We didn't try to catch Rhydon.

The idea was fielded to the group, of course, but ultimately none of us had anything stronger than a basic Pokeball on us. Given that Pokemon could break out of their Pokeballs once they hit a certain strength level, we did not want to risk fighting it for a third time. Just like with the fossil, choosing to be greedy would be dangerous for us.

No, instead we dried our tears, collected the forms of the five much weaker Parasect, and got a move on. We'd given up on finding a way out right now. Too many of our Pokemon were too injured to get into another fight like that again. Artis was basically the only one still at one hundred percent. Wisp was still injured from yesterday, and Pennywise, the Bronzor, Achilles, and Paige were all fully fainted. Umber, Espi, and Despereaux had each taken some nasty hits from the Parasect but were still battle-ready, and Rafflesia was uninjured but entirely too inexperienced to rely on yet.

Because of the state of our party, Artis, Wisp, and I took the lead while the remaining battlers circled everyone else.

With a little bit of brilliance from Hana, we also had a trail to follow.

"Rhydon's tail," Hana mumbled in exhaustion, leaning on my shoulder. "It dragged behind it, right?"

I nodded, keeping my eyes on the tunnel in front of us. "Yeah. What are you thinking?"

"If it's the same one from yesterday," she reasoned, "then we can assume it walked down here from Floor Two. There won't be footsteps or anything on the rock, but a heavy object like the tail would leave scratches. It might not get us all the way there, but if the tail left a trail..."

My eyes flicked to her, finding the energy to go wide. "Then we have a path to the upper floors."

Hana gave me a weak smile. She held her lantern out, and both of us started to study the ground.

"There," she pointed. Sure enough, there was the tell-tale sign of thin white scratch lines across the brown and grey stone of the cave. The scratches led into the darkness, far beyond what we could see from the light of our lanterns. We pointed it out to the others and it made all of our footsteps a little lighter and a little quicker. A possible way up was a big motivator.

We walked another hour or so before that third wave started to flag. Rhydon had wandered a long way in the last day. I took the Pokenav+ back from Hana, if for nothing else than to give her a break. While we didn't have any map data for the lower floors, we were hoping that we'd be able to connect the dots if we ran into any landmarks on our map. Doing all of that helped pass the time as we searched for our real goal: a safe cavern to sleep in. We settled for searching for a place to rest, where we could lick our wounds and try again tomorrow. We could survive down here for another few days with the supplies we had, so we decided that it was more important to gather our strength back.

We found something that fit our needs after about an hour of walking. It was a narrow gash in the side of the tunnel that opened up into another cavern. It was pretty clearly a dead end, which was exactly what we were looking for. Yuji inspected the cave, running his hand against the stone that made up the narrow entrance. He gently scratched at it with a nail, nodding when no material came away.

"This should do," he said. "It's strong and defensible. As good as we're going to get, considering the circumstances."

An audible sigh of relief made its way across the group. One by one, we stepped across the threshold and filed into the cave. It was about four meters across and vaguely cylindrical, just about the right size for both of our tents and a small area to sit Yuji's camping heater. Once we got everything set up, I offered to take the first watch. No one argued with me.

As everyone else bedded down, I slumped my backpack against the cave wall, making a nice little seat for myself between it and the heater. I went to sit, but a blinking red light gave me pause.

Oh, shit. My camera is still going.

I'd forgotten entirely about my half-baked plan to log our path out, understandable given the crazy circumstances that we'd faced after running across the fossil. I pulled the camcorder off of the backpack strap, clicking off the recording. Before I packed it away, though, a stray thought crossed my mind.

I pulled up my footage of the Rhydon fight. I fast-forwarded through the part where we had run from the Parasect (I did not want to listen to their awful noises again), and paused right as Rhydon appeared in our lantern light. It still shocked me that we'd managed to take down that beast of a Pokemon.

I wonder if it's woken up yet? I zoomed in on its face. The light from the lantern hadn't reached its eyes, leaving them shrouded and black on the video. It was spooky, but I almost preferred it to how viciously it had looked at us during the fight. I shivered as I thought about it waking up in the cave, beaten and looking for vengeance. I pressed play.

I cringed as it took us almost five whole seconds to actually react to Rhydon's appearance. It was obvious now that Rhydon had only waited as long as it had to attack us because it had been grandstanding. It was almost physcially painful to hear my recording give Hana and Amy orders before focusing on my own Pokemon. In retrospect, I hadn't told them anything that was useful beyond their established fighting styles. Even when I did get to give my Pokemon orders, they hadn't been the right calls. I knew that Rhydon was going to be the most dangerous up close, but I'd ordered Artis into melee and Wisp to use Charge Beam, an electric-type move. I wasn't sure which one was more egregious. Ice Ball put Artis right in the frey as the only Pokemon in hitting range of Rhydon, but I was lucky Charge Beam had done anything. For the most part, ground types like Rhydon were entirely immune to the effects of electric type attacks, but if you could pump enough energy into one, it would at least drop a ton of heat as the electricity dissipated. If Wisp had actually had to use that move at its normal power level, Rhydon would've been able to entirely shrug it off.

I paused the video, sighing as Rhydon held Achilles up over his head. Over the last few weeks, I'd been trying to imitate Yuji's training style. It wasn't a purposeful thing, I'd just really been leaning into him as my rival, so I'd been trying to match him in every one of our training sequence. There were a lot of problems with that, but none nearly as bad as the gaping hole that now existed in both of our training styles.

Yuji was a fighting type trainer through and through, so he often substituted tactics for pure power. His Pokemon were trained in a series of singularly powerful moves and worked hard to be able to brute force their way through any problem. He did have other moves, like the buffs he had Despereaux run in most of his battles, but even those only served to create stronger hits. What this style didn't take into account was what would happen if those hits couldn't deal with an enemy that was overwhelmingly powerful. Achilles had tried to match Rhydon blow for blow and had been taken down in a test of strength. Since Achilles was his strongest Pokemon, Yuji's ability to fight back had folded the moment his ace had been overpowered.

It had been the same for me when I'd attacked with Artis. I hadn't really set up any other options, even though I knew that my partner had Aqua Ring and Defense Curl, two moves that would've helped him tank earlier in the fight. Instead, I'd purely focused on using his 'strongest' attack, having no backup plan when Rhydon had almost one-shot him. That had left Hana as the only real battler for a pivotal point of the fight.

Honestly, Hana had carried that battle. Her style of battling was based around disadvantaging the enemy, creating opportunities where there were none, and locking down the field to the best of her ability. Yuji and I had gotten in some good hits, but poisoning Rhydon and getting off multiple buffed-up grass type moves were the only reasons we'd actually won. I hadn't gone in with any actual strategies. It was pure luck that Artis hadn't actually fainted with that first hit and chance that our most powerful water type move had been Brine, a move that got more powerful if the target was already hurt.

I thought back to Hana's battle against Brock. During that battle, I'd noticed that Brock had employed actual strategy against her, even if he hadn't pulled out a singularly powerful Pokemon like his Aerodactyl. His Sudowoodo had used two separate attacking moves, Stone Edge and Rock Tomb, in unique ways to create opportunities against her lock-down style. If I'd had some other tool like that, maybe I would've been more effective in that fight.

I frowned, finally letting the last of the fight play out. The worst part of it all was that it hadn't always been this way. In the lead-up to Brock's fight, I'd at least strategized our plan to take down Onix, and against Giovanni, I'd done so much research. Hell, in my first ever battle I'd had Artis use his Aqua Ring to attack. None of those really counted as consistent strategies like what I now knew I wanted, but they were better than picking strong moves and hoping for the best.

I absentmindedly went to wipe a dot of water off the screen, frowning deeper when it didn't come off. I must've gotten some moisture on the lens during the fight.

Wait...

It wasn't water. There was a tiny speck of ice that had landed on my lens and was now baked into the footage. Something about it scratched my brain, so I started rewinding the footage to find when it had landed. It was maybe thirty seconds before the end of the fight, during Artis's Ice Ball run at Rhydon. Right as my newly evolved Sealeo rolled forward, mixed with the spray of dust and dirt, a glimmer of ice appeared on the camera lens.

I squinted my eyes, rewinding it and playing it again. The Ice Ball had definitely caused it, but it didn't make sense to me. The move had never made anything more than frost appear before, and Artis definitely hadn't used any other ice type moves in that battle. It took rewinding the fight another thirty seconds before I actually understood what had happened.

It was Brine, I realized. Artis dropped one before Rhydon took him out and it left the floor soaking wet. I hadn't noticed because I'd been so focused on the fight, but there was like an inch of standing water on the floor. The moment he rolled over it with Ice Ball, bam, frozen floor.

It was a pretty obvious realization to make, but I felt like a genius in the wake of my own self-doubt. Water created by Artis's attacks didn't just dissipate. If I could use that for something, like freezing it over with an ice type move, I could potentially make an environment that would work in my favor.

I could see it now. If I'd opened up the battle with Artis soaking the floor and freezing it with, hypothetically, a Powder Snow or something similar, Rhydon would've had a hell of a time actually getting to us. Hana would've been free and clear to attack from a range and Amy could've used Pennywise to help with the Parasect. It might take a little practice, but I also knew that Artis was made to move on ice. We would've locked down Rhydon and increased our own mobility and defense.

I put the camera away, new ideas and plans running through my mind. It was a good start. At the very least, it made me feel better that I was turning this near-loss into a learning opportunity. I shifted uncomfortably against the cavern wall. I was pretty warm from the heater but the stone floors hadn't gotten any softer over our journey. I had the instinct to release Artis, to tell him about our new strategies and snuggle into his blubber, but I knew that he needed as much rest as possible after today.

Instead, my eyes found their way to the end of the cave. Even outside of the sitting conditions, I was having trouble getting comfortable but I couldn't put my finger on why. There was just something different about tonight that I couldn't place.

Tiny hairs stood up on the back of my neck. I felt uneasy.

Gravel shifted behind me and I jumped into a standing position, hand grasped around Artis' ball.

"Easy," sounded Lester's deep voice. The goth trainer stepped into the light from his tent holding his hands up. "It's me."

I let out a breath, my heart beating marginally slower. "Damn, man. You scared the shit out of me."

"Sorry."

There was an awkward moment where we both just stood there. I lamely placed Artis's ball back onto my belt and sat back down on my bag, holding my hands over Yuji's stove to keep them warm. Lester pulled a sleeping bag behind him, wrapping it over his shoulders like a cape. He sat down on the ground, sliding the end of it under him like a picnic blanket.

The two of us sat in silence for a little while.

Eventually, my eyes drifted over to my new traveling companion. Lester was dressed in a set of black pajama bottoms and a Metagrossica t-shirt. The old band tee was faded and had strategic tears in it, ones that had been repaired by tying strips of the shirt into knots. He was quietly staring off into the mid-distance and rubbing his hands together to keep warm.

I grinned at the band merch, given that I was a fan myself. I still didn't know a whole lot about Lester or Ambrose. Granted, I had met them yesterday, but their vibe was just hard to nail down. They were two trainers with incredibly niche specializations that mirrored each other perfectly. They both had access to members of an outrageously rare and expensive Pokemon evolutionary line, which already made them stand out so much.

And then there was what Ambrose had said yesterday night. 'If your ghost hadn't shown up when she did, Lester was about ready to go in on his own.'

Hana had said as much as well. The impulse told me a lot about his character, but I was still having trouble pairing that with the person I'd had only a handful of interactions with so far. He'd been territorial about Ambrose, but that was totally appropriate given that I'd been... ...distracted by his boyfriend. Other than his specialization, his boyfriend, and the off-comment Ambrose had made about him wanting to find a Pokemon in Mt. Moon, I didn't know anything about this guy.

I wanted to ask so many questions, but I was nervous about how withdrawn Lester had presented himself as so far. I didn't want to be overbearing with somebody who was kind of stuck with me until we got back to civilization.

"Congratulations."

Twice in ten minutes, Lester had startled me. "Uh, sorry?"

The goth didn't pull himself from his thousand-yard stare. "Your Pokemon evolved. Congratulations."

"Oh. Thank you."

We went silent again.

I cleared my throat, internally screaming. He talked first, that was the perfect opprotunity to ask him more questions. Just say anything!

"Um," I was off to a stellar start. "What about you? How long has Espi been evolved?"

"Long time," said Lester, gravelly voice actually warm for once. "We've had Umber and Espi since we were kids, so they evolved a few years in. All it took was lots of love and some luck."

"That's awesome," I said, and I meant it. "I've actually been looking into friendship evolutions a lot lately, and I know that they take a lot of work. To succeed with one before you even started your season is really impressive."

Lester's eyes flicked to me, pulling out of their stare. His black-stained lips curled in a little grin. "Thanks." He subtly tilted his head from side to side for a moment, debating his words before he spoke again. "The secret was hair brushing. Espi didn't start really warming up to me until I got a grooming kit. It had a brush and conditioner and stuff in it."

"Huh," I thought about it, eyes flicking to the cave mouth before turning back to Lester. "Wisp would probably love that. She already swoons over desserts, so that would be the cherry on top."

"Yeah, probably. I haven't met a Pokemon yet that didn't. What kinds of desserts do you feed her?"

I smiled. "Anything sugary and sweet. She especially loves cake, but she'll take it in donut or pie form. When I took her to the bakery a few weeks ago, so picked out her a whole tiramisu." A little breeze caused me to rub my hands over my arms. Since she still couldn't go incorporeal, Wisp was resting in her ball right now. It felt lonely, not having her little quips pop out of my shadow.

"Espi hates when things are too sweet," Lester chuckled. The sound was like a bass drop in his throat. "She prefers light desserts like matcha."

"Then she and Wisp should be friends. They're not going to compete over each other's treats." I joined Lester in chuckling.

I glanced out into the darkness again.

Lester frowned. "Did you hear something?"

"Huh?" I looked back at him in confusion.

"You keep looking out into the tunnel. I was asking if you heard something. Or does today just have you on edge?"

The fact that he pointed it out meant that I hadn't been imagining it. Something about today had me on high alert, and it wasn't just the traumatic day. I hadn't even been close to this bad yesterday. There was really still no reason for it, either. No dangerous Pokemon or loud noises had come through-

"What time is it?" My gaze snapped to the front of the cave and realization came to me.

Lester lost his smile, fumbling with his phone. "Almost nine, why?"

"It's after moonrise, that's what's wrong." I stood up from my bag, pulling it over my shoulder. I took a few steps toward the cave entrance, listening intently. "I haven't heard the Clefairy at all today. Have you?"

Lester stood, wrapping his blanket tightly around him and looking as troubled as I felt. "No, I haven't. Was I supposed to?"

"On every piece of research I've done about Mt. Moon, you're always supposed to hear the Clefairy after moonrise. They only do their big dance on the nights of a full moon, but they always sing otherwise. If it's almost nine, the moon rose an hour ago."

"And we still haven't heard them." Lester arched his neck, trying to listen for them. "And there's no chance we're just in a really remote part of the mountain?"

I shook my head. "Clefairy is the reason I wanted to go down to the lower floors. The plan was always to help Amy, but they're one of my favorite Pokemon, so I chose locations where we could find both them and a psychic type. We might be deeper than we wanted, but we should definitely still be able to hear the Clefairy."

We both listened for another minute, searching for evidence of the tiny fairy types. It was incredibly frustrating, because I knew there had to be something wrong, but there was no way I was headed back cave right now. My friends weren't awake and my Pokemon were some of the few that could still battle. Lester gave me a sympathetic look and turned to return to the tent, but he stiffened.

"Did you hear that?" He spoke in a hushed tone, eyes sliding back to the cavern entrance. I hadn't, but another moment of listening made the sound apparent.

Kruuuuuuuuuk...

The sound was low and slow, definitely made from rock scraping rock. It sounded distant, but not very. After a few more seconds, it happened again. It didn't sound like it was getting closer or farther away, just staying in place. It was quiet enough that if we hadn't been listening as hard as we had, we wouldn't have noticed it.

Lester gave me a look as the noise continued. It was something between worry and curiosity. I couldn't deny that my expression was probably the same. We both realized the problem with that at the same time, speaking in hushed tones.

"We can't-"

"We shouldn't-"

We paused, a silent conversation passing between us, ensuring that we were on the same page. There was absolutely zero guarantee that the strange noise and the lack of Clefariy were related. Today was not the day to take stupid risks, and investigating a noise in the darkness of the lower floors definitely qualified as a stupid risk. On the other hand, if we woke someone to keep watch, and both of us went... ...it was still a dumb decision.

"But," I mumbled, looking back at the cave. Worry bubbled in my chest when I still didn't hear the song of the Clefairy. I turned back to Lester, who had stepped away from the mouth of the cave. He was pulling on his jacket.

"We're not waking up Ambrose," Lester whispered. "He'll say no and then go instead."

"Same for Hana and Amy," I said. "Though just on the saying 'no' part."

Immediately, my brain flagged that I was doing something that I was probably going to regret later. Hana had made it clear at the Pokemon Center that she'd prefer if I came to her any time I needed help with anything. The problem was I knew that we were making a mistake by going out. I was choosing to do the dangerous thing, which she would definitely be against. As much as I wanted to go to her, I knew she would stop me if she heard our plan.

"So, we're in agreement?" Lester asked.

I nodded, a twinge of guilt already forming in my chest.

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

Yuji took kindly to neither being awoken nor being told our hair-brained plan. He leaned groggily against the cavern wall, a cup of coffee I'd decided to make for him in one hand and Despereaux's Pokeball in the other.

"I'm not going to say no," he said carefully. "But I must say, my friend, that you shouldn't-"

I sighed, "I know, Yuji. I don't even want to go. It's more like-"

"A need," Lester completed my sentence. "It's a long shot, but if that noise means a Pokemon is in trouble, then we have to go."

That instinct that Ambrose and Hana had told me about was showing itself in Lester. The moment I'd drawn a line of logic that the noise we'd heard could even be slightly linked to the Clefairy, he'd been on board with checking it out. The guy couldn't let it lie. It gave me instant respect for him, even if I still didn't know all that much about him.

Yuji looked at both of us carefully. He glanced back at the tents. "Lester, I know we've just met," he sighed, "so my words cannot sway you, but I hope that you have thought through what your companion would say. And Derek, you know what Hana would say."

"Yeah," I glanced at the ground, not meeting his eyes. There was the unspoken implication of why we'd woke up who we did, and Yuji knew that. He sipped his coffee like a disappointed father.

Lester shook his head. "But you are going to keep watch, right?"

Yuji stared at him for a long moment, thoughts flickering past his eyes. Instead, he turned to me, placing his hand on my shoulder. "I will keep watch, though I ask that you send Wisp if anything at all goes awry. I only do this because you allowed me to do the same in the Viridian Forest."

I'd forgotten about that. When we'd first met Achilles, the smart thing would've been to run, but Yuji had made it clear he really wanted to catch a Heracross. It had taken me deciding to rally everyone to help him to actually complete the catch. It had probably been dumb and dangerous, but it had ended in the catch of Yuji's ace.

I shook my head. "Don't worry about that, man. This isn't transactional."

Yuji looked taken aback, but a tired smile did finally come up on his face. "Regardless," he nodded. "I will do this for you."

"Thanks, bud." Warmth bloomed in my chest. Yuji understood that I needed to do this.

Lester and I had already put on our backpacks and jackets and had only been waiting for Yuji to agree before we left. I did turn my camera back on and attached it to my shoulder, given how invaluable it had been earlier. Lester released Espi and I did the same with Wisp, both electing to let our respective Pokemon ride on our shoulders, and we stepped through the narrow cave opening. We kept our lights on a low setting, relying on Espeon's psychic senses and Wisp's ability to see in the dark to warn us of oncoming danger.

The grinding noise took us in the direction that we'd been traveling toward earlier, and every once in a while, I would spot the Rhydon tracks that we'd been following. They were almost comforting, as crazy as it sounded. I don't know if it was because our friends would eventually come this way if anything bad happened, or if I was getting some sort of false confidence from having beaten Rhydon, but it was a little easier to walk in the darkness knowing that they were there.

It only took about twenty minutes of walking before we got close to the noise. The sound got louder as we turned a corner, clear enough to tell that the source of it was a straight shot down the tunnel. It was still too far away to be seen by our light, but both Wisp and Espi made low noises to tell us that they could see something. Lester shot me a look and we slowed our steps.

Krrruuuuuuuuuk... kruuuuuuuuuuuk...

It was definitely the sound of rock on rock. Now that we were closer, I could also hear the sounds of tiny gusts of wind farther down the tunnel. I frowned. That wasn't what I'd been expecting. The tunnel we were in wasn't particularly windy, so I wasn't sure where that was coming from.

I nudged Lester. "You hear that?"

He listened intently. Instead of immediately answering me, he looked to Espi. A slight phantom glow emanated from the Espeon's red gem and Lester reacted with understanding. Having a Pokemon that could actually talk to you was proving to be ridiculously useful.

Lester nodded to his Pokemon when the glow disappeared. "Epsi says the Pokemon is floating, but not like the Bronzor were. It's small, too, maybe as half as tall as Wisp. She says it's up ahead, using a move to rub a rock along the cave wall."

My frown deepened. I had done a lot of research on Mt. Moon, especially on the rare and weird Pokemon that could be found here, and that didn't sound like anything I'd even remotely heard of. Bronzor and Chingling could both levitate and were the right size, but Espi had specifically said that it wasn't the same. The only other Pokemon here that could fly were from the Zubat line, and we would definitely have figured out if it was one of those already. I had no idea what this could be.

I turned to Wisp. She had tucked herself inside my jacket's hood and was leaning over my shoulder, yellow eyes looking forward intently. She was watching the Pokemon through the darkness.

"Hey," I rubbed her head. "Wanna try something?"

Wisp tilted her head, a tiny grin appearing on her face. "Dreavus!"

Two minutes later, Wisp floated down the cavern with my camera in tow. It faintly glowed with blue light as she held it aloft with her Confusion. Like a lot of cameras, my camcorder had a really basic 'night mode' on it that I hoped would at least vaguely show us what Pokemon we were dealing with. I was also hoping that Wisp's natural sneakiness, even without her incorporeal form, would keep her from drawing too much attention to herself.

"You're sure this is a good idea?" Lester asked doubtfully. "We could always just go ourselves."

I watched Wisp and my camera disappear into the darkness. I shook my head. "Not at all."

"..."

"But," I defended myself against Lester's very loud silence. "I don't want to go into anything half-cocked, especially not with how today went. I trust Wisp to at least try and be sneaky enough to get some information for us."

"Drea, drea, vus!" Wisp's cheerful chirps echoed down the hallway. The scraping noise paused, followed by a muffled noise that was unmistakably coming from another Pokemon.

The red gem on Espi's head glowed again, and Lester sighed. "Espi says that Wisp is talking to it."

"Legends damn it," I facepalmed. "There goes a perfectly good plan."

Lester shrugged, stepping past me. "It was like a six out of ten at best."

"Yeah, probably."

The two of us took careful steps down the tunnel, slowly raising the levels on our lanterns. With the increase in light, I could barely see Wisp and the floating form that was past her. The Pokemon was incredibly hard to see. Its rocky exterior was an almost perfect match for the cavern wall behind it. It was about a third of a meter tall and completely spherical if you discounted the five tiny white nubs that protruded from its light brown shell. Darker triangular marks ran across its body and around two black eye-like spots on its shell, giving it something of a drawn-on face. The Pokemon floated back and forth in an agitated pattern, spinning and rotating which of its nubs were highest in the air. Tiny near-invisible cyclones of air held the Pokemon aloft, explaining the noise I'd heard earlier. Its shape reminded me of something, but I couldn't think of what it was.

A rock about as large as my fist floated near the Pokemon, held aloft by the dark brown energy of a rock type move. It was smooth on one side, obviously having been ground down against the cave wall. Actually, looking at it now, the section of wall the Pokemon had been attacking looked like it was another connecting tunnel that had been blocked off by a large boulder.

"Drea, mismis!" Wisp said to the creature. Her attitude was very much friendly toward this Pokemon and tinged with worry. She drifted the camera back into my hands but didn't otherwise acknowledge our presence. "Misdreavus, vus."

The Pokemon's little rock body shuttered, and when it spoke its voice sounded like a high-pitched radio signal muffled behind layers of rock. "Inio! Nior, min?"

My eyes flicked to Lester. He was already waiting on a translation from Espi. "This Pokemon's friends are apparently trapped behind the wall," Lester explained quietly. "It's asking if Wisp can help them move the boulder so they can get through."

Wisp heartily shook her head. She turned her head to look back at me, eyes wide and pleading. Apparently, she'd already made friends with the mystery Pokemon.

"Ugh, are we sure you don't know Baby-Doll Eyes?" I muttered, turning my attention to the new Pokemon. It twirled in the air, using one of its little nubs as a pivot point on the winds. It turned its darker eyespots in my direction, giving me the impression it was looking at me. "Your friends, they won't be dangerous for us, right?"

"Minior!" The tiny Pokemon shook its body the same way someone would say no.

Getting visual permission from Lester in the form of a nod, I did the same to the rocky little guy. "Alright, we'll help you out."

Wisp chirped a happy little chirp, doing a small flip in the air. The two of them moved out of the way so that Lester and I could look over the boulder. Even without the gash that the Pokemon had been slowly wearing into it, it stood out against the rest of the gray-brown cavern wall, very much of a different composition to everything else. It had wide bands of silver sedimentary dust across its middle, obviously laced with a different mineral than the rest of the stone. I actually recognized it, mostly because I'd been debating buying the pure version just over a week ago at the PokeMart in Pewter.

"That's moonstone," I breathed, taking a step closer to the boulder.

"Oh, shit," Lester joined me, going as far as to run his fingers across the silvery bands. "Like, the rock that evolves Clefairy?"

"Yeah, though it's not refined enough here. Too much of it has mixed with the rest of the rock to be potent enough for an evolution stone. But," I paused, looking back at the floating Pokemon. Even though it didn't have a face, it was still very obviously stressed. "I think that this is related to the Clefairy. Can Espi ask it?"

Lester nodded, tilting his head to his Pokemon. The two Pokemon exchanged quick words and after a brief mental conversation, Lester's face grew worried. "We were right, this is one of the Clefairy's caverns," Lester spoke. "And this Pokemon is one of their friends. It's worried about them because it heard noises yesterday night, but it hasn't been able to get in. Obviously, this isn't normally here."

My gut had been right. The news didn't make me feel any better, it just confirmed that the Clefairy were possibly in danger or worse. My sense of urgency ratcheted up a few notches.

"It's too big for Wisp to move on her own," I said, glancing it up and down. "Probably two or three tons, if I had to guess. She's close, but that's still too much."

Wisp pouted, not denying the comment. Her progress with Confusion had been amazing after we'd started training her with boulders, but she could only get so strong so quickly. Right now she was able to lift just over a ton, as long as it was all in one piece.

"Neither can Espi," Lester said regretfully. "She knows Confusion, but she's focused more on the telepathic side of things than anything else. She could maybe do a third on her own."

"Well, it looks like we're doing this old-fashioned way. All four of us together should be enough." I rolled up my sleeves, placing my hands against the cold stone. I looked Lester up and down. "Damn, I didn't grab the buff boyfriend."

Lester didn't even look offended. "Nope," he said, lifting his scrawny arms. Regardless of his lack of conditioning, Lester braced his shoulder against the boulder.

I looked to our Pokemon, both of whom adopted stances for their moves, and counted us down. "Alright, guys. Three, two, one!"

I dug the balls of my feet into the earth, hefting my weight into the stone. The coarse rock bit into my palms and was harshly cold against my chest. Lester grunted as his feet scrambled against the ground. He finally found solid footing and pushed harder. The surface of it, centimeters from my face, glowed blue and pink as both of our Pokemon used their psychic powers to push as hard as they could.

The weight of the boulder resisted our combined efforts. The cavern echoed with our grunts and strained noises, and little white spots started to appear at the edge of my vision. I was just about to call it off when the little rock Pokemon thudded into the boulder, throwing its weight in with us. All five of us redoubled our efforts.

The boulder shifted. It was only the tiniest amount, but the laws of physics said that was enough. As soon as it gave us the smallest purchase, it started to build momentum. bits of dust and gravel rained down from the roof of the cavern, slowly being scraped away as we shifted the earth itself. I closed my eyes, exhaling the last of my breath in a final heave.

I was blinded by the light that poured into the tunnel as the boulder shifted away. Silver-blue light reflected from within, stopping both Lester and I cold in our tracks. When my vision cleared, I couldn't help but stare forward, transfixed by the room in front of us.

The cavern was huge. It was like the inside of a massive pot, flat on the bottom with rounded cylindrical walls that rose at least two dozen meters into the air. The ceiling was a towering natural dome with a central vertical tunnel shaft at its highest point. Silver moonlight flooded through the skylight, bouncing off of the blue-grey walls of this chamber and reflecting in every direction. The stone of the cavern itself was wrapped in bands of moonstone dust, the same as the boulder had been, and it made for a magical sight. It was like a natural cathedral the size of a battle pitch.

"Fuck..." Lester breathed, still gasping for air. He pointed at the ground.

As beautiful as the room was, its floor was trashed. Dozens of small stone nests littered the ground, broken apart by a skirmish. Claw marks marred the ground, ripping through where the stone was still smooth. Burn marks and acid pits dotted the center of the room. There were two boulders identical to the one we had just moved at other points at on the wall. I assumed there were more connecting tunnels behind those. All across the rest of the lower parts of the walls, there were huge recesses in the stone, like something big had pulled the rock out. Some big-scale battling had happened here.

The rocky Pokemon zoomed past us, floating toward the center of the room. It anxiously looked around, desperately searching for any signs of its friends. When it didn't immediately find anything, it whined softly.

Wisp gave me a hopeless look. Her expression told me that she wanted me to fix this. I shook my head, placing a hand on her head. I wasn't sure what to do next. I looked around the room again to try and find any answers. My face had already fallen, but suspicion started to eat away at my frown, turning it to anger. I stepped closer to one of the alcoves that had been dug deep into the cavern wall.

"Hey," I said to Lester, my voice tight. "You see this?"

It took him a second to focus on me. When he did, though, his eyes went wide. "There's no way a Pokemon did that."

"Nope." I ran my finger along the edge of the recess. It was an almost sharp ninety-degree angle. "That's machine cut. People did this."

I don't know how the hell they made it down here, but someone had taken the time to cut twenty or thirty square holes into this cavern. Each one was about as tall as my waist and maybe half as deep. Looking around, it was easy to tell they weren't quite in a regular pattern, so they must have been picked out for a specific reason. It didn't take a genius to figure out what had happened. Lester and I put it together at the same time.

"So somebody came down here to mine the moonstone?" Lester said.

It was on the right track, but it didn't feel right. I shook my head, tilting it from side to side. "Maybe, but I don't think so. They mined something, but it's like I said, you'd need to refine what's in the walls a lot to get any meaningful amount. There are easier ways to illegally get moonstones." Lester gave me an odd look, making me feel self-conscious. "Uh, my dad is an Ace trainer," I admitted. "He talks about work sometimes."

"Huh," he didn't ask for further elaboration. "So what would they have been mining?"

I had a sneaking suspicion, but I wasn't sure. I shook my head, looking around the room again. Now that I knew that people were involved, I looked at the room in a whole new way. They hadn't come in through the tunnels like we had. Based on the concentration of the damage and the faint scrape marks left by the cutout stones that led to the center of the room, they must have come in through the ceiling. The vertical tunnel had definitely already been there, making it an easy way in and out if you had a flying Pokemon or some rope. The damage types on the ground were so varied that at least half a dozen different Pokemon must have been battling. The three tunnels leading out of the cavern all had large boulders blocking them off, something that had obviously been done on purpose.

"Fuck..." I couldn't find a better way to describe it, Lester had nailed it earlier. "I think we split up for now. Help the Pokemon see if we can find any clues about where the Clefairy went. Hopefully, they didn't all get captured."

Lester looked like he was going to comment but chose to keep it to himself. He and Espi wandered away, sifting through the rubble as they walked.

I pulled out Artis's ball and released him. I quickly filled him in on everything that had happened. Wisp interjected every once in a while, and the two of them took on a look of fierce determination and mild rage.

"Spread out," I said to my Pokemon. "Keep an eye out for where they could have gone."

We all scattered to separate corners of the cavern. I started with the closest nests, using my light to make sure that they really were empty. Almost immediately, I found further evidence that the Clefairy had been attacked. A few of the nests were entirely torn apart, bits of shrub and stone scattered in all directions. In the center of one of them, a shiny glimmer caught my eye. I bent down to pick it up. It was hard, purple, and shaped like a half-moon.

"A scale," I murmured under my breath, grimacing as I recognized the Pokemon it was probably from. "Friggin' Arbok."

I pocketed the scale, shivering as I thought back to the attack on the Pewter City Museum. I didn't want it to be the case, because there was no way I was that unlucky, but a line of logic started to play through my brain. I had helped stop Team Rocket from stealing fossils from the museum. We had already seen evidence of fossils down here in the tunnels. There were giant pits in the walls of the cave where something had been mined. We were in a restricted area, where very few people would be patrolling or taking notice of illicit activities. Whoever had attacked had used a lot of Pokemon, one of which was an Arbok.

I shook my head at the last one. The Rockets don't have a monopoly on one kind of Pokemon. Anybody could have an Arbok.

The thought didn't comfort me, nor did it make me think the rest of my logic was wrong.

I sighed, looking up from the search. The tiny rock Pokemon was still floating around, searching for his friends. I pulled out my Pokedex, finally realizing that I might have a way to identify this mystery Pokemon. Lining up the camera, I activated the 'scan' function.

"Pokemon not recognized. Please download additional region drivers," my Pokedex said in a robotic voice.

I frowned at it. Whatever this little guy was, it was not normally found in Kanto-Johto. If it'd ever been recorded before, it certainly hadn't been documented by Professor Oak. I turned my camcorder on it, getting a little bit more footage of the mystery Pokemon.

Ding! Ding! Ding!

I looked around at the sudden noise. It took a second to realize that it was coming from my pocket. Lester looked over at me, putting it together before I did.

"Holy shit," I said out loud. "I have a signal."

I pulled out my Pokenav+, silencing it before my notification sound could go off again. While searching, I had wandered directly underneath the vertical tunnel in the ceiling and could see the sky above me. It was only two bars, but the skylight was giving me enough signal to connect to the internet.

I looked at Lester, but he impatiently motioned for me to continue. I fumbled with the Pokenav+, immediately bringing up its map function. A loading bar popped up as it started searching for location data.

"Come on, come on..." I muttered, holding it up to the skylight. "I just need a location..."

The bar filled frustratingly slowly, but after almost a minute, it dinged again. An updated map of Mt. Moon appeared, complete with a little dot that showed my location. It was only a top-down view of the route, but it was enough.

"Holy shit," I said again. "Holy shit! Lester!"

The goth sprinted back to me, quickly looking over my shoulder. It felt wrong to grin down here, and neither of us did, but it was impossible to quash the hope that sputtered to life in our chests. Lester and I looked up at the skylight.

"If we can get up there..." he said.

"...It's a straight shot down the mountain to Route Four," I finished.

We were ridiculously close to Route Four, the route that connected the east side of Mt. Moon to Cerulean City. The location of the skylight, regardless of the challenges of actually climbing it, was in a less-than-ideal spot relative to the route. We were farther north than the normal exit to Mt. Moon, so we'd have to hike down a few miles of steep hills and cliffs, but it was far more attainable than continuing to wander around the lower floors.

Lester let out a breath, sitting down on the stone floor. He sat with his head in his hands. My first thought was that he was overwhelmed, but I quickly dismissed that as he looked back up at me. His expression was deep in thought.

"We have a way out. At least, assuming we can get up there. Which means," he glanced over at the mystery Pokemon. "That once we help them out we can finally try and get out of here."

I nodded, following his gaze. The little guy was still floating around the room. Our Pokemon had almost finished sweeping the room, and it was stooping lower and lower in the air. The lack of results was weighing down on the Pokemon.

"And I have a signal now," I reminded Lester. "So, once we find the Clefariy, I can send out a call for help from the Rangers. We can report all of this and they'll help us get back to the Route."

Just like back at the camp, we were both in agreement. We weren't pulling the ripcord out of here until we'd figured out exactly what had happened to the Clefairy. The little rock Pokemon had asked us for help and we'd said yes. I helped Lester to his feet and we rejoined our Pokemon.

The atmosphere had worsened for them over our conversation, and it wasn't hard to see why.

Almost all of our Pokemon had come back empty-handed. Artis and Espi gave woeful looks to the tiny rock Pokemon, both having found no evidence of any remaining Clefairy. Wisp crooned mournfully. She grasped an object with her Confusion behind her, having pulled it from one of the nests. It was an oval shape that was about half of her height. My heart dropped when I realized what it was.

"Oh no," Lester whispered.

I waved her over to me, gently taking the object into my grip. My eyes watered as I felt its icy smooth surface under my hands. Eggs were never supposed to be cold.

I looked down at Espeon, holding it out to her. "Is it...?"

The psychic type stepped forward, red gem gleaming. All five of us held our collective breaths as Espi inspected the egg, feeling for any mental presence still there. It only took a moment before she stepped back, eyes wide.

"Esp!" Espi quickly shook her head. "Esp, esp!"

I almost cried from relief. Before the conversation could continue, I slipped the egg under my jacket and against my skin. Espi had confirmed that it wasn't dead, but it could not be healthy for it to have been abandoned for any amount of time.

I turned to Lester. "You don't have an incubator, do you?"

He shook his head. "I didn't think I'd need one."

"Me neither," I said regretfully. Pokemon eggs were rarely seen unattended in the wild, and there was almost no chance that a wild Pokemon would give away their young. Most trainers would never need an egg incubator unless they specifically bought or bred an egg out of a breeding house.

The mystery Pokemon didn't look comforted by the discovery of the egg. If anything, it looked even more down. Behind its rocky shell, the Pokemon let out a muffled whining sound. It rocked in the air and it became clear that the Pokemon was crying.

"Min, min, minior," its mournful cries echoed in the cavern. The rest of us looked uncomfortably at each other, the sadness of this Pokemon making us feel worse.

Lester turned, stomping with enough force to cause echoes in the cavern. I jumped at his first few steps, but all of us turned to watch him. Even Minior (I had heard enough of its cries to assume that was its name) stopped its cries to look at Lester. The goth stomped past dozens of broken nests, right up to one of the boulders that blocked off another tunnel. He placed his shoulder against it the same way he had earlier, grunting as he tried to shove it all on his own.

"What are you doing?" I said. "You can't move that by yourself."

Lester didn’t stop. “I refuse to believe,” he strained, inhaling after every word. “That whoever did this got all of them. There have to be more, we just need to get to them.”

I slowly walked to Lester. I didn’t know how to deal with this. He was obviously mourning what had happened here in his own way, but I didn’t want him to hurt himself. I gripped the egg with one hand, placing the other on his shoulder. He continued to struggle but was careful not to bump me.

“Hey, man,” I said. “Give it a minute. Let us help you.”

Lester’s nostrils flared as he inhaled, and he gave another solid press against the boulder. Predictably, it didn’t move. He finally collapsed next to it, letting himself slide to the ground. He cradled his head in his hands again and this time I could tell that he was overwhelmed.

I left my hand on his shoulder, doing my best to give him support. I’d had ample practice over the last few months.

“Do you think, maybe,” I said carefully, “that Minior might have to search a bit on its own? We can help it get through this tunnel, obviously, but we might not be able to help as much as we want to.”

It killed me to say that. Hana had nailed it the other night, I needed to help people wherever I could, and pulling away from this was completely counter to my nature. If I had it my way, I would go back to the camp to wake everyone up and have them help us track down every Clefairy left in Mt. Moon in the hopes that we could reunite Minior with its friends. There were just three things that kept me from that path of action.

One, I now had something far more vulnerable and precious in my care. ‘The Clefairy’ was a nebulous concept of Pokemon that might still be in danger, but the egg was a real and tangible life that needed help. Neither of my Pokemon were suited to hold onto it and care for it like it needed, and Minior definitely couldn’t keep it warm. It was up to me to take care of this egg. Even if its parents miraculously reappeared, it needed to be seen by a real medical professional.

Two, Lester’s breakdown had been a reality check on just how powerless we were down here. We needed basically all of our Pokemon to move a single boulder out of the way. What were we going to do when we cracked open a tunnel and another Rhydon was sitting there? We didn’t have the man or Pokemon power to carry out an extensive search.

Three, we had other people relying on us. Our friends were mostly safe in the campaign cavern we’d set up, but once we started moving we made up about half of the battle-ready Pokemon in the group. We were the only two who knew that there was a phone signal in this cave. If we didn’t make it back, our friends would almost definitely never discover this cave, and they might never make it out of the tunnels.

To his credit, Lester let my words really sink in. He sighed, leaning forward on his knees.

“You’re right. I’m just-” Lester sat up, stiffening. His next words were deathly quiet, spoken in a whisper. “The Clefairy got out.”

“I agree,” I said. “I doubt that all of them were captured-”

“No, Derek,” he interrupted me, pointing at the ground. “Look! They got out. Look at the footprints!”

I narrowed my eyes, searching for what he was talking about. On the floor in front of us were dozens of tiny footprints left in the dust, just the right size for Clefairy and Clefable. They moved in a straight line, all overlapping to show that they had been walking in the same direction and that many of them had been moving at the same time. The tracks ended at the boulder, some of them half-covered by the chunk of rock.

Half-covered, I thought.

“Holy shit, you’re right!”

If the footprint was covered by the boulder, that meant that it had been there before the boulder had fallen. Whoever had raided this cave had buried the tunnels after the Clefairy had already left, probably to keep the rest of the scary Pokemon down here out of the cave.

Lester started laughing, tears rolling down his face. His eye shadow was running. “They did it! They really got away!”

I joined him, letting my own tears really fall. I’d cried four or five times today, but I didn’t mind adding another one. Today had been one of the longest days I’d ever experienced, and the egg scare had really shaken me. Knowing the Clefairy of Mt. Moon had safely evacuated into the tunnels left me feeling numb and overwhelmed.

I turned back to the Pokemon, all of whom had gathered near us. Espi had already run up to Lester, pressing her face against his and licking away his tears. Artis and Wisp were waiting anxiously for me to explain what we had found, and Minior was just floating nearby, obviously confused.

“Minior,” I said between heavy breaths. “Your friends are okay! They got out through this tunnel!”

The rock Pokemon came to a stop. It floated in the air without twirling or shifting, something that we hadn’t seen it do yet. It slowly began to vibrate, its entire shell buzzing with energy.

“Minior! Min min min!” Its cheers were barely muffled behind its heavy shell. Wisp whooped in response, joining Minior in twirling around the air. Artis clapped his heavy flippers in excitement.

We all took another few moments to celebrate before dusting off and getting to work. With Artis helping us, we managed to shift the boulder with far less effort this time. The tunnel behind it was just as dark as our own had been, but this one had dozens of Clefairy tracks running down it.

Minior almost zoomed off without another word, but it turned at the last minute. It floated up to myself, then Wisp, then Espi, then Artis, and finally Lester. It tilted its body in front of each of us, giving the closest thing to a bow of thanks that it could manage. When it was in front of Lester, and only Lester, it quietly murmured its own name.

Espi’s gem glowing let me know that she'd translated Minior’s words for him. Lester nodded to the Pokemon, his eyes wet again. He sniffled, brushing his hair over his eyes.

“Min min!” Minior gave us one last grateful goodbye. It twirled in the air and shot off into the darkness. As it flew away, I finally put together what Minior had reminded me of. It looked like a shooting star, taking off into the night.

I turned to Lester, feeling weary in my bones. “You ready to go back?”

He nodded, eyes still hidden behind his dark hair. “Yeah.” His already deep voice was stuffy and heavy.

The two of us limped back to camp with our Pokemon. I’d never seen Wisp in a better mood, and she wouldn’t stop snuggling against the side of my neck. Espi’s red gem didn’t stop glowing the entire way back.

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

When we got back, Yuji wasn't the only one awake. Sitting around the heater were three of our friends.

"Derek Tracy," Hana fumed, speaking dangerously low. Her hair was loosely put up in a ponyta-tail and she was still dressed in her pajamas. "What in the hell were you thinking?"

I wanted to find the energy to feel guilty, but I was just so drained that I couldn't give her more than a shameful expression. Hana's frustration did not lessen.

"Yeah, Lester," said Ambrose, looking genuinely bothered. "What the hell?"

Lester and I shared a drowsy look. "Do you want to-" I started to ask him.

"Go ahead," Lester shook his head, stepping next to Ambrose. Without another word, Ambrose pulled his boyfriend into a hug. Lester buried his face into his boyfriend's shoulder, holding him tight. Ambrose's arms found their way around Lester's shoulders and the two of them gently swayed with each other. I could see the frustration melting from Ambrose's face.

It felt actually unfair with how easily he got off, considering Hana was still sending me looks. Her expression flicked with anger and betrayal, but disappointment was far and away her primary emotion. Hana stepped toward me, her lime-green eyes were furious and waiting for my response.

"Long story short," I mumbled, both completely spent and self-conscious under Hana's intense stare. "We found out there were Pokemon in danger, so we stepped out to check on them. While we were helping, we found a way out."

That stopped Hana in her tracks. She, Yuji, and Ambrose all went deathly still, staring at the two of us like we'd just announced that we were aliens. If I'd had a pen to drop, it would've been the only noise in the cave.

Amy yawned from the corner. I hadn't even them sitting there. "Good enough for me," they said, pulling their sleeping bag around them. "I vote Derek gets a pass on this one."

Hana looked at Yuji. The two of them had a silent conversation that I couldn't read, only getting a few brief beats out of it. Hana had definitely been rehearsing what she'd tell me when I got back, and I'd taken the winds out of her sails pretty thoroughly. I was too tired for my filter to kick in, so I took it one step further.

I pulled the egg out from under my shirt. It had gotten warm to the touch on the way back, and I felt a lot better about its condition. All four of our companion's jaws dropped, even Amy's. Lester didn't bother looking up from his boyfriend's neck.

"Does anyone have an incubator for this thing?" I asked, holding it carefully with two hands. "It was left alone in a cave, so I'm trying to make sure it stays warm."

Hana silently reached into her bag, pulling out a collapsable glass and metal container. I'd known that if any one of us would have over-prepared, it was going to be her. I reached for it, but she pulled it back from my grip.

"No," Hana asserted, giving me a hard look. "You get this after you tell us exactly what happened. Then, you're going to sleep. After you've gotten eight hours, and not a second less, we will look at escaping this awful place. Am I clear?"

I wanted to pout, but I couldn't argue with her. I'd demand the same if it had been any of the others, after all. Instead, I pulled up a spot at the heater, wrapping my arms around the egg.

I nodded to Hana. "Okay."

The fire burned out of her eyes. Hana looked almost confused that I'd agreed so easily. "Okay?"

"Okay," I said again.

Hana glared at me one more time before letting the expression permanently melt off of her face. It was clear that the few hours of sleep that she'd gotten hadn't been nearly enough. I had no idea how long she'd been awake, but we hadn't even been here an hour before I'd left again. After our conversation at the Center, it was pretty clear that I'd disappointed her by not asking her for help. I hadn't had the time yet to really figure out her feelings past that, but I knew that I'd broken her trust. I'd known it the moment I'd made the decision.

Hana shifted around her bag and sleeping bag, making a spot for her to sit across from me at the heater. Yuji also pulled up a spot, though the other three all elected to return to their tents. Both tent flaps were left undone to listen to the retelling of the night's events.

I shifted in my seat, getting comfortable. "I guess I should start with me and Lester noticing that we hadn't heard the songs of the Clefairy yet..."