From: Rob (robfrompw@yahoo.com) Subject: [PW!] Hiding In Granite Cave Newsgroups: alt.games.nintendo.pokemon Date: 2003-12-27 04:45:48 PST "I'm sittin' on the dock of the bay, watchin' the tide roll away. Just sittin on the dock of the bay, wastin' ti-hi-hi-hi-hime... I left my home in Goldenrod, headed for Dewford Town. I have nothing to perform, looks like no ship's gonna come my way, yeah... So I'm sittin' on the dock of the bay, watchin' the tide roll away. Yes, I'm just sittin' on the dock of the bay, wastin ti-hi-hi-hime..." "SHUT UP! WILL YOU JUST SHUT UP ALREADY?!" Captain Briney shouts at the middle-aged man sitting next to him on the dock, "Of all the places in this stupid town where you can sit and poorly sing songs that no one wants to hear, WHY must you pick the ONE place I enjoy sitting at? WHY, MARVIN, WHY?!" Peeko, the Wingull on Captain Briney's shoulder, covers the sides of his head with his long wings. "Do you WANT me to kill you? Is that it?! HUH?! I CAN DO THAT IF THAT'S WHAT YOU WANT! JUST ASK!" "Aww, lighten up, cap'n." Marvin says, a sweatdrop forming on his face, "I was just trying to cheer you up. I know you're a bit peeved that you're trapped here since your boat was stolen by a little girl, but until someone finds out why people and Pokemon on the S. S. Tidal fell ill, we're stuck here so we might as well make the best of it!" Captain Briney glares at Marvin, "And you think singing to me in your horrible singing voice is making the BEST of our situation?" Marvin raises his eyebrows and nods, "Those trendy people at Dewford Hall freak me out and Brawly spends most of the time making terrible water-related puns. You're the only person on this island I can really talk with, and believe you me, I've explored this entire island!" "Including Granite Cave?" "What's Granite Cave?" Captain Briney's eyelids lower, "It's a cave northwest of the city. Just follow the northern beach until you see the entrance. You really should check it out!" The old man mutters quietly to himself, "Maybe a Mawile will eat you while you're there." "What was that?" "I said maybe a Mawile will greet you while you're there!" "A Mawile?" Marvin is not familiar with that particular Hoenn Pokemon, "What's a Mawile?" Captain Briney shakes his head, "I COULD tell you what a Mawile is, but it's one of those things you have to see to believe. There's a whole bunch of them in Granite Cave - you'll love them! Don't be afraid to walk close to them - they may look intimidating, but they don't bite." "I'll keep that in mind!" Marvin shakes Captain Briney's hand and says, "I'm going to go see them right now! Bye, cap'n!" He stands up and walks west past Dewford's Scarf Shop then north until he arrives at the island's northern beach. He walks westward down the beach, kicking sand into his burgundy penny-loafers, until he sees an entrance to a cave. Marvin enters Granite Cave and once he's walked far enough away from the entrance, he's stricken by the darkness within the cave. He fumbles through his golden tuxedo's coat pocket in the darkness until he produces the Pokeball he was reaching for. Pushing the button on it, he releases his small orange Torchic in a flash of white light. "CHIC!" The Torchic squeaks in fear, terrified of the dark, and hugs Marvin's leg the moment she's released. She starts trembling. Marvin says, "Hi, Torchic, I was hoping you could provide some light." The Fire Pokemon asks, quivering due to her phobia, "Torchic?" "Yes, Torchic. You. I want you to provide some light." "Torch... Torchic." Still hugging her Trainer's leg, Torchic spews a few Embers out of her beak and they land harmlessly on the dirt, producing only a slight glow. "Okay, THAT didn't work." Marvin crouches down by the glowing Embers to get a better view of the contents of his coat of many pockets. "Handkerchiefs would burn too easily, so would flowers, I can just FORGET about flash paper... Ah-HA! I KNEW I had a wand made of wood." Marvin looks down at the wooden wand he's pulled out of his coat, a joke forming in his head. When he comes up with what he considers the perfect punchline, he chuckles for a few seconds then says, "Oh, man! I'll have to write that one down and use it in one of my future shows! But back to the matter at hand..." He stops again, then cracks up, "AT HAND! BAH-hahahahaha! Okay, okay... focus, Marvin, focus! FOCUS! HAHAHAHAHA!" Torchic tilts her head at Marvin, wondering what he finds so funny. "Torchic, eh-heh-heh," Marvin says, holding the tip of his wooden wand up to his Fire Pokemon's beak, "Use Ember on my... wand, hehehe..." Marvin's Torchic spits Ember the moment she's asked to and it lights the tip of the magician's wand on fire. The fire on the end of the makeshift torch glows brightly, lighting up the cave. "We've only got a few minutes of light, Torchic, so we'd better hurry up and find some Mawile soon! Keep your eyes peeled for anything that moves and looks intimidating but really isn't!" Marvin continues his trek into Granite Cave, transporting his Torchic who's still hugging his leg in fear. A pack of Abra Teleport away when they see Marvin approaching and some Sableye phase through the cave walls to keep their gem eyes from reflecting the light of Marvin's wand. Since the resident Pokemon are hiding from him, Marvin thinks that the cave is deserted and that Captain Briney lied about there being Mawile in it just to get rid of him. Before he can carry this stream of thought too far, he sees a small unlit torch on one of the cave's walls, "What luck! A torch!" The Fire Pokemon hugging his leg asks, "Torch?" "Yes, a torch! I'm going to take it so we can go further into the cave." Marvin pulls on the torch, but it doesn't detach from the wall. He tugs on it with more strength, still unable to dislodge it. Finally, he tries to pry it off by rotating it. He rotates it once, then twice, then three times. Suddenly, a trapdoor opens up underneath his feet! "Aaaaahhhhhhh!" Marvin screams as he tumbles down a tunnel, his Torchic clutching his leg with all her might, crying, "Chiiiiiiiiiiiic!" "Oooof!" "Torch!" During the tumble, the flame on Marvin's wand went out, but he doesn't need it anymore. The blue-walled room he fell into has lamps hanging down from the ceiling that light up the room. He puts his half-burnt wand away inside his coat pocket and looks around the room. There are rows of blue lockers filled with uniforms and blue benches in the room. The room has only two exits - the large hole in the wall behind Marvin and a navy blue door across from the hole that's currently closed. A water cooler is placed at each corner of the room. Marvin comments, "Four water coolers? Wow, whoever works in this place must love talking about sitcoms and/or reality shows during their breaks!" "Chic!" Torchic cries out, momentarily taking one wing off of Marvin's pant leg to point at the door in front of her, "Torchic torchic!" "Someone's coming? Uh-oh, they might not appreciate trespassers! We'd better hide!" Marvin recalls his Torchic into her Pokeball and looks around for the nearest locker that doesn't have a lock on it. He opens it up, steps inside, and remarks, "I feel like I'm in high school all over again..." Hearing a door creak open, he decides to stop talking. Through the small horizontal slits on the door of the locker he's hiding in, Marvin watches as a man with short white hair and a woman with long blue hair step into the room. They are wearing blue do-rags on their heads, white shirts with black stripes on them, black gloves, blue pants, and black boots. The woman sits down on one of the benches as the man starts entering his combination into the lock on his locker. As he fiddles with his lock, the man tells the woman, "This is all your fault, Sandra! The Pokemon exposed to that formula you made were supposed to never recover. Now that those Pokemon are healthy, ships will start sailing from Lilycove to Petalburg again!" "Shut up, Jack." Sandra kicks Jack's calf from her seat behind him. "OW!" Jack stops entering his combination to reach down and rub his leg, "You're just as bad as my old partner. Why must I keep getting stuck with women who insist on abusing me? One time, Jill grabbed my..." "Will you shut up about your Magma ex-girlfriend too?" Sandra glowers at her partner, "The way you go on and on about her makes me sick." "Well, we were partners in Team Rocket for years before we saw the error of our ways. When you spend so much time with someone, they tend to become a major part of your life." Jack says, whilst Sandra silently moves her lips whilst rolling her eyes to mock Jack's speech. Jack ignores the taunting and sighs, "It's just too bad Jill made another error by joining Team Magma instead of Team Aqua. I miss her." Sandra says, "Yeah, and I miss working with a lab assistant who isn't a whiny little bitch. Now get your ass in gear and give me what was left of the potion you put in the food on the Tidal. I need to compare it to what's in the lab to make sure you actually took the right vial." "Of course I took the right vial!" Jack narrows his eyes at Sandra, "The red potion labeled 'Perma-fusion', right?" "I wouldn't put it past you to have read the label incorrectly." "Stop trying to pass off the blame on me." Jack says, "I did what I had to do perfectly. I snuck on the ship disguised as a tourist, snuck into the kitchen, poured the perma-fusion fluid into the food supply, then dove out of the ship and came back here on Wailmer. You're the one to blame. You probably forgot to put the Persim Berry inhibitor in it." "I put everything I had to put in it - Full Heal inhibitor, Persim Berry inhibitor, all that stuff. If you dare question my potion prowess one more time, I'll hurt you in ways that'll make your Magma ex-girlfriend look like a saint. You understand, jerkwad?" "Mmm." Jack mumbles, grabbing his lock once again to finish entering his combination. He opens his locker and removes a corked vial containing a small amount of red fluid from within. He hands the vial to Sandra, who shakes the vial in front of her face. Sandra observes, "The potion's viscosity implies that the perma-fusion hasn't been tampered with and it hasn't expired. We'll need to go back to the lab to conduct some tests on it to find out what went wrong." "Why bother?" Jack asks, taking a seat next to Sandra, tired since he's been standing in the lab since early in the morning, "All civilian ships were docked during the Regice mission thanks to what I did on the S. S. Tidal. That's all we were trying to do - make people afraid to sail so that we would have the seas all to ourselves and no one would report us to the police. The mission's over. It was a success. We don't need to keep people from sailing anymore - why bother figuring out what went wrong with the perma-fusion? Heck, our boss is on vacation! We don't even have to report to anyone. We can just relax for a while, Sandra!" "Your attitude is why I'm the scientist and you're just my pathetic lackey." Sandra says, glaring at the man sitting next to her, "If I make a perma-fusion potion that actually makes a Pokemon want to attack everyone around it for every waking moment of its life, I'll become rich and famous. I'll get a raise. I'll be going on confidential business trips with Archie instead of sitting with a loser like you in a stupid locker-room that reeks of sweatsocks and burnt wood! ...burnt wood?" Jack sniffs the air. "Hey, it does smell like burnt wood in here. I haven't set anything on fire today. Have you?" "No. We must have company." Sandra stands up and starts walking down the aisle of lockers, peeking through the slits on their doors. When she gets to the one Marvin's hiding in, he throws the locker door open. The door slams into Sandra, knocking the blue-haired woman to the floor! Marvin runs out of the locker and heads for the hole in the wall. "Oh, no you don't!" Jack throws a Pokeball at the hole and in a flash of white light, the gap is covered by an Electrode with an evil smirk on his face. "Electrode, if anyone goes near you, use Explosion." He then runs to the room's only other exit and blocks it himself. He asks the frightened middle-aged man, "Who are you and what are you doing here?" Sandra sits up on the floor, holding her head where the locker's door hit her, "Don't interrogate him, you idiot, just kill him!" "I liked Jack's plan better." Marvin comments as he fumbles to pull his Safari Ball out of the coat pocket where he keeps his Pokeballs. When he finally grabs the Safari Ball and drops it on the floor, he commands, "Exeggutor, use Hypnosis on everyone in the room but me!" Three of the four coconut-shaped heads on Marvin's Palm Tree Pokemon use Hypnosis the moment they appear, putting Jack, Sandra, and Electrode to sleep. The fourth head on the Exeggutor glares at Marvin, still angry that he was forced to evolve against his will and unwilling to obey anything his Trainer asks him to do, even in a life or death situation. "Thanks, three out of four heads on Exeggutor," Marvin says, relieved that the two humans and the Bomb Ball Pokemon are asleep. Worried that there are more people and Pokemon in the Secret Team Aqua Base than these three, he picks up Exeggutor's Safari Ball, recalls his Psychic Grass Pokemon, and walks over to where Electrode is sleeping. He gently rolls the dangerous Electric Pokemon away from the hole in the wall and crawls into the tunnel. Marvin keeps on crawling until he's in utter darkness and he hits a cave wall. He runs his hands across the walls around him, trying to find a lever or a switch in the darkness. He doesn't find anything out of the ordinary. "I'm trapped. I guess I'll have to go back to the base and find another way out..." Marvin starts crawling back towards the light at the other end of the tunnel, but he stops when he sees the silhouettes of two humans crawling into the tunnel through that end. "Did they wake up already?" Marvin asks as he sees the figures approach, "This tunnel's too small to release Exeggutor..." He starts to breathe irregularly, scared out of his wits. The middle-aged man almost has a heart attack when a giant metallic jaw rips through the side of the tunnel, opening and closing as if it's trying to eat something. Marvin imagines what the other end of the Pokemon must look like - a Steel-plated creature vaguely resembling and alligator on steroids. Fortunately for Marvin, his imagination is shown to be way off when a tiny yellow Pokemon that looks like she's wearing a skirt crawls through the hole, her head attached to the gargantuan jaw she used to dig into the tunnel. The Pokemon's friendly red eyes squint when she waves one outstretched arm at the terrified man trembling before her. "Mawile?" The Steel Pokemon asks, not sure why the stranger is so scared of her. She looks around the tunnel, wondering if there's another reason for his fear, and she sees two humans wearing blue rags on their heads crawling closer to where she's standing. She's seen the rag-wearing humans in the cave before, and she knows that they're bad people. "Maw..." The Mawile Bites Marvin's leg with her huge jaw and drags him into the tunnel she dug, pulling him away from the Team Aqua members. As Marvin is dragged through the narrow tunnel by the Mawile he just met, he remarks, "I feel like that guy I saw on TV the other day." "Mawile!" Mawile proudly exclaims, releasing her grip on Marvin when she arrives at the main level of the Granite Cave. "Where am I?" Marvin reaches up to rub his eyes, but he decides not to when he realizes how dirty his hands must be after having been dragged through the Mawile's tunnel, "I can't see a thing in this darkness!" Marvin explains, "I need to find a place to hide out until the coast is clear. If I go back to Dewford Town, they'll find me and kill me!" "Ile... Mawile!" Mawile knows the perfect place to hide Marvin from the bad people after him. He Bites Marvin's leg once again and drags him through the cave. Forward, left, down, right, around the corner, forward, left, behind the rock, and through the tunnel. Arriving at her final destination, Mawile removes her jaw from Marvin's leg again. Sunlight pours into this part of Granite Cave through a small hole in the cave's ceiling high above. The light hits a lake in the center of the area that Mawile has brought Marvin to. Marvin stands up. He starts dusting himself off, but realizing he's too covered in dirt for his hands to make a difference, he soon stops. "Mawile! Maww-aww-awwww-ile!" Mawile calls out, raising her tiny arms to the sides of her gargantuan jaw. A bunch of Mawile with smaller, but still incredibly large, jaws step out of the darkness and into the light, eyeing Mawile's human guest with suspicion, especially considering that the Mawile with the largest jaw has brought him there. Finally able to see where he is and all that surrounds him, Marvin asks, "You've brought me to a Mawile village so I can hide out here?" "Mawile!" The Mawile that saved Marvin nods, her jaw not lifting off the floor as she moves her head. "Mawile, maw mawile..." One of the Mawile complains, knowing that humans can't always be trusted. "Maw," another Mawile concurs. "Mawile maw maw mawile, ile maw mawile maw!" Another Mawile says, not trusting the Mawile that brought Marvin there. He always knew her oversized jaw was a bad omen, ever since the day she was born. "Maw, mawile mawile Mawile." An elderly Mawile suggests, wanting to give the Mawile with the large jaw a chance. The old Mawile tells a child Mawile at his side, "Maw, maw ile Mawile." The young Mawile, who's jaw is about twice the size of his little body, lifts his jaw up and runs back into the darkness to fetch the leader of the Mawile community. Marvin waits for something to happen, as all the Mawile stare at him. He chuckles nervously and asks, "So... seen any good movies lately?" All the Mawile continues to stare at Marvin in silence. "Maw, maw ile maw mawile mawile," the friendly Mawile who dragged him to the Mawile Village explains, interrupting the silence. Some of the Mawile turn their glares on her when she socializes with the human. "Maw." A small voice echoes throughout the area. All the Mawile standing around Marvin, including the one who just spoke with him, bow their heads in reverence. Seeing all the Mawile do so, Marvin bows his head as well. After a moment, he sees that the Mawile at his feet raises her head so he follows suit. A tall Mawile with a tiny Steel jaw that's about half the length of his arm now stands before the lake in the center of the area. The small-jawed Mawile asks the short Mawile who has the immense jaw that dragged Marvin here, "Mawile, maw ile maw mawile?" "Maw maw mawile ile maw maw Maw Ile," the Mawile politely answers her leader's question, hoping he'll have mercy on her and her guest. "Maaaaw... maw ile maw maw maw ile?" The leader of the Mawile asks using the small voice that passes through his tiny jaw. The Mawile who saved Marvin shrugs in response, not sure how long her guest will have to stay in the Mawile Village, "Ilemaw?" "Maw..." The Mawile leader strokes his small jaw as he considers what is best for his community, "Maw mawile Ilemaw... maw MAWILE Ilemaw." "Maw, Mawile!" The Mawile with the huge jaw bows her head, thanking the leader for allowing Marvin to stay in the village. The Mawile leader raises one arm and declares, "Maw." Everyone around the lake bows their heads again, Marvin being the last one to do so again, and the Mawile leader retreats to his home. "Mawile!" When the leader has left, the Mawile that likes Marvin hops up and down happily, her jaw stuck on the ground as she celebrates. She waves her hands at Marvin, saying, "Mawile, maw mawile! Mawile, maw! Mawile maw maw mawile mawile mawile maw maw mawile, maw mawile maw maw!" "I have no idea what you just said," Marvin admits before saying, "But based on the look on your face I'm guessing it's okay for me to crash here until the coast is clear... Am I right?" The celebrating Mawile nods, the ends of her titanic jaw curved upwards in a smile. "Whew!" Marvin wipes his brow and says, "So, can you show me around the place? If I'm going to stay here, I should know where everything is." The Mawile nods, eager to give her guest a tour of the village. She drags her jaw over towards the lake and points at it to begin her tour. -Marvin