Chapter 108

Chapter 108

CHAPTER 108

It was strange how relaxed I could be in Mount Coronet. Back when I had first started my journey and entered my first cave to get to Oreburgh, I had been restless when the biggest threats there were Zubat and Geodude. Of course, the fact that it was my second time in the mountain helped, but it was also because the rangers had actually lit up this section of the cave. There was no oppressive darkness here. Gas lamps were attached all along Mount Coronet’s walls, making it easy for us to actually see where we were going, and most wild Pokemon avoided this section of the cave because of how heavily the rangers patrolled it, and those that were let here were all weak. My eyes widened in surprise when I saw a Cleffa bounce away from us in fear. The Pokemon floated in the air longer than what was normal as if it was less affected by gravity than we were.

Frillish floated by my side, ever vigilant, while Charmeleon, Sandile, Roselia, and Zweilous accompanied the rest of my friends. The fire type, for her part, looked absolutely bored out of her mind, and she often sent Embers at unsuspecting wild Pokemon to distract herself. She blew flames toward Cleffa, who narrowly dodged and escaped with a small squeak.

“Can you tell her to stop harassing the wildlife?” I asked with a sigh. “That Clefa didn’t attack us.”

“I can’t stop her from being who she is,” Pauline shrugged. “But try to limit your attacks, Charmeleon.”

The fire type grunted in annoyance. Diiscover new stories at novelhall.com

Sandile, meanwhile, was lazily swimming across the ground. I had always struggled to place his personality, especially with how little we interacted, but since training Justin, I had recently gained an appreciation for the ground type. He was quiet, and despite disliking training, he was a hard worker. Roselia walked next to Denzel, occasionally hitting his leg with her flower to get him to walk faster. She wanted out of the cave, and fast.

“Stop hitting me, you little devil,” my friend complained. “We’re already at a good pace, and we don’t want to tire ourselves out.”

The grass type’s permanent scowl worsened, and she let out a small sound, almost as if she was clicking her tongue.

“Yeah, I don’t see you ever doing this with Sylveon. Maybe I should tell him how you were behaving.”

“R—Rose!”

Denzel let out a small gasp. He wasn’t used to seeing Roselia this flustered. “Okay, I might have been pushing that too far. He’s already mad at you, so I won’t tell him anything.”

“How sweet of you,” Cecilia smiled before staring at her own Pokemon.

Zerst and Sol still didn’t get along these days, but the latter seemed to have taken the lead in the heads’ relationship, and he kept Zerst in line, albeit in difficulty. Zerst’s head jerked to the left, and his jaw snapped in anger toward an unsuspecting trainer who was resting with his group. Sol roared and pelted him with a small, weakened Dragon Breath, but the trainers were already scrambling and ready to run.

“My apologies!” Cece said with a grimace. “Thank you for keeping him under control, Sol.”

Sol bowed his head, and Zerst imitated him. It seemed like they were both loyal to Cecilia now, but Zerst was still highly aggressive toward anything that moved that he didn’t recognize.

Speaking of trainers, there were plenty of them to be seen, especially this close to the cave’s entrance. Thanks to the rangers, the first few days would essentially be like walking through a route, although it was already getting colder and colder the deeper we got. We walked past another group, who were walking toward the exit this time.

“Hey, hold on,” Denzel called out. “Can I ask you guys a few questions?”

It was a smaller group— three guys whose Pokemon looked to have been through the wringer. A Wartortle was covered in burns, and his shell was practically split. A Bibarel whose fur had been burned off and only had skin exposed and a Sawk’s arm was bent the wrong way.

“Make it quick,” the boy with the Sawk said. “We’re almost out of this hellhole.”

“You guys look like you fought the Turtonator that’s here, right?”

“What does it look like?” He answered dryly. “Obviously we did, and we got creamed. Luckily, we got out unscathed, but we can’t say the same for our Pokemon over here.”

“Shouldn’t you recall them...?” I asked hesitatingly. That Sawk in particular looked to be in horrible pain.

“The rest of our teams are in worse shape. These are the only Pokemon we have left that can still stand. We’ve already applied potions, so we did everything we could. Anyway, what do you want?”

The Pokemon here are weak, and there are enough people around to keep you safe, I thought with a frown. Not every trainer was as considerate as we were with our Pokemon.

“Where was it when you saw it?”

“With all the scorch marks it left around, it’s pretty hard to miss,” another trainer answered. “I wouldn’t recommend fighting it, but if you really want to...”

The trainer gave us a general idea of where Turtonator was, and we were back on our way. The further along we went, the more deserted the cave was getting, but we occasionally met more trainers that had fought Turtonator. Personally, I found it strange that the rangers warning people about it seemingly had the opposite effect of what they wanted, and groups of trainers— or at least groups of trainers with multiple badges— were attempting to take it down as some sort of challenge. Some of them were wounded and burned so critically that I feared that they wouldn’t be able to make it.

No one ever thought something bad would happen to them. Until it did.

Was I the same?

I saw Justin fidget with his fingers.

“You nervous?” I asked him.

“How could I not be? I think this is a terrible idea.”

“I... I didn’t want to say it, but I think so too, Grace,” Cece said. “At least let us assist you. It’s taken down so many trainers already.”

I shook my head. “Your psychics will be enough,” I said. “I can’t say I’ll come out of it unscathed, but I have a plan.”

“But—”

“Cece,” I interrupted. “I’ll be okay.”

She looked at me with a pained expression. Her face was full of worry.

“We did the same when you caught your Scyther,” I told her. “I saw how determined you were to catch him. No words were going to change your mind, right? It’s the same for me.”

“But we did help with her Scyther,” Denzel added.

“We did. But I don’t want to gang up on Turtonator if I can avoid it, or it’ll hate me after I catch it. If I catch it.”

“But with how aggressive it is, wouldn’t it just kill you?” Justin asked worriedly. “This isn’t like Scyther, who could be stopped with Confusion or Psychic. Even if you can stop a Flamethrower, the heat can still kill you.”

“I know,” I nodded. “But think about it this way. Turtonator lost its trainer in the middle of a cave, and now a bunch of trainers are trying to attack it. Of course, it’s aggressive. Who wouldn’t be in that situation?”

“That’s... that’s true,” Denzel said. “Plus, it can’t even get out. The rangers would never let it get close enough to the exit. The only reason it hasn’t been caught or driven off yet is because it’s too deep inside the cave.”

“What would they even do with it if they caught it?” I asked.

“Well, they’d probably try to rehabilitate it, and maybe give it to a ranger who’d care for it, but that would take a lot of time and paperwork to get through. Or alternatively, they could give up on that altogether and try to drive it toward a section of the cave that isn’t frequented by trainers,” Denzel explained.

“I’d be fine with the first option,” I said. “But try to drive it off? After it experienced what traveling with a trainer was like? I can’t accept that.”

“Well, you better hope your plan works, then,” Pauline said.

“I already explained it, and you all seemed to think it was fine.”

“I know, it’s just... some of these trainers looked tough, and they were in groups. Doubt’s starting to creep up,” she said.

“Aw, are you worried about me?”

“Ugh. Don’t get full of yourself.”

“She is, and she’s embarrassed about it,” Cecilia teased.

“So what?! So what if I am?!”

That seemed to have taken the ease off for now. The truth was, I was feeling nervous as well. How couldn’t I be, after witnessing all those injured trainers? Sure, I was a good Pokemon trainer for how new I was at it, but from the stories I was hearing, this Turtonator had belonged to an experienced trainer. They had to be, with how strong the fire type was. Most wild Pokemon tended to not employ strategy much, but the information Denzel had gathered... pointed to a different story entirely. Turtonator employed aggressive tactics, had moves that could only be taught to its species via TMs, and most of all, it was intelligent. That was what worried me the most.

“Please. This is reckless. I don’t want to lose you. We all think the same thing.”

“Allow me to be reckless just this once,” I smiled thinly. “Turtonator needs to be saved.”

“The rangers will—”

“He might not even be caught,” I interrupted. “I won’t take that chance.”

I took a deep breath and turned back toward the fire type.

“We can do this all day!” I yelled. “But I won’t leave until you hear me out.”

The dragon type was in no state to negotiate at the moment. In fact, I doubted that it was even understanding my words, so I’d have to tire it out until it was ready to listen—

A stream of flaming, turquoise draconic energy rushed toward both me and Cece at ridiculous speeds. Gothorita, Togetic, and Tangrowth were too slow, but Frillish and Slowpoke were enough. First, Frillish send out a Bubblebeam that slowly weakened the Dragon Pulse until Slowpoke could divert its path with Psychic. It hit the cave behind us, but Cece and I both felt the heat, and Frillish quickly drenched both of us in water.

How was a Dragon Pulse emitting this much heat? It wasn’t even a fire type attack!

“Cece, let me do this,” I said again. “Let me be selfish one time.”

She stared at me like she was about to cry. “Fine. But if you die, I will never forgive you.”

I smiled. “Now get back. It’s dangerous here.”

I turned toward Turtonator, and my mind began to work. There had been pieces of information missing from Denzel’s story, but it wasn’t his fault. Witnesses were notoriously bad at recounting things that had happened, even just a few hours after the fact. First of all, Turtonator employed some strategy, and it always aimed for me, but in its current rage-filled state of mind, it was nowhere near as smart as it probably normally was. Second of all, I didn’t know if it was because of how powerful it was, but every single attack it used seemed to be embedded with some fire. Even Smokescreen.

So, in essence, every attack that so much got close to me could burn me beyond repair. I felt Frillish pour water on me again, but I still felt hot. It was starting to be like an oven in here, and the bottom of my shoes was starting to melt off. I feared that it would get worse the more attacks Turtonator used. Mount Coronet was probably terrible at diffusing heat. I couldn’t wait things out. I needed to change my approach, or I’d be forced to leave.

“Angel, you think you’re up for a fight?” I asked him as I wiped my hands on my jeans. His vines wriggled. “This is... this might backfire horribly. You can’t use Bind from here—”

I flinched as another Dragon Pulse was averted by Slowpoke.

“You can’t use Bind from this far,” I continued, pointing at Turtonator. It was so hot around it that the air appeared to distort and twist. “We need you to restrain it long enough for Togetic to use Thunder Wave.”

Frillish let out a worried noise, but I stopped him. “We need to slow it down,” I said. “It won’t be as— as clean as I hoped, but maybe if it’s paralyzed, it’ll come back to its senses. Get ready.”

After we blocked another Dragon Pulse, Frillish drenched Tangrowth in water, and the grass type waddled forward as we looked on with worry. Turtonator roared, and its shell started to glow with a dangerous red hue. Shell Trap, I thought. Fuck.

“Tangrowth, don’t get too close!” I yelled. “It’s—”

With a mad grin, Turtonator slapped its tail against its shell, triggering its own Shell Trap. This was stronger than the explosion from before. The shockwave ran through my body and brought me to my knees. My jeans started to sizzle on the ground, and I hissed when my hands touched the floor, hurryingly taking them off. The skin was practically all burned off. Another burn. Electabuzz punched a piece of shell away from me, but it blew up on his hand, and he clutched at it. It was horribly broken. Even when separated from Turtonator’s body, every part of its shell still counted as a Shell Trap. I called out to Tangrowth, who I couldn’t even see in all of the flames and smoke, but my voice sounded distant. My ears were ringing, and my head was pounding. I stood up and blew air on my hands, trying to cool them, and I called out to Tangrowth again.

When the smoke cleared, the grass type’s body was covered in flames and ash. Not even hearing the sound of my own voice, I shrieked, and Frillish flew over with Water Sport. I breathed out a sigh of relief when I realized that Tangrowth was fine, although horribly hurt. His body was protected by his thick bundle of vines, and it’d take a while for the flames to chew through them. Nevertheless, Frillish extinguished the flames with much more difficulty than earlier, and vapor was emanating from his body.

He was almost entirely made of water. The heat was so strong that it was evaporating his body.

How... how powerful was this Turtonator? This was while it was wounded.

“Frillish, get back!” I ordered, my voice still distant. I still could barely hear anything because of the explosions.

The water type listened, and Tangrowth wrapped vines around Turtonator, which all promptly caught on fire. The most important part, however, was that his tail and head were being locked in place. That meant that it couldn’t create explosions, or aim at us with attacks.

“Princess,” I said.

Burning air filled my lungs as Togetic sent a short burst of electricity at Turtonator. The attack surrounded the dragon type, then wrapped around him like a rope and entered its body, and it started to convulse slightly. Not as much as I would have hoped, but it was slowed. Tangrowth quickly used his vines to get back to where we were, and I swallowed when I saw that his body was smoking, still. He smelled like burned grass.

“I’m sorry, but I had to slow you down so that you could think,” I called out. “I want to talk to you. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

Turtonator hesitated, then snorted, sending out small puffs of Smokescreen from its snout. Puffs this time, not a continuous stream. I knew what it was about to do. Denzel had warned me about it.

“Honey, get ready,” I said. He nodded tightly and stepped forward, his hand still bloody and broken from the explosion he had protected me from.

I knew what was coming. A modified version of Smokescreen that was axed toward offense, and that was too wide to be stopped by our psychic type attacks. Electabuzz was my answer to that. Turtonator roared, and a plume of toxic, fiery smoke flew at high speeds toward us. Electabuzz brought both of his hands forward. He was so close to us, and yet he would use Discharge. All of his training with the move had led to this.

The smell of burning ozone filled my nostrils, combined with the nauseating smell from the Smokescreen, and my hair stood on end. Pebbles rose from the ground as Electabuzz sent a huge wave of electricity forward that grew the further it traveled. It pushed through the Smokescreen, causing it to vanish, and Electabuzz canceled the attack right before it would have hit Turtonator.

Discharge had originally been meant to strike all around its user like Shockwave, but we had practiced it and molded it enough to use it only in one direction. It wouldn’t be guaranteed to hit its target, but since he was focusing it on one area, the damage dealt would be considerably higher. The possibilities of Pokemon moves were practically endless, so why not take advantage?

“You’ve seen the way I fought so far,” I said. Each breath I took filled me with a sense of agony I could only try to hide. It was too hot. Frillish drenched me with water again, but that could only do so much in this heat. “I haven’t hurt you. I saw you hesitate that last attack. You’re starting to be sound of mind again, aren’t you?”

My opponent was strong. Terrifyingly so, but it was also terribly wounded. I fully believed my entire team could have dealt the finishing blow if I had wanted to, and then I could have caught it while it was unconscious. Turtonator knew this. It threateningly slapped its tail against the ground, and the impact melted the rocks.

“Okay, that’s better,” I exhaled. “That’s an improvement. Um— I’m— I’m Grace, like I said. You’re sca—” I cut myself off. No, not scared. Dragon types wouldn’t take well to that remark. “You’re annoyed aren’t you? You’re all alone in this cave, and a bunch of trainers just walk up and started to attack you, and rangers came to try to capture you or drive you off. I’m... I’m kind of guilty of the same, but I want to get you out of this cave.”

The dragon type’s eyes widened, and it tilted its head in anticipation. I took it as a sign to keep talking. A single wrong word here, and the fight would start all over again. I wasn’t foolish enough to think that Togetic’s paralysis would actually restrain Turtonator.

“Could you start by lowering the temperature?” I asked more courageously than I actually felt. I couldn’t look weak. “I’m getting lightheaded, and that’d be terrible for negotiating.”

Turtonator gave me the faintest of nods, and the area finally stopped rising in temperature. At least I knew now that if I managed to get it to join me, then I wouldn’t have to deal with an impossibly hot temperature the entire time. This was just an effect Turtonator could have around it if it was fighting.

“Thanks, I’m really grateful,” I said. I opened my mouth, but I hesitated. Would starting this by bringing up Turtonator’s previous trainer be tone-deaf? But not mentioning them could also seem disrespectful. I didn’t know what to do, I didn’t—

The fire type stomped the ground angrily, and rocks turned red under its feet. Even though I barely knew anything about it, I immediately knew what it meant.

Talk now, lest you anger me further.

I swallowed. Okay. Okay. “I know you’ve lost... someone important to you recently,” I said. I saw the turtle-like Pokemon wince. “And I’m sorry. I don’t know anything about you or the relationship you had with him, but I’m sorry. I heard about your story, and I thought that maybe I could help you get out, but for that, I’ll have to catch you.”

Emotions flashed on Turtonator’s face. Disbelief, indignation, fury. How dare a little girl like me propose such an arrangement? How dare I think that I could replace his trainer?

I raised my hand, expecting the worst. “Wait! I’m not kidding, it’s the only way! I could lead you to the exit, but even if I managed to get you through the horde of trainers on the other side, you’d have to get past the rangers, and then they’d keep you. I’m going to assume that since you had a previous trainer, you liked to travel the world, didn’t you? You came from Alola all the way here.”

I waited for a response, but Turtonator said nothing.

“Or alternatively, you could come with me. I’m also a trainer, as you saw,” I said, pointing at my team. “And, uh, I plan on traveling to every region...” I muttered. “And becoming the best! So come with— give me a chance.”

Turtonator snorted, shaking his head, and my heart sank.

But then it turned toward me, exposing its red, soft underbelly, and stared.

I grabbed a Pokeball. “May I?”

He gave me an annoyed nod, and I took a few steps forward. I threw the ball at Turtonator, and waited with bated breaths. It took fifteen seconds for it to shake the first time, as if it was still mulling on if it should come with me or not, but after that, it shook another two times and let out a small sound.

I had caught Turtonator.

But I was still a long way off from actually being able to use it in any way, shape, or form. Turtonator still clearly thought me to be some naive annoying child that it could blow off whenever it wanted. Hell, it probably had only let itself be caught to save itself from a worse fate. I’d have to be careful when releasing it outside of the cave.

Still, I smiled. I stepped toward the Pokeball and grabbed it, ignoring the pain I felt from the burns on my palms.

The Pokeball felt hot in my hands.