CHAPTER 83

My eyes widened, and I tried to respond, but it was like I had a foot in my mouth. My heart danced in my chest, my head was still buzzing, and I still felt the shape of her lips on mine.

Her lips had been on mine.

“I— yes!” I managed to get out.

“Yes? Do you feel the same way?” She asked.

“Yes, yes, a thousand times yes!” I said. My face felt dangerously hot. “I think I’m going to pass out.”

Cece smiled, and I felt her hands trace down toward mine. I stared back at Denzel and Chase, who were acting like they couldn’t see anything. I had completely forgotten they were still there.

“I’m so happy,” she giggled. I laughed in turn, and she placed her forehead against mine. “I’d like to hear you say it.”

“I love you,” I stammered. “Please date me.”

“I thought I was the one asking,” she smiled. “I suppose we’re officially together then.”

“Hmhm,” I said. “We’re… dating. You’re my girlfriend.”

We both giggled again, and euphoria enveloped me completely. It was like we were the only people in the world, and all of our worries about the challenges ahead had disappeared. Unfortunately, the blissful ignorance could only last for the night, and tomorrow came faster than expected. With all of the excitement, I had barely slept, but at least that meant that I could be of help keeping an eye out, and Frillish kept me company. I opened my Poketch and saw that it was seven in the morning. The damn thing was already at thirty percent battery, and I needed to save some if I was going to call or message someone when we got out, but that was still a big if.

Denzel surprisingly woke up first and gave me a thumbs-up while wiggling his eyebrows. I stuck my tongue out in response. Yeah, he had told me that Cece liked me literally minutes before she kissed me, but he didn’t need to rub it in my face! Chase and Cecilia were up soon after.

“Mornin’,” I told everyone. “Hope you slept ok,” I said to Cece.

“Better than I had in a long time,” she said. “You?”

“So and so,” I replied.

We stared at each other for a few seconds, and questions swam in my mind. Would it be appropriate to kiss her good morning? Was that too forward? I wanted to, but I hadn’t even brushed my teeth yet! Okay, I needed to do that, but maybe a light peck would be okay?. I grabbed my toothbrush and lazily started brushing. I was finally settling down again. I needed to think about getting out of here first and foremost, not the etiquette of kissing! That would be best saved for later.

“Enough dilly-dallying,” Chase declared. “Let’s get the fuck out of here.”

——

“That’s right, keep it away!” I told Tangela, who was finally rested up enough to be used in battle. The grass type slammed two vines against the Excadrill’s chest in quick succession, staggering it.

Excadrill spun around and jumped into the ground.

“It’s coming!” Denzel yelled.

“Houndoom, now!” Chase ordered.

The dark type barked, jumping from the shadows and spitting out a vicious Incinerate in the hole Excadrill had left. The ground type screamed and was forced to tunnel up to escape the flames, ending up right in front of Tangela. Multiple Water Pulses and a Bullet Seed hit it, and angel once again hit it with a Vine Whip, but the flames started spreading onto his vine and toward his main body.

“Get it off of you!” I said, feeling a surge of panic. He shivered and detached his vine from his body, and I watched it writhe on the ground like it was a living thing.

Excadrill collapsed, and the fire on it was still burning, which was apparently a new thing, and incredibly dangerous, since the newly evolved Pokemon had no idea how to control it yet. I ordered Frillish to spray the ground type with as much water as he could, and after a lot of attempts and cooperation from Houndoum, the flames finally went out. Not only was the fire incredibly hard to extinguish, but according to the Pokedex, they’d also hurt a Pokemon for months or years after the fact since Houndoom didn’t know how to hold back yet. I felt awful for the Excadrill, but it had attacked us first.

“That’s going to get a Pokemon killed,” I said.

“Motherfucker shouldn’t have attacked us then,” Chase shrugged. “Good job, Houndoom. Sorry about your grass type, Pastel.”

I rolled my eyes at him. We’d been traveling for eight more days, and what I noticed was that Chase’s Pokemon were packing a serious punch. Houndoom was definitely his most powerful now that he had evolved, but Riolu was the one who always helped the most by distracting the bulky rock types. Even though Zangoose wasn’t doing much, her Metal Claw couldn’t be underestimated either, and Charjabug’s String Shot helped a bunch to lock the less large Pokemon down. Ideas swarmed my head, and I was subconsciously crafting different scenarios I’d use to beat him— even though I had refused to call him my rival. I’d need to start up training again when we got out of here, especially if we were ever going to stand up to this Abel guy.

Wait. This whole experience through Mount Coronet was technically training.

I had also developed a fighting strategy to take down the wild Pokemon here with Denzel’s input, and it was working wonders. Since we had no potions left, we’d have Tangela, and Slowpoke, who could restrain a Pokemon at a distance, and Riolu, who could distract them and easily dodge their attacks as our vanguards while we blasted them with everything we had. Our hit rate had gone down drastically now that we had a concrete plan in place, and that meant our progress was faster, especially since the wild Pokemon were getting weaker.

Still, they weren’t actually weak. They were definitely stronger than the ones we had faced in Eterna forest. We were simply more organized and had a working strategy this time, along with just being better trainers.

“I won’t lose any sleep over wild Pokemon dying because of us,” Denzel said. “But I’d like to avoid it. Plus, you’ll have to teach him how to control it if you ever plan on using him on gym battles.”

“Yeah, I don’t remember asking for your input,” Chase spat. “Let’s stop wasting time and keep going. The less time we waste here, the better our odds are of surviving when we get out.”

“Would it kill you to be nice for a change?” I said.

“Yes.”

I frowned at the unexpected answer. I had, unfortunately, overestimated Chase. The truth was, I had really expected him to warm up to us somewhat due to our shared terrible circumstances, and I thought he was, but he had been getting worse these past few days. The cave was getting on his nerves. Sometimes, he’d stay quiet, which was more than I could ever ask for, or apologize when Riolu asked for it. Still, I begrudgingly respected his skill as a trainer, even though I disliked how he treated his Pokemon like he was in the damned military. Even down in the cave, he didn’t forego their intense training, and apparently, it was a softer workout than what they usually did.

“Pay him no mind, Grace,” Cece said. “You can’t reason with the unreasonable.”

“I thought that too, but… I’d like to at least give him a chance,” I whispered to her. “He looks like he’s hurting. Emotionally, I mean.”

“You’re too nice,” she smiled. “That’s why I love you.”

I blushed at the unexpected affection and grabbed her hand. The words felt so good they made me feel light-headed. “I’m just good at noticing the small stuff,” I said. “It’s like he’s anxious. More anxious than a guy like him ought to be.”

“Perhaps. Or perhaps he’s just been hiding his weaknesses behind a wall of fake confidence like I attempted to do early in my journey.”

“Hm, maybe,” I said. “Either way, I probably won’t figure it out.”

We kept going for a few hours, and the attacks grew less and less frequent. The crystals that lit up the cave’s ceiling were now so abundant that it didn’t feel like we were in Mount Coronet any longer.

“Ri,” Riolu said.

“What’s up?” Chase asked as he stopped us. “Feel something?”

I had no idea how Riolu’s aura worked, but it had started working again around two days ago, and it was apparently getting sharper at sensing wild Pokemon, a sign that we were getting closer to the exit. Apparently, Chase had trained hard to get the fighting type to that level after going through Eterna forest, and he couldn’t stop boasting about it. Slowpoke could also do the same with his psychic powers now, but his senses were still somewhat muddled, and his range was nowhere near Riolu’s, even at full power.

“Riolu…” The fighting type mumbled.

“Feels weird?” Chase asked.

Riolu nodded, and we started looking around. We couldn’t find anything out of place though, and nothing attacked us, so we started walking again. A few hours later, we stumbled upon Excadrill… it had died. The swarm of Zubat that was feasting on its soft bits fled when they saw us come, no doubt terrified at the amount of Pokemon we had at our disposal, revealing how fast they had utterly consumed the ground type. I could even see its bones stick out in some places. I lurched and turned away.

“What the actual fuck?” Chase said, stepping forward.

“Not this again,” Denzel groaned.

“Again?!” He quickly said, his head jerking toward us. “What do you mean again?”

“Something similar happened to us in Eterna Forest,” I explained. “A Mismagius trapped us in an illusion that repeated forever. We already told you, remember?”

“Ah… right, I honestly thought you were bullshitting,” he said.

“But this is no illusion,” Cecilia sighed. “This is reality.”

“We’re trapped. I said this days ago, but this happened to me when I was alone down here, except that it was on a much smaller scale. It didn’t take hours for me to end up where I had just been. It took a few minutes at most.”

“Hold on, this doesn’t make any sense,” Denzel said, raising a finger. “We’re closer to the exit, we should be getting less mind fuckery, not more.”

“Well it happened anyway, big guy,” Chase frustratingly said. “I think that’s what Ri felt earlier, but how?”

Riolu nodded, but he seemingly struggled to answer the second question, not because he couldn’t but because it was too complex to explain to us. The language barrier was stopping him.

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“Okay,” I crouched, getting closer to him. “How about we throw ideas at you, and you nod when we get it right, okay?” I asked.

“Don’t talk to him like he’s a kid,” Chase complained. “He’s more than twice your age.”

My eyes almost fell out of their sockets. “W—what?”

“He’s forty-eight. He’s your senior, show some respect.”

I stared back at Riolu, and he sagely nodded with his arms crossed. I audibly gulped and stood up. It wasn’t like I had never seen an old Pokemon before. Dad’s Herdier was close to that age. But I hadn’t expected someone my age to own a Pokemon that old that wasn’t a ghost or a pet, because a Pokemon surviving that long in the wild meant that it would be incredibly powerful. Plus, he knew the fighting type’s exact age. That meant that Riolu wasn’t a wild Pokemon. It had belonged to someone else, and most likely been given—

“You’re thinking. I can see it in your eyes. Stop trying to figure me out,” Chase spat, narrowing his eyes.

“Watch it,” Cece warned.

Denzel nipped the argument in the bud. “Let’s chill out. Grace’s idea was a good one, let’s try throwing stuff at the wall and see what sticks.”

“Okay, let’s think about this,” I started. “We were walking, and then Riolu felt something strange using his aura. First, did Slowpoke feel anything?”

Slowpoke stared at me with empty eyes.

“He didn’t,” Cece translated.

“Okay, I guess that might be because his power’s still getting messed with. Cross that out. So Riolu’s aura feels… living things, right?”

“It doesn’t only do that, but it’s one of its functions. Each living being has a different aura signature,” Chase explained. “So yes.”

“Alright, so he feels living things,” Denzel said. “Then what?”

“Hmm, perhaps he felt us move a large distance too quickly?” Cece asked. Riolu shook his head, but moved his arms around.

“You’re on the right track,” Chase said.

“Okay, not us. That would make sense, depending on how the mountain’s power works. If it’s teleportation, he wouldn’t have felt a thing,” I said with my hand on my chin. “But if it’s teleportation, then why didn’t we realize we were transported…” I muttered.

“What about feeling other things around us just… winking out of existence?” Denzel asked.

I snapped my fingers. “Yes! That’s it! We were transported somewhere, which means that wild Pokemon around us looked like they all disappeared and were replaced by new ones!”

“Ri!” The fighting type nodded.

“Okay, so Riolu can feel when we’re getting screwed by the mountain. That doesn’t help us get out,” Chase said, bouncing his leg.

“Okay, okay, let me think…” I whispered.

In both instances of getting trapped by the mountain, both before Chase had found me and now, we hadn’t teleported, or at least it was unnoticeable. Was that possible? Probably not. So I could scratch that out, or leave it at the back of my mind. What else was on the table? How would the mountain transport us somewhere without us even realizing it?

My eyes widened.

“Ah, she’s got it,” Denzel said.

“It didn’t teleport us. It teleported the entire fucking area we were in— maybe teleport is the wrong term for it, but that’s the closest I can— wait, maybe shift is better? We shifted back deeper in the cave along with this entire section, and then we ended up walking across Excadrill again, I think.”

“That sounds right,” Cecilia nodded with a smile. “So what now? Do we try going again?”

“When I was trapped, it took four tries to finally make it through. We might be able to brute force it.”

“I like the sound of that,” Chase said. “Not like we can try anything else.”

Seven attempts later, we were back to Excadrill’s corpse, which was now just thick, metallic bones. It had taken us the entire day, and we had made no progress whatsoever. Chase was growing more irate and frustrated by the hour, and we were all stumped. We decided to make camp nearby and sleep there, but as we huddled close to Houndoom for heat and I lay down with my head on Cece’s lap, we were theorizing again.

“This is fucked,” Chase hissed.

“And it makes no fucking sense,” my best friend frowned. “We know the exit’s close, but the mountain is keeping us trapped here… like it’s sentient.”

“The mountain ain’t sentient,” Chase replied instantly. “Stop it with the batshit theories.”

“No, it isn’t, but it’s like something… like it has mechanisms implemented to confuse people who venture too deep inside,” I said. “Like Mismagius, but on a much grander scale and in the real world. To get them trapped in here so they could starve or get killed by a wild Pokemon or something.”

“But how?” Cece asked. “What would even be powerful enough to do such a thing?”

“I dunno. Seems way too powerful to be your average ghost type, since it’s not an illusion, but I’ve never heard of anything capable of doing this,” I said.

“Okay, and why would this— or these theoretical Pokemon want people to be stuck in one place in the mountain?” Denzel asked.

“I don’t know. This phenomenon’s also been seen on top of the mountain, right?” I said.

Denzel nodded. “Yeah, but it’s only at a specific spot, and people haven’t been there in decades. The place is too harsh to study anyway, and they were just burning cash and lives up there. Scientists never figured out what makes the mountain do that, but they might have figured out how it works. Either way, I've never read up on it, so we have to do this on our own.”

“So it’s a specific spot on the surface, but everywhere when we’re actually inside?” Chase asked.

“Not everywhere. Only deep in the mountain and in certain sections that lead to other places,” Denzel said.

“This makes no sense to me,” I groaned. “Maybe it’s hiding something? Some old Hisuian temple? I didn’t pay much attention in history class. Not in any classes, actually.”

“How’d you even graduate?” Denzel raised his eyebrow.

“I coasted. Barely passed everything. couldn’t bother putting much effort in something I wasn’t passionate about. Anyway, regardless, we’ll never come up with a concrete answer. Let’s just figure out a way to get out.”

“Agreed. Enough with the nonsense,” Chase said. “What if we go at it from another angle? Try to take a different path?”

“You try finding a different path, and you let us know how it goes,” I dryly said. “You saw. There was no other way through.”

Chase groaned and clicked his tongue. “Fuck it. I’m going to sleep, I’ll be in top form tomorrow.”

“G’night,” I told him. “What about you, Denzel?”

“I’ll stay up and try to figure something out.”

“Sounds good. Cece?”

“I feel out of my depth here,” she sighed. “No ideas are coming to mind, so I suppose I’ll just sleep.”

“Okay,” I smiled at her. “I’m going to stay up.”

I got up from her lap pillow, and we both stood up, but I felt her hold my sleeve.

“Kiss me goodnight?” She said, averting her eyes.

Ahhhh, she was so cute I wanted to die.

I nodded, and she placed her hands around my waist, pulling me close and kissing me. I lifted a leg and smiled against her lips. How was she doing this to me? Even now that we were dating, I was just as nervous about being around her, and I still couldn’t believe that she was my girlfriend. I kissed her again for good measure, and she left, entering her sleeping bag. I took a seat next to Denzel.

“Nice one,” he smiled.

“Ugh, don’t even start. It’s you and me, we have to figure something out,” I said before cracking a smile. “But yes, it is very nice.”

“Alright, alright…” He smiled in turn. “Like you said, it’s you and me. Let’s get thinking, then. First, let’s review what we know.”

I took a deep breath, and we went over everything that we had found out about the cave, refreshing our memories. With all of the facts laid out, we were bound to find out something.

“Okay, so we have… a mountain that shifts its insides around to trap and starve the people inside of it, or maybe keep them away from something. Does it affect the wild Pokemon?” Denzel started.

“Yes, I would think? The area affected is way too big for it to have only plucked us out. Why?”

“No reason, it’s how I think. I need a constant flow of conversation and ideas going in and out of my head,” he said.

“I can certainly help you with that. Do you think brute forcing it might still be possible? Maybe Mount Coronet will run out of whatever energy it uses to keep us trapped.”

“Hmm, doesn’t seem likely. It’s been doing this since the dawn of recorded Sinnohan history, and there are no signs of slowing down.”

“Separating the group into two and going in pairs could maybe work to free two of us, but I don’t want to try that,” I said. “Too dangerous, and there’s a chance that the other two would be trapped in here.”

“Yeah, but I like that train of thought. You’re thinking we could trick the system somehow? By making it shift two of us back so the other two can be free to progress.”

“That’s right,” I said. “Mount Coronet isn’t sentient, it looks to me like a set of systems meant to keep people away from something. Systems can be tricked, now we have to figure out how to do it.”

“Okay… it works on wild Pokemon, but humans are the trigger, correct?”

“Looks to be that way to me,” I nodded. “So using a wild Pokemon to trigger the shift wouldn’t work.”

I inhaled sharply, and my eyes widened.

“Ah, you have it,” he said.

“Yeah. Yeah, I think so,” I said, licking my lips. “Okay, remember this is just theory—”

“Everything we’ve been saying so far is theory.”

“Yeah, but this’ll require wasting a lot of time. Chase is going to be pissed.”

“That asshole’s always pissed. What’d you find out?”

“So we were talking about triggers. What if the trigger is delayed somehow? The shift seems to be affecting the same area over and over, but in every instance, it took a different amount of time to reach the Excadrill’s… corpse. And thinking back, it was the same for the first area I was trapped in. Since the amount of time varies, the shift seems to be on a randomized delay or something— but it’s not long enough to ever let us through. Even if we account for our different walking speeds, that’s the only way it makes any sense. So we could find its delimitations, step onto it, run off, and then watch it swap with another area.”

Denzel hummed. “Ahh, that makes sense. It’s worth trying out, but I see why you said it’d take a lot of time. Finding how big the area is is going to take—”

“A lot of time, which we might not have.”

“Wait,” he frowned. “Wait. We can easily— well, easily might not be the right term, since it might be hard to tell still, but we can do it without trial and error.”

“How?” I asked, shaking in anticipation.

“No matter how powerful this shifting power is, the area that’s actually being moved is going to look unnatural, no? Maybe a small fissure in the ground demarcating it, or strange rock formations…” He trailed off.

Denzel’s mouth opened. He had found something out.

“Wait, we can use the fucking crystals on the roof!”

“Holy shit, you are a fucking genius,” I exclaimed as I clapped my hands. I quickly froze and checked if Cece had woken up.

“I’m not sleeping yet,” she said. “But I enjoy hearing you two think. Keep going.”

I could tell from her tone that she was smiling.

“Sorry,” I said, twiddling my thumbs. “But you’re right. The closer we got to the exit, the more crystals were on the cave’s ceiling, which means that theoretically, there should be a spot that has way fewer crystals than normal. That’s the area we’re looking for.”

“Yeah, this is good shit,” Denzel smiled.

“But remember, this only works if there’s a delay with the shift like we think,” I warned. “Let’s not get too enthusiastic yet.”

“Are you kidding me? You’re more enthusiastic than I ever was. I should be the one warning you.”

“Okay, dude,” I said smugly. “Whatever helps you sleep at night.”

“Okay, dude,” Denzel imitated me.

“That’s not how I sound at all!” I complained. “Ugh, whatever. We should start making plan B’s and plan C’s in case this delay idea doesn’t materialize. Still, at least we’ll know where the trap is now.”

We planned all night until I fell asleep, and I somehow woke up in a sleeping bag with Togetic right next to me, imbuing me with happiness.

How had Denzel put me in here without waking me up? Damn, he was good.