Blake’s arm held me in place, preventing me from moving forwards, though I had little desire to. Our teams fanned out around us some, which I read as a display of strength and unity- you don’t want to attack us, we’re too many for you to handle. Reflexively, I considered that this might be the first step of an ambush; it wasn’t so far-fetched to imagine a single individual attracting the attention of the group. Creating openings for the rest of a pack, approaches that they could use.
I very quickly dismissed that line of thought. Absols were lone creatures that didn’t travel with a pack, but even besides that, they weren’t the type to pull something like that. No, if an absol was showing themselves to us, that meant something was coming, something bad. I remembered the absol that had directed myself and Jen to the onix nest, averting potential attacks on Emeragrove.
As the Pokemon fanned out around us, presenting their uniformity of strength, I noted my own partners out of the corners of my eyes. While Blake’s team was notably wary, watching the absol carefully for any movement on their part, I could see that Drake’s expression was more of curiosity… and concern. We shared a look, and it was obvious that he, too, was thinking of the last absol meeting we’d had. I narrowed my eyes. I remembered the imperious look that absol had possessed, their regal way of holding themselves, and the injuries they sustained fighting the onix. The body language matched, and, looking closer, I could see how their front leg didn’t have their whole weight on it.
“You’re the absol that led me to the onix nest, aren’t you?”
I called, just loud enough to cross the distance, not loud enough to startle the tense Pokemon around me. Blake’s team, and Blake himself, looked at me in surprise, but I ignored it in favour of maintaining eye contact with the Dark type. There was a flicker of surprise that crossed their face, and then they nodded slowly. I couldn’t help but smile a little.
“Well, I’m really glad to see you’re alright, then. I was worried when you split like that, especially after taking a few good hits from those rock snakes. Would’ve offered you a potion or some berries, if you’d stuck around, but you look like you’re…” Not dead? Not seriously wounded? “Not too badly hurt?”
They huffed and tossed their head slightly, affecting insult at the way I’d implied that any injuries they’d sustained might have endangered them or slowed them down. Still, I caught the flash of surprise and gratitude that the affectation covered for. Still, for them to show up now, in the middle of nowhere? That didn’t bode well at all.
“So… if you’ve shown up again, does that mean…?”
The grave expression they adopted made me grimace. I tried to think about where we were: we’d crossed the rocky outcropping farther back, and there weren’t any really sharp inclines around, so probably not some kind of rockslide. Not anywhere near the snow farther up the mountain, so not an avalanche. Earthquake, maybe? But, if it was an earthquake, then why come to me? And, well, Blake, who had withdrawn slightly and was watching the conversation with clear interest.
“Is it something that we can reasonably do something about?” A nod, and I wished I understood Pokespeech. If I was N, I’d ask one question and know the important details. As it was… “Okay, so, is it something on the mountain? Close to here?” Another nod.
“No large changes in elevation.” Blake muttered, and I glanced over to see him interacting with his Nav, frowning at the screen. “But… there’s a tributary of the main river that flows down into the Grand Marsh, not too far from here? Not sure-”
But he was cut off by the absol nodding rapidly and shifting. They turned away from us, towards the right side of the path, and gave us a glance before forging right off of it and into the expanse of rocks and tough plants that surrounded us. Up the slope. I shared a glance with Blake, then started after them.
There wasn’t any large incline, not here. The outcropping that 208 flowed over did eventually lead back up into the main body of Coronet, but it didn’t really start gaining altitude in any meaningful sense until it grew closer. Glancing at my Nav, I could see how the tributary forked itself into two smaller tributaries, one leading off to a spring and the other winding farther up the mountain. Despite not being nearly as large as the river it eventually contributed to, it wasn’t an amount of water one could simply ignore. Though it was the least of the Coronet tributaries, it was still a good amount of water moving through a good sized riverbed, carved through the stone by the ages.
Despite the lack of real cliffs and sharp inclines, the rough and rocky terrain was still difficult to negotiate away from the flat route. Out here, the closest thing to actual paths were small, faint trails worn by Pokemon negotiating across the terrain as we had. The scrub bushes and stunted trees that managed to grow in the hostile rocky soil were more of a hindrance than any sort of boon, scratchy, stubborn things that refused to move out of the way as we passed. At the very least, we didn’t have to keep an eye out for venomous snakes… or, at least, I didn’t think we did. Not something I’d really thought to research, and now I was regretting it. Did the last campground have warnings about them posted? I couldn’t remember. I was- no, I was losing the plot.
The absol rushed ahead of us initially, but didn’t get too far ahead, continually stopping to ensure that we were still following them. I could tell that they were somewhat slowed by their wounds, the way they were leading us being slower than when Drake and I had followed them to the onix nest. Still, they didn’t seem to really struggle with the terrible terrain, merely being slowed by it, and less so than we were. All this meant that we were directly behind them the entire way, which suited the both of us just fine.
“I don’t think, uff, that I’ve ever heard of an absol.” Blake said, Devi taking his hand and lifting him on top of a large stone. “I get the rough idea, they’re leading us to something dangerous- wonderful, that- but…”
“Their whole thing is warning people of disasters, dangerous happenings, things like that.” I said.
I kept on, negotiating my way through a series of scrub bushes and on top of that same stone, though from a different angle. Drake seemed to have more trouble with the terrain than Ajax did, his smaller frame meaning that, where Ajax could simply push right through bushes and leap to the top of rocks, he couldn’t quite do it. He was developing a method by which he sprinted up sheer walls of stone, or bounced off of them, doing acrobatics fueled by bursts of white energy and his inherent speed. Blake’s Pokemon, of course, appeared to consider the terrain around us to be the approximate difficulty of level, clear ground.
“So, what, they…?”
I shrugged. “There’s some speculation that they can see the future, I think. I did a little research after the first time I saw this one.”
I actually had, and there actually were some theories on that point. Like most Dark types, there was less research on them than others, and from enough poking around I’d figured that it was because Pokemon researchers were skeevy about being seen as having links to any of the Teams. Even the suspicion that someone was using League resources to conduct research on behalf of a Team could ruin their reputation, and thus, most of the Dark type research I found out there was done by Professors.
However, absol seemed to be largely understood, in academic circles anyway, to be something of an exception to the rule. There was contention about that, primarily between older and younger members of the community, but these days it seemed that most were in agreement that absol was foretelling natural disasters to come rather than actively bringing them upon people. There were a number of different guesses as to how an absol went about sensing an oncoming disaster, with theories from future sight to keen senses and even somehow sensing disasters with their horns, but no solid data. Absol were lonely, solitary, and highly reclusive, as a species. Their kind rarely came down from the mountains that they called their homes, and when they did, what followed in their wake typically prevented more in-depth study.
As a result, absol were considered vanishingly rare among trainers, particularly as partner Pokemon. There was a joke that an absol who chose to join a trainer’s team was foretelling that that trainer was a disaster, either out of incompetence or just being that dangerous.
“See the future, huh?” Blake said, thoughtfully. “What do you think they saw, that they came running to you again?”
“Don’t know. Maybe the river floods, or maybe a magikarp evolves, goes on a rampage, causes a bunch of other magikarp to evolve.”
Blake shuddered, and, at my look of surprise, spoke up. “Don’t joke about gyarados cascades. They’re very rare, but they happen, and it’s always bad.”
“Huh.” I said, clambering around a rock face, and looking forwards to catch a glimpse of the absol surveying the terrain. “What about all the people that fish for them? Wouldn’t that cause enough stress to make them evolve?”
“Oh, no. There’s actually incentives for doing that. Fish breed like mad, fishermen are needed to keep their numbers down. It’s why magikarp meat’s so cheap, it’s mainly sold as a way to not let the fish itself go to waste. The higher the population density of the magikarp, the more likely a cascade is, as one evolution causes another. Keeping them at certain densities is a necessity. Not so low that they’re pushed into evolving to try and protect a population they think is dwindling, not so high that they’re stressed by the lack of food and density of fish to the point that they evolve to better compete for food. Pulling one out of the water almost never causes an evolution, and even when it does, you’ve got time to get away.”
We kept talking like that, little bursts of conversation as we negotiated our way through terrible land. I figured that our progress by distance was a third, or even a quarter of what it had been on the route. With how much climbing and careful maneuvering we were forced to do, it drastically increased the amount of time necessary to cross the same distance. At least there was the occasional Pokemon trail that wandered in the rough direction we were going, allowing us breaks from clambering and shoving our way through bushes. Once again, I couldn’t help but feel grateful for the thick fabric of my pants, as my legs would’ve been scratched to hell otherwise.
Eventually, I noticed something, almost like the faintest note of static. As I listened closer, I realized that it was bouncing among the rocks, and that the air felt slightly more damp than it had before. The presence of water in the air, and as we grew closer, the faint static resolved into the rushing of a stream. It wasn’t quite the roar of a full-grown river, or a stream that had topped out its banks, but it was definitely not like the calm stream that we’d crossed on that brick bridge a couple days ago. Finally, we rounded a corner, and I looked… and raised my head, looking up.
The stream, clearly visible now, was white watering down a nearly sheer surface. Here, we found ourselves above and to the side of where it had carved a sort of cleft into the stone. It wasn’t deep enough to be called a gully or a ravine, more of a narrow-ish sort of rent in the stone through which the water flowed. We were halfway up it, and on our side of the stream, there was a large, flat, sandy area that led to the waterside, a sort of little beach.
The sheer wall that the water was flowing over, however, didn’t appear to be rock. At first, I couldn’t quite put my finger on what I was looking at, the roughness and irregularity of it, the chaotic nature of the wall defying my attempts to make out what it really was. The absol approached closer, and I followed, Blake and the Pokemon on my heels. As we drew closer, I noted that it was a different colour that the stone that formed the walls of the crevice we found ourselves in, a deeper and richer brown. With a start, I realized, suddenly, that it wasn’t rock at all: it was wood.
Suddenly, I could see it, like when you’d found the exact right way to look at a seeing eye picture. How the irregularities were branches or logs poking out, how the deep brown was a clayish sort of mud that filled up the gaps between the trees. How the water flowed down it, slowly chipping off portions of the clay mortar, occasionally washing away a stick or a bit of wood, or causing a chunk of clay to slough off. It was a dam, a huge one, like the pictures I’d seen of beaverdams, but so much larger. It towered over us, nearly to the top of the crevasse.
The absol stared up at the structure, then glanced back at us before walking to the side. Looking after them, I could see where they walked on a small winding trail that led up the slope and towards the top of the dam. I followed, almost dreamlike, my feet making small puffs of dust as I trudged up to the top.
I crested the hill, climbing up on top and looking out, frozen in place. Drake was at my heels, and cast his gaze over what he saw in anxiety, while Ajax bounced from front paw to front paw uncertainly. Blake ended up next to me, glancing back and forth, a horrified calculation flowing over his face.
Behind the dam, the crevasse that it blocked widened out quite a bit, before narrowing back down and climbing up the mountain as it moved back towards the origin of the stream. The entirety of the wider area was filled with water, a blue that spoke of depth, deep enough that I couldn’t see the bottom. Perhaps seven, ten meters deep, and large. Large enough that I wasn’t comfortable putting a number to it. I turned slowly, looking back towards the dam, watching as another chunk of clay was knocked off the top and the branches that followed it.
The stream led downhill, mostly past rock, but eventually it joined the main river. There were forests and Pokemon, perhaps small towns along the riverbanks. It widened and flattened out when it hit the Grand Swamp, but I could picture the sudden flood hammering down the distance. I could see it drowning ecosystems, destroying Pokemon’s homes, and filling buildings with water.
The absol stood near us, grimly serious. They didn’t have to resort to charades to communicate the coming disaster. I could see it, plain as day.
----------------------------------------
“Do you have a plan? Any ideas?” I asked Blake, voice low. He simply shook his head, seeming just as unbalanced now as he had when we’d first laid eyes on the dam.
For lack of anything better to give them, we’d sent our teams to erect a camp on the shore of the artificial lake. Still, I could feel their gazes on us from this distance, their varying levels of anxiety shot through with their faith that their trainers could figure something out. I wasn’t entirely sure that that faith wasn’t misplaced.
“If we had more time, if it was more intact… dunno. We might be able to hold it together long enough for the Rangers to arrive, maybe by baking the clay solid with applications of pure heat? But it’s not in anywhere near good enough condition for that to work. Just wouldn’t buy us the amount of time we needed.”
“Alright, what about…” I struggled, trying to think of something that might work.
Even if we could acquire, mix, and pour concrete, it wouldn’t matter, couldn’t cure fast enough to reinforce the dam. We didn’t have any Rock, Ground, or Grass types with us, so we couldn’t reinforce it with roots or rocks. The only idea that I could think of off the top of my head was the same one Blake had suggested, and immediately dismissed. Baking the clay to stabilize the structure might have worked, but at this point water erosion had played merry hell with the integrity of the entire thing. There wasn’t enough strength left to hold together, and trying to dry the clay might be the final push that caused the cork to pop.
I struggled for a long moment, then pushed myself to my feet and began pacing. The Galarian had been upbeat and somewhat relaxed for as long as I’d known him, but now he had a look of intense focus and concern on his face. He’d folded his hands underneath his chin and was glaring at the slowly crumbling dam, trying to come up with something.
“I guess… shit. I’ll warn the Rangers. Maybe they can assign people to an evacuation up and down the river, clear enough area to lower the casualties.” I shrugged, a rock settling in my stomach. “If they have Water or Ice types, or a Ground type that can raise levis, then it might not be so bad.”
“I’d prefer not to give up just yet.” Blake said, voice hard.
“I’m just suggesting that it’s something that we should try. Still, I’d… I think it would be best to try and alert them. If we figure out something, maybe we can hold it long enough for a relief team to show up.”
“Yeah, it’s a good idea. I don’t think they’ll get here in time, but… I’d prefer them to be on their way, rather than not.”
I nudged his shoulder, and he looked at me questioningly. I tried to give him a smile, but I’m not sure how well it came across, whether it was closer to the smile that I intended or a grimace.
“We’ll figure something out, alright? Even if it’s wrangling every wild Pokemon between here and Hearthome, and every trainer we can lay our hands on besides, then that’s what we’ll do. I’m not going to just let this happen, I know you won’t, and our teams definitely won’t. Don’t give up hope yet, alright?”
He stared at me for a moment, then his expression softened slightly and he nodded.
With that acknowledgement, I stepped away, taking in a shuddering breath and letting it out. I felt cold, like all my muscles were tensed; this was… dangerous. People could die, as a result of this, but I couldn’t let it get to me. I had to think of this as a problem, a problem that I had to solve. Focus on the puzzle, not on the long term effects of it. I pulled out my Nav as I mulled over what we knew, trying to put it in a comprehensive way that I could communicate to Kevan. The Ranger was my best contact… well, maybe besides the Jinnouchi. Maybe I should call Sakae-sama? I’d usually be worried about bothering people unnecessarily, but the actual threat of disaster cleared up that anxiety pretty effectively. Kevan picked up on the third ring.
“Cam! Hey, I was just thinking about some of the pictures you sent. You know we’re actually pushing them up the chain? We’ve had the occasional flier over the area, but none from the ground-”
“Kevan.” I cut him off. Wouldn’t want to do that, typically, but… yeah. “We’ve got a situation. Big one.”
“... Give it to me.” His voice had changed gears entirely, going straight from amiable to edged and heavy.
“We’ve got a bibarel dam here, blocking one of the tributaries. From what we can tell-” scars on trees, purple residue, things like that- “something attacked them. Smashed into them like a freight train. There’s a lot of evidence of a fight, a large one, and we think the bibarel and bidoof retreated entirely into the forest. Scattered, maybe.”
“Alright, that’s… a problem, yeah. But I sense that’s not everything.”
“I- look, I wish it was. The point is that the dam that they were defending, the dam that’s still blocking the tributary- it’s, it’s big. It’s holding back an artificial lake of substantial size, and… it’s falling apart. I don’t know…” My voice shook slightly, and I tried to clamp down on it. Not the time.
I heard him bark something inaudible at someone else, a flurry of movement on the other side of the connection. Exchanges of words and what sounded like the cries of Pokemon. After a second, his voice came back.
“How long do we have, do you have a guess?”
“I-” I clenched my jaw, thinking about it. The backside of the dam was slowly being worn away by the water cascading over it from the top, as well as the pressure from behind, but… “I can’t say. I didn’t see the dam in its pristine state, so I can’t say how long it took it to get to this point. As for how long it’s going to last?” I struggled with it for a moment, but a guess was better than nothing. “I don’t know, but going off of how quickly it’s breaking down, two days? Maybe three? It depends whether the water punches a hole in it, or weakens its hold on the rock shelves around it enough that one of the sides gives. The moment that happens, it’s going to flood, and there’s nothing that’ll stop that much water, with this much weight and gravity behind it.”
“Nothing short of a legendary, anyway.” He said, gravely. “Alright, look, we’re going to scrape together some civil engineers to throw in your direction. It’ll take time for them to get there, even if they’re rushing, the terrain’s just too hostile. Can’t bring in motor vehicles or equipment, have to use Pokemon for transport and heavy lifting. In the meantime, I’ll move teams to give evacuation orders down the river, try to get as many people and Pokemon to somewhere safer as we can. Just, try and buy us as much time as you can. If the dam pops, we’ll need to know.”
“Okay. Uh, here-” I nearly fumbled my Nav, but managed to swap to the navigational app, sending him a location on the Pokemon version of GPS. “That’s where we are.” I hesitated. “Just… hurry, okay? I don’t know how much we can do here.”
“Don’t worry, alright? You’re doing everything you can do. Even if you can’t buy us time, you warned us, and that’s enough to save lives. Remember that.”
With that, he hung up, cutting off the increasingly frantic noises that had been coming through underneath what he’d been saying. I stared at my Nav for a long moment, thinking… hold on. Mirra was a Grass specialist, yeah? She was a single person, and a trainer of skill and capability. As good as the Rangers were, I didn’t think they’d be able to go overland as quickly as a single trainer with a powerful team. With an assortment of Grass types behind us, we might be able to use plant matter to shore up the dam, roots and vines to hold it together and prevent it from eroding while we figured out something else.
But… shit, I hadn’t gotten her number. I’d meant to, but the whole thing had put me all over the place, and it’d slipped my mind. I didn’t have Sakae-sama’s number, or any of the family, really. I had the contact point that was the server, but I didn’t know how quickly that would catch their attention. The only number I actually had was Mansaku, which I supposed was the closest I was going to get. I brought up his Nav’s contact details and called him.
“Ah, Cam, hello. Is this a courtesy call, or has something happened with young Ajax already?”
“Hey, uh- we have a bit of an emergency on our hands, here.” I started pacing, holding the Nav up to my ear. “I need- I think I need what’s happening relayed to Sakae-sama.”
I remembered her comments about straightening things out, about being involved to some degree with the efforts to straighten out everything that was happening across Sinnoh. Hopefully, she had the influence to kick some things into gear, but I felt that I was grasping at straws, reaching for anything that might help even a little. Well, it wasn’t like I was wasting my time here, right? Every little bit anybody contributed could be the thing that pushed it over the edge. I had to believe that, otherwise what was the point of what I was doing?
“What kind of emergency? Medical?” He sounded concerned, but business-like. There was a problem, and I could see his medical background kicking in, maybe a bit of triage coming to the fore.
“N-no. Well, yes, in a way, if we don’t… it’s more of an impending natural disaster. A knock-on effect of everything happening across the region right now. The Rangers didn’t pick up on it-” I cut myself off, stopping my rambling from going anywhere else that wasn’t relevant. “The point is that I’m at a dam that’s about to fail and flood everything between here and the Grand Marsh. It’s- well, it’s not looking good. We don’t know how long the dam has left before it collapses. We’re trying to figure out how we can delay it, and I called the Rangers in, so they’ll hopefully be evacuating the riverbanks…”
“Good. I’ll speak to granny, do what we can from this end. Things are stretched, and something like this could be bad if we weren’t ready for it.” I listened to him shuffle his Nav, maybe moving it from hand to hand? “How did you find out this was happening? I doubt it was right on the trail.”
Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.
“We came across an absol, who was trying to warn us. Led us right to the dam. They’ve stuck around, for the moment anyway, I figure they want to see if there’s anything they can do. I think they have an inkling of how bad things are with this.”
“An absol? Oh. Oh dear. This really is serious, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, and I’m doing my best not to, I don’t know. Panic? I feel like I’ve been stuck in a deep freezer.” I let out a little laugh, settling down on a chewed stump. “I’ve never faced anything like this. It’s not something that my partners can just hit until it goes away, you know?”
“Can you do something for me?”
“I- y-yeah, sure, I can- I can do something. Yeah.”
“Take a deep breath in. Hold it.” I paused for a moment, took in a deep breath, feeling it expand in my chest. “Count to ten. Let it out.”
I let out the breath with an extended sigh, and with it, I felt like a bit of the nervous, quivering panic in my chest left as well. I did it again, eyes closing as I felt how it settled in my lungs, how it flowed in and out of me. Colder coming in, warmer going out.
“Better?”
“... Yeah.”
“League trainers have to deal with stressful situations. This won’t be the first time you find yourself like this, facing something that endangers people. Taking a moment to steady yourself is vital, and you should never forget that.”
“I think I was losing it a little there. I’ll try and remember that. Thank you.” My lips twitched towards a smile, and then I remembered that he couldn’t see me. I just hoped that the expression came through in my voice.
“Go. Focus on the issue, but don’t let it sweep you away. I’ll speak to granny, we’ll see what we can do from here. You focus on what you need to do there, and don’t worry about us.”
“I will, thanks.” I paused, then winced; almost forgot again, I’d been so distracted by everything… “Do you have Mirra’s Nav details on hand? I don’t know if she can help, if she can even get here in time, but I don’t want any stone unturned.”
“I’ll send her details along as soon as I can, make some calls among the family. We’ve got favours we can pull. Help is on the way.”
“I really hope it is.”
He hung up, and I sat there for a long moment, staring at my Nav. Was there anything else I could do? Other people I could call? Jen was too far away to make a difference, she’d have to come all the way through Hearthome. Alice wouldn’t be able to do much, if anything. I didn’t even know if I could call on Fantina, we’d only technically spoken… twice? Once when I’d run into her Gym, twice after the battle. This was no time to be shy, but I figured that, if Sakae-sama and Kevan both knew, then one or both of them would inform Fantina. Right? Maybe it would be… best, if everybody was on the same page?
I set up another group, adding everyone I could think of to it: not many people, that was. Blake, Mansaku for Sakae-sama’s part, Kevan, and Mirra the moment Mansaku forwarded her Nav details. I did my best to take comprehensive and encompassing pictures of the dam itself, from both sides; giving them a good idea of how bad the dam was could only help. I sent the pictures, then turned around and walked back towards where our teams had rapidly set up a camp. It was the reality of the situation that I knew we’d be here for multiple days, trying to fix this before it all came tumbling down.
After giving us the warning and leading us here, I had expected the absol to vanish into the trees, like it had after we’d defeated the onix. However, instead, they’d chosen to stick around, most likely because the crisis wasn’t anywhere near over yet. Both of our teams seemed unsure what to make of the white-furred creature, and they, in turn, didn’t seem that interested in actually interacting with them. Instead, they sat off towards the edge of the makeshift camp, staring towards the dam.
As I approached, their gaze flicked to me, looking me up and down and taking in my expression. The slight turning down of the edges of their mouth clued me into the fact that they’d picked up at least a little of how dire the situation was from my expression. It jumped to the forefront of my mind that absols were precognitive, it’s how they predicted disasters in the first place, and more information never hurt. I approached them, their expression becoming wary as I got closer, though fading slightly when I crouched next to them with my hands folded.
“You saw this coming, right? Far enough out for you to lead us here in time to actually do something?” They stared at me, obviously trying to figure out where I was going with this, before nodding. “Do you think you could give me an estimate of how much time we have?”
They straightened slightly, eyes narrowing in thought. Even in the day, I could see the slight glow of their horn as they focused, frown stretching across their muzzle. After a moment, their head ducked a little, and they specifically straightened in order to regain their regal bearing. They thought for a moment, then reached out a claw.
In the dirt, they drew a crescent, then a circle. The moon and the sun, it was obvious enough; day and night. Crescent, circle, crescent… a total of two circles, three crescents. They seemed to hesitate on the last crescent, however, focusing harder, then outlined it with the quick motion of a claw and a look of frustration and worry. I supposed that they were uncertain whether we actually had that last night, or whether the dam would fail halfway through.
“Three nights, two days?” I asked. They nodded, looking satisfied.
Okay. Okay, that wasn’t a lot of time, but it was some time. I guessed, from how it began with a crescent, that that signified tonight, meaning that we had the rest of today in addition to what had been laid out here. I pushed myself to my feet, making the absol’s head snap to me, then turn away when I simply began pacing.
The information gave us a very good idea of exactly how much time we had, perhaps not down to the hour, but we could be sure that it was at least outlining how long we could work on a solution. Reinforcement might change the deadline, pushing it out, and all we had to do was delay that final collapse long enough for the civil engineers and Rangers to get here. If we bought enough time, it might not even be an issue, and they could erect a replacement dam strong enough to manage the pressure properly.
So, then, the issue was figuring out how to properly delay the inevitable. Because it was inevitable that the dam itself would collapse: it was too damaged, too weakened, the soil it was anchored to worn away by water pressure. So, then, what could we do in that time? How could we lighten the load without causing issues? I stopped, turning towards the dam in the distance and staring at it.
The first and most obvious issue was the fact that the lake behind the dam was overflowing, the water cascading down the outside surface of the dam. More than anything, that was wearing it down, sloughing off huge chunks of clay and removing the reinforcing branches that allowed it to stay together. It also complicated our ability to use our Fire types to harden the clay and strengthen the dam. So, obviously, the first thing to do was to stop the cascade somehow.
Building the dam higher wasn’t possible. It was already near the edge of the ravine, where the stone transitioned to rocky soil held together by plant matter and reinforced with branches shoved into it like pylons. Even if we could build it higher, the water pressure wouldn’t allow us to hold it back and it would be a largely temporary solution anyway. Might buy us a few hours, perhaps a day before the water reached the new height of the dam and started flowing over it again, or just… redirected into mountainous terrain surrounding us, causing a whole new host of problems.
The other way to fix it would be to construct a sort of spillway, where the water would be redirected away from the dam and led farther down the stream before pouring back into the streambed, preventing it from building up high enough that it continued to splash over the dam itself. The soil around the top of the ravine was rocky, yes, but it was largely composed of the same clay that the dam itself had been built of. With enough branches to reinforce and make sure that the water didn’t eat away at the soil anchors on either side of the dam… we could dig a channel that was lower than the top of the dam, reduce it to just a stone cork keeping the rest of the water back, then flash-bake the clay. It would act as a spillway, and hopefully, the makeshift ceramic we’d turn the walls and floor of it into would prevent the water from eating at the soil through erosion. It might buy us entire days, but we’d have to start immediately.
My mind turned over ideas of shifts, of responsibilities, of specific jobs as I went back towards where I’d last seen Blake. We might be able to wrangle local Pokemon to help prevent a disaster, which might get us grass and rock types, though I doubted they’d be strong enough to completely reinforce or rebuild the dam. The absol might know the lay of the land, could find where the local Pokemon were, if I could convince them to help. Drake and Ajax I needed on digging duty, helping to clear the channel and make it deep enough for the water pressure to properly flow. Blake’s team I would have to leave for him.
Blake had moved from the spot where I’d last seen him sitting, but he wasn’t hard to find. Specifically, he’d ended up closer to the dam itself, looking it over and discussing things with Jive. Supposed that it’d make sense that he was talking to the Pokemon that was capable of burrowing about this. Come to think of it, while rabbits burrowed, I wasn’t sure if Devi was capable of it: sure, he was a big bipedal rabbit, but would a Fire type actually want to be underground? Whatever. Blake looked up as I approached, the grim expression still cemented on his face.
“How goes it?”
I slowed to a stop next to him, thinking over my answer for a moment.
“I sent out word. We’ll get civil engineers and Rangers in a couple days, but we’re way out in the wilderness, and past a lot of terrain that vehicles have no way to cross. So, no heavy equipment, and they’re most likely going to have to get here on Pokemon back. Two days, I’d guess, and they’ll need time to set up and assess.”
Blake swore under his breath. “I don’t think we have that long.”
“We don’t.” I replied. He gave me a questioning look, so I continued. “I asked the absol. They’re… precognitive, that’s how they predict disasters in the first place, and they gave me a much more specific time table. Three nights, two days. If my guess is right, help’ll come right at the end of our time, too late to make a difference.”
Jive chittered to himself, perturbed, and started his version of pacing. Blake closed his eyes for a second, standing completely still. When he opened them again, however, there was raw determination behind them.
“Well, then, we’ll just have to delay it long enough for them to actually make a difference. Any ideas?”
“We need help, definitely. I think I can ask absol to start searching for any local Pokemon willing to help. For the dam itself, and right now, I do have something of an idea.” Blake motioned for me to continue, and Jive quite suddenly gave me his rapt attention. “I- basically, the plan is to…”
I trailed off, looking around for something to draw in the dirt. I located a proper stick, and after ensuring that it wasn’t going to weaken the soil surrounding the dam, pulled it out and began drawing.
“This is the dam. Right now, it’s got too much water behind it.” Two curved lines for the dam, with the edges of the ravine depicted as straight walls, and the water signaled by a series of wavy lines. “Right now, our main problem is that the water’s coming up and over, splashing the other side and slowly weakening it. Removing material, eroding its strength.” I waved my stick over the curved lines. “However, if we could make a channel to one side, deep enough and wide enough that it can handle the inflow from up the stream…” I traced another line, this one going way around the dam and back into the stream after it. Blake took the diagram in, processing it in a moment.
“Alright, but what about it eroding the channel? Could weaken the dam on this side.”
“I’ve got a plan for that. We’re going to find a large, flat stone, and use it to block the lake side, before digging a pit up to it. The ground here is rocky clay, we can use the rocks and some branches to reinforce the walls before using Devi and Ajax together to bake the clay and make the walls and floor a rough kind of ceramic. When the pit’s all dug and baked, then we can remove the flat stone, allowing the water to flow into a channel and around the dam.”
Blake nodded, his eyes narrowed slightly and a hand stroking his face.
“It… could work. We’d have to work fast, and we’d need to be sure… this would take a lot of the time that we have, and the dam would be a lot weaker by the time we’d finished.”
“If it buys enough time, we might be able to repair the damage the extra time does to the dam. Honestly could probably do it by shoving branches in and slapping more clay on, then baking.”
“Yeah. Main problem I can see is exhaustion.” He took the stick from me, writing out names in the mud. “We’ll need to establish shifts, so that we can work without really exhausting ourselves. I’d say two shifts, to make sure one of us is there at all times. A Fire type on either shift, to bake the clay as we finish digging a portion of the channel. Mika and Noble won’t like to be split up, and they work far better with each other, so they need to be on the same shift.”
He wrote out both of our names, then started a column under them of the names he’d listed out.
“Devi needs to be with me, Ajax with you. If Mika and Noble are on my shift, that leaves Jive to work on the channel with Drake. If you can convince the absol to rally the local Pokemon, then that might make the job easier, give us options we didn’t have before. Even a single Grass type could be a game changer, at this point.”
Jive and I both nodded, the weasel Pokemon scampering off towards the camp, most likely to explain what was going on to the rest of our teams. Blake straightened himself, stretching so that his back cracked.
“Between the two of us, we can occasionally fill in for one of the digging Pokemon when they want a break, but we’re better spent finding branches and such to act as reinforcing rods. We have a plan, now it falls to just carrying it out.”
I nodded, then put my hand on his shoulder. He looked at me in surprise, and I gave him a smile.
“Not hopeless yet, is it?”
He blinked, then returned it. “Yeah. Not hopeless yet.”
I patted his shoulder, then turned and walked back towards the camp, while he started assessing what the best route for the channel would be. As I walked back towards our tents, I could see that there was a flurry of activity, our teams gathered around Jive as the weasel chittered and gestured with his paws, obviously explaining the plan to the rest of them. The absol, however, was hanging at the edge of the camp, watching from a distance. Obviously not nearly comfortable enough to come closer, but feeling bound to do something about this. I was just thankful that they’d stuck around this long.
“Absol?” They turned their head towards me with a question. “Hey, I was wondering. You’ve stuck around, so you’re willing to help, right?” They nodded without hesitation, seriousness crossing their face. “Look, we’re barely enough to do this on our own, but the area is probably filled with all kinds of native Pokemon. If you could hunt down anything, even just a Pokemon that could dig, that would help immensely. The plan demands all of our teams on task, but you can seek out more help for us.”
They brightened instantly, obviously happy to have something to do that could make a difference, though they never lost the regal bearing they’d maintained since I first saw them. They stood, nodding to me, then bound off towards the rocky landscape that surrounded us. Hopefully, they’d be back soon with help, Pokemon that could make a difference. For the moment, however, I walked towards where the Pokemon were talking amongst themselves, drawing things in the dirt and discussing them. They went quiet as I approached, watching as I sat down on a rock on one side of the rough circle they’d made.
I looked around at the faces of all the Pokemon that surrounded me. Drake was serious as ever, though there was now an edge of urgency about his expression. Ajax was anxious, uncertain, seeming to take some comfort from the fact that I was here and that I had a plan. Blake’s team was more grounded than mine, obviously already focused on the problem in front of them, processing what they could do to contribute the most. It occurred to me that, if Blake was League-affiliated, then this might not be the first crisis that his team had faced. That was a welcome thought: in the field, all by ourselves, any amount of experience was welcome. It could be the difference between success and failure.
“I’m.. not going to sugar coat things. It’s-” I mulled it over. “It’s not quite desperate, but it is dire. The dam is weak, and it’s only getting weaker, but we can’t do anything if we don’t have our heads on straight.” I addressed the last bit more to my own team than Blake’s, but they all nodded anyway. “It’ll be tight, but we think that this’ll buy us time. Help is on the way, and as long as we can hold out long enough for them to reach us, then we’ll be okay. Everyone downstream from here will be alright, but only if we give it our all, if we can push through and do what has to be done.” I was shite at speeches. Whatever. “It’ll be rough, I won’t lie to you about that, but I think we can do it if you’re all with me, and with Blake.” I raised my eyebrows. “So, are you?”
The affirmations were unanimous. Even Ajax, who still couldn’t hide his anxiety at the first real serious situation he’d been thrust into, worried at the lack of experience when compared to the other Pokemon here, stood tall and nodded. He wouldn’t let inexperience hold him back from helping people, if he was able to. Drake simply seemed bound and determined to participate, no matter what, his laser-tight focus coming through in his eyes and on his face.
I couldn’t help but smile.
“Then, let’s get to it.”
----------------------------------------
We’d started by outlining the path that the channel would take, and outlining it with sticks placed at regular intervals. As we dug it out, we’d take those markers and slide them into the ground, turning them into rods that reinforced the walls of the channel. It curved gently around where the dam anchored itself to the soil, coming all the way around and letting out far enough from the dam to not injure it farther. It would pour back into the streambed over the wall, and we ensured that the water wouldn’t end up landing at the base of the dam and weakening it farther.
Mika and Noble, between the former’s speed and the latter’s flight, quickly managed to locate a large, flat rock that could serve as a cork for the stream’s end of the channel. Between all the Pokemon and myself and Blake, we managed to move it, shifting it towards where Drake had dug a thin slot into the shore of the artificial lake for it. The stone slotted in like a coin, settling into the sand and clay and making a tight seal against it. With that in the way, Drake started digging out the lake side of the stone, while the rest of us began digging on the other side for the beginning of the channel.
Blake and the Pokemon that were on his shift called it the moment the stone was in the ground and we’d started on the channel proper. The Pokemon had hushed conversations before splitting off, and Blake wished me luck. Come midnight, I’d be waking him up, and I’d go to bed myself somewhere around four in the morning. A constant cycle of working, during which we’d sustain ourselves with the MRE’s I’d packed and raw berries.
Drake finished digging out the lake side of the stone quickly. Getting it out of the ground would be a huge effort, most likely composed of digging it out a bit more and tilting it into the lake once we were done. Still, that wasn’t something that we needed to think about right now: we had to get the channel done.
I spent some of the time out looking for more branches and rocks, trying my best to reinforce the walls of the channel as Jive, Ajax, and Drake dug it out. The rest, however, I spent down there with my e-tool, trying to get as much done as I could. Blake had possessed a couple pairs of rough worn gloves, meant for climbing and such, which I’d commandeered to use as work gloves. Blisters and wearing off skin could prevent us from working as fast or as well, something I pointed out to all of us. The Pokemon might not be handling a shovel, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t break a claw or similar, and we’d struggle to do nearly as much without all of their help.
After a bit, we settled on a system of three on, one off- there wasn’t a way for all four of us to work on the channel at the same time without being in each other’s way. The one off would be resting or gathering more stones and branches, while the three of us worked frantically to dig out the first layer of the channel. Instead of digging the whole thing in one go, we’d decided that it was better to dig the first layer, outline where it was going to be precisely, before starting in.
We made quick and marked progress as we approached the end of the day. With the sun slowly sinking over the horizon, the shadows growing longer and it getting hard to see, I had to break out a rechargeable flashlight I’d purchased as part of the camping supplies. It shed enough light that we could see what we were doing, but not much more. This was exactly the sort of thing that the human brain took one look at before shrieking in fear, but, for some reason, the dark didn’t feel… oppressive, or frightening. Instead, it felt almost comforting? Like a blanket, I supposed.
Working at a prodigious rate, we managed to clear a large amount of the clay and rocky soil over the hours. By the time the alarm went off on my Nav, time ticking over to midnight and the technical start of the next day, we’d completed about two thirds of the first layer of the channel. It was maybe twenty five, thirty centimeters deep, not nearly deep enough or as deep as we were going to make it, but a good start nonetheless.
“Good job, you two.” I said, low, as I ruffled the headfur of both of my partners. Drake pretended that he didn’t care, but I could feel his head tilt to get better attention, while Ajax had no shame in butting his head against my hand, tired, but pleased with the progress we’d made. I could only hope that it would be enough.
There was little conversation between the Pokemon as we walked back. My boys were exhausted, Ajax barely able to keep his eyes open and occasionally veering to the left or right, Drake focused on remaining alert and scanning the terrain around us. The dark made him sharper, more alert, more focused, and he was using that to constantly sweep the area for a threat. It made me wonder what his past had been like, that his first response to any unknown situation was threat assessment. Was that common, where he’d come from? Was it a trained response that someone had worked into him, so thoroughly that he did it as a matter of course, or was it something that he’d arrived at on his own after one too many times being surprised?
It was one of those moments where I wished I could ask him more detailed questions about his trainer before me. It was obvious that something had happened, true, but there was no telling what that something had been. Had he been abandoned? Lost? Certainly, if it’d been the latter, then I would’ve discovered it, right? I watched as some small sound echoed across the rocks and scrub bushes, his head turning to track the sound without hesitation or error.
What made you so alert, partner of mine? What was the road like, to have brought you here, to me?
The line of thought was interrupted by another series of noises, the sound of small rocks bouncing against larger ones. Instantly, Jive was completely alert, scanning our environment. Drake nudged Ajax, who seemed to come closer to life with a shake of his head and body, blinking and focusing in the direction the sound had come from. They gathered close around me, no Type energy in their auras yet, but still ready against some threat in the dark.
I remembered, sudden and stark, the claw markings and purple residue that had decorated this place. The signs of some great battle between a number of different bidoof and bibarel, and something strong enough to drive off an entire colony of them. I clenched my fists, shuffling to the side to be more effectively in the center of the defensive triangle formed by the three Pokemon.
I had an inkling, a suspicion, that the attack had been perpetrated by a roving gang of Ghost types, much like the attack on Vinewood that I’d stumbled into. The attack that had forced Drake and I together, allies of circumstance that had become partners in the aftermath. If that was true, then here, surrounded by Dark types, was where I was safest, a ring of Type advantage that any Ghost would avoid with prejudice. However, I couldn’t help but think of Blake and the rest of his team, back at camp, sleeping. Helpless.
“Jive.” I muttered his name, just loud enough to be heard over the rushing of water. The weasel turned his head in my direction, alert but unworried. “Blake doesn’t have you with him. He’s asleep. No Dark type to stand guard, and I’m almost certain this colony was attacked by Ghost types.”
I could see the moment that it connected in his mind. The weasel straightened, his eyes flashed as his head snapped in the direction of the battlefield we’d found. I could see him process it all in a second, the distance between camp, the possibility of Ghosts. His eyes found me again, and I could see the hesitation. He was powerful and fast, faster than me or any of mine: if he put his mind to being back at camp, it was only a minute away. But, by doing so, he would leave us out in the open, a human and his two Pokemon, both of which were perhaps rank three at a stretch.
“Don’t worry about us.” I smiled, and I found that I didn’t have to force it. This wasn’t the first time we’d had this happen, and the last time, I’d only had Drake at my side, and we’d still made it out okay. I had complete and unwavering faith in my partners. “We’ll be alright. Get back to your partner, make sure he’s alright.”
Jive hesitated once more, the desire to protect his partner warring with his duty to protect us. It was the first time I’d seen the laid-back linoone ever look so serious, the conflict between what he felt were his two responsibilities. He glanced at Drake, at Ajax. Drake, as ever, was an anchor of adamantine, prepared to weather whatever was thrown at him. Ajax was shakier, eyes darting over the area around us, but it was clear that he wouldn’t be retreating. Mollified, the weasel gave us a nod, then dashed into the darkness, vanishing in an instant.
“What do you sense?” I muttered to my partners.
Ajax had grown up in Hearthome, a place that was as upbeat and cheerful as it had an ancient association with the Ghost type. Drake had the experience of fighting wild Ghost types, nasty things not restrained by their contact with human culture, unbound spirits of mischief and malicious intent. I could see how they focused, how they sharpened their senses, searching for a hint in our surroundings of something.
And then, as one, they turned. And I turned with them, because something felt very subtly… wrong. Like… I struggled for a moment, as I turned, thinking of what it was like. It was like there was something that was inherently wrong, somewhere near me, something I’d seen and couldn’t get out of my head. The moment I turned, I froze.
Usually, it would be hard to see in the dark like this. It wasn’t quite pitch black, a sliver of moon hanging over our heads and shedding a little bit of silver light over our surroundings, but it wasn’t near enough light to make out details. I imagined that Drake and Ajax could see better in it than I could, and I had pretty good night vision. Still, for any of us to see in detail, it took my flashlight, a flashlight that I still held in my hand.
But I didn’t need to turn the beam in the direction of what I saw, because it glowed. It was a poisonous purple light, one that could be only just compared to the energy I’d seen around Fantina’s ghosts. Then, it had ranged, playful to serious, as the battle had worn on. Here, there was little mistaking it: though they were of the same vague type, this was entirely different. The energy spiked, rolled across the ground like fog, but more than any of that? It felt malicious. If I had to guess at the thoughts of the Pokemon behind it, my guess would be that it was actively looking for the best way to harm us.
It was unlike anything I’d felt from any Pokemon before. Pokemon had felt watchful or anxious, playful or serious, bored, attentive, thoughtful- a whole gamut of emotion. But even the Pokemon of the person that had attacked us hadn’t felt malicious, more like they truly thought they were doing what was right. This energy, however, was cloying and heavy and absolutely hostile. As I watched, staring directly at it, a smile coalesced out of the swirling energy.
The chuckle that accompanied it set me on edge, a sound that pressed all those little fight or flight buttons that had kept my caveman ancestors alive in a hostile world. And as the rest of its round body and staring, red eyes appeared out of the energy, almost as if it was forming from the air itself, I could understand the instinct to run or fight.
The gengar, however, didn’t seem like it was going to let me choose ‘flee’. It stared us down, and I watched as one of its stubby hands ran itself over a series of lighter purple marks on its side, almost like a…
“Oh, shit.” I whispered to myself. Drake growled his agreement.