"So," Gaia asked the next day during breakfast, "what do you want to work on that's so important you felt the need to trap us all here instead of going out and enjoying the world?"
Most of the Pokémon had already left by this time, wanting to get an early start on their vacation. Dreepy had chosen to stay with Espeon and Oscar's team (which still needed a proper name) as they were the largest group.
"You did not need to stay, I am a big boy and can handle some alone time." Oscar responded after swallowing his bit of apple.
"Like we would leave our trainer alone when he needs us most!" Stumpy said. "Besides the others are counting on us to keep you in line, who knows what you would get up to with weeks alone."
"Well I hope you like smashing rocks and rolling in the mud, because that is what I will be spending most of my time doing. I am going to make iron from the red rock around here. Simple, but time-consuming work." Gaia was the only other Pokémon not to spit out their food, the rest of the group simultaneously stunned at the suggestion that they would be making such a valuable material and surprised that he was planning something so… tame. Dreepy personally liked the idea of the bone-ghost army.
"Oooh that makes sense, now that you mention it." Gaia said, coming from a world where the metal was cheap and abundant. "But where did you learn to do that? I know you visited a few factories with Giovanni but I didn't think you cared too much for what they did there."
"I did not, but I spent almost a decade travelling the world in my youth, and saw many different cultures in that time. Many remote areas did not have ready access to factory-made steel, and set up foundries on their own."
"Wait wait wait." Cinder said, pumping his arms to punctuate each word. "Back up a bit, you are going to make something only dragons have the power to make, and you are going to do it here? I thought you needed special ore to even try? And while I'm sure one day you will be an impressive fire user, right now there is no way you can get your Ember hot enough for long enough to make iron."
"You are right, I am not going to use my fire. I am going to make a bloomery, a sort of specially-shaped chimney, out of clay and use charcoal and air to refine the iron from crushed red rock. It is very simple, I promise it will make sense when I show you. It just takes a lot of work to set up, that is why I needed these two weeks to do it."
"I am sure the Boss will be very happy if this works out." Espeon said. "He might even invite you to his den." She chuckled.
"I'll think about it. He should not get too excited at first, however. The stuff we will be making will not be as good as what we picked up the other day. Bloom iron is hard to make in large quantities, and is brittle from the impurities, it will take a lot of forge work to make it usable. No, this is a proof of concept; red rock can be refined, and it can be done without the need of Fire type or dragons at all. Eventually we will be making steel, but a clump of ugly iron is the best we will be able to do in two weeks."
"Steel?" Cinder asked. "Is that like iron?"
"You know what bronze is?" Oscar Asked, setting up an explanation by comparison. Cinder wiggled his paws indecisively.
"I know it's a mix of stuff, but that's about it." He explained.
"Steel, like bronze, is a mix of stuff. Where bronze is a mix of the metals copper and tin, steel is a mix of iron and carbon. Carbon is the black stuff left over when something gets burned completely. It is found in everything alive, or everything that was alive. Like wood or bone."
"So, you are mixing iron and bone? And this will make 'steel'? What makes it so special anyway?"
"Iron is soft and brittle compared to steel. A quality steel will both be harder than iron, and much less likely to crack under pressure. You can even bend a piece of quality steel this much," he bent his paw about 45 degrees to show them, "and it will return to its original shape. It is superior to iron in every way, but more difficult to make. And I will not be mixing the bone in the with iron, I will be burning the bone, along with charcoal in the presence of the red rock. Trace minerals in the bone will help impregnate the iron with carbon, making more steel in the bloom."
"So you are going to use the bones of dead Pokémon to make super-iron from rocks and clay?" Dreepy asked excitedly, getting in Oscar's face.
"No, bloom iron is not-"
"Awesome! I want to help! Can I have some?" She said, floating around his head. Oscar sighed, she was so high energy for being a resurrected Pokémon.
"Yeah, sure. But we need to make some first, and that is a lot of boring work. You sure you still want to help?" She looked a little offended.
"I can do hard work! I didn't die yesterday, you know." Oscar held up his paws defensively.
"I'll help too, if you'll have me." Espeon said, "you are going to be helping me with my techniques, after all?" She asked to confirm his commitment from the day before.
"Of course, I am looking forward to it."
"So what do we need to do to first?" Gaia asked, finishing her food. The others listened intently, if not interested in the process itself then from the possible payout it if worked.
"We need to gather supplies; wood, mud, clay and red rock. We will need a lot of each. If you all want to help, then this will go a lot faster than I originally planned. We can split into three teams of two to collect the materials. Snuggle against the parent you want now." Stumpy jumped on Cinder before he could protest, and Gaia hugged Oscar before Dreepy got the chance. Not to be disappointed, she happily floated over to Espeon and curled around her neck. "Good. We will need a cart to collect each of these and we only have two. I will go with Gaia to scout for good sources of red rock, and will bring back what we can carry. Stumpy and Cinder will gather the wood, the drier the better. Espeon and Dreepy will get the clay and mud, do you know where some might be found?"
"The underground stream leaves the mountain a few hours from here, there is clay and plant life there. We can get plenty of dry wood there as well." Espeon said.
"Good, you two go with Espeon and Dreepy and make as many trips as you can before nightfall. A couple full carts of each should be more than enough. Does anyone have questions?"
"Lots," Cinder said, "but I think I have enough info for now." The rest of the group was satisfied with the information they had as well, and they broke off to collect the materials. Oscar found a few good deposits of loose red rock a few hours away from the hideout, as well as some dried river beds with black sand. They marked the locations of the deposit on a piece of parchment they brought to make a crude map. There was more than enough here for what Oscar had planned, but they decided to scout for different locations just to be sure as it was still early in the day. They found a few more deposits of loose red rock, and more than a few canyon walls filled with quality ore, but too difficult to extract with what they had available.
They returned to the hideout a few hours before sundown, and found that the other groups had made about three trips in that time and Oscar was pleased with the quantity of material they had gathered. They got together for an early dinner and Oscar explained the next step of the process to them. They needed to made charcoal, which burned hotter than normal wood. Cinder knew what this was, but confessed he could never figure out what made some fires produce charcoal and some ash. Oscar explained that too much air in the fire produced ash, and they would need to make a special firepit from rocks and mud to provide this low air environment. They would also need to build the bloomery from the clay, to give it some time to dry out before they started the refinement.
After dinner the group watched Oscar work to make the pits and the bloomery. He told them this could really only be done by one person, and needed to be done in a specific way. He piled the wood vertically into a cone shape and stuffed it with as many dried leaves and twigs as he could. He covered the wood with a thick layer of mud, leaving a hole at the top and several smaller holes in the side. When this was done he started the fire from the top, and explained to the assembled Pokémon what was happening. The wood would burn and the moment he saw fire from the bottom air hole he would cover them with more mud. When all the bottom holes were covered, he would block off the top and smother the fire. The heat would remain for some time, and this is what would produce the charcoal. After he closed off the top, he moved to make the bloomery.
This process took several hours, and here he did recruit the other pokemon to help him mix mud, clay and dried plants substituting for hay together to make the raw material. The bloomery was about two meters high and one at the base to support the weight, with a uniform half-meter opening down the middle and a hole at the bottom for airflow. Oscar mentioned that the most important part was next, and explained as he made the pot-bellow, the process being much easier than he expected with the help of telekinesis. He explained that the reason you did not need a fire type to refine the red rock was because the use of both charcoal and the contestant airflow from the bellow would make the fire hot enough to refine the red rock. He stressed that this type of furnace at this size would not get hot enough to actually melt the iron, but it would soften it enough for it to be able to flow and form a clump at the bottom. Many of the impurities in the iron would, however, be melted and would flow out the bottom later in the process. He finished making the pot-bellows, a sort of clay/mud pot with leather tied to the top that would be moved up and down to circulate air. It was late at this point, and the Pokémon retired for the night. They would have a lot of difficult work tomorrow and they needed their rest.
The next day, Oscar examined the charcoal and was satisfied with the way it came out. They had enough wood to do this two more times, and he started the day by prepping the next batch. After breakfast, the entire group left with both wagons to collect the red rock. Oscar brought some clay pots along to collect the black sand he saw as well. The first site was still the best they had found from the previous day, and the group was able to make several trips by the afternoon. They had collected perhaps 200 kilograms of rock and black sand by Oscars estimation, which was far more than they needed. That just meant that he could be picky when selecting the ore to use. The group spent the rest of the day smashing rocks, just as Oscar had promised. They were exhausted by the end of it, but Oscar still had one more batch of charcoal to make before the next day. He told the others to eat and go to sleep as he didn't need them present, but they stubbornly decided to wait for him while he finished preparing the next batch of charcoal. Happily, the work was done and they went off to sleep.
The next day when Oscar was asked if it was time make the iron, he said they should wait at least another two days to allow the bloomery to dry. Too much water would cause it to crack and fall apart, and they would have to make it all over again. Oscar suggested that today be a rest day, or a training day if they were up to it, but first they should bathe. Days of hard labor was making them stink. The other Pokémon protested and didn't see what the big deal was, they smelled fine and besides the strong odor made it them easy to identify and a lack of smell would be a little unsettling. Oscar knew that regular bathing was a very recent phenomena in human history, and that humans had in fact evolved to tolerate and associate what a modern man would call "body odor" as a normal and natural thing. This presumably was even more true for Pokémon. He didn't care. Civilization didn't get to where it was by embracing all that was 'natural' and simply said that they could suit themselves before walking to the stream to clean himself. Cinder didn't join him this time, apparently having thought more on what Oscar had said before and deciding that it wasn't worth the dip in the cold water.
The group had been talking, and when Oscar got back it had been decided that it was to be a training day. When they asked what he wanted to work on, Oscar said he wanted to help Espeon with her techniques. He was curious about what the psychic had cooked up, and figured that even if he could not make use of it now anything he learned with her could be applied later when he evolved. Oscar and Espeon broke off from the rest of the group, where she filled him in on what she was trying to do.
"What do you know about mind control?" She asked him when they were alone. He was beginning to understand why she was not welcome in polite society.
"A very advanced and very illegal technique. I never personally met a psychic capable of if, but knew of at least two who could."
"So it is possible?" She pressed. Psychics generally could not change the perceptions of others to the point where their actions could be controlled. With enough power a psychic could puppet their bodies, but this was not the same thing. They could implant false perceptions, or hide memories in the subconscious and this could have the effect of altering behavior, but this was generally a short-lived effect and with training could be spotted and defended against even by non-psychics. But memories and perceptions could not generally be altered in a way that would count as true mind control. It wasn't an issue of power, as Oscar understood, but subtly and control combined with an intimate understanding of the workings of the victim's mind.
Oscar did not need to explain this to the Espeon, as she had access to his mind much as she let him access hers. She knew most of this intuitively as a true psychic type, but some of the details were new.
So why do you want to do this? Is there some goal you are trying to reach or is it just curiosity?
Mostly curiosity, but there are practical reasons as well. I will never have the raw power of something like an Alakazam, but I should be more than capable of mastering the subtler arts. If I can master this one, I would have tools to fight even powerful Psychics like the Guildmaster.
Makes sense. What is your plan and how does it involve me?
I was originally going to practice on wild Pokémon, but I would have to both try my technique out and scan their mind for how they perceived it on their end while simultaneously trying to subdue them, which is not ideal. I need to try to alter your perceptions of an event, something as simple as what card I am holding, and you can relate to me what you experienced directly.
That was asking for a lot of trust, but this was one of the reasons why Espeon let him into her mind. Oscar was not confident in his psychic ability to protect him if the Espeon tried anything untoward, but he was confident in the stability of his psyche/ego to survive a mishap. It was unlikely at this stage she could do any real damage to his perceptions, and that was if she even succeeded, he assumed.
Sounds like a plan, let us get started.
They spent the next few hours trying out various methods of true perception alteration. Espeon started by sifting through his mind the get an idea of how he perceived things normally. She had a deck of playing cards nearby, and would show him various cards while reading his perceptions while he did so. After moving through the deck, she would shuffle the cards and repeat the process. After the second or third shuffle, Oscar could feel a subtle difference in the way she was interacting with his mind. He couldn't quite articulate it, but it was like she went from observing the fleeting thoughts to nudging them, trying to make some stick around longer and some leave faster than they normally would. After a few hours, she stopped with a smile on her face.
Success, I take it? Oscar thought.
One time. One time about halfway though I was able to change your perception of a card. Do you remember the 2-of-love at the beginning of the fourteenth shuffle? That was a 7-of-love. I couldn't repeat it, and I couldn't control what you saw, but it worked.
Amazing, I had no idea. No matter how small, you got it to work. I am impressed, you will have to show me at some point.
Of course, but I am tired now. Besides, you will likely not have the ability to do this until you become a Delphox. It doesn't take a lot of power, but it does require a true typing.
That just means you should have it perfected when the time comes.
I can only hope.
They went to the cavern to meet back up with the other Pokémon. They were resting and chatting over some food. Oscar and Espeon joined them and they explained that they had just finished some low-intensity 4-way battling, the four larger Pokémon focusing mostly on physical moves with Dreepy trying to remain hidden and sneak in a Bite or Confuse Ray at opportune moments. When the others asked what the psychic and almost-psychic had worked on, Espeon just said it was something like a long-term confuse ray.
"She was trying to mind control Oscar!" Dreepy said, "What, I was curious." She stuck out her tongue when Espeon gave a dirty look.
"How is that different than normal psychic stuff?" Stumpy asked. Espeon reluctantly explained, and Stumpy said he was glad he didn't have to worry about anyone messing with his head, and that it must suck to be you guys.
"Well…" Oscar said, dragging the word.
"Oh what now? You telling me this could affect Dark types? How would that even work?" Stumpy was a little concerned, the sanctity of their minds being a point of pride for all Dark types.
"How do you think TM's work? They need to get the information into your head somehow, and I believe they work just as well on Dark types as any other Pokémon. TM's do not modify your perception or existing information, just add new moves, but the techniques used to make the psychic imprint bypass typing could in theory be applied to any psychic ability. In fact I am pretty sure that TM's use a modified version of the move Miracle Eye to allow the imprints to take hold."
"Miracle Eye?" Stumpy and Espeon asked simultaneously, the latter too tired to maintain a psychic connection to find out for herself.
"A relatively rare psychic type move that allows the user to bypass typing limitation on psychic moves. You probably have a different name for it. Some more powerful Alakazam or Xatu can learn it naturally, but typically it needs to be taught by someone who already knows it, or more commonly TMs."
"There is a move that does what?!" Stumpy was not happy. Had Oscar said something wrong?
"Oooh," Espeon said, "that makes a lot of sense now that you say it. I have always wondered why some of the more powerful psychics on the continent seemed unworried with taking on Dark types, or how they can copy TMs. It seems they have been keeping something secret from the rest of us."
"So someone can just mess with my head? Can any psychic learn this?" Stumpy looked at Oscar, almost pleading.
"As far as I know, most psychics cannot learn the move, even by TM. If you were not worried about psychics affecting your mind before, I would not worry about it now. It sounds like very few Pokémon here know this move." Stumpy did still looked worried. Apparently the existence of the move was a tightly held secret among the powerful psychics of this world. Oscar was not sure if this would have any political ramifications for the continent, but he doubted it. Few would likely take the word of a random commoner seriously if they were accusing the most important members of society of harboring some dark secret, and rumors that they had this ability likely already existed. Still, the Pokémon present had no reason to think Oscar was lying about the moves existence, and the confirmation that such abilities existed ranged from mildly interesting to horrifying depending on the perspective.
The Pokémon did not do much the rest of the day, just talking or getting light exercise in. The next day Oscar looked over the bloomery, and decided it was time to start the refinement. Oscar explained that the whole process would take about 6 hours, and that the pot-bellows would need to be worked the entire time. He layered the charcoal with a small amount of bone and red rock in the bloomery, and started the fire. He added a good amount of black sand that had been panned to remove dirt in as well, unsure how this would affect the refinement but figuring more iron was always better. He was first to work the bellows, but tired out after an hour. The other Pokémon took turns feeding air to the fire, and they spent their time playing, talking and eating while occasionally adding more material to the bloomery. After the 6 hours were up, Oscar decided they had added enough and knocked out a chunk at the base of the bloomery. Molten impurities poured out, and the Pokémon watched in fascination as the red-hot river flowed before cooling. He knocked the furnace over, and with his telekinesis grabbed out a large chunk of glowing bloom iron. It weighed almost 50 kilograms, but Oscar knew they would be left with much less at the end.
He set the bloom on a large, flat crystal that was to act as a makeshift anvil, and beat it with a rock. Small chunks of unfused metal flew off, but the bloom looked largely intact. He formed a rough square and when he was satisfied with the shape, he dumped it in water to cool. It was black and gnarled when he took it out of the water, and the other pokemon were skeptical that what they were looking at was really iron. But when Oscar polished one of the faces with a rock, they were excited to see the dull silver luster of iron.
"That has to be the ugliest iron I have ever seen, but considering where you got it from I'm amazed to see it at all." Cinder said, picking up the metal to inspect it.
"More work needs to be done, but even that should be proof enough."
"More?" Asked Gaia.
"Yes, look." Oscar took the cold metal and beat it with a rock again, this time chunks flew off as the brittle, impure material broke under the strain. He continued to beat it until only fist-sized clumps were left. He picked up two different pieces, the metal on one obviously brighter than the other. "This," he said, holding up the bright chunk, "is good iron that could probably be used for tools. This," he held up the dark chunk, "is too soft and impure, and needs to go back in. I will reheat the bright metal and smash that together. Then we will have a solid bar of iron. Probably not as good as the dragon's stuff, but not too bad for an honest weekend, right?" The Pokémon agreed, and decided a celebration was in order. Oscar mused that they were always in a mood to celebrate. He thought that was a healthy attitude to have.
Stumpy suggested that when he finished with the iron, they should join him on a short trip to meet up with some of his acquaintances about three days to the west in the forest. There was a gathering of Dark types for the new moon and they would all be welcome to join him. Oscar mentally bemoaned the idea of a 'three day' trip one way being short, but figured that relatively speaking this was true. The other Pokémon agreed, and they spent the rest of the day preparing for the trip while Oscar resealed and reused the base of the furnace, not needing the get the metal as hot this time around. He spent the rest of the day forge welding the good iron and beating it into a bar, and when he was done he was left with a five kilogram bar of relatively high quality iron. He couldn't tell, never actually smithing despite knowing the theory, but it would be enough to get Boss to greenlight a more serious production running. He had no plans on doing this work himself, assuming Machoke would willingly take up the duty. If not, eh, he had time. He would find someone eventually.
Oscar showed them the finished product near the end of the day, and they cooed and awed at the shiny metal bar. The whole process happened much faster than he had expected, not needing to do all of the work himself. The group went to bed early that night, to get a head start on the trip the next day.