I ducked as a Geodude threw a rock my way, after sending out Grimer, he took it out with a single Power-up Punch and we continued our journey to the deeper parts of Union Cave from there.

This is technically my first time entering something like this and I had to admit, it didn't feel all that special. The place wasn't as beautiful as I expected it to be, and there wasn't a nice atmosphere that gave you a sense of adventure or exploration- instead, it was all rocks and claustrophobia.

From what I knew, even back in my old earth, there were cave systems that are beautiful in the sense that their natural designs were outright eye-catching; from crystalline stalactites, and plants living underground, to ecosystems actually managing to thrive and adapt in such an environment. So it's not exactly right to complain and just call what I'm seeing now as dull because at one point, my opinion would probably change, but that's exactly the problem and solution.

it will happen,

at one point.

And to be blunt, that's not enough since from what I can tell, I can only see rocks right now. Rock number 1, Rock number 2, and, oh, hey look! Rock number 3 is larger than both one and two!

"wow~~~"

Grimer turned around briefly with an odd look, then he ignored the grin I shot towards him and continued slugging forward. This is a problem as well, the guy has lost the enthusiasm that he had back when I first got him, replaced by a cold and (I'm 68% sure I'm right,) calculating personality. And I don't think that it's gonna start getting better anytime soon. Or will it ever.

I stared silently at the ball of sludge in front of me, the pace that he was slithering at wasn't exactly quick but I knew that it was deliberate, he was putting in the effort to move faster than my walking speed because he wanted to go forwards first instead of me and I know that it was meant for protection but the guy was exerting himself more than he usually would.

The way he looked around with slight concern got a bit of my attention as well. But even that wasn't as obvious, him being tense though, was clear as day to me. Even with him being able to block my ability to understand him, I knew that from even the slightest information seeping through that he wasn't feeling enjoyment right now.

Every sound, from the rocks falling somewhere in the cave, pokemon cries, running water, and even pokemon fighting, made Grimer flinch slightly. The weirdest part for me would be the fact that the sound of water made him flinch more often than the sound of battles.

I understand that he was probably afraid of water somewhat, given that I found him washed up on the beach. The ship he was on sinking thanks to a storm probably didn't help with that either.

Sensing that he wouldn't be able to fight properly right now, I took out a repel from my backpack and started spraying myself. It was more often than not, good enough to put away any wild pokemon around me right as long as said wild pokemon weren't strong enough. Thankfully, Union cave had little of those and I was sure that there isn't anything that's classified as "strong" around the area I'm at.

I took out a bag of Grimer's food when I returned the half-used repel and I held onto it for a few minutes, trying to decide if feeding him more of the stuff would be good enough to keep his stamina going further down the line. I had a limited amount of them, and unless I wanted to starve my pokemon in the middle of our spelunk, I wouldn't go ahead and try to do what I was planning on doing but since he was over-exerting himself, I thought that me going back to the surface quicker because of a lack of supplies was better than staying here for days on end with a starving pokemon.

And so, Grimer reluctantly ate near the walls while I stood guard, acting as an eye for the two of us while he was still busy.

When he was done, both of us left the presumed safe spot and continued.

As something that's quite literally, made out of toxic sludge, Grimers didn't have anything related to digestive tracks nor did have anything related to organs. For every sense of the word, Grimer's body was trash. And thanks to that, we didn't have to wait for him to digest anything and just continued walking, the food that he ate was instantly turned into a part of his mass and thus, more energy for him to use if we ever encounter any pokemon.

Which, except for three Geodudes, we haven't yet. Strangely enough.

And sure, Union Cave is larger than it was in the games and so, more space for both pokemon and trainers to avoid each other. But even with the ceiling not being able to be seen, I at least expected a pokemon or two to attack us because I was holding a flashlight; the only light source in the cave and something that is sure to attract attention in a place like this.

Zubats weren't anywhere, and when I held my flashlight upward to see if there were colonies of them up there, the light didn't even reach the top of the cave.

When the two of us went over to the sounds of pokemon fighting, we would arrive way too late, and either the pokemon were gone, or, they somehow managed to circle us and we would have to go back to the direction we came from and then follow them further down, only for them to then just... disappear!

it was complete and utter bullshit how we didn't find any pokemon around the place and any more of it would drive me mad. Seriously, walking around in a dark cave without seeing anything other than rocks would make the average adult insane let alone a kid with a developing, low attention span brain!

I kicked a nearby rock and watched it fly into the darkness.

"fuck this is boring," I couldn't help but swear,

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Grimer grunted in reply and I sighed, "yeah, I know, seriously, it's outright suspicious that we haven't found anything yet right?" he nodded, then grunted again, "exactly!"

and he was right too, the fact that caves were supposed to be places where you encountered a lot of pokemon meant that finding Zubats in places like these was pretty common amongst trainers but the fact that we haven't even found a single one was outright suspicious. "someone's playing a trick with us, definitely."

My pokemon nodded in agreement, "Grime,"

"you're right, we're not gonna let them beat us."

And so, we continued exploring the cave, we had a lot of supplies anyways and it didn't help us to just go back up to the surface after only an hour or two of spelunking. And even if we go back to Azalea town, what then? Take a vacation? Go back to GoldenRod without anything to show for it? My parents already spent a lot of money buying both the Dig TM as well as my backpack.

"not to mention the map," I thought out loud.

After another hour more of exploring the cave, Grimer and I finally found something interesting in that the scenery changed!

"whoa..." I looked around the place in amazement. The cavern Grimer and I ended up in was something straight out of a fairytale, with large, crystalline rocks placed around the place, from transparent stalactites hanging on the ceiling to stalagmites with different hues growing on the ground; the place was packed full of crystals that I was sure a Diancee could be found hanging somewhere in here but alas, it was too good to be true.

There wasn't a diancee but after looking around, I did find something interesting; a small, purplish orb attached to the tip of a stalagmite with Kangaskhan's size.

Standing at over 8 feet tall with a body that requires 3 men holding each other's hand to circle, the stalagmite looked menacing but even that wasn't enough to make me go away and ignore the stone on the very top of it. It was small enough for most people to notice it but my head was telling me something; that the pattern I am seeing inside of the orb was, undoubtedly, a Helix.

My ability was telling me that the thing that I was looking at was a Mega Stone. One, that for some reason, ended up here in but a Mega Stone regardless.

I didn't know what kind of Mega Stone it is but from the color alone, I could at least tell it belonged to a Poison Type.

I looked at my pokemon, "Grimer, can you reach the tip of that thing?"

He met my eyes, "Grime?" I nodded and that was a good enough command for him to use Shadow Sneak, his body started to turn black, liquifying even more as it started to turn shapeless before then blending in with the ground and-

Nothing happened, he regained solidity and just stood there, perplexion on his face. "Grime?"

"I don't know?" I shook my head and his surprised expression became worse, "I mean, I did see you use the move but you didn't even go anywhere, you just went back to the same place you are in right now," he grunted as if saying that he already knew that. I started tapping the floor, my foot making rhythmic sounds that I hoped weren't impatient, "so, I guess we're gonna have to do it the old fashion way huh?"

"Grimer!"

"and I know, we've never been to a cave before but even then, this is probably gonna work out fine," I pulled out an escape rope from my backpack and un-coiled it, "right, so now then," I clicked my tongue in satisfaction once the hangman's knot was tied, "this, is the perfect thing to use in situations like these yeah?"

I pointed at the knot while looking at Grimer, he didn't look impressed. I shrugged, "besides, now that I think about it, there isn't a single shadow in here for you to dart into," I started spinning the rope, "so I guess that's why you weren't able to move anywhere with Shadow Sneak,"

"Grime!" he protested,

"you can't use your moves?" The knot fell into place, and a pull from me tightened it around one of the 9-ish protruding crystals on the ceiling. The way they were placed with their sharpened tips growing sideways, made them the perfect thing for what I was doing and they looked sturdy enough to hold my weight so there's that.

"that's a bit concerning isn't it?" He nodded, "then how about this, trying using Power-Up Punch on the trunk of the crystal," I said, pointing at the gigantic stalagmite, if he could break it with a single punch then I would be able to kill three birds with one stone: I would be able to know how strong the crystal I tied my rope unto, get the Mega-Stone, and confirm if Grimer can't use his moves.

The first thing was a bit unnecessary since if the towering crystal does break then I won't really need to climb it but if it doesn't then I would need to and knowing that it can take an attack from Grimer meant that the crystal can hold me just fine! The problem would only really come if Grimer can't use any moves because not only would the strength of the crystals remain unknown but it would also mean that my pokemon wouldn't be able to help me if the worse happens.

Pokemon attacks will probably be fine, since if Grimer can't use moves then they won't be an exception.

Grimer did as followed and after moving next to the crystal, he held back his arm and it glowed red. for a moment. And then that was it, his punch struck the base of the crystal, and then nothing happened.

I sighed, "welp, guess we're gonna have to start crying huh?" the way he looked at me made me grin, "just kidding! I'm still gonna try to climb so how about you wait at the bottom for me to see if you can catch me if I fell yeah?"

I tied the rope on my hands around my waist and halfway through, I saw my pokemon start climbing, his body perfectly clung to the crystal and he slithered upwards without looking like he was putting much effort at all.

Then, tragedy struck when he was close to halfway through because the crystalline toxin in his mouth started glowing before he suddenly lost control of his body and fell.

"wait!" I hurried over to him and stopped him before he can climb up again, "don't," I eyed him seriously, the way his body suddenly looked like it turned liquid, in a bad way, was something that made me deeply concerned,

"here," I pulled out a potion and started spraying him with it, "seriously, what were you thinking? going back up there again?"

he looked down and groaned, "Grime..."

"good, at least you understand," I said, coiling another part of the rope around the stalagmite, "I'm gonna go ahead and see if the crystal can actually hold me so just wait," I hoisted my feet up the crystal and started pulling myself up, "nothing so far..." I observed, ignoring Grimer's look of concern as his eyes stayed upward. I took another step, "again, nothing."

I took another step, "right, so noth-"

Something above me cracked and I felt weightless for a moment before I was pushed out of the way. I fell and rolled across the ground, and when I stopped, I looked back to where Grimer was at the perfect time to see the pointed end of the stalactite hit him square on the head.

The natural spear went through his entire body before stopping with a loud clang when it hit the ground. It cracked and broke apart soon afterward.

My worries went away when I saw that Grimer was fine as his body started to reform now that the crystal at the very center was gone. A few seconds later, he was back to his usual self, except he was glaring at me with overlaid concern. "Grime!"

I held up a hand, "right, you're right, that was dangerous." I nodded at him, I then looked at the Mega-Stone at the tip of the stalagmite, "but, that thing is too precious to not take right now,"

he grunted, I shook my head in denial. "we can't wait for a Zubat, and besides, who knows what that thing will do to it when it flies near?" Grimer's face deflated as he followed my gaze.