"Theodore, dodge his attack! Get in close!"
"Hugs!", Teddy cheered, barreling towards me.
I leapt back, channeling another Fairy Wind. I did not want to get anywhere near those flailing limbs of Teddy's.
Meanwhile, Xena was growling furiously as she sparred against Faye, who expertly dodged each punch and struck back with a fireball. Faye was practically taunting her fellow team member at this point, making Xena angrier and angrier.
Isaac...was jumping up and down on a rock, claiming it was going to help him fight the nasty birds.
Yeah, right...
Pearl was happily watching us train, occasionally jumping in with a helpful comment or order. Her Rotom Phone was watching too, snickering every single time somebody got hit by something.
Honestly, it was kind of getting on my nerves.
Finally, Pearl called for a break. Relieved that Teddy hadn't been able to hit me, I proudly strode over to her side, knowing that I was one of her strongest Pokemon at the moment.
However, Teddy still wanted a hug.
"Ack!", I yelped as he jumped onto me, his face nuzzling into my side. I nearly toppled over, but barely managed to keep my footing. Faye chuckled as I struggled to get the overfriendly Stufful off of me, and I made sure to give her a nice glare.
Isaac rolled over, happily declaring, "I believe I added an extra centimeter to my jump today! Soon, I will be able to challenge even a Flying-type!"
"After a bit more practice, maybe.", I muttered.
"Of course! Galar wasn't conquered in a day!", Isaac replied.
"I'm not even sure if it was conquered at ALL.", I grumbled.
Teddy finally released me from his death-grip, mostly so he could start begging for berries from Pearl. She giggled and passed him some, which he devoured greedily.
Faye asked, "Does he really need more food?"
I replied, "I don't think so, but try telling our Trainer that."
I noticed Xena strapping rocks to her legs, using some rope she'd 'borrowed' from Pearl's backpack.
"Um, what are you doing?", I asked.
Isaac declared, "I suggested it!"
Xena answered my question. "I am going to practice running with weights on my legs. Once I can run at normal speeds WITH the weights, I will obviously be faster WITHOUT them. Make sense?"
"Why in the world do I feel like I've heard this before?", I muttered.
Isaac declared, "Why, that's because it's a most genius idea! Isn't it?"
Xena grunted as she tried to run with the stones weighing her down. It was clear that it was actually giving her difficulty. Astonishing!
Pearl noticed Xena struggling. "Um, what are you doing?", she asked.
Faye asked, "She IS unable to understand us, right? Why is she asking a question we can't answer?"
Isaac answered, "Perhaps it is merely rhetorical! I do love rhetorical things! Like, um, I am because I think? Wait, that doesn't sound right..."
I rolled my eyes, but we were then distracted when Xena tripped on a rock sticking out of the ground.
The Machop cursed angrily and stumbled to her feet, but at the same time the 'rock' pulled itself out of the ground, crying, "I'm sorry, are you okay?!"
The Pokemon appeared to be a Roggenrola, which meant I could not see any expressions on their face. But they were acting pretty apologetic and nice, and Xena didn't yell at them or anything.
Pearl looked at the Roggenrola. "Hi there, little guy.", she said, "Are you okay?"
The Roggenrola nodded. "Tough as a rock, I am." Judging by the sound of their voice, this was a female one.
...How does that even work for a Pokemon made of stone?
Pearl glanced at her Pokeball belt, silently counting how many she had. Then she asked, "How would you like to become the sixth member of my team?"
The Roggenrola looked thoughtful. "What will that entail?", she asked.
I answered, "We're going to be adventuring all over the world, battling all sorts of Pokemon and seeing all kinds of things! Plus, there's nearly unlimited food."
"...I gain energy from heat, not by consuming things. As you can tell, I don't have a mouth.", the Roggenrola replied.
If I could've slapped myself in the face, I probably would've. Now I felt really dumb.
"However, I've always wanted to explore beyond this cave. So I think I'll give this a try.", the Roggenrola continued.
She walked over to Pearl, who smiled and held out a Pokeball. The Roggenrola went inside it, before immediately coming back out.
Pearl grinned. "I have a full team of awesome Pokemon now! This is amazing!"
The Rotom Phone buzzed, "Alert: team capacity reached. Any future Pokemon will be automatically transferred to your PC for later access. Downloading PC app now."
"Ah. I see.", Pearl replied.
She stood up. "Alright, I think I'll name you Mica! Does that sound good to you?"
Mica nodded. "I've never had a name before. It's neat!"
"Yeah, it is.", Faye agreed.
"Unless it's practically a joke.", grumbled Isaac.
"I don't think anyone besides you and I find your name-set funny.", I commented.
Xena shrugged. "Those two are weird."
I glared at her.
At the same time, Teddy decided to hug Mica.
"New friend! Yay!", he cheered.
Mica didn't seem to mind the crushing hug, probably because she was made out of rock.
Pearl walked over to us. "Alright, guys, let's head deeper into the mine and see what we can find!"
So we started walking once again.
As we traveled deeper into the tunnels, I admired the scenery. Tall, dark stone walls loomed around us, but were full of light as the many gems across them gleamed and sparkled.
"I wonder why no one's ever mined those out.", I wondered.
Mica answered, "They never needed to. The humans came here for the coal, and the gems were under the protection of the wild Pokemon, so they decided to leave them. Isn't it much more better this way? Imagine if they let their greed take control instead...this place would be much more empty and dreary."
I nodded, my mind drifting. I wished more people in my world were like that, leaving something alone instead of letting their greed take over and destroy everything around them.
It was very depressing how rarely that happened.
We came across some railway tracks across one of the tunnels, and started following them. I noticed some miners battling against other Trainers, while some of their other Pokemon continued chipping away at the walls and collecting the precious coal within them.
Suddenly there was a loud rattling, and zooming down the track towards us was a Carkol.
"Outta the way!", it yelled, "These tracks are mine! If you don't budge, I'll roll you flat!"
Pearl looked panicked, but Xena charged ahead of her, hands spread. The Carkol rammed right into them, but Xena narrowed her eyes and pushed against the wild Pokemon. It snarled angrily, and the stack of coal on its back flared up as it stoked its inner fire.
Even though I wasn't too fond of our tiny hardcore exercise coach, I wasn't in the mood to see her face get roasted by a sentient coal cart. I charged in, horn flaring with energy. I unleashed a Fairy Wind to try and blow it off the track, but the angry Carkol only swayed slightly and stayed put.
Then Teddy yelled, "Back off, mean rocks!" He charged in, limbs flailing, and THAT knocked the Carkol over.
"Argh!", it yelled, its face smacking into the ground, "You'll pay for that, runts, once I manage to stand back up!"
Xena then picked the Carkol up and threw it into a nearby pile of tools, which ended up knocking it out.
"Brutal! I like it!", cheered Faye.
"That jerk had it coming for him.", agreed Mica.
Isaac commented, "If I'd had more time, I could've helped!"
I replied, "Um...that was a Fire-type. That would not have ended well for you."
"You don't know that! But mark my words, one day I'll prove myself to you all!", Isaac declared.
I rolled my eyes. "Maybe when you evolve."
After that, we continued walking again.
Not very far from our battle site, we reached a short bridge over a deep ravine, where I could see various miners hard at work.
If I remembered correctly, this meant we were near the end of the mine. That meant...oh dear, our first Bede encounter.
Sure enough, I could see him on the other side of the bridge, sitting dejectedly on a large rock staring gloomily at his phone. Besides him, his signature Hattena was nuzzling him reassuringly.
"Are you alright?", asked Pearl, hurrying over, "You don't look your best."
Bede cast a wary look at her. "It's none of your business. Go away please."
I hurried over, readying myself to defend her when Bede's nasty streak inevitably showed itself. The others cast me a confused look, but I knew that I was aware of things they weren't.
Pearl sat down next to him. "I just want to help you, if I can. Is it really that bad?"
Bede sighed. "Alright...I've just received a commission to collect as many Wishing Stars as possible. At least fifty of the things."
Pearl gasped. "Fifty!? That's absurd! How can anyone expect you to collect fifty of those!? They're incredibly rare!"
"I know.", sighed Bede, "But the chairman needs them, and he's the one who raised and endorsed me. I can't just skip out of this for him, not at all."
"Wishing Stars? They're those weird blue rocks radiating red energy, right?", asked Mica.
I nodded. "That sounds right. They're necessary for helping Trainers Dynamax their Pokemon."
Mica replied, "I think I saw a couple nearby. Give me just a moment."
She burrowed into the ground, and Pearl looked over to where she'd been.
"That was one of your Pokemon, right?", asked Bede, "What are they doing?"
Pearl shrugged. "I'm not sure-"
Then Mica re-emerged, carrying four Wishing Stars with her.
Bede's eyes widened. "That Roggenrola can find Wishing Stars!"
Pearl looked surprised as well. "That is cool. I didn't know that!"
After thinking it over for just a moment, Bede held his hands together pleadingly. "Please, let me have those Stars! I'll make it up to you somehow!"
Pearl didn't even question it. "No problem. I don't need them or the cash."
Bede looked both astonished and happy. "Um, thank you! Thank you so much!"
My keen ears picked up him murmuring, "I didn't know that there were more nice people out there..."
Now I was very curious. Had the games been wrong about Bede? Or was this a result of this being a separate dimension?
I hated how I did not know this stuff. Didn't all those Mystery Dungeon games and Pokemon Legends: Arceus have somebody telling you a bit about what you were getting into before isekai-ing you? How come that hadn't happened to me? I really could have done with just a bit more knowledge about why I was here, and how this world was different from the one in the games.
If you did this, Arceus, you could've just been a BIT more helpful, you know.
I noticed Mica had taken the Wishing Stars to Bede, who was handling them very carefully. Pearl stood up again, and said, "I'm going to be going now. Good luck, and I hope to see you again later."
Bede smiled. "Yeah...I think I'd like that. Good luck to you too."
Then Pearl and the rest of the team started heading out of the cave, with me following behind.
I was still very, very confused. What the heck was going on? (-o-)
AN: Another chapter done! As you can probably tell, I'm trying something different with Bede's character. Perhaps the protagonists merely reached him at the wrong times...
As always, I like to hear your thoughts, and you can feel free to review me them. I take any and all criticism I receive, and often (but not always), I will respond to it in my future writing. So don't be afraid to tell me what you think!
Welp, this chapter's done now, so I'll see you all next time!