I am glad the first chapter has been received so well, it truly made me happy. Anyways on to the next one!

"shouting"

Thoughts

"speaking"

Ch 2: Oreburgh Mines

When we went out the next day looking for the gym, what we found was a giant building that looked like a football stadium, except it had a giant gym logo on the front. We went up to the door and found a note saying that Roark had an emergency in the mines, and to come back in a few days.

I was bummed out, and sensing my mood Horsea tried to cheer me up by making adorably weird faces. It lifted my spirits somewhat, and I gave her a small smile to show it.

With our plans thoroughly ruined, we went to explore the city for a bit. It was a typical miner city, for instance there was a lot of excavation material, though the giant conveyor belts going to and from everywhere was new to me.

I was so busy looking around I wasn't watching where I was going, and I bumped into someone.

"Oh I'm so-"

But before I could finish I was pushed out of the way by the person, and they ran away very hastily. I was about to shout after them when I heard Horsea give a small cry, and I looked down to see a fossil of some kind.

"A fossil? Do you think that guy dropped it?"

Horsea looked at me like I just asked her if the earth was flat. Ofcourse they dropped it, she seemed to tell me with her gaze.

I just rubbed the back of my head, smiling awkwardly.

"Should we go after them?" I asked, but Horsea shook her head. She turned around and nodded to the building we were standing in front of, where the person stormed out from.

I looked thoughtful and eventually decided that going inside here couldn't hurt, since we wouldn't be able to find the person that bumped into me anyways.

So we went inside and found some people running around, with a glass case broken on the ground.

"What happened here?" I asked.

One of the people stopped what they were doing, looked at me funny and shouted "We just got robbed is what happened!"

Then, when the others turned to me as well, one of them widened their eyes and shouted "That's the fossil that was stolen!"

The others were about to shout at me as well, when I said "Don't start accusing me of stealing it, I just bumped into some guy who was running from here, and they dropped it. I just came in here to see if I could find the rightful owner, and it seems I have."

I tried to hand it over to one of the workers, but as I was about to someone cleared their throat.

"Ahem, allow me to take that fossil somewhere safe."

As I looked at the man, I could see he held himself like someone important, and seeing the posture of the workers stiffen up I assumed he was their boss.

"Are you the boss of this place?"

"Why yes, I own this museum. I would appreciate you returning that fossil, young man. You see, it is quite valuable, considering we don't have any other Kantonian fossils in our exhibit."

I handed it over to him and asked "So you just find these fossils in the ground?"

The man laughed.

"No, child, we have to dig in specific locations, though sometimes fossils do pop up here and there. If you want to look for any fossils yourself, you will have to head into the Oreburgh Mines, there are a lot of fossils there and they are free for any trainer to take."

"I'll even give you some tools for digging, seeing as you did return a very valuable fossil back to me."

He handed me a bag with a pickaxe, a shovel and a brush and smiled.

"I hope you have a good time in the mines."

"I might just go check it out. Thank you, sir" I said.

After that, we talked some more and then I left, to go look for the Oreburgh Mines. I didn't have to look very far, as right across from the building, there was a sign pointing towards the mines. How convenient.

Once I arrived at the mines, I went right in and followed some signs pointing towards the public excavation site, seeing a few other trainers here and there.

I started digging, with Horsea making the ground wet so I could dig around easier. I found a few shards, also a medium sized gem that I could maybe sell somewhere.

At some point though, I went a little deeper than I was probably supposed to, and I heard rumbling. When I looked around to find the source, I didn't find anything around, but when I started to fall, I knew where the rumbling came from. Underneath me.

I tried to grab an edge, but just ended up scraping my arms. I did manage to return Horsea to her pokeball though, and we didn't fall for long, maybe 10 seconds.

I landed roughly on my back, and it hurt quite a bit, though it could've been worse, considering I didn't feel like I broke anything. I definitely had bruises though.

When I lit a glow light I still had, it showed me I was in a crystal-like cave. I started walking around, considering it was unlikely anyone would know I fell down the hole. As I walked around, I saw a few Zubat, sleeping peacefully, and I tried to be very quiet so as not to wake them up.

I also remembered to release Horsea from her pokeball again, seeing as I might need her assistance for any Pokemon I might encounter down here. I also thought I saw a blur speeding across my vision several times, though I don't know what it could be.

I kept walking, taking the left path every time I came across a split in the path. I decided it was to my benefit to be able to retrace my steps if needed. So on I walked with Horsea at my side, the glowstick slowly losing its light.

When it was close to going out, I checked my backpack to see how many I had left, and found a few had popped when I fell and landed on my back. So now, I had only 3 more to get as far as I could.

Suddenly I heard some growling to my right, and I turned towards the sound. I couldn't see anything as it was too dark, yet I now knew for sure something was. I lit a new glowstick and went that way.

It was maybe a few minutes of walking when I encountered it. It was a Magby! And… it was stuck under some rocks! It saw me and started growling, trying to look intimidating, maybe to try and keep me away, or maybe because it saw Horsea. I slowly approached, not trying to scare it and making its injury worse.

When I finally got close enough, I saw both its legs were pinned and that a part of the wall had collapsed on it. I tried lifting one of the rocks holding it down, but they were too heavy for me. I started thinking, whilst the Magby was looking at me curiously, probably wondering why a human would try and help it.

Then I got it, I could use my shovel to get more leverage under the rock, and make a sort of seesaw. It worked, and I got the first rock off. I kept doing this for what felt like hours, Horsea standing a bit away knowing she couldn't help here, as she didn't have any limbs like arms or legs.

When I got the last one off, the Magby tried standing, but fell back down.

"Don't push yourself, Magby. You need medical attention, if you come with me I might be able to get us to a pokecenter and then you can go your own way again. For now though, I have a few potions so I can alleviate the pain a bit."

The Magby looked at me and nodded, pointing at my bag. I took that as a sign to take out the potions, and sprayed its legs. The Magby winced, but otherwise seemed to relax some.

"Magby, do you maybe know a way out of this place?" I asked.

It nodded, pointing in a seemingly random direction, but I decided it probably knew what it was doing. I gently picked up the Magby, and started walking the way it pointed together with Horsea. Along the way though, we had to fight a lot of Zubat, and some Graveler and Geodudes as well.

The most challenging battle by far had to be against a Houndoom and its small pack, though.

Remember that blur from earlier? Well apparently, this pack had been following us since the moment I first got into this cave.

Now, I was holding on to Magby and me and Horsea were both tired, so this battle was going to be hard. The first Houndour decided to pounce, trying to take a bit out of Horsea. She dodged it though, and I sighed in relief.

"Horsea, use water gun on that Houndour!" I said to her, and it hit, sending the Houndour into the wall, knocking it out. The other three Houndour looked more on guard now, though the Houndoom was just watching intently.

I decided that even though they were fire types, ice might help here, so I said "Horsea use aurora beam on all of them!"

Two of the Houndour got hit and stuck to the ground, though one escaped with only a little frostbite and the Houndoom dodged it entirely.

Then, the two stuck Houndour sent an ember and a growl at Horsea respectively, almost burning her but lowering her confidence.

"Horsea, it's okay, you've got this. I know you do. Now use water gun on the two Houndour stuck to the ground!"

She looked at me briefly, acknowledging my words, and spouting the two Houndour, taking them out of the battle for now. What I didn't expect was for the last Houndour to lunge for me, but the Magby I still held on to threw an ember its way and managed to deflect the obvious bite it was planning for me.

"Thanks, Magby. Horsea, use dragon breath on that Houndour!"

It hit, and the Houndour was out of it, paralyzed, as I saw its fur standing on end.

Now it was only the Houndoom left, though it still looked unfazed. Then it threw a dark pulse at Horsea, throwing her into the wall. I was concernec, but Horsea got up again, much to my relief.

"Horsea, hang on and use water gun!"

She tried several times, but the Houndoom was too fast and dodged easily. I had to think quick, and that's when I thought of a plan. It was risky, but worth a shot.

"Hey Magby, can you keep throwing embers to the Houndoom?" I asked.

It nodded hesitantly, but complied. It started throwing embers, and considering they actually singed the Houndoom a little, it appeared it did not have flash fire as an ability, thank Arceus.

"Horsea, start using agility, and try to tackle it when it's dodging Magby's embers." I said, and Horsea nodded.

She tried to get off an agility, when the Houndoom started ignoring the embers in favor of taking down Horsea first, getting a good bite in on Horsea's torso, and throwing her into the ground violently. She was bleeding profusely, and I was immensely worried, though I had bigger problems right now.

The Houndoom turned around to me, and started stalking towards me, watching me carefully for any more surprises whilst also avoiding Magby's embers, which it still hadn't stopped throwing.

When Magby stopped for a small reprieve, the Houndoom decided to pounce. I barely managed to dodge, but it started to charge a dark pulse. In that moment I made eye contact with Horsea, not having noticed she got up and slowly made her way to me.

I could only offer a watery smile, and this must've enraged her, because the next moment she was enveloped in a bright, glowing light. She quadrupled in height, got a fiercer body, and if gazes could kill, that Houndoom would be dead 3 times over.

Once the light stopped, Hors- no, Seadra, fired of a bubble beam that went faster then any water gun she ever shot, and it hit the Houndoom hard. The Houndoom got shot into the wall, and was disoriented. I looked in shock, not having expected Seadra to evolve so fast, let alone get so big!

But now was not the time for that. "Seadra, use buble beam again!" And she did. It hit the Houndoom, who had just gotten out of the wall, in the head, and knocked it out.

I cheered softly, but quickly ran to my Seadra, as I saw her fall over, fainted from exhaustion.

I returned her to her pokeball, and had Magby lead me to the exit it seemed to know, being careful to avoid any more battles along the way. Suddenly, when I rounded a corner, a bright light shone in my face.

When I got adjusted to the light, I saw a man I recognized from the anime. Roark. I was finally safe.

"Young man, how did you get in here?" He asked.

I responded with another question, "I fell, but more importantly, can you get us out of here? This Magby here is unable to walk and my Seadra Is hurt pretty badly as well!"

He looked at me and nodded, leading me to a rope ladder. Once we got up it lead into a cave, with a sign in front.

The sign said 7 simple but damning words.

'Danger ahead, Entrance to the Grand Underground.'

A/N

That's chapter 2! Ooh I can't wait to keep writing this story, it is much too fun. I'm sorry if I make some grammatical errors, I am not a native English speaker. Anyways, hope you enjoyed and see you in the next one, with maybe some more action, but who knows!