He recognized Shen Qi.
It was the Kabutops from the Fossil Maniac's shop!
The younger Fossil Maniac Brother had gone into Meteor Falls to find his older brother. Shen Qi had no idea how that had gone.
At any rate, when Shen Qi had passed through Route 114 with Lisia, they still hadn't returned home.
Kabutops entered the water and swam hard toward Shen Qi.
Chansey helped translate: after entering Meteor Falls, they had split up to search for the older Fossil Maniac Brother. In the end, the younger brother had discovered his older brother's pack and found him in a sinkhole.
The brothers had reunited, but the unstable sinkhole had collapsed, trapping them in a dead end beneath the rubble.
Fortunately, they had Kabutops, a Rock- and Water-type Pokémon that could use Rock Smash, Dig, and Surf.
Sandslash was injured, but their heavyweight utility Pokémon, Bibarel, was fine. Rock Smash, Dig, Surf, Dive-it tried all sorts of ways to find a route.
They couldn't dig recklessly inside Meteor Falls. They might cause an even more dangerous collapse accompanied by a deluge, so progress had been slow.
Especially when Kabutops had finally managed to dig its way outside, only to discover that the water level had inexplicably risen a great deal.
The older Fossil Maniac Brother had actually mentioned that, when he became trapped, he had noticed the water level above Big Waterfall No. 2 was much higher than usual. He hadn't expected it to rise again.
With no other choice, Bibarel had dug through to underground waterways to drain the floodwater, while Kabutops had opened a channel to the Underground River. Otherwise, releasing the water to rescue their Trainers would have killed anyone below Big Waterfall No. 2.
After two or three days of slow, careful work, they had