Anselme found himself on his hands and knees scouring the cave floor for that damned colored rock. Eyes and mind on his search and ears on his music, he naturally ignored everyone and everything else in the cave. Time passed as he looked and looked, getting progressively more frustrated with how futile it was starting to seem. I hate these stupid stones. I don't care if they have Kalos' colors, or if they're ancient keys, or any of that crap. He began to wonder whether or not Enzo had to do any of this, or any other trainers at all. Maybe he just got the short straw when it came to pokemon journeys.
He sighed. The universe really owed him some luck, at least a little. Well, there was Chunky, but he hadn't even had to use the little thing and honestly he'd rather not need to. Wait a minute… maybe he could use his pokemon to help him search. Nah, that was a stupid idea. It didn't seem like that block of ice would be able to see any better around the cave than him, and furthermore its presence would probably attract trainers looking for a battle. Then a better idea suddenly occurred to him. He could use that Zubat instead! They had that echolocation thing and they were all over the cave, so they wouldn't attract as much attention!
After briefly fishing through his pockets, Anselme found the ball containing his yet-unnamed Zubat. He wondered whether it actually needed a name. Chunky did because he had no clue what the species itself was, but he knew Zubats fairly well. He ended his thoughts on the topic with a shrug before throwing the ball, releasing the bat. It let out a cry that pierced through his music as it appeared before him, seeming to flap its wings quite hard just to stay up. "Alright, Zubat. Can you look around for a small, perfectly spherical rock somewhere in this cave, about this big?" He made a circle with his fingers to show its approximate size. "Preferably using echolocation, not that you can see without it but… whatever, just look for it, alright?"
The Zubat let out another cry before suddenly diving towards him and crashing into the side of his head. "Agh, what the hell!?" It flapped its wings right up beside him, buffeting him repeatedly until his earphone fell out. It was then that he heard just how loud his music had been. He forgot that he had turned it up to max volume when he made his mad dash into the cave. Although the earphone had fallen, the music was still clear and loud and Zubat didn't stop. "Fine, fine, I get it! Now stop!" He hurried his hand to his player and paused his music. At last, the Zubat stopped and let out another screech before fluttering back. So loud music made it tough for the little thing to see, huh? Was that why the thing attacked him the first time? It just couldn't see well and crashed into him? He sighed and put the earphone back in his ear, turning down his music drastically before pressing play. The Zubat made a sound that clearly told Anselme it was sad or sorry or something along those lines. "It's fine, just look for that stone, okay?"
Anselme watched and covered his ears as Zubat let out one loud shriek that reverberated through the cave. It hovered for a moment before flying off in one direction. It looked like the bat had found what he was looking for! He followed it until it stopped and looked at the ground beneath it. Sure enough, there was the stone. "Awesome, Zubat!" He would've sworn the Zubat was trying to look away modestly in response to the praise if it had eyes, but it didn't so he dismissed it as his imagination. "With this, that discovery is mine. To the wall!" Honestly, this discovery was probably the first thing he had been excited about this whole journey. While he'd seen the error of his ways when it came to charging straight to your destination, the fact that he was so close with the final stone made it difficult to do his usual slow walk. In the end, he decided on a light jogging pace, the Zubat following close behind.
He hadn't gone very far before there was a massive roar coming from deeper in the cave. Deeper in the cave, as in where the stone wall was. Anselme's first thought was not, in fact, "I should stay away from whatever giant beast made that sound," but rather, "Somebody had better not be stealing my discovery!" He picked up the pace and ran to where the wall was. As he ran, however, he heard a familiar rumbling of the ground that cause him to stop. The ground things. He stood and prepared to face them, but when he saw the massive cloud of dust surrounding them he decided that was a stupid plan and instead dove to the side of the cave, hiding behind a stalagmite. It wasn't even a minute before the horde had passed. "Can't scare me away this time, damn things!" He called after them triumphantly. He wasn't here for them, though, but for that wall, so he got out from behind the stalagmite and resumed his journey to the wall. However, when he got there the entire wall was gone. In its place were three other trainers surrounding a wiggling ball.
Anselme once again hid behind a stalagmite to spy unnoticed did a quick scan of the scene. One trainer had a Krabby, another had a cotton bird thing, and the last girl had a ghost and one of the ground things. None of those looked capable of making that huge roar. Furthermore there was a large space behind where the wall should have been. So that meant… DAMMIT! Not only did they take my discovery, but behind the wall was some huge pokemon that one of them just caught! That should have been mine! He threw the 'final stone' to the ground in anger, but promptly picked it up again because it was all he had left of this whole damn debacle. He stared at the scene longer.
"Thank you so much everyone! Especially you Ben and Snaps, I don't think we would have been able to get by without you two. Thank you for your help too, my names Anise by the way," said the girl who had taken the powerful pokemon for herself.
"It's very nice to meet you! I'm Yukari and this is Yume," responded the girl with the ghost and the ground thing.
Ben, Anise, and Yukari… Anselme watched as the nerdy guy went into the cave alone to get whatever loot was in there. He thought over the situation. Trying to calm down, he recalled the roar. Looking back, it was a familiar sound. He thought about it for a moment and came to the conclusion that it was that of a…no. NO! I missed out on catching a RHYHORN!? He groaned at how this whole situation was turning out. What about his other stone? How the hell did they open the thing anyway? He had the last stone in his hand. Did that mean...Anselme facepalmed at the realization. The damn door opened when you took the stones out. What the hell. What kind of stupid locking mechanism was that!? He drew back his arm to toss the stone, but didn't. It was still something, and things could be sold. Maybe it would be actually worth something. Instead, the stone went in his pocket.
He punched the wall of the cave hard in his growing anger and immediately regretted it, clutching his now aching hand with the other. "L-look," he heard an unmanly voice say, signaling that the Ben guy was done looting his stuff. Anselme had to resist going up and trying to take it all as the guy presented each item. However, that would be a bad idea considering somebody had just caught a Rhyhorn. That stutter was annoying as hell, though. He took a few deep breaths and took a deep drag of his cigarette. That was better. Instead, of worrying about the stolen discovery, he leaned against the cave wall and focused on his music. Fittingly enough, the song was one titled "Everything Will Be Alright." A wave of calm flowed back over him. So his discovery and various other cool things were gone. He would just have to find something else to discover. Sure, he'd be here longer, but he'd initially come here expecting to have an entire journey.
Soon enough, Anise raced off on top of her Rhyhorn, right past him. She called back to her other companions. "Meet me at the Pokémon Center!" The pokemon center, huh? He stepped out from the stalagmite and wandered over to the other two trainers. While all the other stuff may have been a lost cause, that one stone was rightfully his and he was going to get it. New Anselme screwed all this up, so he would do things as Original Anselme instead. At this point he had completely forgotten that the Zubat was fluttering behind him.
He walked up to the pair, hand in his pocket, music in his ears, and cigarette in his mouth and spoke in his low, monotone voice. "What's with Grace over there?" He referenced the famous Rhyhorn racer before getting to his point. "Whatever, you guys opened that wall by taking the stones from it, right? One of them was mine. So which one of you has it?" He tried to ask flatly rather than threateningly, not wanting to start a fight or, god forbid, a battle.