Ch 8: Duggie's Ruins
According to the unreliable, bad trainers that lounged around the Peltagrow Pokemon Center because their Pokemon constantly needed treatment from losing so much, Duggie's Ruins was just east of the town, at a fork where both the city and the Gord Woods end and instead a very old cave resides. The cave mostly held Geodudes, Whismurs, Zubats, and Dwebbles. You know, bad 'mons. The consensus was that there were likely to be better Pokemon deeper down in the recesses of the cavern, but trainers didn't find it necessary to risk getting lost just to find a Roggenrola or such. Local trainers would go to the cave just to catch a Geodude or a Dwebble to counter the normal gym. So that was how trainers around here beat Zach.
Making sure to stop by the Poke Mart to stock up on medicines, food, drinks, and three brand new pokeballs incase I happened to find a new Pokemon that caught my interest, I bumped into that Yanni kid while I was purchasing my items. He thanked me for ruining his first visit to a Poke Class, and I hadn't been able to think of a witty enough retort for him, so I just ended up chucking one of my new pokeballs at his head to see what would happen. I just got cursed out by the store manager and the kid got a black eye.
Duggie's Ruins was titled the way it was apparently due to an old urban legend of it used to being a cave full of Dugtrios and Digletts. But during a stormy night, in order to escape from the heavy rain outside, a legendary Pokemon entered the cave for shelter and the Dugtrios attacked it for entering their home uninvited. But being a legendary Pokemon, all of the Dugtrios and Digletts were overwhelmed despite their numbers, and the cave became wrecked with scorch marks along the walls and unstable from all the moves bouncing off the walls. Due to the black burn stains along the cavern walls, and the fact that the Pokemon was retreating from the rain, the trainers were certain it had to be a legendary that was weak to water, like Heatran or Ho-Oh. Why these people were under the impression it was a legendary yet no one had actually seen the damn Pokemon eluded me. I wanted to tell them it was probably just a piece of shit Vulpix that went rampant, but I figured if these trainers only claim to fame for their hometown was a maybe legendary Pokemon that had killed a few Digletts in a nearby cave, let them have it.
Duggie's Ruins wasn't more than a mile away from the outskirts of Peltagrow City. It lay nestled awkwardly at the edge of the Gord Woods, where the treeline reached its limits and instead a rocky tunnel formed like a mouth out of the ground, inviting trainers seeking tougher Pokemon than the fragile ones in the woods. It appeared as though a large boulder blocking the entrance of the tunnel had been moved with sheer Strength, how long ago I had no idea, though I was grateful someone had done it for me, as none of my Pokemon had learned that move and weren't strong enough to move the boulder manually.
I made my way through the entrance, which had spiked, jagged rocks hanging from the top like icicle spears. The realization came quickly to me that it wasn't just the entrance that had the look of fucked up teeth around it, but the entire inner cavern had split rocks along the walls. Sure enough, if one looked closely, you could make out the ashy scorch marks of fire along the walls. I'd learned enough about Pokemon's base power thanks to headache-inducing family discussions back home to know that the type of scars along the walls were no work of a mere Vulpix. Or a Ninetails for that matter.
Thinking it best to ignore that fact and focus on catching a rock type, I walked cautiously through the cave, watching my footing because of the sharp rocks that jutted from the ground. I could hear the sound of low, bellowing grunts down the cave. The sound of rock Pokemon. I moved excitedly toward the source of the noise.
It wasn't that I was excited to catch a Pokemon. I still thought all Pokemon were a waste of space and distracted the people on this island from more important things, but if catching a Geodude meant that I could wipe that arrogant smile off Zach's face and move back home, then I got to do what I got to do. Skorupi, though...he could be okay sometimes. But still, I'd rather no Pokemon than one decent one.
My mind was so distracted with thoughts on Pokemon and home and Zach that I nearly bumped right into a guy around my age while turning a corner since I had subconsciously picked up speed.
"Whoa, sorry," I managed to say while steadying my footing as I nearly ended up falling backwards into the spikes on the floor.
"Yo, watch where the fuck you're going, bro," a guy about 20 years old spat at me. He had a crew cut and was wearing a dirty tank top that had once been white but was now nearly charcoal. Behind his torn khakis, a small figure poked its head out. An Axew with a friendly smile on its face despite a trainer that I could tell within moments was a bigger dickhead than I was.
"My bad," I unnecessarily apologized again, standing upright in front of him to gauge who was taller. He was, but my eyes wandered down to his very rare Pokemon. "You have an Axew."
"No shit." He turned away, still upset over me almost knocking him over. Then he began walking deeper into the cave. "Come on, Axe. No slacking, bitch. Ignore that bad kid."
Despite the trainer's orders, the Axew stayed put, staring up at me with that goofy grin still plastered over its face, which looked incredibly elongated due to the odd protrusion of skin poking out of the sides of its mouth. Its eyes were a deep crimson that looked very animalistic and unnatural, but its smile countered the evil look it had.
"Axew," the freaky little thing said, offering its hand for me to shake. Well, I'll be damned. It was polite.
"Axe, get the fuck over here before I beat your little ass!" The trainer ordered. This time, a look of worry appearing on its face, the Axew turned around and trotted to keep up with his trainer. I watched them depart, when - just like with Eliza - a sudden thought occurred to me to accompany this guy.
"Hey, wait up," I said, beginning a light jog to catch up to the two of them. The trainer didn't even turn his head to address me as I got close, the three of us heading deeper into the cave, where the light was beginning to become nonexistent.
"You talk to your Pokemon like that, huh?" I asked the guy.
"Yeah. So what, you got a problem with how I raise my Pokemon?" He cocked his head aggressively, ready to defend his parenting style.
"Not at all, man. If anything, I agree with it. Being rough on them builds character." I admitted out loud. As I said the words, it occurred to me how easy I'd been on my own. That I'd been way too soft on my Pokemon. I mean, these things are monsters. Literally, they are monsters. They kill people. They're wild. They need a tough hand in order to keep them under control.
"Too many bitches around Peltagrow say you should be soft on them. 'Be friends with them.' Fucking idiots." The trainer stated as he peeled off a pokeball from a custom trainer belt, and tossed it lazily into the air. A Chinchou was released from the ball, a very small one. It had the look of being intoxicated, with eyes that had a giant X over the pupils, two antennae sprouting out of its ass and bobbing in the air as if it was underwater, and a small mouth perpetually open in a solid O shape. "Chin, Flash."
The drunk looking Chinchou released an enormous amount of light from its body, illuminating up a large chunk of the cave. A personal flashlight.
"See this mother fucker right here?" the trainer motioned toward his Axew, who responded to hearing his name by smiling up loyally at his trainer. "I've had this bitch two years. Two fucking years, and he still hasn't evolved into a mother fuckin' Fraxure. How am I supposed to beat the elite of the elite on this shitty island if my heaviest hitter can't even fucking evolve? Pisses me off, boy." Axew faced his head back to the ground, ashamed. The trainer kept strutting through the cave, not even paying attention to Axew.
"Yeah, I feel you, man. My Skorupi's had, like, 3 months to evolve and still hasn't become a Drapion." Again, the words spewed out of me without even thinking about them. I was badmouthing Skorupi, and felt no shame in it. It was as if I'd forgotten my disdain for these things. Why had I gone so easy on them? Had I really become that lonely living in the Gord that I had started treating my team as if they were real friends?
"All of this bullshit, though - it's all gonna be worth it when that prize money is given out to the league winner, man. Shit's dope as hell. I'mma make it to the Elite 4 and get that big pile of cash and just buy myself a nice ass car."
"What are you doing to do with your team of pokes?" I asked him, testing him.
"Sell 'em to the highest bidder. I hear those Anonymous idiots buy League Pokemon. Dunno how the fuck you get a hold of 'em. Name like Anonymous, who knows?" The trainer stopped dead in his tracks.
"Why you asking all these questions? Who is you?" He was suddenly suspicious of my interest in him.
"Oh, I'm just a new trainer. Adam. I'm not a trainer 'cause I want to win the league or anything. I mean, the money would be nice, but I'm just trying to get back home. See, my dickhead parents kicked me out and it's this whole thing. It's a long story…" I answered him badly. I knew it might not make complete sense, and his face still held a look of suspicion on it, but he did begin to walk again through the cave, so I followed.
"Adam. 'Sup man, name's Marvin Bloom. From Celmont." He offered a fist forward for me to pound as a greeting, and I returned a fist, grateful to have the dude around me as I hadn't even considered bringing a flashlight with me into the ruins.
The two of us walked together and chatted about our experiences with training up Pokemon. It surprised me how similar we both were, as he shared a lot of my own beliefs and thoughts on some of the crap that happened around Ilragorn. The minutes stretched to an hour as I finally bonded with someone as the two of us made our way through the cave. We passed several rock Pokemon, but the both of us agreed not to waste our time on such underleveled, weak seeming mons. He had heard rumors that the stronger Pokemon lurked deep in the ruins as well, so we both silently agreed to venture deeper and deeper into Duggie's Ruins until we found something worth catching.
"What do you think about Zach? The gym leader?" I brought up, hoping he would share my opinion on this one, too.
"The Peltagrow guy? Oh yeah, he's a bitch."
I finally found a friend. "Why do you say that?"
"You don't think he is?" Marvin challenged, cautiously stepping over a particularly sharp, long stretch of rock that stuck out from the ground like a sword.
"Oh, I know he is. Just wondering why you say that."
"Dude was all, like, shitting on me because I brought underleveled mons to face him. He was the first gym leader I ever faced." Marvin replied.
"That's exactly what happened with me, man! I brought an Emolga and a Spearow to face him 'cause I was expecting him to use easier Pokemon, you know? I thought the normal gym would be a snackwrap, but he said that all gyms were hard or some bullshit."
"Yeah, well," Marvin didn't bother turning around to look at me as he shared his thoughts, crouching to avoid bopping his head into the ceiling as the cave got smaller and smaller and the imminent sense of claustrophobia was seeping into my skin, though I kept talking to avoid it. "Would be kinda dumb if someone came from all the way on the other side of the island facing totally leveled, tough gyms on their gay little journey, then comes to his gym and faces an Eevee. What were you expecting, bro?" Marvin laughed to himself, and I couldn't help but see his point. "I had to think about that after he wrecked me. The dude's still a bitch, though. Way too young to be the leader of a damn gym."
Axew was getting exhausted, dragging behind the both of us and looking dehydrated from the long trek and having to watch every step he made due to their much smaller feet. Axew had drool leaking off the tongue that was hanging from his open mouth in his attempt to cool himself off. I only noticed this because the sounds of Axew's footsteps behind me had gone quiet, and I turned to see that Axew had stopped to press his arms against the walls of the cave, leaning against it and trying to catch his breath. Chinchou was leading the pack, due to Marvin's prodding it forward constantly with the toes of his shoes.
"Uh, Marvin? Your Axew." I pointed out.
"What?" Marvin stopped and turned around to see his Pokemon 20 feet behind him, resting against the rocky wall. "Axe, come the fuck on. Don't be a little bitch. This is exactly why you haven't evolved. You don't push yourself. Now, don't make me tell you again. Fucking walk."
Marvin faced forward, and returned to walking deeper into the cave. The best rock Pokemon we'd witnessed was a Graveller, which I would've been content with to face Zach, but Marvin called it a pub Pokemon, and insisted we keep going. I wasn't sure what exactly the dude expected us to bump into deep into the ruins, but I went with him regardless. We must have been walking for at least two hours by this point. I walked with him, but saw that his Axew, while struggling to jog to keep up with us, tripped over one of the many Stealth Rocks jutting out of the ground, and fell on its own face. It just lay there, breathing into the ashy floor, weak and thirsty and pathetic.
"Your Axew, uh, fell-" I informed Marvin so he didn't end up abandoning it. This time, Marvin didn't react as kindly.
"Bitch, what did I just say?" Marvin shouted in annoyance, turning around yet again, and walking with a controlled pace toward his fallen Axew. "Fucking stand!" He reeled his leg back as he approached Axew, then kicked forward with all his strength into his Pokemon, sending Axew flying into the wall of the cave with a crash. The Pokemon made a cry of pain as it connected, then tumbled onto the rocky, jagged floor. Blood was leaking off a split in his cheek as he lay there with his eyes shut, trembling while attempting to pick himself up.
"Dude, calm down," I suggested, paying attention to his Pokemon, which was so weak it couldn't even get on its own two feet.
"What?" Marvin turned to me now. "Did I not just hear you bitch and whine the past hour about how easy you've been to your Pokemon? How going hard on them is the best way to get them to level up? Or was that all bullshit?"
"Well…" He was right. I had said all that. Not wanting to make a hypocrite of myself, I wasn't sure how to counterargue him. "Considering you've been 'going hard' on that thing for two years and it still won't evolve, that clearly doesn't work, bro."
"Bitch, you just fucking told me you don't even like Pokemon. You've been saying that since we met, bro. What do you care how I raise my 'mons?"
"I don't." I replied. "Just..." I didn't know what to say.
"You know what, man - fuck you. Acting like you're better than me and shit. I could have my Pokemon, which I'm so fucking mean to and abusive to, kill your ass right here in this cave and no one would give a shit. Not your dumbass parents, and not your bitch ass brother you love to complain about." Marvin reached for a Pokeball from his belt, ready to fight me right here. Why did I always attract people that wanted to harm me?
I raised my arms to my head, signaling my opposition to battling him. "There's no need to-"
"Bitch, I could kill you right-"
A snarling, inhuman noise emerged from the darkness, beyond Chinchou's reach of light
that silenced both Marvin and me. Marvin, me, and Chinchou all stared at the source of the growl, but it was too dark to make out what had caused it. Axew was still lying on the ground, close to fainting. He would be no help.
"The fuck is that?" Marvin whispered, a look of terror on his face. We were both probably miles underground, away from anyone. Two kids in a dark cave with only a little blue ball of a Pokemon to give us light.
Like something out of a horror movie, the silhouette of something with a slender, flexibly framed body supporting an arrowhead-shaped top slowly poured out of the darkness, growling threateningly at the two invaders in his territory.
"It's a fucking Kabutops," Marvin's voice trembled with fright. He was right. I had heard from discussions Evan had with my parents that Kabutops were supposed to be extinct, but here one stood right in front of me, living and breathing. It had scythes for hands, and it was sliding both scythes along the edges of the walls, creating an awful shrieking noise reminiscent of chalk being dragged roughly down a chalkboard. It was trying to scare us.
"Chi-Chin, Bubblebeam it," Marvin stuttered. His Chinchou, though scared, braved toward the Kabutops, releasing a stream of large bubbles at it. The Kabutops slashed at the bubbles, popping them with ease, and finishing off Chinchou with one blow, Slashed the little Pokemon clean in half, ending its servitude toward Marvin for good. Though dead, its body still continued to release the Flash of light, thankfully.
Marvin turned hightail and ran through the darkness toward the direction we came from. He still had the common sense to return Axew to his pokeball as he ran, though I could hear him tripping and swearing constantly as he sprinted blindly through the darkness.
The Kabutops' attention turned to me. With nothing left to do but fight this thing, I hurriedly reached into my backpack, and chucked the first Pokeball I grabbed at the monster. Tropius emerged out of the red light like an angel, and landed on all four feet in front of Kabutops, its wings outstretched. Thank you, 4 times super effective grass type Pokemon.
"Tropius, this thing wants to kill us," I informed my Pokemon so that he knew not to fuck around with this thing. "If you lose to it, we all die. We can't lose."
Tropius nodded, not keeping its eyes off of Kabutops. Kabutops roared at Tropius, which didn't seem to faze it at all. Tropius did look kind of goofy, but he certainly didn't get intimidated easily. Unfortunately for me, the only moves I was certain Tropius knew were Headbutt, Gust, and Fly, all of which Kabutops resisted. If my Tropius didn't know a grass move, we were dead.
The Kabutops acted first: it bound high into the air, its thin legs much stronger than they appeared. Both scythes were raised menacingly in an attempt to Slash Tropius' wings off.
"Grass Knot!" I shouted, unfamiliar with grass moves. They all sounded the same to me, and I couldn't remember them. Tropius didn't react, but simply instinctively flew backwards to dodge the Kabutops. Both scythes went sailing directly into the ground, but they slid back out like a knife out of butter, and it bound once more into the air. The section of the cave we were in was small, with the ceiling only 7 or 8 feet high. There was barely any room for Tropius to manuever in like he usually could, so he couldn't dodge the Slash this time with his back to the wall. The scythe got him in the front, cutting him at the base of his neck.
"Energy Ball!" I shouted, as the onslaught of Slashes began and the Kabutops started tearing Tropius apart. Still no grass moves were coming. "Fuck! Gust! Gust!"
Tropius flapped its wings frantically, drawing up that miniature tornado, which while barely harming the Kabutops, knocked it off for a few moments to allow Tropius to catch its breath.
"Come on! Use a grass move or we fucking die!" I pleaded, unable to remember the name of any more. "Solar beam! Leaf Storm! Leaf Tornado! Vine Whip! Giga Drain! Absorb! Anything!" With each word, the Kabutops ravaged Tropius even more with its powerful swipes. Troius couldn't fly away in retreat due to the cramped space, and the Kabutops just stood on top of it, holding Tropius down, his back pressed into the ground, crushing his own wings. Tears were flowing out of Tropius' eyes as he shouted out in frustration and pain.
With nothing else to do, I reached into my backpack, grabbed one of the new pokeballs inside, and tossed it at the Kabutops giant head. I needed to catch it or we'd die.
Its reflexes acting insanely quick, it Slashed at the pokeball, severing it in mid air and destroying it. Roaring with fury, it hopped off of Tropius and lunged at me, a ball of water materializing around its body as it Aqua Jetted into my body, its force so powerful that it knocked me off my feet and I crashed into the wall in the same way Axew had just moments ago, but what felt like so long ago.
Kabutops pressed one of its feet onto my chest, the two sharp claws sinking into my skin and piercing into the muscle. I screamed in pain at how much it hurt, how real all of this was. I was going to die in a cave, to a Pokemon that no one knew still existed. With a gesture of raising its arms above its head, ready to Slash my head off, I shut my eyes, gritted my teeth, and braced myself for a quick pain before it all ended.
With a gust of powerful wind, the weight of Kabutops' body disappeared. I opened my eyes, and saw that Tropius had Headbutted Kabutops straight into the wall, which both Pokemon shouted in aggression over. Kabutops Slashed at Tropius' head, connecting, but Tropius just Headbutted into Kabutops light gray chest plate, over and over and over. Kabutops was screaming and stabbing its scythes into Tropius' back and wings, but Tropius refused to let up. It held Kabutops against the wall with his wings and head, and just furiously pounded its head into Kabutops' chest again and again, the rocks from the ceiling starting to come down from the repeated slamming.
With one final scream from both Pokemon, Tropius used its leafy wings to hold Kabutops' arms to the walls, as Tropius leaned his head back one final time, then released one final Headbutt straight into Kabutops stomach, knocking the breath out of it and knocking both Pokemon out.
I crawled over to my backpack, my back in extreme pain from being thrown against a wall of stone from that Aqua Jet. It was a long drag that took minutes to reach 10 feet, but I reached inside, and felt for a second Pokeball. Pressing the white button in the center to activate it, I threw a pokeball for the second time at the Kabutops. This time, the Kabutops was sucked into the Pokeball, it twitched two or three times, then with that familiar ping, it went still.