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

The Jeep bumps a little from the uneven dirt trail. We leave a cloud of dust as wake in the rearview mirror. My eyes carefully watch each spire of rock we approach, half expecting a wild Garchomp to ambush us.

”Where exactly are we headed?” I glance at my trusty navigator.

Naomi swats Rotom away from her tablet, “Stop Glados, I told you we have a tight schedule. You and Kurt used up our free days.”

“But I read there is a famous haunted mine shaft,” begins the endlessly curious ghost.

“No!” She flicks the floating spark ball back into Citro’s arms, “We can make it to The Camp this afternoon. That’s the Hiker Guild's Mobile Mining Operations Camp. Most rookies avoid entering the inner canyons of the valley. Pros make for the camp at least. The die-hards venture out alone… someone goes missing every year.”

She got real quiet at the end, “Worried about your friend Alloy?”

“She said she’d stick near the camp.” Brushing her blonde bangs back from her hair as she checks something on her tablet, “I’d never call Alloy reckless, but…”

Citro sits forward, “It feels weird just driving this dirt trail,” he pauses to glance at a shorter rock tower we pass, “I’ve barely seen a few pokemon so far, well, mostly Crustles.”

The strange rock hermit crabs scuttle back from the trail as we drive by. Naomi mentioned them as one of the few unfortunate cases of invasive species, literally undermining any attempt to remove them.

“I’d wager this road specifically goes through less populated areas.” There's legit nothing but rocks on the map.

Jane speaks up, “I’ve heard plenty of rookies try to just walk this trail and have to get bailed out cause there was no shelter or water at all.”

Naomi pulls up the larger area map, “You can see the main road follows the ridge line and heads straight north. Then there's the walking route that meanders past seasonal ponds and caves that get checked every month.

A geodude hops near the road but waits for us to pass before moving on. The next pillar we pass I spot a young Skarmory diving onto another Dwebble we spooked.

“You wanna try for a Skarmory Citro?” I slow to a stop, watching the blade bird peck at the bug pokemon.

“Um,” the boy hesitates, checking his dex app, and the bird flies away with its prize. “I guess…Oh, or not.”

Jane pokes his side as we get rolling again, “You should be looking up what pokemon can be found out here. Not just on the local dex either, check the Pokket forums about rumored sightings.”

He sighs pulling his phone back up, “I know, I just feel like I barely have time to train the pokemon I already have. What about you girls, Kurt?”

Both girls shake their heads.

Jane replies, “My Krokorok is from this area, and my Aerodactyl means I'm covered type wise.”

Naomi looks back, “These pokemon are a bit outside of my intended specialty.”

“Like this Ponyta you apparently special ordered?” I chide, then looking at Citro, “I’m feeling the same as you bud. Too many pokemon, so little time.”

He relaxes in his seat a bit and goes back to watching rocks pass by.

Watts pouts, “I know we’re busy. The whole point of coming out here was to battle other trainers for a couple days. Now we can only stay one night and then it's off to the Lavaridge gym.”

“Stop the car Kurt!” Citro shouts.

He’s already grabbing pokeballs and unbuckling his seatbelt. I hit the brakes and Jane catches the lad from falling out the damn door he’s already unlatched.

Naomi lowers her window and stands in the frame to shout over the jeep, “Citro!”

“Get back in.” I put the car in reverse, “Jane, close his door.”

Heading back a few yards we see what the boy is on about. Two Skarmory are circling a Scraggy. The little lizard is dodging with its life on the line each time one of the birds dives for it.

We hop out of the car as the boy is already sending out his Manectric and Salazzle. Thunderbolts and Embers send the young Skarmory off to find a less troublesome meal.

Citro is kneeling next to the panting bipedal, yellow lizard. “You alright little buddy?”

Scraggy nods but then goes still, eyes wide, taking in the sight of the Salazzle cleaning some dust off her scales. It pulls up its… lizard pants, and struts over to her.

If I could compare it to anything, it would be a hillbilly teen trying to show off to the pretty exotic lady who is definitely too old for him.

The sand lizard does a little dance like slide up to the fiery poison lizard and begins showing off his own loose scales.

Stolen story; please report.

Salazzle looks up from her preening, pats Scraggy on the head, and then moves to Citro’s side, tapping the button on her own pokeball to return. The boy lizard looks lost in a momentary daze.

Scraggy dashes over to Citro and starts hissing, “Ssscrag!”

Citro chuckles nervously, “I’m not an expert bud, but she didn’t seem that into you.”

Those reptilian eyes narrow, its legs claw at the dirt a bit.

Manectric growls in warning, small sparks flying off its green fur.

Changing tactics the lizard hops onto Citro’s leg and wraps around him with each limb including the tail.

“Hey!” Citro shakes his leg trying to throw off the lizard as his Manectric runs over and tries to pull Scraggy away. The loose scales seem to stretch and flex, they’re practically elastic.

The boy gets pulled to the ground and Manectric lets go, whining to see if Citro’s hurt.

Scraggy scrambles up Cirto’s leg and starts frantically tapping pokeballs on his belt.

“Stop that!”

We step forward to help as his Noibat, Whiscash, and Salazzle all appear in flashes of light while Scraggy disappears entirely.

Salazzle seems confused to be called back out so soon while the big catfish is furiously flopping around, looking for the threat. Noibat just tilts it’s head waiting for instruction.

I pull the lad to his feet.

He looks around, “Awe come on! Really?!”

Returning Whiscash and Noibat, he pulls out another ball. One more flash and Scraggy is back out on the ground. It looks around, spots Salazzle and scampers over to start peacocking again.

Salazzle looks at the smaller lizard, then up at Citro, and begins this loud hissing laughter. Scraggy must think she approved of the little dance shuffle it was doing cause he puffs his chest like the biggest lizard in the valley. Salazzle hiss laughs some more, pats him on the head then winks at Citro before returning herself to her ball once more.

“Ugh, fine but he's your weird little stalker.” the boy grumbles, returning his Manectric and new Scraggy. He mopes back towards us, too embarrassed to look up. “Let’s go please.”

Jane fails to hold back a snort laugh.

Naomi skips to his side, doing her best to sound encouraging, “Scraggy’s typing will fit right in for your team's coverage.”

He nods, “Ya, it was up there when I did a search filter for this area in the Dex app. It’s their personality, clearly, the Scrafty line is notoriously hard to work with.”

“Well, sure… but he’ll be great at the Mt. Pyre Gym!” She leans down a bit to try and make eye contact.

Cutting in a bit here for the lad, “Is it normal to keep accidental catches? I didn’t have much choice with my Joltic but I haven’t regretted it since.”

Jane walks with her hands behind her head watching the sky for more Skarmory, “Most old school folks call it Arceus’ will or whatever. The league expectation is that you do your best to train them till the end of season and then return them to their habitat in good spirits.”

“I can see how that would curtail pokemon being spiteful towards other trainers they run into.”

We hop in the Jeep and get back on the trail.

Citro sighs, “I’ll do my best for the little weirdo… Salazzle will help.”

Sure she will, ha, “Eh, it’ll be good for ya. Pretty sure that’s what I’m supposed to say anyway.”

Jane rolls her eyes and kicks my seat a little, “You’ll be fine Citro, just have him train against me and Crooky a bunch.”

Much of the next thirty minutes of driving feels almost nostalgic in a weird way. Scenic spires of rock, an endless maze of dirt trails, Slot Canyons. Every so often we spot more pokemon, Cacnea around the rare puddle, Fletchcinders racing among the rocks, even a Dugtrio nesting on a lower ledge.

Finally we start seeing other trainers. Some are challenging the stronger wild pokemon, like the fellow battling a Graveler with his Nidorino. One team is actually rock climbing, a girl and her Primeape alongside her friend’s Lucario.

One more bend and a larger opening in the rocks appears, a grotto complete with a decent pool of water. Tents blanket the outer edges under the shade of the canyon walls. Larger trailers are parked at the entrance to a large cave opening. There's no fences but there is a wooden watch tower set up against the cliff face.

“So is it a natural cave system? I can’t imagine the big local pokemon would be cool with anything this scale otherwise.”

Naomi nods, about to explain, but a car horn draws our sight to Gabby and Ty’s van parked by the trailers.

The moment we get out, before even getting to stretch our legs, Gabby is on us, “Thank Zapdos you made it at the perfect time! Get your stuff and let's get to the lift quick!”

Jane shrugs, “What's the hurry? The rocks ain't on fire… here.”

Ty chuckles, “You’ll see, this really is great timing. We were on our way just now.”

To my surprise the lift she mentioned isn’t for the cave but to go up the cliffs. We all easily fit in while thanking the beefy Conkeldurr that starts cranking the wheel to send us up. After a moment we hear a dull boom, the whole lift rocks, dust shakes from the wall.

We stop at a well maintained wooden walkway suspended over the valley below. A set of stairs leads on top of the rocks. Webs of wooden rope bridges connect all the other nearby spires. On each one we can see trainers battling it out against each other.

Jane suddenly gets fidgety, “We made it for the Crown Challenge?!”

Ty is all smiles prepping his camera, “Yup!”

Naomi blurts out, “That’s why you’ve been blowing up my messages!”

Gabby explains for Citro and I, “Every so often there's a semi-official tournament among the trainers here. Single elimination, one pokemon each, the last trainer standing is Canyon King and gets a world's point.”

Jane dashes up ahead, reaching the top, “Holy Shit! Naomi, hurry!”

Mindful of the long drop, we get to the top ourselves. This larger spire is more of a full plateau with enough room for a full sized battlefield.

An Aerodactyl slams at top speed into a platinum white, Metang.

“Aerodactyl, use Crunch!” Shouts a young man standing across the field.

Immediately to our left, Alloy Stone points forward, “Bullet Punch!”

The strange flying spaceship pokemon interrupts the closing jaws of Aerodactyl with a quick jab to the face.

She’s relentless, “Take Down then Metal Claw.”

“No! Roar then Brutal Swing!” The fella sounds desperate.

Metang tries to pull the prehistoric terror into a dive straight for the ground but Aerodactyl belts out a ear ringing roar. Metang loses grip, Aerodactyl does a front flip, slamming its tail into the steel pokemon so hard it comes crashing down.

The boy is practically jumping, “Yes! Finish it with Rock Smash!”

Alloy coldly calls, “Flash Cannon.”

Just as the Dino bird dives, a blinding beam of light burns into its face!

Aerodactyl flinches, misses the target, and crashes into the dirt. It struggles for a second to get up. A pokeball flash returns the crumpled flier… Alloy wins.

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