I live! Late stage capitalism has not killed me yet... I've been editing this forever, so take it before I rewrite it for the fourth time.
Pokemon in this chapter:
Gryffin: Loxley- braixen, Zen- zorua, Levi-marill
Louis: Fuegnur-litleo, Bastion- riolu, psyduck
Lisette: mareep
Ilima: Stoutland, smeargle, Vivi- sylveon
Chapter 30: The Tunnel
The Sudmont Tunnel was mostly a straight line. Mostly.
The Old South Line ran straight across southern Kalos from Turin to Ambrette Town, designed to take ore and stone from the now defunct mines to the now equally defunct industrial port. The mining and industrial technologies that once called Ambrette Town home were past their heyday, but a few of the research facilities they'd left behind were still hanging on. The aquarium and the fossil institute were the only ones still funded by the Kalos League. There had been rumors, Louis shared gleefully (he was an excellent tour guide I had to admit), that the aquarium had originally been designed as a water type Pokémon Gym, but it hadn't panned out. What it boiled down to though, was that even a few decades ago, the old rail line had been Important.
The line underneath the southern Eclan Mountains had once been a source of pride in Kalos. It was the longest rail tunnel in the world when it was completed, and still made the top five apparently. Double tracks with auxiliary tunnels that curved back to the main tracks for maintenance vehicles, fully wired with lights and regularly spaced fans for ventilation, and three sets of emergency stairs spiraling up to the surface all on a smooth stone floor and painstakingly carved and covered walls; it had been extremely well constructed. There was even an old mining operation connected to the tunnel inside the mountain.
None of it was operational. And all of it, all of it, was flooded.
Years of neglect had clogged the drainage system, and the storm that had just thundered through the Eclan range had poured torrents of water down onto the mountains. It was literally dripping inside the tunnel. Rivulets ran down cracks in the tile, pools formed around stopped up grates, and there was snow, a whole pile of melting, slushy snow, piled up at the bottom of the first emergency stairs where it had fallen in from the mountain tops above. And we were only at the first junction split, not even 300 meters from the maintenance office we'd slept in.
The game was still snarking me with pop-ups saying "[Base Camp] has been deferred" again, the windows glaringly bright in the dim tunnel. And at this point I was willing to pitch my tent, tunnel and all, just to get it to shut up. But I still wasn't convinced sharing my Gamer abilities with my friends was a good idea, no matter how well we'd been getting along so far.
Lisette sneezed roughly, and I passed back an extra strength dose of cold medicine even as Loxley heated up my metal water bottle.
"No getting sick," I ordered thickly. "Not here, not now." I swallowed my own pills with steaming tea even as my starter carefully stepped around the trailing puddles to warm up Lisette's water too.
Despite his absolute loathing of anything wet, Loxley had refused to go back in his ball the entire morning. Waking up had been difficult for both of us, both because of the disruption to my sleeping schedule from the second watch and the lingering frustration from our failure from the night before. Fire would turn blue and cool for only the barest moments before whirling itself out of existence between the braixen's paws. Likewise for me, my mana would pulse warm gold, almost orange, with flickers of red … for a matter of seconds. Then the ball of magic I was so carefully nurturing would explode. I'd spent more time curing burns that I'd given myself than I wanted to admit. Neither of us had managed to grasp the new spells; Loxley's frustration scraped across my brain like a hot rake as if I wasn't already grumpy as hell.
We were taking it out on the local wildlife, though, to the cautious bemusement of our friends. Once we'd gotten past the first split in the tunnel, the light from outside had faded entirely and the thin beams from our flashlights had revealed several flocks of zubat that were tucked into the ceiling at various intervals. They'd all been dislodged by overpowered psybeams without warning. A geodude in the wrong place at the wrong time had been tossed headfirst into a frozen pool with telekinesis. The swarm of durant had been mercilessly barbecued.
I'd had help with the last one. Literally everyone sent out pokémon to deal with the stampede of metallic ants. Ilima let out stouland and smeargle, the normal types snarling out fire fang and flamethrower respectively took out most of the durant that had appeared in droves after Loxley smelted the first few. Between them Loxley, Louis's gleefully malicious litleo, and Lisette's increasingly confident mareep, it took a little less than twenty minutes to clear the auxiliary tracks we'd gone down to avoid a flooded section of the tunnel, the surviving ants scurrying back into cracks they'd chewed into the walls. Louis did chunk a pokeball at one of the little insects that was too slow to retreat back into the burrows, claiming his little brother Jean would appreciate the chompy menace.
Lisette rolled her eyes as I snickered into my knees. Jean had turned into a gabby little fanboy over a fluffy worm; of course he'd love a metal ant. The only thing I'd liked about the horde of steel insects was the sixteen shiny new pieces of iron shavings they'd dropped as loot.
Pulling Loxley up onto my shoulders, we kept splashing our way down into the mountain.
And screaming when the first ariados dropped on our heads from a nest on the ceiling. Lisette and I both shrieked. She clambered behind both boys as I goal kicked the giant spider in the face on my way to the wall. Loxley was kind enough to flambé the fucking thing as I caught my breath.
Lisette smacked Louis for laughing at us.
XYXYXY
Lunch was a brief affair, just berries and trail bars while we tucked ourselves onto a narrow service platform. But a lovely reprieve from the fiery onslaught Louis and I had unleashed upon unsuspecting residents of the Sudmont Tunnel. Particularly and especially anything vaguely resembling an arachnid. Of which there had been entirely too many. Tunnels were essentially caves, so I'd been expecting the plethora of zubat and geodude. The spinarak and ariados webs clinging to the edges of every zubat colony we'd come across had been an unwelcome surprise. But they were dead now, thanks to an overprotective fox and a hyper competitive lion. I did not mourn them. Lisette was currently redirecting all of her affection to Feugneur, much to the dramatic displays of dismay from his trainer. Though from the smug glimmer perfectly clear in green eyes despite the gloom, we all knew the "fight" wasn't going to last long.
So as my friends and I took a few moments to breathe and rest (and attend to biological needs while tucked around a small spider-free corner with a working drain) I also took a moment to go over the game windows I'd been too frazzled to deal with that morning.
[Quest Update!]
Gotta Catch 'Em All!: The Santalune City Trainer's Academy needs pokémon for the next graduating class.
Catch 30 pokémon by June 1 to donate to the school.
Completion: +2000 EXP, +€10000, +200 [REL] with Kalos
Failure: +200 EXP
Progress: 2/30 pokémon caught
Hidden Objective 1/?: Help Lisette restore her family farm with new pokémon
Progress 2/15
…
…
Pursing my lips, I considered my current quest carefully. It was only the first week of April, so I still had plenty of time. But considering I was literally living in the pokémon world now, it just felt like I should have encountered more of the creatures. Outside of the carefully curated forests of Santalune and Camphrier … there'd been surprisingly few. This tunnel had been the first time it really felt like there had been an actual pokémon population worth noting. Or maybe I'd been sticking too close to human civilization and wild pokémon avoided those just like normal animals on Earth? And judging by the totals listed in the window, I was clearly splitting my catches with the group.
Hopefully the wilderness of the Kalacour region would make up for both of those issues.
Because I wasn't liking anything we'd found in the Sudmont Tunnel so far.
In the darkness of the underground, we'd been forced to rely on our pokémon and flashlights to see. I'd briefly blinded us all by forgetting the lantern feature was in place on my flashlight, and I'd fumbled to switch it back to a focused beam. Lisette's mareep was out, little blue tail shining brightly as it swung from side to side following its trainer. The bobbing sheep tail was almost as bright as the pillar of flames Loxley held above his head with his crozier.
Lisette Boudreaux level 17
A dedicated student determined to help her family recover from recent tragedies.
Title: Santalune Graduate +1 INT per level, +25% EXP in Santalune Area, +5% to [Relationship] gains with academic class characters when [Title] is in use
HP: 475/525 MP: 10/10 ED: 16/20
STR: 30
DEF: 20
VIT: 30
DEX: 13
INT: 22
WIS: 17
CSM: 16
LUK: 10
Active Perks:
Farm Kid: you know your way around a barnyard +1 STR, +1 VIT per level
Mareep lvl 14
HP: 355/400 MP: 36/45 ED: 16/18
STR: 15
DEF: 19
VIT: 25
DEX: 17
INT: 26
WIS: 19
CSM: 20
LUK: 13
Calm nature, capable of taking hits
Special Ability: Static
Contact with the pokémon may cause paralysis
Perks: NA
Honestly it wasn't too bad. The Farm Kid perk was clearly boosting her health and stamina. Considering what had happened in Santalune Forest, I could only be grateful. In the week I'd known her Lisette had proven to be a good friend, straightforward and helpful. And all too willing to help me badger the boys on the rare occasion they needed it.
Like when they tried to swipe our chocolate candies at lunch. At least Ilima had been kind enough to trade us back some ginger caramels after a bit of a laugh. Louis was clearly aiming to tease his girlfriend as much as he could, but the third almond sweet might just be where Lisette drew a line.
Snickering, I stared smugly into golden eyes as I popped a hazelnut mocha truffle into my mouth. My cycle was late, but I could literally feel it in my gut. I gave it another week, tops. Chocolate was sacred, and stealing it was sacrilege. You'd think the guys would know better. A bonbon was tucked into Lisette's pocket as we gathered our packs for good measure; just to show my appreciation.
This far in from the entrance, the darkness of being underground really was all pervasive. The spider infestations had dwindled, thankfully, as neither they nor their zubat prey wanted to live too far from open ground. Which left us facing more and more rock types instead. Loxley and Fuegneur were still out for light, the torch Loxley had made of his crozier and the warm amber glow emanating from the litleo's growing mane were welcome additions to the barrage of flashlights we carried. The orange light of flames bounced off of white subway tile wherever it remained, and shimmered reflections in the remaining puddles.
But since the two fire types were at a disadvantage against the geodude and now occasional roggenrola, Louis and I had released other pokémon instead. Levi had been ecstatic for more chances to fight in his newly evolved body, bouncing through the standing water and leaving swirls of ripples in his wake as the element began to rise to his will. The little mouse was still relying on bubblebeam, but the beginnings of water pulse were definitely there. My fingers twitched, the call of my water spell Aqui was nearly too tempting. It was no fun not being able to use my own type advantage now that I finally had it.
Louis had considered going with his own water pokémon at first. But a quick check on his psyduck had the blond shaking his head. A tablet was wrapped in a small bread treat, and the yellow duck had been slipped back into his ball. Considering the species, I just assumed the little guy had a headache.
"Cabby still needs more training," was the only explanation Louis offered when I asked about his skiddo. The grass type would have been my next choice. But a roll of light, and the gangly riolu was back out instead. A cheerful bark, and Bastion slid up to Louis, Loxley, and then me for quick snuggles. Blond trainer and fox were both amused when I gamely scooped up the fighting type and booped him on his wet puppy nose.
Team adjustments over, the hiking continued.
Keeping Levi in the front of the group was a chore. My fairy mouse was still riding the high of his recent evolution and wanted attention. From anyone and everyone he could get it from and he hopped circles around the group looking for it. Lisette was happy to pick him up every time he bounced by. Feugneur was not so patient. One bubble in the face of the serious little fire lion was one too many. Luckily Levi was a water type, and the ember attack didn't do any damage. Give the marill credit where credit was due, he focused on the geodude after that.
Several rock types, and a few lingering zubat zapped away by mareep later a new pokémon appeared. As in it literally skid into our path with a raspy high-pitched cry. Bastion barked back in challenge, stepping in front of the group with his arms raised and his claws out.
Timburr level 17
HP: 499/550 MP: 46/50 ED: 12/20
STR: 34
DEF: 22
VIT: 30
DEX: 18
INT: 22
WIS: 24
CSM: 12
LUK: 10
Honestly the ape-like pokémon was just ugly. A chunky, stunted body with a bloated warty nose and sunken eyes, the little fighting type was covered in coarse grey fur. Pinkish welts poked up over its body were veins were clearly inflamed. And it was furious for whatever reason. Roughly the same size as the riolu, the timburr took one look at its fellow fighting type, bared its fangs in an open mouth snarl, and lunged.
Bastion was having none of it.
"Force palm!" Louis ordered as he pulled Lisette to the side. The other girl had lifted her mareep fully off the ground and dragged it to her chest as it bleated angrily in the direction of the fight.
Even as we all scrambled out of the way of the rampaging simian, Bastion was howling in defiance of the challenge. And with the timburr at only level 17, at level 23 the riolu had the advantage. The timburr held a short log as a weapon; Bastion snatched it and crumpled it to dust with a glowing palm strike. The timburr screeched in fury, throwing itself around like a toddler having a tantrum before going in for a punch.
"Quick attack!" Louis shouted as I moved into a defensive position with Loxley.
Bastion dodged out of the way and round kicked the other pokémon in the head.
The fight only lasted a few more turns. The timburr was tough, but it simply couldn't match the riolu in speed. With a final palm strike right in its overgrown nose, Bastion sniffed dismissively when his opponent flopped over unconscious.
"I'm assuming we don't want it," Ilima said once we all dusted ourselves off. The fight had made a mess in the derelict tunnels. We all shook our heads in response. Too strong and too aggressive for a starting pokémon, the timburr would definitely hurt someone if it was given to a new trainer. Ilima scruffed the wild fighting type and gingerly moved it behind a rock a little bit further down. So it wouldn't be quite such an easy target for a larger pokémon looking for a quick meal, he said.
That was nature for you. I sure didn't want to eat it.
Bastion puffed himself up as we all praised the riolu for his victory, and when the little blue puppy came around to me I handed him a pokepuff. Bastion barked a cheer and stuffed the macaron in his mouth.
"Une profiterole? Really?" Louis laughed with a shake of his head as his pokémon munched happily.
"What?" I defended. "He did a really good job! Didn't you Bastion?" I rubbed the little riolu's ears as I cooed at him. He'd been very well behaved the whole trip and my pokémon were really starting to warm up to him, even Zen for all their rocky start. He deserved treats.
And apparently so did Loxley, who looked up at me scandalized at not being automatically included. A white paw raised demandingly, with a sharp yip and a press of want in my head. I passed over the macaron treat with a roll of my eyes. Louis tugged out his own bag of jerky treats to more happy barking from both canines. I wasn't the only one snickering openly when Loxley coerced the blond into giving him one too.
XYXYXY
Any normal sense of time was completely lost in the resolute umber of the tunnel. It took a rush of zubat over our heads to finally clue us in how late it was. Nearly eight in the evening according to my phone when I finally checked it. After I turned it back on anyways; with no signal we'd decided to take turns keeping a phone on to conserve power. And then all turned them off, oops. Live and learn.
It wasn't hard to find a place to settle for the night, however. Actual trains had been abandoned along with the train tunnel and we quickly found a trio of passenger cars tucked into an auxiliary passage. After shooing away a few errant roggenrola, spreading out our sleeping bags in the aisle of the central car was a breeze.
"Take third watch tonight," Ilima suggested to me as we rearranged our bags over cracked seats. "Since you had second last night."
"Loxley's better to have around for breakfast anyways," Louis added with a teasing grin.
I laughed openly as said fox used his telekinesis to pelt the blonde with random debris even as I sloughed off my boots and socks and laid them out to dry. Waterproof boots had prevented the worst of the wetness, but the puddles in the tunnel had proven too pervasive, and my feet were damp enough that my toes were starting to wrinkle. There had been a single upside to the tunnel: the temperature had actually gone up as we'd gone down despite the wintery weather outside. Wet feet were uncomfortable, but there was no danger of frostbite here underground.
I was warm and I was tired. Sleep came quickly.
And ended entirely too soon.
Grumbling at Ilima and Vivi even as I sat up, I hoisted myself up the ladder to the top of the train car without even pulling my boots back on. Yawning in the cloying shadows, I tried swapping spells with Loxley again. This time the orange glow lasted several moments before spinning out, but still didn't turn into a fire spell. Such was my luck. My starter on the other hand…
Soft blue with tendrils of teal spun gently between white paws, illuminating the rooftop and tunnel in ripples of pale light.
Congratulations! Due to a special action a new skill has been created! Loxley can now use [Heal Pulse]! Level 1- 1% to next level.
"Alright Loxley!" I cheered, before immediately covering my mouth and staring wide-eyed at the metal beneath my feet. It wasn't even four in the morning yet … Silence stretched as Loxley and I stood frozen in place, ears searching for the slightest noise from below. A sleepy snuffle as a large body rolled over (it could only be stoutland) but nothing else.
A moment more and my braixen, too excited to wait any longer, threw himself into my arms chattering in glee. My brain was inundated with something akin to pineapple soda, warm, sweet, and bubbling to the point of bursting. I laughed as quietly as I could while hugging my clever yellow fox and swinging him back and forth.
"You are brilliant," I whispered when I pressed a kiss onto his fuzzy head. "So fucking brilliant!"
It wasn't a move the fennekin line learned, ever. Not even TMs or special tutors, though I vaguely recalled they could learn something that could heal through egg moves, but it hadn't been heal pulse. Heal pulse had been one of the few non-attack moves I'd been willing to keep in the games, useful as it was in double battles. In the handheld games though, I generally didn't bother keeping recovery moves since healing between battles was so easy. In real life, such as it was, I could hardly jog back to the Pokémon Center every time one of my pokémon got hurt. Being able to heal my team on my own was crucial.
And considering I was travelling with a group, having an on-hand excuse as to how it happened was just as useful.
Scrolling through my Bag for some meat treats, I felt a press of magic against my thigh. Looking down, the intensely pleased grin on Loxley's face as he watched my HP bar tick up several points made me so proud.
"Brilliant," I repeated, tussling his fuzzy ears as he snapped up the jerky.
Thinking it over for a moment, I turned away from the game screens and palmed a pokeball. My health was pretty good, between the restorative gains of sleeping and simply not being in fights my HP bar had been nearly full to begin with. There was a pokémon on my team that did need some healing though…
"Bulwa," Basil grunted as he was released.
Loxley was quick to yammer away at the grass type, aqua energy pressing into celadon skin even as I pulled the bulbasaur into my lap. He'd recovered to only a [Light Injuries] status, but his HP hadn't gone back up with the change. A problem an eager braixen was all too happy to remedy. And when the cerulean glow from white paws wavered to green and proved a bit too warm for comfort, passing the venusaurite to an enchanted bulbasaur was more than enough of a distraction.
Smiling softly at my pokémon, I slowly turned back to my game windows.
No updates on the quest for the academy, another snarky comment about [Base Camp] being deferred, and a reminder that the Sudmont Tunnel had a Nighttime Effect in place. There was nothing new on the mini map either, so I turned my attention to my party members again.
Louis Pierre level 25 2,349/19,767 EXP to next level
A dedicated trainer determined to excel at his career.
Title: Santalune Valedictorian +1 INT +1 CSM per level, +30% EXP in Santalune Area, +5% to [Relationship] gains with academic class characters when [Title] is in use
HP: 678/800 MP: 25/35 ED: 22/30
STR: 35
DEF: 37
VIT: 30
DEX: 30
INT: 35
WIS: 27
CSM: 15
LUK: 15
Active Perks:
Scholastic Endeavor: Work hard, study hard +1 Def +1 WIS per level
I whistled in appreciation. My friend had definitely been working his ass off. Not only had he gone up EIGHT levels since I last read his status, but his tag line had changed pretty dramatically too. I knew what I'd been working steadily to get stronger, but apparently Louis had charged in full speed like a tauros with a red cape.
And I was really, really starting to realize that I was going to have to do something about my Gamer abilities… either find time to break off on my own or actually break down and trust my friends enough to clue them in. Because I didn't mind, per se, that Louis was still higher leveled than me … but I desperately wanted to go back to grinding. Sure, the training trip we were on was likely to bring me up to my level cap on its own. But damned if having to live as a Gamer wasn't making me itch to level myself up as quickly as possible. I could tell myself that most trainers took two to three years to complete a regional gym circuit all I liked. And that not rushing through the gyms too quickly was better if I wanted to avoid unnecessary suspicion. Which I did. Still didn't lessen the urge to hide myself in a dungeon to train until the next gym battle.
But that wouldn't be happening right now. Even if my friends had known about the Game, it would be irresponsible to leave my watch duties for a dungeon crawl.
Shaking myself I turned to the final member of the party.
Ilima Pualani lvl 52 61,987/33,167,755 EXP to next level
…
I gaped in horror at the numbers in front of me, not even seeing the rest of Ilima's stats. Thirty-three million couldn't possibly be the right amount of experience needed … for an entire game! Even Pokémon Go didn't need that much experience points per level, and that game had been rigged from the start! I shoved Ilima's stats to the side and immediately flipped back to the main status page to try to double check the level requirements.
Me at level 21, 6921 total experience needed to level up. Plus thirty percent per level… Louis at level 25 needed 19,767 experience points, eek. Plus thirty percent each level, no wait the percentages went up in fives holy shit! My brain was going in circles trying to keep up with the numbers I was typing out on my phone calculator...
Error!
I looked up to see the stat windows waver, flicker out of existence and then pop back up.
Apparently the Game was sharing in my existential math crisis.
IliMa PuaLanI lvl 500001000101112 600001101101010007/3030030000060007000500
A;jkshdfiuhrnfa.,bviu hvbrskvhuv
Nv;suhf;vabnjdfgv
gjhgfiu
The status window seemed to crackle before going dark. I blinked in shock, afraid to touch anything. A minute later the window shut itself again and I could feel a buzzing fizzle in the world around me.
Game Alert!
Error!
An unexpected problem has occurred during calculations. An error in leveling requirements has been identified. Pokémon XY The Game will be down for maintenance while the issue is addressed.
Estimated time until completion 72:00:00
And all the windows shut themselves down.
I blinked at the open air. The Heads Up Display that had encroached on my sight for weeks now was suddenly gone. My HP bar, the game alerts, the mini-map… All of it. I was left alone in the darkness of the Sudmont Tunnel, with only the light from Loxley's Heal Pulse still being pressed into Basil's side. My pokémon looked up at me, shell-shocked from the sudden lack of the Game's presence.
"No, no, no, no!" I cried, panicking at the loss of the game screens. But no matter how hard I tried, no amount of commands or pressing the air would make them return. My map was gone. The ability to see enemies with it. No way of telling how strong a pokémon might be. Instant dungeons wouldn't load. Neither would my Bag.
Goddess have mercy, I mewled to myself as I looked down at my pokémon. No Bag. All of the extra supplies I'd stashed away were now completely gone. I couldn't access over 70% of my gear. Not until the Game decided to come back up. If it came back up. The venusaurite carefully tucked into Basil's bulb was a cold comfort. Even if I'd lost my entire inventory, at least the mega stone was still in my possession. But now it could be stolen or lost; and I knew Team Flare at least was looking for the priceless gems.
Scrambling barefoot back down the ladder, I dashed to my backpack without any care for the noise I was now making. I needed to know what I still had out and available to me.
The next few days were going to suck.
XYXYXY
Going back down into the train car had proven a timely decision, even if it was spurred by disaster. A flock of zubat had thundered overhead shortly after, waking everyone up anyways. So as Loxley heated the tea kettle with large ears quivering to the sounds outside, I desperately tried to gather the supplies I'd spread out the night before and stuff them all back in my backpack. They didn't exactly fit.
Extra noodles, smoked sausages, and a can of vegetables I'd pulled out but never got a chance to cook made the bag particularly lumpy. Fires would have been senseless in the wooden interior of the train car, the tunnel outside was far too damp, and Loxley was way too stressed to make more than tea.
The odd shirt, my wet socks (I'd had the presence of mind to pull out a dry pair last night thank the gods), and the strangest looking key that I'd found under a seat were all I had left to pack. I wish I knew what the key was, but without the Game to articulate it with words, all my Observe ability could tell me was that it was very old and very important. With a six-petal flower design inset with black and red cloisonné, the old bronze key practically screamed Key Item just by looking at it, no powers necessary. And it made me nervous, because now I had no idea what it was for or when it might be needed.
Now was not a good time for a new sub-plot, please, have mercy, and thank you to Arceus, Xerneas, or whoever else was listening. Just getting out of the tunnel in one piece was going to be enough of a chore right now. Still, the key got wrapped up in a dirty shirt and stuffed down the side of my bag. I had no idea if that was a good idea or not, but I was operating under the theory that it was always better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it. Clinging tightly to my backpack straps, I could almost believe that.
"Something spook you last night?" Ilima asked when he noticed my mood. "You seem a bit nervous this morning…"
It was a fair enough point. I'd been hovering near the pink haired teen and his stoutland pretty much since we'd started out. It hadn't helped that a golbat had swooped down on our heads when we'd set out from the train car. Loxley's psybeam hadn't been quite enough to scare it off, and the giant hound had needed to snap a thunder fang before the poison type would leave.
"I can't really explain it," I grimaced even though it wouldn't be seen in the gloom. "It was just… a lot."
A lot of experience points, a lot of glitches, a lot of readjusting to NOT having the Game invading every aspect of my life. None of which I was admitting to. A press of warmth in my mind, and Loxley was in front of me, arms raised to be picked up. Happily lifting my starter into my arms, I buried my face in steamy fur without explaining further.
"Tunnels are like that," Ilima comforted, drawing his own conclusions. "I'm not that fond of them myself. Not being able to see, everything echoes so it sounds wrong…"
"It's cold and full of rock types," Lisette added in from behind us. "This route might be faster and there's no Team Flare, déesse miséricordieuse (1), but I can't wait to see the sun again."
"I agree," Ilima nodded back. "I much prefer to ride through places like this. Faster and warmer that way."
A fair point, considering it had been getting noticeably colder again in the last hour or so. Not so cold that I was going to actually put on the thermal jacket tied around my waist, but enough to be grateful for long sleeves and my leather vest. It seemed unlikely, considering how far we were underground, but an explanation for the chilly temperatures was just around the corner.
Another set of emergency stairs had been stripped of its cover above. Thin beams of light stretched down in an attempt to penetrate the darkness of the tunnel but only cold wind and ice managed to rattle their way down the rickety metal spindles. A pair of small purple and yellow creatures, something between a tiny chimp and a duck, smoochum I thought, huddled under the broken landing, quacking nervously as they edged away from a lone houndour. Psychic and ice versus dark and fire. I didn't need the Game to know the tiny pokémon covered in mud and soot were horribly outmatched.
Fuegneur tackled the tiny hell hound from behind even as Ilima and I threw pokeballs over them at the small lavender pokémon.
"Les Lippoutis (2) will make good starters," Louis grinned after the quick battle. And a pokeball of his own. "But le malosse (3) would be better off with a more experienced trainer."
Lisette immediately protested when Louis stuffed the pokeball in her hands, but the blond boy would not budge.
"You need more pokémon," he insisted as we walked, and I was still sticking close to the group with Loxley in my arms. "I already have a fire type. Gryffin has two! Take le malosse."
"Take the houndour," I agreed, knocking my shoulder against the shorter girl's. "It'll balance well with your team."
"You're both impossible," Lisette declared. But she stopped trying to shove the ball into Louis' backpack. And when we finally stopped for the night (at six this time since we actually remembered to leave a phone with an alarm on this time) she begrudgingly offered the growling fire hound some jerky she'd pilfered from her boyfriend's bag.
As much as I didn't want the dog for myself, courtesy of the larger evolution that had tried to eat me in Aquacorde, I couldn't deny that the bony fire type would make a good pokémon for Lisette. My Pokédex certainly didn't have anything bad to say about it.
Houndour, the devil dog pokémon. Despite it's dark appellation, this pokémon is known for its loyalty and obedience to it's trainers. Houndour hunt as a coordinated pack. They communicate with each other using a variety of cries to corner their prey. This Pokémon's remarkable teamwork is unparalleled. This houndour is female, level 12. It knows ember, howl, smog, and leer.
A few more meaty treats all around, some gentle ear rubs from us both, and slow push from Bastion, and the little black dog was happily lounging across Lisette's legs.
"If houndour are so pack-oriented," I'd wondered as I tentatively scratched the new addition under the chin, "where are the rest of them?"
Because I didn't want to get caught in a horde battle. They were a pain on a good day; and this was not a good day. And with my luck right now there'd probably be a houndoom to go with them, ugh.
"It probably fell in from above," Louis guessed. "Chasing les lippoutis most likely. The ice types wouldn't live in a tunnel this warm."
Not that the tunnel had gotten much warmer. Even moving away from emergency stairs, the tunnel had remained cool. Pockets tucked away in corners would be a little warmer, but now there was the odd brush of a breeze swirling in cool, damp air and rustling through the leaves and litter where the floor was dry. Which it usually wasn't, so instead it left ripples in otherwise stagnant puddles. It was starting to smell like a swamp in here, and I was almost grateful for the cold. I been around enough bogs to know I didn't want to smell it heated up.
The pokémon in the tunnel seemed to agree, and seemed to be scarcer this far down. We certainly hadn't run into anything else worth catching that day, just a few more rock types rolling out of the shadows. They were noticeably stronger though. I'd been wary after one rolled right through a bubblebeam from Levi, and cautiously stayed out of battles the rest of the day. Louis and Ilima had taken point instead, the four of us carefully picking our way through the darkness. Yesterday had been unnerving, but the loss my ability to read levels on top of my minimap had left my nerves jangling like nothing else. I might have been off the watch rotation that night, but sleep came very slowly.
XYXYXY
Day two of no Gamer abilities didn't start any better. We had packed enough water for the trip through the tunnel, but being trapped underground without anywhere to refill our canteens had left them distinctly low. Too low to waste on tea. And we had another issue as well.
"Where are your batteries?" Louis asked from behind a crate.
"I don't know," I called from on top of my own. We'd spent the night in an old freight car. Roomier than the passenger car cluttered with seats, but it definitely made me curse not being able to access my inventory. Some of this stuff looked so useful, but also…
"You did pack them, right?" Ilima was going through another box, peeling rotting old straw away from dusty metal ingots. Loot I could be pilfering even as we spoke, if not for the Game having a meltdown.
"Yes, I did," I called back. The crate I was looking through was filled with odd blocks of charcoal. The Game was still down, but my observe ability still left the impression of importance for the odd block I pulled loose. Not as much as the key I'd found, but enough to make me wrap one of the coal pieces in dirty socks and stuff it in a pocket. Once I figured out what it was I might be able to come back for more-
"Did you lose them?" Louis asked again.
"I don't know," I repeated, exasperated. It was a lie. I did know. My extra batteries were stuck in my inventory where I couldn't get them. But I couldn't say that. And now our flashlights were running low and…
"Did you leave them in the last train car?" Lisette suggested as she packed her backpack. "Last night I mean."
"I might of," I agreed shamelessly latching on the excuse, grateful for the out. "It was really dark."
"It's still really dark," Ilima sighed, abandoning the steel bars. Something else to look at when my Game abilities kicked back in, but they were too heavy to take now. "I suppose we were bound to lose something in here.
"Hey!" Lisette exclaimed, pulling a package from deep within her own bag. "I found mine at least!"
"Dieu merci," (4) Louis sighed. The batteries were carefully distributed and flashlights turned back on. With light safely acquired, we climbed out of the freight car back on our way.
"We should be make it out of the tunnel today at least," the blonde assured us.
It would be a relief honestly, as I didn't think I could handle the lack of light much longer. Certainly not without the ability to check my minimap whenever I liked. After all the work I put into to getting that feature too… I hated not being able to see. I hated not knowing where I was. For all I complained endlessly about the Game before… I now desperately missed it. And I wanted out of this awful dungeon.
Loxley clearly wasn't fond of the tunnel either, dark and wet as it was, but he was still refusing to go into his ball. I had Zen out today as well, the little black fox much more at home in the shadows even if she also hated wet paws. And she'd made fast friends with Lisette's new houndour too, with both dark types shameless following behind Loxley as he picked his way around puddles. Louis' riolu Bastion seemed torn between his growing friendliness with my starter and a revived sense of caution around the two darker canids. Eventually cheerfulness won out, and the blue and tan puppy was trotting ahead, staying just inside the glow from Loxley's crozier torch.
The Sudmont Tunnel was showing more wear and tear now. Water no longer dripped off the walls but gathered in deeper pools where drains had stopped up completely, dark and fetid. And when the tunnel inclined, slow streams still ran down across rail tracks. Rail tracks that were increasingly twisted, pulled up, or just missing all together. More tiles were gone off the sides too, dark patches in the walls absorbing light instead of reflecting it, making the tunnel seem even more grim.
It was also disturbingly quiet. I'd thought at first it was the returning cold that had pushed out the zubat and geodude, but halfway through the morning the tunnel revealed a new occupant.
"Raaaaaaaaahn!" The grey and black pokémon charged the group without any warning, appearing out from the rubble like a ghost. Thankfully it wasn't one.
"Loxley, torch it!" I commanded, feeling something akin to glee for the first time in two days. I knew this pokémon, and I knew I had type advantage.
The aron skidded to a halt trying to avoid the powerful fire attack. Loxley hadn't progressed from ember to flamethrower, but his flames had a lancing arc to them that spoke promises of fire spin. And he was clearly taking his own frustration out in battle. The little steel type tried curving around for a headbutt, mud splashing everywhere as it ran, but Loxley danced nimbly away, flames swirling around all four feet and his crozier as he spun it in front of him.
The aron shook itself, patches of its steel plating covered in dark soot. Before it could do anything else, though, it was hit in the side by a glowing blue blur.
"Roooh!" Bastion howled over the downed aron, clearly pleased with himself. Loxley shrugged carelessly as I sucked the steel type into a pokeball, not at all bothered with his fight being interrupted.
"One more for the academy," I chimed to Louis before laughing at the blond. Bastion was trying valiantly to climb up onto his trainer's shoulders. Loxley and I might have been a bad influence there. Oh well.
My cheerfulness remained as Loxley's type advantage continued. Aron were now a regular part of the mix within the tunnel, along with the return of the ever-despised spiders. But Ilima cautioned against catching too many pokémon in one area, lest we damage the local ecology. Louis also insisted that variety was important for students to be able to choose from as well, so we only caught two more aron out of the dozen or so we battled on our way out. I could feel it when Loxley and Zen both went up another level, even if the Game was still down.
There was a break in the tunnel at one point, where the carefully tiled walls opened to hewn rock and steel barricades. A heavy old-fashioned lock was clamped around heavily studded portcullis with spikes going in either direction. Beyond it was another tunnel, rough and dark. Something shiny glimmered along the walls when I raised my light to peer in, but I couldn't make out what it might be.
"That's the old mine," Louis explained, nervously pulling his collar up tight around his neck. "We do not want to go down there."
"Noted," I said, backing away from the gates. My sense ability was still fuzzy and hard to discern by feel alone, but I didn't need the Game to sense the danger lurking just out of sight. A low grumble emanated from the mountain depths beyond.
None of us wanted to know what caused it, and we picked up our pace to a jog in order to leave the eerie mineshaft behind.
Now doubly determined to not spend any more time in the tunnel than we had to, the four of us marched relentlessly through the afternoon. We didn't even stop for lunch, just ate trail bars as we walked. It was nearly nine when we reached the eastern end of the Sudmont tunnel, the sun low behind the mountains and the sky a canvas of black clouds on charcoal and teal. But the rising moon was bright on the horizon and the fresh air was sweet as it swept through the trees.
I didn't even care that we were camping inside the tunnel again.
There was another maintenance office on this side as well. It even still had a door. We'd be fine.
XYXYXY
Finally.
Black eyes glowed saffron as she took in the humans before her.
She'd followed the whispers, echoes of other that had once been as she had been.
They were too weak to hunt the ones in red themselves, but they could point her in the right direction.
The humans before her were not the right humans. Wearing not the right red.
But they were hunters. Like she was.
And they were chasing the same prey.
Shadowed claws gripped the branch she was hiding behind even as a thorny grin split the bark of her skull.
Finally.
"Team Flare has been confirmed in the area," a tall beautiful woman called out to the other humans. This one was a dazzling white, the way she was now rotting black.
Rotting, just like her old body.
Rotting, just like Team Flare would be.
Finally.
"Move out!" Another ordered, wearing the wrong red as he hunted the ones in the right red.
She recognized him, even as she followed, careful to keep out of sight. He was bright, bright, bright even if he looked dark like she was. She liked him, she decided. He was a good human. And a good hunter.
And she knew, knew from the whispers, that he would lead her to her quarry.
Finally.
Stats! Stats for everyone! Sort of. And the Game finally causes problems for itself as well as the MC.
Plus an old friend... mwahahah
1-merciful goddess
2- the smoochum
3- the houndour
4- thank god
Thank you to the multiple reviewers who have corrected my French! You are the best!
Coyote11085: Ignoring the French is totally fine, and a perfectly normal response to being in an environment where you don't know the language. Eventually I'm going to try and go back to the early chapters and include the translations, but not knowing what was being said was a big chunk of the experience I wanted to give.
Thank you to all the guest reviews as well. I appreciate all of them!