Chapter 15: Deep Blue Depths (Part 2)
The four explorers stood at the ready from the space below the ledge. The eerie glow of the Litwick lantern had fluctuated from the presence of the strangers, whose existence Fera had missed from her focus on their search. Bennett stepped forward and shouted out at the Krokorok. "I'm asking y'all to tell us who ya are!"
"I don't think that matters." The tall figure scowled at the Normal-type down below. "You made a mistake, walking in here, and for that— wait. WAIT." The Krokorok's expression broke, turning into disbelief as he leaned over the edge. "Is that the post?"
"Huh?" Bennett lowered an eyebrow, and the Krokorok repeatedly thrust a pointed finger in the direction of the Riolu and her lantern.
"Did you BREAK THE DAMN POST OFF?" The tall Pokemon hissed in confusion.
"Oh, uh…" Fera laughed anxiously, swinging the pole slowly from side to side. "It's a light. Tadaaah."
"Why would you DO THAT?!" The Krokorok smacked his forehead, leaning back with exasperation in his voice. "You can't just get a pole installed out here, we are so HIGH UP! How are we supposed to hang the lantern up now?!"
"Easy, Shael, we'll find a rock or something for it… it's not the end of the world…" The Clamperl spoke in a hushed but strong feminine voice, her shell bristling against the Krokorok's leg reassuringly.
"It's not the saaaame… it's gonna fall down a bunch…"
"U-uh, we're… sorry…?" Vivian's ear flicked, her sense of urgency removed by the odd display. "But we need to know who you are, and why you're here. This isn't a place you'd see strangers, I imagine. I think?" At her urging, the Krokorok progressed past his angst to respond.
"Ugh… I'm Shael, and this is Lazzy and Baux." His hands pointed to the Clamperl and the Yanma respectively. "And this is our home, and you're really making a mess of it apparently!"
"Well, most folks that live in the wilds have got a door, at least…" Bennett looked around as he spoke, worrying that he might now spot a door to accompany the odd group. The Yanma yelled out in a squeaking voice.
"We're nomads, alright? We go where the wind takes us! And right now the wind is telling us to sit in a cave." Baux patted his chest with two of his legs.
"Y'all don't LOOK like nomads. An' nomads don't usually go around buryin' Blast Traps into the ground where they're stayin'." Bennett's glare penetrated Baux's confidence, causing the Yanma to recoil. Shael gulped, but Lazzy was the one to speak up in turn.
"I'm fairly certain that the entrance you came through was sealed up, twice over. If someone is willing to barge into a hidden home that thoroughly, we would be right to try and stop them in their tracks." The small and round Pokemon gave a cold look to Bennett from the edge of her shell, but Bennett was not deterred.
"I still ain't seein' much of a home here. But we didn't come lookin' for a home. We came to find stolen gold, an' we ain't headin' out 'till we've done a good look-around." The Bidoof glanced to his left. The group could ascend up a natural slope to the platform that the strangers stood upon, but he would wait for their discussion to run its course.
"Ohhh, sure, sure. You're here to strong-arm us out of life savings? You're gonna snoop around and 'find' some 'stolen' money where people live, huh?" Shael showed his fangs to Bennett. "You guild creeps don't know any boundaries. And I'm sick of letting you walk all over us."
"Y'all know it ain't like that." The accusation weighed on Bennett slightly, as he gritted his teeth. "An' if y'ain't got anythin' else to say, we're gonna come up this walkway and start lookin' around. You're free to talk with us if there happens to be some big pile of gold you got somewhere in here." He turned, and motioned for Fera to start clearing a path up the slope.
"N-no! You're not allowed to come around here!" Baux suddenly took flight, leaving the ground in seconds and suddenly buzzing about in front of the Bidoof.
"Any reason why not?" Bennett stared the Yanma down.
"I-it's… private! It's a private reason. And you're not allowed to know the private reason or see the private reason! Learn some privacy!" Baux yelled in an annoying tone, doing little to push the group away from their goal, as Tai stepped forward in anger.
"You're an idiot and a bad liar! Just get out of our way!" The Stunky drew closer to Baux, causing him to back up in the air.
"Go awayyyy! You're not allowed in the lower chambers!"
"Baux!" The Krokorok's face grew red with panic and fury, his voice demanding the Yanma's attention. "They didn't know there were lower chambers!"
"Eep! R-right, sorry, I just assumed…!" The Yanma squeaked, ignoring the scowl he was receiving from Tai to focus on the one he was receiving from his ally.
"Idiot! Clod!" The Krokorok stomped his foot several times, the force enough to crack the stone beneath him. "Now we can't lie if they don't find anything! So get away from them and find some way to get the gold outta here!"
Tai dug his claws into the ground, trying to preempt the Yanma and assault him with a lunge. Before he could make contact, the stranger had vanished, whizzing away into the air before suddenly fluttering beside his companions. The Stunky flopped against the cave floor, and stumbled back up to observe the triad.
"Better idea! We all go to the gold, and you dig us a way out before these chumps can get there!" The Yanma swished and swayed from side to side, preparing himself for frantic flight. "Since, uh… it's airtight down there. There's no exit except the emergency one, so it's on you to open it or make a new one."
"Ergh…" The Clamperl hopped in place, trying to turn herself around. "I knew we shouldn't have tried to make a base here…" Her complaining was replaced with a yelp, as the Krokorok nabbed her and lifted her up, his nails digging into well-worn slots on the back of her shell.
"Whatever! We're too far in to wuss out for some officers!" With his words, the Krokorok spun around, dashing from the ledge and into parts unseen, with the Yanma in hot pursuit.
"You don't know what you're dealing with! Get ready for a thrashing!" Tai pulled his body back, and then burst forward to his left. He had set himself on course with a nearby slope, one that winded along the ledge that the triad had been positioned on. Wherever they were heading, he wouldn't be far behind.
Before he could clear the climb, Tai was yanked back. Bennett had followed as soon as Tai dashed off, and now the Bidoof's mouth had latched onto his tail. The Stunky writhed in place from the harsh feeling. "H-hey!"
"No dumb moves! Stand down!" Bennett had stayed immersed in his hostile behavior, giving another pull and knocking Tai down the slope several steps. His fall was stopped by Fera, whose legs cushioned the Stunky, while Vivian came to join her group at the rear.
"Ow! C'mon…!" The Stunky yowled slightly, rising back to his feet. "We gotta stop them! If they get outta here, there's no telling where the money will go!"
"An' we'll get there when we can! But they're WANTIN' us to rush after them! They got the advantage already!" Bennett frowned annoyedly at the younger Pokemon, and then looked to the Riolu behind him. "Fera! Clear a path."
"Oh, yeah…!" Fera hopped over Tai and moved to stand beside Bennett. She repeated her one-armed fighting stance on the slope, moving quicker to try and not fall behind, as her paw launched another gale. The wind travelled up the slope, and blew away a pile of dust as it crested onto the upper platform. Two more traps had been set, waiting for an intruder that would step on them the moment they came up the pathway.
"R… right…" Tai bit his lip. His immediate frustration had clouded his mind and obscured the danger of the mission. With the spot revealed, Fera assisted Bennett on climbing over the ledge beside them, able to sidestep the traps that had been placed to stop an ascending intruder. From across the raised platform, the Krokorok grimaced, all but his head stowed behind a pillar.
"So that's why they aren't blown up yet…!" His claw gripped at the stone tower, digging into it and scraping away bits of rock. The Clamperl in his other hand shushed him, and he pulled back to hide.
Vivian and then Tai were lifted up to the platform, and Fera jumped up beside them. The girl briefly closed her eyes, scanning over the aura around her, before glaring in the direction of the pillar across from her. Vivian strengthened her resolve as she moved to stand next to the Riolu. The circular raised platform that they had come to stand on would function as their arena, if it came down to it.
"You have a chance to surrender! The guild looks well on lawbreakers that don't fight back!" The Eevee's fur stuck up, in some attempt to prepare for a conflict. As she spoke, Fera continued her safety procedure, creating a cleared path that extended halfway toward the Krokorok's hiding place. The distance was rapidly closing between the explorers and their newfound targets.
"I didn't get this far to be told the law by a brat… if you want something, come and take it!" The Krokorok spat out his words from behind the pillar. Rather than revealing himself to them, the group was met with the sound of claws striking stone, over and over. It took Bennett several moments to deduce what was happening, and it made him jump forward into the path that Fera cleared.
"He's diggin' down!" Bennett looked from side to side as he spoke, rather than looking toward the sounds of tearing dirt ahead of him. "Fera, can you let us know who all is there an' where everyone's goin'? We don't wanna go 'round that pillar and get smacked down."
The girl squeaked and nodded while realizing her importance, trying to steady herself for aura sensing. "Two of them are under the ground… they're goiiiiing…" Her body turned of its own volition, pointing toward the right, in the direction of a land bridge leading off of the central platform. Wherever it led, the young explorers could not see. "That way!"
"What about the last one?"
"Last one…" She frowned, and turned her head up. In the nearby darkness, the four could spot the Yanma, fluttering quietly in midair. He made a terrified yelp, and zipped away toward the bridge.
"So they're going the same way?" Vivian peered ahead, but couldn't discern anything past the darkness. Fera nodded rapidly, and swung her arm once more, blowing aside the dust to show an open path to their right. The bridge ahead was composed of sturdy stone unlike the natural cave floor, and had no chance of storing a Blast Trap for an unsuspecting explorer.
"We ain't gonna be able to beat 'em there, but we sure as heck can catch up to 'em before they haul that load outta here." Bennett began to charge ahead, and Fera followed by his side, finally catching the rhythm of clearing and progressing upon the path. Tai and Vivian hurried along beside each other, shooting distrustful stares between themselves, as they kept pace with their leaders. "We're in the home stretch, y'all! Stay strong!"
Through the darkness, across the bridge, and beyond a natural passageway of the cavern, the four explorers had hurried into and down a descending spiral pathway. The cylindrical chamber that they had entered dragged into the depths, and although they had nearly reached the path's end, the abyss it circled around went much deeper. Fera's attempt to tilt the lantern around and get a better look was roundly rejected, so the only option remaining was to continue on the linear path. In a turn of good fortune, the pathway was similarly smooth stone like the land bridge prior, giving no leeway for hidden traps once more. The Riolu silently grew thankful that she would not continue to run her arm ragged with the repeated Vacuum Waves. Bennett stayed at the lead, keeping the group moving at a brisk pace.
"Y'all stay on your guard. An' Fera, stay on the lookout for the loons diggin'." Bennett's voice, despite his familiar rural accent, was more stern and demanding than what the others were used to. Fera nodded briefly while keeping her feelers at the ready.
"The first two are still in the ground to our right… but they're more on our level now, so they're going down with us."
"Hrrmm… if they were goin' straight down, then surely they'd be way below us by now. So they prolly can't just dig down to wherever they're gonna go, 'cause of the water currents in this place." Bennett trudged on.
"That probably makes sense…" Vivian peered down the edge of the path, but did no more than that. She was intensely unnerved by the possibility of tumbling down to the likely stone floor below, so she settled for just a glance.
Before Fera could even alert her friends of his presence, Baux darted into view, having risen up from the darkness below. The four stumbled back on their path to avoid him. "Nuh-uh! Your nonsense stops here!"
"I told you to get lost already! Don't make me—" The threat from Tai couldn't be completed as the Yanma's wings began to beat furiously. In a few moments, a strong yet bearable Tailwind had started up, blowing across the group and mildly repelling them.
"Hehe! Not so tough now, scruffy!" Baux stuck his insectoid tongue out to mock the Stunky, who only grew more furious. Fera tried to share in his anger, but her attention was pulled by the ripples of two auras that raced towards their group from the wall beside them.
"Wait, they're coming…!"
The others looked at her amidst the pesky gale, each trying to hold their footing on the sloped ground. The sound of claws gashing into stone grew closer and louder, with the Krokorok's upcoming attack drawing near. Fera reared her free arm back, splaying her palm out to ready an attack. After another moment, Shael blasted through the stone structure.
"Idiots! Bet you didn't expec—"
Shael's daring insult and prepared claw swing were rudely interrupted, as a Force Palm struck the Krokorok squarely in the gut. What came out of his mouth instead was a prolonged groan of surprised pain, as the thief stumbled and dropped onto the ground between the group.
"We did, actually." Fera smirked, but soon regained the seriousness of the situation, and grabbed the larger Pokemon by his arm. The Yanma's Tailwind accelerated, but could not stop her regardless. "Now, stay down! You're gonna make this a lot harder and a lot more awkward if you don't."
"Urgh…" Shael blinked repeatedly while doing his best to stay conscious, flailing about once he realized he had been grabbed. "N-no way, punk… you're the one that's gonna stay down!"
His free claw rose up and swung down at Fera's leg. The girl dodged him with ease, causing his nails to dig into the ground with surprising force. He growled and repeated the process twice more, each time whiffing and trashing the ground around himself and Fera.
"I-I got this, Shael, you don't have to worry!" Baux puffed his cheeks out, and exerted the most force his wings could.
Vivian braced herself against the ground, her fur flicking back repeatedly under the Yanma's harmless assault. It soon occurred to her that the attack wasn't going to become any more fierce than this, and she retaliated with a Swift. The busy Yanma barely noticed the three shooting stars before they collided with him, and his thin body tumbled backwards onto the ground.
"Ugh! Not fair, that's too fast…!" The Yanma coughed while his wings beat against the ground repeatedly.
"We might be in over our heads…" Lazzy spoke up from her resting spot within the hole in the nearby wall. Shael had left her there in the anticipation of her assisting his powerful sneak attack, but his apparent defeat left her waiting for something else. "Can we go back to talking about this?"
"Shut up! We're bad to the bone and we don't socialize with explorers!" The Krokorok grimaced, realizing how effectively the Riolu was keeping his arm pinned to his back despite his struggles. "Ack!"
"Can we please stop this? I don't think it's going anywhere." The constant struggling elicited a frown from Fera. She almost felt pity, but the Krokorok's prior rude behavior kept her in line. Shael swung his free claw down in frustration once more, striking into the ground harder than he intended to.
"Never! You're gonna regret this…!" The thief groaned out his retort, but the speech was stopped by the rumble of cracking stone. Fera glanced down at the sound, which came from beneath her and the subdued criminal. The weight of the five of them, along with Shael's tantrum attacks, had taken their toll.
"G-get back!" Bennett called out to Vivian and Tai, and raced towards the two. Before either could react, the Bidoof tackled into them to push them aside.
"Unf!" Vivian bounced back decently far with the attack's impact, while Tai traveled less distance and flopped on the ground. Nothing more could be done to help them before the inevitable set in.
The stone walkway trembled and creaked, and finally started to give out under the damage done. Ground and dirt flew up around Fera and Shael, and the two suddenly sank down out of view, falling towards the depths amidst a storm of broken rocks, both letting out a shout of confusion and panic. The lantern and its rod flew away from the two, clanking down into the abyss in the chaotic mess of stones. At the same time, Bennett's Tackle had not carried him far enough— the Bidoof tumbled down shortly after, losing hold of the falling chunk of ground that he had clutched onto it. Vivian panted, and looked up at the raucous noises that accompanied the vanishing terrain. The three were already gone.
"B-Bennett! Fera!" Vivian weakly stood up despite her dizziness, before running to the impact site. The Litwick light had all but faded, now a distant blue glow lost somewhere deeper in the chasm, and so Vivian could only navigate with the faint vision still left to her. The girl tried her best to reach over the newly made edge of the pathway to search for her companions. In her haste, her paws failed to take footing on the broken terrain, and she began to slip forward into the abyss after the others. "A-ahhh!"
"Idiot!" Before Vivian could plunge off the side of the destroyed path, she was suspended in place by a vicious chomp on her tail. Tai's teeth dug into the fluffy material, his eyes squinting from the excess fur that nearly blinded him, as he started to pull her back from the near-plummet.
"O-ow…" Vivian squirmed momentarily from the bite. Once she had settled down, she was easily pulled back to safety by the irate Stunky.
"Do not do that, ever! Jeez!" Tai spat her tail out, and dispelled extra fur from his lips, as he looked over the edge. "Are you guys alright?! You'd better be alright!" Likewise, the almost-defeated Yanma whizzed away, descending into darkness to find Shael.
"Uughhh…" In the bare light below, the three victims of the fall could still be seen. Their drop had barely lasted 15 feet before they landed on a large stone ledge, disconnected from the spiraling pathway. Fera and Bennett were cushioned by Shael, who had endured the short descent with a bruise to his back. The two of them slowly regained their senses, rolling off of the Krokorok and causing him to groan once more. "Why is fighting so haaard…?"
"It's not usually like this…" Fera coughed while working herself back to full operating capacity. Dust had caked her normally clean fur, and she weakly began to pat it off of herself as well.
"Thank the Creator…" Vivian nearly fell onto her stomach from the relief of seeing her friends safe. Meanwhile, Baux buzzed with thankful joy at the sight of Shael's likely minor injury.
"Y-you guys fine up there?" Bennett called up to Vivian and Tai, still covered in dirt and hard to see without the lantern shining down on him.
"Are you stupid? Of course we're fine, you saved us!" Tai's praise was shouted in anger, as he peered only slightly over the edge toward Bennett. "I asked YOU that because you just FELL!"
"Guess we did, hah…" Bennett glanced back at Fera and Shael, and then up towards the illuminated Stunky. "We're all good, I'd say. Or, Fera an' I are good. Haven't checked on the big guy yet."
"He's good, no worries!" Baux replied to Bennett's comment cheerfully, causing the Bidoof to spin around and gawk at the new presence in the darkness.
"Uh, well, that's good… but, y'all're still thieves! An' the guild don't take kindly to thieves runnin' off with their money!" Bennett got into an offensive stance, although he wondered how much it would be needed. There was a decently long pause, before the Krokorok slowly rose up.
"I told you not to mess with us… if you don't get outta my way, I'm throwing you off this stupid ledge!" The Krokorok splayed out his claws, still clearly laboring under the pain of his fall.
"Jeez… that's harsh, Shael. I know it's a lotta money, but come on…" The Yanma seemed unnerved by the deadly threat, causing Shael to huff.
"It's just how it is… they're smart enough to not make me do it."
"Still, I mean, that's a DEATH fall. I dunno where the lantern even went down there, and I think the guilds would get really brutal if we did tha—"
"It was a bluff, okay?!" The Krokorok dropped his pose to glare at the Yanma hovering beside him. "I know I can't throw an explorer off a cliff! I'm trying to buy us time because I'm STUCK DOWN HERE AND YOU AREN'T GETTING THE GOLD!"
"Right, right! Forgot about that!" The Yanma rushed away in the darkness, although Vivian and Tai could barely see that he had flown into the hole in the wall that Shael created. When he flew back out, he was weighed down by carrying the shiny pearl that had rested within Lazzy's shell.
"Put me baaack, this is wretched…!" The pink pearl creature wobbled and wiggled in the Yanma's claws, but Baux shook his head.
"No-can-do… you're a better fighter than me, so you're coming along for the ride!" Baux exhaled several times. He had to slowly adjust to the weight of his friend, as he glided towards the cave entryway at the end of the spiral path. His figure grew harder to discern as he separated from the two remaining explorers.
"Not gonna happen! We're… okay, no, we are not gonna stop you if we can't see." Tai glared at his dimly lit surroundings, desperate to locate a second lamp in the area. "Vivian, please tell me you can actually do something about this."
"Hmph. Yes, I can." The perturbed Eevee turned her head away, and focused her energy. Another set of swirling stars formed around her; in the absence of the lantern, it was apparent how much they could glow. The forward path returned to them, and Tai wasted no time in running downhill after Baux.
"Good work, finally! Let's do this!"
"Give me a warning if you're gonna run off, you're literally blind without me!" Vivian yelled out to the Stunky, giving chase and hurrying away from the collapsed path. With their silence and disappearance, Fera and Bennett regained focus on the injured Krokorok.
"I have to do all the work here…" Shael weakly reached behind himself, rubbing at his injured back. "Ohhh, this is gonna hurt even worse in a couple hours…"
"Well, can you… uh." Fera looked around, particularly up the sloped wall that they had fallen down from. "Can you stay put, until we get back up there? I've got some rope, so when they're done, we can probably lift you up. Just don't try to attack us again or something."
"..." The Krokorok lied onto his side, clearly infuriated but keeping it under wraps for once. "I am not gonna be moving regardless, so sure. Good lord, this is the worst…"
"We'll take that as a yes." Bennett finally relaxed from his battle stance, starting to feel a tinge of mercy, as he dug through his pouch to locate the salve that he had brought with him.
The glow of Vivian's Swift permeated the deep darkness of the new room. For simplicity and security, the numerous glittering stars were nestled into her puffy fur, jostling about as she ran but otherwise remaining steady. Her chestnut-colored legs went as fast as they could to keep up with Tai, who barreled forward with Vivian's light as his guidance. The path before them twisted and turned to accommodate the flowing streams around them, but it was straightforward nonetheless.
The vision of the Yanma bobbed in and out of sight as they ran, luring them deeper towards the awaiting gold. However, Vivian skidded to a halt, causing Tai to do the same.
"Wait! Waitwaitwait!" The Eevee nearly fell forward from her abrupt pause.
"What is it?! We need to keep up!" Tai frowned at Vivian, albeit with less anger than he had done prior. The girl patted the ground thrice with her front paws.
"We're back on the soft ground! There are gonna be traps again!"
"Ugh… you're right, this is the worst…" Tai dragged his claws along the gentler stone beneath him. "Alright, really fast, what do we do? If we don't get there in time, we're outta luck!"
"I mean… no, we're not. No way he's carrying all that gold out of here on his own. You heard what he said." Vivian reoriented herself, shaking off some dirt in the process. "But we do need to get there before the Krokorok gets back. So chill out and we can think of this."
"Fine… fine." The Stunky reluctantly joined Vivian in patient thought. After a moment of silence, the Yanma buzzed back into view.
"Uh, hey! You gotta follow me, or else you're gonna lose! Get going!"
"Put a cork in it, we're thinking!" Tai hissed at the pestering Bug-type, causing Baux to pull back in the air.
"Wow, alright. When did manners die out, sheesh." Baux scoffed, then began to shake the shimmering pearl in his grasp. "Your turn, Lazzy! You know what to do!"
"Yes, I do, and I hate it. You don't have to shake the pearl." The Clamperl's disconnected orb made a small frown, but started to glow with an aquamarine aura. The added light drew in Vivian's eye.
From the tiny mouth of the pearl, a blistering Ice Beam was fired. The subzero energy zapped through the air, causing a glistening green Protect to erupt from Vivian, just barely stopping the attack from hitting its mark on the two. The ice solidified upon contact, forming a growing rim of crystalline water around the domed wall. As the attack persisted, the ice spread farther along the surface of the domed barrier.
"Haha, nice! You're the best, Lazzy." Baux cheerily swayed the firing pearl from side to side.
"I have slim competition. Can we go now? Just grab a bit of the gold and hide it somewhere, it's better than losing all of it…" The Clamperl spoke stuttered words while trying to maintain her attack.
"Not a chance! You guys don't deserve a single piece of that guild money!" Vivian gritted her teeth as the barrier held. The encompassing ice blotted out her vision more and more, wrapping around the sphere and threatening to seal the two in.
"New idea, we're getting out of this before he freezes us to death! C'mon!" Tai bit onto the scruff of Vivian's mane, giving her a hard yank and shattering her concentration. The Protect dispersed suddenly, and the layer of ice continued to engulf the two. Before it could complete its shape, Tai jerked Vivian several feet away, leaving them exposed but safe from the now finished sphere of ice.
"Oof. That's actually guild money, like really? Why was it in a cave, then?" Baux frowned in sheer confusion, not caring to address the explorer's endeavors while Lazzy's Ice Beam trailed off.
"To hide it. Poorly, I guess." Tai growled, and hopped out from the cover that the ice wall had provided him. "But it's going home now!" With that, the Stunky puffed his cheeks out, beginning to build an attack within himself.
"Wait, come on, no sudden moves! Stop!" Vivian yelped out to Tai, but she was unable to stop his assault. The boy jerked his head forward, and a stream of Poison Gas was launched up toward the bickering duo.
"Are you dumb? You're really dumb, so enjoy this!" The Yanma was able to retaliate in an instant. His clear wings beat repeatedly, starting a new Tailwind that fought against Tai's toxic stream. The wave of gas was slowly but surely blown back, cascading across Tai and Vivian suddenly. The disoriented Eevee whined out, and threw up her Protect once more, her body quivering from the repeated exertion.
"Ugh…!" Tai squinted, bothered by the hazardous air but otherwise unaffected. His narrowed eyes focused instead on Vivian, who had just barely avoided poisoning from his foolish move. "Dammit, I thought he was weaker than that… s-sorry…!"
"It doesn't matter… just get this stuff away, please!" Vivian shivered in her protection. The air around her was filtered thoroughly by the barrier, but she would be unable to move if the poisonous cloud hung around her still.
"Hah! I knew I was a good fighter! You saw that, right, Lazzy?" Baux cheerily poked the pink pearl in his grasp.
"Sure, I saw it, now please stop this and put me back."
"Come on, we've got this! Just wait until I give them the old 1-2-Air Cutter." The Yanma circled around the space that the two explorers inhabited, still high enough into the air to not worry about an attack from the Stunky in particular. "And get ready for another Ice Beam, I think we can wear them down!"
Tai froze up, trying to discern what he could do to even counteract his own move. He very well couldn't suck it back into himself, but he could at least disperse more to right his wrong.
The Stunky began to build up energy with himself. With time, it was abruptly released from his mouth as a cloud of darkened soot, spraying into Vivian's barrier. Despite her blackened vision, she could see that the new stream slowly replaced the old one, pushing the toxic air away from her surrounding area. She wouldn't want to breathe in Tai's Smokescreen, but she would endure it better than the Poison Gas. The barrier was released.
"Thanks… eugh." Vivian kept her head down, wafting away the smoke as best she could.
"Don't mention it. Literally, don't mention this happened. We just have to get past any of the other traps, and also get out of this smoke." Tai huffed and tapped his feet, only now realizing how much his cloud had obscured the area. With the first realization came another, as Tai hopped closer to Vivian. "Wait, you need to make more stars! Like, fire them somewhere!"
"What? Don't jerk me around!" Vivian was thrown off by the sudden comments, but settled down quickly. More glittering stars were manifested from her body.
Another set of Swift was blasted off, and the zooming collection of stars cleared away the smoke that it passed through, leaving a hole in the cloud. After watching them fly, the Stunky leapt away from Vivian, landing further on the path they had been traversing in the darkness.
"Alright! Alright, we can do this!" The Stunky took in air, and puffed his cheeks out again. With a wheezing sound, he sprayed another Smokescreen, this time across the ground as Fera did with her Vacuum Wave, creating a long streak of smoke in front of him. After his lungs had been emptied, he turned his head to Vivian. "Now clear it with the Swift!"
"Okay!" The girl accepted the repeated command with more enthusiasm, coming to understand what Tai had learned. A wave of Swift stars was formed and flung from Vivian's tail, striking into the new dark cloud. The attack sliced through and wafted away the smoke. Their combined effort revealed most of the area that Tai had fired his attack in: the Stunky had pushed aside the dust in the same manner that Fera did before them, and a trap ahead of them had been revealed.
"Huh?" Baux halted in his celebratory taunting, looking down to see the depression created in the ground from the displaced dust. "Wait! You're not allowed to do that!"
"Suck it, bug boy! Let's roll, Vivian!" Tai charged forward, already starting to amass more smoke inside his body, leaping proudly over the small trap set before him.
"Stop antagonizing him!" Vivian proceeded after her partner, likewise creating another row of Swift stars to fire in conjunction with the Stunky. Clouds of ash still hung around them as they hurried onward, but the two knew now that they could reach the end of the path.
"You're the ones that'll be antagonized in just a second! Lazzy, again!" The Yamna soared by and spun around, hovering high in front of the two as they repeated their combined technique. Another column of dust was cleared to let the two proceed.
The aggravated pearl shimmered once more, and let loose another Ice Beam. Vivian's reflexes had been prepared for the move, putting a Protect for the mere seconds needed to intercept the attack. As soon as the ice began to form, the Protect was canceled. The Ice Beam's own accumulated layer of ice stopped it from progressing toward the two, instead acting like a wall that Baux would have to aim around. Tai burst forth, spewing yet more smoke while racing towards a well-lit entryway at the end of their path.
"Ugh! Okay, new plan! Lazzy, keep it going!"
"You can't just keep my pearl separated like this… ugh…!" The disconnected orb started to glow again, against her wishes. This time, Baux aimed her at the final twisting section of ground before the entryway. Her Ice Beam struck the ground fervently, and the energy began to coalesce as a rising wall of sharpened ice. Vivian and Tai stopped themselves short of a spiky collision.
"Hah! HAH! End of the line! Please let this be the end of the line!" Beads of sweat traced down the Yanma's head, his claws trembling from the frosty excess that flowed off of Lazzy's attacks.
Vivian grew a small smirk. She couldn't help it, the Yanma's efforts to stop her kept failing, and her pride as an explorer grew. "Tai, you gotta give him one more. Get him with the smoke!"
"But he's just gonna… oh." Tai reflexively gained Vivian's smirk as she met his eyes. "Fine, one more!" Tai puffed his cheeks up, already prepared for the move. His lungs tensed as a Smokescreen was launched into the sky to stop the Yanma.
"You guys just don't learn!" His wings beat at an absurd speed, unleashing an even stronger Tailwind to counteract Tai. The ashy clouds were repelled, but spread out more and more with Baux's attack.
Without any sense to him, Baux persisted, while Tai's Smokescreen grew stronger. Each wave of soot that Baux blew back expanded outwards, coating the area surrounding the explorers more and more. Within seconds, Vivian and Tai were obscured under a thick cloud of smoke.
"...wait, that's really bad!" The Yanma yelped out in horror of what he had created. He buzzed down lower, now trying to waft away the massive storm of smoke hiding his targets from him. Before he could make any headway, the sound of a Shadow Ball crashing through the icy barrier distracted him. "That's even worse! What are you doing?!"
No response came to the Yanma, outside of the rushing sounds of a Swift that blew yet more dust away. From within the smoke cloud, Vivian and Tai were guided just barely by the light of Vivian's attack. Through the hole and across the cleared ground, the two brought themselves into the end of the corridor.
The explorer duo emerged from the mess of smoke and soot. Across from them, stacked high and wide, was an assortment of gold coins, illuminated beautifully by two burning torches. It wasn't a vast treasure of ancient lore, but it was the kind of wealth that one could rest on for quite a long time. It didn't matter to them either way. The mission was nearly at its end.
"Stop! You're not allowed in heeeere!" Baux glided by the two in a frenzy, turning around in the air to face off with them again. "If you don't get back, we're gonna get… serious!"
"Would you just quit it? You can't stop us from getting the money! Right, Tai?" Vivian smiled to her side, preemptively. Her partner panted heavily, and puffs of smoke floated up from the sides of his mouth. He could only nod, but his legs were trembling under his exhaustion.
"You're not gonna last much longer. And I'm gonna make sure of it!" The Yanma gave the pearl in his grasp a vigorous shake. "Lazzy, let's finish this! One last, big, ultimate…!"
"Alright, this has gone on long enough."
The Yanma tilted his head down in confusion, trying to perhaps inquire further what Lazzy meant. He was met with the sight of the Clamperl charging up another shimmering attack, this time aimed directly at her ally's torso. Before he could fully understand what was happening, Baux was struck dead-on with Lazzy's Ice Beam, his body rapidly becoming encased in a thick layer of ice. With his wings stuck, the Yanma dropped, smacking onto the cavern floor with a dull thud. The pearl bounced out of his frigid hands, rolling a few inches away from him.
"Ow." She wiggled and rolled on the ground, but couldn't free herself from circling around in place. Her lazy eyes seemed to focus on the confused Eevee and the drained Stunky. "Hey, explorers. Could you place me in some water? Or just in a bag. Anything would be a help, at this rate."
"U-uhm… are we still fighting?" Vivian slowly stepped forward.
"I pray that we are not. This money has been more trouble than it's worth, and I counted how much it's worth. Please just kick me into one of the streams, and I'll stay out of your hair." The Clamperl wobbled impatiently.
"Err, well… don't want you drifting away from your shell, I guess." Vivian approached the Clamperl, lowering her strapped-on bag down and undoing the latch. Her paw nervously pressed on the pearl Pokemon, and rolled her over into the bag. "Sorry about all this."
"Much appreciated. Please take the money away and never come back." Lazzy's voice came muffled but still discernible from within the bag. Vivian lifted the bag onto her back once more, only slightly weighed down with her new traveling companion.
"I think we need to arrest you, actually. Sorry."
"That's a big disappointment. Hmm." The Clamperl jostled among Vivian's items. "Can you put in special mention that I was very cooperative?"
"I'll see what I can do. Thanks for the help?" Vivian shrugged.
"Believe me, I'm happy to hand off the cash at this point, and if I had limbs, I'd be carrying it out for you. For now, just go get Shael, he can clear the emergency exit."
"That… sounds like a good plan…" Tai flopped down from overexertion. "I'm starting to think the money's too much trouble for us, too…"