Snow flung. Meteors caressed the blanket that laid over the blackened tops, bereft of sunlight for around six sevenths of the year and usually slept with a layer of frigid cold besides. Splashes appeared and tiny craters were dug. The process repeated, creating a barren field pockmarked by signs of movement. Elsewhere was a wonderland. Untouched by humans or wilds, it was a range of white left as its dull self with the curtain pulled over the sky, as far as the eye allowed until the slate cut off the view. Valleys and alternate peaks ignored, it could've been assumed that the mushy white extended off into infinity, across the currents of space and lines of the planet's orbits.
Spots of fire sank downwards. Tips of the flames peeked over the soft packaging as its orange core petered to red, smothered to nothing before reaching the bottom. Meteor showers ran across swathes of the landscape as dozens of ruins created smoking impacts. Trails of smoke created skyscrapers heading towards the smogline as they became lost in the snowstorm. Slashes through the air interrupted the cityscape. For a brief second there was a bright white star that was born as thousands of icicles burned, trailing behind the main bridge of fire that swung wildly searching for its opponent. Tentacles broke off from the monster's belly in equally monstrous slopes, drizzling down onto newly revealed patches of ashy black that were charred darker from the extreme heat. The main body still twirled around itself like a drill that pierced into the heavenly brightness.
Then, from an unexpected angle, a flash. Lazy eyes wouldn't catch a thing; acclimated ones would suddenly experience a comet, a garrote wire with a metallic sheen that differentiated itself from equally pale surroundings. It came from nowhere, appearing from the horizon without a centering point to differentiate it from the empty plains. Neither could there be seen a place where the line definitively ended. Bisecting the sky one mysterious point to another was a silver point that slashed against Charizard's thick hide. One of his wings failed mid-flap, causing a splash greater than any attempted cannonball to dust fresh snow onto the previously seared places. Discipline kept the fire flowing from his mouth. Shock made him a little sloppier than he otherwise would've been however, and the wild slinging of his neck ran around himself like a sprinkler.
To sharp eyes, there was a shade of black mixed amongst the line. Red tried wiping off the sweat gathering on his palms. Letting any kind of water build onto your body in such a cold climate elevated it from annoying to dangerous. Idle brushes did little else than smear it as his whole focus was on the battlefield that was fully controlled by the wild pokémon. With the thick blizzard covering its engages and disengages, along with being acclimated to the environment where Charizard was huffing deep breaths to keep himself warm, they'd been pinned down the whole fight without looking better than amateurs. For the entire time Charizard had been relying on instinct rather than his senses—because for lazy eyes, there was hardly a flash before a new cut was opened.
It's not as if there weren't context clues: little palms on the snow opened, and every so often there'd be a small fleck of snow kicked up in his peripherals. It had to maneuver. Normally he'd then question if Lapras would've been the better choice so they could've frozen the ground—too late. Charizard was out. A speedster running laps around them simply meant that their power wasn't enough. Another docket was being compiled for faults that could be hammered out.
Another flash. Red nearly shut his eyes for how clenched they were. See past the busy landscape, the horrible brightness as the fire cast a glamor over the mountaintop, where any point could become necessary, where any chance peekaboo could turn the tables. He wasn't entirely sure what to be doing—roving about like a prey animal's glances or fixed in place like a CCTV camera. Nobody told you how to fight. There was a level where you had to trust yourself, and so he kept Charizard centered in his vision while remaining hyper aware of the streaks of fire leaving aching bruises on his eyes.
A flash. Black to black, a curve on a graph that dipped below Charizard's belly to slash underneath it.
"Charizard! On my 10, scorch the earth!"
There wasn't any hesitation or confusion. They'd worked together for too long. Newly minted snowflakes joined the flurry in the air as a gust of air created a geyser underneath his glossy wings. With a single flap, Charizard created a shadow over the earth, nearly becoming a facsimile of a dragon to Red's eyes. Quickly he created an impromptu blindfold. Leaking between the cracks of his fingers was an orange moat. Hairs stood on end as they were blow dried. The backs of his palms hurt.
Slowly pulling his fingers away let him see the clear form of his pokémon wreathed in a second pair of wings that ascended from his mouth. Firing in a clear cone in front of him at that specific height created a spread so wide that it seemed to be a static wall of fire. Seemingly the blizzard was equally scared of him, as the storm's cover that had so thickly battered against their skins lessened. He could see further as his pokémon slit the landscape, and he could see the black pokémon falling into a hasty roll, barely dodging the edges of the fire unscathed. Its strange red head dress stuck out even more than its darker body that Red wondered how it had ever hid amongst the snow. With how conspicuous its escape was, Red didn't need to shout out an order. A jerk of Charizard's neck barely scraped the pokémon's knee.
It wailed and fell to the ground. Waiting for a second left Red awkwardly shuffling. Charizard landed next to it and snorted. They'd beaten it. What had caused them an annoying five minute diversion had fallen to a single hit. Between the pokémon being naturally frail or that to be a weaker member of its species, Red chose to believe the former instead of thinking silly things like getting circles run around them by a fresh evolution.
Charizard blew out a little plume of flame from his nostrils as they walked by the shuddering body.
Walking in a seemingly random direction—no paths, natural, pokémon, nor humanmade existed up there—eventually brought them to an actual landmark in the stolid illusion. From one cardinal direction to the other, even underneath their oblong rock, was an indiscernible snowy mush. Even on clearer days when the wind didn't bite against his bare elbows, Red could forget that it was hardly a five hour walk down south to the Indigo Plateau, or Blackthorn City, or the Lake of Rage; not having a working GPS made his directions a little wobbly, but he was pretty sure, or somewhat sure, or kind of sure, one of those three, that down south was something.
Their shelter was a collection of rocks. When you'd been sludging through ankle-high snow for hours, any sort of reprieve was welcomed. A pile of wood lit by Charizard swiping its tail above it was constantly kept, protected against the wind by another rock around the length of a flatscreen television, tapered end reaching above a bus' height in a slight curl. The second rock created an overhang where the snow was mostly kept out from its innards, then a third shaped like a missile mid-launch staked as another bit of cover. Bending his head let Red fully slide beneath the motherly rock. Blastoise, laying on his belly, gave them a greeting before continuing to doze. Charizard sat on the last remaining piece of dry land. All of his pokémon couldn't be out at the same time since there was only so much space free of snow, unless Red was going to fix up the rocks towards a long-term shelter. It would be something to do. He didn't want to do that.
His hands readjusted to find the horizon where the highest fans of the flames wouldn't lick against his palms. It was some kind of entertainment. Training during the snowstorm would be uncomfortable and unreasonable for the routine that most of his pokémon needed. Searching for food and wood? Apparently his pokémon became bored of sitting around and fighting, as they would willingly leave the shelter to search for supplies that they were running low on; knowing that his traps worked felt good, not great since he didn't get the opportunity to use them for a practical reason, having fresh meat and vegetables thanks to his team. Water wasn't needed because the mountain generously gave thousands of grams every week. Building up the shelter felt superfluous when Red wanted to continue moving inwards. That was the goal: explore each sector of the mountains for cool things and determine where the strongest pokémon were. Already they had the strength to fight a legendary, so Red had started shifting the goal. Do it with five pokémon, then four, at the moment he was reasonably confident that they could beat Zapdos with three.
He barely flinched when a whip of heat ran between his fingers. Charizard let out a yawn. Blastoise smacked, tired of the taste of frigid air.
He started running out of excuses. There was a fact that couldn't be brushed off conveniently: "oh, I just need to get used to it," transitioning into, "oh, it's because we haven't found anything cool like down in Kanto," transforming when he'd found a ruins site into, "oh, it's because I haven't seen the results yet," slinging back when his pokémon started to become used to the snow into, "oh, I just need to get used to it."
It was starting to become too obvious for him to ignore.
He was getting bored.
T-Minus 1 Month and 1 Week and 4 Days
Two hands played bongos on the wide desk. It was a simple beat, still having mistakes, yet it was enough to have Lulu bob her head side to side in the chair that she commandeered for herself. His own was a simple stool that he'd dragged over.
Both of them were looking fresh compared to when they first were trudging around the region. Lulu's coat had gone back to a gem-like luster. Kane's trench coat had gone through two baths alongside him and then furiously scrubbed with a brush so he could stop feeling humiliated standing next to normal people. Looking in the mirror had made him realize that he was barely any better than the trenchcoat's beaten leather. Both had made a full morning of cleaning on one of his off days. Sitting behind him on the bathtub's ridge, Lulu's blades chopped the bundles of hair that were beyond salvation while he scraped off the birthmarks made out of dirt.
It was slightly disappointing that stepping out of the bathtub made him look even younger.
"I think I'll give this one an 'A' for effort," Kane said. He slid the paper a mile down the desk. "What do you think about it, assistant professor?"
One of the proactive students had asked if he could make an essay about the potentialities of the pokédex hitting commercial shelves, apparently since he could remember the lectures better if there was some kind of assignment. Kane had agreed out of curiosity and received it five days later. Most of it was legalistic mumbo jumbo that he couldn't parse through until the ending musings came about, summarizing most the information, suggesting that trainers were going to only become marginally better because the information that was compiled inside of the pokédex was already available, meaning that it was a problem based on effort rather than ignorance. He disagreed. Laziness could never be discounted. When information was slightly beyond a person's fingertips, they'd rather another person give it the final nudge so it could be grabbed without having to tippy-toe.
She slid the paper back over to him so he could give a clean 94% on it. The real problems were implying that a Spearow could ever beat a Rhyhorn and clear misspelling.
The door opening twenty minutes before class made Kane perk up. A familiar dress daintily walked in with the automatic hinge hissing shut behind her.
"A week passes and you're still hard at work. That's good! I was worried about you at first glance," Roxanne said. She openly stared at the feet that were propped on the desk. "Not sure if I can fix your attitude within your tenure here, but I'll try my best."
"Give it a rest," Kane said with a groan. "The students love me and I'm teaching the pokédex well enough that they're throwing essays at me. Everything that a teacher is supposed to do I'm doing. You don't think that you should be spending time on Mr. Rorty next door eating sweets during class or Mrs. Barnell taking naps on the grass?"
Roxanne didn't have to hide embarrassment. In fact, she had a superior smile like she'd just sipped the most delicious wine. "They're colleagues. It would be impolite for me to nitpick over their behavior."
"I'm a colleague too."
"A junior that I helped get hired. It's the duty of a senpai to be the guiding light for their juniors," Roxanne said.
"'Sen-pai'? 'Jun-iors'?" Kane repeated slowly, putting extra emphasis on pronouncing their second syllable wrong. "Sorry, you may as well be speaking French."
"Then plainly spoken? I see it as my duty to help the younger generations to become the greatest versions of themselves possible. I became a gym leader and teacher to further those goals. When I see you, working for such a prestigious professor at such a young age and ably teaching, I see somebody whose greatest heights still haven't been reached," Roxanne said.
Kane waved that off, though he did take his feet down from the desk. "Pah! What's 'better' than this? A better battler? A smarter person? Everybody's got their own definition of better that I'm not too interested in. Y'know what I'm interested in? Talking. Keeping Lulu's coat clean. Look at it right now!"
He held up his pokémon from her arm, letting her slightly dangle from the tight grip on her wrist. She almost looked like a retired marionette, head even rolling around as her trainer slightly shook her.
"I think the first area of improvement would be honesty, or the ability to talk straight when others are doing the same," Roxanne said.
Kane let his pokémon fall back on her feet as he relaxed again. "What's there to be honest about?"
"Well, the first thing would be what school you went to." At his curious look, she shrugged. "I asked in the dean's office and you made a joke out of it. I'd like to know. If it helps, then I actually graduated from here. It's part of why I put so much effort into maintaining the school."
Suddenly the drafts of wind became more prominent on the droplets of moisture building on his body. He uncomfortably shifted around in the seat. It felt as though the thing was jamming straight into his spine, punishing his poor posture.
"Well?" she broached.
"Is this such a big deal?" Kane asked.
Though he was reading her tone aggressive, there was a concerned curve of her brow. Maybe he would've known if his head didn't tuck inwards and point towards the ground. "I'm not sure why you're avoiding it. You're making it a big deal when you're avoiding such an innocuous question. I'm just genuinely curious, especially since you seem to not want to share."
If one waited inside that classroom as those two were, they could hear a rhythmic tapping that came from outside. Plenty of students used the campus' many rooms and resources when not being taught. These were even used for the lighter side of life, laughter occasionally trickling through the open windows near the ceiling. Past it all was a rhythmic thumping, not like a heartbeat as it was too syncopated, not like a drum because the tone was too long. It'd climb then disappear. Climb then disappear. The sound made his eyes wildly jerk around, as if the origin would be somewhere on the floor. Lulu was one more question from intervening, already half-standing up.
"If you need to know, then I was sick a lot as a kid. I went to a few schools, but I was mostly kept in bed. I've done a lot of reading myself through 'cause I didn't want to get too behind."
"Oh," Roxanne said quietly, giving a bow. "I'm sorry if that brought up any bad memories."
The beeping receded as footsteps started thumping against the walkway. It didn't take long for the first student to walk in, using her butt to open the door as her hands were full with books. The Politoed happily bounding behind was nearly reaching higher than her head with the bounds that he was using for movement.
"Hello, Professor Redgrave!" the girl greeted.
It wasn't exactly like there was a switch. His head rose, letting Roxanne glimpse the antonym of his normal diffidence, confidence in himself that got him sitting in a teacher's position. The fake accent had disappeared, no matter how badly he was trying to keep it up. From her angle the crown of sweat that peeked from beneath his bangs was overly noticeable. Glancing at Lulu showed that the pokémon was at high alert and utterly unsurprised. Roxanne didn't think that she could read the pokémon's emotions too well, but the pink eyes that locked with hers didn't seem incriminating—supportive?
She considered herself even more curious than before.
"Still ain't a professa', gov'na Lily. I'm going over the same material that I was yesterday. You sure you want to sit through that again?" Kane asked.
"Yep! I didn't get to take notes yesterday and you'll probably talk about different stuff anyways." Only when Lily set all her books down on a front desk did she turn around and wave to the other person. "Hello, assistant professor Lulu! Hello, Professor Roxanne!"
Lulu gave a wave. At some point she slipped on low-lying glasses that barely covered her eyes, leaning into her chair while she moved to watching the trees move outside.
"Hello, Lily." Roxanne briefly glanced at the Lurantis. "Looks like you're doing well for yourself if students actually recognize your name. I'm surprised."
"That I could tell such enthralling stories?"
Roxanne smiled again. "Yes. Consider me impressed."
"Ouch. You've hurt me right here in the funny bone. It's the bone that thinks I'm funny."
He pressed against the little connector thingy that was in the center of your chest. That was the funny bone, not where you got hit and you were no longer laughing. The bone in the center of your chest did a lot. It protected the organs that allowed you to breathe to laugh. It protected the organ that allowed you to feel emotions, thus allowing you to laugh. It gave support to your entire chest region, which was famously known to be the seat of where all the body's energies started. It gave expression to those strange feelings in your stomach that worked themselves up to your mouth and brain, or could rather be seen as the bridge between the two. Even so-called scientists had to admit that the nerve-y guys had to travel up from the stomach, the place where the deep belly laugh originated, up towards the brain so it could understand what to do with these feelings. And who allowed safe passage? That's why Kane had always thought the sternum was in reality the funny bone.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
She walked over to the seat next to Lily. After patting down her dress and smoothing out the bottom, Roxanne lowered herself to the position of a common student.
"You're going to be in this class too, Ms. Roxanne?" Lily asked. She sounded as if she were a helium dispenser about to blow.
"Of course. I haven't heard one of his lectures for myself. I, just like the rest of you, am dealing with this new technology and would like an accredited source to be helping me with the process." She turned up to the front. The smile had its corners gently turned, the normal wildfire of passion turned down to a pleasant hearth. "Please teach us well, Professor Redgrave."
Introducing himself as Kane Redgrave for fun in one of his classes was one of the worst decisions ever.
"Please don't call me that. If you're going to stick with it, then stick with Professor Kane," he said tightly.
Students from all sorts of fields filled the rest of the seats. Because of his status as an 'extra' class, more were willing to be late than if he were an official class. Roxanne picked up on this too as she was sharply glowering at the extras walking in when he'd already begun talking. What did he care that they didn't hear the intro? The only one who genuinely annoyed him was the guy who came in when there weren't any seats, ten minutes when the lecture had already begun, before shuffling awkwardly to sit at the front of class—on the floor. Kane couldn't stop himself from staring. What the heck? Stand up! Sit at the back! Anything except being an odd hanger-on! Otherwise, no problems, surprisingly not from a celebrity being in class either. Kane supposed that having celebrities as guest speakers semi-commonly made people's skin a little thicker than most.
He felt so official. Dismissing the students ("the bell doesn't excuse you, I do," he said when there wasn't any bell) and answering after class questions had made his heart palpitate. Both legs were propped up against the teacher's desk—his desk. A teacher's desk. A litany of satisfied students. Getting the authority of someone who knows more than other people. He'd just taught students essential information that would make their lives better. It felt different than with Erika because the money was distant, intangible. It nearly felt like he was doing something out of philanthropy rather than a paycheck. Lulu got to be his cute little secretary who was pretending to be useful reading the papers with her eyes closed and softly snoring.
Did she actually know how to read? Yes. Did she learn from him? Also yes. One of his burning questions was that pokémon could obviously learn human speech, but did that translate over to learning human language as a whole? The experiment went ahead with Lulu, a Fomantis, and a wild Exeggcute that agreed to be part of the experiment. They all learned with no problems. Now that Kane thought about it, that was another step in his teaching career that he didn't even know about.
Kane tapped the teacher's pen—his pen—against his lips in thought. Roxanne walked up primly. She picked up his pants with the tips of her fingers, more for show rather than actually lifting them, and tossed them to the side. His shoes made a meaty thwap against the floor.
"So strong, Ms. Gym leader!" Kane said.
She ignored him, holding out her fingers. "Though your voice could've been projected better, and your lesson a little more cohesive, and you could've slowed down at key points so your students could catch up on their notes, that was an adequate performance for somebody who's never taught before."
"That's why my title is 'the lazy genius'!" Kane said.
"Who would give such a mundane title?" Roxanne asked.
"Myself!"
"...ignoring that, we finally pinned down a good time for your term to end: three weeks from the day that you started. That gives you twelve more days to make sure that our students are experts with the pokédex. With how filled your classes are, it is assumed that every student will have had the chance to attend within fifteen days. We added a few at the end in case some miss a lecture, if there's a sudden public interest, or if you are forced to miss a day." Roxanne pointed a finger up. It was meant to show she had a point that needed to be emphasized, though because nobody else made the gesture, it became a signature 'her' mannerism. "Now, you're free to leave your obligation if there's some kind of emergency. Since you're a guest professor, your classes are supplementary. That means even if you were to cancel at the minute before a class, we wouldn't have the ability to hold you there. Try not to abuse this. I'd like if all your classes were taught during your tenure here."
"Cross my heart and everything," Kane said, crossing his heart with his thumb.
She rolled her eyes, though Kane wasn't getting the same sense of hostility from earlier. Perhaps she valued competence above all else? He never would imply that he understood the heart of a woman.
The rest of the day, and the next morning, felt like he was floating. Teaching was surprisingly fun. It seemed that everything was going great.
Until he walked through the front gates of the school and saw Roxanne glaring.
"You didn't organize this just to spite me after yesterday, right?" she asked.
He blinked owlishly. "What?"
His wrist was seized as he started to get dragged. "Nevermind. Come along. There was a call for you."
T-Minus 1 Month and 1 Week and 3 Days
Seeing the entire island from the sky gave everything a sense of smallness. When the forests became stalks of broccoli and people unknowable underneath their own constructions, it made a sense of wonder impossible to shake off and overtake his normal emotions. Those prevented him from making fun of the girl who was fidgeting from his tight grip around her waist. She was only a year above him yet had taken time out of her lunches to come bother him. That made her the perfect person to manipulate into dropping one of their classes to give him a ride.
It really wasn't as sinister as Kane worded it in his head. The dean excused her from class to transport him to the distress call: a tiny house by a riverside. It looked as if it had been deposited in the center of the otherwise completely natural plainside, with grasses that nearly reached up to his chest of different varieties. Green, dark green, yellow-ish green all mixed together like a calico cat. There was a freeing aspect to being released from his responsibilities and letting loose where evil happened, even if there was a strange alien feeling of missing a day off teaching, bizarre enough that he tried suppressing that; there was rabble-rousing with a Lulu strapped to his hip that needed to be done.
Like the other routes, people were relaxing in the area. A duo of girls were hyping each other up over nothing. There was a boy on his hands and knees scrounging around the thinner patches of grass. A Lotad curiously squawked at him before sliding back into the water. Next to the house was a fluffy-haired woman who was visibly panicking, nearly pulling out her hair as she paced around the front door.
"Thanks for the ride, Lily!" he called back.
"Y-You too," Lily muttered before taking off into the air. The grasses flattened momentarily, revealing a pack of Zangoose who'd been surrounding the girls.
"That was my—okay. Guess classes for the rest of today are canceled," Kane muttered. The distress call had come from a place and there was only one place in the area—landline, that is.
She didn't improve any when he got nearer. Unless Kane was getting jet lag from the thirty minute flight, she seemed to be panicking even more. It took her a moment to realize that he was directly staring at her.
He saluted. "Kane reporting. Responding to an SOS."
"Oh, dear. This is the backup that they were talking about? You're just a child!"
"A child with a degree and pedigree." He extended his hand. "Kane. Merchant. Currently a teacher. Now what's this panicked message about?"
Around thirty minutes ago the principal had called him up to the office because of a message that was pleading for his help. Some 'suspicious people' had taken one of the professors in a nearby town according to the best cryptologists at the university. Decoding the garbled, "pls help kane : 0 prof gone! Get here ASAP r 114 lanetttes house. Me n bren r goin in rn," had nearly given Roxanne an aneurysm until they pulled in a more literate (illiterate?) member of the faculty. Another call came from a landline that clarified that there was a kidnapping near her house, though lacking many essential details since she'd been nearly sobbing the whole call.
The pokémon that he had for sale were with their new owners. That left Seedot, Cottonee, Lurantis, Tangela and Fomantis at his disposal. One of those was battle ready. Two definitely were not. If the distress signal was about Team Magma then he was a monotype grass trainer against fire-types. If the distress signal was about Team Aqua then he was a monotype grass trainer who'd need to sandbag so he didn't wipe them out too fast, too trainer-like.
Though semi-worrying was that he was called for help as a first choice—the non-trainer—when they were within flying distance of Roxanne, Winona, and Flannery. He was a teacher. That meant his duty was to teach them why that was foolhardy. You didn't call a janitor when your spleen exploded (though you probably still had to, he acquiesced to himself).
"Are you sure that you're strong enough to beat them!?" she screeched.
He rolled his eyes at the worry wart. A whistle caught in the area. "Oy! I saw you things! Any Zangoose want a fight?"
The Roserade and Azumarill that the girls were playing with were hugging each other tightly, nearly crying when a pokémon bigger than both of them stalked out of the grass. Past the lumbering steps was pure muscle that could cleave through steel. It got up on its hind legs when it was near, waiting for its opponent.
"Not me. There's some people nearby that are doing some bad stuff or something. Figure that you'd want a good fight. I get your help. It's a win-win! I won't catch you or nothing if you don't want to be, promise," Kane said.
The Zangoose got back on all fours and walked over to his side. That was an agreement if Kane ever saw it.
"See? We're fine. Now, where did the two goofballs run off to?"
Even if she still looked like her eyes were crinkling into themselves, she pointed down the route. "They went into Meteor Falls. Be careful! The higher levels are fine for new trainers, but sometimes stronger pokémon wander outside their territory. It's not uncommon for a Bagon to have gotten lost."
"Sure thing, lady. Thanks for the advice!"
She was reverting back to her childhood habit of chewing on her collar out of stress as Kane strode out of sight. Words slid between her gnashing teeth. "Please be safe. Please be safe. Please be safe."
Grass converted to rough rock after walking past the house. The coarse dirt that dusted over the hard bed crunched as the two speed walked. Many hikers were either taking breaks or enjoying their leisurely travel, waving at him as he passed by. Craters made the otherwise boring landscape into a bleak one, making it seem like a great battle happened long ago, or that he was staring at the exact place where the dinosaurs met their end. The slight slant upwards eventually gave him a view over the trees of the surroundings. More mountains blocked sight deeper into the island. On the left, more trees—yawn! On the right, that's right, trees. On the opposite was glimmering lines washing over the other. Cresting over the river was the ocean, blinding stalks coming from the sun hanging over it.
The pokémon grunting next to him was a curt reminder they weren't there to sightsee. He continued plodding along even if the pace was wreaking kisses of lactic acid all over his calves. Eventually the slope evened out just as they got in front of the biggest mountain in the area. A wooden sign drooped slightly to the side, reading 'Meteor Falls' right next to a coincidental 'DANGER' sign. Why were convenient holes that were just the height a human could walk through punched through mountains? What process would even erode them that way? Zangoose walked in first as Kane was inspecting the cave's entrance, forever carrying that question.
Peeking gave the picture of a natural wonderland. Walking past gave him an overwhelming presence. Everything kerchunked together. The machine felt like a whole, and Kane couldn't help shuddering. Sound bounced off the perfectly reflective walls in a beautiful display of natural acoustics. The active waterfall that was inside created a roar that could already be heard from the entrance. Something, the emptiness itself, rolled around like a gumball kicked from one end of the mouth to the other, ominously providing the brass. It all created an obnoxious monologue which overrode anything not shouted. The river spread out to the size of greater width than a two lane street, which was absurd existing underneath a mountain. Normal rivers didn't create a sense of power, danger, that this did when surrounded by jagged rocks.
Peeking over the edge made dread prickle along his skin. For one, the lack of light made it impossible to see past the veil's surface. All that he could notice were the ripples like fabric indicating a current's constant movement. The rocks at the sides were rounded in shapes so strange that it was hard to imagine they were natural, lumps sticking outside of lumps into discs with holes staring back at him. A few stalagmites rose from inside the river to further supply that imposition quality.
Perhaps the worst part was the exceedingly moist atmosphere that assaulted them the second they passed the entrance's threshold. Even Zangoose gagged as it felt like it was being dumped inside a pool. Only the sudden drop in temperature made the dampness bearable; having to wade through an enclosed space in tropical heat was analogous to being boiled alive. Zubat hanging off the ceiling looked entirely unbothered, though he was unsure how their echolocation could work under such conditions.
Overwhelming stimuli nearly distracted him from the actors that had gathered on the bridge. The scene was perfectly dramatic: a basic bridge over an active flow led to a pillar of rock that everybody was gathered on. People in stupid costumes surrounded the two kids.
Everything came together to give him ideas. The river in the cave, however it worked through the thousand year process, had sanded down most of the rocks into domed surfaces that were unsteady to walk on. This worked with the higher pathways too, though not nearly as dramatically as those next to the rapids. Zangoose stumbled more than he did, claws sliding down without great friction against the ground. It was an entirely different floor just outside the cave's threshold. Many ideas were coming together. Devious ones.
Lulu yawned when she came out. Zangoose bristled at the new pokémon before calming down when Lane pointed at the group.
"We're going to take the attention of the guys in red. Zangoose? I don't know what you know, so focus on the pokémon that Lulu isn't attacking. Just let her do her thing. Lulu? Follow my orders to the dot. Don't look confused or hesitate or else our chance will leave. Now let's go before they notice us."
They both fell into step when Kane took point. Walking over the bridge peppered them with flakes of water. Thanks to the tense situation and overwhelming noise, it was easy to sneak into a position where the Magma grunts wouldn't expect a sneak attack. Just his luck that the adults were sharp enough to realize that the kids glancing towards the bridge could be a problem. Apparently the stupid outfits didn't translate into stupid minds.
They were close enough to fight when everybody realized there was a fourth group. All different colors stood in a square standoff with each other. The roar of the waterfall drowned out the quiet breathing of everyone as they waited for the first move. Two people in red, two people in blue, two kids guarding a scientist standing precariously near the edge of the pillar, and a kid with his two pokémon already out.
"Another kid? Did the sign outside call this a playground?" the woman dressed in blue said.
Across from her, the fat man wearing a red hoodie threw his head back and laughed. "Then that sign would be right on the mark! Go home, aqua children, and leave the work to the adults!"
"You're in the playground too, mister. Does that mean you're a child like us or a creep skulking around children?" Kane asked.
"Kane! These guys are bad guys!" Brendan yelled.
There was a fat man wearing red, dismissively scoffing when he finished scoping out the competition. "I'd rather not waste my time trying to convince people that wouldn't understand why Team Magma's goals are for the good of mankind. We're trying to deal with the gutter rats over there, so it'd be appreciated if you kids scurry back to your mamas."
"Nobody can understand because only criminals think like you do!" the woman yelled back.
"How dare you! Our leader's goals are for the betterment of humankind!" the grunt wearing a red hoodie yelled back.
"...they're gonna be at it all day if we don't intervene. Are all evil teams like this? I guess you have to be that kind of guy to join an 'evil' team." Kane's eye started twitching as the banter continued uninterrupted. It was so juvenile, uncreative, and about everything bad he could call it. "Oy! Get your pokémon out so I can deal with 'em!"
His pokémon ran in front of him. The man's grin turned sinister as his pokéball unhooked.
"Didn't you hear? This ain't a playground! If you play with adults too much then you're going to get burned! Tell the police that it was Tabitha who sent you running to your mommy!"
Tabitha struck a pose with one elbow sticking out into the air and the other hand angled downwards with the pokéball in hand. The nondescript woman that he was with did the same pose mirrored. Flashes blinked in his peripherals as Brendan started fighting against the Team Aqua grunts.
"You guys are so lame, know that?" Kane said.
The pokéballs flew out without an answer. Sleek black fur took shape into a dog, growling as its snout was held high. Right next to it a purple ball puffing out smoke from the pores all around its body floated slightly above the ground with a dopey grin. Immediately it was put on the defensive as an impatient Zangoose leapt into the air with its claws raised wide. Gas blew out of certain pores to propel itself away from the relentless attacks, slowly making the area smell like a sulfur leak.
On the other end were two pokémon circling around each other, waiting for orders from their masters. Kane waited as they shuffled. One nipped at the air. The other lightly swung its blades around. Tabitha coughed. Mightyena had the blue guys behind him, the other battle, Zangoose got in the way, then him. It was a simple reason why Tabitha didn't escalate the battle: their opponents were between a small pokémon that looked pre-evolution and one that was only following feral swipe with feral swipe, easily dodged by the Koffing. Behind them was a fight between stronger pokémon they'd have to deal with after the current fight, both sides wearing themselves down.
Kane ruefully shook his head, letting a smirk take over. Once again proof that Kanto was full of idiots. Both were teams who followed kooky ideas yet those were influenced by real thinking—real thought was put into these insane plans! Everyone who joined Team Rocket had done so for the same reason that anyone joined a gang, whereas these were the insane people that had real know-how. Expecting them to be anywhere near the grunts that he'd fought back in Kanto felt offensive.
All that said, he still wasn't expecting much.
"Tackle, Lulu! Put your all into it!" Kane said with conviction.
Her whole body was put into a sudden leap. Mightyena didn't need guidance on the dodge, letting her run past him and skid to a stop next to the edge. The bumpy ground forced her to kneel when she whipped around too fast.
"Bite her!" Tabitha yelled.
It was the perfect plan. Even with a foreign pokémon, using tackle just made you look weak. It was a beginner move on a pokémon that was obviously not a normal-type. That gave the impression that Lulu was weak, which was the correct assumption when dealing with a kid like himself.
As already said, he wasn't expecting much.
"Knock it off the platform with Superpower!"
It turned around so fast that Tabitha had no time to control his expression of horror. "Stop!"
Stopping brought Mightyena to the same problem that Lulu had. Even with his claws digging into the ground, the Mightyena yelped as it got much closer to the edge than it would've liked. Those extra seconds of trying to find purchase gave Lulu the chance to carefully slip behind him. Her claw winded up and flew. Super effective, on an unstable target, and right on the butt. All of that added up into a physic's defying blow that sent the Mightyena flipping. The dog continuously yelped as it did its gymnastics routine, arcing through the air straight over the stalagmites, before bouncing on the ground far below them.
Pleased that she'd managed to angle the hit so that it didn't fall into the water, she rubbed her blades against each other. They made a sound like a knife rubbing against a whetstone. Without another order she dashed towards the Wheezing. The purple ball was obviously panicking as it started ignoring its trainers commands, blowing as much gas as possible to escape the two pokémon chasing him. Visible purple clouds coated half the arena as his desperate dodging expelled more gas than necessary. The high had made Kane a little less observant to the puffy red cheeks, the eyes full of hate of his opponent who reached for his next weapon.
"Numel!" Tabitha yelled without his pokéball having fully opened yet. "Flame Burst into the Koffing!"
"Sir!?"
"You crazy—"
"Get down!"
Other similar warnings were drowned out by the blast. Comparing it to the waterfall was foolish; there was nothing that could drown out the all-encompassing noise made by an explosion. An explosion was the demolition of reality itself. Those caught in it ceased to exist; those outside were momentarily stunned out of what was real. Loud, so loud that for a second all that Kane could think about was the sudden lack of feeling in his head. The pokémon that were near it survived much better just because of their hardier physiology, but the humans had to contend with a shuddering world. Their balance was shot. Kane's legs wobbled like jelly until he realized that his body was moving without any prompting.
The slick surface of the cave had worked against him. With the feeling of standing's vertigo, he numbly realized that the ceiling was getting further away. His hands feebly swiped in front of him towards handholds that didn't exist. His back smashed against something that eagerly punched back yet enveloped him whole. A weight pushed down against his chest as the world turned dark.
