[attr="class","spiral"]The world responds to Birdie's assertion with a challenge. Not but a few seconds after her comment there's a thud, and then a scraping, and finally a sound like hail pinging off a car's hood. Something is moving slowly but purposefully through the tunnel, and that something makes itself known as it rounds a corner.

Birdie finds herself instinctually ducking out of sight as the almost tank-like pokemon makes itself seen. It is almost as big as her, making it easily several times larger than either of her pokemon.

It's not her first time seeing a large wild pokemon but it's her first time with so few options to avoid it. Usually she simply skirts around them on an open route or makes tracks to the nearest town, but the cave is large and the tunnels thin and it's not easy to imagine escape from this thing without catching its attention.

And if they get its attention? She can feel Bubbie shiver against her leg. He doesn't seem fit to bolt, but she gets the feeling that has less to do with his belief in himself and more to do with the wild instincts still present in his behavior. Even a mild bug has to be ready to fight when cornered.

Thankfully, the pokemon didn't see them when they ran to hide and they go silent and undisturbed in the moments that follow. After scrounging around a bit the hulking quadruped turns and leaves. The sound of heavy footfalls and earth falling away in chunks grows slowly quieter . . .

"Okay, maybe I got ahead of myself on 'really strong'," she sighs, "Let's try aiming a little lower -- I bet you're no slouch!"

Those words feel less likely to breath very real dangers into existence.

[attr="class","spiral"]It starts off a dull rattling that Birdie quickly filters from her ears. She and Bubbie push deeper into the cave paying it no mind, but while they do it grows. The dull rattling turns to raucous tumbling, and finally as Birdie turns to face the source it becomes like an approaching earthquake -- shaking the walls and sending dust raining down from above.

A boulder comes rolling through the cavern with more precision and purpose than simple stone ought to have. It doesn't bump into walls and it comes rushing towards them on a course that shifts as the pair try to move out of the way. There's only really one conclusion to draw, and Birdie hates that fact. Even her carefully chosen words have thrown more at them than they can handle.

"Uh, Bubbie, use, uh, she fumbles for an answer to the approaching threat, "Headbutt!" she only just manages to squeak out the order in time for Bubbie to move. The Dewpider lunges forward towards the approaching, sentient missile heading their way. HEADBUTT connects, but it's Bubbie who's sent flying. His liquid helmet ripples and warps flat against his face before he's thrown across the cavern.

Their attacker comes to a stop after that. Limbs and a head pop from within the boulder and it gives an irritated cry while rubbing a section of scuffed rock on its body. The gesture reminds her of when she stops to pull a bit of cobweb from her hair while bicycling in the woods. There's no real concern of damage in the moment, just a desire to check and fix a tickle that wasn't there a moment ago.

Bubbie struggles upright while the wild pokemon inspects itself and Birdie does her best not to panic. This pokemon isn't as large as the last, but it's still big, and if that first clash between it and Bubbie was any indication -- they're a bad match-up for it. Taking a moment to look it over she thinks it might be a bad match-up for Drifter, too.

She doesn't know much, but she knows how her bird matches up against other pokemon and this thing is literally a giant rock.

Only one thing to do then. While its trying to get a read on the situation they should . . . run! Birdie sprints in the direction of Bubbie, plucks him from the ground by a leg, and takes off down into a random cavern. It's not long after she makes the turn that the rumbling from earlier picks back up. Hopefully the thing won't know which way they went!

[attr="class","spiral"]Once they're out of sight of the latest tunnel terror Birdie does her best to catch her breath. She places a somewhat dizzy Bubbie on the ground before sinking to his level -- sliding down the cave wall in a dramatic fashion that pushes her sweater not-so-dramatically up to her ribs. She wants to lament the way that leaves her t-shirt to get dirtied by the cavern wall, but after dealing with back to back adrenaline spikes she finds she doesn't have the energy.

"Why isn't there, like, a warning on this tunnel?" she whines instead, "Like, I don't know, 'Beware! Full of big, angry pokemon dying to crush you,' -- or something!"

Bubbie blows a few bubbles in his helmet as Birdie grumbles a few more times. The inside of the dome glows gently as a few of the bubbles begin swirling around the inside like planets orbiting his head. AQUA RING first knits up the scrape on his forehead Birdie failed to notice before taking on a more passive role healing various aches and pains.

Meanwhile a gentle plodding of feet goes unnoticed. Another new pokemon enters the space, but this one with much less drama than its predecessors. It makes its way in relatively silently, creeps up on the pair, and only really pulls attention when it plops down next to Bubbie. Its metallic skin tings against the stony ground and it gives a small trumpet as if the movement caused it some kind of pain.

Birdie, naturally, jumps to her feet at the series of sounds. Conditioned by the tunnel to treat every bump and rattle as the sign of an approaching attacker. She's half ready to start shouting orders when she takes in the pokemon before her. It looks . . . tired. Maybe even dejected. It walked up to them without causing a commotion, and rather than fighting it collapsed next to Bubbie. Why?

"Hmmm," Birdie's voice anxiously drones as she slowly walks closer to the new arrival. It opens its eyes halfway to look at her, and she can't help sucking her teeth a bit at the image her closer look provides. Maybe they weren't the only things having a rough time in this cave; the little pokemon looked like it had seen better days. Its copper skin is scuffed and bleeding in places, one of its legs looks especially banged up. Maybe it came to them hoping their presence would make the area safe to rest in.

Unfortunately, Birdie knows firsthand there's not a lot they can do to provide safety.

"Uh, hey, little buddy?" she asks tentatively, it gives a low trumpet in response, "Yeah, uh, if you want to like, rest here? You can. But me and Bubbie here have got to keep moving. . . You look kinda beat up? So I was wondering would you, um, maybe want to come with us?"

She asks the question while very, very slowly pulling a pokeball from within her bag. She doesn't know if wild pokemon have some kind of sixth sense for the things and how they work, but either way she holds it out like an open hand to the pokemon -- button facing its trunk that hangs defensively in front of its face.