It took long enough, but we were here.
The smell of salt filled my nose in a wonderful way as Celeste and I came out of the Connecting Cave. Ambrette town stretched out beneath us, the sea was pulsing along the shore. Boomer and Sasha made interested sounds as they stared out at the sea, and I realized that this was probably the first time they had ever seen the ocean. With a smile, I walked to the edge that hung high over the beach, sitting down and dangling my legs.
"We'll wait here if you guys want to get a closer look." I offered, looking up at the Noibat. The pair squeaked in surprise, as if not really believing me, and Celeste plopped down beside me.
"It's all good with me, I wanna look something up anyway." She said, setting her fossil down beside her and digging into her bag. The two Noibat squeaked in delight and buzzed off, making a beeline for the seaside, and I leaned over to peek over Celeste's shoulder.
"Whacha lookin for?" I asked her, curious about what may have popped into her head. She didn't answer at first, furiously digging in her bag, but after a few seconds a smile crept on her face and she fished out the tablet.
"Perfect! So, I wanted to look at a couple of things. I want to see if there have been any changes with the Tree of Life. I really wanna know if Xerneas fixed that glade." She said, booting it up and rubbing her finger along it.
"Why though? What is so important about that glade beyond the fact you got Mitsy from it? You didn't even show her." I said, blinking at her. Celeste frowned for a moment and shook her head.
"I didn't show her because fixed or not, she still lost her home. Her family. She doesn't need to be reminded of that. The glade itself is not important, for once I am thinking practically. If Xerneas is awake and actively fighting the Reapers, that means we've got a really powerful ally helping us." She said simply as she continued to swipe on the tablet. I just stared at her in awe of her words. For Celeste, this was incredibly profound, and she was right. Perhaps this fight wouldn't be as hard as I thought if Xerneas was indeed awake. I could tell though by Celeste's downcast gaze that it was a pipe dream.
"So much for that plan. Sorry, Celeste." I said, trying to be comforting. Celeste sighed and swiped on the tablet again.
"Yeah well, I guess it is a little much to ask. Oh well, if I can find that fossil lab I'll still be happy. Do you know anything about the official fossils of Kalos?" Celeste asked. I hummed and laid back, staring up at the sky.
"Not really. I know one is an ice type and the other is a dragon, but I didn't pay much attention to that in school. I preferred the literature classes and P.E. So, kind of a nerdy jock." I said sheepishly. Celeste chuckled as she laid down beside me, and we said nothing more. There was something calming about resting on the overhang above the bay. The sounds of the water lapping at the shore filled my ears and relaxed me. I was almost asleep when I felt a pressure on my chest, and I opened my eyes to see Boomer looking at me as though he expected something.
"Sasha! Dangit stop it! What do you want?!" Celeste cried. I sat up carefully to see Sasha flapping around her head, grabbing at her hair and repeatedly looking out at the ocean. I hummed for a second and turned to Boomer, who began looking out at the ocean as well.
"You guys want us to come to the beach? What's wrong?" I asked. Boomer sighed and shook his head, pointing to the beach. I patted his head and grabbed Genny's pokeball, tossing it into the air. The Genesect appeared in a flash of light in front of us, stumbling a bit as she regained her footing on the cliff.
"OBSERVATION: SUMMON PLACEMENT INCORRECT. DEPTH PERCEPTION REQUIRES MAINTENANCE." She said, making Celeste snicker. I rolled my eyes and held onto Boomer, standing up.
"Genny, you can fly. You're fine. Celeste, I'll go check it out. You've had enough excitement for awhile. You okay to fly solo for a bit?" I asked. She sighed in relief, perhaps grateful that I wasn't going to make her come with me, and she nodded, stretching her arms up while Sasha made angry noises on her head.
"Yeah we're good. I'll make my way over to Ambrette and see if I can find that fossil lab. Be careful okay?" She said, and I just stared at her in disbelief.
"You are volunteering to try and go somewhere by yourself, and I need to be careful? Why do I suddenly have a ton of anxiety?" I asked. Celeste crossed her arms and snorted indignantly.
"You forget I'm not new at this. I made it around the Sinnoh region by myself, remember? That region is a huge mess to try and navigate, and that's not counting the train wreck that is Mount Coronet." She said, checking her bag to make sure she had replaced everything.
"Can't be any worse than Twist Mountain in Unova. Rumor has it even the Hero of Truth didn't even go through it herself. She waited until it snowed before she went through it." I said, chuckling a bit. I could absolutely see Carina doing that even though I had only met her a few times.
"Hero of Truth? You mean Vixen?" Celeste asked, tilting her head.
"No, Carina. Vixen is the Hero of Balance. But yeah she probably would too. She wouldn't even need to wait for it to snow either. Yuyu can make it blizzard over huge areas and more or less force it to be winter whenever he wants." I said, nodding at the prospect. Celeste made an interested grunt, but said nothing more about it as she turned to walk away.
"Well, I'm tired of waiting to see what's in this giant rock. I'll see you later." She said, a light skip in her step. I hummed and watched her walk away, unsure of how to feel. She seemed to be more comfortable and relaxed, but at the same time not. She was never terribly easy to read to begin with except in extremes, but this one was particularly difficult.
'Perhaps she herself is just as perplexed. It would be unwise to press for details. Let her work through her own thoughts and she may come to you for answers.' The voice told me.
'You mean like how I come to you for answers that I never get?' I asked sarcastically. I felt a wave of amusement wash over me, fading away quickly as the entity composed itself.
'Patience, my friend. All in due time. For now, don't you have more important matters to attend to?' The voice asked. I sighed and shook my head, turning to Genny who was waiting patiently.
"So, I gotta go to the beach. Do you mind giving me a lift down?" I asked. Genny beeped and leapt up, folding herself into her disk form. She floated carefully to the ground in front of me, and I hopped on without hesitation. Not missing a beat, Genny whirred as she floated up and made her way off the edge, flying quickly towards the water. Boomer flew out of my arms as we got closer, and he flapped furiously to stay ahead of us. Genny beeped and slowed down slightly, much to the Noibat's gratitude, and I scanned the water, trying to figure out what it was that got Boomer so riled up. I yelped as Genny stopped abruptly, flying over her face and into the water.
"Relp." Said a soft voice. I opened my eyes to see a small brown and purple pokemon in front of me. Its red eyes looked naturally bored, but I could see a hint of concern in them. Flashes of a light color flitted around it, and it took me a second to realize they were fins. I was looking at a Skrelp, and I smiled at it, nodding at it in greeting.
I could hear Boomer yelling above me, clearly worried, and I started to swim up when the Skrelp darted in front of me. It pointed its back to me and waited, glancing back for a sec to look at me as if saying 'grab on'. I carefully grabbed its body and felt some small points of pressure in my fingers, though the sensation went away quickly. The pokemon started to swim up, pulling me with it while I kicked to help. We broke the surface of the water and I quickly let go of the Skrelp, reaching up to grab onto an outstretched claw from Genny.
"So, while we're on the topic of lousy skills, how about we talk about your flying?" I said as Genny lifted me up.
"PROCESSING. USER ERROR. PROBLEM EXISTS BETWEEN GENESECT AND WATER." Genny said. I was confused for a brief moment before I understood what she was saying, and I scrunched up my face in annoyance.
"Hey! I think I did pretty good considering it has been literally months since I properly rode on you. Not my fault you stopped so quickly. Why did you stop anyway?" I asked, swinging my lower body back and forth until I had enough momentum and flip myself back onto Genny's back.
"Skrelp." A soft voice said. I looked down to see Skrelp was still where I was in the water. It looked at me carefully while Boomer floated down to it, hovering just above and looking at me with pleading eyes.
"What, the Skrelp is what we came here for? What's the matter little one?" I asked. Skrelp made a wheezing sound, swimming closer to us.
"Skreeeelp. Skrelp re relp." It said. I sat down on Genny and tilted my head at the pokemon, waiting for Genny to say something.
"TRANSLATION IN PROGRESS. TRANSLATION COMPLETE. ASSISTANCE IS REQUIRED." Genny said. I breathed deeply, wondering if it was possible if I could go a single day without something going wrong. I was beginning to see why Vixen was so nonplussed every time I saw her during her journey.
"Alright, where's the danger?" I asked, trying to stay polite. Skrelp blinked at me and tilted its head in confusion.
"Skrelp?" It asked before diving into the water again.
"Oh you've got to be kidding me. Here goes nothing I guess. I'll be back guys." I said, standing up. I reached into my bag, feeling around until I found my breathing apparatus. I bit down onto it and dove into the water, looking around for Skrelp. It was waiting for me patiently not too far away, and began to swim further down. I winced at the idea of going too deep, but followed nonetheless.
Schools of water pokemon swam around and past me, and I felt safe and relaxed. For some reason, I had a feeling that the stakes weren't terribly high at the moment as we swam further down. We came up to a cave, and I could see a lot of Skrelp swimming in and out of the cave, the entrance guarded by an a larger version of Skrelp. The Dragalge glared at me and started to slowly drift towards us, but my chaperone swam between us. It breathed a word towards Dragalge, and it seemed to be satisfied with whatever it was Skrelp said, settling back at the cave entrance. Skrelp went inside, and I quickly followed after it, not wanting to anger the guard.
As we got deeper into the cave, it got darker, and I had a hard time seeing. I heard a small chirp, and a bunch of lights appeared. I was surprised to see that there were not only Skrelp in the cave, but Finneon and Lumineon as well. The lights came from the Lumineon that surrounded us, and they smiled at me as I swam past.
I was starting to get annoyed with how long we had been swimming when Skrelp stopped swimming. I stopped behind it, and saw a sight that made me rather sad. There was garbage everywhere in this room, to the point where it cast odd shadows on the walls. I saw a lot of eggs on the ground, scattered among the trash, and in the middle, another Dragalge was floating, though it was covered in trash. A plastic bottle was stuck on one of its green, kelp-like horns while a soda can was stuck on the other. Sheets of rubber clung to its body and its fins were tied together by plastic rings, some Skrelp and Finneon stuck inside the otherwise unoccupied rings.
I needed no explanation of why I was here. I swam up to Dragalge, who looked at me carefully. It nodded, approving my presence, and stayed still as I started to work on cleaning it up. Getting the bottle off its horn was simple enough, but it was a bit trickier to get the can off without cutting the hide underneath. I reached a hand into my bag, feeling around until I found a knife. I pulled it out and checked to make sure it was a utility knife and not one of my defensive ones, reaching up with it.
I carefully maneuvered the knife into a small opening on the can and began to wiggle it. I felt the blade catch onto the can and I started to pull it back, making a slice into the aluminum. When I touched the rim of the can, I pulled the knife out and returned it to my bag, reaching back to the can with one hand while I held it tightly with the other. It took some effort, but I managed to push in part of the cut I made, cutting myself slightly in the process. I ignored it even as a small bit of blood hit the water. With the opening widened, I carefully lifted the can off of Dragalge. I looked around, trying to figure out where to put the can, when a Finneon quickly swam up and grabbed the can, swimming away.
I wasted no time in cleaning up Dragalge of the refuse that covered it. I pulled my knife back out and began cutting debris that could not be cleared quickly. Dragalge moved more and more as I cut more away from it. When I got to the rings that bound its fins together along with its friends, I quickly cut the rings that held the smaller pokemon first, each one nudging my hand gratefully as they were freed. When I finally got to Dragalge's fins, it took only one snip to free the poisonous dragon. Its fins floated gracefully outward, and Dragalge made a light trilling sound. The fins slowly enveloped me, and Dragalge pulled me close to it in a gentle hug. I hugged Dragalge back and pulled away, looking at the lair.
Even though I had freed Dragalge and pokemon took the bits of trash away as I cleared it, there was still a huge mess around the cave. It was obvious Dragalge had been trapped while trying to clean, and I felt sorry for it. I sighed through the breather and swam down towards the eggs. Dragalge studied me carefully as I started picking at the garbage, carefully pulling it off and away from the eggs.
"Dragalge! Dra dra!" It cried in a loud, commanding voice. I froze for a second, fearing I had angered the dragon, but it simply nodded at me and gestured for me to continue while Finneon and Skrelp closed in around me. I did as I was asked and cleaned the eggs again, the bits of trash I was releasing being taken by pokemon. I got closer to one of the eggs and squinted, trying to get a closer look. I looked up and pointed at a Lumineon, motioning for it to come closer. The black and blue fish obliged, swimming towards me and making the light brighter. It was easier for me to see the egg, and I found that there was a hard object on the egg. I grabbed my knife and placed the blade in between the shell and the object, prying it away. I turned the object over and over, studying it. I couldn't really make out what it was, but it certainly wasn't part of the Skrelp egg I had pulled it from, and I held it out for one of my helpers to take away.
I felt like I had been cleaning the Dragalge den for hours, and as far as I knew I probably had. It was worth it though, because by the time I was done, there was a lot more room inside the den, and it was brighter. I started to swim towards another tunnel to see if there were other rooms I needed to clean, but I felt something wrap around my ankle and pull me back. Dragalge floated down to eye-level with me and I could feel pride and gratitude from it. I nodded at Dragalge and swam above it, wrapping my legs around its midsection and holding onto the tendrils that extended from the sides of its head. Dragalge began to swim out of the den, followed by its family.
As we got to the entrance, the other Dragalge looked inside and saw us. Upon seeing me on the back of its mate, fury broke across its face, but my Dragalge snarled at it and caused it to retreat. The Skrelp who had led me down here swam in front of us and started to go up, Dragalge following after it. Dragalge was not terribly fast, and I felt like I could have been at the surface by now. I wasn't about to spurn the gratitude of a pokemon that was known for being fiercely territorial.
We got to the surface, and I pulled out my breather and looked around for the pokemon. I saw Boomer and Genny sitting on a rock not too far away, and I motioned for Dragalge to go closer to them. Boomer shot off from the rock the moment he saw me, plowing into my chest and whimpering as I cuddled him.
"It's okay buddy. I'm fine I just had to clean up a mess humans made." I said as we got closer to the rock. Genny stepped forward and held out a claw to me. I smiled and reached out, grabbing onto it and allowing Genny to pull me up. With some mild difficulty, I managed to crawl onto the rock and stood on it, patting her gratefully.
"SCANNING. SCAN COMPLETE. MINOR INJURY DETECTED. COURSE OF ACTION: INQUIRY." She said. I sighed and turned to Dragalge, kneeling down to be closer to it.
"I'm awful sorry your home got trashed like that. I'm glad I was able to help you clean it up, even if all I did was loosen it so you could move it somewhere else. I can understand why your mate wasn't too happy about a human being in there." I told it. Dragalge blinked slowly at me, but I couldn't read its expression very well. It reared up and propelled itself upward, moving faster than I had ever known a Dragalge to be.
"Dragaaaaaal!" It cried as it crashed back down into the water. Suddenly, all of the Skrelp had appeared behind where Dragalge was. It slowly rose up from the water and looked at me, turning and gesturing between its children and me. Was it offering one of them to me?
"Are….you giving me one of your children? Are you sure?" I asked. Dragalge nodded and waited for me to make my decision. I tilted my head and thought about it for a moment, turning to the Skrelp that had sought out help.
"So, did you decide to ask for help yourself?" I asked. Skrelp nodded and swam up to its parent, nuzzling it for a moment and then pulling away to swim closer to me.
"Skrelp?" It asked. I smiled and reached into my bag, grabbing a pokeball and expanding it before holding it out to the pokemon.
"Would you like to come with me? I'm happy you were willing to trust me, and I'd like to see how well we can use that in battle." I asked. Skrelp nodded and touched the pokeball with its snout, the device opening up to pull it inside. It shook a few times, albeit slowly, before ringing a successful capture. I smiled and put the pokeball on my belt, turning to thank Dragalge. To my surprise, it was already gone, and so was the Skrelp swarm.
"INQUIRY: ALLY WAS UNDER WATER FAR LONGER THAN HUMANS REQUIRE. REASON UNKNOWN." Genny said, folding up. I took a deep breath and stepped up on top of her, petting her head as I repositioned myself.
"Their nest was packed with a lot of litter. The Dragalge I was riding was completely covered in trash in an attempt to clean it. As sad as it was to see it, I'm glad it wasn't some world-ending crap. It was actually cathartic clearing that out. Let's go find Celeste now." I said, letting Boomer free from my grasp to fly on his own. Genny said nothing as we ascended, and the three of us took off towards shore. With any luck, we'd find Celeste quickly.
Hopefully she didn't get in too much trouble while I was gone.
TBC
I bet you guys thought I was dipping out again didn't ya? Lol sorry, I'm here to stay.
So yeah, my two least favorite locations in pokemon: Mt. Coronet and Twist Mountain. I loathe both locations with a fiery passion, and I don't know which one I hate more. I hate Coronet's "different entrances have different paths that aren't connected in the slightest" crap that it pulls, and I get so annoyed by Twist Mountain that when I HAVE to go through it, I literally make it winter in the game so I can just cheese it down the mountain.
And so begins a strange era in which Aldith is going to give me an opportunity I have wanted to explore but never got a chance to: writing about team rotations. This Skrelp and Genny currently put her at 6 pokemon, and we're getting the fossils soon. For obvious reasons this isn't her long haul team like Vixen's, but she and Celeste are still going to get a few more pokemon as the story progresses. This will be fun to work with if I can do it right.
I have no personal problem with having a rotating team. My teams always happen to be long-haul teams just because I like battling with my favorites, and simply level up each member as I acquire them, holding off on catching others until post-game.
Anywho, next chapter is a Celeste POV, so it might be out earlier than expected depending on how much fun I have with it.
See you guys in 35!
