick, she wasn't there.
Janine and Danny had followed Richard as well, and where now all three on the valley, just as their Pokémon. Something they didn't notice, was a small hole in the ground, going quite deep. A small Pokémon as Eevee could have easily fallen into it.
But as they walked on, they would soon found out, because within seconds after Richard had reached the forest border, a small scream of surprise was heard, and Venonat was gone.
"Where did Venonat go?" Janine ran towards the place where her Insect Pokémon had just walked, and there was a small hole there as well.
"What." She fell on her knees. "Venonat!" She screamed into the small hole, hoping to reach her Pokémon, but it didn't respond. She didn't had much time, because quick after, another small squeak was heard, and Krabby was gone as well.
"What is this?" Richard stepped away from the forest, looking around, only to see Squirtle fall into a gape as well.
"Guys, we need to get off this grass, I don't know what it is, but it isn't good." Richard ran towards the forest, followed by Sandshrew and Danny. Back they heard another scream, looking around Danny saw Abra holding on to the ground, and Bellsprout's vines pulling it up, and taking it with them.
When all of them had arrived at the forest, they looked behind them, seeing multiple holes in the ground.
All that where left where Danny, Richard and Janine and Charmander, Bellsprout, Abra, Pidgey, Beedrill, Sandshrew and Koffing. Voltorb was still laying on top of the small hill.
"What now?" Richard asked. "We need to go back." Danny said. "We can't leave them here." "I know that, but how do you want to go after them?"
They didn't needed to wait very long, cause while Danny was looking at Richard, the boy suddenly seemed to fall straight down, and had disappeared from the surface, only leaving a big hole in the ground.
"You must be kidding me. Richard, are you there?" Danny shouted. No answer.
"This is crazy." Janine said, followed by a quick scream, and she had disappeared as well.
Danny thought quickly. "Okay guys, try to get into a tree, quick, but before they had all reached a tree, Abra and Sandshrew had both disappeared as well.
"Damn, whatever sucks us down, its fast." Danny looked at the remaining of their teams. Koffing, Beedrill and Pidgey where flying in the air, so they wouldn't be affected by those holes at all, and Charmander and Beedrill had both managed to get into a three.
Voltorb, who hadn't moved, had seen all the panic, and rolled down towards them, circling around the existing holes, trying to get to them.
"Voltorb, go back, it isn't safe." Danny screamed. But surprisingly, whatever had sucked them down was gone now, and Voltorb could safely reach the forest.
Not taking any risk, Danny slid down slowly, grabbed Voltorb and climbed back up.
"So we need a plan, we can't leave all of them behind like this, so I suggest we go down and enter one of those bigger holes in the ground, and try to find them back." The Pokémon nodded, so Danny slid down again.
"Be careful." He said to the others, as he put his first foot in the hole, which was surprisingly deep. He almost lost his balance, but managed to grab a tree and remained staying upright.
"Let's go." He lowered himself into the hole, followed by Charmander, who was lifted down by Bellsprout, same with Voltorb. Pidgey, Koffing and Beedrill got in themselves.
The first words that might have laid on Danny's tongue could have been: 'Wow' or 'This is huge'. But he was that impressed that he could get any of those out. They were standing in an underground network of tunnels, around the height of 1 meters, so Danny had to crawl on his knees to get anywhere.
They could go left or straight ahead, and they decided to go the last named direction, hoping to find their friends back.
While crawling forward, Danny thought the tunnel was getting bigger, not only in height, but also in width. It didn't look long or all of the Pokémon could walk next to him at the same time.
While walking, Danny got the feeling the tunnel was endless, and started to freak out.
"What if we picked the wrong tunnel? What is this one is just an endless path?"
Next to him, Charmander felt his trainer's tension, and knew that he needed to be ready. Flamethrower or not, if his trainer needed him right now, he would be there. Little did the little guy know, his services where needed quicker than expected.
Walking further into the tunnel, they arrived at a crossroad, with again two options.
"O man." Danny sighed. "Okay guys, I decided last time, this one is on you."
Worst thing he could ever say, because Danny clearly forgot that both Beedrill and Bellsprout where still around. And as you would probably guess: Beedrill wants to go left, Bellsprout votes for right.
"Great, so that's one vs one." Danny said sarcastically. "What do you guys think?"
Pidgey and Koffing just picked a side, Pidgey was on Beedrill's and Koffing went also right, but Voltorb and Charmander seemed to have more trouble.
"Come on, and please, try to go to the same side." Voltorb and Charmander looked at each other, and then decided to go left.
"Let's go then." Danny followed Beedrill into the cave, the others all followed, except Bellsprout, who started to growl angrily.
A everyone turned around, Danny started to fear that they had to follow Bellsprout road anyway, but then out of nowhere, Charmander walked forward, and took Bellsprout's left leaf (which is his hand) and pulled the Flower Pokémon towards the group. Bellsprout, completely caught off guard, didn't knew what to do, and just went with the flow.
Danny stood watching with open mouth, as Charmander might just have fixed Bellsprout's defiance.
"Thanks Charmander." The before mentioned nodded his head happily. "Let's get going. I sure hope this is indeed the right way." Danny's nerves where back, and stronger than ever.
Luckily, his worries quickly vanished when he started to hear a voice. Richard's. Than he heard Janine's voice as well, so he started to run, already following Koffing who, when hearing its trainer's voice, had gone faster and faster. Same for Voltorb.
Suddenly, he stepped into one big open space, it was quite deep, without knowing Danny and the Pokémon had walked down and down. Right now, they should be around 7 or maybe 8 meters underneath the ground.
"Hey Danny!" Richard called his friend, and only than Danny saw the Diglett in the cave. His friends where all there, surrounded by Diglett. Behind him, Diglett appeared as well, and they pushed them further into the big room, until they stood next to the others.
"It seems like all these Diglett have made one big network down here. Once one of us fell in, they quickly took us with ten at a time until we reached this room." Janine told him.
"So, I guess we are kept prison by these Diglett." Danny stated. "Yeah, that's pretty much all we know too." Richard said. "By the way, is Eevee with you? I found Sandshrew and Squirtle along the way and Voltorb was already with you, but I haven't seen Eevee?"
Danny looked shocked, and due to this expression, Richard did as well. "No, I haven't seen Eevee." He said. Richard looked disappointed. "I hoped you had her." But before he could continue speaking, another voice started speaking.
"Hello my guests. I see my army of Diglett has taken you in." A small man, probably end 40's, walked through the same opening they had just came out of, and he was escorted by four Dugtrio.
Even though Danny wanted to hear what that guy had to say, he couldn't let this opportunity go and collect some more data for in his Pokédex.
Dugtrio. Formed when three Diglett combine. This Pokémon is able to tunnel deep beneath the earth's surface.
"Really Danny, even if we are in this trouble, you still want to check?" Janine started to laugh on the wrong side of her mouth. "That's a little immature."
"Stop it, both of you. I am the only one to talk." The man said, as he walked closer. The small glasses on his face where now visible, as well as his bald head. His clothes where the average mining clothes, not that they had seen many, but at some places, like the higher mountains behind Pallet Town, there are still people working in the mine.
"Who are you?" Janine asked.
"My name is not important, but what is important, is what you are thinking to do here. So tell me, what on earth, or under earth." The man started to laugh, but stopped when he saw nobody was following. "Where was I, Ah yes. What on earth are you doing here?"
"We weren't even planning to go here, but my Eevee disappeared, and then suddenly, everyone was falling into those holes of you. So if anyone was to blame, it is you and your Diglett army." Richard said.
"Ah, but that's where you are wrong my friend." The man chuckled. "Your Eevee went through my escape route, and was then taken by my Diglett because she invaded our underground city. She is right here." Two Diglett moved forward, with in between them, Eevee.
Richard let out a sigh of relief. His Eevee was back.
"Here's how it's going down: You and your Pokémon do whatever I want you to do, as long as I want you too. And then, and only then, you will get your Eevee back."
"Shit, bye bye Pokémon League." Danny said sad, but Richard had a plan.
"I don't think so." He smiled, a smile that Danny knew as 'be careful, he is up to something'.
"Eevee, return." Richard had taken Eevee's Pokéball off his belt, and simply returned his Pokémon to her Pokémon. Nothing could be done to prevent it.
"What!" The man seemed to be out of game.
"And now your threat is gone, we will go. Or…" Richard said threatening.
Danny looked at Bellsprout, who looked back and nodded. It was their secret sign that made it clear to Bellsprout that a fight was close. Danny tried the same with Krabby, who would also be a great help against the Diglett and Dugtrio, but it passed by the River Crab Pokémon.
"You won't go anywhere." The man simply said, signing for his own doom.
"Great, Squirtle, use Bubble." "Krabby, Bubble as well." As bubbles started to fill the cave, Bellsprout quickly added some leafs with Razor Leaf, both hitting and scaring away the Diglett. Three Dugtrio decided to take the fight.
With the same orders, they were scared away as well. An entire live underground, without needing to fight even a bit, made them quickly scared.
"No, my servants. Stay!" The man had lost all his trumps, and Danny quickly reached him.
"Now tell us what your name is, and we'll bring you up and report you to officer Jenny.
"J-Jacob." The man stammered. "But please don't report me. I might have looked a little bit angry, but I just want to protect the Diglett and Dugtrio that live here."
"Then why so aggressive?" Janine asked. "And why let us work for you?"
"Well, it's a long story. When I was younger, I was always picked on, and it didn't changed once I started working in the mines, everybody always bullied me, let me stumble, all that stuff. The worst was Jonas Brokfield. He is the son of the owner of the mine I worked, and he set everybody up to me, even saying I stole from the mine, resulting in me being fired." Jacob explained.
"It doesn't end there. Once I was gone, they started a new project at this route, building a new mine. Which started to become a big danger to the Diglett and Dugtrio that live here, so I went here and managed, with the help of the Diglett and Dugtrio, to scare them away, but I heard they would come back."
"You are wide shouldered man said, as he walked into the cave as well. "I knew you would let your guard down at some time, and now It's time to take you out of here Jacob."
"Jonas, how did you get in here?" "Simple, those stupid Diglett of you made so much holes, you were easy to find.
And as he said that, four Paras walked into the room. The wild Dugtrio and Diglett came back, trying to protect their master, but against a group of Paras, more walked in, they can't do much.
"As you can see, I came well prepared, now leave, or my Paras will destroy your Diglett."
And at that very moment, the fire that hadn't burned in Charmander after he fought Raichu had come back, and he knew he just had to open his mouth, and that was what he did.
One big Flamethrower emerged through the room, hitting the first few rows of Paras, knocking them down instantly.
"What?" Jonas was completely surprised, he had been so busy with Jacob that he hadn't seen the Charmander, and he was angry on himself for that.
The other Paras where smart creatures, and strong as well, but knew when to flee, and this was one of those moments, and they didn't knew how fast they could get out.
"It seems your Paras where destroyed." Jacob laughed, as the knocked down Paras slowly crawled up and left as well.
Jonas Brokfield always had an answer ready, but not today, as he followed his Paras in defeat.
"Wow Charmander, that was one amazing Flamethrower." Danny kneeled down next to his friend. "I knew you would be able to pull it off." Charmander happily growled, and was also quite happy to find that fire still on, and he turned around, and launched another Flamethrower, and another one.
"It seems to me Charmander has controlled that attack." Janine said while smiling, and Danny nodded. He was more than proud on his little friend.
Meanwhile, Jacob apologized to Richard. "I'm so sorry, I will talk to Officer Jenny and try to fight this the legal way." He said. "I'm sure Jenny will be on your side, I mean, there are already enough mines, we don't need another one." "That's true."
Jacob led them back up, and they all were happy to see some sunlight, except for Jacob.
"If you don't mind, I rather stay here, I have been underground for so long, I don't like the sun anymore." "Sure, thanks for your help bringing us back, good luck with Officer Jenny." Richard said, as they waved Jacob goodbye, and started packing their stuff.
As it turns out, their training session did work out.
I have to apologies for a lot of things: First, I'm have way to many things running currently: I have this story, two nuzlockes, one written one screenshot, I am busy making a video for my YouTube channel and I'm working on a project to make a realistic Pokédex, so I'm kind a busy. Extra on that, my non-Pokémon life, which sometimes gets overshadowed way too much. I can't promise anything yet, I hope to upload on Sundays again, but that's something I have to see.