I Don't Own Pokemon

Climbing a volcano to make sacrifices to an island god... Not exactly the weirdest thing I've done, but damn does it sound crazy without actual context doesn't it?... Actually it just sounds crazy in any context.

"I really wish I took you up on those rock climbing lessons" I managed a nod to Vale's declaration as we both stared at what was apparently the easiest route to start climbing... It was a near sheer slope straight upwards... Right.

"We need to conserve energy of our Pokemon more than we need to conserve ourselves, if they get too tired we're fucked" It spoke to just how much I cussed around him, mostly in the last few days at every minor to major inconvenience, that he didn't even blink, just nod.

"Yeah, would be nice though"

"No kidding" Normally in a situation like this, I'd just have Charon fling us up the wall with his Telekinesis, but he was already tired and with Khione, who was already exhausted as well, from being an Ice type on a tropical island with a volcano, were our two heaviest hitters, definitely the strongest Pokemon between us right now, so he had to conserve every inch of strength he had in case we needed him. Doubly since besides Ceto, who was probably not even half as strong as he was in terms of special attack power, he was really the only special attacker we had.

So we got to climbing, I relied mostly on finger strength to pull myself up, wishing we were given rope, as I waited on the wall while pointing out hand holds for Vale, who was lagging behind by a fair margin given his lack of training and psychical shape.

It was slow going, but it was consistent, managing to make it up to the first minor shelf on the sheer cliff, Vale already looked tired, I understood, my hand was hurting like hell and that wasn't even mentioning all the painful soreness that still radiated out from every move I made but had been able to ignore for the most part. Whelp, if there was one thing I could be good for here, it was that I knew I could take a frankly unreasonable amount of pain from sheer stubborn spite.

Vale on the other hand was a bit to pure for that.

"Here, these will help" I didn't really think about it, mostly because if I did then I would second guess myself into a hell loop, so instead of that, I just tossed him my gloves after stripping them off and just sort of tossing them on his chest from where he was laying. His head shot up, staring at them for a moment before saying.

"What? Aren't you...?" I just shrugged as I held my right hand out, waggling the fingers.

"Nerve damage, I can't actually feel most things in my right hand, it's the joints and muscles in the fingers that hurt and cramp up, those aren't made for climbing so they don't really help me here, but they can at least stop your hands from getting roughed up. I'm kind of a lost cause already" I didn't waggle my fingers again to make my point, cause that hurt the first time, but he seemed to get the idea, as he looked down at the gloves before asking.

"Are you sure? I mean..." I just shrugged, choosing to misunderstand.

"I mean, they might be a bit... soggy from the ocean, but I think their mostly dry, then again your hands are kind of small" He got the attempt to break the moment, but Vale didn't move to mention it, instead just pulled the grey gloves on, they clearly were just a bit to big, I had big hands, but it was clear they would help him over the following hours. I just waited a bit longer until we once more started to climb.

He did better without the rocks biting as hard into his hands, my time was a bit harder, but I learned without climbing gloves, and I didn't have active pain respecters in one of my hands, so I was fine.

Well, the active lack of functioning nerves and the corresponding amount of pain that came from it wasn't fine, but I was decidedly used to it, though looking at my own hands for an extended period of time that didn't involve me being naked while showering was a bit weird, they had tan lines now around the wrists with the skin being pale in comparison to the rest of my exposed arm, expected given how hard it is for me to tan.

They were weird to look at, I wasn't sure I liked it, but I dealt with it and climbed.

Then the first challenge of the day happened around half an hour into the second climbing and walking session.

Did anyone else not know that the fletchling line was apparently native in Alola? I personally only remember them as Kalos Pokemon.

Anyways, we were in an area without cover, a single Water type, and multiple flaming birds trying to roast us alive, with the majority of our Pokemon being Steel and Ice types.

It wasn't fun.

"CHARON!" My near shrill screech filled the air as my Pokemon shot forwards, just barely managing to body block the full force of a Flame Charge Talonflame before it could crash into me, the flames wouldn't actually hurt Charon, he had Flash Fire, but the impact of the massive bird slamming into him, shooting the two back from the force, as I managed to call out right after, "Ceto Water Gun! Shi- Iris Protect!"

Ceto jumped up, using my shoulder as a second launch pad as she got air before firing off water straight at the Talonflame who was off kilter from the recoil of their own attack, as the Water Gun slammed into them hard enough to send them tail spinning somewhere to the ground, probably out of shock more than damage, Ceto wasn't that strong.

Iris in countenance, who had been playing defense, hearing my words shot instantly at the first sign of danger to the two of us, just barely managing to get in front of Vale right before the rolling flames of a Heat Wave would have hit him, the barrier shone bright as the flames licked up the sides before they finally vanished as Vale's face paled out considerably in the face of his near death.

It said something that a moment after he had somehow managed to recover enough to call to his own Pokemon.

"Spinner, Fidget, Duel Discharge!" The two Pokemon made a good team for a lot of reasons, for one they've known each other for years, for another, they had the perfect mix of the Plus and Minus abilities, meaning in a double battle, they were terrifyingly strong for their normal lack of strength from a lack of training.

As such, the two shot together just as another wave of birds descended down on the normally prey Pokemon, being Steel types, only to hear said talonflames screech in pain as lightning shot of the Pokemon in two powerful waves, hitting everything in range, thankfully it was mostly just the birds, a number of which fell to the ground well knocked out from the shock. I really needed to get an electric type some day.

"Charon Telekinesis!" One word battling wasn't hard for me, it's how I trained my Pokemon to follow my commands in a battle. However, even I can admit that was vague as hell given how many targets there were.

Thankfully he understood, or maybe just came up with his own solution that was the same to what i had in mind, as I watched as one of the Talonflame's body froze before slamming right into one of the others, sending the two craning to the ground as I called out to Ceto to hit both on the way down.

"Cole!" The scream of fear got me to spin around just in time to watch a Flame Charge shoot right at me at a blitzing speed.

Iris was to far away, I barely had time to even think my body tensing to jump, but Flame Charge increased speed well past the point my flimsy human body could move of the already fast Pokemon.

That didn't mean I didn't try, I knew it was pointless, it was like in slow motion, my mind was just to fast, to much adrenaline pulsing through my veins, for it to be anything less. I was see the way the flames got closer by the quarter of a seconds, could feel the heat already pushing against my skin, blistering it even more past the sun burn and other near burns I've gained over the last few minutes.

It was death coming at me, slowly, and I couldn't do anything.

In tracking the only way to make sure you didn't get killed like this was to make sure you had already moved out of the way before the attack had managed to fully power up, by predicting the path and getting the hell out of it. It was the only way to survive a fast Pokemon, I had been to busy, there had been to much happening, I hadn't noticed in time, and I was going to die because of it.

I knew the positions of everyone else, I knew none of them were close enough, I knew no attack was fast enough to block it, I knew not even Khione could move fast enough or could use agility in time. I was dead, it just hadn't happened yet.

Was it weird I was relieved it was only me who would die from my mistake?

Yes, I decided as I watched my demise move closer, I was surprisingly fine with this... ignoring the batshit terror etching itself into my soul at the very least.

"LIIITT!"

It was like the world froze... expect I knew what that was like, I had lived through it, I knew when the world slowed sound froze, knew that the wind didn't blow, knew that even smell and sound became muted. And yet the Pokemon, who's heat that was rolling of their form had paused, frozen in air, the flames themselves paused almost in time, but the heat still burned, I could smell the way my eyebrows were burning from being so close as I stumbled back before watching in shock as the talonflame was slammed into the ground.

Hard.

The impact left a solid impact into the earth, leaving a thick set of cracks spreading out from the bird's form, the flames dousing out. I knew what had happened but I almost couldn't believe it as I shot my head around, staring at Charon, his flame was massive on his head, as his eyes glowed a powerful blue as a number of the wild Pokemon around us seemed to realize something was happening as they shot towards him.

It was to late, as a massive flash of burning blue energy surrounded his body, so bright it was blinding, to the point I had to shield my eyes, but I couldn't help but watch, as his form, a small barely visible silhouette slowly morphed and moved inside the light, before in a burst of power Charon was revealed... only he wasn't a litwick.

He was a Lampent, with two glowing yellow eyes on the glass resembling front of his new body, which had an incredibly vibrate blue flame burning in him, as he screamed out a cry.

"Lampent!" In an instant Charon spun in a sharp motion as I watched with faint awe as a blade of dark purple-blue energy, that was clearly not fire was shot out, slamming into the closest talonflame, shooting it to the ground as I couldn't help but grin, the relief pounding through my veins enough to nearly floor me as I managed to call out.

"That was Night Shade..." He spun around and... Charon didn't have a clear mouth anymore, but I could feel his grin, as I just grinned right back, as I moved forwards, calling out. "Incredible! Let's see just how strong you've gotten! Night Shade!" The main issue had been that talonflames also had Flash Fire and Charon didn't really have a good attack against them, that had suddenly changed in an instant as I watched as he shot up, moving faster than ever before, and suddenly in an instant blades of his power shot out, the birds having to for the first time back off.

Vale and I capitalized on that at the same time.

"Charge Beam both of you!" "Ceto Water Gun, Charon Night Shade!"

The sky was suddenly filled with more than fire, as the birds were suddenly on the defensive as we managed to push them back just enough that retreat was the only option after a few more hard minutes of battle.

The second it was over, I shot forwards, as Charon floated over, and without a single care, shot my arms around his new body, he was so much bigger! I couldn't help the giddy laugh coming from my throat, I had no idea where most of the sheer relief and joy was coming from, escaping death once again, or my Pokemon's evolution. It was probably about fifty-fifty.

"Cole!" I managed to pull myself away just in time for Vale to crash into me as I just laughed again as I hugged him back before feeling him smack me on the chest a few times. "Stop! Almost! Dying!" I just let out one more wheeze of a laugh as we both slowly sort of just slumped into a sitting position as our body's finally came down from one of way too many adrenaline rushes over the past few days.

"Sorry?"

"You should be! We're staying next to each other from now on, Iris can protect both of us" I managed a nod, as I let out a soft relieved sigh, before turning back to Charon, who was excitedly talking with a chattering Ceto and Notus. Khione was still in her pokeball, she wouldn't have really been able to help, and I think I was glad about it Khione would have probably be hanging off me for a week straight if she knew I nearly died again without her around.

After a short moment, I managed a nod and slowly got up on slightly unsteady legs and said.

"Come on, let's get moving" Vale let out a low groan before slowly getting up with a nod.

"Right... Let's look for the charcoal for a while, I need a break from... thinking" I just snorted.

"Mood" That got something of a smile from him as we moved around.

It was surprisingly easy to find after a while of looking but it took about an hour to actually find. When we got back to climbing, it went quicker, clearly this was a trek that had been made many times by the people, there was almost something close to kind of resembling a path, the one Iris had found just got us to it faster than taking the long route.

It still wasn't easy, but it wasn't as bad either.

The battles continued, they were somewhat easier, but even with Charon's new form the danger levels increased the further up we went.

It was hell, it was hot, my face was sunburnt as hell, nearly burnt in the normal way, my body had a deep sense of exhaustion, and running on a mountain side wasn't fucking easy in sandals.

But by the time nightfall came, a few golems and gravelers and a few too many shocks later, it was well past nightfall, but we kept climbing, mostly cause Iris had reported something of a small cave up ahead and any case to not be in the open, where more than a few of the island's Ground and Rock type Pokemon seemed to like to be annoyingly enough.

Needless to say, the stone wasn't that bad, uncomfortable but we've been sleeping in trees the last few days, and this way Vale wouldn't feel awkward about sharing a branch, given that I wasn't needed to combat his fear of heights.

Which being honest here, I was still wondering when that was going to kick in, when he realizes we're about at least three to four kilometers up a volcano, and as such we are considered, you know, high up in the air. Last time I looked, I could literally see the village from here we were that high up. At least during the day... I hadn't really looked out now. I wonder what the world looks like from up here? I mean, I've been on airplanes during the night but... I'll take a look once we settle for the night.

When we finally got to the cave, which I must say there was enough room for both of us without needing to squeeze or anything like that, but there wasn't that much room, if we weren't young teenagers, and instead were even a few years later into puberty then I had no doubt we wouldn't have enough room, especially for our heads. Still, as I stood on the landing, I looked around for a moment, before finally turning around and looked out at the sights before me.

"Holy shit" Vale paused, at this point we could recognize each other's curses of panic, my wasn't that, so instead of panicking himself, he turned around, in the cave which ruined the effect, and asked.

"What's up?" I just... stood there for a moment before waving for him to move over. He didn't question it, trust to just do things without questioning was just... natural at this point, you can't go through a wilds space without being able to trust the person you're with implicitly, the reason we probably didn't die in the first real battle we had was because we already did trust each other, and that just grew.

So Vale moved next to me, as I just pointed upwards, and then he saw what I saw.

"Oh... Holy shit" I couldn't help but smile as we stared up at the night sky, without an ounce of light pollution in the air.

It was beyond words, the cool air buffering against us, as we stared up at a sky emblazed with millions upon billions of stars, shining in splashes of blues, purples, and faint green, creating streaks of color throughout the night sky, the kind you'd only ever be able to see in HD pictures, and never in a city, was just in front of us, clear to see.

It was beautiful beyond words I had to describe it, and I couldn't help but wished I had been able to notice it early.

We just stood there for a long while, the blue light casted over us from Charon's flames illuminating our forms as we watched the night sky until we couldn't ignore the pangs of exhaustion, and with reluctance we moved back into the cave.

Vale sort of just sort of paused for a moment when he sat down as I moved across to the other side of the small cave, he seemed to be thinking about something, so I just asked about it.

"What's up?" He blinked and gave me a look, like he was surprised I actually noticed someone else's emotions, which was rude, I was very good at it, normally I just didn't want to see that shit. Vale was, like most things, an expectation to that.

"Nothing" I just gave him a look.

"Really? I'm pretty sure I'm the one that's suppose to be the one who ignores help when given. I think you even made a big speech about it" He huffed, but it did seem to get my point across as he seemed to think about the matter, blushing clearly, whatever it was it was embarrassing for him to ask about it for some reason.

"It's... I, uh... I had really bad nightmares the first two nights here, and... and they sort of, you know... Stopped when we were..." I just blinked before nodding, I got what he was saying, I'm pretty sure he was the main reason I was getting any sleep either to be honest, though he seemed to be over thinking it, which was normally my thing, as he continued.

"And since, you know... yesterday I mentioned... and well we don't need to be close in a tree anymore so I don't fall. So you don't have to, and I really don't want you to get the wrong idea-" Okay, he was rambling, that was my thing, I interrupted him.

"Do you find my attractive?" Right, maybe I could have asked that better, but I was tired, kind of cranky, and honestly really wanted to sleep. Vale went blood red, though in the blue light, he mostly just looked purple, it was kind of funny looking.

"W-Why the hell would you ask me that? I already told you!" I just shrugged.

"The only reason I could think you'd have an issue with it now is you think you'll, like, get a-" He somehow turned even more purple, I wasn't sure I've even seen that color before.

"SHUT UP!" I wisely followed his advice as he looked beyond mortified. That's kind of what I was going for so he'll talk more about it if only to try and prove me wrong. I wasn't worried, I had functioning eyes and a childhood of growing up around sexually repressed old business men and women, I can tell when someone finds another person attractive, this was the most effective, and honestly mildly amusing, way of getting to the point as Vale continued on.

"No! Nothing like that! I- I mean you're really not bad looking I swear, but also... just, no, like, on so many levels, just no. At this point it feel almost wrong to- Just no!" I just nodded.

"Alright, I don't see the issue then" He just sighed, before looking around, clearly not wanting to explain what he thought the issue was.

"But... I don't know, don't you think it's weird or something for us to just sleep on top of each other basically?" I just rolled my eyes.

"I mean, obviously, I've literally never woken up with another human closer than five feet of me, much less on me, but we're not doing anything weird, we're just sleeping, and honestly you help with my nightmares too. Besides, this whole situation is already weird as fuck man, our sleeping habits really doesn't even break top twenty in the last week" He really couldn't argue with that, so he just nodded, clearly feeling better about the whole thing, though I did have to ask.

"Why did you think I'd even care anyways? You're really holding onto the whole things being different thing. If it makes you feel better, we both know I'm probably asexual, most people think that's weird, I personally just think it makes me better than you lot" He huffed before looking away, clearly thinking about somethings, before finally shrugging.

"I don't know... I just... I guess with how it is sometimes, the expectations of it all just made me nervous about all this, I don't really... I don't know, I don't want to make things weird just because it make me feel better, because I know you'll just deal with it if you think I need it, you selfless idiot" I just rolled my eyes and moved over to him, sitting down next to him and unceremoniously dragged him over so we were side by side as I said.

"You're Vale, I'm pretty sure you're not allowed to be anything but optimistic" He gave me a soft elbow for that, as I said slightly more quietly "It goes both ways to you know? You really aren't going to be able to push me away by what is essentially a really close sleep over. Especially since I'm the sociopath between the two of us, so you could actually murder someone and I'd probably wouldn't care" That managed to get a short but proper laugh out of him as he finally seemed to relax before admitting quietly, a faint yawn in his voice.

"I guess it's pretty stupid to worry about it huh?"

"Just a bit, but given you put up with all my constant angst, I'm pretty sure you're allowed to be stupid about emotions sometimes too, maybe... try to not do it to much, I'm not good at comfort" That finally managed to get a proper full laugh out of Vale as I felt his head drop a bit onto my shoulder as he said quietly, his voice slowly trailing off.

"You're... a... jerk..." I just smirked as I waited a long moment, as the sound of his breath evening out filled the cave. The day had finally caught up to him huh?

I wasn't too far behind to be honest.

Drifting off soon didn't even register, before I had faded out into the white noise of sleep.

The next morning I think it was least awkward one we've had since we started this trial thing. Vale didn't mention it, but he seemed happy about... something, so I just went with it and started off on our days. We had some left over foods we could sue for breakfast, but it was really not a lot, by the end of it, since we had to ration it, so we were left unfulfilled and pretty hungry, but that was... fine.

Before long we were back to walking, it was a pain, well it was mostly just tiring, but we did it.

Vale was doing better, he was a quick learner, but his body was the main issue, he just really didn't have the core strength for some of the pulls he had to do on some of the more sheer surfaced climbs.

He didn't complain though, I have to give him that, he never complained, I did, loudly, but that's more just to keep the conversation going, and it seemed to make him feel better. Then we got attacked again.

Honestly? Not surprising at this point.

Turtonators were dangerous, they were only weak to Rock and Dragon, neither types we had covered, and and they were strong enough that both Vale and I were way to close to being cooked again, which... honestly? Is probably a new fear of mine from yesterday, which was terrifying, and I was suddenly very glad Charon's flames weren't red, nor could they hurt me unless he wanted them to, and he'd never do that.

Charon was easily the strongest Pokemon we had to deal with it, given just how weak our teams were to Fire, but even he couldn't be everywhere at once.

"Iris! On Vale" Iris was honestly the only reason we were still alive, and I fucking looked him for it. He had both of us constantly protected with Light Screen and Reflect, and if needed Protect. The heat and the force from the attacks hitting against the walls made our hearts skip a beat from the heat and force of the hits, but the wall stood strong, as Iris shot over, using Protect just in time to defend against a particularly nasty Overheat.

Spinning back around, just in time to see, ironically enough, Spinner, slam into one of the turtonators, in what looked to be a Gear Grind, pushing the Pokemon back just a bit, right before a Flamethrower was ready to launch right into the Steel type. I instantly called out.

"Ceto Water Gun the on by Spinner!" She jumped up and launched the attack, as the two attacks slammed together, and for a long moment smoke rolled over the two Pokemon... Then suddenly in a burst of blue light shone through the smoke... and... Wait really? I could hear the way Vale sort of half laughed and squealed in excitement, as we watched as form the smoke shot out a Pokemon that was decidedly not a klink.

"Nice job Spinner!" I just nodded a bit as I looked at the Pokemon's new form, as a Klang... Right, two evolutions in one day, not to surprising to be honest, given just how far everyone was being pushed, but really?!

"Uh, Ceto! Water Gun one more time, Charon Night Shade! Notus Honen Claw into Rock Smash!" My Pokemon shot forwards as we continued to fight, but Spinner seemed to add a level of force we had been somewhat missing, as we managed to get through the fight without a full knock out on your teams, though it was close, Notus was near unconscious, she didn't have the stamina or endurance to keep going much longer so I returned her to rest for a while. Ceto was very much in the same boat, she was exhausted beyond belief so I returned her too.

Fidget, Vale's other Pokemon, and Plutus were both returned as well, all the Fire types finally becoming to much for the duo.

Meaning we really only had Charon and Spinner left to really battle with, I mean, Vale still had his Sandshrew, but she was no where near strong enough to handle this level of battle and would only get hurt, and I've been making sure to not have Khione battle nearly at all in the last few days to make sure she could conserve her strength, since her typing and weak defense would just mean any real hit would probably be enough to knock her unconscious.

We were nearly out of Pokemon who could fight, and right now we were only about half way up the damn volcano... This was going to be rough. We've been lucky we just had so many Pokemon and actual coordination to manage to equal the playing field between the Wilds Pokemon, it was enough back on the island itself, where the Pokemon were kind of weak, but up here we were quickly coming on Pokemon who were in near equal strength to our own Pokemon.

We really need to start avoiding fights, which was hard enough as it was, given the lack of cover and Vale's lack of training, but we managed to keep going. Walking and talking, as Vale seemed really happy with Spinner's evolution, which I totally understand.

Either way, I made sure to make everyone quiet down after a while as we continued our climb. It surprisingly got a lot easier after that, probably because there wasn't really many Pokemon that would want to get this high up without a reason, given most of the food was down in the forested area. So there wasn't much reason for most Pokemon to be up here. Of course that didn't mean there wasn't any, just... less.

"Jump!" Right after I said it, I jumped, my leg strength barely strong enough to manage the ravine in the volcano.

"Are you insane!" I spun around, waving my hands to get him to do the same as he was quickly approaching the jumping spot I had used as he ran from a number of dugtrios

"Obviously?! Come on!" He didn't hesitate, jumping the distance, and he fell- I could see him realize it, he wouldn't make the jump, his legs were as long, he wasn't as strong, he wasn't going to make it, I barely did.

My arms shot out, grabbing onto his shirt, and with a strong tug and a ripping sound, I hefted him up onto the ground, before pulling him to his feet, we didn't have time to think about what could have happened, we needed to keep running, as I called out behind us, as the dugtrios went underground.

"Flame Burst into the hole Charon then come on!" Thank fuck they were Steel type here, as he shot a massive blast of fire down into the hole, before it exploded hard enough to shake the ground behind us as fire blasted out of the holes in an almost geyser like matter.

He shot forwards soon after, following us as I felt the ground shake under are feet hard enough I nearly fell down, Vale was in the same boat as we charged ahead, taking a rounding path, before the rumbling cracking sounds of hell entered my ears, just as we were passing a cave, I barely had time to look up, to see it.

The volcano was what was rumbling, not the dugtrio, as from the top of the volcano, dozens of boulders were flooding down the sides, as I felt myself nearly scream, before suddenly Vale's body impacted into mine as we were launched into the cave, out Pokemon barley making it in, just as the rock slammed down, breaking and crumbling into smaller rocks, but... then end result was the same.

"We're trapped" Vale's voice just spoke the obvious, but I couldn't stop staring at the entrance that had just been before us was over covered in rocks, not a single strand of light poking through, the only light we had was from Charon as we stood there for a long moment before I felt a guttural roar just rip from my throat as I screamed out in rage, every inch of anger and fear, and heartache I had repressed for the last week surging out in one pained and violent scream that made my body shake.

It bounded off the walls, and it hurt, it hurt so fucking bad, it felt like my sore throat was being shredded, I didn't care, of all the unfairness we had to deal with, now we had this! I was panting and shaking, and furious and... and I was so fucking tired.

"Cole..." I didn't react, I was still staring at the wall, "Cole! Come on" I wasn't saying anything.

"Come here!" Vale grabbed onto my shoulders and pulled me away, his arms wrapping around me, as he pulled me away, as I just wanted to fucking scream again, but if I did I think I'd start coughing up blood soon after.

"We're fine, we can get out of this alright? We have time" I just sighed, and... and finally managed to nod, just half sinking into the hug cause fuck I needed something right now.

Finally I managed to pull away, my eyes still stinging as I said in a rough voice.

"I fucking hate everything" He managed to make his laugh sound not awkward.

"Yeah?" I nodded.

"Yeah... Let's... Let's get to work I guess" He gave me a comforting smile and a nod, and I felt like shit, he didn't deserve having to deal wi- Stop it! Just... Not right now ok brain? I can't handle that right now...

With that we turned back to covered opening, and with matching sighs we moved forwards.

Only way out was through.

Alright, this went longer than I thought, but I needed to et one last main bit of Vale character growth in, just to make sure it was all complete in a spot that it would make the most sense, as well, as I'm really speed running these evolutions, but they make sense in context so it's fine, I was feel like it was more than time enough for some, and given the situation, and the rising stakes, it only makes sense.

Beyond that... Can't really think of anything at the moment to be honest. Vale is being awesome and kick ass in his own way, though it is clear most of the burden has been put on Cole, it can not be said he isn't pulling his weight, cause damn has he saved Cole more than a few times. So that's cool, showing off that Cole might be the smarter and stronger out of the two, but that does no mean he can do everything, because, frankly, he really can not take care of himself when he's by himself. It's kind of sad to be honest. Anyways, next chapter is going to mostly be the end of this, and maybe the wrap up, but it make take another chapter after to finally be back into the normal story, just as a fair warning. See ya.