Set after the Emerald Arc.
Night fell quickly in Mountain Silver. The normally clear sky was now shrouded in a blanket of darkness, and the only light visible was from the lonesome moon, suspended somewhere above.
The moon shed light over the trail the two men in the mountain were taking. One man called himself Grunt. The other man called himself Grunt. Their real names were unimportant; it was company policy to go by their given names, and they abided by it.
They were suited in their company uniform for this task, and it seemed like this time of day was only when it came in handy. The completely black overall camouflaged them in the shadow of darkness, hiding them from the naked eye.
The two men had been entrusted with the task of bringing some sealed boxes to a specific location. Yet another of their many secret hideouts, so they have been told. They did not know what the boxes contained. Not that it mattered to them. Only thing that really mattered was their completion of the job.
Each of them had been provided with one machop for the job. Nothing more. But as the boxes were too many for only two machops to carry, the two grunts had to suffer the bitter ignominy of also carrying the boxes themselves.
Making their way deeper into the dense, almost suffocating undergrowth, the two grunts were getting sick of the same bland landscape being repeated again and again. The unending path of stony terrain, surrounded by trees as daunting as cathedrals, seemed to stretch on an arc forever.
The two grunts clambered over yet another rocky slope, and stopped to take a breather. The two machops behind them carefully laid down the boxes and used their free hands to wipe the sweat off their brow.
"I feel like a damned Pokémon," The grunt said, panting. "Why are we the ones that have to bring these stupid boxes?"
"Right," The 2nd grunt nodded in agreement. "I hate being a grunt. All we get are these lousy Pokémons that do us nothing." He glared at the machops reproachfully.
"If I don't get a promotion after all this trouble, I am going to be really angry. And I mean it."
The two grunts looked up. They were momentarily blinded by a sudden jet of light illuminating a cave just a couple of steps away. And in front of the cave stood a tall figure silhouetted against the light. His long, wiry shadow loomed over them.
"I think we have arrived," The grunt grunted in a low voice.
They recalled the machops back into their poke balls and trudged up to the man. They were surprised to find out that 'he' was in fact a 'she'. Her hair was cropped so short to the point it was plastered to her head, with each of four spiky braids protruding outright on both ends. Her visage was the most intimidating of all, with a slithering mouth and watchful, serpent-like eyes sweeping over them. Add that with her towering height, she was the perfect embodiment of a snake.
The grunt broke the silence.
"So where exactly do you want these boxes placed, ma'am?" The grunt asked. His tone had changed drastically from when he was reviling at the whole stupidity of the mission.
The woman did not say anything, but her eyes flickered over at the entrance of the cave. The grunts heaved the boxes up and piled them neatly in a row. When they were done, they turned around to face the woman.
"Everything is done, as you…"
The grunt did not complete the sentence. His eyes suddenly bulged in horror, and almost in slow motion, he pitched forward and lay still. The other grunt followed suit before he even realized what had happened to his companion. In the same grotesque fashion, he keeled down by the side as if he had been pinched by an invisible force. The man writhed in pain on the floor, but soon stopped moving as well as the toxic spread through his entire nervous system.
And on top of his body hovered a gigantic spider, its razor-sharp sting on its head glinting off in the moonlight, and the pale blue, mystifying eyes livid even in the pitch of blackness.
The woman turned.
"Dispose of them."
The spider began to secrete threads of almost invisible web from its back and soon each of the dead grunts was wrapped into white, silvery cocoon.