a shriek from the cavern stops not only fritz's bad singing but his magnezone; the sudden halt makes him lose his position and slip forward, face first. he hits the ground with a thud and the large steel type lets out a robotic yelp, while mudkip runs to where his trainer had fallen and lets out a concerned cry.

"i'm fine." he groans before he pushes himself off the cavern floor. what the hell was that, anyway? before he could mull over it some more, he hears the scratchy screech again from the cave, and when fritz looks behind him, he finds a very pointy birb.

very pointy and angery birb. great. it lets out a cry with its wings outstretched to make itself more intimidating, but the scientist does not even bat an eyelash. he is about to command magnezone to take it out but rotom beats him to the punch, appearing behind the wild pokemon with a huge grin and unleashes a powerful SHOCK WAVE. it zaps the poor bird silly, but it does not knock it out. rather it just makes it squawk and run away, letting out more noises as if crying. rotom laughs at the wild pokemon's pain before zipping close to his trainer.

"i was going to make that more dramatic, rotom." fritz mutters, happy that he is not wearing glasses today. otherwise, they might've cracked a bit from the fall. he tries to wipe his face so that there's no dirt on it before standing up and deciding that he might as well walk the rest of the way. rotom chitters as it disappears, bouncing around the cavern walls once more. fritz stretches his arms upward and pats down his clothes. "okay, where were we?"

he continues to sing and does a little twirl as they approach one of the larger off-shoots of the tunnel.

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tags: none!
notes: might try my luck again lol. fritz does not want pointy birb.

the digging is actually worse than he had anticipated. he had been here before, and he doesn't remember this big, big hole that seemed to stretch further into the mountain. he stops his singing and takes a closer look, feeling the edges of the cavern as he lets out a small hum. surprisingly smooth, but not smooth enough to be manmade. whoever decided to make this hole put a bit of time making it look fancy, and he supposes there could be some pokemon that can be OCD or something similar.

unfortunately, it's not big enough to fit magnezone. damn. he calls back his big lug of metal and calls rotom to follow him in case it went too far ahead in the cave. it takes a few moments for the electric ghost to pop up beside him, which would've elicited a yelp from him before, but he's too used to his oldest partner's tactics to be scared anymore. rotom makes a face and lets out a garbled cry, probably something along the lines of 'you're no fun.'

this part of the cave has no lights, so fritz pulls out one of his own. with his phone he shines a white light on his surroundings, hearing the rumbles of pokemon still possibly trying to dig into the earth. he eventually shines his light on something dangerous--an outline that he recognizes since they're common pokemon used in construction when it involved having to excavate stuff. of course, it does not take kindly to being momentarily blinded by his phone.

"aw shit."

there is no possibility of him winning in this small tunnel, so he quickly calls mudkip back and makes a run for it. the excadrill roars as a result, closing itself before directing a HORN DRILL at the trespasser. its rotom's OMINOUS WIND that manages to push the wild pokemon away from its trainer, and it thankfully doesn't take long until they're back at the main road of the tunnel. "shit shit shit shit" he fumbles for magnezone's poke ball, managing to pull it out and releasing him from the spherical confines right when excadrill jumps out of the hole and into the fray. normally two against one would be unfair, but both of his pokemon are fucking electric types and he knows damn well that their opponent is a ground type. if only his stupid mudkip...

he sighs. okay. go time.

"maggy, magnet rise and then metal sound!" the large steel type immediately follows, using electricity to make sure he's more mobile despite the cramped space, and then releases a piercing shriek that feels even more painful because they're in a cavern. the huge upset not only freezes excadrill but lets out a horde of whismur, zubat, and geodude, making them scramble in chaos so long as they get away from the noise. rotom hides in fritz's phone for the duration of the attack. once it's over, the scientist quickly calls his next set of orders, "rotom, double team then hex that bitch."

the electric ghost chitters gladly, jumping out of its trainer's device before splitting itself into twos, fours, basically making copies of itself before it seems like a dozen of them were floating above fritz. the excadrill cries out in fear as all of their eyes glow a dark purple and the lights seem to flicker. they then release spheres of black energy, slamming into the scared pokemon mercilessly. it seems like the combined fear of the ghost type and the attack knocked him out stiff, so fritz decides that he might as well try to catch this bub. he throws a poke ball as the lights come back on.

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tags: none!
notes: i mean, i guess he needs a digger