The team left after they awoke, sometime around noon. Most of the others were still sleeping, many being largely nocturnal in the first place. Once again the trip was uneventful, the group simply too large for any wild Pokémon outside of a dungeon to challenge. They arrived at the hideout a few days before the deadline, and most of the other Pokémon were already there. With their arrival, only Sableye, Nidorina and Boss were yet to return. The others were excited to see Cinder as a Charmeleon, and after congratulations were said they spent time exchanging stories and gossip from their trips.
Thievul was happy to hear that Stumpy had made it to the gathering, and he confessed he lost interest in such things long ago. He had succeeded in finding some potential marks in less established Guardian clans, noting that they may even be able to find some evolution stones. Nothing any Pokémon in the outlaw group could use probably, but insanely valuable nonetheless. Drizzle said his meeting with his family was mostly uneventful, but noted that there was some drama between the Guild and the town's clan leaders over rescue team work. Several Silver ranked teams were there negotiating something Drizzle couldn't be bothered to keep track of. Luxio and Servine had travelled together and just relaxed at a beach town the whole time. No drama or fights or anything, it was a good week. Machoke had spent his time helping some of his kin get settled in, he regretted not being able to find them steady work, but at least they'll not go hungry.
The team then took turns detailing what they had done, the fight with the Nidoking being the highlight of the story. At Oscar's request, they had kept the details behind their work with the iron secret to not spoil the surprise. When asked about the mess in the cavern, they simply said it was part of Oscar's project and they will find out what it is when everyone gets back.
Even though they were still technically on vacation, the Pokémon did not stay idle and busied themselves with light chores for the next couple of days. Cleaning the cavern, sorting and storing food and refilling water supplies from the stream. The morning after the team's arrival, Nidorina and Sableye returned a few hours apart. The leader of Team Venom had spent her time with family as well, and had nothing of note to report. Sableye had also gone to a gathering, this one closer to Baram town where he could do some trading as well. What, did they think there was only one gathering? For all the Dark types on the entire continent? He congratulated them on third place, but said having such a mixed group was a little like cheating. He approved.
The next day Boss arrived, looking almost imperceptibly more run down than when he left. "Good to see our hideout isn't burned down, glad I didn't misplace my trust in- runt?" He stared at Cinder for a few seconds. "Took you long enough. We are going to have to spar soon, I want to see what you can do. I am little disappointed I can't really call you runt anymore. Oh well, at least there's Fennekin." He turned his attention to Oscar. "I don't see an undead army, I'm almost disappointed actually. I expected something suitably horrific, but everything looks the same. What did you get up to?"
"Dreepy," Oscar said, "do you want to get the thing?" She nodded excitedly and darted off to their room, where they kept the ingot. While they waited, Oscar explained "I noticed that you guys seem to place a lot of value on iron here, and were not making use of all these rich deposits surrounding you. So I whipped up a furnace and made some, it was no big deal." He boasted, laying it on thick. Dreepy returned with the ingot wrapped up in a cloth tied with twine, and at Oscar's nod handed it to Boss. His eyes widened when he felt the weight, and they nearly bulged out when he opened the 'present'.
"W-whu? How? Is this a joke? You must have taken this from somewhere, only dragons can make iron!" All the Pokémon not present for the refining were likewise flabbergasted, torn between not believing the Fennekin but also not understanding why anyone would lie about such a thing.
"No, it's true!" Cinder spoke up, "I was there, he built a fire-pit thing and it got hot enough for long enough to refine the iron from red rock and black sand. It took a few days, but we got it done. No dragons needed, don't even need to be a fire type!"
"Are you really surprised?" Gaia asked, "You know he was a human, and you saw memories of cities made from the stuff. Humans aren't dragons, so how did they make so much? It's a pretty mundane metal where we come from."
"I helped too!" Dreepy said to her team, not to be left out.
Boss just moved the ingot around a few times, staring at it. After a few moments, he asked "Can you make more? Did it require rare materials, magic crystals or something? Surely you need to get the power from somewhere…"
"Literally just dirt and wood. Some bones for good measure. And yes, we can make more. As much as you could ever want, more than the dragon clans produce. These hills are rich in the metal, it just takes hard work. Hard work I won't be doing again." Oscar said, looking at Boss. "I will show you how it is done, but look at these thin paws! Do they look like working paws to you?" Wait for it…
"I can do it. Some of us don't shy away from honest work." Machoke said, just as planned. "If the prize is iron, I'll do whatever it takes!" He was pumping himself up, excited at the prospect of not just smithing again, but having all the raw material he could ever want.
"Well," Boss finally said, "I take back what I said, this is better than what I expected. But why give this to me? Don't get me wrong, it's proper to give the leader the good stuff, but why not just sell it and make a profit? You could get a few Poke for this."
"Because I need your approval to set up a refinery here. One iron bar is worthless, but a thousand? I would rather have a cut from a thousand bars I did not make than all the profit from a few bars I did make. There is an opportunity to make some real money here, and legally as well. Probably, I suppose that depends on how the dragons will react."
"Poorly," Boss said, not missing a beat. "There will be a fight, they won't let anyone else muscle them out of the good thing they have going."
"Black market trade then, fence them like you would any other goods. Put some clan markings on them to hide their origin. Steady goods to trade, no worry about death by dragon clan. Besides, it is not like you can only trade this stuff, it is a very useful metal. We, and by that I mean Machoke, can make things from it. Weapons and armor. Imagine everyone here functionally having iron typing defense?" That sounded very attractive to all Pokémon present, the rare breastplates that elite Pokémon would wear far more effective than even the best defense scarves. They were also status symbols without equal, only the best or the wealthiest had iron armor, and they all wanted to be the best and the wealthiest.
"What would you need," Sableye said, gems sparkling, "to set up something like this? Materials, investments, that sort of thing? How long would it take?"
"Like I said before, the materials are dirt and wood. And the ore, of course. We have all these things in abundance around us, the real chokepoint here is labor. Labor to gather the materials, labor to shape the refineries and prepare the ore and charcoal. Labor to man the furnace and beat the metal into shape. It is a lot of work." Almost all of the Pokémon looked away bashfully at that, they didn't become bandits for that kind of hard work, after all.
"No mon are better at hard work than my kin." Machoke said proudly. "And it just so happens that several of them are here, not a week's travel away, and looking for work. I'll get them, bring them here and we can provide the labor for this refinery."
"Do it." Boss said, "I want this up and running pronto. We may not be able to go out in the open with this, but I am going to hit those mountain clans right where it hurts. Fennekin, I want more details. Something is telling me you are holding out on us, and I know just the thing to get you talking. Luxio, get a party organized, no I don't care if we just came back from time off. We are going to celebrate a new evolution and an insane plot to become insanely wealthy, and you all are going to enjoy it! Nidorina, go get that poison dung you drink, I think Fennekin is all out." Boss smirked, whatever was bothering him before now seemingly completely behind him. "And the rest of you owe me stories, you know the drill. Move it, to the center."
It was still relatively early in the day, but it didn't seem like Pokémon had any kind of tradition on when parties were to be had. Any time was good time, it turned out. Boss was filled in on what the others had been doing with their time, and was particularly impressed with how Cinder defeated the Nidoking. That was the kind of stubborn determination he expected from the Charmander line, and it was good to see Cinder was finally starting to express it. If he was lucky enough to make Charizard, Boss was sure he would be an honorary dragon.
Oscar thought this was a good segue to ask a question that had been bothering him for some time. He asked why there were so few fully evolved Pokémon, and why Pokémon in general were so young here. Many Pokémon can live to 100 years or more, so why did Oscar only seem to come across ones in their tens or twenties? Many of them were surprised to hear Pokémon could live that long (aside from a few specific species), and always assumed it was simply luck that allowed Pokémon to reach advanced age. There were so many young Pokémon simply because life was tough and many would simply die of injury or disease if they couldn't make it to their final evolution. They stressed that getting killed in battle was, while not unheard of, also not terribly common. Most often, injuries would accumulate over time and some sickness would come along to take advantage of the weakened Pokémon. A fully evolved Pokémon would find many past injuries healed, and be more durable to any future injury or sickness.
The reason few Pokémon made it to their final evolution was simply because this typically required special circumstances or materials. For Pokémon with only two stages like Stumpy this wasn't a problem. But those with three stages like most of the ones in the group could go a lifetime without finding the materials or triggering the circumstances to evolve. Cinder, for example, would need a Fire stone to become a Charizard, Gabite would need Dragonite ore and Luxio would need a Thunder stone. These were rare, and the few sources of these stones were jealously held by Guardian clans or the Guild, and they prioritized their own. Gabite added that this was one of the reasons many Pokémon turn to banditry, to try and steal what they would need to reach their final evolution. He had been at this for a decade, and still had not gotten a whiff of Dragonite ore unsecured enough to appropriate.
So Pokémon were young because they didn't live long in the first place. They didn't live long because they couldn't make their final evolution without rare and highly regulated materials. Gaia was shocked to hear this. She mentioned that while it was true some Pokémon would need a stone to evolve on their world, such as an Eevee, most common Pokémon could reach their final evolution with time and experience alone. She was understandably upset that she might be stuck as a Grovyle for the rest of her life. While she was nowhere near over the novelty of her evolution yet, she could well imagine being like this for decades with no hope in sight to become a Sceptile.
Oscar was more than a little upset himself, all the good stuff about his species came with becoming a Delphox, something that seemed distant now. The group spent a little time trading stories elaborating on why they joined and what they needed to evolve, only the two fully evolved Dark types not contributing. Gaia was told that she would need a Forest stone or Life crystal to evolve, and she was somewhat relieved to hear that these were relatively more common and less tightly controlled than the others. They were still very hard to find, just not as bad as Dragonite or a Deep crystal, like Dreepy would need. They said that mixed types had the hardest time evolving, because they would need stones that reflected hybrid typing. A Delphox would probably need a Fire stone steeped in psychic energy, or a Seer stone from a volcano. Good luck.
"Well," Oscar said, "that sucks."
"Welcome to the club." Drizzle snarked.
"What, specifically, do these stones or crystals do that is so essential to a final evolution?" Oscar asked. "Evolution is triggered when a pokemon's Aura growth exceeds their current bodies ability to contain it. Eevee need it because their evolution is triggered by a large influx of a typed Aura from a stone that reacts sympathetically with their own Aura, but something like a Charmeleon or Gabite should just evolve when they develop their Aura enough. What do the stones add?"
"Your description of the process for Eevee sounds about right, from what I have heard." Luxio said. "And what you said about development is only true for a first evolution. For the second, your Aura will stop developing just before triggering a final evolution. Why this happens, we have no idea. It also means that Pokémon like Boss or myself can't grow any stronger unless we evolve. We can develop technique, learn new moves and the like, but our moves are as strong as they'll ever be for now." He let out a sigh.
"I have spent a lot of time looking into this." Boss picked up where Luxio let off, "you need the stones to temporarily amp up your Aura to trigger evolution, and you can only take in that Aura if it matches what is already in you."
"So it is just a matter of energy, then? You just need a large enough boost and you evolve?" Oscar asked. "Gaia, does that sound familiar?"
"Now that you mention it," she said, "that reminds me a lot of the rare candies you would give me sometimes. I could tell they grew my Aura. Wait, isn't there-"
"-a rare candy machine in this very Pokémon center? Yes, there is." Boss got right up to Oscar's face. Not combatively, but overeager.
"What is a rare candy? You said we can make it?"
"Rare candy is, well, an artificial food that boosts a Pokémon's power permanently. It does much the same thing as a stone does, only the energy is more general in nature. You can use Candy to power up an Eevee, but not evolve her. Now if I were a trainer back in my world and I wanted to evolve Gaia here, I could either battle her until she did or stuff her face with Candy and force it. Forcing an evolution like this usually has negative consequences, so the League – roughly analogous to the Guild here – tightly controls the production and distribution of it. Usually you only get candies for winning some tournament or challenge, the reasoning being a Pokémon that can win a tournament is already strong and already close to evolving anyway. This regulation puts the 'Rare' in Rare Candy, but from what I understand it is not difficult to make."
"So you know how to make it?" Boss was genuinely excited now, something Oscar had not seen yet. Usually his expressions of positive emotions ended at a smirk or chuckle. All the Pokémon were paying very close attention now, eager to hear his answer.
"No, I don't know the formulation for Rare candy. At least, not enough to recreate it, even if that machine were working." Oscar could feel the air getting sucked out of the room, this disappointment was palpable. Many of them hung their heads, how foolish of them to even hope in the first place.
"So, that's it? We get the human that can make iron but not this Rare Candy? Arceus has a sick sense of humor." Nidorina said, clearly upset but Oscar knew it wasn't really directed at him so he didn't take the insult personally. No point in starting a grudge unless the other person truly deserves it.
"Are you sure you don't know? Maybe you just forgot, and Espeon can dig it out?" Dreepy said, floating over to Oscar with those big, sad eyes.
"Being cute enough to kill does not change the fact that I know I have never seen the formulation myself. Team Rocket had this information, of course, but I never looked it up. What would have been the point? If I wanted some, I could just go to the quartermaster and pick it up."
"Are you sure, absolutely sure, that there is nothing that can be done to get this machine working and getting this Rare Candy made?" Boss asked, he still had some hope in his eyes.
"Well…" Oscar trailed of, unsure if this was even worth bringing up. What were the chances? The pleading eyes of the Pokémon around him convinced him to press on. "The machine I saw here is mostly intact, but it needs repairs. Repairs I don't know how to make. If we could repair the machine and find the formulation for Rare Candy - which may or may not be on the computers here which would also need to be repaired - and the production of the Candy here did not rely on material components that themselves required special refinement from outside machines, then we could in theory produce it here." He normally would never offer such a speculative solution to a problem, but he found the Pokémon to be charmingly innocent. He liked them better than humans, he had learned by now.
This apparently sounded very possible to the Pokémon. More possible than storming a dozen different Guardian holds to get the stones they would need, at least. "What would you need to fix the machine? The 'computers'? Couldn't you just make news ones if nothing else?" Sableye asked. Oscar laughed, and even though he didn't intend it the laugh came off as a little mean spirited.
"There is no chance I can make even the most basic components of these machines. The technology required to make them is so far beyond what is available here it is not even worth considering. I could spend a hundred years and still not make a machine of that quality, even if I knew how. No, these machines can only be repaired with parts from other machines. You take two broken machines, and cannibalize one of them for working parts to repair another. That I could do, but I would need a schematic – a paper detailing what each component does – for these machines before I could even figure what would need to be replaced. Once I figured that out, I would need to find the parts to replace it. Assuming I could do that, then I would have to find the formulation for the Candy, and hope we can get the materials to make it. I should add; just because the Candy can evolve Pokémon in our would does not mean it would do the same here. It sounds like the rules are different."
"Not different, there is just a block on us here that doesn't exist in your world for whatever reason. The rules are the same; boost of energy, evolve. If this Rare Candy can give a large enough boost, then it can evolve us." Boss said, now more confident than ever. "What you probably don't know because you are so new here, is that ruins like this are not actually super rare. Almost every Guardian clan stakes a claim next to one, and they all have machines of some sort in them. There are even some mystery dungeons that have almost intact human structures, from what I heard. No, if all you need are parts, then I think you can find them. And find them is what you will do. I have a job for you and your team, you are going to get this Rare Candy machine working. I don't care how long it takes, I don't care what you need. I will be a Garchomp. I think I can speak for everyone here when I say I am done waiting for fate." This was met with enthusiastic nods.
"We'll do it!" Gaia said, jumping to her feet, fists pumping with purpose. Cinder and Stumpy joined in, grunting in affirmation.
"I knew I wouldn't need to convince you, Gaia. Or Cinder, for that matter. The question is will you do it, Fennekin? What was it you said you wanted to be one day, a psychic wazoo or something?"
"A psychic fire wizard."
"That, yeah. Well you are going to need to evolve for that, and I can promise you unless Arceus itself comes down to give it to you, you aren't going to find a psychic fire stone or whatever. This is your only shot at evolving, too." That was a compelling argument, Oscar had to admit.
"I still do not have my hopes quite so high as you, but it could not hurt to explore this option. I will do it."
"Good, it's not like I was really asking you anyway. Don't worry about money, Sableye will see you get whatever you need for this. We aren't the Guild, but we have been at this a long time and have a respectable horde built up. I think I can handle separating with some of it if it means I will evolve."
"So what's the plan? How are we going to find a schematic?" Gaia asked Oscar.
"That is going to be the hard part, getting the information on the location of these things. I doubt any Pokémon would even recognize a schematic if they saw one."
"Most Guardian clan leaders and Guild officials can read Unown script, my own father had manuscripts as part of his horde and sometimes he would read parts to me." Boss said. "Anyone who trades who knows the powerful Pokémon in society might have a lead." Oscar thought for a moment.
"Someone like an Absol courier?" He asked.
"Yeah, one of them would probably be your best bet for a lead. They smuggle manuscripts all the time."
"Oh, looks like we get to see your friend again!" Dreepy said floating around Oscar's head. "What was her name again? Night, next, newt…"
"Nix." Oscar said, "We met an Absol courier named Nix at the gathering, and was willing to sell information to us. The problem is, she could be anywhere by now. But she said any Absol would work with us, so long as we use her as a reference, so the question is where can we find them?" This, as it turns out, would not be as hard as Oscar thought it would be.
"You can find them in any of the larger settlements, in the outsider taverns like the one in Baram Town. That's probably where your Absol friend went, anyway. They work for the rich and powerful, and the rich and powerful are in big towns." Thievul said with confidence, presumably he had experience dealing with them. A quick question confirmed this to be the case.
"So it sounds like you have a plan. Go back to Baram Town and find this Absol. See if she knows where to find this schematic, or if she knows someone who does. Get the information and report back, and we will move on from there. There is still a good five hours of daylight, and I don't want you to miss the Absol because you lounged around here all day. Pack your stuff, and be ready to move out in the hour." Boss ordered.
"There will be a boat willing to take outsiders leaving the local port in a couple of days." Luxio said "If you hustle you can take the boat and be in Baram Town in four days. I will write a letter vouching for you." He wasted no time to leave and begin writing the letter.
"Good, we have a plan." Boss said. "Dreepy, you're getting reassigned. You're going with them, they will need a scout and you can steal small objects like a schematic without issue. Nidorina, you know this is for the best." Nidorina and the rest of Team Venom looked sad, even Drizzle showing some emotion, but they did not try to argue with their leader. Instead Dreepy floated over to spend some more time with them before she would leave.
"Before you go, I can't tolerate one of my own teams going around without a proper name. I think I have just the one in mind, given recent events. Everyone, give an official welcome to Team Ironheart!"