Thomas: Peren (Sawsbuck), Blitz (Fletchinder), Scout (Pachirisu), Nin (Minnesotan Arbok), Shadow (Galarian Ponyta), Winter (Minnesotan Mightyena), Sage (Dartrix)
Cait: Houndy (Houndoom), Poli (Poliwhirl), Flit (Minnesotan Cutiefly), Keter (Eelektrik), Cham (Minnesotan Machoke), Pep (Shuppet), Cot (Cottonee), Slim (Goomy)
John: Lycanroc, Quagsire, Nidoking, Excadrill, Piloswine, Minnesotan Boldore, Lairon, Larvitar
Wednesday, June 27th, 2018
It had been almost a minute since his cast had been removed and Sage was standing there, doing nothing except slowly extending and retracting his wing. I couldn't help but smile at the Staraptor Center employee who had taken off the cast and appeared to be growing concerned that he still hadn't taken off. I'd watched a few other Pokemon be given a bill of clean health over the previous few days and all of them had taken to the skies immediately. On the other hand, Sage was doing what amounted to a pre-flight check before he put any weight on his newly healed wing.
When he was finally satisfied, Sage flapped his wings and darted up into the sky. There was almost no noise as he flew through the air, making the loudest thing the sigh of relief from the Staraptor Center employee. I smiled softly as I watched Sage flit through the air, testing out his refound mobility. He certainly wasn't even close to Blitz in speed, but he seemed to be ready to turn on a dime, which my other flying type sometimes ran into issues with given his momentum.
After a few minutes of flying around, Sage landed once again, though he decided to perch on Peren's antlers instead of returning to the ground. Peren instinctively tried to lean his head back to get a better view of his new teammate, only to stop when he realized that Sage was moving with his head. Within seconds, Blitz landed on Peren's other antler, and his chirps almost sounded like a gleeful cackle as he exulted in the newest way to annoy the other oldest Pokemon on my team.
I left Peren to deal with his newfound bird problem and turned to the Staraptor Center employee. "Is there anything you guys need from me before we head out?"
She shook her head, "Nope! The Center has given Sage a clean bill of health. Take it easy on any battles for another day or two, but otherwise, he's good to go."
It still felt a bit weird to me to get such specialized care without a bill attached to it, but I wasn't about to look a gift Ponyta in the mouth. The weirdly sweet smell of Shadow's breath was a little off-putting.
After thanking the Staraptor Center employees one more time, I led my Pokemon outside, discovering that Scout, the last of my Pokemon that were out of their Pokeball, had also jumped up on Peren's back. I chuckled and retrieved my bike from my backpack, not wanting to inconvenience him any further. After unfolding and setting it up, I turned my attention toward Sage. He was still perched on Peren's antlers but was slowly turning his head around, examining everything that he could, reminding me that he was just as new to this world as I had been nine months prior.
"Hey Sage, I was thinking we would go back to the secret base, but do you want to look around for a bit first?" He hooted and nodded immediately, a stark contrast to his normal ponderous attitude. I smiled and said, "Sounds good. Peren, just follow me." An annoyed screech from Blitz accompanied his nod as the movement jostled his passengers.
It only took Peren a couple of blocks to figure out where I was going and he trotted at my side as we slowly made our way into the fairgrounds. I started pointing out to Sage all of the food stalls along with where the carnival would be set up. He swiveled his head around as he took in everything, not reacting to Scout's excited chirps at my mention of the carnival. In only a couple blocks we passed almost twenty vendors that would be selling fair food, most of it deep fried, in only two months.
We stopped in front of the Grandstand and I looked up at the stadium that was even bigger than the already large building that I was used to back home. "If everything goes well that's where we'll be battling in a couple of months."
Sage slowly craned his head up to look at the top of the stadium and paused when his eyes reached the top of the building. After a second, he flapped his wings and began to ascend, only for Blitz to take off a moment later and pass him with a triumphant screech. I snorted in amusement when Blitz stalled at the top of the stadium, not sure what to do after winning the race that he'd declared. Sage didn't even look at Blitz, instead perching at the top of the awning above the stands. I watched as he slowly turned his head around to inspect the stadium, then turned back down to look at me with wide eyes.
"Still want to stick around with us?" I called up to him. Given his disposition, I assumed he wasn't going to get cold feet, but it was always a possibility. I know that the idea of battling in the Grandstand would have made me incredibly nervous if I hadn't gotten warmed at Nicollet Park and the Midway.
Sage didn't answer right away, instead turning his head around to once again look down at the field. After a couple of long seconds, he turned back to me and gave a firm nod.
"Well alright," I said with a smile. "C'mon down and we'll get to work on getting you ready."
Saturday, June 30th, 2018
More than a month after I completed the gym's challenge, I finally walked back into the lobby of the Hibbing gym. Though this time I wasn't alone.
"You guys really don't need to watch," I insisted. "Get your own challenges done while we're up here. You're supposed to spend most of the day doing it, so it'll save you a full day later if you get it out of the way now."
John half nodded, though he was much easier to convince given that he'd wanted to see the sorts of things that had been dug up in the mine. Cait was a tougher sell. "Are you sure? It might be good to have another set of eyes on your gym battle. We might have some ideas for what you need to work on for the Fair."
"We have almost a full month until the gauntlet starts, there's still plenty of time for that. You took the time to give me a ride up here, you should get something out of it too."
Cait hummed for a second before finally agreeing. After wishing me good luck, they went up to the gym's receptionist to let him know that they were starting their challenge. The gym's laid-back approach to the challenge meant that they were out the door within a minute, leaving the desk free for me.
"Hi, I'm here for a gym battle, I did the challenge a bit back. Thomas Fitzgerald."
The receptionist nodded to himself and softly spoke as he typed into his computer. "Thomas… Fitzgerald… Alright, I have you completing the challenge on May 23rd, so you're good to go there. You're also the first challenger of the day so you'll be ready to go as soon as Andi has picked out her team."
I thanked him and took a seat in the waiting room, only to be called for my battle only a few minutes later. I was led into a large room with a standard battle court, though the floor was solid rock, which was a little unusual. A woman about ten years older than me was already waiting on the other side of the field and she grinned as I walked in. "Cutting it a bit close before the gauntlet, aren't cha?"
"Uh, yeah. I meant to challenge you a while ago, but ended up going to see Regice and that turned into… a whole thing."
Andi winced. "Ah, I heard about that. Glad it all turned out alright." She then selected one of the Pokeballs from the end table next to her. As she sent out her first Pokemon she called, "Let's see if you deserve that easier gauntlet group!"
My selection of my own lead stalled slightly as I stared at her Pokemon in more than a little surprise. A Numel placidly stood on Andi's side of the field, which frankly made no sense. Gym leaders had access to trainer teams while selecting their own, so there was no reason for her to lead with a Pokemon incredibly weak to one of my strongest Pokemon. I started to suspect that the Numel was bait for me to use Nin, and the wide grin on Andi's face only made me more confident in that theory. Since I was still in the Amateur league, I had the option to swap in gym matches, but that was a crutch I didn't want to rely on.
Instead, I pressed the button on the Premier Ball on my waist, calling out, "Start with a Confusion Shadow!" I got a bit of enjoyment seeing the smile on Andi's face turn into a look of absolute bafflement. It turned out even a gym leader could be thrown off by not using one of my four Pokemon that had a type advantage against her. That hesitation meant that Shadow had an uncontested moment to make her horn glow a light purple and Numel flinched as Shadow's mind pressed on it.
Andi quickly rallied at the sight of her Pokemon's discomfort and a grin returned to her face. "Ignore it with Amnesia!" Numel tilted its head slightly and all of the discomfort that had been on its face was replaced with a look of vague indifference.
"Agility to get in there and Double Kick," I said, quickly switching to the more physical side of Shadow's moveset that she was starting to prefer anyway. The downside was that her flexibility was still significantly smaller compared to her special moves. Andi's smile only grew larger as Shadow galloped across the rocky ground and it was immediately obvious why when she told Numel to switch to using Curse.
I considered telling Shadow to go back to Confusion given that her Double Kick would be less effective now as well it being more dangerous to be in melee range with the other Pokemon. Ultimately I decided to have her continue the move in the hopes that the speed differential would be enough to keep things even. Sure enough, when Shadow reached her opponent, it looked like Numel was moving in molasses compared to her quick and sure movements. Shadow's front hooves were brought down on Numel's left side, and while it was still reacting to that attack, she had already circled around to its right side and hit it twice more.
"Alright, that's enough of that. Let's get moving with Trailblaze!" Andi shouted out, and I suddenly saw why Numel was the perfect counter to Nin despite the type disadvantage. With how quickly Numel had become sturdy, I suspected that it had the Simple ability and a fast, tanky Pokemon using a grass move was about the worst-case scenario for Nin to fight. That wasn't to say that Shadow was that much better equipped for the fight, but there was one key advantage that she had.
"Back up and hit it with Secret Power," I called and Shadow quickly pranced back from Numel. She was still a decent bit faster since Numel hadn't had the chance to really get going with Trailblaze but judging from the small flowers that were starting to grow in Numel's wake as it chased after Shadow, our window of opportunity wasn't very large.
Thankfully, Secret Power was one of Shadow's most practiced moves so she had no issues launching a wave of light brown energy that Numel had no choice but to run into. The rocky floor turned to our advantage as the energy focused on Numel's eyes, obscuring its vision and immediately making it go slightly off-course while chasing Shadow. Simple meant that its lowered vision would be even more impactful and I was hoping it didn't have a move to offset the condition like it had been able to do by using Trailblaze.
The battle devolved into an odd game of keepaway as the increasingly fast, but blinded, Numel tried to catch up with Shadow as she ran away and pelted it with mostly ineffectual Secret Power and Confusion attacks. For the most part, Shadow was fairly effective at staying away from Numel, but I knew that a single good hit would be all that it would take to get her out of the fight. With no better moves in her movepool, I just had to hope that our luck would hold and we would be able to whittle down the other Pokemon.
Unfortunately, Andi decided to take luck out of the equation and called out, "Focus Energy and then end this with Bulldoze!" Numel managed to stop in its tracks incredibly quickly for how fast it was moving and after shaking some of the dirt out of its eyes, closed them to focus.
Knowing that Shadow would be in serious trouble as soon as Numel finished, I made the snap decision to go back on my previous plan. "Swapping!" I shouted and returned Shadow as fast as I could. Andi smirked at me from across the field, and I had the distinct impression that she had a rock move on the tip of her tongue for when I sent out Blitz or Sage to avoid the Bulldoze. Once again, her smile disappeared when I sent out my Pokemon, this time with the call of "Roar!"
"Incinerate, quickly!" Andi shouted, and Numel's eyes snapped open to find its new target. The remaining dirt meant that it took a split second longer than it would have otherwise, which meant that the flames of Incinerate were still building in its mouth when a deafening bark from Winter made the fire dissipate and it took an involuntary step backward. Despite all of the setup that it had done, Numel's nerves broke and the Pokemon turned into a flash of red light as it returned itself to its Pokeball.
Andi let out a pained chuckle as she placed Numel's Pokeball back on the table and thought for a second before she selected a different one. Her slight hesitation gave me hope that she didn't have a second Pokemon with a type advantage over Winter, which was technically correct as she sent out a Piloswine. It certainly wasn't the best matchup, but I consoled myself with the knowledge that the very fact that it was still a Piloswine meant that it didn't know Ancient Power. Then again, the alternative wasn't too much better as Andi told her second Pokemon to use Rock Tomb.
"Snowscape and dodge!" I called, and Winter took a deep breath before exhaling a flurry of snow. The weather was only focused around her for the moment, but it was enough for her to slide out of the way of the stone spires that erupted from the ground beneath her. I took a moment to sigh in relief that she'd dodged the attack before Slush Rush could fully activate, then added, "Keep moving and Frost Breath!"
The blast of snow and ice that Winter exhaled at Piloswine only added to the growing snowstorm inside of the gym, but it had an unusual effect when it reached the other Pokemon. While Piloswine was still buffeted by the Frost Breath, the snow that reached it started rapidly swirling around the Pokemon, somewhat obscuring it from sight. "Thanks for the boost!" I heard Andi say, though I could barely see her through the snow either. "Slow it down with Icy Wind!"
The gust of snow abruptly turned against Winter and I could see her slow from the chill. While her natural resistance to the cold helped, she didn't have the thicker coat that her species grew in the winter so the Icy Wind cut right through her defenses. I had Winter switch to using Snarl to make Piloswine's Icy Winds weaker in an attempt to maintain her speed advantage. The wide area attacks that both Pokemon were using effectively negated the effects of the snow since neither Slush Rush nor Snow Cloak could help them avoid the other's attacks. In fact, the only thing the snow was really accomplishing was to make it difficult for me to judge how hurt Piloswine was so I had Winter keep it up in the hopes that she was dealing more damage than she was taking.
Andi must have seen something I couldn't since she abruptly shouted, "Ice Shard!" A split second later, a large icicle blasted out of the snow a few feet from where I had last seen Piloswine. The sudden appearance of the spike of ice caught Winter off guard and she was hit right in the flank. Her snow-packed fur lessened the impact, but it still buffeted her enough that she was caught by the follow-up Rock Tomb. Unlike some of the larger Rock Tombs that I had seen before, this one only engulfed one of her paws, making it so that she was unable to move, even if she wasn't fully encased.
"Howl and get free with Tackle!" Winter rolled her head back and her Howl echoed in the room despite the muffling effect of the snow. Piloswine didn't let her get away with the move for free and trapped her other front paw before she could move out of the way. That left her unable to get the proper leverage to Tackle herself free, but with her newly boosted strength, a pair of powerful Bites were able to break through the stone enough to free her paws. Deciding that she had the right idea, I switched tactics and called, "Find it and take it down with Crunch!"
Winter blasted off through the snow at my command, dodging a few more Rock Tomb traps that erupted from the ground in her path. Her white fur against the white of the snow meant that I ended up having as much trouble spotting her as I did Piloswine. Only the loud pained grunt that I heard a few seconds after losing sight of her told me that she had found her target. I could hear sounds of the continued struggle but the muffling effect of the snow made it difficult to tell what was happening.
After a while, the snow finally calmed down enough for the two Pokemon to be visible. While it was breathing heavily, Piloswine was still conscious, unlike Winter. Despite being knocked out, Winter's jaw was still clamped on the other Pokemon and from the fact that her fur was no longer lined with snow, I realized she had been shaken around like a ragdoll and refused to let go. As I returned her, I promised to apologize for not telling her to back off before the Flail that must have taken her out.
The positive side was that I knew that Piloswine had to be on its last legs for its Flail to have been that effective. I didn't want to risk Peren getting hit since his ranged moves weren't too fast and wanted to give Shadow more time to rest after how much she'd run around, leaving one option. "Scald!" I immediately ordered as I sent out Nin.
As I expected, Piloswine tried to fire off a last Ice Shard, but the superheated water that Nin fired at it melted it as it tore through the remnants of the snowstorm. Piloswine barely lasted a second under the deluge of water before collapsing and quickly being returned by Andi. She took a moment before sending out a Clodsire and telling it to use Toxic Spikes.
Spines erupted from Clodsire's back and arced across the field to land on my side of the field completely surrounding Nin. At the same time, I had him try another Scald and was unsurprised when Clodsire shrugged off the attack. It had felt like a safe bet that Clodsire had Water Absorb, but it was worth checking, especially when I could have gotten a lucky burn out of the deal. With that possibility out of the way, I called, "Glare and Leer, then get in close with Iron Tail! Go right through the spikes!"
Andi's order to use Yawn went unheeded as Clodsire hesitated, unable to even feign sleepiness after the look that Nin gave it. Nin took full advantage of the window of opportunity and started slithering across the field. He didn't wince in the slightest even as he passed over the Toxic Spikes, and between his ability and the metallic sheen covering half of his body, I knew the poison wouldn't affect him too much.
Nin's ability to go through poison was tested further when Andi switched tactics and Clodsire spit out a stream of sickly purple fluid that quickly spread across the field, melting all of the remaining snow. I winced as the Sludge Wave washed over Nin and hoped that none of it had gotten into his mouth. The one positive side was that Nin moved faster in the water than he did on land, which meant that he was able to reach Clodsire a few seconds faster as he slithered atop the watery acid that now covered the field.
The moment he was close enough, Nin raised his long metallic tail and swung it down on Clodsire. The other Pokemon raised its spines in an attempt to block the attack, but the heft of Nin's Iron Tail overpowered the defensive Poison Jab and actually shattered a few of the spines as it connected to Clodsire's back with a loud thump. Before Clodsire could recover from the blow, Nin launched himself forward and Headbutted the poison type directly in the face, further dazing both Pokemon. It wasn't as effective as his normal approach to battles, but two-thirds of Nin's moves were out of the question because of Clodsire's ability and poison-covered body, so he was making the best of what he had.
The fight turned into a messy brawl as the two of them simply traded blows back and forth. While he couldn't Wrap around Clodsire because of its spines, Nin took the same approach of surrounding his opponent by Headbutting it in the face while his tail harassed Clodsire in the back with Iron Tail. Clodsire tried to get space a couple of times by pushing Nin away with Sludge Wave, but Andi's Pokemon was so slow that Nin would be back on it only a few seconds later. However, without his usual ability to control his opponent, Nin slowly started to take the worst of their exchanges, partially because he was simply unable to expel all of the poison he was constantly exposed to.
The poison was the cause of his eventual downfall as Nin collapsed into the fetid water after being hit by a fairly weak Poison Jab from Clodsire, who was clearly also on its last legs. Thankfully the poison wasn't a concern for my next Pokemon as a pink and blue mist formed around Shadow the moment she reappeared on the field, keeping her safe from its effects. A single Confusion was all it took for Clodsire to similarly collapse into sludge, quickly bringing the Pokemon count back to even.
"Looks like a rematch to me! Start off with Amnesia again!" Andi said, sending out her Numel once again. She sent it out so that it was standing directly behind where Clodsire had been, making it one of the few spots on the field that wasn't covered in poison.
I hesitated for only a second before announcing my swap and returning Shadow again. I hated that I was going against my plan to avoid swaps, but I wasn't confident that Shadow would be able to stop Numel from setting up again. I sent Peren out in the exact same spot Shadow had been standing, hoping that the remnants of the Pastel Veil would buy him enough time. "Leech Seed and then Worry Seed! Blanket it!"
"Incinerate them!" Andi shouted, and the glazed look in Numel's eyes faded as it exhaled another torrent of flames at the seeds flying toward it. We initially hadn't been sure how he would use the moves after he evolved since as a Deerling they came out of the now nonexistent flower on his head. It turned out that he could sprout them out of his new antlers, which was especially useful in his summer coat since the leaves covered up the seeds before they were fired. As a result, Numel's Incinerate took care of the seeds that came off of Peren's left antler but completely missed the ones that shot out of his right antler a half second later.
I breathed a sigh of relief as the Leech Seeds sprouted on Numel's back. It didn't matter how much defensive setup it did now that its health would slowly be drained, and the boosts that it did have would be partially negated if we got a Worry Seed off. Either way, it was enough to make Andi abandon her strategy and she told Numel to turn the jet of flames it was putting out toward Peren.
I almost told him to use Camouflage out of habit, but thankfully stopped myself. While it would have gotten rid of his fire weakness, having him turn into a poison type in a ground gym was not a winning strategy. Instead, I decided to make use of his newly improved martial prowess, and called, "Aromatherapy to protect yourself and Horn Leech!"
A floral scent was left in Peren's wake as he charged across the field, making me realize just how bad the arena had started to smell. He opted to run in a direct line toward Numel to minimize his time in the poisoned water, though that meant that he ran directly into Incinerate. He winced and the flames ate away at the leaves on his antlers, but he still barely slowed down as the flames licked his chest. Unfortunately, the Leech Seed wasn't even able to help since the balls of energy that the move created were also burned to nothing.
After several agonizing seconds, Peren lowered his head and slammed his antlers into Numel, pushing the other Pokemon back and causing an extra spurt of flames as the air was knocked out of it. Peren's antlers flashed green at the contact and some of the color returned to his leaves. Small purple flames started to rise out of Numel's body as it used Curse in preparation for a melee fight, but Peren simply pressed the assault. Even with Numel's increased defenses, every Horn Leech tilted the matchup further and further in Peren's favor, a factor that was exacerbated now that Peren could take advantage of Leech Seed's healing.
It ended up being Numel's own Take Down that took it out of the fight as it rammed into Peren one final time, only for its legs to give out. Andi returned her collapsed Pokemon with a slight grimace, then sent out her final Pokemon as far away from Peren as possible while still being out of the poison. The reason for her expression became evident when I saw that her last Pokemon was a Stunfisk. While it would have had a solid matchup against most of the rest of my Pokemon, I wasn't worried about how Peren would fare.
Only a couple of seconds after Stunfisk hit the field, sand began to swirl around it, but the nascent Sandstorm was countered by a Sunny Day from Peren. Neither Pokemon was willing to let the other take full control of the weather, leading to a mix between the two effects. The putrid water dried under the artificial sun and the poisonous particles got picked up by the wind, creating a Sandstorm that was even more dangerous than normal. Even though the storm was staying well within the bounds of the arena, I covered my mouth with my sleeve to stay on the safe side.
As the weather stabilized, Peren charged toward Stunfisk while also firing a large Seed Bomb at the other Pokemon. His fragile Leech Seeds wouldn't have been able to stand up to the sand and wind so he opted for pure damage. Stunfisk was forced to use Thunder Shock to blast the Seed Bombs out of the sky, and while the resulting explosions rattled Peren, Stunfisk focusing on them meant that Peren was able to reach Stunfisk without any issues. As he lowered his antlers to the ground to hit the flat Pokemon, Andi finally shouted, "Discharge!"
A blindingly bright yellow orb appeared around Stunfisk and rapidly expanded so that it engulfed Peren as well. I quickly tried to blink the sunspots out of my eyes, though I could only make out the vague shape of Peren jamming his antlers down into Stunfisk. I managed to clear my vision just in time to see Stunfisk launch itself off of the ground and smack Peren right in the face. I had no idea what move it was, but from the way Peren recoiled, it must have been a strong one. I briefly considered telling him to get some distance but decided that forcing the issue would be better with the Sandstorm still in play.
That turned out to be the right call since Peren was able to dodge most of the rest of Stunfisk's full-body attacks since he knew to look out for them and could move much faster than his opponent. The one exception was when electricity sparked across his body after a Horn Leech, but another quick Aromatherapy cleared off the Static-induced paralysis. Ultimately, the constant replenishing of his energy from repeated usage of Horn Leech made the difference, winning us the match despite all of the small hits that Peren had accumulated across his two fights.
After returning our Pokemon, Andi and I met on the side of the field, well away from the poisoned Sandstorm that was slowly dying down. She made a comment about entering the big leagues as she handed me my prize money, Iron Badge, and Bulldoze TM, but I was barely listening. All I could think about was how relieved I was that my friends hadn't stuck around to watch.
While I didn't usually reflect very much on my wins or even my losses, I couldn't stop thinking about this one. There was no doubt in my mind that I would have lost, and badly, a month ago. What made it worse was that the tipping point had nothing to do with my own skill as a trainer. Andi probably would have picked a tougher Pokemon to deal with than Piloswine if I hadn't caught Sage, and without Peren's evolution, Numel and Stunfisk would have been much tougher fights.
Between traveling, Al's class, Regice, visiting Sage, and then helping him get caught up, I had done practically no training the last month. That was an issue I'd need to quickly rectify if I didn't want to disappoint my team and friends by not making it through the gauntlet. We already had plans to help out John tomorrow, and then it would be time to jump into training head first.
As I left the gym, I was already starting to enter my updated summer training plan for my team into my Poryphone.
Sunday, July 1st, 2018
Despite waking up barely after sunrise and immediately setting out, there were no complaints in the car as we started heading northeast toward Ely. John hadn't had any luck finding a fossil after almost a week of searching by himself and we barely had half a day before we needed to start the four-hour drive back down to the cities. That said, we had one major advantage compared to his last attempt in that we could cover significantly more ground than he'd been able to do with just his bike.
"There's a turn off in a few miles," John announced from the passenger seat where he was staring intently at his Poryphone.
"Got it. Right side?" Cait asked, and I tuned them out as the two of them worked out our first scouting point along with other spots that John thought looked promising. I'd left most of the logistics to the two of them as I didn't have anything useful to add to John's experience and Cait's planning acumen. My contributions to the day's objective were mostly limited to the fact that I had two flying types.
We funneled out of the car a few minutes later and I immediately sent out Blitz and Sage. I'd already told them what the plan was but decided to repeat it anyway. "Blitz, I want you to fly around and see if you can spot any caves or outcroppings you think might be good. When you find something, tell Sage and he'll take over from there." Blitz loudly cried out before rocketing up into the air while Sage softly hooted before silently taking off.
I watched them begin their search for a few seconds, then turned to my friends. Cait had also sent out Flit and Pep to help look, though we already knew that neither would be nearly as effective as Blitz and Sage. Flit's cloud of tiny imitation Cutiefly had grown even larger since the last time that I'd seen her, but only the real body in the middle of the cloud was capable of independent thought. Pep had a bit more utility due to her ability to phase through solids, but Shuppet wasn't a species known for their speed.
John spoke up as we watched Cait's Pokemon float away. "How long do you think we stay here? I don't want to get stuck in one spot. That's what got me last time."
"Just fifteen minutes, I think," she answered, then made for the trail that the parking lot was for. "It's not the most promising location, but we should still at least check it out." When she looked at us for confirmation, John nodded and I just shrugged.
It only took a few minutes for us to reach the end of the trail, which ended up being a small stream. I immediately understood why they didn't have high hopes for our first spot since the waterway was small enough that it didn't even have the rocky bank that I associated with rivers in Northern Minnesota. While the other three Pokemon were slowly checking the river from above, Blitz was already barely visible to the south as he predictably decided to cover as much ground as possible. After a while, he turned around and screeched at me when he passed back overhead and I yelled that we were leaving in ten minutes.
To the surprise of no one, our first stop didn't yield any results beyond a weird looking stick that Pep found and refused to leave behind. Said stick sat next to me in the backseat of the car and I was trying to figure out if it had any significance or if the Shuppet was just messing with us. I'd decided I was about ninety percent sure it was the latter when Cait spoke up from the front of the car, sounding oddly hesitant. "Hey, Thomas?"
"Yeah? What's up?" I asked, looking forward and seeing that John looked as confused as me by Cait's tone.
"You said you had games based on Pokemon in your world… right?" John's expression turned slightly pained, and I suddenly understood her hesitation. Back when I had revealed my origins, they'd been initially interested, but then I think the oddity of having another world have games and movies based on theirs sunk in and they had almost entirely avoided the topic since. Before I could answer, Cait barreled forward, "Where did you get fossil Pokemon in the games?"
"Uh, well, in Kanto you got a fossil in Mt Moon," I almost called it 'gen one' out of habit but stopped when I realized they wouldn't know what that meant. "Hoenn was a bit weird. You climbed a tower made out of sand and then it collapsed when you took a fossil. Sinnoh was in the underground. Unova… I actually don't remember. I never really liked those games to be honest. Kalos was in a cave."
"And the show? Movies?" John pressed.
I idly scratched my head, trying to remember. "There was an episode of the show where they found a cave where some fossil Pokemon had been sealed in for millions of years or whatever. Other than that, I'm not sure. I only watched a couple regions worth of the show." I thought for a moment longer then added, "And the manga followed the games pretty closely on stuff like that, so it would have been the same."
"There's a manga too," Cait softly repeated, sounding a bit pained. She rallied after a few seconds and added, "Well, it sounds like our next stop is on the right track then." John gave an affirmative grunt and the car fell into an awkward silence. I wasn't sure what to say to help, instead opting to return my attention to Pep's stick and leave my friends to their existential crises.
Luckily for them, it only took us about ten more minutes to reach our second stop, which turned out to be an old abandoned quarry. It wasn't nearly as large as the one that Hibbing had grown around, and unlike Hibbing's mine, there wasn't any system in place to pump the water out of it. As a result, the former quarry had become a good sized lake with sheer stone walls on all sides. After taking a few seconds to send out Blitz and Sage again, I looked back up to find that John was already starting to head to the edge of the quarry with clear excitement on his face.
"Hey, wait up! We need to be careful here. It's probably a…" I trailed off for a second to remember the terminology, "Tier four zone on a PDD map."
"Ah, c'mon man. You take one ranger class and suddenly you're Mr Safety. It'll be fine," John said and looked over at Cait for support, only to find her slightly frowning.
"Yeah, okay. I'll just let you be the one to explain to Erin when something goes wrong and we need to call the rangers," I answered with a shrug.
John immediately paled. "Yeah, okay. What should we do?"
"Just be careful. We should each have a couple Pokemon out as we look, and if we make a wild Pokemon mad, we should leave instead of fighting," I said as I sent out Nin and Scout. "It's not that big of a deal, we just need to remember that we're pretty much trespassing with the hopes of stealing some weird rocks."
In the end, it was a large group that approached the quarry as Poli, Keter, Quagsire, and Larvitar were also sent out. I wasn't entirely sure why John had included Larvitar until the Pokemon scooped up a handful of iron-rich dirt and ate it with a gleeful yelp that didn't inspire much confidence in us not creating a disturbance. Thankfully, we were more interested in the walls of the quarry than its center, which I hoped would stop wild Pokemon from taking too much offense to our presence.
While our aquatic Pokemon entered the lake, Cait, John, and I started walking around the perimeter of the quarry, trying to spot anything from our poor vantage point. Scout led the way, scampering ahead of us and poking her head over the edge every couple of feet to see if she could see anything of interest. Larvitar on the other hand just waddled behind us, continuing to shovel handfuls of dirt into his mouth.
We had barely gone a fourth of the way around the perimeter of the quarry when Blitz abruptly dove out of the sky to land on an old stump in front of us. "Find anything?" I asked, though I was pretty sure the answer was no given that he had already lapped us earlier. When he shook his head, I shrugged. "We're going to keep going, want to come with or go back in your ball?" He hesitated for a second, then took off again to head for where Sage was hovering above the water, barely ahead of us. Scout scampered after him and started leaning over the ledge that Sage was examining.
"I think they found something!" John shouted and ran forward to look. Larvitar tried his best to follow his trainer, but his stubby legs meant that even going at full speed he barely kept up with Cait and me as we jogged forward. John had already finished his examination by the time we arrived and was looking at my Pokemon skeptically. "Are you sure there's something here?" All three of my Pokemon nodded, with Scout being much more enthusiastic than the other two. John hesitated for a second, then cupped his hands to his mouth and shouted, "Quagsire, come over here!"
I winced at the noise but didn't comment as our aquatic Pokemon moved to rejoin us. Ironically, Quagsire was the slowest of the four, meaning that Poli had already found and retrieved Sage's find before John's Pokemon even arrived. It looked like a normal rock when the Poliwhirl deposited it on the ground, but John was almost shaking when he knelt in front of it. He gingerly flipped it over, revealing a clear imprint of what looked like a plant with four large roots embedded in the stone.
"Yes!" John shouted and jumped to his feet, pumping his fist in the air. Before Cait and I could congratulate him, our eyes were drawn back to the quarry where large ripples were starting to form in the middle of the water. A moment later, two more sources of the ripples appeared by its side.
"Great. Time to go," I quickly said, pointing out the disturbances to him. He sobered up instantly, picked up his newly found fossil, and returned his Pokemon. Cait and I did the same, and then the three of us started running back to the car.
We had barely gotten back into the car when three large Seismitoad erupted from the water. Cait floored the gas before they could notice us.
A/N: That was supposed to be a two month break, not... five. Sorry about that
Thanks to Star (quarknova on this site) for betaing. Next up is Chapter 43: Summer School