Entering Mt. Moon was everything I had imagined and more.

We waited for the last of the trainers that we could see to leave the entrance because Yuji had the great idea to film us entering it for the first time. He'd held onto my camcorder and was taking the rear position on the group to get the footage.

Was I afraid this was going to end in a Flareon Witch Project-style shakey cam movie? Not really, but the thought was present.

Since I was the one with the PokeNav+ and a planned route, I was actually in the front of the group today. It definitely didn't add to my stress at all.

I approached the front of the cave following the beaten path, but every step made me feel smaller and smaller. The walls of Floor One stretched far above my head and the dark cavern disappeared into an impossibly far vortex of darkness.

What they don't tell you about Mt. Moon in the articles is the wind. I'd found a few mentions of it in some first-person accounts, but it was way more intimidating in person. Since the caverns of Mt. Moon were all interconnected, that included all of the entrances across the top side of the mountain where there was constant wind pressure. With the wind being pushed into the mountain at the top, it had to end up somewhere, so it got pushed out down at the bottom.

The resulting gusts had been chilled and dampened by the stony interior of the mountain, blasting the poor unfortunates who deigned to attempt to cross the caverns with near-frozen wind. Every step forward felt like walking into the mouth of a cold-blooded monster.

I took my first real steps under the entrance arch, holding my breath as I crossed the threshold.

And just like that, we were in Mt. Moon.

I turned to look back at the others. "That wasn't so bad."

Schreeeeee!

All four of us jumped out of our skins, eyes locking up above us where tiny leathery purple forms were bickering and arguing and screeching.

Zubats.

Just tiny Zubats.

"Fuck me..." I swore. "I'm already tired of this mountain's cinematic timing."

"You did tempt it," Amy pointed out. "Stop saying jumpscare-worthy lines and just get in there."

"Yeah, yeah..." I murmured. I didn't go further yet, though. We were at the point where the light from the sun was starting to dissipate, so the wide cavern around us was dimly lit at best.

I felt a pressure on my hand and looked down to see another glove gripping my own. I turned back and Hana was giving me a confident look. All four of us had linked hands.

The message was clear: We're in this together.

I nodded to them, reaching up and clicking the flashlight hooked to my shoulder strap. They all did so in kind, and we descended into the mountain.

Four little lights, walking through the darkness.

----------------------------------------

Traveling by flashlight was harder than you'd think. Yes, we suffered from low visibility, but that actually wasn't the main issue. The real problem was depth perception.

The human eye is designed to work by natural light. I didn't know the science of it, but basically your depth perception gets thrown off when you only have access to artificial light. That made judging how far away or even how big things were almost impossible for us.

For instance, when we stepped into Mt. Moon proper, the path immediately slipped down and the ceiling arched upward to create a massive cathedral of a cavern. If I didn't have the comparison of the hundreds of Zubat clinging to the cavern ceiling, I would've thought the distance was comparable to the cave opening, maybe forty meters.

Nope.

The Zubats were tiny dots.

It was two hundred meters to the ceiling, easy.

Alright, we're not allowed to look up.

Looking down the slope was an exercise in unfocusing your eyes because the darkness was so intense that there was nothing to focus on.

And we don't look forward, either. Let's just look at our feet. Nothing dangerous at our feet.

So that became the rhythm. Step, step, look at the PokeNav+. Step, step, avoid the Zubat droppings. Step, step, hold still to resist the cold gusts of wind.

I even found myself murmuring it like a mantra to keep going. Not loud enough that Amy or Yuji heard me, but I occasionally heard Hana repeating it back to me. She stood right behind me, and that was a real and genuine comfort. I knew she had my back.

We left the main trail that would've continued through Floor One fairly early in the hike. Instead of turning off and going the most well-traveled way, we kept following the downward slope. This way was deeper, but it was also supposed to be quicker.

And it wasn't like it was an easy-to-miss exit, either. Someone, probably the Rangers, had strung up a set of glow-in-the-dark lights around the split in the path. I wasn't the only member of the group that gave it a longing glance as we passed by.

It wasn't until what was easily two or three hours into the hike that we encountered our first real obstacle.

"Stop," Amy whispered urgently and just loud enough to be heard over the wind.

I dug in my heels, catching Hana off-guard. She bumped into my back, forcing me to take another step forward.

I turned back and her eyes were big with concern. 'I'm sorry!' She mouthed to me.

We both looked back to Amy, who had their eyes shut in concentration.

The struggle in their expression could only mean that they were using their psychic powers.

Yuji put his hand on Amy's shoulder, offering them moral support. They nodded, putting out a hand in front of themself like they were feeling for something.

"There's something ahead of us," they whispered. "Multiple somethings. They feel... ...excited? I think we're walking into a trap."

Ice shot through my veins.

A trap?

The three of us whipped our heads around, looking forward in the cavern to see if we could find any evidence of the 'somethings'. It was Hana, of course, who saw it first.

"There!" She pointed with her flashlight. "Those stones!"

I would never have seen them without my friend's interventions. High above us at the cave ceiling and maybe thirty more meters down the trail, the stalactites were slightly the wrong shape. They were round instead of pointed. The shining of the light forced one of the stalactites to move its hand to cover its eyes.

Geodudes.

Living rocks hung above the trail to drop their many many kilograms directly onto our heads.

"Dude, fuck this mountain," I murmured to my companion's agreement.

"Do you want to send Wisp up-?" Hana started to ask.

"Nah," I said to the distant and disappointed whine of my shadow. "We should show these Geodude that trainers aren't easy hits to take down. We should do something flashy."

Yuji narrowed his eyes. "I concur."

Amy waved their hand. "They feel apprehensive now. I don't think it'll take a lot to scare them off."

I turned to Yuji. "Would our forest bouncer like the honor of dispatching the riffraff?"

He smiled. "I think he would."

The cavern flashed red, briefly illuminating for hundreds of meters as Yuji released Achilles.

The great thing about having a badass escort is that nobody wants to mess with him. The Heracross tha-dunked his massive weight onto the cavern floor, the planting of his feet causing rumbling echoes to sound over the wind all down the cavern. He barely had to start buzzing his wings before:

Thunk! Thunk! Thunk! Rooooooollll!

Three Geodude dropped straight from the ceiling, cracking the ground on impact, and curled their arms onto their sides to use the slope to roll away. I knew that Geodude could float off the ground using their magnetic cores but apparently gravity was a better option for them here.

Achilles looked disappointed to see them go, so he pulled his head back and roared. "Heraaaaa!"

I'd been impressed before, but now even I was a little scared. I didn't see this part of Achilles often, so it was easy to forget the bloodthirsty fighting type that had brutally brawled with that Pincir.

At his heart, no matter how polite he was to us, Achilles was a warrior.

Yuji patted his companion on the shoulder and Achilles gave a big goofy grin.

There he is. I smiled. That's the bug that I know.

I turned back to Hana. "You got dibs on the next one that comes up? Or is that one mine?"

She smiled a fierce smile. "Paige hasn't let loose for a long while. She'll take the next one."

I nodded. "So, Ames, what tipped you off about the Geodude?"

Amy was still concentrating, but they lowered their hand and opened their eyes. "I don't know... ...I guess since there's not a lot of interference down here, like plants or people, it's easier to feel when something is coming up."

I blinked. Huh, good to know.

"That's good to know," Hana said, beating me by half a second. "We won't only rely on your skills entirely, but that's a valuable ability. Do you think you'd be able to do that for the whole trip?"

Amy looked nervous. "I mean, it's pretty passive, so I can try. The problem is, though, it's not going to help if we spook a Pokemon that's not expecting us. The only reason I knew the Geodude were coming is 'cause they got excited about their trap."

"It's as Hana said," Yuji reassured them. "The pressure will not be on you to provide, but if you feel something, say something. Nothing more, nothing less."

They looked a little less nervous, but I could tell this was a lot. It wasn't pressure from us messing them up. It was pressure from themself to be better.

I knew the feeling.

From then on we continued at a steady rate, though my 'step, step' mantra had to be abandoned.

There had been too many falling Geodudes for me to be comfortable looking down.

Instead, Amy regularly stopped us from having to deal with Pokemon. We took turns clearing them out, but they were easy to scare off for the most part. I did notice that the use of their powers so consistently was tiring Amy out, but they refused most of the breaks we offered and chose to keep soldiering on.

Eventually, we left the main slope of the trail to head forward on a steady and even surface. We were solidly on Floor Two, so there was no need to keep going down. It was also important that we stick to the trail we'd decided as closely as possible because as we crossed into Floor Two proper, my Pokenav+ gave me a 'No Signal' notification. It was just the pre-downloaded maps and our wits now.

We were officially on our own.

It wasn't until a beeping from Hana's phone told us that we'd been traveling for six hours went off that we thought about resting.

Time was weird down here. The constant darkness was too... ...consistent.

There was no sun to give us an idea of what time it was supposed to be. Without it, everything was based on how long your perception of each task was. Sometimes I would look at my phone after hundreds of steps and see that it had only been ten minutes, and other times I'd trip and an hour would have passed.

When it came time to set up camp, we found a section of cave wall that curved inward which Achilles was nice enough to widen for us. Instead of setting up the tents, we piled our sleeping rolls into a circle at the center of our little room. We couldn't build a fire down here, so Yuji supplied a tiny flameless heater to keep us warm at night. This left us with a warm shelter with only one direction that attackers could come from, which was a big comfort to me.

I really didn't want to get kidnapped by Pokemon again.

We took staggered watches, just like the Viridian Forest, and I offered to take the first watch. I'd be alone for the first hour, but then Hana would come in the second hour and keep me company until I went to sleep and Yuji would wake up.

I chose to use my hour of solitude to my advantage.

"So, buddy," I said quietly to Artis. "You get it now, right? Don't be covered in ice. Be ice."

"Phe spheal?"

"I don't think I mean literally? It's more like you should harden yourself like you do when you Defence Curl, but it should be... ...cold?"

"Pheal sphea."

"Well of course I want this to succeed! I think you just gotta keep trying, bud."

Even with the whole of Mt. Moon still open to us, I'd decided to continue training with Artis. We'd scouted the immediate area around our little alcove and couldn't find any entrances or connecting caverns that big Pokemon could fit through, so we figured it'd be safe to train for at least a little bit before bed.

Artis and I were having trouble with the main goal I had for him for now: turning Snowout into Ice Ball. We'd been getting by with my bastardized version of the move, but it was time to do it right. Combining Powder Snow and Rollout was just so slow. Once we could get it into a solid technique he'd improve his speed by leaps and bounds.

I had very specifically returned Wisp to her ball for this training. There was no way Artis would be able to handle this with her making fun of him the whole time.

"It's okay, bud. We got this. Let's give it one more try."

"Spheal..." He mumbled, unsure. Artis had already tried Ice Ball at least seven times today with very little success. I was going to give him one more shot and then end it for the day. It couldn't be good for him to feel this down for long periods of time.

Artis stood still, concentrating with all of his mind. Like we'd tried before, instead of breathing his snow out, he inhaled while channeling ice energy.

This had already proved to be the right direction from the previous attempts. His fur took on a glossy sheen to it, like black ice on asphalt. He then tensed up and tightened his muscles the way he did when he used Rollout.

I could see the struggle on his face, though, when he started this part. This is the farthest we'd ever taken it because the strain got hard for him to hold here. It made no sense to me. He'd been using Rollout for as long as I'd had him, and this was basically the same move. The sight of him bursting forward was burnt into my mind-

And then it clicked.

"Bud!" I said excitedly. "You're not moving! That's what we're doing wrong! Try holding it while you roll!"

I felt like an idiot now. Rollout always used the inertia of an initial burst of speed to get going. It was like pulling the ripcord on an engine to get the flywheel spinning. Artis had never had to learn Rollout, so he hadn't ever tried using it while standing still. Standing still, instead of helping him learn, left him spinning his wheels. Letting him sit there without moving was basically turning on the gas without pulling the cord. Of course nothing was going to happen.

"Sphe!" He exclaimed, clenching his teeth. Artis ducked his head down, getting that initial push that he needed.

Like letting go of the kink in a hose, ice energy flooded outward from him. His fur took on an icy blue sheen and he burst across the ground, leaving a shimmering frozen trail in the air behind him.

He made it maybe four meters before the frictionless ice beneath him caused him to spin out and slam into a wall.

"Oof," I groaned. "You okay, bud?"

"Pheal!" He called, holding up a flipper. He was fine.

"Good job, bud!" I ran over and started congratulating him. He rolled over and was very accepting of his neck pats. "You did such a great job. Give that a few more days of training and it'll be ready for battles."

Artis happily mumbled into my palm.

I fed him a few sweet berries as a treat before returning him. While it was exciting that we'd gotten the move to work, the boy needed his rest. Plus, the loud noise he'd made against the wall had startled me more than I'd like to admit. I didn't want any big Pokemon getting curious and coming after us.

I turned to head back into the camping alcove, but instead, I paused, listening.

Talking to Daisy all those weeks ago in the Pewter Museum had rekindled a love in me that I hadn't known I'd lost. Space and the stars used to be my obsession when I was a kid, but as Pokemon battling had become my foremost hobby, I'd lost touch with it.

Since I'd known I was coming to Mt. Moon, I'd flipped back through entries for the iconic space Pokemon. I'd been surprised to discover multiple logs about a phenomenon that occurred here at night. Once the moon rose, the caves would carry the faraway sounds of the mountain Pokemon to anyone who listened.

Sure enough, I heard a distant sound on the wind.

"Fairy... ...Cle cle... ...fairy...."

A mystical chant echoed ever so slightly throughout the cavern. Just like the rumors had said, if you weren't listening specifically for it, you would miss it completely.

A smile plastered itself on my face.

I wasn't going to see one tonight, but just knowing that the Clefairy were that close made my heart race.

I wasn't leaving this mountain without one.

----------------------------------------

Our second day in Mt. Moon was more of the same. We woke up sore from the bone-chilling underground cold, cooked a quick breakfast over Yuji's heat source, and headed through the mountain.

As much as the others were trying to seem comfortable and nonchalant, I could tell that the constant darkness was getting to them. Hana was paying attention less, bumping into me more and more as we traveled through tight spaces and long corridors, and Yuji was downright irritable on the rare occasion that he spoke up from the back of the pack. I could feel it getting to me too, but Amy had it by far the worst out of all of us.

The tiny psychic was straining themself too hard to help us avoid the more dangerous Pokemon of Mt. Moon. Every once in a while, I would hear them stumble across the rocky cave or slip down the side of a boulder, and their breathing was ever so slightly labored. The few glances I caught of them as we walked showed that they'd lost what little color they had in their face.

The constant drain of using their powers down here was wearing them down and, even worse, it was getting results. We were avoiding Pokemon left and right because of the forewarning that they were giving us.

"Ten meters, tucked into the cave wall," Amy would say. We'd stop and recalculate the route, find an alternate path, or send one of the stronger Pokemon out to scare off the weaker Pokemon.

I couldn't help but feel more than a bit uneasy with the whole situation. Was it helping us travel at a pace we could have only dreamed of when we were planning the route? Yes, absolutely. But did it also feel a lot like taking advantage of a friend? Even more so.

After the fifth hour of traveling this way, I turned my head. "Hey Ames, why don't we take a break? We've been going at it for a while."

"And we still have a few more hours left," Hana tacked on, obviously also concerned about her friend. "It would help if we conserved our energy."

"It's chill." Their voice was faint and breathy. "All the more reason to keep going. The sooner we get through today, the sooner we rest for the night."

Yuji made a noise from the back of the group. "Even so, we should rest-"

"Twenty meters," Amy interrupted, dropping their voice to a whisper. "It's big and frustrated."

The four of us pulled to an immediate stop, pressing ourselves against the cavern wall. The cavern we were in now was narrow and short, barely two meters tall at its highest point. If I wanted to, I could reach the cavern ceiling with my hands. Far ahead of us the narrow hallway opened into a larger cavern, one that the Pokenav+ had marked as being larger than a city block.

If Amy was sensing something up ahead, then it could be any size. There weren't a lot of Pokemon that were too big for that large of a room.

Hana put her hand on my shoulder, a signal that we'd fallen into that told me she was keeping watch ahead while I was able to devote my attention to the Pokenav+.

I clicked through the map, trying to find an alternate path. We did not want to get caught up in a battle with something potentially bigger than us while we were days away from a Pokemon Center.

"Fuck," I cursed. I turned back to the group. "The quickest re-route puts us back four hours."

All of their faces fell. Four hours was basically our entire travel day. The problem was, the cavern up ahead was a connecting point for a ton of caverns on Floors Two, Three, and Four. Getting around it meant heading to a bypass on Floor One or Five, which was not near where we were now. If we backtracked, we will have made no progress for the day.

There was no way we were doing that.

Amy put their hand up again, a habit that had continued since our encounter with the Geodude. Their face morphed into a tight expression frown of concentration.

"It's... ...definitely angry, and it's in a prideful kind of way," Amy said. "Whatever it is, it wants to kick the butt of something weaker than it. And it's big. At least taller than Yuji."

Hana gave them a troubled frown. "You can tell that much?"

Amy shrugged, wiping their nose with their sleeve.

"It seems we have little choice," Yuji murmured. "The best course of action would be to lure it away and try to travel through. Derek-"

I nodded immediately. "Wisp can be on distraction duty."

The Pokemon in question peeked out from my shadow, her yellow and red eyes full of excitement. "Mis mis!" she added cheerfully.

Hana still looked unsure. "We should try and scout the type of Pokemon that it is," she suggested. "We could come up with a better plan then."

"We are unable to look at it without it seeing us," Yuji disagreed, pointing to his flashlight. "If anything, we are fortunate that it hasn't spotted our lights yet."

I glanced down, trying to think of a better solution than 'distract it and run' when I saw something that made my heart freeze up.

"Hey guys," I said quickly. "If we're going to try and avoid it, let's backtrack a little to rest? That way we can be prepared to run if we need to."

Yuji and Hana nodded, though Amy gave me a tired and suspicious look. They knew I'd seen it.

We found our way back to a slightly more open area on the path, and Yuji and Hana began to rifle through our supplies to pull out our food. While they did, I grabbed Amy by the hand and pulled them aside.

"Derek-," they protested.

I held Amy's sleeve up. "What the hell is this?"

There, glimmering in the dim light of our flashlights, was a shiny red smear across Amy's sleeve where they'd wiped their bloody nose away.

Amy looked pointedly at the ground, slowly pulling their arm away. They didn't answer my question.

I sighed.

Amy was obviously pushing their abilities too far. They'd been exhausted all day, straining and tripping constantly, and now they were suffering from nosebleeds. And now, instead of worrying for themself, they looked upset that someone had noticed.

"Amy..." I grumbled. "Why didn't you say anything?"

Amy shifted their feet, lightly scrapping their shoes against the stone. "I guess," they mumbled under their breath. "I just wanted to keep us all safe, since... ...ya know, you guys are going so far to help me out."

My heart melted.

Without another thought, I scooped them up into a hug. They stiffened up at first, but quickly returned the gesture. They didn't even complain about being picked up.

"Ames," I said quietly. "That's not the move. This whole friendship thing works only if we're all being upfront with each other. It also not, uh... ..what's the word? Transactional. We don't trade favors for favors. Especially not when it puts one of us in pain."

Amy sniffled again, and I was worried that they'd gotten another nosebleed, but looking down I saw that they were crying. Their nose was running and big teardrops were running down their cheeks.

"I know," they blubbered. "It's just, you guys are going out of your way to help me get my new Pokemon and I realized that I could help you too. I knew that you guys would make me stop if you knew how much it hurts my brain to do it. I just- I just-"

I patted Amy's back as they devolved from words into tiny sobs. From across our clearing, I could see Yuji and Hana both send me worried looks, but I have them a reassuring nod. That mollified them, and they went back to preparing lunch and pretending that nothing was wrong.

Legends damn it, I thought, thinking back to how we'd reacted to Amy's power. While we'd tried to impress that they didn't need to strain themself and that pressure should be on them, of course they were going to put that on themself. That combined with my surprise had really built a stress machine for them. I was just glad I'd caught this before we'd ended up in a dangerous situation and Amy wasn't at one-hundred percent.

Amy wiped their eyes and nose, pressing their forehead against my shoulder.

"Are you okay?" I nudged them.

They nodded. "I think I'm done. Thank you."

"No problem, bean. We all need a good cry every once in a while," I sighed. "You're not going to keep pushing yourself, right? We can get by with other strats. We have Wisp and Pennywise and so many other options."

Amy looked like they wanted to protest, but I gave them a stern look.

"Yeah...," they finally said. Amy stepped back. "I'm not going to stop using my powers, but I can stop using them as much."

"And not at all when you're in pain."

"...and not at all when it hurts."

"Good." I nodded to them. "Let's get some lunch, regroup, and get past whatever's waiting for us up ahead."

Amy bobbed their head, stepping into the light of a small lantern that Yuji had set up. Yuji handed us both sandwiches and Amy immediately started cutting their crust off.

As I went to go eat, Hana gently tapped my wrist. I looked over and her eyes were full of concern.

"Did you talk to them?" Hana mouthed, careful to not signal Amy.

I nodded. "They just needed to let some stuff out," I mouthed back. "They're okay now."

Hana smiled and nodded. She sat down next to me, offering me a chip from her bag. I took one and popped it in my mouth before gagging.

"Are those onion flavored?" I said aloud. "Gross."

"Hey!" Hana laughed, shoving me with her shoulder. "These are from home! I think they're really good."

"Yeah, if I was a Shroomish, maybe. Yuji, toss me the salt and vinegar ones."

My only sane friend gave me a grunt of agreement, handing over the good flavor.

"Vinegar?" Hana wrinkled her nose. "And you called my chips gross?"

"They are," I said flatly. "In fact, I bet Amy agrees with me too."

The psychic in question stopped eating like a Deerling in headlights. "Uh, what?"

Hana scooted over to them. "Sweet Onion or Salt and Vinegar? Which chip is better?"

Amy was not ready to be confronted with this after our discussion. "Uh- I mean- I guess... ...neither?" They shrugged. "I like the cheddar ones."

"Nothing wrong with cheddar," I said smugly. Even if I hadn't won, neither had Hana's bad taste. "Anyway, team, let's huddle up. We've gotta figure out what we're going to do about the big guy in the cavern."

The other three gave varying nods or grunts of approval. Regardless of the conversation I'd had with Amy, we still needed to get past what they had alerted us to.

"Alright, while I'm partial to feeding Hana's chips to it," I paused to let her give an indignant noise. "I think we should look through our options in case Wisp can't distract it."

Yuji nodded. "It would behoove us to know the route, as well."

"That's a great point." I pulled out the Pokenav+, turning the display to the rest of the group. "There are actually two different routes that we can take out of the big cavern up ahead. We have the one that I'd planned on, which would get us about two hours away from the next campsite, or..."

Hana let out a breath of excitement as she read ahead on the map. "Or we could sleep outside tonight!"

Yuji gave me a confused look.

"There's a camping ground listed that's on the surface," I explained. "One of the other caverns takes us past Floor One to a small canyon on the outside of the mountain. The ranger manifest has it as a safe location for trainers with at least one badge, so it shouldn't be dangerous, and the walls keep it protected from the elements. The only problem is that because it's out of our way, it's gonna add an hour or two of travel to tomorrow."

Yuji studied the map, slowly nodding. Amy put up a hand like we were in a classroom.

"I don't want to sleep underground tonight," they said. "I vote extra walking tomorrow."

"Yeah, I'm tired of the dark." Hana put her head on her knees. "I never realized how much I would miss the Sevii sun. This region is so cold."

"I fully agree with that." Even though Hoenn was on the same continent as Kanto, it was at about the same latitude as the Sevii Islands.

Yuji made an indecisive noise. "Though I am less inclined to make more work for us later, I will not hold back the group."

"Alright then, votes in favor of heading up have it. So, since we're headed that way, we basically need to hug the right wall of the big cavern and make a ninety-degree turn once we get in there. That actually is going to make it easier to get around whatever Pokemon is in there."

It was Yuji's turn to raise his hand. "Something I would mention again is that our flashlights make it hard to move unnoticed in these caverns. We have no Pokemon that are able to echolocate or guide us without light."

I sighed. He was right. Wisp could see in the dark, but our current plan had her distracting the Pokemon and joining us later.

"What if... ...we didn't have to sneak?" Hana asked slowly.

"Hmm?"

Hana grabbed her backpack and started to rummage through it. "Well, you know how I bought the safety supplies for this trip? One of the things that the ranger's manifest had warned about was pockets of unbreathable gases in the caverns. So, I ended up buying these."

Hana pulled four black plastic shapes from her bag, along with a silver pressurized gas container for each of them.

"Gas masks?" Yuji asked. "I'm afraid I don't follow."

"I do," I said excitedly. "Hana, you're an evil genius."

Hana's cheeks went a little red. "I wouldn't say evil, but I appreciate it. Essentially, since I've had both Paige and Rafflesia practicing their Stun Spore, we could pump the cavern full of it and run through with our masks on. That should slow down or stop anything from running after us."

Amy's pale face split into a mischievous smile. "Wicked."

Yuji nodded. "That would work. Even if the paralysis doesn't fully take, it should slow most things down. Do we know of any Pokemon in Mt. Moon that are particularly fast?"

Hana shook her head. "If Amy's right about it being taller than you, Yuji, then all the species of that size found in this mountain are pretty slow. Graveler and Golem can both get that tall if they get old enough, and the rare Rhydon is pretty tall. We'd definitely know already if it was an Onix."

I absentmindedly nodded as I thought back to Brock's Steelix. The thought of facing something that big sent shivers down my spine.

"Then that's the plan," I said. "Everybody good on plan Stun Spore?"

Yuji and Amy nodded, but Hana did hesitate. "I will say, though, that this won't last forever. If it's a strong Pokemon, we might only have a few minutes."

"Then we'll be fast. Let's do this, team."

----------------------------------------

We finished cleaning up after our meal and made our way back down the narrow tunnel.

Given Hana's plan, we decided it would still be best to send Wisp off to find whatever was lurking in the connecting cavern and draw it away from the tunnel mouth. We'd then funnel the Stun Spore away from the right-hand tunnel using Pennywise's Barriers, giving us a decent cloud of paralyzing spores between us and whatever the major threat was.

I rubbed Wisp's head. "Remember, don't attack it for real. Just annoy it. We don't know what things down here know dark type moves. I'll whistle when we get into the tunnel we need to get to. Come back when you hear that, okay?"

Instead of responding, she purred into my palm, forcing me to smile.

She left a few moments later, melting into the darkness with an evil chuckle. I nodded to Hana and Amy.

Amy murmured to Pennywise, tucking him into their coat and wrapping a damp rag around his mouth. Even if he should be mostly protected from the spores with his own Barriers, we didn't want him accidentally inhaling enough to lock up. The Mime Jr. hummed, creating a slightly glowing pink set of Barriers that extended far into the cave in front of us.

With that, Hana gave the order to both of her Pokemon. The Weepinbell and Bulbasaur both began to release a cloud of powdery yellow dust that floated forward, guided by both their will and Pennywise's pink Barriers.

All four of us donned our masks and I slipped the Pokenav+ onto my belt. Since we were hugging the right wall anyway, I wanted to have both hands available to catch me if I tripped.

The signal we were waiting for came in the sound of a mighty roar.

"Rhyyyyyyyyyydon!"

The cry echoed in the enclosed cavern, making it impossible to judge just how far away to monster was, it might as well have been right next to us. The ground trembled and shook as its feet pounded upon the stone.

Hana cursed as we registered what name the Pokemon had yelled. Rhydon was a massively strong Pokemon, and extremely rare in this particular set of caverns. The base amount of power that Rhyorn needed to evolve into Rhydon put it outside of our ability to fight it. It was a good thing we'd come at this with a plan because this kind of threat would have seriously injured us otherwise.

Honestly, it still could.

"Go!" I gave the call for us to move forward, taking off into the darkness of the city-block-sized cave.

In an instant, Hana returned both of her Pokemon, and all four of us made the dash forward.

We burst out of the narrow tunnel, emerging into a massive void in the mountain. The air was cold as it rushed past our masks, fogging up the visors. Between that and the thin layer of spore powder in the air, it took everything just to keep the wall on our right.

The floor was unreasonable smooth in the cavern, and my feet almost slid out from under me. I glanced down, and the stone on the floor had been worn smooth from some sort of constant grinding-

"Derek! Pay attention!" Hana yelled, grabbing me by my hoodie and yanking me back.

Whoosh! Shatter! Crash!

A rock the size of my head had flown out of the darkness, punctured Pennywise's Barrier, and crashed into the cavern wall. It shattered, showing us with shards of stone that had bounced off of our masks and clothes.

Oh, shit...

We'd made an obvious miscalculation when planning our run.

Given the Stun Spore, we knew that whatever Pokemon had been here, we could outrun them. What we hadn't considered is that Wisp might not be able to keep its attention on her. Or that it could still throw long-range attacks faster than we could run.

Yuji turned his flashlight in the direction that the stone had come from.

Standing shrouded in the darkness, shaking from the effects of the Stun Spore, was a massive, towering Pokemon of stone. Though it was almost an entire battle pitch away, it cut an intimidating figure. The Rhydon stood at almost two meters tall, not counting the spiral drill horn that jutted forward from its face, adding an additional twenty centimeters. The Pokemon's shoulders were as wide as a sedan, and its hulking form easily weighed over a hundred kilograms.

"Mis!" Wisp shouted as she hit the creature with a Confuse Ray.

The Rhydon didn't budge as it shrugged off the ghostly purple bolt of energy. Instead, it reached down to the ground with one of its clawed hands, sinking it deep into the stone like butter.

A cold weight dropped in my stomach. "Run!" I shouted, taking off down the trail. That thing was loading its next shot.

I sprinted with all my might, running even with the lowered visibility and slippery surface. Of course, I did slip and fall on my ass, and it came at just the right moment.

Crash!

Another rock missed me by just a few feet as the Rock Throw hit where I would have been. Hana screamed at the sound.

I pushed off the ground, grabbing Hana's hand and pulling her along with me. We couldn't stop moving. I didn't turn back, but I hear Yuji grunt as he hefted Amy over his shoulder.

"Drea drea drea!" Wisp angrily shouted at the Rhydon. It couldn't care less about her, instead picking up two more chunks out of the ground. It paused as it tried to throw them, the paralysis fully immobilizing it for a moment and giving us a real chance to move.

I kept running, Hana in tow. We just need to find the exit.

The cavern started to illuminate with yellow light.

Bzzzzzzzn!

The familiar sound of Wisp letting off a Charge Beam crackled through the air, and for a second fear clumped in my gut as I thought Wisp had actually attacked the Rhydon. When a narrow beam of light slammed into the opposite wall, though, I saw what she was really doing.

She was showing us the way.

There! Between two divots in the rock wall, a shadow didn't light up when Wisp used her charge beam. It meant that there was nothing there to light up, that there was a void there. Wisp had used her ability to see in the dark to show us the exit.

"We're close! Almost there!" I yelled as loud as I could to make sure that the others heard.

Crash! Crash!

The first rock missed entirely, going wide. The second rock only missed me by centimeters. It exploded next to my head, shattering and sending shrapnel across my face and neck. A bigger chunk clipped my gas mask, sending me reeling to the ground.

My vision flashed white and I got dizzy. Nausea pushed its way up my throat. I definitely had a head injury. I pressed my hand against my mask, feeling for cracks. It was still secure, albeit with a healthy dent in the visor where I'd been struck.

Hana said something, but I didn't catch it as another rock crashed into the rock wall. She shoved her shoulder under mine, getting me to my feet. Once I was up, I started stumbling forward, building up momentum with her. In the time we'd been down, Yuji had passed us. Like I'd thought, he was carrying Amy and they were both almost at the exit.

I looked back at Wisp and she was fully trying to kite the Rhydon now. She'd started sending out Charge Beams at the lowest possible power to get its attention. Pride surged through me when I realized she was still listening to her orders. I didn't want her to accidentally escalate the Rhydon to use big moves and hurt her or us.

I let go of Hana, standing on my own two feet with renewed vigor. My Pokemon was stalling for us, and I wasn't going to waste that time.

Yuji and Amy cross the threshold into the exit cave with Hana and I following right behind them. We didn't stop running when we got in, but I ripped my mask off and whistled as loud as I could.

I knew Wisp would hear me.

We ran and ran and ran. The tunnel sloped upward and Yuji let Amy drop to their own feet, but we didn't stop. We kept the pace for nearly half a kilometer. I pulled the Pokenav+ out and when I couldn't read it without wincing I passed it to Hana. She led us through forked tunnels and twisting paths, up and over boulders and underneath narrow tunnels.

I nearly yelled when a dim light appeared from around the curve.

We made it to the mouth of the cave, a warm breeze flowing in from the outside of Mt. Moon. Light flooded in and it took a moment for our eyes to adjust. Longer for me than the others, at the very least.

Outside of the cave entrance, there was a box canyon with a floor of dense scrubland waiting for us. Another tent was already pitched there. The breeze was so much warmer than the stone-chilled air we'd experienced for the last two days. The sun, the glorious legends-blessed sun, was warm on our faces and so bright.

While the others basked and caught their breath, though, I turned back to the cave.

I waited, watching for my Pokemon.

And waited.

There was an uncomfortably long moment of silence, and two campers came out from the tent to see the other campers that had arrived. Yuji walked down to talk to them.

I waited.

Hana tried to come over to bandage my head wound, but I waved her off. Instead, I whistled into the cavern once again.

And finally, after almost half an hour of waiting, two tiny yellow and red eyes popped out of the darkness.

"There she is!" I shouted, running back into the cavern.

"Drea Vous!" Wisp cheered happily, though her voice was tired and faint. She popped out of the shadows and I scooped her up, giving her a big hug. She was tired and warm, and as I looked at her I could see little parts of her ghost body that were faded and bruised. She'd ended up taking damage after all.

"Oh, poor baby," I cooed as I hugged her. "I'm so proud of you for getting us out of there! Let's get you healed up and then you can rest."

Wisp fell limp in my arms, letting me carry her. She was incredibly light, on account of her being a ghost. I walked back out of the cave to see that Yuji and Amy had already started setting up camp with the help of the other two campers. Hana was ready and waiting for me and Wisp with two potions and a medkit already set out.

As I walked my Pokemon down to the camp, I glanced back at the entrance to Mt. Moon.

I was happy to be out, but we needed to go back in there to get to Cerulean. I only hoped it would go better than today.