Ethan balked at the sheer audacity of his pink terror, full of gremlin energy and with a singur focus for bonking. First, she tried to bonk a Champion’s Lucario, and now she actually bonked a wild Graveler. While not on the same level, Ethan had no doubts as to who would win a battle, and it wasn’t going to be the Tinkatink with less than a month of life experience to live off of.

  Graveler blinked owlishly and uncrossed his arms as he frowned down at Tinkatink, who was staring at her hammer incredulously like it was the most useless piece of junk she’d ever seen. There wasn’t a doubt in Ethan’s mind that she thought it was the hammers fault that her attack did little to nothing—It couldn’t be her fault, surely.

  Since she liked to bonk things, Ethan karate chopped her on the top of her head, chastising her and earning an audible ‘oof’. “Stop that! That kind of behavior is going to get you killed one day.”

  Tinktink’s response was to punt his shin. “You little shit!” Ethan grumbled as he hopped in pain. Tinkatink blew a raspberry at him, and Graveler looked on with a smile, ughing loudly as it patted its belly in an uproar.

  “? Chaa-tooot! ?”“Emoooooool!”

  “Smeargle-Smear.”

  The sounds of Chatot and Emolga swooping down from the sky were greeted by Smeargle's nonchant reply, and more ughter from the rge rocky boulder. As the flyers nded on his shoulder and head, Ethan gave them each a pat before turning back to the four armed Graveler.

  After a deep breath and a moment to sort out his feelings, Ethan opened his eyes and spoke honestly. “Thank you. When you stumbled upon that clearing nearly a year ago, I was lost and needed help. You were the first pokemon to ever help me, and I will remember that day until my st.”

  Graveler had calmed, no longer ughing. On its rocky face, an image of a stern visage of intense listening could be seen.

  Ethan smiled and looked at his own pokemon. “Many would say I already have too many pokemon, but if you wanted, I would have you as part of my family without a single thought… But, look at you!” Ethan gestured proudly towards Graveler. “From a Geodude to a Graveler all by yourself! You don’t need me, I know that, but still! If you ever need help, come to that same clearing and you will be welcome—Always.”

  With an awkward shuffle of not knowing how to accept praise, Graveler nodded and rubbed the spot where his nose should be with an embarrassed smile. Ethan, gd to have gotten that bit off his chest, then asked a question. “We’re out there today looking for some metal for Tinkatink. Do you think you can show us around? A huge Geodude said there was some up here.”

  Without a word, the rge rocky pokemon threw him a thumbs up. Next, Graveler curled up into a ball and kicked off to roll across the pteau. Tinkatink screeched a victory cry and ran off after their guide, while Ethan and Smeargle walked, and Emolga and Chatot rode.

  As Ethan and the group followed along, he spent his time looking at the foreign ndscape. Never had he ever been on a mountain or rocky pteau—back on Earth or here. This was a completely new experience, and it was wild to think that this wondrous and unique pce had been a mere ten miles away from him for the past year.

  What other new pce or pokemon had he been missing out on? Was his Graveler friend here all this time? Had he been just too afraid of leaving the safety of his ranch…? Jessie and James had wandered through entire regions… Maybe he should ask them about their experiences.

  The baby garble of Tinkatink excitement knocked him from his wandering thoughts, and it wasn’t a surprise as to what had the pink gremlin excited. Up in between a crack in the sheer cliff face leading to an ever higher pteau, a rge five to six-foot crystalline spire of what Ethan would call iron pushed itself out of the rock and into view.

  Each spike of metal was dark grey, and looked like solid metal—not raw, lumpy, sad ore. The main crystalline spire was as wide as him, but many of the offshoots were as thin as his arm. Tinkatink didn’t wait for permission before climbing like a feral animal up the cliff. Saliva dripped down her snaggletoothed mouth as her wide eyes locked onto her prize with anticipation.

  Once she got a good handhold on the bottom of the metal, she filed her little nubby legs and heaved herself up to stand on the metal itself. Much to Ethan’s surprise, Tinkatink didn’t immediately start tearing bits and pieces of metal off… she hugged it.

  A dark lump settled into his stomach and a heart wrenching tug tore through him as he watched Tinkatink cry tears of joy as she hugged the metal spires. Ugly snot, tears, hiccups—the definition of ugly crying was ensuing… and Ethan couldn’t help but feel like a failure of a trainer.

  He had known that metal was important for Tinkatink. After all, that was the reason they made the trip out here today… but seeing his pokemon cry tears of joy about finally having access to metal made him disappointed in himself. It hadn’t been that long since Tinkatink was born. She wasn’t even a month old… but she had been waiting her whole life for this moment. Her whole life, and he didn’t realize that, until now. For him, it was a mere month. To her, it was forever.

  A smack to the back of his head from Chatot knocked him back into reality, and by now, Tinkatink was doing… weird pokemon metal stuff to the metal crystals. She bonked the metal with her hammer, each blow nding and moulding the metal itself with a shiny glow. It was simir as when she’d assembled her hammer with the remains of the smashed pokeball, but this was still subtly different.

  The loud crunching of grinding stones caused Ethan to look away from Tinkatink. Graveler was plopped down onto its butt and munching on handfuls of rocky pebbles as he watched Tinkatink do her thing like it was a fascinating T.V show and the rocks were popcorn.

  Embarrassingly, the first thought that popped into his head was. ‘Gravelers eat rocks?’

  Without thinking, Ethan withdrew his phone and snapped a picture.

  “Graveler - The Rock Pokemon: Graveler are known to tumble down mountainsides with little regard for obstacles and their health, crushing anything in its path on their decent. It uses this method not just for travel, but to shed their loose, brittle rock to reveal the tougher yers beneath. Graveler make their homes in horizontal cracks within cliff faces, and can rarely be seen rocking back and forth as they sleep, possibly dreaming of rolling down cliffs. Hikers are advised to tread carefully, as a startled Graveler may instinctively roll away—taking a trail along with them on the way down.

  Trainer Alert: Due to its naturally unstable mineral composition, Graveler reacts violently to sudden moisture. If submerged in water, its body may rapidly expand and trigger an Explosion. Trainers are strongly advised to avoid leading Graveler near deep rivers or kes to prevent dangerous detonations.”

  An interesting dex entry, to be sure. Gravelers were known for the move Explosion and Self-Destruct, and it appeared they had a reason for it all along.

  After a few minutes of Tinkatink tinkering with the crystalline metal, she forged a brand new hammer. It… looked nearly identical to her first one, but she wiped her wet eyes with a smile and tossed her old hammer over her shoulder as if it was a piece of useless junk. She’d barely managed to use one of the arm-wide crystals, leaving well over 95% of the metal intact.

  Once she meandered her way down to the ground again, after nearly falling in her climb, she ran up to Ethan and gave his leg a big, strong, loving hug.

  That tightness in his chest lessened immensely at the gesture. He bent down and picked up Tinkatink to give her a proper hug as he spoke. “Wanna break off some pieces to take home with us? I got this fancy storage bag for a reason, we might as well use it!” He encouraged, earning a small chorus of agreement from all the pokemon nearby—even Graveler joined in.

  Ethan finished his hug, pitched his pink menace’s cheek, and pced her back on the ground. “Smeargle, can you help her get back up and carefully bring some of those chunks down?”

  “Smeargle-Smee.” Smeargle agreed without compint, then proceeded to use Psychic to lift a filing Tinkatink high into the air and up to back where she was. Using her new hammer, she wailed on the metal with unabashed glee. As she went to work, Ethan slipped over and picked up Tinkatink’s old hammer to keep as a memento, storing it into his white Silph Co. bag.

  Midway through the dismantling of the metallic spire, a goading cry from an unexpected pokemon caused all to turn around.

  “Machoke!!! Ma-ma-choke-oke!” A wild Machoke cried out, stomping forward with a self-assured grin. On its heels, three much smaller Machop followed after like a personal posse.

  Graveler visibly cringed and rolled its eyes, heaving himself back to standing with its four arms and turning to face the incoming Machoke with an aggravated frown.

  Seeing as the Machoke and its three Machop didn’t seem hostile, Ethan leaned over and whispered to Chatot. “Transte for me?”

  His colorful bird tilted her head as she listened to the back and forth raised voices between the Machoke and Graveler. Without any transtion, he could tell that those two didn’t like each other one bit.

  “They bully. Call rock bad names.” Chatot said in her own voice—He’d teach her to properly form her sentences some other time. Chatot listened some more, as Ethan frowned, eyebrows creasing in displeasure. “Need human to get strong, unlike them.”

  Need human? Were they talking about him? Ethan thought, just as Graveler picked up a chunk of rock from the very ground and unched it at Machoke like a major league baseball pitcher. The lumpy chunk of hardy rock was chopped out of the air in a smooth karate chop, just not in perfect form like Ethan’s had been.

  It was at this point that Ethan spoke up. “Do we have a problem here, Machoke? I don’t think picking on Graveler is the best thing you can do with your time.”

  Machoke flicked his narrowed, self important looking eyes onward Ethan and scoffed. The body builder pokemon then waved forward one of the smaller Machop, then pointed at Ethan while it spoke like a coach.

  Immediately, Chatot fluttered off his shoulder and nded on solid ground. She turned her neck to peer back at him while smiling with her eyes. “Battle!”