Chapter Text
After eating their breakfast, the absol left again, presumably to search for Pokemon to help with the channel that we were digging. This time, they didn’t seem so concerned with leaving when we weren’t looking, which might’ve been down to the urgency of the situation or simply being too tired to care.
Ajax seemed fascinated by the patterns that Devi had left across the rocks, and how some of the stones had been heated to the point of partially melting or having layers break off of them. I wondered if he’d be able to learn anything from the aftermath of Devi’s campaign against the Ghost types, or if it was just curiosity on his part. Still, after I finished my food and called him over, he came without hesitation.
During the night, Blake and his had been working away at the spillway, carving it through the rocky ground. Jive, now being a bipedal creature and still getting used to the change in body type, had apparently been assigned to gathering and planting sticks to reinforce the walls of the spillway. As we approached, I saw him finish carving smaller branches off of a particularly long piece of wood, before shoving it into the semi soft ground that made up the walls of the spillway. He sunk it until it was barely poking out of the ground, then moved on to the next.
Behind him, heat haze rose out of the trench, Devi radiating thermal energy as he baked the clay the spillway was made of into a rough ceramic. It clung closer to the branches that backed it up, contracting and hardening as he focused. Mika was directly digging the trench, carving clay out of the wall with rapid swipes. Noble was slicing rocks, carving thin trenches with their wings and softening the ground ahead of their partner.
Blake was working away at the clay with his own e-tool. Despite the cool mountain air that surrounded us, cooled somewhat more by the water misting into the air as it fell over the dam, he was sweating somewhat. As we approached, Mika pointed his head in our direction, clearly on high alert after the previous night. When he saw us, however, he appeared to relax, giving a bark before going back to what he’d been doing. Blake looked up from the clay that he was shoveling aside, and climbed out of the trench, wiping away some of the sweat on his forehead with the back of a hand.
… Huh. He was… pretty fit. That’s… interesting…
I twitched as something brushed against my leg, looking down. Drake stared back up at me, brow furrowed, curious concern written across his expression. I simply waved off. Clearly not entirely satisfied with that response, but apparently willing to let it go anyway, Drake took a step back. Blake, thankfully, seemed not to have noticed my lapse in attention.
“Up, huh? Hope you slept alright, despite…” He shrugged. I didn’t need to guess where he was going with that one.
“Yeah, I slept alright. I think I would remember being subjected to Dream Eater, so I think they did all leave after we beat them back.” I grimaced. “Or, at least, I hope so.”
Blake nodded, gaze sweeping the horizon. I noted that his Pokemon were doing the same, occasionally pausing whatever they were doing to scan the area, keeping up a continuous guard against something like last night. I didn’t think that the ghosts would be attacking during the day, if they were even intending to make another attempt, but I supposed that I was at least somewhat comforted at the fact that they were keeping their guard up.
They’d made a lot of progress since the previous night. I wasn’t particularly surprised to note that they’d made more headway than we had. Jive had contributed the most to the effort out of all of us, maybe even near as much as all of us together. I wasn’t surprised by the idea that a team of Pokemon approximately as strong as Jive had accomplished a lot more than we had in roughly the same amount of time, even with Jive sleeping through most of it.
Still, even the likes of Blake’s team were constrained by the fact that they had to be careful, or risk rupturing the dam. Any of Blake’s Pokemon could carve furrows into the ground, power and techniques allowing them to blow cuts out of the ground, but the vibrations and sudden changes would be too much. The dam was already fragile enough without rattling it further and risking stray attacks, and thus, it had to be dug by physical labour only.
They’d completed the initial layer of digging, outlining where precisely the spillway would run. It curved around the edge of the dam and came out far enough downstream that the water wouldn’t be running over the foot of it, weakening it further. After completing the first layer, they’d gone back to the beginning, digging a much deeper channel that could actually handle the flow we needed to get rid of.
The depth of the thing was impressive, a good two, two and a half meters from the rough floor of the spillway to the reinforced edge. This was where most of the work was, moving enough dirt that it could handle the stream’s entire flow and prevent further water from flowing over the top of the dam. Even between all of Blake’s partners and their incredible strength, there were still quite literal tons of clay, soil, and stones to move.
“Nothing for it but to get back to it, huh?” I said.
Blake merely nodded, taking stock of what they’d accomplished so far, and how much was left to go. Drake and Ajax each leapt down into the pit, Drake immediately going to where Mika and Noble were carving away at the mounds of dirt in front of them. Ajax approached Devi, who turned down the heat for a moment to start expressing something to him, maybe the process of what he was doing and how to do it. I slipped into a pair of gloves, which I’d originally bought for the purpose of climbing, but would now serve well enough as work gloves.
It was hard, hot work, despite the coolness of the mountain air that I’d noted before. With my partners and myself there, adding just a little more effort onto the pile, we began making just a little more progress. Every once in a while, Devi would leave Ajax to heat the clay walls and fill a pot through a filter, before boiling it and leaving it to cool in the brisk early morning air. As the hours passed, I was pretty quickly grateful for it.
Still, despite the progress that we were making, I couldn’t help but glance at the dam and the water still sloughing off parts of it. Every time a branch or a clump of clay was lost to the falls that had developed over the dam’s top, I felt something clench inside of me. I couldn’t help but wonder, watching the clay land at the foot of the dam, whether it was that which would be the final straw, the first domino to fall. Every time, I held my breath for a moment, but the dam continued to hold. For the moment.
It maintained a tense and urgent atmosphere over all present. There was none of the lighthearted fun that had laced itself through the entire trip here, through setting up and taking down camps. None of us had the energy or the mood for it, a collective tension like a taut string, keeping us on edge. It was difficult to have any amount of playfulness when constantly faced with the consequences of not completing it in time. And as the day progressed, I found myself more and more worried that we wouldn’t be making it.
The absol had told me three nights, two days. We’d already expended one night and half of a day, leaving us with two nights and a day and a half, and a whole force of ghosts in the wind. It wasn’t just a matter of finishing the channel, anymore, it was a matter of finishing the channel and keeping a constant guard to ensure that the gengar couldn’t make another go at the dam. It meant guard shifts, on both the campground and the dam itself, taking away labour that could be better used digging the spillway. I couldn’t help but wonder if part of that hadn’t been purposeful on the gengar’s part. It had intentionally become a lingering threat in the background that ensured that we couldn’t drop our guard and relax, or focus totally and completely on working to mitigate the issue of the dam.
Thinking about this like I was made it so that, when the Pokemon suddenly perked up in unison, I was immediately on high alert. I quickly set my e-tool aside, slapping the dust off my gloves and turning to find Blake already clambering out of the trench. There was an intensely focused look on his face, and I had to wonder what was happening. Was this another ghost assault? During that day? I didn’t think they’d do something like that, with ghosts being more powerful in the dark, but maybe the damn gengar had found or done something. When I actually climbed out of the trench, however, using a ladder of branches that we’d constructed, I felt immediate relief.
There, approaching us from the rocky mountain country and scrubland, was the absol. Their silver fur was laced with dusty brown and black, and they appeared exhausted, but there was something proud about it as well. Watching, I could see why: on their heels, negotiating the rough terrain like it was flat asphalt, was a graveler. Behind it came a troupe of geodude, the boulder with arms, following along in a loose group and occasionally becoming distracted by the rocks around them. The graveler approached within shouting range, and while the absol seemed comfortable getting closer than that, the graveler seemed much more wary of us.
Devi patted his trainer’s shoulder, and Blake stepped back, ceding control of the situation to his ace and starter. The fire rabbit stepped forwards, the graveler’s attention drawn instantly to them, making a small snort of derision. It occurred to me that neither Blake nor I had any Pokemon that were directly effective against the Rock typing, and that Rock types in a general sense were tough bastards. All I could hope was that things went amiably, or it might be an uphill fight, even with the sheer strength of Blake’s team.
Devi gestured rapidly, speaking in a series of noises that I couldn’t make heads or tails of. Indications and pointing, however, were more easily interpreted, and there was a lot of indicating towards the dam and the spillway we were carving. Quickly, the graveler’s expression changed from closed and derisive to concerned, glancing downriver to where forests and expanses of habitat lay. I could see them thinking of all the Pokemon that would be swept away or endangered by a flood, and I wondered if the Rock type’s weakness to water was working for us in this case. Of course a Rock type would instantly understand the threat of a flood, and know how serious the threat of one was.
From that moment, Devi had the graveler’s ear, despite the fact that they looked reluctant to listen. They lost much of their wariness, coming closer and standing by Devi’s side as the cinderace rapidly explained what we were doing and why. After a time, the graveler nodded and waved the geodude that had followed them closer, beginning to organize them into groups and assign tasks.
The lion’s share of the group went to carving the channel, working away at the rocky clay that stood in its path. A few more, however, went to further reinforcing the walls of the spillway, taking stones and shaping them with their bare hands and planting them into the walls. I watched, fascinated and keen to stay out of the way of strong Pokemon, as our teams went to work with them. Devi, coaching Ajax and working on his own, began welding the stones together as the geodude assembled them, making the walls and floor a solid stone construction.
The graveler involved itself with the digging team, occasionally moving back to the stonelayers to direct them or to help them with a particularly large rock. The rest of our Pokemon had focused themselves on digging with the geodude group, while Jive continued with his work shoring up the walls with a variety of branches and sticks. The obstagoon was obviously still getting used to his new form, occasionally attempting to go quadrupedal or attempt a motion that was more natural for his previous form, before sheepishly remembering the change he’d undergone.
Still, I felt a rising sensation in my gut as I watched the rapid progress we were now making. With the graveler and their geodude, the spillway was going to be much stronger than we could’ve made it, greatly reducing the chance that it would cause the water to wear away at the soil and cause the dam to collapse entirely. I had to wonder if the group would be willing to stick around further and help us reinforce the actual dam with their ability to shape rocks, when it came to it. I dearly hoped so.
With the trench filled with working Pokemon, Blake and I found ourselves frozen out of much of the manual labour. Instead, we found ourselves ferrying branches for Jive and rocks for the geodude, which the Pokemon appeared to be greatly amused by. Still, I found myself greatly fascinated by the fact that a large enough group of strong Pokemon appeared to be perfectly capable of filling in for industrial equipment. I didn’t particularly have a problem with helping them out, though they occasionally had to prod me back into moving when I was distracted by them working.
The encroaching evening found us in a much better position than we had been that morning. Much of the spillway was already carved through the difficult ground, and then reinforced with shaped stones that had then been welded by Devi and Ajax. I figured that we’d reached a rough halfway point. Now, however, with night slowly beginning to fall, the graveler’s wariness was beginning to return as they examined the mountainside around us. I guessed that they’d heard about the Ghost types and their plan from our Pokemon, and was now cautious of them making another attempt. I couldn’t disagree with them there. Finally, I pulled Blake aside.
“They’re going to make another attempt.” I said, low.
We were standing close enough to the worksite that all the Pokemon present could still see us, just in case. I wasn’t being private about this, exactly, but it felt like something that we should discuss between us before bringing in the unknown element that was the graveler and their geodude. I figured that they were committed enough to keep working, but we should figure out what we were doing about it beforehand anyway.
“Most likely.” Blake said, evenly. I had to admit that I wasn’t as calm about that fact. “From what you said, that gengar was determined. They’ll try something, though I don’t think it’ll be another frontal assault if they know what’s good for them. They caught us by surprise the first time, and they still got chewed up pretty bad; and I doubt that they’ll have that dusknoir on their side this time, which means they’d have to make do with sheer quantity. And that wouldn’t work.”
I nodded, casting my gaze over the worksite and the dam. We’d made a lot of progress, but I knew there were plenty of weaknesses still apparent. After all, the dam was still crumbling under the stream of water as we worked, slowly but surely dissolving to nothing. I couldn’t help but account for the fact that the absol might be off by a bit, if, for example, they were sensing the deaths resulting from the event and not the event itself. If the gengar and its ghosts hit the right place at the right time, they could potentially start a chain reaction that could bring the whole thing down early.
“With the graveler and their geodude, I think that frees up Pokemon to do other things.”
“Like what?” Blake asked, giving me a curious look. I shrugged.
“Guard duty. Station one of ours at either end of the dam in shifts. We can make sure that the gengar doesn’t have a chance to touch the dam, not with Pokemon watching constantly.”
Blake grimaced. “That’ll slow the rate at which we’re building the spillway.”
I simply shrugged again. “What else can we do? I don’t think we have another option. All we can do is try to minimize the danger to the dam, and, unfortunately, it looks like pulling labour away is the only way to do it.”
“Well… not necessarily.” A thoughtful expression came across his face, one of his hands reaching up to rub his chin. “With the Pokemon doing most of the physical labour, the two of us? We’re not contributing all that much. If there’s anyone fit for guard duty…” I drew in a hiss of breath.
“Are you sure about that? That’s… dangerous. I’m not even sure our partners will go for that, anyway, they view their job as keeping us out of harm's way.”
“My team’ll accept it. They won’t like it, but they’ll accept that it’s necessary. Sometimes we just have to do dangerous things, there’s no two ways about it.” He cast a contemplative gaze over Drake and Ajax, working dutifully at their parts of the spillway. “What about your partners? Will they accept that?”
I shuffled. To tell the truth, I wasn’t sure. Drake had stuck close by my side since our goals had aligned, and seemed reluctant to even be too physically far from me. Even now, when I was barely ten, fifteen meters away from him, he kept glancing over to make sure that I was alright and close enough that he could rush to my side. He was fiercely protective of me, especially with the potential threat of ghosts lingering behind every rock and scrub bush. Ajax was less concerned, partially due to how much sheer focus the task he was working on took, partially due to just not being as protective in general of me as Drake was.
Ajax would accept that I had to do it, I was sure. He understood duty, I felt, in an intrinsic and instinctual way. He wouldn’t like it in the slightest, of course, but he’d relent. Drake, on the other hand, would refuse to let me do it alone, would insist on being there. But pulling Drake away from the spillway was just a little less labour rapidly digging out its path, a little more time that the dam might collapse in. We couldn’t afford it.
“I don’t know. Ajax’ll be like your team: he’ll accept it, even if he doesn’t like it. Drake, though, he’s not going to let me do guard duty on my own. He’ll demand to be there, just because he won’t let me take the risk all on my own.” I folded my arms. “He’s… attached to me. He was in a bad place when I found him, and I managed to drag him out of it. He’ll be desperate to protect me.”
“And, in doing so, lessen the effort going into the dam itself.” Nice to see that Blake understood where my thoughts were going, there.
“The question is whether we can afford it.”
Drake was contributing, certainly, but to be fair, he wasn’t the highest of the contributions. It wasn’t shade on him, it was just the fact that the tasks that we were having to accomplish didn’t quite match his skills or abilities. Digging wasn’t something that poochyena inherently excelled at, so while he was perfectly capable of doing so, he was accomplishing less than a geodude doing so. More than us, certainly, but less than any of the other Pokemon working on it.
If we pitched the idea to him and simply told him that he could come with me for the guard duty, I couldn’t see him having that much of a problem with it. He’d see the necessity of it, his only problem with it would be me doing it alone. If he could stand guard with me, there went most of his problems with me doing it in the first place.
“Drake’s doing less than a geodude, in terms of how much work he’s contributing.” I said, repeating the thought aloud. “I don’t think it would be a major downgrade to how much work we’re throwing at this to pull him away for a few hours of guard duty. If he can accompany me, I can’t see that he’d have a problem with it, though he may be a little anxious about being the only one there. He and Ajax together barely held their ground last time.”
“If it comes down to that, that’s all you’ll need to do: just hold long enough for the rest of us to get there.”
He patted my shoulder, and walked back towards the spillway and up to Jive, saying something to the obstagoon that I couldn’t hear from here. I glanced upwards at the sky, where the sun was long past its apex and on its way down the other side of the sky, creeping lower towards the horizon with every minute. If the pattern held true from the previous night, if the gengar made an attempt at the dam, it would come at midnight.
It was a long way from now, hours, and I felt a slight flightyness in my stomach thinking about it. Something dangerous and threatening that might or might not happen, in the dead of night, right when Drake and I were at our most tired after a long day of digging and working? It was an idea that didn’t sit well with me. I couldn’t help but weigh the idea, not looking forward to the reality of it. Still, I sighed and shook it off as best I could, following Blake’s footsteps back to the Pokemon. Nothing for it but to shelve the entire thing for later.
Work progressed rapidly during the dwindling hours of the day. Where I had been worried about us finishing in time to save the dam from collapse, now we were approaching having a good portion of the spillway done. Not only that, but it was a much higher quality than I’d expected: bonded stone over hardened clay, making a makeshift stone half-tube that formed about half of the channel. I figured a full two-thirds had been entirely dug out, with the rest well on its way, and I was confident that we’d finish tomorrow easily.
As the sky started darkening, the sun touching the edge of the land and beginning to sink, the graveler looked up and examined the last rays of sunlight. Their crew of geodude was obviously much more worn out than they’d been when they’d first arrived, but still hanging in there, and I could see their measuring gaze sweep over them even as they directed the Pokemon under their leadership. With a motion, they brought Devi over, the graveler apparently having decided, not incorrectly, that the fire rabbit was in charge. The two of them had a quick conversation, the content of which I guessed was the two of them figuring out how much longer the geodude could remain out here and working, before the two of them nodded. Devi held up two fingers towards Blake, who nodded in turn.
“Two more hours?” I asked, handing Jive the last of the branches I’d picked up so he could begin cleaning it and patting my hands clean.
“Thereabouts.” He stretched, letting out a groan as his back cracked. “Wild Pokemon don’t tend to measure time like we do, but that’s about the time they’ve got left before they figure they have to rest. At that point, it’ll just be whoever we can keep working.”
“So, Jive, Drake, Ajax, and me again.”
“Basically.” He said. He cast his gaze over me. “You sure you’ll be alright for that? Me and mine are already falling apart, we figure that with the sunset we’ll head back to camp and try to get whatever rest we can.”
“Yeah. As long as you come running when we need you, best that you get some rest.”
He nodded, waving to get Devi’s attention.
“Hey, Devi! Pack it in, alright? Time to get some rest!” Then, in a lower voice, he addressed me again. “When that gengar does… whatever it’s going to do, send the absol. We’ll get up and going as quickly as we can, and hopefully, between yours and mine, we can trap that gengar between us. Prevent it from getting away.”
“What then?”
“I’ve got some spare Pokeballs.” An expression flitted across his face, which I guessed to be displeasure. “I don’t like the idea of capturing a Pokemon that doesn’t want to be, but that gengar is a menace. If it’s still loose by the time the Rangers get here, I’ll talk with them about putting a bounty job out on it, see if a Ghost specialist can’t pin it down.”
“I don’t want that thing in the wind.” I said, certain about the idea, even despite the tinge of anxiety. “There’s- it could’ve done anything, but it went after us with something like this. It’s just a straight up threat to everybody.” Blake nodded, serious. “We got close, last night, but not close enough. Too many ghosts, and not enough of us. Tried to pin it down, but-”
He squeezed my shoulder. I broke off what I’d been saying, giving him a tired look, which he returned with a smile.
“It’s alright. You tried your best, and you all got out alright. You know what you did wrong, and that wasn’t one of them: just didn’t get to do it. Best thing you can do is give us the best chance you can to have another go at it, yeah?”
“Yeah.” I agreed.
He gave my shoulder another squeeze, then joined his Pokemon as they streamed out of the spillway and up onto the flat ground beside it. Devi and the graveler exchanged a few words, then parted, the graveler going back to managing their troop while Devi rounded up an exhausted Mika and Noble. It was the most quiet and low-energy I’d ever seen the irrepressible duo, seeming exhausted after a long day of manual labour. Still, they made the effort to start poking at Devi in good fun the moment they had the chance, which the rabbit seemed to respond to with exasperated fondness.
Jive waved off his compatriots, having a moment where he almost overbalanced, forgetting that he was sitting closer to a biped than how a quadruped would. As far as I knew, Blake or Devi had had to teach the new biped the sitting position he was now occupying. An amusing sort of idea, but it was different for a Pokemon like Devi, who was bipedal throughout all of his evolutionary stages.
I had to wonder if that was an issue that I might be seeing, with Pokemon that I might be picking up. Drake’s change to a mightyena, whenever it happened, wouldn’t be that drastic of a change. Ultimately, he’d just be a somewhat bigger version of himself, with the same sort of body shape and type with the same sort of features. Ajax would be a much larger change, given that he was already so much bigger than Drake, and would probably double or more in size when he finally evolved. Going from something the size of a large dog to the size of a horse would be a big change for him, and one I’d have to be ready for.
The graveler seemed somewhat uncomfortable without Devi there, sending occasional glances in my direction and seeming unsure what to make of me. That quickly settled back down into managing their subordinates, thankfully, when they figured out that I wasn’t going to make a move on them just because the other trainer was gone. Now, really, I wasn’t even sure what I’d do with a graveler even if I caught one. The Rock typing wasn’t one that I’d ever favoured, despite their inherent advantages: I preferred Steel, for durability.
We quickly settled back into a rhythm of working, though one different and noticeably slower than when the rest of Blake’s team had been there. Jive, now settled enough in his bipedal body, did his best to replace the digging efforts of Mika and Noble, and seemed quite capable at it. Ajax wasn’t quite as skilled or as quick at bonding the stones together with the clay as Devi had been, but whatever he lacked in practiced skill, he made up for in enthusiasm and plenty of power.
After a time, I looked up from where I had taken the place of Jive, working the branches into the sides of the spillway with hammer blows from my e-tool. The graveler was squinting into the sky, noting the position of the moon, and checking the condition of his workers. I slipped my Nav out of my pocket, wincing at the mostly empty battery. Still, it was about when Blake said they’d quit, a couple hours before midnight. That left two more hours for the four of us, five if you counted the absol, to be the only ones out here. Waiting for the gengar, which I was sure was out there, to try something, which I couldn’t begin to guess at. Fantastic.
I checked in with the absol, Jive, and Ajax before I made an attempt to cross the stream. The absol was more focused on the darkening landscape around us, listening closely to noises even as they did what they could to contribute to the digging of the spillway. Jive had swapped entirely to digging, though he, like the absol, was keeping a wary eye on our surroundings.
“Doing alright?” I said to Ajax.
The houndour settled a last stone tile, one of quite a few the geodude had made and set aside for him to work on. He was making a decent pace through them, I thought, though not nearly as fast as Devi, and a fraction of the two of them combined. A lack of experience on his part, I thought, something that would be fixed with training and honing. It was hard to remember sometimes, given how powerful the houndour was, but he didn’t have the same experience of Drake.
He sighed in satisfaction as he finished, then looked up at me and nodded. He couldn’t help but glance at the opposite side of the river, seeming uneasy at the idea of Drake and I going over there by ourselves.
“It’ll be fine. Drake’s strong enough, yeah? And the three of you are going to be right here, ready to back us up the second we need it.” His expression was reluctant, but accepting of it. Understanding of duty. “It’ll be fine. We’ll be fine. Because we can count on you.”
That, at least, seemed to brighten his expression somewhat. It was obvious that he still didn’t like it, and that was fair enough. Drake was going with me, and he didn’t like it any more than Ajax obviously did. I didn’t like it, either, to be fair, but it was something that just had to be done. We couldn’t just leave the other end of the dam for the gengar to do whatever it wanted with.
I scratched Ajax around the ear, then climbed back out of the in-progress spillway to gather more branches. I figured I could do that much for them before I went over. Checking over the last parts of the construction that I could, making sure that everything was in order, that they had what they needed to keep working. Making sure that my Nav was plugged into my power bank, that both of them were wrapped in a watertight bag that I’d picked up. At a certain point, I was just dawdling out of anxiety.
Finally, I said goodbye to the three Poke staying on this side of the dam, before Drake and I left the circle of light cast by Ajax’s use of fire. Out here in the darkness, our only source of light quickly became my flashlight as we clambered down to the lower section beneath the dam. We took the process slow, careful to not injure ourselves or slip into the water in the dark.
There was a sort of plateau here. The dam was built right in the midst of a ravine, but the ravine itself stepped downwards right after the dam, to a slightly different height level. The path that we’d come up led up a crack between two sections of plateau that led back towards the trail, and a number of logs were laid across it, bridging the two sections of flat land. From how they’d been chewed, I’d guessed that it’d been put down here by the Pokemon that had built the dam, to make an easier crossing here that didn’t mean going all the way to the route’s bridge or farther north to the other end of the artificial lake.
It was somewhat unnerving to cross the gap on a bunch of technically untethered logs in the darkness, but we managed it alright, coming to the other side without too much effort. Of course, we were then immediately faced with a second log bridge, this one larger. Here, it made a crossing of the stream itself: down below us, the place where we’d come to the river lay, but there was no matching indentation in the sheer cliffs that made up the opposite side of the ravine.
From the markings in the rocks and the general detritus and silt that was collected in the path that had led us up to the stream, I guessed that it’d once been a direction that the water had flowed. At some point, it had branched into two smaller streams, one flowing south, the other flowing southeast. The south branch either had softer rock, or something had occurred to divert the flow entirely: it wasn’t too odd to think that a Pokemon might have done it. Still, the stream had entirely diverted itself away from the side path, and then dug itself deeper in the land, preventing it from flowing in that direction again.
Now, as a result, we were faced with a second log bridge over a deep gap in the land. Far below, the churning waters of the stream over various rocks and rubble glittered in the light of my flashlight, and I let out a noise of displeasure. Drake glanced over the side, but didn’t seem nearly as phased, simply stepping out onto the bridge.
Unlike the last one, thankfully, these logs were a little less likely to move. The ends had been encased in thick layers of mud, buried inside the ground to prevent them from shifting and rolling at both sides. The branches of the logs themselves had been faced and moved in such a way as to interweave somewhat, with branches stripped from the top and bottom of the logs woven in between them to make a flatter surface. For something made by Pokemon with no other tools than their teeth and their paws, it was actually somewhat impressive.
It still, of course, entirely lacked railings.
“Don’t look at me like that.” I said to Drake, who simply rolled his eyes at me. “And don’t do that, either! I just don’t like heights.” I glanced over the side of the bridge again and winced, muttering to myself. “I’ll have you know that it’s a perfectly sensible thing to dislike.”
Nothing for it. Taking my time, and listening carefully for any cracks or noises that might indicate that the thing was going to collapse out from underneath me, I stepped out onto the logs. They creaked slightly, but held my weight, not even bending appreciably underneath me. I supposed that the structure was intended to support Pokemon that were a lot heavier than I was, for what it was worth. Still, that meant that it’d been designed with quadrupeds in mind, quadrupeds that couldn’t really use railings, so it all evened out to still leave me cautious and somewhat anxious.
I took the short little trip slowly and carefully, finding my way to the other side with little difficulty and only the occasional noise of shifting wood to scare me. I let out a sigh of relief when I stepped onto the rocky ground of the other side, though I was still aware of the cliff that was so very close by. With the stream and the ravine crossed, we now found ourselves on the other side of the dam, a side that we couldn’t reach very well. The Pokemon that had made the dam could no doubt simply cross right over the top of it or swim the distance with relative ease, but we were neither of them, and I rather didn’t like getting my clothes wet unnecessarily. Particularly when the mountain air was so cold.
There was a second short climb, this one back up to the level of the dam itself. On the slightly raised plateau that the other half of the dam was anchored to, I could look across the splashing water still flowing over the top. The firelight generated from Ajax glittered across the water, though from their perspective we were surrounded in darkness thick enough as to make us invisible. One of the disadvantages of a fire was making those relying on its light to see nightblind; it was the reason sentries faced away from the flame and into the darkness.
I saw Jive poking his head over the edge of the spillway trench, looking in our direction, obviously checking to see whether we’d made it over alright. I pulled out my flashlight and flickered it in his direction, and the obstagoon nodded in satisfaction, pulling his head back down and going back to work on digging. That done, I turned to begin investigating this side of the dam.
Much like the side that we’d occupied all this time, the side much easier to reach, this side showed evidence of the events that had transpired before we’d arrived. Claw marks in the rocks and wood left lying around, the leftovers of a large battle between different groups of Pokemon. Here, however, was different: the other side of the dam had merely been a battle, the resident Pokemon trying to protect the dam they’d constructed.
I played my flashlight across a number of different little burrows dug into the ground. By the looks of things, these were above-ground storage areas for a variety of things, like food or extra wood. Now, however, they lay broken, many of them outright collapsed in on themselves. If I recalled correctly, beavers tended to live in the interior of the dams they constructed, raising their young in air-filled pockets within the dam itself. The structure shielded them from the elements and predators, providing them with the perfect sanctuary.
If that held true, there was most likely a hollow chamber within the dam that provided a similar function, and was most likely only accessible from underwater. Looking around, I noticed that the fighting intensified around the dam, the Pokemon surrendering the stocks of materials and food easy enough. There were a number of pawprints of varying sizes, leading away from the dam and into the hostile countryside, around which the most ferocious fighting appeared to have occurred.
Drake sniffed around the ruins, investigating the scuffles around the dam, and finally gave a look over the pawprints leading away. He looked my way, grabbing my attention, then turned his head towards the storage, then the dam, and finally the pawprints.
“So, the ghosts attacked. And they most likely defended the stocks of supplies first, before being overwhelmed, and then decided to evacuate and leave the dam behind?”
Drake nodded. With that timeline, I could see how this had happened, how the Pokemon had been stretched trying to defend both sides of the dam. If they had been bidoof and bibarel, then they’d all been Normal, a typing that inherently couldn’t touch Ghost types. In a vacuum, this would lead to something of a stalemate, but it was obvious here that they’d had enough techniques between them to do some damage to the ghosts that were attacking them. In turn, the ghosts had been able to strike at them, and they’d had the gengar driving them forwards.
The Ghost types were all brought here to fight and ambush, to bring down the dam. In comparison, the Normals had been a colony, a number of Pokemon who’d settled here with mates, elderly, and, most likely, offspring. Without the ability to trust the dam to defend those incapable of fighting against Pokemon that could phase through solid objects, they’d decided to retreat entirely and leave the dam to the Ghost types. Really, I couldn’t blame them, it would’ve been impossible to guess the gengar’s murderous intent.
It was interesting, and it definitely gave us a timeline of events. I typed it out in a text to Kevan and sent it along, just for completion’s sake, giving them an idea of how this had happened. There wasn’t much we could do about it, however: wherever the Normal type Pokemon that had inhabited the dam and the area around it had gone, they were now irrelevant. We wouldn’t be able to find them in time for them to make a difference, and I doubted they’d be returning for some time. Without any way to realize that the ghosts, specifically the gengar, were intending to sabotage the dam, I could see them abandoning the area to let the Ghost types get it out of their system before coming back and reclaiming it. By which time, of course, the gengar would’ve long collapsed the structure and started the flood.
“I hope they can come back, after all this is over. Still, I think the Rangers might try to convince them that having such a large amount of water behind their dam isn’t such a great idea.”
Despite himself, Drake was forced to quirk a grin, though he quickly mastered his face back into his usual stoicism. I grinned at him, and he avoided my gaze.
“Saw that.” He looked at me with a mildly surprised and confused expression, trying to play it off. “No, you can’t fool me, I saw you smirk. It’s too late for you now.” I grabbed his head between my hands and started rubbing rapidly, making him splutter. “You havin’ a giggle, mate?”
I laughed as he shook off my hands, looking indignant. His fur being messed around all over the place rather ruined the picture of refined irritation he was trying to put up, honestly. It only made him more adorable. Still, after a moment, he sent a glance around us and into the dark. Searching and nervous. I felt the smile slip from my face in response.
“Yeah, I’m not happy about this, either. But do you really want to give that bastard a clean shot at this side of the dam.” Drake grimaced, but shook his head. “Yeah, me neither. So, here we are, and here we’ll have to stay. Now, c’mere, there’s better ways to spend our time than just sitting here.”
Drake got closer. Part of the purpose of this was to make it look like we were distracted, but keep up a guard. We wanted to lure the gengar and whatever ghosts he’d managed to round up from last night in close, close enough that they couldn’t get away when the jaws of our little trap swung shut on them. Between my team and Blake’s, I was sure that we had the sheer power to trap it between hammer and anvil, capture the damn thing. At least, I hoped.
Still, this was time where we were just sitting around, and I always got twitchy when I felt I was wasting efficiency. Here and now, I brought Drake close, and we started some of the exercises we’d been doing on the road. Drake formed a ball of Dark, passing it slowly from leg to leg as he breathed, concentrating and trying to keep it focused where he wanted it. Watching, I could guide him through it, point out when his energy flared beyond his control, help him smooth it out with my own attention.
Dark energy was such an odd thing. When my fingers got too close to the ball that Drake passed back and forth, they began to tingle, like the pins and needles of a limb falling asleep. I could already see the fruits of Drake’s long hours of practice and careful refinement, the energy flowing smoother from limb to limb than it had before. It spiked less, and he held it for longer between breaks. Ultimately, the goal would be to practice this until Drake did it without thinking, automatically shifting the Dark TE where it was needed through his aura without conscious thought. It allowed for quicker adaptation in battles, and made it something that he didn’t have to consider, leaving more attention for dealing with an opponent.
We’d just moved on to practicing moving it between each of his four legs when I saw it. A small amount of purple energy, wafting across the ground like a thin fog, barely visible in the night. I tensed for a bare moment, then relaxed, but Drake had felt my muscles tightening. I could see it in how his eyes narrowed slightly, how the Dark energy that he’d mustered up shifted to the front, twitching and trying to escape into his aura. He didn’t look around, but I could see his eyes twitch to the side, obviously wanting to track what I’d seen. I smiled, like nothing was wrong, and ruffled his head fur.
“Ghost energy.” I muttered, so low that I strained to hear myself. Drake, with his better ears, narrowed his eyes further. “Not a lot. Might just be a scout.”
And yes, when I scanned the area casually, there was nothing in sight. The little bit of purple that I’d seen was gone, leaving no evidence that it’d passed. I had to worry, slightly: had the gengar sent a scout just to check to see if this side of the dam was unguarded? Now that it’d confirmed that it wasn’t, would it even come? I weighed our performance the previous night against that of the Ghost types. We’d held our ground, sure, but that was with Ajax, and we hadn’t made them run until the absol had come streaking in. As far as the scout would’ve seen, we were alone here, backup across the river. I really hoped that Blake was awake and getting into position, because if anything was going to happen, it was going to happen very soon.
So, when the Shadow Ball came streaking out of the darkness, we were ready.
Drake spun in the blink of an eye, the Dark energy that he’d already summoned surging. He growled with effort as he shaped it, making a rough wedge that the Shadow Ball shredded itself against. The Ghost energy tore itself apart on the rough and writhing surface of Dark, annihilating and collapsing, decaying into unbound ribbons of purple that spiraled away in all directions like shrapnel. With their opening gambit failed, the ghosts moved in in earnest.
There were even fewer of them now than there had been the previous night. Between my team and Blake’s, we’d shattered the ghosts that the gengar had either forced or convinced to be there, scattering them to the winds. This was what the gengar had been able to scrape up after his previous defeat, and they seemed reluctant. A few of their number stepped, or floated, forwards to challenge Drake and grapple with the Dark type, but most of them hung in the background.
Drake surged and darted, flickering in and out of visibility in the dark of night. This, I sensed, was one of the things that made Dark types so suited to fighting Ghost types: here, at midnight, in the pitch black where they were meant to be strongest, a Dark type could challenge them directly. Could meet them on even ground, just as at home in the veiling dark. He scattered their groups, pouncing on any that tried to assemble a Shadow Ball, breaking concentrations of Ghost energy before they could fully form into techniques. Without Ajax to be the huge, glaring distraction, Drake couldn’t be quite as effective as he’d been before against their number, but he made do.
Still, I felt something twist in my gut, some instinct telling me to be wary. I scanned the ghosts that appeared and disappeared, making assaults and striking at Drake, but not a one of them was the target I sought. The gengar wasn’t present among them, wasn’t pressing us with the rest of its tattered group of Ghost types. If it was, they would’ve been far more effective; while it couldn’t tie Drake down, my poochyena far too fast and too slippery for it to pin down, it could’ve tried to match him wherever he appeared.
So, why wasn’t it? Surely it knew that its best chance was downing Drake quickly, getting its ghosts past him before the Pokemon we’d left on the other side of the river reached us. And yet, it wasn’t pressing the advantage, merely trying to overwhelm us with a bunch of ghosts that lacked any eagerness to fight us, backed up by a handful whose purpose seemed to be driving the reluctant back towards Drake. Every moment that Drake harried the swarm was a moment that it depleted, ghosts managing to flee into the night either in fear or out of injury. Every moment was one where Jive, Ajax, and the absol could come charging in and smash this little force apart. Where Blake could, at any moment, rally his Pokemon and come running.
Drake savaged a banette, leaving them leaking stuffing and shrieking as they spiraled into the night. A flickering ball of light splashed itself over the stone, Drake vanishing into the darkness before it struck, and the Ghost that threw it looked panicked. A moment later, he crashed into them like a meteor hammer, driving them into the ground so hard that they left a crater, Dark energy eating at the purple in their aura. The ghosts closed ranks, and suddenly-
Yes. Yes, that had pulled Drake farther, out of position. He’d stayed within a certain distance of me the entire time, his urge to protect me trumping his desire to really get in among them and cause havoc. He’d danced around or bounced ranged attacks, but he’d finally responded to this one, and I could see the steel jaws of a trap close in a moment. Now he’d have to bull through a line of ghosts to get to me, and his glance said that he realized that, eyes widening slightly. He wasn’t in danger, but he was out of place to defend me.
I turned, and there it was. The gengar leered at me out of the dark, that smile plastered over its face, its eyes glittering with hatred and triumph. I wondered, as time seemed to slow, whether this gengar had once been a human. It would explain the tactical acumen, and maybe even the directed malice.
Still, none of that mattered. In the corner of my eye, I could see Drake surge with energy, the ghosts around him recoiling slightly from the font of Dark that suffused his aura. Still, it wasn’t enough to break the line that they’d formed, not quickly enough. The gengar dissolved slightly, part purple energy and part semi-solid Pokemon as it leaped from the ground and soared towards me.
I took a single step back, but we’d put our backs to the dam, to ensure that the ghosts could only strike at us from one side. To my left, the ground turned into a rocky slope leading to the slightly lower plateau, something I couldn’t chance in the dark and without a flashlight. To my front, Drake and the circle of ghosts, no going in that direction. The gengar itself leapt at me from the right, victory in its expression as it surged towards me. Focusing my ears, I could hear the scattering of rocks to my left, most likely Jive and Ajax running to my aid. Still, they weren’t fast enough, wouldn’t be here in time.
I snarled at the ghost and its leer, lips drawn back from teeth in defiance. My hands balled into fists, but there was nothing I could really do, no way that I could fisticuffs a Pokemon, let alone a Ghost type. I braced myself, hoping I could stand against whatever the gengar was about to do. If I could just weather it, Drake would put them down hard, and then backup would be here. But the gengar wasn’t gathering energy for a Ghost technique, wasn’t prepping-
Oh, sh*t. My eyes widened with the realization that the gengar wasn’t going to attack me, not with a technique. It was going to try to possess me, or try to futz with my mind somehow. The things that they’d done to people in Vinewood, that the gengar had already demonstrated it was capable of. It saw that I’d realized what it was up to, and its ghastly ever-present grin widened slightly. There was nothing I could do as the semisolid gengar met me.
And slammed into my gut, entirely failing to pass through me.
I felt the wind driven out of me, lungs entirely emptied as the gengar impacted. I could see as its face went from malicious eagerness to shock in an instant, right before it bounced entirely. The gengar rebounded against the ground as I stumbled back and fell onto my rear, wheezing as I tried to get the air back in me. The gengar struggled back up from where it had landed, looking absolutely apoplectic with rage, coloured by confusion. Ghost energy surged and spat throughout its aura as it turned a baleful eye on me, its grin turned downwards into something far angrier.
It took a single step towards me, then stopped. It looked to the side, where Drake was tearing through its ghosts, frantically trying to reach us. It glanced across the lake, which Ajax’s fire no longer lit, the Pokemon having obviously moved. It was angry, pissed beyond belief, but the cold calculation it made said that it wasn’t going to stick around to try again. The gengar had lost, the gambit that it had set up to get at me hadn’t worked, for whatever reason. Now, there was no reason to stick around, so it was going to cut its losses and flee.
I fumbled for the Pokeball I’d slipped into my cargo pocket, but I could barely focus and my fingers felt like logs. I wheezed and struggled, pawing weakly at the flap, but I couldn’t get it open. I needed a moment to recover, get my shaky legs back under me and some air back in my lungs, but I wasn’t going to have that. In the time that I needed to recover, the gengar would vanish, and then we’d be right back at square one.
I stared across the distance between us as the gengar resigned itself to its loss, swapping its grimace to a smile. Lazily, its arm came up in a small, sarcastic salute, a final insult. It could tell that I was angry about it getting away, about not being able to do anything about it, and it seemed to enjoy that as a consolation prize. It began to disappear into a fog of purple, dissolving from the feet up.
And that’s when the white and red ball came sailing past me out of the dark and slammed into its forehead.
I caught just a moment of shock and rage on the gengar’s face, right before it dissolved into red energy, sucked into the Pokeball. It fell to the floor, rocking, as I turned my head, my breath still wheezing in my throat. There, standing in the darkness, arm stretched out at the end of a throw, an expression of concentrated anger on his face, stood Blake.
“Like hell you’re getting away.” He said, voice ringing loud and clear over everyone there.
His Pokemon darted forwards, a laser focused Devi cracking his knuckles, Jive baring his teeth and claws gleaming in Devi’s firelight. They stood on either side of the Pokeball, staring down at it as it shook and twitched, obviously ready to pounce the gengar the moment it popped out. As if realizing that it had totally and completely lost, the gengar stopped struggling, the ball letting out a click and a beep. Capture successful.
Mika and Noble slammed into the remaining Ghost types like hammers, breaking them around a surge of Flying and Electric energy, interspersed with the white of Normal. The ghosts broke easily before them, and with Devi picking up the Pokeball and moving to return it to Blake, Jive was freed to assault them from the other side. Ajax was fire and fury, Dark and Fire weaving together in chaotic patterns as he tore into the remaining ghosts, glancing nervously at me every so often.
Drake, however, was apparently completely livid.
The poochyena howled as he tore into the ghosts, absolutely enraged at them putting me in direct danger. He tore into them with reckless abandon, none of the careful strikes and management of energy of before. Now, he spent Dark like it was water, assaulting anything he could reach in a rage.
The ghosts could stand against Drake, maybe. Ajax and Drake both? Potentially. Ajax, Drake, and Blake’s team? The ghosts scattered like summer rain, breaking up swiftly and fleeing into the night without even putting up a fight. Without the gengar to push them forwards and rally them, there was nothing for them to fight for, nothing keeping them here to fight overwhelming force. They rapidly vanished into the night, and even when the Pokemon chasing them refused to go more than a certain distance from Blake and I, they kept running. Soon, the last of them had vanished.
“D-Drake…” I managed, my breath coming back enough for his name.
In a moment, the poochyena was by my side, looking fearful and concerned. He checked me over frantically, trying to see if the gengar had left any lasting marks, almost panicking. I tried to speak, to calm him down, but I could only wheeze ineffectually. I shook my head, then brought up both of my hands and grasped the sides of his muzzle, forcing him to look me in the eye.
I could see the panic and the fear in his eyes, a shard of shame that he hadn’t been able to properly protect me, the worry that I’d been hurt when the gengar had gone for me. I mustered a smile, holding him there until he breathed, the panic receding as he calmed, understanding that that was what I was after even if I couldn’t voice it. Sure that he was better now, I released him, and he immediately crawled into my lap and curled up there.
I ran my fingers over his back gently as I looked over, to where Blake was examining the Pokeball that he held in his hands with grave seriousness. Devi stood by his side, giving the sphere his entire focus, Fire TE flickering over his limbs in a continuous threat of violence against anything that threatened his partner. I didn’t have enough in me for words, but I had enough for a relieved sigh.
It was over.
