Hello, everyone! Ta-Ni here, with the last chapter of this update. This time, we're delving into a totally made-up dungeon of my own creation! Scarred Terra Point is a 12-floor dungeon, that is entirely filled with ground types, like geodude, diglett, and their evolution. The last three have onix! Consider this a trial run for Magma Cavern coming up. The big point of this chapter is resolving Sparky's character arc with the (hopeful) rescue of his younger brother. What's going to happen? Find out now!
"You sure this is right?" Sparky asks me for the fifth time today.
I sigh, finally starting to get annoyed. "Yes, I'm sure," I reply testily. "I mean, the details line up, right? Powerful electric type, in a dungeon full of ground types, and it's in the same spot you showed me before, see?" I gesture to the cave opening we've been standing in front of for the past hour. "What are you so afraid of?"
"Well, there's still a chance it isn't him," he mutters. "I mean, there tend to be multiple Strong Pokémon within a dungeon, some created by the dungeon itself."
I wasn't aware of this but try not to let my ignorance show. "You didn't answer my question. What are you afraid of? You've never been this hesitant to explore a new dungeon." I pause, expecting an answer, but he stays silent. I hazard a guess, "Is it the enemies? 'Cause we've got plenty of ethers for our iron tails…"
He shakes his head vehemently. "No, I've grown past being afraid of ground types. It's just…" Again, he hesitates but finally relents. "I'm afraid that he'll hate me. I mean, I left him all alone in that dungeon for five years; I should have tried harder to rescue him…"
"Sparky…" I murmur, coming up beside him and leaning into his side. "You said yourself, the cave was blocked off for at least four of those years. I highly doubt he'll hate you. Besides, there's always the chance he won't even remember his time as a wild. Sally told me that wilds who 'wake up' and join teams rarely remember anything of their time in the dungeon, and a few of the other recruits agree." I step in front of him and put on my determined face. "Come on, enough dwelling on 'what ifs'. Let's give it a try, and see what happens."
He manages a weak smile, hiding a chuckle at how stupid I look. "All right, you're right as always. Onwards!" With that, we turn and enter Scarred Terra Point.
As the entrance seals behind us, I immediately inhale to catch scents…and start coughing hard. The air is heavy with the burning stench of scorched rock, easily apparent by the marks giving the dungeon its name. Worse, despite the marks up here being fairly old, the smell is still quite strong. I think the more I use and enhance my sense of smell, the more it grows in potency.
"You okay?" Sparky asks in concern.
"Y-yeah," I manage to cough out, trying to filter the stench out so I can navigate. Eventually, I recover and can distinguish other scents besides the burnt rock. However, under all the obvious wild scents, I blink in surprise. "Hey, Sparky? You said you tried to go back in for your brother back when he first went missing, right? How many times did you try?"
"Um, at least twice," he replies. "Why?"
"I'm picking up three faint trails leading from here into the maze, all of which match your signature," I elaborate. "There's also a fourth trail that's similar, but only parallel to one of yours."
"That has to be my brother!" he exclaims in excitement. "But those should be five years old by now; how are you still sensing them?"
"I followed Ninetales' scent, and that was much older, remember?" I explain. "Somehow, my nose can follow past scents just as easily as present ones. What do you think, should we try following his old scent trail?"
He shrugs, still slightly stunned. "I guess so; it's worth a shot, at least."
We delve into the maze of tunnels, with me and my nose leading the way. We bump into a few of the wilds (mostly geodudes and digletts), and immediately notice their odd behavior. In the passageways, they act normally and attack me, which I fend off with an iron tail. However, whenever we meet them in the larger spaces, they run away at the sight of Sparky. In my mind, this confirms that whoever the Strong Pokémon is, it has to be related to Sparky in some way.
We descend the first three or four floors, with me having to readjust to the burnt stench at the start of each one. However, we have our first encounter with our target on the fifth floor. Sure enough, they look like a much larger version of Sparky, with a long whip-like tail and black outlines around the ears; Sparky called them a raichu. They pause as we walk into the room with them, staring with barely hidden anger typical of other Strong Pokémon. After a moment, they launch a blast of electricity at me…which is then drawn to Sparky because of his ability. I note the raichu's look of confusion, but a sudden grunt of pain distracts me and I turn to Sparky, which has them run off once I break eye contact.
He's on one knee, clutching his chest and wincing. There's no one else around, and obviously, the raichu didn't move close enough to hit us. "What happened?" I ask in confusion.
"Ngh…not sure," he replies. "When I absorbed his attack, for some reason…it hurt! Not even Zapdos' thunder could actually hurt me, so I don't get why his thunderbolt did…"
"Is it an overcharge?" I ask, trying to make sense of this myself.
He shakes his head, then replies, "My levels didn't actually rise all that much; again, different than with Zapdos. I think the amount of current he's using is so strong, it overrides my natural resistance." He pauses, then adds, "I might have to turn off my ability; it's too risky. You'll have to avoid his electricity on your own."
"You can do that?" I ask. "Just…turn it off?"
"Of course," he explains. "Quite a few abilities can be turned on and off with enough training. I don't think yours can, though, so I wouldn't worry about it."
His dismissal puts me slightly on edge, but I decide not to press him on it. Once he rallies himself, we continue on. Now that we've met our target, I stop tracking the old scents and focus on the raichu's, which is much clearer. A couple of floors later, we meet them again. This time, when he tries to zap me, I dive underground with dig, quickly getting away from the hole but not quite aiming for my opponent. To my surprise, I feel another thundershock strike right above me, and the charge actually reaches down and gives me a nasty shock!
"YOW!" I cry out, bursting from the floor in surprise and with my fur poofing out from the static. I blindly lunge in the raichu's direction, and he immediately flees again. Sparky grabs my tail to keep me from following and draws the static out of my body and into his, letting my head clear.
"What happened?" he asks me this time.
"I was hiding underground when he somehow managed to zap me through the floor!" I reply, trying to reason out these new events. "I'm sorry I struck out, but that hurt! And why always at me?"
"You did dig underground, and you're brown; maybe he thinks you're a ground type," he posits. "Regardless, I did get a better look at him this time and even as a raichu, I spotted the birthmark. It's him all right; that's my brother Pip. He didn't recognize me, though."
"Probably from being a wild," I reason. "We'll need to knock some sense into him if we want to see if he remembers later. First, though, we need to figure out how to keep from being zapped. If his electricity can pierce the earth, as well as your own resistance, I'd hate to get hit directly…"
"He doesn't seem to like direct contact, so maybe if we get close, he can't hit us with his bolts," Sparky figures. "But first, we need to corner him. I reckon he went down another floor?" I inhale to check, and nod. "We've only got a few more floors to the bottom; let's keep after him and pin him at the bottom."
I like that plan, so we quickly head to the next floor. Tracking the scent once more, we manage to herd him deeper into the dungeon. Each time we bump into him, I immediately charge at him before he can fire, which spooks him into running. Finally, at the twelfth and final floor, we enter an arena similar to where we fought the mankey.
The raichu's waiting for us, and this time, he doesn't have anywhere else to run. We split up to try and confuse him, but he keeps his eyes on me and launches another thunderbolt. I quickly dodge out of the way; I wasn't kidding about not wanting to be hit! Sparky charges in with a quick attack while he's distracted, and as he's getting up, I run in with my own attack. As we thought, he doesn't seem to have any counter to direct attacks, and by getting in his face and keeping up the pressure, he quickly folds and falls unconscious.
Sparky and I regroup, me chewing on a cheri berry to ward off paralysis from the raichu's static, and we wait in the hope that he recovers. It takes a while, and that's when we hear the wind begin to blow. Sparky told me about this before: if you try and stay in a dungeon for too long, the wind will slowly build until you're blown straight out of the dungeon, counting as a failure. We exchange a nervous look as the wind gets stronger; we can't stay here for much longer.
Thankfully, he begins to stir. When the raichu opens his eyes, the characteristic glaze of wildom has left him. However, he growls at us instead of speaking; not in anger, but more so in a questioning manner. We gaze at one another in silent debate, then Sparky steps forward. The raichu tries to back away but is still hurt by our fight.
"Don't worry, Pip, I'm here to help," Sparky says soothingly, reaching out with his rescue badge. With a gentle tap, he teleports his brother away with him, and I quickly follow; I can hear the wind rising behind me. We reappear back at the rescue base, with the raichu flinching away from the bright sunlight. Sparky puts his arms around the poor Pokémon and starts guiding him away. "I'll take care of him at home," he calls to me. I nod, even though he can't see me, and we retire for the day.
And there you have it. I will say this first: quite a few abilities can be turned off by the user, though it requires specific training to do so. A ninetales' Drought is one of them, which is how I've learned about this fact. Also, I wanted to mention the wind mechanic in dungeons, so I tweaked the recruitment process slightly in the end. Yes, Pip will be joining the team and will factor greatly into the next dungeon, so look forward to that.
I do read all your reviews, even if I don't reply, so keep them coming! And may your Ember never fade!