Chapter 74 – Fossil Party

  The three of us made our way inside the hardened sand tower expecting to see a ground floor free of occupants due to the tower’s transitory nature but we came to find out that was not the case. The entire base floor was covered in shades of red and orange as the squatters who managed to sneak inside before us were busy animatedly celebrating for one reason or another.

  “Egon…”

  “Vi! Vi?!” “My powers are all weird! I can’t levitate?!”

  “Yes, this could be a problem.”

  Trapinch as far as my eyes could see filled the room and judging by their incessant chirping they weren’t having a bad time of it. The only place inside the room that was absent of party goers and coincidentally also the place we needed to get to were the revolving stairs leading to the next level. Victini was forced aground undoubtedly because at least a good handful of these Trapinch had trained up their Arena Trap ability which was an undoubtedly useful ability to have for sand predators like these. The only Pokémon that are immune to the effects of said ability are flying types and Levitate users.

  ‘Victini’s plan to go ahead and scout out the upper floors is a bust and with this many trapinch we can’t battle our way through. Diplomacy it is then, Tini could you mentally link up with that big Trapinch over there?’

  “Why?”

  “In nature it is often the case that the biggest one is often made the leader by default. If we could get the big one’s approval, we’ll be able to get past this crowd unmolested.”

  “Big doesn’t mean strong!”

  “Humans do this as well. If you visit large companies, you’ll quickly notice that the CEO or manager is typically the tallest person in the building.”

  She wasn’t wrong, a Pokémon’s size usually doesn’t have anything to do with battle strength aside from moves that capitalized on a Pokémon’s weight like Heat Crash or Heavy Slam. However, the psychological effect of facing off against a larger opponent still applied in most cases.

  Following my instructions Victini established a mind link with the big Trapinch and attempted to coax the antlion Pokémon into coming our way for a parley session. Her efforts proved successful, when I saw the Trapinch in question flinch for a brief moment, look at us standing near the entrance and waddling over, its second in command following closely behind.

  “Pinch?” “What do you mooks want?”

  “Vi Vi?” “We would like to ascend the tower. Could we go up without drawing the ire of this colony?”

  “Pinch…” “This is a private party you’ll have to make it worth our while…”

  “Vi! Vi?” “I love parties! What’s the occasion?”

  “Pinch! Pinch.” “This is our annual Evolution festival! It’s the last chance for some of us to say goodbye to close friends before they fly off to greener pastures.”

  It was at this point I joined the conversation. Evolution festivals are a rare phenomenon for wild Pokémon. The ability to time an evolution ignoring the individual differences between maturity and battle experiences of the group is still a mystery scientists ponder over to this day.

  “Trapinch, do you reckon all of you will turn into Vibrava today?”

  “Pinch Pinch.” “Not even close. I got left behind last year, lost a few good comrades that day.”

  It was at this time that the big Trapinch’s followers made a commotion. Something about its behavior seemed familiar to me but I couldn’t quite lay my finger on what. Victini, the helpful translator, felt my curiosity peaking and decided to translate the other one’s words as well.

  “Pinch Pinch!” “I know these mooks, big sis! The red headed boy is loaded with berries!”

  ‘Wait could it be…!?’

  “You are the Pokémon who told us about this place yesterday. The one who made off with four berries!”

  “Pinch. Pinch?” “And I’ll make off with some more if you know what’s good for you. Hand over the bag, that's where you keep all those juicy berries, right?”

  “Vi Vi!” “This Trapinch is bad news. Now that we’re already here there’s no way you’ll get any more of my berries!”

  “Pinch Pinch.” “There are dozens of us here. If you want to battle, go ahead and try.”

  The big Trapinch watched all of this go down and it seemed like she had heard enough. Turning around she clamped down with a powerful Crunch attack against her unruly subordinate holding him in place.

  “Pinch! Pinch?!” “Big sis! Why?!”

  “Pinch Traa Pinch! Pinch?” “You’ve shamed the colony. When one wants something, they prove their worthiness by battling for it in honorable combat. How can I trust you to take over after me if you forget something as basic as that?”

  “Pinch!! Pinch!” “I am sorry!! Those berries just tasted so much better than our usual fare!”

  “Vi!” “That’s what you get for being a bully!”

  As amusing as it was watching the Trapinch that scammed us get his proper punishment I knew that we were running short on time. It wouldn’t be long before this tower collapsed in on itself which would spell bad news for any Pokémon that wasn’t a ground type.

  “Sorry again for interrupting but what would convince you to let us pass to upper levels?”

  “Pinch Pinch.” “We’ll need all the nutrients we can get for the old timers that are ready to evolve. We’ll happily accept anything you can spare.”

  The friendly manner in which the female Trapinch asked for our contribution spurred me to accept her request. Roxanne who had been quietly listening in on the conversation having already been informed by Victini was actually the faster one at opening her backpack and digging around for some scrumptious treats. Even if most of her Pokémon didn’t eat berries it was standard practice for every trainer to bring treats while traveling along the routes. Aggressive wild Pokémon are in most cases easily mollified with a tribute of berries and some head pats.

  Roxanne and myself eventually found what we were looking for. The rock type specialist opened up an old-fashioned tin containing six berries all of them the type that held restorative properties for common battle afflictions while I myself handed over Victini’s entire stash of Lava cookies. It wasn’t much, only four were left after she lechonked out last night but coupled with Roxanne’s offering it should be enough to provide for the colony’s needs. Big sis trapinch took one whiff off our assembled snacks before chirping excitedly.

  “This should be plenty! Thank you very much strangers, from now on the three of you are always welcome to come visit our dens.”

  The leader directed her smaller subordinates to partake in the offered food. Making sure that the ones who actually had a chance at evolving got first dibs. They ate with a ravenous hunger until all of the offered food was expended. Her second in command who had gotten a stern talking to was left out as a punishment for his earlier actions.

  “Feel free to proceed onwards. The colony has been informed to suppress their trapping abilities so the three of you should be free to leave our presence unhindered.”

  Victini who had so far been grounded to the sandy floor tested Trapinch’s assertions and was happily relieved to find out she was no longer earthbound. I was fairly sure that walking on the floor must have been a huge pain for a Pokémon who for all of her life has been able to float to get from point A to B.

  “Vi Vi!” “No more walking! Whoopee!”

  The colony of Trapinch cleared out the path leading to the upper floors but before we could make our way through their leader gave us one final piece of advice.

  “As one ascends the ephemeral traps increase in number. Obstacles can be blown away but make sure to avoid treading on quicksand lest you fall through the floor and injure yourselves.”

  “Quicksand… this could spell trouble. We’ll need a forward scout who can escape such hazards, a ground type ideally.“

  “I only have Golem and Onix with me…”

  The both of us didn’t even need to discuss the viability of those two Pokémon in this type of situation. One was too heavy and could possibly just sink through the hardened sand floors outright while Onix was far too large to be housed inside the tower.

  “Let’s do it my way! Whenever we make it to the next floor I’ll scout ahead for the next staircase and teleport the two of you past the obstacles.

  “Isn’t that too much? As I recall you only have around twenty times worth of short distance teleports in the gas tank.”

  “That was then, this is now!”

  “If you are sure…”

  Sixth floor Mirage Tower*

  Despite following Victini’s proposed plans there were still a few obstacles our group had to contend with while climbing the Mirage Tower. The layouts of all the subsequent levels differed greatly each and every single one of them posed some new obstacle that Victini had to overcome. Entire corridors being blocked by fake walls that had to be broken with the precise amount of strength required, wild nests of sandshrew and sandslash that got pulled up out of the ground with the tower’s rise that had to be appeased or battled to safely gain entry to the staircases. By my estimate we spent near two hours getting to the top. The time splurged making me anxiously question if we were going to make it in time before the tower’s eventual disappearing act.

  The final floor was more open than the previous ones and the tower’s large supporting pillar turned out to not reach all the way to the ceiling acting as a platform of sorts. Victini wasted no time teleporting us on top of the platform where we came face to face with something quite miraculous to behold. The pillar turned out to not be one solid mass, soft sand filtered and flowed out from where we were currently standing. The excess sand flowing out from the top was then absorbed into the tower's mass no doubt forming the base component of this building.

  Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

  “Egon! Look!”

  Quickly looking to where Roxanne was pointing, I could make out two objects drifting on top of the surging sand. Both pristine examples of metamorphic rock which typically form from being buried deep beneath multiple sediment layers.

  “The odds of those types of stones housing intact fossils are not insignificant. Let’s retrieve those and get out of here.”

  ‘Those fossils must act as some form of reward for any humans that manage to get past the tower’s trials. Tini, could you telekinetically grab both of them at the same time? I worry that the Tower will only allow us to grab a hold of one of them before making the other sink.’

  “Vi!” “Leave it to me!”

  With practiced motion Victini used Confusion to levitate both fossils at the same time. The very moment she did so the sand stream’s flow stopped and reversed in on itself slowly draining the surrounding sand and sucking up the tower’s hardened sand ceiling. Wasting no time, Victini directed the two objects to float into the hands of Roxanne and myself, grabbing hold of it without giving it a proper inspection I promptly stuffed it into my backpack. Roxanne did much the same with her own fossil.

  “The sand’s flow is now reversed; it won’t take long until the tower collapses. Let’s get out while we still can!”

  Once our bounty was secured Victini grabbed ahold of the both of us and without a moment’s notice we found ourselves back inside the now unsealed desert ruins. I was expecting to see a now wide-awake and active Mr. Moore and Dusty looking after the artifacts holed up in the first chamber but instead we came upon a group of people in white coats cataloguing and collecting anything and everything. Victini was quick enough to take advantage of the dimly lit room to quickly turn herself invisible before the whitecoats spotted her.

  “What are children doing here?! This is a restricted area!”

  “Calm down Hector, these two helped discover these ruins in the first place.”

  Mr. Moore’s familiar voice rang out from the outside before the actual man himself stepped inside. If everything went as planned the three of us should be off towards Lavaridge right about now but it seemed to me like another matter had been brought up which we now needed to address.

  “These two are the ones? Good, follow me we stored everything that is devoid of historical value in the back chamber.”

  “Uhm sir? What’s going on?”

  “Hector here has found a handful of items that due to their nature the league would not be interested in acquiring, leaving us the sole proprietors. Dusty has already claimed a container filled with rock incense for his own enjoyment. So now it’s up to the three of us to divide up the rest of the spoils.”

  “Rock Incense? That’s a must have for breeders. It’s nearly impossible for a trainer owned Sudowoodo to propagate without it. It also has various health benefits for rock types in general.”

  Roxanne couldn’t hide the smidgen of jealousy she felt for missing out on such a valuable rock type specialist commodity. Even though she had already agreed to let me have her share of the monetary gains. That didn’t mean she couldn’t pick out a souvenir of the items deemed to have no historical value.

  “That’s alright lass there’s plenty of stuff left aside for the three of us.”

  Mr. Moore guided our little group to a cordoned off section of the ruin where the league’s staff had brought in two tables and eight plastic chairs. The whitecoats were nowhere to be seen but sitting there nursing a warm cup of tea was a tall blonde man wearing sturdy looking orange and black clothing. I didn’t need anyone to tell me that this person was a Hoenn certified ranger.

  “Elite Moore sir?”

  “Sebastian, could you bring out the miscellaneous items? You know, the ones that the eggheads deemed unimportant.”

  “Right away.”

  The ranger brought out his own backpack and started fishing out items and lining them up on one of the tables. I was surprised by the number of items the researchers deemed “useless”. Two Hard Stones, one Smooth Rock, one Float stone, an Everstone and also a type of mineral that looked a lot like obsidian but held a sharp cutting edge.

  “As a Licensed Pokémon trainer you should be able to identify almost all of these items at a glance. I’ll let the two of you take first pickings.”

  “Grandpa Tim, isn't that item some sort of ancient axe head?”

  “No dear, that’s a naturally occurring piece of stone called Black Augurite. It can only be mined inside Mt. Coronet in the Sinnoh region. It has indeed been used as a component for primitive weapons but nowadays due to its widespread abundance Black Augurite cannot even garner the interest of collectors. Even its shape is nothing remarkable; the mineral itself is found just like that when it’s pulled out of the ground.”

  Victini, having long since combed through all of my memories, recognized the evolutionary item and quickly tried coming up with a scheme to increase our berry supply funds.

  “Isn’t that…? Can’t we hook up Juniper with this sample and a discovery report for a bonus allowance?”

  ‘We could…but Everstones are an even rarer find. There’s also a global scarcity because of its many uses in every Pokémon sector. I can already tell that if I don’t pick the Everstone as my first choice Mr. Moore will swipe it for the gym’s own use.’

  Roxanne was pleasantly surprised by the wide selection of items pertinent for training rock type Pokémon. Hard Stones are a rock type favorite, and a Smooth Rock would be a boon for any battling not following the league’s basic circuit rulings. So, I wasn’t surprised when the girl wasted no time picking out the Smooth Rock as her first choice, confident that us fire type trainers would have little to no interest in acquiring such an item. Now that Roxanne finished getting her pick of the litter my hand was already automatically inching towards the Everstone before a sound could be heard from behind my back.

  “Ehem! That Everstone would for sure come in handy at the gym. Staff worker Egon.”

  ‘This Geezer…! That’s it! Next year I am dropping his sponsorship and quitting my job!’

  Against my will the hand that had been moving towards the Everstone shifted until it was laid across the Black Augurite. A small part of me wanted to avoid making any more waves in the scientific community but the biggest reason I didn’t want to pick up the Black Augurite is because I wanted to avoid having to do any more paperwork. I couldn’t just send this thing off to Professor Juniper with a small notice explaining Scyther’s offshoot evolution. Especially not after Juniper praised my previous scientific report and its eye for details.

  When it came to be Mr. Moore’s turn, he predictably went for the Everstone leaving us two hardstones and a floatstone to be divided amongst ourselves. I didn’t have any use for those stones, so I decided to let Roxanne keep all of them. Float Stones were fairly rare, but their usage was limited and the resale value of Hard Stones wasn’t particularly impressive either. So, with no sweat off my back I told Roxanne to take them for her own uses.

  As we were opening up our bags to stuff in our new stones Roxanne and myself couldn’t help but pull out our fossils to give them a closer look, perhaps even identify the Pokémon they used to belong to. Hers held the outer shape of a single digit pincer while my own consisted of a type of flora closely resembling some variety of tulip. Sebastian the ranger and Mr. Moore curiously watching us as we examined our respective bounties.

  “Roxy… it seems like I’ve gotten a Root fossil.”

  “And I’ve gotten a Claw fossil…”

  I’ve been promoting all the advantages of having a Lileep on a rock type team like Roxanne’s and since I was only interested in the monetary value of these fossils my next offer seemed like a no brainer to me.

  “Do you want to trade mine for yours?”

  “You would really?!”

  “Sure, it wasn’t like I was planning on resurrecting a Lileep in the first place. I am a single type kind of guy.”

  The both of us exchanged fossils myself receiving Roxanne’s Claw fossil while I gifted her my Root Fossil. While this was going on Mr. Moore thought it was finally time to address the Copperajah in the room.

  “I see… the two of you experienced major success while out on your little excursion. What’s that you just told her? Something about resurrecting these fossilized Pokémon?”

  “I keep up with all the latest scientific breakthroughs. It won’t be long until laboratories regionwide start offering resurrection services. All sorts of extinct Pokémon will be coming back to life, the significance of this only surpassed by the invention of the poké ball.”

  “Nonsense, it seems my youngest gym trainer has been taken in by wayward propaganda.”

  Sebastian the ranger was quick to argue my case in front of his superior. Unlike my elderly boss this man actually kept track of all the new developments happening in the background.

  “Actually sir, I’ve read about this as well. The Rustburo Gazette published an article about this recently.”

  As Sebastian was explaining the details to Mr. Moore Dusty who had been up until now been busy nerding out over the discovered artifacts with the other whitecoats came to join our little group clearly interested in what was going on.

  “Oh my! To think two bright eyed hobbyists would prove successful where I failed! Roxanne and Egon would you terribly mind if I got a closer look at these amazing fossils?”

  Not seeing any reason to deny such an innocuous request both Roxanne and I let the old Paleontologist have a go at our fossils. Having an expert such as himself evaluate our recent winnings for free without having to hire a professional to do so could be helpful to me, the person who was actually planning to sell the fossil to the highest bidder.

  “I see, I see, this confirms my theory that Hoenn is only a recent addition to the world’s relative landmass.”

  Roxanne, fairly interested in such topics, humored the Paleontologist.

  “How come?”

  “Both these fossils are of ancient Pokémon who lived on the bottom of the sea. The two of you finding them here in a desert of all places proves that Hoenn was created relatively recently and not by means of continental drift.”

  ‘Hoenn is situated atop a massive hotspot, Mt. Chimney is the largest active Volcano in the world, anyone could’ve told her that.’

  Dusty continued with his observations even bringing out a well-worn brush, a cheap looking plastic spoon and proceeded to remove the excess detritus. This went on for about fifteen minutes until the old man was finally satisfied with the preliminary findings.

  “Both of these are A grade fossils! The perfect additions to any burgeoning collection. Say… would the two of you be interested in trading for these?”

  “No thank you Professor.”

  Roxanne, as expected, was quick to refuse Dusty’s offer. In stark contrast I was quite willing to hear him out especially if this trade he was talking about meant me being one step closer to complete emancipation from my crotchety boss.

  “How much?”

  “Well… if you are looking for a sizable monetary exchange I would have to disappoint you. All the money I make goes right back to the upkeep of my collection.”

  “That’s no biggie Professor. Would you know of any other collectors with the means of purchasing a Claw fossil for a suitable price?”

  “Now hold on a second! You haven’t even heard out my offer!”

  “Go on…”

  “This Claw fossil is one of the key components I am missing to round out my collection. What say I give you a different fossil in exchange. One that’s even harder to find around these parts. You saw all the photos in my album, right? Do any of the fossils in there hold your interest?”

  ‘There aren’t any fire type fossil Pokémon that I know of… Still, Zinnia’s ninth birthday is next week. This will be the first time ever that I am not going to be there with her to celebrate. Even if it’s delayed, gifting Zinnia one of those Jaw fossils would be a sure-fire way to earn her forgiveness for missing out.’

  “That’s a great idea!”

  “Okay, I’d like one of your Jaw fossils in exchange. Could you send one over to my home address?”

  “Splendid! An excellent choice, I’ll have my personal assistant back at the University send it over via the mail.”

  “Isn’t that kind of risky? I’ve voyaged on cargo ships before, those machoke are not at all gentle with the packages.”

  “When shipping valuable fossils, we always make sure that it’s insured twice over. You have nothing to worry about.”

  ‘I don’t think anyone would try to renege on a deal like this. Especially not with an Elite Four member as a witness.’

  “You’ve got yourself a deal Dusty.”

  Later at Lavaridge Town*

  After handing over my hard-won Claw Fossil to Dusty our group decided that it was finally time to depart the desert ruins and head towards Lavaridge Town. Naturally as the only one with a teleporting partner on his team it fell to Victini and I to transport the rest of our party. Dusty declined our offer to join up heading back out to civilization, determined to find at least one more Root fossil to complete his personal collection. The man did attempt to grill us for more information on where we found our fossils in the first place. Astutely, Roxanne and I had already come to an agreement should the topic of conversation head towards that direction. It would be unwise for either of us to share knowledge on the tower to third parties in case we ever want to check for more fossils in the future.

  Having said our goodbyes to the league personnel and Dusty, we distanced ourselves from any potential onlookers before Victini grabbed the three of us and teleported us on over to my family home. It was at that point we split up. Roxanne followed Mr. Moore back to the gym to keep her promise to Flannery while I went in another direction to visit the family store. It went without saying that my grandparents were pleasantly surprised to see me. My Grandpa was busy dealing with customers but upon noticing me quickly waved me to go towards the back so I could let grandma know of my arrival.

  “Grandma? I’ve come to visit.”

  “Egon! We weren’t expecting you! I almost hit you with my spatula!”

  “Shuckle Luckle!”

  The Shuckle that I had caught at the safari zone was sunbathing nearest to the kitchen window and gave me a casual greeting. I had no doubts that the bug and rock type was fermenting some of my grandma’s secret concoctions inside its home shell.

  “You’re a mess. What have you been up to?”

  “Oh yeah, I’ve just come out of the route 111 desert. We made a big discovery for the league and the rest of my journey is basically paid for so that’s a relief.”

  “Go home and take a shower! You can tell me all about it after you stop trekking sand all over my clean floors!”

  https://discord.gg/9RfHV7r3f4