Team reminders: Wraith (Dreepy) and Sprout (Shroomish)
Soren wiped away the sweat dripping down from his forehead and groaned. Despite it supposedly being made of moisture wicking material, his shirt was still drenched with sweat and clung to his body.
Route 104 had been the easy part of the long trek to Dewford Town so far. Most of the path had been protected from the harsh sun by forest canopy but they weren't so lucky when traveling Route 105.
The further they ventured from Route 104 and the vast forest, the less tree cover there was. Between the humidity, the blazing sun, and the exertion from walking and running on sand, he felt like he was about to pass out.
The only saving grace was the cool sea breeze that made things somewhat tolerable now that they had gone from dirt road to white sandy beach, although the breeze was intermittent and the beach also posed its own issues – most of which involved sand.
Walking on the beach took more effort and energy than most other terrain due to it shifting constantly. He almost fell down twice from losing his footing and the amount of sand sliding around in his tennis shoes was very uncomfortable. He could even feel the grains of sand clinging to his socks and shifting around inside his socks.
He hated that about the beach. He loved the sound of crashing waves and loved the refreshing sea breeze; but the sand was irritating because it ended up getting everywhere. He liked the beach but didn't necessarily want to carry it with him in his shoes.
Wraith shrieked, snapping Soren out of his thoughts. The dragon glided with the air currents, twisting and spinning erratically as he zigzagged through the skies. Soren scowled. He couldn't help but feel jealous of the carefree dragon both for his seemingly limitless energy and his ability to fly.
Flying would make traveling so much easier by reducing travel time, not to mention it would make it so he didn't have to walk across the shifting sand.
Judging by the slow gait of Sprout and his slumped posture, he wasn't the only one adverse to the heat and sun beating down on them. Most grass types were invigorated by bright sunlight, converting the sun's rays into food through photosynthesis to give them more energy but Shroomish was not one of the species that could. Shroomish had biology much closer in nature to mushrooms and fed off decaying plant matter. They also preferred dark, humid conditions to bright sunlight with sunlight even causing younger Shroomish to grow fatigued faster.
Soren tapped Sprout's Poke Ball clipped to his belt. "I can return you to your Poke Ball if you're too uncomfortable." he offered.
Sprout stared at him with a spacey gaze that made Soren feel like the grass type was looking past him. Or through him? He couldn't quite tell.
"Is that a yes or a no?"
Shroomish let out a lazy gurgle to voice his disapproval before picking up his pace again, teetering and stumbling his way through the sand.
He had to give him credit. Sprout had an impressive mental toughness. Despite having difficulty with navigating the terrain and the scorching heat, Sprout was determined to press forward. He was adamant to persevere because Soren and Wraith were.
It didn't take them long to reach the shore which would soon become their boat launch. Most of Route 105 and 106 were to be navigated by boat, aside from the cluster of tiny, uninhabited islands and isles amongst the ocean and the beachfront of Route 106. Furthermore, their intended destination of Dewford Town was only accessible by boat due to the city being on an island.
Unfortunately, the preferred method of reaching Dewford through Mr. Briney's Cruise Services wasn't available to him. Summer tourism and the upcoming surfing competition in Dewford Town made it hard to book a ferry since rich tourists, competitive surfers, journalists, and influencers seeking to cover the surfing competition had already booked trips months in advance. He even inquired into competitor's services but found that the prices of other cruise services were scarce and triple and quadruple normal ferry rates due to the high demand.
Fortunately, he had a plan. If he couldn't obtain a ferry to Dewford, he would sail there himself. Soren reached into his backpack for a scuffed Poke Ball and tapped the release button, causing a deflated gray raft to emerge from stasis. He swapped out the now empty Poke Ball for another and tapped the release of the second scuffed Poke Ball to release a portable pump before connecting the nozzle of the pump to the raft.
He packed a raft for small excursions but hadn't considered using it for long distance trips across the ocean since he wasn't fond of the idea of sailing the vast Hoenn seas in a boat made of vinyl. However, desperate times called for desperate measures.
Wraith swooped down to examine the flat gray plastic laying out on the beach, landing beside it and pushing it with his snout.
"Get back," Soren chided, shooing the dragon away with his hand.
Wraith hissed and circled around to land on the edge of the yet to be inflated raft.
"It's a boat, even if it doesn't look like one yet and it would help if you weren't standing on it." Soren scolded as he flicked the switch on the pump, causing the battery powered pump to hum and the raft to gradually expand.
Wraith shrieked indignantly at the expanding raft while Sprout stared at the raft like the raft expanding was the most amazing thing in the world only for the edge of it to expand and knock him over.
Sprout squirmed slightly as he landed face down in the sand, kicking his stubby legs a few times before ultimately giving up and surrendering to his predicament.
Wraith jeered at his teammate and screeched with delight.
Soren facepalmed, pulling Sprout out of the sand and placing him inside the raft. "Stop laughing, you could have helped him up or something." he groaned.
Soren rolled up his pants legs, wading out into the sea and guiding the raft before climbing into the boat. Spout gurgled, peeking out over the side of the raft to stare at his reflection in the water.
Soren held out his arm and pushed him back towards the middle of the raft. "Stay away from the sides, that's a good way to fall over the side and I don't want to have to fish you out of the ocean."
Sprout shuffled backwards, stumbling his way around to the other side of the raft to peer out at his distorted reflection. The Shroomish let out a soft gurgle and bounced up and down, seemingly amused by the sight of himself.
"Don't do that either," he scolded, prompting the grass type to wobble his way to the middle of the raft and collapse face first in the center of the boat.
Soren rolled his eyes. How did he wind up with such weird Pokemon?
Soren turned his attention from the pouting Shroomish and looked around for Wraith, slightly concerned by the fact that the dragon had disappeared. An aggravated screech made him look up at the sky above. Wraith soared overhead, tailing them until getting distracted by some Wingull flying overhead and chasing after the birds.
"Stop that!" Soren hissed. "Leave the Wingull alone!"
The redhead facepalmed and sighed. Was it too late to make a few trades?
Soren suspected that the water currents were weak, judging by the fact that his raft moved at a painfully slow pace unless he paddled forward.
Whatever the case, five hours of paddling across the sea and they were finally rewarded with the sight of white sandy beach and not a moment too soon due to the ominous cumulonimbus clouds growing in the sky that were beginning to cover the sun and cast shadows over the landscape.
Soren paddled faster to make it to land as soon as he could out of a desire to avoid being out on the water during a thunderstorm. He wasn't entirely sure of the probability of a lightning bolt striking them while they were out on the water nor was he certain how dangerous the electrical current would be to them if a lightning bolt stuck near them. Whatever the case, he wasn't interested in finding out.
Ten minutes and they finally arrived on the shore.
"Alright, time to get out. I have to deflate the raft and pack it away and that requires getting out of the boat." Soren told Sprout, pointing to the beach and prompting the mushroom Pokemon to hop over the side of the raft and onto the sand. Soren followed suit and stepped out onto the beach.
A small wave rolled up on shore and soaked his shoes, eliciting a groan from him. Not the best start to his landing but he didn't dwell on it long. He was just grateful to no longer have to be paddling due to how sore his arms and shoulders were.
Soren threw his backpack down on the ground in front of him and reached for the Poke Ball in his backpack containing his air pump and hooked up the hose to the air pump to the raft.
With a flick of a switch, the pump hummed and the raft gradually started to shrink.
Tiny droplets of rain fell from the sky and rolled down his forehead. Sprout stared up at the sky and bounced up and down, seemingly amused by the light shower while Wraith shrieked in a panic.
"Yeah, I know, the rain is picking up. I still have to put the raft away because I can't just leave it here." Soren grumbled.
Once the raft returned to its flattened shape, Soren rolled it up and tapped a scuffed Poke Ball against the boat. A beam of light flickered from the Poke Ball for a brief second to envelop the deflated boat and pulled it into stasis. He quickly followed suit with his paddle and air pump, storing them within specially marked Poke Balls as well.
He inwardly thanked his teachers for showing his class that Poke Balls could be used for storage because he could only imagine how much time it would have taken to try to cram his raft, air pump, and paddle into his backpack and how heavy it would be to carry around.
In a situation like this, the time saved was invaluable. Lightning flashed in the sky, a loud crack followed the flickers of lightning, and the light rain turned into a torrential downpour.
Sprout stared at the sky completely enraptured by the downpour, practically basking in the raindrops. Wraith, on the other hand, screeched indignantly at the raindrops pelting him and swooped down, clinging to Soren and trying to use the trainer to shield himself.
Soren rolled his eyes. "Afraid of a little water? For shame, you're supposed to be a mighty dragon." he teased.
Wraith hissed at him for the remark and jabbed him in the back with one of his stubby arms that happened to be surprisingly sharp.
"Ow!" Soren grimaced and swatted at Wraith, pushing him away and out into the rain. "Just for that you're braving the rain."
Wraith hissed at him and pressed up against Soren to shield himself from the rain by huddling against his trainer. Or at least he would have if Soren hadn't sidestepped the dive bombing dragon, causing him to land face first in the sand and prompting a smirk from the redhead.
Wraith screeched, spewing sand from his mouth and shooting a death glare at his trainer.
"You won't melt," Soren remarked and gestured towards Sprout who was now bouncing up and down. "Besides, Sprout seems to like it and rain can be fun."
Wraith hissed begrudgingly and hovered in the air despite the driving rain causing him to squint.
Soren motioned for his team and pressed forward. "Come on, let's get moving, we shouldn't be far from the Pokemon Center."
Soren squinted and shielded his face with his hand. The darkness from the cloud cover and the driving rain made it difficult to see, although the occasional flash of lightning lit up their surroundings and revealed the silhouette of buildings on the horizon.
He was getting close.
Boom!
The roar of thunder shook the world around him. Prompting a flinch from both Wraith and Sprout. More flashes. Wraith shrieked and hissed at the lightning bolts flickering overhead while Sprout stopped to stare up at the flashes lighting up the sky above them.
Crack!
Another roar of thunder.
"Don't slow up now," Soren barked, picking up his pace with Dewford in sight.
Being out in a thunderstorm made him a bit anxious, not because he didn't like the storm but due to the realization that any single one of the lightning bolts streaking across the sky could land near them and put them in harm's way.
The sooner they could get out of the elements, the better. Not only was he paranoid about the possibility of a lightning strike but his clothes were drenched from the rain. His tennis shoes sloshed with each step and were absolutely caked with sand which was arguably worse than his shoes being waterlogged. It was going to be incredibly annoying to clean them and dry them out.
Fortunately, the sandy beach had given way to a long, winding boardwalk. He grimaced as he slipped on the wet boards and nearly lost his footing. He stuck his arms out for balance, just barely managing to keep himself from landing flat on his back. Sprout wasn't so lucky due to his awkward shuffle steps and landed flat on his face, prompting mocking screeches from Wraith.
Soren shot him a glare as he helped the mushroom Pokemon back onto his feet.
Crack!
Another rumble of thunder shook the world around them. Whether from the glare or the thunder, Wraith gazed skyward and let out a blood curdling shriek of panic.
Soren gritted his teeth. That was close…far too close for comfort. The storm was practically right above them.
Sprout waddled a few steps and slipped again, landing with a thump . This time Wraith didn't jeer, far too preoccupied by the flickering lightning flashes overhead soon accompanied by even louder crashes of thunder.
Boom!
Soren quickly unclipped both Wraith and Sprout's Poke Balls from his belt. "Alright, to your Poke Balls with both of you," he instructed as he aimed the Poke Balls at them.
Both of his teammates turned to him just as he tapped the button on the front of the devices. In a fraction of a second, Wraith and Sprout were pulled into stasis by a beam of light. Another jagged bolt of lightning flashed above with the bolt descending and striking the silhouette of a building in the distance which prompted Soren to pick up his pace, moving about as fast as he could without slipping as the boardwalk allowed.
It was far past time to seek shelter.
Soren clutched his sides and panted, struggling to catch his breath. His legs ached, his lungs felt like they were on fire, and his heart felt like it was going to burst. Not to mention it was taking every ounce of willpower within him to avoid puking.
He hated running, especially over long distances. He wasn't fast and didn't have the endurance for it but the weather hadn't left him with much choice. Whatever the case, he finally arrived in Dewford and managed to find the Pokemon Center.
Or at least he suspected he found it. The building was at least three times the size of the Pokemon Center of Oldale and twice the size of the facility in Rustboro. Not to mention the Dewford Pokemon Center was far more modern. Instead of the iconic eggshell white exterior and orange roof, Dewford's Pokemon Center was a multiple story resort overlooking multiple amenities - battlefields, tennis courts, a pool.
And that was just he got a glimpse of from the front of the facility.
Soren made his way through the automatic doors. From the looks of things, the inside of Pokemon Center wasn't any less impressive. Golden chandeliers hanging from the ceiling, polished granite tile floors, a gilded Gorbyss fountain in the middle of the massive lobby.
Almost too exotic for him…to the point it made him feel a bit self-conscious walking around tracking in sand from his shoes and letting water drip off of him onto the floor.
He grimaced, face contorting into a scowl. He couldn't help but wonder how he could have been so careless as to not think things through.
However, judging by the wet clothes of some of the people standing in line waiting to drop off their Pokemon for a checkup and sitting in the lobby, he hadn't been the only one scrambling for shelter from the storm which made him feel a little less guilty. He apparently wasn't the only one tracking the beach in with him nor was he the only one getting water on the floor. Not that any of them really should have been doing so but he supposed that was something else entirely.
A squeak snapped him out of his thoughts and made him look around for the source of the noise. A lanky brunette that spent too much time in the sun sitting in the corner giggled, showing her friends – a wiry guy with black hair decked out in official league merch and a short blonde girl in an oversized sweatshirt – something on her PokeNav which prompted them to giggle and squeal.
Another look around the Pokemon Center and he couldn't help but notice the lobby was packed with both tourists and trainers. Almost every seat was taken in the lobby and there were several lines of people waiting to drop their Pokemon off for a checkup or waiting to check if there were any rooms available to stay in.
Soren frowned. He had hoped to request a room so he could dry off, wait out the storm that still showed no signs of letting up anytime soon, and get some rest. But nothing was quite going according to plan. The torrential downpour saw to that, having derailed his initial plans to explore Granite Cave like Kei had recommended.
Seeing how long a wait he would have to endure made him change his plans, relinquishing his spot in line and making his way to the men's restrooms instead.
He needed to dry off, more than he needed a room. He didn't necessarily need one to wait out the downpour. Besides, standing in the frigid air conditioned lobby with soaked clothes wasn't optimal and it was starting to make him shiver. Drying his clothes off and a hot meal were much higher priorities at this point.
Soren took a deep breath as he finally received his order – a large bowl of taco rice. He should have guessed that the wait in the cafeteria would be just as long as the wait in the lobby for a checkup and booking a room.
Fortunately, unlike the wait in the lobby, his clothes weren't soaked from the rain. The hand dryer in the men's restroom had helped remedy that at least to a small degree. His clothes weren't completely dry but slightly damp was better than completely soaked.
Soren wandered around the cafeteria in search of a table to eat at, preferably one that wasn't crowded since he'd prefer not to answer questions about his damp clothes and avoid small talk due to how tired he was. He circled the room a few times before settling on a table near the window with a small group of teens huddled together on the other side.
A stocky guy with teal hair threw his hands up in the air in disbelief. "Ain't no way that's real."
"There's been at least ten videos on Clique Dock about it in the last two months. Not to mention there have been some major channels on We Vent that have covered it recently. How do you explain that?" an athletic blonde girl replied. "Silph Scopes, Flight Risks, Travel Miles, Wanderlust."
"That doesn't mean a thing," the stocky guy laughed. "No one should ever take Silph Scopes or Flight Risks seriously. The slightest breeze and the Silph Scopes team freaks out about how the room is haunted. Flight Risks just runs a bunch of uncorroborated videos where you can't even tell what is happening."
"How do you explain the faces and flashes of light they catch on camera?" a petite girl with blue hair replied.
"Easily faked, edited in, or set up," the stocky guy answered. "Not to mention most of the videos are blurry as all get out. It's like they filmed the place with a potato."
"Besides, you do realize that those travel influencers are sponsored by airlines and transport services, right? They gotta be making a killing off promoting travel with tall tales like this." a lanky guy with silver hair chimed in.
"That still doesn't account for how there isn't anything around them in this video. Even their PokeNav and infrared cameras they used didn't pick up anything else around them." A petite girl with blue hair retorted. "How do you explain that?"
"It could be a ghost type or psychic type causing that," the lanky guy with silver hair replied. "They can levitate things with their telekinetic abilities."
"But there weren't any signs of life around!" the athletic blonde practically shouted. "I'm telling you, it's gotta be haunted."
Soren let out a snort of derision and shook his head. "A little old for ghost stories, aren't you?"
Both the lanky and stocky teens grinned, pointing at Soren and flashing him a thumbs up. "See, he gets it!"
The petite girl's nose wrinkled and the blonde's eyebrows narrowed. "It sounds crazy but how would you explain that no Pokemon are detected by those that have seen lights and their camp equipment lift up into the air?"
"Plenty of explanations that don't involve ghost stories." Soren replied.
"Except their PokeNav never indicated anything around them and infrared equipment didn't show any signs of life!" the girls repeated.
Soren rolled his eyes. Any trainer worth their salt knew that ghost, dark, and psychic types could conceal their presence with a blend of illusions and distortional energy fields.
"That doesn't mean much to me because they aren't completely infallible due to them not picking up signatures well in various environments." he chided. "Besides, there are a lot of Sableye and Abra in Granite Cave."
"Like I said, Sableye or Abra!" the stocky guy exclaimed.
"Nothing more to it," the lanky guy added.
"Yes, there's very rational explanations for something like this." Soren agreed.
"I dunno, how about you take a look at this and tell us what you think." the girls replied before sliding the tablet across the table towards Soren. "Skip to the three minute mark of the Silph Scopes video."
Soren groaned at the mention of paranormal themed channel but glanced down and tapped the touchscreen of the tablet to play the video regardless. A quick swipe of his finger across the screen fast forwarded to video to the specific time he wanted.
Number four…film resistant phantoms!
Slow, ominous music started to play in the background as the video panned to a night vision video of the caverns, prompting a smirk from Soren. He had to give the channel props for setting up a suspenseful atmosphere in the video.
May 15th – thirty year old Castelia City wildlife biologist Harvey Spence and twenty-eight year old filmmaker Haruka Lynette are on an expedition through Granite Cave to finish their upcoming nature documentary Networking. Just as they set up their equipment and drop some bait in hopes of luring in wildlife to film, the unthinkable occurs…
The exuberant narrator went silent as footage played of the lights they mounted on the cavern walls and several of their tripod cameras lifting up into the air and hovering around in front of the filmmakers before being thrown to the ground.
Despite having PokeNav and infrared equipment active in hopes of seeing wildlife, the filmmakers say their equipment failed to detect anything when their equipment levitated and was thrown down mysteriously.
"And skip to number seven at around the five minute mark." the blonde girl said.
Soren nodded and slid his finger across the screen to cause the video to fast forward to the five minute mark.
Number seven…the walls live. June 1st – eighteen year old trainer, Hina Yamato, records pieces of the walls of Granite Cave seemingly coming to life.
The narrator went silent again and the ominous music played louder as shaky, grainy camera footage played revealing chunks of rock separating from the wall and ceiling of the cave and flying towards the camera as the girl filming let out a loud shriek.
"It doesn't get much clearer than that, does it?" the petite blue-haired girl remarked.
Soren paused the video and raised an eyebrow. He had to admit he was intrigued even if he still didn't believe Granite Cave was haunted. "Oh, man, you're not kidding," he replied, feigning a gasp. "I mean, what else could that be?"
The stocky and lanky guys gave him a perplexed look. "You can't possibly believe that it's haunted."
Soren shook his head and slid the tablet back across the table to the group. "Seems pretty legitimate to me. If there was nothing detected and the part of the cavern was relatively open like that…" he replied, pausing for a moment like he was carefully measuring his words. "You can't chalk that up to a misread by the equipment."
The stocky and lanky teens' eyes widened and their faces paled. "I mean, now that you mention it that is kind of weird..."
It took Soren every bit of willpower not to laugh as the teens began to talk amongst themselves again – with the entire group completely convinced that Granite Cave was haunted. It was underhanded and dirty to trick them like that, but he had his reasons. Something was definitely in Granite Cave, although it definitely wasn't a ghost. More than likely there were strong psychic types or ghost types in Granite Cave with a knack for telekinesis. They clearly weren't strong enough to directly attack people or lift them up, but were definitely strong enough to impact their surroundings.
And right now, he could use a psychic type especially since he had a gym battle with Brawly coming up. Wraith, Sprout, and a psychic? It would definitely tip the scales of his gym challenge in his favor. Brawly favored fighting types and close combat, attempting to overwhelm his challengers with speed and raw power. Wraith took away that advantage with his ability to hover and fly, Sprout could keep his distance and douse his fighters with spores, and a psychic type could confuse them or keep them at a distance with telekinesis.
Not to mention, he needed something with a more conventional battling style due to the limitations of Wraith and Sprout.
Soren shoveled taco rice into his mouth, attempting to finish his food as fast as he could. Fortunately for him, no one else seemed to realize what they were missing out on and he wasn't about to let anyone else beat him to the punch. Granite Cave was waiting for him and potentially a new addition to the team.