Chapter 9

Author Note:

(I forgot to update the next chapter links for Chapter 8, so if you missed it yesterday, it was posted here.)

Cliffhanger Warning for this chapter!

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“You... actually caught a Metang?”

Dianne’s apartment had a small yard behind it. It wasn’t large enough for more than a handful of creatures to stand in it, but two of her Pokémon used it as their home. One corner was taken up by a mound of dirt that served as an entrance to her Vibrava’s underground nest, and the other corner contained what was an exceptionally large dog house, a small wooden home for Farigiraf to rest in given that the Pokémon couldn’t exactly fit inside Dianne’s building.

Though the limited space out here meant there was only a few feet of grass, there was just enough room to move around, at least a little bit. The back door of her apartment was wide open for us to stand within and look out, and just down a short flight of stairs, we could see Metang doing his best to “fight” Farigiraf.

His body was polished. Only the barest of dents and grooves remained. He practically shone in the late-afternoon sun now that the local Pokémon Center had done its best to treat him up. 

I could tell he was feeling better as he actually looked more powerful. When he attacked, his claws gleamed with Steel-type energy and seemed to slice the very air itself.

Unfortunately for him, Farigiraf was no slouch. She had been trained by two different trainers, and she had practiced with Valiant far in the past. To her, Metang’s movements might as well have been those of a Slugma. 

Whenever the Steel type swung, she just casually stepped to the side. Metang’s expression grew more and more frustrated, but Farigiraf just laughed.

“Yeah, I did catch a Metang,” I said, watching the pair dance below. “But his species isn’t as important as his drive. Look! I mean, he’s trying to fight even now.”

“Trying to fight is a pretty apt way to put it,” Dianne said, amusement clear in her voice.

“Yeah, he’s a bit... motivated,” I said, scratching the back of my head. “He needs a bit of work, but with the right practice, he’ll be a pain to put down in a fight.”

All of the injuries he had been fighting through meant one thing: this Metang had trained himself to keep fighting no matter how injured he got. He tended to use his arms quite a bit when releasing attacks, meaning he had the range needed to practice against Valiant quite well. While he wasn’t a dedicated wall, he was a powerful attacker that could take a hit, and when compared to the rest of my team, that meant he fought just differently enough to be a surprise to anyone we faced.

“So Metang is one of those battle-hungry Pokémon, huh?” Dianne mused. “A Pokémon that’s hardheaded, stubborn, and doesn’t back away from a fight.”

She laughed again as Farigiraf side-stepped another swipe, but she wasn’t laughing at what she saw.

“Honestly, it makes a lot of sense,” Dianne continued. “Metang sure sounds a lot like someone else I know.”

“Who?” I asked.

For some reason, that just made her laugh again.

“So, anyway,” Dianne started, turning away from the fight below us to look right at me. “Now that you got the capture you were looking for, do you plan on heading back? Or, are you satisfied enough with your current team to not return to the Giant Chasm?”

I hummed, but I had already made up my mind.

“As much as I like having a small team, having five Pokémon wouldn’t hurt. We’ll be heading back, and I’ll be keeping an eye open for a fifth, but that doesn’t mean I’ll be trying as hard to search one out,” I said. “So, yeah, we’ll be heading back there, but it’s mainly just to train. We still need to hone our skills to make sure we do well in the tournament, and Metang needs more time to catch up.”

Nodding along, Dianne’s gaze flicked to the fight below. There, Farigiraf moved a little too far to the right, and one of her hooves dug into that mound of dirt.

Almost immediately, a bug-like head stuck itself out to chitter and complain. Farigiraf quickly bowed and tried her best to apologize furiously. Doing so, however, gave Metang a free moment to strike. But, yet again, his attack failed as a quick flash of Psychic-type energy saw him be pushed into the ground.

That was the second time I’d seen a telekinetic grip pin him to the earth. But he didn’t get angry; if anything, it only further encouraged his pursuit of strength. After all, once he evolved into a Metagross, he’d have the legs needed to resist being slammed into the earth.

“It’s been getting kind of expensive to hand over so many berries each day, so the sooner we stop entering the crater, the better,” I said, watching as Farigiraf released Metang to allow him to continue his attempts at strikes. “We just need to push a bit further in to get the kind of practice I want, so I’m thinking I'll spend the sum I’ve saved up to grab an insulated tent and stay—”

“Stay the night?” Dianne interrupted, finishing the statement for me while snapping her head over. “Nuh-uh. Hard veto. I’ll actually use my authority as a Pokémon Ranger and arrest you right now if you even think to try.”

“...I can’t convince you?” I squeaked out.

“Please,” she replied, crossing her arms. “At least when we talked the first time, it was clear you had a plan and a specific goal. But staying the night in the Giant Chasm isn’t just insane for your team; it’s likely also fatal.”

I wanted to reach the furthest edge of the crater for one last goal, but the amount of distance we could cover was limited by how much energy we had to expend in a day. Camping out meant we could recover within the crater and make further traveling trivial, but with the look on Dianne’s face, I could tell she’d accept no arguments on my part.

“Can I ask why?” I said.

She smiled as if that was the first smart thing I’d said all day.

“You can, and you may, but I’m just going to tell you outright to make sure you understand,” she said. “Look, Nick, you know that I’m not happy with you entering the Giant Chasm, but in this case, staying the night is dangerous. And in this case, it isn’t just due to the Pokémon. It’s also due to the environment itself.”

At night, the Chasm’s temperatures would drop to even further below freezing, and nighttime was also when the truly dangerous Pokémon came out to hunt. We would need a reliable source of heat just to survive, but that source of heat would also lure in any Ice-types from nearby.

“While the temperatures are survivable with the right preparation, the problem is that camping wouldn’t actually help you,” Dianne said. “Resting is meant to let you recover the energy needed to take on the next day, but you’d face constant battles that’d keep you up, and then that would lead to exhaustion, and exhaustion means mistakes.”

“And out there, mistakes can be deadly,” I said for her.

Grimly, Dianne nodded her head.

Weirdly, the one type of Pokémon that could make my plan somewhat viable was an Ice-type Pokémon. Rather than sleeping in a tent or using something that’d make us obvious but warm, the best way to camp out in an icy environment was to build an igloo or some kind of icy pit. The freezing exterior would help to hide the campsite’s presence, and igloos excelled at keeping in heat. I didn’t have an Ice-type with me, but I could purchase a battle-ready refrigerator for Rotom to possess. However, that wouldn’t give him the fine control over snow that we needed, and even with the refrigerator’s ability to fold up into a backpack, they remained large enough to be cumbersome. They were also effectively useless as folding them up prevented them from storing any food. At least with the oven and washing machine, those were helpful when traveling. A refrigerator would do nothing for us.

Plus, I couldn’t exactly afford it with my current level of cash.

“So no matter what, we’ll only be able to train in the crater during the day,” I mused. “One day to push as deep as possible, and one day to... fight the Pokémon we need to fight.”

Dianne was frowning, but she was looking away from my face. If she got a hint of what I was planning, she didn’t allow that to show.

“I can tell this training has helped your team, but you need to be careful,” Dianne said. “It’s been working out for you so far, but you shouldn’t push your luck.”

“We’ll be careful. We’re all working together, of course,” I said. “We also have Metang now, and Metang is—”

Farigiraf accidentally stepped on Vibrava’s nest once again, and the insect-like Dragon type launched itself out of its hole, landing on Metang. He tried to attack, but he only ended up hitting his own face.

“Metang can be strong,” I said. “He just needs a bit more training.”

“Maybe you do need to spend more time in the crater,” Dianne said with a slight laugh.

We ran down to pull our Pokémon apart, but Dianne’s Vibrava hissed at Metang in annoyance from within her arms. Metang didn’t exactly look pleased to be challenged like that, but he let me hold him back.

Pushing through the Giant Chasm in only one day was going to be limited, but if anything, my team was motivated.

And it was going to be interesting.

This kind of challenge was almost like a game. We just needed to keep trying until we gained the skill needed to find and defeat the final “boss.”

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The next time we entered the Giant Chasm was a day later. Metang needed time to rest and adjust to being a part of a trainer’s team. I really had to get it into his metal head that he needed to wait to attack unless instructed. What finally convinced him that listening to me was worth it was having him fight Valiant twice—once on his own, and then once following my commands.

While Pokémon always knew how to use their moves better than their trainer, they were more effective in battle when they had a trainer overseeing the entire match. By staying to the side, trainers could see the entire battle at once, and they assisted by using what they knew by issuing the best strategic commands they could make.

As we returned, berries were handed over to the Tangela in exchange for safe passage, and then I was quick to learn the qualitative difference that having a fourth Pokémon made. I had more flexibility to choose just who would fight in battle, and Metang’s presence was essentially an extra pool of stamina. Just being able to have him participate meant I could rotate my team members even more, giving everyone extra time to rest. Even in battles in which everyone had to participate, having one more body with us made those kinds of encounters less difficult. 

Metang was honestly strange when he fought. The rest of my team battled by avoiding damage, either through dodging or deflection. Metang, however, purposefully took strikes to open up opportunities for himself. When fighting something like, say, a Sneasel, Metang would purposefully run into its slashes to better slam his arms into its sides.

Even with the existence of wild Audino, most wild Pokémon didn’t want to take so much damage. Metang’s style of no-holds-barred battling saw Pokémon back off sooner rather than later, and it helped me understand just how he managed to get as strong as he was.

Of course, Metang’s strategy wasn’t the best strategy to have out here—every fight saw him take damage, and every fight tested his defense. But, where the rest of my team had focused on power and speed, Metang focused on his power and health.

So, together, we pushed. The initial edges of the Giant Chasm were easy. With our days of practice behind us, it was almost trivial to locate the common species and change directions, avoiding needless fights. Deeper in, however, Pokémon almost became more territorial, and I didn’t treat the groups we encountered like the Tangela from before. There was no sense in bribing them—they were too angered by our presence.

The only method we had available was to fight.

On our first day of pushing in, we had to fall back due to a Probopass. That floating, stone Pokémon possessed an incredible innate magnetic field, and its presence meant two of my team members could not escape. Metang almost became stuck to its side, and Valiant had trouble moving around when facing it. Ultimately, we only managed to escape thanks to a blast of lightning from Rotom disrupting the Probopass’s usual functions. That let us pull back to return and rest.

But we weren’t going to give up there.

We headed back the next day.

An Aggron tore out trees just to throw them at us like car-sized projectiles. A Poliwrath shattered the surface of a frozen pond to unleash its practiced punches as a punishment for getting too close. Swarms of Emolga would dive from the branches above us, intending to paralyze us and steal our stuff. And then, there was the true threat:

Delibird.

That wild Ice type would merrily approach just to give us a present. The Delibird were never aggressive, making fighting them not an option, but half the time, their gifts would explode. Unfortunately, there was little we could do to avoid that. A Delibird’s smile would trap us due to social pressure and its friendly demeanor.

Though we would receive an occasional rare berry, the blasts we suffered were not worth the risk.

However, even with the increased difficulty of these deeper-in encounters, every day got a little easier as we learned from our mistakes. Aggron were obvious and could be avoided by taking a wider route. We could figure out where the Probopass were by using a compass and changing directions when the needle suddenly locked onto a certain path. Emolga would flee at the slightest amount of damage, and the Delibird’s given Presents?

Present was a Normal-type move. If we sent Rotom forward to accept it, even if the gift exploded, not possessing anything made him a Ghost type, rendering him immune to that damage.

We pushed deeper and deeper in. We learned more about how to avoid unnecessary encounters and win the necessary fights. Through the trees, I started to be able to see the mountains that framed the back half of the chasm. And, within them, I was able to make out our ultimate goal.

“There,” I would whisper to my team. “I can’t explain why I’m so sure of it, but I know we have to get there.”

Because, at the very furthest reaches of the Giant Chasm was a twisted spire of ice and stone. If there was any place that whispered-of monster lurked, it had to be within that strange, unnatural structure.

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The day of our final push, there must have been a certain look in my eye. That Tangrowth had been there to accept “payment” every time we passed through the Tangela’s territory, but today, it declined those berries.

It acted as though it thought we’d need them.

We avoided all battles. We’d learned the signs, and as much as Metang disliked it, we could avoid the less obvious encounters due to his skill at recognizing distant fights. Twice before, we had made it this far in, but we had been too tired and too damaged to bother continuing. Now, we were in perfect health to complete our push.

We were one battle away from finishing our time in this enormous crater.

“Before we go in, I want to say thank you,” I said, looking at an open cave at the base of that enormous, twisted spire. “We need to get stronger, and this is the hardest possible battle for us to achieve that. This is going to be the most difficult battle we’ve ever faced, and it’s also going to be one of the most dangerous. I know none of you needed to take this risk with me, but I appreciate it so, so much.”

Out of all reactions, I didn’t expect to hear Liepard scoff. The big cat looked annoyed at my short speech, especially since I was almost implying that my Pokémon wouldn’t have been here if I didn’t bring them otherwise. However, they weren’t here because I was telling them to be here; they were here because they wanted this, the same as me.

There was a reason I had wanted to catch Metang so badly. He fit well; every Pokémon on my team wanted these kinds of fights.

“Thank you,” I said, speaking genuinely. “Then, is everyone ready?”

I got a round of acknowledgements, and even Valiant joined in. Valiant was always on edge when it came to securing our safety, but when it came to this cave—

Even they were staring in, ready to test their power in an impossible fight.

“I guess there’s no sense in waiting. Time to go in,” I said.

We stuck close together, and we moved forward as a group, leaving the cover of the trees.

The temperature dropped as soon as we entered the thin tundra that surrounded the spire. Here, it was as if the air itself had somehow become frozen. The world was perfectly still, and all noise was absent save for our footsteps.

I had once thought the sound of the forest was muffled, but walking through this empty, open terrain, it was so quiet that I could hear the blood pumping in my chest.

Every footstep crunched against frost and gravel. Every footstep brought us closer to that towering monolith of a mountain. Natural light from the interior of the structure meant the cave was not pitch black. And, as we carefully passed through that entrance, I was able to see exactly why.

This place was a mountain, but it wasn’t really. It was an entirely hollow structure, all the way up to its very top. Ice spiraled up the walls to create a twisted, pointed peak, and chunks of earth and stone had joined that frozen material, having somehow built up over the years. Everything was spotted by patches of ice, and they served as enormous windows that let in the sun and gave this place a consistent, unearthly glow.

This internal, empty space was mostly smooth, undisturbed stone, but at certain points, I had to fight to regain my balance and not slip on patches of dark ice. Rotom would zip over in the air to help me stay upright. For this fight, he was possessing his oven, and that gave me an easy thing to grab onto for support.

Though the inside of this faux-mountain was devoid of any structures, the back wall opened up and continued down into what had to be another cave.

Or, it continued down into a den.

“Careful,” I whispered, and though I kept my voice low, even that quiet of a sound echoed all around us. “This is where we’re going to make our challenge. We need to make sure we show respect. Only attack when I say to attack, and whatever you do, do not offend the Pokémon in there.”

To my surprise, even Metang nodded. I’d only known him for a few days at this point, but I had a feeling he had never been this focused in his entire life.

As we passed beneath the very tip of this mountain so far above our heads, a chill crept into me. I had felt so confident about this for so very long, but now that we were, the cold was creeping in and threatening to freeze the confidence I had in my chest.

But we kept going, and compared to the rest of this hollow structure, the den in the back was dim but still lit up by that previous space’s consistent light. And, the room actually possessed signs of life, but every sign of life was far too large. There were grooves carved into the ground made by claws the size of my arms.

Whenever I breathed out, my breath would become mist, and ice crystals would fall to the floor.

It was not a natural cold.

But we soon found its source deep asleep in the back of its den.

Laying my eyes on it, I knew I could not call this creature a mere Pokémon.

This was a dragon.

A true dragon.

A Legendary being. A creature intrinsically tied to the history of Unova. One of the strongest Pokémon in the region.

“There it is,” I whispered. “That’s Kyurem.”

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Author Note:

Due to a schedule change, there will be no chapter tomorrow.

The next chapter caps off this arc.

Pokémon mentioned in this chapter:
Aggron
Delibird
Emolga
Farigiraf
Probopass
Vibrava

Nick’s Team:
Iron Valiant
Liepard
Metang
Rotom

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