Gah DX Sorry I haven't been adding to the story; I was planning to, but never really got around to it. So here, I finally wrote some~
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"Riolu! Riolu! Where are you!" Luca shouted, then coughed as the haze thickened. It pricked at his eyes, and he rubbed them, blinked, and squinted. The dim, vague circle of light provided by the lantern didn't help much, and he crouched lower to the ground when he felt his head brush against the ceiling. "Sure is narrow in here..."
"It is." Riolu fought his way through the darkness, feeling with his mind's psychic abilities around him, and laid a comforting paw on Luca's leg.
"Riolu!"
"Don't worry, I wouldn't let myself get lost." Sparing a smile, even though he knew Luca couldn't see it, Riolu stepped ahead cautiously. "Be careful. There are several rocks in the way."
"What do you—" His foot jerked backwards, and the sickening feeling of weightlessness hit Luca as he toppled forward, into the dirt.
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah." Grimacing, Luca got back up, rubbing his chin where it had hit the ground. "I can see barely anything."
"Let me guide you." Walking out ahead of him, Riolu observed the tunnels of the mines closely, seeing the picture in his mind.
"What do you see?"
"There is a fork in the road, which way should we go?"
"I'm not sure."
"Maybe we should have asked that man for more information before we went rushing into this."
"Maybe we should have..." Luca said ruefully.
Shaking his head, Riolu advanced along the path, Luca following behind him. "We could... No, never mind."
"What?"
"Never mind."
Feeling the prickle of annoyance at not being able to satisfy his curiosity, Luca stopped and crossed his arms, lantern dangling from his finger. "What is it?"
"No need to be so impatient," Riolu sighed. "I was only going to suggest that we split up, I take one of the paths and you take the other, but I realized—"
"That wouldn't be smart."
"That was what I was going to say. It would be impractical. You wouldn't be able to find your way so easily in this dark, and if something attacks either of us we would be in much danger."
"We're still in danger here," Luca pointed out.
"No need to remind me. Besides, it was you who wanted to rush in here in the first place."
"Are you saying you wouldn't have wanted to save these trapped miners?"
"Who said they were trapped?"
"That guy told me—"
"He only said they lost communication—"
"That still means they're in danger, so we should—"
"Look. Listen," Riolu said, crossing his arms and trying to keep the anger out of his voice.
"What?"
Sighing, he said, "You should have thought about this before—"
"Oh, so now I'm the one to blame!"
"I never said that, it's just—"
"We don't only have to find out the meaning of these shards—!"
"—careless—"
"—have to protect people too—"
"Oh, because it's part of your ranger duties—"
"I'm not a ranger anymore!"
"Exactly!"
"Look, why are we arguing?"
At this, the tumultuous raising of their voices suddenly crashed down into quietness, and they shut up, the only sound their loud and angry breathing. Riolu slowly turned around to face Luca.
"Why?"
"I... don't know," Luca admitted.
"We're supposed to be friends, friends hold strong together."
"And though arguments make us stronger..."
"It is, in the end, friendship that holds us together," Riolu completed, holding out his paw. Crouching down, Luca clasped it firmly, and cracked a grin.
"Awesome that you can still remember it."
"But of course. You and I were the strongest ranger team around, not only in battles, but in soul. I wouldn't forget the ranger chant for anything."
"It's been a long time, though."
"We're still together here, aren't we?" Riolu smiled as well. "Friends again?"
"Friends, and may that argument be behind us."
Starting to walk along again, Luca remarked, "It's cold."
"Unusually so."
"Yeah. I'd have thought it'd be warmer, considering it's farther down in the earth."
Realizing this, Riolu took a closer look at the mine tunnel they were now walking along in. Haven chosen the right-hand path at the junction earlier, they had noticed that the tunnel gradually sloped down. Because of this the temperature should have been increasing, but instead...
And then the Onix burst from the ground.