Slowking and Regigigas

The most embarrassing thing that I can imagine is getting caught without your Shellder on your head. The symbiosis between us is such that if I lose him, I lose my brain. And after awakening to my hidden power through the grip of the Shellder's clasp, I do not like to end up in the dithering thoughtless state that I was in as a Slowpoke.

Sometimes, I believe that my human gets caught without his Shellder on his head more days than not. He's pretty decent as a Trainer, having stuck with it long enough to have a fine collection of Gym badges. And I certainly can't complain about mistreatment. He always has one of us walking out with him, whatever he's doing. He takes care of our injuries in a timely manner, has a general strategy that works most of the time, and occasionally treats us with special foods or play days. But then there are times when I wish I knew telepathy so that he knew why I was smacking my forehead in response to his decisions.

Like that day when we went exploring an old temple. They had guards watching the entrance, notices that access was forbidden unless you had seven Gym badges, a sliding metal gate on the door, and a fence topped with barbed wire. Just looking at the place, it should be easy to figure out, 'oh, we might not want to go in there because it's dangerous'. But did he think that? No.

"There has to be some kind of treasure or something amazing in there that they're hiding," he said to me. "They even said that hardly anybody goes inside, so it's probably not fully explored. Come on, let's sneak inside."

I really did smack my forehead then. At the very least, he should have waited until he'd earned the seven badges so that he could get permission to go inside. But no, that would take too long as he only had three and it would take several months, maybe a year, at the rate he was going. I refused to budge for a few minutes, hoping to wear him out so he forgot about the temple in a few hours. That didn't work, though, because he said he'd go in without me. And you know, a good Pokemon is a loyal Pokemon, so I had to go in with him to make sure that he was all right.

Besides, he may be an idiot Trainer, but he's my idiot Trainer. I like him; I don't want bad things to happen to him. I just wish that I could give him advice that he could understand.

The temple itself was actually pretty interesting, once we got in through a back window with no glass or bars. There were murals on the walls with Unown text all around them. Once I had become a Slowking, I had become interested in the Unown text and figuring out what it all meant. It wasn't easy because it's simply a different style to the human language and I had never bothered to learn to read that. In fact, I had only learned a few command words in their spoken language by the time he gave me a King's Rock to attract the right kind of Shellder to me. At that time, I could make out a few words.

The murals were much clearer. They told the tale of an immensely powerful Pokemon that a certain group of humans worshiped. On one wall, it showed the giant Pokemon tying ropes onto cliffs and then using those to drag entire landmasses into place. Farfetched, perhaps, but certainly an impressive and memorable image. On other walls, it showed the giant Pokemon turning a large heap of rocks, magma, and even an entire mountain into other Pokemon that were much like itself. But they weren't like any Pokemon that I had seen before, at that time.

On the wall of a lower level, it showed the story of how a human accidentally enraged the giant Pokemon. It had then gone on to crush and destroy many towns as it had, according to one bit I managed to translate, 'anger as hard to stop as it was to start'. They had built this temple in order to appease and apologize to the giant Pokemon, but then sealed him in the lowest level of the place anyhow. Why they did so, I have no idea.

Because my boy Trainer was already heading down to the next level. "It's just a few small things so far, stuff that was probably dropped by the wild Pokemon in here. But there has to be something good towards the bottom."

Or possibly something very bad, I thought, if this mural story was true and the giant Pokemon was still angry at being sealed up. But panicking solves nothing; intellect does. I kept calm and followed him down, although I did often take his shoulder and tug at him, trying to hint that we should be leaving, not exploring.

"What are you being so naggy for today?" he asked me. "There's only been wild Pokemon in here, no traps or anything. It's actually kind of boring, and all that stuff on the wall reminds me too much of school."

I would have liked to ask him why he was staying if it was boring him. That was safer to leave. But no matter how I tried to pass on that message in my expression, he didn't get it. And so we kept heading down.

We found what seemed to be the last level, as it had no stairs further down. There was evidence that the area had once been sealed, in a rough edge of clay in the staircase. From the looks of it, I think there was once a clay block there in the middle of the stairs, painted and textured to look like stone. But someone else had destroyed it. On seeing that, I hoped that the sealed Pokemon had been dealt with.

But no. Whoever had taken out the door had not taken out the Pokemon. I could sense it when we arrived at that level, taking the form of a stone statue in the middle of the room. It was easily twice my size, probably much heavier from its immense build. Although for one that supposedly dragged continents with ropes, it didn't seem quite big enough.

"Wow, that's pretty cool," my boy said, going over to the 'statue' and touching its hand. "I wonder what it is." If he had paid attention to the murals, he might have had a good idea of the trouble he was about to get in. "Micah, take my camera and get my picture with it, so I can prove that I got down here.":

I shook my head in refusal. There wasn't anything in the room that indicated that there was a way to wake this Pokemon up, so I didn't want to risk anything. But he insisted and I was the first to give in. First I tried to do so without the flash, which he noticed and made me take another with it, due to the poor lighting down here.

And that's what woke it up. Is skin turned from gray-brown stone into a strange white material with yellow and green plates and multicolored lights. Frankly, it looked like something out of those cheap gimmicky Pokewood movies that try to be sci-fi without the budget, only this was supposed to be a Pokemon from ancient times. But I wasn't of a mind to worry about aesthetics right then; I was more worried about my boy being right in front of the Pokemon, still grinning in a show-off pose. I waved for him to look behind him.

The first thing he did when he saw the thing behind him, raising one of its hands up, was to run away. Unfortunately, he had to run away from the stairs. Running away is a smart thing to do at times, but at least run towards an exit to the area. I followed after him, mostly because I wanted to stay between him and the old Pokemon. After that initial fright, he stopped and turned back to look at it, more in awe than in fear. And that worried me.

Then against even my expectations, the ancient Pokemon spoke, in the human tongue. "Unauthorized persons spotted," it said. "You are to be dealt with ruthlessly." Its lights began racing, brighter than before.

"Micah, stop it!" my boy said, some of his fear returning. But he was fiddling with his bag, the pocket that held unused Pokeballs in it. I felt like that wasn't something to consider under the circumstances. It was speaking as if it were a guard to this place. Perhaps I had misinterpreted the story on the walls, I sometimes think. Perhaps it was there to keep anyone from reaching a more dangerous Pokemon still sealed inside the temple.

But I still had to try to fight it. Since it had been a statue, I guessed that it was a Ground or Rock sort (possibly even Steel). With that in mind, I summoned up a wave of Surf to briefly flood the room. It was one of my more powerful attacks at that time (still is, in many cases), but it did not seem to affect the old Pokemon much. Then it swatted me into the wall with its arm.

Yes, that guy was slow but it hit like a train at full speed. I wouldn't have been able to take many hits from it. So I decided I'd better take the smart way out of this and started talking. "Hey old one, I'm real sorry we ended up disturbing your sleep. My boy here was a little over-eager in exploring places and wouldn't heed my warnings. He doesn't mean trouble."

It paused where it was, probably looking at me. The lights on its front slowed. "What?" it finally asked.

I had a momentary flashback to trying to speak to my Slowpoke brethren then. Then it was probably best to speak to it like I did to them, simple and patient. "We came in here to see what was here. No, we don't have permission to be down here, but I will take him out if you let us go peacefully. If you threaten my boy, I will fight back, but I would rather leave. You wouldn't want to hurt someone needlessly, right?"

Much as I had hoped, that question got to the ancient Pokemon. It took a while to consider that, then stepped back to its original position. "You have the chance to leave. If you do not, then I will fight both of you to certain defeat. Do not return to this place."

Maybe it was the implied death threat, but that knocked sense into my boy. He nodded. "Um, yes, we'll be going then. I'm sorry for trespassing." We then hurried up the stairs. Two levels up, he paused a moment and turned to me. "You think it would have really killed us?"

I nodded to that question. It certainly had the power to do so. I'm not sure what its intent would be, but if the thing it guards is important enough, it may feel that is necessary.

"I had no clue something like that would be down here." He bowed his head. "Thanks, Micah. I'm sure you saved us both with whatever you told him."

I patted his shoulder; maybe if he had a Shellder to enhance his brain too, he would be more careful. But then I nudged him on to the next flight of stairs. We still had to get out of here.

We did end up getting caught by the guards, but I think the fine we got for trespassing was light, compared to what that old one would have done to us.

…

Slowking Heart Gold entry: It has incredible intellect and intuition. Whatever the situation, it remains calm and collected.

Regigigas D/P entry: There is an enduring legend that states this Pokemon towed continents with ropes.

Slowking is actually pretty interesting, now that I've written about it. Sometimes I find certain Pokemon to be like that (like Lickitung way back). Another entry notes that it's venom from the Shellder that boosts a Slowking's mind. Venom. I had another idea for using that, but then it was pushing the rating some due to drug reference.

Fast updates to this are coming now cause I'm sick and restless. Except I did wear myself out writing this. Zzzzzzzz...