The rest of the journey through Moon Canyon was relatively uneventful. The trio climbed their way out of the canyon, ending up on the opposite end from where they started, with not a single issue.
"Well, thank goodness we got out of there," remarked Orange as he looked back at the vast chasm. "Should be smooth sailing the rest of the way to Ruceelna City."
"Good," said Red. "Though with the Gym coming up, don't you guys think we ought to get in some training?"
"Good thinking, Red," nodded Violet. "OK, so who's gonna battle who first? Wait, hold that thought, what's that?"
Confused, Red turned to look, for something behind him had caught Violet's attention. It quickly became evident what it was; making its way unsteadily across the rough and uneven terrain was a plump, yellow creature with a large, flat bill on its face. It waddled on a pair of webbed feet that seemed to be directly attached to the bottom of its body, without any legs, and it was clutching its head with a pair of limbs that appeared to be halfway between arms and wings.
"Oh, a Psyduck!" said Red, having spotted the Pokémon. "I've seen those before." Violet took out her Pokédex and pointed it at the Psyduck.
"Psyduck, the Duck Pokémon," the device droned. "Constantly plagued by a headache. It has been known to exhibit mysterious powers on occasion."
"Wait, so that thing always has a headache?" asked Orange. "That is weird."
"Well, I like it," grinned Violet as she readied a Poké Ball. "I think I know what I'm catching today!" She then threw the sphere. "Chompy, I choose you!" she called out.
The ball split open, and in a flash of light, Violet's Bellsprout appeared. "Bellsprout," it said as it faced Psyduck, who had only just noticed the group.
"Psy?" asked Psyduck as it tilted its head, its face registering a look of total cluelessness.
"Chompy, Vine Whip now!" Violet ordered.
"Sprooouut!" exclaimed Chompy as it extended a pair of slender green vines, intent on whipping the Psyduck with them. Psyduck, however, moved quickly; it stopped clutching its head and instead used its wing-like arms to grab the ends of the vines and yank on them, pulling Chompy in close. Psyduck then wrapped its arms around the Bellsprout and began to wrestle with it in a reckless manner.
"Is that a Submission attack?" asked Orange, somewhat impressed. "I didn't think a Psyduck could pull off such a move!"
"Chompy, use Growth!" said Violet.
"Bell... sproooooouuuut!" replied Chompy as its body began to increase in size, forcing Psyduck to let go. Then, without waiting for orders, the Bellsprout coiled its root-like body around Psyduck and began to squeeze hard. Frantically, Psyduck launched a stream of water from its bill, but the Water Gun failed to hit its target.
"Whoa, check it out!" Orange breathed. "What's going on with Chompy?" Violet's Pokédex spoke up, answering the question,
"Wrap," it said. "An attack involving the binding and squeezing of the opponent with one's long body, vines, or tentacles. Inflicts damage and temporarily immobilizes one's foe."
"Nice!" Violet exclaimed. "Chompy, you learned how to use Wrap! OK, keep it up!"
Red, however, was remembering how the Pokédex had mentioned Psyduck's mysterious powers. At the same time, he couldn't help but notice that an ominous blue glow had appeared in Psyduck's eyes- the sort of glow he'd come to associate with the usage of the Confusion attack.
"Violet, look out," he warned, "I think it's about to use-"
"DUUUUUUUUUCK!" screamed Psyduck suddenly, blasting Chompy with a ray of blue light, forcing the Bellsprout to relinquish its grip and throwing it through the air, where it landed at Violet's feet, struggling to get back up.
"...Confusion," Red finished lamely.
"Chompy, are you OK?" asked Violet.
"Sproooout..." moaned Chompy as the Bellsprout unsteadily climbed to its root feet.
"So what's the deal with this thing, anyway?" asked Orange. "What, is it Water and Psychic?"
"No, just Water," said Red. "Professor Oak told me that a Psyduck's psychic powers are more potent when its headache was worse. I'm guessing that Wrap attack didn't do much for its headache."
"Didn't even think of that," muttered Violet. "Chompy, let's try Sleep Powder!"
"Sproooooout," replied Chompy as it exhaled a cloud of glittering blue dust from its mouth. Psyduck's eyelids began to droop as the powder settled all around it. Finally, the Duck Pokémon slumped to the ground, snoring softly.
Wasting no time, Violet pulled a Poké Ball out of her fanny pack, enlarged it, and threw it. "Go, Poké Ball!" she shouted as she did this. The ball whizzed through the air, and once it struck the sleeping Psyduck, split open. At the same time, Psyduck was turned into a shapeless mass of translucent red energy, which was then sucked into the open ball. The Poké Ball snapped shut and hit the ground, whereupon it began to rock back and forth. Violet held her breath, her eyes focused upon the wiggling sphere, as if convinced here persistent glare would help keep it shut.
Finally, after what felt like an eternity, the ball emitted a single pinging sound and fell still. Violet exhaled and scooped up the Poké Ball. "I caught Psyduck! Yes!" she exclaimed.
"Nice," said Orange, grinning.
"Congratulations, Violet," added Red. "What are you gonna name it?"
"Migraine," she responded. "I know that once it evolves into Golduck, it won't have a headache anymore, but by that time, its psychic powers will be intense enough that it could give its opponents headaches if it wanted to."
"Clever," replied Red, clearly impressed.
"Or, you're just too lazy to think of a name that would suit it as a Golduck," chimed in Orange.
"Orange?" sighed Violet exasperatedly.
"Wh-Ohhhhhhh, no, no, no, you do not!" Orange exclaimed suddenly. "Don't think I haven't noticed this, Vi. You want me to go 'What?' so you can tell me to shut up, like you always do. Well, not this time! You know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna just stay quiet and not answer you!" As if to prove his point, Orange slammed his mouth closed, and gave Violet a very smug grin. Violet raised her eyebrows at this, but did not question his logic.
"Come on," she said to Orange and Red as she withdrew Chompy. "We keep walking now, we should get to Ruceelna before nightfall." With that, she led the way, Orange still smirking smugly, mouth tightly shut. Within minutes, however, Orange's smug demeanor slowly gave way to a look of dawning comprehension.
"Hey, wait a minute!" shouted Orange suddenly. "That's not fair!"
"Took you long enough to figure that out, Orange," laughed Violet. "Mind you, I'm not complaining. The silence was a nice change of pace."
"Change of pace!?" repeated Orange indignantly. "Are you implying that I talk too much? Huh? Are you saying I talk too much? Red, do I talk too much?"
Red jumped slightly, clearly not having expected to have to participate in this conversation. "Well... I... Uh..." he stammered. Fortunately for him, Orange was far too impatient to wait for a coherent answer.
"There, you see?" he said to Violet. "Red doesn't think I'm too talkative. If he was, he'd have said something." Violet facepalmed.
"So, yeah, about training for the next Gym?" Red prompted Violet.
"Red, I thought you'd want to rush through this region as fast as possible, though," Orange said in surprise. "Don't you wanna get to Bincanar Island as quick as possible, get some answers, and get home?"
"I do," Red assured him. "But truth be told, I find Tanko to be fascinating. I do want to go home, but I figure as long as I'm here, why not make the most of it?"
"That's a good attitude to have, Red," Violet said, smiling approvingly.
"You're still not used to some of the Pokémon here, though, are ya?" asked Orange. "When are you gonna start warming up to .4 and Q and-"
"When you start warming up to Paras and Caterpie," retorted Red. This shut Orange up. Violet was quick to notice this, and smiled at Red. Orange saw this, and it seemed to further annoy him.
Not much later, Violet voiced the notion that they should all take a break for a little while. Red, whose legs were starting to ache from the constant walking, combined with the previous bout of rock climbing, was more than happy to agree with this. Orange, on the other hand, was not so obliging.
"Come on, guys!" he whined. "I thought we were gonna try to get to Ruceelna City before nightfall!"
"Orange, relax, we're making good time," said Violet. "We can afford a short break. Why don't we let our Pokémon out, let them relax too?"
"Sounds like a plan," replied Red as he threw three Poké Balls into the air. "Charmeleon, Rattata, Paras, come on out!"
"Chompy, Flutters, Migraine, let's go!" added Violet as she launched her three Poké Balls.
"Q, .4, Spearow, LM4, we might as well," sighed Orange, who seemed to finally accept that Violet and Red weren't about to listen to his constant whining any time soon.
With a great display of dazzling white light, the ten Pokémon materialized. Charmeleon stood a fair distance from the rest of them, arms folded, and Spearow began to fly in large circles over everyone's heads, but the rest of the Pokémon began to interact with one another eagerly. Migraine, however, didn't seem too interested in talking; LM4 approached the Duck Pokémon and began to talk to it, but its responses of "Psy? Duck?" were apparently not what the Water/Fighting-type was hoping to hear, as it flopped away shortly afterwards.
"I'm so bored," whined Orange. "Why can't we keep going?"
"You don't want to rest a little bit, Orange?" asked Red, who was currently seated upon what appeared to be an aluminum tree stump. "That climb wasn't exactly easy."
"Red's right, Orange," added Violet. "We can't just wear ourselves out with constant physical activity, it's not healthy. We got to take it easy every once in a- Q, what is it?"
For at that moment, the Deep Sea Pokémon had floated over to the trio (Red, who hadn't seen it coming, tumbled backwards in shock, falling off his stump). "Kyuuu, kyuuu," it said, its voice full of urgency.
"It's trying to tell us something," observed Orange as Q motioned in the direction of the other Pokémon. The group looked at the Pokémon, trying to figure out what was wrong, when Violet suddenly gasped.
"Migraine's gone!" she exclaimed. "We have to find him!" Immediately, Red and Orange ran over to their Pokémon.
"Charmeleon, Paras, Rattata, any of you see where Migraine went?" asked Red.
"Char?" replied Charmeleon in a confused voice.
"Parrrras?" added Paras, seeming to be equally confused.
"Rattata?" chimed in Rattata.
"The Psyduck! Violet's Psyduck," said Red. "Which way did the Psyduck go?"
Charmeleon merely shrugged, while Rattata shook its head. Paras, however, gave a call of "Par! Paras!" and began scuttling off.
".4, go and search for the Psyduck from the air!" Orange was saying as Red called out.
"Guys, come on! Paras saw which way Migraine went!"
Immediately, Violet and Orange withdrew the rest of their Pokémon, only for Orange to realize Spearow had evaded the ball's beam; it was instead flying alongside .4.
"Red, check it out!" exclaimed Orange. "Spearow's looking for Migraine along with .4!"
"That's cool and all, but come on!" Violet said urgently. Paras saw which way my Psyduck went, we're following it!"
Though clearly reluctant to follow a Bug-type, Orange nevertheless took off after Red and Violet, both of whom were keeping close behind Paras, who was scuttling along the rocky, grassy, muddy, metallic, wet landscape as fast as its legs would carry it. After several minutes of this, however, Paras had lost the trail.
"Never mind, Paras," said Red consolingly as he held out its Poké Ball. "You did great. Take a rest."
Once Paras was back in its ball, an agitated chattering noise could be heard as .4 zipped up to Orange.
".4, you found Migraine?" said Orange. In response, .4 gibbered unintelligibly, zipped three times around Orange's head, and took off in a different direction. The trio gave chase, though not without difficulty; in order to follow .4, they had to navigate their way around a lot of strange rock formation/tree combinations and several odd tree-like structures that seemed to be made entirely of drywall and machine parts. After a few minutes, they came to a small clearing, with two identically dressed men in dreadfully similar white uniforms, each one with a green D emblazoned on the shirt.
"Team Debug!" exclaimed Orange, Red, and Violet simultaneously. At this, the two men wheeled around. Red could now see two steel cages on the ground behind the men- one contained Migraine, the other had Orange's Spearow.
"You twerps again!" exclaimed one of the men, who Red recognized from Ivadirin Forest.
"You're that bunch from Ivadirin Forest!" said Violet. "Give back my Psyduck!"
"And my Spearow!" Orange added.
"I'm afraid we can't do that, kiddies," said the other grunt, who Red recognized as Lou. "You see, if we're gonna thwart Team Error, we need all the extra Pokémon we can get our hands on- OW!" he exclaimed, for his associate, Will, had slapped him.
"You idiot!" roared Will. "When are you gonna stop revealing our plans to non-Debug personnel?!"
"Oh, relax, we can take 'em," said Lou as he readied a Poké Ball. "Mankey, let's go!"
"Tangela, you too!" Lou added, throwing a Poké Ball of his own.
In twin flashes of light, Mankey and Tangela materialized. Both Pokémon narrowed their eyes, recognizing their opponents.
"Let's do this," announced Red as he threw a Poké Ball. "Paras, I choose you!"
"Chompy, let's go!" added Violet, throwing her own Poké Ball.
Both Paras and the Bellsprout Chompy appeared before their respective trainers, facing their foes defiantly.
"Tangela, Constrict!" called Lou.
"Mankey, Mega Punch!" Will ordered.
"Chompy, use Wrap on Mankey!" said Violet.
"Paras, use Leech Life on Tangela!" commanded Red.
Tangela made the first move, extending a pair of teal vines from the tangled mass that was its body. Paras scuttled out of the way, then lunged at Tangela and bit one of its vines. Tangela gave a squeal of pain and tried to shake the Bug and Grass-type off, but Paras held on tight. Mankey, meanwhile, attempted to slam its fist into the Bellsprout, but Chompy merely wrapped its body around its foe once it got close enough.
"Enough of this!" Will said angrily. "Mankey, use Swift!"
Mankey screeched angrily as it unleashed a cluster of glowing star-shaped fragments of energy from its nose. The stars maneuvered through the air, returning to strike Chompy with excellent precision, causing the Bellsprout to loosen its grip momentarily. Seizing the opportunity, Manky wrenched its right arm free and executed Mega Punch, slamming Chompy to the ground. At the same time, Tangela used the vine Paras was sucking energy from to unleash its Slam attack. Paras was forced to let go as it was slammed against the ground, and it landed next to Chompy, who was struggling to get back up.
"Come on, guys," said Red quietly, desperately. Then, a stream of water struck Mankey squarely in the back, while a brown-and-red blur crashed into Tangela.
"Wh- Orange?!" exclaimed Violet. At this, Will and Lou wheeled around. There, standing triumphantly beside a pair of opened and vacant steel cages, was Orange. Q was floating by his side, and as they watched, Spearow landed on his shoulder. Migraine, meanwhile, waddled back to Violet as fast as it could.
"Little tip for you," said Orange, a smug look on his face. "You might want to consider cages with a more reliable lock. Q barely had to do anything to get it open."
"Kyuuu..." Q murmured modestly.
"Spear! Spearow!" cawed Spearow angrily, glaring at the Team Debug grunts.
"That abomination again! It's hideous!" exclaimed Lou as he pointed at Q. "Come on, Will, let's take it out! Tangela, Skull Bash now!"
"Mankey, use Thrash!" added Will.
Orange turned to face the Spearow on his shoulder and gave it a small smile, which Red could have sworn the Spearow had returned. "Use Razor Wind," Orange said simply. Immediately, Spearow took off and flapped its wings rapidly, unleashing a blast of air at Tangela and Mankey, both of whom screeched in pain.
"It obeyed him!" said Red. "Spearow's listening to Orange now!"
"Probably because Orange went to the trouble to save it," remarked Violet. "Though come to think of it, that little speech of his back in Moon Canyon, I'm willing to bet Spearow was moved by it."
"Spearow, let's finish it! Take Down now!" called Orange.
"Speeeeeeeeeeaaarrrowww!" screeched Spearow as it dove down at Mankey and Tangela, plowing them into their respective trainers. Knowing that this was probably the best time to cut their losses and leave while they still could, Will and Lou withdrew their Pokémon and fled into the woods.
"This isn't over, twerps!" roared Lou. "This isn't over!"
"Nice going, Orange," said Red as everyone withdrew their Pokémon. "You finally got Spearow to listen to you, and you saved Migraine."
"Yeah... thanks," added Violet, albeit somewhat reluctantly, a fact that Orange was quick to pick up on.
"You really hate the fact that I did something right, don't you?" laughed Orange. "You're happiest when you get to argue with me and tell me to shut up and stuff, aren't you?"
"No," scoffed Violet. "It's just that you doing things right and saving the day, it's a new concept to me. I'm gonna have to get used to it."
"Whatever, let's get moving," said Orange.
"Yeah, we might as well," conceded Red. "Especially if there's more Team Debug goons in the area."
"Good point," Violet admitted. The trio began walking again, managing to make their way out of the grove of rock/drywall/machine part trees with little issue. As it turned out, however, their little detour had taken them quite a distance, and it was therefore not very long before the skyline of a city came into view, all the buildings appearing to be made of pieces of fence, odd numbers, gravel, and various pieces of landscaping. Some buildings seemed to have pools of water built into walls, with the surfaces seeming to be completely vertical, which, as far as Red knew, defied the laws of physics.
"We're here," said Orange. "Ruceelna City!