"Hm?" I was surprised upon looking at the sign at the entrance of the Cable Car Station, "...'The Cable Car Station has been closed temporarily for personal reasons. Please return after a few days and we apologize for the inconvenience.' That's weird..."
Well, that's inconvenient...
"Lows!" Someone calling my name definitely caught my attention. I looked behind me and noticed it was Regis, the trainer I battled in the Verdanturf Battle Tent tournament.
"Regis, it's been a while." I nodded.
"Why are you just standing here?" Regis was confused.
I pointed at the closed entrance and the sign for Regis. He quickly glanced through the sign and groaned, "That's not flightful."
"Yeah, it's gonna be hard getting to Lavaridge."
"I thought the Cable Car Station rarely closes down. Something serious must've happened."
"Perhaps." I agreed.
"I mean, we can always try to go through the desert to see where that takes us," Regis suggested.
"I'm not too sure if it'll work well. Besides, the sandstorm there would definitely hurt my eyes."
"I mean... we gotta get through here, somehow! Time is running out for us to collect Gym Badges. A few days would take a toll on us." He seemed to be a little impatient.
"That's true," I said, my mind already thinking about how awkward it would be to meet Cassie again if I returned to Mauville.
"It can't be helped, then!" Regis sighed before taking out a Pokéball and sending out his Swellow, Tsubasa.
"Hmm?" I was confused.
"We gotta find our own way to the town! I'm planning to get Tsubasa to give us a flight straight there! Fast and convenient."
"You sure? I heard that the weather up ahead won't be pretty." My confusion turned into worry as he suggested that.
"As my uncle's nephew once said, a flight wouldn't be a flight without its surprises! We just gotta fly forward and see how it goes."
"It's still risky to do so..." I said, "besides, isn't your uncle's nephew-"
"Let's not care too much about the details." He cut me off before I could voice out my question, seemingly ready to have Tsubasa give him a flight, "You wanna join along? If you trust us, that is."
"Well..." I was conflicted. Sure, it definitely wouldn't take long, but that's dangerous! Besides, I had never really taken a flight on a Flying type before...
Suddenly, Tsubasa flew towards Regis, slamming its trainer towards the back of a big boulder. Before I could react to what happened, Tsubasa did the same to me as well.
I got up in confusion, "What was that for?"
Regis got up, confused at first before locking eyes with Tsubasa for a moment. After that, he immediately sent the Swellow back to its Pokéball and hid behind the boulder.
"I think he sensed some noise coming from the Cable Car Station and thought it was weird," Regis explained.
"It could be the workers just checking over some stuff before leaving..." As I said that, I followed suit just in case.
Before Regis could reply, we heard footsteps coming from the Cable Car Station and took a peek. The automatic door was currently opened, as two men walked out of the station, seemingly having a discussion.
The letter "W" enmarked in their clothing was what caught my attention. Immediately, it came to my realization that the closing of the station was definitely stranger than I thought. It definitely had something to do with Team Willpower.
Regis seemed to sense my change of expression as he stayed quiet and listened to the conversation with me.
One of the grunts said, "Yo, what even is the plan right now?"
"Don't ask me like I have any idea about it!"
"I don't know, I'm sick of doing things without any info at this point!"
"I heard that the team is trying to get some sort of fossil that can help us reach our goal."
"A fossil that can hold such power?"
"That's what I heard..." The other grunt shrugged, "At this point, anything that works is worth a try. We have been spotted by the authorities lately, and this plan won't stay for long either, so we gotta get it before we get found out."
"True! Let's continue scouting around to see if any pesky trainers are trying to sneak in."
We stayed silent until the two eventually walked further away from the station. We heaved a sigh of relief but were conflicted on what to do next.
Suddenly, Regis stood up and quietly sent out Tsubasa once again, "I'm going to the top."
"Y-You sure? The rest of the grunts must be up there. It's dangerous!" I was worried.
"We gotta go for it! We can't just let the other trainers suffer with their progress for this dangerous villain team. We should stop them when we can, right? They don't seem to be planning anything good."
"That's true..." I said, still hesitant about the plan.
"I won't persist if you don't wanna head up with me." Regis noticed my hesitation, "But it'd be cool to move forward and see how it goes, right? Sure, that seems reckless, but it could end up being a flightful experience."
"..." I stayed silent, my mind racing through the potential consequences of the choices for my upcoming decision.
Finally, I took a deep breath and conceded.
"Sure, I'll come with you. But before that, let's contact someone for help."
The grunts were scattered around the top of the hill, looking around and digging using shovels to find the mysterious fossil the team aimed to find.
"Is the leader sure that there's even a fossil here?!" A grunt groaned, "I'm exhausted!"
"What the leader said must be true! What else we would do besides hard work, anyway?"
"Uh... watch TV shows and sleep?"
"And that's why we're not getting promoted."
Suddenly, they felt the wind blowing towards them from the top as they looked up at the sky. They thought they saw a figure flying across the sky, but it disappeared almost immediately.
"Probably a Skarmory or something." The grunt rubbed the back of his head.
"Whatever. Let's keep searching."
We landed safely at a corner of the top, temporarily safe from the grunts. Regis thanked and returned Tsubasa before looking around the surroundings using a telescope.
"Wow, that's a lot of people. It's gonna take us a while to get through." Regis said.
"We gotta be careful then." I replied, "...wait, where did you even get that telescope from?"
"A pilot's basic needs." He explained with a smirk.
I nodded as we fully examined our surroundings. I asked, "They said they were looking for some sort of fossil, right?"
"Yeah, I wonder what it looks like. I wish we got even a single detail about it."
"What do we do once we spot the fossil?"
"We take it, of course! Definitely not gonna hand them to this team. This team seems evil enough for me." Regis was determined.
We decided to play the waiting game as time went by. We could not move too far anyways, due to the density of the Willpower crowd around the area.
Suddenly, we saw a grunt nearing us as he held a shovel and a tracker in his hands. We immediately hid and observed him.
The grunt heard his tracker emitting a strange sound as he dug around the area.
Regis suggested, "He seems to be separated from the others right now. Think we can pick him off?"
"We could-" My reply was cut off by the grunt's sudden scream. As we reverted our attention back to him, he was desperately getting something out of the hole he dug.
Soon, he managed to take a beautiful stone out of the hole, "I-I think I got it! I'll get a promotion from this."
As he was about to call for the others about his discovery, Regis hurriedly ran towards him and pushed him from the side, surprising him as he fell onto the ground, the stone dropping from the grunt's hand onto the ground. Regis' quick reflexes helped him to get up earlier as he picked up the stone.
"We gotta go, Lows!" Regis said.
"O-Okay!" I looked behind us as I noticed we gathered attention from the other grunts as they ran towards us. We had no time to lose.
We started running down the hill into Jagged Pass, the path to Lavaridge Town. We hoped that we could lose them and reach Lavaridge for help.
However, it seemed that we were outmatched by them in terms of speed. Me rarely working out did not contribute to the situation.
At the worst moment possible, I tripped over a rock and fell onto the ground. Regis noticed it as he looked back, and quickly tried to help me up, but it was too late.
The grunts caught up to us as they slowly surrounded us in a circle.
Panic surrounded my mind as I said, "W-What do we do now?"
"..." Regis stayed silent, before taking out a Pokéball, "We gotta battle them."
Upon saying that Regis sent out Tsubasa, more than ready to get us out of this situation. The grunts followed suit, more than ready to outnumber us with their Pokémon.
I have to help Regis.
I nodded as I sent out Surfer, "Let's do this."
And thus, endless battles began. We had to constantly switch out our Pokémon when they were running out of energy, but we were surprisingly managing better than we expected. The grunts appeared surprised by our powers, but there were just too many of them.
It felt like forever when Woody released his last Bullet Seed attack towards a Nincada, taking it out. The grunts looked at each other in shock. They were surprised that we managed to take out their squad.
Regis commanded Kotton to use Wing Attack, as the female Swablu managed to clear out a path as the grunts tried to dodge the attack.
"Let's head to Lavaridge for help!" Noticing the opportunity, Regis suggested.
"Yup!"
However, before we could move forward, another Pokémon seemed to appear out of nowhere, releasing a Wing Attack as it took out the tired Kotton, slowing us down.
"Kotton!" Regis hurriedly returned her, "I'm out of Pokémon, Lows."
"W-Who was that?" I looked around, as another person walked towards us from the opening Regis created. A Dustox flew beside the Willpower member, seemingly the culprit who took out Kotton just moments ago.
The man seemed to have more power in his voice as he said, "Disappointing! The grunts couldn't even take out two pathetic kids trying to stop our plans. I guess I gotta stop you two myself."
"Who are you?!" Regis asked.
"Team Willpower Admin, Peggy. Unfortunately, I'm not here for introductions. Time to meet your demise and hand us what we want, young ones."
The Dustox immediately sent out another Wing Attack, taking out Woody easily. Peggy's smirk widened as he asked, "Out of Pokémon, both of you?"
We both turned worried, but I knew I still had one Pokémon left.
I took out my last Pokéball, taking a deep breath and sending the Pokémon out, "Ziggs, you got this!"
Ziggs appeared on the field, facing his tough opponent right in front of him. I knew he would be nervous, but at this point, I could only have faith in him.
"...Let's do this." Ziggs finally said, the trembling in his voice easily noticeable.
"I believe in you, Ziggs." I encouraged him as I thought, Please, reach here soon... We could only do so much to delay the time.
"Grunts, move out! I want to show you all how it's done." Peggy commanded as the grunts quickly did so, giving us more space to battle.
Regis looked at us with a worried expression, but he knew there was nothing he could do as he gave me an encouraging nod.
I closed my eyes moments before the battle...
This is definitely gonna be tough...
But we're not gonna stop here.
We can't let their plan work out... Who knows what they're gonna do with what they get.
I opened my eyes.
This is a battle we need to win.
Let's do our best.
Lows' Pokémon Team:
Surfer (Wartortle, Male) Jolly Nature, Moves: Bite, Water Gun, Water Pulse, Mud Slap
Ziggs (Zigzagoon, Male) Naive Nature, Moves: Dig, Growl, Headbutt, Rock Smash; learning-Swift
Grace (Kirlia, Female) Calm Nature, Moves: Teleport, Magical Leaf, Double Team, Psybeam; learning-Shadow Ball
Woody (Grovyle, Male) Lonely Nature, Moves: Pursuit, Leaf Blade, Bullet Seed, Rock Throw
Power (Machop, Male) Timid Nature, Moves: Fling, Focus Energy, Karate Chop, Low Kick