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"Welcome to my underground set of tunnels, you two."
Glass led us through a series of underground tunnels lit up by the occasional dim lantern, it was difficult to see anything except the area immediately around the lanterns. Small roots hanging out of the dirt from the ceiling. Below us were railroad tracks. Maybe this was an old mineshaft, or maybe it was some sort of weird public transport to get around the city like a subway.
The tunnels go on and on and split at nearly every turn but Glass seems to know their way. As we travel through the winding tunnels headed down we pass a bunch of other Pokémon, too. They mostly don't pay attention to us and mind their own business. Some give glares but then go back to doing whatever they're doing within their own group. Maybe shady deals, arrangements, I have no clue.
The deeper down we go as the tunnels slope downwards the more I begin to notice how Marble looks. He looks impatient, restless. I think I know exactly what opportunity he's waiting for. We're trailing right beside Frit. At one point Marble tried to slow down and Frit noticed, slowing down his pace as well while I had just kept walking at the same pace, actually being ahead of the two until they caught up to me.
"We'll be there soon. It's uh, not actually anything special. Just a dead end that I go to. Sorry if you were expecting more." Frit says.
"When are we gonna meet your other members? Like those guys we beat up?" I ask.
"Those two? They quit. I guess they couldn't handle failure and the fact I didn't pay them since they failed. I don't have a clue where they are." Frit shrugs.
"Ok but, other members?" Frit sweats a little.
"You can meet them later. Plus I want our dealings specifically to be private since you two are more at risk than any of my members considering you two aren't exactly underground- If you know what I mean."
I was starting to get the idea in my head that he doesn't even have a gang and those two that we beat up were the only ones doing his dirty work. Perhaps they weren't even aware they were the only ones. It's even more a wonder as to how he managed to get Pokémon with powers on his side. It makes me wonder- No, I can worry about figuring out why these Pokémon have powers later. Right now me and Marble have to figure out the perfect opportunity to catch him by surprise. Despite us accepting his deal he still has his guard up.
I can see we're almost at the end of the tunnel. I can glance at Marble's face and he's giving me a pleading nervous look. Frit eyes me down and I stop looking at Marble. I'm guessing Marble wants me to make a move before we reach the dead end that's getting closer by the minute.
Frit walks between us and with purpose, guard up and his claws out ready to slash if need be. What's the best way to distract him and to signal Marble to take a swing? More importantly what do I do if Marble gets taken out and I'm the only one left to fight him?
Well, here goes.
"Hey, Frit?"
"Hmm?" Frit turns to look down at me.
"How much exactly have you stolen?"
Frit looks extremely ready to gloat about how much he's stolen.
"Oh my, tons of stuff. Even managed to steal stuff from the guild once, though it was tough. Poke, a few badges even. Sucked for those guild members- They lost their jobs at the guild, ha. Total suckers, right?"
I don't respond, Frit tries to break the awkward moment.
"Other stuff I got we're-"
"Marble! Now!" I cut off Frit while he's bragging about the things he's stolen. Marble transforms into a Sneasel and flash freezes an ice shard into his claws and hurls them at Frit. Frit is hit and grunts and looks at me with fury in his eyes. Marble readies up for another attack but a giant glass fist appears in front of him. He readies to slash but hesitates as the see-through fist speeds towards him and punches him into the wall. Dirt billows out in a cloud around the spot of impact. Marble writhes and I can see him rapidly transforming into a bunch of different Pokémon within half a second. Maybe he tried to transform and got slammed in the middle of it.
This place is a cramped place to fight in and it's almost impossible to see. I have to assume he's gonna try the same move he did to Marble on me and I was half right, I try to dodge to the left expecting a swift punch into the wall but I end up getting slapped from my left side with a glass wall, tripping me up which is then followed up by the glass wall morphing into a fist punching me, sending me sliding across the tunnel rock ground towards the dead end.
It feels like all of the wind is knocked out of me. I cough a little bit, sitting against the rock wall trying to muster the strength to get up.
"Nuisances. This whole deal worked out in my favor either way though." Frit speaks as I get myself up. Two glass fists hover behind him. One is out of action though, being used to hold down Marble who's still writhing to try and get free, flickering between Pokémon to hopefully find one that could slip out of the vice grip.
"I don't know why you'd be so foolish as to try and attack me in a place I know like the back of my claw but I considered the possibility that you two might, and what do you know, you did!"
Frit's giant hovering glass hand behind him moves it's fingers maniacally, while he has some messed up grin on his face. He had a plan too. I won my last battle without using Pokémon moves and I feel like I have to do the same here as well. But before I do that I need to use my time wisely to think before he attacks again while I'm pinned against a wall. Marble's out of the fight, he's not getting back in the fight for as long as that glass hand is bearing down on him. How do I flip the tables?
I scan around my surroundings. The wooden supports on the walls are dilapidated, falling apart and a chunk of wood seems to have fallen off. The wood splinters off at both ends and I rush to try and grab it, I can feel a breeze behind me and a loud crash against the wall and the tunnel rumbles, the tunnel rumbles and a few rocks fall from the ceiling. I can hear a pained noise from Frit.
Wooden splintered beam in hand I face back at Frit who stares down at me with calculating eyes. A rock falls down on the hand holding down Marble who's stopped struggling wildly and is now just slowly inching their way free.
The rock cracks the glass and I catch Frit quickly wince. Maybe that's it. Maybe that's how I damage him. I know using a psybeam wouldn't work. It would go into the glass and refract away from Frit, maybe even hitting Marble. Not worth it to try. But how do I get close enough to actually land something? This guy isn't as stupid as the Breloom I fought before. He knows what he's doing and I'm not gonna get away with an easy hit.
I either have to wait for Marble to figure out how to escape his grasp, or I need to hold out for a miracle. Yeah. A miracle. Because where do I even start? I'm cornered against a wall. All I really have is a stick to defend myself, a pointy one but still just a stick. And us two are just waiting for the other's next move.
"You have almost no chance of beating me." His voice echoes. "I'd surrender if I were you and join me. The help I could provide you is way more than you'd get from the guild or the likes considering my abilities." His voice echoes throughout the tunnel. This place is huge. Wait, that's it!
"HELP!" I call out. "Someone! Anyone!" A look of shock comes across Frit's face and he throws his glass fist again. I pick up a rock and try bashing it as it flies towards me, flinging myself forwards. There's a notable crack formed and a shattering sound echoes. But the punch sends me flying back at the rock wall and I drop the stick, but it's not like I was gonna be able to use it anyway.
If I can pull this off then maybe I can beat anything. This entire idea was a stupid one from the start, but Marble really wanted to try so I went with it for some reason. I mean, a supposed gang leader that also has super powers? One who towers over us and even though we have our own powers, they're not special. I can see Frit is a little teary eyed from the blow I just dealt though. He's staggering, like he's dizzy. My thoughts are that blows to the glass are probably giving him some insane migraine. If it's doing any physical damage, it's not visible. While he's still recovering I run over to lodge the rock in the hand holding down Marble and Frit recoils, pulling the hand off and away from Marble and me. Marble looks raring to go.
"Thank you! Now let's- Hey!" I pull at Marble's neck fluff and start dragging him until he starts running with me away from Frit.
"What are you doing!? We're so close to beating him!" Marble protests as we run. I'm running at full sprint while Marble has no trouble keeping up with me. I try to keep some steady breathing but I was never really the most fit person so I have a little wheeze in my voice when I respond.
"Too much! Too strong, can't-" I pause to catch my breath. "He'd pulverize us!" Marble looks more than irritated but I could care less, I want out of this fight and he can't fight without me fighting with him considering how easily he just got pinned down. As we run I can hear Frit's voice echo from far behind us.
"GET BACK HERE YOU PESTS!" Of course he'd be pursuing us, especially since I gave him one hell of a headache. There's a minecart sitting off against the wall. It looks battered and it looks like some wheels are loose. If we can get that on the tracks, maybe we can push ourselves forwards. The tunnel slopes downwards here a little.
"Marble! Help me get this thing back on track!" We start pulling the thing away from the wall. It's metal wheels squeak, one wheel gets so loose that I end up having to kick it back into its place.
"We can't move it any further! It won't lift!"
"Just transform into a Machop and try then!" Marble transforms into a Machop and our job becomes a lot easier. We lift the minecart onto the tracks and the wheels slot themselves on with a metallic clink. Just as we're about to get in we hear Frit again. We both stare down the tunnel and I see Frit riding on one of his cracked glass hands, floating just above the rails and rocketing towards us.
"You're not forfeiting this one!" He says. He looks angry beyond all belief.
"In! IN! GET IN THE CART!" I exclaim. I turned around to find the cart had already started to move down the rails. Me and Marble panic for a moment but thankfully manage to hop in clumsily. We both fumble, Marble transforms back to normal and holds onto the inner side of the cart to look back at Frit still rocketing towards us. We're essentially moving at the same speed however this rail only goes on for so long, eventually we'll run out of it. Marble and I gasp as we hit a bump.
I try shooting a Psybeam back at Frit and it hits his left wing as he tries to dodge it. I hear him mutter something but the minecart is going too fast and the sound of it drowns his words out. He uses one glass hand to propel himself and the other one begins to morph despite them both being a bit more than shattered. And the hand looks like it's morphing into some kind of cannon. A glass cannon.
"Marble! Do something!" I fire off another Psybeam at Frit and I turn to Marble anticipating something.
"Like- Like what!?"
"Anything! You have the whole Pokémon arsenal basically! Think of something!"
The minecart rattles as we hit another bump. There's an alarming metal chink and I can see one of our wheels has been lost as it flies off spinning as we pass it.
"If you've thought of something, now would be the time!" I stress. There's sparks flying out of the minecart now as the vacant axle grates against the rail. I can already feel the cart slowing down and Frit get's closer by the second.
Marble transforms into a Litten and starts spewing out fireballs directed at the hovering hand carrying Frit forwards to us. As expected, fire melts down glass so it starts to do just that gradually. Frit tries to move out of the way of them but the fireballs are too large and space is limited when you're in a mineshaft. I can be thankful that Marble's doing something but what can I do exactly? That cannon looks like it's charging up. It looks bloated, like it's trying to fire something larger than the cannon itself. I look behind me, there's a few turns where the track splits. There's levers to switch the track but they've been so worn down that they've snapped off and all that's left is their metal base screwed into the ground.
"Walker, I'm not gonna be able to melt his glass hand-" He fires off a volley of fireballs. "-in time before that cannon charges up!"
"It'll be ok! We're-" The cannon shatters and the giant glass ball that was forming inside is now hurtling towards us, smashing wooden beams across the ceilings and walls and knocking the lanterns down. On the bright side, Frit is completely walled off from getting to us and is probably down for the count after smashing that cannon and forming that large glass ball.
"TILT! TILT THE CART!" I yell.
"WHICH WAY?"
"TO THE LEFT!" I say, leaning to my right, while Marble leans to his left. The minecart leans and we take the left path. The glass ball followed us through the intersection after getting stuck a little bit but it ended up just breaking the rock walls around it to make way to keep after us.
"Right!"
"Don't lean!"
"R- Left!" I'm tripping on my words, I'm nervous. As soon as that ball makes contact with us, it's gonna keep pushing us forwards until it crushes us into a wall. It's faster than us, too, even with it getting stuck briefly when we turn it's catching up.
"Is there anything more you can do!?"
"No! Anything more powerful than basic fireballs only stronger Pokémon can use! I can't transform into anything larger than this."
"Left!" I interject and we lean to the left. "So nothing better than fireballs?"
"Yes!" Marble stresses. The glass keeps shooting towards us but it's stopped hovering, instead rolling along the tracks. I guess that we've gotten far enough away from Frit for him to stop being in control. Or maybe he fainted. Just ahead are three paths, one going straight, one to the left, one to the right.
"Right!" We lean right but the marble, no longer hovering and tracking us, goes forward into the tunnel. We're split up from it but that's short lived. As we go we come to a left turn towards a crossroad where two tunnels go through each other. Me and Marble look onwards and Marbles celebrates, saying "We did it! We did it!"
There's a distant rumble. Coming from along the tracks that cross ours.
"Hey Marble? Can you stop the minecart?"
"Huh- Why?" Marble's question is answered by the sound of a cave in. "O-ok! Hold me down!" Marble says, transforming into a Mimiku. I hold him down and he stretches two black tendrils out to the ceiling above, trying to wrap around some wooden supports. He fails a few times but eventually manages to grab on. The cart, despite me holding Marble down and trying to keep us both in, does not stop it's momentum. I end up getting ripped out of the cart while holding onto Marble and we both drop to the ground as we get to watch our minecart head off with sparks flying. As it reaches the intersection, the giant glass ball comes and smashes into the left of the minecart while also getting stuck. The minecart flies off to the right and for a while we can hear it bounce and crash from the transferred momentum.
I breathe a sigh of relief.
"UGGHH! We were so close to beating him! Why'd we have to run away?" Marble groans. He reaches into his bag to grab out an Oran Berry.
"No, I think we beat him- Hey, can I have one too? I'm beat."
"Oh yeah, sure." Marble hands me a berry. "But how? When we ran away he was still fine, and he even came after us as we were riding the minecart away!"
"Well, as I was fighting him I broke glass and that hurt him it seemed like. Nothing physical, it was like psychic damage, he reeled in pain after I hit the glass hand holding you down. I'd say he might not be defeated, but he probably feels defeated." I munch on the berry. It's extremely relieving.
"Huh." Marble munches on his berry. "Well then, we succeeded!"
So. Maybe we actually CAN beat anything. That was some confidence boost. Can we really? I feel like we barely got out of there by the fur on our tails. This entire thing was dumb but… We still won. Sorta. No, we ran away, but it's a victory.
"So which way is out?" Marble looks at me, cheeks stuffed with the berries.
Shoot.
We manage to weasel our way past the glass ball. There's other Pokémon around these tunnels. As shady as they may be, they know these abandoned tunnels well, probably even better than the mayor of this city. The first Pokémon we ask- A Shuppet and a Misdreavus.
"Hey, do you two know where the exit of these tunnels are? Me and my friend are lost and we're trying to get back to Gemdown." The two Pokémon give us a puzzled look, they turn to the wall and whisper something to each other. I wonder if they're actually trustworthy. They turn to face us again smiling.
"For a fee~"
"For a fee~"
They both say in unison. I sigh.
"Marble how much did you bring?"
"I brought… Roughly 450P. Does that work?"
I look at the Shuppet and Misdreavus, they look at each other again and then back at us and nod. Marble hands them the money. They start off along some tracks.
"Follow me, and we'll get out of here~"
"Follow me, and we'll get out of here~"
The tunnels twist and turn, but eventually we come out and the shining lights and lamps of the city blind us.
"Hey, we're here! Hey thanks for-" I turn back to thank the two ghost Pokémon but they've vanished. "-for helping…"
"There you two are! Where the heck have you been up to?" It's Corviknight of all Pokémon.
"I told you we were out on a job here." Marble says. "And we succeeded, you know."
"And you know how dangerous it is down there? That place has been abandoned for some time you know. And you two look mighty beat up, what in Arceus happened down there?"
"How'd you even find us?" Marble asks.
"Marble, you literally told me when you left that you were headed here to Gemdown City."
Marble looks pretty annoyed. I can imagine it's pretty embarrassing having your caretaker show up when your friend is around so I can't really fault him for it that much at all.
"Here- There should be an Audino clinic near here. Let's go there and fix you two up. I'll cover the cost." Corviknight starts off and I follow. Marble stays behind a little.
"Marble are you coming?"
He rolls his eyes and then steps forwards. "Yeah, I'm coming. Sorry."
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