Chapter 29
Volomans


After the computer goes quiet, I take a minute to explain what a video is to my freaked-out partner. Soon enough, Snivy calms down.

"So," Snivy says. "Mew created the Wildfire."

"Yeah. A mystery dungeon that grants wishes turned into a power that corrupts desires. It's strange to know that so much pain came from good intentions."

Snivy nods. "So, we need to find that device and take it to the deepest room of the dungeon, where the Wish Machine is, right?"

"Right. It should be somewhere around... there!" I spot a familiar blue device resting on a desk. We walk over and inspect it. Just like in the video, it's kinda like a big key, with bulky parts that probably contain machinery or computer stuff. Next to it lies a piece of paper.

The paper is burned on the edges, but the drawings on it are still visible. They seem to be instructions for using the device. We check out the instructions for a moment before putting the device in our bag and moving on.

At last, we begin our exploration of Volomans. As we travel deeper into the volcano, it gradually gets hotter. We occasionally encounter glowing red spots around the tunnel, and we only need to get close to tell that they're way too hot to touch.

Eventually, the cramped tunnel opens into a wider room. That'd be nice if not for one problem; we're now standing on an elevated platform with a giant pool of lava below us, making the room even hotter than the tunnel.

Snivy and I take a drink from our water bottles, which are fortunately very full. Despite the uncomfortable heat, I'm awestruck by the sight; I've never seen lava before, except on TV, and now I'm inside a giant volcano full of it! It's amazing! And very, very hot.

We hurry forward, eager to leave the room. The platform mostly makes a solid bridge over the lava, but towards the end of the room, there's a gap. It's only about a meter across, but...

After a moment of inspecting the gap, Snivy turns to me. "I guess we'll have to jump across."

"You don't think there's a safer way?"

"Nope. There weren't any other paths back there, and I think just jumping is the safest way across. I'll go first, alright?"

"... Alright."

Snivy walks backward from the gap, then gets a big running start. They leap into the air and soar across the gap, landing gracefully on the other side. "See? It's easy."

I walk back to get ready, but just as I start running, I slow to a stop; I can't stop thinking about the lava below...

"Hey," Snivy says from across the gap, "if you don't make it, I'll catch you, alright? I promise."

I nod. "Alright." I walk back to my position. I hesitate for a few more seconds, then I start running. The thought of stopping crosses my mind, but I keep going. I reach the gap, and as I jump over and look down, I get a terrifying view of what awaited me if I had failed. Luckily, I land safely on the other side, my heart racing.

Something touches my shoulder, and I jump a bit before looking up to see Snivy.

"You okay Mudkip?"

"Yeah... yeah. Thanks."

We continue on, exiting the room. Fortunately, the temperature is cooling down now that we're walking away from the lava pool, but it's still hot.

"Do you think we'll have to jump over more lava up ahead?" I ask.

"I dunno. Rooms like that might be rare here, but they also might be common. It's kinda weird though; mystery dungeons are sometimes dangerous, but I've never heard of any that are this deadly."

"Do you think the Wish Machine is affecting it? Or could it just be that it's a volcano?"

"Probably just the fact that its a volcano; most places just don't have anything as dangerous as lava, so-"

Snivy freezes as we hear a rumbling noise from the ground get closer. It gets louder and louder, and Snivy jumps backward just in time, as an Excadrill suddenly erupts from the ground Snivy had been standing on!

The Excadrill immediately pounces at me, and I just barely manage to dodge out of the way. As I land, I try to hit it with a water gun, but it sidesteps it and opens its mouth, blasting me with a glowing red flamethrower! It hurts, but it's a good thing I'm a water-type.

Snivy jumps in and lashes at the Excadrill with vine whip, landing a couple good smacks on its face. The Excadrill flinches, then turns and slashes as Snivy with a flaming claw, landing a direct hit and knocking Snivy to the ground! I try to use water gun again, but it jumps into the air to dodge it. Still airborne, it begins to spin, and when it lands, it burrows into the ground like a drill.

I freeze, focusing on the ground, waiting for the moment it'll attack me from below. I feel the rumbling get closer, but before it reaches me, the Excadrill suddenly jumps out from the ground, flying towards me! Before I can react, it slashes me with its claws as it passes above, burrowing back underground when it lands as I fall to the ground.

I stand back up and look around, when I suddenly hear the ground rumbling behind me. I jump to the side just in time, and the Excadrill dives by me and burrows underground again. A few seconds later, I hear the rumbling again, and I jump away, dodging it completely. While it's in the air, a vine suddenly wraps around it and pulls it off course, making it crash into the ground!

As Snivy retracts their vine, I take advantage and shoot a water gun at Excadrill before it can get up. It starts to stand, but as my attack hits, it writhes in pain and collapses again! Just as my attack ends, Snivy jumps into the air, spinning acrobatically as leaves start to spiral around their tail. They slam their tail onto the downed Excadrill, the tornado of leaves cutting into it!

The Excadrill finally stops moving, but instead of evaporating into smoke, its body burns away in a red flame. Within seconds, the Excadrill is gone.

I turn to my partner. "Hey Snivy, you got hit pretty hard back there. Are you okay?"

"Yeah, just pain. You?"

"Same. Want an oran berry?"

"I don't know, we only have 2 left. How about we each have half?"

"Sounds good."

Half an oran later, and my pain is fading.

"So," Snivy says, still chewing their berry, "that was the Wildfire, right?"

"Yeah; Excadrill can't normally use fire."

"That, and the red glow. And how it burned up after we beat it."

"That's weird though; the Wildfire latches onto desire, but you said wild pokemon just act on instinct."

"Yeah. Maybe the whole dungeon is getting infected by the energy the machine's spewing out, and the pokemon it's creating have that energy mixed into them."

"Huh. Can stuff like that happen?"

"I dunno. Anyway, that thing was tough."

"Yeah. We should probably avoid fighting if we can."

We continue through the uncomfortably hot dungeon. I would think I'd be sweating at this point, but I don't think a Mudkip even can sweat. Eventually, we come to a cross roads. The right path is quite a scary sight; another of those lava pool rooms, and it's so hot I can feel it from here. I think I even see more gaps in the road we'll have to jump across. The left path leads around a corner.

"Left path?" Snivy suggests.

"Hang on a sec." I whisper. I tiptoe over to the left path and peek around the corner. Deeper into the tunnel, a Charizard and another Excadrill are walking around, pacing back and forth as they seemingly patrol the dungeon. I walk back to Snivy and report.

"Whoa," Snivy says, "yeah, I don't think we can fight two of those. Good idea checking."

"Well, one of us has to look before we leap. So... right path then, I guess?"

Snivy sighs. "Yeah, I guess."

We head down the right path, and much to our dismay, this room is bigger than the first and there are several gaps in the path, below which lies lava. There are two exits, but the left one is too high to reach, so we start walking towards the right exit.

As we walk, we have to jump over a few gaps. Fortunately, everything goes fine. I wish I could say I'm getting used to jumping over pits of fiery death, but I'm not getting any less scared. We're over half way to the exit...

When a ferocious howl echos through the room.

We turn to see an Arcanine standing at the left exit, glaring at us as red flames surround its body. It howls again before leaping onto the path, sprinting towards us! The path is too narrow to fight on; we could easily fall. The only option is to-

"Run run run!" Snivy shouts, dashing towards the exit as I follow close behind. With no time to prepare, we jump across the next gap successfully, the Arcanine's footsteps growing closer by the second. There's just one gap left before we'll be on solid ground.

As we approach the gap, I feel flames strike me from behind! I slow down, but I have to keep running or Arcanine will catch up. Snivy and I reach the gap, but while Snivy jumps at full speed, I'm still slowed from Arcanine's attack. I jump as far as I can, but while Snivy lands perfectly, I barely manage to grab the ledge, my back legs dangling off. I desperately try to scramble up from the edge, but I can't grip the ground, I start sliding off and-

I'm falling. I'm falling and I can see the lava below me and I feel the heat getting closer and closer and-

Something wraps around my torso. I look up and see Snivy leaning over the ledge, struggling to pull me up. I'm alive... Wait! I look over to see the Arcanine standing on the other side of the gap. It growls at Snivy as flames start to gather in its mouth. Snivy sees it too, but they can't dodge. I try to steady myself against the wall to my side, angling myself to face the Arcanine. I open my mouth...

As Arcanine blasts a flamethrower at Snivy, I intercept it with a water gun! The fire and water clash and form a cloud of steam between us. Snivy manages to pull me up, and we sprint down the tunnel, away from the room. Behind us, the Arcanine lets out one last howl; whether its angry that we escaped or satisfied that it chased us away, we don't know.

After a minute straight of running, we both stop and gasp for breath, collapsing to rest on the ground. My heart is racing faster than it ever has. I've never been so glad to be standing on solid ground.

"See..." Snivy says, still breathing hard, "I promised I'd catch you..."

"You sure did... How many times have you saved me now?"

"I don't know; I stopped counting."

"Fair enough. You wanna just rest here awhile?"

"Yeah."




Thanks for reading! Comments, questions, and criticisms are encouraged and appreciated!