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Beau had to admit, he'd been enjoying the steady stream of missions being directed his way lately. Helping the SS Tidal back to port had been a major highlight of his year so far, and fortunately the highs of successes like that kept him insulated from the ominous lows of missions like this.
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When he'd been told to engage in another extraction mission, he balked, recalling his last foray into the Ultra Deep Sea. To say it hadn't been smooth would be an understatement. He'd been given two quick shots of relief, however, in the form of finding out that this particular mission was centered around the Power Spot on Route 105 instead of the strange realm within Granite Cave, and that Jack would once again be partnered with him.
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His anxiety shifted to excitement as they made their way from Dewford to the small island on Route 105, because he knew if nothing else his buddy would have his back. Dismounting, he recalled his Swampert and approached the glowing Power Spot slowly, the circle of stones easily the main feature of the small islet.
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He peered at the Spot thoughtfully, eyeing the energy pooled within, and glanced to Jack with a raised eyebrow. "We're just supposed to go in?" he inquired. He wasn't one to question directions as a rule, but this seemed a little strange even for him. Swallowing, he shrugged and shook off his nervousness with a laugh. "Guess we won't get anything done up here, anyway!"
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Before he could talk himself out of it, he jumped feet-first into the Spot, vanishing into the depths below.
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Beau's impromptu leap into the power spot and his subsequent descent made him consider, mid-plummet, that perhaps the cavern beneath was more than a few feet of a drop. He glanced down and, with a mild frisson of fear running through him, confirmed this to be the case, as the floor - dozens of feet away - grew close at a rapid pace.
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Yelping, he fumbled at his belt for a pokeball and released his Toucannon, grabbing on to her claws tightly. Squawking indignantly, she flapped her wings madly; though she was far from large enough to carry a man of Beau's size, it was enough to arrest his descent from a bone-shattering speed to an uncomfortable one. He landed and took a few stumbling steps before tripping and falling on his face.
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"Oof," he pronounced, muffled, from his place on the floor.
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Standing up slowly, he dusted himself off and looked around the enclosure. The maze-like passages of the cave offered two means of egress, and the thrumming presence of dynergy did little to settle his nerves. He glanced up as Jack and his Mismagius floated down in a significantly more graceful manner than he'd managed, and offered a wry, self-deprecating grin as the other man landed.
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"Alright, time to find what we can find, I guess. Left, think? I have a pretty good feeling!" Beau set off leftward, rounding the bend and immediately stepping in a clump of poison-dripping moss on the cave floor. "Okay, well, something that might be a good feeling if you squint, I guess," he frowned, lifting his foot to look at the damage before shaking his shoe in an attempt to get the sludge off of it.
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The tunnels wound and narrowed as Beau and Jack made their way through, the taller man only pausing to allow Jack's pokemon to wash the sludge from his shoe before continuing after a grateful nod.
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As they progressed, Beau could have sworn he heard footsteps and rustling overlaid with their own, but try as he might he couldn't catch sight of anyone - or anything - else in the caves apart from himself and his companion. Eventually, the tunnel widened enough to open onto a cavernous den, and darting across the other side of the space, a lanky, haggard figure in researcher's clothing that had clearly seen better days.
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"Hey, wait!" Beau called, breaking into a jog as he moved to catch up to the other man. "I'm not the Creighton you're looking for!" the professor called raspily over his shoulder, picking up speed as he made for the exit on the opposite side of the den.
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As Beau barely reached the center of the chamber, the floor began to shake and buckle, splitting in the center to reveal an Excadrill burrowing up from below. Beau skidded to a halt, narrowly avoiding running into the thing, and the pokemon turned and fixed its gaze on Beau and Jack, uttering a cry that seemed to...reverberate a little too deeply for its size.
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The sickening feeling of dynergy in the chamber suddenly surged, and with no more warning than that, the Excadrill Dynamaxed, growing to incredible size in the space of moments. Cursing, Beau danced backward, recalling his Toucannon and releasing Dominic instead. "Well, that ain't ideal!" he hollered back to Jack, his Rillaboom offering a DRUM BEATING that caused enormous vines to rip upward from the earth, battering against the Excadrill's Dynamax Shield.
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Although the Dynamaxed Excadrill put up a significant fight, Beau was grateful of his positioning; having to split its attention between the Rillaboom and the Aggron divided its offensive, and though he and Jack were able, at length, to bring the creature down, he shuddered to think what the result would have been if they hadn't been so fortunate with their accidental tactic.
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"I guess," Beau returned uncertainly to Jack's comment about the professor, "But ain't it kinda dangerous down here for an egghead like that? What if he gets squished by somethin'?"
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As he moved around the fallen Excadrill, he glanced over at it with pity - so many pokemon weren't built to survive Dynamaxing in the wild, and this one was no exception. A sparkle caught his eye, however, and he peered closely at it, then abruptly recoiled with a cry of disgust. "Brah!" he called, jogging around to meet up with Jack and pointing at the gargantuan corpse that now occupied the center of the den, "That thing's got Dynite Ore...IN it."
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Surely enough, the body of the now-still creature was studded with ruddy stones, glinting innocently at irregular intervals across the carcass. "I ain't touching that," Beau affirmed, unshouldering his pack and moving a more natural - if it could be called natural - cluster of ore, glancing back at Jack meaningfully. "Let's get some so we can say we got some, but I think we oughtta get out of here sooner over later. I'm not lookin' forward to what could pop up here next."
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