Draco: Progress in Galar while I start this chapter - got the Ice Badge and the Water Mode for the Rotom Bike. When I looked up evolutionary stone locations, they kept coming up as being found in the Lake of Outrage in the Wild Area; I assumed that meant a randomized spawn. Then I got there and found stones underneath a #RingOfStandingStones, and I figured "Oh, sweet, one for each." Yeah, nope. There's ten different evolutionary stones and only six spawns in the ring. I need a Sun Stone and I didn't get one on my first visit. #YankTheDogsChain

Pokémon and protagonist © Nintendo. Character designs © Koei. Ransei © somewhere in the middle.

Ultra Kingdom - Voltaic Construct: Raging Storm

A shimmering cry from the Cosmog roused Okuni from a relatively peaceful slumber, roughly four weeks after Oichi and the others had found her. By the time she'd opened her eyes and her vision had cleared, Gracia was already sitting upright, petting the two gently.

"What's up?" Okuni murmured.

"A good rest is what's up," Gracia replied. "The Cosmog are ready to open another gate."

Okuni almost shot up at that. "Really?" she mused, smiling. "Wonderful. The sooner we can leave this wood, the better."

They made their way out of the tent and found Oichi and Ranmaru already preparing breakfast. As much as Okuni had been overeager to eat anything but berries, she understood the wisdom of rationing their remaining non-berry food to keep a variety up before they reached their next chance to resupply; thus she accepted a plate full of berries with no objection.

"So," she observed, "your packs can hold enough food for three Warriors and their Pokémon to last three months. Did you guys have a plan for what to do if your third destination didn't have anything to eat?"

"Yes, we did," Oichi replied. "If we've reached a third place and there's still nothing to resupply with, we cut back to one meal per day. A little less to eat, a little longer we have anything to eat at all." Then, looking up to Okuni awkwardly. "That being said, with an extra traveler, we might need to cut back sooner."

Okuni nodded. "I understand. I'm fortunate enough to have ended up in a world with anything to eat at all. If you'd rather I-"

"Woah woah woah, no!" Gracia interrupted. "We're not gonna make you stay behind! We've got no idea if we'll ever be able to come back here again!"

"Indeed," Ranmaru assured her. "If we find our next destination is Ransei, leaving you here with the Pheromosa would be unforgivable. You'll come with us."

"Thank you," Okuni praised.

The Cosmog started working on opening the gate while everyone was packing; Oichi had just finished equipping Null's pack when the rift was thrown wide. Gracia and Gothitelle led the charge as per usual, followed quickly by Okuni and Volcarona. Ranmaru and Lucario leapt in next, and Oichi directed Null to charge in before glancing around the wood.

No Pheromosa waiting in the shadows; she quickly dashed to the rift and leapt in before it vanished without her.

+x+x+x+

There was a much harder surface beneath her feet when she landed on the other end.

The gate seemed to have deposited them in an enclosure of some kind. Dim fluorescent tubes were spaced along the roof, offering some measure of light to the area; the walls were pale metal, and the floor of similar build, though portions of it were a grating of some kind. A few points in the walls were missing, revealing exposed wires that seemed to spark infrequently; there was a small opening that looked like it had once been double doors, leading into a similarly poorly-lit area.

"Is this... a power plant?" Okuni asked uncertainly.

"So it would seem," Ranmaru observed.

Gracia shuddered. "Now I'm half expecting to find innocent bumps on the ground that turn out to be Voltorb waiting to explode, or something."

Oichi shook her head. "We haven't seen any familiar Pokémon in the beast's worlds," she pointed out, "I doubt this will be any exception." She eyed the walls warily. "Still, be careful. Just because there's no Electric-types around doesn't mean we can't get electrified if we're not careful."

Ranmaru turned to her. "Speaking from experience?"

"Don't act like you haven't seen the Violight battlefield," Oichi retorted.

The group carefully started to advance, marching two-by-two with Null and Oichi at the fore. Through the doorway was a long hallway in a similar state of disrepair, although the lighting was much worse off - noticeably flickering between bright and dim. At the end of the hall was another room that formed a T-intersection.

"It's that Distorted labyrinth all over again," Ranmaru muttered.

"Two paths and four of us," Okuni observed. "Split up?"

Gracia slapped her. "Don't even joke about that," she reprimanded. "We don't even know what kind of beasts are around here. If we split up, I just know that the ones at a disadvantage are going to end up running into one."

Oichi glanced between the paths. "Left-hand path," she recalled. Then, before Null could act on the suggestion; "No, don't hit anything. We don't want you getting zapped."

At the end of that path, they came upon a more intact pair of double doors. The latches weren't intact, and one wasn't connected to the door frame so much as just propped against the other, and that other only had one hinge still intact - but the doors were still in the gap. Lucario carefully shifted the disconnected door over, and Oichi pushed the other open on its lone hinge.

On the other side of the door was the exterior of the plant; it seemed for all the world that they were atop a mountain, with a storm encircling it. Black stone extended all of half a meter from the walkway before descending at a very steep angle; a good distance away were clouds so dark that the Sky Demon could have flown through them unseen, were it not for the lightning crackling between them. The walkway was narrow enough that any advancement would have to be single-file, with only a very thin railing between them and the drop - a railing that only had a bar at waist height, except for the support points, and no grating to fill the remainder. Peeking around the edge revealed a staircase leading to an upper level on the exterior.

There was quiet for a moment among the Ransean warriors as they regarded what they could see outside.

Ranmaru drew close to Oichi. "Does this remind you in some way of-"

"Yes," Oichi confirmed.

Okuni pursed her lips briefly. "I'm thinking maybe we shouldn't-"

"No," Graca agreed.

Oichi pulled the connected door back to a closed position and braced it so that its other hinge was still against the wall; Lucario put the disconnected door against it, and the group reversed its movement so that Okuni and Volcarona were at the fore.

When they arrived back at the T-intersection, they advanced down the opposite path. This took them to something marginally less treacherous - a broader walkway (with a sturdier-looking railing) around what looked like a massive mess of clockwork. Sizeable spotlights were positioned along the walls, and although they seemed to be fairly dim, they were illuminating this place well enough; a faint grinding sound could be heard as they all arrived on the walkway, and after a moment everyone realized that the gears were turning, albeit fairly slowly.

"What's powering this place?" Okuni murmured.

Gracia hummed. "Maybe it's wind power?"

"That's not impossible," Oichi admitted. "But that storm raging outside should be giving more power than this."

"It might just be rather... ineffective wind power," Ranmaru suggested.

Null's growl drew everyone's attention; his gaze was skyward, and when they followed it, they were surprised at what they found. Something was hanging off the roof - it looked like a tangle of wires ending in a starburst bulb, but it was waving back and forth, despite there being no wind in here. Furthermore, it was shining, far brighter than any of the other light sources in the plant; it was providing most of the illumination in this room.

"Is that... a beast?" Okuni murmured.

Oichi's eyes swirled purple. "It is," she exclaimed. "And with that much voltage... it's siphoning from this place."

The beast's motion ceased, and its wires started to part from the ceiling.

Ranmaru started. "It knows we're here!"

The gears accelerated abruptly, the lights intensified such that everyone was nearly blinded, and the beast screeched - a high-pitched cry like static through helium - before swinging towards the Ranseans and releasing the ceiling. The Warriors and their Pokémon split, half and half, with the Cosmog retreating back into the hallway they'd come through; the beast found itself landing between them, and it slammed its wires to the ground as lightning gathered around it.

Null was the only one still in range when the voltage burst - and he retaliated, lunging forward and swiping a Crush Claw across its body. Lucario hurled an Aura Sphere at it from the other side, and Volcarona leapt forward, twisting into a Fiery Dance that blazed the beast and the railing next to her. Gothitelle unleashed a surge of power as Null made to attack again; the beast sidestepped this blow, and its wires seemed to cling to the wall, giving it leverage to climb up and out of Null and Volcarona's attack range.

The lights dimmed once more, and Gracia stumbled back. "It's siphoning again!" she realized.

Lucario leapt up, hurling an Aura Sphere at it, the attack connected, but didn't have enough impact to throw it from the wall. He was still descending when Gothitelle's Future Sight burst out around it - and with its spindly, flexible body, an attack that struck from all directions forced its body to bundle up. The bulb of its head had more inertia than its wires, which meant it was propelled away from the wall - and off the walkway.

Everyone winced as it passed over the edge, dreading the sound that would follow.

A heavy thud quelled those concerns; Oichi dashed up to the railing, and found it had landed on what looked like a mobile maintenance platform. For a moment, it started to rise again... but its wires wouldn't support it, and it slumped back onto the surface.

She breathed a sigh of relief, stepping away. "Okay," she murmured. "That one's down."

The Cosmog warily floated back through the doorway, giving worried cries; Gracia stepped up to them, setting a hand on each. "Glad you guys didn't Teleport," she praised. "No idea where you would've ended up here if you had."

Oichi glanced around the open area. "Let's find out where else there is to go here," she observed.

+x+x+x+

There were three more hallways accessible from the gearwork chamber, one on each wall; the leftmost one from their entrance took them to two other rooms that seemed to be holding giant power cells, and another exterior walkway.

"So," Gracia suggested as they left the gearwork down the next hall, "I'm gonna assume we don't want to make camp outside."

"I know I'm not gonna be able to sleep in a storm that bad," Okuni confirmed.

Ranmaru shook his head. "If we cannot find a room where the beasts are less likely to approach us, we may not have a choice."

Oichi sighed. "I don't know if they'll be so unwilling to come after us on the roof," she argued. "They're able to draw power straight from the walls, who's to say the roof is any better..."

She came to a halt; they'd reached another crossroads, but directly opposite them was an immediate room with its door open.

"...insulated..."

Null gave a wary cry as she stepped towards it, peering inside. One wall was covered in screens that seemed to be displaying data of some sort; the scripture was no more recognizable than that on the Stakataka's labyrinth, but the non-text images were progress bars, coloured symbols.

"What in Distortion?" she murmured.

Okuni stepped in after her. "This looks like a Violitian control room." There was concern in her voice as she said it.

Oichi looked over the wall and stepped back. "This isn't just a power plant," she realized. "This place serves some kind of... purpose."

"But what purpose?" Gracia asked.

Ranmaru crossed his arms, glancing at the Cosmog. "...It seems we have something with which to spend time while you rest."

"Finding out what this place is for," Oichi declared.

Draco: Progress in Galar while I end this chapter - got the Dragon Badge. Thank Alpha I'd been in Orre and Pokétopia in the meantime. Training my Double Battle tactics while I was waiting for the turn of the Generation paid off in spades.

Side note, why the hell is the Gym Challenge such a titanic deal in Galar? I mean, facing the Gyms in Kanto to Kalos is a respectable journey, sure, and the Alolan island challenge is basically a rite of passage, but if Trainers are halfway through collecting Z-Crystals and civilian areas start exploding, the explosions take precedence. Yeesh. Here's the battle info for the new Ultra Beast.

Xurkitree
-Range: 3
-Move: Discharge
-Ability: Beast Boost | Sequence