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Dusknoir chapter next! Those are fun to write!
Dhiren was seriously getting on Sol's nerves. Would it have killed him to speak plainly? It Sol heard one more thing being compared to a river she was going to crack. At least Ren wasn't someone who chattered on constantly and instead was completely comfortable walking in silence. Another part of his 'wise Cubone' act? But that hardly mattered as Eevee had taken it upon himself to try and wring out Ren's entire life story, constantly trying to get him to talk.
And while Ren annoyed Sol, he practically enraged Jak. She was fine at first, but the more Ren spoke the angrier she became. Sol believed it was because Jak couldn't understand most of what he said. The same went for Eevee, but he viewed each sentance like a riddle, and made a game out of trying to figure out what Ren meant. Jak took it as a personal insult, as if Ren was mocking her intelligence with every word he uttered.
Sol, on the other hand, was usually able to understand what Ren meant. Apparently she was fluent in bullshit. As such she became a sort of translator.
For example:
"The desert's rage is given form and death brews on the horizon. Those trapped out in the open shall find themselves like a mouse in the sight of a soaring hawk."
"Um...What?"
"Find somewhere to hide before the sandstorm comes and kills us," Sol said with a sigh.
Sol made a new discovery that day: sandstorms are terrifying. The wind howled like an enraged beast bearing down on its prey. Eevee, Jak and Sol huddled in a rock's cramped crevice, doing their best to stay sheltered from the biting wind and stinging sand, their sweat soaked bandanas pulled over their faces to keep sand out of their lungs when they breathed. Ren, like a complete lunatic, sat on top of said rock in the midst of the storm, saying how he had to keep an eye out for attackers. Or, as he put it, 'Opportunists only strike when the back is turned'. Sol was pretty sure that little nugget of wisdom wasn't true, and she was down right certain Ren wouldn't be able to spot anyone through the storm until they were on top of them. That said, no one would find them unless by accident, so Sol wasn't worried abou that.
Sol they waited, with the wind screaming in their ears and eyes shut tight against the blowing sand. It was a miserable experience and all three members of Team Wanderers agreed with that.
By the time the storm eventually let up night had fallen, which brought with it another form of misery. Deserts are lands of extreme, sweltering during the daylight hours, but after the sun falls below the horizon, all the warmth is leached away until only a freezing wasteland remains.
With no vegetation in sight to start a fire, the group huddled around the flame on Jak's tail, not nearly enough but it was all they had. The only one who seemed comfortable was Ren, sitting slightly away from the fire and staring off into the dark, that look of complete calm with no other emotion on his face. He reminded Sol a bit of Uxie, just less cold and a lot more annoying.
"We shouldn't have come alone," Eevee said, breaking the silence.
"I know," Sol answered quietly, not looking away from Jak's fire.
"Then why wouldn't you let me tell the others!" Eevee demanded. "Does being the one who brings down Grovyle matter so much to you that you'd risk your own life, the lives of me and Jak?!"
"That has nothing to do with it!" Sol snapped, sudden fury entering her voice. "I made a promise, and unlike you I keep them!"
"What is that supposed to mean?!"
"Don't you dare give me that!" Sol shouted, getting to her feet. "I know you told Dusknoir about, after a directly asked you not to tell anybody!"
"I was trying to help you!" Eevee yelled right back, getting to his own feet. "It's like you don't even care about your life as a human, for all the effort you put into finding out!"
"Maybe I don't! Either way it is none of your business and you had no right to go around telling people!"
"Oh, get off your high horse,Sol! You go around thinking you're so much better than everyone else! I see the way you look down on Bidoof, on Chatot, on Dugtrio and Corphish! You're arrogant enough to actually believe you're better than Wigglytuff!"
"You know nothing about me!"
"That's true, isn't it? Because you treat me like a servant, expecting me to do everything you say and not worth the time to actually talk about anything meaningful with! You're an arrogant, self centered bitch and it's past time someone told you so!"
"And you're a dependant child scared of their own shadow and unable to do anything without someone your hand!"
It seemed as if time itself stopped as everyone held their breath, waiting for what would happen next. There was a tense moment as Sol and Eevee stood facing each other with only the fire of Jak's tail keeping them apart. Then, like air escaping from a balloon, all the hostility and anger drained away.
Feeling emotionally wrung out and exhausted, Sol fell back to sitting, Eevee doing the same opposite her. It was a long moment before anyone spoke, Jak and Ren keeping out of it.
"I'm sorry," Sol said softly. "That wasn't true, and you didn't deserve it."
"I'm sorry, too. It's been a rough couple of days, and today was no better."
"I can be a jerk sometimes. Well, a lot of the time."
"No you're not. But I am a coward..."
"Eevee, you're one of, if not the, bravest person I've ever met. You've come a long way. The Eevee I met on the beach never would have told me off like that."
"You are frustrating sometimes... but I still shouldn't have told Dusknoir..."
"I'm over it. And really, there's worst people you could have told. I may not have been so sure at first, but now I can honestly say I respect Dusknoir. Maybe even admire him, thought nowhere near your level of worship. He might even be able to figure something out about it, which would be great."
Conflict averted, the group soon settled down to try and get what little sleep they could.
...
"Is this the deepest part of the desert? Waah! There's quicksand!"
"Calm down, Eevee. And I don't think that's actually quicksand. Isn't quicksand made up of mostly water, or something like that? They certainly don't appear in the middle of the desert looking like this."
"A learned
Pokémon is a blessing to all around."
"Ren, I'm not sure if that was a sarcastic remark or praise, but either way please stop talking."
"They look like whirlpools, sand getting pulled down to somewhere below..."
"...Jak does not like it here."
The desert stretched out all around them, flat and empty except for the rock formations far in the distance, as if even they were wary of the tight grouping of circular pits, the sand spinning and tumbling to a point in the center. Standing there, Sol got a sudden feeling a deja vu, like she had been there before long ago. Why would such a place feel so familiar?
"Uxie said that the Time Gear was hidden in an underground lake..."
"You're saying we have to jump into the pits?!"
"What? No! This is just like that time at the waterfall! I say something, then you jump to some ridiculously insane plan!"
"What else are we supposed to do? There's nothing else out here!"
"I... I don't know." Sol looked up at the bright, clear sky above and the blazing yellow orb fixed in its center. "To tell you the truth, and I hate to even consider it, but you might be right about this. Down seems like the only way to go."
"No," Jak growled, and Sol was surprised to see the fierce determination on her face. "Jak will travel with you to dangerous places, fight any enemy no matter how strong for you, but this one will not do this. Jak will not jump into assured death on a hunch."
"I'm not going to force you to do anything," Sol said. "My head's screaming at me to stop this and turn back, but, and I know this sounds all kinds of corny and overused but I guess there's a reason for that, but my heart is telling me this is the way to go."
"Organ's don't speak," Jak spat. She walked to a spot a distance away from the pits and sat down, facing away from them. "You can go and get yourselves killed. Jak will wait here until this one feels enough time has passed to be sure that you are dead."
"The difference between stupid action and brave action is that one is done for a fickle cause, the other for a noble cause." Ren declared. "The twisting threads of your fate has led you here, and it would appear that I have become entangled. I shall fear not the darkness when purpose is my light."
"Ok, one, stop doing that. Two, I'm not going to stop you from jumping into the pits."
Sol faced the pits, each funneling down into some unknown location far below. She took a deep breath, trying and failing to calm her nerves. Of all the stupid things she had done, this had got to be the stupidest of them all.
"Right then, Let's go!"
...
The cavern was large, the floor covered in sand spreading out from beneath the holes in the ceiling. The three Pokémon who fell down from the outside world above were lucky of that, for that loose sand made a slightly softer landing pad then solid ground. They were also of the bright, yellow glow some of the rocks embedded in the walls and ceiling gave off, keeping utter and complete darkness away. Glowstones, Ren would explain to them at a later time.
Feeling much more bruised then she was a second ago, Sol pushed herself to her feet. She was sore all over, and not just from the fall. Her injuries from Amp plains were still stubornly lingering, just a faint twinge and soreness, but they were still there and noticeable. Add that to the sandstorm and night in cold desert and Sol was far from feeling her best. Not that she let any of the others know.
"We can't be far from the lake now," Sol said, helping Ren to his feet. "That tunnel over there looks like the only way out of this room. Let's go."
"Onward to the Time Gear!"
"Eevee! You're doing that on purpose now!"
"You snooze, you lose."
"You annoy the wrong person, you get a punch to the stomach."
"Calm can solve all issues."
"Stuff a sock in it, Ren."
"Sol, if you get to be constantly sarcastic and mocking, Ren can be metaphorical and whatever."
"So not the same thing!"
"How?"
"For one, I am hilarious. He's just annoying."
"I believe you should revisit the lessons learned from when the moon and stars held dominion over the sky. You shall remember this leads nowhere but to pain and regret."
"So not helping, Ren!"
Eventually, after a bit more bickering, they settled down and focused on the present. Once the voices died down they realized just how quiet it was in the dark realm beneath the desert.
The tunnels were built like a maze, by happenstance or on purpose Sol didn't know. They scratched marks into the walls as they walked down passageways, often turning back upon reaching deadends or discovering they had somehow found themselves turned around and back at a familiar intersection.
They climbed over fallen rocks, crawled under low ceilings and squeezed through tight spaces. It was fortunate none of the group was claustrophobic. Sol forged ahead, alert and ready for anything, flexing her claws as she imagined what she would do if she got ahold of Grovyle. Eevee pressed on behind her in the narrow tunnels, the living embodimant of determination. Ren was as calm and stoic as ever, bringing up the rear of the group. Sol felt a bit better having a ground type Pokémon with them underground. She regretted that Jak had chosen to stay behind, for her fire would be welcome against any sudden darkness and invaluable against the grass type Grovyle.
And then they reached the lake, such a large body of water to be found so deep under the Earth. It filled up the entire cavern save for the thin strip of rock in front of the tunnel exit. Eevee, Ren and Sol stood on this ground, staring out over the water to the bright vibrancy at its center, a bright mixture of green and blue light.
"Th-this is...fantastic..." Eevee said, awestruck. "I didn't expect to see this... this huge lake extending underground. That light, glowing in the center... It's like what we saw at Fogbound Lake. It must be the Time Gear!"
Suddenly, as if some force was awaiting the words 'Time Gear' to be uttered, the light in the room dimmed to darkness, the only illumination the mystical object far away at the lake's center.
"Wah! It went dark!"
"I really, really hope this isn't another place the Manectric tribe visits..."
"Who are you, tresspassers!" a voice full of fury demanded, seeming to come from nowhere and everywhere at once.
"Who said that?" Eevee asked, spinning in place as he tried to locate the source of the voice.
"...Why...Why did you come here?!"
"Why? We just came to look for the Time Gear!"
Sol facepalmed at that. Great choice of words, Eevee. There was no way anyone would misunderstand that.
"Stay away from the Time Gear! I'll stop you!"
A Pokémon jumped up from the lake's depths to float in the air above the water. Sol was immediately reminded of Uxie, but instead of yellow the top of the Pokémon's head consisted of messy pink tendrils. Also, while Uxie was cold stone this Pokémon was full of emotion, leaking out into her body lanuage and expression, colouring her voice.
"I'm Mesprit! Here at the deep Underground Lake, I protect the Time Gear! I will not allow you to disturb it!"
With those last shouted words, Mesprit swooped down to attack, aimed at Eevee. He readied himself, slipping into a defensive posture but Mesprit was stopped midattack when she was hit by Ren's thrown bone, which bomeranged backed to his outstretched hand. He pulled back, readying another throw.
Howling in a mixture of pain and rage, Mesprit retrated back several feet. She raised her hands and star shaped rays sprang from her fingers as she used Swift. It hit Ren dead center, stinging and burning where it made contact. He scrambled to the side, trying to get out of the way of the painful attack to no avail.
"Eevee!" Sol yelled, sprinting towards her partner. Eevee nodded, and Sol jumped right as she reached him. Giving her a Helping Hand, Eevee boosted her up higher, granting her just enough height to grab onto one of Mesprit's two tails.
For a moment they hung there, Mesprit struggling to hold up the extra weight before getting pulled down until Sol's feet hit the ground. The Riolu refused to let go, keeping a frim grip on Mesprit's tail like holding the string of a balloon while the wind trys to snatch it away.
Free from the Swift attack, Ren threw his bone once more. It moved in an arc, hitting Mesprit in the stomach before returning to the Cubone. The lake's guardian gasped, then her eyes began to glow bright pink. Ren was then frozen in place, the move Imprison rooting him to the spot.
Sol snarled, filled with anger. What was arong with this place? Everyone attacked first, asked questions never. It was really starting to get to her. The Riolu's eyes began to glow yellow, and the same bright aura encircled her hands. The Focus Blast attack traveled directly up through Mesprit's tail, causing her to scream.
Eevee ran and jumped to tackle Mesprit from the air, pining her to the ground.
"Will you just listen! We didn't come to steal your Time Gear!"
"Don't lie to me," she hissed. "Uxie used telepathy to tell me what happened! I know that the Time Gear from Fogbound Lake was stolen! That was your doing, wasn't it?"
"No! It wasn't us!" Eevee insisted.
"Then who is responsible?" Mesprit demanded. She didn't expect to receive such the answer she got.
"That would probably be... me."
Sol whipped around, Eevee doing the same as he jumped off of Mesprit. She rose, having only enough strength after the fight to float mere inches off the ground, but it was enough to see the form of Grovyle standing nonchalantly in the tunnel exit, a drab brown pack on his back with a long, narrow object wrapped in a protective covering of entwined leaves and vines attached to the pack's side.
"I must apoligize... but I will be taking that Time Gear. Stand aside."
"I won't!" Mesprit cried, pushing past Eevee and Sol to block the thief's passage herself. "I won't let you take the Time Gear!"
"I have no choice then..."
Faster than anyone would have expected, a blink-and-you'll-miss-it move, Grovyle darted forwards a struck Mesprit, knocking her to the ground.
"You lost that last fight. You sustained serious damage. So don't push it."
"You're not getting by us!" Eevee declared, standing right next to Sol, who's mind had unfortunately taken her to other places.
"How about I carve it into your forehead? 'Sol's bush, don't touch'."
"I'm imagining the sun is up in the sky."
"Imagining the stars."
"You manage to put up with me but you think this is hard?"
"Because I just do."
Words and phrases, all jumbled up and mashed together invaded Sol's thought. They made no sense to her, bringing along with them feelings of cold, lonliness, sadness, loss, along with faint touches of cheer and hope.
While at any other time Sol would have been happy to get snatches of her lost memories, but now they only distracted her, slowed her down. Too late did she see Grovyle coming for her.
One hard, fast jab to the stomach caused Sol to double over, then an elbow came down on her head followed by a strong hand grabbing her arm and twisting it back and up. She howled in pain and Grovyle kicked her to the side out of the way, then moved to deal with Eevee. Scant moments later and he joined her sprawled on the ground.
"Forgive me. I have no quarrel with any of you, but I'm taking that Time Gear!"
Grovyle dived into the water, pack and all and swam towards the lake's center, towards the prized Time Gear.
"I...I'm sorry... Uxie must not have been talking about you... It was that Pokémon... I'm sorry."
The ground began to rumble, the walls and ceilings shook and small stones were knocked free to rain down on the Pokémon below.
"What's happening?!" Eevee's voice was filled with panic.
"That thief took the Time Gear! We need to leave, before we too are trapped in time!"
Mesprit picked herself off the ground and hurried over to Ren, still stuck in Imprison. A touch from Mesprit released him.
"Time to go!"
In a bright flash of pink, the four Pokémon teleported out of the Underground Lake, startling a certain Charmander waiting above.