Hot, muggy air air asssaulted us as brock's Steelix knocked down the final wall between us and our destination, and our eyes were momentarily blinded by a bright light before we had a second to adjust. And when they did, we all gaped at the literal lost world before us.
We found ourselves standing on a ledge overlooking a chasm that stretched into the distance on either side, farther than any of us could see. Massive stone pillars were dotted about that stretched from the ground to the ceiling above, along with majestic stone arches that stretched from one side of the chasm to the other. And through the whole length of it was a river that fed into numerous pools of unimaginable depth.
Covering the majority of stone in the cave though was a thick layer of foliage like moss and vines, while the bottom floor was a valley covered in dense thickets of brush and trees the likes of which I had never seen. Except, perhaps, in a movie. And within the vegetation...
"Dooooooooon!"
A long trumpeting bellow sounded out that echoed off of the walls of the chasm, finished with a slight metallic ring. Immediately afterwards another bellow sounded out, before another.
"Is that...?"
"Yep." I answered the rest of the professor's question, as we all gazed down upon a herd of Bastiodon that were grazing in one of the clearings. And in the middle of them, a dozen or so Shieldon that were playing in a carefree manner within the safety of the parents.
And they were only the start.
"SCREYAAA!" Roared an Aerodactyl as it glided by overhead, an unmoving Kabuto clutched in it's talons as it flew to a cluster of nests built into the side of the cliffs.
*BANG!*
The sound of two incredibly hard objects hitting echoed next, courtesy of the two male Rampardos that were competing over a herd of females.
And through my aura I could sense entire colonies of Kabuto and Omanyte mingling in the deep pools of water, while schools of Anorith fluttered through both the rivers and pools, where I saw a Lileep eat one as it swam by.
"How is this possible...?" The professor uttered to himself.
"Don't ask me. HE'S the expert." I said while pointing to Brock.
However even Brock appeared stumped for an explanation for how all of this was down here, and THRIVING after several million years. Even though Regirock was considered a god, it still couldn't have done all of THIS.
"Rotom, record everything." I told my phone, which began floating in the air beside me.
"Roger boss!"
I rolled my eyes but focused on the scenery before us as I began looking for a way to get to bottom.
"Let's go." I told Chloe and Janine as I spotted a few places I could use for steps, before sweeping the former into my arms as I stepped off the ledge.
"KYAAA!" Chloe screamed as we dropped several feet, while Janine silently dropped behind me as we both made our way to the bottom. With Cloe trying to choke me and screaming in my ear the entire time.
"Chloe!" I yelled once we reached the bottom, as she had still been screaming.
"Eh?"
"We're at the bottom." I told her wryly.
"..."
"Oh..."
Embarrassed, Chloe slowly released her hands from around my neck as she stepped down onto the grass-covered ground. She then avoided eye contact with Janine as she landed beside us, and professor Oak as he flew down with Dragonite.
We all then waited a moment as Brock and his assistants joined us by using Steelix to climb down, before he returned it to it's pokeball.
"So where to first?" Brock asked as he and his assistants looked around excitedly.
"Some ground rules first." I stated seriously to ALL of them, as I recalled a certain series of movies from my first life.
"First of all, NO ONE goes off on their own. Not even for a second. Pick a buddy and stick with them. Janine, can I count of you to keep an eye on Chloe?"
"Of course." Janine said while nodding in affirmation.
"Thank you. Secondly-"
"Hold up! Why are YOU dictating what we can or can't do? This is a SCIENTIFIC expedition." Stated one of Brock's assistants.
"That's right! If anything WE'RE the experts on prehistoric pokemon here!" Another declared.
"Ace is right though." The professor suddenly said, his expression turning uncharacteristically grim.
"This is an ecosystem that has been completely cut off from the entire world for millions of years. We can make all the theories and guesses we want from studying fossils, but at the end of the day none of us actually KNOW anything for sure."
"But all of the pokemon we brought back-"
"Were raised in captivity, with none of the instincts and mannerisms that were developed and taught by their original counterparts in the wild. Not only that, we don't know how accurate the ressurection process is when we bring back pokemon from fossils.
"From this environment, to their social structures, behavior and even biology. We have to assume we know NOTHING about this place. One misstep, and we can easily lose our lives."
"""..."""
All of Brock's assistants were silent at that, while Brock himself nodded in agreement before he began to assign them partners and specfic roles. After all, we didn't plan to spend several days down here.
First they began documenting the different plants that could be found around us, plants that haven't grown on the surface in millions of years.
Chloe also worked by taking pictures to send to her parents, who were also professors, while Janine was carefully analyzing and harvesting some for later. I'm pretty sure she was going to see which ones were toxic enough to cultivate and be incorporated into her family's poisons.
Once they had analyzed everything they could we moved on, traveling carefully through the brush as we made our way to one of numerous pools of water.
"I'm pretty sure that all of these pools and river are fed from the same source." I told them kneeling down at the edge of the water, which appeared barren of life on the surface.
"Why do think so Ace?" The professor asked curiously.
"Well for one there's no noticeable connection from the river to here, which means that this pool must be fed from underground. And I'm pretty sure that's the case since I can feel the auras of numerous pokemon below us in a network that reminds me of a Durant colony."
"Fascinating..." The professor muttered while peering into the water.
"Watch it." I said while pulling him back.
"???"
"Ace?" The professor asked warily.
"There is a reason why this pool seems empty." I told the professor, before waltzing right up to the edge myself.
*SPLASH!*
Water suddenly exploded everywhere as a massive green head burst out of the pool, lunging at me with it's tentacles and 'mouth' wide open.
"Not today!" I exclaimed while ducking to the side, before driving my fist into the head.
"!!!"
The pokemon recoiled in shock from my quick reflexes, before retaliating as several tentacles shot out to Wrap around my arm to restrain me.
"Crrrrrradiiiiiiiil..." The pokemon, a Cradily, growled angrily as it glared at me hatefully.
"Hey, YOU'RE the one who tried to turn me into lunch." I replied as it tried to drag me into the water with the tentacles, which slowly began to burn.
"ACE! You have to get those tentacles off!" Brock yelled at me suddenly.
"Huh?" I asked without looking back at him.
"Cradily secrete digestive fluids from their tentacles!"
"!!!"
"Oh..."
Rather than continue fighting it myself, I quickly grabbed a pokeball from my belt with my free hand.
"Deal with this, Croagunk!"
"Crooooooooa!" Croagunk growled as he appeared, before moving with surprising speed as he delivered a series of vicious Poison Jabs to Cradily.
"!!!"
My arm was promptly released as Croagunk instantly defeated Cradily with his poison and strong attacks.
"That was....surprisingly weak..." Janine said as she came to approach the now defeated pokemon.
"Its not too surprising though." I replied while digging some medicine out of my bag, since my arm was already enflamed from Cradily's cigestive fluids.
"Cradily typically fight using surprise attacks." Professor Oak stated as he too stepped up to eagerly examine the fainted prehistoric pokemon. "Once they lose the element of surprise then it become harder for them to fight."
"My Croagunk is also a badass." I added as I finished applying the medicine.
"Croa..." Croagunk croaked as if unfazed by my praise, though his aura showed he was happy.
"So the Cradily set itself up here, which is why nothing was coming to this pool to drink since it would ambush them..." Brock murmured in contemplation as he approached the pool as well, and knelt at the edge to examine the water.
"The water is warm..."
"Hm?" I hummed as I knelt down beside him, dipping my hand in the water as well.
"Interesting... I suspect that the reason this water, and also the air around us, is so warm is because of possible magma flows below our feet." The professor said as he joined us.
"Just warm enough for a dip." I said as I stood, and proceeded to strip off my shirt.
"You're going in?!" Brock exclaimed.
"What about all his orders about sticking together?" One of his assistants grumbled.
"Yes, and when one of you can take on a Legendary without me having to interfere then I'll stop bossing you around." I replied to both Brock and the assistant while also stripping off my pants, leaving me in just my boxers.
I then grabbed my Pokedex and swapped out several of my pokemon for my dive, before tossing out three pokeballs.
"Come on out, Floatzel, Totodile and Oshawott!"
"Zelllll."
"TototototoDILE!"
"OshaWOTT!"
Floatzel appeared while looking ready for action, Totodile began hopping up and dancing excitedly, while Oshawott puffed his chest out with confidence.
"What about your Miltoic, Blastoise or Gyarados?" Chloe asked curiously as she looked over my pokemon.
"They're too big, unfortunately. But Floatzel, Totodile and Oshawott should be able to handle anything that comes at us, right?"
Several cries of affirmation answered me as my pokemon prepared to dive.
"Be careful down there Ace." The professor told me worriedly.
"If we get into trouble, then I'll have Gardevoir come and Teleport us out." I promised him, having complete faith that she would come if I actually got in trouble. All Gardevoir were VERY protective of their trainers.
"You guys ready?" I asked my pokemon as I fished a few items out of my backpack to take with us, such as my new rebreather and goggles, only to be answered by all three of them.
"Then let's go!"
Saying such, I dove into the warm water, which was almost comparable to a bath while my pokemon and Rotom phone followed me, the latter recording all the while.
Both Totodile and Oshawott shot down into the darkness while Floatzel waited for me to grab onto him, before we followed suit as Floatzel spun his tails like a propeller.
We dove down into the depths of the pool with nothing but seaweed and algae rock on either side, and saw nothing of note until we managed dive deep enough to get past Cradily's territory. Which wasn't actually far since they rarely moved.
Soon we came across our first pokemon as we dove down, a Kabuto that was clinging to the rocky wall as it nibbled on the algae growing there. After it we quickly encountered more Kabuto that were doing the same thing, as well as a few Lileep that were stretching to catch a Kabuto for a meal, before we descended to a series of tunnels that stretched in several directions.
Instead of investigating the tunnels right away, I focused on the bottom of the pool where there were hundreds of discarded shells. Shells from deceased Kabuto and Omanyte.
They must be the staple food supply down here...
I let go of Floatzel and swam down to the discarded shells while grabbing the mesh bag that hung at my waist, before scooping several of the best qualty ones into it to bring back to the professor for study. Once I was done I tied the bag off and held it out to Oshawott, who happily grabbed it before rushing back to the surface to bring it to them. A few moments later, Oshawott returned with the empty bag while seeming pleased with himself, and we started debating which tunnel to go down.
Eventually I decided to go with the slight current that had been trying to pull us, while riding Floatzel once again with Oshawott and Totodile flanking the two of us protectively.
Thankfully none of the pokemon down here tried to take a bite out of us, probably because of how large Floatzel and I were compared to them. I did notice them eyeing Oshawott and Totodile though, but none of them tried to attack them since they were beside us.
We continued swimming down the tunnel for a few minutes until I sensed several auras coming our way, which turned out to be a pack of Anorith.
The four of us stalled our swimming as the Anorith went around us, gliding through the water gracefully as they did so with the eight 'wings' on their sides. Of course I had Rotom record as much as it could as they went by, and I counted them at the same time to conclude there was a total of 27 of them that were various sizes.
Amazing...
Thankfully none of them showed any real interest in us as well, aside from enough wariness that they gave us a wide berth as they went around us, allowing us to continue down the tunnel unmolested. But as we swam, I started sensing the strongest aura I'd felt down here yet.
'Be on your guards.' I mentally alerted my pokemon, who all steadied themselves as we continued until we rounded a corner, and saw IT.
"..."
I blinked when I saw the largest Anorith yet, ripping a Lileep from the wall with it's claws before bringing it to it's mouth to snack on.
The damn thing had to be at least five feet long from the tip of it's tail to the end of it's claws, more than twice as long as a usual Anorith, and radiated strength. I want it.
'Totodile, use Bite on it's claws! Oshawott, attack it's body with Razor Shell! Floatzel, Aqua Jet!'
I let go of Floatzel as I mentally gave them their orders, and they all launched into action as Floatzel shot forward like a torpedo.
*Boom!*
I could feel the shockwave from their impact through the water as Floatzel hit it from above, sending the Anorith into the bottom of the tunnel while giving Totodile and Oshawott their opening to attack.
"Toto....DILE!" Totodile roared as he bit down onto Anorith's left claw, holding it closed and staying latched on even as Anorith swung it around wildly to knock him off.
"OSHA!" Oshawott cried out as he too shot forward while wielding the scaltrop that he usually wore on his stomach, which he used to channel a blade made of pure water like it was a sword.
"RITH!"
With a cry that sounded similar to clicking, Anorith swung it's free claw around to meet Oshawott's attack head-on in a Slash attack, which then sent him flying into the wall.
'You alright?' I mentally asked him, right as Floatzel slammed his fist into Anorith for an Ice Punch.
"Osha...WOTT!" He cried out angrily before rushing in at Anorith with his scaltrop raised.
By the time the battle was over, I actually felt a little bad for Anorith from the beating it had taken. Whether it was Totodile Biting it, repeatedly, Oshawott ceaselssly attacking it with his scaltrop, ot Floatzel using his strength to pummel it methodically in the exact manner I had taught him.
By the time it was over, I almost felt bad when I tapped a pokeball against Anorith to capture it. Almost.
But a pokemon, especially such a rare and powerful find, was a pokemon.
"Oshawott!"
"Totototototo!"
Oshawott and Totodile both appeared pleased with themselves after I caught Anorith, even though we basically ganged up on it while it was simply enjoying it's lunch...
I wasn't going to tell them that though.
After catching Anorith, we continued on down the tunnel to see what other pokemon there was to find.
I planned to capture at least one of every prehistoric pokemon that was down here, both to add to my team, and for the professor to examine when they weren't with me. I mean, I did plan to revive them via the fossils I had anyways.
If I still did though, then that could also give the professor the chance to examine them side by side to determine the, if any, differences between the pokmeon still living today, and those brought back through fossils. Maybe we'll talk about it later.
Totodile, Floatzel, Oshawott and I continued exploring the tunnels for a while longer, all while Rotom meticulously kept track of our progress so we can find our way back, until we found ourselves exiting the tunnels entirely as we arrived in a massive underwater cavern.
Hundreds of Kabuto scuttled over the walls, floor and even ceiling, while dozens of Lileep and Cradily were scattered about as they anchored themselves to the most secure places they could find. the open water meanwhile was home to numerous Omanyte, Omastar, and Anorith as they drifted about, either hunting some of the pokemon covering the walls, or munching on the tendrills of seaweed that drifted up from the bottom.
Curiously, I didn't see any of the Kabutops that Kabuto evolved into, or the Armaldo that Anorith evolve into. Perhaps they were adapting to life on land after evolving?
The vast majority of the pre-evolved pokemon however either just ignored us, or took their distance from us out of fear of us being predators. The Omastar and Cradily however saw us as potential meals, and some of them even began inching their way closer to us.
I was not worried about them though, and neither was Floatzel as he readily flexed his arms in an attempt at intimidation.
'Don't let them get too close.' I told him mentally while also letting him go so he had freedom of movement, to which Floatzel just smirked as he taunted the approaching pokemon.
While he did that, I swept the cavern with both my eyes and aura as I looked for pokemon to catch. And luckily for me, there were SEVERAL canidates to choose from. And I decided to start with the Kabuto on the bottom of the cavern, which was about three times larger than the others around it.