That was a very close call.
Even in the muted world of Phantom Force, safe from the wrath of the angry volcarona, Dolly could not help but shudder everytime she imagined what would have happened to them if she were a little slower in invoking this move.
Really, who would have expected that such a monster would be residing in the depths of this deserted place?
Phantom Force had been a move that she had been diligently practising ever since Looker had demonstrated to them the practical usages of this move. As a banette, she had no need for rest or sleep thanks to her Insomnia ability and it is an aspect of her that she exploited to great effect whenever she set her mind on a goal. Every single night, without fail, she had been continuously honing her mastery over both Shadow Sneak and Phantom Force when everyone else was asleep. She's glad that her hard work had paid off because if she were a little slower, Velda might…
She really doesn't want to dwell on that.
Even as a ghost herself Dolly had no idea just what kind of world she entered whenever she invoked Phantom Force. She's never the type to ponder over such matters. All she knew was that in this muted world, the inhabitants here can observe the world outside without being detected. This muted world would eventually eject any and all inhabitants and only ghosts can safely stay here for prolonged periods of time. The length of the duration of the stay here can be prolonged depending on the user's mastery over Phantom Force, but that's really about all there is to know about this strange place.
Currently, it's getting gradually taxing for her to prolong the duration of their stay here in this muted world. From within this separate plane they could see that the volcarona was still searching for them out there in the plane of reality that they originated from, although it seems that the volcarona was steadily being convinced that they might have already been burnt to ashes since it still couldn't find neither hide nor hair of them. Dolly had already shifted their physical location to a small hidden room that revealed itself when the wall of the large hall where they were fighting earlier cracked a little. Like this, even if they were ejected from the muted world eventually, the chances of them being detected by the volcarona would be reduced to the minimum.
Dolly glanced back at Velda as worry continued to weigh on her mind. It's getting steadily obvious that it was getting harder and harder for Velda to breathe properly in here because the air in this world is just so thin. The special suit that Velda wore had an oxygen mask function that could ease this problem to a certain extent, but that's not a long term solution.
They couldn't stay here in this muted world forever.
Dolly watched as the volcarona slowly flew back to the top of the ceiling, perching itself there and slowly going still. It's probably going back to sleep after believing that they were gone. Darkness had also enveloped the large hall once again after the flames of the volcarona had gone out. Despite that, Dolly wouldn't allow herself to be fooled because the volcarona's senses were unbelievably sharp. They will have to wait until the volcarona was truly in deep sleep before she dared to release Velda out back into the original world.
That volcarona is too fearsomely powerful and she will not gamble her trainer's well-being on a wild guess.
Dolly paced about worriedly, sneaking glances at her trainer every now and then, because even if she could continue to hold them here in this muted world Velda's body might not be able to hold out until then even with the oxygen mask. Already, Velda had sat down at the corner of the hidden room, visibly trying to control her breathing and regulate the amount of oxygen she would need with every breath. It seems that the oxygen levels that her mask was able to provide had started to hit rock bottom and that's not good news.
What to do what to do what to do-
She took a glance back out in the original world. It seems that Wacky had managed to protect the eleven humans that they were originally here for and somehow or another, that nut case had also managed to keep them out of volcarona's detection for the moment. Wacky was still floating about the room cautiously, obviously trying to search for them while not alerting the sleeping volcarona who might wake up at the slightest hint of noise or movement. Wacky is not capable of learning Phantom Force so the only way it can come in here would be if Dolly allowed him entry.
Velda had also seen what Dolly had seen. Dolly saw how Velda narrowed her eyes in concentration before she suddenly felt Velda's thoughts entering her own mind. It's a very interesting facet of Velda's ability that they all recently discovered. Somehow or another, Velda was able to directly project her thoughts to ghosts through her newly discovered Ability. Whenever that happens, they couldn't hear a single word of what Velda's thinking in her mind but somehow, they could all somehow understand what she wanted to let them know.
Currently, they could only understand very simple instructions she mentally conveyed to them but Dolly believed that given time Velda might just be able to communicate with them telepathically on a level that Rena could do with their trainer.
There's a crack in the wall on your left. We are in the room behind that crack.
Those were the thoughts Dolly heard from Velda and she watched curiously as Wacky abruptly paused in his tracks. Dolly tilted her head in thought. Wacky could actually hear Velda even when they were separated in a parallel plane?
Interesting.
Wacky phased through the wall and finally found the room Velda was talking about. Of course, he still couldn't find them since Dolly's hiding Velda with Phantom Force.
We are hiding with Phantom Force
A look of realisation crossed Wacky's face at the exact same moment Dolly heard Velda's thoughts. Having nothing better to do for the moment, Wacky simply chose to lie down on the floor and began to… nap.
Even as a fellow ghost herself, Dolly was unsure if Wacky's simply that fearless or if he's simply too dumb to comprehend the kind of danger that they were currently in.
Dolly had no idea how much time had passed since Wacky had decided to take a nap in the volcarona's lair, but she's starting to really feel the strain of maintaining her hold over Phantom Force. This muted world was starting to resist their presence here and was trying to eject them back to where they came from with increasing persistence.
Dolly took another look at the huge shadowy figure hanging at the top of the ceiling of the large room. That volcarona… it's in deep sleep, right? Surely it would be safe for them to go back out now?
Dolly felt a finger tapping her back and immediately turned around. It was Velda, and to Dolly's worry she's starting to really struggle to breathe with how thin the air here was. However, her thoughts were interrupted when she saw just what Velda had pointed at.
From where they were, they could make out the vague shadowy outlines of two people entering the room as silently as they could. It took a short while for Dolly to confirm their identities but hey, aren't those two Skye and the detestable Dark Specialist? They aren't weak by any means. With the two of them around, they could at least attempt to make an escape even if they couldn't defeat that volcarona.
Wacky, wake up!
Dolly heard Velda's mental shout through their mental link and watched gleefully when Wacky was rudely interrupted from his nap and shot up comically, now wide awake. Under Velda's instruction, he carefully crept out of the room to beckon their two allies to converge onto their location.
Just in time too. Guess it's time for her to release them back to their original world.
"Run RUN RUN!"
We don't need to be told twice when Jayce shouted at the top of his lungs for us to hurry and go. The volcarona had woken up and was now adamant on burning us into unrecognisable piles of ash.
Quite a few things had happened after Dolly and I spotted Jayce and Skye entering the hall where volcarona slept in. We managed to reconvene, hid ourselves in the secret room Dolly and I had discovered, and I managed to convey to them what I learnt about the volcarona without waking that monstrous moth up.
We soon came up with the barebones of a plan with some brainstorming, if we could even call it that. Skye was a Ranger, rescue is her specialty. With my ghosts, scouting and mapping out the place was child's play. Jayce is a Dark Specialist and an espionage expert, so stealth is his bread and butter.
In the end, we managed to get close enough to come into contact with the Plasmas and hostages who had miraculously survived till now and slowly led them to another exit that Wacky had located for us. Everything was proceeding smoothly until a certain clumsy Plasma grunt accidentally kicked a pebble underneath his foot, twice. We got lucky the first time, but when that grunt kicked another pebble the second time, that woke volcarona up instantly.
Today is just not my day.
With the volcarona now wide awake we had no choice but to fall back on our Plan B, which is to simply book it and run, leading us back to our current situation. At the other end of the exit was a long corridor spacious enough for Skye to release her dragonite, which immediately grabbed all of the Plasma grunts and hostages in its arms as Skye easily climbed up on her dragonite's back with practised ease.
"COME ON! HURRY!"
I tried running to where Skye was a fair distance away who was anxiously waiting for us to hurry and reach her and her dragonite. Really, I tried, but physical fitness had never been my strong point with this weak body of mine. I only could release Kel and my ghosts out with me when we were trying to creep our way out. I don't even have the chance to release Flamel out of his pokeball because the volcarona could easily catch up to me and kill me even before I could do so and climb up on his back, that's just how hot the chase is right now.
Thus, the only thing I could do is to try and run with my own two legs.
The shadows around me swirled and rose and I knew Dolly was trying to shift me in a last ditch attempt to get me out of danger. Unfortunately, that was not meant to be. A swift blade of wind would have cut me into two even before Shadow Sneak could take effect if it wasn't for Jayce pulling me aside at the very last second. He had just saved my life and pulled me out from the jaws of death, quite literally.
I didn't even have time to mutter a thank you to him when the entire castle was beginning to tremble and shake as if an earthquake had struck. Rubble was starting to fall all around us and I wouldn't be surprised if the entire ruin would collapse right here and now.
"SKYE! JUST GO! GO! WE WILL FIND ANOTHER WAY OUT! GO!"
Jayce had come to a decision even before I did, shouting at Skye to hurry and go and to leave us behind. I cannot find fault with his decision. In fact, I inwardly agreed that this was probably the best course of action to take right now because this way, at the very least, Skye and the hostages could get out of here alive. There's no point in having her stay back and try to assist us when the difference between our combined strength and this monstrous volcarona was this huge. If even Jayce had no confidence in taking it down with all three of us here, then our priority should be trying to make an escape rather than trying to defeat it.
Skye obviously hesitated but in the end, also realised that this was really the best course of action she could take right now. Her dragonite turned away and took off, flying off towards the other end of the dark corridor while Jayce and I stayed back behind to delay the volcarona and hopefully not get killed in the process. Fortunately, the corridor was spacious enough for the both of us to release our entire team, especially after how the volcarona melted one entire section of the wall down just to meet us face-to-face. Compared to this monstrosity, Ajika's volcarona suddenly seemed so much cuter in comparison.
Dolly, Wacky, try Destiny Bond
Destiny Bond was really our last hope in bringing down this monster and to avoid a direct confrontation with it. I watched as the two of them tried linking their fates to volcarona only to have that tether of connection forcefully severed through volcarona's sheer force of will in the next second, causing both of them to reel back from the mental recoil and hurriedly rejoin our side.
The things that this volcarona had proved to be capable of are leaving the realms of unthinkable and entering the realms of inconceivable. Destiny Bond can be forcefully shaken off? How? What are the prerequisites for it to happen? Does the world even know that such a feat is possible?
"Plan C. I will be decoy, you make a run for it, find another way out," I heard Jayce telling me as he commanded his team to hold the volcarona back. Truth to be told, I was a little touched at his gesture because we all knew that whoever was unlucky enough to be left behind as a decoy would very likely not return back alive. I cannot claim that we knew each other very well and we had definitely started off on the wrong foot, but I really appreciated the thought when I understood the hidden meaning behind his words. He's risking his life to try and save mine.
I'm not a brave person and I'm very afraid of this overgrown moth, but running away right now and leaving him alone in the face of danger would be a very cowardly and dastardly thing to do. I couldn't in good conscience just leave him here to die and live with that guilt gnawing at me for the rest of my life.
"Shadow Sneak doesn't work on this overgrown moth. Trust me, I tried. It either disrupts the move before it can take effect, or somehow is able to predict our next position. Our chances of survival are higher if we band together," I gave him a lousy excuse of why I couldn't just leave him behind and run and instead, chose to release the remaining pokemon who I had not yet released out for battle. If he saw through my lie, he did not point it out.
"So, what's our grand plan? You were the Exterminator, right? Your job scope included pest extermination, I hope?" I asked somewhat cheekily, because it's not everyday I get to poke fun at one of the most dangerous men alive and get away with it.
"Unfortunately, I didn't bring any insecticide along this time."
Hey, he actually had a sense of humour, who knew?
"That's actually really funny, but I can't find it within myself to laugh right now," I replied while trying my best to hold back the laughter that was threatening to escape my lips when he made that witty reply. It was at this moment that volcarona made its next move, releasing a huge wall of flames in our direction.
"Watch out, it's coming. Bigblue!"
Bigblue showed why he's one of the best defensive battlers in my team alongside Lily when he effortlessly casted a powerful barrier of Protect in the blink of an eye, protecting us all from harm. Even so, we could all still feel the heat of those flames.
"This motherfucking moth, it is even more powerful than Giovanni's monsters."
"That bad? Yikes," I cannot help but wince when Jayce made that remark. Giovanni was not only a Gym Leader, because prior to becoming the Viridian Gym Leader he was a member of Indigo's Elite Four. If this volcarona is stronger than Giovanni's pokemon then it could only mean that this volcarona is minimally a Champion-level pokemon.
And that damn Plasma grunt just had to wake such a monster up when we were trying to sneak our way out.
"I'm skinning that Plasma bastard alive if we get out of here, you want in?" As if reading my inner thoughts, Jayce asked me a question that I cannot help but agree with.
"Gladly. I want a piece of him too."
A weird sense of camaraderie formed between us at this moment. Be it interpol agent and Rocket Executive, or two opposing bidders at an underground auction, fellow reincarnated souls and members of the prophesied Seven Sages, heiress and heir of our respective families, or me and the EDGE operative beside me right now. It doesn't matter which side we stood on or are standing on right now nor does it matter even if we were once enemies that were out for each other's blood. Right now, we both know that we can trust our backs to each other in order to grasp for a chance for survival and make our escape out of here.
"Velda, hold onto my arm and don't let go. From here onwards, don't trust your eyes, only trust what you touch. Zoroark! NOW!"
I decided to entrust my life and the lives of my pokemon to him even before I realised it myself. I gripped onto his arm tightly the moment I heard his words and the view in front of me changed. There were noticeable differences to our environment in our immediate vicinity. Obstacles that weren't there previously suddenly appeared out of thin air and objects that were there previously mysteriously vanished. More noticeably, bright blots of light manifested in random spots in the vicinity and started to flash erratically, bright enough to make anyone's head spin if you stared directly at it. I immediately understood that Jayce's zoroark must have used its illusionary abilities in an attempt to disorient volcarona's senses and take advantage of its hypersensitivity to bright flashes of light, a suspicion that Jayce confirmed when I heard his voice whispering into my ear.
"Tell your espeon to pass down the message to move, tell it to use its psychic abilities to get an accurate lock on your location and get your pokemon to follow after you," Jayce whispered and even before I could say a single thing, lifted me up and slung me over his shoulder in a shoulder carry before sprinting away from the volcarona. As uncomfortable as my current position is, I decided to just accept it because beggars can't be choosers in this life threatening situation.
'Rena.'
I immediately conveyed my instructions to Rena and received an affirmation from her. With her around my team would be able to coordinate with each other even if our sense of sight can no longer be trusted due to Jayce's zoroark. Its illusory abilities is a double-edged sword because friends and foes alike will be affected whenever its illusions were being casted. I have no doubt that Jayce's pokemon can still function at full capacity even with these illusions around but my pokemon definitely couldn't. We never had a chance to work alongside that zoroark until now and this is our first time working under the effects of an illusion.
Still, that doesn't mean that we couldn't contribute a single thing in our fight against the volcarona.
'Get Lily and Kratos to blockade the path behind us.'
Rena conveyed my instructions to them instantly. Walls of rocks and hardened earth shut off the path behind us as we continued to make our getaway. We couldn't see the volcarona anymore but even then, none of us dared to let our guard down. We continued to make our mad dash without daring to slow down in the slightest.
Unfortunately, our attempts to stall the volcarona did not buy us much time. It soon reappeared by physically crashing itself through the wall on our right, putting itself in between us and our escape route. Now if we want to forge ahead, we will have to first find a way to get past it.
Jayce and I reacted almost at the same time the moment volcarona made its vengeful reappearance.
"Hydreigon!"
"Kratos!"
Our strongest fighters threw themselves at the volcarona upon our command. It was a little difficult trying to observe the battle up ahead with how Jayce was slinging me across his shoulder like a sack of rice and the only thing I could properly observe from my position was actually his ass. Admittedly, the tight EDGE bodysuit that he's wearing did little to hide his nicely shaped ass and if anybody asked, I blame my current physical age and puberty for having these inappropriate thoughts despite the current situation that we were in right now.
Fortunately, I had long since passed the mental age of fawning over guys, so after sparing only a single second to appreciate the nice ass in front of me my mind snapped back to working order and commanded my team to work alongside Jayce's in a desperate effort to stay alive. Jayce's ninetales defended us all from harm when volcarona released another scorching wave of flames that might have killed us all when the fox pokemon sucked in the entirety of the flames with its Flash Fire ability. However, even for a ninetales as powerful as it, there's a limit to how much fire it can absorb in a short amount of time before it overheats itself, especially so when a Champion-level volcarona was the one releasing those flames. We cannot rely on the ninetales to bail us out of danger whenever volcarona unleashes its flames indiscriminately.
We need a better plan.
Jayce's pikachu lit itself up in a blinding flash of light after it somehow managed to appear right in front of volcarona's face, causing the volcarona to screech in pain and thrash about in a violent fit. It was our chance.
"Stone Edge!"
Stone Edge is a move that almost every pokemon of mine mastered for those who were capable of learning this move. It's a powerful move to use against this volcarona because of its Bug-Fire dual typing and we knew we scored a critical hit when our attacks hit the volcarona when it was momentarily defenceless. Jayce's pokemon wasted no time in capitalising on this opportunity as well, immediately assaulting the volcarona with a relentless barrage of Dark Pulse.
This brief opportunity that Jayce's pikachu caught for us cannot go to waste. Our goal here was not to defeat the volcarona but rather to escape, and I already had an idea of how we might be able to do it.
"Ness, find a spot to dig out of here!"
Ness wasted no time in putting my plan into action, picking a spot relatively safe from the battle ahead to start digging through the granite flooring. Ness shimmered out of view about a second later and I immediately knew that Jayce's zoroark must have hid Ness with its illusions. With Shadown Sneak and Teleport becoming non-viable options of escape and the volcarona physically blocking our only route out of the underground, right now, Ness is our only hope in getting out of here and thus, she must be protected from the volcarona. This was something that Jayce and his pokemon obviously understood as well.
"Digging a way out will take some time. We need to hold this moth off for as long as we can, I can go mega," I offered, knowing that the power that this volcarona wielded was way beyond our comprehension and common sense. It would take some time for Ness to finish digging our escape route so until then, we have no other choice but to be forced into a fight with the volcarona. We might stand a chance in defeating it if someone like Volkner was around but that annoying man is not here right now. If so, a mega-evolved Kratos might be the only thing we can rely on if we had no other choice but to slug it out with the volcarona in a contest of strength, even if I can only assist Kratos in maintaining his mega-evolved form for a maximum of one minute. We don't really have any other choice left.
"Not now, only when absolutely necessary," Jayce disagreed with a slight shake of his head. I decided to adhere to his decision since he's the expert among us two here.
Despite our progress we were only able to suppress the volcarona for a brief moment. Things got bad for us very quickly when volcarona unleashed a fiery surge of flames alongside a powerful Bug Buzz. The only reason why we weren't dead was because Jayce's exeggutor had managed to block the worst of it but even then, many of our pokemon had been defeated by that one attack. The only silver lining I could confirm was that none of our pokemon were killed when we had no choice but to swiftly recall them back to their pokeballs.
"We are so fucked."
"I agree. We are fucked," Jayce agreed before asking me another question. "Is your nidoqueen done?"
"Soon," I replied when I received a reply from Rena. Thankfully, she managed to defend herself from the volcarona's attack earlier and was still able to contribute to the battle. My pokemon and I would be very handicapped otherwise since she was our only reliable means of communication, especially with zoroark's illusion still active.
"I can't remember the last time I was pushed this far by a wild pokemon. I think I need to go on a training trip soon after this and devise an anti-volcarona battle plan," Jayce's grumbling brought me back to reality and I cannot help but sass him.
"Oh, is this your cliche anime training trip time skip arc?"
"You are an anime fan?"
"Kinda. You?" I asked, a little hopeful that he's one as well because it's been a long time since I could share some inside jokes with someone like myself. Nova and Skye weren't anime fans.
"No, not really, but enough to know the memes when I saw them."
"Damn, and here I thought we could share some inside jokes," I sighed before trying to take a better look at the battle occurring behind me because Jayce was still slinging me across his shoulder. "Anyway, are you going to continue to sling me like this like a sack of potatoes? The only thing I can see is your ass even if it's a fine one."
"Do you think you can run faster than the volcarona?"
"No."
"Do you have any other pokemon other than your rapidash that you can ride on?"
"No."
"Then suck it up and deal with it. With your abysmal fitness and your rapidash knocked out, how else am I going to carry you out of here while keeping at least one hand free to command my pokemon?"
"Um, power of friendship?" I weakly offered, knowing that he had a point when even Flamel was defeated by that Bug Buzz earlier despite the type advantage he theoretically held over that volcarona. Without Flamel around to act as my legs, it would be difficult for me to move around in such a situation.
"Screw that shit."
There it is, the rude reply I was expecting from him after all the sass and cheeky replies I gave him.
Thankfully, Ness didn't keep us waiting for long and our remaining pokemon was able to hold the volcarona back and prevent it from killing us all until then. I never felt so relieved when Ness finally popped her head back up from the ground, signalling and gesturing to us wildly from her position that she's finally done with burrowing a way out of here.
"You see that?" I pointed in Ness' direction. Jayce simply nodded his head once.
"Yeah, but first, we need to make sure that the volcarona cannot follow after us or we are screwed. Tell your nidoqueen to close up the hole right after we enter, zoroark's illusions can only last for so long once he relishes control over it. My team will push it back, so can I count on you to lock it in place once that happens? Your pokemon seems proficient enough with rock type moves to do so."
"Let's do this," I agreed.
"Right. Once complete, prepare to recall your pokemon, anytime now."
Jayce's hydreigon unleashed a tremendously powerful Dragon Pulse and I knew that that was the signal. I had already conveyed the plan to my remaining pokemon through Rena earlier, so there wasn't any delay as my pokemon followed up on hydreigon's attack and conjured pillars of stone from our surroundings, swiftly interlocking with each other in so many layers to such a complicated extent that even a pokemon as powerful as that volcarona would need to exert a considerable amount of time and effort before it could ever break free from its restraints, just enough for us to make our great escape.
"Now!"
I immediately recalled every single pokemon of mine that was still out there except for Dolly and Ness the moment Jayce made the call. I could see zoroark's illusions taking form and I knew better than to trust my eyes in such a situation. Jayce was still carrying me and I felt him running before making a leap and adjusted his hold over me so that I would not accidentally hit anything as we dropped down the hole that Ness had dug which I couldn't see through the illusions, feeling gravity taking hold of us as we descended downwards for a few seconds before all light disappeared. We eventually landed and a dim shine relit our surroundings, courtesy of Jayce's pikachu from where it was perching on the top of the helmet that Jayce was wearing. Now, I'm certain that we are no longer under the influence of zoroark's illusions. We are now in the tunnel that Ness had dug for us.
"I can walk by myself now," I reminded Jayce, who finally let me down from his shoulder in the cramped underground space we found ourselves in. Down here, there's barely enough space for the both of us and the few pokemon we chose to not recall back into their pokeballs.
"You mean crawl."
I rolled my eyes in slight exasperation when I saw Jayce pointing to the tunnel right ahead, no doubt dug by Ness for our use. Right where we were, it's still spacious enough for us to stand if we squeeze a little and our bodies pressed awkwardly together, but the tunnel Jayce was pointing at was only big enough for one of us to crawl through with our hands and feet at any one time. Unlike nidokings, nidoqueens aren't very big in size and Ness wasn't exactly the biggest of her species either. Compared to other nidoqueens she's rather average in size, so it made sense that the tunnel she dug in a hurry could only be so big.
I'm not going to complain. I'm just glad that we managed to escape that volcarona at all. Still, we need to hurry. There's no telling when it might accidentally discover that we had hid ourselves deep underground given the long list of ridiculous things it had proved itself to be capable of thus far.
Jayce had very kindly let me go first with a silent universal gesture of ladies first. I'm sure that he had kind intentions when he did that, but I had a very different concern.
"You go first," I offered awkwardly instead and when it was obvious that he didn't understand why I said that, I decided to explain myself.
"I don't know how long this tunnel is, but I know that it's going to be very uncomfortable for me if a man stares at my ass from behind me for the entire duration we are going to crawl our way out of here."
I could imagine Jayce rolling his eyes even with the visor of his helmet blocking my view of his face after I said that.
"So says the person who was blatantly staring at my ass when we were fighting for our lives back there, and now you are finding another excuse to continue staring at my ass?"
"It was a nice view," I shrugged my shoulders and admitted honestly.
"Fine," Jayce sighed, "but have your nidoqueen lead the way forward. I will follow behind it."
I gave Ness a silent nod and she lumbered towards the tunnel, swiftly entering and disappearing in it. Jayce followed suit before I got onto my hands and feet and crawled into it as well with Dolly floating behind me. Jayce's pikachu did a good job in providing a source of light for us to observe our surroundings the entire time and I'm glad that I had him go into the tunnel before I did. It was a rather long crawl, and if Jayce was the one behind me for the entire duration staring at my behind like I was forced to do so at him for the entire length of time we were crawling our way through the tunnel, it really would have felt rather uncomfortable even if I knew Jayce wouldn't harbour any perverse intentions.
We were climbing at a slight gradient upwards so I figured that Ness must have somehow tunnelled into a floor or two above. It was getting a little tiring for me halfway through the crawl, to the point I had to take a brief pause of rest every now and then before resuming. By then, the distance between Jayce and I was starting to get a little huge. Jayce probably had sensed that I couldn't keep up because I could tell that he stopped in his tracks as well whenever I had to stop and catch a break, and also because he had obviously slowed his speed down as well in order to wait for me to catch up. His pikachu was our only source of light here, it was easy to tell when he was moving, when he was staying still, and the change in speed at which he was crawling at. It was quite considerate of him.
We finally emerged from the tunnel after what felt like forever. I greedily took in a deep breath of fresh air when I finally popped my head out from the exit of the tunnel. Jayce offered me a hand, which I gratefully accepted his help as he pulled me out of there as I finally got to stand on my own two feet in an unknown room.
"Where on earth are we now?" I asked while dusting myself off.
"How would I know? Ask your nidoqueen."
We continued walking ahead on the only path we could find, one that led upwards to what I hoped would lead us out of the Relic Castle. We both released a few more pokemon out with us who did not faint from the battle with the volcarona earlier as we walked side by side. Jayce's pikachu continues to act as our source of light as it continuously emits a faint glow while Lily, Dolly, and Ness accompanied me. I wanted Dolly to Shadow Sneak us out of this place now that the volcarona was not in our way, but after seeing how obviously fatigued Dolly was I decided otherwise.
"Do you think the Plasmas were here because they knew about the volcarona?" I cannot help but ask the man beside me when such a thought suddenly crossed my mind. If this was the reason why they were here then things will be a lot trickier than it already was.
"Unlikely. If they knew, they would send someone much more capable instead of those stupid goons."
"Maybe they knew a volcarona is here, just not expecting it to be that powerful?" I suggested instead because Jayce had a point. It is a well-known fact among trainers that a full grown volcarona is always a force to be reckoned with and I don't think it's by chance that Team Plasma made an appearance in the middle of the desert.
"There were a few among those seven that are somewhat capable, enough to give me some trouble, just that their pokemon easily got their ass whipped the moment they accidentally woke the volcarona up," I further explained when I realised that Jayce obviously doubted that they were here specifically for the volcarona. Jayce eventually conceded and agreed that I made a valid point too.
This wasn't certainly how I imagined the both of us would bond as fellow "Sages" but I have to admit, it really wasn't that bad in retrospect. At the very least, we both made it out alive together with our pokemon and we got to witness how powerful a volcarona could grow to be despite how terrifying it was when it was out to kill us. I'd also like to think that we both grew a little closer as friends after this harrowing encounter with a Champion-level monster.
Maybe I should consider getting my hands on a volcarona too? Unova's laws are rather strict when it comes to exporting their native pokemon out of the region and even more so for the volcarona species but… with my family's backing it might not be as impossible as it seems. As far as I'm aware nobody in the world has successfully managed to breed volcaronas in captivity. Bug types are known to have a rapid growth cycle, often being capable of achieving evolution and reaching maturity much faster and sooner than any other types of pokemon. There will always be anomalies to the norm, however, and it just so happens that volcarona is one of those anomalies among Bug types.
From what little I knew, larvesta takes years to naturally grow and evolve into a volcarona. Even assuming that a capable trainer is able to get a larvesta to somehow evolve before it turns a year old, that species of pokemon does not fully mature into an adult until it's around five years of age and only then will it be ready for breeding. That's a very slow rate of growth for Bug types. Bug types are known for their more frequent and shorter breeding cycles, but the breeding cycle of the volcarona species deviates from the norm with their breeding cycle being approximately once every two years and furthermore, the number of larvesta born from each batch of breeding cycle usually do not number more than five. Sometimes, only one or two larvestas are born from each breeding cycle and not all of them survive long enough to reach adulthood. Volcaronas may be fearsome monsters but they are also equally fragile at the larvesta stage, only truly gaining power that can rival even dragons after achieving evolution.
To my knowledge the only successful cases of breeding volcaronas with any semblance of human interference were volcaronas which live in very heavily guarded nature reserves in Unova but those don't qualify as pokemon bred in captivity; it's just that the Unova League strictly forbade the public from ever visiting the area in which they lived and that really is the extent of human interference. Those volcaronas are wild pokemon.
The above listed reasons are factors why that species of pokemon are so few in numbers to the point of becoming a highly endangered species, but if my family somehow managed it…
Now that's going to bring in business.
Yup, it's settled. The issue of whether my family would succeed in breeding volcaronas aside, I'm definitely going to look for a way to legally import volcaronas back into my family's farm the moment I have some free time on my hands.
I'm sure my parents would love the challenge, especially Dad.
Character and pokemon list:
Velda Vera, Age: 14, Female, Pokemon Trainer, Member of the International Police
Pokemon on hand:
1) Rapidash (Flamel), male
2) Swampert (Bigblue), male
3) Banette (Dolly), female
4) Flygon (Snap), male
5) Absol (Kelsa), female
6) Charizard (Toothless), male
7) Cradily (Lily), female
8) Espeon (Rena), female
9) Pachirisu (Fuzzy), male
10) Tyranitar (Kratos), male
11) Clefairy (Joy), female
12) Nidoqueen (Ness), female
13) Pangoro (Hulk), male
14) Porygon-Z (Jarvis), genderless
15) Scizor (Archer), male
16) Lapras (Chill), female
17) Gengar (Wacky), male