Chapter 12: The Whack-A-Mole pokemon!
While Naga and Team Helix where having adventures of their own, Kappa's journey continued as well.
'Man, it sure does get boring out here all alone with no real traveling partner,' Kappa thought to himself,'I could message the professor, but he's got important business. I oughta only contact him when it regards pokemon.' He thought, pulling his cart. Just then, Kappa saw something brown poking out of the ground. 'A pokemon?' He thought, readying a pokeball.
Kappa threw the pokeball and just like that the pokemon was gone, leaving nothing but a pile of dirt. 'A ground type pokemon digging into the dirt, huh?' Kappa thought. "Allright, Psyduck," he said, releasing his pokemon,"Shoot a blast of water down the hole that pokemon escaped down!.
Psyduck moved the dirt, revealing the hole the pokemon escaped down. Psyduck shot water through it, and it did force the pokemon up, as the brown pokemon headbutted Psyduck in the butt. "SAII!" it yelled, jumping up.
"Allright, Psyduck, do that again, and be ready for its attack!" Kappa shouted, pulling out his frontier tracker. This time, when the pokemon jumped, Kappa snapped a picture. The pokemon looked like a finger poking out of the ground, brown with a rounded top, small eyes, and a big pink nose.
"Professor Hemlock, I found a pokemon!" He messaged, with the picture attached.
"I see," The professor replied,"That looks like a pokemon called Diglett. It's a very mysterious sort. While they're plentiful in mountains and caves, very few have ever caught it due to their extreme speed underground and ability to escape. We still don't know quite what their whole body looks like."
"So, if I was able to capture one and study it for you, or even give it to you, what would that be worth to you?" Asked Kappa.
"It would be worth quite a bit, in fact, if you find a large gathering of Diglett, it would be helpful for your frontier mission too. When they dig through the ground, they leave it perfectly tilled for farming."
"Allright," Kappa yelled with his Psyduck,"Our mission today; Capture a Diglett!" Kappa thought for a moment. "Mountains and caves," He looked around, and noticed a small mountain about a quarter mile north, and started in that direction.
"So, do you have any theories on what a Diglett's full body looks like, professor?" He messaged.
"There are a few hypotheses out there. I, for one, subscribe to the theory that a Diglett is similar to a mole, with feet and claws just like one. There's been reports that it has front claws to scratch at people, but we've never seen lower than that, but that's enough evidence for me. Others believe that a Diglett turns into dirt when it goes underground, or that it's a sort of dirt entity that creates a natural-looking body when it leaves the ground. That one is mostly supported by the fact that it's so much faster underground than when it's sticking up, and almost undetectable. Some also believe that there's a much larger monster underneath the ground, which could make sense, explaining its immense power despite its apparently small size. I for one don't find that too surprising, all pokemon are extremely strong for their size, that's what makes a Pikachu a monster and a mouse a pest."
When Kappa arrived at the base of the mountain, he realized he wouldn't be able to pull his cart up there, so he grabbed his pokeballs, some water, a flashflight, and made his way up. Kappa and Psyduck came upon a cave in the mountain, and entered. They didn't see anything when they first entered, so Kappa yelled.
"Diglett?"
There was an echo, Diglett, Diglett…diglett…diglett.
"Digglet?" The pokemon popped out of the side of the cave wall.
"Aha!" Kappa yelled, throwing a pokeball at the pokemon. But it ducked it's head back into the wall too fast, and the pokeball got lodged in the hole! "DANGIT!" Kappa yelled "THEY'RE TOO FAST UNDERGROUND! WE GOTTA PULL IT OUT!" Kappa looked over to Psyduck, "Psyduck, I know you're not fully in control of your psychic powers, but can you try using telekinesis to pull a Diglett out when it pops up?"
"Psy!" The pokemon nodded.
They continued into the cave and another Diglett appeared out of the ground.
"PSYDUCK,NOW!" Psycuck put its hands to its forehead and yelled "SAI!" Diglett was surrounded by a magenta psychic force, as Psyduck pulled! Diglett pulled back though! The struggle was difficult but if Psyduck kept pushing itself it might be able to win! Psyduck yelled more, as it's psychic headache got worse, but he would do it for his master!
Just when Diglett started slipping, two more Diglett appeared from the sides of the first! They seemed to be holding onto it from underground, as they could be seen struggling, while the middle one was panicking!
Psyduck was getting lightheaded, as it struggled against the team!
"Dig, Diglett! Diglet!" The team of Diglett's spoke in a discordant rattle.
"Psyduck, Sai, SAAAII!" Psyduck yelled out
"DIG!-DUG!" The team of pokemon's voices got deeper as they started to speak in unison. In one last push, Psyduck failed, as the team of pokemon pulled itself underground, and Psyduck, overwhelmed by the exertion of its blooming powers, fell unconscious.
The pokemon popped its head up again, and revealed it was no longer three, but one pokemon, evolved to work in perfect sync. "Dugtrio!" It spoke, revealing its new name, as it barreled towards Kappa.
"PORYGON! CONVERSION: FLYING TYPE!" Kappa yelled, releasing his pokemon, which quickly morphed to gain a feather down. Without Kappa ordering it, Porygon 2 used it's hidden power! The flying type energy that flowed within it formed the blast into the shape of a beak as it flew towards Dugtrio, hitting it!
Kappa laughed, knowing that a ground type pokemon had almost no chance of winning this fight. A flying pokemon was immune to ground-based attacks.
Dugdrio buried its heads underground again. Kappa expected this, but wouldn't give up! As he looked left and right for where it would pop up next, it busted it's head through the ceiling, knocking down a stalactite that stabbed Porygon 2, sticking into it! Porygon momentarily turned into a ghost, phasing the stone out of it, and then back into a flying pokemon, but the damage was already done.
"Be on the ready for the next time it pops up!" Kappa commanded, putting Porygon 2 on it's highest guard. This time Porygon managed to dodge the stone falling onto it, and shoot its hidden power attack at Dugtrio! That was enough to knock the pokemon out! Kappa was exited to see it fall, but it got…pulled in?
There was a moment of silence. Not a calm silence, but a terrifying one, before the whole cave started to rumble, knocking Kappa off his feet. He was quickly knocked back to a standing position as he got what felt like a punch in the back!
It was another digl-dugtrio- dug-quartet-sept- twelve, Kappa lost track, as an uncountable swarm of heads popped in and out and moved around the cave, dazing and confusing him.
"PORY!" His pokemon yelled, flying down to him. Kappa grabbed on, and Porygon 2 pulled him. It couldn't carry his whole weight, but it could help get the dazed Kappa to the exit! Kappa kept getting hit by the bobbing whack-a-mole heads of the pokemon that knocked around the cave.
As Porygon 2 finally got Kappa out of the cave, it was exhausted and went back into its pokeball. Kappa, no longer being supported by his pokemon, went tumbling down the mountain, rolling 20 feet.
After a few minutes, Kappa got his bearings and made his way down the mountain. He realized on the way down he had dropped his flashlight. That meant no more cave explorations until he could find another way to make light.
"Professor, I didn't manage to catch a Diglett, but I found a cave full of them, and witnessed it evolve by three working together and becoming one. I also was attacked by an entire swarm! It wasn't clear if they were one pokemon or just a big group."
"Well, I'm sorry to say I can't give you any reward for that. It's good to have another eyewitness account of it's evolution, but that's nothing that can be of use in scientific research. I'd suggest giving the info on the cave to the Capital's Frontier Team, though. They might find use in having good farming pokemon."
So, Kappa did, and his reward from the frontier tracker was 500 pokedollars. "That's it!?" Kappa yelled,"I almost died and all I got was 500 pokedollars?!"
Exhausted, Kappa fell to the ground in front of his Kart.
"Pory, Porygon!" his pokemon said, coming out from its pokeball, worried about it's master.
"You know what Porygon, I'm done with this wilderness crap. If a wild pokemon wants to eat me in my sleep, let it!" Kappa said, drifting to sleep on the cold ground.
