Hard Enough - Chapter 406 - Alpha level threat (Patreon)

A.N. Changes were made to Onix due to the mechanism of catching an alpha being dead wrong. instead twisted it into a different plot point I want to play with. Yolanda was still talking to the rest of our family as I swept out into the reserve, my blood pumping as the knowledge that something truly dangerous lurked at the bottom of Mt Moon.

This needed to be investigated.

I drew out a whistle and blew on it. Pokemon all around swept their heads around at the sudden noise only for a rumble to precede the arrival of my Elite Team.

Don reached me first, sweeping past me with a show of speed, only to come back around right as Selene appeared in Teleport, claiming the first position.

From there Zephyr cut in, landing on a nearby rock with silent wings, his eyes locked on me as the rest of my team shot out of the ground, ran, or rode a wave to reach me.

When they were all assembled, I nodded. “There has been a powerful pokemon discovered deep within the caverns of Mt Moon by Yolanda.”

I gave them all a pointed look. “Yolanda knows what power feels like. For that purpose I will be taking a team of pokemon to investigate.

“Titan, Selene, Bertha, Shrek, Hypnotoad, Link, Regirock, Cradily, Sakura, and…” I considered the various pokemon before pointing at my Kleavor, “Gawain,” I announced. “Everyone else will either be performing security checks of the deeper tunnels within our reserve or, in Don’s case, will be sweeping around Mt Moon for anything that stands out.

“The size of the tunnel appears to be roughly fifteen metres wide and the eyes that I saw indicate it to be a gigantic pokemon. We’re going in very carefully, and investigating first. Depending on what we find we will make moves from there.”

Right as I finished speaking a flash of light heralded Sabrina’s arrival. “I’m ready,” she declared and I nodded, relaxing at her arrival.

If I’d had to I would have gone without her, but I’d rather have her for any adventure, especially one like this. “The tunnel has a lot of dark gems in the walls, alright?” I reminded, only to earn a snort from Sabrina.

“I know how to handle Dark types,” she stated firmly while pointedly giving me a look.

That drew a sheepish cough from me. “Yes, and you do it with style,” I complimented.

“Hmmm, of course,” she preened and I mentally fist pumped, which only made her smile a little wider.

Ah, right, sometimes it was hard to keep my thoughts private. Good thing Sabrina through it was cute most of the time.

“Shall we?” I asked, holding out my hand to her after returning the select team of pokemon to my belt.

She took my hand in hers and a moment later we were out of the reserve and right at the base of Mt Moon. 

The Ranger hut that we’d chosen as our starting point was teeming with police and rangers along with what looked like a chained gang of criminals.

One of the police officers noticed our arrival and offered us a nod. “Bit late Gym Leaders,” he commented with a pleased smile.

“Hmmm, Mushroom farm yes?” I replied back, not at all bothered by the man’s cheek. He had professional pride and it wouldn’t be right to crush it in this instance. “I heard about this. Good job,” I offered a nod back.

Sabrina, who’d probably heard my thoughts on the man’s cheek, chose to ignore my idea. “Good to see you handling the small stuff for once,” she stated, earning a blink from the police officer before the corners of her mouth tightened.

“Oh? And what brings you two from on high?” he snarked back.

I gave Sabrina a small squeeze to ask her to play nice but she merely tossed her hair, showing she was going to ignore me and bite back if the officer tried to obstruct us. 

Deciding to move things along I spoke up before this could become a slap down of the police by Sabrina. “A potential alpha-level threat pokemon was observed in the deeper caverns of Mt Moon. I need to know who performed the patrol of the depths last. For Pewter Gym it’s been a week. Has anyone else been down there in that time?” I asked. 

“An alpha level threat?” the man’s eyes flickered to the sky, showing that he only considered the Legendary birds to truly be that level of danger rating. “Who witnessed such a pokemon?” he asked. The way he said it, made me almost feel the doubt dripping into the air.

“Yolanda, a Pewter Gym Trainer, Greta Green, a Pallet Town sponsored trainer, and Crystal Glass from Pewter City,” I stated. I couldn’t stop my eyes flicking over the group of criminals “Weren’t they the ones to inform you of this lot?” I asked pointedly.

That drew a small, “Ah,” from the man before he nodded. “Right we’ll need to properly seal the mountain then…”

“You’re also going to have to get the lanyards the girls used checked over. According to them they attempted to activate them in the depths only to be surrounded by dark gems. If they didn’t trigger once out of range of the dark emissions then there is a potential weakness that needs to be accounted for and if possible fixed,” I stated.

“I’ll get a Ranger for that,” the man said as he hurried off to do that

I huffed, watching him scurry away only for a soft giggle to let me know Sabrina was amused. “And you were going to play nice.”

“Courtesy should always be extended where possible,” I replied. “But I suspect you knew he was going to be territorial, no?”

She nodded once in reply and continued to hold my hand as news of our arrival and why we were here spread around. The methodical processing of criminals became a frantic shift as people began to extend a cordon around the entrance.

A trio of hardened rangers, each of them with no less than five years of mountains and cave experiences on their shoulders, approached us.

“Gym Leaders, things have hit the fan then?” the lead woman grunted as she eyed us.

I raised an eyebrow. “Not yet. We’re investigating at this point.”

“Must be a solid threat if both of you are investigating,” muttered one of the men behind the woman.

I chuckled and nodded, unable to refute his words.

The final man just sighed. “Yeah, that tracks. When Brock and Sabrina show up, you know you’re safe, but the situation might go FUBAR.”

Sabrina and I shared a look. “Uhmmm, excuse me?” I asked, a bit stunned.

The man flapped a hand. “You’ve been involved in a lot of incidents. It’s good to see you but it’s like encountering an Absol that is barking at you and very clearly going out of its way to get your attention.”

I coughed at that while Sabrina spoke up. “The witnesses did see an Absol, actually.”

That drew a round of curses from the trio, with the leader waving her hands. “Set the cordon another fifty back from the entrance!” she bellowed before turning back to Sabrina and I. “You going to take the lead?” she asked, and I nodded.

Our group advanced towards the now almost deserted tunnel entrance. I flicked on a head lamp, with Sabrina donning her own as another two floated up behind her.

Titan, Link and Gawain soon appeared next to us while Sabrina released her Medicham and Alakazam for herself. 

“Aw fuck they’re getting their pokemon out,” muttered the whinger.

“Silence! Show more discipline in the caves!” hissed the woman.

I coughed pointedly. “I think that’s enough comedy for the moment,” I offered. The men shared a look as I tapped my transceiver on to start recording my surroundings to the highest accuracy I could. 

“Gym Leader Brock and Gym Leader Sabrina, working with…” I glanced up to the Rangers.

“Hannah,” supplied the woman. “Makkie,” said the whinger. “John,” offered the other. 

I nodded and turned back to the record. “We’re investigating a reported sighting of an alpha-level threat. The pokemon was witnessed in the depths of Mt Moon, with red eyes and heralded by large seismic activity.”

I paused, thinking I’d forgotten something before indicating our pokemon. “Our pokemon—” said pokemon waved to the camera and when I was done introducing them I pointed my hand, and we began walking into the dark caves. 

The tunnels themselves were rather narrow with there only being five metres or so of breadth. I was glad that I hadn’t deployed Bertha or Jorm, who were my widest pokemon as the space would have become even tighter.

Instead, I had Titan up front with me as we navigated through the caverns as best Yolanda could remember.

Fortunately, we were getting here soon after the girls had gone down. While they wouldn’t have left much of a track, the Onix that they encountered fairly early on left a noticeable trail in its wake.

We trekked deeper and deeper into the cave network, slowly making markings that showed up in the red light to have an easy path to follow out. Much like Hansel and Gretel of the proverbial children’s tale, it might vanish on us due to wildlife however, so we didn’t plan to rely on that.

If worst came to worst, Sabrina would Teleport us, or we’d dig our way out with my rock pokemon.

It all depended on what we’d find in the depths of Mt Moon.

“It’s ahead,” Sabrina commented after thirty minutes of slow trekking.

That caused everyone to pause. “You can feel the pokemon?” I asked, glancing around while scenting the air. I considered sweeping my dark mountain aura out to see if I could detect something, but most Pokémon that fell within my range were very aware of being within it.

No need to spook whatever was ahead of us.

“No, not the pokemon. The area where the girls encountered it is ahead. There is a deadzone that I suspect is the cavern with the dark gems,” she informed us, earning a sigh of relief from the male pair of rangers.

“Will you two buck up already?” growled Hannah.

“Ma'am, this was supposed to be an easy posting, and it has been for years!” muttered the Makkie.

“Yeah, been nothing but some light spelunking and the occasional need to push back pokemon slipping in from the north, but otherwise easy,” offered John.

“Urgh! Neither of you are the sorts that are ever going to get promoted!” scoffed Hannah

“Don’t make it sound so bad, promotions bring expectations,” teased Makkie even as his eyes slid over the surrounding walls, showing that for all the words he was saying sounded defeatist. He was still a professional.

John, likewise, was watching our six with his head turned to track anything sneaking up behind us.

The chat continued for only a few more exchanges before dying off when we slid down a large slope into what could only be the cavern in question.

Instantly my eyes locked onto the giant sinkhole in the middle of the room.

It called to me, like I was Pippin Took in the mines of Moria.

All it would take is one stray rock and…

I licked my lips and swept my hand back and forth. “Secure perimeter?” I asked, keeping my gaze fixed on the hole.

Nearby Titan, Link and Gawain all had the same focus.

They, like me, could tell something was down there.

Something strong.

“Only one other open tunnel,” reported Hannah as she moved to investigate. “Footprints and some pokemon markings here… along with a scraping.” Hannah glanced up and we all followed her torchlight to discover that something had recently taken a chunk out of the tunnel leading away.

“Hmmmm, odd collapse of what appeared to be quite hardy rock,” I muttered.

John approached slowly, tapping at the rock. “This is granite… not brittle stuff either.”

I raised an eyebrow at that, unaware that such a thing existed. “Brittle granite?” I asked.

“Sometimes air bubbles can get trapped in pockets of it, making it weaker than it should be,” answered John absently.

He gave the collapsed tunnel a thoughtful look. “Something struck this tunnel…something big, and not with a move, but with its body. There are cracks here that imply a lot of weight being struck,” he pointed towards several small cracks in the surrounding walls.

“Is there a risk of collapse?” I asked.

“Not so long as something doesn’t hit it again,” he replied.

“So it’s risky,” I stated with a nod, mentally accounting for it as I glanced around. “How deep in the earth are we? I noticed a lot of sloping. I have us at roughly six levels down?” I prompted.

The Rangers shared a look and hissed. “Probably deeper. There were some gentle slopes there to start with. I’d put this at the eighth level personally,” Makkie offered up.

“Hmmm, so about the level to start seeing risky pokemon,” I muttered, earning more nods. Sabrina, who’d remained quiet upon entry knelt next to the wall and began tapping at something.

“We’re deep enough down that I’m seeing fossils imbedded in the wall here. These look like Helix and dome fossils, no?”

Moving over carefully I knelt next to her and checked the wall. “So it is,” I replied, drawing out my chisel only for Medicham to march up and punch the wall on either side of the fossils.

When the outer layer fell into Sabrina’s waiting hands I gave her a gimlet look. “That’s not how this works at all, stop cheating with psychic abilities,” I muttered, storing away my chisel.

Sabrina nodded back at the sinkhole. “We don’t have time for that,” she murmured.

I nodded, feeling it in the way the hairs on the back of my neck stood up and an itch formed in my hands.

I tapped the rest of my pokebelt to release my pokemon. “Selene, on us, Regirock, stabilise the area first. We’re going to see what this is first,” I ordered.

“Oh shit, yes! It wasn’t just a rumor!” gushed John as his eyes locked onto my Regirock.

I chuckled even as the Rangers released their own pokemon. Despite this we still had a lot of room to move within the cavern and spread out.

All of us watched the sinkhole as the feeling of something drawing closer grew with each passing second..

The first physical sensation we got was the shaking of pebbles around us. 

Then it turned into a rumble, and finally, a roar that engulfed everything around us and continued to grow louder.

Sabrina drew out earplugs and they inserted themselves into our ears. I signed thank you to her along with the others while keeping my eyes on the sinkhole as red eyes appeared from down below.

The roar grew until I could feel it in my bones. I braced myself with rock aura while Sabrina lifted herself off the ground. 

Our Ranger escort stumbled around only for their pokemon to catch them and hug them to keep them upright as they themselves struggled.

The roar grew so loud it was painful despite the earplugs.

I pulsed an order through the bond. I had wanted to attempt a peaceful resolution, but when a pokemon was coming on with this level of power, every instinct was telling me we were beyond peace.

Now there was only violence ahead.

With that in mind I had Bertha begin to spin up a One Hit K.O. move. She grinned as her body tensed up in preparation.

We tensed up from the pain even as rocks began to crack around us and spikes fell to the ground. 

Selene intercepted a trio and flicked them to the side while the Rangers ducked closer to their pokemon.

It was as we were dealing with the threat from above that the pokemon emerged.

It shot up and its long segmented body rose above us. There were only five segments with the rest of its body lingering in the sinkhole.

It still towered above us as it arced towards us with a gaping maw that loosened a full powered Roar.

A wave of red coursing energy swept forth, causing everyone to stagger, if not fall to the ground like they’d been thrown. It buffeted Sabrina and caused her to be pushed.

Alakazam attempted to raise a Reflect only for it to do nothing as the noise and force swept around the rectangular shield. He slid backwards despite gritting his teeth and found himself with a foot against the wall as Medicham punched the ground and dug in.

Most of my pokemon had to copy Medicham, Bertha, whose weight should have allowed her to shrug off the attack still staggered.

Her eyes widened as her vibrating limb came down.

If that hit the ground amidst my team—”

Bertha tucked and hit the ground back first causing a shock of pain to run through her as she aborted the built up attack in favour of not destroying the land and most of teammates.

Titan and Reigrock held their footing even as Titan turned slightly in worry for Bertha.

Gawain chopped his way through the shockwave to stand in front of Bertha, absorbing most of the force that should have affected her.

Titan turned back, allowing him to relax.

I couldn’t focus on that however as Sabrina went careening backwards. 

I leapt up and caught her before she could smack into the wall like so many others had.

Around me chaos reigned even as the giant form of an Onix towered over us.

“OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNN!” It roared as it came on, throwing itself at us, its maw spread wide.

It met Titan and Regirock slamming into it from both sides of its face, sending it hurtling backwards where it hit the back wall of the cavern, causing everything to shake.

Bertha shook herself out and growled as her horn and fingers began to spin up.

“GET UP!” I bellowed only to recall that everyone was effectively deaf. With Sabrina tugged into an upright position I pulled only on the bond with my pokemon.

Link pushed himself out of the wall and turned to help the others that had been thrown back. 

Selene reappeared at my side, her eyes glinting with fury as I began tossing what was effectively small balloons full of potion at the pokemon who’d been thrown into the walls or floor with this giant Onix’s mere arrival.

Bertha shuddered as no less than three potions slammed into her.

She rose to her knees and shook her head before tapping Gawain in thanks as she returned to her feet. Tucking her arm back she once more began to build up power.

A warning through my bond made me skip to the side, dragging Sabrina with me and out of danger as a Stalactite fell right where we’d been standing. I tucked Sabrina into my body as flecks of rock flew around us. 

We both ignored it, our gazes still turned towards the Onix.

John dragged Hannah upright with him, his head turned upwards as the very cave itself assaulted us.

“OOOOOOOOON!” roared the Onix as it rose back up causing parts of the roof to start falling down. Sabrina’s pokemon shifted focus to stop us all being crushed from random rocks.

I stared, astonished that it had risen from the hit of two pokemon only for my eyes to lock on its face. 

It barely had a scratch.

Whatever this thing was, it was stronger than any pokemon I’d ever encountered. It exuded an aura that radiated off it in waves causing an oppressive feeling.

Sabrina’s mind linked with mine. “The energy is causing it to be feral and stronger than it should be!” she stated.

“I can believe that!” replied as I directed her attention to its face.

Onix drew back and inhaled, a move I was extremely familiar with.

I stabbed my hands forward and my water pokemon stepped forward to launch Hydro Pumps in the face of Onix’s Dragon Breath.

The attacks caused an explosion of steam that filled the entire cavern.

If it weren’t for the glowing energy, I might have lost sight of it. Instead it loomed large and angry in the steam.

It lurked like a Gengar in the dark of night with only the red eyes giving it away, causing chills to run up my spine.

This pokemon was more enraged than anything I’d encountered, beyond perhaps a Gyarados, but those pokemon embodied rage… what was going on here? Was there a device of some sort causing it to be so hateful?

It wouldn’t stay my hand regardless and I gave Bertha the go ahead.

She launched herself into the mist and I felt her rumble match that of Onix as a whine cut through the roars and tremors that filled the cavern.

The red eyes in the steam made for a wonderful target.

Bertha threw her fist forward and slammed it straight into Onix’s middle segment.

Onix buckled around the blow and was thrown back against the sinkhole as his neck and head slammed into the ground with a tremendous crash that saw everyone once more staggering.

Sabrina and I both knew to expect it and had braced, as had our pokemon but curses and a squeak of terror came from the Rangers as they fell.

Then, like the world's most broken raid boss, Onix rose, an angry growl filling the air as its eyes burned brighter red.

Despite that, it seemed slow to my senses.

“Keep on the pressure!” I shouted into the steam, knowing that no one could hear me but still doing it anyway.

Another wave shot forward as Onix attempted to throw itself at us.

This time I directed Titan and Regirock to work together. While Bertha had the best attack of any of my pokemon, my most consistent were those two.

Titan charged forward with Giga Impact, a corona of power building behind him as Regirock raised a limb high.

Once more my instincts flared and I bellowed a warning aloud and through the bond. “Get out of the way!” I ordered.

A moment later, Regirock swung his limb down and Titan's charge accelerated like he was a bullet fired from a railgun.

Titan hit Onix square in the jaw and like a ball on a string Onix’s head snapped back to slam into the back wall. 

I huffed, “Never got that to work in training,” I muttered as a bead of sweat ran down my forehead.

Sabrina tapped my arm, and I blinked, only to find Alakazam with his hands pointed towards Titan, who had a corona of psychic energy around him.

“Ah… that, makes a lot of sense.” It had never worked in training. It made sense that I needed to stabilise it.

“What the hell was that?” shouted John in the sudden silence.

I glanced over only to find the Rangers once more on their backs.

Huh, now I kind of felt bad. They’d been dragged into a fight that just as witnesses had them as collateral.

A rumble from the other side of the cavern had me tensing and snapping back only to see that the shelf under Onix was giving way.

The third of the body that was exposed was now laid out on the ground, unmoving.

I heaved in huge, painfully hot lungfuls of air, still watching the dark shape in the slowly clearing steam.

It would be just like a horror genre pokemon story for it to open its eyes and strike again.

Not wanting to risk any of my pokemon I drew out a Ranger ball and tossed it at the huge Onix.

Only for nothing to happen.

I blinked in surprise. I… couldn’t catch it?

Or did I miss?

I shook my head. No, that didn’t sound right… I’d been confident in that throw… but still.

Drawing out another ball as the steam started to be blown away by the emergence of a Pidgeot of all things, I tossed another Ranger ball.

This time, I got to watch as it clacked home into Onix’s head, where it opened, shot a red beam of light… and did nothing.

“What the?” I muttered only to brace as the Onix who’d been teetering on the edge of the abyss began to slide backwards.

“Shit! It’s falling back into the hole!” 

Sabrina’s entire team of pokemon raised their hands and began to grasp at the giant pokemon only for it to cause them a visible strain.

“Urgh! This thing still has a lot of internal energy despite being knocked out!” Sabrina called.

“Really? That’s the issue? Not it’s size?” replied John with a tone of disbelief.

Onix shifted, and that movement caused the grip Sabrina and her team had on it to slip.

It shifted back and Sabrina groaned as she redoubled her efforts.

I drew out an Ultra Ball and tossed it, hoping for it to do something, only for it not to work. Onix’s head lolled and it fell back further. I ripped out a Heavy ball and tossed that.

This time, it connected, and Onix was drawn in.

“Yes!” I shouted only to hiss as the ball didn’t come back to me. Shit it was going to fall in the sink—

Sabrina’s hand twitched and the ball jolted as she caught it in the air, only for a moment later it to explode outwards as the giant pokemon returned to where it had been.

Sabrina stumbled at the sudden shift but still tried to grasp it. It fell through her grip though and for a long moment, nobody moved.

We continued to stand there uncertainly, waiting for the impact.

“... it hasn’t landed yet?” Hannah asked after twenty seconds of nothing.

I chewed my lip and considered approaching the edge of the sinkhole only to shake my head.

“Stay away from the edge, there’s going to be a—” A loud boom echoing from the depths cut me off, and there was a small shake. I braced and absorbed it.

Parts of the rock along the edge of the sinkhole collapsed into it.

“That,” I summarised after the boom finished. “That was what I was saying to stay away from,” I muttered mostly to myself as everyone but Sabrina who’d known what was coming and had floated off the ground, picked themselves up.

“How are you keeping your feet?” muttered John as he rose to his.

“Practise,” I replied glibly, giving the sinkhole a thoughtful look. With that depth… well there were very, very long odds that it survived that fall. 

But then again, stranger things were possible in a pokemon world, especially with a pokemon hardened for such impacts. Did that mean it was going to come back twice as bad, or wise up to the fact that some trainers could handle it.

“I’m sorry, I should have been able to lift it,” Sabrina muttered.

“Hmm? Oh, don’t worry, if it was able to resist a Heavy ball despite its size while being unconscious, then we were going to have a difficult time restraining it.” my eyes flickered to the tunnel we’d entered by. It very quickly became much too small for the giant onix.

Sabrina nodded. “We can beat it, but we can’t keep it at this point?”

“Not while its a few dozen levels underground… and in a dark cave like this,” I said, waving a hand at the annoying gems embedded in the walls. In doing so I noticed our companions stretching and chekcing themselves over. 

“Is everyone alright?” I called as I remembered my training.

“We’re good!” called Hannah and the other Rangers. “Got a bit shaken up when it first emerged! Thanks for throwing those potions around. Good idea that,” she complimented.

I nodded and turned to check Sabrina. “Aynthing get you?” I asked, knowing that as the adrenaline wore off there would be a few aches and pains that could reveal themselves.

“No, I’m alright thanks to you,” she replied with a light kiss on the lips.

“Anytime,” I offered, glad that she was okay as I began to check myself over.

Hmmm some minor aches where I must have taken some shrapnel from falling rocks perhaps, but everything else seemed perfectly healthy.

“So, you two have any idea what that was?” Hannah asked. “I’ve never seen something like that before.”

Sabrina and I looked at each other. 

She raised an eyebrow in question and I shook my head. No, I haven't ever encountered anything like this before. 

Onix wasn’t supposed to be a pokemon capable of Gigantamax, and even then it was supposed to be locked to a specific region or due to the actions of a pokemon trainer and its pokemon I thought.

Was this it occurring naturally in the wild?

“I’m not sure,” I offered after a long silence. “There has been some references from Dr Eve’s studies of Pokemonopolis, but that was thought to be a mechanism of empowerment like Mega evolution. This pokemon was able to be captured if that last Heavy ball was any indication, but perhaps our pokeball technology isn’t up to snuff,” I murmured.

“Or the old ways are better,” suggested Hannah.

That got me thinking and nodding after a moment’s thought.  “Huh, I wouldn’t have any clue what to do with such a large pokemon. And it wasn’t like I’d asked it’s thoughts on the idea…”

Makkie and John nodded, accepting that while Hannah clicked her tongue. “Sometimes people can form bonds with pokemon without actually catching them Gym Leader.,” she pointed out.

“Hmmm true enough,” I said. Then I grimaced.

“Kind of reminds me of some of the empowered pokemon I saw within Fiore during a tour,” murmured Hannah.

I grimaced at that and decided not to voice the next part to that statement.”

“You realise that means Fiore could be linked to causing this incident?” John stated and I hissed, annoyed that someone had voiced it.

“I doubt that is the case,” I stated quickly to shut it down. Last thing we needed was escalating tensions with Fiore. Especially while a task force was being assembled to investigate Team Rocket’s offshoot organisation.

“We’ll pass the recordings along to the researchers and the pokeballs that failed. While they failed they might have some valuable data to give us more to work on,” I suggested as I took out the pokedex from my top pocket and began slowly arcing it around the room. “Seeing as there are no zubat in the area, we’re going to turn on some brighter lights to allow the pokedex sensors to work as well as they can,” I said a moment before I pulled out some floodlights to light up the area.

Sabrina turned her attention to the sinkhole as I did this. Alakazam notably floated next to her, all but vibrating with a nervous energy. He reminded me of a father and their child near a large drop. You had to be ready in case the child did something crazy.

Like—

Sabrina floated forward and Alakazam shot his hand forward, grabbing her to stop her ascent.

“Zam,” he muttered, shaking his head.

She considered him for a second only to nod and return to earth.

I exhaled in relief. Good, she wasn’t going to try floating down the sinkhole to see where it went.

Instead, she flicked a boulder into it.

Everyone listened for the sound of it hitting the bottom.

…

After almost a minute, a dull clack echoed upwards. 

That meant the sinkhole was… I tried to run a calculation through my head only to realise I didn’t have a clue where to even start with such maths.

“That’s a deep hole,” I settled for, earning grunts of acknowledgement from the others.

Alakazam perked up and I got the impression he was about to demonstrate the math for working it out only for Sabrina to overrule him.

“This cavern wasn’t open during the circuit, or we would have had more reports. It also wouldn’t have revealed itself to any clairvoyance Rangers might have performed… This area is only newly created.”

“Hmmm, so it came up from the depths of the earth? I wonder what made it come up?” I murmured.

“The Shamouti incident,” Hannah suggested. “We saw a lot of migratory movement. It might be possible we’re still seeing the aftereffects of the event play out.”

Makkie considered the cavern. “If this is the aftereffects, almost months on… that means the rangers are going to have to review every route in Indigo for hidden dangers,” he murmured.

“Yes, yes it will, but better to be on the safe side,” Hannah crossed her arms and looked around. “We’re also going to have to follow that other tunnel to see where it leads,” she said.

I sighed, knowing that this wasn’t going to be a quick adventure. We were going to have to map out the area and make sure that there weren't any more sinkholes like this.

Which meant there was going to be a lot of paperwork in my future.

“Tonight’s going to be a long night, isn’t it?” I asked rhetorically. 

“Well look on the bright side,” Sabrina pointed to the wall that had cracks and broken pieces littering the ground. “Crawley is going to be very happy with all the fossils you’ll be bringing back.”

“Hmmm, there is that,” I replied only to glance towards the sinkhole. “We probably have to go down there, don’t we?”

“Hmmmm, not today, we can leave it for later,” she murmured. "Much later," she said firmly.

I nodded, knowing that she was right. Tonight had enough surprises as it was. 

I wasn’t sure what we’d find if we went deeper into Mt Moon, but it wasn’t something to do on a whim. This was also probably more a job for the rangers to handle than a gym leader.

Which... Well there was nothing stopping me from coming down here during a quiet period in the coming days, was there? If the girls had found fossils, what else might there be?

____________________

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

Thanks also goes to Twmmy for proofreading this chapter!

For those not in the know, that was an Alpha Onix, a pokemon that basically will aggro if you come too close, has way, way more health than it should, and will revert to a normal sized pokemon when you attempt to capture it.

All of which, Brock knows little to nothing about until this encounter. Right now he thinks it is a naturally expressed Giganatmax. 

Which is apparently possible for Onix?

What are people’s thoughts on this new development within the depths of Mt Moon? What other areas might have suddenly much more powerful pokemon lurking in hiding do you think?

Also yes, the Rangers pretty much spent most of the fight getting up from being knocked over constantly, either from Onix’s attacks, or Brocks.