The Path of Destiny

[Scytherwolf]

The Path of Destiny
Chapter 80 – Steelspire City

Night had completely fallen by the time Steelspire City loomed into view. Most of the city was surrounded by trees, and when the group emerged onto open grass at the top of a small hill, they could see the paths and fences leading up to the first buildings of the outskirts. Many of the pokémon looked at the gleaming city in awe. Unlike Stonedust and Shellreef, there weren’t many tall buildings; most of the big ones they could see seemed to be four stories or less. The exception, however, were four incredibly tall skyscrapers built in a sort of ring, their lights glowing like beacons in the night.

“Well, here we are. That’s Steelspire,” Justin announced.

Yenn looked visibly unsettled as he looked toward the city. However, he kept his composure, snapping out of his brief moment of shock and backing up toward Teresa and her pokémon.

“Oh,” said Thunder, staring ahead at the lights with disdain. “It’s this place.”

“What?” Redclaw asked, turning toward her. “You know this city? Is there a fighting ring here?”

“Of course,” Thunder replied. “But that’s not what I mean. This is where Master- er…Mausk, spends the most time when he’s not training. The city of the four spires.”

Several of the group members glanced at each other. Both Teresa and Damian looked extremely uncomfortable.

“Are you kidding?” Spark cried. “Mausk is hanging around here?”

“Well, he might not be here at this…exact moment,” Alex stated, trying to lift the sudden heavy mood.

“I knew we might run into danger,” Teresa began, “but do you think this means…”

“Okay, look,” Katie said, “whether Mausk is here or not, it’s a big city. And he’s not going to get away with stealing pokémon or…whatever else…from a trainer hotel or a shop. There’s no way.”

Thunder nodded. “Stay out of the fighting ring, and you should all be fine.”

“Thanks for the reassurance,” Spark told her. “It’s nice to see you caring about us more.” He smirked at her, and Thunder just rolled her eyes.

“Well, we’re just here to learn about the cave and get supplies before we leave tomorrow,” Damian said nervously. “I mean…we wouldn’t even know where to look for a fighting ring.”

“We’re also going to get me a new phone,” Justin announced. “I never got a new one back at Shellreef.”

“You can go do that while Damian, Teresa, and Katie go look for what they need,” Scytheclaw stated. “We’ve got a lot to do tonight.”

Snowcrystal was listening to the others, but her gaze was fixed on the sprawling city that lay before her. It had seemed beautiful at first, but then Thunder’s words had made it feel suddenly ominous. She wasn’t sure what to think, but it was obviously a place that trainers visited very often, so it had to be safe.

Just before reaching the city, the trainers had applied new orange dye to her white fur, so she wasn’t worried about what the random trainers they encountered would think. It was something else, maybe the idea of running into Mausk again, that made her feel suddenly uncertain.

Stormblade seemed to sense her unease. “Don’t worry,” he told her. “Even if we did run into Mausk, and he did try something, it’s all of us against him. He probably won’t be walking around with abused pokémon or more than six poké balls, not when someone could notice him.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” Snowcrystal sighed. “I guess…I’m just still thinking about what happened in the underground in Stonedust. I know we won’t be going anywhere near places like that, but it still…”

“Okay, well, let’s make a plan,” Wildflame said, interrupting them both. “Where do we go first? A pokémon supplies store?”

“Let’s book a trainer hotel first,” Katie replied. “Then we can worry about getting what we need.”

“Hey, is it all right if I stay here with Yenn for a while?” Teresa asked, gesturing toward the trees. “I can meet up with you guys a bit later.”

“Does he…oh, right. No buildings,” Katie sighed. She looked at the yanmega, who was still on edge.

“You don’t have to,” Yenn told Teresa. “I’m sure I’ll be fine.”

“It’s okay,” Teresa replied. “Shellreef is the only big city that I know really well. Others make me nervous. I’ll be fine hanging out here for a while.”

“Oh, all right,” Yenn replied, not quite hiding the relief in his voice. During the whole rest of the walk to Steelspire, Yenn had constantly been apologizing to Teresa about how he’d treated her and had been trying to make up for it by treating her and the other trainers nicely – sometimes over-the-top nice.

“All right,” Katie told Teresa. “Just meet up with us in the hotel after we’ve rested a bit. Then we’ll start getting ready.”

With that settled, everyone – aside from Yenn, Teresa, and her team – began walking toward the city. There were few large buildings on the outskirts; most of them seemed to be small homes. Only a few of them had lights on.

Once they’d passed a few buildings, pokémon and trainers began to appear. Most of the ones they saw were playing or practicing battle moves in large grassy fields marked by fences, and few paid them any notice.

“The main city is much more crowded,” Katie warned the pokémon. “This part of it is pretty old and run down. It’s safe, though.”

“Oh, come on, who’s scared?” Spark cried. “We’ve got Thunder on our side. Is Scytheclaw scared? Bet he is! Everyone, form a protective shield around Scytheclaw so he doesn’t feel afraid!”

The scizor turned around and glared at him. “Shut it,” he said, though he was more exasperated than angry.

As they walked along the sidewalk, Snowcrystal noticed a couple of streets to their right that were almost completely dark save for the streetlights. She couldn’t see any trainers or pokémon walking in those areas. Though she knew it was irrational, she thought of Mausk lurking in the darkness and turned her head away, not wanting to look toward the creepy empty areas.

As she turned her head, however, she caught movement out of the corner of her eye. “What was that?” she whispered, turning back toward the closest dark street.

Damian looked around, not at the street, but at the well-lit areas surrounding them. The nearest trainers were across the street at a coffee shop. Redclaw glanced at him worriedly, his claws clenched against the pavement.

“I don’t see anything,” Spark said, looking down the sidewalk toward the dark street.

“There was something there,” Snowcrystal insisted.

“It’s probably nothing but a stray pokémon,” Rosie reassured her, but as soon as she spoke, Snowcrystal saw the movement again.

This time, most of the other pokémon saw it too. There was a shape – Snowcrystal realized with relief that it was fairly small, likely not much bigger than she was – moving behind some garbage cans in the shadows. She couldn’t tell what pokémon it was; she could only see parts of its body as it moved between the cans, its features covered by darkness.

“It’s just a street pokémon looking for some scraps,” Justin sighed. “Let’s get going.”

Snowcrystal was about to turn away from the dark street when the pokémon stepped into the glow of one of the streetlights. Snowcrystal’s mouth dropped open. It was like she was looking at a copy of herself. Another white growlithe.

The others froze as well. The growlithe turned to them, and even from a distance they could all see that its markings and color were near identical to Snowcrystal’s. However, it only looked for a moment, then it turned and ran.

“Wait!” Snowcrystal cried, darting after the growlithe.

Stormblade ran after her, followed by most of the others. Stormblade quickly passed Snowcrystal and followed the strange growlithe as it rounded a corner and disappeared from sight.

As he reached Snowcrystal, Damian sent out his elekid. “Flash!” he cried, and Todd used his electricity to light up the dark area.

Now that she could see better, Snowcrystal was sure they could find the white growlithe, wherever it went. Then she could explain everything and ask questions herself. Could this mean that Icefang had moved the tribe? Was it too late for their mountain home? Did they somehow know…about Articuno?

However, when she and the others rounded the corner, they saw Stormblade standing alone, facing a dirty gray building three stories tall. It was dilapidated, looking as though no one had tended to it in many years. A fence, now worn down, had been placed around it, but a telltale hole in the base of it told them all where the growlithe had gone.

“Why did you stop?” Spark called to the scyther. “If the growlithe went in there, we need to find them! They’ve got to be from Snowcrystal’s tribe.”

Stormblade jerked his head away from the building, looking to Spark in surprise. “I…it doesn’t look safe,” he muttered.

Redclaw glanced at the scyther, then at the building, then looked away with a shudder.

“Spark, you could have caught them!” Rosie exclaimed. “You’re a jolteon. It would have been easy to outrun a growlithe.”

“Not with the head start that growlithe had,” Spark protested. “Besides, without Todd’s light I would have run into all this junk.” He waved a paw at the discarded wood and garbage lying in piles in front of the building’s fence.

“I’ll go in,” Snowcrystal said, stepping toward the hole in the fence, but Redclaw moved his paw in front of her.

“That building’s falling apart,” he warned her.

“Well if the other growlithe’s fine in there, Snowcrystal should be,” Justin said. “Let’s let her try. There’s something weird about this.”

“I don’t know, could be a trap,” Wildflame growled. “What would a rare white growlithe be doing here alone?”

Blazefang looked to her nervously. “What if it’s a ditto or a zorua or something, trying to lure us into that place? What if it’s from Mausk?”

“Okay, that’s just ridiculous,” Scytheclaw replied. “Even if we pretend Mausk just happened to know we’d be near this exact spot, we wouldn’t have even seen the growlithe at all if Snowcrystal didn’t happen to notice something. Would be a pretty strange coincidence for Mausk to know that would happen.”

“Everyone, calm down!” Alex cried. “Let’s see if we can get the growlithe to come out.” The floatzel walked over to a section of the fence that sagged lower than the rest and leaped over it. Avoiding the debris strewn around the small yard, she cupped her paws to her muzzle and called into the space of a long-broken window. “Hello? Anyone in there? We don’t mean you any harm! In fact, we’ve got someone from your tribe right here! Sure, she looks orange now, but it’s dye to keep her hidden. Please come out and just talk to us. We want to help you. Do you know a Snowcrystal?”

The floatzel’s words were met with silence.

“Maybe they didn’t hear her?” Spark suggested.

“There’s no way,” Scytheclaw growled. “They heard all right, they just don’t want to come out.”

“Give it more time,” Redclaw hissed at the scizor.

However, they stood waiting for at least twenty minutes and several more calls from the pokémon, and no one emerged. Thunder, who had caught up to the others with the rest of the group, looked visibly agitated by the delay, but she did not complain. Using Todd’s flash, the trainers and pokémon peered into the dark spaces of the windows, but they couldn’t see anything but rotting wood planks and trashed, disgusting furniture.

“I don’t think anything’s going to come out while we’re here,” Scytheclaw growled.

“Aww, it’s okay, Scytheclaw,” Spark said in a mock-caring voice. “I know you’re scared, and that building’s pretty spooky, but-”

“Spark, I swear-” the scizor growled.

“Well, if there’s a pokémon ambush waiting in there, I don’t see it,” Katie said, stepping back from a window. “Still, it looks unsafe. Seems like half the walls inside have been torn down.”

Snowcrystal gave a worried sigh from where she still stood next to Redclaw, and Todd glanced at her sadly.

“I can do it,” the elekid said. “Wait here. I’ll get the growlithe to come out.” He turned and darted under the hole in the fence.

“Todd, wait!” Damian cried.

The elekid, however, ran into the building, disappearing into the blackness. Damian ran after him, and Snowcrystal followed before Redclaw could stop her again. Damian quickly jumped the fence, still shouting for Todd to come back, and then he too vanished into the gloom, Snowcrystal following soon after.

“Todd, get back here!” Scytheclaw shouted in anger.

Spark moved toward the fence, eyeing the opening in the bottom suspiciously before deciding to jump over it. “I’ll go with them,” he said.

“Okay, hold on,” Katie said. “It’s not going to be any safer with more of you stomping around in there.” She quickly sent out her pidgeot. “Ray, Stormblade, check the upper windows for anything suspicious.”

The two flying types nodded and took to the air. Spark still stared determinedly at the building’s entrance. “All right, Katie, but if there’s any sign of trouble, I’m going in there.” Several of the other pokémon voiced their agreement at his comment.

Inside the building, Damian coughed. His feet had stirred up lots of dust, but he quickly saw – thanks to Todd’s light – that he wasn’t the only one to do so. The ground was covered in growlithe footprints. “It looks like no one else has been here except the growlithe,” he called back to the others outside, before leaning over to cough again. “Come on, Todd,” he said when he’d finished. “The others are right. It’s not safe here.” He glanced up at the ceiling, which sported a large hole. “Maybe if we come back-”

Todd turned toward movement, and both Damian and Snowcrystal saw a dusty white shape dart up a set of broken-down stairs in the far corner of the room. “There!” Todd shouted, without looking at them, before he raced after the growlithe.

As Todd’s light moved further away, Damian stumbled on some debris as he tried to follow. Snowcrystal was faster, even in the low light, and she reached the stairs as Todd’s light vanished into the upper story.

Damian turned toward her, reaching for his pokégear to provide some light. Snowcrystal was cautiously climbing the steps, but they seemed sturdy enough, so Damian followed her, lighting the way for both of them.

Upon reaching the upper story, Damian and Snowcrystal looked around, noting the hole in the floor leading to where they’d been standing moments before. There was grimy water leaking down from the ceiling in one corner of the room, and mold grew on some of the walls. It seemed like a good place for a grimer or muk to live, but there were no signs that any pokémon other than the growlithe had been there.

Todd’s light was coming from a doorway on the other side of the room, so Damian carefully nudged his way around the outer edges of the floor, keeping well clear of the hole. Snowcrystal followed, noting with unease that some of the wooden boards creaked even under her small weight. They reached the doorway – which lacked any sort of door – and stepped through it.

Todd was standing near the center of the room, facing another doorway on the opposite wall. A part of the wall had collapsed, and planks of wood covered most of the opening, but there, hidden among them, its face and body in shadow, was the other white growlithe.

“We just want to talk,” the elekid was saying. “We have another white growlithe with us, like you-” He turned around to notice Damian and Snowcrystal, and in that instant, the growlithe bolted into the darkness of the opposite doorway.

“Wait,” Todd cried, stepping forward. A plank of rotting wood splintered under his feet, and the elekid jumped back, looking at the newly formed crack.

“Todd, be careful! And look, we’re not going to gain that growlithe’s trust this way,” Snowcrystal said. “Besides, the growlithe knows this building. We don’t.”

“The wood’s really rotten here. Come back,” Damian said, crouching down and gesturing for Todd to come over to them.

“But it just went into that room!” Todd cried. “Snowcrystal, do you know what this means?”

“Of course I do, but-”

“That’s a member of your tribe! It has to be!” the elekid shouted, and without any further warning, he dashed toward the dark space where the growlithe had disappeared.

Snowcrystal and Damian saw the wood beneath Todd’s feet splinter and break before they could shout a warning. In a panic, Damian lunged toward his pokémon, but never reached him. A section of the floor a short distance from Todd’s collapsed, sending Damian crashing through to the floor below.

Snowcrystal leaped back, making sure her paws were on stable ground before she called out to the others. As the dust in the musty space cleared, she could see Todd hanging on to a piece of broken wood with his claws. Snowcrystal edged around the room until she was close enough to him, reminding herself that the floor where Todd had fallen was especially weak. She gripped his arm in her teeth and pulled the elekid to safety.

In the room below, Damian opened his eyes. Dust swam in front of his vision, but he could make out the shape of the hole he had fallen into above him. He couldn’t see Todd anywhere. He slowly reached for the poké balls at his belt – luckily he didn’t seem to have any major injury to his arms – and grabbed Todd’s. With the ball in his hands, he shakily pushed himself into a sitting position, and it was then that he noticed the glass, and the blood.

On his way down, he’d hit the edge of a grimy glass table with his leg. Pieces of glass littered the floor, and several were protruding from his own leg, blood seeping onto the floor beneath him.

Damian gave a cry of shock, which was soon met with footsteps which sounded from a nearby room. Damian heard the steps go up the stairs and then Scytheclaw’s voice rang out.

“What happened?”

Snowcrystal said something back and Scytheclaw walked near the hole in the floor, jumping back with a curse as more wood splintered and rained down near Damian. Then he saw the scizor’s head appear in the space above the hole.

“Oh, hell,” Scytheclaw muttered before he leaped through the hole, coming to a landing beside Damian, his armored feet crunching the glass. With a scared look, the scizor knelt down beside his trainer, examining the glass and the blood, although Damian’s pant leg prevented him from seeing the actual wounds. “Todd, just so you know, I’m going to kill you for this!” he shouted up toward the hole.

“Don’t…don’t be mad at Todd,” Damian stammered. “I followed him in here, okay?”

Scytheclaw didn’t reply, and instead reached out toward one of the largest pieces of glass embedded in Damian’s leg, carefully gripping it with his pincer.

Damian shook his head. “No, don’t pull it out,” he instructed. As Scytheclaw looked to him with a concerned expression, he began to ramble. “Look, it’s fine. I’ll be fine. I’m okay. Well, maybe not okay, but it’ll be okay, you know? I mean…don’t be too concerned. It’s fine.”

“Send Arien out,” Scytheclaw said, stepping back. “Have him teleport you outside. I’ll make sure Todd and Snowcrystal get out okay.”

“Oh, right. That’s a good idea,” Damian replied. Though the color was draining from his face, he managed to grab Arien’s poké ball and send the Alakazam out.

A moment later, he and Arien appeared outside the building in front of their shocked companions. Several seconds later, Scytheclaw appeared with Todd and Snowcrystal gripped under each of his arms. He looked at Damian, who was for some reason trying to stand, leaning on Arien for support.

“What the hell happened?” Justin shouted, watching as Spark began to argue with Scytheclaw and Redclaw about the arcanine having stopped him from entering the building.

Snowcrystal wriggled free of Scytheclaw’s grasp. “Todd was following the white growlithe, but it vanished and…Todd almost fell through the floor. Damian tried to help, and…” She looked at Todd, who was now standing alone on the ground, and he turned away from her.

“Spark, I’m telling you; you couldn’t have done anything!” Scytheclaw shouted at the jolteon. “He was my trainer and you would have just gotten your paws cut on-”

“All right, stop!” Alex shouted, pushing her way between them. “This isn’t helping anyone!”

Katie walked up to Damian, looking at him with wide eyes. “You’re bleeding all over the place.”

“Sorry,” Damian replied weakly.

“I don’t know the location of the human hospital in this city,” Arien explained. “We may need Fernwing to-”

“Here,” Katie said, showing him her pokégear screen, which depicted a map of Steelspire City. “I know this won’t help with teleport, but…do you know the Sweet Scent Bellossom restaurant? The Shinx Café? There’s a training ground near the hospital too, have you been there? There’s also the pokémon gym, but it’s further away…”

“I know the gym, yes,” Arien responded. “We’ll find our way from there. Book some rooms in the trainer hotel and we’ll meet you there.” In the blink of an eye, he and Damian vanished.

Todd, left behind in the commotion, stared at the space his trainer and teammate had been standing moments before. He clutched his claws together, tears forming in his eyes.

“Try to relax, okay?” Snowcrystal told him, walking over to nudge his shoulder. “We’re in a city with humans that can help. Damian will be alright.”

Todd just nodded slowly, not replying.

Katie called Teresa on her pokégear, quickly explaining what had happened. Snowcrystal could hear Teresa on the other end of the call, sounding frantic. “I should have been there,” Teresa’s voice sounded from the pokégear. “I’m so sorry.”

“None of this is your fault,” Katie said, interrupting her. “I don’t think you being here would have changed anything.”

Scytheclaw sighed. “Look, let’s forget the weird growlithe for now and get to the hotel. We’ll figure out what to do.”

“Yeah, that seems to be about all we can do until we hear back from Damian,” Rosie replied.

“All right. Well, don’t worry about it,” Katie said to the image of Teresa on her screen before closing the pokégear. “Well, that was kind of weird.”

“Come on, everyone, let’s go,” Scytheclaw muttered worriedly as he walked back toward the street that had led them to the old building. “We’ve got a lot to do tonight.”

-ooo-

After the unfortunate accident, they were relieved to have a stroke of luck; the trainer hotel had plenty of vacant rooms, as many of the trainers traveling to Steelspire had taken up residence in one of the four famous towers, the one that was currently hosting an annual pokémon club of some sort. They were able to rent four rooms, each one connected by a door that could be unlocked, so the trainers and their pokémon could easily talk to one another if needed.

After briefly checking out the rooms, everyone had gathered into one of the center ones, the pokémon lounging on the floor, tables, and bed. The only pokémon absent – aside from Arien – was Yenn, who had insisted on staying outside the city.

“That growlithe…” Stormblade began, breaking the awkward silence that had settled over them. “Did you recognize them, Snowcrystal?”

“I couldn’t get a close look,” she replied glumly. Her mind was still whirling with possibilities as to why the growlithe would have ended up in a city so far from their mountain. She felt a pang of grief as she realized that the strange growlithe might not even know about Articuno’s death.

Thunder looked up from where she was standing by Nightshade, who was lying on the bed with some of the other pokémon. “You know…” She glanced at Nightshade again and sighed. “If it’s…really important to you, then maybe I could go back and get that growlithe to come here with us.”

Snowcrystal shook her head. “No, I don’t want to force it,” she said. “And maybe…maybe that growlithe wasn’t part of my tribe. Maybe it was one of those experimental pokémon, the ones who have altered colors. Like that umbreon with purple rings in Stonedust City. Maybe it’s…”

“Well, now we’ve got more things to worry about,” Rosie said, her head hanging off the edge of the bed as she lay with all four paws in the air.

“…It’s my fault,” said a small voice.

The pokémon turned to see Todd, who was sitting against the wall. The elekid was staring blankly ahead. “I got my trainer hurt,” he continued. “I just…”

“Blaming yourself won’t get anywhere,” Stormblade told him. “What happened happened and it was an accident. I’m sure Damian doesn’t blame you.”

Todd looked up at the scyther, seeming a bit more hopeful.

“You did run into a building when we said not to,” Scytheclaw growled, but then his voice softened. “But hey, a lot of us have made some pretty bad mistakes. It’s what you do afterward that matters, isn’t it?”

Todd stared back at the scizor, not expecting such words to have come from Scytheclaw. “Yeah, I guess you’re right,” he said.

There was a knock on the door, and Teresa appeared. “I’m…sorry I wasn’t there to help you guys,” she said as she closed the door. “If I was, maybe I could have-”

“Like I said before, I don’t think there was anything you or I could have done,” Katie replied. “We’re waiting to hear back from Damian, and since we haven’t gotten any sort of message yet, it’s obvious nothing terrible has happened. As soon as we hear from him, we’ll figure out what to do.”

“Are we still leaving tomorrow?” Spark asked.

“Of course!” Blazefang said before anyone else could answer. “I’m not waiting around in this city. We need to find Tanzenarc. We need answers.”

“Depending on how bad Damian was injured, he might have to stay behind,” Scytheclaw said. “He can’t go crawling around a cave like that.”

Todd glanced to Snowcrystal nervously, clearly aware that there was no ‘depending;’ Damian’s injuries would no doubt prevent him from entering the cave.

“It’s fine,” Snowcrystal said, more to reassure Todd than anything. “Maybe Damian can try to find out more about that white growlithe.”

“Well, if Damian’s staying here, then I guess I am too,” Scytheclaw said. “I already know enough about what’s going on with me. It’s Blazefang and Yenn who need answers.”

“Yes,” Blazefang agreed. “I’m definitely going.”

“You’re still injured, though,” Snowcrystal pointed out.

“Justin has my poké ball,” Blazefang protested. “I won’t need to travel. They can send me out when they find Tanzenarc.”

“I found this map of Winding Cave,” Teresa said quietly, showing Katie and the pokémon sitting on the bed her pokégear screen. “We can probably get a more detailed one from the locals, I think.”

Before anyone could reply, they were interrupted by an incoming call from Damian on Katie’s pokégear. Katie answered it while the pokémon sitting on the bed leaned over to see the screen. Damian’s image appeared, looking disheveled.

“Well, first of all,” Damian said, his voice sounding weaker than normal. “I’m going to be fine, but…”

“What did they say?” Spark asked.

"Well, uh, they told me I was an idiot for going in that building. So, um…what have you guys been doing?"

“Waiting for you,” Katie responded. “Some of the pokémon were really worried that you were gonna – Redclaw, no! You can’t get on the bed! You’re too big! – ugh, well, the pokémon were upset-”

Damian shook his head. “No, they shouldn’t be. The glass missed the major arteries and I shouldn’t have much permanent damage…if any,” he added once realizing that the others had looked worried. “I mean, the rest of you can go through Winding Cave yourselves. Teresa’s there to help you now.”

“You can’t go to the cave yourself, can you?” Snowcrystal asked, her ears drooping.

“They said I need to stay here, in the city,” Damian replied. “I can go back to the hotel in a bit, but they want me to check back the next few days in case of infection. I’m not supposed to walk much, so…”

“So no exploring any caves,” Katie finished. “But maybe your pokémon can check out the white growlithe’s hideout again sometime later? You know, without sending anyone inside.”

“Yeah,” Damian said. “I’ll do that.”

“Thanks,” Snowcrystal told him. “I don’t know if that growlithe was really from my tribe, but if we could find out, that would mean…it would mean a lot.”

“Yeah, I understand,” Damian replied. “Anyway, you guys should start preparing for everything. I’ll probably be at the hotel by the time you’re done. Arien knows where it is.”

“Okay, we’ll meet you back here then,” Katie said, and the pokémon gave their goodbyes before Katie hung up. “Well,” she said, addressing everyone in the room, “let’s get started.”

-ooo-

Later that night, the entire group, minus Yenn, were all back at the hotel. Damian had to reassure Todd numerous times that he didn’t blame him, and that he had already accepted the elekid’s apology.

Justin was showing off his brand-new phone to Spark, while Teresa and Katie began telling Damian what had come from their talk with the Steelspire City police.

“They already know about Cyclone’s group of pokémon,” Katie said. “Teresa was insisting that it was dangerous for anyone to get close to them, but well, they already knew that. They’re going to start using remote technology to monitor Cyclone’s pokémon and make sure they don’t get too close to any cities or places trainers usually travel. Right now, though, I guess they’re still trying to work out how best to deal with them. That’s all they told us, anyway.”

“And about the Forbidden Attacks?” Snowcrystal asked.

“Didn’t really say much about that,” Katie replied. “We told them, they listened, but I don’t know. Same as last time.”

“They’ve got to realize what they’re dealing with after the Shadowflare fires, right?” Alex asked.

“Let’s hope,” Spark replied.

Blazefang sighed. “We have got to find Tanzenarc. If this cave is a dead end, then…”

“Let’s worry about that if it happens,” Arien told him.

“How are we supposed to find him, though?” Teresa asked. “I know Fortunarc told us that pokémon would lead us to him, but Winding Cave is popular. There has to be a reason that no other trainer has stumbled across an unknown legendary before.”

“We’re assuming that there’s a portal, like with Sequoiarc,” Wildflame said. “One that’s only activated at certain times, or by a pokémon with a Forbidden Attack. Probably leads to an otherwise inaccessible part of the cave.”

“It’ll likely be in a hard to reach place, though,” Damian said from where he was lying on the bed with a few of his pokémon. “We had to cross a desert for the first one.”

“Here’s the map of the cave,” Teresa said, spreading a large piece of paper out on the desk beside the bed. “It’s more detailed than the one you can find on the pokégear, because it shows some of the routes that are usually blocked off to trainers.”

Snowcrystal hopped up onto the bed to peer at the map, while the trainers and a few of the taller pokémon gathered around to see. The tunnels marked on the page looked tiny, and they sprawled in all directions. There were only a few relatively big caverns.

“Obviously, we’ll try to ask some cave pokémon to lead us there. But if for whatever reason they won’t, we’ll search the easiest areas first,” Teresa explained. “But we know that if there’s a portal, it’s probably in a place humans don’t go to very often, like here.” She pointed to a set of tunnels much narrower than most of the others. In a few places, a small figure representing the size of an adult human was next to the tunnels, which looked frighteningly narrow in comparison. “This is one of the places that’s usually blocked off. Shouldn’t be hard to open it up with a pokémon, but well, it’s blocked with warning signs for a reason. The tight spaces in this cave can be extremely dangerous.”

“You could let me go in first,” Snowcrystal suggested. “If I get stuck, Justin can just return me.”

“Could Arien teleport you out?” Damian asked the other trainers.

“In an ideal situation, yes,” Teresa replied. “If he can get close enough. But if there’s a cave-in that separates us…I don’t think Arien could teleport into a tiny tunnel in order to teleport us out.”

“Still better to have backup,” Damian replied, taking Arien’s poké ball off of his belt and handing it to her. Arien, who was sitting on the edge of Damian’s bed, looked to Damian with worry but then nodded at Teresa.

“Well, hopefully the cave pokémon will help us,” Snowcrystal said. “If they know Fortunarc sent us, they should listen, and she seemed pretty sure that they know how to find Tanzenarc.”

“That’s true,” Nightshade agreed.

“You should stay with Damian,” Katie told the heracross. “It would be less stressful. Unless you want-”

“No, it’s fine. I’ll stay with him,” Nightshade replied, giving Damian a reassuring glance. “I’ll be okay here.”

Thunder stiffened, looking to Nightshade with annoyance. “You’d stay in this…” She paused, looking around at the room with its blue lapras-print wallpaper. “…This weird-looking cheerful human house?”

“Don’t worry,” Nightshade replied. “You can trust that I’ll be alright.”

Thunder heaved a sigh, but simply said, “Yeah, I want you to do what you want, so…I guess we’ll be back in a few days.”

“You could stay here too, you know,” Snowcrystal told her.

“As lovely as that sounds,” Thunder muttered, “I don’t want to be stuck in a city for days. No thanks.”

Justin glanced to her with an uneasy look and placed his hand on Spark’s head for reassurance.

“Well, I guess we’d better get some rest before tomorrow,” Snowcrystal said.

“She’s right,” Katie agreed. “Us trainers can pick our rooms and the pokémon can sleep where they want. There’s even a place outside for pokémon to rest, if anyone wants that.”

With murmurs of agreement, the pokémon spread out to inspect the rooms again, while Justin ran into the one next door and claimed it as his. In the end, they were so exhausted that it didn’t take long for everyone to find a place to sleep. Only Thunder chose to spend the night outside.

In the end, Snowcrystal decided to sleep on one side of Damian’s bed, along with Nightshade. To her right, Inferno was curled up against Damian’s side, the flareon’s tail curled around his body. Todd and Dusk slept at the foot of the bed.

Snowcrystal stayed awake longer than the others in her room, her thoughts constantly returning to the sight of the pale growlithe alone in the Steelspire City streets. When she finally drifted off, she dreamed of roaming through dark alleys and strange paths, frantically searching.

-ooo-

By late morning the next day, Snowcrystal and the rest of the group who were going to the cave were already on their way, having just met up with Yenn.

“You’re telling me you found a white growlithe in the city? All alone?” Yenn was asking. “You’ve got to do something. If humans find out, then-”

“Damian’s pokémon are going to keep a look out,” Wildflame told him.

“Damian’s staying behind for that?” Yenn asked, surprised.

“No,” Stormblade told him. “He couldn’t go with us. He got his leg cut up pretty bad.”

“That’s…that’s unfortunate,” Yenn replied, sounding a bit uncomfortable with the words, but he did seem like he was genuinely trying to be concerned.

Teresa glanced down at Arien’s poké ball, hoping that his teleporting abilities would be of use if they got into trouble in the cave.

“What’s wrong?” Yenn asked, flying level with her.

“Nothing,” she replied. “It just feels weird that we’re about to meet a second unknown legendary…well, the third for you guys. And the others saw another white growlithe in the city last night. It’s just…still weird.”

“Welcome to our wonderful lives,” Spark said with a grin.

“Maybe we should tell her more about the other caves we’ve been in,” Rosie added. “Like when we almost-”

“Oh…look at this,” came a voice from up ahead, and everyone turned to look at Katie, who was staring at her pokégear screen. “A warning just went out. They’re telling all trainers not to go north of Stonedust because of dangerous pokémon.”

Wildflame shifted uneasily. “Isn’t that a good thing?”

“Yeah, it should be,” Katie replied. “I mean, a warning like this is pretty serious, and they made it clear how unsafe-”

“If humans try to fight back without knowing what they’re really up against, they’ll lose,” Yenn replied. “And they’ll also take a lot of pokémon with them.”

“We told them about the Forbidden Attacks and that they can’t just attack Cyclone head-on or anything like that,” Katie replied. “I know this is different, but the people working on this have dealt with hostile groups of wild pokémon before. And before we figure out what Tanzenarc’s plan is, the best thing we can do is warn them.”

Thunder, who had stayed on the edge of the group, turned to look at Katie. “You’re right,” she said. “Even Mausk couldn’t control a Forbidden Attack once it got set off. If some sort of human technology can prevent that with Cyclone, let them try.”

Redclaw looked worriedly at her, but merely nodded. Sensing the feeling of apprehension that had settled over the group, he decided to try to lighten the mood by challenging some of the others to a short race.

Several of the pokémon ran off through the grass, laughing and shouting to one another. Teresa watched them, smiling. “You know, with all these pokémon with us, I think I can handle more weird stuff happening.”

“It certainly is better than doing nothing about the things going on, I’ll tell you that,” Yenn replied.

For the rest of the day, the pokémon and trainers talked amongst each other, sharing stories and laughing. Hope that Tanzenarc would have more answers was high, and the day went by smoothly. By the time night fell, and the group decided on an early rest, it was still warm enough that the trainers didn’t bother setting up their tents. Instead, they laid out blankets and sleeping bags on the grass, the pokémon clustered around them. After an eventful day of traveling, they slept peacefully under the stars.

-ooo-

A sharp knock at the door woke Nightshade, who sat up stiffly on the bed. Damian turned from the small hotel desk where he was browsing his pokégear and looked at the door. He stood up carefully and limped over to it, careful not to put much weight on his injured leg. Upon opening the door, his team – minus Arien – greeted him with frustrated expressions.

“Nothing?”

“No,” Scytheclaw sighed as Damian stepped out of the way and he walked in. “No sign of the growlithe. Nothing. Snowcrystal’s going to be disappointed.”

“We can try again,” Fernwing said hopefully, sticking her long neck through the doorway.

“Let’s wait ‘till it’s light,” Inferno said with a yawn.

“I could keep searching,” Dusk said, but Damian shook his head.

“No, you should rest. Or at least…find something relaxing to do. You’ve been looking for a long time.”

“I saw that the hotel had a pool,” Fernwing suggested. “Though that might not be Inferno’s favorite thing.”

“It’s fine,” Inferno protested. “It’s not like I have any open flames on my body.”

“The pool sounds nice,” Todd added sheepishly.

Fernwing nudged her way into the room and craned her neck toward the window. “I can see it from here. No one else is using it. Let’s go.”

Damian shrugged. “Okay,” he replied. After confirming that Nightshade wanted to remain in the room, they left, Damian walking with the help of Scytheclaw. A few minutes later, the trainer was sitting beside the pool as his pokémon played.

Fernwing waded calmly in the deep end, her head reaching above the water. Todd and Inferno splashed each other in the shallow end, and Dusk swam around in slow circles. Scytheclaw spent a short time in the shallow end of the pool, but then left and went to join Damian, who was looking on his pokégear.

“Looks like they issued a warning about going north of Stonedust,” Damian said quietly.

“Good,” said Scytheclaw. “They’re listening.”

Damian said nothing, moving on to look at other news. After a couple minutes, he started to look worried. “You know that Pokémon Club thing they have going on in one of Steelspire City’s towers?”

“Hm? What about it?” the scizor asked.

“Well, with these sorts of things, there’s a lot of trading and showcasing of rare pokémon. It says there’s a special event going on, with an unusual pokémon that’s ‘never been seen before.’ Nothing’s posted about it publicly yet, but…”

“What? You don’t think…”

“Maybe that’s why you didn’t find the white growlithe,” Damian finished for him.

Looking up, they noticed that the other pokémon had overheard their conversation and come to the edge of the pool in front of them. “Someone caught the white growlithe, and it’s being shown off in this club?” Todd said quietly.

“Possibly. But we need to make sure,” Dusk said. “Is there anything we need to get into this club?”

Damian shook his head. “It’s a free event, or at least most of it is. But some of the rooms are only available to certain trainers, and those have a fee. That’s probably where the pokémon is.”

Inferno groaned. “If it’s being auctioned off, there’s no way we can-”

“Dusk is right,” Fernwing said. “We should at least check and make sure. If nothing else, we can find the growlithe and ask questions. Snowcrystal is counting on us. If they’ll let me, Damian, you can ride on my back while there. There’s bound to be tons of pokémon walking with their trainers.”

Damian looked over his pokémon, each of them looking invigorated and determined. “You’re right,” he said, fighting back worry for the white growlithe. “We need to go check this out.”

-ooo-

Fernwing landed carefully in the open plaza in front of one of the four famous Steelspire City skyscrapers. Up close, the building looked massive, seeming to stretch almost out of view. Lights came from nearly every window.

“Well, this is it,” Damian said nervously, glancing at the crowds around them. Pain still raced up his leg with every movement, but he chose to ignore it.

“Right. Let’s do this,” Fernwing replied.

Upon entering the building, Damian quickly realized that it was too crowded to keep Fernwing outside of her poké ball. She reluctantly agreed to be returned, and he sent out Scytheclaw instead. It wasn’t simply for the scizor to aid him in walking; Damian felt calmer among crowds when one of his pokémon was around.

The first floor room had been set up like a lounge, and several trainers sat together at tables, while others hung out near a group of trading machines. There were maps of the building’s floors on the wall, showing what events were being hosted. Damian and Scytheclaw carefully edged through the crowd and made their way over to the closest one.

“Floor 46,” Damian said, pointing at the map. “That’s where it says that certain pokémon are being showcased. But, obviously we don’t have a pass to go up that far.”

“And what exactly are we supposed to do if we do see the growlithe?” Scytheclaw whispered under his breath. “Ask them to hand it over?”

“I mean, I guess the most we can hope for is to talk to the growlithe,” Damian whispered back sadly. “Then at least Snowcrystal will know. Maybe hear from her tribe.”

A loud cheer broke their concentration, causing them to turn toward an open set of doors leading to another room. Damian could just see the edge of a battlefield from his position, and a lurantis making a triumphant pose.

“Well, there’s a lot going on here,” Scytheclaw said. “I bet they have battle and trading stations on a lot of floors. Then there’s the events and who knows what else. We can maybe slip into the higher floors without anyone noticing.”

“I…don’t know,” Damian replied nervously. “Maybe we can just ask around? Surely someone here knows what pokémon are being shown and is willing to-”

“Hey,” a voice close to Damian said, making him jump in surprise and nearly stumble. A trainer looking a few years older than him had walked right up behind him. “Are you talking about the rare pokémon showcase event?”

“Y-yes,” Damian responded.

“Then here,” the other trainer responded, holding out his hand. “You want to see what these people are doing here? Then go up there and find out for yourself.”

Damian stared at the card in his hand, realizing that it was a pass to gain access to the higher levels of the building. He could hardly believe the trainer was just offering it to him, a complete stranger. “Th…thanks,” Damian said, taking the card from the trainer’s hand. “Are you sure you can just-”

“All they’ll do is look at the card and your pokégear,” the trainer said with a shrug. “So…knock yourself out, I guess.” He started to walk away.

“Wait,” Damian said, and the trainer stopped and turned to look at him. “This will help, thank you, but…can you tell me what type of rare pokémon you saw?”

The trainer suddenly looked angry. “They’ve got new ones every day, but you can still see the ones from the previous days. It disgusts me, though, what they’re doing. I’d rather you go see for yourself.” Without another word, he walked off into the crowd.

“That was…weird,” Scytheclaw said as he and Damian moved to a somewhat quieter corner of the room.

“Yeah…what would they be doing that disgusted him enough to give away his pass?” Damian said back, flipping the card over in his hand. “I know it might seem iffy to have pokémon on display, but as long as they were taken care of, most wouldn’t mind, unless…”

“…They were captured against their will?” Scytheclaw finished.

“Maybe…maybe we shouldn’t do this,” Damian mumbled.

“What? Why?” Scytheclaw asked. “We literally just got this handed to us! We can’t throw that opportunity away. And this is the only chance to talk to the growlithe, even if they post public pictures later.”

“You’re right,” Damian sighed. “This is a pokémon club. They wouldn’t get away with any kind of abuse and I know the police can access everything.”

“Yeah,” the scizor said, “so come on. Let’s check this out.”

The two found a nearby elevator, and with an unsteady hand, Damian pressed the button for floor fourty-six. He and Scytheclaw waited as trainers and pokémon got on and off, until finally they were the only ones left. The elevator rose several more floors and then came to a stop.

As the doors opened, Damian was instantly greeted by near-silence. The other floors had been chaotic and overwhelming, but this one was calm and quiet. It was just as brightly lit as the other floors, with paintings and statues of pokémon lining the room and the halls branching from it.

Damian stepped off the elevator to be greeted by a worker, who scanned his newly obtained card and checked his pokégear, then let him through. Damian asked him about the rare pokémon, and he pointed down one of the hallways.

He and Scytheclaw walked down it silently, careful because of Damian’s leg. Damian couldn’t shake the unsettling feeling that he did not belong here, that he was an outsider, though he couldn’t place why that was.

The hallway opened up into a large room that spanned the story above as well. Compared to the room with the elevator and the hallway, it was quite loud, though not so much as the downstairs floors. Small groups of trainers were scattered about, some having their pokémon groomed and others using trading machines. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, and Damian couldn’t see any pokémon on display.

Scytheclaw led Damian up a small set of stairs that took longer than Damian would have liked to climb. It led to a smaller, but higher-up area where Damian and Scytheclaw could look out over the entire room.

“There’s where we want to go,” Scytheclaw said triumphantly as he pointed a claw toward the opposite end of the room where a smaller door guarded by two workers was, an elegant-looking sign above it.

Reading the words, Damian confirmed Scytheclaw’s assumption. “Right, looks like they only let a certain number of people in at a time. Probably to avoid stressing out the pokémon. But it’s not busy up here, so let’s-”

He froze, gripping the rails lining the upper area of the room. Near the doorway leading to the rare pokémon, two men stood by a trading machine. One of them had turned, and Damian suddenly felt like time had slowed down.

It was Nathanial Mausk. It was the person he and the others had been most afraid to encounter in Steelspire City. What was he doing here? Why was he just standing there, using a trading machine like it was perfectly normal, in a place like this?

“Damian, what are you-” Scytheclaw began, his words failing him as he noticed who Damian was looking at.

Damian felt the card he’d been carrying slip from his grasp and hit the floor. It couldn’t have made much of a sound, and there had to be another reason, but a few moments later, Mausk looked upward, and his eyes locked with Damian’s.

For a moment, Damian thought he’d heard a loud bang, like the crack of thunder, or…a firearm. He turned away, back toward the rest of the crowd. No one else in the room had reacted. It had been his imagination. But he’d just looked into the eyes of the man who had pointed a gun at him and pulled the trigger. He backed away, edging toward the stairs he and Scytheclaw had climbed to get to the upper area, not even caring when pain raced up his leg.

“Damian?” Scytheclaw asked, his voice showing a rare moment of worry.

“It’s fine, I’m okay,” Damian replied, leaning on the railing and trying not to glance in that direction of the room. “I just wasn’t expecting…” He trailed off, trying to convince himself that there was no danger. ‘It’s a public place. They would have stopped him if he'd tried to sneak a weapon into the building. He couldn't have his fighting ring pokémon with him either. If he were here to do something sketchy, he wouldn’t be using an official trading machine.’

After watching his trainer, Scytheclaw turned to look back at Mausk with loathing. Without saying a word, he leaped down from the balcony into the lower part of the room and headed toward Mausk and the man he was talking to. Both men watched the scizor, the second one seeming nervous about Scytheclaw’s hostile look. Mausk, however, seemed merely irritated.

“Scytheclaw, stop!” Damian yelled, leaning over the railing.

Scytheclaw didn’t stop, but before anything could happen, the scizor was stopped in his tracks by a magmortar, wearing a band that told Damian it belonged to one of the workers of the club.

“Return your pokémon!” the worker shouted from nearby, holding out another poké ball.

“Scythe…come back,” Damian said quietly, hoping he didn’t have to actually return him to his own poké ball.

Scytheclaw, who had not tried to resist the magmortar, growled something under his breath and turned around, leaping back up to the second story and rejoining Damian. A worker had walked up the stairs and was lecturing Damian about his pokémon acting hostile, but neither of them were paying much attention.

“I’m sorry, okay? …Sorry,” Damian mumbled. “It won’t happen again.”

“See that it doesn’t,” the worker replied. “This isn’t a battling room.”

“Look, I’m sorry, all right?” Scytheclaw muttered to Damian after the worker walked away. “I just couldn’t stand how he looked at you like that. Is he still after Snow? After all this time? Or the underground incident? Is that it?” When Damian didn’t reply, he continued. “Screw him. Let’s go take a look at those rare pokémon. He can’t do anything to us here.”

“No, I just…we should go,” Damian replied.

Scytheclaw looked worriedly at Damian, but he didn’t argue. “All right,” he sighed. “Let’s go. We could…try another day.” He scooped up the card that Damian had dropped on the floor, then they made their way down the stairs and toward the hallway.

“Learn to control your pokémon,” Mausk said, and against his better judgement, Damian turned to look at him. The look in Mausk’s eyes was something Damian couldn’t quite read, but it was ominous, threatening.

Damian turned away and he and Scytheclaw hurried into the hallway.

-ooo-

About fifteen minutes later, Damian sat on a crowded bus that was taking him and many other trainers back to the hotels and other parts of the city. He was glad that there was enough room for Scytheclaw to stand near him. He normally would have just ridden Fernwing, but something about being among a crowd of other trainers made him feel safer, even though crowded busses and trains normally bothered him. He kept his thoughts to himself, not looking at anyone, and trying to convince himself that Mausk wasn’t going to come after him.

A while later, he was back in the hotel room, wishing the other trainers and pokémon were still there. He filled in what had happened to his team and Nightshade, and they settled in for an uneasy sleep. Nightshade sat at the end of Damian’s bed, saying that he would keep watch. Damian wasn’t sure if Nightshade really believed that Mausk would try to track him down in a random hotel, but the heracross must have known that it would make him and the others feel safe.

-ooo-

That night, Mausk typed Damian’s name into a search on his laptop, hoping to come across at least a record of his important battles…and what pokémon he used. He hadn’t seen either the houndoom with Shadowflare or the white growlithe sporting dyed fur with the boy at the club, but they had been with him at the Shellreef City pokémon center.

Most of what came up in Mausk’s search was about the mix-up concerning the library incident, especially new articles confirming that Damian Cooke and Justin Mitchell were found to not be responsible for the fire. But with some digging, he was able to find other bits of information.

Damian Cooke had been raised in foster care, his only known relative being a brother a few years younger than him who was adopted and who once worked at the pokémon lab that cared for trainers’ pokémon. There was more information about Damian’s brother, on that subject, as he had apparently helped with some important pokémon research. Mausk skimmed through it, and, finding nothing of importance to him, continued searching.

He found something about a starter pokémon program that had been launched the year Damian had turned ten years old. Damian had been matched with an abra, a pokémon that was much older and more experienced than a usual starter, because the people working in the program had thought that would be a better fit for him.

He found that Damian had earned all of the Inari region’s badges, but had never competed in the league.

He found that Damian had been an important part of a fundraiser to help find homes for unwanted pokémon eggs; there was a picture of him standing with an obnoxious smile, holding an elekid egg.

And finally, there was a list of his captured pokémon. The list had been made on the same date as the library fire, so it only included his recent catches at the time. Two pokémon caught Mausk’s eye. Growlithe. Houndour. They were generic photographs just there to indicate the species, but Mausk knew what those unassuming photos were really representing.

With the yanmega apparently being a pokémon Damian knew as well, if the pokémon center footage was anything to go off of, Mausk again felt that unsettling feeling. Damian, as well as Justin and possibly others, were messing with something they couldn’t control. Something they shouldn’t be meddling in. Something that scared even Mausk.

This trainer, Damian Cooke, was dangerous.

To be continued…


Author's notes: I know this chapter is mainly setting up for things that will happen in the future, though those things will be very important to the plot later on. I am trying my best to make readers happy while writing the plan I want to write.