Previously in Pokémon: The Lost Child. Empoleon and Sceptile arrived in a village that had a ton of wanted posters for Zoroark. They ended up encountering Zoroark disguised, but were caught and nearly killed by a Cacturne working for The Brotherhood. They managed to fend him off, but Zoroark killed him in the process. Now Empoleon and Sceptile, leaving the village, are wondering what exactly to think of that.
Empoleon and Sceptile had managed to find themselves on another mountain. This time a very snowy one that was extremely cold. Empoleon was tolerating it very well, but Sceptile was having a very hard time with it.
"Sceptile, are you sure you are okay? You look awful," Empoleon asked, very concerned about his poor condition.
"I will be fine. We need to keep going and find a way off this mountain."
"That I can agree with, but I have not seen anything for a long time. It feels like we keep going in circles," Empoleon said.
"I am sure it's not that…" While Sceptile was talking, he stepped on something icy when he went down to look. What he saw horrified him. It was a Shelgon trapped inside a block of ice, seemingly dead. As soon as Sceptile saw this, he screamed and jumped in the air.
"What is the problem, Sceptile?" Empoleon asked before also seeing the dead body and freaking out just as much.
"What in Arceus' sake is up with this place that can't possibly be what I think it is," Sceptile said.
"I'm afraid it can't be anything else, that Pokémon somehow froze to death from being inside of this mountain," Empoleon responded.
"That Pokémon is a Shelgon. It is weak to ice. You are luckily not weak to it, so you will be fine, but I need to do something fast," Sceptile said, still shivering from the horrible cold of this place.
"Everything looks the same, so I have no idea how we are supposed to get off this mountain, I can't even tell which way we came from," Empoleon responded.
"Our best option right now is to find somewhere away from the cold until we can find a way of getting out of this place."
"Are you thinking something like a cave Sceptile?" Empoleon asked.
"Yeah, that is a good idea. Look all around until we find a cave."
Empoleon and Sceptile would spend a few minutes looking around until Empoleon stumbled across a hidden entrance to a cave hidden behind some snow. Empoleon immediately called out to Sceptile, "I found one. Come here quick."
Sceptile rushed over to where Empoleon was and saw a cave behind the snow, much like Empoleon did. Sceptile used his leaf blade to cut the snow down, revealing a quite big cave.
"This will have to do for now," Sceptile said. After that, both Empoleon and Sceptile went inside the cave, with Sceptile using some of his vines to block out as much of the outside as he could. "Man, that feels so much better," Sceptile responded, more relaxed now that he wasn't in a place that was so cold.
"Something isn't right, though it feels almost too warm," Empoleon said. Sceptile thought it over and realized it was much warmer than he expected, prompting him to say, "Man, your right, this feels weird."
Empoleon noticed something in the distance, behind a rock. It looked like some sort of heat signature. Empoleon walked towards it, pushed the rock out of the way, and saw a massive fire.
Empoleon put out the fire as quickly as he could, but the heat only barely calmed down. Empoleon and Sceptile start searching around and manage to find multiple more fires all over the place, each of which they put out.
"Something is very wrong about this mountain. There wouldn't just be random fires all over the place with no Pokémon," Sceptile commented.
"I don't understand it myself. Do you have any idea what might be going on?" Empoleon asked.
"I wish I did. For now, we need to figure out a plan to get off this mountain. I will go check outside to see if the snow has calmed down." Sceptile walks towards the place they came in but suddenly can't find the entrance, causing him to say, "I swear this is where it was."
"I can't find the entrance either. How did we lose it already?" Empoleon asked.
"Okay, this is getting freaky. It's like this mountain is purposefully designed to make getting off it as hard as possible," Sceptile commented.
"I don't understand how that could even be possible," Empoleon replied.
While they were talking, the ground started shaking, with Empoleon noticing it right away due to how badly it was damaging him. Sceptile, in response, shouted "Earthquake."
The two ran away from the earthquake as quickly as they could, but it seemed to be everywhere. The cave was much bigger than they both expected, and they kept going through different sections of it. However, they were starting to notice that it seemed like they were going in circles.
Eventually, Empoleon and Sceptile found a really sturdy rock that they both stood on top of while waiting for the earthquake to stop. After quite some time, it did stop and the two went back to the ground.
"Alright, there is definitely something up with this cave. We need to find a way out of here," Sceptile commented.
"Look at the pool of water. Maybe we could try swimming through it and see if we find an exit," Empoleon said while seeing a massive pool inside of the cave.
"That could work. Good catch, Empoleon." Empoleon and Sceptile went inside the pool and started swimming in a straight line to the other side. While swimming through, they found another dead Pokémon. This time it was a Talonflame. They felt sorry for him, but they had to keep going and find a way out of this place.
Empoleon and Sceptile were really starting to notice something was up with this place. They had encountered problem after problem that could have nearly gotten them killed and discovered two dead Pokémon. The very specific way that it was set up could not have been a coincidence. Someone had definitely engineered this, but how is the question.
When Empoleon and Sceptile got out of the water, they were in a different part of the cave. This one was different, though. There was random stuff all over the place, like metallic kind of stuff. It meant that someone had been around here.
"I don't see any sort of exit. Look around. Maybe we can find something," Sceptile commented.
Empoleon looked around and saw two metal rods. He was wondering what exactly they were. He shot some bubbles at the rod to test it, but the bubble got zapped by some electricity, which was so powerful it even hit Empoleon, knocking him back. Sceptile heard this and instantly rushed over.
"What happened?"
While Empoleon was getting up, he said, "I'm fine. What in Arceus' sake was that?"
"It looks like someone rigged some sort of electric rod to shock anyone that comes near. You're lucky it only partly hit you. We need to be very careful around that," Sceptile responded.
"Look over there, Sceptile. I think I see some light," Empoleon said, pointing towards another part of the cave.
"Good eye, Empoleon. This may finally be what we are looking for." Empoleon and Sceptile started walking towards it, but what they found was not what they expected. It was an entire home, it had equipment, food, and more.
The place also answered a lot of their questions. There was a machine that was made to shake the ground, materials needed for starting fires. Someone, whoever was living here, had deliberately designed this mountain to keep out anyone who tried to come to this home through a series of traps.
Empoleon and Sceptile noticed four Sneasels all playing in the distance. It didn't seem like it was them, but the two had a feeling that they were connected to this. At that moment, Empoleon was suddenly jumped by a Pokémon who slashed Empoleon with its claws. Sceptile got a good look and it all made sense. It was Weavile.
"I have to admit, nobody has ever managed to make it this far past my traps. I am impressed. I will admit I had never considered the idea of two Pokémon travelling together stumbling into this," Weavile said.
"It was you. You were the one that set all these traps," Sceptile commented.
"I am doing what I must to protect my children. You wouldn't understand that. All you want is the diamonds." This declaration confused the two, but before they could say anything, Weavile attacked Sceptile.
Sceptile and Weavile got into a battle with both using their melee attacks, leaf blade and slash, to try and take down the other, but both were blocking the attacks. Empoleon got back up and launched his bubble beams at Weavile but Weavile was sneakily able to dodge under them and jump on Empoleon's head. Empoleon tried to get Weavile off, but the struggle was making everything worse as Weavile was using a dark slash on Empoleon to temporarily blind him.
Sceptile tried to launch his vines at Weavile, but she would just use an ice fist to destroy them. Sceptile would then be left with no choice. He leaf bladed Empoleon to get Weavile off his head and then tried to attack Weavile herself. Weavile saw this kind of thing coming through and was able to duck under it, sliding under Sceptile and hitting him with her ice fist.
Empoleon was able to get back up and launch a few of his bubble beams at Weavile which actually hit. Weavile then rushed towards Empoleon, trying to slash him up. Empoleon used his metal claw to counter Weavile's attacks and was able to overpower her as the metal claws were hitting her really hard.
"Please listen to us, Weavile. We don't want this," Empoleon said, trying to reason with her.
"What do you want then?" Weavile wondered.
"We ended up in this place by accident. We don't care about the diamonds. We just want to get out of here," Empoleon responded.
"Wait, so you aren't all after the diamonds? I don't understand," Weavile said.
"I don't understand," Empoleon responded.
"You see, back when I was just a Sneasel, an evil Pokémon raided our mountain. They were looking for the diamonds and it was this Pokémon with a volcano on his back. My parents were killed during the attack and they got off with most of the diamonds. I was only barely left alive. I now swear to protect my children with everything that I have."
"What you went through is awful, and I do understand you want to protect this home and your children. You need to give the Pokémon that come here a chance though, and not lead them into death traps right away," Empoleon responded.
"You have shown me some compassion for the first time. I will let you two leave and I will take your idea under consideration," Weavile responded.
"Thanks, Weavile. We both really appreciate it." Empoleon and Sceptile left the cave and the mountain, finally making it off of it.
"I will admit, Empoleon, that was quite impressive. You managed to talk Weavile down using only your words. Maybe kindness has more merits than I realized," Sceptile said.
"I do understand that not everyone will be willing to listen, but I do feel I should at least give them a chance."