A/N: Alright, time to leave Hammerlocke (for now)! Route 6 was originally going to take 2 chapters, but I condensed it down to one big one instead. Truly a shocking change from the norm. Enjoy the chapter!
Marnie was waiting for us when we arrived at the western gates the next morning, leaning like a cool teen rebel against a tree near the drawbridge. Morpeko saw us first and gave out a squeak of excitement before running straight for my arms again. Marnie, startled, slipped and started to tumble, but managed to catch herself before hitting the ground. Her face flushed as she brushed the sleeves of her black leather jacket.
"Were you waiting long?" Victor asked cheerily.
"Nah, I make it a point to be early though," Marnie said hastily, clearing her throat and shooting me a glance. "You lot ready to head out?"
"Yeah!" I said, letting Morpeko climb up to my shoulders and give me a nuzzle. "I think Morpeko wants a new shoulder for a change, though!"
"I bet he would," Marnie frowned, and stalked over to retrieve him. Morpeko hopped from my left to right shoulders playfully, causing her to get more frustrated. With a growl, Marnie finally looped her arm around my neck and grabbed him just as he hopped back onto her shoulder, squeaking with glee. The two of us locked eyes. For the first time, hers widened to the size of dinner plates and she blushed a second time. I could feel my cheeks burn bright red as well. I laughed nervously, and Marnie pulled away quickly. "S-sorry, Morpeko is a little feisty this mornin'."
"Totally fine," I said, voice a little shaky. "It's fine, you're fine, he's fine on my shoulders." I glanced over to Victor and Hop. Hop wasn't even paying attention, but Victor had a smirk the size of The Wild Area on his face.
"Still, it's rather impolite to just hop on people like tha'," Marnie said stiffly.
"No, I don't mind at all, he can hop up any time, I'm a good mount! I—I did not just say that," I said, my blush no doubt coloring my face to a deeper purple.
"Yeah, she's right sturdy like a Mudsdale," Victor jeered as he slung an arm over my shoulder and pulled me off towards the drawbridge, "just gotta keep her from getting wet—OW!" He crumpled a bit from my hard jab in his ribs, but still he laughed and dragged me onto the path. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Marnie and Hop follow. Hop was still oddly quiet, but I swear I could see a slight flash of amusement in Marnie's face.
"Oh, good, glad she's entertained then," I muttered under my breath.
"Payback is so sweet, innit?" Victor whispered.
"I am going to have Bewear commit a murder if you don't let go of me," I grumbled.
"No, you won't," Victor laughed, but still, he let go of me and accepted a shove in return as the four of us headed into Route 6.
It wasn't long before the four of us got to experience the true nature of Route 6. The sun beat down on us ruthlessly and we found ourselves taking multiple breaks in the shade of the large and unusual rock formations that were growing more and more common as we headed West. Soon the path split from one straight shot to tiers of winding paths rising and falling in elevation constantly. "It looks rough, sure," Marnie had explained, "but they all converge again once we get to Stow-on-Side." Being a native of North Galar made her quite the knowledgeable tour guide, and her bored façade was quickly broken as she and Victor traded fun facts about the terrain, the history of the area, and the Pokémon that lived in the area. Even Hop was pulled out of his funk for a bit. Though he was still quiet, he was paying a lot of attention to the wild Pokémon we saw along the way. With each Helioptile, Yamask, and Maractus that hopped around the dirt and rocks, he would narrow his eyes analytically. Meanwhile, Victor and I took any opportunity we could to train up our new teammates. Kubfu had an unparalleled vigor and Trapinch was right at home in the heat. The two made short work of any Pokémon that got too close or too eager to spar.
And it wasn't just the wild Pokémon that wanted to battle. The route was packed to the teeth with trainers doing the same thing we were. Victor, Marnie, and I had pick-up battle after pick-up battle, and I finally got a chance to see Marnie in battle proper. She was so much different than most of the trainers I had faced, choosing to let her opponents get into a rhythm before finding the perfect moment to disrupt it. Not only did she defeat every trainer she battled, but she did so decisively, sometimes even in a single, well-placed move. I also got a chance to see what other Pokémon she had with her. She relied heavily on a Scraggy, who seemingly could take on an Earthquake from a Groudon without breaking a sweat. She also had a Croagunk, a very strange little frog Pokémon that was remarkably quick and vicious despite a very relaxed demeanor. I thought about what she had told me in our first battle and wondered why she and her battle styles were so reserved.
Victor was no slouch, either. He and Drizzile were formidable. Drizzile's water attacks didn't seem to hit quite as hard in the harsh sunlight, but the Pokémon made up for it with surprising speed and agility. And when he wasn't fighting with Drizzile, Kubfu was blowing almost everyone away. The bear was quickly becoming a hit with fans and challengers alike, many even going so far as trying to pose for photos with for their social media accounts. Victor was happy to oblige, but he and Kubfu were clearly a little overwhelmed by their growing fanbase.
Meanwhile, I was in the midst of a hot streak – literally. Raboot seemed to be twice as strong in the heat, landing devastating fire attacks, even against water, ground, and rock types that would normally give him all sorts of trouble. Bewear was the usual powerhouse that could be relied upon for almost anything, and even Boltund was finding a way to chip away at Pokémon that she was weaker against. The only weak link in my team was poor Trapinch, who despite his healthy appetite for battling was constantly being outsped by stronger Pokémon and trainers left and right. Once he got his teeth into a battle, he was golden, but his lack of speed made him little more than an easy target for most experienced trainers.
The only person not participating in many battles was Hop. That was not from a lack of interest on anyone else's part, but rather his own. Most trainers actually went to ask him first, feeling like they could score an easy win like Bede had, twice. Hop still played along and battled, but his heart wasn't in it, and I could tell. Thwackey and Cramorant were the only ones really pulling their weight, and often times it was because they were following their own plans instead of trusting Hop's guidance. Hop won most of the few battles he fought, but he got more than a handful of losses and those seemed to hit him much, much, harder. Eventually, he stopped accepting challenges entirely, insisting that his Pokémon were too tired.
After a long days' worth of training, battling, and refreshing our spots on the leaderboard, Victor decided to call it quits on our traveling for the day. The sun was starting to sink in the sky, and the few trainers still roaming the route were also starting to unpack their gear for the night. We found a nice spot near the top of one of the cliffs that overlooked the valley below, and soon enough, we had made camp. Hop and I worked on a sweet curry with some berries we had gathered from a tree earlier on, while Victor scrounged up some scraps of firewood and Marnie and her Scraggy set up our three tents. Dinner was a pretty happy affair, for the most part, as we talked over the events of the day. As the fire slowly started to dwindle, I got up to take a leak a few yards away.
The night was quiet and peaceful, and after I finished my business, I gingerly walked to the edge of the cliff and looked out at the landmarks that we would be passing the next couple of days. Far in the distance – about ten to twenty miles maybe – I could see the cliffs grow into the tall and imposing mountains. Nestled in between two larger cliffs was a small group of lights – Stow-on-Side. It seemed to be about two days of walking still. Between the town and where I stood were dozens of smaller, flickering lights – other campfires by other groups of trainers. There seemed to be about twenty or so. Even with the challengers spread out across the region and the ones on this route huddled up in groups, I noted that there were far fewer trainers than the stampede I walked out with back when the challenge started. I pulled out my Rotom-phone and opened the Gym Challenge App and as I browsed the list of ranked trainers, I could see that the number had dropped notably since I beat Kabu in battle. Only 184 trainers remained in the challenge. I scrolled to the top of the rankings and filtered through the list of competitors. Victor was shooting up in the ranks, and after a successful day of battling, was nestled comfortably in the low 80s. Surprisingly, the next up was Hop. Even though he won most of his battles, they were all against lower-ranked trainers, and he still hadn't recovered from his two battles with Bede. He was at number 73; the lowest he had been yet. As I scrolled, I noticed that Sam and Eddie were no longer on the list, and that somehow, I didn't see myself around either. Confused, I started scrolling faster. Forty, Thirty, Twenty, ten, until finally I saw my name, at rank 4. My jaw dropped. I was number four in the league! How had that even happened?
"Oh, you finally noticed your new rank," Victor said, causing me to jump and almost toss my phone into the canyon.
"Holy—could you not sneak up on me like that?" I wailed, much to his amusement.
"We were wonderin' where you shoved off to," Victor explained. "Marnie was even worried, too."
"Oh, can it, you," I said with a laugh and a shove.
"Sorry, I meant Morpeko is worried about you," Victor snickered. "Anyway, congrats on the top five, Glor, you definitely deserve it."
"I saw you're shooting up the ranks too," I replied. "You think we can take the top two spots?"
Victor grinned. "Only time will tell. But I think you'll always be one step ahead of me."
"You and I haven't had a proper battle as challengers yet, have we?" I asked.
"Yeah, I'm not mental enough to take on your Bewear," Victor joked.
"Come off it, you've been flying through battles since you came back from the Isle, I want to see how my big brother finally started showing some backbone!" I jeered.
"Glor, we're twins, I'm only like eight minutes older than you."
"And yet I am clearly the leader of our excursion here, how emasculating that must be."
"Yeah, yeah," he said, waving his hand dismissively. "B'sides, I'm not the person in our little caravan you should be worried about beating you in a battle."
I gave him a questioning look and he pointed back at my phone. Three spots above me, above even Bede, was the unimpressed headshot of Marnie herself.
"She really is something else, isn't she," I said breathlessly.
Victor rolled his eyes. "You are not allowed to make fun of me about Sonia anymore."
"Alright," I agreed. The two of us gave each other a warm smile and then looked in silence over the rock formations. Most were the classic rocky crags and spiked cliffs and rockpiles, but off in the distance, further away from most of the campfire lights, some almost looked…
"Hey, Victor."
"Yeah?"
"You see that rock over there? That one that kind of looks like a Diglett?"
"Oh! Yeah! We're coming up on those!"
"Those?"
"Stow-on-Side is well known for its giant rock sculptures carved around the town. Most of them have been in there for hundreds of years! A lot of them even date back to around the time Galar was unified as one nation."
"Victor, did you…oh, you found her!" Marnie said, approaching the two of us. I looked back at her and saw that she was alone. "Oh, Hop stayed at the camp. Said he was tired and went to bed. I'm still pretty awake so I thought I'd come find you two."
"Yeah, we're just looking out at the giant Pokémon statues," I said.
Marnie walked up to us and slipped in between Victor and me and I got a whiff of that intoxicating woodland scent. "The Dynamax Statues? Yeah, they're okay," she said, unimpressed.
"That's right!" Victor cried suddenly. "They're of Dynamax Pokémon, right?" He pulled out his phone and began mashing the touch screen furiously.
"I mean, yeah, s'why they're so big, innit?" Marnie asked with a sneer. "Never cared much for Dynamax myself. Dunno why all you are goin' ape about this."
"We have been doing some research on the side about Dynamax," I admitted. "I dunno, I think the statues are pretty exciting."
"Eh, they're just rocks. I've been there a few times with my brother. They sort of lose their charm after a while."
"I didn't know you had a brother," I said.
Marnie looked at me sternly and then quickly looked back out at the statues. "You didn't need to."
"Hey, Sonia?" Victor said, taking a few steps away and leaving Marnie and I alone in the dark.
"Did you and your brother have a falling out, or…"
"I told you, you don't need to know," Marnie said, looking back at me. "Oh, don't look at me like that, it isn't that deep. He's just a brother, that's all."
"Sorry," I said quickly, turning away. We stood there in the silence for a bit, and I was about to turn and head back to the camp when she grabbed onto my arm.
"Y're fine," she said, allowing herself to smile a full smile. "I just don't like goin' on about myself, I'm not that interestin'."
"That's…that's really not what I think," I muttered with a crooked grin.
She raised her eyebrow, and her smile widened for just the briefest second. "Well in that case, allow me to preserve the mystery by still refusin' to talk about it." She dropped my arm and stepped out two steps so that her boots were right on the edge of the cliff. "If you really want, we could make a detour to those statues tomorrow. I will admit it's pretty cool… the first time you go."
I glanced over to Victor, who was babbling on to Sonia. "I have a feeling Vic would have made us take the detour anyway," I said with a laugh.
Marnie shrugged. "Maybe," she said. "Anyway, it's startin' to get chilly, so I'm gonna turn in for the night."
"Yeah, me too," I said. The two of us walked back to the tents slowly, leaving Victor on the edge, still chatting away excitedly.
The four of us cleaned up quickly and were back on the road again before the sun had cleared the tips of the mountains for the day. It was looking like another scorcher. Fortunately, as we made our way closer to the Dynamax statues, we stumbled across a bubbling creek. We followed the creek all the way down, seeing almost no one along the way. Hop and Victor chatted amicably, and though I tried to make small talk with Marnie, she seemed a little more reserved than the night before. Eventually, I ran out of things to talk about, and we walked in a relatively awkward silence, where both of us sneaked an occasional glance at each other.
Soon enough, we circled around a tall rock and stood face to face with the giant Diglett rock I had seen the night before. Only it wasn't a Diglett. Instead of one mole, it was three. A Dugtrio instead! I saw that it was staring intently at another rock across the valley, and following its eyesight, I saw a pair of statues that reminded me of a Helioptile and a Hawlucha.
"Why do they look so angry?" I asked.
"They represent the events of the Darkest Day, I believe," Victor said. "Wild Pokémon losing control, going mad. This was before humans and Pokémon really coexisted together the way they do now. Probably scared whatever people made these so much I'd be surprised if they weren't depicted looking this way."
"Kinda spooky, all this," Hop muttered.
Victor shrugged. "I guess. I think it's bloody brilliant."
"If you say so," Marnie said with a sigh.
The four of us continued to walk the area, and the further we got into the maze of giant Pokémon statues, I began to feel a very foreboding presence. The sun beat down on us just like the day before, but the extra weight of the air couldn't have been coming from it. I found myself constantly glancing at everyone to see if they were feeling the same way. Victor was curiously examining and taking pictures of every statue. He had also pulled out a machine that looked similar to Sonia's Dynamax Power Detectors and was waving it intently at each rock that he could find. Marnie was watching him. Her face was as hard to read as usual, but she mostly looked bemused at Victor's researching. Hop, on the other hand, was clearly agitated.
"You okay?" I asked, pulling him back from Marnie and Victor.
"Gloria, stop asking me that," he whined. "I'll get out of my funk in—"
"No, Hop, right now. Are you okay right now? You look…perturbed."
Hop blinked. "Oh. Well…well, so do you."
"I am," I whispered. "I can't figure out what it is about this place, but something feels…I dunno, intense? Like…like…I can't explain it."
"Like someone's watching?" Hop asked. I snapped my head over to him to tell him that's exactly how it felt, but he wasn't looking at me at all. Instead, he was looking over my shoulder. His golden eyes were wide with alarm.
I spun around and immediately saw them. The beasts from the Weald. They stood at the far end of the valley, not fifty yards away, staring at us. My legs instantly turned to lead. I tried to speak but found I could barely breathe. I squeezed my eyes shut and shook my head before looking back, hoping that it was just a trick of the light, but when I returned my gaze, they were still there.
We could finally see them clearly now that they were in the daylight. They were both wolves, similar to the Lycanroc in the tapestries Victor and I saw, but that's where their similarities ended. The first one had a thick coat of blue fur. Hanging from its head like braids were long orange mats of fur. Both of its ears stood at attention, but one of them seemed to have been cut in half, only rising half as high as the other one. If I squinted, it almost looked like a broken crown atop its head. The other had dark red fur in a prominent mane, almost the color of blood. Instead of long matted braids, it seemed to have a royal navy plume sprouting behind its ears. Both of them had brilliant and hungry golden eyes that could all but paralyze in a glance. Their fur on their backs was also incredibly matted and lumpy, and in some parts, it just barely covered terrible looking scars. I don't know what could have created those scars, but it looked like their bodies were riddled with them. Even in the heat of the sun, I felt a chill run down to my bones.
"Y-you see them, too, right?" I squeaked.
"Y-yeah," Hop said. One of the beasts, the blue one, lifted its head and looked up at the statue he was under. It was a Bear Pokémon, but it didn't look like any bear I had ever seen. It was too lean to be an Ursaring, but it also didn't seem to have the sheer size of a Beartic or Bewear either. Perhaps it was a Pokémon that had gone extinct. The red beast looked up at the other statue next to them, on the other side. Another Pokémon I couldn't quite recognize, although the way its head was pointed like the tip of a witch's hat looked oddly familiar. The two beasts looked to us and walked behind the bear statue.
I felt myself walking forward, towards where the beasts had been. "Gloria, are you mental?" I heard Hop ask, but though I could still feel their terrifying presence, something told me that the two wouldn't hurt me. I carried on, and Hop, nervous as he was, began to follow behind. Soon we were at the base of the two statues, and I felt a familiar buzz on my wrist. I glanced at my Dynamax Bracelet. It was picking up some readings.
"Is there a power spot here?" I asked, turning to Hop. He glanced at his bracelet, which was also vibrating, and shrugged.
"I hope it's not another surge," he said softly.
"It doesn't feel like the last one did. I can't explain why, but…"
"No, I know what you mean."
I looked to my left, around the statue where the beasts had disappeared. They were still there, walking toward a giant cliff face with a large colorful mural painted on it. I couldn't focus on the mural, and instead focused on the tails of the beasts, swishing side to side like a pendulum as they walked forward.
"Gloria? Victor?" I heard Victor call in the distance, but I barely registered their voices. It was like the beasts were leading me somewhere. I had to follow. Hop was beside me, looking like he was under a spell. Perhaps we were both under the spell of these beasts. The air became heavier as we walked, and I felt my heart racing as we followed the beasts. Despite the open air, it felt like everything was crashing down on top of us, yet still we walked.
The beasts turned back around and watched us as we approached. As we got closer, I could feel a dull pain on my wrist – My Dynamax Bracelet started to whirr absent-mindedly. I was suddenly jolted from the trance, and the sudden movement to my right told me Hop had as well. The two of us looked at our Bracelets, at each other, and then back to the beasts. As if they still intended us to follow, they continued to walk straight forward – straight through the sheer rock wall in front of them.
I blinked and looked at Hop. "Did they just—did they…?"
Hop nodded, gobsmacked. I broke away from him and ran straight at the wall.
"Gloria!" Hop shouted, and in my peripheral vision, saw that he was following anxiously. I soon reached the wall, and with a slight hesitation, I reached my hand out to touch it. It did not phase through, but instead rested on the wall. Despite being directly in the sunlight, the rock wall was cold, almost as if it were a wall of ice. I pulled my hand away in surprise. I stared at Hop, who just looked at me, confused.
"Gloria!" Hop!" I heard Victor yell again, closer this time. Hop and I whirled around just in time to see him and Marnie appear from beyond the giant bear statue. The two of them noticed us and began to walk over.
"Do we tell them what just happened?" I asked Hop.
"And have them suggest we go to a psych ward? I don't think so," Hop muttered. "Listen, it was probably just a weird trick of the light—"
"Hop, we both saw it, they were the wolves from the Weald! From our dreams! The dreams we both had, by the way."
"Just drop it, okay, Gloria?" Hop said. "It's weirding me out and I just don't want to talk about it right now. Can we just keep mum about it for a little bit?"
I sighed. "I guess. If you think that's right."
Hop nodded, furrowing his brow. Soon enough, Marnie and Victor were right next to us.
Victor was ecstatic. "I cannot believe this! This entire series of monuments is just bursting with Dynamax energy! It's almost as strong as it is in one of the Dynamax Dens! I wonder if Sonia knows about this!"
Marnie rolled her eyes. "I was not aware you were here to work on your science project."
"I think we should head out soon," Hop said.
"What? Why?" Victor asked. "This is the kind of stuff that Sonia and I have been looking for since we went to the Isle of Armor! She was going to come over here to check it out with me once we make it to Stow-on-Side!"
I looked at the two boys and quickly interjected. "Hop's got a point; last time we had to deal with this much Dynamax energy, a giant Pokémon almost killed us."
Victor laughed. "It's not quite the levels that were reported during the Dynamax surge, and it's been at a pretty constant level since we got here. If we don't find out what's causing the energy, this could genuinely be a form of naturally forming Dynamax energy. This could be a huge discovery!"
"This place ain't exactly a secret, though," Marnie said with a small sneer. "I've been here loads of times, it's a common school trip back in Spikemuth, and we've known about the Dynamax energy here."
"But have you guys actually studied the Dynamax Energy here?" Victor asked.
Marnie glanced at me; one eyebrow cocked. "He always this annoying?"
"Unfortunately," I snickered. "Can it, Vic. It's a neat coincidence, but there's probably nothing more to it.
"'Zactly," Marnie said. "I remember my bro would come here with his friends. They'd always do Dynamax battles between these statues. The Park Rangers hated 'em for it so they banned the whole practice. 'Course, that only made them come even more, but my bro and I stopped goin' around then anyway."
"Maybe we can get in touch with the landowners here and have a controlled Dynamaxing to see if there's any difference."
Marnie glanced at Victor, and I saw a fire light in her eyes. "That sounds like a science project I can get behind. Hey Gloria, how about a rematch?"
"Gloria, that's illegal, don't do it," Victor warned.
"Well, no one else is here…" I said slowly
"Gloria," Victor warned a second time.
"And no doubt you'd have to wade through a sea of red tape for you to legally do this…"
"That's beside the point, Gloria."
"I'm game, Marnie. As long as we just do this one on one and don't hit any big statues," I said with a grin. "Because breaking the statues is illegal."
"I hate you," Victor said, although I could see that he was already calibrating his Power Detector.
"This seems pretty aggressive for someone who battles so defensively," I said to Marnie, walking over to an open spot right in front of the mural.
"Seems to work well for you," Marnie admitted. "Figured I'd give it a try, too." Soon we were at opposite ends of the giant mural, and I pulled out Trapinch's Pokéball, tapping it to my wrist and feeling the energy pour over from the bracelet into the Pokéball. On the other side of the mural, I saw Marnie pull a chain out from underneath her dress and press a Pokéball to it as well. Both of our balls enlarged, and we tossed out our Pokémon. Appearing alongside Trapinch was the Scraggy that Marnie was so adept at using.
Even though they were both fully Dynamaxed, Trapinch and Scraggy seemed small. Perhaps it was their naturally small sizes that contributed to it, or perhaps there wasn't as much energy surrounding them, but they still looked fully energized and ready to fight the good fight.
"Trapinch! Max Quake!" I cried. Marnie shouted something to Scraggy, but I couldn't hear. Instead, I watched as a powerful aura of darkness burst out of its giant fists, sending a shockwave directly into Trapinch as he reared up on his hind legs. It didn't seem to do too much damage, and Trapinch came down on his front legs hard, sending another shockwave back towards Scraggy, this time through a ripple in the ground. The gravel and rocks that made up the space between statues shot up haphazardly, but outside of a large crack forming underneath Scraggy, the ground remained undisturbed.
Scraggy, unlike Trapinch, had a much higher center of gravity and came crashing down against the mural with a dull thud. It quickly recovered, pulling itself up and shaking its head. I looked at the wall where it had landed. There was not even a crack in the wall where the two connected. Strange.
"Max Darkness!" I yelled, as Marnie called for a Max Knuckle. Another shockwave shot out from Trapinch's feet, but before it had reached Scraggy, the giant fighting type leapt into the air and brought its fist down, hard, directly into Trapinch's face. Trapinch slammed into the ground and sent another shockwave into Scraggy, knocking it over a second time.
"Max Strike! You've got this!" I yelled, and Trapinch took to the air this time, landing hard on Scraggy in a reversal of the last exchange of blows. There was a giant burst of light, dirt, and dust, and as it all settled, I could see the two Pokémon shrink back down to their normal size. Once the dust was clear, we could clearly see Trapinch standing proud over Scraggy, who was out like a light. I screamed in excitement, and Marnie huffed in disappointment. Trapinch, eager from his victory started hopping around, higher, and faster, and started to glow a familiar bright white.
My jaw dropped, and I heard an impressed "Damn!" from Victor and Hop behind me. Almost as quickly as it had happened, Trapinch stopped glowing and took to the skies, zipping around as a yellow-green blur of a Vibrava. I rushed him and he happily buzzed right into my arms, lifting me off the ground for just the briefest second before my weight brought the two of us back down. His skin was the same rough, scaly texture despite its change in color. I let go of Vibrava and pulled out his Pokeball to return him, noting that everyone was gathered around Marnie's Scraggy, who had just regained consciousness and was already back on its feet. Victor fished around in his backpack and pulled out a couple berries, which Marnie hurriedly refused, electing to give Scraggy some medicine from her own pack. I jogged over to everyone.
"You know, Marnie, I'm starting to see why you never want to have an official battle with me – you keep losing," I said with a smirk.
"Hop off," Marnie growled. "You just got lucky."
"Twice in a row?" I taunted, watching her roll her eyes and hide a smile.
"Hm," Victor said, glancing at his Power Detector curiously. "The Dynamax Energy readings didn't even dip when you two Dynamaxed your Pokémon."
"Is that not normal?" I asked.
"Not even a little," he continued. "Pokémon Dynamax by absorbing the energy, so usually once they do it there's a huge drop in the power. It's almost like there's a constant flux of power in this spot."
"Makes sense," Hop said. "I remember Leon saying that Rose had tried to relocate the Ghost-Type Gym to here, but there was a big resistance from locals who wanted this site preserved. Wonder why that was."
"Either way, we should probably move if we wanna get out without bein' caught," Marnie said, and we quickly started to pack our stuff back up. We were about to move out to the exit when I felt that dominating presence of the wolves a second time. I slowly turned around. Nothing was there, just the mural. I blinked a couple times and shook my head, hoping to somehow shake off the heaviness, but still it stayed. It was as if the wolves were still staring at Hop and me from behind the mural.
It was only now that I got a really good chance to look at the mural proper. It was…hard to describe how I felt about it. The flat wall was covered in giant strokes of paint of all sorts of clashing colors. It depicted a huge field with tall grass that was a sickening lime green. Dotted across the field were magenta and orange flowers, under a neon-blue sky with clouds so white they could have been mirrors reflecting the sun.
"Ugly thing, innit?" Marnie asked, sidling up next to me. "Doesn't even look like it belongs here, right?"
"Of course, it doesn't," Victor said. "If the paint was even half as old as the statues it wouldn't be nearly this bright."
"What, you think this is another cover-up of the events of the Darkest Day?" I suggested, half-joking.
"Well, I was going to say it was just a dumb addition to the park," Victor posited, pulling up an article about the park. "Says here, the painting is changed every so often, serving as a backdrop for the statues. Been that way since they opened the park up to visitors over a hundred years ago. Some of the older paintings looked a lot…well a lot less bright." He brought the phone over for me to look at some of the old pictures, and it checked out.
"I guess…" I said slowly, flipping through the pictures.
"Interesting theory though. I definitely have to call Sonia over this. She's been dying for some kind of update about Project Eterna…her studies," Victor said, quickly censoring himself and glancing at Marnie, who had already stopped paying attention and was instead petting Morpeko. Convinced she had fully checked out, he went on. "The Chairman has apparently been really pressuring her to find something beyond the things Professor Magnolia already discovered."
"Hey mates, can we continue this conversation somewhere else?" Hop said, clutching at his stomach. "Maybe over a campfire? I'm starved." The four of us looked at each other, shrugged, and made our way back to the entrance. As we walked past them, I looked up at the two statues of the Bear Pokémon and the Pokémon in the Hat. I hadn't noticed it before, but they both stood in a strange position in comparison to the other giant Pokémon Statues. While most of the others were facing forward or up at other Pokémon statues, these two had their bodies twisted, turning around to look behind them. They were looking at the mural, or rather, what was there before the mural. I nudged Hop and pointed up at them. He looked at me and shrugged.
"Can we not get into it?" he asked, and trudged onward, a little faster than me. I looked back at the mural, hoping for one more glimpse of the beasts, but they still had not emerged.
A/N: Did I really just make an entire chapter and huge plot point about a single decorative feature on a relatively forgettable route? Yes. Yes, I did. And in case it wasn't clear, this is the mural from Stow-on-Side; I just decided to change it for...well if you know the game's plot, you could probably guess, but let's just say reasons for now. Next week is going to be really fun, though, you just wait :)
NEXT WEEK: HUBRIS