A Chance Meeting

Steven was beginning to get a bit concerned, being honest with himself.

He’d never been nearly this deep inside of this cave system, and he was starting to worry that he’d forgotten his way out. Nothing that using dig couldn’t fix, but that… would be a lot of digging.

As he came to a two-way fork in the cave’s road, he stopped to wonder which way to go. Either option would dig his grave deeper, and he should probably turn back now, but his curiosity was killing him. What kind of rare stones would be in a place so untouched by humanity? Against his better judgement, he took the left path forward.

He struggled to keep his footing on the uneven cavern flooring. He was beginning to severely regret his choice of wearing dress shoes to this trek- only to trip and fall. He whined on the floor for a moment, only to focus on a noise nearby, much more obvious now that he could hear more than the echoes of his own footsteps. Something like… other footsteps?

He forced himself off the ground and dusted himself off, grabbing Metagross’ Pokeball from his belt. Any Pokemon this deep in the cave and this isolated from people (and other Pokemon, for that matter,) was likely powerful. He wasn’t about to be caught off guard.

As quietly as he could, he tiptoed closer to the source of the sound. Whatever it was, it was getting closer, and it sounded like it was on the same path as he was. He reached a turn in the cave system, so he sent out Metagross just to be sure that he could strike first.

Instead of a Pokemon cry, or anything remotely what he was expecting, he heard what was certainly a man’s scream.

He dashed around the corner to see what had happened- in the back of his mind, he was a little terrified that he had accidentally crushed someone under Metagross’ weight. Luckily, that wasn’t the case- he had simply knocked whoever it was back.

It was impossible to get a better look of whoever it was in the dark, so he shined his flashlight at him, accidentally blinding him, leading to yet another screech.

“Sorry,” Steven spoke, trying his best to reassure the man who must be terrified and overwhelmed. With the flashlight’s light on him, he could get a good view. It was a man with a red hat and his hair tied back in a ponytail, and he was staring at him like he’d just seen a ghost. “I wasn’t expecting to find anyone else here,” Steven continued.

“Me either,” The other replied after a second of catching his breath. Abruptly, he hopped up off the floor, almost as if he hadn’t just been knocked back by a hunk of metal that weighed nearly a ton. “Well! That certainly spooked me.”

“You spooked me as well!” Steven laughed, his nerves not entirely faded yet.

As he was about to ask him what exactly he was doing in here, the man got uncomfortably close to him, shining his own flashlight in his face. “You look really familiar.”

Oh, god. Steven despised being recognized off the job. He braced for him to fanboy about meeting the champion, but instead-

“You’re Mr. Stone’s kid, arentcha?”

Oh, that’s even worse.

“Ah- well, you got me there,” he awkwardly said, clearing his throat. “That aside- what are you doing here?”

“I could ask the same of you! But- what I’m doing? I’m looking for the best spot for a secret base, you see.”

“…Here?”

“Of course here! Come on, this really puts the secret in secret base, doesn’t it?”

Steven paused for a moment. “Hm, I suppose it does.”

“Oh! I never introduced myself. The name’s Aarune.”

“Steven. Steven Stone, as you guessed.” He reached out his hand for a handshake, to which Aarune happily accepted. He had one hell of a grip on his hand as he shook it up and down. “I was here to look for rare stones, but I didn’t find anything of note. Other than you, of course.”

Aarune laughed, a loud laugh that echoed throughout the walls of the cavern. “Luckily, I got what I came for. You wanna see the secret base I set up?”

Steven, logically, knew that following a man he just met deep in a random cave system was probably a very bad idea. However, his passion for the art of the secret base was contagious, and he felt compelled to come with him, for some reason. “Why not?”

“Aw, yeah! Follow me!” Aarune started walking in the other direction at such a pace that Steven had to power walk just to keep up. The two walked in silence for a bit before they reached what Steven assumed was their destination. Well, it couldn’t be much else, given that it was a huge wall.

“Alright, Flygon. Come on out,” Aarune said, releasing his Pokemon from its ball. “You know the drill by now.”

Flygon apparently did indeed know the drill, as it used a move on the wall, revealing a small hole that was just barely big enough to crawl through.

“Alright! Come on in!”

Steven was about to ask if he was seriously going to crawl through that tiny hole, only for Aarune to masterfully dive inside, doing a roll on the ground once he’d made it. Which looked as if it should really, really hurt, but he seemed fine.

Steven, having no choice, stuck his head inside. The interior was bare bones, which made sense, given that it had probably just been set up. Only a tent, sleeping bag on the floor, lantern, and a laptop that looked like it was at least a decade old. Once he was done observing, he forced himself through the hole, scratching himself on his way through and landing not nearly as “gracefully” as Aarune had.

Aarune helped him up, grinning as he showed off his handiwork. “It doesn’t look like much yet, but this is going to be one of my finest works, you’ll see. Look at how spacious this is! I could fit two floors in here, if I wanted!”

Two floors was an underestimate- this cavern was truly massive. Steven couldn’t help but get a little hyped up as well. “You really could,” he responded, a bit in awe.

“Oh! And something I found while cleaning it out…” Aarune fished in his pocket for something, pulling out a very shiny stone. “You said you were lookin’ for rare stones, right? I don’t know how rare this is, but-”

Steven basically snatched it out of his hand, shining his flashlight at it to get a better look. “Opal?! I didn’t even know there was any in this area!”

“Caught your eye, huh?”

Steven cleared his throat. “Sorry about that… You got me excited!” He smiled at him, handing the stone back.

“What? Nah, that’s yours to keep! I got no use for it.”

“Really?”

“Of course! I mean, I like collecting things, but you seem like a rock fanatic.”

“They do call me that…”

Aarune grinned. “Not like that’s a bad thing. We all need something to get fired up about, right?”

“Exactly! And for you it’s secret bases, I assume?”

“Yep! I’m all about that secret base life. Going from place to place, making friends, memories… that’s what I’m all about.”

“When you put it like that, it does sound very interesting… Admittedly, it’s not something I’ve paid much thought to before.”

“I get that a lot.” Aarune shrugged, the smile still on his face. “I’m glad I could open your eyes!”

“Open them you did.” As Steven was about to continue talking, he abruptly realized something. “I just remembered something, as a matter of fact-”

“Oh?”

“I was supposed to meet my friend for lunch today.” Steven frantically fished out his Pokegear, checking the time, and sure enough- 4:00 P.M.

Yeah, it’s a bit late for lunch now.

“It was a joy to meet you, but I have to get going-” Steven practically spluttered. “Aarune, right? I’ll see you again sometime!”

“Oh, alright!” Aarune replied, obviously disappointed. “Hey, Steven?”

Steven, who was about to fight his way out of the tiny exit again, turned back to look at him. “Yes?”

“I, uh- I didn’t come on too strong, did I?”

Steven turned to face him. “Hm? What do you mean?”

“Well- I guess I have a tendency to scare people off with my rambles, that’s all.” Aarune laughed, but it was clearly forced.

“What? No not at all!” Steven reassured. That was a bit of a lie- he did come on very intensely, as a matter of fact- but honestly, he found it endearing. He often did that when he was younger. “You simply have a passion for a topic. I think that’s wonderful.”

Aarune smiled. “Alright, alright. Sorry for getting heavy on ya there… Have fun with your friend!”

Steven thought for a moment. “If you want to, you can come with me as I leave. If you have a Pokenav, I can get your number, too.”

Aarune grinned. “I’ll take you up on that!”