Chapter 37
Where we last left off...
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN THE RESORT IS CLOSED!?" Yang slammed her fist on the receptionist desk which startled the poor receptionist.
"I'm sorry ma'am!" the female receptionist quickly apologize out of fear. "But there are some poison-type pokemon poisoning the water. Both gym leaders are trying to solve this issue the best they can, so we are closed until the problem is solved."
"Can you explain what kind of pokemon is doing this?" Weiss asked.
"From what I heard, there is a bit of a turf war between regular Grimer and Alolan Grimer."
"Hang on one second." Blake then pulls up her megadex for more information.
"Grimer. The sludge pokemon. Grimer's sludgy and rubbery body can be forced through any opening, however small it may be. This Pokémon enters sewer pipes to drink filthy wastewater. Grimer emerged from the sludge that settled on a polluted seabed. This Pokémon loves anything filthy. It constantly leaks a horribly germ- infested fluid from all over its body."
"Grimer. The sludge pokemon. Alolan version. A Grimer, which had been brought in to solve a problem with garbage, developed over time into this form. he crystals on Grimer's body are lumps of toxins. If one falls off, lethal poisons leak out."
"Ewww!" Weiss is disgusted by these types of pokemon. "I can't believe something like that exist. They are disgusting!"
"So why are they in a turf war?" Ruby asked
The receptionist shrugs, "Don't know. But this is the first for me. But I want to know is why are they here in the first place."
Yang then thought of something. Luckily, it does not involve bad puns. "How about we help out?"
"Huh?" everyone went.
"If we help out, we can get one extra night free. Right?"
The receptionist thinks about it for a moment. "If you can do that, I'll have to talk to the manager. So it would be a great help."
Yang did a victory pump, "Alright!" Then proceeds to grab the other members of Team RWBY and drag them out.
"Wait!" Wess screams out, "I don't want to do anything with slime! I'm too pretty to get near such filth!"
"Oh shut up! We're doing this for an extra free night."
The team went north to see what is all the commotion at the largest hot springs lake they have never seen before and are amazed. It is safe for swimming, but they see some nasty purple substances at the shores of the lake. Ruby grabs a stick and pokes at the strange substance. It is slimy, gooey, and smells so awful that Weiss nearly vomited.
"What is this stuff?" Ruby asked in disgust as she turns the stick and the ooze drips slowly from it.
"Must be those toxic substances that the Grimers left behind." Blake tries to explain what it is.
"Probably." Yang takes a closer look as she covers her nose. "But this stuff really stinks!"
Then they hear something behind the bushes. It sounds like some people that are arguing.
"And I told you that they live in these parts!" says the first male voice.
"And I told you, dude, that they live close to the sea!" says the second male voice.
Team RWBY then checks the direction where the argument is coming from. There they see two men having a heated argument. One is wearing a pair of swim trunks with dark blue bubbles and sky blue wavy patterns on it along with being tan, having short blonde-dyed hair tied to a knot on the back of his head, deep blue eyes, and wearing seashell bracelets on his wrists and ankles. A very slim man who looks like a surfer. Another man is dressed in a dark red t-shirt, brown cargo pants, brown mountain climbing gloves and a pair of light brown hiking boots. He has a shaggy black goatee and black hair, fuzzy eyebrows, a tan complexion with tanlines on the arms, and dark brown eyes. He is also semi-muscular who looks like a mountain climber.
The mountain climber cross his arms, "I keep on telling you. The two Grimer types are seen in this area so they have to be close by the lake. Once they gather here, we can round them all up in one fell swoop."
The surfer then yells back, "Dream on, dude! The Alolan Grimers are at the shore! So we should round them up first then go for the regular! The lower the numbers, the greater our chance is!"
"You're just saying that because they remind you of your Alolan home, Harold!"
"Says a main-lander who, for some reason, has a gym on this island, Norman!"
"Wait a minute." Ruby whispers at her team. "That guy said the other guy is a gym leader. They must be the gym leaders that are trying to stop the Grimers."
"Yeah, well, they aren't doing a good job." Weiss murmured.
"I'll take care of this." Blake says as she starts approaching them.
"Hey, wait up!" Yang follows after.
Blake approaches the men. "Excuse me? Are you two the gym leaders?"
Harold and Norman looked at each other with great disdain then look back at her.
"Yeah." Norman says. "Are you looking for a gym battle? Sorry, but the gyms are closed today."
"We know." Blake nodded. "But we are here to help."
"Whose we?"
Ruby, Weiss, and Yang come out of the bushes.
"Wow!" Harold went in amazement. "Four hot dudettes!"
Ruby explains their situation. "We were planning on going to the hot springs before any gym battles. But we found out that Grimers been polluting the lake and the resort is closed. We figure if we help you two out, maybe we can get the resort back open."
"We believe it is a more efficient solution to the problem." Weiss says with her arms crossed.
"That would be AWESOME!" Harold agrees while making a rock' on hand gesture.
"Can't deny that logic." Norman agrees as well. "Guess we can divide and conquer to see what is really going on. I'm Norman by the way. Gym leader of the Blaze City Gym."
Harold then raise his hand. "And I'm Harold, dudettes! The radical gym leader of the Aqua City Gym! Glad to meet ya'!"
"I'm Yang." Yang introduces herself then everyone else respectfully. "This is my little sister, Ruby. This is Blake. And the annoying snow queen is Weiss."
"Hey!"
"So Ruby and I are gonna help out Harold while Blake and Weiss go with Norman."
"Agreed." everyone says in unison.
"Well that was easy. So let's go Grimer them up!"
Harold started laughing, "Grimer them up! That's funny!" While everyone else doesn't laugh at her pun.
Over in the wilderness, Blake and Weiss are teamed-up with Norman around the lake. Norman tells them that the Grimers of both sides have been co-existing peacefully that take care of the trash, but something happened between the two types. Furthermore, the reason for the argument is because there are only two of them and a lot of Grimers.
"Guess that makes sense." Weiss says to Norman as they walk through the foliage.
"Something must have happened to the two groups in order for them to be fighting." Blake agrees.
"Exactly." Norman agrees as well. "There might be an invading force that is disrupting the fragile ecological balance of this island. We have to find out what it is before the whole lake is polluted if this little skirmish between them drags on."
"Agreed!" the girls say in unison.
They make their way through to find the regular Grimers' nest. They found a place that reeks of garbage and sewage. Fungus is seen growing on some of the dead vegetation and the ground is barren. Void of grass and all muddy.
"Darn it!" Weiss complains. "My boots are getting filthy!"
"Sssshh!" says the fire-type gym leader as they are getting close.
They peek out of the decaying plants and they see the Grimer Paradise. There are also some Muks there as well. Some of the Grimer are feeding on some of the pollutants and decay from the area, some are happily enjoying a sewage hot tub that they also drink, and some of them are making homes made from rocks, dead logs, cardboard, trashed construction wood, and are being held together by a nasty slimy substance that they secrete from their mouths and bodies. There are even sulfur deposits that they drag from the volcano as a certain food flavoring. They see them turning them into powder over their garbage food and eat them joyfully.
"Ew." Weiss says with her stomach turning. "I think I am going to hurl."
Norman quickly covering her mouth. "Don't!" he whispers. "If you do that, they will find you attractive!"
Now Weiss is getting really sick after hearing that.
"So far, I don't see any problems...other than what they are doing." Blake closely observes.
"Harold was right." Norman hates to admit it. "Guess I owe him a pechaberry cake."
Blake and Weiss looked at Norman with 'what the heck?' expressions at him.
"Wait a minute." Weiss says. "The reason for the argument is because of a bet?"
"Yep."
Over at the shore; Yang, Ruby, and Harold are looking for the nest of Alolan Grimers. They make it to southside and follow a horrible stench. The smell of sewage mixed with garbage, mildew, and decaying plants.
"Yuck!" Ruby says as she covers her nose. "That is the worst smell I have ever smelled!"
Yang smiles with her eyes looking back at Ruby. "Then try smelling your own farts."
Ruby's face went red with embarrassment. "Don't say that!"
"Sssshhh!" Harold looks back and try to silence the sisters. "We're getting close." he whispers.
They then peek through some of the foliage and they don't see any Alolan Grimers or Alolan Muks in sight. They see an old sewer pipe where the sewage is coming from, but the Alolan Grimers aren't there swimming and drinking from it. They see what appears to be a few structures made from garbage, rocks, and sticks that are held together by a sticky substances. But they are wrecked and in ruins. Looks like something came through the Alolan Grimers territory and trash the place...well, more trashed than it is.
All the fungus that used to be there are now gone. Despite the ruination, the garbage is still being eaten by some other pokemon.
"It this the place?" Yang asked Harold.
"Yep. But something here ain't radical. You dig?"
"Wait!" Ruby whisperly shouts, "Get down!"
They got down to the ground on their stomachs and see something moving in the bushes. They see small creatures that look like dark green garbage bags with bunny ears and protrusions coming out with pink and blue objects.
"What is that?" Yang whispers.
"Those are Trubbish."
Ruby then pulls up her megadex. "Trubbish. The trash bag pokemon. The combination of garbage bags and industrial waste caused the chemical reaction that created this Pokémon. Inhaling the gas they belch will make you sleep for a week. They prefer unsanitary places. It gorges on trash until its stomach is full. Then it belches toxic gas. An unlucky whiff of gas will put a person in the hospital. They can be spotted in Alola, often with Grimer in hot pursuit."
"So that's the cause." Harold says as he watches them eating the garbage, drinking and swimming the sewage, and continue to munch down what used to be dwellings. "Looks like I won the bet. Awesome. But why would-"
Then they see three Garbodors coming from the forest.
"Garbodor. The trash heap pokemon. It clenches opponents with its left arm and finishes them off with foul-smelling poison gas belched from its mouth. Consuming garbage makes new kinds of poison gases and liquids inside their bodies. Beware the poisonous liquid it shoots from its right arm. If even a little of it gets on you, you'll experience the effects of the unidentified toxin. For a time, their numbers increased explosively in Alola. Since the arrival of Grimer, their population has decreased dramatically."
What happens next is a bunch of Alolan Grimers and Muk try to ambush the Trubbish and Garbodors. The Muks use sludge bombs on the Garbodors along with Grimers using acid spray. However, one of the Garbodors use thunderbolt and shocked most of the Grimers and Muks, another one use psychic to send back the sludge bombs, and the last one use focus blast and send them flying into the sea. The Garbodors and Trubbish laugh at the Muk and Grimers' failed attempt to get their home back. The losing side just slither their way back in shame.
They can tell that they weren't your average Garbodors. These ones were trained and given TM's. But were abandoned by their trainers for some unknown reason.
"So that explains it! Those Garbodors and Trubbish invaded their home, took everything, and forced the Alolan Grimers and Muks to fight the regular ones."
"Maybe in exchange for having their home back after getting rid of the other Grimers and Muks." Yang stated.
"Maybe so. But this is wrong!" Ruby stands up and wants to help.
Ruby walked up to the Garbodor with Yang reaching out. "Wait, Ruby!"
Ruby stands firm with a serious look on her face and goes, "Hey!" she pointed at them. "What you guys doing isn't right! Why are you doing this!? What reason do you have for-"
A Garbodor tries to fire sludge at her until Yang pushed Ruby out of the way. However, it has gotten into Yang's hair. Yang emotionlessly and slowly touch her hair and then looks at the brown sludge on her twitchy right hand. Her left eye starts to twitch as she emotionlessly and slowly turn her head towards the Garbodors. Yang's eyes turn red with the sound of fire crackling in the background. One look into Yang's eyes is scaring the Garbodors and their Trubbish.
"You guys ruin my hair." she said in an emotionless tone. Then gives off an angry expression, "YOU WILL PAAAAAYYY!"
She start beating the living crude out of the scared Garbodors while saying, "YOU GUYS RUIN MY HAIR! THIS IS THE FOURTH TIME IT HAS BEEN RUINED! I'LL MAKE SURE YOU PAY FOR EVERY STRAND THAT YOU GOT DIRTY!"
Ruby and Harold just stand there with large sweatdrops on their heads. Along with having scared expressions on their faces.
"Sooooo... You're sister doesn't like it when someone messes her hair. Right?"
"Yep." Ruby nodded.
"She is totally scary, brah'."
"Yep."
We'll continue once Yang has settle down. Tune in next time! ...And hope Yang doesn't kill anybody.