[X] My Assistant

[stbyleth]

He tensed again as the lights disappeared suddenly. His eyes grew large and he tried not to panic. That stupid Pokémon was supposed to keep them in line, on target! It wasn't going too well already. He kept the sub steady, cursing and muttering under his breath in a language even he didn't understand. He was getting sick to his stomach, but the butterfrees still loitered in there as well, scratching and tickling him and he wanted to rip them in half. It was just not his day at all. 

Chinchou lit back up after a few minutes of aggressive silence. "Hah!" exclaimed Ben almost excitedly but definitely not with his heart. It was more for his own benefit, more to let out the pent up breath he had unknowingly been holding up deep within his lungs. He grinned, blue eyes glistening with some unknown emotion that he was only vaguely aware of. "Good... This is good now. Good, good!" 

He came to his senses in a crashing wave, smacking against reality with full force again. He sucked in breath, staring. Beat's voice only somewhat got through to him, but it mostly went in one ear and out the other.

“... in the river?” concluded Beat, just as he hit his head again. 

Ben glanced sidelong at him, blinking a few times. “... I'm sorry, what?” he whispered. He thought for a moment and recalled the other man's words from a few seconds previous. “... Carvanha and Sharpedo...? I... I don't know. I think Carvanha live in warm rivers... This is a warm river so it could be possible.” A pause as he slowly began to return back to his normal, uptight self. “... Why—” He looked back toward the front of the sub again and swerved sharply, almost running into an underwater cliff. How in the world did they get this deep?! This was definitely not where they were supposed to go!

His ears popped and he winced. Stupid underwater pressure... He was even sicker to his stomach— 

Where was that stupid fish going?! 

The Aqua member swerved again and followed after the Chinchou. Did it know where it was going? He prayed that it did, but it looked like they were off course. Far off course. Maybe it was a short cut. He was going along with that. It had to be a short cut because there was no way that he was getting lost a second time in that day. 

They seemed to be going up... Up? They couldn't resurface now! It would blow their cover. He slowed down, easing up on the controls and allowing the sub to just glide along. He controlled it minimally on the descent... ascent now? 

And suddenly, they emerged into a beautiful cavern, above the water, without warning. It was almost as if glass was everywhere, what with the few rays of light seeping in from the side and gliding down the single waterfall in the area. Blues and greens floated on the air and slipped into the sub through the window. The colours danced on the occupants' faces and on the various metal parts. 

The machine idled for awhile in the underwater lake as the driver peered out. He was calm all of a sudden. Chinchou swam away and landed on the underwater bank, waving at the sub, lights blinking as if to beckon them over. And Ben did just did that. He banked the sub and let the engine sit. He turned to Beat but said nothing. 

After a few silent moments, some more Pokémon came out of hiding spots. They stared at Ben and Beat and the other submarine that came with them. What were they? they were probably wondering. Woopers, Staryu, Corphish, Starmie, Krabby skittering across the floor away from the lights, Slowpoke staring idly on, and in the middle of it all was Chinchou—

Ben let out a shrill scream that even gave himself a headache as something very large and blue ran into the sub's window before promptly licking it, dragging a thick, pink tongue across the glass. It had come out of nowhere, but the Icelandic man had already darted out of his seat. “What the hell is that?!” he yelled, hiding behind Beat. 

Way to be the manly leader. 

[Lup]

Lisey groaned. A Gyarados. Brilliant, now they were going to be waiting even longer.

Unless...

The Magma tried to look subtle as she leaned forward, "accidentally" pressing several buttons at once with her breasts. One of them was apparently some sort of turbo, as the sub shot forward toward the Gyarados much to the pair's chagrin.

This particular Gyarados had been having quite the nice day up until this point. The oldest of its offspring had evolved, and for a Pokemon normally associated with rage, it was very happy. Of course, a submarine barreling toward anyone would ruin their day. Since it didn't particularly want to be hit, it swirled around and tapped the sub with a light Aqua Tail. The force was enough to send the small craft spinning around and around, causing Lisey to cling to the side for dear life.

This had been a bad idea.

[Darkrow]

Keeping that little spider in control was easier said than done. Sure, she was a nice little arachnid, but sometimes she wanted to play, so she didn't listen to orders. However, chasing a Spinarak inside a tiny submarine she could barely fit in during a mission wasn't really something she felt like doing. Hell, chasing a Spinarak no matter the situation wasn't really fun for her considering her low stamina. Playing hide-and-seek with one was fun, though that was besides the point.

"Fides, this isn't the time to play, come back here," she said, not sounding angry at all. The Spinarak did follow that order, understanding that this was no time for games... yet. The green spider-like pokémon decided to rest on her trainer's head instead of running around the small submarine, which made the large woman smile. It didn't take long for that smile to twist into a worried expression though. Amanda and Khezu's submarine was heading straight towards a Gyarados. She put her hand in front of her mouth as the large marine creature whacked the submarine away with its tail.

Follow them or go see the team leader first? This small dilemma was solved in a few seconds; she hit the turbo and headed right where Benjamin and Beat's submarine was, which was apparently an underwater cavern of some sorts, but she didn't pay attention to that; she needed to tell Ben and Beat about Amanda and Khezu's problem. After all, risking to face a Gyarados in such a tiny thing alone was a risk she didn't want to take even though her conscience told her to hurry up and go help them.

As soon as she banked the submarine near her two teammates' own, she got up, not daring to look at the seats, and hurried outside. The cave was beautiful, but her mind didn't allow her to stop to watch all the beautiful colors. Instead, she opened the submarine's door, not caring about the Quagsire licking the front of the small marine vehicle, and witnessed Ben clinging to Beat from behind, visibly scared.

"Umm, Benjamin? I'm afraid that a Gyarados attacked Khezu and Amanda's sub; I saw it spinning madly away. What should we do?" she asked, a slight hint of awkwardness discernible in her voice. Fides, meanwhile, was crawling around her trainer's submarine, just waiting for her to come back.

[Rasu]

The frantic spinning of the submarine was eventually stopped by a quite large rock formation, causing a strong impact and slowing down the machine to a complete halt. Rising his head from what seemed to be the control panel a very pissed off Khezu rubbed his forehead before checking for his Aipom and, lastly, Amanda. The Aipom was grappling the ceiling with all four of its limbs (or five, if one was to count the tail) and Amanda seemed to be still be alive as far as he could tell.

"Beep, beep! Beep, beep!" the rather annoying sound coming from one of the panels caught the boy's attention. The fuel was leaking. Awesome. Just what they needed.

"Aipom!" the monkey also joined the small commotion and pointed to the place that Khezu had been checking moments before, his forehead. Looking back at his hand a small amount of blood could be seen where he touched the wound. Nothing too awful but the headaches weren't going to help later on.

"I'm okay, don't worry. Can you search for a first-aid box, please? There has to be one on this goddamned piece of crap." the Aipom nodded and started to scavenge around the sub, returning moments later with a bandage in his hands.

"That'll do. Thanks, Double S." warping the bandage around his head he finally took the time to ask how Amanda was doing but soon enough returned his attention back to the panels.

"The fuel's leaking. There might just be enough to emerge, though, but I wouldn't count on it. Well, it can't get much worse than this, right?" he said while trying to get the sub working which he did a few moments later.

Then a small crack appeared on the windshield and water started to spray down on Khezu.

"...Oh for crying out loud!"

***

The sub finally emerged (conveniently on the same cave as Ben's and Fredda's submarines) shutting down moments after due to the lack of fuel to continue working.

"Well, would you look at that." he sighed, relieved that that fuel did manage to bring them to the surface. Opening up the hatch and brushing aside his wet hair (courtesy of the crack on the windshield) he adjusted his bandage before finally speaking.

"Uh, hey guys. We had a little... problem with our sub... We broke it."