Second authors note.
Sorry but again, it more visible here. The will be a poll today will greatly change the story so I would appreciate if you could take a few seconds to vote. I will keep it short and explain my reasoning in the comment if you are interested by that . Enjoy!
Chapter 23- Discovery
Nexon’s Journal: Trapinch
Reading the extended version of the Pokedex entries on Trapinch revealed a lot of interesting information that I had no idea about. As it turns out, the standard entries are simply the bare minimum that they give to trainers in a hurry. A kind of Too Long Didn’t Read and simply had to write them down because simply they would be useful when taking care of Tiamat.
[Trapinch live in arid deserts. They are patient hunters who create conical nests that double as traps. They are capable of going for weeks without eating and a week without water, allowing them to lay in wait for weeks at a time. Once prey falls in the traps, there is no escape as they are slowly dragged toward the center of the pit where the Trapinch awaits. While their jaws are strong enough to crush boulders, they are also very heavy. Once a Trapinch falls over, it is hard for them to flip back. It is for these situations that their natural rivals, Sandile, wait to take advantage of. Trapinch are territorial Pokemon which causes them to stay isolated unless it is to reproduce.]
I wasn’t expecting Sandile and Trapinch to be natural enemies, although thinking more deeply, I could see it happening. After all, both species are known to use the sand to their advantage. But the most surprising part was the amount of time they could go without food OR water. Although, living in a desert and being essentially immobile, it would made sense for them to have adapted to the harsh conditions.
An interesting thing that I was also curious about was the chitin-like carapace that covers their entire body. Mainly because their evolutions were covered in scales instead, so it was an interesting situation. At the top of my head, I don’t think another species changes as much during evolution. Or maybe Shelgon should count for that. Well, the future will tell.
---
“Let’s see… how about we go with Tiamat?” I mused out loud.
“Tiamat? That’s an interesting name.” Frank said.
“Yeah, I really wonder where he gets all of these names,” Sera added.
I chuckled, hopefully not too nervously. “I just remember them from some stories I heard.”
Yeah, there was no way I was going to drop the bombshell of an entirely separate universe on people I had known for a few months, let alone weeks.
Putting curious minds aside, the now-named Tiamat seemed to genuinely enjoy her new name. With the entire team out, the small cheer that erupted drew a few curious gazes but nothing more.
Then came the turn for Sera to call back her two felines that were somehow somewhere else. Once they arrived, they took turns carefully sniffing the new arrival before finally cheering for her (Possibly). Luxio in particular took great pleasure in rubbing herself against Tiamat. She always had to be somewhat careful around the rest of us, but this time the small sparks that she failed to contain from time to time simply fizzled out against Tiamat without her so much as twitching. The not-so-small insect-like ground was just standing surprised and probably confused about all the fuss around her but didn’t protest either.
It took a while for everyone to calm down but once they did, everyone kind of went and did their own thing. Sera was apparently busy researching something and studying the map of the tunnels. Frank went to bother Natalie with his new Pokemon. I wondered if there was something going on between those two, but in the end disregarded it. I wanted to take advantage of the remaining light, so it was time for some real training.
We made our way out of the camp once more but toward the river this time. I was sure that anyone seeing me move would question their sanity. With Skoll leading the wait and practically vibrating, a hat on my head, aka Nike, and Tiamat in my arms. Yes, I had to pick her up, and she didn’t seem like she disliked it. Yeah, she was not the fastest in her first evolution, but it would get better really soon. Or, well, when she evolves.
Thankfully the river was not far, because even though it was feasible, she was not as weightless as Nike. Once we got there both Nike and Skoll went on their own for a while. Well, I wouldn’t need to check on Nike, but I still had to assist Skoll since we were working on a new move.
The noise of flowing water was all that was audible while I sat on the rock. I looked at Tiamat. She looked back at me.
“…”
“…”
Yeah, I had to admit I had no idea what to do. I was so focused on finding a Trapinch that I did not consider what would come after. Also, from the move she already has, I don’t even know what move we could consider training. I could try and teach her rock type moves since it might be useful against Burgh, but she had no move from the type energy, meaning she is most likely unfamiliar with it. From what I gathered, ground and rock type energy are pretty close, but I don’t know if it’s close enough that she will master it so easily.
It seemed my focused face and tilting of my head were funny because a burst of clacking-like laughter came from the ground type at my feet. Only now did I realize that she had been imitating the tilting head all this while. Seeing her laughing like that made me chuckle a bit before I decided on the next course of action.
“Right, only one way to find out what to do, moving.” I leaped up from the rock I was sitting on before moving away to not disturb the other two. “Let's test your moves. First, use Crunch on that rock!”
Without needing more prompting, Tiamat made her way to the rock in question… Slowly. It was even slower than Nike.
Looks like teaching Nike Trick Room just went up in priority.
Yet the moment she reached it my jaw hung open. When the Pokedex said that their jaws were strong enough to pulverize rocks, I thought it was an exaggeration like some of the entries tend to do. So, my surprise was great when it actually happened. The time seemed to slow down as I watched it happen.
Once she was in range for the move, Tiamat stopped. I watched as her jaw opened ever so slowly. Then once it was fully open, dark energy erupted from them before coating the entire jaw into their bespoke shadow-like appearance. Then, the jaws just snapped shut. In a violent display of sheer force, they closed around a part of the boulder before passing through as if nothing impeded them. The rock that was more than double the size of the cause of its destruction shattered.
With terrible noise, the boulder collapsed while the smaller fragments were sent flying. Looking around, I was not the only one surprised. Nike’s training balls fell to the ground while her mouth formed an ‘o’. Skoll was similarly slack-jawed as he stopped mid-way through a strike. Meanwhile, Tiamat seemed proud of herself and nodded like this was the expected outcome before turning to face use.
“Holy… Yeah, I think you know what you do with this one quite well. Let’s test the next one. *Ahem*, you two should also go back to your training as well.” I commented, causing the two other Pokemon to resume. Of course, I caught them sneaking glances from time to time, but it was acceptable.
The next move was Dig, and it was with no surprise that in less than a second, Tiamat was completely underground before reemerging. This one was pretty straightforward, although I did take notes that the resulting tunnel could be used to funnel attacks so we would have to be careful. Maybe combine it with Sandstorm? Either way, nothing to write home about this one.
The next one on the list was Bulldoze. This one surprised me, if only for the way Tiamat executed it. She fully reared up on her hind legs before bringing her full weight to bear on the ground. The shaking ground was much as I expected, but it was also more disorientating than I expected making me take more cautious steps for a short while after.
Interesting, so that’s how the speed debuff worked.
The next few moves were without surprise. Sand attack was the definition of ‘I’m gonna throw sand in your eyes’. Well, Tiamat was also able to throw the sand out of seemingly thin air by using the type energy just in case the terrain was not cooperative enough. Sand Tomb was similarly sand base but said sand was whipped into a frenzy and could even be strengthened or sustained by Tiamat. Mud Slap was also fairly simple with the main difference that it was a bit more solid than the other attacks.
The more astonishing move was Astonish, pun intended. It seemed to be primarily based on sound and the ghost energy mixed in it, but the finer intricacies flew right over my head. Not that it was that important since I’m not sure we’ll have much use for it.
“Well Tiamat, it looks like you are already a little terror in your own rights. To be honest I have only two real suggestions to work on for now. One is to learn Mud-Shot since it is somewhat similar to Mud Slap but a bit more powerful. The other option is Earthquake, but I think we should wait for this one. You have a pretty big opening when you use Bulldoze which I think we can work on first.”
I explained as I flipped through the notes I took while watching her. The matter of Bulldoze is one we need to address sooner rather than later because while reading through the Dex, I saw that Trapinch in general have trouble righting themselves if they flip. And with the way she reared up before the move, a slight nudge might be able to incapacitate her for a while.
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Tiamat nodded at my words, and I stayed with her to try a see if there were other areas to improve. For now, she was repeatedly sitting Mud Slap while trying to increase the power behind each attack. In my mind, it was mainly a matter of repeating the move.
After staying with me for a while, I move to assist Nike first. That was because I knew she was the one who would need less assistance from the two of them. Her control over the first ball had already reached the point where it was almost perfect. Adding the second ball, however, set her back several steps. That was actually the point of adding more balls. She was forced to split her focus, leading to less precise control which she then had to improve again.
Moving on to Skoll, he seemed to be having trouble making progress which surprised me. From what I had seen so far, he seemed as monstrous as Nike. Or maybe it was just his willpower when training that gave me the impression. Either way, I watched for a while as he brought his hand down on a rock in a chopping motion, only to barely leave a dent. As time passed, I noticed something that I was quick to test.
“Hey, Soll. Can you try doing it on a smaller rock?” I asked him.
He turned to look at me, and for a second, he seemed to be considering whether to follow or not, but in the end, he moved to a smaller rock and tried again. This time again, the result was the same with barely any damage. That’s when I noticed it once more. His feet’s position.
“Let me try to help. Try to spread your legs a bit more and put one foot forward.” I tried to imitate one of the stances I remembered seeing people who practiced martial arts make.
The reason why I advised him that was because I noticed that he did not seem to produce as much damage as he should. His stance was too narrow, and he wasn’t using his body to the fullest. Normally it wasn’t something that I would notice immediately, but after seeing the way Arnold’s Snivy fought and used its entire body to attack, I started to understand that just the type energy of the moves was not enough to guarantee power. And frankly, it made sense.
My only question was why Skoll never noticed.
Regardless, once he shifted his posture, results were already visible on the rock. He looked up and met my gaze and his eyes were different. For once there was something like respect in it. no that was not quite the right word, maybe something like he finally recognized me?
Either way, that is a massive step in the right direction. Maybe I should get to exercise with my Pokemon?
---
The next day, we were back to roaming the underground network of caves under the mountain. Witnessing the second chamber was just as humbling as the first one even with the additional challenge. Said challenge came in the form of a colony of wild Pokemon living not far away. They were Roggenrola, Boldore, and most notably a Gigalith. It was actually the one causing the most problems since he did not appreciate the people going back and forth through its territory, and fighting was not wise to avoid cave-ins. Sure, their parts of the tunnels were reinforced, but not outside of their area of operations.
So, we had to sneak around where they lived, and in the end, people got frustrated enough that a tunnel was created that skirted around the edge of their section. It was an annoyance at best, but having ground and rock type Pokemon at hand made it worth it enough to try and execute the plan.
Once in the second room, we realized how daunting trying to map the entire network was, given that many more tunnels branched from there. So, it was decided that we would simply do what we could, and another expedition with more established trainers would be launched for a longer duration. Translation: We are not paid enough for everything that we would have to deal with.
Regardless, we would still make use of what time we had left and try to explore as much as possible. Sera, being one of the researchers, was able to pull some strings to let us explore on our own. Of course, not just the two of us, but we also included Frank and Arnold. Frank simply because he was bored out of his Skull after not having to go out looking for a Darumaka, and Arnold because he was trying to see if anything interested him in the caves.
“I still cannot believe that you managed to pull this off.” Arnold reiterated his amazement.
“It is mainly because Professor Maximilian supported me.” She answered more modestly than I am used to.
Before I could comment on that Arnold continued. “It still shows that he trusts you enough.”
With nothing to retort Sera simply took the compliment and stopped arguing. We kept walking down the tunnel in silence until Frank stopped us.
“Wait do you guys hear this?”
We all stood still and strained our ears to the maximum of our abilities. Our Pokemon did the same, and sure enough, their ears perked up. I, for one, didn’t hear anything, and judging by the look on Sera and Arnold, they heard nothing either.
“I don’t hear anything, but I am guessing you do?” I volunteered.
He nodded and walked ahead. The fact that he heard whatever it was at the same time as our Pokemon was mildly concerning, but if he walked so confidently, it probably wasn’t anything serious.
Soon, the tunnel we were following widened a bit more before opening at an intersection. And what we saw was also surprising in another way. It was a stream, that was flowing lazily through the intersection. Looking to my right, there wasn’t even a walkable tunnel there, just the stream coming through.
A whistle cut through the silence. “That’s one hell of a find I must say!” Arnold exclaimed.
And I agreed with him. judging by the proximity to the river, it was probably one of its tributaries. But that also answered a question I had since I doubted all the Pokemon were keen to leave the caves just to get a sip of water. I walked closer to the stream, careful that no Pokemon was inside it.
Once we made sure that the opening was secured enough, we all started to explore around a bit. I called Tiamat out as a backup for Skoll in case something came up. She was sensitive enough to the movement of the ground to alert us if there was something.
“Um, guys, I think I found something…” Sera shouted.
Making my way to her, I found her crouched with something clutched in trembling hands. As she turned around, it revealed something I was not expecting. A bone. That alone would not have surprised me, but only if the bone was not encased in stone…
“Is that…” Arnold breathed.
“A fossil.” Sera nodded.
There was a silence that stretched as everyone considered the situation. A fossil was rare enough but that was not the real value of it. No, the real value would be determined by if there was enough DNA in it to revive the specimen. What’s more, if there was one fossil… there might very well be more.
“I think we might want to call Professor Max,” I suggested and there was no argument.
After a brief discussion, we decided to let Frank send his Greninja ahead. He was first of all fast enough that it wouldn’t take long, and strong enough that few Pokemon would be willing to stop him. Meanwhile, everyone’s gaze sharpened. The opportunity to find a fossil was rare. Even if you did not want the Pokemon, you could always resell the fossil to someone else or even a museum.
So naturally, we each started to look for our own fossils. I mean, we found the spot so surely, we can keep at least one each right? I myself was not particularly interested in a particular fossil from the region. Sure, I liked Archeops when behind the screen, but I don’t think it has a spot in my team. But who would say no to more money?
In the end, I would say it took about an hour or an hour and a half for Prof Max to join back with us, his forehead slick with perspiration from running. And if the light in his eyes was not enough to convey his excitement, the Bewear hug he gave to Sera certainly was. His character seemed to have completely flipped.
“I knew you would find something extraordinaire, but to think you got a new fossil spot… You are truly remarkable.” He shouted.
“Ooph! Professor please! It- It was only luck. If nothing it was thanks to Frank.” She said after managing to extricate herself from his grasp.
“Ah! Yes, yes, apologies. Also thank you Frank this discovery is of great importance to use.”
“It is no problem at all. Anyway, can you tell me what Pokemon this is from?” He practically shoved the rock into the man’s face.
Yet surprisingly, it was the researcher who made the rude comment about the equipment previously who answered him.
“From what I gather it seemed to be part of the shell of a Kabuto. You see here, this is…”
While I was interested in listening to what he had to say since I wasn’t expecting a Kabuto, Skoll sneakily tried to grab my attention. Looking down, I saw an expression I don’t think I ever saw on him. Fear.
His hackles were raised, his chops were peeling back and the only thing that muffled what was probably a growl was panic. Looking closer, his ears were pressed flat and after following his gaze, I saw a man enter the cave. Michael.
I didn’t know what that was about, but the only thing I knew was that it was Skoll's first time even seeing the man. The first week in the cave was covered by prof Max as he traveled with the groups. Today was the only time the two of them would delve together since from now on only Michael would lead. Even in the camp, the man tended to stay around other researchers.
The point was, it was truly the first time Skoll laid eyes on him, and for him to react like that… I was pretty sure that this was a clear warning that something was fishy about that guy… but I also had no concrete proof. Even if Auras rarely lied from what I read, it could easily be dismissed by the lack of experience. But that did not mean I would not take it seriously.
Thankfully the man did not seem to notice, and I quickly moved to hide his line of sight from Skoll. I then squeezed his paw to make him understand that I got the warning. But there was also nothing I could do.
“Thank you for the warning, but we can’t do anything right now. We’ll keep it in mind, but do you think you can behave for now?” I whispered once I got to his level. He met my eyes, and I could see the conflicting emotions.
“Alright rest for now, thank you,” I said a bit louder. Not too loud that it would seem unnatural but not too low that it would be conspicuous. “Rest for now but stay vigilant,” I added the last part to the ball once I returned him.
I then tried to act casual as I stood with Tiamat at my side… Yet Frank clearly noticed as he got my eyes from the corner. I did my best to ignore it, but I guess he saw it.
Either way, I tried to pay more attention to the conversation, but my mind kept wandering to Skoll's reaction. I could understand animosity, but fear? Regardless I had to act normally, which proved easier with the topic of Sera’s fossil.
“Hmmm while I am not sure, but this should be a Tirtouga fossil… these bones seemed to be from the front limbs, and this here could be a part of the carapace. It is not exactly uncommon, but still a marvelous specimen. But this is just a cursory glance, more research is needed to be sure.”
“Do you think we can revive it?” she asked almost dreamily.
The man shook his head. “Again, I am not sure. You would need the analysis to make sure enough DNA can be extracted.”
“We can test it upon our return to Castelia should you wish it. Even if we are not able to do anything, our colleagues in Nacrene should be able to. It would simply need more time.” Interjected prof Max.
She carefully closed her hand over the rock and dropped it in her bag. There was no doubt that she would at least try to… which brought me to my question.
“Are you going to wait for the Tirtouga before the next gym?” I asked her after she was done.
“… I don’t think that would be possible.” She sighed. “The test alone might take several weeks, then the revival process will depend on whether or not other people are waiting…”
“In that case, you would still need a new team member. Any thoughts?”
“As I said, before I was considering a Ducklett but with a possible water type, maybe I should wait…”
“In that case how about a Rufflet?” Arnold popped up. “It’s a flying type which I guess it was you will aim for given the bug gym. Plus, I found a newly established nest when looking for a Pokemon.”
Sera jumped a bit at the surprise appearance but quickly composed herself before nodding. And I would of course tag along with them because frankly, seeing Sera try to catch a Rufflet is going to be hilarious given the temperament of the little feisty bird.
Also, I managed to find what was part of the fossilized teeth of Tyrunt. It had no value except for reselling it to interested parties for cash, which I did with the buyer being the Genesis Society itself for a bit under 5k.
It ain’t much, but it’s an honest job.
Ok, that was actually more than I had in my account currently but who cares? I was certainly more interested in the coming days… while staying cautious of a certain individual…