‘ This has to be it! ’

It was like stumbling into a treasure trove. Instead of piles of gold and precious minerals, however, a crude pedestal made of earth stood in the middle of a circular cavern. An object rested on top of it; it was covered up by a cloth.

Trying to get his attention away from the threat in the walls, George pulled Blitzer’s arm with him, to the latter’s indifference. “I still hear it,” the Charmander muttered, hyperventilating from noises he could hear, but George could not. Whatever may have gotten to Blitzer, George wasn’t about to let it stop him, and he dragged Blitzer down into the treasure chamber.

“This is what we’re here for, Blitzer. Have a look at this.”

George ran up to the pedestal. Despite being twice his height, he didn’t have to break a sweat to reach its peak: At the base of the pedestal were a few narrow steps made out of earth, which were too small to support any Pokemon wider than he or Blitzer were. The whole treasure chamber had an odd feel to it, both the physical as well as the air. Something gave the vibe that what they were seeing hadn’t existed for very long..

In spite of this, George wasn’t about to let himself be stopped. He jumped up the steps and put his hands on the pedestal. Upon a closer look, the white cloth covering the supposed treasure was nothing spectacular. In fact, it was less of a cloth and more of a rag that some bum had been wearing. George grimaced at the filthy lop. Evidently, whoever had left the treasure here wasn’t very fond of it. Or perhaps there was no treasure, and it indeed had been a trick. George rubbed his hands together, glanced at the still distracted Blitzer, then turned back.

‘ Only one way to find out what’s under here. ’

“George, I don’t like the sound of this.”

With a deep breath, he tossed the rag aside. On the way to this place, all sorts of objects had passed through his mind when thinking about what it would be that they would find down in a cave. Gold in all shapes and sizes, precious gemstones or minerals, fancy trinkets or clothing, even weapons like swords encrusted with beautifully cut diamonds. But what he wasn’t expecting is precisely what he found. A piece of a flute.

“...This is the treasure? Huh.”

“Hey, George? You might want to come down here. Please, this isn’t good.”

George twirled the flute piece around in his hand. The flute had an azure color, and was made out of metal, which shone in a sudden flare of light. It was clearly a flute, as seen by the air holes on the top, which marked it as an instrument of some kind, and the flute’s broken state seemed to have been by design, as there was some sort of locking mechanism visible on both sides of the piece. What struck him as odd was why the flute had been broken apart to begin with. And if this was one piece of it, then where was the rest?

But he didn’t have long to wonder about it further. A wave of rumbling crept in from the lone way into the treasure chamber. And Blitzer staggered back as a gasp escaped his throat, his tail flaring and flickering with the strength of a furnace. “George!! Get down here, hurry! I know what this sound is, please!”

A startled George almost dropped the flute piece out of his hand. He quickly stuffed it in between the folds of his scarf once he had gotten a grip of it, then ran back down the steps in a hurry.

“Wh-what’s the matter?”

Blitzer let out a whine. “I-it’s them… they’re here!!”

The rumbling rose to a fever pitch, before the ground before the two split right open. Like creatures from the darkest of worlds, out rose three sets of claws, shining and sharp like knives. With an angry shout, the three Pokemon jumped out of the holes they had dug with their claws drawn out.

“d-Drilbur!!”

Crying bloody horror, Blitzer spat a wave of fire out of his mouth. George yelped from a white hot scratch on his feet: The flames had vaguely gone in the direction of the Drilbur, a few sputters of it flying off sideways where George was standing. The attacking Drilbur screeched back, spreading their knife-like fingers and burrowed back into the earth. The ground betrayed where they were; they hadn’t gone deep.

“g-George! We need to get out of here!!” Blitzer said, his breaths having disintegrated into rasped gasping. George watched as three trails zigzagged across the dirt, and one was headed straight for him.

“I don’t think running is an option!” George yelled, just as the ground in front of his feet opened up. A reflex kicked in, and he jumped back; two claws went past his chest and right arm, knocking some hairs loose. George threw his hand in front of him, only striking empty air in the process. The Drilbur had gone back under and buzzed around him like a hornet. George backed away; shots of fire and an audible struggle sounded not far, when pain jolted up his feet.

“Argh!” ‘ The steps! ’

The earth next to him split open. With a gale-like force, the Drilbur had struck George across the chest, the distance between the two resulting in a thick scratch mark across the scalchop. George responded by blasting the Drilbur with a bubble of water as it dug back under. It yelped and scurried away from George, it’s head poking out of the ground as it frantically clawed back up the tunnel. George held his fists out in front of him, sternly looking at his surroundings.

‘ Where’s the others? ’

Fire roared behind George; he looked around just in time to see Blitzer with his back turned, desperately trying to chase off the Drilbur with his breath. He took a deep gasp between each breath, each sounding hoarser then the one before. The Drilburs shrugged off the heat. Even in the narrow tunnels they dug for themselves, the scorching meant little in the heat of the fight. They were resilient, and Blitzer was not. One of the Drilbur had broken loose from Blitzer’s panicking eyes, and had circled around to his back.

“Blitzer!! Behind you!”

The Charmander’s head flicked back and caught several dirt spatters. “AAAH!” screamed Blitzer as three claws struck him on the arm. He fell over backwards into the pedestal, crying out as he landed onto his back. “AUW! AAAUW! AAAAUW!”

Seizing the moment, both of the Drilbur cornering him leapt at him. George immediately pulled on the energy in his body, spitting out a current of water at the attackers as they were about to land on Blitzer.

“Aaaaaaaaaaahh…!”

The two Drilbur took direct hits and were blown back; one hit its head on the wall and passed out, the other one yelped and vanished much like the other one. George closed his mouth to a sizzling sound, with pain squeezing his stomach and throat in its grip as it had done moments prior. Coughing, he waddled over to Blitzer, who was squirming.

“Blitzer, Blitzer, are you okay?!”

Tears streamed down the Charmander’s face. “Y-you hit me with the water…” he said, pointing at his belly. George, realizing how he’d spat out the water, shook Blitzer back and forth.

“I’m sorry! They were about to jump on top of you, I had to do something!”

“Not your fault, we need to get out of here, aaah…” Blitzer groaned as he pulled himself up against the pedestal, which had lost its rectangular shape. George’s eyes widened; the scales on Blitzer’s back had been dented or knocked loose, from the middle down to the base of his tail.

“Can you walk?”

“Y-yes, just give me a moment, aaah…” Blitzer grimaced. “We need to get out of here, George- Ah!”

“Don’t worry, we’re going to make it out of here, Blitzer, I promise…”

But the truth was that George had no idea. The hole the two had slipped into was deep. Very deep. As deep as they were underground, of course, and then some on top of that. The road back up to the mouth of the cave was bound to have filled back up with feral Pokemon left right and center, and the odds weren’t in their favour this time. With Blitzer struggling to stand up on his feet, let alone walk on said feet, and George’s aching throat, it would take nothing short of a miracle for them to make it out.

“Nrrgh…” Blitzer gritted his small, undeveloped teeth as he took his first steps out of the treasure chamber. George kept a hand on his back to try and support him, his other hand going back and forth between his scalchop and the flute piece stuffed in his scarf. No matter if it was any ordinary flute, neither him nor his friend had gotten this far just to stumble over the hurdles. They had to get out, Drilbur, bats and other creatures of the dark be damned.

“Easy, easy now, see, you can do it.” George moved at Blitzer’s pace, keeping his tail close by lest a Drilbur sneak up on him. ‘ So far, so good, come on… ’

All the while, Blitzer remained in a tense, shocked state. His eyes were darting around whenever they weren’t pressed shut with each step he took. “No Drilbur, nrgh, Please no Drilbur, argh, No more, ahh.” Once they had gotten out of the treasure chamber, Blitzer put a claw of his own on George’s back, and tried smiling at him, for as much as it was possible to smile, anyway. A rumble sounded in the distance.

“As long as we keep going, right? Argh.”

“Yes, until we’re out of this hellhole.”

“Hellhole? Is that, ah, another human thing I’m, arghh, not smart enough to aaahh… to understand?”

“Just imagine a pit with a thousand Drilbur in it, and you’ll have a good idea.”

“Don’t think I need to nrgghh, need to imagine.”

As if he’d ordered something at a restaurant, in came two of the killer moles from behind. George jumped around. “Here they come,” he said, hands clenched into his fists. While Blitzer worked his way into a halfway decent fighting stance, George’s right hand was oddly drawn to his scalchop. An Oshawott’s weapon, which he had no experience with. He quickly pulled his hand up. ‘ What am I doing? ’

“Steady, steady…”

“Here comes!”

The two Drilbur leapt out of the ground, claws spread wide. Blitzer breathed in deep, letting his tail flare up before breathing a continuous stream of fire from his mouth. The Drilbur shielded their faces, unable to advance. Alas, the energy Blitzer was putting into his fire came at the expense of the little grip on his feet he had. Seeing this, George threw his arms around the Charmander’s chest, his own wellbeing be damned. His face pressed against orange scales, he left fate to the hand of whatever gods reigned in this world, no matter how many flames he’d catch or accidental scratches he’d sustain.

After half a minute, Blitzer shut his mouth. The two Drilbur were long gone. Relieved, he panted and nudged George to get him to make some distance. George did just as Blitzer wanted, taking a step backward and wiping his face down with both his hands. ‘ Scales are weird. ’

“Okay, we’ve still got this, still got a chance,” Blitzer muttered.

“How do you feel?” George asked again, even though the answer was self explanatory.

“A little better. At least I’m not, completely helpless.” Blitzer let his arms hang.”We should, keep going.”

“If we keep this up, we’ll get out of here,” George said, then stepped in to support Blitzer’s steps.

“We’re making, aghh, we’re making it out here alright… nggrh! Heroes never give up…”

The two struggled their way up the torchlit tunnel. Blitzer’s steps were improving slowly, as he learned to bite his way through the burning pain shooting up his spine, yet he still limped.. This struggle didn’t sit well with George. How long would it take before he’d heal from his injuries? Days? Weeks? Maybe the speed at which his own throat was healing could be a bright light at the end of the tunnel, but that was just one light in an unknown ocean. It could be worse than anything either of them had experienced thus far. Perhaps the injury had left its mark permanently, and Blitzer wouldn’t walk properly ever again. George gulped. Pokemon might have been magical creatures, but even they couldn’t have been safe from the bitter pill of reality forever.

“Nrgghhh…”

“It’s okay, just keep going.”

“Argh, heroes don’t give up, ever, agh.”

“We have to be halfway across now. Just a little more and we’re out.” ‘ I wish’ .

“As long as there won’t be any Drilbur, ahh… Then we’ll, then we’ll be aghh, okay…”

“I think I hear something.”

“No…”

An enormous rumbling sound emerged from the way they came. George’s blood ran cold; he couldn’t put another foot forward anymore. Through his hand, he could feel Blitzer’s body cool down and shiver. This was no ordinary Drilbur. It couldn’t have been. Not even three Drilbur had given him this sense of dread, this feeling of being surrounded and crushed into little bits.

“Blitzer, I don’t like this…”

“m-Me neither… I think I know what this is…!”

“What is it? Before it gets here!”

As Blitzer opened his mouth to speak, the trail advanced rapidly to a mere ten steps away from the two. There, the attacker revealed itself at last; with a cry fierce enough to shake the earth, it rose from the ground with its claws spread out wide. Bearing an iron helmet on its head and blood red stripes on its chest, waving its sword-like claws in the air with another high pitched roar, the creature struck terror into Blitzer’s heart.

“E-EXCADRILL!!”

Blitzer almost immediately stumbled over backwards, yelping in pain as he did. The fear in him had made him try to bolt out, overruling the sear of his injuries begging him not to. The tears resumed as he hit the ground, as he desperately clawed his way up the passage in a vain attempt to escape. Now shaking as well, George’s attention dashed all over the place. The monster from below took the first step towards them, its claws glistering in the light. George couldn’t reach the energy in his body. He tried, he desperately tried to douse the beast with all that he had, but it was hopeless. He couldn’t do it.

“b-Blitzer…”

As the Excadrill closed the distance, its mouth spread open with the most unsettling grin George had ever seen. Its eyes were staring right through him with the force of a bullet. Whatever went on inside of the head of that creature, only a madman could guess. All George knew is that the smile widened with every step, and the claws spread further open, and he and Blitzer were completely helpless. He shut his eyes.

Close to the edge, an explosion ripped its way through the caves. George and the Excadrill were knocked off their feet. George rolled onto his back to find the torches on the Excadrill’s side had gone out. He backed away, dragging his tail across the floor. A sharp cracking sound spread from deep within the cave. In the new dark, the vague outline of the Excadrill could be seen confused, then panicking, then screaming, before it vanished as if the ground had opened up to devour it whole..

“Wh-what was that?!”

“Argh, I don’t know!”

George’s heart was beating against the walls of his chest. Deep in the void, two azure eyes stared back. Immediately, George understood. Azure. The treasure.

“B-Blitzer!! Run!”

“How?!”

“No time to think, just run!!”