Ghastly Adventures: Cascade 2.2 (ch. 7) (Patreon)

“Poltergeist!” I called out, Litwick before me with her flame burning brightly as she grabbed hold of my opponent’s Butterfree. I didn’t need to say anything more before Litwick slammed the bug pokemon into the ground on the battle court. The guy across from me, who was a few years older, tensed as he sensed the conclusion of the battle rapidly approaching.

“Use Psybeam!” He countered, and the butterfree’s eyes glowed.

“Spin!” I shot back, making Litwick spin the butterfree about forty degrees as it tried to break free of Litwick’s grip. The psybeam missed Litwick and me both as a result. Litwick was probably my weakest pokemon, but her strengths couldn’t be ignored. She was lacking a variety of moves -- only knowing two -- but Poltergeist was strong. Much stronger than it had any right to be. It wouldn’t be enough against a truly strong pokemon, but it evened the playing field a fair bit. “Ember!”

The blue flame, which grew brighter as Litwick feasted upon the energy around the battle court, surged forward. It wasn’t a flamethrower, not truly. It was getting there, but she lacked the power and the intensity to the flames. Still, blue fire rushed to the fallen Butterfree- At least it did until the insect vanished in a flash of red.

“Damn it!” My opponent cursed, his expression twisting as if he had bitten into something sour. He spat the taste out, “I lost.”

I let out a small breath of relief. “It was a good match,” I offered, actually meaning it. The very first thing I did after catching Litwick was to find this battle court -- there was a city park, and rather than basketball or tennis courts, there were these battle courts. Even at a late hour, there were some trainers hanging around and everyone wanted to test themselves against someone who won the Boulder badge.

This was my eighth battle. Most of them had been completely unremarkable, especially against fresh faced trainers. I was at risk of developing an ego with how easy they were to mop up, even if some of them had been a trainer for longer than me. I was saved from my arrogance with my win streak catching the attention of older trainers. The ones that had been on the Journey, and they still battled.

I saw that the acknowledgment helped a little, but he was still frustrated as he walked off the court with a shake of his head. That had been a three on three, and I won 3-0. A clean win but it was a close one. The only reason that it was 3-0 was because I was reluctant to push my pokemon to the point of fainting. Still, that was a cool five hundred bucks in my account. I hadn’t made up for everything that I spent, but I was inching my way back to over a cool ten thousand in my account.

Only I would be spending a chunk of it on potions. And grooming supplies. And maybe I could get my hands on a hand-me-down pokedex, because I could really use one. I also needed to make more outfits for Mimikyu. I could also use a few TMs. And if I was going to catch a mankey, then I should get some stuff like training weights. Oh, I should probably look at getting a bike or something. In short, being a pokemon trainer was extremely expensive.

If I hadn’t caught Litwick, I probably would have sold the dusk stone. It was worth a cool 20k, which I could really use right now, but I also needed the stone if I wanted to evolve her from a lampent to a chandelure. It was potentially far off in the future, but selling it would be a risk. I could get 20k now if I sold it directly to Pokemart, and I could probably get more if I put it up for auction. However, there was no promise that I could find or afford another one in the future.

“Still taking challengers?” I was broken from my thoughts to see that it was another trainer. My gaze flickered to Mimikyu, who had taken some knocks, but was largely okay. Phantump was more exhausted than anything. Litwick had also taken some damage, but she looked back at me and was eagerly nodding.

I shook my head, “Sorry, but my team is tapped out.” Litwick immediately burst into protest. “Even if they don’t realize it,” I added, giving the guy a wan smile. He didn’t seem surprised, but he did seem disappointed. Litwick pouted at me even as she returned to her pokeball. She’d pout a bit, but already I had a pretty solid grasp on her personality.

Mimikyu was Lonely, Phantump was Bold, and Litwick was Sassy. So long as I kept that in mind when dealing with her, I shouldn’t run into any issues.

There was a muttering of disappointment as I left the battle court a little richer. Not needing to sleep really opened up some time for me and I was starting to look into more sustainable ways to make some money. There were a few ideas that I was kicking around, but some were more viable than others. Going out to the Orange Islands and catching that crystal onix was out of the cards for me at the moment.

There were secrets I could sell. Give a Feebas a Prism Scale for it to evolve into a Milotic, for example. Only I could make more money if I did so myself and sold the Prism Scales because they were a highly prized item as they came from a rare pokemon that was considered to be the most beautiful of them all. It was doable, but pretty much every secret I knew, I’d rather use for myself.

“I could compete in tournaments,” I continued. Those came with some prize money, and some other awards. The top three usually received a payout, and there were a bunch of them happening across Kanto now that it was battle season. I had won every match that I had so far, but those kinds of tournaments attracted serious trainers. Ones that had a fully trained team with a few years of experience under their belts.

I shook my head, “We’re not ready for that yet.” Brock had been a little rougher with me, but he still battled with the kid gloves on. It had been a mark of his respect. A cultural difference. He was acknowledging me as a pokemon trainer, so he went at me to the best of his ability with the pokemon that he had -- which were thankfully weaker than what he would normally use.

The issue of money still plagued my mind as I found Brawly waiting in the lobby, greeting me with a casual smile and a wave. “Ready to head out?” He greeted me and I nodded, looking him over. There were more than a few looks thrown my way. Or, rather, at Mimikyu.

“I’m ready. Are you?” I asked him considering that he was the one that had been laid out. To that, he just laughed as an answer, and I took that as his way of saying he was fine. “Is Marnie still laid up?”

Brawly shook his head as we left the Pokemon Center, ready to start the next leg of our journey. “She left earlier, so we’ll probably see her in Curelan City. Why?”

“I was hoping to battle her,” I admitted. I also did a little research on her -- her battles in the Kalos League. She used different pokemon, with the exception of Pangoro and Morpeko. She won four matches in the League, only to be beaten out by a Fighting Type trainer, ironically enough. She and Brawly were probably the best and most experienced trainers that I could hope to grind against.

I hadn’t been able to help myself as I hit every Pokemon Center that I could, each time asking if they had seen someone that fit Atilla’s description. I had three false hits before I realized that in all likelihood, I had gone the wrong way. Attila was probably back in Viridian city, or somewhere else. The battling… that had been to build up my funds as much as it had been to distract me from a harsh fact.

The trail had gone cold. I had no idea where Atilla was and I would have to bide my time for our… reunion.

Brawly clapped me on the back, “I’m sure that we’ll both get a chance to soon enough. Might even catch her on the road -- she’s only a couple hours ahead of us,” he noted.

And with that, we left Pewter City behind us.

…

Mt. Moon was something of a fork in the road. There was a path that led around the mountain range, which added a good two weeks to any journey. Then there was the route through the mountain itself, which would take the better part of an afternoon. Or, if you were feeling particularly bold, you could explore the mountain.

It was a place of interest to me. For one, it had fossils. I’m not sure if that whole resurrection machine was up and running yet, but I wanted to get my hands on some. Fossil pokemon were cool and I could use some on my team. Beyond that, it was one of the few places that you could find moon stone, which is what the mountain was named for. There were a few pokemon that needed a moon stone to evolve -- nidorino, clefairy, and skitty -- but none of them jumped out at me in particular as ones that I wanted.

There was one pokemon in particular that I hoped to find there -- a chansey. One of the few ‘healer’ type pokemon. There was a reason that every Pokmeon Center had at least one. The larger centers needed a dozen or more. They were found in the wild, but pokemon were smart. As smart as any human was, for the most part. They understood the value of a white mage, and wild pokemon protected chanseys.

I didn’t have any real expectations of finding one as we approached the mountain a day after leaving Pewter City. But, I was hoping to find some moon stones. Or even just one.

The mountain itself was pretty different from any depiction that I had ever seen of it. There was a straight shot tunnel that led to the other side of the mountain, but various pokemon had taken over the highway. Diglets burrowed branching paths, onixs did as well. Some of the holes that led above or below were so large that they could be mistaken for branching paths off of the intended highway. Paths were marked with fluorescent paint that led people back to the main road, but newer tunnels were being made all the time.

“How long do you want to spend here?” I asked, my voice bouncing off the stone walls as we walked through a rough and uneven tunnel. Litwick illuminated the way, and Brawly had purchased some spelunking gear as backup. We were exploring one of the more established tunnels to get a feel for them.

“I want to head up to see if I can find a mankey that I can vibe with,” Brawly replied. “I heard some neat things about the clefairy on this mountain too.”

“Call it a week?” I asked him, not bothered with the idea. The tunnels lead up to the surface of the mountain. I'm pretty sure you could snake your way up almost to the peak from the ground flood by the connected caves and caverns. A vibrant forest covered a good chunk of the mountain, so we should start to see the monkey pokemon.

“Maybe not that long. Master Bruno would have my hide if I entered the League with anything less than ten badges,” he said with a shiver.

“The circuit is nine months long,” I pointed out. “If we get a flying pokemon, then we'll have all the time in the world to hit the Gyms.” There was a three month off season where the only League that was active was the Orange League, and they weren't officially recognized as a Pokemon League. Given we were a week into the circuit, I felt like we had plenty of time. Kanto had sixteen recognized gyms -- eight major and eight minor. What the difference was? I wasn't entirely sure, to be honest. Scope, maybe?

“... I wouldn't mind spending a week at the beach… flying would be nice -- I could hop to one from anywhere in the region… There's that Pi-Kahuna festival coming up. Gotta be there for that. I've heard awesome things about the waves on that side of Kanto.” Brawly muttered wistfully. “Is there a ghost flying type? That seems to be your thing?”

“There's dragapult,” I answered. The final evolution of Dreepy. “Ghost types are the best, but I'm not married to them.” Though, that was probably less convincing than I wished given how I reached up to pat both Mimikyu and Litwick reassuringly. I heard Brawly chuckling behind me. “I'll probably catch a pidgey at some point. They're a pretty solid choice as a flier and a battler.” Though, in my heart, I yearned for charizard or aerodactyl.

“Your limit is six pokemon, right? Have you set up stable rights with anyone yet?” He asked, and that was another money issue. That whole ‘pokemon hanging out in a computer’ thing wasn't a thing or it wasn't a thing yet. Ash had Professor Oak's ranch as a sponsored trainer. I didn't have that luxury. Meaning that I had to pay someone exorbitant amounts of money a month to house and feed any additional pokemon I had beyond the six I was allowed to carry.

Or, I could set up my own thing and I think that I had an idea on how to do that.

“Not yet, but I have something up my sleeve,” I answered critically. I just couldn't go over six pokemon until I cleared it with them. “You have Bruno, right?”

“For fighting types only,” Brawly sighed. “Anything else would be a distraction -- his words, not mine.”

Bruno sounded like a hard ass to me. I was about to say as much before we reached a point where the tunnel leveled out. However, I saw rubble on the ground -- big chunks of rock as big as my head. A new tunnel had been busted open. I looked back at Brawly, and he was already reaching into his backpack for a can of spray paint. He made a big arrow on that we, and anyone else, could follow to the tunnel.

Then we started exploring, finding that we were heading downward. This time, neither of us spoke, getting ready for whatever we might find. I was getting a little excited, and Litwick seemed to sense it because she shone a little brighter. According to Brawly, you could measure how long a tunnel had been there based on the number of interconnecting tunnels.

This one was a straight shot, marking it as new. We continued down and down and down, marking our progress every once and a while, just in case. It was a solid twenty minutes of walking straight down, the tensions slowly building up as we waited to see what was at the end of the tunnel.

A light, apparently. I saw the shadows getting brighter and brighter. What I didn’t expect was for it to be a massive cavern with a small lake at the heart of it. The light came from a whitish crystal. I wasn’t entirely sure what it was, but I was going to take a little with me.

“A grove,” Brawly muttered, and I heard the frown in his voice. We stepped into it, and I realized what he meant. There were nests set up. Some wear and tear on the walls and stalagmites where pokemon brushed against them. “Looks like an onix grove. They must have migrated in a rush to tunnel straight out.”

My lips thinned. “How long is the list of things that can chase a herd of onix out of their own home?”

“Not long,” Brawly answered. “This had to be recent. If the Rangers knew that a herd of panicked onix were on the loose, they would have closed the tunnel. Whatever did it should still be nearby.” His gaze flickered to me and I knew what he was asking. The smart thing to do would be to head back, tell a Ranger, and take the long way around. Or, we could do the dumb thing and investigate ourselves.

Naturally, we did the dumb thing.

The grove had a number of entrances, however, there was only one that caught our interest. A sound echoed out. Distance distorted it, but it was rhythmic. It could have been a pokemon needing help, or something, but the closer we got to it, the less natural it sounded. It was difficult to track at times as we wove in and around various tunnels, but slowly it got louder. It was a good fifteen minutes later that I realized I could place the sound.

It was machinery.

“Brawly,” I whispered as I took out Litwick’s pokeball. “Hold onto me. We need to go in dark,” I told him and I could see him considering asking why I could see in the dark, but he swallowed it down to offer a small nod. Litwick vanished and plunged us into pitch black darkness. There wasn’t so much as a trace of light, yet all the same, I could see. Things were pretty dark, but it was like my eyes adjusted to a dark room. With Brawly’s hand on my shoulder, we pressed forward.

There was a dead end, but it wasn’t a natural one -- Blackout curtains. Thick ones. Meaning that when we peeked past them, I expected to see light. Crouching down, I slipped the edge of it to the side and a beam of it pierced the darkness.

A construction zone. That was probably the best way to describe it. There was some heavy machinery set up, but most of the labor was being done by pokemon -- sandshrew digging,  machoke carrying away large stones, while humans oversaw the entire process. They were digging something up. I couldn’t see what exactly it was, but it laid at the bottom of what looked to be a pond that they had drained and turned into an excavation site.

My vision went red the moment that I saw who the humans were. They were pretty easily identifiable.

A large R on their chests, wearing black and white jumpsuits. There were six of them in total -- three barking orders at the pokemon, the other three sitting back and kicking their feet up. They took shifts, I suppose.

If it wasn’t for Brawly’s grip on my shoulder, I would have jumped down to the cavern below. I nearly did. Anger surged in my chest, sweeping over me like a tidal wave that tried to drag me out into a sea of rage. I clenched my teeth so hard that they could shatter, my hands curling into white knuckled fists-

“Blair?” Brawly hissed a whisper and that snapped me out of it. The anger was still there, but without me acting on it, I realized how… off it felt.

As if it belonged to someone else.

My mouth went dry and I swallowed thickly, “It’s Team Rocket. They’re digging something up. I see six of them, a dozen pokemon that are working with some kind of machinery. They have the whole place lit up with floodlights,” I told him, swallowing the anger down and forcing myself to take a calming breath. The anger receded like the tide, settling in my gut like a stone. That was… “There’s a generator. I could use Litwick’s Poltergeist to pull the plug on it and cut the power. They’ll be left in the dark.”

Brawly mulled that over for a moment. “You’d have to target Team Rocket,” he said and I… was supposed to have a problem with that. A reluctance. Hesitation. The only uncertainty I felt came from attacking people who outnumbered us. If they each had six pokemon and the ones out weren’t withstanding, then we were facing off against thirty-six pokemon. More, possibly.

He was right -- the only way we had a chance was if we took out the trainers first. Even if the pokemon released themselves, they wouldn’t be able to coordinate. Raw numbers were a danger, but it was better than facing a united force.

I nodded at him, making his lips thin before he nodded back. He took out one his pokeballs, getting it ready while I released Litwick. “You see that cable over there?” I said, pointing at the generator that powered the floodlights. “Give it a yank, would you?”

“Litwick!” Litwick had practiced a lot with Poltergeist, by her own admission. All for that kitchen scene, which she claimed to scare everyone else who saw it. I’m pretty sure that a normal Litwick of her power wouldn’t have been able to manage it, but I saw it move ever so slightly at first. Then, with a sharp yank, the plug was pulled and the execution area plunged into absolute darkness.

Team Rocket exclaimed instantly while I put Litwick back in her pokeball -- her flame would be a disadvantage here. As I jumped down from the ledge, Phantump left his ball. “Leech Seed on the trainers, Phantump. Mimikyu -- Shadow Whip,” I ordered and my voice sounded cold to my own ears. The members of Team Rocket were reacting, grabbing hold of flashlights that they had on their person.

One had just enough time to turn it on for me to see a seed slam into his gut like a bullet and from the wound, a flower bloomed. He dropped to a knee, curling into a ball on the ground. There wasn’t even a shadow of remorse to be found in my heart as another cried out when Mimikyu laid into him. Two were down but one managed to strike a flare, filling the cavern with a low red light.

“Nidoran!” I heard called out while the one that lit the flare took a Leech Seed to the arm, sending him spinning. A red flash marked the arrival of a pokemon, and the nidoran was followed by another cry of, “Voltorb!” And, “Mankey!”

“Voltorb, Thunder Wave!” One of the Team Rocket Grunts called out. I was still in the shadows, but they must have seen either Phantump or Mimikyu. The voltorb sparked before the cavern became filled with a flash of light and I realized that they hadn’t seen any of us. They just needed a flash to illuminate the cavern to place everything. That was annoyingly smart of them.

“Mimikyu, Shadow Sneak into Focus Palm!” Without me even needing to say it, Mimikyu shot forward, arriving behind the voltorb to deliver the punishing blow. In that same second, as the cavern was illuminated, the other to members of Team Rocket zeroed in on me.

“Nidoran, Posion Spikes!” He ordered and the Nidoran leveled it’s head at me before dozens of thin needles erupted from it’s horn. I sprinted to the excavation site, skidding to throw off its aim. I had no idea if I was hit or not but even as I was skidding to safety, I called out my next move.

“Phantump! Confusion Ray! Mimikyu, Shadow Sneak to Wood Hammer!” I called out and my pokemon obeyed without hesitation as Litwick popped out of her ball. This time, Mimikyu appeared behind one of the members of Team Rocket, whacking him on the back of the head with a Wood Hammer, much to the voltorb’s alarm. The confusion ray missed, but that was fine as Phantump vanished into the low darkness. “Poltergeist on the Nidoran trainer-”

I almost forgot about the mankey. No command was given out for it, and I only became aware of it when it leapt for my face, screeching bloody murder as it went for my eyes. “Fuck!” I called out, saving my eyes by blocking, but that meant I had a pissed off mankey on me. One hand grabbed hold of my hair and the other began wailing on me. They weren’t actually attacks, but they were strong enough that I could feel the bone deep bruises forming as I protected my head.

“MANKEY! MANKEY!” There was rage and fear in the mankey’s voice as he wailed on me, sending me onto my back. I felt something hot gush over my eye and Litwick’s panic as she tried to rip the mankey off of me, only for his grip to prove too strong.

“Arm Thrust!” Brawly called out as Makuhita saved me, slamming into the Mankey from behind. I was knocked on my back, the mankey flipping as it registered the attack. It was a solid blow, but the mankey just hollered as it went wild. “Tyrogue, Tackle!” I heard the battle was on going and despite the hot blood dripping down my face, I pushed myself to my feet.

“Mimikyu, Shadow Sneak rapid fire! Phantump, Toxic!” I called out, and Mimikyu went after the voltorb that had been lashing out at it. Phantump, however, fired off a seed at it and the moment that the seed struck the voltorb, a dark purple sludge splashed over it. “Litwick, use ember on the mankey.” The mankey was proving to be the most ferocious of the pokemon. The ones that were building weren’t interfering at all, I noticed. and that was nothing less than a relief.

I, however, pressed onward. The Nidoran was fighting Brawly’s Tyrogue, and the Member of Team Rocket was focused on the battle. I had read the handbook cover to cover. I knew the rules. And, maybe, even now, Team Rocket expected us to abide by them. That’s what the good guys did, at the end of the day. But, in my personal opinion -- if you were going to live outside of the rules, you didn’t deserve their protection.

The member of Team Rocket only noticed me a split second before I tackled him full tilt, slamming him into the ground. He grunted, the wind knocked out of him, before he howled when my fist met his nose in a spray of blood. He looked up at me, his cap falling off -- he wasn’t that much older than me, I noticed. A few years older. Dark eyes that were filled with fear and it was only then that I noticed that I was snarling at him. I brought the fist down again, hammerfisting his face until I beat him into unconsciousness.

“Mimikyu!” Mimikyu cried out, rushing to my side and I rolled off of the member of Team Rocket. Mimikyu leapt into my arms and I looked around to see that all of the members of Team Rocket were down. They were all alive, if unconscious -- the only one left standing was the mankey, who fought with a wild fury against Makuhita, despite the beating that he had taken.

Sloppy, I decided. Not the mankey, but how I handled this. The ambush was good, but everything fell apart immediately after it. It was only when it was done that everything that I should have done leaped out to me… was that inexperience or was that something else?

Now wasn’t the time for introspection, I decided, patting Mimikyu’s head. “I’m fine buddy. How about we turn on the lights,” I said, getting up and Litwick took care of that. The excavation area was once again bathed with light and I saw that all of the pokemon that had been digging something up were huddled together. The pokemon that Team Rocket brought out were all unconscious, save for the mankey- well, until Makuhita Focus Palm’d it one last time and he collapsed.

“Are you okay?” Brawly asked, worried and I waved him off, poking around the cut that went through my eyebrow.

“I’ll be fine with some stitches,” I said, reaching down to grab the pokeballs at the belt of the Grunt that I beat unconscious. Some of them were full? Why hadn’t they sent them out? Wait, was that 1v1 thing an actual thing? Or did they not think they could handle commanding more than one pokemon at a time?

“This went about as well as we could have hoped,” Brawly said, taking out some rope and binding arms and legs while I collected pokeballs and returned the ones that had been knocked out. My gaze lingered on the pokeball when I returned the mankey to it, considering. I shelved the idea until I knew a little more. Brawly approached the pokemon that had been digging, speaking to them in hushed and cautious tones that told them that everything was going to be okay.

I looked to what Team Rocket had been trying to dig up and I felt a sharp pain in my eyebrow when they shot up when I saw what it was. There was no mistaking it.

It was a massive fossil. There were a lot of things that it could possibly be, but my thoughts jumped to one in particular.

Tyrantrum.