Chapter 25: Old Faces and New
A/N: A few small tweaks made to chapter 2, including correcting the consistent misspelling of Gastly.
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Pryce was right. The Ice Path was absolutely miserable. We had been inside for the better part of three days already and I was starting to wish I had spent more time thinking about whether we would just fly over the mountains rather than travel on the inside. The floors were a much worse version of the inside of his gym, and the ice was weak in certain spots. I was treading carefully to not step on breaking ice and plunge into the frozen waters.
Some of the ice patches were simply frozen over solid ground, with a few over lakes. It was difficult to tell the difference in the actual ice, but the boulders would give it away in most cases. I had equipped myself with a pair of proper boots before leaving Mahogany Town, not wanting to spend a few days without traction. Almost the entire floor was frozen over, be it over water or rock. Only a few patches here and there, a few feet wide at most, would be thawed.
As much as I despised the frigid interior of the Ice Path, it had been for the best. The last three days had been enormously beneficial to Electabuzz and Rhydon's training, and to their integration into the team. I had brought them with me, leaving behind Knight and Scizor. Knight would have been terribly uncomfortable trying to walk or fight in the close cramped environment. Specter was invaluable in keeping an eye out for danger in the caverns, easily melting into darkness and flitting about constantly. Most people would be unsettled if they saw a pair of red eyes and a toothy grin poking out from the darkness. At this point, I was used to it.
Electabuzz and Rhydon had a great time training against whatever decided to attack us in the cave. The massive rock type had decided it would weather the cave with me, having finally acclimatized to its new life after the battles in Pryce's gym and the events of Mahogany Town. As if everything that happened before the gym battle wasn't enough.
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A few days earlier…
I walked over to the Nurse on duty, Joy again, and waited at the desk for her to put away the papers she had been filing.
"How can I help you today?" She greeted me with a pleasant smile. I was probably one of the first trainers to come in, fresh out of my battle with Pryce.
"I'd like to heal these Pokemon please." I handed over the four participants from the gym battle and removed Rhydon's pokeball from my belt. "And this one needs an examination. There's an odd sort of crack on Rhydon's back."
"Oh dear. Well since we aren't busy right now let's get on that right away. Chansey, take these Pokemon and keep an eye on the front desk, will you?" the nurse called her partner Pokemon to the front as it happily obliged, taking care of my four other Pokemon as the nurse quickly processed the information from my ID card. "Follow me."
She stepped out through a door and emerged into the hallway, walking down it. I hurried to follow her, walking down a warm cream painted hallway of doors until she opened one and turned in, entering a large room with lights, a bed on wheels, an entire workstation, and plenty of medical supplies lying around everywhere, neatly organized.
"Please release your Pokemon." The nurse quickly wheeled the bed away and moved a large flat Pokemon bed into its place.
"Rhydon, let's listen to what the nice nurse has to say." I spoke the giant rock type as it grunted and looked over at Nurse Joy flitting about her equipment.
"Lay down on the bed Rhydon, on your belly." The nurse pulled a pair of gloves on as she gestured at the bed.
Rhydon slowly moved towards it, getting down on its knees and using its tail for extra support as it lowered itself onto the bed. Immediately, the nurse set to work, finding the crack as I pointed to it. She ran her hands over it, taking a few pictures with a camera connected to the workstation. I glanced over at the screen to see image analysis programs running from the get go, analyzing the close shots of Rhydon's back, the odd injury and the stone filled into it.
Taking a scalpel and a chisel, she carefully scraped out a bit of the odd porous stone, putting it in a petri dish and placing it to one side. With her sample in hand, she set to work at a lab station inside the massive room, running various tests on it and typing away at her computer.
"Rhydon you can sit up now."
I sat there and scratched Rhydon's back between the plates for a few minutes, eventually stopping and simply sitting there as the nurse ran through all the data she had been taking and examined the sample, once returning to take a look at Rhydon's back as it sat in place.
At one point I took one of the volley ball's lying with the Pokemon beds and started tossing it back and forth with Rhydon, playing with it as time passed. It was a really good thing this was early in the morning, otherwise Nurse Joy likely wouldn't have been able to help us so quickly.
"Alright, I think I know what it is." I sat up with a start and missed the ball, drawing a snort from Rhydon as Nurse Joy walked back up to us, looking at our antics with a smile.
"Sorry." I sheepishly put the ball away in the corner, dusting my hands off and walking back.
"It looks like Rhydon injured itself at some point, and an ever-stone managed to get into the crevice in its back. It doesn't look like it's too old of an injury, certainly it can't be from before evolution, but Rhydon's rock plates and body have sort of absorbed it, growing around it as you see."
"Oh." I sat there stunned, looking at Rhydon out of the corner of my eye. It was a little grumpy about being reminded of the old injury. "Is Rhydon going to be okay?"
"It seems like Rhydon's been fine almost since the injury. It looks like it doesn't impair Rhydon much save for slowing it down a little bit. There seems to be a small chronic pain, but it doesn't seem to be a painful spot for Rhydon to take a hit from initial reactions."
"Does that mean Rhydon shouldn't be battling?" I asked carefully, looking over at it. Rhydon's eyes suddenly lit up with a fire I hadn't seen from it before as it waited for Nurse Joy's answer. She bit her lip, looking at the clipboard, and at Rhydon before answering.
"I think it should be okay. In the long term, there is something to be done about it though."
"What? We'll manage whatever we need to get done." I sat forward as Rhydon relaxed with the assessment that it would be okay to battle. The morning's exercises seemed to have gotten it hooked even further.
"As it stands, Rhydon won't be able to evolve." The Nurse looked at both of us in turn as she spoke, taking solace from Rhydon's seeming indifference to the news. "That shouldn't be a mental block on Rhydon, if you watch him. Since Rhydon don't evolve without evolutionary items, it isn't something that's hardcoded into their DNA to be chasing. It's not quite like a Shelgon which will keep trying to fly until it becomes a Salamence, or a Metapod which's entire purpose is to slowly transform inside its shell until its ready to evolve."
"The fix to some of the problems should come from the evolutionary item itself though. This is a protector." The nurse titled the computer screen to show me a linkage of six thick, orange plates, squares a little bigger than my hand.
"Ordinarily, this item enables Rhydon under the correct conditions to evolve into a Rhyperior. However, the combined evolutionary traits of both objects, if treated correctly by a doctor, could serve to disintegrate the fragment of ever-stone stuck inside Rhydon's body. It should help with the physiological problems, as the wound can be treated with ditto cells to restart a proper healing process and accelerate it. But I think enough of the energy from the ever-stone has been absorbed into Rhydon that it might not ever be able to evolve."
Neither of us spoke for a moment. I looked up at Nurse Joy's eyes, carrying a hint of sorrow for the two of us, then looked over at Rhydon.
"It's okay buddy, we'll still get ahold of one of these and help you feel better at least." For the first time since Rhydon had joined the team, what looked to be happiness was visible in its eyes as it twisted its tail around, poking me in the back lightly. "Where should I be looking for a Protector?"
Nurse joy's smile turned into a frown as she scratched her chin for a moment, wracking her brain.
"The Protector is an incredibly rare item, you're unlikely to ever find one just traversing route in Indigo. Without traveling to another region, your best chance would be to visit the markets in Pewter City over in Kanto around the middle of February. They're sold out of everything exotic for the winter, but they get a new shipment early February. Rhydon shouldn't have much trouble in the meantime if you acquire one around then."
"Thank you, Nurse Joy. Really, thank you." I bowed my head respectfully as she smiled and gestured out the door.
"It's my pleasure. Come on, let's get the rest of your Pokemon."
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Back in the Ice Path…
I crossed the ice patch covering a pond and released Rhydon again, unable to make out any more water underneath the ice for quite some distance ahead. One benefit of the entire cavern being covered in ice was that a decent light source reflected around most of the cave and illuminated it reasonably. For a cave. It was nothing like the infamous Dark Cave. In there you needed a lot of light to see anything at all. At least that cave system was much friendlier to Typhlosion, so it would be better in that regard.
A Sneazel scampered across my field of view thirty meters away, diving from boulder to boulder as it observed us. There had been a few curious Sneazel in the past couple of days, looking at us when they saw us, or occasionally poking around our campsites before we went to sleep.
As my thoughts drifted to campsites, I glanced at my watch, checking the time. It was nearing eight at night surprisingly. Inside the cave, perceptions of time were distorted, another thing to add to the growing list of reasons why disliked particularly long, continuous caves. Mountain networks and cliffsides were much better, because at least you could emerge into the open air on occasion to remember what the world looked like and get a breath of fresh air.
"We should probably set up camp soon." I spoke to Rhydon, looking at the big Pokemon as it trundled along next to me. It was an incredible show of resilience, maybe from Rhydon's finally understanding me better after the visit to the Pokemon center. "Let's see if we can find some space that isn't frozen over." I remarked, gesturing around the area.
Walking for another half hour, we managed to find a platform of plain rock jutting out from the ice. It was a little bit rockier than I would have liked, but that wasn't much of an issue. The first time we had found a rocky patch, Rhydon had slammed its foot into the ground and torn it up, trying to reseal it afterwards and smooth it out with ground type energy, but it hadn't quite worked. It had been great for training ideas though.
Rhydon picked up a few stray boulders and moved them around to make a small enclosure, protected from the howling winds that ran through the caves on occasion. It helped to be ensconced like this when you were trying to stave off the bitter cold. I released Typhlosion, Electabuzz and Murkrow, getting Typhlosion's help to keep a small fire going on the ground. It took effort to keep it alive (well effort in the sense of repeatedly stoking it rather than actual strength) but it worked. Electabuzz was helpful with its bipedal form and hands in setting up the tent. Murkrow was just flapping about randomly, sitting on Rhydon's shoulder. The little bird had started doing that a few days ago.
I rolled out my sleeping bag inside the tent, along with a portable Pokemon bed for Typhlosion, and stepped back outside. Pulling a few cans of food out of my bag, I set them down to pry them open and heat them over the fire when Murkrow suddenly took off from Rhydon's shoulder, flying off in the direction we had been heading when we stopped.
"Squawk! Squaaaawk!" Murkrow was audible all throughout the cave as it screeched into the distance. "I'm coming back for you! I'm coming back for you!"
I looked at Rhydon, the massive Pokémon just as confused as I was. Motioning to Typhlosion to follow, I climbed over one of the boulders, shining my torch and walking in the direction of Murkrow's voice. We had only just rounded a bend when I found the dark type, standing on the ground at the feet of another trainer with black boots, navy trousers and a black coat with red lining.
"Oh, sorry, I don't know what got into Murkrow. I hope it didn't bother… you!" I caught sight of his face, the same pale, angled one I had seen before in the Slowpoke well and in the Burnt Tower as well. Red hair down to his neck, quite like the Rocket woman from Mahogany Town.
"Silver!"
"What are you doing here?" His eyes narrowed as he looked at me. "And why do you have Murkrow?"
"I caught it, from Team Rocket… oh." Typhlosion was standing by my side, growling at Silver as it readied itself for a fight. Silver was quick, and his hands immediately darted to his pokeballs, releasing a Feraligatr onto the ice. The massive gator made me stop for a moment as I felt a pang, remembering the damned day in New Bark town when I'd parted ways with Feraligatr.
"Murkrow… got left behind when I left. I promised I'd come back for her." Silver looked at me with an odd uncertainty in his eyes. "Thanks for saving her I guess."
"That doesn't change the fact that you're Team Rocket. You've been helping them with all the chaos around here." I pointed a finger at him as Electabuzz approached from behind.
"Are you daft? I just said I left. I quit Team Rocket months ago. We wanted different things."
"Oh right. And what was it you wanted then?"
"I'm just in it to find Giovanni." Silver caught his slip of tongue and corrected himself. "I was just in it to find him."
"What could you want with him." I looked at him carefully. Typhlosion's pores flamed up as it readied to fire, backed up by Electabuzz.
"He owes me, and if he gets jailed, I won't get what I need from him." Murkrow turned around, spreading its wings in a shielding manner in front of the other teen.
I looked at the Pokemon that had helped us take down Team Rocket, meeting its dull red eyes. It was devoted. It really did love Silver. It was odd. Maybe he did have the capacity to have developed as a human being since Azalea Town. I looked up at Silver again, taking in the shape of his face and the color of his hair, before my attention flitted to his eyes.
"Stand down." I gestured at Typhlosion. Begrudgingly, the fire Pokemon let the flames die in its throat, though it stayed in a defensive stance. "You're his son."
Silver looked like a Deerling caught in headlights as he froze, eyes wide.
"How?"
"You looked kind of like him. Is that Ariana woman your mother?" Typhlosion had finally sat down on its haunches, taking stock of the situation.
"Aunt."
Listening to him, it clicked in my head that I'd heard his voice more recently than I thought. Images of a towering cityscape flashed to the front of my mind as I thought back to one of the recent
I found myself on one of the lower roofs of the Silph Company building in Saffron City this time. I was wearing a navy suit, standing near the trash can. I could see the Magnet Train's station and building from where I stood. I could see two blurry figures through one of the frosted windows, one tall, the other a bit shorter than I was. I could hear them though. I was certain it was them.
"I'm done with this. I quit." One of them said, vaguely familiar to my ears.
"You can't just walk out. We can't let you." the other voice said, deeper, almost angry, and once again familiar. I couldn't place either, but I knew I had met them before.
The first person snorted, waving his arms and walking towards the exit of the room presumably.
"Don't worry about the skeletons in your closet. They'll stay there. You have my word that I won't interfere with your operations in any way. All your secrets are safe. You can have them removed from my head before I leave. But I'm done. I joined for one reason. And it didn't work out."
The memory faded out of my mind as I looked at Silver.
"You've made life worse for a lot of people by working with them for however long you did."
"I've been fighting against them longer." Silver cast me a strange look. "I screwed over their attempts to mess with the Gyarados at the lake of Rage."
"I don't think you did… I had to take care of a pod of them just a few days back."
Silver's scowl turned into a frown as he stared at Murkrow.
"Look. I feel like I shouldn't, but I believe you. If you're against them I won't bug you. Here" I took a pokeball off of my belt and tossed it to him underhand, letting him catch it. "Murkrow's your Pokémon. She deserves to be with her family. Clearly she's happy there."
Looking over my shoulder, I noticed Electabuzz had gone back to the camp, and Rhydon was standing behind me. I shuddered, thinking about how the heavy Pokémon had managed to walk up behind me silently.
Silver looked at the pokeball in his hand and recalled Murkrow, clipping it to his own belt. He had a pained expression on his face as he contemplated something, before settling on a decision.
"Thank you. Look. I'll do my best to take down Team Rocket, but if they have a lead on Giovanni, I'm still going to try and get it out of them before I destroy them." Silver unslung his pack, setting it down on the ground. "Alright?"
"Alright." I nodded as he walked up, pulling an egg out his bag.
"Here. Consider it a gift for bringing Murkrow back to me. I don't think it would really like the path I'm on much. It'll probably be happier around you."
Hesitantly, I reached out and took the egg, holding it carefully.
"What is it?" I asked, looking at Silver with gratitude.
"Wait and see." He nodded once and turned around, heading off into the distance. I looked up from the egg after a moment, shining a light, and a red head of hair rounded a corner, disappearing from sight.
"That was… interesting." I looked over at Rhydon. "Let's go back to the camp. I think when we get to Blackthorn, I need to find a way to get all of you in the same room and talk to you. I walked back over to the ring of boulders with Rhydon, clambering over the top of them and back into the main pit. The fire had almost gone out. Typhlosion breathed life into it, setting the fire roaring high. Electabuzz was sitting against one of the rocks, watching the flames patiently as I settled down and picked the other pokeballs off my belt.
Specter, Electabuzz, Rhydon, Typhlosion and Lucario sat around the fire in various spots after I was done pressing the button on every pokeball. The five Pokemon seemed to be looking at the egg curiously. I pulled an extra jacket out of my bag and placed the egg on it carefully, by the warmth of the fire.
"Murkrow's back with her original trainer." I remarked simply, staring at the egg. Colorful markings decorated the shell surface, bright and cheerful in the dark and dreary cave. "I know all of you have joined this team at different times, so maybe it's a good idea for us to talk over a brief recap of where we started and how we got where we are."
The fire crackled in the background as Typhlosion stoked it once more, laying down on the ground near me, eyes fixed on the egg. Lucario's red eyes were gleaming as it cast a look around, watching Specter dart about the shadows energetically.
"I think it's worth doing the same thing once we're in Blackthorn and I can find a way to get Knight, Samurott and Scizor in the conversation as well, especially since Knight and Samurott were the newest members of this team before you two." I gestured at Rhydon and Electabuzz. "But maybe let's talk a bit about Silver right now. Fill in the gaps if I miss something."
"When I first met him, it was in a cave beneath a well in Azalea Town. Team Rocket, the people we fought with in Mahogany, were running a poaching operation, and we got ourselves into trying to rescue someone. At the time it was just myself, Typhlosion and Scizor. Heck, back then, they were Quilava and Scyther."
Electabuzz looked over at Typhlosion, a little taken aback by the idea that Typhlosion was ever anything but the powerhouse it had been. It was odd for me as well, thinking about the fact that Typhlosion wasn't all that old, having only been born a year before we met.
"Silver was working with them there, but Specter, who was just a Gastly then, knocked him out and helped us escape. I suppose he's tried to be a different kind of trainer than when you were his Pokemon."
'The Specter says it was the green haired man's Pokemon. Not Silver's.' Lucario looked away from the frowning ghost type. Sometimes I missed the ability it had to communicate when it was a Gastly.
"Huh. I guess that was never really clear. Lends itself more to Silver's favor I suppose." I frowned, looking at the flames.
"Anyway, they kind of declared they wanted to bring back this criminal organization called Team Rocket that had been stamped out a few years ago over in Kanto by a trainer named Red. Whole other topic there. The next time we ran into them was in the Burnt Tower. I don't know what he was doing there, but we had a scuffle and then he escaped. Lucario, you had joined us by then, but you were recently hatched." I scratched the back of my head, staring into the center of the fire. "That was when the Beasts of Johto were awoken."
"It was terrifying." I admitted, looking up at the Pokemon. Rhydon was a bit more focused than it had been earlier, and Electabuzz was hanging on every word. "They were majestic and incredible. The power rolling off of them was palpable. Heat just emanated from Entei's fur. Suicune's breath was like the wind. Raikou charged the air everywhere. It was insane."
"That was the last we saw of him before the dreams and the nightmares." Typhlosion bolted up, looking at me with concern as did Specter. It sort of made sense that of all the Pokemon the ghost with a fondness for nightmares would be concerned. "Lucario, I think you know a bit, but I appreciate that you've kept it private."
The fighting type simply nodded quietly, looking away from the others and into the flames. Quite the helpful focal point for most of us it seemed.
'The Specter wants to know if it can try and eat them for you.' Lucario offered helpfully, crossing its arms.
"They're not the ordinary kind." I hesitated, trying to think about how to word it. "They're closer to visions. It's like the legends are trying to give me a message, invading my mind when I sleep and telling me things and showing me things I wouldn't see otherwise. The beasts made me listen in to what I now realize was Silver quitting Team Rocket a while back. Those are a bit easier to deal with."
"The hard ones are where Lugia rips everything apart. I didn't really understand what I was looking at when they were happening, and I'm still not sure. But the studies in the book that Steven had, the book of legendary Pokemon. All the sketches look like the thing in the dreams. Lugia. I don't know what it wants, or what all of this has been, but it's been unnerving. I didn't really want to burden you all with this unless it was something sensical we could take care off."
Typhlosion came up, rubbing itself against my leg and laying down next to me. Absentmindedly I reached down, scratching behind its ears as the others contemplated everything.
'It is not unheard of.' Lucario's voice permeated throughout my mind, and evidently throughout that of all others. 'For what you humans refer to as the Legendary Pokemon to speak to you.'
"I know it's a bit off an odd remark, but how do you know this?" I turned towards the aura Pokémon.
'It is hard to describe. There lies a history within each being's aura. It is murky at best to decipher, and with an ancient being like Suicune, it is deep and vast. There is a history, written into every aura, and there is a hereditary history in the aura of our line. The old masters used to capture this in an aura energy embedded in crystalline flowers, in the old kingdom of Cameran in Sinnoh, before they were wiped out.'
"Woah."
'The legendary beasts have immense power, and those who take it upon themselves to protect their home may well communicate with the humans who inhabit it to interact with the minute reality of the world on a scale beneath them. There is the story of a knight of Cameran, who was reached by the legendary Pokemon to guide him in preventing the war from ruining Cameran. Indeed, it survived what would have otherwise wiped out a kingdom.' Lucario leaned back against a rock, looking at the flames for a few more moments.
"We'll have to work out what's going on, I guess. I'm not sure what's to come, and it doesn't seem good, but it doesn't seem soon either." I cast a glance around and took in the tiredness in everyone's eyes. "Let's all get some rest and make some more progress when we wake up." With that, I recalled everyone except for Typhlosion, crawling into the tent with the fire type and the egg, which I carefully placed on the bundled-up jacket next to Typhlosion so it could get some heat.
"Good night pal."
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The day after next…
I stepped across a patch of ice and hopped a few small boulders, making my way further into the cave. Rhydon simply stepped over them, accompanying me as we made our way closer and closer to the exit of the cave. Rounding a corner, we emerged into a larger open cavern flooded with light. A large opening in the far wall emerged into open land, with the sun shining down on the barren ground. I could see the mountain walls on either side of the road ahead, marking the exit from the Ice Path.
"Oh, we're almost here. Just one more stretch of ice and rocks to cross." I looked at the open space ahead of me, stepped onto the ice and walking forward.
"Excuse me! Is someone there?" A feminine voice rang out through the cavern with a start as I stepped onto the ice. "I'm stuck, could you help me?"
"Hold tight." I followed the sound of the voice, spotting a woman in red clothing fallen over between a tight outcropping of boulders. I made my way over with Rhydon and stepped up to her, looking around the boulders to see how I could help. To my surprise, the woman's red outer layer wasn't a jacket of any kind, but a Kimono, and she was wearing open sandals.
"Rhydon, can you pull this boulder out so we can get her out without putting pressure on her?" I gestured to one of the boulders in the cluster, looking at the tight arrangement.
With a low rumbling sound, the large rock type squatted down, gripping the boulder and pulling it out of its original place, freeing up space. I stepped in, helping the woman to her feet.
"Thank you, kind stranger." The woman dusted off her Kimono, sending fine ice particles into the air as she bowed slightly, sliding off towards the exit in her sandals.
"That… was…. Weird. Let's get out of here." I started walking with Rhydon, crossing the icy floor and stepping out of the cavern exit, into the bright sunshine. It was still cold, but immediately warmer than the frigid atmosphere inside the cave.
"Alright!" we continued our walk for another half hour on solid ground before I recalled Rhydon, waking up the last hill to enter Blackthorn City. The houses around the area were built in the old style, with stone tiled roofs angled to prevent snow from building up on them and large, solid walls for each building. For the most part, the ground was barren in the city ringed by mountains. I glanced up at the sun and oriented myself. It seemed to be that I was entering the city. It seemed that we were walking into the city from the west.
I continued forward until the mountain pass ended and I found myself inside the safe haven within the Johtan Mountains. Blackthorn's history was the other half of Mahogany's, but it was also so much more. It was the city of the mountains, of the legendary Blackthorn clan for whom the city had been named. Legend had it that the city had not been made in a natural hollow, but that they had carved into the mountainside with dragon fire to make a home for their peoples.
I reached the center of the town after another half hour's walk, looking around me. To the North and the East loomed massive mountains, sheltering Blackthorn from invasion on either side. To the south of where I stood was a river, running from east to west near the edge of the town with a bridge spanning it. I caught a glimpse of the distinctive red of a Pokemon center roof further east, next to a pokemart. Looking down the main road I could see the Blackthorn Gym on the west side of it, standing tall, ready for all its challengers to come in and take on Clair for the rising badge. It was a grand building on the outside, with verandahs and pillars holding up the overhanging ceiling. Indigo tiles decorated the roof, contrasting with the pale-yellow paint on the walls. Two chimneys rose up from it, spewing out thick grey steam into the sky. That wasn't what really caught my attention however.
At the far north end of the town was a wall with a set of massive wrought iron gates. Statues of Dragonite stood guard by the sides. The wall ran to the mountains on either side, with watch towers built up against the walls. A large crest was embossed on a plate in the center of the gates, comprising of a dragon flying upwards with its wings spread. Beyond the gates I could see a path leading up to another gatehouse. The Blackthorn estate.
I continued on my way to the Pokemon center, walking into the building and up to the nurse at the counter.
"Hi, could I check my Pokemon in and get a room please?" I asked politely, unclipping the five from my belt and handing them over to the nurse with my ID.
"Of course, just a moment." The man behind the counter scanned the ID, typing for a moment before he collected all of my pokeballs and returned my ID, along with a key. "You can come back for them in half an hour."
"Alright, thank you!" I walked down the hall until I found the room. The other bed in it was unoccupied, so I set my things down by the window and sat down on one of the beds, taking twenty minutes to just rest and recover from the ordeal that was traversing the Ice Path. When I was feeling a little bit fresher, I headed out to the bathrooms to wash up and made my way back to the front desk.
"Hi, could I collect my Pokémon?"
"Of course. ID please?" The man behind the counter stretched out his hand to accept the card, running it in the system before handing back my pokeballs.
"Thank you. Is there anywhere in the Pokemon center I'm permitted to have more than six of my Pokemon with me?"
"Well there's two small training rooms in the back with PC's there and if you're traveling to Mount Silver, you're permitted to take them with you."
"Oh, thank you."
"Have a good day."
Taking a look at the signs on the walls, I followed the corridor down to the back of the building and past the cafeteria until I reached the two training rooms. The one on the left seemed to be occupied, so I stepped into the one on my right, entering it and closing the door. The room itself was completely bare except for a PC unit in one corner and its massive screen dominating one wall. The walls were plain cream colored, and the one opposite the door was almost entirely a window, looking out at the base of a mountain maybe ten feet away.
I stepped up to the computer and opened it, navigating through the menu until I found the option to release my PC stored Pokemon into the room. Knight, Samurott and Scizor formed around me as I fumbled with my belt trying to release the other five Pokemon I was carrying. In another minute the entire team was sitting around the room.
Typhlosion was conversing quietly with Scizor, Samurott had slid over to Rhydon and was trying to play with it. The large rock type wasn't particularly bothered, humoring Samurott a little. Specter and Electabuzz seemed to be having an exchange of sorts as the ghost type continuously changed between whacky expressions. Lucario and Knight were standing side watching the rest of the group's chatter.
Reaching into my bag, I pulled out the egg and carefully set it down on top of the same folded jacket I was carrying. Almost immediately it became the center of attention as the others looked at it with reverence. Life was sacred to Pokemon, and while it was common for most species of Pokemon to have offspring during their lifetimes, most were still sent into quiet reverence by the egg of another species, much like watching a rare evolution event. My mind flitted back to Knight's evolution, out in Hoenn, and watching Scizor's evolution. Lucario's had been incredible as well, in fact, each of the multiple evolutions had their own gravity.
"So, if you guys noticed, Murkrow's no longer with us. We found her original trainer and returned her, but it looks like we'll have a new face in the family at some point along our journey." I gestured towards the white egg with its colorful markings all over. "Given the chaotic nature of the journey we've taken together, especially compared to the original plans I had, I thought maybe we should sit together and look back at it for a moment. Taking a glance at what happened before you joined this family respectively, could be pretty interesting."
Rhydon lowered itself until it was sitting, sending a small ripple through the ground as it did so. Following suit, Samurott plopped itself down next. Electabuzz sat down against a wall, and Knight sat down as well, though more gently than Rhydon. Specter settled down atop the dragon's back as Scizor leaned against the wall along with Lucario, and Typhlosion came and sat down by my side.
I tried to unfurl a large map of Johto that I kept in my bag, but I kept struggling with the orientation, especially as most of the team would still have to lean forward and crowd over to it to look at it. I frowned for a moment, thinking about the problem before it finally hit me. Stepping over to the PC, I pulled up an interactive map of Johto on the screen, smiling.
"So, I grew up in this place." I gestured towards the map, almost placing my finger on the red dot I called home. "This is New Bark Town. I met Typhlosion here when he was just a Cyndaquil. His mother was in my human family, she was my mother's best friend." I smiled as I looked over at Typhlosion. It had never really sunk in just how deep that bond ran by fate.
"I met Scizor there too, in the woods back around New Bark Town. That was a whole thing to do with my exploring the woods there like an idiot." I grinned at the steel type.
"From there we traveled to Violet City where we started our gym challenge and took on Falkner. We won and then moved on, traveling to Azalea Town. In Azalea, we went into the well to try and save an old man, and that's where we met Silver and Team Rocket for the first time. Specter joined our team there, as did temporarily our friend Leviathan the Feraligatr, though he was a Totodile at the time." A few expressions grew somber as those who were there remembered parting ways with the water type.
"We went through the Ilex Forest and had some trippy experiences near the shrine, before accidentally upsetting a bunch of Ariados. That was where Typhlosion evolved and saved me, helping me get to some humans who could help." The fire type shrugged sheepishly as it remembered accidentally setting fire to a series of webs.
"From there we went into Goldenrod City after a brief stop at a daycare, we met a friend of mine, Brendan, who moved to Hoenn. We met my cousin Archer and had a crazy run in with a rampaging Tyranitar. We met Steven for the first time after that, and he gave us you in egg form Lucario, then we took on the gym Leader and beat here over there. We traveled to Ecruteak City and visited the Burnt Tower where we had another run in with Silver, and the beasts were awoken. We challenged the Gym Leader Morty and won our fourth badge. Things were pretty good. We were set to start training with Steven some ways along the line."
"From there we traveled west to Olivine City." I dragged my finger along the map, stopping halfway down the route. "We stopped at a farmhouse here, helped a farmer and met Lance, the champion of the Indigo League, and we talked to Steven again. We continued to Olivine, and I'll be honest, we lost our first gym battle there, to Jasmine." A few of the newer members of the team looked in surprise. We'd had quite a few tight battles, but we'd almost always pulled through, with the exception of Steven and Cassian Byrne. "We took a boat down to Cianwood, except we got shipwrecked along the way in Whirl Islands. We had a brief run in with Team Rocket again there before we escaped and found our way to a group of monks who helped us out."
"We made it to Cianwood, we met Blake there, we trained with the Gym Leader Chuck and then challenged him and beat him. It was over there that we met another friend of ours who left, Gliscor. We went back to Olivine and beat Jasmine this time. We made it all the way to six badges. The only ones left were Mahogany and Blackthorn, the two most difficult to get in Johto. And you guys know how that's going." I grinned as the remark lifted everyone's spirits.
"Then, everything changed when the Kalos region attacked. We fled Johto with Steven and my family, and stopped in Unova to let them off where my sister lives. Over there we said goodbye to Gliscor, but we met Knight when she was a Dragonair!" the big dragon crooned happily at the reminder, letting me go on after a moment. "So, we traveled off to Hoenn, and almost immediately there through a weird space-time phenomenon we met Samurott as well, but he was a Dewott. Scizor's evolution was there too."
"We traveled around Hoenn, starting out in Petalburg Town where my old friend Brendan had moved to, and we fought his father, the gym leader there. I was really glad not just to win, in part with an amazing evolution from Lucario, but also just to have the chance to fight him. I was really sad that I wouldn't have the chance to in Johto when they moved away and the new gym leader came in. But we kept on going, and we went to Mauville City. Along the way we met some local Ace Trainers and made some friends, and we had a run in with some thugs that sent us into the underground New Mauville power plant."
"We had that freaky run in with Raikou there, then we escaped with Watson's help, and we headed East." At this point I had switched to a map of Hoenn, and I was following our path there. "Samurott evolved along the way, and we traveled up to the Weather Institute where we would meet Cassian Byrne and get taken down a peg or three. It was an amazing opportunity for all of us, and Knight evolved there! Then we went to Fortree City, did some flight training, and headed over to Sootopolis, where we spent some time with the Gym Leader Wallace, Hoenn's most renown. He showed us some of the lore and history of Hoenn with Steven, the cave of origin there."
"Then as most of you know, we went and traveled with Steven to go train. Three grueling weeks of hard work that bettered us so much I can't even begin to describe it. But we did it." Samurott puffed out its chest with pride as the others laughed, listening on. "Then we served for a month on Drake's ship traveling back here, with one of the original Dragon Masters, and we made it to Cianwood City. We met Rhydon and Electabuzz there, and then traveled off to Ecruteak to pick up where we left off, heading to Mahogany. You guys mostly know the rest."
"We found Silver in the Ice Path, and had a talk with him, finding out he defected, and what he's really after. He's not our enemy, at the very least, so that was it. Murkrow was a part of his team, and so we returned her, and he gave us this egg as a peace offering. We'll have a new family member soon, a new baby of the family. Literally."
The rest of the group looked at the egg once more as I closed up all of my maps, sitting down with them to look at the egg.
"I have no idea what's inside that egg, and while it would probably be useful to know, I don't mind waiting to find out." I admitted, looking at the entire team one by one. "From here, we challenge the most infamous gym leader in all of Johto, if not Indigo. Clair Blackthorn, cousin to Lance, and guardian of the Rising Badge. We'll do our research, learn everything we can from the publicly available data, which is a lot since she's a gym leader. We beat Pryce, we've taken on every major gym in Johto and beaten them. We defeated the strongest gym Leader in Hoenn, and we beat Norman, who'll undoubtedly become one of their best assets soon. I can't even begin to describe how proud I am of you guys, of how far we've come."
"When I was getting ready to leave New Bark Town, my original plans didn't involve Team Rocket, or Silver, or Steven or Lance, or Blake or anybody. It just involved traveling with my team and going across Johto to take on the gyms and become the best there ever was. That got derailed, but because of that I met some of you, and I wouldn't have it otherwise. We made it this far together, we can keep going and beat Clair. We can take on the Silver League and reach the heights we aspire to with how much effort we're putting in."
"We've just got to do it together." I stood up and dusted off my hands, looking at the group of Pokemon. "Sound like a plan?"
Rhydon roared its assent, stamping a foot on the ground as the others chimed in. Standing by my side, Typhlosion was on its rear legs, looking proudly over the rest of the team. Despite being one of the youngest, he was a leader of sorts, along with Lucario, simply for the aura Pokémon's wisdom and its ability to communicate and understand everyone on deep levels.
"Let's do this!"
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I walked up to the pokemart, having stepped out of the Pokemon center for a breath of fresh air and a quick restock of the general supplies I kept in my traveling pack. The Ice Path had been a bit of a drain on supplies, and to be completely honest, I hadn't really restocked all that much since landing in Olivine. I'd almost forgotten what traveling had been like after three weeks with Steven then a month at sea with Drake. It was kind of nice not to have to manage your supplies and to live with people again for a while, even if it was on a massive, moving ship in the middle of the ocean.
The familiar interior of a standard pokemart greeted me. A few aisles of products, a counter with two clerks behind it in case you needed specialty products or just to check out. A refrigerated section on the back wall. I perused the shelves for a bit, restocking my supply of pokeballs of various kinds. One of the nicer parts about winning Gym challenges, and battling with stronger trainers was that the payout was decent enough to afford better equipment. I headed over to the medicine aisle and picked up enough things to refill my kit. a few odd items found their way into the basket before I walked up to the counter with my purchases to check out.
"Thank you for your purchases today sir. Is there anything else we could help you with?" The man behind the counter smiled pleasantly as he scanned each item from my basket, putting together the receipt.
"Do you have anything for taking care of Pokémon eggs?" I asked, thinking of the egg sitting in my room with Typhlosion. The fire type Pokemon had taken to keeping it warm and sitting with it. He wasn't quite motherly, but it was an easy thing to do.
"Well we're out of full-fledged incubators, but we do still have some egg carriers. If you stoke them with some Pokemon fire a few times a day, they keep quite warm."
"What are they used for if they're not incubating?" I asked, a little bit confused.
"Oh, well they have a kind of gel or fluid fill on the inside to stabilize the egg if you're traveling with it, or in case its somewhere prone to falling over or getting knocked over."
"Oh. That would be really helpful. How much are they?"
"Five thousand p. Should I add it to the total?"
"Yeah, let's add it. It'll take some tension off my mind."
"Of course. Your total is twenty-five thousand p."
I handed over the money as the man pulled out a clear cylindrical container filled a third of the way with a foamy gel. The top was a silver cap, and the base was a little thicker, with a small screen reading the temperature on it. Along with the rest of the items I'd needed, it was a big spend, but I didn't expect to be restocking on much for a while. Besides, I could afford it more easily now anyway.
"So, this button here is to seal or unseal the top lid so you can put the egg in or out." The man helpfully showed me the red button on the base. "The blue one drains the gel a bit first and refills it when you reseal the container. The screen just reads the temperature. You want to keep it above thirty-five generally. I would check with the folks at the Pokemon center. water types and ice types need lower temperatures."
"The yellow button opens the flame hatch right here." Again, he showed me a panel on the side of it. "If you're going for thirty-five stoke it up to forty-five maybe three times a day."
"Alright, thank you so much!" I collected my purchases and headed back to the Pokemon center and straight to my room. I set the container down and put the rest of the things I'd bought away in the appropriate parts of my traveling packs.
"Typhlosion, come with me." I picked up the egg carefully and put it inside the container, resealing the lid. The fire type scampered off the second bed and onto the ground, following me down the hall and to the nurse's desk.
"Hi, could I ask you a question about taking care of eggs?"
"Yes of course. Have you taken care of any eggs before?"
"One, but it hatched almost within a day." I replied, setting my container down on the counter. "I got this and I wanted to know what kind of temperature I should be trying to keep it at, but I don't want to know yet what Pokemon it is. Would you be able to help me?"
"Oh ok." The man looked a little surprised, but he turned his attention to the white egg with its colored flecks and looked at it for a few seconds. "The standard thirty-five should be fine."
"Thank you so much!" I picked up the container and walked back to one of the training rooms again, sitting down with Typhlosion inside it and opening the flame hatch. "Alright, let's get a tiny bit of fire in there pal."
Typhlosion looked at the small hatch before turning around and offering its back up. I picked up the container carefully and placed it over two of the crater like pores on its back, which usually produced its fiery mane. Taking careful stock of it, Typhlosion let a small stream of flame out of the two I had covered. I watched the temperature rise slowly until it hit forty-five, holding out a hand in front of Typhlosion to stop him.
"Fantastic. We can try doing it different ways later, but for now that works. We've got to do this thrice a day, so probably morning, afternoon, and at night. Maybe a little bit more if we're somewhere super cold."
Typhlosion barked in agreement as I set the container down by the window, releasing the rest of the team and heading over to the PC.
"Alright guys, so I'm going to do a little bit of research into Clair, the gym leader we're fighting soon. You're all welcome to just relax for a bit until I sort out how I think we should tackle this battle."
The majority of the group took the chance to socialize and relax happily, as Lucario and Scizor came over to stand with me as I typed away at the PC keyboard, pulling up the public database on Clair. It was a little bit different than the data presented in Cassian's Ace Trainer databases, but it contained quite a few of the same things. For one it wouldn't show me every Pokémon Clair had. It was one of the things about publicly available databases I appreciated. It also made conferences more interesting, since the only information you had about what you could expect another trainer to bring to their battle was what you had seen them use before.
"Alright guys, this should be pretty extensive since she is a gym leader."
Clair Blackthorn
Hometown – Blackthorn City, JOHTO
D.O.B. – June 1990
Sex - Female
Registered Pokémon – 24
Appointed Blackthorn City Gym Leader July 2010
Competition Appearances
Silver League Conference 2007 (Quarter Finalist)
Silver League Conference 2009 (2nd Place)
Silver League Conference 2010 (1st Place)
Frontier League Conference 2011 (Top 32)
Pokémon World Tournament: Gym Leader Challenge January 2012 (1st Place)
Frontier League Conference 2014 (Top 32)
Pokémon World Tournament: Gym Leader Challenge June 2015 (2nd Place)
Competitive Record†
Exclusive of challengers to Blackthorn Gym
50 total appearances
78 wins
6 draws
14 losses
Challenges to Blackthorn Gym 2015
207 wins (32 renewal challenges)
2 draws
51 losses (30 renewal challenges)
† Inclusive of Gym Battles, Competitive Appearances and League Challenges
"That. Is an impressive record." I whistled as I looked through it, scanning through the list of her achievements and her battle record. "So that means last year, there was a little under a twenty percent success rate at getting her badge…"
'Impressive.' Lucario looked at the screen, absorbing the numbers from my thoughts. 'Perhaps it would be prudent to run through the highlights reels from her old battles.'
"That sounds like a fantastic idea. I'll try and narrow it to challenges to the gym in the last year. It seems like that data is publicly available." I typed away at the keyboard in a frenzy, digging up the data that I could on her team.
Clips of Clair utterly destroying challengers were easy to find. Those didn't go past one or two of her Pokemon at most, always Dragonair and Kingdra. Even with the challengers for eight badges. Frowning, I tried to find another filter, successfully limiting it to her losses.
"Alright. Looks like we've got a few eighth badge battles and a few renewals to look through. To be honest, I'll mention that I should go for a higher standard than the eighth badge." I pressed play, running through the seven clips I had dug out one by one as I took notes in a small notebook.
"From the way she battles, it looks like her Dragonair are always a staple in her team. Kingdra looks like its always there too. Other than those three… Gyarados seems to be there often. All the battles for badge eight are four on four, so this looks like a kind of standard set she's got there." I flipped over to the remaining three clips after taking my notes on her fighting style. "Let's see how she deals with the others."
"This Dragonair looks a little tougher." I kept an eye on the screen, jotting down the details and the fact that she had a third, stronger Dragonair which I guessed was her first Pokémon. "Gyarados is still here, one more Dragonair. Kingdra. Maybe she just slows herself down a little for the regular battles."
'Quite possibly.' Lucario commented, looking at the screen.
"Ah here we go. So, she has an Altaria. It looks like it's her standard fifth Pokemon for this team." I watched through the remainder of the battle with Lucario and Scizor before shutting the screen and turning back to the team.
"Hey guys!" I called everyone's attention to me and looked at my notebook. "It looks like we've got a better idea of who's going up against Clair. It should be a five on five, and its going to be tricky because Dragon types aren't weak against much, as Knight could tell you. I'll be honest, Rhydon, Electabuzz, you've made great progress, but you're not ready for Clair."
The electric type took the statement quite humbly. Rhydon's eyes narrowed, but it nodded.
"We'll catch you guys up to the rest of the team, but it will take effort and time. We can't organically get there any faster than we're already going. Trust me."
"So, Clair's typically lineup seems to be Gyarados as an opener, Dragonair, Altaria, Dragonair, and Kingdra. Gyarados is brutal, but it has its weaknesses. I really wish we were a little further along Electabuzz, but alas."
"From what I can sense, she sends out the weaker of her two Dragonair first, but the strategy there is pretty much the same. Gyarados is brute force in this fight, but Clair's Dragonair are cunning. They'll try and get you in their grip, they'll play defensive games. They pack a punch, but if we can hold off and go blow for blow with them, we should manage." I looked over at the team and cast an eye around, getting a sense for how they were feeling.
"Altaria seems to be an interesting addition. I can't tell you how glad I am we learned some stuff about them with Drake. They don't pack the strongest punch, but they're good at defending and parrying, and if we let this one get away with Dragon Dance more than once, we could be in trouble." Once more, I cast an eye over the team. "Kingdra seems to be her powerhouse. It's not weak to much, and it just seems to throw everything at you, but with a bit more sense than Gyarados. Those are the two of her Pokemon that are overtly offensive in their styles from what I can see."
"So. Knight. You're in for sure." The big dragon crooned happily, looking at me with a smile. "Samurott, you're up too. Specter. Lucario."
I looked over at Scizor and Typhlosion, the two who had been my companions for the longest time.
"This is a bit tricky, but Scizor, you're going to sit this one out. Typhlosion. This is going to be difficult, but I think we can make it work. Alright crew. This is the last gym battle for us to make it to the Silver Conference. Let's go there tomorrow, and let's give her hell."
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Morning came soon after a restful night of sleep. I was lucky. Tension hadn't plagued me at night when thinking about the battle, and a quick cup of coffee and a muffin for breakfast had got me going for the day with a little bit of exercise – both for myself and for the team to warm up.
I approached the Blackthorn Gym and entered the building. It had its own gravity in a sense, with the thick heat coming through the doors and the steam rising out of the stacks. The massive doors with dragons engraved all over them opened of their own volition when I neared, releasing what felt like a breath of hot air from a Charizard (I guessed).
I entered the reception area and walked up to the counter, taking out my ID. The main entrance was done with grand pillars of granite rising up to the roof from a navy marbled floor. The main desk was the same style, granite with navy marble, and the ceiling was high enough that I had to crane my neck to look at it. Ahead of me, a shimmering sheen blocked my view of what lay in wait.
"Ethan Photon. This battle is technically for an eighth badge, but I should challenge a little bit above." I spoke to the receptionist quietly. Her features resembled the images of Clair a bit. A sharp jaw, strong, but not broad shoulders and pale skin.
The woman scanned my card and worked through her system for a moment before handing it back to me and gesturing towards the shimmering wall.
"The gym Leader will see you now."
A sharp shattering sound resonated throughout the massive chamber as the entire screen of psychic energy fractured into visible shards and fell apart, disintegrating into nothingness as I watched. Another wave of heat rolled out with a sudden gust as a massive battlefield of navy stone was revealed, with white stone lines laid into hewn paths, marking the middle and the edges. Pockets of lava decorated it, as did a few boulders, but more impressive was the lake of bubbling, churning magma the entire construct was floating in.
Taking a deep breath, I stepped into the challenger's box and looked across the field. Sitting in a throne made of the same blue stone, lounging lazily with her legs over one armrest and her back against the other, was a woman with light blue hair and piercing eyes. She sat in a dress that matched her eyes, and black heels, a smirk spread across her thin lips.
"Clair Blackthorn!" I called out from where I stood, "I challenge you to a battle for the Rising Badge! Do you accept?"
An entire minute passed. Then another. And one more. Clair slowly swung her legs off of the throne, standing upright in her box as her black cape unfurled behind her. She picked off a pokeball from the side of her marble seat, tossing it up into the air and catching it.
"Lance told me you were coming." Clair's smirk remained on her face, growing a little wider as she spoke. "He talked about this up and coming trainer I should watch out for."
Fixing her gaze on me, she reached up and tossed her pokeball out onto the field, shining white light pouring out of it.
"Let's see how long you last!"