Hard Enough - Chapter 320 - Surprises abound!

We continued on to the centre of the root system and slowly the marvel of the crystalline caverns began to wear on us.

Or at least it did for Sabrina and me. Mewtwo continued to float along while Lucario had continued to tirelessly run and jump across the landscape without looking any worse for wear.

Watching him move like this was giving me some ideas about marathon training regimes for my pokemon to change things up. Especially if we ever ended up getting involved in any Sinnoh-style matches where you had to win three of five battles. 

I squinted and gave the crystals another thoughtful look. “Is it just me or does the light sort of… give you a headache after a while?” I prompted.

Sabrina inspected the crystals spread across the ceiling for a while before responding. “I believe the lights they give off aren’t uniform… they fluctuate…
Her eyes narrowed for a moment. “Mewtwo, what colour are the crystals to you?” she asked suddenly.

“They shift like a rainbow after a heavy rain shower,” he replied easily. 

Sabrina and I both shared a look. 

“Blue,” I replied, “Like a harsh neon blue,” I elaborated a moment later.

Sabrina nodded, showing that for her it was the same. 

I glanced down to where Lucario was. “Lucario! What colour are the crystals on the ceiling to you?” I asked. 

“They shift from blue to white light, why?” he asked as he backflipped over a small boulder to land and continue running.

“Shifting light spectrums that are invisible to the human eye?” I mused aloud. “That might be contributing to why we’re getting headaches.”

Sabrina nodded. “This brightness will cause issues the longer we are within the caverns.”

I nodded grimly. The Crystals were turning out to be rather more nuanced than I’d first assumed. I’d thought it was simple enough to avoid touching or interacting with them but learning that they had a passive effect on humans that would probably escalate the longer we were here was rather notable.

It seemed the paradise that the cavern gave was meant to be for pokemon and pokemon alone. 

I made a note of it in my pokedex entry for later review.  

“You’re not going to be able to refute allegations that you’re turning into a Pokemon Professor if you keep this up,” Sabrina teased when I’d finished recording my notes.

I chuckled. “I don’t think it would be such a terrible thing. Gym Leader, Baseball Coach, Teacher, Husband, why not add in Pokemon Professor?” I replied whimsically.

When Sabrina failed to respond I looked up to find her blushing but with a very pleased look on her face. I coughed as I recalled what I’d said. “I probably was a bit presumptive with one of those titles,” I replied. 

Sabrina shot me a small nod but didn’t otherwise comment. We continued on for another few minutes before a frown started to take shape on Sabrina’s brow. 

“Something the matter?” I asked. 

Sabrina hummed. “It’s just I don’t feel like I’ve done as much.”

I snorted. “Please, you help me out all the time, you’re expanding pokemon breeding, leading a Ponyta club, training nascent and active psychic humans and pokemon and…” I rubbed my chin. “I know for a fact you more than dabble in trading shares.”

“That last one barely counts. It’s easy when you’re a psychic to know what to do,” she said with a dismissive wave.

“Hmmm, and what about your roles as wife and big sister?” I said only semi-teasingly only to cough. “Also, Magical Girl is in there somewhere no?” 

Sabrina gave me a pleased smile in response and conceded my point with a nod. “They do take up some time don’t they?” she replied coyly.

“As we should,” I replied, referencing my family and I. 

Sabrina continued to think about things for a while as we drifted over several ponds. “I think I’d like to take up a hobby like you have with your Baseball, something for me to enjoy,” she replied. 

I considered her. In the games… “You’d make an amazing actress,” I offered easily. 

Sabrina gave me a knowing look, having previously asked about her role in the games she knew about how in the games she became an actress. She nodded and let the matter drop. 

I had to wonder if I hadn’t just led her back to her ‘canonical’ path. 

Ah well, I’d merely reminded her of the fact. If she followed through it was up to her. 

Although I couldn’t say I would mind seeing her on tv. It would be kind of awesome.

We set down on an island in the middle of a sizable lagoon. “It seems we’re getting close,” I said, gesturing towards a large section of roots that were winding around each other to such a degree that they formed a mighty pillar. The fact that the roots were each the size of small skyscrapers made the entire root network only more impressive. 

I took some more pictures and also some samples of the water for later analysis. I suspected there would probably be a lot of grumbling over all the samples I didn’t take, but it wasn’t like I was a professional at this.  

If Elm or Oak had any issues, they were more than welcome to come up to the Tree of Beginning themselves.

I paused and reconsidered that. Oak would have no issues I imagined as he was a seasoned trainer that had probably seen a lot of weird and wonderful things, but Elm… if he came he’d need a team of minders to make sure he didn’t get eaten by the immune response. 

… Maybe I should just make sure he never learns about this place.

I could probably distract him by talking about the expanded reserve and my plans for it anyway.

“So that must be the central root,” I said, waving at the structure on the other side of the lagoon.

Sabrina nodded, her gaze shifting upwards. “The crystals are more densely packed here. Both on the ceiling and on the roots themselves,” Sabrina pointed out. 

I nodded. On the way in we’d barely seen any crystals growing on the actual roots themselves. I watched a flock of Pidgey and another of Swablu fly in and out of the roots with each having different areas for themselves. 

They appeared to have a series of nests that set up the territories up there. “Think they’ll be any issue on the way up?” I said.

Sabrina shook her head. “They’re typically quite docile. I doubt they’ll react to our passing through.”

I nodded and drew out a thermos with tea that we both enjoyed. I glanced toward Mewtwo. “Would… You like a cup?” I offered. 

Mewtwo stared at me only to glance behind us and smirk. “I think I would,” he replied.

We all took a moment to enjoy the warmth and subtle flavours of the tea.

“Hmmm Jasmine?” I said. 

“Bellsprout clippings actually. Erika has a wonderful garden that she’s growing for flavour,” Sabrina replied. 

I eyed my tea more thoughtfully. I hadn’t been expecting that.

A panting heaving gasp heralded the final member of our ragtag group reaching the island. The smell of wet dog suddenly pervaded our relaxed atmosphere.

I gave the dripping wet Lucario a bland smile. “Hey buddy, have a good swim?” I teased as he punched a persistent Cavanagh off his tail. 

Lucario glared at me. “I had to fight off three schools of Cavanagh to reach this island!” he growled. I took a smug sip of tea. I had no highground to speak of with Sabrina doing the actual lifting but as the saying went, it was nice to sit back and relax sometimes while watching others labour.

Lucario must have been more annoyed with me than I thought as he braced himself and twitched in a manner I was all too familiar with.

Sabrina smiled and flicked her hand causing a Barrier to form up in front of herself. I had just enough time to spot that Mewtwo had copied her before Lucario shook himself off causing me to be splashed. 

“Thanks for sharing,” I said while giving Sabrina an unimpressed look. 

Lucario smirked. “Anytime,” he replied before eying the pot of tea. He then glanced up at the root system we’d been inspecting. I could see his rational mind warring with his pride as he judged the distances and the level of effort required. 

He then turned and bowed towards Sabrina. “If the offer of you carrying me is still on the table… I would appreciate it,” he bit out.

Sabrina merely nodded and offered him a fourth cup of tea. I tossed mine out and got another as we waited for Lucario to recover from having to fight his way to the island. When he gave the signal we all rose so that we could fly towards the root system. 

As we closed I settled in to watch a flock of Pidgey who had become agitated. At first I thought we were about to see a Pidgeot sweep out to challenge us only for my gaze to shift to a Pidgey that was acting aggressive.

Instead of challenging us though it dove towards what looked like an outcrop of crystal as it got close it swept its wings hard and aborted its dive seemingly at the last moment.

I saw a flicker of something lunge from among the crystals with fangs snapping where the Pidgey would have been only for it to find nothing to sink its fangs into.

My pokedex thankfully had a camera with some pretty decent zoom on it so I started tracking the specific section of crystal.

‘Dexter’ the voice of my pokedex chirped to life. "Pidgey the tiny bird pokemon. This pokemon is scattered throughout the world with it being a prolific traveler. It is a common sight in grasslands, forests, and cities with its adaptability being second only to Ratata who serve as its primary prey alongside various bug type pokemon. Typically docile it will normally attempt to kick sand in—"

Dexter’s voice cut off as Pidgey made another charge towards the crystals only to come too close and this time the head that had lashed out caught Pidgey. 

I could almost imagine the tiny bird shrieking in pain and fear only for whatever I was looking at to clench and Pidgey to go still as it perished. 

The head retracted with its prize and the watching Pidgey began to flutter and shift in agitation.

I rewound the video I’d been taking and paused it at the moment the head struck. I then highlighted the head. “Dexter, identify,” I commanded.

A light began to blink on and off for several moments only for a harsh tone to ring out. “Error! Pokemon not identified! Attempting to connect to Pokenet for any updates! No updates found! Entry logged for consideration. Please continue recording the pokemon as you may have discovered a new pokemon” 

I blinked. That… hadn’t been what I was expecting to happen but… it made a lot of sense. No doubt when Oak saw this he’d be calling me later. 

Still, a new pokemon? 

I suppose that made the most sense but… well I’d assumed I knew most, if not all the pokemon I’d encountered, especially on this contingent… which was actually kind of arrogant now that I thought about it. There were huge swathes of land that were still uncharted with the Tree of Beginning being just one such location. I actually had no idea what Fiore would hold either, not that I was going to go there anytime soon.

I turned my attention towards the image of the pokemon in question.

The ‘head’ such that it was, had two yellow almost luminous eyes along with what looked like blue petals arranged around its head, almost like a lion’s mane. What little I could see of the rest of it appeared to be thin but most of it was hidden behind crystals.

It looked like some form of grass type pokemon that relied on ambush tactics, sort of like how Victrebell did. I replayed the video and gasped as I saw something I’d missed when it had occurred. 

It wasn’t that Pidgey had faltered and failed to pull out of its attack, it had been attacked and lost control of its flight at a critical moment.

Specifically by what looked like rocks.

“Sabrina hold up, got something I want to look into,” I said as I realised we were still moving towards the ceiling.

Sabrina glanced at me only to blink as she noticed what I was doing. Huh, she must have been using a lot of her attention to carry us if he’d missed this. 

“What is that?” she asked. 

I replayed the video and watched her eyes widen. “That’s a pokemon?” 

I nodded. “Yup, and I think it might be rock typed.” Sabrina gave me a look that demanded further explanation so I continued. “I don’t know a single grass type that knows how to use Rock Throw.”

Sabrina blinked and nodded slowly. “Do you have a pokemon that can get close?” she asked. 

I tapped a pokeball and released Golbat from my belt. “Golbat I’ve got a pokemon I want to look into! They’re hiding among the crystals. Careful cause they seem to be eating the Pidgey by knocking them out of the air with Rock Throw!”

“Golbat!” chirped Golbat with a dutiful nod as she paused in hugging me to address the threat.

I pointed at where the pokemon had last been. “Use Confuse Ray on that patch of crystal and try to bring it out!”

Golbat swooped to do just that with gusto as the rest of our group floated closer.

Golbat flitted around in a search pattern blasting Confuse Ray after Confuse Ray into the crystals only to get a response I wasn’t expecting. 

Instead of rocks being hurled out, a glob of poison was spat out followed by a small bulb like pokemon emerging and glaring at Golbat. I noted it still had some feathers over its form marking it as the pokemon I’d spotted earlier. 

The poison missed as Golbat expertly dodged, but it raised more questions from me. Rock and poison attacks? What was going on here?

I leveled ‘dexter’ at the pokemon once more and it went through the same process it had earlier asking that I document everything I could about the pokemon and the environment I’d found it in.

“Brock?” Sabrina asked carefully.

“It’s a new pokemon,” I said slowly. I enlarged a fresh pokeball as I glanced at my pokedex as it started getting readings. “A Rock-Poison typing if you can believe it!” The only other Rock-poison type I knew of was Nihilego… which was an Ultrabeast from another dimension or some such that ate the evil mother from Alola. 

So this must be another generation of pokemon and therefore one that came from a later generation of pokemon. “It must be from a different region,” I said carefully.

Sabrina frowned. “That or it requires specific living conditions.” 

I nodded conceding the point. If it required the Tree of Beginning or Crystal like growths to live, well things might be a bit touch and go. 

“Only one way to find out,” I announced as I prepared the pokeball. “Golbat! Wear it down with Air Cutter!” 

Golbat chirped an affirmative back at me and began juking back and forth, baiting the unknown pokemon into launching Rock Throws and what looked like Acid Spray only to keep missing thanks to Golbat’s greater agility. 

I was very pleased with her continued evasions and when the unknown pokemon slumped as though tired, I signalled for Sabrina to levitate us closer. I held out my pokeball towards it. “You there! I want to capture you! Join my team, I think you’re interesting!” 

The pokemon blinked its yellow eyes slowly. “Glimmet?” It considered me for a moment more before glancing at Golbat. “Glimmet?”

“Yes, if you want I can make you strong like Golbat here,” I replied, guessing as best I could about what ‘Glimmet’ was saying. Just in case she was asking something else I coughed and added. “If you join me I’ll take care of you and feed you so much you won’t have to hunt Pidgey.”

This appeared to be the right thing to say as Glimmet perked up and nodded. I sighed and tossed the pokeball at it, capturing it quickly. Golbat caught the pokeball for me and brought it back so I could pat her. “Excellent work girl, that was a clean fight. Good execution on evading any attacks.”

I set about adding warning stickers and a brief message onto the ball right before the teleport function kicked in. I quickly fired off yet another message to Bianca back home. I’d feel bad about all the new pokemon I was sending her to start integrating into the breeding program, if I didn’t know she lived for this sort of thing.

The arrival of a new pokemon was going to cause a few more waves than merely catching additional pokemon that we’d already had in the reserve. 

I chuckled to myself. “A new pokemon along with Regirock… Lance and Oak are absolutely going to be camped out at my house when we get back,” I mused. 

“Such is the cost of success,” Sabrina replied. She glanced around. “I suppose you want to capture some more of those Glimmet for comparison?” she asked.

“I would,” I said as I made sure to lock eyes with her. “I’ve never seen pokemon like this before,” I declared, making sure to emphasise my words. Sabrina’s eyes widened as she caught on to what I was saying.

“Very well,” she replied casually, her gaze sweeping up and down. “Now that I know what to look for… I can sense several nearby on this root.” I glanced towards where the flock of Pidgey were before glancing up at the Swablu area. 

“Yeah… it kind of makes sense they’d be here,” I replied as I began noting down any observations or thoughts I had. 

Lucario, who’d been observing everything, quickly spoke up. “You’ve been catching quite a lot of pokemon for a while now… Are you… assembling an army?” 

I blinked and shot him a confused look. “What? No. Why would you… oh right,” I shook my head. Of course that’s what the medieval minded pokemon would assume. “This is for scientific inquiry and the development of my Gym.” 

Mewtwos tail lashed the air. “Science!” he spat. 

I gave him a consoling grimace. “Yeah science can be used for horrible things but it can also be used for good things.” I gave Mewtwo a firm look reminding him that he was created from such methods. 

He huffed and looked away, leaving Lucario to glance between us with a confused look, only for me to shake my head. He grunted in acceptance but continued to eye my pokedex so I elaborated on my earlier statement.

I gestured at the surrounding cavern. “Science, to me at least, should be about understanding and appreciating the world around us. It’s by understanding the world that we can see more of it as well, not just in terms of distance, but also depth.”

A flash of light caused me to blink and glance over to find Sabrina taking a photo of me. I coughed, realising I was in a lecturing pose. She just shook her head. “Pokemon Professor Brock,” she teased as she led us to the next Glimmet.

By the time I’d captured four Glimmet in total my Xtransciever had started to blow up with questions from Bianca and Oak. I sent them an apology stating that I was still in the field and needed to stay focussed as I muted them. 

I gave the cavern another look, seriously considering dropping back to the ground level and seeing if I could find any other hidden gems. As some hikers liked to say, where there was pyrite, there was sometimes gold.  

Sadly, I doubted I’d get the chance today, with Lucario and Mewtwo both having very different motivations for being here that did not include watching me explore various caverns. 

We also had something of a time limit as the headaches that Sabrina and I had started to notice had begun to seriously ramp up after only being in the cavern for half a day.

I didn’t want to think about what would happen if we stayed for longer. I made sure to watch Sabrina more closely as we flew towards the ceiling where several caverns that appeared to lead upwards were inspected before being discarded. 

While there were actually many caverns, we only had to move in front of the opening of each one before moving on.

When we found the right one, Sabrina and I smiled as a wave of fresh air blew over us, signalling that this cave had access to the outside. 

We drifted up through it, unable to actually land and walk along the floor due to the density of crystals that made up the entire tunnel. In a few points we had to move in single file to make it through a tight passage where crystals larger than normal grew.

“We must be close to something important with this density of crystals,” I commented after the second time we’d moved single file to progress.

Unfortunately, with the increased density of the crystals we’d also felt our headaches increasing with the brightness of the tunnels being much worse.

Sabrina didn’t reply, keeping her focus on our levitation.

We broke through the gap and found ourselves outside overlooking the forest while overhead a singular tree’s canopy stretched out casting everything around for kilometres in shadow. 

I glanced back and up and whistled. We’d emerged at the base of the Tree of Beginning and it was just as tall as we’d expected.

A gust of wind caused me to huddle in on myself and the branches overhead to shift and reveal that the canopy was even thicker than I’d thought it was. 

Oh, so the tree was even taller again, I was simply looking at the lowest branches of natural megastructure that was easier to compare against mountains than it was flora. 

“We should head towards the centre of the trunk!” I called over the wind.

Sabrina nodded and we quickly rose once more, drifting around some small branches that were more like roads with how large they were. 

When we passed one of the larger ones Lucario pointed. “There! An opening!” he called.

Sabrina landed us upon the branch and we moved towards the opening in the tree. 

My gaze lingered on Sabrina however as certain tells of hers were starting to add up. 

The first was the way her hands trembled like she was cold. Then there was the way her shoulders curled in on themselves. There was also the slight darkness her eyes had gained.

Damn, she’d tired herself out getting up here. We needed to rest in the next spot we came to… or did we need to retreat back out to the open air and recover there? 

I inspected the hollow we’d found ourselves within for a moment. 

“Perhaps we should pull back for a moment?” I suggested only for Lucario and Mewtwo to both tense up. I glanced to Sabrina only for her to shake her head and signal that she was fine to continue.

I hummed and turned my attention back to our surroundings. 

The hollow was large, easily tall enough for Bertha or Titan to walk without issues, but I suppose compared to a normal tree, it was little more than a termite tunnel.

Still it got us closer to the centre which would hopefully open up—

Just as I thought that the hollow expanded, turning into yet another cavern that was easily the size of the Pewter Gym. 

I glanced around, noting that there were only a few crystals growing here and thankfully from the roof. The floor was all wood and it had a gentle slope to it with a few tunnels that arced up no doubt leading higher into the tree.

“Well this is looking quite promising,” I said as I swept my gaze around.

Sabrina’s lips thinned and she shook her head. “You shouldn’t have said that,” she replied and I started to ask why, only for a loud thump and a scrap to announce two pokemon emerging from side tunnels.  

Regice swept out from the left hand tunnel while Registeel stomped its way out of the right hand tunnel. Both began to chirp and trill as they stared down at us.

“Yeah, fair point,” I offered back to Sabrina as I eyed the two Legendaries. I expanded two pokeballs and started to step forward only for Sabrina’s hand to snap out and catch me. 

“No Brock, you’re not going to face off against two Legendaries at the same time.”

I gave her a pleading look. “But I want to try catching them as well! Imagine how secure they’d make my reserve!” I said… mostly joking.

Sabrina levelled an unimpressed look at me and psychically squeezed my injured hand. 

I coughed. “Alright you can have the Registieel,” I replied with a sniff. 

Sabrina gave me a flat look. “Don’t just try to catch them. You know Regice is going to be a pain to deal with in an enclosed space like this.” 

I clicked my tongue. Damn Regice just had to show up here didn’t it? Why couldn’t it have appeared back down in the root caverns where we’d have had tons of room to maneuver?

“Alright. Articuno protocols,” I announced.

Sabrina nodded and tapped her pokebelt with a Rapidash appearing between us, the air around us growing much hotter. I knew that wasn’t going to last long however. 

I flicked out my two chosen pokemon with Jormungandr and Knight taking to the field. “Eyes on the Regice!” I announced, eying the minimal space we were working with.

 Next to me, Sabrina unleashed Medicham and Claydol.  

Mewtwo drifted back attempting to feign disinterest but his gaze swept over both pokemon. 

“Make it quick?” I asked to Sabrina and she nodded tightly as her eyes started to glow.

Registeel stepped up next to a blue crystal and chirped at us. Then it raised its arm and swung. 

I tensed expecting it to launch some Steel type attack only for it to do something significantly worse.

It smashed its fist into the crystal and fractured it.

For a second everyone stared.

Then the room turned red.

I gave the monotype Legendary a glare. “You dirty bastard!” I growled, glancing up to spot some of the crystals already starting to shift and lose their shape. “We need to fall back! Now!” I announced. 

Sabrina nodded and we turned to sprint back down the tunnel we’d entered through. The immune response that Registeel had set off however swept out ahead of us and I saw more crystals ahead of us begin to turn globular only to reform quickly into the shape of a large Anorith. 

Lucario leapt forward, hands cupped around an Aura Sphere which he unleashed into the blobs. “We need to get you out! The Tree is reacting now!” he said and I was heartened to spot that his attack actually destroyed the globular Anorith.

I flicked out Shrek and pointed down the tunnel. “Clear the way buddy!” I ordered and he and Lucario began to lead the charge with us following along. 

Regice responded to this by unleashing a powerful shockwave of frost that coated the wood in ice, causing the temperature to plummet and an ache to form in my lungs only for it to be rebuffed by Rapidash flaring its mane and stomping its hooves. 

Sabrina leapt onto its back and tugged me up behind her. Before we got into the tunnel I recalled Jormungandr, knowing he’d block up the tunnel too much.

Rapidashs speed allowed us to power past Lucario and Shrek and out onto the branch within seconds. He skidded for a moment only to turn back around and watch as our pokemon spilled out one after the other with Mewtwo floating up into the air above us, like none of this affected him. 

“It might be nice for you to pitch in!” I called out to him.

Mewtwo scoffed. “You have this well in hand and don’t need my assistance,” he retorted. 

I rolled my eyes. “Right, I’ll be sure to give you the heads up when it’s out of hand huh?” 

I spotted a few crystals that had yet to turn red but thankfully there were only a few of them nearby.

Lucario and Shrek were quick to position themselves to monitor them while Knight, Claydol and Medicham set themselves in front of the tunnel. 

I released Jormungandr to join them only to have the two Legendaries stalk out a moment later.

All of our pokemon unleashed powerful attacks in response. 

Registeel stepped forward with a shining carapace of metal and endured the attacks while Regice swiveled around, eyes tracking our pokemon and then us.

I grimaced and kept my head on a swivel tracking for any more threats that might be coming our way.

A torrent of wind and a shrill cry announced the next contender.

Everyone turned and stiffened as a gods be damned Ho-Oh swept down from the branches above and flapped its wings once. 

Everyone had to hunker down as tornado level winds tore through us. I called up my rock energies to resist, dropping to the branch so that I could anchor Rapidash and Sabrina. She squeezed me back in thanks.

Ho-oh gazed down at the battlefield imperiously before snorting.

Mewtwo turned slowly. “You dare challenge me?” he announced as he took a fighting stance. The Ho-oh locked eyes with him and rather than quail, it gained a malicious glint in its eyes before its body shimmered and puffed away, revealing itself to be Mew.

“Mew!” chimed the ‘firstborn of Arceus’. 

Mew wiggled with glee and then cupped its own hands and channeled a Psychic ball in its grip. 

“Good!” growled Mewtwo as he channeled more power into his own attack.

I glanced around, realising that we were stuck on a branch, with four Legendaries about to get into a fight. 

Shit. 

________________________

A.N. Thanks go to my patreons. I apologise for the Cliffhanger this time around!

…

Actually no, you know what? I’m going to own it! 

Muahahahaha! Feel my evil plot!

• Sadly that’s just the way things worked out with the various points that needed to be covered in 319 and 320 with Glimmet appearing. 

Thanks also go to Twmmy who proofread this chapter! 

Sometimes I really dislike this job, this gonna be a long week my fellow readers.. - Twmmy