Ask to Join Tunnels

[LizzyDraco]

Discussion is here
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Everyone bustled about underground. People traded with each other and went about their jobs. Rugged houses were being fixed and built. Scientists were working hard on their research. A few Sunlighters were returning from the surface, some badly damaged. Doctors worked hard on restoring them, and all in all everyone was functioning normally... except for one.

A short girl with ginger hair ran among the crowd. Her glasses looked slightly crooked and her long shirt was only partially buttoned down to where it mattered. An unorganized, messy, and slightly bent pile of papers sat clutched in her hands. Behind her, a Gible and Flaaffy ran to keep up, the Gible being the slowest.

She was a scientist, making her way towards all the labs and equipment. They were located in a small place off to the side of Firefly, the town. It looked like a little village, though it was close enough to the town in order to be considered a part of it. Some lived there, while others chose to stay in their original homes.

"Agh! I'm gonna get chewed out again!" she stated to herself. This was the 6th time this week, almost everyday at this point. She worked nonstop to pass a roadblock her and her peers had come across during research, yet she had little faith she would be the one to overcome it. The problem had been there for years, so how could she solve it?

Along the way, she stopped. Heading to Firefly's little science village, one would come across the path to the surface Sunlighters used. Usually, it was sealed shut. Today, however, it was opened. Part of the group came back, while others still had the time to stay outside. The girl let out a small sigh. Part of her wanted to leave and become a Sunlighter, however scientists were still as vital as anyone else. Lost in her thoughts, she didn't even notice she was going to be later than she already was.

 

[Le Marsouin]

Everything was silent in the area that was once a hidden, underground laboratory fufilling the nefarious purposes of a criminal organization now disbanded and forgotten along with the others. A turbine over twice the size of a typical adult lied in a large room in the bottom floor while the machine quietly droned about. A series of motors and gears worked somewhat faster than optimal speeds in spite of the whole process being as quiet as a mouse attending a temple with utmost respect.

A girl sat on her royal blue, cushioned seat while carefully taking in as much information as she could from a decently sized book titled: “Pokémon and You: Advanced Treatment and Care 302.” A small, lizard-like Pokémon lied in his trainer’s sling while silently snoring along with the quiet fan warding off the hot air.

Meanwhile, a small, seal-like Pokémon lied in a crib with a mouse-like Pokémon dozing off close by while jotting down some notes on a blank page of a clipboard the little Pokémon carefully held. After the infantile Pokémon finished in a matter of minutes, the page read:

It’s a bit strange to think that I would actually be living under here. I guess I should be proud that I’m still alive to begin with... even though I’m just a little baby seal now. At least I didn’t forget how to treat and care for others, or else that guy wouldn’t be having a well and healthy bird Pokémon by his side.

I mean, my trainer’s right. Even though I am a little Pokémon, I am still an adult male like I was before... and most certainly is that I am still a practitioner! And that practitioner ain’t going to stop just because it’s now a young Pokémon!

-Tyler Frost

 

[DragonFlye]

Muddy hooves thumped the dirty ground at a lazy pace, kicking up bits of dust with the motion. Rai swayed with the movement of the Mudsdale's back, moreso than usual since she wasn't holding onto the tack for support. Instead, one hand was occupied with a handful of raw mushrooms and the other held a pen that she used to write in the cloth-bound book balanced on Duke's shoulderblades, though for now she was distracted watching people and Pokemon alike mill about with their work.

She'd found herself in one of the eastern wards of Firefly, a bit further from home than usual, where someone had flagged her down to take a look at their generator. The engineer had almost turned the job down in favor of a more desirable trade, but the offer of some of their own home-grown food had proven too tempting. It wasn't much, but something so fresh wasn't easy to come by in the tunnels, especially without any natural light, and it turned out that Rai wasn't one to let such an opportunity slide. The job wasn't a particularly difficult one upon inspection, either, and had taken up less than an hour.

So here she was, shaking coal dust from her short blond hair as she proudly popped a few of the small mushrooms into her mouth. She made a mental note to come by the area more often, as it seemed they had a drought in engineering minds. Broken equipment, damaged houses, and faulty wiring were an epidemic in this part of town, it seemed, and she was collecting names and addresses in her little book left and right.

Rai turned and offered a mushroom to Cairo, who was seated behind her near the base of Duke's tail, but the Litleo wrinkled his nose at the smell, causing her to grin in amusement. She wrapped up the rest for another time and placed them in the saddlebag at her right thigh before returning to her notewriting.

 

[Le Marsouin]

Serah continued to study the various pieces of text and visuals in her book while going at a speed of about a page per minute. Simon gave some occassional movements, though even a good squirm during nap time was not going to startle his trainer that easily. The little lizard Pokémon continued to silently snore in his trainer’s sling.

More and more words were soon finding their new home to be on Tyler’s clipboard after having a few minutes with the pen. The page read:

It’s really strange that to think... that of all the people, it would be a person with a 4.2 in Valdora High, a person with an MD, and a person with such a great life would be turned into a little Pokémon.

Maybe history repeats itself, except that I’m not who I really was before. I can hardly eat anything since I’ll usually just spit out those greens and I have to drink this stuff in a bottle... but it’s really warm and so soothing I guess.

Come to think of it, I don’t know where that little Pokémon has been. He said that he would be back around half an hour ago. I’m surprised that he hasn’t even broke a sweat or even ask for anything in return yet.

-Tyler Frost

“I guess I should probably practice on that new thing of mine if I can’t sleep or do anything else,” Tyler thought while taking a deep breath.

“Alright, just gotta think... that first operation with that little dog Pokémon about a week ago,” Tyler thought after taking swift notice of his tense, shaky hands.

“D- damn it! It’s hard to think if I’m all tensed up! Deep breath... one and two. I’ll think of that thing that looks like a cross or that sign when adding stuff,” Tyler said in his mind while placing his left hand on his blanket.

Even though Tyler placed all his concentration he could for a couple of minutes, nothing appeared to happen much to his disappointment. It did not come to the infantile seal’s mind that it was likely out of the question for a little Pokémon like him to conjure such a powerful move that even veteran battlers struggle with.

After another minute, Tyler emitted a quiet groan while saying to himself, “Ugh... I think I gave a little too much.” A quiet thud went past Veril’s ears seconds later.

 

[FroakiesFrubbles]

James wandered around Firefly. He was making his way to the science village, but he didn't really need to be in the lab right now, and both Bubble and Daisho would rather explore Firefly than sit in a lab an entire day. "So, can the both of you find some small plants growing here? I'll give you both a treat!" James would end up just giving his Pokemon treats for helping him with his research.

He needed plants because he wanted to analyze them. He wanted to find what allowed these plants to flourish in darkness. Maybe he could splice a section of their DNA and insert them into potato plants, and boom. Growable food. The two Pokemon picked at plants and kept moving. Eventually James made it to the little science village, small plants in hand. He was hoping to maybe bump into another scientist and tell them about his plans. James didn't really need to be in the lab still, so he just kind of waited around with his pokemon, sitting down against a wall.

(Sorry for the short posts, it takes a while for me to type, plus I just kind of run out of ideas.)

 

[LizzyDraco]

(It's okay )

The girl snapped out of it, resuming her rush back towards her destination. "Agh, Bezai you idiot! Stop stalling!" she criticized herself. Eventually, after much rushing, she made it to where the labs were. Both her and her Pokemon were out of breath.

After resting for a bit, she gathered where exactly she was. "Alright... umm... where was it again...?" she asked herself before looking at the Gible and Flaaffy. The sheep Pokemon simply shrugged as the smaller one was busy chewing on its tail. "Oh come on, Kiju, stop that." The Gible paused upon hearing the scolding and slowly backed away from the Flaaffy. All the girl did was let out a hopeless sigh for her group.

 

[Le Marsouin]

Serah picked up a vibration on her desk, as she picked up the gun-shaped device and unfolded the small, LCD screen. After flipping the switch and toggling the radar system, several blue dots were present near the green one right on the center. Serah took a close analysis of the location of the other dots while thinking, “Huh, I guess I better have a look near the door.”

Simon was still asleep in his trainer’s sling while Serah went downstairs after gently placing down the book on her desk. She arrived in a room with the generator continously working in a silent manner while unfolding a laptop on a small desk near the machine. She booted up the laptop and tuned in on the hidden camera next to her laboratory’s entrance. On the screen was a girl with a Gible and Flaaffy near the area with several other laboratories nearby.

“Hmm, I don’t usually see people walking around here now do I?” Serah thought while booting off the laptop, closing the device and walking back upstairs to check up on the other Pokémon.

 

[LizzyDraco]

Bezai sort of wandered around aimlessly for a bit before coming across what seemed to be a metal hatch on the ground, in fact she tripped over it. Standing up quickly, she dusted herself off. She stared at the door in curiosity before knocking.

The flaaffy had a bad feeling. Maybe they shouldn't be poking around in other places? Honestly, it always got a bad feeling. Anxiety was something of a haunting sort. It hid close behind its trainer. It really didn't feel right about this.

 

[FroakiesFrubbles]

James had started to fall asleep a bit, because he was quite tired, and his pokemon were getting bored. Somehow, Bubbles managed to convince Daisho that they should go explore, well it was more of Bubbles just dragging Daisho along forcefully. "C'mon wuss, let's go!" The two walked around the small village for a bit, before managing to bump into Bezai and her Pokemon. The little village was little, so it was very easy to bump into someone.

"Hello!" Bubbles announced loudly. Daisho said nothing.

 

[LizzyDraco]

The flaaffy let out a sort of scream, well to other Pokemon it was a scream. It was easily taken off guard by other Pokemon, easily. 'H-H-Hi,' it said, stuttering as it shook violently. The Gible rolled its eyes before stepping up to the two.

'Don't mind it, Jupiter's afraid of everything,' the Gible explained. Jupiter glared at him in protest. 'A-Am not!' it replied to the statement.

 

[Le Marsouin]

Serah picked up the faint sound of what was likely a knock on the laboratory's entrance. She rushed towards her room and grabbed the small microphone on her radio transceiver sitting on a desk next to the other table with several books and documents.

"Hello? Are you the one that just knocked a bit and with the dragon shark Pokémon and the sheep?" A voice quietly called from the camouflaged speaker next to the hidden camera.

Everyone else in the laboratory seemed to still be taking their time in the land of Nod, as Serah sat by the transceiver while waiting for a response.

 

[LizzyDraco]

"Oh! Well... y-yes," Bezai responded. It shocked her a little when the voice spoke, but then again everything was a surprise, wasn't it? "I uh... lost my way again..." she explained while readjusting her stack of papers. Some were incredibly messed up and bent she realized. For that, she mentally scolded herself to take better care of her papers.

 

[Le Marsouin]

"You lost your way around? Well, where are you trying to get to?" The voice replied while Simon gave another brief squirm in his trainer's sling.

"I'm guessing it's probably your first time here or something... and also, you look like someone that does quite a bit of research with those papers you're holding up," The voice added while Simon continued to nap in spite of the conversation his trainer was having.

 

[FroakiesFrubbles]

James finally woke up, and to his surprise, his Pokemon where no where to be seen. In a couple of minutes, he already found them. Once you work with Pokemon as a profession, you just kind where they would be if they ran off. James quickly picked up his Pokemon, and returned them to their Pokeballs. "I'm so sorry, these little rascals always seem to get to me." James kind of spoke to himself, but he was loud enough for Bezai to hear him. "So, what the heck is going on here?"

 

[LizzyDraco]

"Not really... I got moved to a new location since I slept in a lot," she explained. "They... never really told me where..." She pushed up her glasses and looked off to the side. Gosh she felt useless sometimes.

She heard a second voice and turned to look. "O-Oh! Uh, hello. I... didn't see you walk up..." Bezai replied to James. Jupiter was still attempting to hide behind Bezai, though it wasn't sure which thing to hide from: the door or the stranger? Both gave it a bad feeling. Kiju, the Gible, was right, Jupiter is afraid of everything.

 

[FroakiesFrubbles]

"Well, I guess I do spook people a bit." James stated. "I think it's because I work with my own pokemon so much, it's like I've become them! Well I digress. Hello. My name's James. Majored in biology. Nice to meet ya'" James noticed the stack papers and assumed Bezai was also a scientist, and James hoped so, because if she was, James could explain in full length his 'little' plan. Only scientists would actually listen.

 

[LizzyDraco]

"I'd shake your hand but... ya know." She slightly held up the stack of paper before resting them back against her body. "Bezai, I'm... also a scientist. Kind of just self-taught actually..." She could remember her old makeshift lab that inhabited half her living room. It was faulty and often things broke down, but she would say it had its own little charm. It was only a few years ago that she actually received an education to become a real scientist.

 

[Le Marsouin]

"Well, that's quite a shame if that's really the case. I also heard you're a scientist right? I'm sorry if I couldn't get back sooner since my little one is a bit fussy sometimes," The voice replied.

Serah held Simon in her arms while gently stroking his chest in an attempt to calm him after arousing from his brief nap. After noting that he was not too cranky, needing a bath or wanting to play with his toys, his trainer reached for her bag. She pulled out a bottle of apple juice mixed with a hint of flavorless supplements assisting in Simon's health. She pressed the orange button on the transceiver to hold the transmission for a brief amount of time, as she asked, "Would you like your bottle? Nod if you do and do anything else if you don't understand."

Simon quickly inclined his head after hearing the offer, as Serah gave the bottle to the reptilian Pokémon after opening the spill-proof nozzle. Serah watched the infantile Pokémon drinking the bottle at a modest pace, while tapping the orange button again after giving a quick check to ensure that nothing else was needed for the time being.

 

[FroakiesFrubbles]

"Oh, cool. I went to school, but I did learn most of my knowledge through my own studies and trials. Anyways, what the heck is that voice coming through what seems like a radio?" James looked at the hatch and noticed the hidden camera. "Who's inside past this hatch? Haven't been to this specific place before." James urged to open the hatch, but he probably shouldn't.

 

[Le Marsouin]

"Hmm, that guy is pretty clever... looks like he already saw my security. Oh well, even the best disguises don't always work," Serah thought while keeping Simon as still as she could in her arms.

"Who's inside? Well, that's what you'll have to find out. State your business please," The voice replied.

 

[FroakiesFrubbles]

"State my buisness? Well I don't want to go inside." James replied. "What are you even doing down there?" James turned back to Brezai. "Oh well, forgot who ever's down there. I'm going to head back to my lab now." James didn't need to be at his laboratory, but he might as well get to work on his latest project. "Come visit sometime!" He walked a few houses down and called out his Pokemon.

Bubbles sighed. "C'mon, don't run off like that!" Bubbles said nothing, neither did Oshawott. "Sorry, no treats for you."

 

[Le Marsouin]

Meanwhile on the surface, a small, human-like Pokémon hobbled through the extreme winds while a storm of raindrops struck the little Pokémon drop after drop. The tan pouch of tools snugly wrapped around his waist started to become soaked not too long in the extreme weather, while the square log being dragged was drenched to the point where it could almost camouflage with the fallen trees. A small, blue toolbox made of steel was being carried in the Pokémon's right hand. Several items appeared to have been stuffed earlier in the empty areas of the pouch, though nothing was easily affected by the unstable climate at least.

Suddenly, a loud crack of thunder echoed throughout the area! Another followed seconds later, as the little Pokémon panted when he was about a hundred feet away from the path back into the underground area. He gave a series of quiet coughs while his perception of hearing and vision faltered. All he could see was a thick, brownish line that appeared to lead back towards the safe area while there were other brown lines nearby with green blobs at one end.

Minutes later after stumbling his way into Firefly, he heard a person calling, "Hey! You don't look so great kid."

"Are you alright there? Do you need me to take you to a nurse or a doctor?" Another person asked.

"He looks like he's dead or something! He needs a doctor now!" A little girl cried.

"L- let's all calm down. I'm pretty sure that we can find someone to treat him," A man declared.

"B- but we need to find that someone right away! Look at him! He can barely even walk!" The little girl exclaimed.

"T- tim..." The little Pokémon faintly replied while trudging away from everyone as fast as he could. He lumbered past the other people while ignoring their looks of shock, surprise and their voices of utmost concern and anxiety. A loud thud resounded in the science village seconds later.

 

[FrostCrispz]

Jack layed back on the only green landscape around, Tor's back. He turned his head on the moving body of his Torterra as he wandered to the Tunnels. "Nice day, nothing life theating so far." He said while sitting up slightly. Shade, his Zorua, layed next to him asleep. Normally, Shade covered them in an illusion, but she needed some rest. They had just retrieved a decent sized load of canned foods, and a rare find, a pokedex. "Come on, lets get on back." Jack said while relaxing back. By the time he shut his eyes once more, the daylight seemed to burst through the clouds, even if for only a single second.

 

[LizzyDraco]

"O-Oh, I will!" Bezai called out after James. She then turned her attention back to the lady at the other side of the door. "I... suppose I shouldn't bother you anymore with my problems. I'm sure I could manage to find it," she said. "Um... have a good day though!" She mentally face palmed at how awkward she was.

Meanwhile a man with messy black hair and gray eyes sat outside his home. His red jacket sat next to him on the ground. Two of his Pokemon, a Pikachu and a Garchomp, were having a sort of pretend battle while running around. His third, a Chandelure, sat next to him while its wounds were being tended to. "Don! Shayu! Don't start a war you two!" he joked and the two responded in the usual Pokemon way. Sometimes it made him wonder what Pokemon would say if they could. It interested him greatly.

 

[DragonFlye]

Rai was absorbed in one of the technical sketches she was composing, trusting Duke to lead the way--preferably home, but the Mudsdale really called the shots on that one. They were in no particular hurry at the moment, though, so she wouldn't complain.

All of a sudden, Duke lurched off to one side. The equine Pokémon wasn't one for sudden movements, so the movement caught her off guard and she nearly toppled from his back. Cairo let out a startled yelp, but held on. "Duke," Rai said, drawing out the vowel sound in a whine. "What was that for?"

Duke huffed, and Rai looked up to see that he'd moved quickly to avoid a pair of Pokémon that scuffled through the dirt, kicking up a bit of dust. Rai figured they had a Trainer around; usually Pokémon didn't wander into the city otherwise. Sure enough, a man was sitting nearby, glancing up every now and then to keep an eye on the rambunctious pair. Rai grinned at the playful energy in the air, something that she hadn't experienced much since childhood. She waved. "It's not everyday you see such lively Pokémon!" She remarked.

 

[LizzyDraco]

He looked up from tending his Pokemon to the girl on the Mudsdale. He'd always admired the power of Mudsdales, and he heard they make excellent transport. "Well, they get to lead exciting lives!" he responded. The man leaned back slightly and gestured to the Chandelure that she could go. Quickly, the shiny dual type rushed off to make sure the others didn't get hurt. It almost made him laugh at how worried she was.

"I've never seen you around this part of Firefly before. Here for business?" he inquired (Oh look at me using big words). He considered the possibility that she lived there, considering how often he went out to the surface. It didn't seem like she did though. It just didn't... fit.

 

[DragonFlye]

"You know it," Rai answered with a smile as she watched the oddly-colored Pokémon run off to join her companions. "I don't come by here often at all, but it looks like the engineers of Firefly've really neglected a place like this. I've been collecting all kinds of clients!" She held up her little worn book in emphasis.

"And you?" She queried (I'll see your big word and raise you one), looking him over. She almost immediately noted his skin, which was just a few shades tanner than most of those down in the tunnels. It was wasn't too hard to notice, considering she spent most of her time around people who'd never seen the sun. "Wait! Let me guess...you look like you could be...a Sunlighter?"

 

[Le Marsouin]

“Wait a minute... who was that little Pokémon that just collapsed? Oh god! Don’t tell me it’s him! I gotta go quick!” Serah thought while sprinting towards the Nursery room.

“Alright, both of you wakey wakey. We need to do something quick,” Serah calmly said to the Pokémon in the crib.

Tyler gave a hesitant nod after opening his eyes and emitting a silent yawn while Veril followed up soon after. Serah picked up the two little Pokémon and placed them on the carpeted floor. Tyler and Veril quickly followed Serah towards the laboratory’s exit within half a minute. Tyler grabbed a tiny vial from the left pocket of his lab coat and opened the secure lid. He drank about half of the brownish liquid contained inside, while giving a vague nod towards himself. He noted the label of his to contain a stimulant commonly found in a place baristas tend to serve. The vial was placed back into his pocket after the lid was securely placed back.

The crank was swiftly turned to open the door to the outside area of Firefly. The door quickly locked itself and temporarily scrambled the lock combinations as soon as Serah and her other Pokémon were outside. Serah jogged towards the Pokémon lying near her laboratory, as she gently picked up and asked, “Hey, are you alright there?”

There was no response from the human-like Pokémon, as Serah stated, “Alright, looks like we have no time to waste. We’ll talk more once we get back. You two, grab the stick thing.”

Tyler and Veril inclined their heads towards their trainer for a brief moment before grabbing the square log. It was somewhat heavy as a result of the wood being soaked in the rain, but the two Pokémon still managed to get the log over without too much concern. The door opened again after the codes were unscrambled, as the entrance was closed in a silent manner the second everyone was in the laboratory.

The log was placed near a soft, bluish bed while Tyler got on his booster seat and Veril stood by a large monitor. Veril booted up the monitor and connected the wiring to the appropriate places on the human-like Pokémon’s body as soon as it was gently placed down on the bed. The monitor displayed a series of lines and numbers, while Tyler had a concerned look towards the red line next to the blinking heart with the number above reading in the short form of forty-five.

Tyler grabbed the folded clipboard and pen placed in his pockets earlier, as he unfolded the clipboard and quickly wrote:

Alright, I guess it’s time for the little doc to teach you about a bit of surgery. I’ll be quickly writing everything since well... it’s kinda hard to understand me. Let’s just put it that way.

Patient Chart:

Condition: Critical
Name: Unknown
Height: ~2 FT
Weight: ~12 KG
Summary: Multiple bruises confirmed on the head and abdomen. Branch fragments on right shoulder must be carefully removed.

After Serah took a brief glimpse at the clipboard, she said, “The bruises are not as bad since they look like they were there a while ago. Those branches on his shoulder should be our concern right now. I think we do have a couple of those ice things at the lab downstairs from what I remembered, but it’s not much.”

Tyler gave a quick nod of agreement towards his trainer, as he wrote, “Okay, let’s get working on saving him then. I’m still a doctor, even if I’m just a little baby right now as a lot of people say.”

 

[LizzyDraco]

"Yep!" he said with a grin. "Started doing it with my sister. Of course there's the few that say I'm insane for being in that line of work, though they're probably right." He didn't mind being talked about, which Sunlighters often were. They were nasty rumors, the kind that you know are about you but no word is spoken. The hate from a portion of the community Sunlighters received was ironic. The people who support the Tunnels the most were also the most despised. Not everyone had a burning hate, however. Those people understood how important Sulighters were and respected them. It was quite a controversial job.

 

[Le Marsouin]

“His vitals are low, get the stabilizer ready. It’s the green liquid in the small bottle on that tray of tools on the table next to you,” Tyler wrote while grabbing a pair of forceps.

“You mean this one right? How much should I put in the syringe?” Serah replied while pushing down the plunger to let out every single air bubble trapped inside the plastic tubing.

“Fill it up to the last line, it’ll keep him stable for the entire surgery most likely... but we must be prepared in case if anything happens,” Tyler wrote in his response while Serah carefully filled the syringe at the exact amount Tyler stated.

“Alright, here goes... I can’t believe that it’s actually a little Pokémon teaching me all this stuff,” Serah thought while slowly injecting the medicine in the human-like Pokémon’s left arm.

“His vitals are stablized, at least for now... we should get to work on his shoulder. I’ll give you the forceps since I kinda have a hard time using them. Remember to carefully extract the fragments,” Tyler quickly wrote while handing the forceps to his trainer soon after.

He watched his trainer remove the wooden pieces out of the little Pokémon’s right shoulder within a painstaking minute. He took a deep breath and penned, “Alright, you’re doing pretty great so far. Next is to perform hemostasis, and since we don’t have that drain thing... we’re going to have to improvise with these reusuable cloth pads. Don’t worry, we already washed and sterilized them.”

“Right, there seems to be a bit more of that red stuff coming out, we should be quick,” Serah responded while grabbing a cloth pad and gently pressing it on the little Pokémon’s right shoulder.

“Okay, I think that should do. Now grab the sutures and stitch up those lacerations after taking out the cloth pad and putting it in that wash bin,” Tyler replied through his written text.

Serah tossed the pad into the bin her Pokémon stated while grabbing a silver curved needle with a line of fiber lining at the opposite end of the sharp one.

“Let’s go... one cut at a time and with a steady pace. Better hope I don’t screw anything up,” Serah thought while carefully suturing each tear with all the concentration she had.

 

[DragonFlye]

Rai hadn't met many Sunlighters before except to trade goods that had been salvaged on the surface. And boy, were those goods interesting. Canned foods, engine parts from machines called 'cars,' and all kinds of things that had once been mass produced. It was understandable that so many of them would want to separate themselves from the rest of the population, she supposed, considering the polarizing effect of their careers. But still, the thought was exciting.

"Is it really as terrible up there as they say?" She asked suddenly, eyes glittering with fascination. "Up there on the surface, I mean." Savage creatures, unbearable temperatures...The rumors sounded exaggerated, sure, but how would she know?

 

[LizzyDraco]

"Well, most of it's true," he said, smiling slightly at her excitement. "Sometimes it's nice and calm. On bad days, though, giant Pokemon come out looking for a fight. There are epic battles, and the sun could even burn the right people!" He didn't mind telling tales from up on the surface. It entertained curious children and provided a clear picture of what it was like for other people. In Marko's eyes, there was never a hint of fear describing it, only excitement and joy.

 

[DragonFlye]

Rai listened raptly. "That sounds intense! Maybe you're just a little insane," the last part was said in jest, but to think, people had actually lived up there once upon a time. Exciting though it may have been, she'd have to stay holed up down here with her pale skin and rusty machines. "No wonder you've got such tough-looking Pokémon with you. I've never seen anything like them!"