Rock Hard - Chapter 2 - Route three to Mt Moon! (Patreon)

After the epic walk off with her prize, Yolanda and her friends made their way slowly along route three.

“It’s kind of weird, you know? I’ve been this way tons of times before… but now…”

“It feels different?” Greta prompted as Crystal darted off the road.

“Yeah?” Yolanda asked.

“It’s cause it is different. You’re not coming back… not straight away. I’ve been home since last year a few times but it isn’t until you truly ‘set off’ that things start to sink in,” Greta explained.

“That… makes a lot of sense,” murmured Yolanda, observing the surrounding area as a shadow passed overhead, only to have another shadow smash into it. Yolanda’s lips twitched but she said nothing about it.

Crystal happily scooted back and forth, swiping her leg through the nearby long grass before darting back to the road with a snicker.

Yolanda and Greta watched her for a few minutes.

“Are you seriously doing what I think you’re doing?” asked Yolanda after watching Crystal pull off the move for the fifth time in a row.

Greta frowned. “Wait, there’s a method to the madness going on here? I thought she was just being childish and trying to draw a pokemon out of the long grass.”

“She is/I am,” said Yolanda and Crystal together. Ceding the discussion to Crystal, Yolanda gave the other girl a slight nod. 

Crystal coughed into her fist. “You see, the method I’m using is something of a speciality method that allow—”

“She’s rage-baiting a Mankey,” Yolanda cut in. “It’s an older method that most people don’t use these days.”

Greta drew out her pokedex and began typing only to smile. “Huh! It’s not in here! Go ahead please!” she asked, happy to learn something new.

Yolanda coughed. “She swipes the grass and runs off. For most pokemon this will merely annoy them, and they won’t follow. Some might after a few, but the odds of a Mankey pursuing her rise cause she’s repeating it over and over again, causing them to be annoyed, and they have the lowest tolerances for annoyance.”

Crystal shot Yolanda a slight pout but Yolanda merely raised her eyebrow. “That was what you were doing right?”

“I was going to give her the historical context. You make it sound so… brattish,” Crystal replied.

“Well, if the glove fits,” pointed out Yolanda, causing Crystal to huff in annoyance while Greta giggled.

“So you’re doing this for a Mankey?” clarified Greta. “Would it work on other temperamental types of pokemon?”

“Which I will eventually turn into a Primeape! They’re pretty strong pokemon! And perfect for countering certain rock-loving trainers nd I have no idea!” 

“Yeah, cause I totally don’t have counters and methods of fighting such a glaring weakness,” Yolanda retorted.

“Well, I’ll just counter your counter!” Crystal replied defiantly.

Yolanda snorted. “That’s so stupid!:

Greta, on the other hand, tilted her head. “Could Countering a Counter work?”

“No!” Yolanda denied, only to tilt her own head. “I don’t think it should?”

The trio all stood for a moment with their heads tilted, pondering this, then a wind blew down from the mountain, causing them to shiver and tighten up their coats. 

“Brrrr! Winter ran late this year!” muttered Crystal.

“Urgh, I’m blaming the Articuno that moved into the Battle Frontier,” muttered Greta, causing Yolanda and Crystal to blink in surprise. “Legendary pokemon do have impacts on weather events and a known ice type would impact the weather for us. Hopefully once we’re past Cerulean, it will warm up more. 

“That makes so much sense,” Crystal muttered before returning to rage baiting a Mankey.

Yolanda stared to the north, thinking about the rather beautiful bird, only for Greta to perk up.

“Oh, that’s right, you got to meet the Representative of Fiore’s on the Battle Frontier, didn’t you?” Greta asked, earning a nod from Yolanda.

“I did, and it’s true, he is friends with an Articuno.” She even had a few pictures to show of herself and her family posing near the Legendary pokemon.

Greta leaned in and stared at the images. “Wow, that’s… I’m so envious of you sometimes.”

Yolanda could only rub the back of her head. “Yeah, it’s pretty wild sometimes, but!” she pointed at Greta. “Now you’re with me, and we’re on an adventure! Who knows what we’ll see!” she said as she swept her hand out in a grand gesture.

A moment later, something filthy slammed into Crystal as she stepped away from the long grass. Her smirk vanished as she fell on her back, gagging and wailing.

She hacked a few times and something foul was expelled.

“Keeeeey! Keeey! Key!” cackled a gleeful Mankey as it emerged out of the grass to prod Crystal.

Greta raised her pokedex and began recording. “Today I have discovered that Mankeys in the wild are capable of Gunk Shot!” she narrated.

Crystal rose like a furious Haunter, eyes glowing as she locked on to Mankey. 

“You!? You dare make a maiden taste such things?” she howled.

In response, Mankey turned and spanked its backside.

In response, Crystal threw herself at the pokemon with a rock in each hand, no doubt hoping to get off a sneak attack, only for Mankey to bat her out of the air cheerily.

“The taunt was super effective,” Greta muttered as Yolanda bit her lip to stop herself from laughing. This was better than Brock’s narrations!

Rising once more from her sprawl on the side of the road, Crystal rolled her shoulders. “Alright! You’ve proven yourself to me! You’re a strong pokemon and you’re smarter than the average Mankey! I want a pokemon like you on my team that I can train to become the best!”

Everyone stared at her sudden change in tactics.

Then Mankey rolled onto its back, howling with laughter while pointing at her.

“Heroic moment was inneffec—” “YOU ARE NOT HELPING!” screeched Crystal as she directed a murderous gaze at the older girl.

“I’m not trying to be. If I’m going to watch you flail around like this, then I’m going to make the most of it by sending this to Professor Oak for both field work and a laugh.”

Unable to stop herself, Yolanda snorted, and from there the rest of her laughter broke from her control as Crystal shot her a foul look.

Crystal turned back to the Mankey that was looking between the girls with a curious expression. “That does it! You’re going down!and Mankey, you will be joining my team!” She enlarged a pokeball to release only for Mankey to smirk cruelly and throw something wet at her.

It slapped home into her wrist and caused the pokeball to soar off into the long grass, where it vanished. Mankey turned, smacked its backside once more and then took off into the long grass.

For a long moment, no one spoke.

Then Crystal turned her head to the sky, and the air was full of curse words that echoed off the mountains and caused more than a few nurseries in Pewter to force the caretakers to cover the children’s ears.

A police report was filed due to this.

It took Yolanda a few minutes to settle her enraged friend down. Mostly because it took her that long to stop laughing at her friend’s misfortune, and that a Mankey had rage baited her in turn.

“You probably need to see about getting your pokeball back,” she pointed out. Which acted like an icy bucket of water on Crystal and made her rage vanish in the face of her worry.

“Oh my gosh! I forgot! That monkey sent my pokemon flying off!” Crystal scurried into the long grass only to return a moment later with her pokeball. “Safe!”

Greta hummed, “I guess this means we’re going to have to start being smart about it and keeping a pokemon out in case we’re in trouble,” she suggested. “Sorry I didn’t have anyone out already, I assumed with there being three of us we’d be too much for most pokemon to attack.”

“Oh yeah, good idea,” Crystal replied, releasing her Cyndaquil who glanced around eagerly only to snuggle up to her a moment later.

Greta released her Venusaur who caused a loud thump before shivering and giving Greta a reproachful look. 

“That… feels like overkill,” Yolanda pointed out, despite not releasing any of her own pokemon. 

“Hmmm, perhaps, but it’s not like I’m fighting any trainers right now. Just some wild pokemon. Now what about you?” she prompted, eyes dipping to Yolanda’s pokebelt only to blink in surprise 

“Since when?” Greta asked.

“Since when what?” Crystal asked, glancing over only for Yolanda to straighten out her arm and a Pidgey to land upon it. 

“Since we started?” Yolanda replied. “I’ve been having Flapper shadow us from any flying types attacking us from above, and to also look out for any stalkers, poachers, or pokemon that might be hunting us during the day.”

“Wow, just… wow,” Crystal replied. “I can’t believe I didn’t notice that!”

“You were kind of busy with your rage baiting?” suggested Yolanda. 

At her friend’s downcast expression, Yolanda decided to offer her something she’d want. “Flapper might have seen where Mankey ran off to if you’re interested in catching it. It was an unusually smart Maneky.”

Crystal gained a glint in her eyes. “Yes. And this time I’m going to be ambushing it!” she announced.

“If Flapper knows where it is,” pointed out Yolanda.

“...” Crystal turned hopeful eyes to the pidgey, which puffed itself up, preened a feather or two.

And then nodded once.

“Yes! Payback time!” declared Crystal.

Yolanda shared a look with her Pidgey before giving it a nod and sending it into the air where it trilled and began leading them towards a small grove of trees. Before long the girls started to hear various hoots and hollers that indicated that it wasn’t just the one Mankey, but a large family of them.

They slowed to a crawl to sneak up as much as they could and were fortunate enough to get within sight of a small meadow in the middle of the trees where a Mankey was standing atop a small rock pantomiming a story while others watched on from the trees hooting and hollering at the show.

It didn’t take long to work out what story was being retold.

“That little fink! I’m going to bust it down for that!” Crystal growled. 

“Want Greta and I to thin the pack?” Yolanda offered.

“I could probably take them down myself?” Greta offered, indicating her Venusaur. 

Venusaur perked up at the prospect of a sudden smack down, only for Yolanda to shake her head. 

“No, I want to give my pokemon experience.” 

In the meantime, Crystal continued to observe the pack of Mankey. “ Yeeeeeha, I’m gonna need that help. It looks like the family are kinda strong. I’m surprised they haven’t been driven off by the Rangers or the Gym trainers.”

“Eh, they’re within accepted norms,” muttered Yolanda, giving the group a once over only to pause on an elderly mankey.

Greta nodded. “Yeah that one might need to be relocated,” she stated, drawing out a handful of her own Ranger balls.

“Bags it/shotgun!” whispered Yolanda and Greta.

They turned to each other. “You want it?” Greta asked only for Yolanda to tilt her head and shake it. 

“No, I want to fight it.” She pointed at Greta, “Do you want to catch it?”

“Nope! I’ve got my eyes on something else,” replied Greta. “I want to fight it.”

With their intentions laid bare, they locked eyes. Their hands drew back from each other and out of sight as a fighting spirit began to blossom between them.

“One, two, shoot!” they whispered as they shot their hands forward.

Greta had used paper while Yolanda had scissors.

“Eh? You didn’t use Rock?” Greta gasped.

“Ah, you’ve won a lot of matches from me in the past because I’ve championed rock types, but no more! My shackles are released! Prepare to lose more in the future!” Yolanda declared.

“Best of three?” tried Greta only for Yolanda to turn away and enlarge two pokeballs. “I’ll take the left!”

“Right,” replied Greta with a sigh, patting Venusaur on the head.

“Right, if you’re good I’m good. Heroic Entry time!” Crystal announced before leaping forward. 

“OI MANKEY PREPARE TO GET WRECKED!” screamed Crystal as she let loose with a blistering cannon of a throw. 

The pokeball that she’d selected hurtled out and slammed into the surprised Mankey, causing it to be taken into the pokeball.

The other girls’ stared at their friend as Crystal strode forward. 

“Back me up girls!” she called over her shoulder, causing the other two to scramble after her.

The Mankey pack screeched their rage as the pokeball wobbled once.

Yolanda and Greta snapped their hands Terra to defend Yolanda while Flapper the Pidgey descended from the sky to do battle.

The pokeball wobbled twice.

On Greta’s side, Venusaur stalked forward causing dozen of attacks to be sent his way only for him to outright ignore them while lashing any pokemon that got too close with his Vine whips. 

When the frenzied pokemon drew back Greta smirked and snapped her fingers once, causing Venusaur to ‘pursue’ with Razor Leaf. 

The pokeball wobbled a thir— it broke open and revealed a now thoroughly enraged Mankey that locked eyes with Crystal. In response, the blue-haired girl smirked and released her Cyndaquil. “Let’s flame on!” she called.

“Did you seriously just pull a Leeroy Jenkins on us?” Yolanda shouted as Flapper tackled a leaping Mankey out of the air. “You’re banned from using the pokenet tonight! Banned I say!”

“Pffft! Come on! Live a little!” Crystal replied as she skipped back from Mankey, who attempted to Karate Chop her. In response to the attack on its trainer, Cyndaquil launched a powerful Flamethrower into Mankey’s backside, burning it badly.

Mankey twirled and delivered a powerful kick into Cyndaquil, demonstrating that it wasn’t just a smart Mankey, but a strong one as well.

It was that moment when the strongest Mankey leapt forward and announced itself by throwing a boulder at Greta.

“Hmmm living a little is fine but perhaps be a bit smarter about this?!” suggested Greta as Venusaur smashed the boulder apart and locked eyes with its foe. “Also, Yolanda?! He’s my fight now!” called Greta.

“Tch!” Yolanda clicked her tongue in annoyance and considered sharpedo’ing the pokemon fight before deciding to turn her attention elsewhere. She’d just have to save her ire for after the fight was done, and she would be giving it out… There was no question of that.

“Pidgey Gust to your right and then tuck and roll to the left to Wing Attack the Mankey hanging on the branch!” 

“Venusaur! Draw out the fight! Use Sunny Day for yourself!” Greta called even as her pokemon intercepted a blow its vines. Greta hummed and began narrating the fight with various observations. 

“It is not often that we get a chance to witness a Mankey fight extended battles as they are noxious for there poor stamina,” she narrated to her pokedex. 

With Greta’s command, Yolanda adjusted, knowing that she wasn’t going to be able to use Sandstorm or other weather moves lest she foul up Greta’s field research.

Crystal began to cackle as her pokemon began lighting up areas of the grove.

“Hey! Remember to not burn down the forest we’re in!” Yolanda barked, causing Crystal to twitch in surprise and realise the issue.

“Oh shit! Cyndaquil Smokescreen to choke out the flames!” she called, demonstrating that she did have some training on how to handle her pokemon’s accidental infernos.

The Mankey went from being torched to suddenly having its lungs clogged. It staggered, choking on smoke only to stumble around. 

Crystal grinned as she drew out another pokeball. “Take two!” she announced with glee, hurling the pokeball and braining it once more.

This time the pokeball wobbled twice and went still with the small button on the front going dull, indicating the capture had been successful.

“Yes! We did it! We caught a Mankey!” shouted Crystal as she and Cyndaquil celebrated.

“MANKEY!” screeched the leader of the pack as it noticed its family member being captured. 

“Oh shit! It’s about to go Ape-shit!” called Crystal.

“No shit!” called Yolanda as the Mankey began evolving, causing all of them to grimace. This had escalated much further than they’d planned it to.

“Primeape!” roared the newly evolved pokemon.

“Need some help?” Yolanda asked only for Greta to snort and shake her head.

“No, we got this,” she declared as Primeape slammed a fist into a nearby tree, splitting it in half.

Venusaur stepped forward, unimpressed by the show of force. 

“Solarbeam,” ordered Greta firmly, and within an instant one of the most powerful grass-type attacks built up and launched itself straight into the Primeape.

It was hurled back, where it screeched its rage as it slammed into a tree hard and was blown through it.

It didn’t get up.

Yolanda nodded, reaching into her pokeball pouch within her bag, drawing out some of the ranger balls that she was allowed to have thanks to her status as a Gym Trainer.

“Go enjoy a better area!” declared Yolanda, flicking the ball and sending it on to the Rangers to be processed. She then slowly walked around the clearing, checking on the other Mankey. The stronger ones, she copied the action, using up all of her ranger balls.

As she did this, Crystal and Cyndaquil performed a little celebration as they walked around the area, getting rid of any embers or open flames with more smoke to choke the flames out.

Greta did likewise with her Seadra while her Venusaur sat and settled down. Within moments the grass and trees begna to seem more vibrant.

When everyone was done Crystal began to skip and dance around only to stop when they found Yolanda staring at them.

“Crystal, I know that you’re excited to be out from your Mum’s rules and house, but that was way too sloppy. If this is how you act at the start of our journey, where the pokemon are well known and easy for us… I’m worried about you,” she said, turning her ire into concern.

Crystal slumped, unable to mount as much of an argument in front of that.

“S-sorry Yol. You’re right. I went a bit crazy cause I’m out from Mum’s wing. I’ve been dying to get a third pokemon for ages and unlike you guys, I’ve been restricted. So I just… wanted to get one straight away and I had Mankey on my list for a while,” she admitted.

“Hmmm, makes sense, sorry if I’ve been rubbing it in, but,” Yolanda looked around at the slightly destroyed clearing. “You might have stung yourself in the foot here with this. I doubt you and Mankey are going to hit it off with how you’ve approached it, you know?”

“Ah… I… hadn’t considered that,” admitted Crystal.

“You’re going to have your work cut out for you,” replied Yolanda gesturing back to the road. “Come on, let’s set up for lunch. That might help your chances. Who’s cooking?” she asked of the group at large.

The trio of girls shared a look, and as one drew back their fists.

“One, two, shoot!” announced the trio.

Greta growled as she stared at two rocks to her scissors! “No! Two in a row? This is wrong! Have you both been holding back or something?” she wailed. “You’re bullying me!”

The other pair shared a look. “Nah, you’re just bad today,” they teased. 

Crystal tossed her newly caught pokemon’s ball up and down with a grin. “Hey, cook something filling! Me and my pokemon worked up an appetite!”

“You say that like you did the actual hard work! Without Yolanda or me you’d have been lost! Also, clean your face. You still stink,” retorted Greta.

“Ah… true. Thanks!” said Crystal spinning and bowing before drawing out some wet wipes.

The other two paused at this and shifted. 

“It was… kind of fun?” offered Yolanda honestly.

Greta snorted. “It was, wasn’t it?” Crystal perked up. “Yeah! And your Solarbeam was super badass! He was all like Gonna destroy with my new evolution, and you were like ‘Not today monkey!’ and Blam!” 

The trio made their way back to the road and before long Greta had a small fire set up with a pot of curry being made that would feed them and their pokemon. Wild pokemon were quickly attracted to the smell, and feeling bad, Crystal offered up a smattering of berries.

Yolanda giggled from where she was sitting, polishing Terra’s shell.

Once lunch was made up, Crystal laid out four bowls, one for herself and three for her pokemon.

Cyndaquil and Eevee were quick to scurry towards the bowl while Mankey sank back on its haunches, still looking exhausted.

“Oh, sorry, you’re probably still reeling from the fight,” admitted Crystal. “Here, have an oran and a rawst berry to help with that.” Crystal then adopted a heroic pose. “Right, so I know I probably didn’t start things off on the best—”

“Mank!” cheered the little monkey, approaching Crystal to bow and then hug her, causing her to fall silent.

“Oh… you’re okay with being part of my team?” asked Crystal.

Mankey nodded and gestured to the bowl. When Crystal inclined her head, Mankey ambled over and began to eat without any concerns.

Unable to stop herself, Yolanda giggled. “Oh my gosh! Your face right now!”

“That is just soo you Crystal. You went out there looking to get into a fight and you got it only to find the most relaxed Mankey around!” chuckled Greta.

Crystal perked up. “Ha! My luck is strong!” she declared before sitting down and wolfing through her curry.

Once everyone was fed and sitting back, enjoying the post-food bliss, Crystal shifted and glanced at her two human friends.

“Hey, so I had Mankey on the list of pokemon I wanted for my team. What pokemon are each of you thinking of getting?” Crystal asked.

“I’m hoping to get a Porygon, but I’d settle for a Zapdos” declared Great instantly.

The girls stared at her, while the pokemon gasped in shock. Venusaur had his mouth wide open only to blink and adopt a stoic expression. “Saur!” he nodded, like that made perfect sense.

Then Greta snorted. “Obviously I’m joking! Where would I get one, let alone how would I take care of it?” She hugged Venusaur’s face. “You’re so earnest!” she giggled.

Crystal exhaled. “Jeez, you gave me a heart attack there! Don’t steal my shtick!” 

“Heh, if we’re being ridiculous, I’d like one of the Regi variant pokemon. Brock’s Regirock is super powerful and they’re just unstoppable unless you have a ridiculously powerful pokemon like Titan, or Bertha to face off against them,” Greta suggested.

“Most of us don’t measure ourselves against Brock,” pointed out Crystal as Greta nodded. 

Yolanda shrugged. “Eh, not like we can help it having grown up and studied under him,” yolanda pointed out, causing Greta to make a thoughtful sound. “But to answer your question seriously?” Yolanda gave it a few moment’s thought. “Shuckle has some interesting uses that I might not mind.”

“...  you want to make shuckle wine?” whispered Crystal. “Yol… you rebel!” 

Yolanda rolled her eyes. “Elekid would be nice as well, as I know a lot about electric types thanks to handling Sanchez. So I’m going to have to search around a bit. Otherwise, Probopass perhaps?”

Crystal nodded, accepting that while Greta watched Yolanda more seriously. “You really think Shuckle might be useful in a pokemon battle?” she asked.

“It has some niche skills, but possibly,” Yolanda said, shrugging. 

She raised her hand, beginning to tick off her fingers. “Nidoran are good to have, as are Poliwags. I’d love a Lapras, and maybe a psychic like Abra, or a cutey like a Ralts… but those last two are tough pokemon to get, so I’d need to be patient.” 

Glancing towards Terra she smiled. “Psyhic pokemon might also not like me too much sooo, so I’ll just see what works out for me for now.”

“How well thought out,” Crystal replied. “I like the sound of Elekid though! If I get a nice Pichu I’ll befriend it in a heartbeat!” 

“Sure, like you befriended Mankey here straight away? How did you start the second round out? Get wrecked?”

“It worked so I’m not wrong!” replied Crystal as Mankey nodded along, loyally agreeing with her.

The girls shared a look before breaking out into giggles.

When they were done they set about packing away their lunch and cleaning up after themselves. Then they were on the road again, marching towards Mt Moon.

“So are we going inside Mt Moon and risking Zubat swarms or going over it?” asked Greta thoughtfully.

Yolanda stared at the peak as Crystal shrugged. 

After a moment of thought, she pointed down towards the cave entrance that had multiple warning signs around it. “Down, I want to go the way we were made to avoid as junior trainers for Pewter. I know there’s slightly more risk with traversing a tunnel network but at the same time…”

“The road less traveled,” Greta prompted knowingly and Yolanda nodded.

“Sounds good!” cheered Crsytal as she pointed down the road and before long the girls caught sight of the main entrance under Mt Moon.

One thing jumped out straight away.

To the side sat a Rangers hut, with lanyards resting on an array of hooks, each with a tag to trigger an emergency ping so the Rangers can find and extract you quickly.

“That’s new,” Yolanda murmured, approaching the Ranger hut and waving at the Ranger on duty sitting behind the glass.

“Morning girls, thinking about going through the cave system?” he asked.

“Yeah… how long has this been up?” Yolanda asked.

“Went up in the last few days. All those trainers last year did some good with funding increasing,” remarked the man before smirking. “Of course if there’s one thing you never do when you’re getting government funding is to come in under budget. Bunch of huts like this have been established around the major cave networks to help prevent more… accidents,” the man corrected as he eyed the three young girls.

Yolanda leaned to the side, and sure enough, there was a counter on the wall, just out of sight that read ‘days without fatalities’. She was pleased to see it had a twenty on it.

“So we take a lanyard and press the button if we’re in trouble?” she asked.

“Yup!” the man replied. “Got a few Psychic pokemon and their trainers that joined us from Sabrina herself, if you can believe!” 

The man winked again. “More funds mean increased salaries which has made us a bit more attractive as a job prospect.”

“Should you be telling us all this?” asked Greta as she donned a lanyard.

The man just shrugged. “Have a nice day and stay safe. If you can’t read the many, many warning signs… well I’m not sure what you’re doing out here.”

Greta and Crystal all nodded at this while Yolanda frowned. That was… There was something wrong with that sentiment but she couldn’t quite place her finger on what it was.

“Any criminal activity?” she asked.

The man blinked at her for a moment only to frown. A moment later, he pulled out some glasses and blinked. “Oh! I know you! You’re Brock’s sister!”

Yolanda smiled at that while Crystal snorted.

“She’s Yol, actually! The next up and coming rock star!”

“A rock star?” the man queried, eyes flicking between the girls.

Yolanda nodded, then, recalling what her manager advised, she drew out a card with her info on it. “Check out my music! I have a pretty wide range and leave a comment!”

The man accepted the card with a slow blink. He stared at it for a moment and then back up at Yolanda. “Uhmmm, maybe you shouldn’t go through the cave system,” he suggested. 

“I’m not going to sing!” replied Yolanda with a roll of her eyes.

“Hmmm, good,” the man murmured. “Less for us to clean up that way,” he muttered before waving them off.

“Oh right, do you think I can have some spare ranger balls?,” Yolanda asked the rangers.

“Oh? Yeah sure. Is there anything specific to report or?” One of the rangers queried. “No, just a Mankey pack with a few soon-to-be evolutions and one elder that evolved into Primeape. But we took care of that” Yolanda explained. 

“Alright, thanks for the assist, young miss,” he continued with a lazy smile.

As they turned away, Yolanda caught sight of the Ranger using his transceiver to check out her pokenet page, causing her to skip a little. Alright! That wasn’t so hard!

Before they entered the cave, Yolanda recalled Flapper and instead drew out Slash, her Sneasel, while Greta happily kept out Venusaur.

Crystal grinned as her new Mankey walked next to her.

For the next few minutes, the girls walked through the tunnel with a set of headlamps that shone red light around them.

“Crazy how this lets you walk through here with less—” Crystal started to say only to trip over a geodude that had been pretending to be a sunken rock.

The geodude rose up and growled, drawing back a fist to punch Greta only for Venusaur to swat the rock type away with an errant flick of its vines.

The Geodude went sailing into a nearby wall that echoed oddly. The Geodude shook itself off and glowered at the girls and their pokemon before rolling away, well aware it was out of its depth.

“You were about to say less incidents, right?” teased Greta as Crsytal rose, dusting herself off.

“Yes,” she murmured only to blink as Yolanda approached the rockwall that the Geodude had been knocked into. “Yolanda?”

“There’s something weird about this wall,” she murmured as she tapped on it. The wall flaked away and parts of it fell away.

Yolanda backed up quickly, even going so far as to release Terra in preparation for a cave in only for the wall to fall in on itself and reveal a tunnel.

The tunnel was well lit and actually caused Yolanda and the others to have to shield their eyes.

“Shit! That’s going to cause… huh?” Crystal glanced up only to see that none of the Zubat had been impacted by the tunnel’s appearance. “Whew, that was a scare.”

“What is this place? I’ver never seen anything like this…” Greta murmured, squinting into the tunnel. Along the walls there were various small mushrooms that were growing sporadically.

“I don’t know,” Yolanda replied. “Want to investigate?” she asked.

“Yeah!” gushed Crystal while Greta hummed and nodded slowly.

“Yeah, I think we should cause… those mushrooms are tiny mushrooms right?”

That caused everyone to do a double-take. Tiny Mushrooms were one of the items Brock had lectured on in the past. Each one was worth roughly two hundred to three hundred pokedollars, depending on their quality.

Staring into the well-lit tunnel the girls began running calculations.

“There’s thousands of dollars worth right here for the taking!” cheered Crystal as she moved to a wall and began claiming dozens at a time.

“Yeah… which makes it all the more suspicious,” Yolanda replied. “Who’s planting them?”

Greta pursed her lips, grabbing a few for herself and examining them before moving down a slight slope that saw them reaching another tunnel that seemed like a main thoroughfare for pokemon and people judging by the tracks.

“Saur!” barked Venusaur as he shuffled awkwardly into the small tunnel after the girls. 

“Might need to change out pokemon,” suggested Crystal earning a sad nod from Greta as she returned her starter pokemon.  In his place, Vulpix appeared.

The girls walked along a bit only for Terra to wiggle. “Pupa! Pupa!” chimed the heavy pokemon within Yolanda’s grip.

Turning to the tunnel wall, Yolanda spotted what Terra was indicating. “It’s… a dark emitter?” she whispered.

“Oh sthat’s not good. Someone doesn’t want psychics to know about this area,” muttered Crystal.

Yolanda nodded, a sinking feeling in her gut.

The sound of people’s voices caused the girls to stiffen and creep forward slowly.

When they reached the end of the new tunnel, they found themselves in a larger, more well-lit cavern.

Within there were several men wearing respirators moving along rows of cages.

Within dozens of paras rested, all of them without their signature mushrooms.

“Got a few that are healing up slower? Worth using Chansey for this or we just get rid of them?” called one man callously.

Yolanda grimaced, “It’s a mushroom farm,” she muttered. 

“What should we do?” asked Greta, eyes searching the tunnel. “We can’t leave these pokemon to suffer like this!”

“We could take them! Greta’s strong!”

“I am… but I’m not sure I can stop everyone getting away… especially if they run into tunnels,” Greta whispered back.

“No, we’re not doing that, and we’re not letting them get away either,” Yolanda stated as steel entered her voice.

 “We’re going to back away, slowly and trigger our emergency beacons,” Yolanda replied, eyes dipping to the pokebelts of each person present. There were about a dozen men, each with two pokemon on their belts at least. That was far too many if it came down to a fight.

“Hmmm alright, that makes sense” Crystal conceded only to glance at a nearby dark emitter. “Should we break those?” she asked as they backed away, down the tunnel and back out the way they’d come. 

Yolanda nodded, reaching out to pluck one from the wall.

Once they reached the end of the tunnel and where they’d come in, Yolanda and the girls triggered their emergency tags.

A light on each started blinking with a dry tone, speaking up. “Please remain calm!” it intoned as something just out of hearing thrummed out, causing the Zubat to stiffen overhead and then relax.

Yolanda frowned at the odd response, but couldn’t question it as a moment later, a Kadabra appeared with a tall man in ranger attire. Each of them were posing heroically. “Need of rescue?” he asked, only to blink at the serious expressions on the girls' faces.

“Not us, some others do though,” Yolanda reported before listing out the discovery. The Ranger listened intently before swearing.

“Right, good thinking, girls. Let’s get you out of Mt Moon and close down the tunnels for the day,” he murmured as he and his pokemon Teleported the group back to the Ranger hut. The girls all staggered and Yolanda felt sick to her stomach. That… was far rougher than Sabrina’s Teleport.

The Psychic trainer marched off with a shake of his head to report in on the find. “Freaking day one of the Circuit and this shit is going down!” the man muttered under his breath. “Thought this was easy street!” 

From there, things got very busy, and within minutes a detachment of Pewter’s Police had appeared.

“Afternoon Jenny, been busy?” asked a Ranger as an Officer Jenny arrived and parked her motorbike.

“Nah, not unless you count hunting around for whoever’s been swearing up a storm near some nursery centres,” replied the woman, causing the girls to give Crystal a look while she pointedly avoided looking at Jenny.

With the police and the Rangers gearing up, Yolanda tilted her head. “Aren’t you going to call Brock in?” she asked.

The group shared a look. “For something like this? Nah, this is pretty minor. Unless there is a seriously strong-looking trainer we’re fine. We’re also going to be using new tactics, so don’t worry about us girls,” declared Officer Jenny.

Crystal leaned towards Greta. “Ten pokebucks that some of the crooks get away.”

Officer Jenny’s eyebrow twitched. “Listen! You don’t need to go running for the Local Gym Leader for every little thing! This is an illegal operation, of that there’s no doubt but you don’t need to drop an Arcanine on every situation!”

“We’re good!” called a Ranger with an eight-year mark on his shoulder. “We’re moving in!” he called.

From there things progressed rapidly with the girls having to sit near the rangers' hut and relax.

“This is so not how I imagined my first day going,” muttered Yolanda.

“Yah, it’s been fun! Shame we couldn’t take part in the raid, though,” murmured Crystal.

“Maybe in future we will, until then we just keep growing stronger!” Greta urged.

That caused the girls to nod thoughtfully.

Yolanda turned to Crystal. “Wanna fight?” she prompted.

The answering grin was all she needed to know that they’d make their own fun for the rest of the afternoon.

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A.N. Thanks go to my Patreons for your continued support!

It also goes to Twmmy for proofreading this chapter!