Mint raised a hand off the handlebars. "Um, Hanny, ya didn't seem thrilled with the egg Cynthia gave ya."
"I already know what Pokémon I want. I'll just hatch this egg and store it on the PC."
"Can I have it?"
"Sure, gimme a second."
She slipped her backpack onto her lap so that she could cautiously remove the egg. Mint jumped off his bike to snatch the egg from her hands. "I shall love it and pet it and call it mine," he promised fervently.
"Whatever. Let's get on with it."
"I'll use it in battle as my Attack Egg! Yay!"
"Eggs can't fight."
"Not even if I put a spiked collar on it and write 'RAWR' on the shell with marker?"
"Not even if."
"Awww."
After Mint secured the egg within his own backpack, the trio crested a hill that stretched downhill beyond the horizon.
"Wow, the road goes on forever to the south!" Mint smiled, eager to test his speed machine.
"We'll be in Oreburgh at the end of it," Manny replied just as eagerly, revving his bike pedals.
"If you two are done stating the obvious?" Hanny asked before guiding Zeke directly in the path of a biker, who screeched to an enraged stop, his Mohawk quivering.
"DUMB KID! You can't ride a pathetic Ponyta on our turf!"
Zeke neighed his annoyance, his hooves scuffing the asphalt in challenge.
Hannah said softly, "Zeke will end you."
The biker summoned a Koffing. She smirked at the gas balloon. "How cute. Zeke, Stomp."
He did so, squishing the fat ball, forcing its noxious fumes into a death cloud over its Trainer. The big man choked before slumping over his handlebars.
"Should we call an ambulance?" Manny said, poking the body with a stick.
Hanny dismissed the incident with a hand-wave, traveling further down the road. "He'll sleep it off. It's only poison."
Manny and Mint got the Luxray's share of the bikers. Mint demonstrated the speed and attack power of his Floatzel, which he had caught as a Buizel near the Windworks.
"It's just like you to choose a Pokémon with very high attack and speed but no defenses," Manny said.
Mint hugged Floatzel, who squeaked. "Thanks! I like him, too!"
Near the end of the road, after Hanny trounced yet another biker and his poison Pokémon, the biker spat on the ground, revved his engine and roared off, only to skid in Zeke's dung, sending his bike spinning wildly out of control before tipping over the safety rails. He and his bike landed in tall grass below with a distinctly unpleasant crunch.
"Should we call the ambulance now?" Manny said.
"He'll sleep it off. Tough guys like that shrug off fractures and internal injuries all the time. It's their rowdy lifestyle," she said with another hand-wave.
"I wanna be a biker someday! VRMM VRMM!" Mint yelled, attempting to pop a wheelie but falling over instead with a clatter.
"You're not cool enough to wear a leather jacker," Manny said.
Mint frowned, righting his precious bike. "Ugh, I'm gonna be cool like my Dad someday! What's it like being cool?"
"You'll find out when you get older. If you survive that long," Hanny said to Mint, who had become distracted during the past four seconds and was pointing below the Bike Path, against the rock face.
"I see a cave back there! I wanna go spelunking!"
"Wayward Cave," Manny remembered from Bulbapedia, "home to Zubat, Geodude, Onix, Bronzor, Gible, and, on special occasions, Sandshrew."
Mint's eyes became saucers.
"Didja say 'Gible'? Like the unevolved version of Cynthia's Garchomp?"
"Land sharks!" Hannah yelled. "They shall feast on you landlubbers!"
"That's the one," Manny nodded, before realising that Mint was no longer with them. Hannah pointed at the blonde head rapidly descending a service ladder with his bike neatly folded inside his backpack.
"We'd better follow him before the land sharks eat him," Manny said, folding his own bike before swinging his feet over the edge onto the rungs. They had to run to catch up with Mint, whose head was swinging left and right.
He pointed at the rock wall hidden in shadow. "You guys! Underneath the Bike Path there's ANOTHER cave entrance!"
"Wonders never cease. Shall we?"
"We shall, because I want a Gible, too! Then I'll be a pirate queen!" Hanny whooped, chasing after Mint who was already running pell-mell for the super-secret entrance that nobody observing from a bird's-eye view would spot. Inside was a winding maze of bike ramps. Manny walked forward…
"Whuh-AAAAAAAH!"
…and fell into a hole, clipping his chin on the edge as he fell.
"Ow!" he cried, cradling his jaw. The hole was about six feet deep. Mint and Hanny peered over the edge at him.
Mint chortled. "You want an Escape Rope?"
"Maybe Keira can fly him out," Hannah suggested.
"You guys suck," Manny spat. He leaped like a Politoed, scrambling with both hands and feet up the hardpacked soil to freedom.
"Gible have dug out many homes in this cavern," Hannah said, waving her arm to encompass the area.
Manny pressed one thumb against the side of his jaw. "Let's get to the end of the cave before we start looking for Gible. There's always treasure to find in these places."
While the boys sprayed stinking Repel on themselves, Hannah followed in their wake with Zeke, who turned up his nose at the stench.
"Get used to it, boy; we'll have to rely on Repel unless we want to get swamped by random encounters."
The cave was so long and winding that the egg hatched before they arrived at the end. A baby Togepi lay in Mint's hands. The boy was so overcome by its tiny paws and bright new eyes that he began to blubber.
"I'm a daddy!" he cried, hugging the happy, squeaking creature. Proving that they had hearts and souls inside their bitter shells, Manny and Hanny choked down their cynicism and instead joined Mint in welcoming Togepi into the world, petting its soft spiky head and touching its even softer velvety paws.
"It IS unbearably cute," Manny admitted, observing the little cooing thing.
"Uh-huh," Hanny said, which surprised the daylights out of the two boys, who wisely kept their comments to themselves.
At the end of the cave the trio found not treasure, but a priceless artifact: the TM for 'Earthquake'.
Manny handed the CD to Mint. "This will be invaluable for your future Garchomp, because it won't learn this move naturally." He shook his head with wonder. "Can you imagine, Hanny, a Garchomp and Togekiss, with Earthquake and Aura Sphere between them? They'll be devastating."
"Aw shucks, Manny, you're making me blush," Mint said, accepting the gift.
"You might turn out to be a worthy rival yet," Hannah said, "even though I dislike your choice of Pokémon."
"Awww, my whole face must be red," Mint tittered. Once the foul scent of Repel wore off, Manny kicked back and relaxed while Hanny and Mint ran all over the cave, dodging the likes of Geodude, Zubat and Onix until they encountered a Gible each. Hanny captured hers without incident, but Mint caught trouble.
"I CAN FEEL ITS TEETH SINKING INTO MY BRAIN!" he bawled, still holding his giggling Togepi in one hand. The Gible fastened to his blonde head gnawed his tasty human skull with its comically oversized jaws. Hanny helped him knock off the hungry Gible and capture it. She sprayed a Potion on his head to staunch the bleeding.
"I caught a male! According to my Pokédex, Togepi is male, too! Wow, I have an all-male team of four so far! I have to start catching some ladies instead!" Mint laughed, despite his head injury.
While Manny uncoiled the Escape Rope, Mint and Hanny took time to study the myriad holes Gible had dug into the cave floor.
"There must be a huge underground network where the Gible socialise," Hannah said.
"Now I know why they don't naturally learn Earthquake: if they did, they'd destroy their own homes while play-fighting each other."
"For someone so dense, you do have brief flashes of insight. You'll be a Pokémon Professor yet, Mint!"
"No thanks, I'd rather be happy when I grow up."
They heard Manny gasp behind them.
"Keira, GO!"
They whirled around to see what all the fuss was. Their eyes doubled in size.
"Shiny," Mint squeaked. Keira had cornered a shiny Gible. While regular, garden-variety Gible had a turquoise hide marked with light blue stripes, shiny Gible had royal blue hides marked with light blue stripes.
Hannah gawked. "I've only seen a shiny Gible on the Internet! It's so much more beautiful in person!"
As the shiny Gible shifted its weight in preparation for attack, the light hit its hide at a different angle, causing it to sparkle like a star sapphire.
"I MUST CAPTURE IT!" Hannah and Mint yelled.
"Orric, go!"
"Monferno, go!"
"HEY! I saw it first!" Manny yelled.
"Orric, use Bite on Keira!"
"Monferno, use Blaze Kick on Orric!"
"Keira, use Wing Attack on Monferno!"
The moment Keira slammed her wing into Infernape, Orric chomped her, but received a fiery axe kick to the cranium. The three Pokémon lay in a heap, exhausted, while the shiny Gible ran off.
"AAAAAAH!" Manny screamed with the abject horror only a Pokémon Trainer knew, running after it.
"NOOOOOOOO!" Mint and Hanny howled, giving chase. They spent the next five seconds tearing after the incredibly rare Pokémon, until it leaped into the nearest convenient hole.
"COME BAAAAAAAAAAAAACK!" Manny shrieked, diving in after it.
"I WANT OOOOOOOOOOOONE!" Hannah wailed, diving also, wedging herself with Manny inside the hole.
"I DIDN'T EVEN GET TO TAKE A PICTURE WITH MY CELL PHONE!" Mint bawled, attempting to jump into the hole also, but only managing to get his head stuck between Hanny and Manny. They spent the next minute in great lamentation, at both their unutterable loss and their inability to wriggle free. Eventually, their three Pokémon took pity on them, and dragged them to safety. The three Trainers sat there, tears running down their faces.
"You guys SUCK!" Manny shouted, pouncing upon them both, punching and kicking.
"YOU STARTED IT!" Hannah shrieked, fending off his frenzied attack with her backpack.
"I JUST GOT CAUGHT UP IN THE HEAT OF THE MOMENT!" Mint flailed his arms as he was beat up.
After calming down, the Trainers returned their Pokémon and decided to join a support group.
"Hello? Is this the hotline for Shiny Loss? My two friends, Hannah and Mint, just made me lose a shiny Gible in the cave under the Bike Path..."
Manny's cell phone beeped. He frowned at the 'Call Ended' message.
"Uh, okay. I should know better than to use my cell phone underground. Let's get out of h-"
They heard an ominous rumbling, accompanied by a great host of voices shouting all at once.
"WHERE IS THE SHINY GIBLE?"
"IT MUST STILL BE AROUND HERE!"
"I WANT ONE SO BAD!"
The din intensified when a crowd of fully-grown adults, armed with shovels, stampeded into the cave entrance with their Pokémon. They began excavating the cave floor, ordering their various plant-type Pokémon to use Sweet Scent, and tooting on black glass flutes. Manny, Hanny and Mint covered their ears and wrinkled their noses.
"I FOUND A GIBLE, BUT IT ISN'T SHINY!" a large hiker bellowed, flinging the common Gible over his shoulder as he continued his furious digging.
"THERE ARE SO MANY GEODUDES AND ZUBATS, BUT NO SHINY ONES! I WANT ONE SO BAD!" an Ace Trainer screeched. "IT DOESN'T EVEN HAVE TO BE A GOOD SHINY! I JUST WANT OOOOOOOOOONE!"
"Let's get out of here," Hanny muttered, just as the large hiker dug too deep and fell into a nest of non-shiny Gible, who set about eating his backpack and gnawing his bearded face.
888
Using an Escape Rope, the three of them teleported outside. In the sunlight, Hannah did a double-take when she looked at Mint.
"What is that ridiculous appendage growing out of your hair?"
There was a white oval dome, speckled with red and blue circles, nestled on Mint's head.
"I'm going through puberty, okay?"
"You're TEN YEARS OLD, dimwit!"
"Shhhh! Togepi is sleeping!" Mint shushed her, but then looked down at his hands. "Where's Togepi? Where's my baby?!"
Manny grabbed Mint by the shoulder and pushed him down to inspect the hair growth.
"Oh! He learned how to climb."
Although his head was recessed into his colourful shell, the sleeping Togepi was holding onto strands of Mint's blonde hair with its tiny paws, so that he wouldn't roll off.
"Now you can ride your bike while carrying him," Manny informed his compatriot.
"My son is a genius!" Mint squealed. "Let's stop in Oreburgh before we head to Mount Coronet, you guys; I need to get baby supplies."
When they passed the southern entrance of the Bike Path, one of Rowan's assistants, who happened to also be Dawn's father, stopped the trio before they went any further.
"I missed you guys at the top of Cycling Road! Did you guys see at least 35 Pokémon?"
"I've caught at least 35 Pokémon," Hanny boasted.
"Me, too," Mint said.
"Uh, sure," Manny lied.
"Great! Each of you, take this."
Dawn's father gave them each an odd, futuristic harness.
"This is known as 'Exp Share'. Equip it on a Pokémon and it will receive battling experience even if it's not active. It'll work really well with your Togepi!" he told Mint, who blanched.
"I AM NOT PUTTING THIS ON MY BABY! HOW DARE YOU!" he shrieked, running over Dawn's father with his bike.