Chapter 7: A Pokemon Virus

Naga and Flint got along well. Flint regaled Naga in tales of his action and heroism, stroking his own ego all the while. When they set up camp for the night Naga ate four of his Chansey eggs at once to help heal his broken ribs, it did so, along with his arm, though the scar from the burn would stay. Jynx and Flint were introduced to each other. Jynx seemed to not like Flint as much as Naga, but she didn't have the same spite for him that she did for Kappa.

"Naga," She asked around the campfire,"That Helix man, when you were saving me, he called his pokemon 'Muda', but it was clearly a pokemon called Poliwhirl. Does he not know the name of his own partner?"

"Oh, no Jynx," Naga explained,"Some trainers give their pokemon nicknames, to differentiate their pokemon from other pokemon of the same kind. Like, me and Flint are both humans, so you couldn't call us both 'human' cause that'd get confusing."

"I see," She said, pondering,"Can I have a nickname? I've met other Jynx, but I'd like to be my own person, too."

Naga took a moment to think about it. This wasn't a decision to be taken lightly. He thought about naming her 'Cheyanne' after a crush of his from his hometown, he did find Jynx pretty after all, but he thought it wouldn't be fair, that he'd be projecting his expectations of one person onto another.

"How about Margo? Do you like that name?"
"Yes I do!" She spoke into Naga's mind, excitedly hugging him.

"I," Flint spoke,"Assume she just asked you for a name?" The fact she could only speak into one mind at a time, Naga now realized, might cause some communication issues within the team.


The next day, Naga and Flint continued west. After about 4 hours of walking, they passed by a cave. While they normally would pay such a cave no mind, Cubone stopped them and pointed towards the cave. Clearly he wanted to go inside. Naga, trusting Cubone's instincts, followed.

It was dark inside, luckily, flint had a flashlight, and was able to light the way for Cubone. They passed by a few rock pokemon, which Flint identified as mostly Graveler, with the team passing by the chamber of an Onyx as well. While the pokemon didn't seem outright aggressive, Naga did find it odd that they were almost all Graveler with few Geodudes in sight, as pokemon usually only evolved with combat experience and an increase in power. They also seemed to be more and more perturbed with the group as they went deeper into the cave.

"Cubone, I'm not sure about this," Naga said, but Shook his head, patted the ground, and insisted they continue. Eventually they came upon a chamber, with a hole in the ceiling, the roots of trees jutting through the sides, along with sunlight streaming down onto a large rock in the middle. The rock seemed to have smaller bits of it broken off and scattered about the room.

"A big rock? You're a ground type pokemon right? I know rocks and ground are different typings but, did you sense this somehow? Or…?"

Cubone couldn't explain exactly, tilting its head back and forth, approaching the large boulder, and rubbing his face on it.

"Hey Naga, check this out," Flint said, pointing at the wall. There seemed to be cave paintings on the wall depicting…something. It showed the boulder falling to the earth, and then showed spiders and some sort of monster emerging from it. The spiders seemed to climb onto the backs of pokemon, and the pokemon were shown with big muscles like they were stronger, while the monster that emerged seemed to be attacking a group of people. Then it showed the pokemon and the people working together to fight off the monster that emerged from the asteroid.

"Well Flint, you have more experience than me, can you tell what pokemon that thing from the rock is?"

"I can't say I know it but I think I know what those spiders are."

"What do you think it is?" Naga said, a bit worried, looking back at Cubone, still rubbing himself on the rock.

"Have you ever heard of a virus called Pokerus?"

"POKERUS!?" Naga said, grabbing Cubone and pulling him away from the rock,"I dont want my pokemon getting sick!"

"I wouldn't be worried if I were you. Pokerus is actually beneficial. I've never seen anyone who's pokemon actually has it, but they say when your pokemon gets infected, they have about a week where their growth is improved tremendously. I've heard that some people got their pokemon to evolve twice within the time they had pokerus, before their immune system cured them."

"Oh, are you saying this boulder might have pokerus on it?"

"Possibly, I think we should take one of these smaller rocks that broke off the main boulder just encase!"
"Oh yeah!" Naga said, grabbing one and putting it in his bag,"And I should report this on my Frontier Tracker!"

Naga sent the report on his Frontier Tracker and got a message back "Until a sample of the rock in question can be tested we cannot reward you with any money at this time. At such time when the validity of this claim can be proven, if the claim is true you will be entitled to a reward of 1,000,000 Pokedollars." Naga was happy that the reward was possible but he realized it'd be a long time before he would make it back to Vespa city again.

"Well, I guess we'll just have to train cubone extra hard these next few days and see the results, aye buddy?"

Cubone nodded. As they turned around to make their way out of the cave, a Gravler stood at the entrance. It seemed mad that they had entered this room specifically, waving its arms and roaring.

Naga tried to reason with it,"Hey listen-"

It roared again, and they knew this was the time to fight! Flint pulled out Remoraid and shot a water gun attack at the rock pokemon, boring a hole straight through one of it's forearms. It reeled in pain, as Cubone ran towards it, ready to attack with it's bone club! The Gravler curled into a defensive ball position, and Cubone's club did little damage to the enemy! The Graveler spun in place a moment before rolling forward at blistering speed, running over Cubone and smothering him into the ground, dealing serious damage! Cubone couldn't handle taking another attack like that!

Graveler continued his rolling attack towards Naga! Naga wanted to dodge but he wouldn't have been fast enough! Luckily, Flint pulled out Honedge, and intercepted, clashing the metal blade against the Graveler, slowing it down just enough for Naga to jump out of the way, before the force of the rolling pokemon overcame Flint's strength, even with Honedge helping multiply it!

Graveler crashed against the meteorite, and was sent flying upwards. While midair in the center of the chamber, Graveler swung its arms out, sending small shrapnel flying all over the room that eventually stopped midair and spun in place, before turning invisible!

"Stealth rock!" Flint shouted,"We can't move or we risk getting hurt by the rocks floating all around us!"

Graveler landed, and started to glow while letting out a laugh.

"What is it doing now?" Naga yelled.

"I-Oh my god, It's charging up for a self-destruct! It's gonna explode and take us with it!"

"What are we gonna do!?" Naga asked, hoping for comfort and leadership from his more experienced companion.

"I don't know what we can do! If we try to run the stealth rocks will just take us out instead!" He looked over at Naga with an indescribable look and said,"I think this is the end."

Cubone screamed in fear, and heard a rumbling as he did so. Cubone thought for a moment about how he seemed to have a connection to the earth, being a ground-type pokemon, and tried to think of a way to save them!

"Ja!" Cubone cried out.

"Jump," Naga asked.

Cubone nodded quickly.

"Allright," He said, nodding at his companion,"Flint! Three, Two, One, JUMP!"

Cubone got down on all fours and dug into the ground with his front claws. He shook his body back and forth and the ground seemed to move with him! He put all his strength behind it, shaking the very earth beneath his feet! He sent the Graveler tumbling, being shaken and bashed around between the floor and the cave walls, into his own stealth rocks, and knocking him out before he could self-destruct! The stealth rocks quickly turned visible before falling to the ground.

Naga and Flint landed and Naga rushed to pick up and hug Cubone, and rushed out of the cave! It was a mad dash, as every pokemon in the cave was on high alert! Naga, holding Cubone, led the charge out, bobbing and weaving to dodge pokemon's attacks from all angles, as Flint provided cover fire with Remoraid's water gun to scare back the rock-type pokemon in the cave!

When they made it out of the cave they turned back to see the pokemon were still chasing them! Naga set cubone down on the ground who once again got on all fours, this time bouncing up and down, causing a small earthquake that caused the mouth of the cave to collapse and block the pokemon from following them! They were rock and ground types so it's not like they couldn't clear the cave-in given some time, but it was enough of a blockage that the group could escape!

Flint and Naga were relieved to have gotten out of there alive,"Cubone that was awesome! I knew you had a connection with the earth! I bet you got that power because of pokerus didn't you?" Naga asked, excited. He noticed looking at Cubone that his normally brown eyes had become a bright pink, most likely a symptom of the virus.

"We really gotta get out of here and find somewhere safe to stay, Naga," Said Flint,"We can celebrate later!" And so they continued off to find a safe place far away from the cave to set up camp.