Rust's the village weirdo, and Bluebell's his wheelchair-bound childhood friend that's unfortunately stuck with him. Pallet Town's a lot quieter once they leave on their journey.
"...Squirtle, you don't have to tolerate his insanity if you don't wa...
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Rust ends up well-fed and well cared for. He feels warm when he's seen off by the friendly Rocket grunts. He carries Squirtle in his arms, and Paras rides on his head.
Apparently, he now has a Paras. Did you know that if you grab a Paras and just walk off with it, it will just allow itself to be taken away from its home? Yeah, these little things have short term memory loss or something, because it is now attached to Rust.
It also makes clicking noises.
Squirtle is not happy about it. He keeps gesturing to hands, so perhaps Squirtle is concerned about Paras' claws? And Paras is folding them in, clearly also concerned, as Rust holds him like a bento box.
"Like! I! SAID!" the frustrated punctuation boomed through the cavern like a clatter of cymbals, "I found these fossils first! They're mine! Get your hands off them right now, young lady!"
Rust looks down to see Paras is terrified stiff by the loud volume. Squirtle is standing in front of him, trying to look intimidating, glaring forward as if the shouter would just show up. Rust walks past Squirtle (earning a scold) and peeks over the corner.
They're almost at the end of this floor. Upon the dust-shorn cavernmouths are stones and crystals and ores, and most importantly, two freshly unearthed fossils laid upon a white sheet, ready to be cleaned.
There's a man in a very muddy labcoat and work gloves, clearly having gone high hell to find those objects— and a young girl in a humble little skirt and team rocket uniform top, a Charmander hugged to her chest.
"I want one," she says.
"I found them both! You can't just take them, everyone has to fill their own quota today!" the man sounds like he's on his last ropes here. "Girl, did your parents not teach you not to take things from strangers? Or steal them because they don't belong to you?"
"I want one," she repeats.
"Are you even listening to me?!"
"I want one," once again.
"Do you know any other words, young lady?!"
"I wan—"
And then, furiously, "NO!"
Fully-grown man gets whacked in the face by a flaming fire tail and then a young girl robs him of his treasure. More at six.
Rust feels really bad for him. The man gets knocked out for a startled second before he jumps back up, but the girl's too far away to chase. He actually starts sobbing.
Rust stares at Paras in his hand and wonders if the poor man will cheer up if he gives him a TinyMushroom.
-
He does.
"You're a good kid," the man sniffles, wiping away his tears. "Did you know that girl just now? This is daylight robbery!"
