He considers Wren his feedback machine and decides, then and there, he will, in fact, make a series on the special bits of Hoenn. Despite his latent acts of terrorism and innate dislike of the government (it’s part of his breeding, he can’t escape it) he isn’t totally loathful of the general populace.

“I imagine if you have to be stuck here,” he said, stepping up on a small ledge and placing his palm to the cool rock, “you might need a-- a new viewpoint on what makes it wonderful.”

And, you know, something to focus on other than your imminent destruction.

Wren suggests they go further down and Fox agrees with a nod, bending at the waist to bow and sweep an arm forward, gesturing him onward.

There’s a slam and the cavern shakes, as an angry Gigalith blocks their path.

Olera, pissed that Fox interrupted her last fight, fires a giga drainright in the Gigalith’s face (Giga this, you fuck! was her train of thought but no one knew that except her). A sapping vine the size of a tree trunk punched a hole in the Gigalith’s rocky body and began sucking the vitality out of it.

Fox winced and threw a Pokeball as it began to shake and fall.

“So. Speaking of being stuck here,” he said, once their path was clear, “what do you know about the dome?”

wren rourke
catch attempt gigalith
rock/water

☉

Fox listens to Wren explain what little he knows about the dome and nods along, but his gaze rests on the Relicanth Wren is befriending. “That makes sense,” he says, drawing out the final sibilant as though in deep thought. Of course it would muddle with the coming and going of migratory creatures-- it had muddled with his own.

Olera fires off angry giga drain spores into a Croconaw which had surfaced before it can fully rise from the water. It flops a little, drained of energy, and Fox bops it with a Pokeball.

“I thought at first it was a government thing.” But then talking to Laurence Anderson had convinced him otherwise. “It still might be, honestly. I’m from Kanto, though, so. Naturally distrustful.”

wren rourke
catch attempt croconaw
rock/water

☉

Fox is about to open his mouth and say something witty, surely, when the entire chamber they're in rumbles something fierce. Pieces of rock crumble from the ceiling as the earth heaves and a new pool splits open, chunks of limestone hurled skyward.

Fox has Phage throw a protect over the both of them as a solitary, pained eye rolls upward. The Wailord, lost and trapped, lows pathetically, and Fox walks to the edge of the split and knees to place a Pokeball against her scuffed, blue skin.

“Never count out the possibility that this was all according to plan for someone,” he says, voice gone hard, standing to tuck the Wailord’s Pokeball into his belt.

wren rourke
catch attempt wailord
rock/water

☉

Fox gives half a shrug, a dip of one shoulder. “I’ve been told by some of my arresting officers that they had nothing to do with it and have no idea what’s going on.” His tone suggested he didn’t really believe this.

The shivering cavern had unearthed a Binacle, its twin heads popping out of its protective stone. Fox carefully stepped over it, zapping it with a Pokeball.

“To tell you the truth, I don’t know if that’s better than planning and operating it, or not.”

wren rourke
catch attempt binacle
rock/water

☉

“Ah,” he says, and there’s a slip of a smile, “oops.”

He’d neglected to mention that part, earlier.

Phage hovers over a Seaking that has been displaced by the shifting stones. Fox tosses a Pokeball at the flopping fish to save it the torture of a long, slow death.

“Yes, I was briefly detained by the League. Though whether or not they were using it as an enlistment tactic remains to be seen.” He shrugged, stepping up onto a rock ledge that led towards an unearthed passage.

“It was very nice to meet you, Wren. Maybe we’ll do a video together if we make it through the apocalypse?”

wren rourke
catch attempt seaking
rock/water

☉