New Paths [Extravaganza 2020]

This is an Extravaganza Piece for capnport

Prompt Answered: An Unlikely Team Up

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My wings ache from flying to this place, yet I know I have to go in regardless – someone needs me in there. I can see the rocks of the cave entrance crumbling away, and a big Pokémon like me squeezing through the gap to get in is risky. Yet, I must go. Murky Cave. This is the place that human went once long ago. As a Deino, I only dreamed of being that brave; I even remember playing with the other Deino in the nest, pretending to be the fabled human turned Pokémon.

I place my foot against the wall, steadying myself with my wings.


I know I must go into this place and I know you cannot find food in here either, that is why fourteen rescue teams have gone in and come out without success. Alakazam’s team is too busy dealing with the aftermath of other events – more serious events – to deal with a simple, singular search and rescue. I feel angry about that. Who decides to value one Pokémon’s life above another’s? I take a deep breath, calming my temper.

With my right head, I bite down onto my bag’s strap and lift it over my head, placing it down on the ground. I lean in to check what I have brought, just in case I have forgotten to bring food – which I shouldn’t have, but stress makes Pokémon do stupid things. I reach in and take out the memo I had picked up at Pelipper’s board in the town. I am not even from this place, but…



Rescue Description:


Help, Caterpie ran into the cave, upset. He hasn’t come back; he may have fainted!


Client: Metapod


Objective: Find Caterpie


Place: Murky Cave, Floor unknown


Difficulty: A


Reward: 150 + Poké


I sigh at the small reward for such a dangerous mission, but I accept the fact it’s because it is a young Pokémon’s request. I look up at the entrance to Murky Cave and narrow my six eyes on it in thought.


I hear a rustling sound beneath my feet, with my main head I look down, a slither of pink and white is rummaging through my bag.


“Hey!” I shout out at the Sylveon, digging into my bag.


It grabbed my bag and sprinted into the dark entrance of Murky Cave. ‘Damn it!’ I charge into the cave after it. ‘No way back now,’ I think, looking around the dark walls of the cave. The dirty brown tiled floor made me feel uneasy. Toxic goo dripping from some of the walls. I am convinced immediately this place is filled with poison type Pokémon. The sight of the Sylveon sprinting away with my bag makes me groan and snarl. However, the primitive nature of the Pokémon found in the cave makes me stand tall. Each move I make has to be careful and cleverly made; I cannot find food in here and I don’t have any food now at all. I cannot risk starving myself, I don’t have a rescue badge anymore either so I cannot teleport out. I have to go all-in, make my way to the Caterpie and safely return to the entrance.


I walk forward, easing each step rather than using the extra energy to fly. It has been a while since I have entered a mystery dungeon without a map and I hate relying on my memory for these things; however, there is no choice now. Up ahead I see a blast seed has been left half-eaten on the floor, its yellow shell is cracked along the top, showing parts of the inside. I take the left turn instinctually, digging my claws into the wall as I do to denote that I have been there before.


I see a horde of Pokémon heading left once more in the next room. The darkened walls make them look scarier than they indeed are, however, the lack of lighting in the cave makes my heart race a little.


Even a Hydreigon can be afraid of the dark.


I look into the next room, down the thin linear path that leads to a dead-end – the direction of the horde. The Sylveon slips past then and dives down the rugged stairs leading even deeper into the cave.


“Really?” I huff. I see the horde of three turns to face me, all of which are easy targets in my eyes. While they may have numbers, but I have the sheer experience they lack. I float overusing levitate to pick up the speed I need. I take in a deep breath of air and take aim at the first. The Cascoon immediately uses harden, making its silky body toughen up, however, as I exhale the weakest fire blast I can muster, I see it melt down onto the floor, rocking itself backwards and forwards before fainting. A Seviper lunges at me with poison tail, making me barrel roll mid-air to the right before landing and rolling forward into it with a headbutt, hitting it against the wall. The dungeon starts to shake a little from the impact and crack on the wall.


The Seviper wobbles a little, hissing, the Zubat who was yet to act, turns away and attempts to flee, desperately flapping its tiny wings.


The Seviper hisses at me once more, “Follow?” Her eyes shine at me and her tongue dances as she smiles.


I stop, unsure. It had been a while since I was part of a team. The last group I was a part of was during another human-related event in which…


“Uh… sure… I guess,” I answer. A little drawn into agreeing by her happy demeanour. I turn and start to float towards the stairs.


“You strong,” she struggles to say.


“Yes, I am,” I reply, trying not to gloat. ‘Feral Pokémon… she has been here some time and has obviously seen other rescue teams talking the common tongue. Unfortunately, the deeper you go, the harder it is to turn them to civil Pokémon. They don’t know how to communicate, I guess.” I turn my right head to her as I wander down the stairs.


We come out at the bottom into a small room, a few Poké coins scattered on the floor and a sack of coins in the corner of the room, which I recognise as mine judging by the small red cloth patch that had been sewn into the side from where I split it once long ago. I gazed around looking for the Sylveon, but no sign of it, however, it had obviously been attacked suddenly. Otherwise, it wouldn’t have fled the scene, leaving my coins scattered everywhere.


“She didn’t seem feral,” I mutter aloud.


“Fe-ral?” the Seviper hisses at me, confused.


“Wild,” I answer.


“Wi-ld?” the Seviper tilts her head.


“Yes, wild, like you.”


“Me. Wild, me.” She smiles at me, seemingly proud of herself.


“Yes,” I reply, a little grunt in my voice as I start to fly down one of the corridors which is littered with other items. ‘Clearly, the Sylveon knows how to battle, some of these items look half used.’ I look at the remnants of a berry, one of which I know I definitely didn’t pack. I cannot eat just the stem. I see them up ahead having to take the physical path due to their inability to traverse water. I take a sharp left and start to fly over the water that is blocking forcing them to go around. They have a little scarf around their neck, along with their ribbon-like limbs which force a shiver down my spine.


They turn to spot me, letting out a high pitch squeal. “Stay away from me, dragon-freak!” she shouts, trying to run away from me.


Seviper wiggling along from behind much slower and on the physical path had finally blocked off her exit, she could only go forward now.


I swoop down and land in front of her, bearing my large teeth. “How dare you steal my backpack! What kind of crazy, self-centred Pokémon steals from a rescue-mon?”


“So, you are one of them,” she snarls back, slapping me across the face with one of her ribbons. With another, she goes to toss a warp orb. However, I bite down on it before she can.


“What in Arceus’s blood is your issue?” I narrow my six eyes in on her, as two of my heads let out a low rumbling growl, making her shiver.


“They left me! They left me!” she cries out, wiggling, trying to escape from my grip. “They never came, they promised me.”


‘Abandoned by a rescue team, huh?’ I pause, pinning her to the ground with one of my humongous feet. “I am not going to abandon you, but I am pissed off. You stole my backpack, with my badge, my food and my mapping software. I am here to rescue a little Caterpie – and I cannot do that if you are –”


“Caterpie? He is on the fourth floor, let me go!” she shouts out, batting her bright blue eyes. “He doesn’t want to be found. Besides… there is a Muk down there, and well he is…”


“A Muk?” I ask. ‘Muk should only exist on the bottom floors of the dungeons here… why is it so high up?’ I ponder, looking at her.


Seviper wiggling along the floor with her purple and yellow splodged body finally arrives, panting out of breath. “Me battle, me strong. Me not as strong as dragon,” she says, smiling once again.


“Take me to Caterpie!” I demand, throwing my bag back on my body.


“I can’t! Muk… Muk has been crushing all of the rescue teams that have come down here. He says if anyone else comes for the Caterpie… he will initiate a takeover!” Sylveon rolls up onto her feet as I release her gently.


“What do you mean, ‘he says’? He can talk?” I ask. ‘If yes, he isn’t feral… which makes him potentially even more dangerous.’


“Yes, he was abandoned down here like me… no one cares about us. He says if I don’t do what he wants me to… he will poison me, and that really hurts because I am a fairy and I…” she says, crying.


I pause, looking ahead to the empty room. “Okay, how about this, I’ll deal with Muk. I am strong enough, and he sounds like a jerk, but… I could do with the backup. You, Seviper and I are a team now – whether you like it or not. Take us to Caterpie and when this is all done… I will help you get your life back together. Sound good?” I land, smiling on all three of my heads.


“Don’t do. Creepy, Creepy smile,” Seviper chips in.


Sylveon nods, laughing a little at Seviper’s comment. “Okay… don’t betray me.” She looks up to me, coldly.


An hour or so passes as we make our way down to the end of the third and fourth floors into the enclave. The first thing that catches one of my eyes is the poisonous cage the Caterpie is being held in. I snarl, looking at Muk who is squelching around in the middle of the room.


“Oh, another rescue team. Once I dispose of you…”


“You won’t,” I snarl.


He shoots a gunk shot towards Sylveon, however, Seviper coils and springs into the attack, absorbing the poison. With a smile, she says, “Snack.”


‘I swear, I picked up the dumbest Seviper in this cave… but damn she can tank,’ I think, launching a dragon pulse in the direction of the Muk.


Muk rolls his poison as he tries to move around quickly. The goo running off of his body has been creating such an overpowering stench my nose feels like its burning.


Sylveon screams at the top of her voice, making him raise his arms up to cover his ears, not that I would ever know where they were under all that goo.


Caterpie fires a string-shot at him from the bars of his poisonous cage, seizing Muk’s left arm. He tugged on it.


“Damn you, when I win this, you are a gummi you little worm!” Muk spouts out, spitting his poisonous spit all over the floor.


“Seviper, pin him!” I shout, and she springs forward using coil once more, grabbing his other arm, wrapping her body around it and making him tip over to the side.


“Okay, I’ll get Caterpie!” Sylveon cries out, rushing towards the cage.


“Good!” I reply. I look around the cavern, noticing the darkened walls were starting to crack on their own, something big was going on outside, and we were about to be in deep trouble – but what? More disasters? I thought they had all been dealt with before by the human, many years ago. “Hurry! This cavern cannot take much more. I don’t know why!” I sigh. ‘Maybe the world is asking for another human to come… somewhere in the world.


Muk struck me in the stomach with a gunk shot I hadn’t seen coming. The toxic burned my scales, making me twinge. Which a deep breath a fired the most powerful fire blast I could, creating a bright orange star. I directed it towards the gaping open mouth of the monstrosity in front of me.


Muk fell down a little, before rolling the goo on his body up into the upright position.


Sylveon had her ribbons wrapped around Caterpie and was slowly lifting him out of the cage.


“Oh Sylveon, I thought much more of you,” Muk cackled, firing another gunk shot at her.


She dived right, catching her ribbon on the toxic cage, letting out a little scream but not letting go of the Caterpie, freeing him from the cage.


“Let’s go!” I shout, grabbing my badge from the bag once more. ‘I missed you,’ I thought. “Everyone grab on!”


Sylveon and Caterpie grabbed onto my badge, desperately.


“Come on, Seviper!” I shout, as she releases Muk and grabs it too.


The cavern crumbles, and the rocks start to come crashing down from the ceiling onto Muk. White light surrounds us as we vanish and land back in the square of the town.


“Zoom-whoosh scary,” Seviper says as we land.


‘Oh dear…’ I think. “Well, we did it. We made it back… just. Seviper, welcome to not-feral land. Sylveon, I will keep my promise. Maybe we should do that again some time…”


“Yes, like boom-boom trot-trot.” Seviper smiles at me.


‘Okay then…’ I think, looking at Seviper, who is more hurt than I first thought. “Maybe we should get some rest before doing anymore, hey Seviper?”


“Nap?”


“Yes, nap, and possibly teach you how to speak normally.” I grin back at her who seems happy to hear that. “What do you think, Sylveon? Want to do that again sometime?”


“No, but I suppose I ought to help make up for the money you lost…” she mutters, looking at me.


I take Caterpie off her, putting him on my scaly back. “Sounds good, but first… let’s get this little one home…”