Author's Note: I hope you're ready for some Aden character development after that detour in coal town, because we'll see more of him in this arc. When he last appeared, he was getting in trouble in Jubilife, and we learned a little bit of his history. And, just as a reminder, he has some unknown score to settle with one Haruba Jones…
As he pauses along Route 206, Aden takes out his badge case. Two badges already — at this rate, he'll have them all well before the tournament. The grass gym leader was just as easily defeated as the coal miner guy. Naturally Aden had the advantage with his flying-type gyarados, but since the Sinnoh League Association was watching him closely, he caught himself a new pokemon just for the Eterna Gym.
At the time, trainers in the area marveled that a torkoal appeared in this part of Sinnoh, when they're native to the Battle Zone. Aden hadn't paid much attention to their reactions; he just wanted a fire pokemon on his team, and he knew they were hard to come by. Now that his match is over, he thinks back on some of the comments about torkoal. A sudden pokemon migration is the kind of thing a responsible ranger would look into. Too bad he's not a ranger any longer.
Aden's attention keeps getting drawn towards the bike riders on Cycling Road. A bicycle would be useful, but he's going to need some more money first. For that, he'll need to win his third badge, and then maybe he'll get someone to sponsor him. With a sponsor he'll be able to better support his journey throughout Sinnoh. And then, he ponders, staring at his badge case, he can rub his eight badges in Joel's smug face and demand back his arcanine.
I miss you, buddy, he thinks wistfully. His old partner would have been perfect in the grass gym. The torkoal, slow to move and slow to understand orders, is a poor fire-type substitute. Still, she tried her best, and won the match with far less damage to the plant-filled gym than Gyarados had done in Oreburgh. He considers it a decent victory.
And now he must prepare himself for the next gym. He knows it's all the way in Veilstone and is a fighting-type establishment, so, once again, Gyarados has the advantage. But like this most recent battle, he'd best have one a little less powerful.
After some exploring along the route, he catches a gligar. Pocketing the ball, he notices he's directly in front of an entrance to a large cave in the mountainside. Shrugging, he decides to explore inside for a bit. He's had his fill of being out in the open anyway.
It's cool, damp, and frankly peaceful. By flashlight, Aden lets himself wander through the twisty passageways. There's not really much to see, just a random zubat now and then, but with each turn, he hopes there will be something interesting to discover. Each time, he's disappointed.
He starts to wonder if this cave is a metaphor for his journey thus far. It's been pretty straightforward and unchallenging, like he could fight these gym leaders in the dark. The Sinnoh League challenge is so methodological — clear-cut rules for an pointless athletic competition. He misses the unpredictability and heroism of rangerhood, citizens praising him for rescuing pokemon or putting out wildfires.
And he would say he misses his friends, but after the Fall City incident, his fellow rangers steered clear of him. So much for getting a date after Aria's accusations. He thought they were falling for one another, that they were each other's firsts. That romantic night at her flat was nothing more than a trap.
As much as he plays the memories over and over, he still can't figure out why. Why did Joel dislike him so much? Why did Aria go along with his plan to stigmatize Aden? Except that she was clearly in love with Joel the whole time, and cared more about his approval than what became of her co-ranger. A co-ranger she willingly slept with, and was pretty convincing about enjoying it. How could she have been so cruel?
It hurt so much that he wrecked the town with Gyarados's help. And now he's stuck going through the motions in Sinnoh, for the chance that he'll get his partner pokemon back from Joel's clutches. Only he's not sure if he's up for six more boring gyms in between traipsing through this backwards region. Everywhere he goes, people look at him cautiously. How can he explain to these Sinnohans that he's one of the good guys? Or used to be, at any rate. If the world wants to see him as a menace, then maybe he should be.
With a deep sigh, he stops and leans against a rocky wall. When he opens his eyes again, he sees light reflected off the opposite wall, coming from around the bend. He clicks off his flashlight, wondering who's approaching. Likely just another exploring trainer. Or maybe some criminal hatching a scheme in this secretive cave. Perhaps Aden can apprehend him and emerge a hero once more. Or maybe he can join him and screw everyone altogether.
It's just a trainer after all. A little girl, at that. She shines her own flashright right at Aden's face and gasps loudly. "I found someone! Can you help Mira?"
"Not if I'm blind." He blocks the light with his hand.
"Sorry!" She fumbles with it, shutting it off. In the dark, Aden hears it clatter against the ground.
"Who's Mira? Is someone else back there?" he asks.
"Um, I'm Mira." She's scuffling around, looking for her torch, so Aden clicks his and holds it aloft. The skinny girl with mismatched pigtails clutches her flashlight safely to her chest. "I was looking for pokemon in here and got lost. Can you help me find the exit?" she pleads.
Aden scowls. He wants to say it's her parents' fault for letting her wander into a cave alone, or her own for not paying better attention, or not having a pokemon to guide her. But the longer she stares at him, the more he realizes he'd best help her. It's what any good person would do, ranger or not. "Alright," he sighs. "Follow me and I'll backtrack."
"Yay!" Mira scurries to his side. "What's your name? Are you a trainer? What kind of pokemon do you have, can I see?"
"Aden," he answers curtly. "You can see my team once we're out in the open, okay?"
"Okay! I can't wait to have my own team and go on a journey. I'm gonna have so many strong pokemon and be super tough." She starts listing her favorites, along with what kinds of moves they can learn, and what advantages and disadvantages those moves have, how many battle items she's found in the cave and saved for the future. Aden tunes her out as he tries to remember which turns he took. This cave is more difficult to navigate than he expected, and a prattling kid at his side is not helping.
To make matters worse, he keeps hearing what sounds like a pokemon stampede in the distance. Every time Mira pauses for a breath, Aden listens carefully to try and figure out if there's a herd of pokemon headed their way, or what. He can't tell with all the twisty passageways. Maybe it's just an onix or two tunneling through the walls. Regardless, he needs to find that exit fast if there's a chance they might be rushed by wild pokemon.
And then it happens. They round a corner just as a collective of noisy, panicked geodude fly by. "Get back!" Aden shouts to Mira, giving her as light a shove as he can. Startled by his voice, one of the geodude rushes him. There's no time to lob one of his pokemon at it, for the frightened geodude throws a punch straight for Aden's face. He shields his head, socked instead in the arm by a fist of pure rock.
Mira shrieks, pulling Aden backwards to safety. "Let me go!" he snarls, snatching his gyarados's pokeball from his belt. "I'm gonna drown all of 'em!"
"Don't!" Mira cries. "They're scared, something's wrong!"
Aden holds the ball aloft, seconds away from flinging it. His other arm throbs. He breathes in short bursts. She's right, of course, but he growls in frustration as the geodude go on their way. He wanted to get even. However, a ranger wouldn't do that to pokemon fleeing from a threat.
"Are you alright?" she meekly asks. "Is it broken?
He clips the ball back in place and moves his arm slowly. "Don't think so. I'll be fine."
"We should find out what happened."
"I thought you wanted to get out of here."
"I want to know what bothered the geodude! Maybe we can help."
"Probably just an onix getting into their nest. C'mon, now I want to get out of here." He snatches her hand just in time to hear the strange noise from before. Only rather than a stampede, it sounds more like a rockslide. He just can't place where it's coming from. Aden starts to say that he doesn't think they want to find out what scared the geodude, but he has a nagging suspicion he should investigate. If it's an onix invading their territory, he has the ranger tools to calm it down and lead it away. And if it's humans… well, he has a powerful gyarados to deal with them before alerting the authorities.
But first, he sends out his new gligar. "Can you use your sonar and guide us to whatever's making that sound?" he asks when another rockslide happens. Obediently, Gligar does so, then springs off Aden's arm to fly. Aden takes after him, casting one glance behind. "Mira, c'mon!"
"So cool," he hears her say. "Mira is coming!"
They follow through more dark twists and turns. Then Aden sees light bouncing off the cave walls from behind a corner. Silently, he guides Mira and Gligar to hide in the shadow of a boulder while he takes a peek.
There's someone digging into the walls with a pickaxe by the glow of a pokemon Aden does not know. Some kind of floating rock with clear crystals growing out of its body. The other pokemon at his side, he does recognize: a nosepass. The cave floor is littered with stones that glitter from the foreign pokemon's flash; it's obvious this man had his nosepass rock blast the wall so he could dig for treasures. Aden was under the impression this kind of activity was encouraged in the Underground, which a lot of people in Eterna made a big deal of — because one of the Underground's founders lives there, or something.
While he's relieved it's just a lone treasure hunter, and about to call this investigation over, Aden pauses to think. He's pretty sure spelunking is reserved for the Underground because wild pokemon don't live in those specific passageways. Whatever this guy is looking for, he's disturbed a nest of geodude for it. And while it's not that big a deal, Aden is still mad about the swarm and the pain in his arm. He rubs at the sore spot. He's going to confront him.
The man steps back from the wall, admiring a blue stone he picked out of it. He sweeps off his hat to wipe his forehead with his arm, grinning at his nosepass. That's when Aden recognizes him. It's none other than Haruba Jones.
Only one thing could make him entirely forget about Aria, Joel, and the injustices he suffered in Fall City — and that thing is right before his eyes, unaware that he's no longer alone. Aden clenches his fist with the uninjured arm, and replays a different memory…
"Oh, Aden… what are you going to do with yourself now?"
"Exactly what Joel told me to do. I'm going to Sinnoh." He balled up another extra t-shirt into his bag.
"I hate to see you leave so soon after—" She stopped herself, a hand over her heart. "Stay home, at least for a few more days."
"I can't. I can't be in Almia now, surrounded by all these rangers."
"What Joel did to you is unforgivable. Let me investigate him, there's bound to be a few skeletons in his closet."
"I don't need my mother to fight my battles," Aden grumbled. "I'm seventeen."
"And I don't want my son to start a life of globe-trotting, never to be seen again," she said, quietly.
Aden chuckled. "It's just Sinnoh. It's the same island. I've no intention of running halfway across the world and leaving you alone. Who do you think I am?"
She glanced away, and Aden knew exactly of whom she was thinking.
"I'll keep my promise," he said after a moment's silence. "The only reason I'll take off is if I learn where he is. I'm going to find him for you."
"He disappeared three years ago, after that Holon incident. No one knows where he is."
"I'll find him," Aden reiterated slowly. "He won't get away that easily. I won't rest until he pays for everything he's put us through."
Aden was astounded that Haruba Jones showed up on the news with the Azure Flute just one day later — but that stroke of fortune seems like nothing compared to having the man directly in his sight, in a dark cave with no witnesses save a little girl. Surely his clever gligar will lead the kid away once he catches on.
It's now or never. Aden charges with a yell. Haruba Jones looks at him, startled. The next thing he knows, a sandstorm kicks up. "No!" Aden cries, plunging into the heavy, raging dust. The dim flash of Jones's strange rock pokemon has vanished. Aden spits out sand, holding his eyes shut, swinging blindly. His fist crunches against the cave wall instead. He swears, falling to his knees in defeat. Jones is gone.
And then he feels cool grass between his fingers. He rubs his eyes and spits out more sand. He's outside the cave, but how? Who saved them? He half-expects to see that bastard Jones, but there's no one but Mira… with an alakazam at her side.
"Are you okay?" she asks, taking his arm. "You cut your hand! Hold on, Mira's mom packed lots of bandages!" She shrugs off her backpack to start digging through it.
"What just happened?!" Aden demands.
"Um… I had to get us out of the sandstorm, so…"
He stares up at the alakazam looming protectively beside her. "Do you mean to tell me… you had a pokemon like that who could have teleported you out of the cave at any time?"
She peels open an adhesive bandage with a cheerful smile. "Mira wanted to find her own way out like a strong trainer! By teaming up with another strong trainer like you!"
Aden sucks in his breath, holding back the strong urge to bite her head off. As she carefully applies bandages to his knuckles, his gligar swoops in. At first he's upset that Mira apparently left him behind, but realizes, as a ground-type, Gligar would be unaffected by a sandstorm. Indeed, the little pokemon seems fine. He proudly holds something in his pincer, even.
"Whatcha got, buddy?" Aden asks, anger deflating. It's a chunk of bright blue rock. Aden turns it over in his hand, unsure of what it's supposed to be. The gligar tilts his head, tongue sticking out. "You like pokemon items, right, Mira? Do you know what this is?"
Satisfied with her doctoring efforts, she takes the stone and examines it closely. "Nope, I think it's just a pretty rock. Is it what that man was digging for?"
Frowning, Aden takes it back. If this is a clue as to what Haruba Jones was doing, then he's going to guard it closely.
"Who was he?" Mira asks softly. "You looked so… like you were gonna punch him."
Aden closes his fingers around the stone. "I was. He's… he's a bad guy I've been looking for."
"Then your gligar is a hero for going into the sandstorm and snatching it from him." She pets the top of the pokemon's head. "Ooh, I know!" Reaching into her backpack again, she holds out her hands to Aden. "Mira will give you this, as thanks for your help!"
It's some kind of large fang. Aden isn't sure if it does anything, but he'll be nice about it. "Thanks, Mira. I feel like I didn't help much, but thanks." He reaches out and rubs the top of his gligar's head. Compared to his temperamental gyarados and witless torkoal, Gligar is most likely to become partner material. "Thank you too, little bud."
Aden and Gligar escort Mira back to her home near Eterna City. Her mother thanks him profusely and offers him a room for the night. He almost declines, thinking that he might chase after Haruba Jones — but after the lady's gratitude, plus hearing Mira boast about how kind he was to help her and how brave he acted, chasing after a bad guy in the middle of a sandstorm, he changes his mind. It's a nice feeling that they're not afraid of him.
"You're so strong, Aden," Mira says after her mother shows him to the guest bedroom. She lays on her stomach on the bed, kicking her feet back and forth. "Think I could ever be as good as you?"
"Heh, maybe." Aden digs through his backpack, making sure the blue stone is safely inside. It is, next to Mira's giant fang. "Just… practice every day with your pokemon, and stay out of trouble. Mind your own business, and don't go after bad guys."
"Likewise."
He smirks at her. "You've got a big headstart on other kids your age. Where in the world did you get an alakazam, of all things?"
"He's Mira's family pokemon! Mom sends him with me whenever I go exploring!"
"Well, alakazam are—" He pauses. "Say, Mira… you wanna trade for my really cool torkoal?"
"No way!" She leaps off the bed. "I'm gonna start training with him, and have a battle with you someday! 'Night, Aden!" Just like that, she takes off.
What is it with little girls who want to battle me? Aden muses, recalling the marill girl from Jubilife. He shuts the door for the night. His hand on the knob is the bandaged one, and that makes him think about everything — especially Haruba Jones narrowly escaping. No matter what Aden decides to do about his gym quest, he will not let that man get away again.