Chaser and the Ruined Kingdom

Chaser and Flight

 "He's trapped us!"

Goh screamed in anger in response to Ash's words. He felt like such an idiot. He had been completely duped by Lawrence's true nature and let down his guard at the wrong moment.

And now Chloe was in his clutches, he had taken all the clues they had for pursuing the true 'treasure' he had been describing, and they were trapped in this underground castle.

"Eievui..."

Goh looked down at his feet and saw Chloe's Eevee there. He saw the sad look on her face and felt the tears and frustration welling up inside of him. Chloe was taken by Lawrence, used as little more than a human shield as the villain made his escape. Goh punched at the wall, letting his anger explode from inside, but he only managed to hurt his hand against the fine stone construction.

He squeezed the pain out of his hand and grunted. "I'm so stupid..."

Ash scoffed, patting him on the shoulder. "Oh no you are not," he said. "If I had a gym badge for every time Team Rocket tricked me with something, I could enter every Pokémon League tournament in the world. You just weren't expecting it, you know?"

"I should have been!" Goh countered. "But I got so mixed up, I lost sight of things..."

Ash didn't play into his self-flagellation. "Well, the important thing is to stay focused and work together, right?"

"Pika!" Pikachu added, trying to raise Goh's spirits.

Goh took a deep breath. "R-Right," he said, with a nod. "Let's focus on the problem right in front of us." He turned his attention to the door, blocked by the shattered statue. "How do we get this stuff out of the way?"

He frowned, looking around. Argent's glowing body naturally drew his eye, and the pieces of a plan began to fit together. "Alright, I've got it!"

Argent looked up at Goh with quiet yellow eyes, waiting for the command.

"Argent, use Dig to burrow through the statue!"

Ash pumped his fists. "Right! Awesome idea! The rock might be a bit hard, but I'm sure Argent can bust through it!"

"Grooki!" the chimp added with a cheer.

Argent roared and leapt forward, his forepaws tearing through the face of the ancient king - the broken head of the statue that barred the way. It was slow going at first, but the Umbreon was making headway as he tunneled through, tossing pieces of rock behind him as he broke his way through. Eventually, the light of the torches on the other side of the pile of rocks began to shine through as Argent made it through to the other side.

"Way to go, Argent!" Goh shouted. "Awesome work! Now we just..."

As he approached the newly tunneled hole, he came to a grim realization. Since the tunnel was dug through solid rock, the shape of it was only big enough for Argent to squeeze his body through. Goh knew his Umbreon was a full meter tall, but that was from the bottoms of his toes to the tips of his ears; squeezed down digging through a tunnel, the hole wasn't definitely not wide enough for him and Ash to crawl through it.

"Man, now what...?" he said, crossing his arms. "I thought for sure we'd be able to get out of here this way..."

Ash tugged on the bill of his cap. "Well, now you leave this to me!" he said confidently. "That Lawrence guy might have his collection of gizmos and stuff, but you've got friends an' bonds with 'em! Those'll win against any trick, any day!"

"Pika, pikachu!" Pikachu cheered from his partner's shoulder.

Ash's never ending positivity and confidence helped Goh relax. "Right," he said. "I'm not in this alone. I have you and all our Pokémon to help me out!"