"So, what do you do in your spare time?"
After walking in silence for at least half an hour with my new friend here, I decided to break it with a sledge hammer.
"What do I do?" he asked in a questioning tone. "Eat, sleep."
I waited several seconds for him to continue, and after half a minute, it was clear that was all I would get. That is… That honestly sounds boring. Just eating and sleeping? I doubt I could actually live like that. Speaking of eating, I remember an interesting fact about Sableye. Looking around for a loose rock or some pebbles, I grab a rock about the size of a tennis ball. I turn it around, inspecting it. Then I bring it closer to my face and smell it. It doesn't smell of anything, which is, frankly, surprising. I did smell that gemstone after all, but it may have to do with it being some kind of jewelry. I bring the rock closer to my open maw, and slowly try to take a bite. While expecting it, it still took me by surprise when I actually bit off a part of it. It feels strange, being able to chew through a rock. These sableye teeth are extremely tough. It tastes like… rock, but I'm not disgusted by it. It is fricking weird. I hesitantly chew a few times, and the rock is turned into gravel. Then I finally swallowed.
And thus, I ate a rock. Still feels weird.
But… After waiting for a few moments, I start to realize that I feel… better. Well, not exactly, as I still hurt nasty all over (but it is nothing compared to the headache) but I don't feel like I will drop dead any moment. I was kinda running on fumes for the last several minutes, but if my diet consists of rocks, then they must supply me with energy, right? They are my food source. So, if I eat more, I will regain some of the energy I lost. Maybe all of it. Worth a try.
Finishing my experiment, I look over to Geodude to see him also eating. So, does that mean other Pokémon that live in caves usually feed on rocks? But… How do rocks give any kind of energy in the first place? I doubt Pokémon bodies substitute as a nuclear reactor. Maybe the Pokemon world stone has nutritions? Are they organic? Are rock Pokémon organic? How do they work? Luckily, it seems like I have someone who I can obser–
"…An' som'times, we do b'ttles."
It took me a solid five second to understand that Geodude was continuing the previous conversation. "Do you like battling?" I asked as I shelved my previous thought process.
I knew for a fact that a lot of the Pokémon naturally liked battling. At least, that was what the anime and sometimes the games implied.
"Yeah, me an' me buds duked it out a lot in da past."
Noticing how he worded that, I was naturally curious about why they stopped battling, but I didn't press. I was hardly friends with the guy. Didn't feel right to ask now.
We continued walking (well, I walked. Geodude just hovers) in silence once more, munching on some rocks we find here and there and watching the occasional zubat sleep on the ceiling. Eventually, my thoughts focused on the questions on my mind once more. How was I apparently able to see all of a sudden? The only thing I did was eat that gemstone, so the answer is actually pretty obvious. But what I didn't get was why. Eating a shiny rock doesn't normally give you night vision. Realizing that I can't answer that on my own (at least not now), I once more return my gaze to the resident flying boulder. It will take some (a lot) of getting used to.
"Geodude?" I ask hesitantly. I still don't know how to ask this… Wait, maybe this might, hopefully work. But first, "Can I ask you something?"
He looked over his non-existent shoulder to me. "Shoot it."
"Well, before I met you, I found a shiny red gem and ate it, then I was suddenly able to see. Do you know why?"
Out of all possible reactions, I certainly did not even begin to imagine him rolling in the ground, unable to breath because of laughter. What I just asked was that dumb of a question? Sorry about not learning the world's common sense within a week(?)!
Finally finished with his laughter, he actually went to answer my question. Mostly.
"I knew ya were a younglin', but not a hatchlin'! Okay okay, I sh'uldn't ha'e laughed, after dat incident. Espec'ally aft'r dat. But I tho'ght the mothars took betta' care o' dem… Anyway, since da eye o' sableye are made out o' gems, every sableye has to eat one to see in da dark."
Okay, that… makes sense, I suppose. A better explanation than 'it's magic!', that's for certain.
"Thanks…" I draw a blank, "Hey, we didn't tell each other our names!"
My excitement dies off when I see Geodude looking at me weirdly. Ah, yes, I didn't even think about whether or not Pokémon even had names in the first place! Ah well, the most it did was make me look dumb at least, nothing to worry about–
"Da name's Gee."
Okay so they do have names. But why did he have that weird look before then? Anyway, it's my turn.
"You can call me Batzel."
And so, we finally met each other for real, at least from my perspective. There was one last problem to take care of…
"Can we sleep for a bit?"
/*/*/*\*\*\
"Dragonite, Hyper Beam!"
A huge, orange dragon shot out a devastating, giant laser.
"ROOAAAR!"
A dark, swirling beam went out of the hands of a purple silhouette.
"Gengar! Gen-gar-GEN!"
"ROOOAAAAR!"
Several beams colored blue, zigzagging in the manner of a lightning, met a hulking, monstrous creature.
It swiped its tail in an arc, and an elderly woman was too slow to move.
At least until the tail stopped.
"Agatha!" Screamed a half naked man, holding the tail three times his size, "RUN!"
Agatha got several meters away from the creature, and when she looked back, she only saw a giant, rocky arm swiping at the young man.
Screaming, this time for different reasons, the young man flies through the sky and hits a tree. He flies through the tree and hits the one after it. And then the one after that. And the one after that. And he finally stops at the fifth tree, looking more dead than alive, with only three limbs.
As the moving mountain of a Pokémon turns back towards the other humans, it lets the power of Dynamic Punch fade away.
"BRUNO!" A young woman with a pair of glasses shouts out, despair filled her voice, as the most important person in her life swatted away like a fly.
Bruno of the Kanto-Johto Elite Four, a Fighting-Type master and one of the strongest humans, was on the verge of death.
And the looming, slightly worn out monster promised to deliver more.
/*/*/*\*\*\
A/N: The gem and night vision stuff is explained (by my headcanon) and we learn the names! You probably easily guessed the Sableye's one though. This is a self-insert, after all. I do hope it doesn't sound too bad. But I'm proud of Gee's name! And I have a backstory ready for him!
I have no idea how I wrote this chapter. Especially the end. Would you believe me that I thought of 50% of where this story is going in the last 2 hours before I release this chapter? But this time, for the next chapter, I have an actual plan ready! And a slight idea what will happen after that! I'm growing! I even decided on which region the protags are actually in (as you could have guessed by the ending)! The ending wasn't a one-off thing, so expect to see more of it!
Erm… Sorry about this being almost exactly a week later. I don't have a valid reason, I was just lazing around all day watching YouTube. I do hope you guys and gals like it though. And anyone who isn't a guy or a gal too.
The Mystery Dungeon comment on Chapter 2 is an error, actually. I was thinking of other things for that part, but after deleting it that small part somehow flew over my radar. It doesn't help that I mostly write while sleep-deprived and at night. Yeesh. If you didn't notice that, it means I actually got up and edited that out. Hopefully I will.
On an unrelated note, I decided to keep the A/N mostly the same between AO3 and FFN.
manaman78: AAAA, I LOVE YOU! Thank you! Thank you thank you thank you! The more I think about how much thought you put into those comments… I can't sit still!… A-hem. About the context of your comment. I have read it several times over at this point, and you have given me insight into what I actually write. I didn't consciously plan all that out, but seeing it put into words, it lets me see what I wrote in a didn't light. I will let you know though, this time I actually did plan some things out! I hope they are as good as the last ones. I really hope you will enjoy this chapter. About the grammar errors… I'm not a native speaker, and only thanks to the Google Docs the story isn't made out of grammar errors. I don't have anyone to proofread either. But rereading it to see any obvious ones… Yeah, I should have done that.
frankieu: I'm happy you enjoyed my little self-indulgence! I plan on continuing this story at least until Chapter 4!
Sorry about the 450~ word A/N! I had a lot to say this time!
–Batzel out.
