Pokemon Alternate Universe Adventures

After jumping up to the entrance platform, I only greeted Ranger Fu before directly heading for and crossing the bridge. I did not slow down until I had gone down the bridge-connected platform and arrived at the set of steps leading to the lower half of the main space. The three people aside from Ranger Fu that I saw during this period all just got a friendly smile as well as a nod from me, and they apparently got the message since none of them tried to strike up a conversation; All they did was nod back.

Anyway, my group and I went down the steps leading to the largest platform of the main chamber. The platform was directly connected to the puddlefall, which in itself was a rather interesting phenomenon. When I saw it in the games I did not think much about it, but when I saw that the puddlefall actually existed in reality as well given that it was marked on the map, I could not help but wonder how it could keep existing.

No matter how damp a cave was, and despite the stream as well as waterfalls, the main chamber was not that moist due to its enormous size and decent ventilation, so a regular puddle would eventually dry up. The puddlefall of the Meteor Falls had existed for hundreds, scratch that, thousands of years, so the puddle had to have been receiving a new inflow of water somehow to remain for all this time.

The question was that if the new water was natural, then why had that puddlefall not turned into a real waterfall by now? Even if the water used to seep through tiny cracks in the rock(bed) causing the puddles to form in the process, the erosion caused by the seeping water over thousands of years should have widened those tiny cracks. That should have created a new water channel, if it remained below the bedrock or stream branch if it emerged from the bedrock, turning the puddlefall into a genuine waterfall, which would then most likely have rejoined the existing stream on the bottom floor/platform.

Me being who I was naturally felt curious, so I looked into the available database to see if I could find the answer, and I did find it. The answer was twofold, Pokemon and the alliance. Apparently, the wild Pokemon, specifically the ground/rock ones had noticed the seeping water problem long before we (humans) did, given that they had been here before us.

At that time the puddlefall did not exist and the water flowed downhill, but since it did so naturally without any interference it dampened/wet the whole hill and lower/bottom platform in the process which the ground and rock types did not like at all, so they stepped in. They carved those puddle pools into the rock to slow down the spread of the water while also gathering the water in one area to prevent the other parts from getting too damp.

They also reinforced the rock bed with their energy to slow down the erosion to prevent the issue from worsening, or their little puddle holes would have not stopped the issue for long, though they would still have set the path for the water to flow freely without spreading everywhere. Nonetheless, one would not think that a bunch of the regular rock and ground types we could see around the current main space would be able to initiate such a project, which was partially correct.

The file I read clearly noted that the wild Pokemon living there used to be stronger on average and that a Stage 6 Lunatone as well as Solrock used to lord over the main chamber. That was before humans showed up and insisted on being allowed to pass through the main chamber. The Celestial Pair refused at first and expelled the trainers that tried to stake a claim, but when more and more trainers came with stronger ones showing up, they eventually relented.

Lunatone and Solrock reached an agreement with us (humans) which had them retreat deeper into the Meteor Fall Cave system along with the stronger Pokemon. They agreed to let us utilize and work on the main chamber and the 4 connected (and currently mapped) chambers, though we had to keep the artificial product to a minimum in return, and allow the weaker wild Pokemon to live there freely, effectively turning the main space as well as 4 connected chambers into a shared space.

Their retreat and help in keeping the stronger (Stage 5 and up) wild Pokemon from taking up those 5 places as their territory was part of the agreement. With time even the number of gold stage Pokemon living in these areas went down, which was why the thing with the Druddigon and Azumarill could happen in the first place. Given the Celestial Duo's strength and typing, their lifespan was enormous, so unless they somehow ended up dying or deposed, the agreement was pretty much permanent.

Some of the artificial changes humans made following that agreement were obviously the lighting, the steps, the bridge, and some ladders, but they also reinforced the puddlefall as well as the bedrock platform between the stream and the puddlefall to prevent it from worsening; They left just enough tiny gaps to preserve the puddlefall. Not much else had been done, and it had been over 2 thousand years, with both parties staying true to the agreement so far.

Well, my thoughts ended up straying again, but that was pretty much it. After stopping myself from digressing even further, I led my travel group around and we explored the platform. The platform was pretty large so it took us over an hour to properly explore all of it, including the puddle that was attached to this level/the platform. I actually saw some Wooper hanging around the puddle and there were a few Barboach in there as well, which had me wondering how they got there.

That they could survive there was not as surprising given their typing and the fact that they were pretty slender, but the question was how they had gotten there in the first place. Either someone had placed/transferred them there, they had somehow at some point squeezed their way through the cracks, or they had ended up purposefully flopping over from the stream.

The latter had to be done from the stream at the bottom, which would mean that the Barcoach had later spread to the puddles above. The first one could have been either through human hands or by the Wooper, maybe Quagsire, who wanted to possibly keep them around as a nearby easy food source. Either way, the second one was the least likely one.

Nonetheless, I only watched the few Barboach swim around that 5 to 6 square meters or so big, but just 15 to 25-centimeter deep puddle for a minute or so before we continued our walk. Once we had seen everything there was to see without turning over every stone or digging into the ground, I moved us to Utopia for lunch since it was already close to 2 p.m.

We talked while we ate and I spent a few more minutes tying up the multiple conversations I was involved in before I brought us out again. We spent the next two-plus hours checking out the platforms of the puddlefall, both the puddle parts as well as the dry areas. The puddles had more Wooper and Barboach living there with a handful of Quagsire that were in charge of the Wooper.

There was not a single Whiscash in any of the puddles, including the wider ones, which felt a bit weird since the number of Barboach was not small and there were Quagsire around as well. I naturally chose to look into it and the answer was rather brutal but made sense. It was clear that the Quagsire were in charge at the puddlefall, so I went to them for answers, and after offering them a few snacks they happily shared that the absence of Whiscash was their handiwork.

It appeared that I had been right and that the presence of the Barbaoch was the handiwork of the Wooper/Quagsire. They ensured that there were enough Barboach around to meet their needs and they also kept an eye on the Borboach to prevent any from getting too strong and evolving; That pretty much meant that they ate them before they could evolve.

The Barboach that still managed to evolve into Whiscash despite that, which according to the Quagsire happened occasionally, had to face the immediate suppression of the Quagsire. If the Whiscash turned out to be too much of a bother to take down, they cooperated to flush it into the stream. If they could take it down, Whiscash would make a special appearance on the menu.

It sounded brutal and cut-throat, but I could respect that the Quagsire had made use of the puddlefall to create their own fish or rather Barboach farm. That was some pretty good long-term planning and planning in general which most would not expect from the dopey-looking amphibious Pokemon.

Other than them, we also came across members of the Sandshrew and Geodude lines in the dry areas, and we also spotted some Tyrogue and Machop line members hanging around or passing through. It was because of them that we did not continue checking out the lowermost platform at the bottom of the puddlefall but chose to stick around the dry part of the puddle platforms.

Had there been just one or two Tyrogue and Machop with one of their evolutions, I might not have chosen to stick around, but their unusually high number had me take a closer look. I spent the next 30 minutes following what the fighting types were doing, where they were going, and where they were coming from. I knew that they had to have homes somewhere in the main space, and I suspected that those homes were around this place.

The map of the Meteor Falls I had accessed only listed the Pokemon that could usually be found in the chambers and what Pokemon were in which general area. It did not specify any homes/habitats accurate to the meter, so if I wanted to find their homes, I would have to do so myself. From my observation, I noticed that there was a lot of movement to and fro on the side of the puddle platform facing the stream, so we moved there to take a closer look.

It did not take too long before I noticed a Machoke who had walked toward the end of the end of the third platform grab onto a section of the wall and pull. I heard Nyx/Umbreon gasp when the wall fell/moved forward and a second look showed that it was a large rock and not a section of the wall that broke off. Machoke pulling that rock out revealed a roughly 1.5-meter tall hole in the wall, which Machoke entered after slightly bending/ducking its head.

Machoke kept its grip on the rock and dragged it back into the hole as it entered, sealing it, which made it look as if the wall was whole. Mothra/Butterfree, Nyx, and Thor/Raichu were rather excited at having seen the secret hideout, but I chose to not go there for now since I wanted to see if there were any other "hideouts".

Over the next hour, we saw five more entrances being unblocked and subsequently blocked again, with some entrances getting used more than once. 4 of those belonged to members of the Machop line, while 2 belonged to the Tyrogue line. Regardless of whom they belonged to, they were all located around the ends of the platforms facing the stream.

Some holes led into the wall/rock bed of the platform with the bridge, while others led directly into the rock bed of the puddlefall platforms. I was pretty sure that was one of the reasons they were drilled where they were, to avoid flooding or wetting their caves/homes. Still, after observing the fighting types enter and leave those caves, I was not sure if they really used those rocks for safety's sake since they did not bother acting discreetly at all.

Given their carefree behavior, I was starting to think that they might have chosen to block the entrances simply to prevent others from entering as well, presumably Zubat who would probably love to live in there, but Pokemon like Paras and Wooper were likely candidates for exclusion as well.

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