Exadrill, Cinccino, and Druddgion

The world was a funny place. Boris the Exadrill reflected on that as he worked on digging new tunnels and rooms for the expansion of his underground hometown of Rock Springs. Some days were normal and quiet, but others turned odd without any warning. With all the kinds of Pokemon in the world, there were all kinds of thoughts and ideas. However, everyone managed to get along most of the time. Like his friends, which included a Glalie, a Slugma, and a surface-dwelling Skiploom. Boris disagreed with them on some things, like the ideal place to live, but they were still his friends and he'd even go up to the surface to stand up for one of them.

Since this area was easy to excavate, Boris had a lot of time to think over these things. He wondered if he should build a stairwell to a higher level and dig out a larger room, to better please Pokemon like the Skiploom. True, most of the underground town inhabitants wouldn't care or would want easy ways to climb around. But they had those visitors from time to time, and it might encourage more trade if such a 'skyroom' was made. Maybe if they could find some way to let sunlight into a place like that...

There was a metallic scrape as his claws hit another piece of steel, forcing Boris to pay more attention. This was unexpected. After clearing away some plain rock, he found that he'd hit a large flat piece of metal. It was far too regular and smooth to be natural. Was it another Pokemon, maybe a Steelix? He poked at it and sniffed, but it didn't seem to be living.

"What's going on?" a Geodude that was part of the rubble clearing crew asked. "What's up with that?"

"I'm not sure," Boris said. "But it's in the way; we're supposed to add some living burrows along this tunnel." He rubbed his claws across the steel horn on his head. "Looks like this will take my full strength. It's going to get noisy."

"Right!" The Geodude chucked some more rubble into the wheelbarrow, then headed off to the dumping point.

Having confidence that this wasn't another Pokemon, Boris brought his claws up by his horned mask, their tips a short distance away from the horn's tip. Different strengths of rock or metal would require different positions... he'd know better once he got started. He took a deep breath, then caused his horn to rotate rapidly to drill into the steel plate. There was a lot of shrieking and sparking as the plate resisted him; it was one of the toughest materials he'd encountered in his career of excavating. But even this gave way to his drilling prowess and he began to clear cracked steel out of the way with his claws. As he made his way through, the material changed to something softer that got shredded in an instant from the combination of his spinning horn and sharp claws. Then it changed back to the steel, now cold. Why?

Then Boris burst into a pocket of air, crashing through the barrier. But it was more than just a pocket. Close to him, there was a metal flooring, some pipes, a metal ceiling barely a foot over his head, and a large wooden crate. He would have dug into that crate if he'd been a few steps to the left. Not only that, but it was cold enough to make his breath visible and his skin tingle. Boris walked off the metal floor onto a concrete one, finding that he had been on some massive shelf. A long row of the metal shelves stood in front of him, and another behind him.

"What is this place?" he wondered to himself.

"Where'd you go?" the Geodude asked, hopping into the hole. "This... whoa, it's so cold in here."

"This isn't going to be suitable for what the town needs," Boris said. "Unless we want to make a cold room. Go back to town and find the metal workers. We need them to fix this hole so that our tunnels don't cool off too much. I'm going to look around a bit."

"Right!" His co-worker left, leaving him to explore.

He looked around, but didn't go far from where he'd come in. It seemed as though someone was storing a great many things here in the cold. But who? And what would need such cold storage... no wait, this would actually be pretty good for keeping a stockpile of food. Was that it? But that still didn't explain who made or owned this place. In all his years of living and working in this town, he had no idea that a dungeon like this was so close.

He heard something like a light footstep on the metal structures, so turned in time to see something gray and white drop just behind him. Acting on reflexes, he swung his claws back to give a warning shot. His claws passed right through soft fur as the Pokemon twirled around and slapped him with her tail. It wasn't much of a hit to him, though, so he tried a more forceful strike with his horn and claws. But again, he hit fur and nothing else.

Hopping back, the stranger curled her tail around her front. "Ho, a strong one, but a little odd to see around here."

"Why's that?" Boris asked, holding his claws up but not attacking for now. This might not require a fight. "My town's just a short walk that way, through the hole I just dug."

That changed her attitude entirely, causing her to flip her tail back and lean forward. "Oh, there's a town that close? Wow, that's great, just what we needed! Hey, sorry about attacking you then. Me and my partner have been on an exploration that's lasted a week already."

He put his arms down. "I see, so you're used to fighting back against any who show up. It's fine. We were planning on blocking up the hole, though, so if you want to go to town for supplies and pick back up, you'll have to make it quick."

"Uh... well, better to abandon this while we can." She pointed down the row of metal shelves. "My partner collapsed a while back and I've been hoping for a teleport circle or some other way out. I gotta get her out of this cold, but she's rather heavy. Could you lend me a hand? Either in carrying her or fending off the few wild Pokemon in here."

It was always good to help explorers; they would spread good word about the town and might have interesting things to trade. Boris nodded. "Sure thing. But was it okay for her to be left alone?"

"Thanks!" She started a quick walk back, enough that he could keep up with. "Haven't had a problem yet; if she lies still, most any wild Pokemon will mistake her for a rock. Oh yeah, and I'm Minka the Cinccino. Sorry about not introducing myself earlier, but I've had a lot on my mind."

"It is an emergency, it's fine. I'm Boris the Exadrill, from Rock Springs."

After a short while of walking, they came to a break in the shelving row. There was another row of shelves and crates in front of them, lining a wall perpendicular to the way they had come. Looking down the new row, Boris could see many more rows of shelves. Between the crates, he could see that there were even more open space with more shelves on the other side.

A short ways down that hall, they came across what indeed seemed like a pile of rough dark blue and red stones. But it had the smell of a dragon, which surprised Boris. He had expected a Geodude like his neighbors if Minka's partner could imitate rocks. This one could do just as well.

Minka dropped down and seemed to listen to the dragon. "Okay, she's still alive. Geez, if we'd known it would be this cold, I would've insisted that she bring something to keep warm with. Aegis can't move until she warms up, since a Druddgion is like that."

"We've got a lava room for some Pokemon that like that," Boris said, picking up the dragon. Aegis was quite hefty, but he could handle her. After all, he needed a lot of strength for his work.

"Maybe not in the lava, but close. Thanks, let's go." Minka then led the way back to where they had met, with Boris heading towards the hole once they got there.

When they got through, the Geodude had come back. "Magcargo and his crew are coming. Who's this?"

Boris put Aegis down for a moment, in a spot that was fairly clear of rubble. "Some explorers. We need to get them back into town. Could you ask the crew if they could make a door instead? The dungeon in there seems to be huge, but it could be useful to us with modifications."

"Yeah, I got it."

"That'd certainly be a quicker way to go investigate that place," Minka said. She petted her partner. "Oh, and since we're out of there, I won't do damage if I help out. Hope I don't bother you by making things sunny!" She put her paws together and summoned a warm light with Sunny Day.

It did make things a little uncomfortable for Boris. But as he sometimes had to do business on the surface, he kept quiet even though he had to squint briefly to adjust to the change in brightness. With that warmth, Aegis began to visibly breath again. "Thanks," she said in a voice as rough as her skin. "I thought... I might... get used to it. But while I was checking... on that writing... I went numb."

"We probably should have gone back through that huge door," Minka said. "There's a town nearby with a lava pool. That won't be as good as getting sunlight, but it'll get you to the surface, right?"

"Yeah, I could warm up there." She managed to push herself off the ground with her bulky arms. "I'm a little stiff now; how far is it?"

"A few minutes walk through the tunnels, but we do have to go down a level," Boris said.

"Can you walk that far?"

Aegis rubbed her snout. "Give me a minute to loosen up a bit more. If you keep up Sunny Day, I should be fine for a short walk."

"You can count on me," Minka said, smiling and curling her tail.

"What were you ladies doing in there if she doesn't handle cold well?" Boris asked. He was curious and it might help them to talk while Aegis recovered.

Aegis let Minka explain most of it. "Well we didn't know that it would get so cold. We're a team that explores human ruins! A while ago, we came across a big tunnel that had big straight lines of metal. According to our research, they're called rails and humans used to have big machines called trains that traveled really fast and powerfully on the rails. We were hoping to find a train and see if we could make it work, because no Pokemon alive as seen a train run. At least, we think nobody has. Anyhow, on our search, we came across a huge door that was cool to the touch. We managed to get it open and found ourselves in that place. It's a huge maze, but it's also a storage warehouse, a treasure trove of human artifacts!"

"Are you sure that's a human ruins?" Boris asked, looking at the hole. "Sure it's big and really well made, but Pokemon could do that, given a long time. At least, I've never heard of such a place near here and if it was a human ruins, we should have known something about it.."

"A lot of human places were forgotten," Minka said. "Plus, we know that the train tunnel was of human make."

"I'm sure the cold storage is of human make as well," Aegis said. "I've taught myself how to translate human text, by comparing it to Unown text. It's strikingly similar and many of the boxes are labeled. If what I read off that notice is right, then there's more levels to the warehouse which may be even colder."

Minka put her paws to her cheeks. "Even colder? Amazing! And to think, we've also seen human ruins which they made to be really hot. They were still hot! Humans were really clever creatures. I hope we find some clues to what happened to them soon, although we'll have to leave exploration of the cold storage to another team."

"Is it going to bother your town if other teams show up to investigate that place?" Aegis said.

"Rock Springs should be fine with that," Boris said. "We were planning on expanding, so this will change those plans. But I'm sure if you explain what this place means in terms of our world's history, the others will be interested in finding out what's there as well."

The cold areas would also attract more ice Pokemon to live here; adapting the human storage to food storage for Rock Springs was still an option. This definitely wasn't what Boris thought he'd find while excavating in this area. Even so, it was most likely a great thing that he had found a way in. While he helped Aegis and Minka to the lava room, he considered how to present this to the town leaders to be positive to everyone, local and explorer alike.

…

Druddgion Black entry: It warms its body by absorbing sunlight with its wings. When its body temperature falls, it can no longer move.

Cinccino Black entry: Their white fur is coated in a special oil that makes it easy for them to deflect attacks.

Exadrill B2/W2 entry: Forming a drill with its steel claws and head, it can bore through a steel plate, no matter how thick it is.

So if Druddgion needs to absorb sunlight, why do you find it in a cave? haha, well, it's probably like desert lizards that need to be out in the sun to warm up but then need to hide in shade so they don't overheat.

If you're up-to-date with this project, my request list is short right now. I got two sets planned that should leave me with only Unova Pokemon to cover. Granted, there's not even many of them left. But if you scan the chapter list and notice one missing, feel free to request it if you like.