Meanwhile, on his way to the hole on Route 14, Pyro heard a low moaning nearby. Intrigued, ran to the tall grass with Loki batting them away using Extrasensory until he found a Steelix lying on the ground. He place his hand on the ferrous snake's snout and gently rubbed it.
"Hey there," he greeted, "What's your name big guy?"
"Steeeeee," the Steelix rumbled. The slight wince it gave suggested that the behemoth was in pain.
"Tom, huh?" Pyro replied, "You look like a 'Thrash' to me, mind if I call you Thrash?"
The newly-rechristened Thrash shook his head and then groaned. Loki then hopped off of Pyro's and ran down the Steelix's side and noticed a large scratch on one of the middle segments. He barked to his trainer who then ran up to the Zorua and saw the scratch himself. Pyro's eyes widened as he ran his hands down its rough contours, which almost felt like a grater.
"Wow!" he gasped, "Who did this to you?"
Thrash explained his run-in with the drill, the trainer with the Frillish that attacked him afterwords, and how it burrowed up to the surface in pain. Pyro genuinely felt saddened by the iron snake's plight and reached inside his backpack to pull out a an electric polisher and reached for one of his Pokeballs, "I'll fix that up for you! Go Socks!"
"Rooooo-TOM!" the Plasma Pokemon called out and allowed its trained to plug the power tool into him. Pyro then rubbed the scratch down until it became smooth and shiny once more.
Thrash stirred and let out a roar, except that it was out of relief and gratefulness to the scatterbrained Lavaridge Gym Leader.
"So do you know anything about this big hole I heard about on the TV?" Pyro asked.
Thrash nodded and then lowered his head to over Pyro a ride, "Steeeeelix!"
Loki then hopped back onto Pyro's shoulder as the the trainer climbed onto the Steelix, "You'll take me there? Sweet!"
Thrash then began to slither in the direction of the whole. Out of curiosity, Pyro began to strike up a conversation to make the journey go faster, "So... what moves do you know?"