“Brick Break!” I said, and Junior complied landing a heavy blow on the Geodude. They were crawling all over the mountain, extremely aggressive, and had no sense of self-preservation. It was the last point that truly made them a danger, making them willing, not only to attack an entire group of well-trained Pokémon, but also making them more than happy to Self-Destruct at a moment's notice. Our only option was to knock them out before they could. It was a worrying circumstance that gave evidence to how bad things were on the mountain. Self-Destruct was the kind of move that was only used as a last resort, and even Geodude usually valued their health more than their aggression. But the tremors had everything on the mountain on edge.
Worse than the Geodude were the Graveler, if only because it was harder to take them out in time, and they were still scarily common. Hawlucha, pardon me, Fisticuff now, typically dealt with them swiftly, but it was only thanks to Ampharos and Protect that I had come out unscarred from the few explosions that did trigger.
Speaking of Fisticuff, Ducky seemed to have finally gotten him under control. It was impressive, to say the least, how smoothly the two worked together. I won’t lie and say I wasn’t a little jealous. Ducky’s skill as a trainer was once more on display and it didn’t make me feel great about my own abilities. I tried not to let it get to me, I wasn’t doing too bad, after all. I even had a Primeape, infamously hard to work with Pokémon, and while she still gave me some bruises every now and then, she had good control and had more than proven herself to be a powerhouse in battle. I couldn’t help the doubt niggling at me as to whether that proved I was a good trainer, or if I had just gotten lucky with my Pokémon.
“Onix incoming!” yelled Ducky from above. She’d taken the lookout spot by default, have the best air mobility.
“Gogoat, go dissuade him from approaching,” said Elaine. Gogoat kicked off in the direction Ducky was pointing, quickly disappearing into the uneven terrain. Elaine and her team were on reserve to deal with the significant threats. It didn’t take long for Gogoat to return, and Ducky confirmed the Onix was moving away from us.
“Are we ever going to find anything at this rate?” I said. We’d not moved much from our starting point in the hour we’d begun our search. The constant attacks, even if individually they’d posed little problems so far, had slowed us down considerably. It wouldn’t be long before I started to notice the drain. It was already hard enough to be scrambling over loose rocks and sands without having to be on constant alert for battles.
“Go back if you want,” said Joey. “Nobody asked you to be here in the first place.”
“Shut up, Joey. At least I wasn’t dragged into this against my will.”
If it wasn’t clear by now, the two of us didn’t get along. I’d like to say it was all his fault, but as the mature woman I am now, that wouldn’t be completely honest. Our fraying nerves only brought out the worst in us, and we’d exchanged more than one Sticky Barb in the past hour. He was irritating enough as it was, but even worse was that while I had to clamber up the mountain, scraping my knees and elbows on the hostile terrain, he just got his Hattrem to lift him over obstacles with Psychic. Aside from the fairy-type, he also had Starmie (who I had to acknowledge was eminently useful against all the rock-types), Malamar, and a Galarian Slowking out. How he’d gotten his hands on the last I really didn’t want to know. All I could say was that he lived up to his reputation of looming ominously and hadn’t done much yet. The fact that Staryu and Inkay had evolved was another thing that wasn’t boosting my confidence. His team was, as hard as it was to admit, shaping up well and fast, and if there was one person I didn’t want to fall behind to it was Joey. With all that, though, it was the lack of a certain Pokémon that was most striking.
“Where’s Espurr?” I asked, my curiosity finally beating out my reluctance to make conversation with him. He stilled and replied tersely.
“In her pokeball,” he said. “She’s grounded.”
“Grounded? What did she do?”
“That’s none of your business.”
“If you say so. She probably deserved it. She’s kinda creepy, anyway.”
“Don’t talk about her like that,” hissed Joey.
“Fine, fine. I don’t care.”
Our conversation paused in time to face a group of three Geodude speeding down the slope towards us with Rollout. Junior and Starmie took care of them, and we ascended to a wide, flat ledge with an opening into the mountain. We crowded around the gaping, black hole, even Ducky descending for a closer look.
“Is that cave on the map?” she asked. Elaine scrutinised said map, her brow wrinkling.
“No, I don’t think so. But it’s not too surprising. With Pokémon like Orthworms, Durant, and Onix around, the tunnels in Mount Anvil are always changing. I’d be more surprised if we didn’t find entrances into the underground that weren’t marked. Sableye, would you be a dear and investigate a little. Retreat at the first sign of danger, and don’t go too far. We’re charged with the surface, for now. There’s no point in getting lost beneath the earth.”
Sableye crawled out of her shadow and slipped into the darkness of the cave with the eerie movements typical of ghost-types. As we waited, we decided to take a short break, and seeing Sableye had just reminded me of something I’d been wanting to ask.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
“By the way, Elaine. Have you ever heard of Primeape being able to learn Shadow Punch?”
She frowned and shook her head.
“No, I don’t think so. I wouldn’t be all that surprised if they could, though. With the right training. Seems like something that’d be up their alley.”
“They can learn Shadow Claw,” chimed in Ducky. “I know that for sure. Faced one myself. Either that or Night Slash would provide good coverage. And I’d add Poison Jab to the mix too, for fairy-types.”
“It’s not that,” I said. “It’s just that Junior used a move against Mr. Mime in the match against Isa that I thought was Shadow Punch.”
“I remember that,” said Elaine. “But I don’t think it was Shadow Punch. It’s not the most common move, but I did get a chance to see it once in a battle against a Golurk, and it didn’t look like that. I’m not sure what it was, though. I’ll have to ask Dad about it later.”
“Okay, thanks. I’m going to investigate anyway, but if he knows something, all the better.”
The conversation turned to rare Pokémon and moves we’d seen on our travels, or, more precisely, Ducky had seen on her travels. She was by far the most journeyed out of all of us; even Elaine, though she had frequently gone on trips with her father from a young age, had always been in a mostly sheltered environment. Ducky, though, much like the first time we’d encountered, was a wellspring of stories and obscure knowledge. Her partial betrayal had soured some of the admiration I’d had for her, even if I understood the logic and reasons behind her actions and everything had turned out well enough in the end, but it was hard not to feel it rekindling when she spoke of water spirits and Pokémon that lived within nightmares, or fossils coming back to life after thousands, maybe millions of years (this was, admittedly, known scientific research, though it was still no less astonishing), or Pokémon that came from outer space. Every story was an affirmation of my decision to leave the circuit. She gathered these stories through exploration, not through following a set path.
“Actually, there was something else I wanted to ask. I don’t know how much you got to see of the tournament in Caprice, but there was this girl who used really weird Pokémon.”
“You’re talking about Zuzu? Yeah, she’s causing quite the splash. I’m sorry to say I don’t know anything about this Magearna you faced, but I might know something about that other one she had. A trainer in Alola? I think it was there, became somewhat famous by using a Pokémon that matched the description of this one. The thing is, and keep in mind, these are rumours, they say the Pokémon he was using was the result of some experiments of, let's say dubious ethics. Which is troubling, because that would make it unique, which means either it somehow ended up here, or someone in Silín replicated the experiment, and I’m not sure which is more unlikely.”
I shivered, remembering the off feeling I got from Zuzu.
“I don’t know,” I said. “Zuzu did feel weird, but I didn’t get any sense of malice from her.”
“Maybe so,” said Ducky. “But there’s a vague theme to the Pokémon she’s used so far. Aside from Magearna and Silvally, which is the name of this other one if I’m right, she’s also used Castform, Porygon-Z, and Ditto, the first two which are Pokémon that have definitely been created by humans, and the last is one that is typically used in experiments in one way or another. Not that I’m saying anything about Zuzu herself, but my Spinarak senses are tingling.”
At this time, Sableye finished his exploration and came out of the cave with the report that the cave system was too complex to explore further. Having rested well, we set out in formation again up the mountain.
I soon settled into the rhythm of the hike mixed with wild battles. At one point, a particularly bad tremor caused a small rockslide that would have crushed me if not for Ampharos and her Protect. It left me and my team separated from the others and I had anxiety inducing flashbacks of a similar situation in the ruins in the Greenforest. I held off a panic attack long enough for Junior to, contrary to my fears, smash her way out with no trouble at all.
“Calla! Are you okay?” asked Elaine, rushing to me. I was still shaking but had enough wits about me to say I was.
“I’m fine. Junior and Ampharos make a good team.”
Junior huffed and Ampharos preened under the praise, but they weren’t idle words. I meant them and so much more. I didn’t have time to shower them with more praise, though, because just then, in a mirror of an earlier cry from earlier in the day, Ducky shouted:
“Look out! Steelix incoming!”
The warning had barely registered when the ground burst in a shower of sand and stones and a ten-metre giant of steel and rock with an evil grin loomed over us. Using it’s oversized head as a battering ram, it descended on us. It crashed into multiple Protects and was swiftly countered by a Hydro Pump from Starmie. It roared and a barrage of sharp stones rained down upon us. By this time, though, we’d gotten our defences stable and a Sunny Day from Volcarona was followed by a Fire Blast. If the Hydro Pump from before had irritated it, now it Screeched in genuine pain. I had to cover my ears, but it was the Steelix that retreated, burying into the ground.
“Careful,” said Ducky from above. “I don’t think it’s gone yet.”
I nodded, focusing on the earth beneath my feet, attempting to discern the shaking of the Steelix moving below from those caused by Landorus.
“Elaine, beneath you!” yelled Joey, his psychic-types giving him a greater perception. With the help of Gogoat, Elaine evaded the Dig in time and Steelix was left open for another Hydro Pump and a Cross Chop from Junior. It retaliated with an Iron Tail which, though the brunt of it was Protected against, was still strong enough to sweep us off our feet and sent me down the mountain, only avoiding serious injury thanks to Ampharos wrapping me in an Ursaring hug as we tumbled.
“Ampharos! Comfey, heal her.”
As Comfey went about spreading her perfume, I looked at the battle from the distance my fall had created. Another couple of attacks from Starmie and Volcarona forced the Steelix underground again. The moment it did, Elaine and Joey climbed onto Volcarona, returning the rest of their team. Ducky flew to where I was and stretched her hand to lift me onto Pidgeot. I briefly hesitated, the feathers triggering chills, but I got on, eyes screwed shut and doing my best to ignore the unsettling softness I was sitting on. I returned Ampharos and Junior and Comfey wrapped herself around my neck squeaking with the displeasure of not having healed Ampharos completely yet. We took to the skies barely avoiding the reemergence of the steel monster as it leapt out of the earth, mouth snapping with Crunch and only just missing us.
