Chapter 6

Mipsy was secretly glad that baby Wingull had come along when he did. He had halted the group's progress through Hoenn, which gave them time to take a deep breath—and train. If they kept going through Dewford Town at their former pace, Mipsy knew she wouldn't have the badge from the fighting gym there. She still didn't—Dewford's gym leader was a man named Brawly, whom she'd heard trained once with a man who was currently in the Elite Four of another region. Her Pokemon, in her opinion, where in no way ready for the second gym… they'd only won through the first by luck.

So instead Mipsy got to enjoy Dewford Town for the place it was: a beautiful town with a constant sea breeze blowing through, it was sleepy, but not enough to be completely dull. Plus, she'd managed to have fun trying out some different things.

On the first day, she'd rented a room in the Pokemon Center, since they'd be staying there for a while. The room was plain, with a small bed sporting thin white sheets and a small television that only had seven channels—news, news, news, Pokemon channel, news, game show, more news—which Mipsy got bored with very quickly. There was also a pair of small wooden chairs and a wooden chest at the foot of the bed that was designated for placing clothes in, since the closet was so small. Mipsy didn't see much of a need to unpack her clothes and things, since she carried them on her back most of the time anyway… but the Pokemon Handbook still found its way into the chest.

Mipsy had left Rose and the baby Wingull in the room with their Pokeballs as she took Razzle and Tassie out for some errand running. First thing they needed was supplies, which was easier said than done. Since Dewford Town didn't have a running Pokemart, getting supplies meant bartering with the locals, who obviously didn't want to part with anything by the way they hiked their prices up. They spent the rest of the day haggling for items, and returned to their room that evening to find Rose with the baby Wingull in her lap, sitting on a chair, watching television. It appeared Rose knew how to used a remote, and turned into a regular couch Roselia.

The second day, Mipsy called Professor Birch and reported that they'd made it, also explaining about the baby Wingull and Isle Rockola. Apparently he was getting nervous about her, and she was scolded lightly for waiting until the second day she was there to call.

After that, the rest of the day went by like a blur, with Mipsy trying her hand at fishing after a nice old man had offered her a pretty beaten up rod. It was safe to say that she spent half of the time staring at the fisherman next to her and wondering how he could do this for a living. She only caught one Magicarp that day.

It was early morning when Mipsy woke up; counting off the start of the third day they'd spent in Dewford. Rose was already up, feeding the baby Wingull with nectar again. She'd demanded a lot of berries to keep her nectar supply up, and was currently finishing one off, while her eyes remained half-open. The girl carefully got out of bed, succeeding in not bumping Tassie or Razzle, and shuffled over to the other two. "Good morning Rose," she whispered with a yawn.

Rose nodded in reply, just as the Wingull was finished, and cawed as he waddled over to Mipsy, clambering onto her lap with a contented expression. He was soon out like a light. The Roselia watched this with an unreadable expression; with a yawn she rested her head against the chair's back. She also fell back to sleep, leaving Mipsy the only one awake. She stroked the baby Wingull's thin layer of down feathers, while he didn't do so much as stir. The Wingull had only been out of his shell for two full days and she could already tell that he was getting slightly bigger. It would be at least a month before he would been grown enough to participate in battles, but there was no need to rush that, after all she'd heard that the trip from Dewford Town to Slateport over boat—she was taking a boat this time, no ifs or buts about it—was fairly long with little to do but sit around and contemplate one's navel.

Mipsy lost track of the time she sat there, but it couldn't have been long before Razzle woke up. And when Razzle woke up, everyone woke up, that was just how it went… "Good morning world!" Exclaimed the Ralts with no clue what so ever that he was startling the rest of his teammates out of their sleep. "Never fear, for Razzle is awake!"

The Ralts was suddenly the victim of some very dirty looks from Tassie, who squeaked angrily, and Rose—whose death glare seemed enough to make paint curl, but wasn't enough to even faze the cheerfully awake Ralts. It was a good thing that normally Razzle didn't wake up fully until after breakfast, to avoid situations like this.

Baby Wingull cawed and Razzle grinned foolishly. "Hey Razzle," Mipsy finally said. "Are you going to tell me what baby Wingull's name is today?"

"Guess," Razzle replied.

Mipsy sighed. "You know I'm not good at this… why can't you just tell me?"

Razzle just continued to grin and shuffled over to her and the Wingull. "How's my baby doing, huh?" He gently rubbed the Wingull's head, while Rose berated him in her own language, or at least it sounded like such to Mipsy's unaided ears. Mipsy got up when Razzle picked up baby Wingull and headed over to the bed, where she sat down next to Tassie.

The cocoon squeaked and they both watched like spectators as the other two Pokemon argued back and forth for a couple of minutes, before the baby Wingull stopped them, as he was getting distressed at hearing his mother and… food source fighting. After that, their day officially began, well, not exactly, Mipsy had to make her Pokemon wait for her to take a shower first. That was another wonderful thing about renting a room in the Center—hot water.

When she was ready, she left Rose and the Wingull with their Pokeballs in the room and a massive pile of berries was left for the Roselia to eat on the chair while she dozed off. The first thing Mipsy heard from the nurse on duty today was, "Are you Mipsy Bedazzlement?"

She flinched inwardly at the mention of her last name, but nodded, "Yes, that's me. Why?"

"You have a package," the nurse produced a small box and offered it to her. "A Pelipper flew in with it last night."

Mipsy grinned, "Thanks," she read the label on it as she sat down on one of the couches, next to a skinny trainer who was still half-asleep and whose glasses were slowly slipping down his nose. As soon as her bottom came to rest on the couch, she'd already torn into the box, destroying it in the process, and brought out a… Pokedex!

"Yes, it's finally here," she said and flipped it open. A computer voice came on and said, in a fairly flat voice:

"I am a Pokedex licensed to Pokemon trainer Mipsy Bedazzlement. Please enter your command."

"Uhh…" Mipsy thought for a moment as she found a small flashing red light at the top of the box. She pointed it at Tassie and the screen lit up with a picture of a Cascoon.

"Cascoon, the Cocoon Pokemon. This Pokemon is mostly immobile, though it can still roll if pitted in a battle. It feels little pain past its silk shell."

Then, the Pokedex screen changed to a different picture. "Silcoon, the Cocoon Pokemon. Upon reaching this stage of evolution, it eats nothing but the morning dew that condenses on its shell at night."

"So which one is she?" Mipsy asked the Pokedex, annoyed.

"Error: invalid command."

The girl sighed and wondered what else the computer could do. "Uhh… show stats," she commanded, still having it pointed to Tassie. The cocoon was looking on with interest gleaming in her eyes. It took a while, but the Pokedex flashed to a new display, this time showing assorted statistics spread across the screen. The one Mipsy was looking for was her level, which it displayed near the top; Tassie was level nine, as she guessed. She scanned the other stats quickly—they were all fairly poor, excepting her defense. It also listed her four attacks: tackle, string shot, poison sting, and harden.

"Hey, will you point that thing at me next?" Razzle was looking at it over her shoulder, and though he didn't understand what it said, he wanted Mipsy to be in awe over him too.

"Tassie, you're going to evolve soon," Mipsy said to the cocoon, who squeaked in reply. She then pointed the Pokedex at Razzle, repeating, "Show stats."

She then lapsed into silence while staring at the screen. "Well?" Razzle finally asked, "How awesome is it?"

Mipsy was making faces at the screen, causing him to start to worry. "You're level ten," she finally said slowly. "But the only attack it has listed for you is growl." She took a bite of her toast, which had grown cool by then.

"Show stats," she commanded the machine again. After a moment, it reset, and her frown only deepened. "To this thing, you don't know confusion." She said to the Ralts.

Razzle would've been frowning too, had he not had his mouth full at the time. "Then there's one thing we have to do. Go train."

"Will you tell me the Wingull's name now, Razzle?" Mipsy asked. They were sitting on the beach, watching the water as it surged forward and just as quickly returned to sea, dragging an unfortunate Corphish with it. Clouds were forming up in the sky and the air around them was chilly, but not completely unpleasant yet. She thought that the breeze and the view of the water from there would be enough to help her catch him off guard, but apparently not.

"Guess," he replied. Tassie let off the equivalent of a Cascoon (or Silcoon…) giggle.

Mipsy sighed and the three of them lapsed back into silence. She was slightly startled when Tassie rolled closer to her side as a more sheer blast of wind passed by, but placed her hand on the cocoon's side and was really surprised to find that the surface was hot to the touch. She would've removed her hand from the cocoon, but she was shivering and the warmth was welcome.

"So, where do you think we can go and train here?" Mipsy asked, "We're kinda stuck on an island, yunno."

"There was that cave…?" Razzle offered.

"But I don't want to go in the cave… it'll be all dark, and damp, and… and… dark," she said, shivering again, but this time not from the cold.

The Ralts looked at her out of the corner of his eye, "Not afraid, are you?" He asked in a teasing manner, making her exceedingly more nervous.

"N-no, of course not!"

"Then let's go!" Razzle leaped to his feet and shuffled in the direction of the cave. Mipsy sighed and unzipped her backpack, rummaging in there for a flashlight, which she unearthed after pushing everything else aside in the pack. She got up as well and groaned as she lifted the pack onto her back.

"Remind me not to buy so much the next time we need supplies," Mipsy said to Tassie, who was awaiting being picked up by her trainer. The Sascoon squeaked brightly. Mipsy scooped up the cocoon, then said immediately: "You don't mind staying in your Pokeball for a while, do you Tassie?"

Tassie looked a little disappointed, but returned to her Pokeball without a fight. Now she was left to trudge after Razzle, who'd made considerable distance ahead. She cupped her hands and yelled, "Hey Razzle, wait for me!"

Somewhere in the distance, a Zubat let off a shriek that reverberated off the walls, when it reached Mipsy's ears it was nothing more that an eerie hum. The girl was visibly shaking, but at least the cover of darkness in this cave served one purpose—the only way either Razzle or Tassie could've told that their trainer was nervous would be to watch how the flashlight beam bounced and twitched, or by the way Mipsy was humming the Hoenn Nation Anthem backwards.

A rivulet passed by the slope that the girl and her Pokemon were using, the calm sound of trickling water was lost to their ears, however, by the louder voice of the rushing water it was heading for. Mipsy had to admit to herself, the cave wasn't as she thought it was—excepting the dark, and the weird noises, and perhaps the faraway dripping sound of stalactites—at least it wasn't musty, though the air had a certain undisturbed quality, it wasn't very fresh, and the flashlight beam illuminated a thin curtain of dust hanging suspending in the air in front of them.

"Where are all the Pokemon?" Mipsy asked the Ralts shuffling next to her. They'd heard many signs that Pokemon inhabited this cave, but hadn't seen any.

"Hiding. Duh," he answered.

The slope downwards became steeper and Tassie's rolling was outmatching the pace of her companions, Mipsy started rushing after her when she rounded a bend and disappeared behind an outcropping of rock. She had to stop very suddenly when Tassie came back in sight, she had stopped rolling. But what had stopped her was a stout Pokemon who was looked back at Tassie over one shoulder, his glowing blue eyes distant and uninterested.

Mipsy could see both the strange Pokemon and the position that he and Tassie were in, because of a split in the roof up above them that allowed a small ray of light through. The Sascoon was lucky that she had something to stop her; right in front of them was a fast-moving stream that swerved around a bend a short distance to the left. She slowly rolled away from the other Pokemon and back to Mipsy's side, where she looked at the water with as nervous an expression as a pair of eyes and motionless cocoon could make.

The trainer dug into her back pocket and fished out the Pokedex, pointing it at the Pokemon, who had turned his head back to the stream and was nonchalantly drinking from it. "Lairon, the iron armor Pokemon. Lairon are common in mountains and caves containing large amounts of iron ore. Miners often look for them when exploring new mines."

Lairon, huh? Looks really strong. She thought, ordering the machine to show his stats. Most showed up as question marks, which was odd… but one of the most important did make an appearance. Level: forty. With that information, she turned pale, though the Lairon could've cared less about her and her Pokemon.

But the metal-clad Pokemon suddenly looked up and grunted. He turned away from the stream awkwardly and ran off, each step sounding like a stomp from the weight of his body. Soon, the Lairon had disappeared from sight, covered by a cloak of darkness.

A few moments later, a flashlight beam appeared on the other side of the stream, followed by a man who was impressively tall, even from a distance. His long face was turned in a frown, which increased as he spotted Mipsy and her Pokemon, and he called to them, "Hey, you three! Have you seen a Lairon anywhere nearby?"

"You just missed 'im!" Razzle said, pointing, "He went that-a-way."

"Thanks," the man put one heavy boot into the stream and faltered for a moment as the current attempted to thrust him along. With his long strides, it only took him three steps to cross the stream, and then he was really looming over the trio.

"Was that your Lairon?" Mipsy asked.

The man nodded, "Yes. And if you'll follow me, I'll explain why he's loose."

"Granite Cave was the place I found Lairon, back a few years now. Unfortunately, I didn't catch him when I was a rookie like you, uhh…"

"Mipsy," she said, keeping her voice carefully neutral about being called a rookie. Of course it was the truth, but it still rankled that she was not up to par with this man, or any other of his ability level. She didn't know how long he'd been training his Lairon—who surprisingly hadn't been nicknamed—but knew it had to have been for a while, years, like he'd said.

"Ah. Since we're exchanging names, I'm Edward…" they would've exchanged a handshake, but they were running now, both Tassie and Razzle back in their Pokeballs. "But anyways, Lairon hasn't known me for very long, and when we returned here… he ran away. The bugger won't say a thing to me and keeps running when I'm close. You see, my plan was to train him up to becoming an Aggron. I even told him that. And used up all my vacation leave from work to be able to stay here for a few weeks."

Edward sighed. "So, what brings you to this cave, Mipsy?"

"Well, I wanted to train here. But the only Pokemon I've found was your Lairon," she answered.

"Oh, really," he slowed his pace down, which was a relief for Mipsy, seeing as he could cover more ground than her with each step. His flashlight beam turned upward, where a few Zubat were clinging to the ceiling. The light didn't faze them, since they didn't exactly have eyes, but Mipsy guessed that they were sleeping. "The rest of the Pokemon here blend very well with the surroundings, so you'll have a harder time finding them. So I suppose you'll be going off now to battle?"

He sounded like he wanted her to go off and do that, somehow Mipsy could tell. Perhaps he just wanted to find his Lairon on his own, so she nodded and said, "Yes, that's right. Good luck catching your Lairon, Edward."

"Thank you," Edward continued running on in the cave, while Mipsy stopped and doubled over, panting.

When she'd regained her breath, she let Razzle and Tassie out of their balls again and grinned. "I think I've found somethings to battle," she said, aiming her flashlight beam upwards.

"Hey, were did that dude go?" Razzle asked as his eyes followed the trail of light and he nodded just slightly.

"He's gone off and left us to train," she replied, not really thinking much of it.

"Oh, good. I didn't like him," the Ralts said bluntly. Tassie added to that with a squeak.

She arched an eyebrow at him, but of course the expression was lost since the flashlight was pointed away from her face. "Well anyway, he's gone, and we can battle these Zubat," then a new thought struck her: "But first we've gotta get them down."

"That's no problem!" Razzle said, back with his normal good cheer, and lifted both his arms. After a second, one of the Zubat detached from the ceiling, and it only took another second before it started flapping wildly against the anti-gravity pose it'd been in. It screeched, breaking out of the psychic hold, and began flapping in circles, flashing in and out of the beam of light while Mipsy tried to aim it at it's path. The other two Zubat appeared troubled by their fellow's sudden outburst of noise; by the way they fanned their wings open and closed and had their mouths open. Mipsy steadied the light then, ignoring Razzle's grunt of annoyance as the bat flashed into darkness and stayed their, while she continued to look up at the two Zubat, she drew her hand back into the pocket of her backpack and gripped one of the marble-sized Pokeballs there.

Mipsy didn't really want to capture a Zubat—being nocturnal creatures, the bats would be at a disadvantage in bright sunlight, being so used to sleeping during the light hours and going out after dark. But they were outnumbered, and if she needed to capture one to even the score, she would. "Okay Tassie, string shot!" She said, now moving the beam of light until it found the bat again, who wasn't flying so fast anymore.

A strand of sticky string fired from one side of Tassie's cocoon and missed its target, gluing onto the ceiling instead. At that instant, the other two bats swooped down, heading straight for Mipsy, and were deflected by a psychic shock. "I wish you could've brought two light-makers," Razzle commented to her. The only thing that verified the second and third Zubat's places were the sounds of their wing beats, which were at close enough range that the Ralts could shoot off a psychic wave and have a chance of hitting them.

Tassie had managed to wrap one strand of silk around the first Zubat's middle and was still holding onto the thread as the bat pulled against it. She was slowly being dragged in the direction the bat was attempting to go, until it gave up on that strategy and stopped flapping its wings. Immediately, it plummeted, and using echolocation, it snapped its wings open right before it hit the ground and flew back at Tassie. The Sascoon let go of the first strand of silk and fired another one that got entangled in one of the bat's wings, successfully grounding it.

Mipsy turned the light away from Tassie and found the other Zubat that Razzle was attempting to fight. He used a confusion attack when the light illuminated his target and stunned it for a moment, causing it to loose several feet in altitude. It screeched once and flapped away from them, apparently giving up. However, the other one was not going without a fight. While Razzle was vulnerable after that last attack, it dove towards him and bit down on one of his arms.

"Ow!" Razzle cried, loosing all pride and wailing as he flailed his arm in an attempt to dislodge it. Mipsy frowned and expanded the Pokeball in her hand.

"Hold still Razzle!" She said to him, and yet he managed to not hear her and continue to flail. She sighed and tossed the ball anyway, not without some reluctance, and managed to hit Razzle over the head instead of the Zubat.

"Hey! Watch were you're throwing those things," the Ralts complained.

Mipsy sighed, "If you would stop moving your arm, I might have a better shot," she said. She reached into her backpack and took out another Pokeball, this time with a clearer shot as Razzle turned his arm towards her and kept it moderately still. The ball's aim was true and the bat was sucked inside in a flash of red light.

The ball rocked back and forth, while Razzle jumped away from it, the button flashing quickly, until the red portion of the Pokeball shattered into thin shards of plastic and the Zubat was back and arrowing towards the Ralts. It was only stopped from latching onto him again by a strand of white silk, which it broke free of before it could become a hindrance. Mipsy's eyes narrowed—this Zubat was strong. All uncertainty she'd felt before about capturing it was gone; in its place was determination that it was going to become her Pokemon—her fifth. That would leave only one more slot open before she would have a full team.

Tassie squeaked with annoyance and fired a different attack at it, this time silvery poison pins. The bat, being a poison type, didn't take much damage from the few that dotted its chest, yet it still screeched in annoyance at the small pinpricks of pain. Razzle took that opportunity to use a confusion attack on it. Even though the bat apparently had enough, it still folded in its wings and narrowed the gap between it and the Ralts… just to be struck by another Pokeball. This time, the ball rolled wildly as the bat inside struggled for freedom. The ball won against it this time, and it finally fell still.

"Phew," Mipsy said, wiping her brow. She walked over and scooped up the ball containing the Zubat first and hooked it onto her belt next to the luxury ball. Then she grasped the other Pokeball that she'd tossed first, leaving the shattered one where it lay; there was no more use for it.

She scanned the area with her flashlight beam, looking for the Zubat that Tassie had first been battling. It was nowhere in sight, perhaps it had fled as well. "Looks like we're good," she finally said when she returned to her two Pokemon. Razzle leaned his head against her leg, breathing heavily.

"That attack took a lot out of me," he said.

Tassie was completely silent. When Mipsy turned the light onto her, she found that the cocoon's eyeholes were shut and that the cocoon itself was being pushed at from the inside, extending a crack along the tough silk. A white flash erupted from the crack, allowing a winged form to emerge. The whole process took less than a couple of seconds, not allowing Mipsy to have enough time to make out the shape of the wings or body before her evolutionary light died down. Tassie had become a…

…Well, Mipsy wouldn't know, because at that moment her flashlight had decided to die. She hit the head of the flashlight in her hand, but it refused to come back on. "Tassie, please say something," she requested.

"Oou?" She answered.

"Uhh… something else. Try your name."

"Oou?" Tassie repeated, sounding confused.

"How about you try saying my name," Mipsy pestered.

Stubbornly, Tassie repeated: "Oou."

Razzle finally interrupted them. "Mipsy, can't you get your light-maker to work?"

"Uhh… no. I think its batteries are shot," she said. "And of course this would be a good time to add that I don't have any spares of the really big ones that this flashlight uses." She hit it against her palm again.

Tassie let out a squeak and her trainer could hear the sound of her wings as she circled, trying to find them in the dark. "Hey look, light," the Ralts suddenly said. He was right; a beacon of light came from the left, heading their way. Mipsy was about to call out when she heard a familiar voice. It was Edward and apparently he was not alone.

"…very weak Pokemon. The only one worth stealing in the lot of them was the Ralts," Edward had been saying. Mipsy stifled a gasp of shock. So he was sizing up her Pokemon that whole time?

"Well, where is she, then?" Another voice answered.

"I left her in this cavern somewhere…"

Mipsy grasped Razzle's arm and slowly began to back step away from the other group. She only hoped that Tassie would be able to find a hiding place too in the darkness, though the Dustox or Beautifly (…Dustfly?) was okay just flying in place above their heads if she could flap more quietly. Her back hit cold stone and Mipsy let go of her Ralts to feel along the side of the stone—it was solid. They'd come to rest on the wall.

"Razzle," she hissed between her teeth. "They're looking for us. And we can't follow their light and leave Tassie here."

She'd been fiddling with the head of the flashlight again nervously, knowing that if it hadn't died when it did, then they'd already be found. Unfortunately, the flashlight responded to the small turns of the metal head, and with a small dink, the bulb again flashed to life, illuminating both her, Razzle, and the side of the cave. Mipsy still couldn't see the other group, but knew from their exclamations of surprised they'd seen her.

Turning the beam of her flashlight into their eyes, Mipsy made a run for it, calling, "Razzle, Tassie, c'mon!"

She caught a glimpse of the group, Edward and two other people, before she had to turn away to see where she was headed. Edward was still wearing his same drab hiking clothes but from his companions she caught a glimpse of red. Hurried footsteps followed her, as did the sound of flapping wings—thankfully, Tassie was following her lead. But as she looked over her shoulder, Razzle was not in sight.

"I can't… run as fast… as you…" The Ralts panted from somewhere behind her. She made a split-second decision and returned him to his luxury ball, guessing his position more than knowing it. With Razzle safe in his ball, it was only her and Tassie left to outrun their pursuers, with the hopes that they hadn't sent out Pokemon to assist them.

Her flashlight reflected off a trickle of water to the right. The stream! She knew that at least she was heading the right way for the exit. While she was glancing to the right, a flicker of color went by her. Mipsy looked ahead to see the back of a Beautifly taking the lead. "Tassie!" she cried. The Beautifly looked back at her over her wing and squeaked.

The stream was at its full width and speed when Mipsy heard the first barking sounds. It appeared that her pursuers had given up trying to catch her without help. Two Mightyena were soon on her heels, the overhead light coming from the crack over the stream illuminating their shaggy black pelts.

Tassie swooped down at their muzzles, becoming an annoyance when her wings slapped them. She dive-bombed the duo twice more before they broke away from chasing the human and followed her instead. Seeing this, the Beautifly flew above the stream and stopped, hovering above it. The two dogs jumped at her and missed when she nimbly ducked, and they went splashing down the stream.

Mipsy had stopped running for a moment to watch this, which was a big mistake as her legs throbbed in reminder that she had been dashing around with a backpack too heavy all day. Thus she could see Tassie panting heavily after this exercise, not used to using her wings yet and perhaps had been a little tired to start with after her evolution. The Beautifly landed on the outcropping of rock next to the stream, fanning her wings. "Tassie, return," her trainer said, "You've had enough excitement for one day." She thought she heard Tassie squeak in gratitude as she disappeared into her Pokeball in a flash of red.

By then, the gap between her and the others was very narrow; she could hear their boots pounding on the stone behind her. She took off again, heading up the slope, splashing through the rivulet, and back up to flat ground. Her lungs burned and so did her legs, which threatened to give out at any time. But that wasn't what she was thinking about when she exited the cavern with three men directly behind her.

She wasn't exactly expecting the five people wearing strict navy clothing, embossed with the words "Dewford Police Force" in green. They were so close to the mouth of the cave that Mipsy found herself face-to-face with the man in front. He took a step back and glanced over her, "Are you Mipsy Bedazzlement?"