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She liked the darkness that the huge straight tunnels provided. It was not pitch black, but instead lit with yellow fire that burned constantly and did not hurt when swoobat occasionally landed on them. It was a comforting light, and the tunnels long and narrow. She sometimes wondered how water could have eroded away the stone in such rectangular shapes, but her wondering did nothing for her without looking for clues.
She didn’t have much of a reason to question it anyway, it was comfortable to stay here and so that is what she did.
It was all very nice if you did not pay attention to the monsters that flew by.
Their sleek steel plating easily glided along the rails in the center of the tunnels, and she had quickly learned not to stand on them. She was thankful that the monsters were so loud, and that their bright eyes cut through the dim darkness of the tunnels, or else she would have been trampled under their bodies.
Yes, it was nice here if you ignored the monsters.
She had been staying here for quite a while before something… changed. She didn’t know how to quantify it, but suddenly the monsters were faster. She had no clue how in the world such fast moving things could beat even that record pace.
This made waking over the tracks far more dangerous than it was before. She used to be able to jump off when the monsters roared at her, but now they were simply too fast for her to sadly dodge. She knew this quite well, so she supposed she only had herself to blame for her predicament.
She lay on her side unmoving as the steel monster beside her. She did not think she could move, though she dared not look at what happened to herself. she closed her eyes as the monster whined, and for a moment she thought it humorous that such a large, terrifying beast could be so easily defeated by her.
There were many voices. Human one’s, which threw her for a loop. Why in the world would humans be here? She wanted to look, but the mere thought of moving sent painful tremors through her body. She felt cracked and chipped, but perhaps the humans could help?
She shook off the thought, they had no reason to help her. She had lived here in order to avoid fighting, and she knew for a fact that any human that would help her would also expect her to fight for them.
She let the tension in her limbs drop and breathed through the pain. She vaguely registered a shout and then a presence nearby.
“Are you alright?”
She shifted slightly and grunted at the agony that raced through her.
“Ok, you will be fine, promise.”
She blearily opened one of her eyes to see the human kneeling next to her. They were dressed in bright white, but it was getting stained from sitting next to her.
“Is it alright if I catch you? Not for long. I will release you once you are better.”
She rumbled in discontent. She didn’t want to be forced to fight- even if the human did promise to let her go.
“Sorry. I cannot transport you as safely otherwise. You are not well.”
She figured that out on her own.
“I promise I’ll just heal you and then let you go. You cannot break promises.”
She considered this. Breaking promises was indeed a bad thing, but that didn’t mean that people wouldn’t break them.
“Please. I want to help you.”
She closed her eyes. Humans couldn’t be trusted.
She startled slightly as fingers gently brushed against her head, rubbing off some of the dust that had settled there. Ever so softly, and human hummed a noise- and it took her a second to place why it had sounded so familiar-
Had… had this human just hummed comfort to her? How was a human speaking like a Pokémon?
The human hummed again, reassurance, and then, ever so softly, trust me?
Somehow, this strange human knew the intricacies of how to speak. She was quietly amazed. If this human could speak like her then…
She buzzed a weak trust and closed her eyes.
Clearly, this human was different from the others she had met- who had no idea how to speak properly like this one did.
The next thing she was aware of was something soft beneath her and the pain along her cracked stone was fuzzy and distant. Not quite gone, but easily ignorable. She lazily opened her eyes, not quite willing to shake off the warmth of sleep yet, and caught sight of the strange human in white sitting by her side.
His face was tucked into his arms like how her brother did when he was tired. She creaked with quiet laughter at the thought, and settled back into the soft warmth around her. She still felt very tired and stiff, and she doubted her stone was completely healed yet.
She fell asleep again, glad the strange human was with her. She hoped they could talk later. She’d never met a human that could speak like her.
The next few days were mostly spent unconscious or dazed, but she felt herself healing much quicker than she had expected. Normally a simple crack would take months to heal, let alone a whole part of her. Not that she truly knew the extent of her injuries, and honestly she didn’t really wish to.
Throughout it, the man dressed in white was often checking in on her. He was not always there, but she felt far more comfortable when he was. He did not talk a lot, not like humans usually did, anyway, but his body language was easy to read. He seemed very happy when she had begun moving on her own, and often ran his fingers over her smooth stone. It was nice.
Finally, after a few weeks, she was placed in a pokeball and taken outside. The man dressed in white smiled as he gestured to the cave system in front of them. She knew this place well, it was Chargestone cave. Many electric types liked it here, with its over abundance of staticky rocks, and found and rock types often found it a sanctuary from trainers, who dared not bring water types in the charged cave.
She would be safe there, she knew. She turned away, and faced the man dressed in white again, and took a step towards him.
What? His hips leaned to one side, head following, why?
She remained standing strong. Those tunnels that she had lived in were dangerous, but this man had helped her out, and she wished to help others just the same. She could do that with him, but she would be of no use here.
The man blinked at her for a moment, then smiled and laughed.
“Ok, Ingo hired a pokemon, so I can too.” He nodded to himself, “yes, welcome to the team Boldore.”